In search of excellence......

There is something about being able to make a dish from "scratch"- where no part of the process is outsourced/store bought. In days when Grandma/Mama cooked that was the only way. But today you do have plenty of options(take away, ready to cook, ready to eat) and sometimes all you need to do is open multiple packs, assemble and you are done. You can still personalize the dish by adding some garnish or that extra dollop of cream or the grated cheese that the dish did not call for. Works for many with almost as good if not better results. You still have the satisfaction of having made it at home in your own kitchen.

However when you do cook a dish with just the basic ingredients there is a different kind of high, you ' stay lifted longer'. To me it cues a kind of mastery over the dish, " Yes, I have nailed it". It also allows you to customize the dish- no currants if the family does not like them in meat balls, sugar/spice/salt are all to taste( your family's taste) and of course it is fresher and you stake your claim on the entire dish.

But sometimes a dish can look so elaborate that I feel intimated. It seems simpler to substitute with the ready to cook/eat version. Three years back I had cooked this very dish with store bought  Meat Balls . If you were to read my post you would realize that I was petrified of frying the meat balls( or for that matter cutlets and chops too)- always feared that they would come apart as I was frying them( comes from being clumsy I guess). But in these three years and many new dishes later I am bold and ready for the challenge. I tell myself if I don't get it this time there will always be a next time. I am glad I braved it and with some excellent results. And of course the accolades(now come on I deserve them don't I - it is almost like that giant leap I took when I swam for the first time to the deep end of the pool)

Spaghetti with meat balls 

Ingredients

For the meat balls
Mutton mince: 500 grams
Onions: 2/3 finely chopped( as finely as you can)
Garlic: 4/5 pods, minced
Bread: 4/5 slices( should make about 1.5 cups when cubed)
Milk: 1/4th cup
Thyme: 1 tsp
Salt: to taste( there I go)
Pepper: to taste( yet again)
Eggs: 1/2
Olive oil: 1 tbsp to be added to mince mix
Oil for frying: 5 tbsps

For the tomato sauce
Tomato: 8/10 medium sized ones
Salt to taste
Sugar: 1/2 tsp
Garlic: 2/3 pods minced
Italian seasoning(Oregano): 1 tsp
Red Chilli flakes: 1 tsp (add some more if you would like it spicier)

For the Spaghetti
Spaghetti: 200 grams
Olive oil: 1 tbsp.
Salt

Some finely chopped coriander for the garnish

Method

This looks like a really elaborate recipe with a long list of ingredients but once you start to work you realize that it gets done in quick and easy steps. Boil the pasta- set aside, then tackle the meatballs and alongside the sauce. And one final step of putting it together and then plating it

• Bring to boil about 12/14 cups of water to which 1 tbsp of olive oil and some salt has been added. Add the pasta and let it cook al dente(or a little kacha). Drain out the water(keep about a cup of the starchy water to add to the sauce), spread the pasta out on a plate and add about a tsp of olive oil to prevent it from drying/sticking. If you think this was the easiest step wait for the day your pasta gets overcooked- can ruin this dish.
• Next for the meat balls. Trim the sides of the bread and chop them into even sized cubes. Pour the milk over the bread and leave them to soften. This should take about 5/10 minutes. Next add all the mince ball ingredients and mix well to form a dough like consistency. Make little round balls out of them- you should get anywhere between 15/20 balls. Shallow fry the balls in oil turning them from time to time so that all sides get evenly browned. Do this in batches of 5/7 balls each time. Spread the meat balls on a paper towel to drain any excess oil.
• And finally the sauce. Blanch and puree the tomatoes. Heat the oil and fry the garlic for a couple of minutes till it changes colour, add the pureed tomatoes, sugar, salt and seasoning and let it simmer for 10/15 minutes. Add the pasta water( this gives it a nice, glossy texture), the meat balls and further cook for about 10 minutes.
• To plate: make a little pasta nest( you can do this very easily with a fork, twirl the pasta around the fork, lift and let it slide onto the plate), a generous helping of the sauce and meat ball over it, sprinkle some finely chopped coriander and maybe if you are feeling very indulgent some grated cheese. The contrast of colours makes this dish look really appetising.
• Take slow, measured bites and savour each mouthful. Allow your tongue to play a wee bit longer with the succulent, juicy meatballs that have hungrily soaked up the sauce. 
• And once done pat yourself on the back and say " I did it".

