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.

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!!

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!!!

Vazhaikaai Kofta~Green Banana Koftas Delicacy

So today everyone in our family woke up at 7:30! or should i say slept till 7:30 !
We were out of fresh veggies and after my mum saw me sleep walking and my dad reading the THE HINDU as if he is preparing for bank entrance exam - Dear appa u passed ur bank exam 30 years ago and you are gonna retire in 3 years :)):D  so anyways back to the story , my Maa decided to make something with a plantain & an onion and two tomatoes. She worked her magic to make this awesome VAZHAIKAAI KOFTHA- Green Banana Kofta!
 

Spicy Green Banana Koftas*

Another easy to prepare recipe KISS (Keep It Simple Silly) recipe

Ingredients

1 Raw green banana

1 Onion finely chopped

2 Tomatoes finely chopped

½ Spoon chilli powder

Garam masala powder

Salt as per requirement

Spices- 1 bay leaf, 3-4 cloves and a small piece of cinnamon

Optional – garlic and ginger minced

For the Kofta

1. Cut the green banana in half and pressure cook for 10 minutes
2. Peel the banana’s thick skin off (my inner voice says there goes all the fiber content *sigh* Oh well you can’t have it all)
3. Mash the boiled banana pulp with few sprinkling of salt, 
4. Optional: You can also add a pinch of Garam masala to the mashed banana pulp
5. Now make small to medium sized ball 
6. Shallow fry over low heat

Your koftas are ready.

For the gravy

1. Heat a thick pan
2. Add a spoon of oil
3. Add the spices and onion and fry till the onions turn golden brown
4. Add the mined ginger and garlic and sauté for 2 minutes in low flame
5. Add the finely chopped tomatoes and fry
6. Add ½ spoon of chilli powder, a pinch of garam masala and fry till the tomatoes are done  
7. Add the fried banana  koftas  and gently mix until the koftas are covered in gravy  
8. Let it simmer for about 2 minutes, remove from flame and serve with chapathi or rice 

Ensssssooi your Green Banana Kofta!

 

*P.S. Sorry about the poor quality photograph! I am still recovering and hence terribly disoriented

Happy weekend Everyone! :)

Marundu/Milagu Kozhambu~ Medicinal Pepper Stew

Today I woke up with really bad body pain and terrible headache, So I called in sick, and crashed on the couch for the rest of the day and as if that was not bad enough, about half past noon the power went off and I dozed off in the sweaty heat only to wake up at 5pm!  I hate to fall ill (Who the devil likes to fall ill!!)

Anyways I was too tired to make anything for myself and did not like the packed lunch my mum had left for me so I fed off a HUGE bar of chocolate for lunch and for dinner I decided to get the hell out of bed and make myself something nice to eat! But I had no appetite and I was in no mood to eat another bar of chocolate for dinner. I was craving something nice and spicy yes something LIGHT! (..and something that did not involve too much work- A KISS recipe)

~ MILAGU KOZHAMBU~ 

 
Milagu Kozhambu a.k.a. Pepper stew is usually prepared if someone is suffering from incurable cold/cough, body pain or allergic sneeze as it is known to provide immediate  relief .. No My dear reader I won't bore you with the medicinal properties of Pepper :)

Ingredients
4-5shallots -peeled and chopped Optional- Half a tomato chopped finely
A small ball of tamarind soaked in water, dissolved and filtered

For  Powder

• 2 spoons Pepper corns
• 1/2 spoon Toor dhal (Thuvaram Parupu)
• 1/2 spoon Jeera seeds
• 1/2 spoon channa daal (Kadala Parupu)
• 1/4 spoon fenu greek seeds
• Roast the ingredients over low flame and Grind coarsely and preserve in an air tight container 

To saute

• Mustard 
• Jeera seeds
• Red chillis and
• Curry leaves

 Methods

• Heat a kadai and add 2 spoons of vegetable oil
• Add the Mustard, Jeera, Fenu greek seeds and red chillies - splutter over low flame
• Add the chopped shallots, and tomatoes and fry 
• Add the tamarind filtrate and bring to a boil
• Add the required amount of Powder according to your taste (I added 2 spoonful)
• Sprinkle some Asofoetida and let the gravy simmer
• This will be ready in less than 5-6 minutes
• Serve with hot rice and sleep off after the meal

I am a sucker for Smilies :)

  P.S. My body pain is gone but now I have a running nose! :P

Fish-O-Fish

This morning I got a message from a friend with whom I haven't spoken to in months! The first thing she told me was that me she enjoyed reading my blog! :) Just yesterday I was wondering whether anyone is reading my blog at all, so when I heard from my friend needless to say I was overwhelmed. She is also a foodie much like me and loves seafood especially FISH! So here are some really easy to prepare fish recipes which I hope she enjoys!

