Aloo Tamatar Sabzi (Curried Potatoes in Tomato Gravy)

Ingredients:
4 medium potatoes (boiled and slightly mashed to form small chunks)
1 large onion chopped finely
3 cloves garlic finely minced
1" ginger finely minced
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 dry red chillis
10-12 curry leaves
2 green chilli slit length wise
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
3 medium sized tomatoes finely chopped
1 1/2 tbsp oil
chopped coriander leaves for garnish
1 tsp sugar (optional)

Method
Heat oil in a kadhai, and add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add red chillies and curry leaves and stir fry for a few seconds. Add onion, ginger, and garlic and saute till the onions turn light brown. Add the green chillis and all the masala powders. Mix well.

Add the tomatoes and stir fry till the fat leaves the sides and the chopped tomatoes are reduced to a 'squish'. Add the potatoes and stir the gravy. Cover with a lid and let it simmer on low heat for 3-4 minutes.

Remove lid and add salt and enough water to cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil and then let it simmer. Add sugar (again, this is optional). Remove from heat and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with rotis/steamed white rice.

Potato Podimaas (aka Potato Crumble)

Day before yesterday, I had my first taste of Potato Podimaas. I'm not a huge fan of Tamil food usually, in fact I think it's a little monotonous, the daily fare of sambhar and rasam and curd, but once in a while, something like this comes along and makes me reconsider my opinion on the whole genre, so to speak.

Now, to get on with the story. I had spent the entire day in a shopping mall with my friend's mother (less a friend's mother and more a friend, really) we had eaten lunch outside, and had gone back to their home. She had managed to skip cooking lunch but had a very hungry husband and son waiting at home for some home-cooked dinner. She was tired after the whole day, and decided to make some tomato rasam and potato podimaas for dinner.

I ate the podimaas and loved it so much that I borrowed the recipe and made it last night at home. This is the ideal bachelor cooking, and I am told it can be made with raw banana as well... or really, any vegetable that can be mashed well after boiling. Cheers!

Ingredients
3 medium sized potatoes (boiled & mashed)
4-5 green chillies
1/2 inch ginger cut into very fine pieces
2-3 tsp lime juice
A pinch of turmeric powder
Salt to taste
1tbsp of cooking oil
For the seasoning:1/2 tsp each of mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal.
1 sprig curry leaves

Method
Heat the oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds first & when it begins to splutter add the rest of the seasoning. Now add the cut green chillies and ginger, fry for a minute & then add the mashed potatoes & salt. Mix everything well, cover it & let it cook for five min. Remove from heat and add lime juice.

Your scrambled potatoes are ready.

Mutton Curry

I'm not much of a red meat eater. I eat mutton about once a year, and I did start eating beef in 2005 after disregarding my Brahmin origins, and although I liked the taste, I figured I wouldn't be eating it very frequently either. Bengali Brahmins, like the Kashmiri pundits, are lucky because unlike any other Brahmin community in the country, they can eat fish and meat, but beef is still taboo, considered to be from the holy animal, seen as more of a 'mlechha' (Non-Aryan, barbarian) Muslim/Christian influence.

I'm fortunate to have no such stigma in my family - my father loves beef and my mother developed a fetish for beef kaati rolls when she was pregnant with me. However, I've just never enjoyed red meat, preferring to stick to fish and chicken if given a choice.

But I digress. Today's recipe is the Mutton Curry, the Kosha Maangsho (literally thick, spicy mutton gravy) that is a huge favourite with all Bengalis. Lamb Curry is more of a 'Sunday' recipe, if you know what I mean. Lazy late Sunday mornings, newspapers and cartoons on TV, the smell of the spice-laden mutton curry wafting through the house. Lunch is served rather late, around 2-2.30 PM, the family would invariably overeat, and just fall back into a hazy sleep, lulled by the food, waking up only in the evening.

Indulgence, yes, that's the word I associate with mutton curry. And without wasting any more time reminiscing, I will just jot down the recipe here.

