Masala Mutton

I am really not sure what to call this dish, it is something that has been going on my mind since I started making mutton biriyani. I just wanted to try something easy and fast for mutton, so this is what I ended up with. Especially if you can get readymade fried onions this is a piece of cake. Thankfully it came out really well and my hubby was very happy with it so I have decided to include it here. Now however I find that the quality of mutton really matter when you make a dish whether this or biriyani... If you can suggest a good name I shall change it otherwise I will call it Masala Mutton only. Will try to put up pictures the next time I make it. Anyways for now Enjoy!!

Stuff required:

Mutton : 1/2 kg

Turmeric Powder : 3/4 tsp

Coriander Powder : 1 1/2

Cummin Powder : 1 tsp

Kashmiri Chilly pwd : as per taste

Fried Onions : Approximately 100 gms of fried onions

Curds : 2 Table spoons

Cinnamon : 1 1/2 inch

Black Cardamom : 1

Green Cardamom : 3-4

Star Annise : Couple of petals

Cloves : 3-4

Bay leaf : 1-2 depending on size

Shahi Jeera or Black Jeera : 1 tsp

Salt : to taste

Green Chilly : As per taste slit or chopped in rounds

Oil : 2-3 table spoon

Water : 1/2 cup or more if you want more gravy

Process:

Marinate the mutton with turmeric pwd, coriander pwd, cummin pwd, kashmiri chilly, salt, curds and fried onions for about half hour or more.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add the garam masalas like bay leaf, black and green cardamoms, cloves, star annise and finally add shahi jeera. Oil should be hot then only shahi jeera will crackle and the aroma will come properly. Once that happens add the green chilly and reduce the heat.

After a minute add the marinated meat. Add 1/2 cup of water to be on the safe side and mix everything well. Close the lid a put the whistle on. Wait till you get about 6-7 whistles - or here as I say depending on your pressure cooker till you think the meat is cooked. Then switch it off.

Once the pressure goes off, open and see how much water remains - and how much you want. You can reduce the water if you want by again putting it on fire and stirring once in a way. Also here you can add some chopped coriander leaves if you like it. :)....

P.s : By the way this tastes more decilious the next day!

Carrot & Pumpkin Soup

One day I was running out of my usual stuff for a meal and at the same time I hardly had anything at home to make a soup or meal of. But looking around I found about 200 gms of pumpkin and a few carrots and just one red bell pepper. Quite pathetic stuff on their own and not enuf as I said, so I thot why not a soup - that always is filling. I always love to have soups for dinner :)... as a meal so you will see the amount of water I am putting for the stock as one litre, that should feed about 3-4 people easily to their heart's content. Now coming back to my experiment, thankfully I had the bones of mutton to save the day. And best of all I had bought sweet basil plant just 2-3 days ago which promised to make my soup yummy. So off I went to my testing laboratory and I was so delighted with the outcome that I have decided to add it to my treasure chest. :) and for the first time I have decided to add the pictures too. Actually I have been meaning to do that for a while but never got around to it. Anyways they say better late than never so here we go..... Enjoy.

For the stock:

Mutton bones - about 200 gms

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Cinnamon pwd - 1/2 tsp

Rock Salt or any other salt you prefer - to taste

Sweet Basil leaves - about 20 of them or more if you like

Dry Mint - 1/2 tsp

Water - 1 liter

For the main body :

Pumpkin - 250 gms ( it has to be ripe one- as ripe as you can find) cut as small and thin as you can

Carrot - 3 nos. - perferably sweet kind otherwise you could add a dash of sugar - cut in thin rounds (these carrots look pale and pathetic courtesy my nokia 71 but actually are a bright shade of orange. :)

Red Bell Pepper - 1 no. cut in lengths

Basil - 5-10 again depends on your taste

Dry mint - 1/2 tsp

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp

For the garnish:-

Crouton - you could cube 2-3 slices of bread and fry them or bake them as per your taste

Basil leaf

Process:-

If you are in a hurry as I was put all the ingredients for the stock into pressure cooker and give 6-7 whistles. After the first whistle though reduce the flame.

Once the pressure is gone drain the stock and you can keep aside the bone and the meat on them. And in this stock put all the ingredients for the main body and cook till the pumpkin is cooked well (the rest would be most definitely cooked since pumpkin takes the most time). Switch off the gas and let it cool a bit

Now put the whole thing in a blender if you have the big blender otherwise do two to three times and blend the whole thing into a smooth paste, like you can see in the picture. Pour it back to the soup pot and adjust the seasoning if the need be. You can add pepper to this at this time either crushed or pwd as you please.

Finally when you are ready to eat you can reheat and serve garnished with croutons and basil or without the choice is yours

Mutton Biriyani

I had gone into hibernating mode for a while and now trying to wake up to the world again :D... That doesn't mean I have not been trying out new dishess but just that I became a bit too lazy to put them up. Finally I feel this low calori biriyani was the right dish to make my come back ;) so to speak. I always used to feel I could never do a biriyani because it might be very complicated but now I have come to realize it is quite easy and if you can find someone to do the dishes for you after you are done nothing like this hehehehe. I hope you will enjoy making this as much as I did. All your feedbacks are welcome...... Now enjoy!!

