Everyday Chicken Curry-No fuss and No Brainer

This is perhaps the easiest curry on the block. Yes, yes, involves a lot of 'bhunoing' and chopping and use of spices but even so, I still say it is the easiest. The kinds you don't even need to think and plan and shop for. The kind you can serve with an elegant pulao to unannounced guests and get away with them thinking, wow, you did so much for us!! If this is what you serve when we don't tell you of our arrival in advance, what would you cook if we did! Umm, in which case I would probably serve an elaborate roast Raan with a choice of Indian breads or a Biryani , the full works. But in the mean time, this basic Murghi Ka Salan (chicken curry) will have to do! It is my go-to mid week curry which I nearly always serve with fresh peas Pulao and a vegetable Raita. Serve a tangy mint chutney on the side with fresh Lassi or Lemonade or even a cup of hot masala Chai later, and you will win hearts. (I know we don't start a sentence with an 'and', thankyou). 

I would be foolish to claim that it is 'my' recipe. For it is not. It belongs to millions of  other subcontinental  households across the world. Perhaps the method or choice of spices might vary here and there, but essentially the base of a good curry remains the same. Pretty much a throw- in -everything -you- have- in- the pantry approach and 'bhuno' it to death and well, that's about it really. :) Personally, I make this so often that it isn't even considered special in any shape or form by my boys anymore! Talk about 'ghar ki murghi, dal barabar' ! Loosely translated, a meat which has the potential to become something really awesome and outta this world gets reduced to the level of  a dal dish-an everyday, ordinary meal for us. Or something like that. I am not a language teacher anyway.

To begin with please go and read my recipe for Garam Masala because you will need to use some. Or else, use any of your choice, home made or store bought, won't be an issue. Like I said, slight variations exist in every family curry!

Here is what you will need:

About 500 gms of chicken, cut in to pieces, bone in, washed and drained well.
*You can use just thighs/legs/drums too.

1 large onion, finely sliced
1 large tomato, either chopped fine or blend in to a paste like I do. Adds a nice body to the curry.
1tbsp ginger-garlic paste
2-4 green chillies, chopped fine or slit lengthwise

Spices you will need:

1 tbsp of corriander powder
1tsp heaped cumin powder
1 tsp levelled tumeric powder
1tsp freshly cracked black pepper corns
1 tsp levelled, kashmiri red chilli powder (optional)-more for colour rather than heat
1 tbsp of Garam Masala divided,  keep a fat pinch aside from this measurement, to be used later.
Salt to taste 
4tbsp mustard oil for cooking or your choice of any cooking oil. This is distinctively a North Indian curry, so avoid using coconut oil, but even if you do, I don't see how I can stop you! :)

A tbsp of fresh green corriander leaves, finely chopped, a few thin matchstick style julliened ginger and 2-3 green chillies slit lengthwise. ( I dont add any green chillies at all since my son cannot handle the heat) As always, adjust the amount of chillies you prefer.

Start by heating the oil in a large wok. Mustard oil has a strong, sharp smell and just as you see it begining to smoke up a bit, add the chopped onions and fry them untill really browned well. Mid way to frying those onions, add the ginger garlic paste. Brown this all together. This is the only stage which requires you to kind of hover over your stove, because while we want it all to brown up nicely, we dont want burnt bits. So resign yourself to a lot of stirring and frying. Next to go in would be the chicken pieces. Mix, stir, coat and let it get browned really well on all sides. I usually do all this on a high flame. Takes a good ten minutes at least and plus some more maybe. By the end of so much of stirring around and mixing the chicken pieces with the onions etc, all the moisture should have evaporated. It should pretty much dry up, with the oil clearly separated and visible. The chicken should also be half cooked by now. * If you are using very fresh chicken, it will take time to cook till nearly done or even half cooked.

    See how nicely browned my chicken pieces are? And I chucked in a couple of potatoes too. 