Ingredients:
Mutton cut in pieces washed
Curd/Yoghurt (unsweetened)
Ginger paste
Garlic paste
Coriander powder
Turmeric powder
Chilly powder
Garam masala powder
Bay leaf
Onions (fine sliced)
Green Chilly paste
Rose water (optional)
Sugar
Salt
Oil

Recipe:
Marinate the mutton in yoghurt and a little salt for about an hour (longer the better, because it becomes softer and cooks in lesser time).

Heat oil until smoking. Lower heat, and temper bay leaf and whole cloves, cinnamon, and green cardamoms. Add onion and sauté. When the onion becomes translucent, add a little sugar and turmeric powder. In case you didn't know already, sugar, apart from adding taste, also adds a delicious rich red color to the gravy because it turns to caramel. Keep stirring. Add the ginger, garlic, and chilly paste. Add the coriander powder and the chilli powder.

Add the mutton and mix well with the spices. When the fat becomes to leave the sides, add a little hot water and cook on a low flame until the mutton is well cooked and tender. Check for salt. Add rose water and garam masala powder and dry the gravy. Serve hot with rice, roti or paratha. Enjoy!

Egg Curry.

Egg curry is my comfort food. In fact, as I'm sitting and typing this out, there is a steady drizzle outside, and I can't wait to get home and make some hot spicy egg curry for dinner. I make two types of egg curries - the 'red' egg curry and the 'white' egg curry - now this is nowhere close to the Thai style of naming curries red and green, but my white egg curry gets its name only because it doesn't contain turmeric, red chilli, and has a relatively milder gravy with only ginger and garlic.

This recipe, however, is the red curry, and it's perfect for rainy weather, when it's dampy and windy outside, and you have a warm meal in front of the TV and curl up in bed later with a good book.

The ingredients are:

2 hard-boiled eggs

Potatoes - chopped into cubes

Tomato puree (I always use fresh tomatoes and puree them in my blender because I don't like off-the-shelf pastes and purees but feel free to use the ones available with your grocer, they add good color to gravies)

Turmeric powder

Chilli powder

Onion paste

Ginger paste

Garlic paste

Powdered clove, cinnamon, and green cardamom (yes you got it, my trademark garam masala).

Dried red chillies

Bay leaves

Salt

Sugar

Oil

The method is:

Roll the boiled eggs in turmeric and chilli powder and shallow fry them. This ensures that your eggs have a crusty skin and also adds flavour to them. Keep aside.

Add some more oil to the kadhai and add dried red chillies and bay leaves till they splutter. Fry the potato cubes for 2-3 minutes until the sides become crisp, and to this, add onion paste, garlic paste, and ginger paste. Keep frying until the fat leaves the sides, and add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt, sugar, and the garam masala.

Add water to this and reduce heat to simmer. Once the gravy comes to a boil, and the potato cubes have become semi-soft, add the eggs to this. Keep on simmer until potatoes are boiled. Remove from heat and serve.

I love cabbage!

In fact I've loved it for as long as I can remember! The green layer-y leafiness just looks so healthy! I would recommend it as a dietary staple to everyone who wants to eat healthy, although I have to admit that it is at its best during the winter months, when it is in season.

However, here is a recipe for a cabbage curry that can be enjoyed through the year. It is, again, a Bengali recipe so it requires the 'paanch phoran' that I use so much in all my cooking. It also uses ginger, tomatoes, and my garam masala, and the result is a mouthwatering mash that can be enjoyed with rice, roti, & even puri/luchi!

Ingredients:

Cabbage (one head of medium size) shredded

Potatoes - 3 to 4 of medium size cubed

Tomatoes - 2 medium

Dried red chillies - 3-4

Bay leaves - 2-3

Paanch phoran

Ginger paste - Half tsp

Garam masala powder (This is not the off-the-shelf stuff you buy but is actually a powder of green cardamom, cinnamon, and clove. It helps to take off the overpowering leafy smell of the cabbage.)

