Vegetable Pulao

The bandh culture in Bengal plays a significant role in its politics. It is a device used by the political parties to demonstrate their entity by disrupting the city's normal life. It is irrelevant whether the point in question is crucial or petty, the political parties perceive a bandh as solution. Usually a state wide bandh is observed on a friday or a monday, to let the government and private sector employees enjoy an extended weekend. However, for a change this time it was a bandh on tuesday, the second working day of the week. Though the bandh was a flop with no deserted streets and city life being quite normal, I was on a holiday mood with a desire to have some easy-to-cook rice dish with mixed raita.

Vegetable Pulao is a simple, quick and nutritious rice preparation which I make pretty often at home. Serve it with raita and you have a complete meal.

Ingredients

Basmati Rice - 2 cups, boiled
Onion - 1 large, finely chopped
Capsicum - 1, finely chopped
Carrots - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
Beans - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
Cinnamon - one 1 inch stick
Cardamons - 4 nos.
Cloves - 2 nos.
Ghee - 2 tbsp.
Salt as per taste

Preparation

• Heat ghee is a pan. Add cinnamon, cardamoms and cloves. Saute for a minute or so and add chopped onions. Saute till they turn transparent.
  
• Add chopped capsicum, beans, carrots and salt. Saute till they are done.
  
• Once the vegetables are done, add all the boiled rice to it. Adjust salt.
  
• Mix the vegetables and rice well and heat for some more time.
  
• Serve hot with raita.
  

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Gosht Biryani

Biryani is primarily a South Asian rice dish, made with rice (basmati mostly), spices and meat/vegtables. It was spread throughout by Muslim travellers and merchants and is very popular in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. In India the choice of meat for biryani is mostly chicken or mutton, whereas in Pakistan it is mostly beef biryani that is preferred. Among all the types of biryani that are available, the Hyderabadi biryani is very popular and is savored in all parts of India and is an integral part of Indian cuisine. I am yet to meet someone who doesn't relish biryanis.

Till the time I was not married, I seriously never thought that someday I will be preparing biryani at home. I always believed that biryanis are always best made in restaurants. But my husband contradicted my belief as he enjoys biryani only when it is home-made. According to him the home-made biryani is far more healthier and tastier than any biryani available in any restaurant.

So I started looking up for biryani recipes all over. And I must say, that after almost 2 years I finally can make the 'perfect' home-made biryani. I had to combine many recipes, taken from various sources to get this perfect recipe! I consulted recipe books and also chefs to make the biryani tasty enough. So here is the recipe which is a combination of many recipes.

Ingredients

Yogurt - 100 gms.
Mutton - 1/2 kg.
Red Chilli Powder - 2 tsp.
Biryani Masala - 1 tsp.
Raw papaya juice - 4 tbsp.
Ginger Paste - 1tbsp.
Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp.
Basmati Rice – 2 cups
Saffron - a pinch
Milk - 1/2 cup
Black Cardamoms - 4 nos.
Green Cardamoms - 4 nos.
Cinnamon sticks - 2 one inch sticks
Cloves - 6 nos.
Black Peppercorns - 4-6 nos.
Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp.
Bay leaf - 2 nos.
Mace - 2 nos.
Nutmeg - 1 no.
Biriyani essence - 2 drops
Kewda Water - 2 tbsp.
Onions - 2 large, sliced
Mint Leaves - 1/2 cup, chopped
Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp.
Ghee - 4 tbsp.
Salt to Taste
Flour dough (for sealing vessel lid)

