Aloo Potol Begun Bhaja - Simplicity Personified

A visit to Kolkata always means a whole lot of Bengali food for me to look forward to. No, not just the biryani, chaap, roll, rezala, and other delicious fare, but the simple daily fare that graces tables in Bengali households every day. The clean flavours of the vegetables (or fish) with a minimal stroke of spices make many of these daily mundane dishes quite delicious and are light on the tummy too. When you're on holiday you know you're going to indulge in a lot of fancy food and it's these simple homely meals that help keep the balance between indulgence and over indulgence.

This afternoon we had the typical 'bhaat-daal-bhaja' sort of meal with random leftovers to add variety. While bhajas are usually very basic with the fish or vegetable simply smeared with turmeric and salt and then fried in hot mustard oil, sometimes one might add a smattering of nigella seeds (kalonji) along with a fresh green chilli or two for a little more flavour. You can either have just one vegetable or a combination of them too. 

I was in the mood for a little more so I made a bhaja tempered with nigella seeds using a combination of potato, eggplant, and pointed gourd (potol).

1 Potato 

2 Potol or pointed gourd 

1 Small eggplant 

1/4 tsp Nigella seeds 

Salt 

Turmeric 

Mustard oil

Peel the potato and the pointed gourds. Cut all the vegetables into small cubes.

Sprinkle them with salt and turmeric and mix to coat them properly.

Heat mustard oil in a wok or kadai. Once the oil is hot chuck in the nigella seeds and let them sizzle.

Put in the vegetables and stir well for a minute.

Cover the wok and reduce the heat letting the vegetables cook for around 5 minutes.

Stir occasionally and cook till done. I like to brown the vegetables a little.

Serve with hot rice and daal.

The Sri Lanka Chronicles - Dambulla Vegetable Market

In our week in Sri Lanka we saw many wonderful things but what gave me the biggest thrills were the vegetable and fruit markets. As of the last few years, wherever I travel my heart's desire is to visit as many local markets as possible to see what the local produce is and what new (to me) ingredients I chance upon.

We were in Sri Lanka for a conference and after the conference we had a few days to ourselves touring some of the biggest Buddhist heritage sites in the country. Among these was Dambulla which has a huge cave monastery and cave temple site (a World Heritage Site). Though we didn't actually see the temples or monastery, the hubby having restrictions on climbing and walking thanks to recent knee surgery, we spent a happy hour or so sitting at The Golden Temple at Dambulla followed by a walk through the local vegetable market.

Dambulla is the central wholesale hub for produce in the country and there's a huge wholesale market where the goods arrive from across the island and are redistributed and sent off to markets in the cities and towns. It's big business and there's constant activity with large and small trucks driving in and out carrying every vegetable and fruit grown in Sri Lanka. 

Our driver told us there are no market stalls inside and apart from men loading and unloading sacks there would be nothing to see. I was quite disappointed but we'd seen a small local market teeming with produce just a kilometre or so nearby and so we decided to check that out instead. I still believe the wholesale market will be magical and will go there someday. But till then I'm content with what I saw in the smaller market.

The market was a long line of stalls along the side of the main road, each one packed with fresh vegetables, fruit, and a variety of local fried snacks and other small eats and ingredients - sort of like a small grocery section within the vegetable shop. There were plenty of green leafy vegetables, varieties of melons and squashes, beans, brinjals, kohlrabi, cabbages and lots more.

Kale is very popular and I saw it in many markets across Sri Lanka. They simply call it 'cabbage leaves'

Winged beans. These are so beautiful! Not something one sees commonly in the Mumbai markets but I saw them in many places in Sri Lanka.

The hubby loves kohlrabi and was delighted to see such big and fresh looking kohlrabi in the market. I was so tempted to buy a few to bring back, but unfortunately I didn't. I should have! 

Buffalo curd paired with palm treacle is a hugely popular dessert in Sri Lanka and we encountered it at nearly every meal there. The hubby was a very happy puppy indeed!

