Hostel Khichdi - Memories of Pune

The years spent in the Deccan College hostel in Pune, and thereafter in our little dream cottage with the not yet hubby were full of food. Though frugal, our meals never lacked in flavour or innovation. K was an accomplished cook already and I was an eager learner, happy to experiment and feed us and our permanently hungry friends too!

A bastion of most hostel cooks' repertoires of easy one pot meals is Khichdi. This humble mix of rice, daal, a few spices and vegetables often makes a daily appearance when you're broke, have a very basic kitchen and  are not a very skilled cook as yet. Khichdi is also synonymous with home cooked food, food that Mom makes, food that comforts and soothes and fills you up.  We made loads of khichdi and we made it in many, many variations.

Khichdi allows you to stretch your creativity and is a very forgiving dish. The basics remain the same - small grain rice, daal, a few basic spices and a pressure cooker are all you really need. You can build on this base and take this humble food to high levels of sophistication. I have added everything from minced lamb, Goan choriz and even spicy tangy prawn pickle to khichdi with fabulous results.

I cannot replicate those hostel flavours however hard I try. I think the secret was in the fact that it cooked very slowly on the hot plate. No matter how low you keep the flame on the gas burner it simply does not cook as slowly and therein lies the difference. But that doesn't stop me from making khichdi every once in a way.

We made khichdi packed with assorted vegetables most frequently. The highlight would be a dollop of ghee on the steaming hot khichdi and this invariably resulted in a burned tongue! While I was quite used to adding potatoes, green peas, carrots and even cauliflower florets, K introduced me to the idea of adding brinjal to khichdi. My mind baulked and I was not at confident that it would work. It did. And how! Now I cannot imagine making khichdi without adding a few pieces of brinjal to it :)

Hostel Khichdi

3/4 cup short grain rice.
1/2 cup masoor or mung daal
1 large onion, sliced
1 large potato, cut into large cubes
6 baby dark purple brinjals halved or 1 medium sized bharta brinjal, cubed
1 tomato chopped
2 fresh green chillies
a hand full of fresh green peas
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
turmeric, cumin, kashmiri chilli powders
salt
mustard oil (or whatever oil you prefer)
water

Wash the rice and the daal really well, drain and leave aside.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in your pressure cooker and fry the potatoes. Once they turn slightly red add the brinjals. Fry for a bit and then add the green chillies and the onions. Stir well and let the onions cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the chopped tomato, the ginger garlic paste and the powdered spices and salt. Add a splash of water so the dry spices don't burn. Stir everything well and chuck in the peas.
Add the washed rice and daal and mix it all well. Add a generous amount of water and bring it to a boil. Shut the cooker and simmer as soon as it whistles. Cook on simmer for 5 minutes and switch off. LEt the steam disperse on it's own.

Serve the khichdi with a generous dollop of ghee, fried/roasted papads, fried fish or prawns or with that Bengali favourite, begun bhaja.

Peanut Butter Crinkles

Peanut Butter is something I have loved since I was a toddler. My earliest memory of peanut butter is this large glass jar of Kraft peanut butter that my paternal uncle and his wife had brought for me from Canada. My mother treasured that glass jar for years until it finally broke when I was in my teens. In fact, my love of peanut butter was so well known in the family that my aunt (the same one who sent that glass jar of Kraft) sent me a jar of Kraft peanut butter among all the lovely gifts she sent me for my wedding :)

I have been so caught up with work and with painting that I've hardly baked anything in recent months. But I've been yearning to! We out at a friend's house for dinner last night as we talked about different foods and favourites, the famous Shrewsbury biscuits of Kayani Bakery in Pune were mentioned. The hubby and I exchanged glances and without saying a word we knew that I'd be baking Shortbread today. Buttery, salty and not too sweet, these melt in the mouth morsels are ridiculously easy to make and they are simply divine.

I dug out my tomes of cookie recipes. If I was going to make cookies I wanted to make many, even some new kinds. The peanut butter crinkles are very easy to make and are just heavenly. Since I had all the required ingredients at hand I decided to make them too.