Preparation

• Wash and soak rice for 30 minutes. Also marinate mutton pieces with yogurt, red chilli power, ginger and garlic paste, raw papaya juice, biryani masala and salt.
• Prepare aroma water: [1] Savory aroma water – Typical ingredients include: nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, cloves, black cardamoms, fennel seeds, bay leaf, black peppercorns, and salt to taste. Add all ingredients in water. Bring it to a boil. Turn down heat. Cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. [2] Sweet aroma water - In reality it is hot milk with ground cardamoms, saffron strands, kewda water and biriyani essence. The milk is warmed with, the cracked yellow cardamom and saffron. When cool, the cardamoms are removed and kewda water and biriyani essence are added.
• Prepare saffron rice: Heat ghee. Add rice and stir till all grains are covered with ghee. Add saffron, salt and 4 cups of savory aroma water (2 cups of savory water for every 1 cup of rice). Bring it to a boil and turn down heat. Cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.
• Prepare mutton: Heat ghee in a kadai. Add cloves, cinnamon stick and green cardamoms. Put mutton pieces, add a little more of the biryani masala. Stir and cook till done. Add little water if required.
• In the same kadai, add a little more ghee. Put green cardamoms, onion slices and mint leaves. Fry till onion is golden brown. Add little lemon juice and keep aside.
• Layering: The top and bottom layers are always Rice. Lay a layer of rice. Add a bit of savory water, sweet water and ghee in circular motion. Add mutton layer, add fried onion layer and top it with rice layer sprinkling savory, sweet water and ghee in circular motion. The layers can be repeated in case there is more rice and mutton. After the top Rice layer has been added finish it off with another garnish layer.
• Seal the handi with flour dough, it should be a sticky dough. Apply the dough around the lid and close the lid. The dough will form the seal.
• Now the biriyani must be cooked on indirect heat. Put a tawa on the flame and place the handi on the tawa. Cook for another 30 – 45 minutes.
• When done, remove handi from the tawa and let it stand for 5 – 10 minutes.

Alternatively, the biryani can be baked instead of cooking it on indirect heat. For baking, put the handi (a microwave oven/oven safe handi) in a preheated oven at 200˚C and bake for 25 – 30 minutes.

Note: Chicken biryani is also prepared in the same way. Just replace mutton pieces with chicken pieces. Every other procedure is the same.

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Cholar Dal

Cholar Dal (channa or bengal gram) is a traditional bengali dish which is invariably served with luchi (poori) during festivals and Bengali weddings. Lentils anyway have a very high nutritional value and channa dal is low on fat too.

Follow this simple recipe for cholar dal and serve hot with luchi (poori).

Ingredients

Channa dal - 250 gms
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp.
Bay leaf - 1 no.
Dry red chillies - 2 nos.
Green chillies - 2 nos, slit
Coconut - 1/2 cup, grated
Ginger - 1 tsp., grated
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp.
Sugar - 1 tsp.
Ghee - 2 tbsp.
Salt as per taste

Preparation

• Wash lentils thoroughly. Add around 4 cups of water to it and boil until it is soft. Add salt to it.
  
• Heat ghee in a pan and add bay leay, dry red chillies, cumin seeds, grated ginger, grated coconut and sugar. Fry for a minute.
  
• Add boiled cholar dal to it and cook for a little more time till the mixture thickens.
  
• Serve hot.
  

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Gulab Jamuns

Gulab jamun is a sweet that is popular throughout India, hence it needs no elaborate introduction. It is basically an Arabic dessert that became popular in the Indian Subcontinent during the Moghul rule. It is commonly served in households during fesivals, however we don't need any specific occasion to relish these soft mouth watering jamuns!

This is my first attempt to make gulab jamuns at home. I did it particularly the for Indian Cooking Challenge, and it turned out pretty impressive I must say. I have followed Alka's recipe for this.

I had chandi varak at home which I've used to coat the gulab jamuns for some decoration. You can skip it if you wish.

