Panneer Lababdar - Panneer (Cottage Cheese) Indulgence

Here's Panneer Lababdar - a Mughal influenced Panneer curry. Google states Lababdar is some sort of strong desire or indulgence and I roughly translated this dish's name to Panneer Indulgence.I could agree with this adjective purely because of the ingredients that go in. While some recipes on the web claim to have a fat free, cholesterol free version - guess what don't bother. If you have to be diet conscious well...you might want to wait until later. ;-) My first introduction to Lababdar was actually Chicken Lababdar at Hilton Garden Inn, Gurgaon. However in the interest of my veggie friends - here's a Panneer version. If you ever wonder how to make a gravy / curry with restaurant style consistency - it's all in the paste. Of course a slight variation in ingredients can turn it into something completely different.

Ingredients:

1. Unsalted Butter - yes it all starts here :)
2. Panneer cubes
3. Cashews
4. Red onions
5. Tomatoes
6. Cardamom seeds (not the entire pod)
7. Cream 
8. Kashmiri Red Chilli powder
9. Garam Masala
10. Kasuri methi leaves (Dried Fenugreek leaves)

Method

1. Heat a pan in medium fire and melt the butter without burning it.
2. Saute the Cashews, Onions, Tomatoes and the Cardamom seeds until the onions and tomatoes get a bit mushy.
3. Let the mixture to cool for a few minutes and blend it into a smooth paste. 
4. Re-heat the same pan with a few table spoons of vegetable oil and saute the blended paste until oil separates.
5. Add Salt, Kashmiri Chilli Powder, Garam Masala and Kasuri Methi leaves while the paste sautes.
6. Once the oil separates add the Panneer cubes and mix it up carefully without breaking the cubes.
7. Add a dash of cream (not too much that it doesn't turn into a pale curry) and about a tablespoon of butter (yes again) and let it simmer for a few minutes.
8. You may add some water to get your choice of consistency (and quantity).
9. Garnish with grated Panneer, another dash of cream  and Coriander leaves.
10. Serve hot with roti or rice.

Enjoy!!

Happy Cooking 

C

Chicken Jalfrezi - Bengali Hot Chicken Curry

Chicken Jalfrezi - one of those dishes almost always found in many Indian restaurants that serves North Indian dishes. Little did I know earlier that the roots for this dish is actually from Bengal. "Jhal" meaning "Hot" in Bengali (apparently). Some websites claim that Jalfrezi has taken over Chicken Tikka as the No.1 dish for UK. This is again a dish I got introduced during my Bangalore Days. A spicy, tangy, thick, chicken curry suitable for roti or rice. There are multiple recipes available on the web, here's my version with a slight twist here and there. 

Ingredients

Ingredients for curry paste

1. Chicken
2. Onions
3. Tomatoes
4. Tomato Paste
5. Green Chillies
6. Dried Red Chillies
7. Ginger Julienne
8. Cashew
9. Poppy seeds
10. Garam Masala
11. Cumin Seeds
12. Cumin Powder
13. Ginger and Garlic paste
14. Cumin Powder
15. Red Chilli Powder (If possible both regular and Kashmiri Chilli for the colour)
16. Amchur Powder
17. Turmeric Powder
18. Vinegar
19. Tomato Ketchup
20. Ghee

Method

1) Take about half of the onions, few tomatoes, green chillies, poppy seeds, and cashews and grind it into a smooth paste.

2) Heat a large kadai and add a few tablespoons of vegetable / canola oil.

3) When oil is hot add cumin seeds and dried red chillies and saute until you get the cumin and chilli "fragrance" out.

4) Add the paste done in step #1, ginger garlic paste and saute well until oil separates.

5) Add chicken, few tablespoons of vineger, about a tea spoon of tomato paste, pinch of turmeric powder, tea spoon of cumin powder, red chilli powder, half a teaspoon of Amchur powder, garam masala and salt to taste.

6) After the chicken is say about 1/3rd cooked, add a tablespoon of tomato ketchup (or sauce depending on which part of the globe you are from), add the remaining onions, ginger julienne saute for a few minutes.

7) Add water and let the curry boil to thicken as needed. Watch out not to add too much water as this is meant to be a thick curry. Do also note that the cashew paste will assist in thickening this up later. By now you should be able to smell the tangyness in the curry.

8) Once the curry has reached the required consistency (by when the chicken must have been cooked as well), add a good dollop of ghee to give the curry a rich and creamy texture. Let it simmer for a few minutes.

9) The curry is done once you can see the oil separated and has reached the consistency you need.

10) Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with roti/chappati or rice.

Happy Cooking!!

