Hyderabadi food and my first food event(s)!

Think Hyderabadi cuisine and its hard to go beyond the Biryani. And its for a good reason too. The spicy meat and rice dish cooked Dum style deserved every single bit of its stellar reputation. I remember staying in Hyderabad for 3 months and every day was pretty much a kebab and biryani day. Of course we had to drink copious amounts of beer to wash it all down. I can only thank God that I was there only for 3 months because by the end of it I could hardly walk my pudgy self to the nearest restaurant.

I have such great memories of the city, romantic dinner at the Waterfront restaurant overlooking the beautiful Hussain Sagar, sweating through the Paradise Special Biryani in the non AC section, the best punjabi food ever in Angeethi, the unlimited-beer-chinese buffet in Mainland China, and the best were the countless small places serving everything from puri-subzi to one memorable kebab of chicken leg stuffed with mutton kheema! I spent endless days traipsing through the local markets, simply to look at the lustrous pearls. And when I say 'look', I mean buy! By the end of it I could bargain like a local and keep a straight face through it too. I loved the peculiar Hindi the locals spoke, the Nizami hauteur of not waking before the sun blazes in the afternoon sky, the effortless mix of small town charm with big city comfort, the winding roads of Banajara Hills, the rocking boats on the way to the Giant Buddha...the list is endless. I loved my time there and would definitely visit again.

When I saw an announcement for RCI Hyderabad, I thought it would be a good time to revisit my memories there. So reading up about hyderabadi cuisine on Wiki, I came across Lukhmi, a savory patty filled with minced meat. It sounded easy enough and definitely something I haven't tasted before. I read up on it and got an idea of the recipe. Keema, dough, deep fry...how do you go wrong with that? I used boneless chicken thigh meat in all my recipes since I didn't have mutton.

Whatever I read on the net was enough to give me an idea about making the keema. So I just followed my own recipe and eye balled most of the spices. It turned out pretty good, very very hot with addition of green chillies and chili powder.


Lukhmi

Lukhmi was not really difficult to make so while waiting for the keema to cook, I thought I had the time to cook something else too. So I searched a little more and found this fantastic looking recipe of Karen Anand's. It was little labour intensive but completely worth it. The spicy chicken mixed with the delicate yogurt, poppy seed and cashew nut paste, folded around a sharp chilli-coriander-onion chutney was one yummy dish. The end product was so subtle and sophisticated, it was hard to believe that it originated from my kitchen. You can find the complete recipe here.

Shikampur Kebabs

Since I still had some energy and a little bit of minced meat left, I made the easy-peasy Sheekh Kebabs, Debu's favorite. Here's the recipe I used.

1 cup of minced meat
1 medium onion
1/2 inch piece of ginger
2 cloves of garlic
2-3 green chillies

a sprig of fresh coriander leaves
1 egg
a palmful bread crumbs
salt to taste

Dry Spices
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2-3 cloves
2-3 green cardamom pods
1/2 inch of mace
1/2 inch piece cinnamon

Grind the dry spices together and mix with the minced meat. Chop the onion very fine or you could grate it and add that to the mixture. Grate the ginger, garlic and chop the coriander leaves finely and add. Quickly knead everything together, try not to overwork the meat. Oil your palms and form patties. The traditional method is to put them on a skewer and form a cylindrical shape. My mixture was a little loose and it refused to form anything kind of shape on a skewer, so I shaped it into round patties and baked them in an oven on 350 degrees for about 40-45 mins. I turned them over after 45 mins and baked for another 5-10 mins.

After the Lukhmi and Shikampur kebabs, these were not so impressive but but still nice in a familiar kind of way. The onion, ginger and garlic kept the meat really moist and fork tender.

Sheekh Kebab

All of this heads over to Mona for her RCI:Authentic Hyderabadi Cuisine. I'm pretty excited to participating in my first event and I do hope this happens more often.

And to Here I cook for the Non-Veggie Recipe Event.

Happy Birthday to Ganapati Bappa!

Puja thali- Curried potato and cauliflower, capsicum subji with chickpea flour, cucumber- tomato salad, dal, puri, peas pulao.

It was my favorite birthday of the year. I have a deal with the elephant headed God, I study only the night before my exams and he takes care of the passing grade. This system has worked smoothly most of my high school. Now the stakes are higher and bribes need to be too. And who could resist modak!

And these are 'Ambyachya ukdiche modak'. For the uninitiated, making ukdiche modak is a daunting task in itself, undertaken only when you have earned your spurs under the watchful eyes of a mother-in-law. Making ambyachya ukdiche modak was sheer madness. But I did it and lived to tell the tale, thanks to Suniti, without whose infinite patience and sunny optimism, this would have never happened. These mango scented, steamed dumpling were totally worth it and how! When we made our first batch, the entire house was redolent with the smell of mango, coconut and ghee. We broke into the first one tentatively, and were soon sighing in contentment. The mango pulp gave the modak a beautiful yellow-orange color and simply took the already heavenly offering to another level. Needless to say, this one will be a yearly delight in my home.
I pretty much followed the traditional recipe and added 2 cups of mango pulp to water. I boiled the mixture and then slowly added in the rice flour.