The recipe is from The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits published by the Australian Women's Weekly. I have tweaked it a bit, of course ;)

Peanut Butter Crinkles

125gms butter. I used Amul
1tsp Vanilla
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 and 1/4 cup plain flour

Take a large clean mixing bowl. Cream the butter with all the remaining ingredients barring the flour.Sift the flour on a sheet of paper or in another bowl.Tip it into the creamed butter sugar mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon to form a firm dough. if you find the dough is soft add a little flour and knead very lightly to make it firmer.

Shape the dough into walnut sized balls and place onto your cookie sheet. press down with a fork and mark a rough criss-cross pattern on the tops and flatten the cookies out a little. Don't press very hard, just spread the cookies a bit.

Bake for 15 mins in a preheated oven at 180C. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Make yourself a mug of coffee, grab a pile of these cookies, curl up in a cozy corner with a good book and enjoy these peanut butter crinkles. The hubby went a step further- he slathered a cookie with raspberry jam and stuck another cookie on to it to make a PBJ cookie sandwich!

They're so easy to make I'm sure I'll be making them again really soon.

Nonta Suji - Bengali Style Savoury Semolina with Vegetalbes

Nonta Suji is something my mom made fairly regularly when I was a kid. There is a sweet version called Suji'r halua, more familiar to non Bongs as sooji ka halwa. I prefer this savoury version and it's one of those things my mom makes brilliantly.

It's fairly easy to make - the only downside is that there's a decent bit of chopping involved. lazy as I tend to be, I love this so much I don't mind the extra hard work involved.

Nonta Suji

1 medium potato, peeled and cut into matchsticks
1 carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
1 capsicum, cut into small long strips
1 onion, sliced but not too finely
1 or 2 green chillies, roughly chopped
half cup green peas
half cup semolina or suji
salt, turmeric, chilli powder, jeera/cumin powder
1/2 tsp kalonji or nigella seeds
2 tbsp mustard oil

Heat the oil in a kadai and once it's smoking hot reduce the heat and add the kalonji. Let it sizzle and then add the potatoes and carrots. Let them fry for a 3-4 minutes. Cover the kadai so it cooks quickly. Add the onions and the green chillies. Stir well and make sure you don't burn the onions. Once the potatoes are cooked through add the salt and the dry spice powders and mix it all well. Add the capsicums and the peas now and give it all a good stir. Let it cook for a minute and then pour in the semolina.

Roast the semolina well stirring constantly. Let it coat all the vegetables nicely. Your mixture should look dry. You can increase the heat but then you must keep stirring or the semolina will burn giving the final dish an unpleasant taste.

Add approximately a cup of water. Pour in 3/4th and see. The water should just float above the level of the veggies and semolina. Don't pour in too much all at once. Add the rest only if needed. Stir away and keep mixing. The water will get absorbed into the semolina and you will have a thick mass of veggies and semolina in less than a minute. Let it get quite thick, it should not fall off the spoon but should actually be difficult to move.

Squash a portion into a bowl and upturn it onto a plate. Garnish with a fresh green chilli and fresh coriander if you have them at hand.

Railway Mutton Curry

The name itself evokes memories and fanciful pictures of uniformed waiters serving lunch on rattling railway carriages while the well dressed traveller shook out his starched napkin and picked up his fork and knife, ready to dig in!

I saw this recipe on a food group on Facebook. The recipe has been adapted already and I have tweaked it further. So I do not claim that is what Railway Mutton Curry is. I've never had it so I don't have anything to compare it with either. What drew me to the recipe is not the original method but something that was added along the way. The version I read had whole pods of garlic added to it.

Now, I love garlic. I simply love it and am never caught without it. My pantry always has fresh garlic pods, peeled garlic waits for me in my fridge alongside the garlic paste, and I also stock fried garlic - sliced, and finely chopped. There was no way I was going to ignore this recipe!

Incredibly simple to make, you need about 10 minutes at your stove and then you just let it cook on it's own. Apart from marinating time of course.