Leftover meat balls make good sandwich filling. They can also be added to traditional Indian curries and gravies. Perfect making meatballs and let your creativity take over.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

Adios!

Freedom from oil.....Tricolour Tiranga Pulao....Happy Independence Day!

This one is an independence day special. The typical way to make a tiranga/tri-color rice is to cook three types of rice separately- a palak/spinach rice for green, carrot rice for the color saffron and then combine it with some plain rice in the midle for the final effect. Looks really nice and goes well with the Independence day spirit.

I was a little short on time today. The Independence day lunch organised by the building committee was called off at the last minute, cook had her day off and yet I was quite determined to make the meal special.

So an oil free recipe it was( in keeping with the Freedom theme), a one dish wholesome meal( read Pulao) and three different colored ingredients- carrots, beans and baby corn. The combination was definitely a visual treat and nobody seemed to miss the oil/butter/ghee.

With lean cooking( I have Sanjeev Kapoor, Nita Mehta and Karen Anand to thank- picked up all my basic tips about low oil/no oil cooking from their books) there are two basic rules:

• Be patient because a good part of the cooking needs to be done on low flame. Some steps may need constant stirring. Try and use a good non-stick cookware.
• The food is low on oil but high on flavor so some of the dishes(like this one) need a lot of ingredients- basic everyday use ingredients but quite a few nevertheless.

Tri-colored Rice/Tiranga Pulao(No Oil)

Serves: 4/5

Ingredients

Basmati Rice( choose the long grained variety): 1.5 cups

Onions: 2, finely chopped. You could also use Shallots- about 8/10 peeled

Ginger: Finely chopped, 1 tbsp

Tomatoes: 2, finely chopped. Choose large ones, this is a key ingredient when you are cooking with no oil

Carrots: 1/2, cut into 1/2 inch long pieces

Beans: 8/10, 1/2 inch pieces

Baby corn: 4/5, 1/2 inch pieces

Bay leaves: 1/2

Cumin seeds: 1 tsp

Green Cardamom: 2/3

Lime juice: 1 tbsp

Water: 3 cups

Method

• Soak the Basmati rice for about an hour before you start cooking. Do follow this step for all Pulaos.
• Heat a non-stick kadai/wok. Dry roast the bay leaves, cumin seeds and cardamom till fragrant.
• Add the onions, ginger and tomatoes and cook for a few minutes till the tomato turns soft.
• Add the vegetables, rice and mix well. Cook for a few minutes.
• Transfer to a pressure cooker, add 3 cups of hot water( this prevents the rice from sticking, also helps cook faster) and the lime juice. Close the lid of the cooker and let it give out one whistle. Switch off the cooker and let it cool on its own.
• Serve hot along with a cucumber-tomato- onion raita.
• Enjoy.

Jai Hind!

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

Redifining "ghaas phoos"..

Modern day salads have repositioned "healthy eating". People today opt for salads by choice, for the taste and not because they have been asked to go easy on oil and/or spice.
So much so that a popular women's magazine had a salad supplement with its last issue, as many as 100 salads, many of them modified to suit the Indian palate. There were some interesting options though some I think had been stretched/forced fit to make the number 100.

So from being prepared with basic vegetables like cucumber, tomato, onion( with raddish, carrot and beet root added in the winter months) salads have graduated to getting more exotic with names such as tossed rice salad/lentil salads/pasta salad/carrot and raising salad. We think far more innovatively today when we are making salads. I keep adding ingredients even after I have started making the salad. Chicken in the salad below was an afterthought( in fact a substitute for salami strips that I normally add). I added the bread croutons since I was serving it as a meal, would have skipped it if I was serving the salad as a meal accompaniment. They are so handy when you are entertaining, no last minute bother of heating or frying. Keep the ingredients ready, toss them all together and serve. Served as starters too. Most salads can be prepared way ahead and served chilled. Keep a little bit of the seasoning handy in case all of it gets absorbed.
We had an interesting salad last night for dinner and so I have named it after the day of the week( sorry, been rather uninnovative in naming the dish but just could not think of any other name).