Pandan leaves!

One of the fruit stalls at Dambulla market. Varieties of bananas mangoes, avocados, watermelons, apples, king coconuts, and lots more!

I saw packets of chaklis and other fried snacks also on sale among the piles of vegetables and bunches of fruit.

Kithul or palm jaggery. 

Markets have a certain energy - mounds of fresh produce, sellers waxing eloquent, the noise, the buzz... something about markets make them really hard for me to resist. The half hour we spent at this one in Dambulla is one of my best memories of our holiday in Sri Lanka. 

Popatjees - Sweet Puffy Nostalgia

I first heard of popatjees when the hubby reminisced about the tea time snacks his grandmom and grand aunts used to make. His Mamaiji (maternal grand mother) and Serah Aunty (father's aunt) were well known for their repertoires of evening snacks - bhakras, karkarias, chaapat, cake, and on occasion, popatjees. The quirky name had stuck in my mind and I was curious about them but somehow I never got a chance to see them made or actually eat them either.

Popatjes are a simple snack - lightly flavoured fermented dough balls deep fried till dark brown and then dunked in a sugar syrup for a few moments and removed. The fermenting agent is ideally toddy though sour curd is commonly used if toddy isn't available.

The years passed, the elders were gone. I'd not encountered the popatjee yet. But, I had got my hands on my mother in law's popatjee no paenno - the special vessel in which the popatjees are made.

Ingredients were gathered, toddy was procured, the husband was booked for the afternoon, and I set out to make popatjees under his supervision.

1 cup Whole wheat flour 

1 cup Semolina or rava 

2 cups Toddy 

Salt 

2 tbsps Charoli 

2 -3 tbsps Raisins 

1 tsp Cardamom-nutmeg powder 

1 tsp Vanilla 

1 cup Sugar 

2 cups Water 

Oil

In a clean large bowl mix the wheat flour with the semolina. Add a pinch of salt. Into this pour most of the toddy, reserving around a quarter of a cup.

Mix with a spatula to form a loose, thick, porridge-y dough. Add the remaining toddy only if required. Cover the bowl with a napkin and leave it in a warm corner to ferment for 2 to 3 hours.

To make cardamom - nutmeg powder take cardamom seeds and nutmeg in equal weight and grind in a spice mill with some sugar to help it along. Store in an air tight bottle and use as required. Don't discard the skins of the cardamom pods - use them to make masala tea, or in your regular cooking.

Add the raisins and the charoli nuts, along with the cardamom-nutmeg powder and vanilla into the dough. Mix.

In a saucepan pour in the sugar and water and bring to a boil to make a simple syrup. Add a few cardamom peels to the water while making the syrup.

To make the popatjees get your cooking area organised. Put the popatjee no paenno on the gas hob and pour in enough oil to fill all the cavities to the brim. Heat the oil.

Have the syrup ready and conveniently placed nearby. Keep a colander and a vessel under it ready.

Once the oil is hot carefully drop in a heaped tablespoon of batter into each cavity of the paenno. If you're using a regular appe pan these cavities are much smaller so drop in a smaller quantity of dough. 

Turn the popatjee in just a few seconds so the top also gets sealed and you get a uniformly cooked popatjee. Lower the heat and let the popatjees cook for a few minutes, turning as required. 

Remove each popatjee carefully, drain what oil you can and dunk into the waiting syrup. If the syrup is still hot the popatjees will suck it in quickly.

Remove from the syrup in a few seconds, don't leave them in for more than 10 seconds. Let them drain in the colander.

Serve the popatjees as soon as you can.

