“Cuisine is the tactile connection we have to breathing history.History and culture offer us a vibrant living society that we taste through cuisine.All cuisine is a reflection of the society from which it emanates … in the end cuisine is the result of culture”
Clifford Wright“24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs.”
Foodbuzz 24
Foodbuzz is launching it’s Foodbuzz Publisher Community; an event which goes to demonstrate the power and quality of the Foodbuzz community through real-time, real-people food blog journalism!
The “24, 24, 24” captures the cultural diversity and unique local perspective of the Foodbuzz Featured Publishers: it’s real food, experienced by 24 real people, shared real-time. A global “live blogging” effort showcasing a multi-contributor feature article created by Foodbuzz Featured Publishers demonstrating the scope, diversity and quality of the community! I’m proud to be one of the 24.Indian food has gained tremendous popularity over the years, has earned a place for itself across the globe. My post is a celebration of North Indian cuisine, which is a culinary adventure in itself.
Welcome to my table, offering some of the best in North Indian cuisine, steeped in culture, enticing the palate. Feast your eyes on traditional yet innovative fare; colourful & uncomplicated! Let yourself in on kitchen secrets! Join me as I embark on an adventure to recreate, at home, the joy of food eaten out at Indian eateries.
I have attempted to put together a meal of Indian dishes, from appetizers, to drinks, main course non-vegetarian & vegetarian…& wrapping it up with sweet somethings. Have tried to reach the magic 24! The recipes are from scratch, not overtly heavy on spices or fat, & can be played around with to suit different tastes. Mine are usually mildly spicy. When I cook, I make sure I don’t sacrifice ‘the palate to please the eye’. Welcome to India, my part of the world…
Coolers1. Anaar Sherbet – Pomegranate Cooler.2. Aam Panna –Green Mango Cooler with rock salt & mint.3. Nimbu Paani–Lime-Ginger Cooler with rock salt & mint.
Appetizers4. Potato Canapes – Home-made potato crisps topped with with blended cottage-cheese, cheddar & sage.5. Paneer Tikka – Barbequed cottage cheese cubes in 2 different marinades.6. Chicken Reshmi Kebabs – Moist & tender, bite sized kebabs, served with a tangy green chutney.
7. Assorted Fruit & Cheese Canapes – A fusion of flavours with a blend of cottage-cheese, cheddar & cream, topping ‘Apricot Relish’, ‘Mango Chutney’ & pineapple.
Main Course9. Gosht-do-piaza– A hearty lamb stew. “Do” is “two” and “piaz” is “onion”; so “dopiaza” is a dish which has twice the amount of onions.10. Paneer-e-dhungaar –A twist on butter paneer. Smoked cottage cheese chunks smothered in a creamy tomato gravy.11. Kadhai Gobhi– Crisp, stir fried cauliflower, with red & yellow bell peppers introduced for variety.12. Lamb Roghan Josh – A passionate red lamb curry in a thick gravy. My simple rendition of Rogan Josh…mild & tasteful. The red colour comes from the use of paprika.13. Chicken Reshmi Seekh Kebabs – Pan fried minced chicken in seekh kebabs flavoured with fresh herbs. Delectable.
14. Murgh Makhani – The original butter chicken from the owners of Moti Mahal, India. India’s signature barbequed chicken curry, popular the world over. Popularly referred to as India’s export to the West!
15. Dal Makhani – Black lentils simmered in a thick, creamy & almost rich preparation. Another hot favourite off the Indian menu.The bread basket…16. Naan – The most loved of Indian flatbreads. Light & flavourful; brushed with melted butter & a sprinkling of nigella & sesame seeds.17. Tandoori Roti – Wholewheat flatbreads, unleavened & rustic. Delicious served hot.
18. Khameeri Roti – Another leavened wholewheat flatbread, leavened with yeast, adding variety to the basket.
20. Zeera Pulao – Long-grained basmati rice, stir fried in aromatic cumin, garnished with fried cashew nuts.
Sweet endings…21. Mango Jelly Mousse – A fusion of flavours…mango mousse nestled in dark chocolate, topped with cream & pistachios.22. Saffron Kulfi – A frozen Indian dairy-based dessert…luxuriously flavoured with saffron, cardamom & pistachios.23. Kheer – A creamy Indian rice pudding delicately flavoured with saffron & cardamom, served chilled.
