Never met anyone who doesn’t like Butter Chicken. Simple, flavorful and so divine. But most of time people never try and make it at home and Butter Chicken becomes an eat out special. Many times I have read where people tried the recipe following a famous chef, but the dish still does not come out as good as the ones at restaurant.
The recipe below and simple to make and the closest you can get to the authentic Butter Chicken flavor.
When you live in a country far away from home, you tend to dry more of different cuisines in order to blend in. Ohh yes! You read that right. We as Indians try our level best to try and blend in sending our wonderful taste buds on a toss. See, believe it or not, Indian cuisine is one of the most wonderful cuisines you can come across. So many varieties of food offered by one country where the food palette from one state to another differs as much as countries in Europe.
Now, I don’t mean to look down upon other cuisines but I do feel very proud of my ethnicity. Having tried so many different spices, oils, vegetables is an experience of its own. So, coming back to living in America, we tend to please people around us and not or taste buds. Indian food with spices is actually a very healthy option for guilt free food. Leaving that we indulge in butter and cheese based cuisines coz that satisfies the masses and we want to be one of those. But for those of us, who yearn for meals with similar taste, Italian and Mexican food come the closest.
Being a Muslim and eating only halal, our best bet for food is either vegetarian or seafood. Also, not trying food made by people who do not stick to the rules of a cuisine and make it in a fusion way is not my cup of tea. So, people like me, who want try that authentic Mexican chicken rice bowl from their favorite Mexican restaurant, eat fish and try to cook same flavors with chicken at home. I tried my level best to stick to Mexican flavors to get the authentic taste. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
My dad took a lot of trips to Delhi for work. Even we as a family, would be visiting the capital of India quiet often since back in the 80’s and 90’s, we didn’t have the concept of direct trains from one city to another. So, we would take a train to Delhi and then another one to the destination. Since, My maternal family lived in U.K., dropping someone off to Delhi or picking them up from Delhi or we visiting our maternal home was always a trip through Delhi.
Now, being a non vegetarian, purani delhi is the place to be. Despite the crowd, the pollution and uncountable hygiene issues, every non veg lover at some point visited “jama masjid area” to satisfy their cravings. We did that on almost every trip and my father tried it at least twice each time, if not more. Some very popular restaurants serve awesome and delicious kebabs and curries with sheermaal, roomali roti and finger licking biryani.
Amongst the various variety of kebabs, Burrah kebabs stole my heart. Made from lamb marinated for a few hours, these kebabs are juicy, crunchy and full of beautiful flavors. So I had to search for the recipe. Though the recipe that I found wasn’t close to what my taste buds witnessed as a kid but being a home chef I knew how to add and deduct things and come out with the exact taste.
This is a must try for people who love lamb kebabs. Pretty easy to make and can be stored too.
These delightful braided rolls are a great accompaniment to any meal, specially the brunch or lazy lunch days. The coarse chili flakes isn’t overpowering. I could have used this dough to even make burgers.
Its lovely to experiment with breads at home. The trick I learnt with time is that if your yeast doesn’t rise, redo it. A yeast that does not rise won’t make your dough airy and won’t make the dough rise. Generally, when people add the yeast directly to the flour, its advisable that you use instant yeast.
Besides the yeast, before you get pro at baking breads, always make sure you read the recipe and all the instructions properly before you start. Don’t believe anyone when they tell you how difficult it is to make a great bread or pizza crust or rolls, because trust me, it isn’t as difficult as it seems. Making good bread is an art, but it can be easily be learnt.
This is a middle eastern recipe, to be specific, an “Afghani” recipe. There used to be an Afghani restaurant near our old house. Mr. Parveez and I loved the food they served. Beinf authentic Afghani, there rice pilaf would always be served garnished with shredded carrots, cashews and raisins and of course grilled Chicken / meat. But what we loved the most was the Bourani Baingan [pronounced as Bow-rani Bain-jan].
It was served as an appetizer with Afghaan bread called Noni. Bourani Baingan is dish made with eggplants cooked with tomatoes and garlic and served with whipped yogurt on top. I was so madly in love with that dish that loads of time I would give up my rice pilaf and chicken just to have that. And, just like that one fine day, the restaurant shut down for renovation and eventually opened up as a pizzeria. I believe the owner thought that pizza sells more than the Afghani food and preferred changing the business.
And, like they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Meanwhile, we found another Afghani restaurant and loved their food too but, we were deprived of our favorite Bourani Baingan. This is when I decided to follow my taste pallets and come up with the recipe. As I always say, trials and errors till I got it right. This recipe is a perfect dish for a weekend brunch or a perfect appetizer for a small in house party. It goes perfectly with Afghan Noni which you can find in the bread section. Unlike the popular belief of connecting Middle east food with only Non vegetarian food, both these dishes are vegetarian.
These are one of the first mutton kebabs I made of for Mr. Parveez and since then they are a family favorite. The kebabs are spicy in flavor, crunchy from outside and soft from inside. These kebabs are steamed before pan frying.
The good thing about steaming is that if there is any extra fat in the meat, it gets drained which kind of makes the kebab a little healthy. To eat these on diet, you will have to pan fry them with as little oil as possible or you could also use those oil sprays. Steaming is different from boiling. Boiling the kebabs might take away the flavor and spice, where as steaming cooks the spice and the meat is completely tender. So, when you pan fry, it only takes a few minutes for the meat to get crunchy and its ready to eat.
