Lamb/Goat Biryani

This one is a typical dish from my home town.The moment i say that i am from that place people ask, do you know how to cook Biryani.Biryani was originally made by royal cooks for  Moguls and Nizams since to it has all kinds of spices and protiens which is perfect for medicinal as well as health benefits for heeling the wounded ones.It's to cook too as its just one pot wonder.



So, without further ado here is my recipe...which everyone of my guests loved it.I am sure even you all would like it.

Lamb/Goat -1lb
Onion -1 big/2 medium
Green chilies -5 or 6
Mint leaves - 1/4 cup(save some for garnish)
Coriender leaves -1/4 cup(save for garnish)
yogurt -1/4 cup
Ginger& Garlic paste -2.5 table spoons
Red chilli powder or flakes -1 teaspoon
whole spices -Cloves,Cardamom,Cinnamon,Bay leaves,Shahi Zeera(cumin)
Oil & ghee- 2/3 cup oil and about a 2 tablespoon of Ghee(Clarified butter)
Lime juice -1tablespoon
Biryani masala - powder cloves+cinnamon+Cardamom+Big cardamom+Mace+Star Anise =1.5 tablespoon(reserve 1/2 teaspoon  masala for final garnish)
Basmati Rice(Aged) -1.5cups.
Saffron -Dry roasted and soaked in 2 tablespoon of  milk

Cut the  Lamb in around 3 inch pieces with bones, wash,clean and drain out the water real good.Marinate the meat in a bowl with biryani masala,Ginger & Garlic paste,Redchilli powder,salt and keep it aside covered.

Slice onions,slit green chillies,finely chop mint & coriender leaves.In a big pan/pressure cooker whatever you are using for making the gravy heat oil and ghee.Throw in whole spices Cloves,Cinnamon,Cardamom.Fry the onions until slightly gloden brown and save few for garnish.Add the marinated lamb,green chillies,mint and coriender leaves.Stir and mix well all the spices and herbs well untill incorporated.Cook until the meat changes its colour and slightly becomes brown.Now add the little water and beaten yogurt  to lossen up the gravy.Now cover the lid and let it cook until the lamb becomes tender and all the gravy is soaked up in the meat leaving about 1/4 cup of it leaving oil sides of the pan.

Cook rice with shahizeera,salt,Bay leaves just about half done and strain off the water.
Finally top the gravy with rice and level evenly all around the pan and top it with fried onion,mint and coriender leaves,Biryani masala,Lime juice.Then swirl aroung the safforn milk on the top.Close the lid and simmer on low flame for about 15-20 minutes.

Tips -1) Instead of making biryani masala you can buy it from any Indian or Pakistani grocers.
         2)Heads up while adding yogurt, it might curdle so make it into thin paste with water or add little water to cooldown just before adding it.
         3) Final simmering time may vary based upon the layers of rice and gravy.The recipe calls for one layer.

Enjoy this with Cucumber,Red Onion slices with few Lime wedges.

Spring onion grilled chicken burgers

Now that the sping is here, I felt obligatory to share this recipe.Spring time you get all kinds of fresh vegetables especially the spring onions are more tender and sweet, though available in the market through out the year.One of the easiest and healthiest recipe to try on outside grills.



Chicken patties:

Grounded Chicken -1 pound
4 spring onions
2 green chillies
Coriender leaves -2 tablespoons
Black pepper -1tsp
Coriender powder -1 tablespoon
Red pepper flakes -1/2 teaspoon
Toasted breadcrumbs -1/4 cup
salt -1&1/4 teaspoon

Burger Buns
Cheese slices(optional)
Dijon Mustard
Mayo
Lettuce leaf

Finely chop the spring onions,Green chillies, Coriender leaves and mix it with ground chicken along with spices and breadcrumbs until  everything is incorporated together.Heat the skillet  or the grill  and then pour some oil on to it or brush oil on the grill whichever you are using then start making chicken patties and start frying the chicken patties 5 minutes each side(1/4 lb each) until they turn golden brown on either side.
Start heating buns and then apply the mustard and mayo on each of the buns then arrange the burger with Lettuce leaf and chicken patty.
Enjoy this tomato sauce or hot sauce!

