Chop, Sauté & Shoot

Cooking for the uninitiated

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Curd Rice

I have to admit something here. Until recently, I used to hate on curd rice. It brought back very unpleasant memories from school, of opening my lunchbox and finding a congealed, blob of white mush - the early subconscious seeds of curd rice distaste were sown right there in Chennai. Then I got older and as I started trying new kinds of food - curd and rice was just uncool - basic and bland. Edible if you found the most amazing pickle and chips. However, it could never compete with a plate of steaming hot puliyogare (tamarind rice) as far as south indian food goes. You know what I'm saying ?

But then, I started living by myself and eventually got disgusted at the sight of hotel food. I can cook, yes, but cooking a lavish meal is not always an option, sometimes you want something quick and easy. That's when I really started to appreciate the simplicity and the goodness of curd rice. Granted, it was still kind of boring but that's when I took a cue from the grandmothers of my friends; making curd rice was serious business to them ! These are some of the ingredients that I decided to use.

What you need :

1 cup of rice

200 gms curd

50 ml milk

half a pomegranate

1 finely chopped green chilly

2 dried red chillies

5 gms smashed ginger

15 gms yellow butter

1/2 tbsp mustard seeds

10 curry leaves

finely chopped corrainder - about 5 stalks

How to :

Boil the rice and allow it to cool in the refrigerator, curd rice tastes best when cold.

In a small saucepan, add 1/2 tablespoon of oil and the butter and place it over the stove on medium heat. After this mixture is hot; throw in the mustard seeds, the red chillies and the curry leaves. After the curry leaves bloom, turn off the gas and add the contents to the cooled rice.

Throw in the rest of the ingredients and mix well. As you are doing this smash some of the grains of rice to give the curd rice a smooth creamy texture. Add salt to taste. 

Curd rice is ready !

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Cross section of a burger

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Homestyle Lamb Burgers

Who does not love a great lamb burger ? The mélange of tender meat and cheese is what inspired me to try this recipe, but then...what else ? I wanted to give the burger an Indian twist and the world wide interweb gave me some great ideas. For the patty; I used fresh lamb mince that I seasoned with a mix of indian and western spices. The sauce had a hung yogurt base and i used a saute of onion and mushroom for the topper between the patty and the cheese. Read on for the complete recipe.

What you need :

500 gms minced lamb

6 burger buns

cheese slices

for the seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

15 cloves of garlic

3 chillies

1 teaspoon corriander powder

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

for the topper

6 red onions

30 button mushrooms

thyme for seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

for the sauce

1 bunch of mint

1/2 bunch of coriander

hung curd

How to

Take the minced lamb and mix all the ingredients for the seasoning together by smashing it together with your hands. Make 6 equally sized patties out of the mince and keep it aside.

Coarsely chop the onions and the mushrooms. Take 2 tablespoons of oil and heat it for a couple of minutes. Throw in the onions and saute them on a medium flame until golden brown. Then throw in the mushrooms, salt, pepper, thyme and mix them well; saute for a couple of minutes and then cover the pan and let it cook for 5 minutes. The topper is now ready.

For the sauce - hang curd for a couple of hours; blend the mint and coriander together in a blender and mix all the ingredients together with salt to taste.

Time to fry the patties now; use a flat iron pan and heat a half tablespoon of oil on a medium flame. Fry the patty on each side for 5 minutes or until the patty is evenly browned. Making thin patties helps in this respect because they fry faster.

Saute the buns in some butter (you could use the oil secreted by the patty while frying for some extra delicousness on the bun ;) )

Stack up all of the ingredients together and enjoy a yummy burger !

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Rajma

Memories of Jodhpur and this qunitessentially Punjabi comfort food - today we are going to make a yummy batch of Rajma. Anyone who went to NLU, Jodhpur knows that the most edible thing on the mess menu was Rajma Chawal - since it was consistently average as compared to the other dishes, it quickly became my staple. Rajma is essentially kidney beans, my favorite beans ! These will need to be soaked overnight so there is a bit of prep time involved.

What you need :

Rajma or Kidney Beans (2 cups)

2 large red onions (thinly sliced)

4 large tomatoes (blanched and pureed)

Ginger Garlic Paste

3 Chillies

2 tbsp Jeera

1 tbsp Kasoori Methi

Corrainder leaves

How to : 

I mentioned earlier how the kidney beans need to be soaked, cover them with atleast 6 cups of water in a vessel and leave them overnight. The beans expand to nearly twice their size.

