Chettinad Chicken

I'm a big fan of chettinad cuisine, just the thought of the Beef Chettinad that I had in Goa, during our vacation in Decemeber, still makes my mouth water. But I haven't tried a lot of chettinad cuisine at home, other than this Egg Chettinad I had made long back. Rj had to go out of station on a family emergency n wanted to make something nice for him for dinner the day before he left.




In a situation like this, I find it easy to rely on cooking expert Sanjeev Kapoor's recipes. I have complete faith in his recipes, like I always say they will never let you down, even if you are trying it for the first time! That's how I decided on  Sanjeev Kapoor's Chicken Chettinad recipe. I have followed his instructions to the last dot n' it was amazing. I have always favoured my Darbar Ki Karahi and Murgh Makhani recipe for chicken if I want to make chicken it for a special occasion, but I have to say, this recipe is gonna be a stiff competition to all my previous chicken recipes. So here you go...




Ingredients:

1. Chicken : 500gms/ half a kilo
2. Dry Red Chilies: 5 whole pods
3. Coconut: 1/2 (scraped)
4. Poppy seeds (khuskhus): 1 tsp
5. Coriander seeds: 1/2 tsp
6. Cumin seeds: 1/4 tsp
7. Green cardamom: 1no
8. Clove: 1no
9. Cinnamon: 1/2 an inch piece
10. Star anise: 1/2
11. Fennel seeds (saunf): 1/2 tsp
12. Ginger: 1 inch piece  (roughly chopped)
13. Garlic: 5-6cloves
14. Oil: 1/4 cup (the original recipe used olive oil, but I used regular sunflower oil)
15. Onion : 1no (medium) chopped
16. Curry leaves: 10-12
17. Tomato: 2 small or 1 large (chopped)
18. Red chili powder: 1/2 tsp
19. Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
20. Lemon juice: as per taste
21. Coriander leaves: 1tsp (chopped)
22. Salt: as per taste

Method:

Step 1: Roast dry red chillies, coconut, poppy seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, fennel seeds in 1 tbsp of oil

Step 2: Grind the above into a paste along with ginger and garlic. (my mallu instinct worked overtime n' i tried using my new stone pestle n' mortar unsuccessfully to do this, so I had to do a little twist later, which I will mention)

Step 3: Heat the remaining oil in a kadai/wok and fry onion till golden. Add curry leaves and the ground paste and sauté for some time.

Step 4: Add tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt to taste. (at this stage I could see that my paste needs to be a little more ground n ground the same in a mixer grinder to a fine paste. That is the reason why you can't see any tomato pieces or curry leaves in my pictures) Once I ground the same into a thick paste, I sauteed them for a min more in the same kadai without adding more oil.

Step 5: Add chicken and mix. Cook for five minutes and then add two cups of water, lemon juice, cover and cook till the chicken is done.

Step 6: Serve hot garnished with coriander leaves.




It is best served with hot rice or chapathi or even paratha. But I served it with puttu, coz after taking time out to decide on what to make n' the whole process above I had time only for something simple like puttu. :) Happy Cooking!!!

Dal Makhani

I wasn't particularly fond of Dal Makhani (have on many occasions tasted bad ones) until we went to Mast Kalandar-a North Indian vegetarian food chain popular here in Bangalore. Rj orders for the meal option Phindi Chole almost every time we go there. Along with Chole n' Roti comes this really tiny bowl of Dal Makhani n' I love the texture n' the taste. Its just so so creamy. So I decided if they could make it taste this good, I could at least try making it at home.... :)




I had two choices for recipes to follow, one was from the book Learn to Cook by Nita Mehta and the other option was to follow Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe. As I was about to start cooking, Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe won by a thin margin coz Nita Mehta's recipe called for 'jaiphal powder' as one of the ingredients and I had no clue what that was. Only after I finished cooking did I get a chance to google that....n' found that she just meant Nutmeg Powder...lol

Although my intention is not to specialize on Sanjeev Kapoor recipes, I might just end up doing that at this rate. So here you go...:)