Method:
Heat oil in a kadhai and add bay leaves, dried red chillies, and paanch phoran. Let it splutter and add the ginger paste, and potatoes, and keep frying. Add tomatoes to this and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the shredded cabbage and stir. The cabbage will give off water and will keep shrinking in size. You can salt salt to this, but go easy because the cabbage will continue to shrink and you don't want to end up with too much salt in your cabbage curry. Add a little sugar too, for taste.

Cover the kadhai, the cabbage will continue to cook in its own steam. You can uncover once in a while to check how much of the cabbage has boiled, and to ensure that the curry does not dry up and stick to the bottom of the kadhai. Unless it's not a fresh cabbage, you will not need to add more water to this, but if you really want a nice mash, you can add some water to this. Check for salt, and add the garam masala.

Before you take this off the fire, see to it that no water remains and your curry is nice and of a pasty-solid consistency. Remove from heat and serve hot.

Note: You can also add peas to this, it tastes lovely!

Hilsa in Mustard Sauce.

Hilsa, or Ilish, is to the Bengali what caviar is to the rest of the world. I'll let Wikipedia do the talking here - "Hilsa is not just a fish to the Bengalis. It is a part of their culture." We fry it, we eat the eggs, we put it in mustard gravies, and we even make biryani out of it!

But today's recipe is the more common and more simple, Ilish Maachher Shorshe Jhol. I will not waste too much time trying to think of things to say about the Hilsa, and just get on with the recipe instead :-)

Ingredients:

Hilsa (4-5 pieces)

Black cumin seeds

Ground mustard seeds

Ground green chillies

Whole green chillies, split lengthwise

Turmeric powder

Salt

Oil

Method:

Wash and rub the hilsa pieces with salt and turmeric. Shallow fry in oil and keep aisde. Heat oil in a wok and add the black cumin seeds. Let them splutter. Add 2-3 green chillies and fry for a bit. Add a pinch of turmeric powder, and fry. Add the mustard paste and the green chilli paste.

Add water and bring to boil. Reduce heat and add the fishes to the gravy. Let the gravy simmer for 8-10 minutes and serve hot with steamed rice.

Prawn Curry with Panch Phoran.

Today's recipe is the Prawn Curry with Panch Phoran (literally, five spices - fenugreek, nigella, radhuni, fennel, and cumin). Panch Phoran is a very popular Bengali spice/seasoning, although Wikipedia informs me that radhuni is hardly available outside Bengal, and the closest replacement would be celery seed.

Bengalis are very fond of prawn (chingri). Be it the tiny pink shrimp that adorns our lau chingri and our chorchoris, or the tiger/jumbo prawn varieties that we steam in mustard or make daab-chingri out of, we absolutely ADORE the creature. So much so, that we seem to have forgotten what the prawn really is - a sea insect, and have always called it chingri maachh, bestowing upon it the status of a 'fish'.

My recipe today comes from my mother, who one day got tired of the usual red fiery curry or malai-curry varieties, and decided to give it a go with Bengal's favourite 'fish', coupled with Bengal's favourite spices, and came up with this.

Ingredients:
Prawns (500 gms)
Panch Phoran (two tsps)
Turmeric powder
Chilli powder
Potatoes (1-2 cubed)
Bay leaves
Dried red chillies (1-2)
Tomato - 1 chopped
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Oil

Method:
Rub the prawns (washed, de-veined) with salt and turmeric powder and shallow fry. Keep aisde. In a wok, heat oil, and add bay leaf and dried red chillies. Wait until the dried chillies begin to splutter. Add panch phoran and fry (take care not to burn or it gets bitter). Add potatoes and keep frying. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, and one tomato. Keep stirring.

When the potatoes are well fried, add water and bring to boil. When the potatoes become soft, add the prawns and simmer on low heat for 8-10 minutes.