So here goes -

Railway Mutton Curry (inspired by Mr. Jayanta Das)

500gms mutton pieces
1 large onion, finely sliced
2 potatoes quartered or 3 smaller ones kept whole
1 tsp Jeera
3 red dried chillies
3 green cardamoms
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp jeera powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
2-3 sprigs curry leaves
salt
ginger garlic paste
2 pods garlic
Mustard oil
vinegar or tamarind extract

Marinate the mutton in the garlic ginger paste and salt. 30 minutes to an hour is adequate though I left it overnight.

In a thick bottomed vessel heat mustard oil. The original recipe asks for ghee but I don't like ghee in my mutton gravies so I used mustard oil instead. Use whatever you prefer. Once the oil or ghee is hot enough chuck in the whole jeera, dried chillies and the cardamoms. Sauté a bit and let it all sizzle  Add the sliced onions and fry till the onions turn golden. Add the spice powders and curry leaves and mix well. Put in the whole garlic pods too.

Pop in the potatoes. let it all cook for a few minutes and then add in the marinated mutton. Fry the mutton stirring properly to let all the pieces brown a little. Add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar or diluted tamarind pulp if you have it. Stir for a minute or two and then add water. Bring to a boil and then let it simmer for 30 to 40 minutes till the potatoes are cooked through and the mutton is soft and done.

Serve with plain steamed rice. And don't forget to squeeze out the gorgeousness that is that garlic!

Roast Chicken with Foil baked Bacon Potatoes

Facebook throws up a number of interesting posts and the ones about food always catch my eye. Today I saw a picture of  sliced potatoes and crisp bacon that had been baked in a foil parcel with a few additional ingredients. It looked superb, I had all the ingredients and it was ridiculously easy to make.

The hubby also had a holiday today and he'd gone off to the market and retuned with a lot of goodies including a tray of plump chicken drumsticks and a tray of fresh white mushrooms. Lunch was looking good!

We had Lemon and Garlic roasted Chicken with Foil Baked Bacon and Potatoes, and Garlicky Mushrooms.

Here's how I made it all. It took me an hour including marinating time.

Roast Chicken

6 drumsticks, poked all over with a sharp knife
Mama Africa's Zulu Jalapeno Lemon Garlic Sauce
salt

Marinate the chicken in a generous amount of the sauce and salt.

15 minutes before you're ready to serve grill the chicken on a non stick pan with a splash of any neutral oil.

If you don't have this particular sauce use any other barbecue or grilling sauce or a ready marinade. Or make up your own marinade. Just tweak as you go and make up the combinations as I did :)

Foil Grilled Bacon Potatoes

3 potatoes, sliced into thin discs
4-5 rashers bacon, lightly fried, drained and cut into pieces
2 onions thickly sliced, grilled in the bacon fat.
salt
pepper
A generous dash of Cajun spice mix (optional)
olive oil
Thick Aluminium foil

Place the foil in a pyrex or metal baking dish. Put the sliced potatoes in a pile in the centre and add salt and a generous amount of freshly cracked pepper. Sprinkle the spice mix if you're using it. A crumbled stock cube will also work wonders here. Put in the bacon pieces and the grilled onions and mix it all up.

Drizzle the oil over the potatoes and then seal the foil over to make a tightly closed parcel. Put it in a preheated oven and bake at 160- 180 degrees for around 40 minutes. You can parboil the potatoes and thus reduce the baking time significantly and also ensure that you get fully cooked potatoes. But I prefer to bake them from scratch.

Garlicky Mushrooms

1 tray/packet button mushrooms
4 -5 cloves garlic
salt
oil

Wash the mushrooms really well and then slice thickly. Heat oil in a pan and throw in the sliced mushrooms. Add a teaspoon or more of chopped garlic, add salt and give it a good stir. I cook it covered for a few minutes and then uncover it and let the water evaporate fully.

Once you've got all three elements cooked and ready just plate up and enjoy. We sure did!

A can of tuna, a bottle of pesto, a jar of spaghetti

It was one of those days when roti sabzi, daal chawal or any variations of these just didn't appeal. So I went through the fridge and the pantry cupboard to see what I could find. A can of tuna, a bottle of pesto and a jar of very old spaghetti is what I came up with. Just perfect for a simple dinner! Of course I added a few more ingredients, but barely.