Filmy Breakfast

Every time I hear 'Mooli ke parathe', I simply cannot resist saying it again and again in a Nirupa Roy voice. I simply have to go 'Beta, maine tumhare liye, tumhari pasand ke mooli ke parathe/gajar ka halwa banaya hai'...with a couple of wheezes and some dry, hacking cough for effect. This goes on for some time to much annoyance on Debu's part :). My funny bone was seriously tickled when I realized that I had some Gajar Halwa in the fridge to go with my Parathas! Yeah, it doesn't take a lot to amuse me. Between doing those voices and actually eating this filmy breakfast, I don't know what was more fun!

Mooli ke parathe

For the filling

1/2 grated radish/daikon

1/2 teaspoon ajwain(carom seeds)

1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

2-3 green chillies, chopped

a pinch of turmeric

a pinch of hing (asafoetida)

salt to taste


For the dough

2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon oil
radish water


Add some salt to the grated radish and keep aside for some time. Squeeze the radish and collect the water in a cup. Use it for kneading the dough. Use more water in needed and cover with a soft, damp cloth. Heat some oil in a pan, add the turmeric, hing and grated radish. Saute quickly till the mixture is dry. Cool it, add the chillies, ginger and follow the usual procedure to make a paratha.
White radish is quite an acquired taste. If you want a milder paratha, leave out the radish juice and make your dough with plain water. If you get hold of the leaves then chop them up and use them in the paratha too.

For the Gajar Halwa, check out Vishakha's recipe here.

Raspberry Limeade

What do you when you have tart, luscious, flaming red raspberries, but you cannot take a picture to save your life?

You trawl through other blogs, better blogs, people who are more than just monkeys with cameras and you look at nice recipes.

You feel inspired and decide to forget the non existent photography skills and focus on something where your failure rate is not that spectacular.

As a reward for your trouble you get a nice, refreshing drink in the middle of the afternoon.

Recipe courtesy

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/blackberry-limeade-recipe.html

The only deviation I did (other than using raspberries in place of blackberries) was puree and strain the raspberry instead of juicing it through a cheesecloth because...

a. I did not have one and...

b. just seemed easier.

Highly recommended for lifting spirits after hopes and dreams as the next Annie Leibovitz have been crashed.

Comfort food for Sunday dinner

The hubby had been a little under the weather so I wanted to cook him some special comfort food. I live in the eternal hope that the next time I'm under the weather or pretending to be, the favor will be returned :). So anyway, I made him a simple dinner of Palak Dal, Roast chicken and rice and it was gratifying to see him eat like food was going out of style. Palak dal has a special significance in our house. I use it as a 'make-up-after-fight' tool, a 'sorry-your-day-was-so-bad' support and 'I'm-feeling-too-lazy-to-cook-anything-else' comfort. The first time I ever made a halfway decent meal, Palak dal was on the menu. Since then it has evolved, as food often does, into a taste memory. We reminisce about the time I cooked so bad, batches of food had to thrown out, the first time I got it right, how I made it three days in a row because I was too scared to cook anything else... Sounds like too much talking about what is essentialy a staple in most households, right? But then the staples are what give us the comfort factor.


Palak Dal

1 onion, chopped fine
1 tomato, diced
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 teaspoong garlic paste
1 cup toovar dal
1 cup of chopped spinach
juice of 1 lemon

For tempering
a pinch of mustard seeds
a pinch of jeera
a pinch of onion seeds
turmeric, hing, dried red chillies

Cook the toovar dal till its soft but not too mushy. Keep aside. Heat the oil and add all the ingredients for tempering. Add the onions and saute till pink. Add ginger-garlic and fry for another minute. Then add the tomato. When the tomato is cooked down, add the chopped spinach and cook till it wilts. Then put in the cooked toovar dal and mix. Add salt to taste and the juice of 1 lemon after you pull it off the heat.




Roast Chicken

2 legs of chicken
1/2 cup thick yogurt
2 teaspoons ginger paste
2 teaspoons garlic paste
2 teaspoons of chili powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
2 tablespoons of Tandoori chicken powder
2-3 teaspoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything in the marinade together to make a thick, smooth paste. Make some slits in the chicken and rub in the mixture with your fingertips. Ensure even coating and make sure you get the spices inside the slits. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least two hours. Crank the oven to 450 or as high as it will go and roast for 30 mins. After 30 min, brush with some oil and roast at 350 for another 30 mins. Check for doneness by cutting a small part, if the flesh in no more pink and the juices run clear, its done. Serve hot with kachumar.