Our subject for today ~ Anchovies commonly referred to as Nethili Meen in Tamil

This one is for one of ente favorite ommana pen kutties :)

Nethili 65: Deep fried Anchovies

Deep Fried Anchovies

Ingredients
Anchovies: A cup full- cleaned, washed and marinated in lime and rock salt
1/2 spoon turmeric powder
1/2 spoon wheat atta or maida (this will serve as a binder)
1/2 rice powder (this will make the dish crispy, crunchy & YUMMY)
4-5 spoons of chilli powder
1 spoons of ginger &garlic paste
Optional: 1/2 spoon coarsely crushed pepper corns

Nethili 65

Method

• Take big bowl- mix the anchovies with the following ingredients
• chilli powder
• turmeric powder
• ginger garlic paste
• rice powder atta/maida 
• Sprinkle water and mix the contents 
• Make the marinate into a smooth paste
• Keep it aside for 15-20 minute
• Heat a pan with oil 
• Add the anchovies and cook over low heat
• The  fish will be done in less than 5-7 minutes

Serve hot just as a snack or as a side dish for sambhar rice, rasam rice or even better fish gravy & rice:)

Nethili Thokku: Anchovy gravvy

Nethili  Gravvy

Ingredients

• Shallots/ small onions a cup full -
• Wash and peel the small onions
• Do not chop- adding them whole make the dish taste better
• Anchovies a cup full
• cleaned & washed
• marinated in turmeric, lemon and rock salt 
• One whole Garlic peeled 
• Do not chop or crush garlic
• Add them as whole cloves
• A piece of ginger (2 inches-crushed )
• 10 curry leaves 
• 1/2 spoon asafoetida  
• 3-5 spoon pure chilli powder 
• Tamarind a medium sized ball- soaked in a cup of water, dissolved, and filtered 
• Take the tamarind water - add chilli powder and turmeric powder

For spluttering:  Mustard seeds, fenu greek seeds, Jeera seeds, (Optional-pepper corns), Dry red chillies & 4-5 spoons of gingelly oil


Method

• Heat a thick pan, add 4-5 spoons of Gingelly oil (you can also use vegetable oil)
• Add the mustard seed, fenu greek seeds, Pepper corns, Jeera, red chillies and fry
• Add shallots and curry leaves and saute till it turns light brown
• Add the peeled garlic and crushed ginger and saute
• Note:- this recipe does not need tomatoes, however if u want to,  you can add half a tomato finely chopped and saute it after the ginger garlic
• Add the tamarind water mixed with chilli powder and turmeric powder
• Bring to a boil, let the contents simmer until it reaches a consistency of gravy
• Add the 1/2 spoon of asafoetida
• Add the anchovies and reduce the flame
• Let it simmer in low flame for 10minute(maximum 15 minute)
• Note:- Do not stir, this will break the fish into a million tiny bits :)
• Remove from stove in 15 minutes and serve with hot rice or Idlies

 See I told ya it was an easy recipe :)

I hope these recipes were useful, do try them and tell me how it tasted! Happy eating !

P.S. Amma has made chicken curry and chappathi for dinner tonight, I m off :)

Enjoy your fried anchovies!

 

~Fin~

Minced Soy ~ Veggie Kheema

Few months back we had a pot luck lunch @ my appice (ladies special)!

Did I mention it was vegetarian lunch.. Those who know me also know that I descended from a line of  carnivorous dinosaurs and I DO NOT eat grass! :P However I do love to cook and so I prepared an easy to make 'Soy Kheema Gravy with Paneer & capsicum'

When it comes to cooking I prefer to KISS ~ Before I let your imaginations runwild, I ll clarify i meant Keep It Simple Silly ! Yes yes I learnt it from a lame T.V. program :P

A friend and a fellow foodie of mine really liked it and has been asked me for the recipe, however the lazy Bum I am I could never pen down or share the recipe..

This one is for her..

Minced Soy ~Veg Kheema

Ingredients

1 small cup of Soy granules  (I use a brand called Nutrela) - soaked in a hot water with salt and turmeric for 2 minutes and drained
10 Shallots pealed and chopped finely
2 ripe tomatoes chopped finely
1 spoon red chilli powder & garam masala powder (alter as per your taste)
5-6 cloves of garlic crushed with a 1 inch of ginger

Spices: Bay leave, cloves, Cardamom and cumin seeds (you can tweak this as per your taste)

Optional : A small bar of paneer and a medium size capsicum (Cut Paneer and capsicum into medium - big size pieces, saute in vegetable oil and a  pinch of salt kept aside )

Method

1. Heat a thick cooking pan, add required amount of oil
2. Add all  the spice, chopped shallots, crushed ginger, garlic and saute till golden brown
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, chilli powder, garam masala, salt  and fry till oil separates
4. Add the drained soy granules and stir
5. Sprinkle water and let it simmer for 5-10 minute
6. Reduce heat and add the sauteed paneer and capsicum
7. Let flavors and fragrances of all the ingredients blend!
   
8. Turn the stove after 2  minutes
9. Serve with Chapathi, roti, rice,  idllis or dosai

Lettuce eat!

P.S.  This one's for you Sudha, sorry to keep u waiting for so long :) Kamman!! try it and tell me how you like it!