Vegetable Biryani and 9-Legume Fry - the Punjabi Way

Growing up for years the role of my parents was always very clear cut and traditional. My dad worked in the hotel business and travelled a fair bit and my mum stayed at home, where ever it happened to be, looking after the two children.

Bollywood Cooking: Chilla - Indian Spiced Chickpea Pancakes with Avocado, Kale and Spinach

Celebrations are a part of our life! Actually life should be a celebration, a party of our achievements, a banquet of our abilities and a triumph of our successes. We progress forward, sometimes at a faster pace and sometimes the pace is slower. Keeping the positive aspects in view is so important but we often fall back and waiver, brooding over things we have not accomplished.

Bollywood Cooking: Vegetable Split Pea Dal, Spiced Cauliflower Pumpkin and a Kumquat Chutney

A humble feast! Meals that take me back to my nana and nani’s veranda on hot summer days in their Delhi home. As we arrived to spend several weeks of our vacation with the rest of the family I was always sure that the forthcoming days were going to be filled with lots of food where the hub of the house was the kitchen.

Bollywood Cooking: Lamb Balti

India’s food culture is as varied as its people. Each region boasts of dishes that have clearly defined characteristics and diversity. Up north in Punjab, a fertile land, the dishes are rich with thick gravies and buttery sauces. Rajasthan, an arid region, offers drier game-based and vegetarian dishes often spicy and cooked with buttermilk and curd. Kerala, in the south famous for its incredible variety of both spicy vegetarian and seafood curries, which are thinner and coconut, tamarind and an array of spices are used to flavor the dishes.

Fennel Seed and Cardamom Spiced Carrot Rice Pudding

„Stay till Diwali!“ Last week my dad wished a few times. I wished we could …
A list of tasks to complete, must dos, deadlines to meet and unfinished projects to complete ran down like a matrix in my brain. Now as I sit here back in Weimar listening to the wind howl outside as the rain batters against the windows, I am thinking I wish I did. 

Bollywood Cooking: A Goan Tangy Pork Vindaloo with Cashew Nuts

There is often a myth around Indian curries: long lists of ingredients and spices make it complicated and puzzling especially for those who are not familiar with Indian cooking. This however is not the case. Indian cooking is not all about crushing and grinding spices before the actual cooking can begin. As a matter of fact let me unveil the myth and disclose that an everyday curry can be cooked using 3 spices and in 15 minutes. 

Beef Kofta Curry

It’s been snowing outside for a few days now. Today it stopped, leaving the trees tops, the hills and the houses coated with an icing of powdery white. The air is clear and crisp although colored in shades of grey … and it’s cold. It’s the kind of cutting cold that goes straight to the bone benumbing toes, fingers and faces. I’ve had cold feet and hands for days that do not seem to warm up regardless of the hot baths, the feet stuck to the heater or the multiple layers of socks.

The cure had to come from the inside.

Bollywood Cooking: The Basics of an Indian Chicken Curry

Craving a curry for dinner perhaps?  A hot chicken curry is probably just what you need to tickle those taste buds and nothing beats a plate of curry atop a bed of steaming rice on a cold Autumn night. While curry has become a mainstream dish, the Pan-Asian versions of the curry has very little to do with the authentic dishes you will find in India or Pakistan. Furthermore, many of the curries found in restaurants across Europe offer at times, tame and altered versions or have extremely rich components making them a heavy affair.

The curries in Indian homes are simple, depending more on the flavors achieved by combining a variety of spices rather than drowning the dish in cream and oil.

Bollywood Cooking: The Hyderabadi Lamb Biryani

  

You have not celebrated a festivity if you have not celebrated the Indian way! I shall be so bold and state the fact. Indians love grandeur and splendor, especially us Punjabis, and being a big hearted folk we splash out on celebrations and festivities whenever the occasion allows us to. However, Indian weddings are the most extravagant and lavish festivity one can ever experience. 

Bollywood Cooking: Mutter Paneer – Indian Cheese with Peas in a Creamy Tomato Sauce

   

"Oh you are so lucky!" was what everyone exclaimed when I'd give them the address of where we lived. It was always an easy address to remember, in any country we were living in at that time. Hotel & Resort xxx. The advantages of being a hoteliers daughter - not having a house to call home but a whole hotel. I did not really realize the power of this fact until I actually started school. 

Bollywood Cooking: Chickpeas with Spinach – Channa Palak

 

Growing up I always wanted to have a pet of some kind. I loved animals and just like any kid wanted a dog, a cat or a hamster to call my own. However, the fact that we were like gypsies moving from country to country and that my mum was finicky about having animal hair in her apartment I never actually got to own a pet.

