Cosmopolitan Currymania

Stuffed Jumbo Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce

2012-02-24T08:24:00.001-08:00

Right now, I am very excited and counting days! A few weeks back, I received an invitation on behalf of American Express and the Asian Food Channel to meet Canadian celebrity chef Chuck Hughes! He will visit Hong Kong very soon for the third edition of the Celebrity Chef Series. Chef Hughes will cook interesting dishes in the event and if I’m lucky, I might be one of the invitees who can actually taste his dish! After this, he will play host to an exclusive dinner.

Well, I have been reading about stuffed pasta for quite a while now. Spinach seems to be one of the popular ingredients in stuffed pastas. I didn’t want to use spinach in this. I experimented with a little amount of avocado in my pork-mushroom-based stuffing and the taste was really great! If you trust my recipes, I’d like to suggest you that this recipe can definitely impress your loved ones.

Stuffed Jumbo Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce

Ingredients for the filling:

Jumbo Conchiglioni pasta: 20 shells

Purple onion (finely chopped): 1 cup

Good-quality honey pork sausages (medium-sized, finely chopped): 2

Honey ham (finely chopped): 1 cup

White button mushrooms (finely chopped): 10

Ripe avocado (finely chopped): ½

Dijon mustard: 3 tbsp

Cream cheese: 3 tbsp

Shredded mozzarella cheese: 2.5 tbsp

Shredded parmesan cheese: 2.5 tbsp

White pepper powder: 1.5 tsp

Fresh parsley leaves (chopped): 1.5 tbsp

Basil (chopped): 1 tbsp

Salt: according to taste

Extra virgin olive oil: 2 tbsp

Ingredients for the creamy tomato sauce:

Purple onion (finely chopped): ¾ cup

Garlic (finely chopped): 2.5 tbsp

Readymade concentrated tomato paste: ½ cup

Homemade chicken broth: 1 cup

Mozzarella cheese (grated): 1 tbsp

Cheddar cheese (grated): 1 tbsp

Fresh cream: 1 tsp

Butter: 1.5 tbsp

Salt: according to taste

Muscovado sugar: according to taste

Additional grated parmesan–mozzarella cheese mixture: 1.4 cup (for garnishing)

Method:

Cook the jumbo conch-shaped pasta according to package directions or until almost done. Drain the pasta and rinse well in cold water. Separate each of the shells and spread on a plate. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add the chopped onions and sauté for 5 min. Now add the finely chopped honey sausages, honey ham and mushrooms. Continue to cook on a medium flame for 5 min. Add Dijon mustard, cream cheese, white pepper powder and the chopped avocado. Add the two kinds of cheese, along with freshly chopped parsley, basil and salt. Cook till the cheese is well-blended, which takes around 4–5 min. Switch off the gas. Let it stand for 5 min.

To make the creamy tomato sauce, heat butter and add the chopped onions. Sauté till it becomes soft. Add the garlic and sauté for 5 min. Introduce the tomato paste and cook for 7 min over medium flame, stirring continuously. Now add the chicken broth and bring this to boil. Add the cheeses, cream and salt. Stir continuously and cook for further 3 min. Check the sourness of the sauce and adjust the sugar accordingly. After adding the sugar, stir well and boil for 2–3 min. The sauce is ready.

Spoon this stuffing carefully into each shell. Place these stuffed pasta shells into a microwave-safe dish and spread the sauce over the pasta generously. Sprinkle the additional grated parmesan–mozzarella cheese mixture over the top.

Cover this dish with a cling film and microwave on medium power for 2–3 min. Serve hot.

[Please feel free to follow Cosmopolitan Currymania if you love reading my blog. It motivates me a lot! And thank you, all my 237 followers, for being with me in my culinary expeditions! You can connect with me at @purabinaha on Twitter or click here to like my Facebook page. Thank you for stopping by!]

Cabbage Koftas: Indian Vegetarian Party Dish!

2012-02-17T06:54:00.000-08:00

[This post is on Foodbuzz Top 9 today (19 Feb 2012). Thanks, dear readers, for your votes and thoughtfulness!]

Koftas, or meatballs, are very popular in India and are often a part of the wedding menu. Indian koftas are influenced more by the middle-Eastern koftas. If you haven’t tried Indian vegetarian koftas yet, you are missing out on something really unbeatable in taste! These are prepared with so much care and the spices are so well-balanced that these vegetarian koftas almost taste like meatballs (or sometimes, even better!). The kind of kofta displayed in this blog post is very famous in the Eastern India (West Bengal and Orissa) and has a subtle balance of flavours.

Select a young, green and small cabbage for this dish. The cabbage needs some treatment. First, it has to be finely shredded. Then marinate the cabbage with ½ tsp salt for 10 minutes. Squeeze the cabbage to get rid of the cabbage juice as a result of the marination. Keep the well-squeezed cabbage aside and proceed for making the koftas now. The chickpea flour or garbanzo flour (also called Indian besan) is needed to bind the cabbage koftas together. Note: Please do not substitute chickpea flour with any other kind of flour. You will get this gluten-free flour easily in Indian/Pakistani/Sri Lankan/Bangladeshi stores in your country.

Golden-brown kofta balls

First step: Making the koftas

Ingredients:

Finely shredded and marinated cabbage (small): 1

Purple onion paste: 1.5 tsp

Coriander powder: 1 tsp

Cumin powder: 1 tsp

Grated ginger: 1 tsp

Salt: one pinch

Cumin seeds: 1 pinch

Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp

Red chilli powder (optional): ½ tsp

Chickpea flour (besan): 8 Tbsp (more, if needed)

Baking powder: Two pinches

Oil for deep-frying

Method:

Add all the ingredients together and make round balls. The balls should feel wet, but you should be able to make round balls. This process can be messy but you’ll be amused by the taste of the dish! Do not let the balls become too soggy, otherwise the balls will open up when you start to deep-fry these. If soggy, add more chickpea flour to the batter. Make Ping-Pong-ball-sized koftas and deep-fry in oil on low to medium heat. Never fry the balls in high heat, otherwise the outer surface will be cooked and the inside would be soggy and under-cooked.

The right amount of each spice in a curry is a family secret in most Indian homes. This special kofta masala is my mother-in-law's secret recipe, which works wonders not only in Indian kofta curries, but in a variety of curries as well.

Special kofta masala for that special flavour!

Second step: Special kofta masala

Ingredients:

Dried red chilli (roughly torn): 1.5

Green cardamoms: 3

Cinnamon stick (1 inch): 2

Dried, medium-sized bay leaves (torn roughly): 2

Coriander seeds: ¾ tsp

Cumin seeds: 1 tsp

Method:

Here is the secret recipe for the special roasted spice mix for koftas (bhuna masala or bhaja mashla): dry-roast the whole spices on a medium flame, taking care just to change the colour of the whole spices to light brown (and not to burn the spices even slightly). Allow these spices to cool a bit and grind to a very fine powder. Store the masala in an airtight container.

Final step: Making the kofta gravy

Ingredients:

Potato (cubed and fried golden with ½ tsp salt): 1.5 cups

Cumin seeds: ¼ tsp

Dry bay leaf (big): 1

Onion paste: 2 tbsp

Coriander powder: 1.5 tsp

Cumin powder: 2 tsp

Red chilli powder: ¼ tsp

Ginger paste: 2 tsp

Medium-sized tomato (finely chopped): 1

Peas (fresh or frozen): ¼ cup

Water: 2 cups

Kofta masala (recipe above): 2 tsp

Indian clarified butter (ghee): 1.5 tsp

Salt: ¾ tsp (or according to taste)

Turmeric: ½ tsp

Green, slit chillies: 5

Oil: 2 tbsp

Coriander leaves (freshly chopped): 2 tbsp (for garnishing)

Method:

Heat oil till it starts smoking. Add the whole cumin seeds and bay leaf and immediately reduce the flame to medium. As soon as the cumin seeds just turn brownish, add the onion paste and sauté for 5 min. Add the coriander powder, cumin powder and the red chilli powder, mixed with a little water. Sauté for 5 min. Add the slit chillies, ginger paste, salt and turmeric powder after that. Fry on a medium heat, till the tomatoes are very soft. Add the fried potatoes and the peas and fry for five more minutes.

Now add 2 cups of water and the kofta masala (recipe above), stir and bring this to a boil. Add the ghee now. Simmer and carefully add the fried kofta balls. Boil for 10 more minutes. Switch off the flame and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Koftas absorb a lot of water. When you switch off the gas and let the koftas stand in the gravy for 20 min, the gravy thickens by itself and is almost absorbed into the koftas, making them softer and tastier.

[Please feel free to follow Cosmopolitan Currymania if you love reading my blog. It motivates me a lot! And thank you, all my 232 followers, for being with me in my culinary expeditions! You can connect with me at @purabinaha on Twitter or click here to like my Facebook page. Thank you for stopping by!]

Chocolate-Almond Cake with Peanut Butter Icing

2012-02-12T09:44:00.000-08:00

[This recipe is on number 2 position on Foodbuzz Top 9 today (14 February, 2011). Thank you once again, dear readers, for making my Valentine's day even more special!]

Love is in the air… Right now, I can’t think of eating anything more romantic than chocolate… With Valentine’s day just round the corner, it’s a perfect excuse to indulge in this irresistible homemade chocolate cake oozing with the goodness of almonds and peanut butter.

Some of the ingredients

This is the first cake recipe on my blog. I loved this cake. I made some changes to my mom’s chocolate cake recipe. I added finely chopped almonds and just 1 tsp of finely chopped dried apricots to the batter. I also incorporated a little peanut butter, condensed milk, chocolate essence and a little berry-flavoured yogurt to this. The result was startling! Here is the cake loaded with mouthwatering chocolate in many forms, and each bite will only entice you for the next bite of this sinful pleasure. And yes, the roses are edible too!

The decoration

Homemade chocolate shapes

For the decoration part, I did put some extra effort, which was really worth the occasion. I made the homemade chocolate hearts and leaves. For this, I melted 2 tbsp mini chocolate chips in a double boiler with ¼ tsp butter and ½ tsp milk. When the chocolate was molten, I poured this mixture into a piping bag and piped heart and leaf patterns as well as the alphabets I want to use, on a butter paper. I kept this in the deep freeze and removed after 30 min. I removed each pattern very carefully (and fast), taking care not to break the same while removing these slowly from the butter paper. These patterns waited back in the fridge, till the cake was ready for decoration.

I made the roses one day in advance (I used store-bought fondant icing and mixed a little gel-based edible food colour. I used pink and yellow colours for these roses). Here is a great video to get started with making pretty fondant roses: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R8MsL-5oKA.

Chocolate-Almond Cake with Peanut Butter Icing

Ingredients:

Sifted all-purpose flour: 1.5 cups

Sugar: 1 cup

Cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s): 4 tbsp

Kosher salt: ¼ tsp

Baking powder: 1.5 tsp

Baking soda: ½ tsp

Eggs: 5

Unsalted butter: ½ cup

Chocolate essence: ½ tsp

Berry-flavoured yogurt: 1 tbsp

Water: 4 tbsp

Peanut butter: 1.5 tsp

Condensed milk: 1.5 tsp

Dried apricots (finely chopped): 1 tsp

Deskinned, finely chopped almonds: 2 tsp

Beat the icing, till you get soft peaks

For peanut butter icing:

Cream cheese: 4 tbsp

Light cream: 4 tbsp

Icing sugar: 8 tbsp

Peanut butter: 5 tbsp

Coffee essence: ½ tsp

Method:

Grease an eight-inch circular, deep-bottomed cake tin and line with butter paper. Preheat oven at 180˚C for 15 min.

Sift the first six ingredients and mix together very well. Set aside.

Whisk the eggs till these are light yellow. Slowly add the softened butter and keep on whisking. Keep aside.

Blend the essence, yogurt, water, peanut butter and condensed milk in an electric mixer. Add the whisked egg mixture and blend for a few seconds. Add the sifted flour mixture and beat on a medium speed, till the whole of the mixture is incorporated and there are no lumps or dry ingredients. Add the apricots and dried almonds. Fold in (lightly) once more for an even composition.

Pour this chocolate cake batter into the cake tin and bake for 40 min at 180˚C.

To check whether the cake is done, pierce a thin skewer at the middle of the cake. It should come out clean if the cake is done. If some cake is sticking to it, bake for another 10 min and recheck.

For the peanut butter icing, nicely beat all the ingredients for the icing, except the cream. Add the cream after that, little at a time, and fold in lightly, till soft peaks are formed.

When the cake is done, let it come to the room temperature. Chop off the dome and make the cake flat from the top. After that, cut the cake horizontally into two pieces. Apply some peanut butter icing inside and stick the two discs again. Apply the icing generously all over the cake and cover the cake completely. Flatten and smoothen the icing all over.

Decorate with fondant roses and chocolate hearts, alphabets and leaves. I have also added mini decorative sprinkles (heart-shaped) to keep in tune with the Valentine’s day theme. Indulge!

[Please feel free to follow Cosmopolitan Currymania if you love reading my blog. It motivates me a lot! And thank you, all my 225 followers, for being with me in my culinary expeditions! You can connect with me at @purabinaha on Twitter or click here to like my Facebook page. Thank you for stopping by!]

