Kadai Panneer

Kadai Panneer - one of the few dishes that I got accustomed in Bangalore probably during the later half of 1996 - when my stipend increased from Rs. 2500 - Rs. 4500 and we started graduating into the  "high end" Sagars (Sukh Sagar, Shanti Sagar etc)  from the road side Idli stalls. A yummy dish that's fairly simple to make as well. 

Ingredients:

1. Paneer - 500 gms diced into small cubes
2. Capsicum (Bell Pepper) - 1 (diced)
3. Onions - 3 (2 roughly chopped and 1 diced in cubes)
4. Green chillies - 3 o r 4
5. Tomato paste - 2 table spoons
6. Kashmiri Red chilli powder - 1 tea spoon
7. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tea spoon
8. Cumin powder - 1  table spoon
9. Coriander powder - 1 table spoon
10. Garam masala - 1 table spoon
11. Methi Kasuri - 1 table spoon  (crushed in hand)
12. Ginger garlic paste - 2 table spoons
13. Milk - 1 cup
14. Lemon juice - 2 teaspoons
15. Vegetable oil - 3-4 table spoons
16. Salt to taste
17. Coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

1. Grind the 2 roughly chopped onions to a paste.
2. Heat up the kadai and saute the onion paste in vegetable oil for about 4-5 minutes.
3. Add ginger garlic paste, cumin, coriander, garam masala, red chilli, turmeric powders and sautee until the oil separates from the mix.
4. Add tomato paste and saute for another 3-4 minutes.
5. Add a 1/4 cup of milk and mix it up so that the milk blends into the masala well.
6. Add salt to taste and water to required consistency. Note this dish is usually a semi-gravy style and hence water should be kept to a minimum.
7. Add the diced onions and capsicum and mix it up for a few minutes until the onions become soft.
8. Add the lemon juice and cook it for about a minute.
9. Add the crushed methi kasuri and mix it well.
10. Add paneer and let it cook for a minute or two.
11. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Enjoy your Kadai Paneer!!

Happy Cooking
C

Nasi Goreng

Nasi goreng a.k.a. Fried rice Malaysian style is yet another variety of fried rice that brings it own twist to the "genre" of fried rice. The main ingredients that make this different from a regular Chinese (or Thai) fried rice is the Sambal paste, bean sprouts and fried onions (shallots). Sambal paste is a mix of shrimp paste and red chilli pastes. Am yet to figure out how to make this paste, right now under the courtesy of its namesake restaurant - Sambal.

Ingredients:

1. Sambal paste
2. Jasmine Rice
3. Minced Garlic
4. Eggs
5. Chicken (Optional of course)
6. Bean sprouts
7. Spring onions
8. Mixed vegetables (Carrots, peas and corn)
9. Fried onions
10. Soy sauce (not in pic)
11. Turmeric powder (not in pic)

Process

1. Cook the Jasmine rice, preferably few hours in advance and cool it down. The ratio I like for cooking rice is 1 cup rice : 1.5 cups water.
2. In a hot wok add 2-3 tablespoons of oil and swirl it around.
3. Sautee the garlic and sambal paste and turmeric for about 30 seconds.
4. Add the chicken and stir fry until cooked. 
5. Add the diced spring onions and the veggies and stir fry for about a minute.
6. Create an opening in the middle of the wok, add a bit of oil and scramble the eggs. 
7. Add jasmine rice and soy sauce and stir fry for a minute.
8. Add the bean sprouts and fried onions and give it a good final toss.

The result:

Stir Fried Chicken Noodles a.k.a. Chicken Chowmein (in Indo-Chinese lingo)

Stir-fried noodles or "Mee" as I was introduce to about 4 decades ago was always a hit at home. My mom had her recipe influenced probably by Malay and Indian cuisine with a strong garlic and ginger flavour to it. Over the years I have realized that "chowmein" means many things in different restaurants. I always get confused (and confuse the waiters) when I order "chowmein" in a proper Chinese restaurant (outside India). I've learnt to order this as "stir fried egg noodles with...".  When it comes to anything chinese and stir fried - one of the key requirements is a nice wok to get the smoky restauranty flavour. You cannot get this with the non-stick versions but a proper steel sticky version that needs proper "seasoning".  I used something like the one below. 