The next stage, one by one, start adding all the spices- turmeric, cumin, corriander, pepper, kashmiri chilli powder, and the garam masala. Just reserve a fat pinch of garam masala on the side. Mix thoroughly and let the chicken be coated with all the spices. Add salt to taste. Add the tomato paste you made, mix. Sprinkle some fresh corriander leaves, julliened ginger slices, slit green chillies and a big pinch of garam masala powder you had kept aside. Cover and cook on 'dum' on very low flame for about fifteen or twenty minutes or untill you think the chicken is cooked through. 

  The tomato paste as been added, ginger, corriander leaves and a pinch of garam masala       sprinkled on top, this will be covered and slow cooked untill done.

Get your sides ready while the curry cooks, here is my vegetable Raita with chopped shallots, bell pepper, cucumber,green chillies, salt, spices and a generous dash of fresh lemon juice. 

Peas Pulao, Raita and the ahem 'the curry'!!

Serve garnished with some more fresh corriander leaves, a Pulao and some Raita. Plonk a big pitcher of fresh lemonade to wash it down. Sit back and enjoy the compliments this 'no-brainer' curry will fetch you from even the most fussy member on the dining table! :) As for me, I am wondering why don't I ask the hubster to tag me along to London this week. He is off for a business trip and has planned to take some his clients for an authentic curry night. Unless he heads to Southall or Hounslow, I know he can be sure of a huge bill for a measly bowl of totally dodgy curry! If I was going, I would have gladly hosted all his clients, and be sure of winning some more big fat contracts. And some definite converts to curry too! 

Aloo Gobhi Murghi- Chicken with Potatoes and Cauliflower

Indian cooking often combines meat with vegetables and most homes have their favourite combos. Apart from the Biryanis and Pulaos, we do have curries and stir fries too, which make good use of random vegetables lying in your pantry along with meat. A very popular curry is of goat meat with turnips- gosht+shaljam. Bengalis are very fond of combining their fish with seasonal veggies. Makes for a sumptous and nutrition packed meal. Up north where I come from, meat eating homes usually tend to cook goat meat with vegetables like Okra, Turnips, Carrots, Cauliflowers and ofcourse everyone's favourite, Potatoes. It is fuss free, tasty and you know you are getting your daily dose of fibres/vitamins/minerals etc from eating those vegetables.

I usually stick to tradtional, desi cooking for our everyday meals. However, the recipe I am sharing today is not your traditional, run of the mill one. For one, we dont really cook chicken with vegetables, like I said, it is usually goat meat. Unless we are making a chinese inspired 'chin-dian' dish! Which is totally different and requires a blog post of it's own. The thing is, last week I happened to go to the local wholsale vegetable market and came back with truckloads of veggies. The results were not pleasant. We are only 2.5 people in this house. Who love meat. Who are not foodies really, who eat to survive I think. Vegetables are eaten here because they 'must' be. Who would finish off all those mind boggling variety of vegetables I got? I mean, how much salad and soups can one eat? And this family? Not likely. So in a moment of some timely inspiration, I got this idea of combining a rather huge cauliflower with some boneless chicken and fresh spring onions. The result was pretty good if I may say so myself. Have a look and try it out, you might be pleasantly surprised. You will need:

1/2 kg of boneless chicken breast pieces, cubed
A medium sized cauliflower cut in to chunky florets
2 medium sized potatoes, diced

1 large red onion, sliced fine
1 bunch of green onions-the leafy part, chopped fine
2 large tomatoes, chopped fine
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1' ginger jullienes
3-4 fresh green chillies, slit
1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves
1 large lemon, to squeeze over later

Dry roast and crush the following:

1 tbsp corriander seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black pepper
5-6 green cardamoms
2' cinnamon stick
1tsp shahi zeera, black cumin seeds
6-7 cloves
Dry roast in a non stick pan untill browned, cool and crush coarsely.

1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
Salt to taste
1tsp of chaat masala(optional)
1tbsp desi ghee(optional)
4-5 tbsp of any cooking oil, I used mustard oil. Please do not use coconut oil though, as this is a typically north Indian dish.