1 can tuna chunks
enough spaghetti for 2
1 small jar pesto
olive oil
fresh cracked pepper
100 ml cream
A chunk of cheese. I used Aged Cheddar

Boil water and set the spaghetti to cook. Add salt to the boiling water, and add a good splash of olive oil and toss after you drain. reserve a bit of the water, about half a cup should do.

Heat a large saucepan and empty the jar of pesto. Add a couple of ladles of the pasta water. Stir quickly to mix. Dunk in the tuna chunks and the accompanying brine or oil. Break the chunks a bit. Add the cream and stir to make a nice sauce.

Take a plate. Put a heap of the spaghetti in the middle and then top with a generous amount of the pesto cream sauce. Crumble some cheese on top and drizzle some top quality full flavoured olive oil for extra zip. Mix the spaghetti and let the sauce coat all the strands.

Tuck in!

A Bong feast at Hornby's Pavillion, ITC Grand Central

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to the ITC Grand Central - they were having a Bengali food festival. Some months earlier I had been to one at the ITC Maratha and that hadn't impressed me at all. I was still curious to see how it would turn out this time so, along with a few blogger friends, I went.

Let me tell you right at the start I was very impressed. The choice of dishes, the presentation and of course the taste - all very very good indeed. We proceeded to stuff ourselves while Chef Somnath (from the ITC Sonar, Kolkata) made every effort to ensure that were enjoying the food.

The meal began with Vegetable chops. These were delicious, full of assorted vegetables and a ruby red inside because of beetroot.

We also had Cauliflower pakoras but those were not half as delicious as the veg chops.

Next came chicken cutlets. These were excellent! Not the usual frilly egg fried kobiraji cutlet which has a little bone sticking out of one end but escalopes of chicken breaded and fried to perfection.

The last starter we ate was bhetki kobiraji. These looked very promising and we all dived in but unfortunately there was not a speck of salt in the fish so it was quite a disappointment. The fish was fried perfectly and the egg coating had a soft crunch but the lack of salt just killed it.

The starters were accompanied by an array of sauces, chutneys and of course Kasundi.

Once the starters were done Chef Somnath unleashed a veritable flood of food upon us! The vegetarian fare included

Chholar Daal Narkel Diye - Chana daal cooked with coconut

Mulo Palonger Ghanto - Spinach and radish with daal vadi

Chhanar Dalna - Home made Cottage Cheese in a gravy

Aloo Posto - Potato with poppy seeds

Enchorer Dalna - Raw Jackfruit or Kathal

There was also a Phulkopir Tarkari - A Cauliflower Subzi. I forgot to take a photograph. As you can see there was s much food, you can't really blame me!

All this was relished with a simple Ghee Bhaat - Rice with ghee and cashew nuts

At that time I thought luchis or Radhabollobis would have made this menu more complete. In hind sight, considering the sheer amount of food that we were presented with, maybe it was a good thing that there was none! My favourite among these was the Mulo Palonger Ghanto and of course the Aloo Posto.

Moving on to the non vegetarian selection, it was another endless stream of delicious well cooked, perfectly flavoured  food.

There was a Doi Ilish which I also missed taking a picture of. A Tangra Machher Rasa followed

Kosha Mangsho, one of the most well known Bengali mutton preparations

Rewaji Khasir Polao - A pulao made with kid goat, this is a Bangladeshi dish not to be confused with biryani.

And a fabulous Sorse Ilish - Hilsa in Mustard sauce. Here is Chef Somnath with the platter of Sorse Ilish, ready to serve us one of the best preparations of the evening.

And here I am enjoying my Ilish!

There was a mishti doi and an array of Bengali mishti to round off the meal. I'm one of those freak Bengalis who totally ignores mishti, I don't like mishti at all. But judging by the reactions around the table, the mishtis were quite a hit!

Keep an eye out for the next Bengali festival the ITC has. If Chef Somnath is in charge make sure you come. And in case you are in Kolkata, go over to the ITC Sonar and let him treat you to a truly delicious Bengali meal.

