Khoya Naan

Every city/ place is has certain dishes that are extremely popular. But, a lot of times, that popularity is restricted to a certain community. Not that other communities would not be willing to try it, but to try some very authentic dish of a certain community, you need to be friends with people. Like Swami Narain Temple serves the world’s best Sambhar, for that irrespective of your religion, you have to just walk in one day and try out the Sambhar, which honestly is flavorful and pretty simple, but satisfies your soul. This statement was given by Mr. Parveez, who actually promised me 15 years ago that one day he will take me to one of the temples in Bengaluru and have me try their Sambhar, and with all that wait I think soon I will be seen walking in a Swami Narain Temple myself [just for love of Sambhar] 😉

Coming back to this dish. Khoya Naan and Chobe ke naan [which are made from sweet coconut] are very popular sweet dishes in Muslim community. I am sure loads of other communities enjoy them too, as long as they know about them. I had first tried them a few years after my marriage and though I am not a fan of coconut, but I did try them and they were fairly good and if you love coconut, you should try them. But if you like mawa’a or Khoya based sweets, you will definitely love this one. We would always buy them for USA as well and bring some for our friends here and everyone loved them. But, travelling back home starts reducing with time and that’s exactly what happened with us too. And the cravings fail to understand that. This is when people like me are always thankful for our extra ordinary taste buds and skills to cook.

So, one fine day when my cravings were over the top and I got restless, i got down to making my own. The outer layer is made from pie dough and it tasted great, but I believe the outer layer that they use in Bangalore is the puff pastry dough. I personally feel that using Pie dough is better than the latter, because mawa’a filling by itself is pretty heavy and puff pastry makes it even more buttery and heavy leaving a thick after taste on your tongue, which does not happen with the pie dough. Though I did make small balls and rolled each one around 6 inches in diameter and further put them together by spreading a little oil between each one. Further I rolled them like a cigar and cut them out equally and rolled them out again. This way I was able to make it more flaky and add more layers.

The filling is made with ghee, shredded khoya, sugar, heavy cream, Rose water, cardamom powder and saffron. This dish does not have any nuts. Its supposed to be crunchy, and sweet. This can be made a few days in advance and refrigerated as well. It should always be served warm, so you can always warm it up in the oven for around 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!!!

Hyderabadi Chana Daal Qabooli

Hyderabad is popular for its lip smacking food. The city of Nizams is just not popular for its gems and jewels and gorgeous buildings, but more for the food. The Hyderabadi Biryani to start with has almost 12 varieties if not more. When it comes Hyderabad and we think of food, I always tend to think of all wonderful non vegetarian dishes, Biryanis, Korma, Haleem…but we all forget that Hyderabad has a wonderful variety of Vegetarian food as well.

This delicious vegetarian Biryani has come down from the Mughals, and is made with rice and split gram lentils. In Hyderabad, its considered a fancy dish and is a great vegetarian option in place of Biryani.

Qabooli is biryani made with spicy chana dal (split pea lentil) and layered with basmati rice. This Chana daal qabooli is very different in flavor and aroma, which combines the pungency of spices, the tanginess of Yoghurt and richness of saffron. It turned out quite tasty and lip smacking. This is a filling and delicious dish that is great to make when you have company. This vegetarian version of Biryani can be made on festival day or even include it in a party menu as well. Enjoy!!!

Curd Rice

Curd Rice is a meal from Southern part of India. It’s full of probiotic goodness and cooling properties , just the kind of meal you need when you want something simple, easy to digest, fast track food and a nutritious meal. Curd Rice is a creamy and traditional preparation of soft pre-cooked rice and thick yogurt all combined together and crowned with a South Indian style tempering.

Curd Rice is a gluten-free, savory Indian dish prepared with yogurt and pre-cooked rice. For the flavor, it is often tempered with ghee, mustard seeds, urad daal, ginger, asafoetida, cumin seeds, curry leaves, green chilies and dry red chilies.

Curd Rice is great for digestion, since the good bacteria in the yoghurt/ curd may help the body digest food easier and smoother. For generations, in South India, this has been the cure for an upset stomach or gastric issues including constipation and bloating. This dish also happens to have a milder version made with thinner curd or even buttermilk and is excellent for fighting acid reflux. Curd rice balances out the internal temperature of your body and is an excellent coolant during the hot summer months. Since it is served cold, one can almost immediately feel the respite from blazing temperatures even externally, before the nutrients begin to break down in one’s system. This is relatively low in calories and can still be eaten by itself as a meal and is quite filling, you can include this in your low-calorie diet as a menu choice.