Replace the water in which you soaked the Rajma with fresh water (about 8 cups) and transfer the contents to a pressure cooker. Add a tablespoon of salt and cover the pressure cooker; cook on high flame for about 15 minutes or 10 whistles. The beans should have become extremely soft and must not have a crunch texture, great Rajma melts in your mouth. Drain the water from the Rajma, we will be using it later; set these aside while we work on the masala.

To make the Ginger, garlic and chilly paste, take 12 cloves of garlic an equivalent amount of ginger and the 3 chillies with the ends cut off. Blend them or smash them together to make a coarse paste.

Take 2 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan on medium flame, after a the oil is hot, add one tablespoon of jeera and turmeric and let it bloom. Add the finely sliced onions and fry them until they are golden brown. Then, add the ginger, garlic, chilly paste and saute for a minute until the paste blooms. Finally, add the pureed tomatoes, mix well -  cover and let it cook for 5 minutes before adding the rajma.

After adding the beans to the masala, smash a few of them with your spatula to thicken the gravy a little bit. Now, add the water that you set aside to the gravy to achieve the desired consistency (I added about 4 cups) and stir.

For the final touch, add salt the chopped corrainder and kasuri methi - cover and cook, uncovered, for another 5 minutes. Delicious Rajma is ready !

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Portrait of a kitchen.

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Cheesy Meatballs with Bell Pepper sauce

Meatballs = ultimate comfort food, yaay ! I've drawn inspiration from two great cooks here - my favorite aunt in Dharwad and the inimitable Jamie Oliver and his rustic cooking techniques. There is an earlier post  on how my aunt made hers and  this is how Jamie rolls ! I have taken bits and pieces from both and tried to come up with my own little recipe. We're talking about Lamb Meatballs here, so I'm using mince mutton or Kheema.

What you need

for the meatballs

Mutton Mince about 350 grams (preferably meat from the leg)

5 medium Red Onions

2 Bell Peppers

Ginger about 10 gms

about 15 dried red chillies

About 50-100 gms Cheese

Bread Crumbs for binding

for the sauce

8 Tomatoes

1 Bell Pepper

15 cloves of Garlic

Spices and salt to taste

12 dried red chillies

How To

Start by chopping the onions coarsely and roasting them on a medium flame for about 10 minutes or until they start getting browned. Repeat the same with the Bell Peppers (about 5 minutes) and the dried red chillies (5 minutes). Throw all these in the blender together with the ginger and the and blend them together coarsely.

Take this mix out of the blender and smash it together with bread crumbs from about 7 slices of bread (cut off the edges of the bread first), salt and the minced meat. Now comes the fun part, making the meatballs ! While doing this, keep your grated cheese handy (or lumps in case you are using mozzarella) Make ping pong ball sized meatballs and make a hollow in the meatball, 

stuff the hollow with cheese and then cover it up again, oh yeah ! 

Now, the meatballs need to be shallow fried  until they are browned uniformly. I added an extra coating of oats to the meatballs before frying them, to prevent them getting stuck to the pan.

For the sauce, Blanch and puree the tomatoes (all 8 of them) in a blender and keep aside. Chop up the remaining bell pepper finely, heat some oil in a saucepan over a medium flame and sauté the pepper for a couple of minutes and add the dried red chillies, sauté for a couple more minutes. Add the garlic and the spices, sauté for a minute until they bloom. Now, transfer the tomato puree into the saucepan - cover and let it cook on low flame for about 10 minutes. Now, cover and cook the meatballs in the sauce for another 10 minutes on a low flame.

Note :

Considering the amount of chillies and Peppers that have gone into this dish you might think of these as fiery meatballs but let me assure that they were only medium spicy. The mince meat really absorbs the spice in the meatball and the tomato does a good job soaking up the spice in the sauce. So, don't be afraid !

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Mashed Potatoes with Bacon, Salami and Cheddar

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Mashed Potatoes with Bacon, Salami and Cheddar

I wanted to cook some wholesome comfort food while my sister was in town and I've been wanting to try mashed potatoes for a while. It seemed like one of those dishes where if you did the simple things well; it would yield delicious results.

I know mashed potatoes are more of an accompaniment and we did make main course as well. However, the bacon, salami and cheddar kinda ensured that it didn't just get relegated to the status of a lowly side.