I hope the ITC Grand Central brings Chef Somnath back to Mumbai soon!

Yazdani Bakery - a peep inside

I signed up to join The Fort Food Walk that Kalyan of Finely Chopped fame had organised and duly set off on Saturday morning for our meeting point - The Bombay Store on Pherozeshah Mehta road, Fort, Mumbai.

After an hour of a friendly session of getting to know each other we set off to our first food destination of the day, Yazdani Bakery. This place is not new to me. I've been here quite often with the hubby to buy bread for ourselves and even for our catering orders. We sourced our bread from Yazdani for many of the years we catered at the different clubs and gymkhanas in South Bombay. The older generation was in charge those days and now the next generation is in the hot seat. Nothing else has changed though.

As we approached the bakery that wonderful familiar smell of fresh baked bread and the sweet smell of yeast hit me. Oh the memories! Quick dashes on the scooter with the hubby to grab sandwich loaves before the evening rush at the PVM Gymkhana, or sometimes just dropping by to see the new varieties that they were adding to their menu, sitting for a cup of tea and a bun maska and catching a 15 minute break in the middle of a crazy day, or just driving past the bakery and yelling hello to them as we passed by.

Here I was at Yazdani again! We all trooped in to the bakery and made ourselves comfortable at the tables. Bun maska, brun maska, chai and biscuits were ordered. And we waited in anticipation.

Well, not quite! Many of us whipped out the cameras and began to take photographs of the goodies that were all around. breads, cookies, the slicing machine, a tray of beautifully browned bread pudding, the tea pantry, another tray that had slabs of butter neatly arranged, waiting to be slathered on to the buns and bruns that would be dished out.. there was a delightful picture wherever you looked.

Once the appetite for carbs and fats were satisfied, we were taken to the inner sanctum for the ultimate treat - a peep into the the actual bakery where all the real magic happens.


It was unexpectedly large, much larger than I expected. One doesn't realise quite how large this building is considering its relatively small facade. There were piles and piles of baking rays and loaf tins. In the centre of the room was a table that is probably as large as your bedroom. Weathered, scarred and even broken at a few places, it was beautiful. I couldn't resist.. I reached out and ran my hand over the surface. Smooth as silk, I could feel all those mounds of dough that had been kneaded and worked on it. I felt happy.

The entire group of fellow walkers were clustered around the tiny door of the main oven - that massive wood fired beauty that is fired up at 3am every morning and doused only at night. That oven bakes as many as 150 trays of bread at one go! Trays of pau were being loaded in to bake as were clustered around to watch. There was a massive gleaming stainless steel clad very modern electric oven just next to the wood fired one. No one seemed particularly interested in it. I guess it just couldn't compete with the cavernous monster that seemed to have an insatiable appetite for the trays of bread that were passed into its mouth!

Once we'd finished gawping we trooped out and geared up to go to the next food stop on the itinerary. I stopped to take a few pictures. The best part of my Yazdani experience was to follow.

Now the Iranis who run these bakeries are legendary for the excellent quality of their products and their total lack of manners or grace towards the clients. I was in the shop clicking away when an old gent walked in to buy some bread.

Old Man - Arrey, the soft buns are not available on Sundays!
Owner - No. They're not.

Silence.

Old Man - But why not?
Owner - Because they aren't! (irritated already)

Silence.

Old Man (ruefully) - I guess all good things must come to an end
Owner - (snarls) - Yes! Everything comes to an end! (points to the shop) This will end. I will end. YOU will end. So what am I to do?!

Old Man slinks off quietly.

My Yazdani experience was complete!

Aamer Chaatni - Welcoming Summer

A couple of posts ago I showed off my shiny new copper vessel and a pile of tender raw mangoes that the husband brought back from his trip down around the Konkan. While the copper vessel now sits proudly in my kitchen, the mangoes had to be used up. There was no discussion about what we would do with the mangoes - kancha aamer chaatni was on the menu!

Here's the recipe for the chaatni 

Mango season is about to take off and I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the arrival of the King!