Remove from heat and serve hot with steamed rice.

Green Papaya Curry

The papaya is a favourite fruit in most of India. However, I've noticed that only the East of India (Bengal, Assam, Bihar) uses it as as vegetable too, making curries out of it. I've asked people in the South why they prefer to use the ripe papaya only as fruit, and the answer I've got is an unconvincing "Raw papaya heats up the body." Now, I really don't know this typically Indian distinction of 'foods that heat up your body' and 'foods that cool your body', but we shall save that debate for another day.

To get on with today's recipe, this is the papaya curry that is very delicious, very healthy, and one of my favourites from when I was a child. It is made with diced raw papaya and diced potatoes and has a cumin base seasoning.

Ingredients:

Raw papaya (1 medium, diced into cubes)

Potatoes (2-3 medium, diced into cubes)

Oil for frying

Turmeric powder

Chilli powder

Cumin seeds (for seasoning)

Cumin seeds (ground into paste)

Ginger (1/2 inch piece, ground into paste)

Bay leaves (1-2)

Garam masala (this is the Bengali garam masala, different from the off-the-shelf Everest variety, and contains cinnamon, clove, and green cardamom ground into powder)

Ghee

Salt to taste

Sugar to taste

Recipe:

Heat oil in a wok and fry the papaya and potatoes in it. When the papayas begin to turn translucent, add the cumin and bay leaves and stir some more. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, salt, sugar, garam masala powder, and stir some more. When the vegetables are well fried in the masala, add the cumin seed and ginger paste. Add water. Bring to boil (papayas take some time boiling so be patient) and then reduce heat and set on simmer.

Check with a fork or toothpick for the softness of the vegetables. Keep on simmer, add a little ghee and some more garam masala. Remove from heat and serve hot with rice, roti or parathas.

Grub Club: Restaurant Review

Calcutta has always been a good momo hunting ground. Momo Plaza and Momo Palace at Bhowanipore - two seemingly no-frills eateries - serve the best momos in town, and are a favourite with most college students stopping over for lunch, or for office goers on their way back home looking for a quick snack. The Tibetan restaurant at Park Circus, near Lady Brabourne College and National Medical College (i forget the name... Trinayan? Protyayan?) is also a hit with momo-lovers.

Yesterday, while strolling by Golpark, I spotted Grub Club, a roadside food joint that did not even boast of an air conditioner, and instead, had an asbestos roof. A tree grew right out of the middle of the restaurant (I'm happy they didn't chop it down to make for more space), and the place looked warm and friendly. My friend said it served good momos, so I had just to give it a try.

The decor of the restaurant is quasi-Sino-Tibetan, with red lanterns and dragon paintings scattered all over. But at Rs 32 for a plate of six steamed chicken momos, it doesn't get much better than this. The place has a very 'affordable-teen-joint-hangout' feel to it, and allows smoking indoors. All plus points. The momos were good, the only negative was that the flour wrappers were a little too thick, and the chicken filling a little too mild. But the Grub Club is definitely worth a visit.

Kaalo Jire-r Maachher Jhol (aka Fish curry with black cumin seed seasoning)

As I write this from my parents' home in Calcutta, I know that there is so much to Bengali cuisine that I will never learn. In fact, the varieties of Bengali khaana will possibly die out with our mothers' generation - the chorchori, labra, mocha ghonto, shukto, will never be cooked in the modern nuclear cosmopolitan Bengali household. The grandmothers won't be there to recreate such magic, and perhaps we'd have to depend only on the annual food festivals of five-star hotels where we shall shell out huge sums of money to sample fare that was once a staple in our ancestors' houses.

Be that as it may, I begin this series of posts to commemorate pure Bengali cuisine from today. The reason is obvious, I am on holiday in Calcutta, and the food will not get any more Bengali from here! The first recipe is "Maachher Jhol", something that even someone from a place as distant as Guadaloupe would associate the quintessential Bengali with. The fish used is Rohu, or Rui (but can be made with most other river fish), and the dish is the very basic "Kaalo Jire-r Jhol."