Ingredients:

1. Whole Black Gram or Urad Dal: 1/2 cup
2. Red Kidney Beans or Rajma: 2 tbsp
3. Salt to taste
4. Red chili powder: 1 tsp
5. Ginger: 2 inch piece (chopped)
6. Butter: 3 tbsp
7. Oil: 1 tbsp
8. Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
9. Garlic: 6 cloves (chopped)
10.Onion : 1 large (chopped)
11.Green chillies: 2 (slit into 2)
12.Tomatoes: 2 medium (chopped)
13.Garam masala powder: 1 tsp
14.Water: as required for cooking

Method:

Step 1: Wash and soak sabut urad and rajma overnight in three cups of water. Drain.

Step 2: Pressure cook sabut urad and rajma in three cups of water with salt and half the red chili powder (you can add half the ginger too if you wish) for three whistles. Open the lid and see if the rajma is totally soft. If not cook on low heat till the rajma becomes totally soft.

Step 3: Heat butter and oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds.When they begin to change colour, add ginger, garlic and onion and sauté till golden.

Step 4: Add slit green chillies, tomatoes and sauté on high heat. Add the remaining red chili powder and sauté till the tomatoes are reduced to a pulp.

Step 5: Add the cooked dal and rajma along with the cooking liquid. Add some water if the mixture is too thick.

Step 6: Add garam masala powder and adjust the salt. Simmer on low heat till the dals are totally soft and well blended. Serve hot.

Best served with rice and roti. I think this recipe is little less richer than the ones which asks for cream as an ingredient and I would call this a really easy recipe. Another surprising thing about this recipe and the Rajma Recipe is that it tastes even better when served the next day. :) Happy cooking!

Sanjeev Kapoor's- Hara Bhara Paneer Tikka

I have immense faith in Sanjeev Kapoor's recipes. He is referred to as "The most celebrated face of Indian cuisine" for a reason right? :). None of the recipes I have tried of his has ever failed me. My only problem is with his TV shows, they show some 3-4 dishes in like half an hour n' that means everything is happening so fast...I'm sometimes worried I'll miss out something. When I saw his show on using a grill stone for cooking, I was sure I have to try this paneer recipe that was featured. The first time I made this dish was about a year back. Have tried this many times after that n' it has always been a winner. But my paneer pieces weren't grilled to perfection, like I wanted it to and could never get a decent photograph until now.




I attended a BBQ session at Weber- Bangalore (outdoor BBQ grill dealers) recently and it helped me a lot with the grilling process this time around, (even though this recipe calls for grilling on the stove top.) Chef Sarabjeet, gave us a lot of pointers and it proved useful to me. They are running a weekend half a day BBQ workshop on May 1st, do let me know if you are interested, will give you the contact details. It is in fact, my favourite Paneer Grill recipe to date. So here you go.




Ingredients:

For the Paste:
1. Fresh coriander leaves : 2 bunches
2. Fresh mint leaves: 1bunch
3. Green chillies: 4nos (reduce if you don't like it too spicy)
4. Garlic: 10cloves
5. Ginger: 1 1/2" piece
6. Lemon Juice: 2tsp
7. Onion: 2nos (medium sized) chopped
8. Salt: as per taste
9. Hung Curd: 1 cup
10. Fresh pomegranate pearls: 2tbsp

For the Marinade:
11. Gram Flour (Besan): 4tbsp
12. Kasoori methi powder:2tbsp ( I used dried kasoori methi leaves)
13. Chat Masala: 2tsp
14. Roasted Cumin Powder: 2tsp
15. Garam Masala: 2tsp
16. Mustard Oil: 2tbsp ( I used regular Sunflower oil)

Other Ingredients:
17. Paneer (Cottage Cheese): 500gms (2 inch cubes)
18. Onion: 2nos (medium) cut into 2 inch pieces
19. Green Capsicum: 2nos- seeded(medium) cut into 2 inch pieces
20. Tomatoes: 2nos- seeded (medium) cut into 2 inch cubes

Method:

Step 1: Grind together green chillies, coriander leaves, mint leaves, garlic, ginger, lemon juice, onion, salt, yogurt and pomegranate pearls into a thick paste using very little water.