We had our popatjees with our evening coffee. Well, in our house it's coffee time at tea time ;)

The key to a good popatjee is proper fermentation and if the dough has risen properly you will get a light porous popatjee that will not only absorb the sugar syrup quickly, it also lets a good amount of syrup drain out resulting in a sweet snack that's not sickeningly sweet. We did get the fermentation right, now we just have to perfect the art of getting them properly shaped! Regardless of the less than perfect shape, they did taste quite good and I'm sure Mamaiji and Serah Aunty would have both approved. 

Pakki Keri ma Gos - Mutton with Ripe Mangoes

Everybody knows I don't like fruits and I don't eat them at all if I can help it. So if you're wondering what I'm doing blogging a recipe that has ripe mangoes in it, bear with me! A few years ago I asked the husband to dig up some Parsi dishes that were not so commonly known any more, possibly with some unusual ingredients, that we could add to our menu at Katy's Kitchen. I was a bit weary of the sali botis and patra ni machhis and wanted to offer a wider selection on our menu and have a deeper glimpse into Parsi cuisine. That's when he, with a twinkle in his eye, told me about Pakki Keri ma Gos - goat meat cooked with ripe mangoes. Very predictably I looked at him in complete disbelief and accused him of making up something that was sure not to appeal to me just to get out of the hassle of expanding our menu. How wrong I was!

We've been serving Pakki Keri ma Gos to many of our devoted clients every summer over the last few years and yes, I take full credit for putting it out there again.

The mutton for this dish is cooked with relatively fewer spices making it perfect for a summer meal. This also allows the flavour of the mango to shine through giving the dish a light sweet-sour touch. Use a well ripened but still slightly firm mango reserving a few chunks to be added towards the end.

500 gms Mutton 

1 Large ripe mango, cubed 

2 Large onions, finely chopped 

Ginger garlic paste 

Turmeric 

Chilli powder 

Shahi jeera 

Javitri powder 1/4 tsp 

Saffron 

1 cup Milk 

Garam masala powder 

2 -3 Kashmiri chillies 

Oil

Salt

Wash the mutton lightly, drain off water and then marinate with salt and ginger garlic paste for 20 minutes or so.

Soak the saffron in the milk.

In a thick bottomed vessel heat oil and fry the onions till pink.

Add the Kashmiri chillies and shah jeera and let it sizzle. Add the turmeric, chilli powder, and javitri powder. Add a couple of teaspoons of water and cook it all for a minute.

Now put the marinated mutton into the pot, stir well to coat with the spices and braise for 5 to 10 minutes. Add half the cubed mango and the stone (gutli) of the mango along with saffron milk into the mutton and mix. Pour enough water to just cover the meat, cover the pot and cook on a low flame till the mutton is nearly done.

Add the remaining chunks of mango, mix and cook till the meat is completely done. Dry off the gravy if it is watery. The gravy should be thick, and slightly sticky and the meat should be soft and falling off the bone.

Serve with hot rotis or parathas.

I paired the Pakki Keri ma Gos with a quinoa and vegetable pullao. I cooked this combination for a competition I participated in where the challenge was to cook a dish using mangoes and quinoa. 

Mixed Millet Pullao with Goan Choriz

Challenges add flavour to life and this is something I'm beginning to appreciate even more after I participated in the Commeat Recipe Challenge with KitchenAid India. This challenge, spread over five weeks, had five well known people from the food blogging and writing world with each one setting a challenge every week.

The first challenge was set by Bangalore blogger Neha Mathur and her challenge was "cook something innovative with millets". Now, the thing is, I've led a fairly sheltered life as far as food is concerned and have only recently been formally introduced to millets. There was no rush of creativity and I was quite stymied. The only thing I'd made with millets was a sort of pullao with assorted vegetables and that didn't seem particularly creative or even worthy of the challenge. As I mulled over pullao possibilities and tried to think of something beyond the obvious, I settled on making a choriz pullao using millets in place of rice.