On random scribbling and zen doodles

As I paint I think of new designs and motifs, styles to try, ideas to adapt. Among my favourite are simple geometric patterns that are repetitive. You know the kind of doodles we did when we were bored in class? The kind we filled the backs of notebooks with? Endless abstract patterns, even fanciful mehendi designs. I love patterns that grow organically, with no formal direction.

One of my biggest sources of inspiration is Pinterest. I don't know what I did before it came into being! As I went from pin to pin, board to board I have seen thousands of great ideas and doable patterns and designs. I've also picked up some jargon along the way and the most amusing one I found was 'Zen Doodle'.

Zen Doodles are nothing but those mesmerising endless patterns and scribbles that we did! It seems drawing these patterns bring the artist a sense of Zen-like peace - and I do agree with that bit. It's quite nice actually to give a familiar activity a fancy name and I can now proudly say I have a Zen Doodle series  :)

This one is the latest - a lid for a curry bowl.

Amba in Tamba

The hubby was off to do fieldwork (he's an archaeologist) and he was going to a whole lot of places along the Konkan coast, though not necessarily to any of the beaches. I reminded him to bring me some of the beautiful fragrant Ambe Mohar rice that I love. Of course he did.

He also came back with some other goodies including kurdai (a kind of papad made from wheat), a huge pile of tender raw mangoes, some kaju fruit and the show stopper - a gorgeous beaten copper vessel!

I'm gearing up for another sale, a 2 day event this time, and I have tons of stuff waiting to be painted. Work is also keeping me busy. But you know how it is... a beautiful new vessel, the soft light of the morning and a relatively new camera that I'm still getting to know...

So here's what I did today :)

Pork Sausage and Vegetable Stew

My mom brought these incredibly delicious pork sausages from Kalman's Meat Shop in Kolkata. My friend Kalyan had blogged about it many months ago and now this shop is like a cult destination for many pork lovers I know! Goodies from Kalman are now mandatory every time mom comes for a visit.

We had the sausages plain pan fried for breakfast a few mornings ago and the first thing I thought was that they would make an awesome stew.

Among the other goodies I had stashed away was a packet of spice mix for a Spanish Pork Casserole, brought by my friend Appu. Now was a good time to use it.

For the stew or casserole I used 6 of the plump sausages with assorted vegetables including broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, potatoes and onions.

Here are these delicious babies snuggled up on a dinner plate. Yes, that's how large they are!

In a large cooking pot I heated some oil and sautéed the vegetables. Cut the vegetables into bite sized pieces so they cook fast. I added about 8 cloves of garlic too. Once the vegetables began to brown a little I added the sausages. They tend to pop out of the casings once they get hot but the good thing is that they didn't disintegrate.

Over the sautéed vegetables and sausages I sprinkled the spice mix and added a generous amount of water. After giving the whole thing a good stir I covered the pot and let it cook. The sausages cook very quickly, I just needed to ensure that the vegetables were done too. A sprinkling of fresh ground pepper at the end was all I needed to add.

I would have liked to add a good splash of red wine but I didn't have any... at least not any that I could cook with!  The original recipe on the packet requires one to sprinkle the spice powder over raw pork, add a splash of oil and a cup of water, then put into the baking bag provided and subsequently baked for about 45 mins. I decided to simply make a stove top stew since I was using sausages and not pork chunks.

You can make this sort of a stew quite easily even without the convenience of the spice mix packet. Use tomato puree, a couple of finely chopped onions, salt, pepper, and a generous dash of mixed dried herbs. A good splash of red wine will be great. Dilute a bit of white flour in water and add it to thicken the gravy, if you like. Finish with butter or a dash of cream before serving.

Here's my Pork Sausage and Vegetable Stew done in about 30mins. And now that I have shared it with you all, I'm off to eat :)

Roast Chicken in a Bag

I love cooking and I love cooking short cuts even more. Give me a spice mix in a packet, an instant soup, a curry paste, anything that cuts the mundane hard work and the cooking time and I'm a happy girl. Over the years my love for these kitchen aids (as I like to call them) is fairly well known and friends and family frequently bring me goodies in the guise of these convenient packets, jars and cans.