You start off by heating the oil. Tip in the bay leaf and red onions and brown well on high heat. Add the giner garlic paste next. Brown untill the raw smell is gone. Now put in the chicken pieces. Brown all of this on high heat. In about 10 minutes, add the potatoes and continue to cook now on a medium flame for about 5 minutes. Now you add the green onion stalks and the cauliflower florets. Give it all a good mix, cover and cook on low for about 5-8 minutes. When you remove the lid after a few minutes, you will notice that the cauliflower is softening while the rest of the ingredients have taken on a darker colour. Go ahead and add the ground spices, turmeric powder, red chilli powder  and salt to taste. Mix and stir again. The dish has been cooking for a good 20 minutes by now.

The last cookinng bit requires you to put the pot on 'dum', spread the chopped tomatoes, mint leaves, ginger jullienes, green chillies, the chaat masala, squeeze the lemon juice all over, cover and cook on very low heat for at least 15 minutes. The tomatoes will release a fair bit of moisture. Once the 15 minutes are up, open lid, increase the heat to medium-high, stir and mix vigrously. Let any moisture released evaporate and the dish become more 'browned' and dryish

Just before it goes on 'dum". 

 Also, add the desi ghee now or just before serving. Serve with hot Chapatis and a cucumber Raita.

  You could easily cook this with lamb, goat, beef etc. The cooking time will ofcourse vary and be longer than boneless chicken. Enjoy the diffrent combos and let me know. :)

Grilled Chicken In A Creamy Marinade

It has been a few months since I started a low carb diet and my meals now mostly consist of meat/poultry/fish with tons of vegetables, salads and fruits. I often eat chicken for dinner. With lots of veggies, cooked or as a salad. As expected, I run out of ideas all the time. I dont fancy curry anymore, so am pretty much stuck with grilled,baked or kebab forms of it. Even though I have this food blog, I am actually not a foodie at all. My food-knowledge is next to zero and trust me, I wouldn't know my Ratanjot from a Riesling! I eat to live, that's about it. I also prepare my menu three days in advance, so that I just do not get tempted to cheat.

Chicken breasts in a creamy marinade- I dont know if similar recipes are around, well they must be I am sure, but since I thought of the ingredients for the marinade myself, I am going to take full credit for it.

Just a few things before we get to it. I have used low fat, 'cream cheese'- which is freshly made here in the middle east.  Labaneh and it's varieties are commonly found in the middle east and is super yummy. One food of the Arabs, which all expats enjoy I think. I used one which was flavoured with thyme. You can get any flavour you want. If however, you don't get labneh, simply get any brand-any kind of cream cheese or hung yoghurt made out of the Greek variety.  Philadelphia is also good. If that is also not an option then get thick, plain cream and season it with garlic powder and some dried herbs of choice. However, do try and get a tub of cream cheese, will make quite a difference to the over all flavour of this dish.

Here's what you will need:

1/2 kg              boneless, breast of chicken- cubed or cut in strips.
2-3 tbsp           heaped Labaneh/cream cheese/cream
2 tsp                 mixed, dried herbs. I used everything I had. :)
1.5 tsp             paprika (or Kashmiri chili powder)
1/2 tsp            red chilli powder
1 tsp                black pepper powder
1 tbsp              ginger-garlic paste or 1 tsp heaped garlic powder alone.
2-3 tbsp          fresh lemon juice.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and marinate the chicken chunks in it for as long as you can, preferably at least 2-6 hours. Grill on medium flame untill done. Alternatively bake at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes or little less. Or simply pan fry them, which is what I did last night. Serve with a big, garden salad. I dont usually use any salad seasoning, so I end up eating a lot of different types of pickled peppers, and my favourite is Jalapenos.

I had some chicken drums also, which I grilled for hubster's India vs Australia game night.

This family, quite clearly, loves chilies in all forms!