All you need for this simple preparation is boiled rice, I usually throw away the water, but you are free to add less water in boiling the Rice and let the Ric soak it all up. Just make sure you use small grained Rice, as its a better option when it comes to over cooked and mushed up Rice. Basmati Rice is better with Biryani and Pulao. The Rice needs to be at Room Temperature, so make sure you give it at least an hour on a wide dish so it cools down completely. You can also use leftover steamed rice for making the dish. If using leftover cooked rice, add a tiny amount of water and mash it to a soft consistency (like broken wheat consistency). Soft rice that is overcooked or slightly mushy is perfect for making creamy curd rice.

 Full-fat Yoghurt is great if you want super soft and creamy curd rice, but you can use low-fat Yoghurt as well. Although the traditional Curd Rice is cooked with slightly sour Yoghurt, but I prefer the regular one.

 The tempering for the Curd Rice is a typical South Indian style packed with cumin seeds, mustard seeds, urad dal/ chana dal, curry leaves, ginger, green chilies, whole dry red chilies, and a pinch of asafoetida (aids in digestion). You can mix grated carrot or pomegranate as well in your yogurt rice for that extra crunch and freshness.

It is always ideal to combine chilled yogurt and room temperature rice to make creamy and delicious yogurt rice. If hot rice is combined with curd, it affects the nutritional properties of yogurt, and the digestion problems are bound to happen. Also, the curd might turn sour after mixing the hot rice. Hence, it is best to enjoy yogurt rice cold or at least room temperature.

Tandoori Chicken Pizza

Who doesn’t love Pizza? We all have a heart that has a special place for Pizza, no matter the changes it brings to the scale…LOLzzz. Though I have always enjoyed making Pizza at home and since we cannot consume chicken pizza outside, making it at home is kind of the only option left. But, more than anything during this lockdown I realized how much fun it is to cook with my boys. My older one almost mastered the skill of making a perfect pizza and it left me very proud that my son was becoming independent. I prefer thin crust Pizza it to the regular pizza, usually a little extra sauce which to me is always a little better and a little low on cheese. But then, my son argued that it makes the pizza more of the flat bread and not a Pizza. Flat breads usually also have a little sprinkled dry Parmesan cheese on it and it makes it look different from pizza and if you are not a very big cheese fan like me, you will definitely like the taste of dry cheese powder. Sprinkling a little dry oregano or chili flakes also enhances the flavor. Now coming back to this experiment, we love tandoori chicken and I always try to make my pizza with an Indian touch. There is always so many real flavors of pizza and flat breads available at restaurant and I think if you try and make the same thing at home, it beats the purpose of us going out to eat. So, when trying something at home, I always try to make it different from what we get outside. It could be a little different or more different depending on what you are making, but if its made at home try to add your flavor to make it unique. So, to make this recipe, you will need around 2 cups of tandoori chicken. I made mine fresh, but leftovers from dinner should also be fine. You can always feel free to make tandoori chicken any style you like or can follow my Chicken Tandoori recipe. This Pizza can have Paneer or Tofu as well, if you want to have it as a vegetarian option. You can always marinate them with tandoori flavors and make it the same way.

Tandoori Chicken

Tandoori Chicken is most common, easy and easily available chicken kebab. The Chicken Tandoori can be made in small pieces, Chicken legs. My Mother used to make Tandoori Chicken for almost the whole world and I mean it, the whole world. My friends who loved non vegetarian food loved her Tandoori Chicken.

Tandoori Chicken though is a fusion between Middle eastern or Mughlai Grilled chicken mixed in with Indian spices and must have been an experiment by Mughal Khansamas to incorporate and use the local chilies along side of the Afghan or Persian spices.

There is a very funny story to this too. My mother had a best friend from school, who moved to Kolkata after marriage, and one of her daughter’s fell sick and the doctor recommended Chicken soup to her. When the family traveled to Jodhpur, the daughter had already became a hardcore non veg lover, but had not ventured out with other varieties. So when they came, she requested my mother to make soup for her which my mother delightfully fulfilled. Then one fine day, my mother was making Tandoori Chicken for some guests when her friend’s daughter happened to be at our house. The fragrance of Tandoori Chicken is hard to say no to, hence she wanted to try it out. And that was it, Tandoori Chicken found itself a fan for life. And my Mother would never ever make an excuse for not cooking or going through the pain of fulfilling her special request despite her busy schedule.

Well, what I meant was that Tandoori Chicken was kind of the only Chicken kebab that my mother made and it was out of this world and loved, not just by us but even others. Now, I make huge varieties of Kebabs and Tandoori chicken also happens to be one of those, but when it comes to adding chicken to your pizza, Tandoori chicken is the best. One you don’t really need an old fashioned Tandoor to make it. It can be made in your oven or incase of boneless, it can easily be made in a pan too.

