Chole-Bhatura

My kids are the biggest fans of Indian food at our home. They are absolutely pleased with home-made Paav Bhaaji, Sev puri and Dosa and most of the times prefer it over McDonalds. I am proud of this and try to cook them up at home as much as I can.
So, this weekend it was Chole-Bhatura for dinner.

I have tried to stay as much true to the real Punjabi Chole and Bhatura.

Recipe for Chole :-
Chana - 2 cups, soaked overnight or for 4 hours in hot water
Oil - 2Tbsp
Ginger-Garlic paste - 2 Tbsp
Onion, chopped - 2 Large
Tomato, chopped - 2 Large
Green chilli, split - 2No.s
Red chilli powder - 1Tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1tsp
Coriander powder - 2Tbsp
Garam Masala - 1Tbsp
Chole masala - 1Tbsp (optional)
Coriander leaves - 3Tbsp

Method :-

Cook the chana in a pressure cooker with enough water and half a teaspoon of baking soda for around 20 minutes on a low flame.

Heat oil in a pan. Saute the ginger garlic paste until it start to brown. On low heat, saute the onions until it starts to brown. Add the chopped tomatoes and a pinch of salt and saute well on low flame for 15-20 minutes, stirring in between, so that the masala gets completely dry and the oil starts to seperate. At this point, add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, garam masala, and chole masala and saute on a low flame for 1 minute.
Add the cooked chana to this with the water left from cooking chana. Add the coriander leaves. Cover with a lid and cook again on low flame for 10 minutes until the gravy gets to the desired consistency.

Recipe for Bhatura:-
Ingredients
All purpose flour, maida - 3 cups
Semolina - 1Tbsp
Salt - to taste
Sugar - 1 tsp
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Yogurt - 3 Tbsp
Yeast - 1/2 tsp (if not using instant yeast, stir the yeast in 2Tbsp lukewarm water)
Milk - 2Tbsp
Water
Oil - for deep frying

Method :-
Mix all of the above mentioned ingredients. Addind enough water, knead it into a dough like that of a chapati dough. Cover and let stand for 4 hours.

Roll the dough into small balls size of a tennis ball. Flour the work surface and roll it out into thin rounds.

Heat the oil in a kadai or wok and deep fry the balls until it starts to brown on both the sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen towels.

Serve with chopped onion, raita, pickle and lemon wedges.

Chicken 65

The name in itself is mystical. What does the 65 symbolize?

The item number in the menu card of the army mess where it was first introduced?

The age of the chicken in days which should be used to prepare the dish?

The year in which it was first created?
Whatever is there in a name, the dish is tasty and a family favourite.

Here is my recipe for Chicken 65.

Ingredients:

Chicken, preferably boneless, cut into small pieces - 1/2kg

Red chilli powder - 2 Tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp

Garam Masala - 1 Tbsp

Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 Tbsp

Salt - to taste

Lemon juice - 1 Tbsp

Besan (Gramflour) - 2Tbsp

Curd - 2 Tbsp

Soy sauce - 1Tbsp

Curry leaves, roughly cut - a few

Green chillies, slit - 3 Nos

Method:

Marinate the chicken pieces in the rest of the ingredients for 2-3 hours in refrigerator.
Deep fry in hot oil and serve hot with onion rings, Lemon wedges and cucumber.

Tandoori Chicken

Clay ovens or Tandoor were used in India by local people from time immemorial to prepare breads. These cylindrical shaped ovens were set into the earth and fired with wood or charcoal. They could reach temperatures of about 900 degree Fahrenheit and could retain this temperature for long time. Tandoori chicken started its glorious journey when a chef at a local restaurant in Peshawar, Moti Mahal, tried to cook chicken in this oven, where the heat generated by charcoal or wood, burning within the tandoor exposes the food to both live fire, radiant heat cooking and hot-air convection cooking.

The result was tender juicy meat with a smoked crispy outside that seals in all the juice. This together with the exotic flavors of the Indian spices, made this dish the ambassador of Indian cuisine all over the world.

Moti Mahal soon gained popularity and was adored by main of the great Indian leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru who was so impressed by the innovative dishes like tandoori chicken and its derivatives like Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka etc that he hosted many of his state banquets at the restaurant.

The restaurant still enjoys the reputation of being the founder of many such signature Indian dishes and has branched out all over the world spreading authentic Indian cuisine across the globe. Try out Moti Mahal for some authentic Indian food.

My recipe for Tandoori chicken.

Serves 4.