Dosa made easy

Making Dosa is a very tedious job.In my mom's home the preparations starts atleast a day ahead as the rice takes longer time to soak and grind into fine paste.Now that we are having acess to so many diffirent things in the market we can make it easily.Dosa is one of my favourite breakfast on weekend's.so, whenever I cook this, it takes me back to old days and my kitchen smells  just like my mom's.




Here's is the recipe.

Urad dal(skinless and whole) -1/2cup
Rice flour -1cup
cooking soda -1/4 tsp
salt to taste.
water to consistency.

Soak the Urad dal for atleast 4hrs and grind it into fine paste by adding water to it.Add the rice flour and cooking soda to the urad dal paste by adding water until you get a perfect dosa batter consistency.Allow it to ferment overnight and cook dosa in the morning for breakfast.Add salt just before you are cooking Dosa.
If you are staying in USA or Europe where its very difficult to ferment the batter you can use your oven for fernentation process.Just before going to sleep switch on the oven to 275-300 (summer) or 350(winter) for about 2 or 3 minutes and switch off.Then keep the vessel inside the oven with keep the light on.Don;t cover the vessel tightly as the batter ferment it will ooze up.so, keep in a big vessel to avoid mess inside the oven.
Savour you hot dosa's with a coconut chutney or Sambar.
you can keep the batter in the refrigerator for about 2 or 3 days.

Moong daal & Spinach curry

Moong dal comes in a variety of colours.One can buy it in any Indian stores where it is readily available.For this recipe I am using split skin off yellow daal.you can use any kind of spinach fresh or frozen.Fresh one tastes better.I used the salad spinach leaves for preparing this.I made this yesterday, which happens to be St.Patrick's day celebrated by Irish people wearing or eating something green.Although I donot celebrate this festival I felt like I made it on a perfect day...something green for dinner.


Here is the recipe

Salad spinach -1bag
Moong dal -1/4 cup
Ginger & garlic -1tbs
Onion-1/2 of big bulb
Green chillies -2 or 3
Garam masala powder-1tsp
Red chilly flakes -1tsp
Turmeric -1tsp
Oil -2-3 tbs
Salt to taste.

Soak the moong dal for an hour or so before start cooking.wash and chop the spinach.Finely chop onion and split cut the green chillies.Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the onions until they start changing color.Now add Ginger & garlic paste, Green chillies,garam masala powder,turmeric,red chilly powder and fry for sometime then add the soaked moondal and saute for sometime.Finally add chopped spinach and salt and cover the lid. Keep mixing in between and let it cook until the water gets all soaked up and all dal and spinach incorporate each other.
Savor this curry with roti or plain rice.It's very healthy and good source of  vitamins.

Cream cheese & Butter Scotch frosted Vanila cake

This cake has very soft texture  like white sponge inside.Its very easy to prepare.I am using using cream cheese and Butter scotch frosting here that's what makes this cake special.This cake can also be used as a birthday cake.

Here is the recipe.

For Vanila cake :

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F while preparing the cake batter.

In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven.  Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.


For Frosting:


1/2pkg (4 oz.) cream cheese,softened (Philadelphia is fine or you can use any other)
1/4 butter, softened
1tsp Vanila
21/2 cups of powdered sugar.
 2tbs Store bought Butterscotch syrup.


Beat the cream cheese ,Butter,Vanila in a large bowl until well blended.Add sugar gradually ,beating after each addition until well blended.


Once the cake is baked and cooled down completely, start  frosting  the cake with the help of spatula slowly until the top  is fully covered.Then with the help of a spoon start  pouring the hot butter scotch syrup in a design pattern as you like.Refrigrate and serve.