Ingredients:
1) Egg Noodles
2) Carrot
3) Onions
4) Cabbage
5) Capsicum (Bell Pepper)
6) Spring Onions (Shallots)
7) Garlic
8) Eggs (beaten)
9) Dark Soya sauce
10) Chicken thigh fillet
11) Vinegar

The method:

1) Chop Shop
The first and foremost in making noodles is chopping the veggies to the right size in terms of length and thickness. Yes, it could be a pain to chop the carrots, but any other way would not make that a chowmein. These days I cheat and get the ready made stir fry veggie mix. The next important thing in chopping is the meat. Make sure you slice the chicken fillet as thinly as possible and chop it up a bit more. Each piece should not be more than 1-2 inches in length and probably a few centimeters wide. This is to allow the chicken to be cooked fairly quickly. The next trick was to marinade the chicken in soy sauce and garlic. This removed the otherwise chickeny smell of chicken once stir fried.

2) The Noodles

1) Heat a large sauce pan with enough water to dunk all of the noodles.
2) Bring it to a boil and add the noodles.
3) Use a fork to separate the noodles after a few minutes.
4) Stop cooking when you can see the froth coming up.
5) Drain and wash the noodles in cold water to stop further cooking.

3) Stir Fry
a) Heat up a large wok on high heat until you can see the smoke coming out.
b) Add a few table spoons of oil (1 per serving) and coat the wok with oil.
c) Toss in the minced garlic and sautee for about 10-20 seconds.
d) Add the chicken and sautee until the chicken is 3/4ths cooked i.e., you dont see anything pinkish. Remove the chicken and transfer to a separate bowl / plate.
e) Add the beaten egg and scramble it up for about a minute.
f) Add the onions and stir fry for a minute.
g) Next comes the carrots. Another 30 seconds of stir frying.
h) Add capsicum and cabbage and give it another quick stir.
i) Toss in the boiled noodles and coat it with a bit of soya sauce. A typical Indo-chinese version will be fairly low on the soy sauce content. Add a few tablespoons of water if the noodles are sticky.
j) Stir fry the mix for about a minute ensuring all the contents have mixed well.
k) Garnish with spring onions.

Chicken Chowmein ready!!

Enjoy

C

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Hello,

Cream of Mushroom soup - was introduced via the spice trade from Malaysia to India. ;-) My grand pa brought these soup packets whenever he visited from Labuan - late 70s early 80s??. Definitely don't remember the brand  but still remember the smell. After that it has been a long long time since I've had a good cream of mushroom soup until I started cooking that myself. This is one soup that you don't normally get in restaurants and if you do - not worth mentioning.

Recently tried this when we had a bunch of friends over for dinner and came out fairly ok.

Ingredients
1) Mushroom - any variety would do I suppose.
2) Butter
3) Cream
4) Milk
5) Corn flour
6) All purpose flour (Maida)
7) Onions
8) Celery sticks (minced). Chopping celery is a very interesting activity. It gives a great smell and feel as you chop it.
9) Vegetable stock (can try chicken stock as well to enhance the flavour)

Process
1) Finely chop the mushrooms and onions. I recently found a trick to mince the mushrooms in a hand blender.    Definitely very handy when you have to do this on a large scale.
2) In a large sauce pan, melt the butter in low/medium heat.
3) Once butter is melted add the the mushrooms, onions and celery and sautee them for about 3-4 minutes.
4) Add the vegetable stock and bring it to a boil.
5) Add a 1-2 tablespoons of cream and about half a cup of milk.
6) Once the above gets to a boil add a mix of corn flour and all purpose flour in water.
7) Leave the soup to boil and then simmer for a few minutes until it thickens to a consistency you need.

Happy Cooking!!

C

Paruppu - Le Dal Definitif

The other day one of my clients asked for the most definitive dal recipe. It made me think for a while to see if there was any dal variety that could be considered "definitive" - of course not.

