Hyderabadi Mutton Biryani

I am not a true hyderabadi as in I was not born in Hyderabad, India. I was actually born in the US. However this recipe

True hyderabadi biryani involves a lengthy process where meat is tenderized or marinated in spices and ginger and garlic and then layered with uncooked. White rice and cooked in a pot over the stove
Sometimes it is baked in the oven.


This is my version which is much easier where e meat is already cooked. Beforehand This ensures that you don't have to worry about you meat being uncooked
Where you have to check it and recheck

I prefer this version.
So although I don't prefer this type of biryani I do like to make it sometimes as it holds true to my culture
 the taste of cumin and coriander is predominant in hyderabadi biryani a and is. To very spicy as well. Hyderabadi biryani is not very spicy also.
 Most of the times a spicy chutney or salaan is accompanied with it which like bhaghara Bhaigan or tomatoe chutney.

It was indeed a robust meal. Served along with appetizers - potatoe stuffed spring rolls, lentil pakodis, raita and tomatoe chutney, and tandoori chicken.

For great biryanis it is imperative that your rice comes out perfectly. Therefore choosing the the best kind of long grain rice is in order. I prefer Tilda brand rice.


Hyderabadi Biryani Ingredients:

Serves 8-10 people
2 pounds mutton (with bone preferrably) cut into medium sized pieces
3 large onions chopped lenthwise very finely
1/2 cup chopped cilantro and mint
3 tablespoons ginger and garlic paste
3 medium serrano green chilis chopped in halves
3 tsp red chili powder
2 tsps tumeric
1.5 tablespoon garam masala
1.5 cup yoghurt
salt to taste

For rice:

5 cups long grain rice

3 tsps shah zeera (black cumin)

1/2 tablespoon salt

For garnish:

Onions

Saffron threads dissolved in milk

1/2 cup chopped cilantro and mint

Few drops of ghee or clarified butter

Food coloring (optional)

In a large pressure cooker add onion in two tablespoons oil. Let it become golden brown. After reserve aside half for garnish later. Add ginger and garlic paste, cilantro and mint, tumeric, red chili powder, and garam masala powder. Cook the spice a little, then add meat. Fry on high heat for 5 minutes. Add yoghurt, mix and add green chilis. Add enough water to cover meat. Pressure cook until meat is almost tender. Make sure there is not too much water. There should be a thick gravy.

Soak rice for 30 minutes. After, cook rice in abundant water along with shah zeera and salt. After rice comes to a boil (rice must be 'dancing') drain water and set aside.

Preheat oven to 360 degrees Fareinheit.

In a large metal non stick pan layer rice at bottom, layer with meat and gravy, then rice again. Garnish with mint, cilantro, milk, and drops of ghee. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Serve hot with yoghurt accompaniment or tomatoe chutney.

Stuffed Dates for your next iftar party

Ramadan Mubarak! Here is a great way to fancy up your dates, these are delicious and simple appetizers.

Ingredients:

For approximately 22 dates

medjool dates

1 cup whipping cream (heavy or light, your preference)

pistachios

Slit each date in half and remove pits. Whip cream and put in a piping bag or a ziplock bag; pipe a spoonfull of cream into each date. Top with a pistachio. Delicious!

Dahi Vada

Dahi Vadas are a tasty snack, they are fried lentil patties dipped in cool creamy yoghurt, garnished with paprika and a tempering of mustards seeds. These are great appetizers for a dinner party. I had to make a huge batch of these for a potluck. They turned out great.

2 cups mash ki dal

3 green chilis

salt

water

2 cups yoghurt

Paprika

2 tsps sugar

1 tsp cumin powder

For tempering:

Rye seeds

dried red chilis

Soak mash dal in water for a couple of hours. After remove excess water and grind to a smooth texture along with green chilis. Batter must be thick. Prepare oil in fryer. Oil must be medium to high heat. While it is heating get a container and add water. Fry lentil balls until golden brown. Once Vadas are cooked soak in water. Remove each and squeeze out excess water. This process helps the vadas to be softened. Prepare yoghurt- add sugar, and salt, and cumin. Drop each vada in yoghurt. Mix around until yoghurt saturates vadas.