A super fab recipe to serve guests as a side dish. Easy to make and easy to please.
As a kid, I never liked mutton curries. I grew up believing that Goat/Lamb is something I just never enjoy until, I started my cooking experiments and realized that the problem is not with mutton, its the way it was cooked in my house. There were just 2 kinds of curries and I just happened to not like any. Though, I did prefer one and found it a little easier to gulp down somehow. I think the reason that I didn’t have too many options as a kid when it came to food choices is the reason I make so many varieties…LOLzzz.
So, when I started cooking lamb/goat, I preferred cooking them as kebabs. Different kebabs, with bones, boneless, minced meat, but never a curry. I could just never gather courage to make a curry, because I was convinced that it wouldn’t be good.
All that changed after I got married. Mr. Parveez has some fabulous goat curry recipes, passed down from his family and that’s when I started following the recipes and got more confident about it. Experimenting with different flavors added a lot of variety to my lamb and goat dishes. This recipe happens to be one of them.
This dish is a little thick in gravy, so its great to be eaten with phulkas or Rotis or a side dish with Daal-Chawal.
My love for Baklava began in 2003. I was working for a University in Amman, Jordan. Trying out different foods and adapting myself to new culture and people is when I first time tried Baklava. Now, Baklava tastes very different in all middle east countries. I might sound bias but there is nothing like the Jordanian baklava. Its crunchy, nutty, crispy with just perfectly sweet. Its hard to decide how much sugar will be perfect for your baklava but constant practice made me come up with the perfect measure.
Like most of my other recipes, this recipe too is not that tough. Just be precise with your measurements and oven heat and time. Make sure the nuts you use are fresh and enjoy the flavor of a wonderful Baklava. It can be made a day before for your guests and is a great dish for potluck parties too. The shelf life is a week and can be extended to two weeks if you refrigerate it. Though it should be thawed before serving.
Malabar food is a Biryani dish from Kerela. The famous dish is made by layering aromatic Rice with chicken masala, mostly made in Ghee. The recipe demands the pot to be sealed with flour or tight cloth, after the Rice and chicken are layered and Biryani is set to dumm. It should be cooked on low heat to get the perfect Biryani that has been one of Kerela’s most popular and beautiful recipes.
The great town Calicut, now known has Kozhikode is known for its amazing cuisines along with beautiful beaches. The place has had many settlers and the cuisines show an influence of the the travelers from different countries that had once been the part of Calicut’s gorgeous history. Biryani of course shows a clear influence of Persin / Mughal era. the local cuisine is known for its sumptuous non vegetarian food and Chicken Biryani seems to be one of the top favorites.
Coming back to today’s recipe for Malabar Biryani, its usually made with Chicken, but I am sure the recipe would work great on Meat and Fish too, though you might want to change the proportion of spices. The Malabari call the cooking of this Biryani to be a “Pakki method” in which Rice and chicken are cooked separately and then layered and put to dumm.
Malabar Biryani is usually cooked in Ghee. The liberal use of ghee along side of whole spices, like Cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and star anise make an awesomely fragrant dish. I am not a big fan of cooking the whole Biryani in Ghee, so I have been slightly careful. But you can always substitute Oil for Ghee if it suits your taste buds. This dish is spicy, but not spicy enough to make you cry. So, if you like Biryani, but aren’t a fan of Indian food that’s “hot”, this dish is for you.
Malabar Biryani uses Khaima Rice and I tried to look for a good quality Khaima Rice in United States. Since my search didn’t give me any results, I am sticking to my original long grained Basmati Rice. My Mother in law loves her Biryani cooked with Jeerakasala Rice, which is close or same as Khaima Rice. So, if you do happen to find a good brand, Please use it and also let me know in the comment section. The extra water in the Rice is drained and the rice is cooled slightly. Unlike the absorption method of cooking, this method of cooking rice in an open pan in excess water and draining it like pasta will always give you perfect Rice thats needed for a good Biryani.
The chicken is first cooked in onions, ginger, garlic, fresh cilantro, mint and green chilies and yogurt. Tomatoes can or cannot be used. I saw different recipes and I preferred the one with tomatoes. Once the chicken is all cooked, layer it with the Rice and seal the Biryani with a cloth and a tight lid. Adding some kind of weight to the lid is advisable too. I usually keep my Biryani in the oven but you can always dumm it on the gas at low flame for around 30 minutes.
Do you ever have those days when you feel like having something filling, flavorful, colorful, sweet and sour, but you don’t want the dish to be heavy and not too filling. It’s one of those days when you don’t want those extra calories to pile up but, it’s hard to give up on that craving.
Well, this dish is for those days. To me, its a perfect weekend lunch. Our weekend lunch is difficult decision to make, specially on Sunday. My boys have sports and morning are always eggs, banana and milk or smoothies. After spending most of our day at sports ground and returning home at 2 PM, you can imagine the huge hunger pangs and growling stomachs.
At this point, serving my boys with kebabs or burgers is fine since they can easily digest it but the problem is that with 4 hours remaining in dinner, you want something filling but nothing too heavy. This dish is is perfect for those days.
Chhole/chickpeas are rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals. Mixing them up with tomato, onion, coriander leaves and few spices with yogurt, chutneys and sev make an excellent chaat which is satisfying to your belly and craving. A mouthful of delicious bites without the fear of adding extra calories.