Spring onions Pakoras(Fritters)

Its a very quick and easy way of preparing a snack when you get some guests without prior notice.These have very mild  oniony flavour and the colour contrast
with chickpea flour looks amazing and quite appealing.




Here is the recipe.

5 green onion(spring onion)

1 tsp of chopped green chillies.

1/2 cup of chickpea flour (Besan)

1/2 tsp of cooking soda.

1tsp of Red Chilly powder

Salt to taste.

Chat masala for garnishing.

some water & oil for frying.

Finely chop the spring onions all white and green parts.In a bowl mix these onions with chopped green chillies,Red chilli powder,Cooking soda, and salt with water and make it until you get a thick batter.

Heat oil in a frying a pan and start dolloping the batter with a spoon or hand all around the pan and fry them untill light gloden brown.

Garnish them with Chat masala and serve them hot with tomato sauce or mint chutney.

Enjoy!

Tomatillo & Butternut Squash soup

This soup is an execllent comfort food in winters to warm oneself.I make this every now and then in winter as its the season for Butternut squash.





Here is the recipe.

Diced Butternut squash -1cup
Tomatillo (green tomatoes) -1 &1/2-small sized or 1-medium
Diced carrots -1/3 cup
frozen yellow corn kernels -1/3 cup
chopped Jalapeno pepper -1/2 tsp
finely chooped Garlic -2or3 cloves
water -3 cups
some corn chips (Doritos will be good)
salt and pepper to taste

Start with heating a soup making utensil.pour in a table spoon of olive oil and saute garlic and Jalapeno.Then throw in the squash, carrots, tomatillos and sprinkle some salt and pepper.once you mix up everything and hear a nice sizzle add water and close with a lid.After 5-10 minutes you can see that all the vegies become soft and wilted.That's when you pour in the entire mixture of vegetable into a blender and blend it to a smooth consistency.
Now heat the same utensil and throw in the corn and saute it for with salt & pepper.Then pour the entire soup into it.Let it come to boil until the liquid becomes hot.
Serve it in soup bowl with corn chip on the top.
Tip - Don't brown the Garlic, serve the soup hot.
Yum!

Deccani chicken Fry

The title of this recipe sounds fancy but, it's easy as piece of cake.It tastes great and goes well as a side for any kind of roti's,pratha's,pulao.
It's little spicy but,one can adjust spices to their tastebuds if someone can't take it.I generally use chicken thighs or legs for this which works well this kind of meat preparation.you can even use boneless chicken if you want.

Here is the recipe

Chiken thighs - 1lb
Ginger & garlic paste - 2tbs
Yogurt(thick & no water) -4tbs
coriender powder -2tsp
Red chilli powder -1tsp
Turmeric -1/2 tsp
garam masala powder -1tsp
Jeera powder -1tsp
black pepper -1/2tsp
Lemon juice -2 tbs
salt to taste & oil for frying

Clean chicken and marinate with all the spices along with yogurt for about 1/2hr.Heat a thick based skillet(non-stick is good) and pour some oil about 2-3 tbs enough to coat the chicken.once the oil is heated put the marinated chicken peices in to the oil, stir and mix well and close the lid.Keep stirring in between untill the chicken becomes dry and all the spices gets well coated and turn brown and slightly crispy outside.The chicken oozes out some water due to steam in the begining but it will dry up soon after sometime.

Banana & Apple smoothie

This smoothie is one of my favourite breakfast drink.The colour turns out quite good too.





Here is the recepie.This can server two people.
Banana -1
Apple(Gala variety) -1
Vanilla extract -1tsp
Milk -2& 1/2 cup
sugar -4 tbs
some water to balance the consistency.
Peel banana and apple and cut into small pieces.put them in a blender with sugar,milk,vanilla extract and little water to adjust the consistency and blend it untill it forms a smooth texture and your smoothie is ready.
Its healthy,figure friendly and very simple!

