Chicken Korma

This is one of my favorite chicken recipes because its so easy but reminds me of home cooking. It's from my mom, and she's one of those people that eschews measurements, so you might want to fiddle with the amounts depending on your preference.

Chicken Korma

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

1 2lb. whole chicken cut in pieces

4 oz. finely sliced onion

1/4 cup oil

1 cup yogurt

1 heaping tbsp garlic paste

1 flat tbsp ginger paste

2 heaping tbsp onion paste

1 tsp dhania (coriander) powder

1 tsp mircha (chilli) powder

salt

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp sugar

Directions:

1. Mix garlic, ginger, onion, coriander, chilli powder, and salt with yogurt and chicken pieces.

2. Heat oil in large pot and fry onions until golden. Remove onions with slotted spoon and set aside.

3. Add garam masala to oil and add chicken mix. On high heat, stir fry chicken until fragrant.

4. Add 2-3 cups of water, golden onions, and sugar, and cover with lid. Turn heat to medium-low and cook until chicken is done.

Manksho Jhol

This is a bengali recipe for mutton in gravy. Apparantly my people think mutton means either lamb or goat, even though it actually means older sheep (lamb). I used goat for this recipe though, because I've been meaning to cook with it and see if I like it better than beef, and it turned out really well. At least that's what I think :)


Manksho Jhol (from angithi.com)
Servings: 6
Time to prepare: 2 hours

Ingredients:

- 2 lb Meat (lamb or goat)
- 5 pods Garlic
- 1.5 inch Ginger
- 2 medium Onion
- 8 Red Chili pepper (dried)
- 5 Cardamom
- 1/2 inch Cinnamon
- 5 Cloves
- 1/4 tsp Mace (or 1/8 tsp nutmeg)
- 6 Peppercorns
- 1 tsp Coriander Powder
- 1/2 tsp Cumin Seed Powder
- 2 large Potato
- 5 tbsp Cooking Oil
- 1 tsp Ghee
- to taste Salt
- 3 cups Water
- 1 bunch Cilantro
- 1 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp Sugar
- 2 Bay Leaf
- 1 tsp Red Chili Powder

Instructions:

1. Marinate the Meat first:

2. For the masala paste: Grind the ingredients from Garlic to Peppercorns in a mixer. Add 4 tbsp water also use only half an onion for the paste. Now extract the juices from the paste.

3. Cut the meat into small cube like pieces of 1 inch by 1 inch. Wash it properly.

4. Add the half cup yogurt, masala paste juice from 2, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili powder and turmeric powder. Mix it properly with the meat and let it marinate for an hour. (the more the better)

5. Peel and cut the potato into large pieces of like 1 inch by 1 inch and keep it aside.

6. Heat the oil, add the bay leaves, sugar and fry for 1 min. Add the sliced onions, and fry till light brown.

7. Add the marinated meat and bring it to full boil. Add the potatoes and reduce the heat to medium heat. Cover the pan and let it fry for 20 min.

8. Check to see if the potato is boiled properly. Remove the potatoes once boiled, and keep it aside.

9. Cover the pan and fry it till oil starts coming out. (Remember not to be hasty and keep on stirring frequently till oil has come out completely)

10. Next add the water and bring it to boil on full heat. Reduce the heat to medium, cover the pan and let it simmer for 20 min. (till the meat has become tender)

11. Add the potatoes and let it simmer for another 10 min. Remove from heat and add the ghee. Garnish it with finely chopped cilantro. Serve hot with plain white rice.

Kaala Chana

Kaala Chana is a black chana that we eat at home for iftar in Ramadan. It's really a great snack for anytime, but I'm used to eating it in Ramadan before dinner. I got some from the indian store this time that was called 'Black Chana', but I'm not entirely sure it's the same as the ones we get in Bangladesh, since it wasn't as dark and when cooked it didn't expand as much. It still tasted good though, and I'm glad I know how to make it now!