Ingredients:

Kaalo Jire (Black cumin seeds)

Rohu fish (cut into pieces)

Potatoes (peeled and cut lengthwise)

Green chillies

Turmeric powder

Red chilli powder

Oil

Method:

Cover the pieces of fish in turmeric powder and salt. Fry and keep aside. In a wok, heat some oil and add the black cumin seeds and slit green chillies to it. Take care not to overburn the cumin or else it will give a bitter flavour to your gravy. Add the potatoes to this and keep frying. Add salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, and fry for some more time. Add water and bring to boil. When the potatoes are almost done, add the fish pieces to this. Simmer for 5 more minutes and remove from heat. You can add coriander leaves to this in the simmer stage, it imparts a wonderful subtle flavour. Serve hot with rice.

Garlic Spinach

Like most children, I hated spinach. And my mother didn't have the Popeye cartoon series to try and convince me of the benefits of this lush leafy vegetable. Now that I am nearing 30 and becoming paranoid about nutrition, calcium (I've seen mom suffering from osteoporosis), fertility (I intend on having a child in the next 5 years) and the like, I have upped my fruit, milk, and green vegetable intake considerably.

Which brings me to today's recipe, Garlic Spinach. The way Bengali's treat Spinach - and as a matter of fact, all greens - is markedly different from the way most of North India treats it. We prefer to maintain its color and shape, and in the end of most of our spinach recipes, you can still make out the individual leaves, whereas the Punjabi way of making the heady Palak Paneer is to convert it all to a green sludge. (Incidentally, my archives have a recipe of making Palak Paneer, which also explains the 'green sludge' coinage.)

Garlic Spinach is an extremely simple recipe, and very easy to make. There are no masalas, and the palak retains its original shape and texture. And it obviously tastes like magic, otherwise I wouldn't be making it so often!

Ingredients:

Spinach - Two bunches, chopped.

Garlic - 8-9 cloves, chopped finely.

Dried red chillies - 3.

Green chillies - 4-5, chopped.

Turmeric powder - a pinch.

Oil for frying.

Salt to taste (Remember that spinach decreases to about one-thirds the original proportion when cooked so go easy on the salt.)

Method:

Heat oil in a wok and add the dried red chillies to it. Add the finely chopped garlic and a pinch of turmeric. Add chillies and stir till the garlic is mildly fried. Add spinach and toss so that the entire spinach gets round the garlic and oil. Add salt. Keep frying until the spinach is cooked. Serve hot with rice.

Swallowing Clouds

Momo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momo_(food)
The title of this post is from the Cantonese word for momo - yuntun - which means swallowing clouds.

If I were asked one of those 'If you had to eat just ONE food for the rest of your life, what would it be?' questions, my answer would definitely be the Momo. I used to gorge on momo-s when I was in Delhi - Dilli Haat momo-s are famous for their variety, and also Lajpat Nagar, in the makeshift shop of the two Tibetan sisters. They would serve you a plate (usually 6 or 8) of these hot juicy dumplings for just Rs 30, and dippng them into the red chilli sauce and biting into one on a bleak wintry evening went a long way in keeping me warm and happy.

In Chennai, however, I ran short of such friendly momo joints. (I also ran out of the wintry evenings, but we shall save that story for later.) The expensive Chinese restaurants here serve a variety that are about Rs 140 for six. And that doesn't work out for a momo-happy person like me. One day, I was invited to a Bengali colleague's house, where her mother served home-made momo-s cooked in a microwave.

I was surprised because I was told that making momo-s at home is almost impossible, that is requiers one of those 'double-decker' steam cookers that you need to get from Manipur/Kathmandu. I borrowed the recipe from her and tried it at home. The momo-s were a success and I have been a happier woman since!