Thai Green Curry with Roasted Duck

2012-02-06T02:27:00.000-08:00

[This article was originally published in Zomppa, an International food magazine.]

Thai cuisine uses a variety of curry pastes, such as the red, yellow and the green ones. Every paste tastes unique. I love Thai Green curry a lot and it is among the best non-Indian curries I have ever tasted. In fact, I judge a Thai restaurant by the taste of this curry. So far, I am quite impressed by few authentic Thai restaurants in Hong Kong (my favourites being Sweet Basil in Whampoa Garden and Thai Basil in Pacific Place), which serve superb Thai green curry. When I eat there, I am always transformed to a different world such is the intensity of this curry! I took a note of which vegetables these restaurants used for making this. I also noted that it can be cooked with chicken, pork or duck! I really loved the one with succulent duck meat since we rarely get duck meat in India. Needless to say, duck meat tastes amazing! In addition, this is the season when you get to see a lot of roast ducks freshly made each day in the street markets in Hong Kong. So I decided to buy some roast duck breast from one of these tempting shops, serving just roast meat of different kinds, and get started for an out-of-the-world curry experience!

Perfectly roast duck

Oh, look at what I spotted in a small Thai ingredients’ shop in a wet market here! Thai small aubergines (these are tiny, green aubergines without seeds), fresh lemongrass and Kaffir lime leaves!

Thai aubergines, Kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass

Now, this curry can be sweet, it can be spicy or both. I love this sweet and spicy, so I made some changes in the amounts of ingredients in the basic Thai green curry paste recipe (given below) to cater to my taste. If you like this to be spicier, simply add a few more chillies to the paste and blend it once again. Make this paste well in advance and keep this refrigerated. And yes, do not restrict yourself to using the Thai green curry paste only to make Thai green curry. Let your imagination go wild and you can find yourself using this in a variety of other ways as well.

[Interesting variations: Try using a little of this paste in your regular bread dough, in any savoury batter for deep frying or in your paratha (flatbread) dough for that spicy punch!]

Thai green curry ingredients

Thai Green Curry Paste

Ingredients:

Green chillies: 10

Coriander powder: 1 tsp

Shallots: 70 g

Garlic: 40 g

Cumin powder: ½ tsp

Roasted belacan: 1 tsp

Galangal slices: 2

Coriander roots (not leaves): 10 g

Mint leaves: 20 g

Lemongrass: 2 stalks

Kaffir lime leaves: 3

Kaffir Lime zest: 1 lime

Sweet basil: 40 g

Black peppercorns: ½ tsp

½-inch fresh turmeric root: 1

Method:

Blend all the ingredients to a fine paste and store in the refrigerator.

Now that the green curry paste is ready, let’s make this authentic Thai curry at home: so nutritious and scrumptious and less than half the price of restaurant-bought green curry!

There are certain points, however, to be kept in mind while making this curry.

· Choose baby duck breast which should be juicy enough after roasting. Over-roasting or cooking the pieces of duck meat for a long time in the green curry changes the flavor and texture of duck meat, which becomes hard and rubbery. Roasting should be just perfect, so that the meat inside the skin is succulent and, in no case, dry. If you are not sure of whether you’ll get a perfectly roast chunk of duck breast, simply replace this with boneless chicken thigh pieces.

· To save time, commercial Thai green curry pastes can be used. But if you get all the fresh ingredients handy, nothing beats homemade Thai green curry paste!

· Lemongrass is not the same as lemon juice and has a sharp lemony aroma, minus the sour taste. If you do not get this ingredient, do the following (my own lemongrass substitute): mix juice of one lemon, five drops of lemon essence and ¼ tsp granulated sugar. This is equivalent to the effect of two lemongrass stalks. But, fresh lemongrass is undoubtedly unbeatable. Alternatively, use store-bought green curry paste of a reputed brand.

· If you note the green curry paste ingredients carefully, you will notice that there are two green-coloured ingredients: green chillies, sweet basil and little mint. Without these two, your curry would not be green. So do not omit these. Do not use cilantro leaves for making the paste green.

· If after adding all the ingredients, you discover that the green curry is too spicy for you, add a little brown sugar to the boiling curry, but do not overdo this process.

· If you get fresh (or canned) straw mushrooms, you are lucky. Go for it. If not, even white button mushrooms are okay.

Thai green curry with roasted duck

[The recipe serves 5–6 people.]

Ingredients:

Roast duck breast (with skin; sliced): 250 g

Thai aubergines (cut into half): 5

Babycorns (cut into half, lengthwise): 6

Plum tomatoes: 8

Green bell peppers (cubed into medium-sized pieces): 1

Snow peas: 8

Halved straw mushrooms (can be replaced with white button mushrooms): 8, if straw; 5, if button mushrooms

Pumpkin (cubed and skin removed): 8

French beans (chopped into medium-sized pieces): 5

Thailand longans: 8

Coconut milk: 400 ml

Warm water: 1 cup

Sweet basil: 7–8

Salt: According to taste

Method:

Heat the oil. Add 5 tbsp Thai green curry paste (recipe above) in 1 tbsp vegetable oil. Lower the heat and add the coconut milk, stirring continuously until the coconut milk starts separating oil.

Mixing coconut milk with green curry paste

Add the pumpkin and the French beans first. Then add the remaining vegetables and salt. Add the fish sauce and the warm water. Stir and simmer for 10 min.

Adding all the vegetables

Adding the fish sauce

Add the sweet basil and sliced duck meat and cook for 3–4 min. Garnish with a few fresh sweet basil leaves or mint.

Adding Thai basil

Adding roast duck breast

Serve hot with steamed rice or noodles.

Letting the Thai green curry simmer

[Please feel free to follow Cosmopolitan Currymania if you love reading my blog. It motivates me a lot! And thank you, all my 219 followers, for being with me in my culinary expeditions! You can connect with me at @purabinaha on Twitter or click here to like my Facebook page. Thank you for stopping by!]

Kelp-Mushroom Stir-Fry with Shichimi Togarashi

2012-02-01T08:56:00.000-08:00

[Thank you, dear readers, for voting this recipe to number 1 position on Foodbuzz today (February 3). This fusion recipe is an effective home remedy for people suffering from hypothyroidism or those who are iodine-deficient. Read on to find out how it can improve your family’s health in a number of ways.]

Kelp-mushroom stir-fry with shichimi togarashi

Why would you eat kelp?

Kelp is a sea weed and is loaded with nutrients. This wonder food is rich in amino acids, vitamins, calcium, magnesium, potassium and most important, iodine! This is the reason why it is regarded as one of the most preferred home remedies against hypothyroidism, in which there is a lack of iodine in the thyroid gland. Not only that, kelp is also eaten as a health food to reduce weight!

Kelp is a storehouse of vitamin B-12: found mainly in animal products. The chemical called “algin” found in kelp aids in metabolism and soothes heartburn. Kelp removes toxins (harmful substances) from our body and thus, it is believed to help in preventing a wide range of ailments, including cancer. It is a mild laxative as well!

Kelp keeps the skin youthful and is believed to add shine to the hair. This is also one of the reasons of its commercial popularity (as an ingredient in cosmetics and as a herbal supplement).

Chinese-style marinated kelp

Where to look for kelp in Hong Kong?

Kelp is among one of the healthiest snacks in Hong Kong. Available easily in most sushi outlets, this Japanese health food is very popular among the young generation for its weight-reducing ability and for its wonderful effect on skin and hair.

JUSCO outlets in Hong Kong keep dried kelp packs and the sushi section in TASTE serves the fresh seaweed.

What is shichimi togarashi?

Shichimi togarashi is a Japanese seven-spice seasoning (meaning “seven-flavoured chilli”). It is mainly a mixture of crushed red pepper, dried tangerine peel, Japanese pepper and sesame seeds, among others. This seasoning is mildly spicy (according to my Indian tastebuds!)

Kelp-mushroom stir-fry with shichimi togarashi

This dish has both Chinese and Japanese flavours in it. Fresh kelp (1 cup) should be marinated (in the Chinese way) with ¼ tsp each of sugar, salt, sesame oil, soya sauce, red chilli flakes, vinegar and sesame seeds.

Ingredients:

Kelp (marinated): 1 cup (0.2 lb)

White button mushrooms (chopped): 12

Shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven-spice mix): 1 tsp

Fried garlic (for garnishing): 1 tbsp

Salt: ½ tsp

Sesame oil: 1 tbsp

Method:

Heat sesame oil in a pan. Add the mushrooms with ½ tsp salt. Fry on a high flame, till it is dry.

Frying mushrooms with shichimi togarashi

Now add the shichimi togarashi and cook for 3 min on a high flame. Then add the marinated kelp.

Serve hot, garnished with fried, crisp garlic flakes.

[Please feel free to follow Cosmopolitan Currymania if you love reading my blog. It motivates me a lot! And thank you, all my 212 followers, for being with me in my culinary expeditions! You can connect with me at @purabinaha on Twitter or click here to like my Facebook page. Thank you for stopping by!]

Chinese New Year Vegetarian Dumplings

2012-01-24T09:43:00.000-08:00

[Readers, thanks for voting my recipe up to number 1 position on Foodbuzz Top 9 today (26 January). You are the best!]

Hi friends! Kung Hei Fat Choi! Juk lei sun tai king hong! (Happy Chinese New Year! Wish you good health!)

Chinese New Year is one of the most important festivals in Hong Kong. Red and golden are auspicious colours during this time. People start cleaning their houses a few days in advance. They buy flowers and even gift them to their near and dear ones in family get-togethers. This is the year of dragon. Red envelope/pocket money or lai see is distributed by married people to the unmarried ones (or by a boss to his subordinates). And yes, eating good food is of course a part of all this!

My three-year-old daughter, Ayontika

This is my first post after the Chinese New Year, so this has to be special! I made these vegetarian dumplings for a vegan couple whom we invited over for Chinese New Year holiday breakfast here. They liked these very much, which is why I thought of sharing the recipe with you all as well!

My vegan friends told me that they have had a hard time searching for yum cha restaurants (dim sum restaurants) serving vegetarian food in Hong Kong. Actually, even the so-called vegetarian Chinese food is not 100% vegetarian. Sometimes, for additional taste, chicken powder, chicken stock, oyster sauce, fish sauce or pork lard is added to cook the food.

So a vegetarian foodie in Hong Kong finds it a little challenging initially. But, by being a little tricky and enthusiastic, you can always recreate that tempting non-vegetarian dish with vegetarian ingredients in your home kitchen, isn’t it?

Chinese shiitake mushrooms

Chinese shiitake mushrooms are very popular (and cheap) here. They differ markedly in their taste from Swiss brown or white mushrooms. The shiitake ones are a little slippery when cooked and impart a distinct aroma to the dish. I decided to use these as the main ingredient for the filling for my dumplings, along with just a little amount of carrots, spring onion greens, garlic, ginger, cabbage (just 3 tbsp) and soybean sprouts.

Dumpling skins used in Chinese cooking

Making dumpling skins at home!

I used local, non-frozen dumpling skins which I spotted in a local dry market here. But you can make your own by adding a little warm water to all-purpose flour and making a smooth dough. Make small balls out of the dough (half the size of a Ping-Pong ball) and roll each into thin (but not very thin) dumpling skins. The Asian stores even sell these frozen. Thaw them and they are ready to use!

Chinese New Year Vegetarian Dumplings (makes around 30 dumplings)

[I used traditional bamboo steamer here. But don’t lose heart if you don’t get one. You can use any kind of steamer or make your own at home. For this, tie a muslin cloth beforehand to the mouth of a shallow vessel or a double boiler with boiling water. You can place a few dumplings on this cloth carefully, so that the water doesn’t touch the dumplings. Cover with a lid and steam for 10 min.]

A traditional Chinese bamboo steamer

Ingredients:

Store-bought dumpling skins or homemade ones: 30

Chinese shiitake mushrooms (chopped into small pieces): 8

Carrots (cubed into very small pieces): ½

Spring onion greens: ½ cup

Garlic (finely chopped): 1.5 tbsp

Ginger (shredded finely): 1 tsp

Light soy sauce: 1 tsp

Vegetable bouillon powder: 1.5 tsp

Cabbage (chopped finely): 3 tbsp

Soybean sprouts (chopped): ¼ cup

Light soy sauce: 1 tsp

Sesame oil: 2 tbsp

Salt: ¼ tsp (or according to taste)

Cornflower-water mixture (not too runny): ¼ cup

Method:

Heat oil in the wok. When hot, add the spring onion greens, garlic and ginger and sauté for 2 min on a medium flame. Add the carrots and salt. Sauté for 2 min.

Add the chopped mushrooms and the vegetable bouillon powder mixed with 1.5 ts water. Fry till the mushrooms are semi-soft. Add the soy sauce and mix well.

Now add the cabbage and the sprouts. Sauté for one minute. Switch off the gas. This becomes the filling. Make sure that it comes to room temperature and is almost dry when you start stuffing these into dumpling skins. The cabbage and sprouts should be under-cooked to retain their crunchiness.

Take each skin at a time. Add 1 tbsp (or a little less) filling into the skin.

Rubbing cornflower-water mixture at the circumference of the dumpling skin

Make creases towards the centre by pulling and pressing the dumpling skin carefully

With a little cornflower-water mixture, press the top of the dumpling a bit, so that it becomes thinner and even. This creased side is the outer side of the dumpling. Now lightly press this down and make a crescent shape.