Kaala chana

Makes 3-4 servings.

Ingredients:

1 cup Kaala Chana, washed and soaked overnight in water (careful to put in a roomy container, since they will expand)

1 tsp garlic paste

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tbsp onion paste, or 2 tbsp onion chopped fine

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp chopped coriander

1 small tomato, chopped small

1 green chili, chopped

water

Directions:

1. Put the chana in a saucepan with its water from soaking. Add more water to cover the chana by at least 1-2 inches.

2. Add all ingredients except coriander, tomato and chili, and boil on high.

3. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until chana is soft. This should take about an hour, but could take longer depending on how soft you prefer your chana. If the water dries before chana is soft, add more. Check on the chana often to make sure it does not dry out completely.

4. When softened, turn off heat and mix in remaining ingredients. Add more salt to taste. Can be served warm or cold.

Dim (Egg) Curry

I haven't seen this dish in many other cuisines, but boiled egg is a big favorite in Bengali dishes. I've always loved how the oil and spices complement the egg white. This is the first recipe I've tried with boiled egg, and the people I fed it to last night loved it, but I'm still looking for more recipes because it was a little different from what we usually have at home. Maybe I'll just ask my mom :)

Dim Curry (Egg Curry)

Ingredients:

6 hard boiled eggs

5 tbsp vegetable/ canola/ sunflower cooking oil

2 medium sized onion cut into quarters

3 medium sized tomatoes cut into quarters

2 green chillies

2 tsp garlic paste

2 tsp ginger paste

2 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

Salt to taste

Chopped fresh coriander leaves to garnish

2 potatoes cut into 1" cubes (optional)

Directions:

Heat 2 tbsps of the cooking oil in a deep pan and when hot, add the onions. Fry till slightly golden. Turn off the fire. Use a slotted spoon to remove the onions from the pan and put them in a food processor. Grind the onions, tomatoes, green chillies into a smooth paste. Try not to add water while grinding, if possible.

Heat the remaining oil in the same pan and add the paste you just made to it when it is hot. Fry for 2-3 minutes.

Add the ginger and garlic pastes, all the dry spices, mix and fry till the oil begins to separate from the masala (onion-tomato-spice mix).

Now add 2 cups of warm water to this masala and bring to a boil on a medium flame.

If adding potatoes to the curry, add them now and cook till half done.

Half slit the boiled eggs vertically and add them gently to the gravy. Simmer the flame and cook for 10 minutes or till the gravy is thickened/ reduced to about 3/4 of the original quantity (when you added the water). If you have added potatoes they should ideally be cooked by now.

Turn off the fire and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice and a vegetable side dish.

Ramadan Rice Soup

My husband loves this soup, it's like his comfort food. The recipe is from his mom, and she usually makes it in Ramadan for breaking the fast. I love the soup too, it's just so filling for me that I can't eat anything else for iftar!! 

Rice Soup (from Nahla Erakat)

Serves 2-3.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 zucchini cut in cubes (skin on or off, depending on your preference)

1 onion chopped small

1 large potato cut in cubes

1/4 cup of rice, washed (I prefer medium grain, like Carolina)

3 cups of water

1 chicken stock bouillon cube

1 tsp of salt, or to taste

pepper to taste

1 tsp of 7 spice powder (found in arabic stores)

1/2 tsp of turmeric powder

Directions:

1. Heat oil in 3 quart saucepan on medium and saute zucchini, onion, potato, and rice.

2. Add water, bouillon cube, salt, pepper, 7 spice and turmeric. Bring to boil on high heat.

3. Lower heat to medium, and cook covered for 20 minutes. Add more water if needed.

And we're back!