A simple marinade of Yogurt, chili powder, salt, tandoori powder, red food color, Ginger garlic paste and lemon juice is sufficient to bring out an extremely delicious kebab dish. Its one of the best and the easiest kebabs i have ever made.

Pizza Dough

The secret to a perfect Pizza dough recipe? Easy to follow step by step photos that will give you the perfect Pizza dough. You will never have to look for another Pizza dough recipe ever. I have actually been waiting for so long to write down the recipe for this dough, since I know there are so many like me who would love to make pizza at home. One of the best things about making homemade Pizza is that you can always involve your kids and family and it can be so much fun.

The secret to making a perfect Pizza dough at home is the water temperature. You just have to make sure that your water temperature is perfect. I am not going to ask you to boil it, or microwave it , even the water that comes out of the fridge or tap, all work different ways. The temperature should be between 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit or between 43 to 46 degrees Celsius. The best thing would be to use a thermometer. If the water isn’t hot enough, it won’t wake up the yeast. If it’s too hot, it will kill the yeast. Only the correct temperature will bubble up the yeast perfectly. I have wasted loads of dough, thinking even if my yeast didn’t bubble up, my dough will work out fine, but it failed to rise resulting a wasted dough. Until I realized that the temperature has to be perfect. After a few trials you will be able to tell by touch. A candy thermometer should work just fine. Dump your water and restart if its not correct. You add around 2.5 tsp of yeast and little sugar. It doesn’t need stirring. Let it sit for around 5-7 minutes and it will be nice and frothy on top and this is when you know that the yeast will make the perfect dough.

When you are measuring you flour, make sure you scoop the flour in a measuring cup and level it. If you scoop it out right from the container, you might end up getting more flour than needed. If your dough isn’t coming together well, because may be accidentally added more flour than required, then add a tiny bit of warm water, just few teaspoons at a time until it comes together.

If you like the pizza dough recipe, leave me a 5 star and a comment. I would also love to know what your favorite toppings are. Enjoy!!!

Dumm Aaloo

Potatoes, whether they are made in anyway or style, boiled, mashed, baked, fried or roasted, are one of the most loved and easily consumed vegetable around the world. Potatoes are believed to have been domesticated around 7,000 -10,000 years ago near modern day Peru, South America. Today, nearly a third of the world’s production is harvested in India.

So how did the Potato reach India? The Portuguese introduced potatoes to india in the early 17th century and cultivated it around the western coast. The name Batata is actually Portuguese. By the end of 18th century, it was being grown around the northern hilly areas of India. This amazing vegetable was born in India and dishes made of potatoes spread to each and every corner of the country.

One such dish is the Dum Aaloo. This dish has numerous variations in our country. It is prepared differently in different states and regions, depending on the taste, spices available, cooking styles of the regions. This is one of the most fancy ways of cooking Potato curry.

Its usually made with baby potatoes, but I just preferred cutting my big potatoes to pieces. You can always use whatever you prefer using. My logic was to get more sauce on my potatoes and making them a little more flavorful and spicy. But you can always pick baby potatoes if you prefer the sweetness of potatoes with a little spice. This curry goes well with parantha and Roti or as a side dish. Enjoy!!!

Bengali Fish Curry

I do not have an idea about what connects me to Bengal, but I am one big fan of their cuisine. It all started from the Kolkata Chicken Roll, went on to Biryanis, from their to their mind blowing Bengali sweets and now to the awesome fish curries that they make.

Honestly, I am a no fish curry person. I have no idea why, but I could just never bring myself down to liking fish curries. God bless my Late Father, he was a big fan and always looked forward to the fish curries my mom made. Jodhpur, the city I belong to does not get fresh fishes very often. The chicken market also sold fish when the season would be on and my father happened to be one of their regular customers. My father would always get enough to be made into curry and to be fried as well. I would never try the fish curry and would love the fried fish and that’s how it continued.

When I got married, Mr. Parveez loved the fish fried on the side with Daal-Chawal, but he also loves his Fish curry, so he would make his favorite fish curry just few times a year. I tried my level best to like it but its just something that puts me off. Then, one fine day comes in the phase of me finding my new love in Bengali cuisine and you know how Bengali food and fish go hand in hand. So, I came across this wonderful recipe of Bengali fish curry. now, honestly my search was for an authentic “Machhar Jhol” recipe and my search is still on. But this fish curry is the closest I could get to an authentic Machhar jhol.