Making the dish was a meticulous exercise; peeling the potatoes ensuring they boil to just the right amount and then, mashing them of course ! The calorie count on this dish (the way I made it) was on the higher side but a delicious and healthy version is totally doable. 

What you need

3 large Potatoes

10 strips of Bacon

10 slices of salami

50 gms of Cheddar

Fresh cream (quantity depends on how decadent you want the dish, I added about 25 gms)

25 gms. of butter

1 cup of milk

Spices (I used Cayenne Pepper and Oregano)

Salt to taste

How to 

Peel the potatoes, after throughly washing them cut them into 1" pieces and boil them until you can easily pierce them with a fork. While adding the old water for boiling, ensure that it covers the potato slices completely.

Fry the slices of bacon and crumble them up into little bits. Do the same with the salami (shallow fry the salami in a bit of oil until it shrinks to about half its size.)

In a large saucepan, add the butter and milk and heat until the butter has melted. Now add the soft boiled potatoes and proceed to mash them in the saucepan with a fork (if you get them soft enough this mashing should be easy) Add the cream and grated cheese as you mash the potatoes. Now throw 3/4ths of the bacon and salami into this mix. Add the spices and salt to taste.

Take a buttered baking dish and put the mixture into it. After leveling out the top add some more grated cheese and sprinkle the rest of the bacon and salami. 

Bake this for about 40 minutes at 180 degrees in a convection microwave oven or until the dish comes out golden in color and the cheese on top has melted completely.

Notes

Honestly, the hardest part of this dish was peeling those damn potatoes, so I did a bit of research to make it easier for you guys and found a pro-tip that will totally make that job so much easier. it's only a 90 second video and it will save you so much effort so please watch this .

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Burrrpp !!

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The Ugadi Feast

I recently spent a couple of weeks documenting life in a tiny ancestral temple in Savanur, Karnataka - about 350 kms from Bangalore. One of the days I spent there was Ugadi, the Kannada new year. On this day, hundreds of devotees come to the temple and are treated to a holy lunch. I wanted to share a few images of the kitchen when this feast was being prepared. 

Soan papdi is a crisp and flaky Indian sweet, I'd reckon that tray was about 4 and a half feet long - enough to feed about 500 people you think ?

Mandige is a wheat based sweet that is served at festivals in Karnataka. It is served with powdered sugar, ghee and milk. How they even picked up that pile when it came time to serve is beyond me.

The head chef of the occasion bathed in sunlight from the large sky windows in the kitchen.

Fairly expansive menu that, and what a delicious meal it was :)

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Mangalore Chicken Curry

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Mangalore Chicken Curry

This post is special for a couple of reasons.

First, because this curry is one that I have grown up eating at home as far back into my childhood as I can remember. It used to be a weekly special and I would so look forward to the day I would get home to find the characteristic smell of roasted onions and chillies wafting around in our home. There was a minor difference however, instead of chicken, mother dearest would poach a couple of eggs in the curry after it was done - über deliciousness. 

Second, because this is the first post that I've done outside of my own kitchen. I was cooking at my friends V and K's place, before I even get to the recipe,  I want to share a few images from their beautiful home taken on many different fun occasions.

This is them all dressed up, just about to hit the club ! K is fretting over that little spot on her shoe, I think.

And, we had a very special little hyperactive guy keen to sample our efforts. Sorry that Peanut had to make do with pedigree and yogurt.

What you need :

Chicken (600 gms)

4 medium sized onions

half a fresh coconut

10 dried red chillies

12 cloves of garlic and an equivalent amount of ginger

Corriander and Curry leaves

Salt to taste

Simple ingredients, no masalas or spices here.

How to :

Start by breaking the coconut, setting the water aside and grating half of it. Coarsely chop 3 of the onions and cut the tips of the chillies preserving the seeds.

All these ingredients now have to be roasted separately. The coconut and onions for about 10 minutes respectively and the chillies for about 5 minutes. You could also roast the garlic for a couple of minutes to really bring out their flavor.

Throw all these ingredients along with the ginger together in the blender and add a cup of the coconut water (that you had set aside earlier) to blend it into a smooth and fine paste. Your marinade is now ready. After cleaning the chicken thoroughly, dunk the pieces into this paste and put it in the fridge in an air-tight container for a minimum of an hour.