C

Chettinadu Nandu Rasam a.k.a. Chettinadu Crab Soup

Nandu (Crab) Rasam (Soup), a delicacy we picked up from Anjappar the Chettinad restaurant during one of the many visits. It was a favourite for the 3 of us. Nandha is yet to get there yet, but it would be just a matter of time. With the onset of Autumn in Sydney and a coughing orchestra going on at home, decided to try this out as the Sunday special. There are enough blog posts that talk about the "medicinal" properties of crab soup so I will not bother to talk much about it. Just enough to say that it had a good effect on my cold even while preparing the soup. One of the interesting things I found about this recipe was that most of the ingredients had to be used both "as is" and also in a ground form. Whatever the reason behind, but the impact was awesome.

Ingredients
1) Crab - cut and cleaned. This time we used Blue Swimmer Crab - the male version. Apparently males are more meaty. ;-)
2) Cinnamon sticks
3) Poppy seeds (Khus khus)
4) Fennel Seeds
5) Cumin Seeds
6) Cloves
7) Cardamom

8) Black pepper seeds (I cheated with powder here)
9) Green chilies
10) Diced Onion - Shallots if you can get hold of them
11) Ginger
12) Curry leaves
13) Garlic
14) Diced Tomato
15) Dried Red chillies
16) Turmeric powder
17) Cashews
18) Coconut milk

Yes, it does seem like quite an handful of ingredients but am sure each one of them had a clear part to play. The easy way out would be to use garam masala powder just by itself.

The Method
1) Cut and clean the crab into reasonable sizes. Cleaning of course is a technique - not the most enjoyable one. You can look here for further cleaning tips.
2) Create a paste with half of the garlic, all of ginger, half of green chillies, poppy seeds, curry leaves and cashews.
3) In a large sauce pan saute all the dry ingredients in Gingelly Oil
4) Add the curry leave/green chilly paste and saute for a few minutes.
5) Add the remaining garlic (mashed up), green chillies, onions and tomatoes and saute until oil separates.
6) Add coconut milk and saute until the masala boils.
7) Add the crab and cook until the shell turns red - an indicator that the meat would be cooked. Normally takes about 10 minutes.
8) Add garam masala and black pepper powder to the level of "heat" required.
9) Add enough water to the level of consistency needed and let it boil.

Voila - Nandu Rasam Ready !!

This can be served directly as a soup or with steamed rice as you would normally eat rasam sadam (rice).

Enjoy Cooking !!

C

Roti (Bread) Roast - A Salem Delicacy

Roti (Bread) Roast - dish made out of typical sandwich bread (white / wholemeal) was a dinner tiffin item I grew up with. It was a delicacy / specialty whenever we had guests at home so it had it's own special value. In the last 2.5 months my mom stayed with us I had the privilege of re-living some of my childhood favourites. This would be the first of those series of my Mom's recipes. Apparently this recipe is known / available in very few restaurants in Salem when they were not supposed to eat non-vegetarian food for religious reasons. Hence a good substitute when you have a craving for meat but can't. Here it comes....

Ingredients:

1. Bread - cut into 1 inch thick cubes
2. Diced Onions
3. Diced Tomatoes
4. Ingredients for Masala

• Grated Coconut
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Poppy seeds
• Cinnamon sticks
• Cardamom
• Cloves
• Fennel seeds
• Coriander seeds
• Cumin seeds
• Black Pepper
• Dried Red Chillies

5.  Mustard seeds
6.  Channa dal
7.  Urad Dal

8.  Cashews
9.  Curry leaves

The Method:

1. Roast the bread with oil in a large pan / wok and keep aside.
2. Blend the ingredients for Masala into a coarse paste with minimal water.
3. In a large wok temper the mustard seeds, channa dal, urad dal and curry leaves with oil.
4. Saute onions until golden brown
5. Saute tomatoes for a few minutes until it becomes a bit mushy
6. Add the masala paste and saute until oil separates
7. Add a bit of salt to taste.
8. Add the roasted bread and saute until masala is mixed well. Make sure the bread doesn't get too mushy
9. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Enjoy!!

C

Char Kway Teow - Fried Rice Noodles Malaysian Style

Char Kway Teow was first introduced to me by my mom thanks to her Malaysian influence. The very first time I had this dish was in Chung Wah - Koramangala back in the late 90s. It took more than a decade later until I moved to Sydney to have a try again. Sydney as some may know has got a pretty decent collection of Malaysian restaurants.This was one of the dishes I tried either on the first or 2nd visit.9/10 times I have been always impressed with the outcomes no matter where I go. Only once was I disappointed when  they gave me some soupy version of Kway Teow. That's when I learnt the importance of "char" - which meant stir-fried. Since then I've had it several times in Sydney and in Singapore (few times in Malaysia as well). Of course have experimented cooking this many a times with varied rates of success. After a long time tried it again today to give Mommy a taste of her childhood favourite. The most authentic version will include pork and pork related ingredients that I don't use. So here's a Chetty's Kitchen version.