Bollywood Cooking: An Assortment of Burfi with Mowie and Me

 

 

There’s a special treat in store for you all today. For this session of Bollywood Cooking I have some great support. Today Mowie and me are doing a double feature of a classic Indian sweet with a spectacular German twist. While Mowie shares his pretty Pink Almond Spekulatius Barfi here, I am over at Mowie’s presenting my Chocolate Lebkuchen Fudge Burfi.

Mowie steal the show!

Bollywood Cooking: Kesar di Kheer – Saffron Rice Pudding

 

Kheer or milchreis, riz au lait, arroz de leite, budino di riso, arroz con dulce or just rice pudding. Whatever you may call it, fact is almost every country has their own particular version of this creamy, dreamy, sweet rice dessert.

The North Indian type, kheer has accompanied me since my childhood. My nani, my aunts and my mother each had their own particular way of making kheer and each one was a tad different - almost like their own signature dish. I could always tell who had made the particular kheer I was eating. My mum, for example, used plump big yellow raisins and instead of almonds used cashews. One of my aunt added finely grated cinnamon while the other highlighted her kheer with a dash of rosewater. It was my nani's kheer however that always stood out - it was the queen of kheers if you might.

Bollywood Cooking: Egg Curry in a Creamy Coconut Gravy

 
This year my Bollywood Cooking series is focusing on good, tasty and simple home food. While last year I concentrated on showing many of the loved and extravagant dishes often enjoyed in restaurants, this year it is important for me to show you just how different food cooked in Indian homes (mostly focusing on North Indian food) is, in comparison to street or restaurant food. So many people approach me and say they love Indian food, "but it's so hard and time consuming to cook at home." That actually was the whole reason I started this series - to show these people, it's not hard at all.

Mum’s Simply Sautéed Spiced Indian Cabbage and Fennel

Everyone keeps telling me how organized we are with the prep-work for the move and how far we have already gotten. How come then do I not feel like we are organized and why is it that every time I think I have been good packing boxes and sorting out several items, I am bombarded with another 10 to dos?

Bollywood Cooking: Punjabi Aloo Gobi – Spiced Cauliflower and Potatoes

 

One of the staple dishes at our house, while growing up, was the wonderful yet simple dish of aloo gobi - gently sautéed cauliflower and potatoes tossed in a aromatic melange of spices. It's certainly has got to be one of the most popular Punjabi vegetarian dishes, which rose to international fame in Gurindar Chaddha’s cult film Bend It Like Beckham. The film does not need any introduction as I am sure almost everyone has seen it.

Bollywood Cooking: Mum's Creamy Black Lentils - Kaali Maa Di Dal

Starting the year with a comforting bowl of homemade creamy black lentils. While last year the Bollywood Cooking series focused on many popular street food and restaurant dishes, this year my concentration for the series will be good, down-to-earth, homey food. The type of food I grew up on. My mum is and my grandmother was exceptional in the kitchen. The dishes cooked in their kitchens were beyond scrumptious - they were the solid foundation that gave us footing and reminded us of our roots.

Bollywood Cooking: Chicken Tikka Masala

The chicken tikka masala is known all around the world as one of the most popular Indian dishes. The irony of the chicken tikka masala, better known as CTM, though is that what is often enjoyed in restaurants as a traditional Indian dish has very little to do with authentic Indian cuisine.

When Bee of the fantastic blog Rasa Malaysia wrote to me asking me if I would be interested in being a guest writer on her blog I was extremely ecstatic. Bee wanted me to help her show her readers how to cook a chicken tikka masala. She cracked me up when she referred to me as "a real Indian food expert" - I was flattered but modestly and in all honesty admit that I do not consider myself an expert in Indian food and the irony of this is that I am going to be showing Bee and her readers how to cook "Britain's true national dish".

You'll find my recipe for chicken tikka masala and the entire post, taking a closer look at the origins of the dish over at Rasa Malaysia.

Tell me what you think?

Bee, I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we do and thank you for having me over as your guest.

You might like these flavorful chicken dishes from WFLH:

Butter Chicken	Chicken Curry	Spicy Arabian Chicken

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All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2008 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First

Bombay Street Food: Vada Pav

Bollywood Cooking - Bombay's All Time Favorite

I love getting emails (and comments) from my readers and blogger friends. I especially love those emails, telling me that they tried one of my recipes and found it to be delectable. However, the emails I like best is when I am told that one of my recipes or the information I provided in the how-tos helped them make something that they were not getting right previously.

