Kaju Mushroom Curry

This is a vegetarian version of my pepper chicken for those who do not eat the bird to enjoy the similar taste :D.


INGREDIENTS:

2 cups button mushroom quartered or halved
1 tsp fresh Ginger paste
1 tsp fresh Garlic paste
2-3 tsp coarsely ground black pepper corns
1 tbsp oil
3-4 tblsp cashew nuts
2 large onions
1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
1 green chillies slit
salt to taste
coriander leaves for garnish

PREPARATION:

• Add salt to the cut mushroom and keep aside for 5 minutes in a bowl. The salt will release the moisture in the mushroom at that time add ginger garlic paste and the coarsely ground pepper to the bowl. Mix well and let it marinate for about half an hour. The success of this dish is in the coarsely ground pepper so powder pepper is out.

• Boil cashew nuts and onions coarsely chopped in about ¾ cup of water. Cool and grind it to a smooth paste.

RECIPE:

Heat oil in a non stick pan (hence only 1 tsp of oil) and saute the marinated mushroom for 2-3 minutes, add the green chilly saute for another couple of minutes.

Add cashew nut onion paste at this point. Mix well, add water if needed or how much gravy you need.

After the gravy heats through and starts bubbling lower the heat and keep the dish coverd for 2-3 minutes.

If adding add lemon juice add at this point and switch the gas off. Otherwise just garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Tangy Crispy Bhindi

Again something that I tried because I wanted something different with one of my favourite veggie - bhindi :)... But ofcourse this is not a dish for the calorie conscious ppl but for those who would enjoy tangy taste.

INGREDIENTS:

Bhindi / okra / ladyfinger - 1/2 kg (preferably small sized)
Onion - 1 thinly chopped
MDH Kictchen king masala - 3-4 tsp
Besan - 2 tblsp
Turmeric - a pinch
Jeera - 1 tsp
Oil - 4-5 tblsp (you can add as much as you want to make it as crisp as you like)
Salt - to taste

PREPARATION:

Mix the MDH kitchen king masala and salt with okra in a bowl and leave aside for sometime. After a while the okra will leave water because of the salt, at that time add besan and keep aside for 5-10 minutes.


RECIPE :

Slit the okra in four or more parts depending on the size of the okra. If the okra you bought is the big kinds then half it first then slit in strips.

Heat oil in a pan add jeera when the oil is hot. After it stops sizzling add onion and saute well. Then add the marinated okra and continue to fry.

Add more if you want the okra to be more crispy and fry as much crispy as you would like. Once done you could drain it into a kitchen paper if you have used more oil.

Tip: You could enjoy this dish like this with chapathi or rice or even add a dash of lemon to it.

Sweetcorn and Peas Rice

This is one of the concoction that was made because of my daughter's liking for the main ingredients and also because it is a simple dish in itself. It goes well with raita - any kind of it! So one can infact serve in parties too.

INGREDIENTS:

Rice (basmati preferred) - 1 cup
Frozen sweetcorn - 1/4 cup
Frozen or fresh peas - 1/4 cup
Onion - 1 number thinly sliced
Jeera - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 inch length
Green cardamom - 2-3 numbers
star anise - 1 whole (optional)
Bay leaves - 1-2
Garlic - 1-2 pods
Water - double or little less than double the rice depending on the rice
Oil - 1-2 tbl sp

PREPARATION:

Since we are using frozen sweetcorns and peas, put them in hot water first and bring to room temperature and drain well. Wash rice and drain that also and keep aside. Boil the water to be added.

RECIPE:

1. Heat oil in a pressure cooker and then add the bay leaves, cinnamon, star anise, cardamom. After a couple of minutes add Jeera. Once they stop splutteringthe garlic chopped, lower the heat and saute till the raw smell of garlic goes.
2. Add sliced onions and fry till they become translucent. Now add the drained sweetcorn and peas, fry few a few minutes and add the rice. Add salt and stir till all wetness is gone.
3. Pour in the boiling water. Give it a good stir and put the top of the pressure cooker. Give one whistle and switch it off. Now depending on your rice and pressure cooker you can change the number of whistles you give.
4. Once the pressure is fully gone, open the cooker. You can take out the akkha garam masala at the point from this so that it doesn't come into the mouth. Mix the rice gently and serve hot.

CHICKEN DO PYAZA

This is a dish that I learnt after my marriage, it sounds quite fancy put is not that difficult to put together. It is one of the dishes which comes out good every time it has been made. Infact it has become a party favourite with our family. Now you can enjoy making it. Here it goes :

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken – 8 thighs skinned bone in (or any pieces you prefer)
Onion – 5-6 depending on size – chopped finely
Green Chillies - 2 slit (according to taste)
Tomato chopped – 2
Tomato puree- 3 tblsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Red Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
Ginger chopped finely - 1 ½ tsp
Garlic chopped finely – 1 ½ tsp
Garam Masala Powder – 1 ½ tsp
Oil – 3-4 tblsp
Coriander – 1 bunch
Pepper powder – 1 tsp
Cardamom powder - ½ tsp
Water – 1 ¼ cup
2-3 tblsp lemon juice
Salt to taste


RECIPE:

Heat oil in a pan and add finely chopped onions and sauté till they turn nice brown colour. Add salt immediately on putting the onions to help it reach this stage faster.

