I love making Chicken curries. they are just every non vegetarian family’s favorite. Most families have a family favorite that is always on the menu for special occasions and popular between friends and distant family. But every once in while, we all need to add a twist to regular curries and come up with something different.
I have tried many different hara masala curries in restaurants and in fact my Mother-in-law makes amazing Hara Masala Gosht, which is something Mr. Parveez cooks for specl occasion like mother’s day and my birthday. Believe it or not, I never got curious to ask him for the recipe and I just let it be one his specials.
So, this recipe was just a quick one that I tried one fine day, when I was all confused and wanted to make a chicken curry, which was quick, didn’t require much effort and was at the same time delicious. This curry is great for beginners too.
Mr. Parveez has always been a big fan of the south Indian Food varieties, mainly the vegetarian food. One of the rice dishes, were Vangibhaath. Its basically eggplant cooked with spices and a few other ingredients and mixed with rice and served with peanut chutney on the side.
He had been making this dish since he started cooking in USA and back home, this dish was one of the few dishes that his elder sister would make at home. Soon after we got married, on one of his “Special Breakfast weekend”, he made Vangibhaath. Now, I am not a huge fan of eggplant, but I decided not to tell that to Mr. Parveez since the dish was made with so much love. I tried and I was more than happy to not bring up my dislike for eggplants.
This dish is amazing. The eggplants are completely cooked and merge really well with the spices of the dish. The cashews and chana daal ad a lot of crunch to the dish and lastly the flavor of tamarind is so well blended with the dish that all you would ever taste is a delicious rice dish made with little effort and a lot of love.
South Indian food has so many varieties with their chutneys. Coconut chutney, Peanut chutney, Roasted chana chutney, not forgetting the common chutneys with North India like the coriander chutney, green chili chutney and Mint chutney.
Coconut Chutney tastes awesome with Rice idlis and Sambhar. The spice of the sambhar is mellowed down by the coconut chutney and brings out wonderful flavors.
Drumstick Sambhar is one of the basic and easiest sambhar recipes you can come across. I have always recieved most compliments on this sambhar from family and friends. I think one of the best foods are foods that require less time and hassle to cook and can be served immediately. Since you consume them few mins after cooking, the flavors are beautiful, rich and divine.
If you study Indian culture closely, you will notice a word in food terms, referred as “Saatvik”. Saatvik is clean eating habits and is generally referred to the food consumed by Sadhus or Spiritual healers and teachers. It was believed that simple food helped them think higher and deeper thoughts and eventually they became leaders of religion or society by keeping their lifestyle basic and food extremely simple. During the time of ancient India, even widows were asked to consume spice less food, since it was believed that consumption of spice led to desires that were regarded a sin for women.
As much as I have studied, Saatvik food requires almost no spice and it lets the flavors of the vegetables and daals enhance the dish, rather than produce mixed with spices. With time and years passing by, the meaning of saatvik changed as well. Now saatvik stands for simple and clean food and is consumed by everyone on daily basis to take a break from the over processed food around us.
This sambhar recipe is very clean and easy to make. Serve with boiled rice and enjoy the heavenly flavors.
My kids, like all other kids completely dislike spinach. Any form of spinach curry or spinach daal made with different recipes would not make them happy. I am sure a lot of people share this story. My kids liked chhole/ chickpeas and that’s when I tried to come up with a recipe that has spinach, and does not give you that strong spinach taste.
This recipe is healthy, super delicious and is a wholesome nutrition. Its even good if you are on a diet.
Bissibhelebhaath is a traditional breakfast dish from the southern part of India.
Every Indian who loves non vegetarian food and don’t like Pepper Chicken. Pepper Chicken is made in dry style and curry, both. This recipe I tried is on the drier side and serves as a great side dish. The taste or flavor is very close to Chettinad style of chicken. The pepper rules the dish with other chilies, making it spicy and the spices leave that flavor on your taste buds that lingers on for long and makes you crave to eat one more bite even though your tummy is full. Yupp!! this is that kind of dish.
I come across a lot of people who take certain flavors and spices lightly and do not realize how a perfect dish is ruined if the measurement of a certain spice isn’t accurate. Pepper Chicken has black pepper as the main spice and we need to make sure that Black pepper powder is put in the correct measurement. Less would not give a perfect flavor and more would make the dish bitter.
This recipe is fool proof and I have paid attention to the exact ingredients to make a pepper Chicken. Hope you enjoy as much as we do.
This dish is a gift of my husband, Mr. Parveez. On days when I am confused and find it hard to decide on what should be cooked, he would come up with his innovative ideas and suggest on something new he would like me to try, unless he makes his way to the kitchen and treat me something super fatabulous.
Anyways, one day I was all confused and he suggested making this chicken dish. The dish uses 4 kinds of chilies so spice factor is a little high and if you aren’t daring enough, I would ask you to cut down on the spice level. This dish makes a great side dish with dal chawal.
This recipe is a gift from Mr. Parveez…yupp!! You read it right. My blunder savior, my better half and I have a pact, according to which I never try cooking what he makes and vice versa. But this recipe was simple yet delicious that he had to share the recipe since it had to be made every other day in the house.
This recipe was invented by my husband, Muyeen. During his bachelor and happy days, he would do a lot of food experiments. This dish was one of those and the name comes after my mother in law’s home made masala that she invented for her famous daal.
This recipe is crowd pleaser and the flavors are so simple, yet so easy to impress a top class chef. For making this dish in more varieties, contact me.