Signing off…with an interesting quote
“To eat is human; to digest, divine.” Charles T. Copeland
24. Saunf, Mishri, Elaichi – Finishing off the Indian meal the traditional way…fennel, sugar lumps, cardamom etc.
BON APETIT!!
Thank you for being part of the great Indian gastronomical adventure. Coincidentally, this is also my 300th post! I have really enjoyed having you over.Do check out the rest of us here…“24, 24, 24” on Foodbuzz!
” If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.”
Romain Rolland
Today is India’s 61st Independence Day… & I decided to post something Indian today. In fact, India’s most popular gastronomic export to the Western world, which is Butter Chicken or Murgh Makhani.
Quoting from a snippet in a tabloid debating butter chicken vs chicken tikka masala…”Many years ago, a man named Robin Cook, not the novelist, but the late Labour Party leader & Britain’s Foreign Secretary, had stirred an international gastronomic debate by calling Chicken Tikka Masala his country’s national dish. People who contested his claim, should have saved their breath, for CTM indeed is a British creation. What they did was dunk chicken tikka that didn’t sell during the day, Campbell’s tomato soup, fresh cream & lots of red chillies into the frying pan, & they called the result CTM. It must have come as a blessing to a generation that must have grown tired of the blazing vindaloo.” But this was far from butter chicken…
This appeared in the newspaper in July 2008, in an article from the man who gave Delhi the most memorable Butter Chicken ever…& has been doing so for years – Monish Gujral of Moti Mahal. The article has interesting trivia about the original murgh makhani, orbutter chicken, which originated in a dhaba (roadside eatery) near Peshawar in the 1920’s. Like everything pertaining to Indian cuisine, there are no records to prove any claim – & was imported into post-partition Delhi by a refugee named Kundan Lal Gujral, or so says his grandson, Monish Gujral. He remembers the founder of Moti Mahal telling him that the dish originated to end the problem of excess chicken tikka, which if left overnight, gets hard & fibrous. This kind man shared his best kept secret of one of India’s most famous exports to the Western world in his book, Moti Mahal’s Tandoori Trail….& in a moment of weakness, shared that you need to keep certain points in mind to get best results.
In brief, the chicken should be a broiler, weighing no more than 600-700 gms. This recipe is made ‘bestwith bones’, & you can’t make butter chicken with anything other than tandoori chicken. Also, the butter chicken tastes best whengravy tomatoes (bright red ones) are used, as compared to ready made tomato puree from the market. To balance the sourness of the tomatoes, use a bit of sugar, & to get the right consistency, add cashew paste. I can say it works, & works brilliantly. I’ve made this thrice (on the bone, boneless breast & boneless drumsticks) & it’s very, very nice indeed. The sauce is brilliantly flavoured & quite mild despite the garam masala, red & green chilies.
I had an old aunt, my mother’s elder sister, visiting on her way out to Canada. Feisty old lady, at 80+ speaks her mind & has brought up 2 sons & a daughter. One son is a Professor of Genetics at Pittsburgh University, & the other is a Geologist in Canada. Sadly, she lost her daughter, quite young, to Multiple Sclerosis last year.
I played host to her while she was transiting to catch her flight last month, as my Mom was out of town. My aunt babysat me often when I was very young, & the few food memories I have of when I was a child, all relate to her…right to the aromas of the dal she fed me, to the crisp onions on top. My mother is horrified that I remember nothing of the good stuff she slaved to make & present on the table….shudder…I just hope that doesn’t happen to me!!
Anyway, I asked my aunt if there was something special she would like to eat, or else I would figure out what would be nice. Pronto came the reply…a request for Butter Chicken! She said she always remembers a very nice butter chicken I made for her almost 5 years ago, & that’s just what she’d love to have. Obviously, our food memories were mutually complimentary…so I set to make this recipe. My recommendation…on the bone is the best!
MOTI MAHAL’S MURGH MAKHANI / The original BUTTER CHICKEN
…like from the horses mouth!
Ingredients:
Chicken – 600-700 gms (on the bone) For the first marinade: Lime Juice of 1 lime
Red chili powder – 1 tbsp
Salt to taste For the second marinade:
Yogurt – ½ cup / thick
Garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Ginger – 1 tbsps
Rock salt – 1 tsp
Garam Masala – 1 tsp
Kasoori methi – ½ tsp (these are a variety of dried fenugreek leaves often used in Indian cooking)
Oil – 1 tbsp Method:
Make 2 deep incisions each in both breast pieces &s drumsticks. Mix all ingredients on the first marinade & rub well into chicken pieces. Keep aside for an hour.