Tomato basil Cheese sandwich

This one is a quick and healthy breakfast item.All you need is

2bread slices
3 tomato slices
2basil leaves
cheese slices(Pepper jack tastes good or any kind)
Butter
salt and pepper

Take a slice of bread and layer with first cheese slice and then tomato slice sprinkle salt and pepper and then finsh with basil leaves.Cover this with the second bread slice.
In a small skilett heat butter and fry the sandwich untill golden brown on bothsides.Cut it accross the diagonal before serving as it makes easier to eat.
Enjoy it with tomato sauce...easy & quick just like that.

Boneless spicy Lamb stir fry

This recipe is can be made very quickly with few ingridients that are always available in your pantry.I usually cook this with Dal and rice.It can even be seved as an appetizer.




Thinly sliced Bone Lamb 1/2lb
Chopped Green Chillies -2/3
Half finely chopped white onion
Ginger & Garlic paste -1Tbs
Coriender powder -1tsp
Garam Masala -1/2 tsp
Red chilly powder -1tsp
Turmeric powder -1/2tsp
Fenugreek leaves powder -1/2 tsp
Cardamon powder -1/2 tsp
Thick yogurt -2tbs
Salt to taste
Finely chopped Coriender leaves for garnish and oil to fry

Marinade Lamb pieces in meat tenderizer for 1hr without salt and then marinade the lamb meat with all the spices along with yogurt,onions,chillies and let it rest for about 1/2 hr in refrigrator.
Heat around one and half tbs spoon of cooking oil on frying pan.Put the lamb mixture into the pan, mix and cover with lid.Keep stirring in between untill all the meat gets browned up. The lamb is perfectly done and little carmalized ouside and soft inside.Garnish with Coriender leaves and serve with hot naan or side dish along with any rice.

Enjoy!

Coriender Almond Pesto Pasta

This Recipe is little unconventional as there is no Basil & Pine nuts in it where as the Basil is a must in pesto sauce.Its's more economical as its not as expensive as Basil leaves and Pine nuts.Very easy to make.

Here is the recepie...

1cup Coriender leaves
1 Lemon Juice & the Zest of it
1/4 cup rosted/fried skinless Almonds
Crushed black pepper
5cloves of Garlic
1cup olive olive
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
salt to taste
Pasta -Penne/Fussilli/shells/Sphagetti(anykind)

Pesto:Blend all the ingredients Coriender,Black pepper,salt,Almonds,Cheese,Lemon Juice,Oilive oil together in a coarse paste.

Bring water to a rolling boil along with salt for pasta to cook.Cook pasta al-dente or welldone as you like.Then on side slight heat the on a pan pesto sauce on very low flame for few second until it is hot to touch.Drain the pasta and before that save some pastawater if you feel you pasta is dry you can add water in the to create some sauce.
Mix the pasta and the pesto sauce and finish it grated parmesan cheese.
Tip: If you make extra pesto sauce save it in a air tight container for next time.you can make pasta in few minutes.

Chana Halwa Samosa ( sweet split chickpea lentils filled pillows)

This recipe is a very traditional one is made just once a year on a very holy occasion.I still remember my mom use to start prepping up one day before the ospicious day like soaking the lentils overnight.All the three of us me, my sister and mom will each take incharge of a each step of the process.This way it makes the whole process very easy and enjoyable.

Here is the recipe.

