Murg Mughlai

Murg Mughlai, popularly known as Chicken Korma, is very much an Indian curry; though quite surprisingly, it stands out from the other blazing, fiery curries from India. Its roots can be traced back to the cooking techniques from Persia which became an integral part of Indian cuisine during the reign of the Mughal Empire. The meat is first braised (seared using high heat) and then slow cooked for long hours in a gravy to create an exotic curry.

As the name sounds, this dish befits to be served on a King's plate. It is royal with its rich, creamy, nutty flavours yet subtly spicy which is certainly deceived by its pale looks.

Personally, this dish is reminds me of my best friend Sanee. During our early days of cooking experiments before marriage, we learned to cook this, with help from her Mom over the telephone, who herself was an excellent cook. Though we have to admit that our first trial was an utter failure, we learned from our mistakes and have been improving on the dish ever since.

Ingredients

To marinate and braise

• 1/2 kg boneless chicken thighs
• 3 tsp ginger paste
• 3 tsp garlic paste
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
• salt to taste
• 3 tbsp ghee/ clarified butter

For the Sauce/Gravy:

• 2 tbsp ghee/ clarified butter 
• 3 cups brown onions, sliced
• 1 1/2 tbsp ginger paste
• 3/4 tbsp garlic paste
• 8 green chilly, whole
• 1 aniseed
• 8-10 small green cardamom pods
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 5 cloves
• 3 bay leaves
• 2-3 tbsp almond flour
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp white pepper powder
• 1 - 1 1/2 tsp garam masala
• a generous pinch of saffron
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 cup - 1 cup of hot water
• sliced almonds to garnish
• salt to taste

Extra

• 1/2 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 large onion, thinly sliced into half moons
• a pinch of sugar
• 1-2 tbsp raisins 
• Slivered almond, to garnish
• Coriander leaves, to garnish

Method

Extra
1. Heat 1/2 tablespoon oil. Add a pinch of sugar and add the sliced onions. Fry the onions till they brown and caramelize. Remove onions and set aside.
2. Fry raisins in the same oil and set aside.

Marinate
1. Sprinkle salt on the chicken pieces and rub in along with lemon juice. Combine the rest of the ingredients for the marinade and marinate the chicken and leave in refrigerator overnight or for at least 2 hours.
2. Grill chicken pieces on high for a few minutes until chicken is just done and brown on all sides. Baste chicken with ghee in between grilling and turn over the chicken pieces. Use 3 tbsp ghee for this.  

The Gravy
1. Heat 2 tbsp of ghee in a pan, add aniseed, cinnamon, cloves, green cardamoms and bay leaves and sauté. Add onions, green chili pepper and salt and sauté at medium heat till the onions starts to get light brown.
2. Add ginger paste, garlic paste  and sauté the onions at low to medium heat till oil separates. Add ½ cup of hot water and salt and bring it to a boil. Cook/simmer till the paste thickens a bit and there is no extra water floating on the top.
3. Add grilled chicken to the gravy and toss well to combine. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Lower the heat and let the temperature of the pan come down a bit. Whisk the yogurt together with sugar and almond powder till smooth and creamy. Add this mixture to the gravy and let it simmer at low heat for about 5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of hot water and simmer it down to your desired consistency of the sauce, if required.
5. Add half of the caramelized onions (set aside some for garnish), heavy cream, saffron, white pepper powder and garam masala. Stir everything in, partially cover it and allow it to gently simmer at low – medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until you see a thin film of ghee appear as the top most layer above the sauce.

Garnish with slivered almonds, caramelized onions, raisins and coriander leaves. Serve hot with pulao or roti. 

Goan-Style Prawn Curry

It is a cool Sunday morning. There is nothing better on a day like this than to wake up early, when the rest of the house is still in deep slumber from which, it seems, they may not wake up. This is the time I enjoy the most because I can be for myself without any "Where?"s, "Whats?" and "Hows?".

The day looks perfect for a bake. But I am lazy. Should I cook? May be not. Sundays are meant to be lazy, right?

The sun's rays stream through the windows right into my eyes and though I cannot see the ocean, it reminds of home. It is a perfect day to take a stroll down the beach, watching the ladies waiting for their men to return from the sea. Hoots and hows from the fishermen from their boats in the sea fill the air. I think they have a great catch today. They are passing signals to the men on shore to be ready for them. There are children playing in the waves oblivious to what is going around them.

And then I suddenly remember that my home is still miles away from me. Can I catch a glimpse of "my ocean" in all its glory ever? I hope the innocence of those people still lingers in their hearts.

Back to where I am now - I have a recipe that is not from home but from a place that is very similar to home: Goa - the land of beaches. It is a Goan-style Prawn Curry (credits to Sonia D'souza from Goa for her recipe) which stands out from the Kerala-style inspite of the similar spices used.

Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: around 20 minutes
(The recipe follows rough estimations. Please make changes to suit your taste)

Ingredients

• 500g prawn meat
• 3/4 cup dessicated coconut
• 3 green chilly
• 1 tsp garam masala, adjust to taste
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1" ginger, crushed
• 2 large garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground fenugreek
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 - 2 tsp kashmiri chilly powder (adjust to taste)
• 1 - 2 tsp white vinegar
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp cooking oil

To temper

• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 3 - 4 dry red chilly
• 1 tsp mustard seeds

Method
1. Place a pan over medium heat and add oil. Stir in onion, ginger, garlic and salt and continue to cook until onion becomes light brown in colour. Add ground cumin, fenugreek, pepper, turmeric and kashmiri chilly powders and mix well. Remove from flame and let it cool. Grind this very little water to make a thick and creamy paste.
2. Dry roast dessicated coconut until it starts to change colour to a light brown. Set it aside to cool. Then add green chilly, garam masala and just enough water to make a thick creamy paste.
3. Add prawns in a deep pan over medium heat with salt and no water. Cook until half done. At this stage the prawns will shrink in size and there will be liquid in the pan. Mix ground onion paste and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Then add ground coconut paste and continue to cook until done. Season with more salt and pepper to taste. Pour in vinegar just as you remove the dish from heat and mix well.

Set aside for at least 8 hours.

4. Heat remaining oil to temper in a pan. Splutter mustard seeds, curry leaves and dry red chilly. Pour it onto reheated prawn curry and serve hot with rice.

Prawn Pakora/ Prawn Fritters

Pakoras, also known as Bhajias, are a very popular fried snack in India. Ask any Indian, and this unbelievably addictive fritter is always associated with the cool monsoon weather. It is not very uncommon for Indians to sit down with a hot cup of tea in the verandah, enjoying the beautiful monsoon rains and munching into some crispy pakoras. Originally, a tea time snack, pakoras are nowadays served as an appetiser in an Indian food menu.

Malai Kofta/ Fried Cottage Cheese Balls in a Creamy Gravy

And finally my 100th post. It has taken me a long time to reach here but the journey sure was thrilling.

There is an ongoing myth that vegetarian menus cannot be as extravagant and lavish as the non-vegetarian menus; and I do call it a myth. There are a myriad of options that can be dished out as exuberantly as its non-vegetarian counterparts.;and the first dish that comes to my mind is the Malai Kofta. 

Ghosht Rogan Josh/ Mutton Curry from Kashmir

A delectable, aromatic, hot and spicy curry dish from Kashmir, India enhanced with amazing flavours of dry ginger, asafoetida and fennel powder - the Ghost Rogan Josh or Mutton Rogan Josh is sure to surprise your senses of taste and smell; more so, if you are from Kerala.

Murg Kolhapuri/ Chicken Kolhapuri

The word Kolhapuri brings to my mind two things - Kolhapuri sandals that most of my friends had during college days and the famous Bollywood actress, Padmini Kolhapuri, from the 1980s. My relationship with Kolhapuri ended there until one day, my husband started talking about a well spiced, hot and ferociously red chicken curry that he ate from restaurants at Pune.

Goda Masala/ Kohlapuri Masala Mix

This spice is essential for the prepatation of Chicken Kohlapuri - the recipe soon to follow. While my friends have vouched for the Parampara Kohlapuri Masala mix, I always wanted to prepare the masala by myself.

Pav Bhaji Masala

It is funny when you realise that when it comes to food, most cities are well known for their street food or their unfinished, unpolished lunch and tea stalls that serve just about anything. Most of these places (and I agree it is not everyone) prepare food to share their family cuisine with the people around them. Their love for the food they prepare is more important than the business they want to establish with their food. And that, I reckon is their success.

Indo-Chinese Chilly Fish

Today's Chilly Fish is inspired by the classic Indo-Chinese recipe; is excellent for entree' and can also be served as a side dish with fried rice. It is very similar to the Indo-Chinese chilly chicken and is a seafood lovers dream food. It is best prepared with any firm white fish fillets like Snapper or Barramundi; but be sure that the fish is fresh. I personally feel that seafood recipes are totally lost when you prepare it with the frozen varieties.

I prepared this a few weeks back when some of my friends came home for lunch. And I learnt something on that day. Maintaining a blog and cooking for friends cannot go hand in hand. Well! At least for me that is true. The issue here is more than often you take double the time preparing your dishes because you are cooking and trying to write down the recipe at the same time and then also left with very little time to take some good clicks. So you end up compromising yourself with not so satisfactory clicks - which is so very evident in my snaps here. So I've decided to distance the two; I either cook for my blog or I cook for my friends - but never together at the same time. Hopefully, I will find the time for both.

