Category Archives: Cooking indian

Aais chicken masala..

  • oil -10 ml

  • butter15 gm

  • cumin -¼t

  • cardamom green-2

  • cinnamon- 1 small pc

    • cloves 2-3

  • Heat oil, add butter and whole spices
    then add 500 gms chopped onions and saute on low heat till light brown.
    Add ¼ tsp coriander pdr, 1/8tsp cumin powder, pinch turmeric powder.
    Add in about 20 gms of ginger and garlic paste. continue to saute.
    Add in 400 gm tin of chopped tomatoes , and slow cook till the oil starts to separate out.
    Then can add about 1 kg of chicken on the bone which should ideally be marinated with ginger and garlic paste about 20 gms and about 100 gms of plain / greek yoghurt.
    at this stage you can also add in chilli powder to your taste or 2-3 green chillies.
    let is simmer on low heat with a lid for about 30 minutes.
    Season with salt and some garam masala powder. Also a small pinch of nutmeg. Add some fresh coriander and mint for the oomph factor.
    We would get a chicken curry or masala like this maybe once every few months when we were growing up. Even chicken was a treat not for daily eating. Aai would take us to the butcher I still remember the name Prakash where they would take a fresh chicken and cut it up and wrap in newspaper to take home .

Crab or prawn tortellini

This is a kid of a pleasant fusion recipe i want to make and have made before using prawns..

  • Crabmeat or chopped prawn – 425 g approximately
  • wonton wrappers- 1 small packet
  • egg 1/2 to seal edges of pastry above
  • onion – 50 g/ 1/2 a medium brown / yellow onion
  • oil-10 ml
  • mustard seeds-1/4 tsp
  • curry leaves- 1/2 sprig stripped and shredded
  • ricotta or cream cheese- 30-40 g to bind the meat and keep moist
  • Basil and coriander – to embellish , chop and make your crab even more sexy
  • ,Heat oil, add mustard seeds and crackle them, then add chopped onion and saute with the curry leaves
  • Add your crabmeat or chopped prawns and take off the heat..
  • Add in ricotta and herbs and mix well.
  • The next bit is tricky but with practice easy to do.Take each wonton sheet/ wrapper and brush with beaten egg. Put a small piece of filling in the centre and fold into a trinagular shape and seal the edges. Then turn the two edges of the triangle to the back and stick to each other to form the classical tortellini shape.
  • Poach in boiling salted water and serve as is or with a moilee sauce

Moilee

.

this is a creamy coconutty sauce that’s traditional with fish. We can also use it with prawns.

But tomorrow I’m doing this for my friend Gautam Kotwal ,with crabmeat wontons/ravioli.

That recipe is for another time though. Today we just make the sauce. or rather you make the sauce and can add some fish or prawns to cook in the sauce.

Oil -15ml.

Mustard seeds-1/4tsp about 1g

Onion brown/ yellow depending on the country you are in just not red -1 medium sized one about 200g.

Curry leaves -fresh only please 1sprig

Asafoetida/hing -small pinch.

Green chilli- 1-2 slit length wise.

Ginger – 1 small piece maybe 5 g sliced vey thin or cut in julienne

  • Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds until they crackle.
  • Add in everything else on list above and saute till onion is transparent, do not brown.
  • Then add in half a tin of coconut cream or 3/4 of a full one (400 g) usually and a pinch of turmeric , and salt.
  • Simmer with pescado/ fish for those of you who do not speak spanish of your choice and eat with rice , appams or thick dosas( there is recipe for that here).

Turmeric- pinch

Coconut cream -1 can – use maybe 3/4th. hard to say without seeing how good your coconut cream is.

Salt – to make bland things better and increase your blood pressure if you eat too much

Chicken or not 65

This i first ate on the streets on Hyderabad, and was great as a starter, snack to munch on. This is my version of it..

Make a fritter batter with
flour -25 g
cornflour – 40 g
chicken stock powder- 2 g/ ½ tsp
pepper – .5 gm ¼ tsp
water .. to form a thin batter
Paprika- 5 g/1 tsp
.Mix with raw sliced chicken/ paneer/ canned baby corn or mushroom, approximately 250 g , and deep fry…we never said was going to be healthy.

Then
Heat 10 ml oil add some curry leaf ,1 sprig
sliced chili – ½ or more if you want to be a fire breather
and chilli powder. -5 g/ 1 tsp
Whisk
yoghurt -1T/ 25 g
coriander -½ t/ 2 g
cumin powder – ¼ t/ 1 g
Ginger and garlic paste- 10 g/ 2 t

Add to the curry leaf and chilli mix and saute with the fritters till dry and coated with the mix..

Garnish with crunchy spring onions.

Best eaten with warm beer..yes i like warm beer.

Ram Baan or

One ring to rule them all,
one ring to find them,
One ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.

After that rather theatrical name we must get down to brasstacks. The first part of the name comes from King Ram from the great indian Ramayan and baan the arrow or missile he used to vanquish the great demon / Rakshasa , Ravan. This term was used for a base onion and tomato gravy in my hotel company many many years back which used to go into allmost all the Indian food and thus the second part of the Tolkien title from the One Ring.

heres how we do it

oil -10 ml
butter15 gm
cumin -¼ tsp
cardamom green-2
cinnamon- 1 small pc

cloves 2-3
Heat oil, add butter and whole spices
then add 500 gms chopped onions and saute on low heat till light brown.
Add ¼ tsp coriander pdr, 1/8tsp cumin powder, pinch turmeric powder.
Add in about 20 gms of ginger and garlic paste. continue to saute.
Add in 400 gm tin of chopped tomatoes , and slow cook till the oil starts to separate out.