Tomato Chutney

A perfect accompaniment to a typical Bengali lunch. Also, a quick and yummy sweet dish, especially if guests are practically knocking on the door and you have forgotten to make one. Or, like in my case, if there is a husband with a sweet tooth and always rummaging through the fridge for something sweet!

Ingredients
Tomatoes - 2 small ones
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Paanch phoron or mustard seeds
Dried red chillis - 2
Ginger - grated or finely chopped
Dates - 3-4 (deseeded), or aam shotto (aam papad) - a few chopped pieces, optional
Raisins
Sugar to taste (I added about 6-7 tablespoon)
Juice of about one lemon


Method

1. Heat oil and add red chillis (broken in half), mustard seeds/ paanch phoron to temper the oil.
2. Roughly chop the tomatoes.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, ginger, dates (if using) and water and bring to a boil.
4. Add raisins, aam shotto (if using) and sugar. 
5. Cook till done. It should have a nice chutney-like consistency, depending on how thick you like it.
6. Let it cool down a little, and add some lemon juice for that extra tang.
7. Best served chilled.

Puran Poli

For this Diwali, I told my Mom that I want to make sweets at home. Nothing elaborate. Or difficult. I just don't do difficult! She rattled off a list of easy to make sweet dishes. One of them was the festival staple, puran poli. Which, surprisingly, is not really tough to make.

Ingredients
For the filling
1 cup chana dal (chholar dal), soaked for 15-20 minutes
1 cup sugar
Nutmeg powder
Elaichi powder
For the dough
2 cups atta
Water
Salt
Oil

Method

1. Pressure cook chana dal on high flame for one whistle. Lower flame and continue to cook till nice and mushy (about 5-10 minutes more). After opening the pressure cooker, cook till there is no excess water left in the dal.
2. Transfer dal to a non-stick pan and add sugar. 
3. Add the nutmeg and elaichi powder.
4. Cook till the filling is ready. The consistency should be such that it can be stuffed in a parantha. Hence, not too runny. Or too dry. It should hold good when the parantha is being rolled out.
5. Prepare the dough using the ingredients listed for it. You can cover it with a damp cloth and leave it for about half an hour for a nice and soft dough.
6. Take some dough and roll it out a little. Add some filling to the centre. Seal it in and roll out the parantha. 
7. Heat a tawa and cook the paranthas, preferably with ghee.
8. Serve hot.

Aditya Bal's Dum Murg Ki Kacchi Biryani

He looks as good as he cooks. No, he cooks as good as he looks! I just cannot figure out. Who am I talking about? Aditya Bal, one of the yummiest chefs in India, if you ask me (all puns intended!).

I wanted to share this recipe for two reasons. One, it is a great biryani recipe that worked out really well for me when I hardly knew how to cook. Second, I associate it with some really fond memories, as this is one of the first things that I tried my hand at cooking after getting married!

Seriously! Delicious recipes from one hot guy, cooked for another hot guy ;) Does it get any better? 

Now that I think about it, maybe my interest in cooking has been motivated by factors other than my Mom! Like certain model-turned-chefs who whip up drool-worthy dishes. And you are not even sure what you are drooling over ;)

You can see the original recipe here. I have not made any changes to it. Why spoil a good thing?

Dum Murg Ki Kacchi Biryani

Ingredients

1/2 kg basmati rice
1 kg chicken
2 onions - chopped
1/2 tsp saffron
1 cup milk
Juice of 1 lemon
Fresh green coriander - chopped
2 green chillies - chopped
1 tbsp refined oil

For the Marinade
2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 1/2 cup curd
1 tsp red chilli powder
Salt to taste

Spices for Chicken
4 cloves
1" cinnamon
1 bay leaf
2 green cardamoms
1 black cardamom
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

Whole spices for rice
2 cloves
1/2 " cinnamon
2 green cardamoms
Salt - to taste

For the Dum
Dough made of atta and water

Method

Soak the basmati rice in water for 20 minutes to half an hour.