Hariyali Murghi- Grilled Chicken in a Green Masala Marinade

Apologies for being absent so long. In the last one month life has become a total roller coaster leaving me no time to breathe, leave alone blog! I went back to work after a loooooong hiatus. Four years to be precise. To teaching. In the same play school as my son. It has taken all of us a month to settle down to some order and routine even though cooking has been happening on a regular basis ofcourse. I mean the 'good food' kinds. I managed to tkae pictures and download them too. But thats just about it! My head keeps buzzing with so many posts and pictures and recipes to be shared with you all which never see the light of the day! I do post somewhat more frequently on my facebook page so if you want to remain connected to the fabulous me, please go and check it out and while you are there, click on the 'like' button too. Yes, I do 'like' collecting 'likes'. Thank you.

Now on to my recipe for this post. Easy and quick but requiring a decent (read as long as possible) marination time. I had some frozen chicken in the freezer, about half a kilo and knew it would not be enough to be made in to a curry or even pulao/biryani for three adults in the house currently. Hubster's childhood friend is shifiting base from Abu Dhabi to Dubai, and untill he can move in to his new flat, he will stay with us. So there, we are three of us. Anyhow, I decided to make an easy vegetable curry with rice and this chicken as a side. Plus ofcourse, no meal in my house is ever complete without a big 'desi' salad. :) The marinade is super easy to make and any extras can be used as a chutney/dip/spread or frozen for use later.

Here's how.

1/2 kilo of chicken, medium sized pieces, washed and drained.

For the marinade:

1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves
1 cup of fresh corriander/cilantro leaves
1tbsp of roasted and coarsely ground coriander seeds
1tsp of roasted and crushed ground cumin seeds
1 tsp of heaped chaat masala (avlbl in all Indian/asian stores)
1tsp of turmeric powder (optional)
1tsp of freshly cacked black pepper (optional)
1 tbsp of sour cream or fresh thick plain yoghurt (optional)
Juice of one large lemon or 2 tbsp white vinegar
1'knob of fresh ginger
5-6 cloves of fat garlic pods
4-5 fresh green chillis (adjust according to pref)
3-4 tbsp of mustard oil (or butter or Desi Ghee)

Take all the ingedients meant for the marinade and make a paste in your blender. Marinate your chicken in this paste and forget about it for at least 4 hours if not more. I marinated mine for about 6 hours. Just 30 minutes or even 15 minutes before you start to grill/pan fry/barbeque the chicken, take out of the fridge and drizzle some mustard oil over the pieces. Using mustard oil gives it a nice kick. One can use butter or even pure Desi Ghee (clarified butter). Say about 4 tbsp, if using mustard oil. Use a little less, if using oil/fat other than mustard oil.

This is how my marinade looked. Nice huh? Love the colours. Do shake off the extra marinade before girlling.

 

Once the chicken has been well marinated, line them up in a greased and foiled tray.

 

 

I also spread some finely sliced onions over the chicken before putting it in for the grilling. Grilling times depend upon your stove. I grilled mine for about 30 minutes, medium flame, 15 min one both sides. Adjust your cooking time accordingly. My contraption isnt the best!

 

 

 

And here it is!

 

 

 

And some of my lovely salad....

 

 

Do try this recipe today!

 

Note: vegetarians, you may substitute chicken with big chunks of Paneer squares, but do remember to not skip on the sour cream then, it will keep the paneer moist and prevent it from becoming rubbery after grilling. Also, paneer wont require a very long marination time, 2 hours should be enough.

This one comes easy to me- Butter Chicken!

Butter Chicken is probably one of the most famous dish of India preceeded only by the Tikka. If you are visiting an Indian restaurant for the first time and are new to Indian food, you may order Butter Chicken with a fair amount of confidence and be assured that your introduction to Indian food wont be a disaster. The flavours are easy on the palette, the colour and texture silky, and the meat itself satisfying. Especialy, if eaten with Naan. There are probably many versions out there, but the lead in cooking a mean butter chicken is taken by the Punjabis. No doubt about that! However, whenever I have eaten it outside or even in homes of friends, the flavours are mostly similar. The reason for this being the use of dried Fenugreek leaves- the ingredient one cannot/must not omit. With that in mind, the rest is easy. If I can make it, so can you and easily enough.