Makes: 5 - 6 serves
Preparation Time: 30 minutes + time to marinate
Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Note:- Fish fillets, onion, capsicum should all be cut into the same size cubes

Ingredients

• 1/2 kg firm white fish fillets like Snapper or Barramundi, cut into cubes

Dry Marinade

• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• Salt to taste

Wet Marinade

• 1/2 cup corn flour
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 2 - 3 tbsp beaten egg
• 1 - 2 tbsp lukewarm water
• Salt to taste

Remaining Ingredients

• 1 medium sized brown onion, cut into cubes
• 1 medium sized brown onion, finely chopped
• 3 green chilly, chopped (adjust to taste)
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 green capsicum, cut into cubes
• 1/2 yellow capsicum, cut into cubes
• 1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
• 2 spring onions, chopped
• 2 tbsp cooking oil + extra to fry fish
• 1 tsp pepper powder (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 tbsp paprika powder
• 3 tbsp Fountain red chilly sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce (adjust to taste)
• 1 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce or tomato sauce
• 1/2 tsp chinese five spice (may be substituted with Indian garam masala)

Method
1. Marinate fish with dry marinade, cover and refrigerate for two hours. Mix all ingredients for wet marinade and make a thick marinade to coat fish well. Add few more teaspoons of water if the batter is too thick. Deep fry fish until cooked.
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add garlic and green chilly and toss till it turns colour into light brown. Add chopped onion and celery and stir for 2 -3 minutes until onion softens. Now add paprika and pepper powder and stir for 1 minute. Add diced onion and toss for a few minutes until it softens. Then add all the sauces and chinese five spice together and mix well. Finally add fried fish pieces and capsicum and keep tossing for a few minutes. If the sauce gets too dry add a few tablespoons of water. This will allow the sauces to mix well through fish pieces. Remove from fire and toss in chopped spring onions.

This is a dry preparation and can be served as an entree'.

To serve as a side-dish for fried rice add half a cup of water, bring to boil and add 1 tbsp corn flour mixed with 4 tbsp of water and mix well. This will give you a little extra gravy.

Seekh Kebab - The Meat With A Hole

Yes! The meat with a hole! And that is exactly why I like it. Not because it is boneless, but because it has a hole in it - the Seekh Kebab. Seekh Kebabs can be made with any minced meat but I always vote for minced lamb - even when lamb is not one of my favourite meats; or at the very least minced goat meat/ mutton.Seekh Kebab originated from Persia and folklore has it that it was a dish invented by Persian soldiers by using metal swords to prepare meat over open fire. Another story is about the invention of cooking methods using very little to no water due to scarcity of water in the deserts; this giving rise to cooking meat in different ways directly over fire.

Murg Malai Tikka/ Chicken Malai (Cream) Tikka

I grew up believing that Tikka always has to be red or orange in colour. Though traditionally these colours were attained with the use of turmeric powder or chilly powder, modern chefs have indulged in the extensive use of food colours for this purpose. And for this very reason, foods with strong colours usually eat on my appetite. So whenever I come across food with little to no colours I am very eager to try it out and if they have the perfect flavours, I seek to unfold its mysteries.I was acquainted with this Murg Malai Tikka from Cafe Saffron, South Morang, more than a year back. Surprised at seeing the almost colourless chicken, I knew I was bound to like it. (Not sure if they still serve the same tikka now).

Green Yoghurt Chutney with Mint and Coriander Leaves

This chutney is perfect served with grilled meat to infuse Indian flavours to your already delicious meals.

Baingan Bartha - Spiced Smoky Eggplant

North-Indian vegetarian curries, for me, are always a reminiscent of the first year of my married life and the Savali Vegetarian Restaurant at Nigdi in Pune. This restaurant was our favourite hang out during weekends and when I was too tired to cook during weekdays. GC's favourite was Dal-Chawal (Rice with Yellow Lentil Curry) with Bhindi Masala (Okra in a spicy red semi-dry gravy), plain yoghurt and papad. As for me, I was in love with all the North-Indian dishes there, that I could never make choice.

Paneer Makhani/ Butter Paneer

I've spent the first 23 years of my life in Kerala and Sharjah, but had never tried any North-Indian dishes. I guess the answer to that is that my parents are not foodies. They never ventured into new territories of the food land; always satisfied with their limited sapidity of Kerala, Arabic and Indo-Chinese cuisine.

Garam Masala

Garam means hot and masala means mixture. It is a blend of ground toasted spices. The mixture is more of a fragrant spice mixture than a hot spice mixture and is extensively used in Indian cuisine. There is no single recipe for Garam Masala as the ingredients vary from region to region and from household to household.

The recipe here was handed over to me by my Mum. And it is exactly how she makes it. She says that for any recipe that calls for Garam Masala, half of the masala should be added during cooking along with the other spices and the other half should be added near the end of cooking, to bring out true flavours.

The recipe here works well with chicken and vegetable dishes. For a dish with red meat, add extra ground fennel seeds.