Dry Coriander Chicken

I call this my Monday Magic recipe. You have done the groceries last weekend and you don't want to step out to buy stuff until Friday. The family wants something delicious and new, 'new' being the operative word here. You don't have much time on your hands and you need already-at-home ingredients. 

I give you a  magical solution dear chicken likers. 

Marinate a kilo chicken on the bone because bones emit a juicy flavour with ginger, garlic and coriander paste seasoned with salt and chilli powder and sour curd and set aside for 6 hours. For the paste you should take 1 inch ginger, 6 pods garlic and a fistful bunch of coriander leaves with stalks. The sour curd quantity will be 200 grams.

Finely chop 4 onions. 

In a wok, heat 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp ghee. To this pool throw in 2/3 cloves, 5/6 peppercorns, 2/3 green cardamom and 2 dried bay leaves. In less than a minute add the onions and let them turn brown. Next just add the whole chicken with the marinade. Stir and mix well. Cover with a lid at medium heat. The chicken should cook in its own juices. Please don't add anything, no water at all. Keep removing the lid and stirring every now and then. Once the chicken is soft add 1/2 tsp 'garam masala'(can be store bought at an Indian store for those living abroad) and increase the heat. Just toss it around for another long minute. 

You will serve delicious, juicy, tangy, kicky chicken to the lucky eaters. I bet you they will bless you!

Drumstick Pumpkin Gourd Gravy

Calling out to vegetable lovers. A subtle wholesome delicate vegetable gravy making you feel as though you are walking through vast fields under a blue sky. It could be a bright summer day or a comforting winter afternoon. Sweetness from fresh vegetables combined with piquancy from fragrant spices creates a mystical nuance. Mother taught me this recipe over one recent long phone call. Must remember to pat her on this one. Like many before.

Take 2 drumsticks, clean the unnecessary threads from the sides and cut them in 2 inch lengths. Next take 250 grams sweet pumpkin and cut in cubes. Also add about 2 ridge gourds, scrape the sides and cut them into chunks. 

Fry 3 red chillies in a tsp warm oil. Grind into paste when cool. Take 2 tsp nigella seeds and make a paste with half tsp water. Keep aside. 

In a tsp ghee, add a tsp of the following mix of spices - fenugreek, fennel, nigella, cumin and black mustard seeds. In Bengal this is a backbone spice always stored in a jar and called 'Paanch Phoron'. Once the seeds sputter, grate an inch of ginger root. In another minute add all the vegetable and add salt to season. In another 2-3 minutes pour in a cup of warm water. Let the vegetables cook and the gravy simmer. Season with a dash of sugar, the red dry chilly paste and the nigella paste. In another minute the dish is done.

Steam some white rice. Enjoy with the fragrant vegetable gravy.

Lemon Pound Cake

When we were little girls, the pretty girl in the class was supposed to be snobbish or unkind or immodest or just not nice. Sour grapes of course. It took a few years and a few pretty women to lend grace and maturity to my growing out of this bias. Sigh! One such pretty woman is my friend Resh. Reshma is gorgeous. We hung out a lot in my Bandra days. My discerning hubby would know instantly that I was with her from my exceptionally sweet tone over the phone Ha ha! This is Reshma's always lilting influence on others and this is also too many years of marital know-it-all!

Reshma loves aqua colours. She bakes beautifully. She hand paints and restore furniture which most often she transforms into aqua hues. She makes artistic cushion covers. She never gets angry. She loves living in a joint family. She is a superb mom to two beautiful girls. And every single thing around her is pretty. And I wish she would give us her homemade 'choles' as Diwali gifts which we could freeze for 40 days!

So is this recipe of lemon pound cake which she taught me during my tea cake bazaar last year. It is luscious lemony and lilting!

You will need 5 eggs, 200 grams unsalted butter, 3 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of shortening which can be vegetable oil, 1 level tbsp baking powder, 1/4th tsp salt, 1 cup of milk, 3 level or less cups of sugar, 6 tbsp lime juice and grated rind of 11/2 lime(if the lime is large then use 1 only).

In a bowl, beat with an electric whisk the butter, shortening and sugar and allow it to soften and be smooth and creamy. In about 5-6 minutes of beating, add 1 egg at a time beating constantly. This means add an egg and beat for 2 mins and only then add the next egg and repeat. 

In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt and after mixing with a dry spoon pass through a sieve.

Now reduce your beater speed to medium low. 

Add a bit of milk, beat for a minute. Next add a part of the dry mix and beat again. Repeat this in similar steps with the milk going in the last. You batter is creamy and soft now. 

With a cake spatula fold in well after now adding the lime juice and rind. Pour onto a prepared cake tin. Bake at 150-160 degrees for 40 minutes. The baking time changes from oven to oven. A needle prick will help you decide if the cake is baked well. 

Brew some tea. Cut a slice of lemon pound cake. Reach heaven. 

Fish Casserole

I find it rather cute that the word casserole can apply to the dish in which it is cooked and also to the dish itself. The container meaning is that it is cooked in or on an oven and also used for serving. The dish meaning is that it is a stew which is slow cooked. I know everyone knows all this, but it is fun to write. 

For this recipe of a fish casserole, I had about 10 one inch thick fillets of Beckty. Red snapper or cod will do well too. Wash the fish well. marinade with salt, fresh pepper powder and lime juice. I marinated for about 6 hours. 

Make about a cup of usual vegetable stock. 