Recently I had an email from a reader who lived in the UAE. She told me that my recipe for Paneer was the best she had tried. The fact that my parents live in Dubai and I know that there is some good quality paneer available in special stores, it was a great compliment. The reader went on to tell me that it’s not just the recipe but the information around it that made her handle each step carefully while preparing the paneer. She understood why I am so passionate about each of my recipes.

Right now, I am trying to encourage and help a wonderful blogger to make her own gnocchi. She contacted me during the time Zu was featuring What’s For Lunch, Honey? in her Tried & Tested event. She wanted to make the gnocchi but had often failed and I think she was a bit hesitant to try them again. I gave her some help and a lot of motivation. She finally went for another recipe from this blog but we have swapped a couple of mails since then. The last one she told me she was getting together with a friend, who too had gnocchi-making jitters, to finally make them. I am excited to hear how that went.

I too am going through a continuous learning process. Both my series Cooking School and Bollywood Cooking are not only helping you to improve your skills in cooking and motivate you to make different dishes, I too am learning and experimenting with these sessions.

I had started Cooking School, aimed at my Indian readers, to get them to try their hand at well-known foreign dishes and desserts, while Bollywood Cooking was targeted towards my other readers who enjoy Indian food, but thought it to be to complex and demanding to make in their own kitchens. After just about 2 years, I think I can say these series are successful. The mails I get flooding my mailbox after each session is proof.

Both these series has helped me grow enormously. Bollywood Cooking in particular has motivated me to think out of the box, to research and gain so much background knowledge about certain dishes, food cultures and ingredients that I look at each dish with different eyes. I grew up on Indian food, but probably like so many of you, just concentrated on the eating part of it. It was after I left home that I came to appreciate good Indian food. And it was after I started this blog that I became so passionate about experimenting and playing with my food.

It was also thanks to this blog that I met a “mad” girl in Delhi who made me make delicious fried Indian delicacies for the first time. Last year she motivated me to make pooris for the first time. They were anything but perfect, but I learned so much since then. The most important thing I achieved however, was overcoming my “I-can’t-do-this-at-home” phobia. I can and I did.

This year it’s that same girl who is getting me to make and indulge in another one of my favorite snacks for the first time.

In a previous Bollywood Cooking session I had summarized the importance of Street Food in Indian cuisine. The Batata Vada, and all its variations, is probably the most loved and popular amongst the sophisticated Bombayites (to me my birth city will always be Bombay).

Maharashtrian cuisine boasts of a wide variety of snacks. Misal Pav, Kothimbeer Vadi, and Bombay's famous chaat hits such as Bhel Puri, Pani puri, and Dahi batata Puri, are only a few that are enjoyed in the several street stalls across India. What tops them all, however, is the most popular Vada Pav and Pav Bhaji. These snacks have an almost iconic status in Bombay's food scene.

Vada Pav, which is also known in India as the poor man’s burger, is a simple patty made of mashed potatoes, spiked with aromatic spices and then dipped in a batter made out of gram flour. Finally, to tip the ecstasy scale, it is deep fried. This crispy spicy potato patty is then served in a bun with several types of chutneys.

In Maharashtrian cuisine the Vada Pav is considered a teatime staple served with steaming pots of masala chai, all for a price of about Rs. 6.00 (approx US $ 0.15).

The snack was supposedly devised by a snack vendor, Ashok Vaidya, outside Dadar station, some 35 years ago. The Vada Pav soon became a regular with Bombay commuters, office goers and anyone looking for a quick, cheap and filling snack.

For me, I was making my Vada Pav for the first time this weekend. I have enjoyed this savory snack on countless occasions, in India, in Dubai, in the US – served by my mum’s friends and neighbors. I remember my mother often made this when we had guests over or I was given a potato burger for my lunch box at school.

As often is the case in such matters, I Skyped my mum on Friday evening asking for her recipe. The traditional recipe was a great starting point for me, which I built on.

I added a tender sweet potato to lovely organic potatoes. Turmeric powder, curry leaves and mustard seeds were a few spices that gave it a beautiful aromatic flavor. Finally I added a bit of rice flour to the usual gram flour making the whole Vada gorgeously crispy. I also served it in a very untraditional way – in pita pockets, with onions, tomatoes and rucola all splashed with my tangy sun-dried tomato and tamarind chutney.

So, how did I do for my first time?

Interesting read: Jumbo King brands the Vada Pav

 

Vada Pav - My Way

Ingredients
Printable version of recipe here.