In a seperate pan heat 2 tsps oil. Add rye and red chilis. After rye crackles- turns grayish pour over vadas. Dahi vada is ready. Tastes best when chilled.

This is also my first entry to the Hyderabadi Ramadan Food Festival 2010 hosted on zaiqa.net

FANTASTIC Tandoori Chicken

According to wikipedia the history of Tandoori chicken lies with a man named Kundan Lal Gujral, who ran a restaurant called Moti Mahal in Peshawar before the partition of British India. Trying out new recipes to keep his patrons interested, Gujral tried cooking chicken in tandoors (clay ovens) used by locals until then to cook naan bread. The tandoors are bell-shaped ovens, set into the earth and fired with wood or charcoal reaching temperatures of about 480 degrees. Gujral was able to cook the tender chickens in these ovens making them succulent inside and crispy outside.

After the partition he moved his restaurant to Delhi in a place called Daryaganj.

The Tandoori chicken at Moti Mahal so impressed the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaral Nehru, that he made it a regular at official banquets. Visiting dignitaries that enjoyed Tandoori Chicken included, US presidents John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon, Soviet leaders Nikolai Bulganin, Nikita Kruchev, the King of Nepal and the Shah of Iran.

Ok history aside, there are soo many tandoori chicken recipes out there, I've tried them all but none comes close to this one. And all thanks goes to vah chef, Mr Sanjay Thumma for this awesome deeeelicious tandoori chicken recipe. In this recipe you dont have even use a charcoal grill, simply a conventional oven will do....in the last minutes of cooking the chicken I put the oven on broil so the outside crisps up beautifully.....

You will need:

3 chicken legs and thighs (not separated)
3 tablespoons thick yogurt- greek yoghurt is great for this

1 tsp coriander seeds, dry roasted and ground

1 tsp cumin seeds, dry roasted and ground

1/2 tsp finely grounded black pepper

1 tsp methi powder (dried fenugreek leaves finely ground)

1 tsp garam masala powder

freshly squeezed lemon juice, 2 tablespoons

11/2 tablespoon red chili powder

1 1/2 tsps ginger/garlic paste

red food coloring (optional)

There are two marinades for this chicken. In the first one youll need to combine 1/2 tablespoon chili powder, one tablespoon lemon juice and salt.

Wash chicken and pat dry. Cut gashes along the meatiest parts of chicken. Marinate chicken where the cuts are made with first marinade and set aside for 30 minutes.

Combine yoghurt, garam masala, pepper powder, cumin, coriander, red chili powder, kasuri methi, salt, ginger and garlic paste. Add food coloring if using and oil at the very end. Combine well. Marinate chicken in this for up to 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 420 F.

Cut a large onion into thinly slices rings. Place each ring in roasting chicken pan. Place chicken ontop of onion rings. Bake for 25 minutes.

Now put your oven on broil. Bake chicken for 10-15 more minutes. Turn off oven and let chicken rest for few minutes. Take out and put on serving plate.

Garnish with freshly cut lemon wedges and onions rings. Enjoy!

Mullangi Curry (Radish Curry) w/ Mutton

Radishes contain a lot of water. They are a good source of

This is a unique dish which I concocted for my husband because he used to eat this when he lived in India. Normally white radish is used, but red radishes can be used as well.

for this curry I used--


6-8 medium sized red radishes washed and trimmed
cut into small discs (or whatever way you prefer)
1/2 lb mutton (goat or lamb meat)
1/2 medium onion chopped
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp red chili
2 tsps coriander
2 tablepsoons plain yoghurt
2 tsps ginger and garlic paste
1 tsp mustard seeds
oil
salt to taste


Cook mutton in pressure cooker until soft. Reserve aside. Heat 1/2 tablespoon oil in a small pressure cooker. Add mustard seeds and let it crackle. Throw in onions and saute until onions are golden brown. Add ginger and garlic paste and tumeric. Add red chili powder and coriander. Add radish and fry on high heat for five minutes. Add cooked mutton. Add in yoghurt. Add some water. Let it cook on simmer for 15 minutes or until radish is soft yet still crunchy. Serve with plain rice or bread.