Saturday salad
Time: 20 minutes, serves: 1/2

Ingredients
2 bunches of lettuce
2 cups of boiled veggies(beans, carrots, baby corn)
1/2 cup of sauted mushrooms( use half of the regular pack, quarter and cook in a little bit of olive oil, add some salt and pepper to it)
Cherry tomatoes: a handful, these add a lot of colour to the salad, are convenient to use and have a nice, sweetish taste
Olive oil( for the seasoning): 2 tbsps
Garlic: 6/7 large pods, chopped fine
Bread: 1 slice, toast and then chop into small squares
Chicken(optional): boiled and shredded( I use leftover curry pieces- remove the masala and shred them into thin strips- a good way to re-use leftover chicken)
Dried herbs: 1 tsp( I used Basil but oregano would also go well as a seasoning for the salad)
Lime juice: 1 tbsp( half a lime)

Method

• Place the lettuce in ice cold water to refresh. Leave it in the water for about thirty minutes, take out, gently squeeze out the water and shred into large pieces( never chop the lettuce)


• Take a large bowl, place the lettuce in it.


• Then add the boiled vegetables, sauted mushrooms, cherry tomatoes to it.


• To make the dressing: Heat the olive oil in a small wok/tadka pan, add the garlic and let it turn brown, remove from the flame and add Lime juice, Basil and some salt. Mix well.


• Add the dressing to the salad and toss the vegetables lightly.


• Top with bread croutons and serve immediately.

This is a meal by itself. You could serve also serve it along with a clear soup. Lettuce adds a lot of volume to this salad so the portion size is a little deceptive. The portion shown in the accompanying picture serves one adult only.

As with the corriander pulao, this salad combines some fairly varied ingredients for a really flavorsome bite. Be a little generous with the olive oil else the veggies would taste dry. The burnt garlic gives the salad a distinctive taste and helps spice up an otherwise bland fare. Instead of the croutons you could add a handful of pasta, leftover pasta would be even better.

Another successful one dish meal. Bon Apetit and Happy cooking!

Dum Maro Dum......

He! He! Sorry about the really cheesy title, could not think of a better one to go with "Dum".

This story goes a long way back, 17 years to be precise. My sister gifted me a rice cooker for my wedding(sis, the same one is still going strong- thank you). The rice cooker( my savior) came along with an instruction manual and a cookbook. Come to think of it that was my first cookbook and only cookbook for a long time. It had an interesting Biryani recipe which I managed to perfect after a few attempts. I loved making Biryani, the Khila Khila Basmati, the kesar flavoring and colour, the aroma of whole spices, the subtle combination of ingredients- only a hint of this and a whiff of that. But above all what I liked best about making Biryani was that post the initial preparatory work the Biryani cooked on its own. Left me free to clear up, get the starters ready etc. etc. Being a one dish meal it also ensured that there were fewer dirty dishes at the end of the meal.

Somewhere along the line I stopped making Biryani. A lot of us stopped eating rice especially at night(typically guests came for dinner), oil/ghee gave way to no oil/low oil cooking. It is still a convenient option and I order in when we have a large number of guests.

About a week back I watched Biryani being prepared on one of the cookery shows. It rekindled my interest in the once popular family dish. I made it yesterday and served it with a basic raita. The men loved it and wolfed almost all of it down. Older one wanted the little bit that was leftover for breakfast today. Me happy.

Looks like Biryani has managed a successful re-entry into the household even if that means 10 extra laps in the pool or 5 more surya namaskars. Given the overwhelming response I think the dish is here to stay and before long I will have the boys asking for it to be made again.

Dum Murgh Ki Kachi Biryani

Ingredients

Biryani though really simple to prepare needs a long list of ingredients and tons of patience. If you are looking for a quick fix try making a pulao and add some Biryani masala to it.

Basmati rice: 2 cups, choose from the premium range to get really long grained rice. I tried Arise, Saffold Gold- nice, long grained khila khila rice just as the ad promised.

Chicken: 1.5 kg, ask your butcher to cut into large pieces, about 6/8 pieces from a kilo

Onions: 6 medium sized ones, sliced fine

Turmeric powder: 1 tsp

Chilli powder: 1 tsp

Garam Masala powder: Roast some green cardamom, black cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, clove and grind to a coarse powder. If you were me you would just add some Roopak Biryani Masala, really good.