25 Goan Choriz links (for stock) 

25 Goan Choriz links 

1 cup Mixed millets 

1 Onion sliced 

4 cloves Garlic chopped 

1 Green capsicum 

1 Potato 

Salt 

Oil

Dry roast the millets in a frying pan over medium heat till they give out a fragrant toasty smell.
Peel the choriz reserved for the stock and boil in 2 cups of water for a few minutes till the meat is cooked. Strain the meat and reserve the liquid stock.

Cube the potatoes and chop the capsicum into half inch sized pieces.

Heat oil in a pan and fry the potatoes over medium heat till they are cooked. Be careful not to over-brown them.

Add the sliced onions to the pan and fry for a further couple of minutes. Add the garlic too.

Now add the drained choriz meat along with the chopped capsicum, mix well and fry for another minute.

Peel the remaining choriz links and add it all to the pan. Cook over medium heat letting the fat render from the choriz. You can cover the pan at this stage and let it cook for a few minutes. 
Add salt allowing for the millets you will add later.

Remove approximately one quarter of this mix to a bowl and keep aside.

Now add the toasted millets to the pan and mix everything properly. Pour in the choriz stock and once it boils reduce the heat and let the millets absorb all the liquid in the pan.

Cover the pan and let it rest for five minutes. Then fluff up the grains with a fork, garnish with the reserved vegetable and choriz mix and serve your millets and choriz pullao hot.

We thoroughly enjoyed the pullao and, in fact, the hubby had seconds too. And that's not all - my recipe won a prize! Now I have a stylish ice cream scoop from KitchenAid poshing up my small tools drawer.

Pui Chingri

The vegetable market in Nerul is one of my favourite markets - first of all, it's not a concrete building but a neatly laid out grid of old fashioned stalls covered with tarpaulin. The paths between the stalls are uneven and the whole affair is rough and rustic. One jostles other shoppers, avoids the odd rotting veggie on the floor, and tries to catch the attention of the vendor as he attends to other customers, weighs produce, takes payments, and generally goes about his business. There are no aseptic aisles with neatly packaged produce on shiny, well lit shelves. Not that I don't enjoy a trip to the supermarket, but supermarkets don't have that energetic vibe of a proper street market, do they?

I had slid into the habit of buying groceries and even vegetables and fruit online - there's no match for the convenience that affords - but after a few months I was itching to be out there in the market, in the middle of that magical atmosphere surrounded by people, noise, and piles of fresh produce.

I waited for the hubby's day off from work and dragged him off to the market. The monsoons have just hit Maharashtra and fresh greens and seasonal vegetables are now flowing back into the markets. As I wandered among the stalls I came to the one that sells fresh leafy greens of every variety along with an excellent selection of 'videshi' or foreign produce - broccoli, basil, asparagus, parsley, etc., which are now as mundane as carrots and potatoes. As I looked at the leafy greens I saw many I had never cooked/eaten/seen before. So I thought to myself, why not try something new, and picked up a bunch of basella or Malabar spinach, what we Bengalis call Pui.

Leafy greens are commonly used in Bengali recipes and you will find both vegetarian (in fact, vegan) and non vegetarian preparations. Fish and prawns are often stir fried with seasonal greens, lightly tempered with paanch phoron, or just mustard or nigella seeds, or combinations of the same with green chillies, etc., accompanied with vegetables like red pumpkin, potatoes, green peas, brinjals, etc. I decided to make Pui Chingri, a dish I had heard about but never eaten.

Pui Chingri 

15 Prawns 

1 bunch Pui or malabar spinach 

1 Large potato 

1/2 tsp Paanch phoron 

3 Green chillies 

Turmeric 

Salt 

Mustard oil

Shell and devein the prawns, and wash.

Marinate the drained prawns in salt and turmeric

Clean the pui - pick out wilted leaves and discard the very thick, woody bits of stem. Chop and wash the pui greens in plenty of water. Drain in a colander.

Cut the potato into medium sized cubes.

Heat mustard oil in a wok and fry the prawns for a minute till they turn opaque. Remove to a dish.