The Perfect Dosa

Want to indulge in a savory pancake? Heres a great recipe for dosa, these are like indian style crepes. My mom used to always make these paired with spicy potatoes for me and my siblings at breakfast time. And although they tasted great- mom's cooking is the best!- they never came out like the way they are in indian restaurants.



In those restaurants they were like the perfect dosa...the edges are golden brown and crisp, whilst the inside is delectably soft.

It took me a while to perfect my dosa. The hardest part is making sure it didnt stick to the pan and making them come out thin and crispy like a paper dosa.

Once you become expert dosa maker youll see making these are time saving and effortless..



The good thing is you can make a large amount of batter to last up to a few days..

Rice and urad dal consist on the majors portions of this recipe, the channa dal is used to give a nice brown color to your dosa, and the methi seeds are there to give it a nice crunch.

What youll need:
1 1/2 cups fat, short grain rice
1 cup urad dal
5 tablespoons channa dal
1 1/2 tbsp methi seeds (fenugreek seeds)
Water
large non-stick pan

Combine first four ingredients and let it soak in water for 4-5 hours or overnight. Once soaked drain most of the water and blend everything to a smooth consistency. Pour into a bowl and mix batter gently. Add salt to taste. About 2 teaspoons. Keep the batter by the stove and cover with a kitchen towel. Let it ferment for several hours. Once it is ready you may keep it in the fridge or make some dosai. Keep heat on high and let pan become very hot. Using a small ladle (about 1/2 cup batter) pour batter in the middle of the pan and swirl gently outwards until it resembles a crepe. Drizzle a little oil around the edges of the dosa. Cook 2 minutes.

Remember---

never grease your dosa pan

and make sure your pan is very hot.
Dosa is ready when it looks beautifully golden brown on one side. It is not neccessary to cook other side, optional.



I often make these for my husband for breakfast, when hes in a hurry for work, I just take the batter out of the fridge and quickly make a couple of dosas. This recipe makes about 4 cups of batter and can last up to 3 days.

Oh by the way these are versatile as well and can be eaten with anything you like. Plain is just as perfect.

Coconut Chutney

Speaking of coconuts, when I went to Chennai last year, one day my mother in law and I went touring the streets in a rickshaw checking out local vendors. We had stopped by a coconut vendor where the guy was selling young coconuts. This is the first time I saw young coconuts, and I thought they were a different type of coconut because I am used to seeing coconuts in their rough, brown shelled states. In actuality though, there is only one type of coconut plant, and these large greens ones were basically unripened coconuts.

The vendor guy cut a small hole in one, stuck a straw in it and gave it to us to drink. It's coconutty water was so sweet and buttery and refreshing. We then proceeded to eat its flesh, which was also buttery and silky and extremely soft. Not at all like a brown coconuts' flesh; which is harder and more textured. I didnt have my camera with me then so heres a google image of young coconuts.

During my stay in Chennai, almost every morning I would have coconut chutney accompaniment with my breakfast. This chutney is traditionally served with dosa and idly, vada, upma, utappam, and pongal- recipes which I will be adding soon :)

There is no real cooking involved in making this chutney.

Typically freshly grated coconut is used but its absoultey fine if you don't have coconuts lying around, packaged unsweetneded shredded coconut is great too.

Ingredients:
Makes about 3/4 cup chutney

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tblsp roasted dalia (roasted split bengal gram)
1 tblsp cashew pieces
1/8 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 inch green chili chopped
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, roasted
2 tbsp fresh tamarind juice
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
salt

Seasonings:
2 tsps rye
2 small dried red chilis
1 tsp oil

Combine coconut, dalia, cashews, cilantro, green chilis, cumin seeds, tamarind juice, ginger and garlic paste and salt and a little water. Grind until just smooth. Pour into small serving bowl. Heat oil in small pan. Add rye and red chilis. Wait until rye begins to crackle. Take off heat and pour this over chutney. Mix chutney and serve.