As Indians, we love snacks and our snacking has no time. India has shops where you can find food, cooked fresh that comes under the category of snack, even though the one time calorie can exceed your breakfast, lunch and dinner combined, but, its still a snack.
Every tea time/ coffee time needs to have a snack at the side. Every time we have guests, making a fresh snack is considered honoring the guests. Though times have changed and most people serve store bought snacks, some people in India still prefer ordering fresh made snacks from the local stores when they expect guests, if they aren’t able to prepare them at home.
And, then still existing are people like me who prefer making their snacks at home, as much as possible and serving their guests and family with fresh made stuff. I am not bragging, honestly, I enjoy doing it and also have the time. There is nothing more amazing to flavors that are freshly cooked.
Our life these days, is so fast paced that its tough for us to take care of our health and we all know the culprit is lack of exercise and intake of processed food. In spite of all, we find it better to rely on medicines and cut down on all flavors of life, than changing our lifestyle. Its healthier if you find a little time in your busy schedule and follow the simple recipes I share.
The recipes are not just super delicious but also simple to follow and very clean to eat.
We love curries and specially curries that aren’t made commonly. One such curry is Beetroot. While growing up, Beetroot only made it to our salads, with time I found that people even make pickles out of Beetroot. And, then after I got married, I found that its a pretty popular curry in my new home.
Like all vegetable curries, Beetroot also has loads of unique ways of being cooked. My MIL makes her Beetroot by cooking it with spices and coconut puree, which is amazingly delicious as well. I still remember when Mr. Parveez told me one of his childhood stories about Beetroot. As a kid, he would sometimes take this curry to school and since Beetroot left a little red color on his tongue and he would run around telling his school mates that he had blood for lunch…LOLzzz. Childhood is the best life we live and the memories are so fond and extremely special. The most fascinating part is us remembering everything by looking at things around us….I always love sharing these little stories, after all, every food has a story.
This recipe is one of my experiments with both my favorite veggies, Beetroot and Bell pepper.
We love Biryani. Till date, I have cooked over 45 varieties of Biryani, with different flavors and different styles of cooking. Its amazing how beautifully the flavors blend in together and give out fabulous taste.
Biryani was introduced by Mughals in India. But with time, the addition of spices, chilies, local produce were added to enhance and make numerous varieties of Biryanis. And, I believe that with time, the vegetarians in India adapted the dish and decided to make the vegetarian option. Nevertheless, meat/ chicken/ vegetables, Biryani is always delicious.
Usually, Biryanis always goes hand in hand with chicken/ meat and is a non vegetarians delight. But, little do we realize that vegetarian Biryani would be equally delicious. While making vegetable Biryani, its always advised to use a variety of vegetables, of your choice. The good thing is that veggies are incorporated so easily that even with people who dislike them, enjoy it in this form.
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 of chicken kebabs comes from the era of Mughals. I know, most all kebabs do. Kebabs are a gift to the food world by the Middle East. The variety, the flavors and the fact that they are grilled in different ways can leave your taste buds joyful and crave for more.
I believe for a fact that when the Mongolians and the Persians rulers came to India, it wasn’t an invasion. I know during that era it does look like an invasion because all the wars were for power and land and the greed to appear mightier and stronger than other rulers always seemed to drive warriors crazy where they seemed to be baffled by the prosperity of the neighboring kingdoms and invasion seemed to be the only way to satisfy your hunger for more. But, leaving all that aside, the Mughals brought in a lot of architectural science, spices and methods of cooking. They came to settle and make India more diverse and that’s what I fail to see in Indian news today.
I am proud to be an Indian, a country where friendship and mutual respect comes much before religion. Where Eid is celebrated with as much love as Diwali. Where Hindus are always at your house on Eid to taste awesome Biryani and your mom makes sure she cooks vegetarian food separately for your 2 vegetarian friends. Where stories of Jodha Akbar is less of Akbar, the Emperor who invaded India and more of the love between a Mughal Emperor and a Rajput Queen. India a country, that proves its a place accepting all religions and stands tall with its cultural heritage.
With all that, food plays a very important role. The spices like cinnamom, cloves, cardamom and saffron changed the complete look of flavors and when mixed with Indian chilies, the result was food from Paradise.