In the same oil fry the cubed potatoes till they get slightly browned. Remove to the same plate with the prawns.

Add a little more mustard oil to the wok if required and let it heat up. Drop in the green chillies and follow with the paanch phoron.

Once the spices sizzle add the washed and drained pui leaves and tender stalks. Stir it all well till most of the leaves have begun to wilt. Add salt and a little turmeric, cover and cook on a low flame for a few minutes.

Add the fried potatoes and cook further. Don't add any water - the pui will release enough to cook the potatoes. Stir well and cook till the potatoes are nearly done.

Add the prawns to the wok and mix thoroughly. Cover and cook for a minute. If there's too much water in the wok leave off the cover and dry it off till it's minimal.

Serve the Pui Chingri with a simple daal and hot rice.

The pui greeens didn't seem to have much of an inherrent flavour but I still liked the dish and so did the hubby. Smaller prawns would be ideal for this as they pack tons of flavour and would certainly enhance the dish. Teamed with a simple masoor daal and plain white rice, this made for a lovely mid week dinner and the husband has packed the leftovers in his office dabba. Now if that isn't a stamp of approval I don't know what is!

Begun Basanti - Eggplants in Mustard and Curd

Begun Basanti. I don't remember where I encountered this dish for the first time but the name lingered in my mind. I only encountered it online, mentioned on someone's post on Facebook or in a food group or some such random location. The name had me hooked. Compared with 'begun bhaja' 'begun pora' 'neem begun' etc., which are bare descriptions of the dish, begun basanti was mysterious and romantic and deicious all at once!

Today a close friend was coming for lunch and these days, whenever someone comes over for a meal I try to cook something new or special, something I haven't cooked a zillion times already. I had a bunch of lovely green long brinjals in the veg drawer in the fridge and since Bengalis love brinjals I knew I was cooking something with these babies. I remembered Begun Basanti and thought of making it finally.

A trawl through the Internet and a glance through my Bengali cookbooks threw up quite a few recipes with many variations - some had curd, some had coconut, while others had posto (poppy seeds), and some had combinations of these, while the common ingredient was mustard paste. I figured out a basic recipe from my reading and proceeded to make my version of Begun Basanti.

6 - 8 long green brinjals
2-3 green chillies
1 inch fresh ginger
1/2 packet Sunrise Mustard powder
4 tbsp curd, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp kalonji or nigella seeds
turmeric
chilli powder
jeera powder
salt
sugar
mustard oil

Wash the brinjals and cut them into long pieces. I cut the brinjal into 4 inch pieces and slit each piece lengthwise.
Sprinkle salt and turmeric on the cut brinjals and leave aside for 10 minutes.
Soak the mustard powder in a little water to make a runny paste and let it sit for 10 - 15 minutes.
Pound the ginger in a mortar to make it as fine as you can.
Heat mustard oil in a wok or kadai and fry the brinjals till soft. Let the cut sides brown but don't burn the brinjals. Remove the fried brinjals to a plate.

In a bowl combine the mustard paste with the beaten curd, smashed fresh ginger, salt and turmeric. Make a smooth mix. This will form your gravy.
In the same oil chuck in the kalonji followed by the green chillies. You can slit the chillies for extra punch.
Now pour in the mustard-curd paste and stir well. Add some chilli powder and jeera powder. Let this cook for a few minutes till the oil separates out again.
Add the fried brinjal pieces and a good pinch of sugar. Stir gently to coat the brinjal pieces with the gravy. Be careful not to squash or break the brinjal pieces. Let it cook for 3 -4 minutes.
Now add half a cup of water, stir and let it simmer for another couple of minutes. Reduce the gravy to a consistency you like.
Add salt if required.
Remove to a nice serving bowl and garnish with fresh chopped coriander.

This is great as a side dish on an elaborate dinner menu and also as the star of a light dinner paired with simple rotis.

