Sunday, March 30, 2008

Andhra Kodi Koora / Chicken Curry


Ingredients

Chicken - 3 lbs
Onion - 1 Big
Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tbsps
Curry Leaves - 1 sprig
Green Chillies - 5 medium
Garam Masala Powder - 1 tbsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp
Oil - 5 tbsps
Chopped Cilantro - 1/2 cup

Spices
Cinnamon Sticks - 5 medium
Elachi - 5 medium
Cloves - 5 medium
Shajeera - 1/2 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tbsps

For Marination

Red Chilli Powder - 1 tbsp
Curd - 1 cup
Turmeric - 1 tbsp
Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tbsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp
Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp
Salt - 1 tbsp

1) Cut Chicken into medium sized pieces and wash it thoroughly.
2) Mix all the ingredients for marination along with chicken. Make sure all the pieces get the coating of the marinade.
3) Allow the marinated chicken to rest in the refrigerator for atleast 1 day. The longer it marinates, the better it tastes.
4) Heat oil in a deep container. Add chopped onions, greenchillies and curry leaves.
5) Add all the spices and fry until the onions are translucent.
6) Add Ginger Garlic paste and fry until the raw smell disappears.
7) Add marinated chicken, Garam Masala powder and Coriander powder to the pan. Mix everything thoroughly.
8) Cook the chicken until it is done fully on medium heat. It normally takes around 40 - 45 minutes. Add salt and water if necessary.
9) To test if the chicken is cooked fully, take a fork and pork it on a chicken piece. The piece should easily fall apart. Just before you turn off the stove, garnish the curry with Cilantro.




Sunday, March 16, 2008

Hyderabadi Dum Ka Mutton Biryani

Hyderabad is famous for its Dum Biryani. Being a Hyderabadi, I have always savoured this dish. Whenever we go to Devon Street in Chicago, we never miss the opportunity to enjoy authentic Hyderabadi Dum Biryani.

It is a traditional celebration meal made using goat meat and rice and is the staple of a die-hard Hyderabadi. The Hyderabadi Biryani is so named as it is created in the city of Hyderabad, India. The blending of mughlai and Telangana cuisines in the kitchens of the Nizam (ruler of the historic Hyderabad State), resulted in the creation of Hyderabadi Biryani. [1]

Ingredients
Mutton - 1 lb
Basmati Rice - 1 lb
Kesari food color - 1/4 tsp
Butter - 3 tsps
Onion - 3 large
Milk - 10 tsps
Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tsps
lemon - 1
Eggs - 5 Boiled
Green Chillies - 1
Chopped Cilantro - 2 cups
Mint Leaves - 1 whole bunch

Spices
Cloves - 10
Cinnamon Sticks - 10 medium
Anise Star - 2
Elachi - 10
Bayleaves - 5
shajeera - 1 tsp
Jeera - 2 tsp

For Marinating Mutton

Yogurt - 1 cup
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Green Chillies slit (small) - 2
Ginger Garlic Paste - 3 tsps
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
half lemon squeezed juice - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt - 2 tsps

Wash Mutton thoroughly. Make medium sized pieces of Mutton and marinate the same with all the above ingredients for atleast 24 hours.

Procedure
1) Cook basmati rice with half of all the spices, salt, 1 tsp butter (not completely cooked)
2) Drain water from rice and keep it aside.
3) Take a big vessel and add 2 tsps butter, 3 tsps oil. Dice 1 onion and start frying it in the vessel. Add copped Mint Leaves to the same.

4) Crush Anise Star into powder. Add the same along with remaining spices, slit green chillies and fry.
5) After the onions are cooked, add 2 tsps Ginger Garlic paste and fry it until the raw smell disappears.
6) Add the marinated mutton and let it cook until almost done. The curry should come together. I normally cook mutton in a pressure cooker for 2 whistles or until done.
7) Add salt if necessary. Add 2 tsps Shan Biryani Masala (Sindhi Biryani) and 2 tsps Garam Masala Powder. Cook it for 5 more minutes and turn off the stove.
8) Take milk in a container, warm it. Add kesari color to the milk. Add 2 cups of cooked rice to the same and mix it well.
Keep it aside.
9) Cut 2 Onions thinly sliced length-wise. Fry them in butter+oil until it gets a good brown color (caramalized) and keep it aside for Garnishing.

Layering
1) Preheat oven at 375 deg.
2) Take a deep bottomed alluminium tray. Butter its inside walls properly.

3) Keep one cup of cooked rice aside. Divide each of rice, mutton curry, coriander leaves, caralamized onions and saffron colored rice into 2 portions.
4) Add one layer of rice (1/2), one layer of mutton curry ( 1/2 ), one layer of coriander leaves, one layer of caramalized onions ( 1/2) and one layer of Saffron colored rice ( 1/2) in the same order.
5) Repeat this process for one more time with the rest of the portions in the same order. So, the top most layer now is saffron colored rice. Layer it with 1 cup of cooked rice that we kept aside in Step 3.
6) Garnish it Cilantro. Make holes for eggs on the top layer. Make 2 halves of each egg. Place eggs in the holes we made.
7) Place the tray in the oven carefully and cook the same for 40 mins. Check if the rice is cooked. Ifnot, keep the tray back in the oven and cook until done.

8) After it is done, allow the biryani to rest in the oven for 10 more minutes. Take the tray out and squeeze half lemon on the top and mix it slowly.

Biryani tastes great with Kheera Raitha and Mirchi Ka Salan.

References:

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Sambar

Hello frienz!!! I am posting one of my all time favourite dishes - Sambar. I love sambar with anything and everything edible :). It tastes great with Rice, Idli or even Dosa. This is one of the dishes that turns out great every time I make.


Ingredients
Kandi Pappu / Toor Dal - 1 cup
Onion - 1 Large
Tomato - 1 Large
Green Chillies - 3 Medium
Tamarind - Lemon ball sized
Curry Leaves - 1 Sprig
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Sambar Powder - 2 tsps
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Vegetables Diced - 2 cups

We can use Brinjal, Drumsticks, Dosakaya (Cucumber), Carrot, Beans, Radish etc.

1) Cook Dal in Pressure cooker with 2 cups of water until dal becomes mushy.
2) Cut 3/4th onion, length wise. Put all the vegetables along with onion, slit greenchillies, diced tomato, turmeric, tamarind extract and salt in a container.
3) Pour water until all the vegetables float. Let the vegetables boil until tender.
4) Mash cooked dal and add it to the veggies. Add Red chilli powder and mix everything together.
5) Let the sambar boil on medium heat while stirring occasionally. At this stage, I normally boil sambar for more than half an hr.
6) Add Sambar powder and Cilantro to sambar.
7) Pour oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, jeera, urad dal to the pan. After mustard seeds start to splutter, add remaining chopped onion and garlic along with curry leaves. Fry everything until onions become translucent.
8) Add tadka to sambar while the sambar is boiling. I normally take a spoonful of sambar and clean the pan in which I did tadka. Then I pour that back into the sambar. This gives a very good taste to sambar. Trust me :)
9) Let sambar boil for 5 more minutes and turn it off.

Tip : Cut Brinjal without removing the stalk. Just like we do it for guthi vankaya.