Step 2: Roast the cumin seeds n' powder it using a mortar and pestle. Roast gram flour for two to three minutes and set aside.

Step 3: Place the paneer cubes in a bowl, add kasoori methi powder, chaat masala, roasted cumin powder, garam masala powder, roasted gram flour and the ground paste and mix well. Add a tbsp of oil to this and marinate the paneer for two hours.

Step 4: Thread the paneer pieces onto skewers alternating with onion, capsicum and tomato pieces.

Step 5: Season the grill stone/pan with oil and heat. Place the skewers on the hot grill pan and grill for three to four minutes. Baste with oil, turn the skewers and cook the other side for two to three minutes. Once this was done, I turned the flame to high and grilled it over the flame for 5-6secs both sides. (this step wasn't part of Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe) Serve it hot with a dip/chutney and its gonna impress everyone.




I'm gonna give this recipe★★★★★ ;) Its a must try, take my word for it. Happy Cooking!




I'm sending this post to the event Dish Name Starts with H, hosted by Akila from Akila's Kitchen.

Tawa Pilaf- Chaat Style

I have been watching the Sanjeev Kapoor cooking shows on n' off for a while now. If you have seen his shows, you must have noticed how quick they are n' he makes it look like its hardly any work. I have never been good at keeping everything ready n then cooking, i go with the flow n' run all around n' pick things from here n' there. That could be one reason why i have never been able to manage step by step photos on this blog, maybe i will save some time too but i'm not too sure if n' when i will do all that...

So anyways i came across this recipe on his show for tawa pilaf, i have always wanted to try it n' decided to watch the whole show and decided to try it too. But once i finished making it and tasted it, i felt like it was more like a 'Tawa Pilaf-Chaat' than the authentic pilaf (i'm sure there will be an authentic Vegetable Pilaf recipe of Sanjeev Kapoor's somewhere, i plan to i find it n' give it a try)...go through the ingredients list and you will know why i wanted to call it a Chaat....it's really really easy to make, especially so if you have some left over plain rice and want to try something different. So here you go...

* i made enough only for one person, and i'm mentioning the quantity used according to that. (you see i'm still on my "cooking for one" week)

Ingredients:

1. Cooked Rice: 1cup
2. Oil: 1/2 to 3/4th tsp
3. Cardamom: 1no
4. Jeera: 1/2tsp
5. Onion: 1no (chopped)
6. Ginger Garlic Paste: 1tsp
7. Tomato: 1no (chopped)
8. Capsicum: 1/2 piece (chopped)
9. Green Peas: 2tbsp
10.Carrot: 1 small (cut it into small cubes)
11.Beans: 4-5nos (thin slices)
12.Pav Bhaji Masala: 1tsp
13.Red Chili Paste: 1/2tsp (i used paprika powder instead)
14.Lemon Juice: 2-3 drops (add only just before serving)
15.Salt: as per taste
16.Coriander Leaves: 2tsp (chopped)
17.Water

* though the original recipe didn't ask for it, i added one chopped green chili too

Method:

Step 1: Heat Oil in a kadai, add the cardamom and jeera. After 20seconds, add the chopped onion
and ginger garlic paste n' fry it until lightly brown.

Step 2: Add the chopped tomatoes and the other vegetables that you are using. Add a little water and cook for 5mins.

Step 3: Add the pav bhaji masala, chili paste and salt. Allow the masala to cook and you will see oil separating.

Step 4: Add the cooked rice and mix well. Let it cook for a while.

Step 5: Add the chopped coriander leaves and sprinkle the lemon juice. Mix it well and it's ready.

Serve it hot with some masala papad and raita.

p.s. i had called the recipe vegetable biryani by mistake.....they broadcasted the show again i realised the recipe here is Tawa Pilaf by Sanjeev Kapoor n' not Vegetable Biryani. I'm really sorry about the error.