Chicken whole legs or thighs, cleaned and skinned - 1kg

Fresh Ginger - 3 Tbsp

Fresh Garlic - 3 Tbsp

Pepper corns - 2 Tbsp

Yogurt - 1 cup

Tomatoes - 2No.s

Red food color (optional)

Make slashes along the fleshy part of the meat. Rub in some red chilli powder, turmeric powder, lemon juice and salt and keep aside while you prepare the rest of the marinade.

Grind together ginger, garlic and pepper corns in yogurt. Place in a bowl. Grind tomatoes and add to the bowl. Add tomato paste, kashmiri red chilli powder, turmeric powder, tandoori masala, garam masala, lemon juice and mix well. Coat each of the chicken pieces with this marinade and refrigerate overnight. 4 hours before grilling, add oil to the marinated chicken. Grill on both sides until done.

You can also make it in the conventional oven. Pre-heat oven to 450 degree Fahrenheit. Place the pieces of chicken on a baking tray and cook it for around 25 - 30 minutes until done.

Malabar Chicken Biriyani

An original recipe followed by my mother and me since a long time. Adored by many of our friends and relatives, this is a dish which stands alone by itself and I find it an excellent choice for parties.

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1 whole cut into pieces
For marinade
2 Tbsp red chilli powder
1 Tbsp turmeric powder
salt to taste

oil for pan frying

For gravy
6 large onions, sliced thin
3 Tbsp ginger-garlic-greenchilli paste
2 tomato, chopped
2 Tbsp curd
2 Tbsp coconut, grated
2 Tbsp cashewnut
1 Tbsp almonds
1 Tbsp kus-kus (poppy seeds)
1 cup coriander leaves, chopped
2 Tbsp mint leaves, chopped
2 Tbsp garam masala

garnishing:
1 cup thinly sliced onion
2 Tbsp cashewnuts, broken into halves
2 Tbsp raisins, soaked & drained
2 Tbsp chopped coriander leaves

for rice:
3/4 kg basmati rice
Juice of 1 lemon
1 handful mixed spices
salt to taste

for dum:
1 cup pure ghee
1 Tbsp garam masala
1 Tbsp rose water
1 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp saffron
1 Tbsp pineapple essence

Cooking procedure
Clean the chicken pieces and rub the ingredients for the marinade into the pieces. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Shallow fry in hot oil until slightly browned but not crispy. the idea is to make the masala stick to the meat well.

Gravy:

In a deep pan, heat half-cup oil and half-cup good quality ghee.

Add the sliced onions and saute until nicely browned.

Add the ginger-garlic-green chilli paste and saute again for 5 min until the raw smell is gone. Add the powders and garam masala and saute for a minute on low fire.

Now add the tomatoes and little salt and saute until well done.

Add the chicken pieces and saute for 5 minutes on high heat.

Add the curds and ground coconut-kuskus-cashew-almonds and saute again for some time. Now, add the chopped coriander leaves and mint leaves and while steaming, turn heat off. Put some more garam masala on top and keep it tightly closed.

Preparing Rice:

Wash the required rice (1/2kg rice for 4 persons) and soak for about half an hour. Drain.

Take a large enough (almost double the size of cooked rice) vessel and take water in it.

Add salt and mixed spices (some elaichi, cloves, cinnamon, pepper) and keep the vessel covered and boil it.

Now add the drained rice and cook in open pan, stirring in between.

Test for salt and add if the water tastes less salty.

It will be cooked in 10-15 minutes.

Test the grains for readiness by chewing.

It should be JUST cooked and not very well cooked.

There should be enough water during this process and the rice should be freely flowing, not congested.

If water is less, add some more boiled water.

Once cooked, drain the rice immediately using a colander.

This should be immediately used with the masala for the dum.

You can remove the whole spices if you wish.

Aso try adding some lemon juice to the water while cooking so that the rice remains seperate.

Garnishing:

In little oil or ghee deep fry thinly sliced onions (1-2No) until crisp and brown and keep aside. Now fry the cashews and raisins and keep aside.

Dum:

Take a heavy bottomed vessel and brush some ghee in it.

Put a thin layer of rice so as to provide a barrier to the meat.

Arrange the meat pieces and masala over it.

Put the rice on top of it.

To the hot milk add some yellow color, pineapple essence and saffron strands and pour on top of the rice.

Now pour some 2tsp rose water above it.

Pour some 3-5 Tbsp of ghee over the rice.

Put 1tsp garam masala over it.

Sprinkle the garnishing prepared above and put some chopped coriander leaves.

Cover the vessel and seal well with roti dough so that steam doesnt go out.

Keep on a slow fire or oven for 10-15 minutes. Ideally, heat should come from above the pan also, which is done by placing charcoals on the lid, but this step can be omitted.

Enjoy!