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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Mutton Briyani for Beginners


Briyani is one of my all time favorites :) in fact my Amma has a tradition of making briyani for breakfast for my birthday ..every birthday :P i know i know it s bit too  much but ahhhh who cares - besides its good to have a heavy breakfast :D and am babbling on and on again :D so coming back to briyani.  I  know it sounds like a complicated dish to prepare especially for a beginner but believe me its a cake walk and the simpler your recipe the better it will taste so I m going to pen down a very basic version ideally suited for newbies, you can master this recipe in no time and when you have done that please feel free to experiment with your recipes, So get ready get set Go!!!

Simple ingredients
Things you will need
Grind the following into a paste:
  • 10-15 shallots (small onions) peeled washed
  • 1 big bulb of garlic peeled and
  • 3 inch piece of ginger
Mutton pressure cooked with chilli powder , salt and tomatoes
Keep the following ready:
  • 2 ripe tomatoes cut into quarters
  • 1 bunch of mint leaves- washed
  • 3-4 green chillies sliced
  • 2 cups of Basmathi rice, washed, soaked for 30 minutes and drained
  • ½ Kilo Mutton - Pressure cook  with 2cups water and salt, 1 tomato and 3 spoons of Chilli powder for 15 minutes
Briyani in progress
How to make Mutton Briyani
·          Heat a thick kadai and add 4-5 spoons of vegetable oil
·          Add the following spices- 1 stick of cinnamon, few cloves, 2 star anise and sauté
·          Add the shallot- ginger-garlic paste and fry till the oil separates
·          Add the Pudina leaves, green Chillies and tomatoes and fry
·          Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil
·          Add the mutton with the 2 cups stock
·          Add the Basmathi rice and cover with a heavy lid


Add the rice to the broth & bring to a boil
Your easy to make Mutton Briyani will be ready in less than 20 minutes

Garnish options:  You can use chopped coriander, deep fried onions or fried dry fruits to decorate your briyani :) 



Raita: Take a cup of  thick curd, add few pinches of salt, 1 green chilli and 1 onion chopped finely, 1 cucumber & 1 tomato deseeded and chopped , 1 grated carrot , mix all the ingredients in a bowl,  and refrigerate for 10 minutes before serving with briyani :) 

Prepare a simple raita out of curd, cucumbers, carrots,  tomatoes and onions
Serve hot with raita and  home style chiken curry.
See I told you its a simple recipe, now serve your briyani with raita and gravy and ensoii :) do temme how you liked it!



Once you master this easy recipe you can try complicating thing a bit: ;)

  • After soaking and draining the basmathi rice, you can heat a kadai add 1 spoon of butter and fry the rice in it for 2 minutes before adding to the briyani, 
  • You can also substitute the water you add in the briyani with coconut milk or broth entirely. 
  • If you feel the briyani is too spicy add a few spoons of ghee before you serve. If you feel the rice will get over cooked add 1/2 lemon's juice to the briyani mixture and it cook.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Easy to make - 3 ingredient pasta !

I am a sucker for Italian food, there is nothing on earth  which beats a warm cheesy slice of thin crust pizza, hot and gooey lasagna or bowl of pasta :) I love to cook as much as I love to eat but many friends of mine keep telling me that they get freaked out when they see an elaborate recipe with a long list of ingredients and a step bye step procedure.. Cooking is really easy you just have to get the basic recipe correct and build your own style over time, I have given below a very simple Pasta in Red Sauce recipe, for those of you who love to learn how to cook, for those of you who are experts already enjoy the pics and be supportive :)

Ripe tomatoes boiled in water for 2 minutes
3 Things you will need:

  • 3 firm ripe tomatoes
  • 5-6 cloves of garlic crushed using a mortar and pestle
  • 1 cup of pasta of your choice


Few cloves of garlic crushed
For making red sauce

  • Boil the tomatoes in water for 2 minutes, remove the skin and grind into paste
  • Heat a kadai, add 2-3 spoons of olive oil
  • Add the crushed garlic and saute gently
  • Add tomato paste to the garlic and olive oil
  • Simmer for 1 minute 
  • Add salt to taste & remove from flame


Keep it simple the first few times u make it just try it and you will develop great confidence in yourself and fall in  love with the flavor of garlic :)