Fold the skin as shown. Make creases only on one side of the semi-circle in the way shown in the picture. The creased side is the outer side. Bend the semi-circled dumplings a bit and press down a little for that perfect shape! Seal the ends using cornflower-water mixture.

Mouth-watering dumplings for you!

When all dumplings are ready, steam for 10 min. Serve hot with soy sauce, vinegar or a sauce of your choice (I love chilli-garlic sauce with this!). Enjoy the bliss!

[If you love reading my blog, please feel free to follow Cosmopolitan Currymania. It motivates me a lot! And thank you all my readers for being with me in my culinary expeditions! You can connect with me at @purabinaha on Twitter or click here to like my Facebook page. It just takes a minute! Thank you for stopping by!]

Parsi Mewa no Pulav: The Most Delicious Vegetarian Pilaf I Have Ever Had!

2012-01-09T23:09:00.000-08:00

[This recipe is now on Foodbuzz "Top 9" list. Friends, thank you all for buzzing it up to this rank. Thanks for stopping by and motivating me!]

Parsi mewa no pulav

About 1,300 years ago, the Zoroastrians from Iran settled in Gujarat, India. The descendants of this community are known as the Parsis. Parsi food is truly a unique balance of Persian and Gujarati cuisine! I love Parsi cuisine because of two things: they are lavish in using dry fruits and the dishes are just mildly spicy.

Soon after my marriage, we settled in Mumbai in 2004. This was the time when I tasted many Parsi dishes, such as patra-ni-macchi (fish wrapped in banana leaf) and dhansaak (a curry of lentils, vegetables and mutton). Amused by the extraordinary taste of Parsi cuisine, I started to learn a few dishes from an elderly Parsi lady, who used to pan out absolutely fabulous Parsi fare every time we used to visit her. When we were leaving for Hong Kong, she lovingly passed me an old notebook with some authentic Parsi recipes. This recipe is taken from her notebook and AN strongly believes that this is the best vegetarian pulav I have ever made!

Dry fruits, mace and saffron are an integral part of this pilaf. Speaking about dry fruits, let me tell you that red barberries (the most important dry fruit in mewa no pulav) are often difficult to get. The taste of these berries is sweet and sour. I could not find barberries in Hong Kong, so I substituted them with dried cranberry raisins, which led to an extremely satisfactory taste as well! Apart from barberries, I could get the other dry fruits very easily: dried figs, pine nuts, cashewnuts, golden raisins and dried apricots.

Personally, I’d like to do away with the pumpkin seeds next time. Also, make sure that you use the best-quality and the freshest yogurt for this pulav because issues such as sour yogurt can ruin all your effort towards cooking up this culinary masterpiece!

Parsi mewa no pulav

[Mewa means dry fruits and pulav is an Indian aromatic rice preparation. This recipe serves 6 people.]

Ingredients (for rice):

Basmati rice: 4 cups

Purple onions (thinly sliced): 2

Mace flowers: ½

Carraway seeds (shahi jeera): 1 tsp

Saffron strands: ¼ tsp

Salt: 1 tsp

Ghee (Indian clarified butter): 1 tsp

Light oil: for frying

Ingredients (for mewa and vegetables):

Dried cranberry raisins: ½ cup

Dried apricots: ½ cup

Dried figs: ½ cup

Dried golden raisins: ¼ cup

Whole cashewnuts (fried): 12

Pine nuts: ¼ cup

Pumpkin seeds (optional): 10

Purple onion (chopped): 1.5 cups

Potatoes (de-skinned, cubed and fried with a little salt): 1 cup

Boiled green peas: ½ cup

Carrots (cubed and boiled with a little salt): ½ cup

French beans (cut and boiled with a little salt): ½ cup

Tomato (chopped): 1.5 cups

Coriander leaves: 1 tbsp

Mint leaves: 1 tsp

Fresh yogurt: ½ cup

Sugar: 3 tsp

Salt: According to taste

Ghee

Method:

In this pulav, we will make two kinds of rice, one white and the other orange, and assemble them towards the end.

Deep fry the thinly sliced purple onions in a mixture of 1 tsp ghee and light oil and keep aside.

Making the white rice:

To make the white rice, add the soaked rice into the rice cooker with a little extra water (just a little more than that required to immerse the contents). Add half each of the following: fried onions, caraway seeds, mace and salt. When it is done, spread in a big plate.

Making the orange-coloured rice:

Now make the orange-coloured rice. Add half of the remaining basmati rice, along with saffron and the remaining ingredients listed for making the rice. Spread this in a big plate as well.

Treating the dry fruits:

Fry all the dry fruits in a little ghee and boil them in sugar-water mixture (1 tsp sugar in 2 cup water).

Treating the vegetables:

Heat ghee in a pan and add the chopped onions. Fry till these just become a little softer. Add the fried potatoes and the boiled vegetables and cook for 3-4 min on a medium flame. Add the coriander leaves and mint and mix well.

Making the sweet yogurt mixture:

Mix the yogurt, 2 tsp sugar and chopped tomatoes. Add this yogurt mixture to the vegetables and mix lightly.

Assembling the pulav:

Take a handful of white rice and orange-coloured rice each and mix them lightly with a handful of vegetable-yogurt-tomato mixture. Repeat the process till all the contents are mixed. Transfer half of this pulav into a microwave-safe glass container. Sprinkle the treated dry fruits all over the rice. Add the rest of the pulav on this. Finally, sprinkle the rest of the dry fruits lavishly on top of the pulav.

Seal this with a cling film and microwave (low power) for 5 min. Serve hot.

Sean of Food on the Table passed me a beautiful “Everyday Foodie” award, displayed at the right hand side of Cosmopolitan Currymania, under the section “Awards”. Thank you, Sean, for this wonderful award!

Mangshor Jhol (Bengali Mutton Curry)

2012-01-03T07:52:00.000-08:00

Hi readers! Hope you all had a great holiday time! My holidays were fabulous: spent through partying, eating out, spending a lot of time with kids and relaxing! 2011 will always be a memorable year for me because this was the year when I started blogging, as we settled in Hong Kong.

So do you have any cooking or baking resolution for 2012? I, personally, do not believe in resolutions, but this year, I plan to explore more International cuisines. And yes, I will be trying out a lot of heirloom Indian dishes as well! I promised myself to spend more time reading the manuals in food photography, which is really important. Food presentation can make a lot of difference and this year, I will concentrate on this part, along with cooking and baking.

Cooking up for my family was, of course, on my holiday agenda. One of the dishes we loved eating during the holidays was Indian-style simple mutton curry. This is such a comfort food for us and reminds me of my childhood days at my parents’ place, where this curry was cooked by my mom almost every Sunday.

Mangshor Jhol (Bengali Mutton Curry)

[Mutton is the meat of a male goat. A young goat’s front thigh meat tastes the best for this dish. I included a few pieces from the ribs and included a little liver as well. The time to cook mutton will take longer if you choose mutton from an older goat. Also, for almost any kind of Indian cooking, choose red or purple onions which have low moisture content as well as sweetness level and can be browned easily. Please note that this is just one of the preferred ways to make mangshor jhol, which can be prepared in a few other ways as well!]

Ingredients:

Fresh hung curd (should not be sour): ¾ cup

Salt for marination: 1.5 tsp

Garlic paste: 1 tbsp

Mutton pieces (medium-sized): 1 kg

Mutton liver: 150 g

Ghee (Indian clarified butter): 1 tbsp

Bay leaves: 2

Grated ginger: 1 tsp

Cumin seeds: ½ tsp

Fenugreek seeds: ¼ tsp

Fennel seeds: ½ tsp

Red or purple onion (cut into long and very thin slices): 1 cup

Onion paste: 5 tbsp

Garlic paste: 2 tbsp

Fresh cream (made homogeneous in a mixer with 3 tbsp warm milk): 2 tbsp

Cashewnut paste: 1.5 tbsp

Coriander powder: 1.5 tbsp

Cumin powder: 2 tbsp

Turmeric powder: ¾ tsp

Readymade meat masala powder (available in all Indian stores): 1 tbsp

Red chilli powder (or cayenne pepper): 2 tsp (optional)

Salt: 1 tsp (quantity of salt may vary from person to person)

Fresh green or red chillies for garnishing

Mustard oil (if not available, replace with canola or sunflower oil): 5 tbsp

Warm water: 4 cups

Method:

The most important step in preparing this Indian (Bengali) curry is in marinating the mutton well with fresh hung curd, 1.5 tsp salt, garlic paste and ghee and refrigerating this overnight.

Heat mustard oil till it is very hot and add the bay leaves on medium heat. Add the three kinds of seeds (cumin, fenugreek and fennel) and wait till these change colour and become light brown. When these just turn brownish, add all the onion slices and sauté continuously till these are nicely browned. You can add a few pinches of salt to make the process quicker. But always keep the flame on a medium while frying onions.

Before browning the onions.

After the onions are browned.

Stir in the onion paste and the coriander powder, meat masala powder and cumin powders dissolved in 4 tbsp water. The flame should be low. Sauté till the mixture dries up. Please note that this is a very important step and if you use high flame for this step, the whole curry will taste bitter.

Now add the marinated mutton and mix everything well. Adjust the flame to medium now. Cook for 10 min.

Add the garlic paste and the grated ginger to this and sauté for 2 min. Add the turmeric powder and mix well. Blend fresh cream with warm milk and cashewnut paste and add to this. Mix everything well. Cook for 5 min.

Ginger and garlic pastes being added.

The cream-cashewnut-milk mixture adds creaminess to this curry.

Add red chilli powder and salt and continue to cook the mutton on medium flame, covered, for 30 min, till the mutton has absorbed all the sauce and oil starts leaving from the mutton.

After adding warm water, I transferred the contents into a pressure cooker. This saves fuel and time.

Add 4 cups of warm water to this and mix once. Add the whole green (or red) fresh chillies and pressure-cook till the meat is tender. (If you use a “pressure cooker”, it should have three whistles on a medium flame. After that, simmer for 15 min and turn off the gas after that. Open the cooker after 15 more minutes. To see what a pressure cooker looks like, please click here.)

This mutton curry is just perfect for winters and tastes awesome with both rice and chapatti. Serve with lemon wedges.

Once again, wish you all a very Happy New Year! Have a great year ahead!

Eating Fishballs in Hong Kong

2011-12-28T02:31:00.000-08:00

[This article was originally published in the International food magazine Zomppa before appearing in Cosmopolitan Currymania.]

Each passing day, I am learning more and more about the food culture in Hong Kong. Since I am learning basic Cantonese now, I can communicate more comfortably with the local fish mongers in the seafood markets in Hong Kong. For instance, I recently learnt from an old Chinese lady that garoupa or lung den fish and cuttlefish are the best for making Asian fishballs. Congee tastes awesome with a special kind of fish, called nai mang, and sha koon fish is one of the preferred ones for clear fish soups!

Chinese fishballs are made by pulverising the fish meat to a smooth consistency and turning the mixture into balls around two inches in diameter. The taste is unique and quite unlike the Western fishballs, these are low in fat.

Carp (lei) is a very popular fish in Hong Kong and the localites buy these in plenty also because the word “lei” also means abundance: so they believe that eating these would bring prosperity in their lives.

Visited Hong Kong and didn’t eat fishballs and meatballs? You missed on one of the most popular staples here!

Another localite suggested that one must try stewed and minced pork balls with brown sauce, traditionally cooked in a clay pot. There is a fancy name for this dish: “lion head” balls! These are cooked with Shanghai pak choi (bok choi) to create a flavour that lingers! Fuzhou fishballs are worth a mention here: made with eel on the exterior and a juicy pork meatball inside, it is a culinary experience in its own right!

Undoubtedly, fishballs and meatballs are very popular in Hong Kong. There are a number of variations found here. The meatballs, usually beef balls, are brownish balls in which minced meat is pounded together with other ingredients to produce balls which taste awesome in soups, noodles and stir-fries. Fishballs are among the most popular street foods in Hong Kong! These differ in colour, texture and shape. Even fish blocks are available here, which are often sold fried. Interesting variations in fishballs include lobster balls, cuttlefish balls, octopus balls, fish siu mai, etc. There are interesting colour variations too. The most interesting ones include those with alternate coloured and white stripes!

Beef balls and lobster balls sell like hot cakes in Hong Kong!

The beef ball soups sometimes carry a piece of fish maw in the centre, along with shark’s fin. There are also ready-to-eat curried fishball packs available here, which just need to be warmed and can be had with rice. A pack of fish or meatballs is quite reasonably priced, more so if you buy from local vendors in Hong Kong wet markets. Moreover, there are those sold at local fishball stalls as street food, in which the fishballs are either fried or smeared with a sauce and served stacked on bamboo skewers. The fishballs and meatballs also find their ways in traditional “hot pot” soups.

Asian fishball soup with flat rice noodles

Ingredients:

The basic ingredients used in this soup.