Daab'er Shaansh ar Gondhoraaj Lebu diye Chingri - Prawns in Tender Coconut and Gondhoraj Zest

It was one more of the little dinner parties I have - just a few friends, and a completely home-cooked meal. Since one of my guests was a friend from Australia who misses Bengali food a lot, I was cooking a Bengali meal in her honour. I planned to make the entire elaborate traditional meal right from the bhaja, teto (bitter element) daal, through fish, chatney, and a finale of mangsho'r jhol. However we're having sickeningly hot weather and the hubby cautioned me to pare down the menu as no one would actually enjoy the full spread in this awful weather. That did make sense and I edited my menu severely by removing the little fiddly elements like the bhatey (mashed vegetable) and bhaja (fried accompaniment with daal), and even the vegetable course I had planned.  The final menu had a simple daal, plain white rice, a prawn course, mangsho'r jhol (goat curry) and kaancha aam'er chatney, followed by gur'er paayesh for dessert.

I started out with a plan to make Daab Chingri, a well known Bengali classic, with the prawns. I happened to have loads of daab (tender coconuts) at home and it had been a while since I'd made daab chingri. As it happens with me a lot, though I planned a tried and tested and guaranteed to be great dish, something kept me hesitating, not a 100% convinced. I checked countless recipes online and dithered away, or simply cooked the other things on my menu.

And then it was evening and my guests would be arriving in a little more than an hour! I hadn't made any progress with my daab chingri. And then I had an idea. The daab chingri was abandoned but not entirely. I was in the mood to fool around and I had, what I thought would be a brilliant dish in my mind. But I did have guests to feed - so taking no chances I had a quick confer with the hubby and I was back in the kitchen ready to make Daab'er Shaansh ar Gondhoraaj Lebu diye Chingri.

500 gms, fresh medium sized prawns
flesh from two tender coconuts
1 cup tender coconut water
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/2 tsp zest of Gondhoraaj Lemon
1 large onion finely chopped
2 or 3 green chillies minced
1 inch fresh ginger
salt
turmeric
Mustard oil

Shell and devein the prawns. You can leave the heads on if you like, I don't because the hubby is allergic to the shell. Marinate the washed and drained prawns in salt and turmeric.
In a wok heat the mustard oil. Once it's hot reduce the flame and chuck in the finely chopped onions and the minced green chillies. Fry slowly taking care not to brown the onions at all.
Smash the ginger into a rough paste in your mortar and pestle. Use fresh ginger instead of store bought paste - the flavour is significantly better. Add it to the frying onions.
After a minute or so add the prawns. Stir well and cook over a medium flame till the prawns turn just opaque.
Now add the coconut flesh and the coconut water. Bring it to a boil and add the coconut cream. You can use half a cup of thickly made coconut milk using a commercial coconut powder if you don't have coconut cream. Mix well.
Let it all simmer till the prawns are cooked. Don't over cook your prawns!
Switch off the flame and then sprinkle the Gondhoraaj zest over the curry. Cover the pot and let it infuse for 5 minutes.
Serve with plain hot rice.

No Mess Tandoori Chicken with Asahi Kasei Foil

This summer we're facing quite a severe water shortage here in Kharghar with water in the taps for less than an hour in a day. One of the biggest fall outs of this situation is that I can hardly cook or bake and that can become really difficult for me to deal with. In the mad dash to fill up water to last through the day, deal with laundry, dishes, and drinking water, not every chore gets done in time. I'm often left with unwashed dishes and half done laundry that takes a couple of days to deal with. There have been times when all I've managed to wash is one coffee mug and the water has gone...

In this situation it's natural that one looks for solutions because eating takeaways and one pot meals for nearly three months is sure to drive us nuts. Yes, I'm using biodegradable disposable plates already and I'm seriously considering paper glasses for coffee/water. But I need to figure out ways to be able to cook interesting things but keep the washing up easy and minimal.