The most recent acquisition was a stack of gravy and roast mixes that my friend Appu brought for me from London. Nothing fancy, nothing gourmet, just the regular everyday kind of stuff that people there put on their weekly grocery lists. From the numerous envelopes that she'd picked up I fished out this one - Herb and Garlic Roast Chicken.

Chicken is most easily available and it's also far easier to cook than mutton or beef. So, though the husband quite detests chicken, it appears on our table quite often. Keeping his dislike of chicken in mind I always try to make it as interesting or different as possible. Compared to the heavier curries and gravies lighter roasts and grills find more favour and this envelope was right up my street.

The baking bag that comes included in this packet adds a nice element of fun and I love playing with new stuff. Baking bags might be the most incredibly mundane thing out there in Britain but here in India, it's novel enough to have quite some appeal.

So here's what you have to do. Put chicken in bag. Pour in the seasoning powder and a generous splash of  cooking oil and shake the bag to coat the chicken nicely. I used olive oil - just the regular kind - don't waste EVOO here. Seal bag with the clip provided, set in baking dish and put it in the preheated oven. Forget it for 30 mins or so and then carefully cut open the bag and cook further letting the chicken brown and crisp nicely. Easy Peasy!

I did exactly as instructed, the only difference being that I didn't use a whole chicken but one that was cut into pieces. Godrej is my favourite brand.

Here's the chicken spiced and bagged and placed in a baking dish.

I popped it in the oven and this is what I got at the end of the cooking process.

Serve with crusty bread, a salad, potato wedges, or grilled vegetables.

Simple flavours with fabulous results. The hubby approved too!

Appu, if you've read this, please bring me more.And be sure to pick up a few for yourself too :)

In the old days I clamoured for fancy ingredients if someone was coming from abroad. Now I request them to go to the local supermarket and get me simple stuff like these Shake and Bake packets that make life easy and delicious!

Bonding over Biryani

Biryani is my most favourite food. It must be a robust mutton biryani typically available in Mumbai of course, but I'd settle for the more subtle Avadhi or Kolkata style biryani in a pinch.

Among my fondest childhood memories is the biryani that was ordered for one of my birthdays from Jeff Caterers in Bandra. The fragrant spicy biryani with golden flavourful chunks of potatoes- my mouth waters even today! As I grew up I tasted different biryanis across Bombay (in those days it was Bombay) and biryani reigned as my top favourite food if we were eating out. The choice of cuisines available in those days was mainly Chinese or Mughlai and biryani won hands down over Chinese Chopsuey, my Bong genes notwithstanding.

The apartment block I grew up in, at Bandstand , Bandra, had a wonderful mix of Muslim families. There were Bohris, Khojas and Sunnis.. oooh the variety of delicious food! Every Eid was a smorgasbord of wonderful food. Sheer Khorma, daal gosht, saalans, kebabs, and of course biryani! My brother would hound the neighbouring aunty in the days running up to any Eid, begging her to make biryani and we just took it for granted that we would be part of the celebrations. Not only did we go over and stuff ourselves shamelessly, other families also sent special preparations cooked up in their kitchens. Life was wonderful.

My mother did a short cooking course at the Dadar Catering college and among the many things she learned there, one was biryani. Oh the way the entire house would bask in the aromas from the kitchen! And the brother and I would be hopping in anticipation, waiting for biryani to be done so we could dig right in. Yes, we're the same even today - just can't wait to dig in.

A few weeks ago plans were made, tickets were bought and mom and bro were set to arrive for a visit. The only thing the brother kept saying was cook something nice, cook something nice. So I thought of making biryani. We all love it and the hubby is quite fond of it too. Mutton biryani was on the menu.

I'd made biryani just once before and I was quite surprised at how simple it really is. And that is mainly why I was confident and relaxed enough to make it again, and that too for this audience. I was competing with all those amazing biryanis of our childhood, after all!

I pulled out Pratibha Karan's book Biryani and used her recipe for Katchi Biryani from Hyderabad. In this recipe the raw meat is cooked under semi cooked rice, in a tightly sealed vessel. I used her recipe as a basic guide and then more or less did my own thing.