Marinate the chicken with curd, turmeric, salt, chilly powder and ginger-garlic paste.

Grind all the spices for the chicken in a mortar and add to the marinade. Leave the chicken to marinate for an hour minimum or up to four hours.

Heat 2 tbsp of refined oil in a pan. Saute the onions, till they turn golden brown. Keep aside.

Put the rice into the cooking vessel and add the requisite amount of water. Add the whole spices and the salt. Cover and let it cook till the water is absorbed.

Put the milk into a saucepan and heat till tepid. Add the saffron and stir till the milk takes on the color of saffron. Keep aside.

Crumple half the burnt onions and add it to the marinated chicken. Put back in fridge for half an hour.


To Layer The Biryani

In a handi or an appropriate biryani cooking vessel: put 1 tbsp oil and heat. Add the chicken and cook on high heat till chicken takes on a light brown color and is half cooked.

Lower the flame; flatten the chicken to form a layer. Put chopped coriander and green chillies on top.

Put all the rice on top of this layer and smoothen out. Pour in the saffron infused milk over the rice and add the lemon juice.

Cover the vessel and make long snake off the dough by rolling in on the counter and use it to seal the top of the cooking vessel.

Let the biryani cook on a very slow fire till the seal is hard and the rice looks fully cooked.

Serve hot.

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Basic
Chicken, approximately 200 gram
Water, about 2 glasses (or atleast sufficient to make 2-3 bowls of soup)
Onion, cut into 4 pieces
Ginger/ Garlic (fresh is best, else you can use store-bought paste)
Peppercorn
Salt to taste
Garam masala (optional)

Optional
You can also add some finely diced veggies like carrots, beans, capsicum, sweet corn etc. You will need some butter and chopped garlic to saute these.

Garnish
Lemon juice
Spring onions

Method

1. Add all the basic ingredients to the pressure cooker and wait for one whistle. Reduce heat and let it cook for 10-15 minutes or till the chicken is done. 
2. Let it cool, then strain. 
3. Shred a few pieces of chicken to add to the soup.
4. Heat the soup. 
5. At this point, you can add the optional veggies, sauted in butter and garlic till cooked, but crunchy.
6.  Garnish with spring onions, add lemon juice, and serve hot. You can enjoy it as a starter, or have it with buttered toast for dinner :)

Tip: I usually reserve the remaining cooked chicken to add to pastas, noodles, sandwiches etc.

Cook by Chance??

Actually, I don't really know! What I do know is, that confused as I am about many things in life, cooking isn't one of them. I really do love it :)

I don't have a great story to tell. Living with my husband away from home, I needed to learn to cook to fulfil those (sometimes crazy) cravings for home-cooked food. Which basically means food cooked by my Mom. And Grandmom. And that is how this journey really began. As any journey usually does. From the beginning :) 

I have grown up in a household where all things food, and the menu for the next meal are discussed with great sincerity and gravity. Maybe, this influenced me way before I even realised. Maybe as I sat studying in the kitchen, while my Mom cooked and quizzed me for the next day's exam at the same time, I was learning a lot more than just history or geography. Maybe. I will never know :) 

Maybe, my forays into the culinary world (quite a long shot, this description of what I do in the kitchen!) - after lengthy phone calls with my mother - should probably come as no surprise to me. Perhaps it was meant to be :)

The recipes are nothing new. I am not a great cook. I am just learning the ropes. But if I can share the recipes, that help whip up a quick and yummy meal, why not!  

This blog aspires to be an eclectic collection of recipes - those pestered out of my Mom, those bugged out of friends and family, noted down from my favourite chefs, and of course, those that I picked up along the way and can't really remember from where now :)

Since keeping them all in one place and tracking them down was becoming a problem as the collection grew, and I wanted a common platform to share recipes that I really love (to eat and to make!), this blog came into being. (I am surrounded by two kinds of people - those who love to cook and those who love to eat! Period. Is there a third kind, you ask?? Well there are actually many more, but these two are the kinds I love :).)