Asian cuttlefish balls: 12

Asian lobster balls: 12

Pak choi (or any other Chinese green vegetable): handful

Chinese brown mushrooms (chopped): 10

Broccoli florets: 8–10

Chopped spring onion greens: ¼ cup

Carrots (chopped): ½

Finely chopped garlic: 4 tbsp

Chinese onion (roughly chopped): ½ cup

Fish sauce (nam pla): 3 tbsp

Chicken broth: 7 cups

Warm water: 1 cup

Chicken powder: 1 tbsp

Mung bean sprouts: handful

Salt: according to taste

Crisp-fried garlic (store-bought): for garnishing

Boiled and drained flat rice noodles (to be boiled with little salt and oil)

Sesame oil: 1.5 tbsp

Boneless chicken cubes (marinated in 1 tbsp dark soy sauce): 1 cup

Method:

Heat the pan and add the sesame oil. When the oil smokes, add the onion and sauté for 2 min. Add the garlic and sauté again for 1 min.

Now add the chicken and sauté till the chicken is almost cooked. Add the first seven ingredients and sauté for five more minutes.

Now add the chicken broth, chicken powder mixed in warm water and the fish sauce. Let this simmer for 25 min. Add the salt now, if required.

To serve, add some noodles to a serving bowl and spoon some soup over it. Garnish with a little mung sprouts, chopped spring onion greens and fried garlic. Serve immediately.

Postor Bora (Crackling Poppy Seed Fritters)

2011-12-17T08:33:00.000-08:00

Postor Bora (Crackling poppy seed fritters)

Gastronomically speaking, it is fun to be a Bengali! The daily meal of a Bengali (people who belong to West Bengal, India) is elaborate. Gone are the days when having rice with five or six bowls of different vegetarian and non-vegetarian curries, five kinds of fritters (called bhaja in Bengali), sweetened yogurt (mishti doi) and sweets in lunch is considered as a kind of status symbol. However, a modern Bengali still prefers to have atleast three kinds of accompaniments with rice as a part of the daily meal.

White poppy seeds

There is “magic” in plain Bengali food: once you eat, you’ll never forget the taste! There are certain dishes which are inevitable in a Bengali household: one being the “postor bora”, in which white poppy seeds are mixed with a little wheat flour, turmeric powder and salt (red chilli powder can also be added) and deep-fried in mustard oil to make these super-crisp fritters. Poppy seeds are also known as khus khus or posto in Indian language.

These fritters are a little tricky to make. You need to know the right amount of flour to be added to the poppy seeds: if the amount is more, the fritters would be soft from inside, which is undesirable. The texture should be a bit hard, both inside as well as outside. Experienced Bengali cooks say, if you bite into one, it should produce a crackling sound. So, I hope you got the idea: correct amounts of ingredients and relaxed frying are the watchwords for the perfectly crisp fritters.

The Vegan recipe discussed here is one of the heirloom recipes in Indian cuisine, passed over many generations in West Bengal (Kolkata), and relished as a starter for lunch or as a side-dish with plain red or moong lentils and rice. I learnt this from my mother-in-law, who is a great cook and I follow her cooking almost blindly. Thanks, mom, for passing me such an authentic recipe!

Postor Bora (Crackling Poppy Seed Fritters)

Ingredients:

White poppy seeds: 5 tbsp

Wheat flour: 3.5 tsp

Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp

Salt: ½ tsp (or according to taste)

Red chilli powder (optional): ½ tsp

Water: just enough to bind the ingredients

Mustard oil: for deep-frying

Method:

Combine the first five ingredients together with minimum amount of water. Adding even a liitle bit of extra water will ruin the crispiness. For those who are attempting this starter for the first time, it is a good idea to add water with a tablespoon to keep a tab on the thickness of the batter.

The batter should be thick

Heat the mustard oil till it smokes. Reduce the flame to medium and add the fritters or boras in small clusters, making sure to leave a little gap between each of them. After 3 min, reduce the flame to the lowest and continue to fry till the bottom part solidifies and becomes brownish. Occasionally, you may increase the flame a bit, but make sure to reduce it after around 2–3 min.

When the bottoms of the fritters are well-browned, flip over carefully and continue to fry over a low flame, till the fritters are browned over both the sides.

Remove on absorbent paper and serve immediately for extra crunch! These are served with rice and lentils.

Seven Daring Foods in Hong Kong

2011-12-11T06:15:00.000-08:00

[This article was originally published in the international food magazine Zomppa.]

I think, labelling a certain foodstuff as “weird” or “strange” is not quite justified since something weird for someone is a delicacy for the other! The Chinese in Hong Kong value protein-rich food very much. So they make the best use of protein by utilising even parts like chicken feet, chicken cartilages, ox tail, pig uterus, duck tongue, etc. This is probably because they still remember the period in history when they were very poor. If you consider yourself a daring foodie, please read this and re-think!

Frog legs

If you visit Hong Kong wet markets, spotting a few dozens of live frogs in cages in the seafood section is a common phenomenon. Live frogs are supposed to taste somewhere in between that of a fish and the chicken. Frog meat comes cheap here and is one of the favorite snacks in the night markets here. Frog legs are usually stewed, stir-fried or made into congee. What might appear to be bizarre for some, is a delicacy here to try for the brave-hearted!

Chicken Feet

If you thought that chicken feet are merely a Halloween special for Hong Kong epicureans, think again. Available throughout the year and extremely popular here, you will find huge batches of them in every smooth-running meat shop in Hong Kong. Although the appearance of the chicken feet (commonly referred to as “phoenix talons”) may not be quite inviting, it is supposed to be indispensable in Chinese soups and dim sums. Alternately, it is cooked in a special way with the black bean sauce.

Thousand-Year-Old Eggs

This is an ancient Chinese way to preserve the eggs when they are in supply! Many shops or supermarkets sell special kinds of chicken, quail or duck eggs, called thousand-year-old eggs. Of course, these eggs are not 1000-year-old! The insides of these eggs turn into a jelly-like texture, owing to the heavy brining of the eggs and then treating them with a corrosive mixture of tea leaves, lime, salt, sand, clay and ash. These are then buried in this mixture for a period of about three to four months, when the shell of the egg turns brownish black and the yolk turns bluish green and give out a sharp, sulphurous smell.

The eggs are sliced and served as a side dish, or can be added in noodles, congee or tofu.

Blood Tofu

Commonly made by coagulating pig or duck's blood, these are simply cut into rectangular cakes. This tofu is distinguished for its odour. Usually served deep-fried, this serves as a popular street food, especially among the older generation, since this serves as a cheap source of protein and iron.

Bird’s Nest Soup

Bird’s Nest Soup is another health food and is much celebrated in Hong Kong. This soup is actually made with swiftlet’s (a type of bird) saliva and chicken broth. These birds make their nests by binding the twigs with their thick saliva, which is then harvested (when dry) to make a nourishing, gelatinous soup having a huge range of benefits for the body. Bird’s nest is extremely expensive and is believed to boost immunity and longevity!

Baby-Mice Wine

Bottles of clear liquid (resembling water) can be found stacked in any wet market, resembling closely to bottles of mineral water with Chinese labels. But, don’t mistake them as drinking water. This may be baby-mice wine, which is a traditional Chinese and Korean health booster.

Little mice which are just born, eyes still closed, are plunged into a bottle of rice wine. They are left to ferment for a few months, till one gets this wine, which is one of the much prized country-style wines in Hong Kong!

Turtle Jelly

Across Hong Kong, there are many tea shops, soup centres and some Chinese medicine shops which sell empty turtle shells as well as something called “turtle jelly”! The turtles are boiled for more than 10 hours, mixed with other herbs, yielding a consistency of a soupy jelly. Although this jelly doesn’t taste and sound like something which should tickle your tastebuds, but according to the traditional Chinese medicine, its medicinal properties are amazing. People in Hong Kong believe that this nutritious jelly is good for improving complexion and boosts immunity to the body system.

Hong Kong is quite known for its “daring” foods. There are a few countries like Hong Kong, which are so traditionally experimentative and bold in their eating habits!

Kashmiri Rogan Josh

2011-12-02T03:22:00.000-08:00

Kashmiri rogan josh: a red, succulent mutton curry

Just like the biryani, this is another royal Indian dish, believed to be introduced in India by the Mughals. In Persian, the word “rogan josh” means something which is boiling, hot and red in colour. Rogan josh is a signature dish in Kashmiri (Wazwani) cuisine and probably, one of the finest meat dishes in India!

Kashmir takes its cuisine very seriously. In fact, I have heard many Kashmiris saying that they regard cooking as a form of art and it is almost like their second religion!

Rogan Josh: Nuances in the Making

The authentic Kashmiri cooks (called wazas) have perfected signature Kashmiri dishes, such as the rogan josh, with their skills and experience. For them, rogan josh is not just a dish, but an extension of their culinary skills in its epitome!

· The oil to be used in making an authentic rogan josh is mustard oil. You can replace mustard oil with a mixture of plain oil and ghee in case mustard oil is not available.

· Use the freshest and best-quality mutton (meat of a male goat) for this dish. The shank or the shoulder of a male goat have the most succulent meat and are preferred highly in many Indian mutton preparations. The size of the meat pieces should be medium (chopped roughly into two-inch-sized pieces), so that the flavours percolate down the meat very well. Mutton can be replaced with lamb meat. Please note that the meat is never marinated in the traditional rogan josh preparation.

· Tomatoes should never be used to prepare rogan josh. The rich red colour is only attributed to the addition of an indispensable ingredient in this authentic Wazwani (Kashmiri) dish: Kashmiri red chilli powder, which imparts a gorgeous red colour and is mildly hot compared to other red chilli powder varieties. To reduce the hotness even further and to get the same, rich colour in your rogan josh, you can mix equal quantities of Kashmiri red chilli powder and paprika.

· The Hindus of Kashmir do not use any onion or garlic in this dish, but use yogurt or curd, fennel powder and asafoetida to impart richness. For making the same curry, the Kashmiri Muslims, however, use onions and a special ingredient called maval/mawal, described next.

· An ingredient called “rattan jyot/ratan jot or maval/mawal”, which is actually dried cockscomb flower, is traditionally added to the dish (for a deep red colour) at the end by boiling it with equal quantity of water. In addition, saffron dissolved in a little milk is added to give it a subtle enrichment in its flavour. But don’t worry if you don’t get these ingredients: your rogan josh will still taste very good without them.

A word about Indian chillies

Just like Mexican and Korean cuisines, Indian cuisine also involves extensive use of chillies. Interestingly, some kinds of chillies are not hot, but just add flavor and colour to a particular dish! Indian cooking is an exemplary of the use of chillies in varied ways to impart distinct tastes and colours. There are a number of dry red chilli (sookhi laal/lal mirch) varieties used in Indian cooking, the prominent ones being the Kashmiri red chillies, the “fake” Kashmiri red chillies ( called dubby), single reshampatti, double reshampatti, yellowish red chillies, byadgi, Goan small and pointed red chillies, Guntur red chillies and Nellore red chillies. The good news is that, rogan josh demands the use of Kashmiri red chilli powder, which is just mildly hot!

The traditional Kashmiri Muslim banquet: Wazwan

A feast just fit for kings, Wazwan is a grandiose of different kinds of meat preparations and delicacies (prepared traditionally by master chefs called waza). Comprising of almost 36 courses (salute to the royal Kashmiri appetite!), more than half of the Wazwan dishes are meat-based. Traditional Wazwan meal is generally served in group of four, where people sit together and eat from one huge plate! Wazwan, which involves hours of hard work, is an example of Kashmiri hospitality, in which the guest in the house is served the first with an array of delicacies!

A traditional Wazwani dinner at a Kashmiri household or restaurant involves cleaning the hands with warm water (in a traditional vessel) before anything else. The delicacies include popular names, such as tabak maaz, rogan josh and rista, along with an assortment of kebabs and vegetable preparations. Finally, another unparalleled meat dish called gushtaba is served, before moving on to the dessert. Phirni is the common dessert cooked here, with rice and milk as the main ingredients. Last but not the least, the Wazwan is never complete without a cup of warm kahwah tea!

In Kashmiri cuisine, the use of curd or unsweetened yogurt (dahi) is very common, as are asafoetida (hing), aniseed (saunf), Kashmiri red chillies, saffron, dry fruits, nuts and dry ginger (saunth)!

Rogan Josh

[Note: This recipe is an amalgamation of Hindu and Muslim ways of cooking traditional rogan josh. That is why, both onion and curd are used together. Also, I have replaced exotic ingredients, such as ratan jot, to make it compliant with the global palate.]

Ingredients:

Mutton of a young goat (cut into two-inch-sized pieces, along with bones): 1 kg

Garlic cloves (finely chopped): 4

Kashmiri chilli powder (available in Indian superstores): 2.5 tsp

Curd or unsweetened yogurt: ½ cup

Shallots (chopped): 250 g

Mustard oil or a 1:1 combination of any light oil (except olive oil and groundnut oil) and ghee: ¼ cup

Cloves: 4

Large, black cardamoms: 2

Green cardamoms: 5

Cinnamon: 1-inch stick

Bay leaf (dried): 1

Mace: 1 blade

Coriander powder: 1 tsp

Fennel powder: 1 tsp

Dry ginger powder: 1 tsp

Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp

Salt (according to taste): 1.5 tsp

Water: 4.5 cups

Warm milk: 4 tbsp

Saffron strands: 8

Garam masala powder: ½ tsp

Coriander leaves (chopped): to garnish

Method:

Boil the mutton along with the bones with the garlic, half the salt and water, till the mutton is half done. Remove from heat and strain the stock. Keep the boiled meat aside.