This recipe goes back to the era of Jahangir / Saleem and the story that I read said that he had a great knowledge of spices and had the chefs prepare dishes according to his taste. This recipe comes in as one of his favorites.
Now, with the history books I read, I do get an idea of the ingredients but they aren’t a 100% of what were used in the original recipe. Therefore, these recipes are mine but they should be close to what the original food must have tasted. Each recipe that I share can have common ingredients, but they are completely different for each other. The only way you can find out is by trying.
I love serving dry kebabs as side dishes with our dinner and its hard to not experiment and not come up with new recipes. After all, I am mother to boys who have energy that drives me crazy and the fact that they love looking forward to new dishes on the table and not forgetting, the born carnivores, and with genes of Mughals. All these traits makes it mandatory for a mom to come up with new recipes of non vegetarian food.
Spices mixed up differently with chicken/ meat gives out super fab and completely distinct flavor. This recipe is quick, flavorful and is sure to impress those with a great taste buds.
Shami Kebabs are an authentic muslim dish. Any occassion, kebabs are always a part of our dining table/ Dastarkhaan . Among all those wonderful kebabs, Shami kebabs are one of the most popular ones and no Ramadan or Eid are complete without them.
Shami kebabs are boiled meat , chicken, lamb or beef with chana daal, whole spices, garlic and some salt to taste until completely tender. Onions, turmeric, chili powder, egg, chopped green coriander, chopped green chillies and chopped mint leaves may be added in preparing kebab.
The cooked meat is then ground in such a way that is fibrous and does not become a paste. It is then shaped into round patties and is shallow fried.
With increase in vegetarianism and vegans, various new methods and recipes of making shami kabab have emerged in most families. This one is the most authentic one that I have inherited from my family. A little variation to make them taste better.
These chicken seekh kebabs are fast track and guilt free. I made them one day when I was running short of time and I wanted something not too fancy, or heavy but something nice. I am sure we all go through one of those days when we want to eat something nice but then time is short and we don’t want to consume that makes us feel bloated.
And the fact is that Mr. Parveez always prefers his lunch to be something nice, yet light. You might be confused thinking that being husband to a wife who could spend her life time in the kitchen, how does he manage to think this way. Well, let me tell you, Mr. Parveez is a food loving guy but he is also a Man of self control. He has his days, with Biryani and gulab Jamuns to name a few, but, he never goes over board with rest things. He would make sure he eats within limits. And to make sure nothing tempts him, he always asks me to come up with less oil/ no oil/no carbs versions of food and I take them as a challenge and invent the best to my capability.
So, it was one of those days and I managed to come up with this recipe. Its great for on the go lunch, lunch boxes, light dinner and kid play dates. Its a great dish if you are carb conscious or a health freak.
Every Muslim family would tell you there deep bond with meat/ chicken samosas. Believe it or not, samosas are big part of the Muslim culture not just in India/Pakistan/Bangladesh, but also the middle east. These fried triangular delicacy came in with Mughals. In the middle east, they are known as Sambosa and are either fried or baked. When Mughals came to India, they brought these with them and further added spices and veggies to it making them Indianized.
With time, the size of Indian vegetarian samosas became a little large, like the heart of Indian people but since meat samosas would be difficult to fill and make the same size, we stick to the original size of this Mughlai dish.
As a kid, Ramadan and Eid were never complete without these samosas and I would look forward to my mother’s samosas, but, since I grew up in a joint family, it was disappointing not to be able to get more than 2-3, but that taste would linger for a very long time. My mom would make samosa rotis at home from scratch and it was fabulous the way she would roll the rotis together, after putting a number small rotis with little oil in between . She would then cook them and keep taking the layer off. Trust me, its so amazing to watch them coming off and the samosas come out super crispy and delicious.
Keeping that taste alive, I regularly make them and my kids can never have enough. Samosa is a favorite of most people but eating frozen or those samosas that you find in desi grocery store that upset your stomach later a re a torture to your taste buds and body.
This recipe is fairly simple. It would be great if you make your own pastry at home but if for any reason you aren’t able to, buy them from the frozen section and make your own filling. Make sure you make extra, coz no one I know can eat within limit. 😉