At the the time of cooking, peel, wash and cut chunkily about 2 red carrots. Slice finely 2 red onions. In a tbsp warm meted butter add 2 bay leaves and the onions and allow them to turn transparent and pink. To this add the carrot. season with salt and pepper remembering that you had coated the same seasoning onto the fish. After about 2 minutes add the vegetable stock cover with a lid and let it simmer for 10 minutes. take the lid off and gently place the fish in one by one. The cooking time will now be only 4 minutes. The fish will become soft and creamy. Add to teh fragrance with a sprig of thyme and dramatise with a spoon of capers. In this picture, I added parsley instead of thyme, but please keep thyme handy. Works better.

Your fish casserole is ready to enjoy. The flavours are subtle, gentle and romantic. Bread will be a perfect accompaniment. 

Grilled Sweet Potato, Carrot, Spring Onion Salad

Soak a handful of kidney beans overnight. In the morning boil them keeping a crunchy yet soft feel. 

I used two longish sweet potatoes, scraped them clean and peeled them. Make slanting fat pieces. Par boil them for 2 minutes or so. Do the same for one carrot. Drain out the water and rub olive oil, salt, pepper and crushed garlic. Now grill them at high heat in the oven for about 6 to 8 minutes. Set them aside.

Scoop out the flesh from 2 luscious tomatoes. Slice them round. Pan roast with salt and pepper.

Take about 6 spring onion bulbs. Cut them lengthwise. Apply a dash of olive oil, salt and pepper and pan roast them too.

For the dressing, take 6 tbsp yogurt, 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Add 2 cloves of crushed garlic and 2 tbsp lemon juice. Fold everything in, Please don't beat too much. 

In a large salad bowl, place washed drained crisp salad leaves like aragula and lettuce randomly. Place the sweet potato, carrot, onion bulbs, tomato rings gently on the leaves, layering as you go along. Blob onto the bowl dollops of the dressing. As you serve yourself, ensure you are getting a bit of everything. It is lovely, I assure you.

Peshawari Vegetable

Did you know that foods eaten by denizens of ancient civilizations namely Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were a part of the umbrella cuisine called 'Peshwari' food? Dishes that belong to Pakistan, parts of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber area all really add up to 'Peshawari' cuisine.This cuisine emerges out of history, religion, geography and stories of these lands. I am sharing a vegetarian dish, a gorgeous way to enjoy one's vegetables and I am calling it "Peshawari vegetable'. I also want to boast that the final result is fabulous. Please get to it. 

Cut the florets from a cauliflower, take a bowl of peas, chop all the three coloured peppers, one each in small pieces and cut one carrot in small pieces. Golden fry all the vegetables. This is your vegetable kitty. Next take half a fist of cashews and fry them to golden also. To this add a 100 grams of small cubes of 'paneer'. Place all of this in a bowl.

Next take a fist full of cashew nuts. For this step I use broken ones as it works out a bit cost effective. Make a paste with a little bit of water.

Then take 2 onions, slice them and fry them to pinkish brown. Once cool, blend them into a paste. 

In a cup of water dissolve 3 tbsp yogurt. Set aside.

Grate a 100 grams 'paneer'.

In a warm wok take a tbsp oil and a tbsp butter. When warm, add finely chopped garlic and ginger. Quantities could be 5 pods of garlic and 1 inch of ginger. Once it sputters, add the cashew paste and the fried onion paste and stir well. Time to spike up things with a tsp of 'garam masala' powder, salt to season, 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder and 1/2 tsp or a bit more of red chilly powder. Mix well with a spatula and allow the mix to cook for about 2 odd minutes. Add the grated 'paneer' and toss again for another minutes.Pour in the cup of yogurt water. This makes the gravy. Once this simmers, add that bowl which is waiting and ready. 

Once the vegetables acquire a crunchy yet cooked texture, add 2 tbsp fresh cream and a dash of lime. Enjoy with crisp 'parathas'.

Fennel And Peppercorn Flavoured Dry Chicken

Ranadive Aunty shared this recipe. She says it is a dry chicken recipe with 'Badishop' which is none other than fennel. Made me think that this chicken can be cooked anytime of the year given that it is flavoured with the perennial herb, the Fennel. Indigenous to many lands especially around the Mediterranean and also in other dry lands, the Fennel boasts of many many many helpful values. Why, even H.W. Longfellow wrote a few words about the Fennel tree. May I quote him just a little bit...

Above the lower plants it towers,
The Fennel with its yellow flowers;
And in an earlier age than ours
Was gifted with the wondrous powers
Lost vision to restore..

To the recipe. Marinate about a kilo of chicken in a tsp salt, chilly powder, turmeric each and one and a half tbsp of ginger and garlic paste and 3-4 tbsp yogurt. You need about 3 hours of marination. 

Slice longitudinally 4 red onions and take about 4 whole chillies. In a warm pan, dry roast 1 tbsp whole peppercorns and fennel seeds each for about 2 or 3 minutes in medium heat. Once cooled, powder the mixture.

Next in a warm wokin about 2 tbsp oil, fry the chicken until golden brown on all sides. Keep aside. 

In the same wok, add 1 or 11/2 tbsp ghee. You can use oil instead. Once warm, throw in 6-7 peppercorns, 4 green split cardamom seeds, 6 cloves, 1 inch bruised cinnamon stick. Once these crackle, add the onions till light pink. Now add the green chillies and about 10 leaves of curry leaves. Now it is time to chop up 1 large tomato and put that in. In a minute or so, spoon in a tsp coriander powder, 1/2 tsp garam masala powder, a dash of chilly powder if you like it zesty and salt to season. After another two minutes add the chicken pieces. Toss and turn the chicken in the seasoning and keep at low heat covered until the chicken is cooked. Once the chicken is tender, in high flame add a tsp and a half of the peppercorn and fennel powder and a few fresh leaves of curry leaves.