Halwa(sweet filling)
1cup of chanadal
1cup sugar
1/2tsp cardamom powder
1tbs Ghee(Clarified butter)
few chopped/sliced almonds
samosa
1cup all purpose flour
1/2cup clarified butter
A pinch of salt
some water

Heat the clarified butter and Mix it with the flour with hands carefully without burning your fingers.Once all the flour particles gets coated with the butter then, add the salt and start sprinkling water little by little until you get a workable soft dough.Keep it for rest for at least 3-4 hrs at room temprature.

cook chana dal by adding water to it.Make sure that the water is completely evaporated.Now,blend this in a blender or food processor until you get a smooth and silky paste.
Heat a skillet and add tablespoon of clarified butter then add the Chanadal mixture to it and start stirring it continuously until the mixture starts heating up.Add the sugar and cardamom and keep stirring to avoid lumps.Continue stirring until you get a thick consistency.Sprinkle the chopped almonds on the top.Make sure take off the stove leaving it little loose as it gets thicker when you let it cool.
Start rolling the samosas by diving the dough in equal parts little smaller than the ping-pong balls.Roll it in circles by sprinkling little flour to avoid sticking on the rolling pad and then place the Halwa on the bottom half of the circle and fold the upper half so that it makes a half moon shape.Press on the edges with a fork or hand so that it is sealed tightly.Heat oil in a deep frying pan approx 350 degree Farenhiet and start frying it on a medium heat until golden brown and crispy.

These will just melt in your mouth while they are hot.You can even store them in air-tight containers for a week without refrigeration.It's a rich snack which can subside your hunger with a jiffy.

Enjoy cooking this and please feel free to write me how did it came.

Cucumber Raita

This recipe goes very well with any kind of Paratha's,Pulao,Biryani or just as side dish with plain roti.Its has such a soothing and velvety texture that you feel like eating the entire bowl.

Here's the recepie.

Cucumber
Yogurt
Coriender leaves
Roasted Cumin
Chat masala or Balck salt
Mint leaves
Green Chillies
salt to taste

Grate the Cucumber with a fine grater.Finely chop Coriender leaves,Mint leaves and Green chillies.The finer you chop the better it tastes.Powder the rosted Cumin in a pestle.Beat the plain yogurt and mix grated cucumber,chopped Coriender,Mint,Chillies and Cumin powder and a pinch of store bought Chat masala.One can buy Chat masala in any Indian or Pakistani grocers or even can substitute with a pinch of finely powdered black salt.Refrigrate until you serve.I certainly know you all will like it and might want to make it more often.

Tip - Don't put everything in blender and grind it.It makes it frothy and watery and guys I eyeballed all the measurements and you can finetune to your tastebuds.

Enjoy!

chicken wrap

,

This dish doesn't even take 10 minutes if yo some leftover rotisserie chicken or some leftover chicken burger patties.I made this wrap with my leftover chicken burger patty.Here is the recipe.





Tortilla wraps(store bought)

Chicken patty.

2tsp of Mayo

2or3 drops of Louisiana Hotsouce

1/2 tsp yellow grainy mustard

1 small tiny radish

few sprigs of coriender leaves

Heat a skillet and heat the Tortilla slightly.Make sure that it doesn't become hard or else it will become difficult to wrap it.Take off the tortilla on to board and heat the chicken patty.Then cut the patty into thin slices.slice the Radish into thin slices.
Mix the mayo,Hot sauce,Mustard together.

Now, start layering the tortilla with sliced chicken patty
radish,chopped Coriender leaves and then top it with the mayo sauce.Wrap the tortilla and its done.

wrapping:fold the Torlilla from any two sides and the roll it tightly.Then cut it slantly to see the inside layers of colours.

Mango Salsa

One nice wintery evening I felt hungry and had craving for eating salsa.I don't like store salsa's much since they smell venigary...I hope you could understand whatever that means.

Here is my recipe for Mango Salsa.

1 Mango (not too soft or juciy it should be stiff and yellow in color)

1 tsp Coriender leaves.

1 tsp freshly ground roasted cumin.

1 tsp finely chopped green chillies.

1tbsp lime juice

salt to taste

Finely chop the Mango and mix in all the ingredients together.Serve it along side corn chips.Perfect and healthy way to make children to eat fruit in snack way.you can add red onions if you like little zing in it.I liked it very much ...try it....just takes couple of minutes for preparation.