Add ginger garlic paste, garam masala, red chilly powder, coriander powder, cardamom powder and coarsely ground pepper. Mix well and stir for few minutes till the raw smell of the masala goes.

Add chopped tomatoes and the tomato paste to the mixture and stir fry with the spices for few minutes till a nice gravy forms.

Add the chicken pieces and let the spice mixture coat it nicely and the surface of the meat is sealed.

After few minutes add the water into this mixture and bring the curry to a simmer for about 20-25 minutes.

Add the lemon juice and green chillies and half of the chopped coriander leaves and combine it well to the curry.

Add water if you want more gravy and bring close and cook for another 4-5 minutes. Garnish with the remaining coriander leaves.

Tip: This curry tastes better a day ahead and reheated before serving.

GOBI MATAR

I have a habit of wanting to recreat a smell I might have got from somewhere and it smelled so good that I would want to recreate it in my kitchen. But this curry was made with me wanting a particular taste for the gobi and which would go great with chapathis. And I prefer to add the tender leaves and stalk of gobi to this dish.

INGREDIENTS

Cauliflower - 1 cup (small florets)
Peas (frozen or fresh) – ½ cup
Green Chillies - 2 slit (according to taste)
Tomato chopped – 2
Onion chopped – 1 large or 2 medium
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
Ginger chopped finely - 1 tsp
Garlic chopped finely – 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Garam Masala Powder - 3/4 tsp
Amchur powder – ½ tsp
A pinch of hing or asafetida
Oil - 2 to 3 tsp
Cumin seeds
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves for garnishing


RECIPE:

Heat oil in a pan and season with cumin seeds after a min add hing and curry leaves.

Add ginger garlic and stir till the raw smell goes, add onions and fry till they turn translucent.

Add Green chillies and the masala powders except garam masala stir till mixed nicely.

Add tomatoes and sauté till the masala is mixed with the tomatoes.

Then add cauliflower pieces and peas. Season with salt. Mix well and cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Don’t over cook the cauliflower.

When cauliflower and peas are completely cooked, add garam masala powder and cook for a minute.

Add little water to make gravy.

Garnish with coriander leaves.

RAJMA (RED KIDNEY BEANS)

Rajma is one of my all time favourite dish. It is simple and goes well with plain rice, jeera rice or chapathi equally.

Ingredients:

2 cups Rajma (Red kidney beans)
a pinch of turmeric powder
2 medium or 1 large onions chopped
6 Garlic cloves chopped
1 inch Ginger chopped
2 Green chillies slit
3 Tomatoes chopped finely
¾ tsp Coriander powder
1 tsp Red chilly powder
½ tsp Garam masala
½ tsp amchur (dry mango pwd)
2 tblsp Oil Salt To taste
Coriander leaves for garnish


Recipe:

Soak rajma overnight. Wash and pressure cook the rajma. Or take two canned tins of red kidney beans and keep them ready.

Heat oil in a kadhai and add ginger, garlic and chillies. Fry until they leave the raw smell.
Add onions sauté till onions are golden brown, add all the masala powders and stir for few minutes and add tomatoes. Cook until masala separates from oil.

Add the rajma and salt, mix well..

Simmer the flame and cook until thick gravy is formed. You can also take some rajma in a bowl mash them nicely and add to make the gravy thick and more tasty.

Garnish with coriander leaves and you are ready to serve.

Murg Mushroom Kali Mirch

I have enjoyed cooking but what has made the cooking more special is my husband. He has always encouraged me to try something new, infact when we had got married trying new dishes that came in the Gulf News' Friday Magazine was something we enjoyed together very much. So this site is dedicated to my loving husband and my best friend - Rajesh.

Now, about this dish, it is something I recently created, I actually wanted to make a good mushroom recipe and one with pepper in the end my husband and did so much of digging for the perfect recipe to make that we decided to make chicken kali mirch instead of breaking our heads for a mushroom dish. But finally when the came to add the cashew paste came the gravy looked and tasted so good that I thought if mushroom is added to this it might taste good. We are happy to state it was, infact it tasted really delicious. So though I had been dragging my feet for starting this blog for sometime, this dish just made me want to do it finally:)... I hope everyone enjoys this dish.

Serves 4
Preperation Time : 45 Minutes

Ingredients:

8 Chicken thighs or half kg of any portion of the chicken preferred
1 cup button mushroom quartered or halved
1 tsp fresh Ginger paste
1 tsp fresh Garlic paste
2-3 tsp coarsely ground black pepper corns
3 tbsp oil
3-4 tblsp cashew nuts
1 large onion
1 cup water
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 or more green chillies as per taste slit but still joined at the base
salt to taste
coriander leaves for garnish

Recipe:

Make gashes on the flesh of the chicken so that the marinate will penetrate nicely. Mix ginger, garlic pastes, salt and black pepper to the chicken pieces and marinate for at least an hour.

Boil cashew nuts and onion sliced in about ¾ cup of water. Cool and grind it to a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a kadhai and add the green chilly and then chicken pieces stir-fry for about 05 -10 minutes. Lower the heat and add about quarter cup water. Simmer until chicken is almost cooked.

Add mushrooms and cashew nut onion paste at this point. Mix well, add water if needed or how much gravy you need.

Cook another five minutes and then add lemon juice. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.