Here's how.

How to:

1 kg of Chicken, or 12 largish pieces
2 tbsp of fresh, plain, thick Yoghurt
2 tbsp of fresh Ginger-Garlic paste
2 tbsp of fresh Lime juice
2 tbsp of any store bought brand of 'Tandoori Masala' - must not omit
Salt to taste.

Wash and drain chicken. Then you go ahead and marinate it in the ingredients given above. Leave for at least 4-5 hours or a minimum of 1 hour. If you have time, keep marinated overnight.

Just before you are going to make the sauce/gravy for this- grill the chicken pieces in your oven in a baking tray lined with foil. About eight minutes on each side or untill till juices run clear, the chicken pieces aquire a proper browned, grilled look and is done. If you don't have a grill, fry the marinated chicken pieces in a wide shallow pan in about an inch of any vegetable oil. Untill done. If you have marinated the chicken for long, it will cook very fast, just ensure you dont burn them though! Keep aside covered.

For the Sauce/Gravy:

4 medium to large Onions- thinly sliced or made in to a paste in your blender.
2 packs of thick Tomato Puree or  about 1.5 cups full- I always but this for my butter chicken because of it's tanginess and thickness and colour.
1 tsp black Cumin seeds, Shajeera.
1 tbsp heaped dried, Fenugreek leaves,crushed in your palms.
1' stick of cinammon
5-6 green Cardamoms -coarsely ground
1 tsp heaped Kashmiri Lal mirch - mainly for it's colour red.
1 tsp regular Red Chilli powder. Take more if you like it hot. Say about another teaspoon.
1 tsp of freshly ground Black Pepper (optional, if you would rather avoid the heat)
1 tbsp of Corriander powder
1/2 tsp of Turmeric powder
A pinch of Nutmeg
4-5 blades of Mace.
1 tbsp Sugar (will explain why this will be needed)
Salt to taste- remember you would ahve already used salt in the marinade before too.
50-100 gmas of any salted Butter, regular kinds will do.

2 tbsp of fresh Cream, a handful of fresh Corrainder leaves, a few Green Chillis slit, about a tbsp of fresh Ginger juliienes- all for garnishing.

In a wide bottomed pan heat the butter on a medium flame. When just about getting heated, tip in the dry spices- cumin, cinammon, cardamoms, nutmeg and mace. Do not put the chilli/pepper,corriander or turmeric powders for now. In a few seconds the spices will splutter and turn a fragrant brown. Now add the onion slices/paste. The onions will release a lot of water if using in a paste form. This will also take a longish time to brown. So keep stirring/sauteing on a medium flame. Do this untill all the moisture has evaporated, the paste has become dryish and browned. Like I said, it might take a good 15 minutes to get this done. You can also use sliced onions instead, but in butter chicken, the gravy needs to be smooth,thick- so I recommend using the paste form.

Once the onion paste has been cooked through, oil has surfaced on top, next in goes the tomato puree. A note here- You could use fresh, home made paste too but again- I use the ready made puree for the colour and tanginess.The final curry is not tangy and is infact just slightly on the sweeter side. So do yourself a favour, get those store bought puree packs/cans. Contiune cooking the tomato puree along with the onion mix on medium flame. Cook and stir untill oil floats to the top.

Notice how the gravy starts acquiring a dark, reddish hue.

 While you are cooking this, do a taste test- you will notice that the mixture will taste raw and almost bitter for quite some time. This is because of the puree being used. This is when you first add salt. Taste again. If tangy, put in sugar now. Mix and taste. Use your instinct here. The curry wont be sweet per se but should not taste tangy, raw or well, weird! Also add in the  Corriander powder, turmeric powder, the Kashmiri chilli powder, the regular red chilli powder you are using and the black pepper powder. Mix well. Do a taste test again. If it tastes like the curry has come together well, finally slide in the chicken pieces. Mix. Sprinkle a few corriander leaves, some fresh ginger jullienes, green slit chillis, pour some fresh cream over - cover and cook on low flame for about 15 minutes. This is where we are giving it a simple 'Dum'- for the flavours to combine. Since the chicken was already pre-cooked, we dont have to wait for them to get done. The last 15 minutes are simply to let everything sit together and infuse.