Ok so it's been a looooooooooong time since my last post. Phew! How time flies in the summer. I can't believe summer's almost over :( Of course there's a heat wave warning today, go figure. So it's not like I haven't been cooking all summer, just that warmth makes me lazy :) And I went to Europe in the middle so that kept me quite busy! Sorry, no recipes to share from Europe. One day I will do a culinary tour of the world, inshaAllah (God willing); that's my dream vacation. Maybe start in England (some good ol fish and chips!) and make my way through Italy, the middle east (gotta learn some Turkish food), must stop in Thailand, and round back to Louisiana or South Carolina for some good southern food. Anybody have other required stops? 

Ramadan started a couple weeks ago, so even though I've been wanting to post for a while I just haven't had the time. Well today is a new day! I have a bunch of recipes I've been wanting to put up for a while; some that people have asked me for and some that I just want to share because they turned out well. And because most of the cookbooks I use regularly are ones that you can't buy here for whatever reason, this is a nice way to share the wealth.

And I'm hoping to get more people posting! What will it take...

Basil shelf-life

If you use a lot of basil in your cooking you know it goes bad really quickly, even the bunches that come with roots attached in the grocery store. I've been growing my own basil this summer, and I've been experimenting with different ways to keep it fresh until I use it in my cooking, freeze it, or make pesto out of it. Cook's illustrated said that keeping it in the fridge in damp paper towels was the best way to store it, but I had pretty awful results with that method. The only thing that seems to keep them at least a week for me has been drying them with paper towels and then storing on the counter in a plastic air-tight container. I also store mint leaves this way (from my garden) and they seem to keep similarly fresh for longer.

I don't know if its because the basil is freshly picked versus already having travelled many miles to the supermarket, so let me know if you buy basil and it doesn't last using this method.

Hard-boiled eggs

Yeah, no kidding. I'm sure most of you out there are like "who doesn't know how to boil an egg?". Well, I, for one, let me tell you. Cooking a perfect hard boiled egg is not like a skill we are born with. So I've been trying to increase my egg consumption and I love boiled eggs, and I was trying a few recipes online to see which one was foolproof. The recipe below came pretty close, though you have to adjust the time they sit in the end a *teeny* bit depending on if you're cooking a lot or just a few eggs. So in honor of all those people out there who like me were too embarrassed to ask someone how to boil an egg...

How to make perfect boiled eggs (from simplyrecipes.com)

Method

1 First make sure that you are using eggs that are several days old. If this is Easter time, and everyone is buying their eggs at the last minute, buy your eggs 5 days in advance of boiling. (See the reference to using old eggs in Harold Magee's On Food and Cooking). Hard boiling farm fresh eggs will invariably lead to eggs that are difficult to peel. If you have boiled a batch that are difficult to peel, try putting them in the refrigerator for a few days; they should be easier to peel then.

2 Put the eggs in a single layer in a saucepan, covered by at least an inch of cold water. Starting with cold water and gently bringing the eggs to a boil will help keep them from cracking. Adding a tablespoon of vinegar to the water will help keep the egg whites from running out of any eggs that happen to crack while cooking, but some people find that the vinegar affects the taste. I don't have a problem with it and I usually add a little vinegar. Adding a half teaspoon of salt is thought to help both with the preventing of cracking and making the eggs easier to peel. Put the burner on high and bring the eggs to a boil. As soon as the water starts to boil, remove the pan from the heat for a few seconds.

3 Reduce the heat to low, return the pan to the burner. Let simmer for one minute. (Note I usually skip this step because I don't notice the eggs boiling until they've been boiling for at least a minute! Also, if you are using an electric stove with a coil element, you can just turn off the heat. There is enough residual heat in the coil to keep the eggs simmering for a minute.)

4 After a minute, remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let sit for 12 minutes. If you are doing a large batch of eggs, after 10 minutes you can check for doneness by sacrificing one egg, removing it with a slotted spoon, running it under cold water, and cutting it open. If it isn't done, cook the other eggs a minute or two longer. The eggs should be done perfectly at 10 minutes, but sometimes, depending on the shape of the pan, the size of the eggs, the number of eggs compared to the amount of water, and how cooked you like them, it can take a few minutes more. When you find the right time that works for you given your pan, the size of eggs you usually buy, the type of stove top you have, stick with it.