The mutton (non-marinated) is stewed with salt

Whisk the curd properly with 3 tbsp water and set aside.

Mix the saffron with warm milk and keep aside.

Fry the shallots in oil, till it is just light brown. Add cloves, bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamoms and the mace and fry for 1 min.

Frying the shallots properly (making it light brown only) is an important step

Add the coriander, ginger, fennel and turmeric powders dissolved in a little (around 5 tbsp) of the reserved mutton broth. Lower the heat and add the curd to this and stir continuously to avoid the curd getting lumpy (that is why, while whisking, water is always added to the curd).

After 5 min, add the boiled meat. Sauté for about 15 min, till the liquid almost evaporates and the sauce coats the mutton well. Add the remaining salt, garam masala powder and the mutton stock and stir thoroughly.

Rogan josh in process

Add the chilli powder, cover and boil for 15 more minutes, or till the mutton is soft, yet chewy and the gravy looks thick and creamy. Add the saffron-milk mixture and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring well.

Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves and serve with pulav, steamed rice, roti or naan.

Guest Post: Easy Meals - The Fundamentals of a Delicious Curry

2011-11-27T21:52:00.000-08:00

Hi readers! Please welcome Carolyn, who contributed this amazing post on curries for Cosmopolitan Currymania. Carolyn is a professional writer, working for the Texas-based orgainsation Blog Content Guild. In this post, she explained about Indian curries in a simplistic way and thus, made it possible even for a layman to understand what curries are all about!

Easy Meals: The Fundamentals of a Delicious Curry

Around the holidays, you and your friends may be eating American classics like ham, turkey, apple pie and mashed potatoes, but these easy meals get old, fast. Spice things up a bit by whipping up a great curry dish for you and your family to enjoy. Here are just some of the fundamentals to making a great curry.

There are plenty of different types of curry to choose from, but generally a good curry includes cumin seeds, coriander seeds, ginger, garlic, turmeric and cardamom. Always make sure to use fresh spices. Your curry dish will always taste delicious if you grind spices yourself just before their use. If you don’t have a lot of time to work with you can buy a curry powder at any Indian grocer, just make sure you store it in an airtight environment. Mostly, curry also includes onions, ginger and garlic.

Take your pick of a meat, cottage cheese or vegetable to be your main ingredient for the curry sauce. The sauce or gravy is created with typical Indian ingredients, such as yogurt, cream and coconut milk, and sometimes, flour can be added to thicken the gravy. Your ingredients will differ depending on the type of curry you are shooting for. For example, coconut milk is used in Ceylon curries, while cream is used for pasanda.

Now for the fun stuff: cooking up your curry! Once you have all of your ingredients, heat up the pan and get to business. First, throw some oil into the frying pan on about a medium heat, adding onions as oil heats. Cook onions until slightly brown. Add curry paste with some garlic, grated ginger and chilies. If you are hankering a tomato-based curry, throw in the tomatoes at this point, until the tomatoes turn into a pulp. Then, toss your main ingredient into the mix. You can use stock, coconut milk, yogurt or water to simmer the ingredients, depending on your curry recipe. Cover the pan until your main ingredient is fully cooked. Once cooked, stir your curry up and have a little taste test. Add spices as needed and garnish with some sliced nuts or coriander leaves, if the recipe calls for them.

And voila! You have a delicious, customised curry to share (or simply enjoy on your own!). All you need is some naan and steamed rice to complete this wonderful, ethnic dish. Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

Thai Lemongrass Tea

2011-11-21T00:04:00.001-08:00

Thai lemongrass tea: calming and having numerous health benefits

What’s so special about Thai lemongrass? The aroma of freshly crushed lemongrass and its lemony taste, minus the sourness of a lemon, drive even a non-Thai like me crazy over this wonderful ingredient! Everything is so appetising about lemongrass! Lemongrass calms the mind and relaxes the senses, making it a popular ingredient in herbal spa treatments as well.

For those readers who are new to lemongrass, this is how it looks like:

I spotted bundles of fresh lemongrass in a wet market in Tsing Yi. Buy lemongrass from local shops, which are always cheaper and more in quantity than those available in food superstores in Hong Kong.

If you read my blog often, you would definitely know by now that I am a fan of Thai food. Be it the popular tom yum goong soup (with prawns) or the herbal Thai roselle tea! Thai teas are popular for their amazing health benefits. Although I am an Indian, I have tremendous faith in Chinese and Thai herbal teas. These teas are a part of my family’s lifestyle now.

There are a huge variety of Thai tea ingredients available in supermarkets and Chinese or Thai superstores worldwide. My advice to you is to adopt one of these in your daily routine and make a difference to your loved one’s overall well-being! With Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year just round the corner, gifting a pack of exotic Thai tea is a superb idea!

This wonder herb called lemongrass has been used in South-Asian cooking since a long time. I have discussed about this wonderful ingredient in the past as well. For those, who missed it, click here for more.

Top reasons to drink lemongrass tea

· Research has now proved that lemongrass has antibacterial and antifungal properties, so it helps to fight against bacterial and fungal infections.

· In Thai households, hot lemongrass tea with ginger is a common home remedy to combat cough and cold. Who needs antibiotics and other medicines with side-effects, if you can cure common ailments naturally!

· It has a calming effect on the body and drinking a cup of warm lemongrass tea before going to bed is very helpful in curing insomnia and in coping up against stress and fatigue. Due to its cooling properties, it is also a great boost for people having fever or for those suffering from high blood pressure.

· Good news for women! Drinking a cup of hot lemongrass tea helps in easing menstrual cramps and is good as an anti-acne tonic as well!

· This tea, if taken regularly, is very effective in fighting against cholesterol and in dissolving excess fat from the body.

· Lemongrass tea helps in cleansing and eliminating toxins from the body and is a natural diuretic. It detoxifies a number of internal organs, such as kidneys, bladder, liver, pancreas and the digestive tract.

Now that I have spoken so much about this “wonder” tea, let me tell you that lemongrass tea is extremely easy to make. The waft of the brewing tea calms the mind after a stressful day out. Make it yourself to believe it!

Thai lemongrass tea

(I do not recommend lemongrass powder for making this tea, since the taste is quite different with the powder, which suits more for making lemongrass marinade instead.)

Ingredients (for 2 cups):

Fresh lemongrass stalks: 2

Crushed ginger: 1-inch piece

Rock sugar: 2 tsp (or according to taste)

Water: 2.5 cups

Method:

In a pot, boil crushed lemongrass with all other ingredients for about 5 min, with lid on. Switch off the gas and give this tea a standing time of 5–7 min. Open the lid and strain the tea. Enjoy in hot or cold.

On a different note, Michael Johnson, an Editor at Pocket Change, a blogging network, has been kind enough to award Cosmopolitan Currymania with a beautiful e-award (displayed under the “Awards” section at the right side of this blog). This is what Michael wrote in his e-mail: “I just found your Cosmopolitan Currymania blog and you have a really great food site! I like that you showcase so many different dishes. You have great photography and your recipes are easy to follow. I thought your site was particularly exceptional. I wanted to give you a button for your site for being an “Editor’s Choice”.

I am so honoured, Michael, to receive an award from you and Pocket Change!

Classic Indian Rice Dishes

2011-11-10T19:29:00.000-08:00

Indian vegetable fried rice

[This article was originally published in Zomppa, the International food magazine.]

Rice is much treasured in India and is a dominant staple in Eastern, Southern and some parts of Western India. Indian cooking revolves around a variety of rice dishes. I have spoken earlier in one of my previous posts about the culinary heritage known as the royal Indian Biryani. But Indian rice variations will surprise many. Some Indian rice dishes require special varieties of rice. The popular rice varieties used commonly in a large number of rice dishes in India are: Dehradun rice, Patna rice, sona masoori, Bengali govindabhog and the evergreen basmati rice (which are long-grained and fragrant). The simple and inexpensive boiled rice makes some of the outstanding rice dishes. Rice powder, rice crispies and flaked rice (poha) are other variations, which are often used as a basic ingredient to prepare a number of other variations! In India, even the rice starch makes a nourishing drink which is often given to small children or older people for gaining weight and for general strength. This rice-starch drink also serves as an inexpensive source of nutrition to the poor.

The South-Indian idlis, dosais, and appams deserve a special mention. These preparations, which were once restricted only to the Southern India, are fast finding their presence in the global palate.

Steamed rice is generally eaten throughout India. The modern ways adopted to cook rice involve the use of pressure cooker, microwave and the rice cooker. But, the age-old method is still practised widely in India, which involves putting the soaked and drained rice into a hundi or a deep vessel of boiling water and boiling this till the rice is cooked. The vessel is then covered with a lid and the water is decanted until the last drop falls off.

Popular rice dishes in India

1. Khichri

Cooked throughout India, khichri is another very popular comfort food. For the basic khichri, just heat some ghee in a pressure cooker and add bay leaves, whole red chillies, whole garam masala, cumin seeds and crushed ginger. Add halved potatoes, few cauliflower florets, peas and diced carrots. Coriander and cumin powders are added for the spicy flavor. Pre-soaked rice and mung dal (yellow mung pulses) are added to this and fried for some time. Extra water, along with tomatoes, green chillies, salt and turmeric powder are added and this is pressure-cooked till a runny consistency is reached.

2. Biryani

The distinctive blend of ingredients in this royal Indian dish makes this unique rice preparation a unique gastronomical experience. Once the royal dish of the Mughal empire, it is now one of the most sought-after rice dishes in Indian restaurants across the world! Although earlier, this was often prepared with game meats such as deer, peacock, quail or goat, the most popular way of cooking biryani is definitely with the best-quality mutton. Vegetarian biryani also exists and is equally popular since India consists of a considerable number of Vegetarians. For more on the royal Indian biryani, click here.

3. Kheer

This is a dessert and is often cooked on auspicious occasions. Rice is slow-cooked with milk, cashew nuts or almonds, raisins and cardamom powder. The sweetener can be sugar or jaggery. This is a heirloom preparation and has even found its mention in the ancient Indian epics. The Kashmiris, however, use rice powder to make a similar rice dessert, which is called phirni. Saffron and rose water are added in some kinds of kheer.

Kheer: a popular Indian dessert

4. Pulav

A must-have in Indian party menu, the pulav or pilaf, is an all-time favourite. The steamed rice (preferably the basmati variety) is fried in ghee, in which whole garam masala, bay leaves, cumin seeds, cashew nuts and raisins are added. Cooked meat, fish, eggs or fried, assorted vegetables are then added to the rice, along with salt.

5. Lemon rice

Generally prepared with boiled rice, this is a rice preparation which can be cooked in a jiffy. The pre-soaked and drained rice is boiled with a bit of turmeric and salt. The extra starch is then drained off. Now, in a wok, a few dried red chillies, mustard seeds and fresh curry leaves are added to hot oil. Roasted channa dal (Bengal gram), fried cashewnuts or peanuts and roasted fenugreek seeds are added in small amounts and the steamed yellow rice is added to the wok and stirred once, taking extra care not to break or mash the rice in the process. The gas is switched off and lemon juice is then added to the rice, along with freshly desiccated coconut.

6. Bise Bele Huli Anna (Hot lentil-tamarind rice)

This rice preparation from Karnataka has a magical blend of flavours. A comfort dish and a one-pot meal, it is now very popular in other parts of India, especially in corporate Mumbai. Cooked with yellow pigeon peas or toovar/tuvar dal, it is a spicy and tangy rice preparation with vegetables, such as peas, carrots, French beans, cauliflower, eggplants, cabbage and sweet potatoes. Tamarind, whole garam masala and ground pulses are the essential ingredients here. Puliogre is another kind of rice with tamarind and is also very popular in Southern India.

Vegetable fried rice

[Whole cinnamon sticks, green cardamoms, black peppercorns and cloves together constitute the whole garam masala.]

Ingredients:

Basmati rice (soaked for 10 min and the water being drained): 2.5 cups

Ghee: 1 tbsp

Oil: 1 tbsp

Bay leaves: 2

Cumin seeds: ½ tsp

Whole cinnamon sticks (1 inch each): 2

Green cardamoms: 2

Black peppercorns: 4

Cloves: 3

Salt (divided): 2 tsp

Raisins: ½ cup

Cashew nuts: ½ cup

Green peas: ¼ cup

Cauliflower florets: 1 cup

Carrots (cut as shown in the picture below): 1 cup

Method:

Heat the oil and fry each of the vegetables separately with a little salt. Then fry the cashew nuts and raisins separately and keep aside. This step has to be done on high heat.

Now head ghee in a wok and add the bay leaves, whole garam masala and cumin seeds. Wait till the cumin seeds turn brownish. Now add the drained rice to the wok and fry for 1 min over medium flame. Add the fried vegetables, cashew nuts and raisins and mix everything together. Add salt to this and fry for another 3 min.

Transfer this rice mixture to a rice cooker and fill it up with water just a little more than that required to just immerse the whole rice mixture. Do not add extra water, otherwise the rice grains would be over-cooked. Adding the right amount of water while cooking the fried rice is a very important step. Adding more water lets the fried rice look like khichri. The perfect fried rice is the one in which each rice grain is separate after cooking.

Fresh Crabs in Hong Kong!