Pasta of your choice -boiled & drained 
 Choose pasta of your choice and boil until its done and drain and add this to the red sauce in the kadai and gently mix with a spatula and serve piping hot :)

Pasta in red sauce !
Options for garnish: 
You can either garnish it with grated cheese or chopped cilatro/coriander

Garnish with coriander/cheese or crushed pepper
Options for seasoning 
You can sprinkle crushed pepper or oregano to suit your taste, I just had the pasta as is and it was absolutely YUMMMMMMM!
Serve HOT!
Ensoi your pasta and tell me how you liked it!!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

MASH @ Besant Nagar

So finally I went to much praised, critically acclaimed MASH at Besant Nagar...how did i like it? Errr hmm ..Let me put it this way ..My mom raised me such that if i dont have any thing nice to say i dont say anything at all ...
Fiery Fotato

Hot chocolate

Kalamari Fritters

Kalamari with Lemon garlic butter sauce

chicken sizzler

MASH

~Fin~
 Ok I admit I m kinda sorta very disappointed given that I've heard soooooooooo much about this place..

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Sampoorna @ Besant Nagar

I've heard a lot about this tiny lil place called MASH located at Besant nagar beach, so after much planning  (unsuccessful planning) :P Botu and I decided to go to MASH for a quick bite after work, however when we reached there and walked up  to the restaurant we saw a sleepy guy with a hammer and some turned down tables and chairs :( apparently they were renovating ..LOL Just perfect timing , oh well that was not a Bummer not even close, cos if u have been to Besi beach u wud know that it is sprawling with eat outs and new restuarents, so we decided to go to this tiny lil place called Sampoorna for some Kappi and Snacks ..
Chicken Panniyaram and Onion Chutney
 Since i came back from Karaikudi I have been craving for Panniyaram so i ordered some hot and spicy chicken panniyaram. 
Aloo Bonda
Botu has  turned veggie so she ordered some Hot and crispy Aloo Bonda :)

 I love what they have done to the walls of Sampoorna, its soo bright and beautiful.


Interesting sink 
My cup of Filter Kappi  :)


Sampoorna is located right next to MASH at Besi beach, do visit it and i assure u'll enjoy the food :)
Sampoorna at Besant Nagar beach


Nice & easy home style chicken curry

A friend of mine asked me a recipe for simple and easy chicken curry .. 2 weeks back so I prepared a nice chicken curry the very next day, clicked pix and decided to post it, however my trusty personal lappy had other plans!! It crashed and refused to get fixed so I went without internet at home i.e. No FB & Blogging for 2 weeks, yes i survived, anyways back to the chicken curry so this is about two weeks late :P bare with me peeps more posts coming soon :)


Home style Chicken curry
Lets start with 1/4 kg of chicken, it serves 2.

Ingredients 
2 big onions finely chopped
2 medium size tomatoes finely chopped
10 cloves garlic and 1 inch ginger crushed
2 spoons yogurt 
5 baby potatoes slit in halves

For seasoning 2-3- cloves, a small cinnamon stick

Ingredients
Marinate the chicken
Wash and drain the chicken pieces, add the following ingredients, marinate and keep aside for 1/2 hour..
  • a few pinches of turmeric
  • 2 teaspoons of curd
  • 1 spoon of garlic and ginger paste
  • 2 spoons of chilli powder and 
  • 1/2 spoon crushed pepper
  • Sprinkle some salt 
  • Sqeeze half a lemon
Marinated Chicken
Procedure
  • Heat a kadai, add 4-5 spoons of oil, add cinnamon and cloves and fry 
  • Add the chopped shallots, curry leaves and fry 
  • Add the marinated chicken pieces and baby potatoes and fry for 10 minutes
Chicken Curry in Progress
  • Add the tomatoes and reduce flame (Adding tomatoes later allows the colour to be bright red)
  • Chicken curry in progress
  • Add salt and chilli powder and reduce the flame
  • Let it cook for another 15 minutes and remove from flame 
  • Serve with Idly, Dosa, Rice or Simple and Easy home made Briyani
Chapatti and chicken curry
Mutton Briyani, Chicken Curry and Raita

Ensoi!!!