I also find that it is very hard to overcook eggs using this method. I can let the eggs sit, covered, for up to 15-20 minutes without the eggs getting overcooked.

5 Either remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and place them into a bowl of ice water (this is if you have a lot of eggs) OR strain out the water from the pan, fill the pan with cold water, strain again, fill again, until the eggs cool down a bit. Once cooled, strain the water from the eggs. Store the eggs in a covered container (eggs can release odors) in the refrigerator. They should be eaten within 5 days.

Kofta

I love Kofta. I love those small, spicy balls of ground meat that burst forth with flavor when you eat them. Ok maybe I'm being a little over dramatic, but I do love them. And I've never made them before, suprisingly. We eat them all the time at home - always with a spicy curry to keep them moist. I had some ground beef yesterday ready to cook and I was deciding between old fashioned keema and burgers. Not the most exciting choices. So I flipped through the indo-pak book and saw a few recipes for Kofte and various things like gravy, tomatoes, fenugreek, eggs, shrimp, and the list goes on. There were even recipes for stuffed meatballs and persian meatballs. Maybe another day... I had a bunch of tomatoes lying around so I decided to use them (after washing them in veggiewash - the news has got me scared of salmonella!) in the recipe for Kofte tomatay. I love the urdu pronounciations of everything :)

Kofte Tamatay (Meatballs and tomatoes)

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup oil

1 1/2 lbs. onions

1 lb diced tomatoes

1 tsp ground ginger and garlic

1 tsp chilli powder

1/8 tsp turmeric

3 green chillis

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1 tsp salt

kofte (recipe following)

Heat oil and brown sliced onions. Add ginger and garlic, fry for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, chilli powder, turmeric and salt. Fry until oil comes up. Add 1 cup of water, slit green chillis, cilantro, and kofte. Cook until water dries and oil comes up.

Kofte (Meatballs)

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground meat

1 onion diced fine

1/4 tsp chilli powder

1/4 cup roasted besan

4 cloves garlic ground

1/2 tsp ground spices (cardomom, cloves and cinnamon)

2 tbsp yogurt

3 chopped green chillis

1/4 chopped cilantro

1 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients together and shape into 1 inch meatballs. Heat 2 tbsp water in frying pan. Add one layer of meatballs and cook covered until water dries. Add 1 tbsp oil and fry until evenly browned on all sides. Repeat for remaining meatballs.

More on Pulao

So my fantabulous, can't-go-wrong cookbook of Indo-Pak cuisine had two recipes for Yakhni Pulao that Sameera was looking for. The first was for Chicken Yakhni Pulao and the second was just Yakhni Pulao. Since Sameera already posted one with chicken I'm posting one that seems to be for any kind of meat.

Yakhni Pulao
Serves 8

Ingredients:
4 cups rice
3 lbs. meat cut in pieces
3 medium onions
1 1/2 cups shortening
1 cup yogurt
10 garlic cloves
1 1/2 inch ginger
2, 2 inch cinnamon sticks
5 cardamom pods
5 cloves
1/4 tsp shah zeera
1/4 tsp whole black pepper
1 tbsp coriander seeds
8 mint leaves
6 dried red chillies
4 green chillies
1 tbsp salt


To make:

1. Heat 1/2 cup shortening and brown 1 sliced onion. Add meat, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, shah zeera, pepper, coriander, mint leaves, red chillies, and 4 cups of water. Cook until meat is tender. Strain and save stock.

2. In 1/2 cup shortening, brown second sliced onion. Add meat and lightly brown. Add stock, cook 3 minutes and set aside.

3. In remaining shortening, brown last sliced onion with yogurt. Add washed rice, green chillies, salt, meat, gravy and enough water to stand 1 inch above rice level. Cook until water is almost dry.

4. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.