2011-11-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong is the seafood nirvana! As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, it has fascinating seafood markets. If you happen to visit there, you will see an enormous variety of known and unknown fresh seafood: many of them bouncily swimming in the fish tanks! Talking about Hong Kong’s fresh seafood, how can one ignore crabs? Welcome to a virtual tour to the crab section of Tsing Yi wet market in Hong Kong and amuse yourself with the astonishing variety of live crabs here!

Did you ever try crabmeat? Do not back off by the not-so-tempting look of this creature. If you haven’t tried crabs, now is the time. These come in various shades and sizes. Crabmeat is aromatic, sweet and succulent. If you like prawns and lobsters, probably, you are going to love this even more!

The good news is that crabmeat is considered healthy too! Being low in fat and calories, it is a safe option for those trying to reduce weight. It has fairly good omega-3 fatty acid, vitamins, minerals and protein contents. But the best part of eating crab, according to me, is that it has very low mercury content, unlike most other seafood!

While buying crabs from your fishmonger, choose those which are alive and active. Dead crabmeat is avoidable as it lacks the tenderness. Look for soft-shelled blue crabs, which are quite delicious when cooked. Usually, if you ask, the fishmonger will break and clean the crab. But, if you need to do this yourself, this article should help.

Flower crabs

Crabs often shed their hard shells to grow. When they do the same, they increase in size and stay with a soft shell for a few days. Crabs with soft shells are very popular because the meat is tender and the shell is very easy to break!

Live crabs in Hong Kong

I have seen people using even hammers to break open and get the delicious crabmeat! But, not to worry, there are special crab-shacking tools available in the market. Forks, narrow spoons, nut crackers and knives are also commonly used to take out crab meat.

People in Hong Kong love crabs just steamed or in their soups, stir-fries, noodles, fish balls, fish cakes, Japanese Sashimis, baked crabs, and I crab sukiyaki. Another type of crab, called Chinese hairy crab, is very popular here for its roe and is used in Shanghai-style crab preparations. People are so fond of crabs here that the supermarkets even sell imitation crab sticks, which are sticks of fish meat flavoured and textured in such a way that they resemble crabmeat and are obviously much cheaper!

Talking about crabs, Singaporean chilli crab and Indian crab curry are two dishes which you must taste atleast once in your life! Indian crab curries are very popular worldwide. But, did you know that there are so many ways to cook Indian crab curry? Every coastal region in India has its traditional way of making crab curry. The curry discussed here is from East India, which is milder in its spiciness, as compared to the malvani or South-Indian crab curries. The spices in this dish perfectly complement each other and are compatible with the sweet flavour of crabs. I used flower crabs for this recipe. You can go ahead and use any kind of crab you like!

Indian crab curry

Ingredients:

Fresh, big-sized flower crabs: 2

Diced potatoes: 2

Onion paste: ½ cup

Chopped, purple onions: ½ cup

Crushed garlic: 4 tbsp

Turmeric powder: ½ tsp

Tomato puree: ½ cup

Diced tomatoes: ½ cup

Finely chopped coriander leaves: ¼ cup

Mint paste: 1 tbsp

Whole one-inch cinnamon sticks: 2

Green cardamoms: 2

Black peppercorns: 4

Cloves: 4

Bay leaf: 1

Cumin seeds: ¼ tsp

Coriander powder: 1 tsp

Cumin powder: ¾ tsp

Red or green chillies (optional): 4

Vegetable oil: 2.5 tbsp

Salt: 1.5 tsp

Water: 4 cups

First, the crabs are boiled in salt-water mixture

Method:

Clean the crabs (broken into medium-sized pieces) and plunge the pieces into four cups of boiling water with 1 tsp salt. Boil for 20 min. Strain the water (crab stock) and keep the boiled crabs aside. Cover both to prevent the escaping of the delectable “crab” aroma.

Frying onions for Indian crab curry

Heat oil in a pan and add the bay leaf, cumin seeds, whole cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns and cardamoms. When the cumin seeds turn brown, add the onion paste and sauté for 7 min on medium flame. Add the garlic and the chopped onion now and sauté for five more minutes. Sprinkle turmeric powder and ½ tsp salt and mix well. Cover over a slow flame for about 3 min. Open and check if the chopped onions can be broken easily with the ladle. If not, continue to cook by sprinkling a little crab stock and covering for three more min, till the desired softness is reached.

Frying the spices with the cooked and dried onion paste

Add coriander and cumin powders dissolved in 4 tbsp crab stock. Mix well. Continue to fry this mixture till oil separates from this and the mixture turns almost dry. Add potatoes now. Cover the pan and stir from time to time, till the potatoes are almost cooked. This should take around 15 min on a low flame (preferred). Add the mint paste, chillies, tomato puree and chopped tomatoes now. Cover and cook further for five more minutes.

Adding the tomatoes increases in richness and volume in this curry

Add the boiled crabs to this and mix everything well. Cook on a medium flame till the crabs get coated with the curry evenly and the whole thing becomes a little dry.

The final step involves boiling the contents with the crab stock

Now add the whole crab stock and cook on a medium flame, covering the pan. The contents should boil for 15 min. Before serving, add the chopped coriander leaves.

Serve this with rice, roti, paratha or naan.

Carp Paturi

2011-10-30T07:13:00.000-07:00

Banana leaf is much valued in an Indian kitchen. It was used, and is still used in special occasions, as a serving plate for an Indian meal. Banana leaves, like green tea, contain a beneficial polyphenols and a chemical which indirectly helps to cure Parkinson’s disease.

It can incorporate a subtle taste to a dish. Although it is not eaten as such, the delicate flavour it imparts is what really makes a difference. It actually works as a “natural” foil for steaming. Mix your favourite marinade with your favourite vegetable, meat or fish and just wrap it in a banana leaf and steam or roast at both sides for a wonderful leaf-wrapped dish! Here is an authentic Bengali (Indian) "paturi" which you will enjoy! The paturi tastes best with carp (rohu, katla), Indian hilsa, pomfret and red snapper (bhetki). I have used carp here, since it is available easily all over the world. The paturi is cooked on special occasions and is among the most popular Bengali dishes.

Carp Paturi

[Variation: Try using pandan leaves in place of banana leaves for a little change!]

Ingredients:

Readymade fresh carp paste: 2 cups

Unsweetened hung curd: 3 tbsp

Green chillies (add more chillies for the brave-hearted!): 2

Mustard seeds: 2 tbsp

Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp

Salt: ¾ tsp

Mustard oil: 1 tbsp

Banana leaves (cut into half the size of your laptop screen): 6 rectangular sheets

Lightly oiled banana leaves

Method:

Grind the mustard seeds, a pinch of salt and the green chillies into a fine paste. Mix the carp paste, turmeric powder, salt and the curd with this and mix well with your hand, so that all the ingredients are evenly distributed in the fish-paste mixture so obtained.

Dip each banana sheet into warm water for about 2 min. Remove from warm water and pat dry. Apply mustard oil on each leaf on its glazed side evenly and put a dollop of the fish mixture into it.

Wrap it so that it becomes like an envelope, ensuring that no paste is leaking.

Now tie each of the banana leaf parcels with a piece of thread (alternatively, use a toothpick). Heat a non-stick pan and put these parcels on a medium flame. Cover the lid and let this cook for 2 min. Now reduce the flame to minimum and cook each side till the leaves show a change in colour (this takes around 7 min). Flip and repeat the process for seven more minutes.

To eat, open each parcel carefully and discard the leaf. The steamed and spicy fish preparation is ready to tickle your tastebuds. This is best accompanied with steamed rice!

Stove-Top Asparagus Frittata

2011-10-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

My family loves eggs. So I often search for and experiment with different kinds of egg preparations. This is the frittata which I made this Sunday and it was truly delicious! This is the first time I have made frittata myself, although I had tasted a different version of frittata in my sister-in-law’s home.

Frittata is an Italian word, which means “to fry”; originally it applies to any kind of egg preparation cooked in a pan or skillet. The frittata can be regarded as an Italian makeover to the Spanish tortilla (where a very thick egg omlette is cooked, incorporating fried potatoes). It generally has a number of additional ingredients, such as ham or sausage, cheese, vegetables or even pasta! Eggs are beaten heartily till these become frothy for that “extra fluffy” texture. But, unlike a general omlette, where the eggs are beaten first, then cooked until atleast half-set and then additional ingredients are put on this and rolled or flipped over, frittata is cooked with eggs and all other ingredients together. A 10'' non-stick skillet works best for a frittata meant for four people. The end-result is a very thick and fluffy omlette, incorporated with a variety of tempting ingredients, along with herbs!

While serving, frittata can be cut into wedges and served as a part of breakfast, lunch or dinner, along with other accompaniments, such as a variety of breads salads and beans. In Italy, cold frittata wedges are a common food in corporate lunchboxes!

Vegetables such as spinach, mushrooms, peppers, tomato and asparagus make the frittata more colourful and nutritious! Frittatas are first cooked for some time on the stove top until the bottom layer of the egg mixture has set, and then are baked in the oven to solidify this completely and brown the frittata.

This frittata has been cooked till the end on a stove-top and no baking is involved!

Stove-Top Asparagus Frittata

Ingredients:

US large eggs: 8

Onion (chopped finely): ½ cup

Potato (cubed into very small pieces): ½ cup

Crème Fraiche (sour cream): 2 tbsp

Milk: ½ cup

Sugar: ¼ tsp

White pepper powder: ½ tsp

Peas: ½ cup

Fresh baby asparagus spears: 18

White button mushrooms (cut into small pieces): 1.5 cups

Chives: ¼ cup

Colby–Monterey Jack cheese (cut into small cubes): 1 cup

Pork sausage (cut into thin rings): 1 cup

Tomato (chopped finely): 1 cup

Dried rosemary: ½ tsp

Fresh cilantro (chopped finely): 2 tbsp

Salt (divided): 1 tsp

Butter (divided): 2 tbsp

Method:

Heat 1 tbsp butter in a pan and sauté the onion till browned. Then add the potatoes, alongwith ½ tsp salt. After 3 min, add the tomatoes, peas, mushrooms, sausage rings, as well as six asparagus spears (chopped into a few pieces) into this and continue to sauté on a medium flame for five more minutes or until the potatoes are almost cooked. Switch off the gas, add the dried rosemary and mix well.

Blend the crème fraiche and the milk very well in a blender and keep aside. In a bowl, tip in all the eggs, along with ½ tsp salt and beat the eggs vigourously for atleast 15 min, till the mixture becomes creamy and extremely frothy. Slowly add the cooked vegetables, the milk-crème mixture and half the chopped cheese to this beaten egg mixture and mix everything well.

Heat a 10'' non-stick skillet and add 1 tbsp butter, making sure that you coat the melted butter all over the skillet. Now add the egg mixture to this. Top it up with rest of the cheese and chopped cilantro. Cover and cook on a slow heat for 25 minutes. Add the rest of the asparagus spears at the top of the frittata for decoration and cook for one more minute, covered.

[Note: My frittata came out perfectly cooked throughout, so I did not flip it or bake it further. You can, however, bake this for additional 5–10 min, if you wish to brown the top of the frittata. Butter can be replaced with olive oil.]

Festive time for Indians!

2011-10-18T22:24:00.000-07:00

Durga Puja in Hong Kong

This time of the year is full of festivities for Indians! With the Navratras (festival of nine nights, worshipping Goddess Amba) and Durga puja (a Bengali grand festival of five days, in which the Goddess of power, called mother Durga, is worshipped) being just over, we are ready to welcome the biggest festival in India, the Diwali, which is the festival of lights!

Aditya beating the auspicious drum

We Indians like to associate and celebrate the auspiciousness of the festivals with a variety of strictly vegetarian dishes: the dominant one among them being sweets. If you happen to visit India during the Navaratras or Diwali, you will see a huge number of roadside stalls, along with the reputed sweet shops, dedicated to a huge variety of colourful sweets! These are made up of different constituents, such as gram flour, nuts, raisins, saffron, rose water, kewra essence, coconut, jaggery, sugar and of course, a very important ingredient: the milk. Milk is transformed into fine-quality chenna or paneer (cottage cheese) and these are then metamorphosed into a variety of sweets: the kinds differing markedly in their taste, smell and appearance.

This was my first Durga puja in Hong Kong and I was amazed by how the Bengali expats here preserve their culture even in a different country! As I said, an essential part of any Indian festivity is offering sweets to the Goddess and later, sharing this prasad (which means a gracious, edible gift having God’s blessings) among the devotees. But, one cannot find sweets in Hong Kong easily, except a few Indian superstores, keeping only a few varieties.

I was not ready to compromise on the quality of the sweets, so I made up my mind to make these myself. And there I was!

This authentic sweetmeat, originating in eastern India, is considered the purest form of sweet to be offered to the Goddess. Known as kaccha gola or kacha golla, the taste of this sweet is blissful. Each ball is so soft that it will melt in your mouth in a fraction of seconds! Made up of pure milk, it is a nutritious substitute for plain milk, which kids often refuse to drink.

Give this a try and go wild with its variations. I am sure you will like this heavenly dessert from India!