Ingredients:

1. Flat rice noodles - preferably the fresh version you can get from the Chinese stores (not the one from your regular grocery chain) 
2. Garlic - minced
3. Chives - chopped across its length
4. Bean Sprouts
5. Red Onions
6. Eggs - beaten
7. Prawns (Shrimps - if you are on the Western part of the world)
8. Dark Soya Sauce
9. Sweet Soya Sauce (Kecap Manis)
10. Oyster Sauce
11. Prawn Sambal
12. Salt
13. Sugar
14. Vegetable oil

You can skip the prawns and prawn sambal should you prefer an Eggetarian version.

The Method:

1. Heat a large wok with a few table spoons of vegetable oil. Let it heat up until you can see the smoke coming out.
2. Add the beaten eggs and stir fry for a few seconds.
3. Add the minced garlic, onions and the bottom part of the chives 
4. Stir fry for about 30 seconds.
5. Add prawns (or other veggies should you prefer), prawn sambal sauce and stir fry until almost cooked.
6. Add the flat rice noodles, dark soya sauce, kecap manis and the oyster sauce (just a little) and toss in the noodles until it gets mixed well.
7. Add salt and half a tea spoon of sugar.
8. When it's almost done, add in the remaining chives and bean sprouts and toss it around for a minute.
9. Leave the noodles in the wok for a few minutes for them to get a bit of "burnt"flavour.
10. Toss them all up again to get an even mix.
11. Serve hot garnished with chives.

Char Kway Teow Ready!!

Happy Cooking

C

Masala Pori - Spicy Puffed Rice

Masala Pori - one of those snacks from Tamil Nadu one couldn't have avoided growing up with. Be it the home made variety with all the nuts and spices or the one you would get in a school canteen (or the Marina beach) with just the masala. I still remember buying packs of maybe 10-20 grams each for 25p ($0.005). Haven't had many opportunities to relish this snack once I left Salem (or maybe since middle school?). About 2 years ago Uma got to learn this recipe from her mom when she was in Sydney. As expected this is a huge hit with the kids - young and old. Since then we have been enjoying this every once in a while. It's school holiday time in Sydney and am sure very soon in some parts in India as well. This could turn out to be a simple, quick and handy snack to have at home for the holiday season.

Ingredients

1. Pori (Puffed Rice)
2. Mustard seeds
3. Garlic
4. Dried Red Chillies
5. Curry Leaves
6. Roasted Channa Dal (whole/split)
7. Peanuts (Raw or Roasted)
8. Sambar powder
9. Turmeric
10. Red Chilli powder
11. Salt
12. Vegetable Oil

Method

1. Heat a few table spoons of vegetable oil in a large kadai / wok.
2. Saute the mustard seeds until they splatter.
3. Saute garlic, chillies and curry leaves for a few minutes until the garlic gets fried.
4. Add the roasted channa and peanuts and saute for a few minutes
5. Add the spices - salt, chilli powder, sambar powder and mix it up.
6. Add the puffed rice and mix it thoroughly under heat for a few minutes.

Voila - Masala Pori Ready!!

Happy Cooking

C

Amritsari Machi - Fish Amritsari

When it comes to fish there are not many North Indian dishes that are available. One such dish that has been stuck to my memory was Fish Amritsari. Have been looking for this dish in a few restaurants around here and haven't found in many. Upon "research" came to know that there are 2 specific ingredients that make this Amritsari - Ajwain seeds (Omam seeds) and Chat Masala. Here comes my version of Amritsari Machi. Talking about fried fish my preference is always a white fish. Became a fan of Barramundi after coming to Australia.

Ingredients

1. Fish fillets (preferably white)
2. Ajwain Seeds
3. Chat Masala
4. Amchur Powder
5. Gram (Besan) Flour
6. Corn Flour
7. Plain Flour (Maida)
8. Rice Flour
9. Salt
10. Red Chilly powder
11. Egg

Method

1. Slice the fish with an inch width and about a few inches in length.
2. Create a mixture of all the dry items. 
3. Take a few table spoons of the dry mixture on a flat plate.
4. Add water slowly in the dry mix and create a paste.
5. Beat 1 egg into the paste and add more water as required to create the batter with necessary consistency.
6. Heat a wok with vegetable oil.
7. Once the oil is hot enough (add a drop of batter in the oil to test) pat a fish slice on the dry mix and dip it in the batter.
8. Drip any excess batter out by lightly brushing it against the bowl.
9. Deep fry the battered fish fillets few at a time until golden brown.

Amritsari Machi Ready!!

Serve hot with a dash of chat masala sprinkled on top and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Enjoy Cooking!!

C