For the filling

500g small potatoes, steamed with skin on
150g sweet potato, steamed

For the Masala

1 small piece ginger, minced
2 garlic clove, minced
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 green chilies, finely chopped
1/2 cup coriander leaves, chopped

For the tempering

1 teaspoon turmeric powder
5-8 curry leaves
2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 tablespoon oil or ghee

For the batter

1 1/2 cups gram flour (besan)
1/2 cup rice flour
approx. 2 cups water
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
½ teaspoon chili powder(optional)
½ teaspoon cumin powder
½ teaspoon coriander powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Peanut oil for frying

Pita bread
Tomatoes, sliced
Onions, sliced in rings
Rucola

Method

Peel and mash both sweet potatoes and potatoes with a potato masher. Depending on how you like it - either mash completely or coarsely allowing for some chunks. I like mine slightly chunky.

Add ginger, garlic, onions, green chili, coriander leaves, and salt to the potatoes. Mix, preferably with your hands until everything is incorporated.

Put 1 tablespoon oil or ghee in a pan and heat at medium heat. Add mustard seeds. Once they start splutter, add turmeric powder and curry leaves. Carefully pour this tempering over the mashed potatoes and stir in gently.

Using your hands make small balls of mashed potato mixture. Traditionally Vadas are shaped into balls, I flatted them to make them into patties as they fit better into the pita bread.

For the batter

In a large bowl mix together both flours. Add salt, turmeric powder and all the spice powders. Gradually start adding water and keep mixing with a spoon or whisk. Remove the lumps and whisk into a smooth batter. The batter should not be too watery or too thick. If lifted by a spatula, it should flow in a ribbon like consistency, similar to pancake batter.

Heat some peanut oil in a pan. Drop some batter in the oil to check if the oil is the right temperature. If the batter immediately floats on the surface of the oil, the oil is ready. The oil should not be too hot either, otherwise the vadas turn dark from the outside before they are actually done from the inside.

Now dip each ball in the batter, letting the excess batter drip off. Gently and carefully add the vadas to the hot oil. Do not overcrowd the pan, or the temperature of the oil reduces which will slow down the frying process. In the similar way, fry all the vadas until golden. Remove on a paper towel and drain.

To assemble the Vada Pita Pav warm the pita bread in the oven. Once warmed through slice off the tops and cut open. Spread generously with the sun-dried tomato and tamarind chutney, fill with onion rings, sliced tomatoes and rucola. Finally, add the vada. Enjoy warm

Sun-dried Tomato and Tamarind Chutney
Printable version of recipe here.

Ingredients

250g jar sun dried tomatoes
2-5 teaspoons tamarind paste, depending on your own taste
2-3 garlic cloves
Small piece of ginger
Handful of coriander leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes

Method

In a food processor add the sun-dried tomatoes and a few tablespoons of the oil. Pour in the tamarind paste. Use this according to your taste for tanginess. Add the garlic, ginger, coriander leaves, salt and pepper to taste.

Pulse everything together Do not pulse too much as the chutney tastes best when still slightly chunky. Sprinkle chili flakes.

Keeps in the refrigerator in an air tight jar for 3-4 weeks.  

 

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Verdict

We celebrated these with good German friends of ours. He has lived in Delhi for about an year and loves everything Indian. So whenever they visit, it is a must that I make something to please his tastebuds. We were very exited as we reminisced eating these often in various street side joints. We all gathered around making these scrumptious vadas and pakodas. Then sat back and enjoyed them with warm, steaming cups of Indian masala chai. Soeren loved the vadas and compared them to the German potato latkes, however, saying he liked these better.

Anita thank you! Not just for getting me to try something new again, but for a wonderful evening with friends. All I was missing was you! One day, I promise we'll be making risotto, pooris and vadas and enjoying them together.

You might like these Indian delicacies from WFLH:

	Poori Bhaji
	Channa Masala
	Spicy Okra with Onions

We've been celebrating again!

Yup - we just can't stop. Soeren turned 6 today and we've been partying with a few of his friends. 6 - what a wonderful age. At 5:30 this morning he comes into our bedroom and looks cutely at me,

"Mum am I six now?"

I could only smile!

30 muffins, a fudge gateau, strawberry ice-cream and a pasta salad later (not to mention the vadas from the weekend), I am pooped. So I hope you will allow me to take a well deserved break. I am putting my feet up and hope you all enjoy this delectable recipe.

