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. :)

Masala Methi Jheengey- Shrimps in a spicy sauce

If you were to ask me whether I enjoy eating seafood,I would have to say a clear no. However, I have realised that I am confused in reality, it seems there are times when I not only like, but actually enjoy all things 'fishy'. I have grown up eating fish cooked in a particular way only. And that is the Bengali way. When I got married, I discovered a whole new cuisine. My husband is from south of India and his food is amazingly different from mine! Anyhow, so these two styles were the only ones I have known. I have remained fussy over the years. There is always something that is not quite right about me eating fish. Yet, there are times when I contradict myself completely and proceed to stun the hubster. Like how I 'love' sushi! I dont know how, but well, I do! And then I love all kinds of shell fish. Go figure!

Considering that in my parent's home, fish was rarely cooked owing to my mother's severe allergy to 'all' kinds of fish/seafood, I have now reached a stage where I cook a mean fish fry or a fish curry! I am not sure if I can still say I have started liking it all, but then I force myself because it is such a healthy meat to consume. However, Shrimps/Prawns are something, I have no problems declaring that I absolutely love. Love it. In any form. Anytime. The recipe I am sharing is also something I came up with to please myself actually. Not bengali, not malayalee, not tamil or even benarsi ! It was just for me this weekend, I wanted to experiment and see if I can come up with something different and not worry about pleasing the man. Hmmphh. It turned out quite lovely actually.

Here's what you will need.

1/2 kg  : shelled Shrimps, washed and drained completely
A bunch of chopped green onions with stalks.

For the marinade:

1 tbsp:  Grated ginger        
1 tsp:    Turmeric powder  
1tsp :    Cumin roasted and crushed :                      
1tbsp:   Corriander seeds roasted and crushed :   1 tsp heaped
2tbsp heaped: Dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi):  
1/2tsp: freshly cracked black pepper corns:        
1tsp:     Red chilli powder
1tbsp:   Juice of fresh lemon
2tbsp:   finely chopped fresh corriander/cilantro leaves
2-4:       finely chopped fresh green chillies

Salt to taste

Mustard oil (or any vegetable oil) - 4-5 tbsp

Wash and drain the shrimps well. Marinate it in the spices mentioned above including the grated ginger. Do not add salt to the shrimps just yet. Keep it marinated for an hour or so. Next up, chop the green onions including the stalks. In a wok, heat the oil. Add the chopped green onions and stalks and fry untill well cooked on medium flame. You need to brown these onions. Once they are evenly browned, simply add the marinated shrimps and continue to mix and stir and cook untill all the water that the shrimps release evaporates, leaving behind a thick coating.  However, dont overcook those babies! If you cook this uncovered, on a medium to high heat, the water will evaporate fast and you dont have to worry about overcooking the shrimps. Keep stirring and mixing. Add salt in the very end.

Browning the green onions first up.

You can see water/moisture collecting at the base of the wok, we need it to dry out.

 Another tip is, make sure you drain the shrimps really dry after washing, first apply turmeric and then the rest of the spices. The turmeric does a good job of absorbing the excess mositure. Shrimps dont take a long time to cook obviously. So again, be careful with the timing, I would recommend less than ten minutes from the time you tip them in in hot oil. Do a taste check, adjust salt and add more lemon juice if you want it slightly tangier. The main flavour dominating this dish is that of fenugreek/methi leaves. It imparts an awesome aroma and texture, so do not leave it out.

Once done, give it a final mix around and serve with cumin/zeera pulao like I did. I also made dal fry tadka to go with it, including a big garden salad and some raosted papads. Finger lickin' good it was!