Then I remembered the Asahi Kasei products that I had used at the APB Cook Studio a few months ago at a pot luck event Rushina had hosted. I'd made this Roast Chicken using the cooking foil to fry the potatoes on. I had some of that foil at home and I realised this could be the answer to my prayers!

I decided to make a simple no fuss Tandoori Chicken using the foil in the oven. If you think about it Tandoori Chicken is one of the simplest things one can make at home and that too, with great results. All you really need to do is marinate the chicken for a few hours and then cook it either in a tandoor if you have one, or an oven like I did.

In normal circumstances I would have placed the marinated chicken directly into my baking dish or tray. This time I lined my baking tray with the Asahi Kasei foil and then placed the chicken pieces on it. Not only did I end up with perfectly cooked tandoori chicken thanks to a good recipe, I also had a spotless baking tray with no scorched bits of marinade or cooking juices stuck on it. I could have actually just put that tray back in the cupboard, it was that clean.


For the Tandoori Chicken -

6 full chicken legs - thigh and drumstick
1 cup thick curd
Salt
1/2 tsp Amchur powder
2 -3 drops orange food colour (optional)

Grind together in a little vinegar -

8 - 10 Kashmiri chillies
1 tsp Peppercorns
1/2 tsp Cloves
2" piece Cassia bark
2 Black cardamoms
8 - 10 cloves Garlic

Cut deep slashes into the chicken legs. Mix the ground paste into the curd with the remaining ingredients and marinate the chicken pieces for at least 6 hours in the fridge. You can put the marinated pieces into a sealed plastic bag and freeze till you need them. Just make sure you thaw the pieces properly before you cook them.

Preheat your oven to 180C.

Line a baking dish or metal cookie sheet with Asahi Kasei cooking foil. Turn up the edges along the sides of the dish/cookie sheet.  Place the chicken pieces on the foil leaving room around the pieces so they cook properly. Bake in the hot oven for around 40 minutes. Turn the pieces over and cook for another 10 - 15 minutes.

You can also cook this in your frying pan lined with the Asahi Kasei cooking foil. Line the pan with foil covering the cooking surface and the sides of the pan. Place chicken pieces on the foil and then cook covered on a slow flame. Turn the pieces to cook evenly on all sides. The advantage of cooking this dish in the oven is the light charring that gives the tandoori that nice smoked flavour but the pan cooked version is not far behind on the yumminess scale.

Serve hot with rotis, naan, or bread, and sliced onions and fresh lime wedges.

The thing about tandoori chicken is that it's quite a low fat preparation as there's no cream in the marinade and no oil is used in the cooking process. With variations in the marinade one can make quite a range of delicious yet low fat versions of this simple recipe. And of course, the Asahi Kasei foil is quite a boon that makes the washing up woes simply go away.

Mutton Cocktail Kebabs - A Katy's Kitchen Classic

One of the most popular party snacks on the Katy's Kitchen menu is the mutton cocktail kebab. Little morsels of spicy mutton mince deep fried to perfection, these nibbles are perfect for parties or even for a not so quiet evening watching the T20 matches at home. Make ahead if you like (just zap in the microwave before you serve) or serve them hot out of the wok - either way these are just delicious!

Mutton Cocktail Kebabs

1/4 kilo mutton kheema
5 slices bread
2 eggs
2 large onions, chopped fine
1/2 cup fresh coriander, chopped fine
1/2 cup fresh mint, chopped fine
5 green chillies, chopped fine
1 heaped tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
salt
oil for frying

Mix all the ingredients barring the sliced bread in a clean bowl. Mix well to blend everything nicely.
Soak bread slices in water for a couple of minutes and then squeeze out as much water as possible with your palms. Crumble this soaked and squeezed bread into the kheema mix. Knead everything together. You need to get a slightly wet mix so if it's too dry add another egg.