Kaccha gola (sweet cottage cheese balls)

Ingredients:

Fresh, full-cream milk: 2 litres

Lemon juice or vinegar: 4 tbsp

Saffron strands: 8–10

Green cardamom powder: ¼ tsp

Granulated sugar (amount can be varied according to individual preference): 5 tbsp

Fine muslin or cheesecloth

Water: 5 tbsp

Method:

Let us first make the cottage cheese. For this, pour 1 tbsp water in a wok or a kadhai (so that the milk doesn’t stick to the bottom of the wok) and add the milk. Bring it to boil, adding the saffron strands and stirring from time to time. Slowly add 4 tbsp lemon juice mixed with equal amount of water, till the cheese and the whey just start to separate. Switch off the gas immediately to prevent hardening of the cheese.

After around 3 min, pour the chenna (the cottage cheese) and the whey into cheesecloth or a muslin cloth and run cold water on this to arrest further curdling and to wash away the lemony smell. Tie the cloth and squeeze the extra whey. Keep this cloth on a perforated plate or a flat colander. Put a heavy, flat object on this for 20 min, so that there is no extra whey left in the cottage cheese.

After 20 min, open the cloth and remove the saffron-infused cheese on another flat surface. Mash the cheese thoroughly for around 15 min with your palm. Finally, a stage would be reached when there are no lumps in the chenna and it can be turned into a smooth and creamy ball.

The process of kneading makes the dough soft

The secret behind making the kaccha gola is all in its kneading. The better you knead, the better the texture.

The cottage cheese can also be mashed thoroughly using a stone grinder (do not use a food processor for the same). To see how a stone grinder looks like, please refer to the second picture in my post on the Incredible Indian spices (click here to see).

Break the ball once again and add the cardamom powder and the sugar. Knead well once again. The process will take five to seven more minutes.

Divide the dough into equal-sized balls and smoothen the balls with your palms. This is best eaten fresh, since refrigeration makes these hard and dry.

Alu-Phulkopir Torkari (Potato-Cauliflower Curry)

2011-10-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

Indian cuisine is considered among the finest cuisines in the world. The secret behind a great Indian dish is in its somewhat relaxed way of cooking. Decades ago, Indian housewives would be in the kitchen for hours, preparing the “perfectly cooked” curry which would even put the five-star-hotel chefs to shame. So what’s the secret behind the perfectly cooked curry in a simple Indian home? If you are really an ardent lover of Indian cuisine and follow the traditional way of Indian cooking, I would like to tell you that perfect Indian curries are never cooked in a jiffy. In addition, the cooking demands a careful addition of the spices at the right stage: it is the combination and the amount of spices, along with the cooking method used, which is the secret!

Contrary to the popular belief, an Indian curry does not necessarily involve “curry powder”. Indian curries range from non-spicy, mildly spicy to the ones which are extremely spicy. The same set of spices, as I explained in my post on the Incredible spices of India, can be used in varied amounts in the dish to create tastes entirely different from each other.

Consider this East-Indian potato-cauliflower curry as an example. An extremely important step in this curry is to shallow-fry the cauliflower florets and the diced potatoes separately on a low flame till these are browned and soft, yet firm. This is done by sprinkling little water while these are getting fried (to generate steam) and immediately covering the pan or the wok and reducing the flame to low or medium. The fried cauliflower florets and the potato cubes are then checked for being perfectly fried. This is done by breaking one floret and one potato cube separately with a kitchen spoon. If these are fried right, these will break upon pressing lightly with the spoon. If this does not happen, frying is prolonged till the desired consistency is reached.

In most of the Indian curries, the vegetables are perfectly cooked when they are in a stage when they just lose their crunchiness. If you can understand and master this step, your endeavour is successful! I hope you will like this recipe from Kolkata, West Bengal, India, which is Vegan and gluten-free too!

Alu-phulkopir torkari (potato-cauliflower curry)

Ingredients:

Large potatoes: 2

Medium-sized cauliflower: 1

Mustard oil (divided): 4 tbsp

Dry red chilli: 1

Dry bay leaf (tejpatta): 1

Cumin seeds: ½ tsp

Ginger paste: ½ tsp

Coriander powder: 1.5 tsp

Cumin powder: 1.5 tsp

Turmeric powder: ½ tsp

Salt (divided): 1.5 tsp

Sugar: ¼ tsp

Green chilli paste (optional): 1 tsp

Water: for sprinkling

Fresh green/red chillies: 4

Method:

Heat 3.5 tbsp mustard oil in a wok till its smoking point. Now add the cauliflower florets, cut into medium-sized pieces and half the salt. Cover and fry under a medium-low flame, sprinkling some water after 10 min and covering again. After 20 min (or till the time these florets have acquired a brownish tan), lightly press the stem of one of the fried florets with a kitchen spoon. If it breaks, the florets are perfectly fried. If not, continue to fry for some more time. Remove the florets and set aside.

Repeat the same with medium-sized, peeled and cubed potatoes, adding the rest of the salt. Remove and set aside.

Frying the potatoes and cauliflower florets separately is important because these take different amounts of time to be “perfectly fried”. Thus, frying them together will lead to the florets being overcooked.

Add ½ tbsp oil in the same wok and add the red chilli, bay leaf and cumin seeds when the oil is hot. When the bay leaf and the cumin seeds just turn darker, add the ginger paste and the powders dissolved in a little water. The flame should be low at this stage and you have to take extra precaution not to burn this wet-spice mixture. Stir continuously till the spices look fried and you can see oil separating from the spices. Add the fried potatoes and the cauliflower florets and mix everything well. Sprinkle some water and add the sugar. Now sauté under medium-high flame for 10 min, alongwith the chilli paste and whole, green (or red) chillies. The delicious dry curry is ready to be served with steamed rice, chapatti, poori or parathas!

Welcome Fall with Roselle Tea!

2011-10-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

Not only roselle tea (or sorrel tea) is popular in Thailand, but also across Africa, Italy and Egypt. In Latin America and the US, it is popularly known as Agua de Flor de Jamaica. It is believed that the pharaohs of the Egypt were served this tea. In Australia and some other parts of the world, rosella jam and the colourful roselle liquor are very famous.

Roselle: a healthy, floral tea

Roselle is not the same as rose. It is actually obtained from the hibiscus plant. Research has proved that the chemical anthocyanin found in hibiscus (e.g., roselle) reduces cholesterol and hypertension. It acts as a natural diuretic and acts effectively against body’s fluid retention or oedema. High in calcium, niacin, riboflavin and iron, roselle tea is a good alternative against your regular cup of tea. It may also help in preventing bladder infections and kidney and liver problems. Roselle tea relieves constipation and research has now proved that if taken regularly after the meals, a hot cup of roselle tea is very effective to reduce weight.

Be creative with roselle!

If you spot a roselle plant in your place, you can experiment with it in numerous ways:

· The fresh leaves and young stems are used directly in salads.

· Make your own cup of Jamaican-style roselle tea (popular as a traditional Christmas drink), which is made by putting roselle calyces into an earthenware pot with grated ginger, boiling water and sugar, and letting the mixture stand overnight. The resultant liquid is strained and served with a dash of rum, along with a few ice cubes!

· Thickened roselle sauce is found to substitute cranberry sauce effectively. This sauce is made by just boiling the tea longer, so that it acquires a syrupy consistency. This may be added to various desserts and salad dressings for the unique taste and a dash of colour, apart from being used as a sauce for pouring over pancakes, waffles and ice creams.

· Add a little of this tea to your drink for a beautiful colour and a different flavour!

In winters, people prefer a hot cup of roselle tea, but the cold version works its magic with equal effect in summers as well! Dried roselle calyces are generally obtained by letting the fruit dry naturally on the plant and then gently taking out just the calyces, discarding the inner fruit. The taste of the tea is a bit sour, which can be adjusted with a careful addition of sugar for that perfectly balanced sweet-n-sour taste. So when I spotted a jar of dry roselle in one of the supermarkets here, I could not stop myself to try out a healthy brew of roselle tea.

The tea is easy to make. Perhaps, this is the easiest recipe on my blog so far!

Thai roselle tea (makes 4 cups)

Ingredients:

Dried roselle calyces: 10–12

Drinking water: 4.5 cups

Sugar: 5 tsp

Freshly crushed lemongrass (optional): 2 stems

Crushed ginger (optional): ½ tsp

Method:

Add all the ingredients in a pot and boil for 10 min. Strain and serve hot.

On another note, thanks to Quatro for awarding Cosmopolitan Currymania with Cherry on Top Award. Quatro’s blog, Quatro Frommagio and other Disgraces on the Menu, is very interesting and will definitely tickle your tastebuds. I am really honoured, Quatro!

Hong Kong's Dried Fish: Exotic and a Popular Staple!

2011-09-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

[This article was originally published in Zomppa: the International food magazine.]

Cheung Chau is one of Hong Kong’s amazing outlying islands and a fishing village. When we went to Cheung Chau on a casual trip one month back, it led us to an eccentric display of dried fish all over the island: some sold loose, some hanging in a queue and some nicely packed! It was good that we went there, otherwise we couldn’t have known what dried fish means to people in Hong Kong and to what extent it is a part of the local Chinese cuisine! I was astonished by the stupefying variety of dried fishes there, fishes of every shape and size, and truly spectacular in their own right! Surprisingly, these dried fishes were of such good quality that they almost didn’t stink!

The more I know about Hong Kong’s seafood, the more amazed I am! Coming back to my own place in Tsing Yi, New Territories, Hong Kong, I started exploring more about these fishes in dry markets in different parts of Hong Kong, including Tsing Yi. By what I gathered about these, my eyes opened to the versatility of the staple of the orient! Preserving the fishes by drying makes these ready to be used in different kinds of local preparations of dried fish.

Since ages, the Chinese had believed that food should not be wasted! So when fishes are available in plenty, they preserve them by drying the fishes under the sun (mostly using salt and other minerals as well!). When there were no refrigerators, this was the only way to preserve these fishes. In this way, expensive fishes such as abalone, scallops and oysters were stored too!

Now, times have changed and these dried fishes are not restricted to China and Hong Kong, but are found all over the world in Asian stores and supermarkets!

Old Chinese belief about dried fish

The Chinese believe that eating certain foods on auspicious days, such as the Chinese New Year, would bring luck to them. Dried fishes are one of them. The dried oysters and mussels are considered to bring fortune if they are eaten during the Chinese New Year celebrations. The Chinese New Year boosts up the sales manifolds in all the shops selling these products, particularly in Sheung Wan’s popular dried seafood street, having around 220 shops selling these. The heavily crowded street, with loads of different kinds of dry fishes on display on either side, is worth watching during this time of the year! During this time, there is a tradition here to gift dry fishes since these bring in good omen and a spread of delicacies is made using these!

The poor man’s food!

Some dried fishes are very cheap and hence, these make a good substitute to the fresh seafood, which are relatively expensive for those who are poor. A common dry fish preparation using the croaker fish (or other medium- or big-sized dry fishes) is hum nyee, which is usually eaten steamed, with pork hash added for the extra taste. This is eaten with rice and this dish is quite popular in Hong Kong too!

Wherever you see Chinese population (as in Hong Kong), you will surely spot dry fish in the markets: some of them even make their presence in Chinese medicine shops! The commonly seen dried fishes are shrimps (of all sizes), oysters, abalone, starfish, mussels, octopus, anchovies, cuttlefish, croaker, sea slugs, whitebait and squids.

Kinds of dried fish in Hong Kong

Dried squids and cuttlefish

Dried, shredded squids are a popular snack not only in Hong Kong, but are also exported to many parts of the world! The dried, crispy and shredded squids are eaten grilled too! These are imported to Hong Kong from Japan and Korea, where these are taken as a snack, paired with alcohol. Chinese and Japanese mothers like feeding these to their children (microwaved-high till crispy and then eaten with a mayonnaise-soy sauce-cayenne pepper dip) and these high-protein, low-fat snacks are a huge hit even among the young generation in Hong Kong. Dried cuttlefish is another favourite snack here and it has a sweet and spicy taste.

Both dried squids and cuttlefish are also cooked to make authentic dishes with an extra fishy flavour and aroma.

Dried octopus

Dried octopus legs are very expensive and taste like dried squids. These are usually added to soups. For example, these are used as an ingredient in some kinds of long-boiled soups. One popular method of cooking these is a soup with spareribs and lotus root or vegetables such as chayote. Dried octopus tentacles, a popular Japanese snack, are also found in Hong Kong dried fish stores. For nutritional value of dried octopus, click here.

Dried anchovies

High in nutrient content, especially calcium, these make frugal snacks and are used in soups and stews. Did you know that dried anchovies add volume and aroma to the normal fish stock (the bigger ones are always better). This may sound strange to non–South-East Asians, but these really do make an array of delicacies and snacks, rich in nutrients, though one has to be easy with the fishy taste. These make great sambal and Malayasian ikan bilis nasi lemak. The tiny anchovies can also be stir-fried with white sesame seeds and sugar and make a great side-dish for rice. The small, dried ones are also marketed in Hong Kong as an ingredient in various snack blends, such as anchovies with chips, anchovies with roasted nuts and dry squids. Another way of eating these is in a broth of seaweed. The Japanese in Hong Kong use these in a kind of dashi, called niboshi dashi. Simpler still, some just prefer toasting them and having them straight with steamed rice or just adding them to their regular green salad for a crunchy taste!