Whole spices: Cloves, cinnamon, green cardamom

Lime juice: 1 to 2 tbsp( so about half a lime)

Saffron: a few strands( now this is an expensive ingredient but a key to getting the flavor right)

Milk: 1 cup

Curd: 1.5 cups( If using home made curd, strain the water out using a muslin cloth)

Ghee: 2 tbsps

Oil: 2 tbsps

Ginger garlic paste: 2tbsps

Green corriander: 2 tbsps, chopped fine

Green chillies: 2 tbsps, chopped fine

Method

The preparation needs to begin a couple of hours before.

Start by preparing the marinade. To the curd add the ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala powder, salt.

Add the chicken pieces to the marinade and mix really well. Use your hands as the marinade needs to coat all the individual chicken pieces . Let the chicken rest in the refrigerator for a few hours. I would suggest you leave it there for at least four hours.

When ready to start making the Biryani heat the oil in a pan and fry the sliced onions till they turn a dark brown. Chop them fine and add half of the fried onions to the marinated chicken. Leave it for about 30 minutes.

Cook the rice with the whole spices. Drain out the water once the rice is half cooked. Keep aside.

Heat the ghee in a deep bottomed flat pan, add the chicken and cook till the chicken is half done. Arrange into a layer. Sprinkle some finely chopped corriander and some green chillies over it.

Add the rice over it to form a second layer.

Dissolve the saffron strands in some warm milk and spoon over the rice.

Squeeze some lime juice over the rice.

Garnish with the remaining fried onions.

Cover the pan and seal with some atta dough or aluminium foil. Helps retain the flavors and keeps the chicken pieces succulent.

Let the Biryani cook for about 45 minutes on low flame.

Once done open the lid and let the flavors do the talking.

Serve hot with a raita.

Thank the Mughals and savor every bite.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

Yeh Kau(r)n Chitrakaar hai....

Sometimes I find myself adding ingredients just to add more color to a dish. It invariably adds to the taste and flavor. Like sprigs of fresh mint to a fruit salad. Some red chillies to a raita garnish, the vibrant red contrasting with the creamy white texture. The subtle chilli tempering definitely enhances the flavors.

It is a lot of fun to keep adding different colored ingredients to a salad. Red, green and yellow bell peppers can make an ordinary tomato cucumber salad look exotic. I suspect they are primarily added to salads for the color. Cherry tomatoes, black grapes, green olives help create a similar impact. Toss in some Feta cheese or boiled eggs and the colors stand out even more strongly against the white backdrop.

And then of course there is the more difficult task of color coding an entire menu. Making sure that no two dishes look the same. This also serves as a screener to ensure all the dishes use separate base ingredients and taste different.

Pulaos like salads allow for a lot of color play. With corn methi pulao one did not have to try very hard to make the dish look visually appealing. White rice, yellow corn and green methi leaves together created a colorful platter. Depending on your personal palate preference you could tinker with the corn methi proportions. Some carrots and beans would definitely add more color but perhaps make it a little lower on differentiation. This is a quick pulao sans the usual fuss of endless peeling and chopping

Corn Methi Pulao

Ingredients

Basmati rice: 1 cup( when it comes to pulaos Basmati works best)

Peppercorns: 3

Cinnamon: 1/2 inch piece

Cloves: 2

Green cardamom: 2/3

Onion: 1/2 sliced

Methi/Fenugreek leaves: 1 cup chopped fine

Sweet corn kernels: 1/2 cup

Turmeric powder: 1/4tsp

Ghee/oil: 1 tbsp( I would suggest you stay with ghee, in combination with the whole spices imparts the pulao with a lovely flavor. In fact you could just served rice flavored with ghee and whole spices. Cook that in mutton stock and it turns into Yakhni)

Salt to taste

Method

Soak the rice for about 30 minutes. This makes the pulao more ' khila khila'.

Heat the ghee in a pressure cooker, add the whole spices and onion slices. Fry for a few minutes.

Then add the methi leaves, corn kernel, turmeric powder and stir.

Add the rice, salt and mix well. Fry for a few minutes.

Finally add 2 cups( a little less than double the quantity of rice) of hot water. Hot water helps the pulao cook faster and prevents it from sticking. A little trick I learnt from a Tarla Dalal show.

Pressure cook for 1 whistle and let the cooker cool on its own.

Serve with some plain dahi and a green salad.

"Food that is beautiful to look at tastes better than food that isn't"

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!