For the second marinade, mix all ingredients well & rub into chicken pieces till they are well coated. Leave in the fridge for at least 3 hours. I usually leave this overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Place the chicken on the grill rack, with a tray underneath to collect the drippings. Grill for 8-10 minutes, brush with oil, turn the pieces, & grill for another 4-5 minutes until the chicken is tender. Keep aside.
For the makhani sauce
Ripe, red tomatoes – 800gms / chopped
Oil – 2 tbsp
Onion – 1 / chopped
Red Chili powder – 1 tsp
Garam masala _ 1 tsp
Cumin/Zeera powder – 1tsp
Ginger-garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Cashew paste – 2 tbsp (I ran a handful in my dry grinder in short bursts)
Bay leaf – 1
Green chili – 1-2 / finely chopped
Butter – 50 gms
Single Cream – 50 ml (original has 100 gm double cream)
Kasoori methi – 1 tsp
Green chilies, fresh coriander, cream for garnishing. Method:
Heat the oil in a pan, add onion & sauté for a few seconds. Put in chopped tomatoes, bay leaf & salt & simmer, stirring occasionally, until the oil leaves the sides. Cool slightly & strain the sauce. (Do this the previous day to save time).
Pour the sauce back into a pan over low heat. Add all the spices, followed by the tandoori chicken. Stir well & simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Add the butter & stir in till it melts. Finally stir in the cream & take off heat.
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves, cream & green chilies, as desired.
Serve hot with crisp garlic naan, & a salad of onion rings tossed in lime juice & salt.
Enjoy a finger-licking good chicken gravy…the original butter chicken!
“This curry was like a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony that I’d once heard…..especially the last movement, with everything screaming and banging ‘Joy.’ It stunned, it made one fear great art. My father could say nothing after the meal.”
Anthony Burgess
NALLIGOSHT…A robust, traditional lamb curry.
Here we go again. With winter here, a finger-licking good, different curry is most welcome. This is a hearty, ‘mild on spices & full of flavour’ lamb curry, made from a recipe my sister-in-law sent with huge recommendations! A SanjeevKapoor recipe. She proved her point. Lovely tasting curry , ‘grindless‘ (thanks once again to the microplaner), & delicious! More so, very very simple.
This is a ‘curry on the bone’, traditionally slow cooked for 3 hours or more, where the juices are slowly released & the flavours mature. My energy conservation mode kicked in, & much as I would have loved to slow cook it, I reached for the pressure cooker. Couldn’t bring myself to use ‘so much energy’ for an hour of eating pleasure!! Coming back to the point…the resultant dish, cooked very differently from other lamb curries, tasted great. This ‘grindless‘ gravy has a deep red, thick gravy…just like a curry should be. Try it…you won’t be disappointed!
A spoonful of flavour…
The recipe as adapted by me, with Meeso in mind, who loves lamb curries!
Ingredients :
Lamb leg pieces (nalli) – 750 gms (nalli means marrow bones) Onion – 3 large / sliced fine Garlic – 10 cloves / grated fine Ginger – 1½ inch piece / grated fine Oil – 1/2 cup Bay leaves – 2 Green cardamom – 2 Black cardamom – 1 Cloves – 5-6 Cinnamon – 1 inch stick Pepper corns – 5-6 Red chilli powder – 1/2 tsp Paprika (degimirch) – 1 tbsp (for colour basically) Coriander powder – 1 tbsp Tomato puree – 1/2 cup Yogurt – 1 cup Garammasala powder – 1 tsp Salt to taste Method:
Clean and wash lamb leg pieces (nalli).
Heat oil in a thick-bottomed pan. Add green cardamoms, black cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns, bay leaves and sliced onions.
Sauté until onions are light pink in colour.
Add ginger-garlic paste, red chilli powder, coriander powder and cook for one minute.
Add lamb pieces. Stir and cook for three minutes on medium heat.
Add 2 cups of water and bring it to a boil. Cook under pressure for 20 minutes, until lamb pieces are almost cooked.
Beat tomato puree and yogurt and add to the cooked nalli.
Add salt and garammasala powder and cook covered for ten minutes.
Serve hot with hot chappatis.
Note: While selecting cuts for this dish, make sure that you select lamb pieces with lots of bone marrow.