The very first paruppu I was accustomed to is the basic "Upporuppu" which translates to simply salty dal. That's probably the simplest of all - pressure cook dal with lots of water throw in some garlic and salt. That would be it. If you see some seasoning you are lucky. This variety is usually the staple first course in all south indian wedding lunches. I wonder if there would be any single soul who would complain if that was not served. Oh well...

For a long long time I never used to consume dal as it is until I was exposed to the Andhra style by my friend Ravi (yes Mr Mandalika that's you if you get to read this). He calls it the Dal Jeera Thadka.

Here's what goes in:

1) Toor Dal
2) Turmeric powder
3) Garlic (Smashed)
4) Cumin seeds
5) Dried red chillies
6) Mustard seeds
7) Onions (Diced)
8) Tomatoes (Diced)
9) Salt
10) Coriander leaves (Cilantro)

The method

1) Pressure cook the dal with a pinch of turmeric and a few drops of cooking oil (any kind would do). There should be enough water so that it doesn't get dried up. The amount of dal of course is upto the quantity you need. One cup of dal would do for 1 serving.

2) In a shallow pan, heat up the oil and sautee the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and the dried chillies.
3) Add some smashed up garlic to the mix and sautee for about 30 seconds.
4) Add the onions and sautee until translucent. Add another pinch or 2 of turmeric.
5) Add the tomatoes and sautee until the tomato is soft but not completely broken down.
6) Add the pressure cooked dal and pour some water. Preferrably the dal water remaining in the pressure cooker. The amount of water is completely up to your preference. (If you are cooking for a south indian wedding lunch - probably a litre of water for a cup of dal. If not add just as much as you need)
7) Bring the contents to a boil. Taste and add salt as required.
8) Garnish with the coriander leaves.

Drop in a cinnamon stick as you sautee the onions and tomatoes. It gives a different kick.

Happy Cooking

C

Parotta

Parotta or புரோட்டா (burotta) as it is called in Tamil Nadu is such a versatile flaky bread which can be consumed in many ways. Am yet to find a parotta to beat the one from K.R. Bhavan - Salem.  Parotta is the ultimate evening snack (or dinner). Kurma soaked parotta wrapped in plantain leaves parcel. Yummm... 

Once I left Salem, having a good parotta has always been a treat. After going to US I had to console myself with those frozen malaysian "parathas" - until of course the frozen "malabar parottas" came into being. For a very long time I have been wanting to try my hands at it and last weekend made it a point to give it a shot (thump). Parotta making is definitely a skill that I need to "master" over time. Maybe that's why the parotta makers are called "master". :-)

Ingredients

1) Maida (All purpose flour) - used 3 cups

2) Egg white (1 egg)

3) Salt (1 tablespoon)

4) Oil - used Olive Oil (heaps of them)

5) Water

The process

Mix the ingredients on a wide bowl with lots of oil to make a nice smooth dough ball. Once the ball is made hit it (thump it) hard on the kitchen table. While I was doing it Uma was asking if I was showing my "love for her" on the dough. I continued harder... ;-)

Cover the dough with a wet cloth and leave it aside for a few hours.

After a couple of hours make big lemon sized balls out of it. One tip here is to make the balls fairly big - about 4 inch diameter. I made them small and they turned out too small to my liking.

Cover the balls again with wet cloth and leave aside for about an hour.

Now comes the fun part. Take a ball and spread it out as thin as possible on the kitchen table. If you are really skilled you can flip them out like a master. However until you reach there you can just try spread the dough out thin using your fingers. The trick here is to have enough oil on your hands and the dough that it doesn't break apart. If it does...well you know you need more oil.

Once spread out, fold it in multiple layers or pleats and roll them like a Cinnabon roll.

Once rolled, take these rolls and press them out flat with your palm and once thin enough cook it on a tava. Should take about 2-3 minutes cooking time per parotta.

Yummy parotta ready:

Best eaten with chicken curry or kurma. And yes, once cooked, pile them up and give it a nice smack on the sides to loosen them up a bit to make them soft.

Enjoy...

C