This fish curry is also made in Bengali style and the taste is amazingly delicious. The flavor is mild and different from the regular fish curries. The recipe is pretty simple and easy to make, and the the recipe does not require any fancy ingredients either. I made this curry using Tilapia fillet, but you can use Halibut, Sea Bass or any other fish of your choice. The fish should be slightly mild for this recipe, so whichever fish you pick, it should not be extremely fishy in taste. Enjoy!!!

Besan Halwa

It is the month of September and despite the pandemic, the festival mood has been set all over the world. Autumn season is coming and the cool breezes brings nice nip in the air and declares the beginning of the festivities. Besan ka Halwa is the quintessential dish to celebrate the season for every reason. The rich and decadent Besan ka Halwa takes you over the moon and make you fall in love it.

Besan is also known as Chickpea Flour or Gram Flour. Besan has a high protein content that makes it good for weight watchers. It is also good for heart health and managing the cholesterol. But, I don’t mean you eat Besan ke Pakode and Halwa everyday, I wish we could but NO. But, what you can do is eat this Halwa with a little lesser guilt than what you would usually do.

There are many ways that people prepare Besan ka Halwa. Everyone makes it super amazing. Honestly, I don’t think there is any way you can go wrong with Besan ka Halwa, its so easy to fix if you do go wrong by any chance. I start with roasting besan in ghee and once it is done roasting, I add hot milk infused with little saffron and once the milk is all absorbed, I add sugar and cardamom powder for sweetness and enhancing taste and cook till desired consistency.

A lot of times people turn on their “guilt mode’ while cooking sweets and substitute Ghee with a healthy Oil. What you need to understand is that you cannot make such changes and complain of the flavor. If you are avoiding any dish for health reason then either you do not make it altogether or make it only once in a while, but do not substitute Ghee or Sugar. Using the right quantity of ghee will also give your halwa the right texture.

There are few things to remember while making besan ka halwa.The Besan flour needs to be sifted through a sieve, to make sure that there are no lumps. Besan flour has tendency to clump up into mounds, so make sure it is a fine flour. The Besan tends to burn easily, therefore the roasting needs to be monitored at all times, while you saute’e and roast the besan.

Besan ka Halwa is more regularly made during winters. My Grandmother and Mother and My Mother in law always say that Hot or warm served besan Halwa is great during winters specially because it keeps our body warm and also is soothing when you suffer from cold and congestion. I also feel that Autumn brings in ,more Orangish and Golden foods, specially the sweets, Pumpkin pies, Apple pies and Besan Halwa. This moreish halwa redolent with fragrant ghee, saffron and dry fruits is perfect for celebrations or any time you crave a sweet treat. So, make it and Enjoy!!!

Lahori Chicken Chargah

Lahori Chargah Chicken is one of the easiest and yummiest kebabs that I make. I believe there are few different recipes for Lahori Chargah and you might find some recipes different from what I make. My recipe is based on the first and the only Lahori Chargah I have tried.

There was a small restaurant that we used to go to when my first born was a few months old. We had a pediatrician for him who had her office pretty far from our house. Now those days, I wasn’t driving hence we always had to get a weekend appointment since it would otherwise be hard for Mr. Parveez. For some reason we always got an afternoon appointment and despite the appointment and reaching there on time. The lady who ran it had a very limited menu, one kind of Biryani, 2-3 curries and 1-2 kinds of Kebabs. This happened to be one of them that we really loved and this was a part of our regular order. She also made a different kind of Biryani which we later on found out that she actually didn’t make it herself , but used to get from a near by restaurant. We still loved going to the little cozy restaurant as we were pretty satisfied with the little menu with simple dishes, until one day she decided to move and close the restaurant.

That’s when my search for making a perfect Chicken Chargah started. I saw a famous brand name that sold Chicken Chargah masala, so I bought it and followed the instructions. Now knowing how particular Mr. Parveez and I are about the store bought Masalas, we couldn’t really continue with the box Masalas and I had to get down to figuring out and making my own masalas at home and following the flavor, I actually did. Its amazing how flavors communicate with your taste buds and I believe communication is the key to every successful relationship, be it any.

So, there I was mixing in my Roasted cumin powder, Black Pepper, Red Chili Powder, White Pepper Powder and Tandoori Powder with Apple cider Vinegar and Ginger Garlic Paste. The reason for using both Black Pepper and White Pepper is that adding too much of Black pepper tends to make the food bitter, so adding a little gives you the kick and adding White Pepper along side gives you flavor similar to Black Pepper without adding the bitterness to the food. Chargah is usually made using whole chicken but I always use Chicken legs, as I find them better and easier to serve. So, make them anyway you like and enjoy.