Now, chop the remaining onion into fine slices and sauté it in 4 tablespoons of oil in a pressure cooker until they are browned. Now, add the curry leaves and sauté for a minutes until they bloom.Transfer the marinated chicken into the pressure cooker, add a few sprigs of corriander, squeeze a few drops of lemon, salt to taste and give it a good stir. Let the chicken cook for 4 whistles

and voilà ! Lunch is served...

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Bacon and Egg Avocado bake

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Bacon and Egg Avocado bake

Yesterday was one of the most awesome breakfasts I've had, straight up. I wanted to try this recipe not only because it contains 3 delicious ingredients but is such a wholesome mix of nutrition and textures - the healthy creamy avocado, protein rich fluffy eggs and delicious crunchy bacon, now tell me if that does not sound like a party in your mouth.

What you need

1 ripe avocado

4 strips of bacon

2 eggs

salt and pepper to taste

How to

Cut the avocado in half, vertically and remove the pit.

The goal is to fit a whole egg into each half. If you think there is not enough space, use a spoon and scoop out a bit of the avocado to make room for the egg.

Break the eggs in a different bowl and carefully put in the yolks first without puncturing them, the whites go in after. Season the top of the eggs with salt and pepper.

Now for the baking, i put in the egg filled avocados and the bacon in together in the same baking dish.

I set my convection microwave on bake mode, set the temperature at a 170 degrees. The eggs took about 45 minutes to bake completely and the bacon took about 5 minutes longer.

Coarsely chop the bacon and sprinkle on top of the eggs and serve with crunchy toast.

Notes

While picking the avocado, make sure it has a little give when you press it, if it feels soft and squishy that means the fruit is too ripe.

To see the difference between fried and baked bacon, i tried making 2 strips each, both ways. The baked results were so much better ! The strips were nice and straight and it had this smoky flavor that was to die for. The fired strips curled up and did not nearly taste as good. It's a time consuming process but baking your bacon is totally worth it when you have time on your hands.

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Nuff said.

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Basil, Tomato and Shrimp Pasta

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Basil, Tomato and Shrimp Pasta

What you need (serves2)

2 cup Basil leaves

4 tomatoes

300 gms Shrimp

1/2 orange

Lime juice

2 cups of Pasta ( about 150 gms)

Rosemary seasoning

Black Peppercorns

Paprika

Salt to taste

12 cloves of garlic

15 cherry tomatoes

6 tablespoons olive oil

A few sprigs of Parsley

How to

Start by cleaning the shrimp and removing the tails. Squeeze the orange juice into the cleaned shrimp and add a few drops of lime juice. Crush the rosemary, peppercorns and paprika together (this will be referred to as the seasoning henceforth) 

add to the marinade along with salt. Cover the container and let it marinate in the refrigerator for an hour (the longer you marinate, the better)

Once you're done with the marination, take about 4 tablespoons of olive oil and fry the shrimp on each side for about 3 minutes or until it is opaque and the color on the crustaceans is as below. 

Season with parsley and set the shrimp aside. Keep the pan and its contents aside as we will use this oil later.

The 4 tomatoes need to be blanched (we used the same method to make Shakshuka). After removing the skin, puree one tomato in the blender. Mash the other 3 coarsely. Keep aside.

Bring about 3 liters of water to a boil and add some of the seasoning, a tablespoonful of olive oil and the salt. Throw in the pasta and reduce the flame to medium, after about 4 minutes keep checking the pasta to determine when you want it to stop boiling.You could go the traditional italian way i.e. al dente (slightly chewy with a very small white dot at the core) or cook it just a bit longer so that the pasta is softer. Here's a quick youtube tutorial if that wasn't clear.

Once the pasta is ready, let it cool. Take the pan in which you fried the shrimp and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to it. Add the coarsely cut garlic and the seasoning and let the spices bloom on a low flame for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato pulp and puree, heat for about 15-20 minutes on a medium flame until the mixture reaches a saucy consistency. Cut the cherry tomatoes into halves

 and to the sauce, heat for another couple of minutes. Give the sauce a sanity check, if it tastes too sour add a spoonful of sugar and don't forget to season the sauce with salt !

Bring all the ingredients (the pasta, shrimp and sauce) together in a mixing bowl. Wash and coarsely cut the basil leaves and throw that into the mixing bowl. Toss the ingredients together and your pasta is ready.

Notes

In order to keep the pasta piping hot, you could schedule the boiling closer to the sauce getting completed.