Ingredients:

For momo wrapper:

White flour

Water

For momo filling: (I have worked only with chicken but you can adapt the same for beef or pork)

Chicken mince

Onions or leeks

Garlic

Coriander

Green chillies

Salt

Note: Steam the chicken with the rest of the ingredients. Rely more on fresh spices than old powders.

Making the momo wrapper:

Now this is tricky. The key to making the momos is that the wrappers are completely closed, no open spaces at all because you want the momo to get juicy. If there are openings in the wrappers your meat will dry out and you won't get to taste all that delicious juice. There are two main shapes of momo-s - the round shape and the half-moon shape. I'll describe both for you.

For the Round Momo:
For both shapes, you will need to put one circle of dough in your left hand, and add a tablespoonful of filling in the center of the dough. With your right hand, begin to pinch the edge of the dough together. You don't need to pinch much dough in the first pinch - just enough to make a small fold between your thumb and forefinger. Now you will have a little piece of dough pinched together. Keep your thumb in place, and continue along the edge of the circle with your forefinger, grabbing the next little piece of dough, and folding and pinching it down. Close the hole with a final pinch. Make sure you close the hole on top of the momo. That way you don't lose the juice!

For the Half-Moon Momo:
The half-moon momo is very pretty. For this style, you begin the same as with the round momo style, holding the flat circular dough in your left hand and putting a tablespoon of filling in the middle of the dough. Then you have to fold your circle of dough in half, covering over the filling. Now press together the two edges of the half circle so that there is no open edge in your half circle, and the filling is completely enclosed in the dough. You will now have the basic half-moon shape, and you can make your momo pretty by pinching and folding along the curved edge of the half circle. Start at one tip of the half-moon, and fold over a very small piece of dough, pinching it down. Continue folding and pinching, moving along the edge until you reach the other tip of the half-moon.

Tip: As you are making your momo's, you will need to have a non-stick surface and a damp cloth or lid handy to keep the momo's you've made from drying out while you're finishing the others.

Making the momo sauce:

Make a paste of dried red chillies, add garlic paste, tomato sauce, and a little olive oil.

Method:

Steam these momos in the microwave for 1 minute. Serve with hot sauce.

Fish in Mustard Sauce.

This is a Bengali staple/favourite, and is cooked with a large variety of sweet-water/river fish that is common in Bengal (Koi carp, carp, Hilsa, Pabda, Bata and so on). Living in a coastal seaside city like Chennai means I don't get these fishes in local markets, and am instead faced with more salt-water varieties such as tuna, mackerel, and perch.

However, I tried the traditional Bengali style fish in mustard sauce on the Emperor/Seer Fish of Chennai - known as the Indo-Pacific mackerel in the West and Vanjaaram in local markets - and found that it was equally successful. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Seer/Emperor Fish - 6 slices

Cooking Oil

Mustard Seeds (quarter cup)

Green Chillies - 8 (cut into slits)

Vinegar

Onions - 2-3 medium, chopped finely

Coriander Leaves - a sprig

Turmeric

Salt to taste

Method:

Wash and clean the slices of emperor fish and marinate with turmeric and salt. Shallow fry the pieces in oil, turning both sides until well done. Keep aside.

In the food processor, mix mustard seeds, 4 green chillies, a little water, and grind until it forms a thick paste. Add vinegar to take away some of the pungence of the ground mustard.

Heat oil in a wok and fry onions and chillies until the onions are transclucent. Add salt and a pinch of turmeric powder and stir fry. Add the mustard paste and stir. Add water slowly and bring to boil.

Add fish pieces and let the gravy thicken.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Baby Potato Fry

Ingredients:
Baby Potatoes - Half kg
Cooking Oil
Mustard Seeds
Curry Leaves
Salt
MTR Rasam Powder

Method:

Boil baby potatoes until soft. Peel jackets and keep aside.
Heat oil in a wok and add mustard seeds until they begin to splutter.
Add potatoes, curry leaves, and salt. Stir occassionally, taking care not to break the potatoes.
Add MTR rasam powder and stir fry.
Leave on flame for 15-20 minutes till the potatoes form a crackly crust.