Serve hot with chapatis, naan or tandoori rotis. Rice is also most welcome! Tastes great the next day, if there’s any left over, that is. Ours was history!!
P.S. We served smokedaloogobhi & aloomethi on the side .
“Ponder well on this point: the pleasant hours of our life are all connected by a more or less tangible link, with some memory of the table. “
Charles Pierre Monselet
‘CITRUS’ DESSERT CAKE…like a happy sunflower!!
Another nice dessert I created from the lemon cake sans sour cream. We had my brother-in-law over for dinner the other day, and as usual, I wanted to try something different. Put this together as the day went by with whatever ingredients I had on hand. Must say that DH was very skeptical about this ‘experiment‘ but held his comments fearing an outburst. I can be pretty unpredictable at times, & who knows better than him!! The cake was scrumptious. It tasted a lot like a cheesecake…but wasn’t a cheesecake. BIG HIT with the kids too, who had a second slice each, after a hearty dinner!!
A cake that thinks its a cheesecake, but isn’t!!
So I made the lemon cake, recipe posted here, right upto dousing it with syrup etc. Thereafter…
Chill the cake well for a couple of hours, slice it horizontally twice to get 3 layers.
Beat 400 ml whipping cream with 4 tbsp sugar + 1 tsp lemon sugar (optional) + 1 tsp lemon essence, till thick & of pouring consistency.
Reserve some for pouring over the top ( about 1 cup).
Beat the remaining cream till it holds peaks.
Lay the bottom layer on platter, spread half the cream; repeat with next layer.
Pour the reserved cream over the top, allowing it to drizzle down the sides randomly (guide it with a toothpick if need be).
Drizzle melted dark chocolate over the top; sprinkle with chocolate shavings etc.
Chill well for the favours to mature.
Leave out for about an hour before serving if you like. It tastes great just out of the fridge too!
A refreshing burst of FRESH flavour after a hearty meal….Mmmmmmmmmm!!
“Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.”
Erma Bombeck
Traditional Indian Desserts…KHEER / RICE PUDDING
Here’s one of our great Indian desserts, quite similar to the English rice pudding, & much loved in our part of the world. The earlier recipe for rice pudding that I posted a while ago doesn’t use condensed milk; this one does, and tastes very rich & creamy too. It is a popular egg less dessert, & a great way to finish off a meal. I find the freshly grated nutmeg gives this a warm and comforting flavour. The raisins & almonds are quite optional, & one, or both, can be given the miss if need be.
Ingredients:
Rice – 1 cup (washed & dried) Milk – 1 ½ ltrs (whole milk) Condensed Milk – 1 can / 400ml Saffron strand – 1 pinch Green Cardamom – 5-6/ seeds crushed in pestle & mortar Nutmeg – 1/4 tsp / freshly grated Raisins – 1 handful Almonds – 1 handful / without skin Sugar if required
Method:
Grind the rice in a coffee grinder.
Bring the milk to a boil, and then simmer it for 30 minutes.
Add the condensed milk, stirring it constantly while pouring it in.
Soak the saffron strands & cardamom seeds in a tbsp of warm milk.
Mix the rice powder in ¼ cup of cold milk.
Stir the rice into the simmering milk, stir continuously to avoid lumps getting formed, & bring to a boil.
Now once again leave to simmer until rice is cooked, and the kheer/pudding has thickened, like a thick batter consistency. Stir occasionally.
Add the freshly grated nutmeg + raisins + almonds and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add sugar if required. I find that the condensed milk adds enough sweetness of its own.
Cool till lukewarm, and then set in a big serving bowl, or individual bowls.
Chill well, for at least 4-5 hours, or overnight, before serving.
Note: Amount of rice required may differ due to starch content in different varieties. If it becomes too thick, thin it down with extra milk. If it is still too thin ( will thicken a bit & set as it cools down), add a tsp on cornflour in a tbsp of cold milk, and give it a boil. Should do the trick! Serves 8-10
This dessert can be made a day in advance, and the work can be further reduced if you grind the rice a couple of days before.I’m late & not feeling good at all. Anna at Morsels & Musings had a blog event for “special occasion food”. I did so want to send this one in because its a nice pudding, which has easily available ingredients, & is a hit with family and friends. Sadly, I missed the bus ‘ coz I muddled up the dates. :0(….will send it in anyway, just so Anna knows I tried!
‘Special Occasion Indian Food’…the Kheer or Rice Pudding!