So here's my version of kachche gosht ki biryani.

1kg goat meat, preferably kid. cubed.
4 +1 large onions, finely sliced
250gms fresh dahi/yoghurt
2-3 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 bunch fresh mint, finely chopped
1/2 bunch fresh coriander, finely chopped
fresh green chillies, as many as you can handle. I used 4. finely chopped
1tbsp lime juice
1 1/2 tbs Everest Garam Masala (or any blend that you prefer)
1tsp shah jeera
2-3 star anise
4 inch stick of cassia bark or Dalchini. I prefer Cassia over cinnamon in this recipe.
6-8 green cardamom
oil,
ghee,
salt
700gms good quality long grain Basmati rice

The only painful part in this recipe is frying the onions. Heat a generous quantity of oil in a kadai or wok and fry the 4 sliced onions till they are golden brown. reserve 1 sliced onion for later. Take care not to burn them (I did, the first time I made this biryani). Drain out the excess oil and let the fried onions cool. Add a scant teaspoon of sugar while frying the onions - not only will they brown faster but you will also get a fabulous depth of flavour. Once the onions are cooled, crush them as well as you can. Keep some fried onions aside for the final garnish.

Marinate the mutton. I don't wash the mutton much. Just a very very quick rinse and that's it. Let it drain and then add the crushed onions, dahi, garam masala powder, ginger garlic paste, chopped green chillies, mint, coriander and salt. Add the lime juice too. Mix it all thoroughly and let it marinate for at least 7 to 8 hours.

About 2 hours before you want to serve wash and drain the rice and then lay it out on a tea towel to dry. This simple step helps in keeping the rice grains separate while cooking. 15 minutes on the tea towel should suffice.

In your biryani degh or thick bottomed vessel heat a couple of tablespoons of oil. Use the oil left over from the first batch of fried onions. Once hot, add the whole spices and the reserved sliced onion. Brown the onion lightly and then start adding the marinated mutton. Braise it slowly on a medium flame stirring all the time. Once all the meat has been added let it braise for about 15 to 20 minutes. Stir every few minutes so all the pieces get seared and nothing sticks to the base. Add the all marinade to the pot. Once most of the liquid has evaporated it's time to add the rice.

In my house biryani without potatoes is considered a crime against humanity. So potatoes were duly added. Usually regular large potatoes are quartered or cut into 6 chunks at the most, depending on how large they are. I had bought a bag of baby potatoes hoping that Mom would make Alu'r Dom but  instead used them in the biryani.

Scrub the potatoes really well, fry them in a little oil and add them when the meat is half braised. Poke the potatoes with a sharp knife to ensure cooking and to help them absorb the wonderful flavours of the biryani.

The original recipe requires the rice to be cooked a little before it is added to the meat. Boil about 3 1/2 litres of water with salt and a tsp of oil. Add the rice into the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Don't overcook! Drain the rice in a colander.

Good quality Basmati cooks very fast so I took a chance and skipped the above step and added my washed, drained and dried rice to the biryani. All you have to do is spread the rice on top of the meat in the degh. There will be just two layers - meat at the bottom and the rice on top. Poke a few holes through the rice and pour in pure ghee. You can also sprinkle saffron milk over the top to give the rice grains a pretty colour. Add a cup and a half of hot water and then cover the vessel with a tight fitting lid. You can weigh the lid down with a heavy stone or you can seal it with a simple dough.

Once the vessel is sealed let the biryani cook for 30-35 mins on a slow flame. A good indicator for doneness is that the dough sealing the degh will be dry and hard.

Open up the degh and garnish the biryani with a handful of chopped fresh coriander and a generous sprinkling of fried onions. If you're like me, you will take a photograph at this phase!

Stir up the biryani to mix the meat, potatoes and rice and serve with a simple raita.

Bon Apetit!

I'm glad to report that the biryani was quite a success. I had misjudged the proportions a little and there was more mutton than rice but nobody was complaining ;) And those baby potatoes were simply delicious!

The family gathered around a degh of biryani.. there are few things that could make me happier.