Tomato Rasam.

Wikipedia article.

Ingredients:
Tuar dal - 1 cup
Turmeric Powder (Half teaspoon)
Tomatoes - 1 medium
Tamarind extract - one cup (I use a heaped tablespoon of Dabur's Tamarind Paste and mix with water)
MTR Rasam powder (Traditional South Indian households make their own rasam powder but I buy MTR off the shelf)
Black pepper powder: Half teaspoon
Curry leaves - Handful
Coriander leaves - One spring, chopped finely
Asafoetida powder - Half teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Ghee

Method:
Pressure cook the tuar dal with the chopped tomatoes, salt, and the turmeric powder (About five whistles from the pressure cooker is enough). Once the pressure is released, mash the cooked daal and tomatoes well and seive/strain into a large bowl. In the end, add the daal and tomato paste leftover in the rasam to the water.

In this mixture, add the tamarind juice, curry and coriander leaves, and MTR's rasam powder. Add salt (if necessary) and pepper powder, and bring to boil. Let the mixture boil for 10 minutes, and keep aside.

In a wok, heat ghee, and add asafoetida and mustard seeds till the mustard splutters. Add this to the rasam and serve piping hot.

Chaat.

Background (from Wikipedia):

Chaat is a word used across India and the rest of South Asia to refer to small plates of savory snacks, typically served at the side of the road from stalls or carts. Most chaat originated in North India, but they are now eaten across the country.

Some believe that the chaat in Delhi is the best in the world, but other regions in India have their own styles, and would dispute that claim. In each major Indian city, there are popular chaathouses or dhabas, such as Mumbai's Chowpatty Beach and Bangalore's Hot Chips, and Gangotree.


Ingredients

1 ½ cup chickpeas soaked overnight and boiled
Mint leaves
Onion
Lime juice
Coriander
Salt and pepper
Chillis
4 medium potatoes
1-2 onion cumin seeds
Coriander seeds
Black cardamom
Lemon juice
Papri/tortilla shells
Oil
Chaat masala
Plain yoghurt
Green chutney
Tamarind chutney

Method:

Finely chop mint leaves and coriander. Dice green onion and red onion. Add to chickpeas, then add chillies, lemon juice, salt, and pepper for taste.

Boil potatoes until cooked (should not be too soft but cooked) peel and let cool. Cut potatoes into cubes.

Heat oil in a frying pan and add cumin seeds, black cardamom seed , coriander seeds, onion, green chillies and sauté. Add potatoes and fry until crispy add lemon juice and let cool.

Heat vegetable oil in deep fryer. Cut papri or tortilla shells into strips and then diagonally across to make bite size pieces add to heated oil and fry until golden brown. Place in large metal strainer.

Arrange cooked tortilla into plate add potato mixture on top followed by the chickpea mixture top with yoghurt, green chutney, tamarind chutney, chaat masala and garnish with remaining coriander.

Chicken Vindaloo

Ingredients

Whole cumin seeds - 2 tsps
Dried red chillies - 2-3
Cardamom seeds - 1 tsp
Stick of cinammon - 3 inches
Whole black mustard seeds - 1.5 tsp
White vinegar - 5 tbsp
Salt & Sugar to taste
Vegetable oil
Onions - 4-5 medium, sliced
Boneless chicken - 900 gms
Ginger - 1" cube, chopped
Garlic - 1 whole, separated and peeled
Ground coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
Ground turmeric - 1.5 tsp

Method

Grind cumin seeds, red chillies, pepercorns, cardamom seeds, cinnamon and black mustard seeds in a grinder. Put the ground spices in a bowl. Add the vinegar, salt and sugar. Mix and set aside.