Ingredients :

1) 400 gms mutton

2-3 tblsp curds

2 tblsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp tblsp coriander pwd

1 tsp cumin pwd

¼ tsp turmeric pwd

¼ tsp cinnamon pwd (optional)

1 tsp garam masala

Half of fried onions

Salt to taste

Meat tenderizer – 1 tblsp (optional)

2) 2-3 tomatoes (medium size) – finely diced

3) coriander leaves – 1 bunch or as per taste

mint leaves – 1- 2 tblsps if putting dried mint otherwise as per taste

3-4 onions medium sized sliced thinly and fried till golden brown

saffron – a pinch soak in 4-5 tblsp of warm milk or water

4) 2 cups of biriyani rice soaked for half an hour

Bay leaf - 1

Cardamom – 3-4

Black cardamom – 1 (optional)

Star anise (optional)

Cinnamon – 1 ½ inch

Shahi jeera or black cumin – 1 tsp (optional)

Salt as per taste or about 1 tsp

Method:

Marinate the mutton with the ingredients mentioned in the first segment for about an hour. For the fried onions, slice 3-4 medium sized onions as thin as you can and fry them till golden brown. From this take half and crush them with hand while mixing them with the mutton.

Take a pressure cooker put in the marinated mutton and add half a cup of water and pressure cook for about 4-5 whistles or till you see the meat is as cooked as you want it to be. So when you open the pressure cooker and see if the meat is not cooked as per your tastes then you can close it again and give more whistles. So here depending on your pressure cooker you can increase or decrease the number of whistles.

Once the pressure is gone from the cooker and you can safely open you will notice that there will be some gravy in the mutton so put it back on fire and add finely diced tomatoes. You can remove the skin of the tomatoes if you don’t like it or don’t want it to be seen in the final product. I leave it one since I love tomatoes as whole. Now cook the mutton with lid open and stirring occasionally till all the water is gone and the tomatoes are nicely blended into the meat. That is it the meat part is done now we need to move to the rice part.

Bring the water for rice to a boil and add the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cardamoms, star anise, shahi jeera and add salt. Now add the soaked rice to the water and cook for exactly five minutes after the rice starts boiling. Make sure you check the time because you don’t want to over cook the rice, it should be 3/4^th done. Drain the rice. Now take the vessel you intend to cook biriyani in and spread a layer of rice and then spread the cooked mutton on top of the rice, spread a handful of fried onions, half of coriander leaves, the whole of mint leaves and then half of the saffron milk or water. On top of this spread the rest of the rice and then add the spread rest of the coriander leaves and then the fried onions and finally the saffron. Close the vessel with its lid and then take some aluminium foil and nicely cover the lid and around the edge of the vessel so that the steam stays inside and your biriyani cooks on dum.

Put the vessel with biriyani into your gas oven and cook on 160-165 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Or if you do not have gas oven then put the vessel on a flat frying pan and put it on small flame for the same amount of time and for safety put a heavy vessel or something on top of the lid so that no steam escape.

Voi - là the biriyani is now ready, you can give it a nice mix so that everyone gets everything. Serve it with any raita or just plain curds.

Now you will notice I have hardly used any oil – that is except for the fried onions, which you get ready made also. If you live in Dubai you can find the readymade fried onions in Spinneys and Shop 'n Save. I feel if you add too much of oil the biriyani becomes a lot heavy on the tummy, but be my guest you can add ghee, butter or oil while cooking the mutton and then once you finish layering the last layer or rice you can add then too. I personally felt no much of taste difference without using them. Secondly I have not added any red chilly or green because my daughter doesn’t like spicy stuff so if you like spicy you can add a mix of both while cooking the meat.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Though I am calling it chicken tikka masala I am not sure technically if I can call it that :).... But ya more or less the recipe is the same with few changes ofcourse. But wanted to try this recipe since my hubby's british colleagues all talk about this dish which I believe is one of the most if not the most famous Indian dish in UK. So here goes my trial. I am using thigh pieces (becuase that is my favourite piece in a chicken :D) in the recipe though one could use chicken breasts. Also you should use tikkas for the recipe but I am sort of pan searing it.

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken : 6-8 thigh pieces
Onion : 2 large chopped finely
Tomato : 1 large or 2 medium size chopped finely
Ginger : 1 inch
Garlic : 8-10 pods
Shallots : 3-4
Cardamom powder : 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon powder : 1/4 tsp or 1" long stick
Curry leaves : 1 string
Mace : a small piece
Garam Masala : 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder : 1 tsp
Cumin powder : 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder : 1/2 tsp
Red chilly powder : as per taste
Coconut milk : 1 cup (thick milk)
Coriander leaves for garnish
Oil : 1 Tblsp
Water : 1/2 cup


PREPARATION:

Make a paste of ginger, garlic, shallots, mace and curry leaves. Marinate chicken in this mixture for about an hour. Make deep gashes on the flesh of chicken. Here again the choice of retaining the chicken skin or taking it out is up to the you. But if using skin don't add any oil but instead directly put the chicken into a hot non stick pan and saute in its own oil and once done take out the chicken pieces and make the curry in the oil that was already in the chicken and now will be in your pan.


RECIPE :

Heat oil in a pan and add cinnamon stick at this point if using stick otherwise add later with rest of the masalas. After a couple of minutes take out the cinnamon stick and add the marinated chicken. Saute till 3/4 done and take out the chicken in a dish.

Now in the same oil add the chopped onions and stir till the onion is translucent. Add the turmeric powder, coriander powder, cummin powder, garam masala powder, red chilly powder and cardamom powder. Mix till all the powders are nicely blended and the raw smell is not there, do this on a low flame.

Add tomatoes and saute for few minutes. Now to this gravy add the cooked chicken pieces and let them simmer for few minutes. Once the tomatoes are blended well add the water to make a nice gravy

Finally add coriander leaves and mix well and pour in the coconut milk. Just allow the coconut milk to warm through gravy and never boil the dish after adding the coconut milk.

Enjoy the delicious chicken with chappathis or rice!