Heat plenty of oil (enough to deep fry) in a wok or kadai till it smokes. Quickly spoon in the mix, a teaspoon at a time and fry for three or four minutes, turning gently till the kebabs are cooked through. You can also take a large portion of the mix in your hand and drop in small gobbets of the mix into the hot oil. Either way, be very careful as the hot oil can cause accidents. Do this in small batches so you have better control and the kebabs don't get over cooked.

Remove the kebabs onto a tissue lined plate to get rid of excess oil, and then serve with a mint chutney or with good old ketchup. 

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto and Grana Padano Pull Apart Rolls

If there's one thing that cheers up the hubby it's the smell of bread baking. He'd been bugging me to make bread at home for quite some time but for one reason or the other it just wasn't happening. This morning I decided nothing was going to get in the way - I was going to bake some bread no matter what. Something simple, comforting, and easy to put together with whatever I had in the fridge and pantry. 

After rooting around I found a jar of sun dried tomato pesto and a wedge of Grana Padano cheese among a whole lot of other things and thought of using the two in pull apart rolls. Pull aparts are among the easiest breads you can make at home, and if you're a beginner with breads, these rolls will boost your confidence for sure. Simply make the basic dough, knead for a bit, let it rise, roll out, slather with filling, roll up, slice into portions, place in baking tin, let rise again, and bake. That's it. It's just the initial kneading that requires some attention, and once that's done it's a matter of following a simple procedure step by step.

I've made pull aparts with many different fillings - some sweet, some savoury - and there's no end to the variety of possibilities. Tomato and cheese is a classic combination and it works very well in breads too. In these rolls I used Grana Padano, a hard cheese from Italy that is similar to Parmesan. In fact, you can use Parmesan instead if you prefer. 


Sun Dried Tomato Pesto and Grana Padano Pull Apart Rolls


200 gms all purpose flour
2 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp sugar
3/4 cup lukewarm water
2 tsp butter, softened
1 tsp salt
3-4 tsp sun dried tomato pesto
1/2 cup Grana Padano, grated
extra butter for brushing

Mix the sugar and yeast in a bowl and then pour the luke warm water over both. 

Take flour in a clean mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast-sugar mix. Bring it all together with a pastry cutter (it's less messy) or simply mix with your fingers. You will have a sticky dough. Remove from the bowl to your floured work surface. 

On the side of your work surface mix the butter and salt with your fingers, rubbing in a light circular motion, fingers parallel to the surface. Once the butter looks pale and foamy mix it into the dough. Now knead gently till you have a soft pliable dough, stretching and folding as you go. Dust with dry flour as required if the dough is too sticky. Knead for 10 to 12 minutes. 

Roll the dough into a ball and place it in a clean bowl to rise. Cover with a damp cloth and leave it to double. This should take around 20 to 30 minutes depending on the weather. 

Once the dough has doubled remove it onto your floured work surface. Deflate it gently and knead it for a minute. 

Roll out the dough into a largeish rectangle. Try to get a uniform shape or you will have lop-sided rolls. Spread a generous few dollops of the sun dried tomato pesto going to the edges of the rectangle. Try to drain out as much of the oil as possible from the pesto (when baking, the oil will settle to the bottom of your baking tin and you will end up with 'fried' bits). Grate the cheese over the pesto uniformly. 

Now carefully roll the rectangle Swiss-roll style. Do this gently or your roll will be lumpy and loose. Tighten the roll as you go. You will have a long roll of dough. Cut into rolls with a sharp non serrated knife or a dough scraper. Arrange the rolls loosely in a baking tin, cut sides horizontal, leaving enough room for the rolls to prove and swell till they are double, or just squashed up closely with each other. Use more than one tin if they don't all fit into one, but don't crowd them. 

Once they have proved pop them into a preheated oven at 200C and bake for around 20 minutes till the tops are a nice golden brown. Brush with a bit of butter as soon as you take them out of the oven. 

Serve them warm or enjoy them at leisure with a bowl of soup.