Heat the oil in a wide, heavy pot over a medium flame. Put in the onions. Stir frequently, and dry the onions till they turn brown and crisp. Remove the onions and puree them in a blender. Add this puree to the ground spices in the bowl. (This is the vindaloo paste. It may be made ahead of time and frozen.)

Dry off the chicken chunks with a paper towel and remove large pieces of fat, if any.

Make a paste out of the garlic and ginger.

Heat the oil remaining in the kadhai once again over a medium-high flame. Add the chicken chunks and brown them lightly on all sides. Remove from oil and keep aside.

In the same kadhai, add the ginger-garlic paste and stir. Add the coriander and turmeric. Stir for another few seconds. Add the chicken, vindaloo paste, and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer gently for an hour or so, until the chicken is tender. Stir occasionally.

Butter Chicken

Butter chicken or murgh makhani was invented by accident at Kake Da Hotel in Connaught Place, New Delhi. While the dish's general recipe is well known, the actual flavor can vary from restaurant to restaurant even within Delhi.

There are some occasions that warrant decadence. This is a dish for such an occasion.

Ingredients

Chicken - 300 grams, cleaned and cut into small pieces
Cinnamon- 2" pcs
Salt - to taste
Cashew & almond paste - a handful ground smoothly
Ginger & garlic paste - 2 tbsps
Onion - one chopped
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Coriander powder- 1 tspn
Orange color - 1 1/2 tsp
Butter - 3 tspn
Oil - 2 tspn
Tomato puree - 2 tomatoes blended smoothly

Method

Fry onions in oil till transparent. Add cinnamon and let it fry. Then add ginger & garlic paste along with a little water. Stir continuously.

Add turmeric, chilly, coriander powder with salt and mix well. Pour in tomato puree, cashew & almond paste - mix well with water. When it starts to boil, add the chicken (pre-mixed with a little orange color). Then add sufficient water for the chicken to boil.

Wait until the gravy thickens and serve hot.

Kadhai Paneer

Ingredients

Paneer: 800 gms, cut into cubes
Onions: 2-3, chopped
Ginger paste: 1 tsp
Garlic: 1 tsp
Coriander powder: 1 tsp
Black pepper: 1 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Tomato puree: 1.5 cups
Cumin powder - 3/4 tsp
Cardamom powder: 1/2 tsp
Mace powder, clove powder, black cumin powder, & fenufreek seeds - a pinch each.
Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 3 tbsp

Method

Heat ghee in a pan, add chopped onions and saute until brown. Add ginger-garlic paste and stir-fry till the moisture evaporates. Also add red chili powder, coriander seeds, black pepper powder, turmeric and stir-fry until they change color.

Then add tomato puree, salt, paneer cubes, capsicum and fry until the paneer is light brown. Sprinkle the cumin, cardamom, mace, clove, black cumin powders, fenugreek seeds and cook until the paneer is cooked.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with parathas or any pulao.

Green Chicken Curry

Ingredients

Boneless/ skinless chicken - 8 large pieces
Plain Yogurt - 50 gm
Clove - 3
Onion (sliced) - 4 medium
Ginger Paste - 1 tbsp
Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
Cinnamon Stick - 2
Almond Paste - 50 gm
Cardamom - 5/6
Black Pepper (whole) - 7/8
Cilantro - 1 bunch
Mint Leave - 1 bunch
Sour Cream - 2 tbsp
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Green Chili - 4/5
Cooking Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste

Method

Mix powdered cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, and coriander. Fry onion slices in a frying pan. Mix the masala, fried onions, coriander leaves, cilantro, green chilies, and almond in a blender and make a fine green paste.

Take a mixing bowl and mix chicken pieces, yogurt, green masala paste, ginger and garlic paste. Marinade for 15-20 minutes.

Heat oil in a frying pan and add chicken pieces and stir fry until oil is separated from masala. Add salt, turmeric powder, and a cup of warm water. Mix thoroughly. Cover the pan and cook at low heat. When chicken is fully cooked add sour cream and mix properly.