Crunchy French Toast and Triple Decker Sandwich

My niece came to our place for a sleep over this weekend and I wanted to solidify my place as the cool aunt. So we watched Dora way past her bedtime, had cookies and lemonade in bed and slept late into the Saturday. Sometime during 2 in the morning, she started missing her mom and woke up howling, so I had to stay up for an hour comforting her. Man, toddlers are tough customers , you simply can't reason with them. It took a lot of cajoling, pleading and threatening to get her back to bed. She finally fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion. And the hubby and I heaved a huge sigh of relief that we don't have kids....yet :)


And when she woke up in the morning, she was all giggles and sunshine as if none of this ever happened. Anyway, I wanted to cook her special breakfast and I ended up making these crunchy french toasts that I remembered reading about on FoodMayhem. I made the hubby a sandwich because he doesn't like sweet so early in the morning! Weird guy!

Crunchy French Toast

2-3 pieces of bread, preferably old
2 eggs
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream/ milk
2 teaspoons of light brown sugar
2 drops of vanilla essence
1 pinch of cinnamon powder
1 handful of assorted nuts and granola
1 tablespoon of honey and more brown sugar

Beat the eggs is shallow pan with the cream, brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon powder. Soak the bread in the eggs for 15-20 mins. Lay flat on a baking sheet.
Mix the assorted nuts together. I used almonds, pecans and walnuts because that's usually what I have have at home. You can use whatever mixture you like. I bet cashews would taste fantastic with this! Roughly chop the nuts and the granola and toss with honey and brown sugar. Spoon the mixture on top of the soaked bread. Bake in an 350 degree oven till the bread firms up and the top becomes golden. I topped this with homemade blueberry sauce. I just boiled together blueberries with sugar and water till it thickened and resembled a jelly. The toast was perfectly soft on the inside and the nutty topping was crunchy and yummy. This is definitely decadent enough to be Sunday brunch.



Triple Decker Sandwich

3 pieces of bread
1 egg
1 teaspoon coriander chutney
1 teaspoon ketchup
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon pepper jelly
1 slice of cheese
1 scoop of spicy mashed potato
butter

Beat the egg, season with salt and pepper and fry it on both sides and keep aside. Take one piece of bread, toast it lightly on both sides. This will be the middle part of the sandwich. Lay down a piece of bread, butter it, put a layer of pepper jelly, cheese and mashed potato. Top with hot sauce. Put the previously toasted bread slice on top. Then put some coriander chutney and fried egg. On the last slice smear some ketchup and hot sauce and lay on top of the egg. Toast it on both sides till you see the cheese melting. Press down slightly while toasting with the help on another pan. This is a ridiculously easy sandwich, almost everything you need is in the pantry and you can easily substitute whatever you don't have with other things. There are a lot of flavors and textures going on which makes it very filling.
The best part was the cooking time for both these things wasn't more than 20 mins, leaving me with plenty of time to watch more Dora with my niece. On the flipside though, I've become allergic to D..D..D..Dora song.

Apple-Cherry Pie for Navya

A dainty, frilly, latticework pie for little Navya, who amazes us by how 'not little' she is every time we see her.
A perfect pie for the girl with curls and a sweet pink bow in her curls.

Hopefully she will remember the pie with nostalgia tinted glasses and not keep in mind the shoddy latticework :) This and this was very helpful, it kept me from tearing my hair out in frustration.

For the dough

2 cups all purpose flour

2-3 tablespoons cold water

1 teaspoons salt

1 stick butter

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

For the filling

3-4 apples, sliced, depending on the size of the apples

1/2 cup sugar, adjust to liking and sweetness of the fruits

1 cup cherries, chopped

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

3 teaspoons orange juice

1 tablespoon flour

Sift the dry ingredients for the dough just like you would for cake. The add the butter and mix together, it doesn't have to be smooth dough at this point. Then add the cold water and knead till it becomes smooth and pliable. Cover with cling wrap and keep in the fridge till you make the filling.

For the filling, mix everything except the flour. Cover and keep till juices start flowing (about 10-15 mins).

Divide the dough into two parts. Roll out the first part to the shape of your pie plate, a little bigger than that.

Add flour to the filling, toss once and pour into the pie crust.

Make the lattice(watch the video for instructions, its too much work to write) and seal the edges together. If your strips break, like mine did, just seal them together with water. Once its done, its hardly noticeable.

Brush with egg wash and bake for 30-40 mins in a 350 degree oven. I had to do the baking in two parts since I was taking it over to Navya's. So I baked it for 15 mins and then wrapped it in foil and baked it for 15-20 again at her house. So this is not an accurate measure of time. I just kept looking till the crust turned brown and I could smell the pie.

The above mentioned sources have way better tips. So if you have read this till this point, well, too bad for you! :)