Daily Tiffin Reading Tip:

Keeping in tact with birthdays:

• Three Dimensional Birthday Cake by Dharm
• Birthday Traditions by Nupur 

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All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2008 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First

Bollywood Cooking: Murg Makhani - Creamy Butter Chicken

Anyone who is a fan of Indian cuisine will certainly have tried the famous Butter Chicken or murgh makhani (if you are not a Vegetarian). It's on every menu in any Indian restaurant in countries all over the world. Depending on where you are, the taste varies from restaurant to restaurant, even in India itself you'll never find two cooks making the same butter chicken.

The dish originated in the Punjab region of India. Served in the famous street side stalls, Dhabas, the butter chicken found it's way into mainstream restaurant cuisine because of it's creamy, buttery sauce and tender, succulent chicken. It's not surprising that it became so popular.

Butter chicken is prepared by marinating the chicken overnight in a yogurt-spice rub. The Makhani sauce is made with butter, tomatoes, spices and ground almonds among other ingredients. Traditionally the chicken is cooked in a tandoor, and in many restaurants you will find that the meat is still prepared in the clay oven.

As it is often the case, a dish like this simply tastes exquisite when it is prepared at home. Using high quality, free-range and/or local chicken will definitely ensure that you are creating a mouth-watering dish right from the beginning.

You do not need a tandoor to make butter chicken at home. You can make this in an oven-proof dish or a roasting tin. The next best thing to the tandoor is the Römertopf, which is what I used here. 

Hope you enjoy making the famous Punjabi dish at home and find pleasure in the the wonderful aromas and flavors this butter chicken offers.

Ingredients

Printable version of recipe here.

1 kg chicken - without skin, boned and cut into bite-size cubes or strips
50ml vegetable oil

For the marinade

300g yogurt
1 tablespoon garam masala
2 teaspoons red chili powder
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves
Juice from 1 fresh lime
Salt and pepper

For the spice mix

6-8 cloves
10-15 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds
1 small cinnamon stick

For the butter sauce

500 ml chicken stock
Handful of almonds, 20-25, skinned and pureed to a fine paste
3 onions - finely chopped
2 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
50g butter
3-4 tablespoons cream
Handful coriander leaves, chopped

Method

In a large bowl mix all the ingredients for the marinade and mix to incorporate. Add the chicken pieces and coat well. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

For the spice mix, dry roast all the spices in a small pan. Finely grind in grinder, food processor or using a pestle and morsel. Set aside.

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C.

Heat the oil in a non-stick pan and sauté the onions with the ginger-garlic paste until the color takes on a golden color. Add the chicken pieces, reserving the marinade, and pan-fry until the meat turns opaque.

Stir in the dry spice mix to the chicken and mix well, then transfer everything into your Römertopf, roasting tin or ovenproof dish. Pour in the chicken stock, cover tightly and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the chicken is tender.

Stir in the reserved marinade and bake for a further 15 minutes. Reduce the heat of the oven to 150 degrees C and finally add the almond paste, butter and cream. Put back into the oven and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with fresh rotis, naan or steamed rice.

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Verdict

Don't let the ingredient list put you off. The method of preparing the butter chicken is so easy that you'll be licking your fingers for more. If you do not want to prepare the chicken in the oven simply use a pot and prepare the butter chicken on your stove/oven top.

This butter chicken tastes absolutely delightful. By baking in the oven, the meat remains succulent and tender. The sauce has the perfect opportunity to unfold it's incredible aromas and bring out all the flavors. You might have noticed I leave tomatoes and tomato puree out of my recipe. This because I personally think that adding tomato to this delicate dish takes away the attention from the main focus - the chicken and the buttery sauce. The flavor of tomatoes makes the dish tarter, which somehow in my opinion, does not fit here. If you prefer it with tomatoes by all means add a few chopped tomatoes to the chicken when pan-frying it.

For us at home we love it just the way it is.

Good luck and let me know what you thought!

More poultry recipes to try out from WFLH:

	Turkey Caprese
	Turkey Breast and Roasted Pumpkin
	Chicken Curry
	Chicken & Seafood Paella

Chicken from around the blogs:

Steamy Kitchen's best roast chicken recipe
FXCuisine's mouthwatering tandoori chicken
Morsel & Musings' delectable Hungarian paprika chicken
Andrea's Recipes' spicy chicken tikka masala

The Daily Tiffin Reader Tip:
Don't let the bed bugs bite! by Manisha

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Technorati Tags: chicken,poultry,Indian,butter chicken,food,curry,recipe,photography,Nikon D70s

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All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2008 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First