Dried abalone

According to the ancient Chinese medicine, it is believed that abalone can nourish the Yin and provide strength. People believe that eating abalones can even improve eyesight! These are also effective for the liver, kidneys and eyes. Dried abalones are one of the most sought-after dried seafood and are meaty and chewy: these are cooked in a broth. One has to soak the dry abalone in water for two or three days in refrigerator, before boiling it in water for around 30 minutes. This is then rinsed for a long time and is finally ready to go into the stews.

Fish maw (fish bladder)

As a rule of thumb, the older and more yellow fish maws are better because they have less oil content in them and the texture is retained even when these are cooked for hours. This is the beauty secret of many Chinese ladies, who use them as an anti-ageing super -food since these are rich in collagen! According to traditional Chinese medicine, fish maw improves and restores the function of lungs and kidneys and is good for arthritis since these are believed to moisten the joints.

Dried conch

The bottom part of the conch, used for moving about, is sold dried too and this makes a great ingredient for Chinese soups! This is thought to improve vision. Dried conch is quite cheap as compared to the fresh ones.

Fish floss

Large fishes are sometimes processed into something called the fish floss, which is a part of oriental breakfast, eaten with congee (Chinese rice porridge).

Dried oysters

Often eaten along with dried moss (which in itself does not have a taste), these are auspicious to be eaten or gifted during the Chinese New Year. The preferred dry oysters are the big ones and these come to Hong Kong from Taiwan and Korea.

Dried shrimps

Dried shrimps are available in many shapes, colours and sizes and some have hefty price tags with them. These are used extensively in many stir-fry dishes.

In addition to these, dried scallops (conpoy), dried fish powder, dry fish scales, dried sea cucumbers and dried fish bone powder are also found here.

Relishing the dry and salted fishes

There is a long a list of soups which can be prepared with these unique ingredients. Each kind of dried fish is cooked differently in Chinese cooking. Mostly, dried seafood is soaked in water for some time (some, such as the oysters and mussels, are even soaked for two days!) before adding them to soups or stews. This process of soaking makes them soft and less salty and minimises the cooking process too! Dried fish is added to the traditional congee for a flavour kick, some are eaten in minced pork dishes (pieces of big, dried and salted fish), some are stir-fried with vegetables and some are used in fried rice. In a kind of miso soup, dried sardines and a seaweed called kombu are used. As mentioned earlier, some (such as dried squids) are grilled and eaten as snacks too!

The dried anchovies are prepared in a different way. These are soaked in water for 10 minutes and then drained properly. These can then be stir-fried with fresh chillies and garlic. Some add sugar in the stir-fried anchovies to caramelise them and for adding a different level to the dish. Rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame seeds and fermented black beans can also be added.

Dried oysters are often added into congee, stewed pork, soups and steamed glutinous rice. The bigger fishes like croaker are diced and washed properly, so that the scales, small bones and impurities are gone. These are now fried till the raw smell is gone and then are cooked in different ways. The salty fish can also be steamed over a bed of minced pork, marinated with soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch and rice wine. Salted fish and chicken are quite compatible if these are cooked together and are preferred by many Asians living in Hong Kong.

Every cuisine is unique and Hong Kong cuisine is renowned for its seafood. The list of the dried fishes and the ways to prepare them are endless. Although it requires a little courage and time to develop the taste for such known and unknown kinds of seafood, the good thing is that these are relatively cheap and very nutritious. So, if you are visiting Hong Kong, but haven’t tried dried fish yet, do introduce yourself to some of the authentic oriental dried fish preparations. Experience some “relatively unexplored” culinary seafood pleasures here. If cooked the right way, dried fish is something which is quite unique in itself and a taste that lingers!

Vicki Bensinger of In-Home Culinary Classes and Sobha Shyam of Good Food passed these awards to me. Thank you, ladies!

Stuffed Aubergines in Tangy Tamarind Gravy

2011-09-19T09:03:00.000-07:00

Stuffed aubergines in tangy tamarind gravy

I am so thrilled to tell you about some more awards I received from my bloggy friends recently! The first one came from the beautiful Sabrina who has a great blog called LouLou Sucre and she honoured Cosmopolitan Currymania with The Versatile Blogger award! Although this is not the first time I am receiving this award, still I am happy as a child when someone so lovingly and thoughtfully passes on an award like this to me. Thank you, Sabrina!

The next three awards came from Savitha Raj, who maintains a tempting blog called SavithaRaj’s Spice Land. She passed me The Cutest Blog award, The Circle of Friends award and Kreativ Blogger award. Savitha, thank you so much!

I love aubergines. I am never tired of tasting the multitude of flavours this simple vegetable provides with different permutation and combination of ingredients! In India, this is one of those vegetarian dishes (called bharwan baingan in Hindi) which the home cooks as well as the professional chefs are proud to talk about. For those who didn’t like the taste of aubergines till now, this dish is for them. This makes a great Indian vegetarian party dish too!

An iron skillet is never used to cook dishes which have tamarind (or any sour ingredient) in them because the acid in the tamarind reacts with the iron in the skillet, changing the colour of the food to black. Like biryani, the traditional way to cook this is in a baked-clay-pot. I do not find terracotta pots here in Hong Kong, so I use a good-quality non-stick pan conveniently for this stuffed dish.

Every state of India has its own variation for this recipe. I have also tried out a couple of recipes for an Indian-style stuffed aubergine dish, gathered from different sources and from different parts of India, till I bookmarked this recipe, where I found that the amounts of ingredients going into the stuffing (shown in the recipe here) yield a magical and unforgettable flavour!

If you are a dare-devil foodie, explore this spicy delicacy of South-Indian vegetarian cuisine and feel the celebration of careful assortment of spices in this dish, perfected over generations! Chillies are an essential part of the dish, so please don’t omit them in the recipe. The amounts of the ingredients have been carefully analysed and experimented with. I have cooked this dish without adding the poppy seeds too, but those really provide a further boost to the taste of this stuffed aubergine dish! Since every ingredient plays a significant role in the final flavor of this delicacy, so for best results, please do not omit any ingredient in this recipe.

Stuffed aubergines in tangy tamarind gravy

Ingredients:

Baby aubergines (or eggplants): 10

Onion (finely chopped): ¾ cup

Ginger (grated): 3 tsp

Garlic (crushed): 3 tsp

Cumin seeds: 1 tsp

Coriander seeds: 1tsp

White poppy seeds (optional): 1 tsp

Sesame seeds: 2 tsp

Desiccated and shredded coconut (unsweetened): 2 tsp

Peanuts (dry-roasted with the skin, then cooled and skin removed): 1 tbsp

Red chilli powder: 1.5 tsp

Fresh curry leaves: 10

Dried, whole red chillies: 2

Mustard seeds: ½ tsp

Tamarind (lime-sized) soaked in warm water (6 tbsp) for 20 min and the juice strained

Oil: 4 tbsp

Salt (divided): 1.5 tsp

Sugar: ¼ tsp

Water: ½ cup

Method:

Make a deep slit on each aubergine lengthwise, till the end (do not cut through the aubergines completely). Rub the inside parts with salt. Keep aside for 15 min.

Meanwhile, heat half the oil in a pan and sauté the onion for 5 min. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for five more minutes. Add the coriander and cumin seeds and sauté for 1 min, till fragrant. Add the poppy seeds, sesame seeds and coconut. Sauté continuously, till the mixture is dry.

Let this mixture come to the room temperature. Now, grind this coarsely in a food processor. Mix the peanuts (dry-roasted and de-skinned), sugar, salt and chilli powder to this paste and mix evenly. This is the spicy stuffing for the aubergines.

The stuffing should be coarsely ground

Heat the remaining oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat and wait till the oil starts to smoke. Add the mustard seeds, curry leaves and the whole dry, red chillies (taking care that you don’t burn the curry leaves and the red chillies completely). Add the aubergines one-by-one, so that the slits with the stuffing should not touch the pan. Cover for 10 min (under medium heat).

After 10 min, flip the aubergines carefully with two spoons and cover once again for 10 min. Now add the tamarind paste, the remaining spice paste and water. Cook covered for 10 min. Flipping the aubergines once more, cook for ten more minutes.

These taste heavenly with chapattis, parathas (flatbreads) or rice.

Chicken Curry with Peas and an Award!

2011-09-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

Curry leaves are a celebrity ingredient in India. These are not only extensively used in South-Indian cuisine, but are increasingly getting more and more popular in not only other Indian states, but in other parts of the world.

Even in Western India, such as Mumbai, one can always spot a good amount of fresh curry leaves in the wet market. Since it is widely used in many Indian homes, many homemakers rather consider keeping a curry plant at their home for the sake of convenience. One should always buy fresh curry leaves. Dry curry leaves (which lack their characteristic smell) are also sold commercially in some countries, but are not really worth using in this form in Indian cooking. To keep these fresh longer, the curry leaves are wrapped in paper (non-glazed) and refrigerated.

I am lucky that I have a few Indian stores here who sell fresh curry leaves! I always keep them handy and use them while making dals and curries!

Well, speaking about curries, sometimes, there is nothing as comforting as the chicken curry. When cooked with fresh, green peas and red lentils, the taste and the appearance of the curry improve dramatically. The curry leaves infuse a subtle aroma to the dish, combined with the mildly spicy whole mustard and cumin seeds.

Chicken curry with peas

Ingredients:

Chicken pieces (medium-sized): 8–10
Peas: 100 g
Curry leaves: 15
Mustard seeds: ½ tsp
Cumin seeds: ½ tsp
Asafoetida (hing): 3 pinches
Turmeric powder: ½ tsp
Lime juice: 1 tbsp
Tomato: 1
Boiled split red lentils: ½ cup
Onion (finely chopped): ¾ cup
Garlic (finely crushed): 2 tbsp
Green chilli paste (optional): 1 tsp
Sugar: ¼ tsp
Salt (divided): 1 tsp
Warm water: ½ cup
Oil: 3 tbsp

Method of preparation:

Marinate the chicken with turmeric powder and half the salt for 30 min.

Heat the oil to its smoking point. Add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and curry leaves in that order. Add the onion and sauté for 5 min. Add the finely crushed garlic, asafoetida and green chilli paste now. Continue to sauté for 5 min or until the onion turns brown.

Add the marinated chicken to this. Mix well and cover the lid. Cook for 15 min, stirring occasionally.

Add the peas, boiled lentils and the paste of one tomato to this. Also, add the salt and sugar at this stage.

Add the warm water, mix well and boil the curry for 10 min. Switch off the gas and add the lime juice now.

Serve this with idli, dosa, steamed rice or roti.

On a different note, I would like to thank Veronica of Veronica’s Kitchen to pass on the “Cherry on Top Blog Award” to me. Veronica’s blog is worth visiting and I’m sure you’ll be amazed by her recipes. Do stop by her beautiful blog!

Stove-Grilled Tomato Chutney

2011-09-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

Stove-grilled tomato chutney from Bihar, India

[I would like to thank the International food magazine Zomppa for making me their newest Zomppa and from now on, I’ll be writing for the magazine on a monthly basis. Do visit Zomppa for interesting insights on food and great content!]

India has a huge number and variations of chutneys. These range from sweet, sour, sweet-n-sour to fiery! If you missed my earlier article on Authentic Indian Chutneys, please click here.

The tomato chutney itself is cooked differently in different parts of India. In some parts, such as the West Bengal and the South, ginger is surely added. In Bihar, raw onion and garlic make awesome tomato chutney, in which the tomato is pan-seared or grilled first. So this chutney is also a kind of “bhartha” dish (similar in preparation as the popular baingan-ka-bhartha or aubergine bhartha). The grilling of the tomato is usually done directly on a gas stove over a medium-low flame, rotating the tomato from time to time, so that the skin gets burnt evenly and underneath a juicy, tender tomato awaits the appreciation by your taste buds!

I have learnt through these years that the most reliable way to learning an authentic dish is to learn it from someone who follows that cuisine, rather than following cookbooks for the same. For example, I learnt this Bihar-style chutney recipe from my friend Ritu who stays in Mumbai, but is actually from Bihar. I am so thankful to her for sharing the authentic recipe for this great dish!

This tomato chutney is slightly sour in nature and has a pungent note owing to the addition of raw onions and garlic to it. The chutney is best enjoyed with lots of chillies going into it. It makes a great appetizer, ideal when you are suffering from cold and your tastebuds are craving for something piquant! This chutney is a great kick for the autumn food menu and as you can see, is absolutely fat-free.

Before proceeding to the recipe, I would like to thank Jay of Tasty Appetite for tagging me up for the 7-links game.

Stove-grilled tomato chutney

Ingredients:

Tomato (big-sized): 1

Onion (finely chopped): 1 tsp

Garlic (finely chopped): 1 tsp

Green/red chillies (chopped): 2

Dry red chilli (dry-roasted and powdered): 1

Salt: ¼ tsp

Method of preparation:

Grill the tomato on the gas stove, till the skin is scorched almost uniformly. A medium-low flame is preferable for this.

Once the tomato reaches room temperature, remove and discard the skin completely.

The perfectly stove-grilled tomato!

The tomato can now be mashed with the addition of all other ingredients, except the roasted dry red chilli powder.

This is added just before serving and mixed well with the chutney.

This chutney can be had with steamed rice, poori or chapatti.