Just before serving, if you want, you can repeat the garnish suggested. Serve warm with Naan bread or a simple pulao.
PS- This one is for you 'Donna'!

My First Post and Signature Chicken Karahi

If you are in the habbit of storing frozen meat (Chicken in my case) in your freezer consider yourself lucky! Here is my first ever post which requires you to take that meat out now, defrost it and make yourself this super easy and quick Chicken Karahi. This recipe is my own from the days when I did not know much about Asian/Indian spices but harboured ambitions of becoming a fabulous cook some day. I was newly married with a husband to impress . I was also new to Dubai and did not have much to do in life. Even though I was always fascinated with cooking growing up, I did not really know much. I remember my mother chasing me away from the kitchen 'begging' me to complete my home work rather than fool around trying to experiment with a curry. Sigh... It was a budding culinary romance nipped in the well, bud. Anyhow, so here I was, with a husband who had faithfuly presented himself at work after the long months of visa-induced seperation from me, expecting a home cooked meal every night. Far from the days of being boyfriend-girlfriend, when we could just go to the nearest restraunt and order away.

This recipe was a brainwave of a clueless mind. I didn't know my spices well, so I decided not to use any. Simply chopped some onions, tomatoes,green chillis, ginger and garlic and cooked everything together to death, garnished with fresh clinatro and served it with some Dal and Rice. Turns out the husband loved it. Score!! Ever since that night, I have made this Karahi often. When I am lazy or in a rush and crave a simple , no fuss meat dish, I depend on this recipe. So can you and here's how.

1. Fresh or Frozen Chicken:  -           1 kg (you can also just use chicken drumsticks)
2. Onions:                          -                2 large, sliced finely
3. Tomatoes:                                       2 large, chopped fine
4. Giner and Garlic paste:       -          2 tbsp heaped
5. Fresh Green chillis:             -          5-6 finely chopped.
6. Fresh Cilantro/Corriander leaves :  about a whole bunch or a cup full, finely chopped
7. Salt to taste
8. Any vegetable oil  but not Olive oil. Indian subcontinental cooking does not do well with olive oil. Please do note this.

How To:

Heat about 5-6 tbsp of any vegetable oil in a wide bottomed pan. Start with adding in the ginger garlic paste and wait for it to caramelise/brown. Then add the green chillis. In a few seconds add the sliced onions and now saute it all well till the onions also take on a nice brown/caramelised tinge. See picture.

Once you see the onions have lost their pinkness and oil is starting to seperate, add the chicken pieces. Keeping the heat on high, mix this all well and keep sauteing. The chicken along with the onions also needs to get browned and practically completely cooked. Once the water/juices have almost dried up, you can reduce the heat to medium. Finally, add the chopped tomatoes and give it all a good stir. Continue cooking on medium to high- heat because we need to get all the moisture/water released by the tomatoes dry. Season with salt. From the start to finish, the entire process whould take about thirty minutes.

OR

PS- If you dont have time or the patience to stand by the stove, you can simply add all the ingredients (except tomatoes) in the same order as listed in the above method. Cover with lid and let cook. Then after about 10 minutes on medium-low heat of cooking, check the onion/ginger/garlic/chicken mix - it should loose it's raw smell, will look browned but watery and some oil would have seperated. Now  you can go ahead and add the tomatoes. Once however you have added the tomatoes, you need to crank up the heat in the last 10-12 minutes, so that the entire mix is dried up and takes on a lovely browned colour. Season with salt. This dish is dry-ish in consitency with the 'masala' sticking to the chicken pieces.

Serve garnished with fresh cilantro with Chapatis/Parathas or a Vegetable Pulao. Dont forget a simple fresh salad too!