Ingredients

For Sugar Syrup:

500 gms of sugar (Though we found it bit too sweet for our taste, so adjust accordingly)
1 1/2 cup of water (bit more or less)
2-3 Cardamom pods
1 spoon of milk (optional)
Few threads of saffron (optional)
2-3 drops of rosewater (optional but highly recommended)

For Gulab Jamuns:

250 gms of unsweetened Maawa (khoya - the condensed milk thickened till it turns into moist dough, preferably made from cow’s milk, also known as Hariyali mawa)
1 1/2-2 tsp. All purpose flour
1 tsp. Cornflour
1-2 crushed green cardamom
Oil for shallow frying

Preparation

For Sugar Syrup:

• Mix 500 gms of white sugar in 1 1/2 cup of water and boil.
  
• Add a spoonful of milk to remove the impurities (impurities if any , will form a scum on surface).
  
• Add 2-3 green cardamoms in the syrup for a strong flavor and a tad of saffron strings (optional).
  
• Boil until you get just a tad sticky syrup. Gulab jamun syrup is neither very dense nor too dilute.
  
• Strain the syrup, add rosewater when syrup is slightly cooled . Always remember two things while using rose water, do not add it while syrup is bubbling hot or on fire, and be particular about the quantity mentioned in every recipe, since even few drops of excess rosewater could lend a bitter taste to the final product.
  

For Gulab Jamuns:

• Mix all the ingredient in a wide mixing bowl until you get a soft textured dough (keep mixing until it is really soft).
  
• Make very small sized balls (bit larger than pebbles) because they swell up after frying and soaking in syrup.
  
• Make sure that the surface of dough balls are really smooth (no cracks please. In case the cracks refuse to go away, slightly wet your palms with water and roll the flour till absolutely smooth).
  
• Take little oil for frying in preferably a flat bottomed pan, and heat the oil. Gulab jamuns are to be fried on LOW FLAME or else the surface will be browned while the core will remain uncooked. Some prefer to place an unsalted pistachio in the center of every gulab jamun while making balls, that way the core of gulab jamun is not left uncooked.
  
• Fry one or two gulab jamuns at a time and always remember to STIR THE OIL with slotted spoon AND NOT TO TOUCH GULAB JAMUNS, which means keep swirling the oil without tossing or turning the gulab jamun.
  
• Fry till the gulab jamun takes a light brown colour. Remove on tissue paper and repeat the procedure with rest of dough.
  
• Now soak these in COOL syrup for few hours.They will surely swell up.
  

These can be stored in the same syrup till consumed.
If there are cracks in the balls before frying it will burst open while frying, in that case adding a bit of cornflour will surely help.
You can enjoy it hot or cold , either way it is delicious.

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Butter Chicken

I realised I haven't posted a non-vegetarian recipe in a long time. So today when on a friend's request I made this Butter Chicken at home, I thought it to be the ideal recipe to post in the blog.

Butter Chicken is a common and probably the best known chicken dish in India. This dish is originally from Punjab but is popular all over the country. You will come across many Butter Chicken recipes with a lot of spices. However, this one is differently made with minimum spices and a lot of butter. This dish with its thick butter gravy will also taste a little different than the usual Butter Chicken you might have had. Usually preparing Butter Chicken might seem like an elaborate process. But this recipe won't take much of your time, apart from the 1 hour marination time.

I had this recipe with me since years, taken long long time ago from a friend.

Ingredients

Chicken - 500 gms., poked with a fork
Tomato puree - 1 cup (best if pureed at home)
Dry red chillies - 4-5
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp.
Butter - 100 gms
Black pepercorns - 8-10
Bay leaf - 1 no.
Cloves - 3-4
Cardamoms - 3-4
Cinnamon - 1 one inch stick
Salt as per taste

Preparation

• Make a paste of ginger, garlic and red chillies.
  
• Mix the above paste with tomato puree and add salt. Marinate chicken in this mixture for atleast 1 hour.
  
• In a kadai, add butter, peppercorns, bay leaves, cloves, cardamoms, cinnamon and stir till colour changes to golden brown.
  
• Put chicken and stir on high flame for 5 minutes. Then lower the flame and cook till done. (Do not add water).
  

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