EASY PEESY HUNG CURD DIP

Guest Post by Vrinda Singh Oberoi!

Dip Week - Part Deux.

For your entertainment the Urban Dictionary definition of Deux (this has nothing to do with food) :

"A superfacial, unnecessary, or overly bad sequel to a classic film. Usually the second film in the series though not always. Adding the phrase to a movies title is similar to adding the "electric boogaloo." Derived from the intentionally superfacial sequel, "Hot Shots! Part Deux." Examples include: "The Exorcist II," "Caddyshack 2," "Batman and Robin," "The Godfather Part III," etc. Person 1: "Hey man, did you see "Step Up 2 The Streets?" last night?" Person 2: "What? You mean "Step Up, Part Deux?""   How I love Urban Dictionary.   Now back to food - this is a yummy, healthy and nearly fat free dip that will balance out your guilt for porking out on another pack of chips.   You’ll need: 4-5 Cloves of Garlic - Grated Finely 1 kg Curd – Hung in a muslin cloth for 2-3 Hours so all the water is drained Handful Coriander Leaves – Finely Chopped 2-3 Green Chillies – Finely Chopped Salt – To taste Black Pepper – To taste How to: 1. Once the curd has drained almost all the water and is a paste stir the curd vigorously. 2. Add garlic, green chillies and coriander leaves and keep folding the curd to make the curd dip light and fluffy. 3. Add salt and pepper to taste. 4. Serve cold with chips or freshly cut cucumber carrots and radish.

CREAMY CAULIFLOWER DIP

"A cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education" - Mark Twain

It's dip week at the Reluctant Chef! As you line up your winter parties, we're going to help you out with a week's worth of simple, (relatively) healthy dip recipes and make your life a little easier!

What you’ll need:

1 head of cauliflower

2 tbsp garlic

3 tbsp butter

½ tsp red chilli powder

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

How to:

1. Chop up the cauliflower into florets. Dunk in a pan of water and cook till tender to a fork. Drain.

2. In another pan, heat 3 tbsp butter. Add garlic and stir till it browns a little. Add the cauliflower and stir till the cauliflower colours up nicely.

3. Puree the cooked cauliflower in a mixer with the seasoning. Adjust seasoning. Serve.

Note: Add some milk into the mixer if you want the paste thinner.

CHICKEN IN TOMATO GRAVY

“Anti-American protesters set a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on fire. The protesters mistakenly thought they were attacking high-ranking U.S. military official Colonel Sanders.” - God only knows where I found this

Yeah yeah I lurrrvvve to cook. That's why I have a cooking blog. But everyone has days they would rather not. For such days here's a ridiculously easy Indian gravy chicken recipe that allows you to spend less time slaving in the kitchen and more time doing whatever it is you want to be doing.

Unless you're going to use the extra time to troll on facebook. If that's what you're going to do with the precious moments this recipe will save you - go back and pick a more complicated recipe. You deserve to be in the kitchen.

Another joy this recipe affords? Almost zero oil.

What you’ll need:

1 kg chicken (cut into pieces and at the risk of stating the obvious – cleaned REALLY WELL)

4 – 5 tomatoes (chopped into pieces and then popped into a mixer till well pureed)

1 tbsp oil

2 onions (grated or ground into mush)

2 tsp cumin (jeera) powder

2 tsp coriander (dhania) powder

2 tsp kasoori methi (powdered fennel)

2 tsp garam masala powder

2 tsp chicken/meat masala (totally optional)

Salt to taste

How to:

1. Take your chicken pieces and knead in cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala and some salt. Cover with foil and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Note: I know most recipes don’t ask but always marinate chicken. It’s just better that way. Also follow the example of a not particularly wise man who said “once I’ve marinated a chicken – it really knows it’s been marinated.”Go ahead. Don’t be shy. Really beat the spice into that chicken, you won’t regret it.

2. Heat oil in heavy bottomed pan and pour in your ground onion mush. Stir till golden-y.

Note: I’d never grated onion before and I have to say it’s odd. The onion turns into really fine, really liquid-y white something or the other. I can’t describe it.

3. Add your chicken – stir for not more than 5 minutes.

Note: The chicken will release its own oil but keep moving it around to make sure you don’t burn the bottom.

4. Add tomato puree, stir well and let cook for 15 minutes. Add kasoori methi.  

5. Let the chicken come to a boil and then let simmer for a bit. Taste to see if it’s fine. Add/adjust salt or spice if needed.  

6. Serve with chopped coriander leaves.

 

 

GREEN BIRYANI

Guest Post by Vrinda Singh Oberoi!

 

It’s Bakr-eid and the Navratras have just gotten over! For everyone craving meat this is one of the simplest Biryani recipes that has EVER existed. Though the origin of this is slightly disputed, my father claims it’s from Hyderabad, but I’ve lived in Hyderabad for 5 years and have never seen anything like this there.

Wherever it may be from, it’s divine.

 

What You’ll Need:

1 Kg Mutton (I prefer it to be on the bone but even boneless works just fine)

250 gms / 2.5 Cups of Basmati rice

100 gms Garlic

100 gms Ginger

250 gms Coriander Leaves

150 gms Mint Leaves

Juice of 2 Lemons

25gms Green Chillies

150 ml Cooking oil (Use Ghee if you’re feeling indulgent)

Salt to taste

Black Pepper to taste

How to:

1. Soak the rice in water for 3 hours.

2. Blend the ginger and garlic with ½ (half) a cup of water and strain the liquid through a muslin cloth to remove all fiber. You’ll be left with clear ginger and garlic water.

3. Blend the coriander and mint leaves with the ginger and garlic water.

4. Heat oil in a wok; Add the ginger garlic water, coriander and mint paste and salt to taste.

5. Fry the masala till the oil comes to the surface, (this usually takes 15 to 20 minutes) and add the mutton. Toss the mutton in the masala for 5 -7 minutes so it colours and then transfer the contents of the wok to a pressure cooker.

6. Add half a cup of water to the pressure cooker and pressure cook the meat for about 15 – 17 minutes.

7. Once the mutton is done drain the liquid from the mutton and measure. You should have roughly 2 cups of stock.

8. Add rice, lemon juice and another 3 cups of water to the pressure cooker. Stir and cook (not pressure cook!).

Note: Make sure you have about 5 cups of liquid sloshing around in there.

9. Add salt and pepper to taste and cook till done.

Serve hot with yoghurt on the side.

 

 

ALMOND KHEER

"I want to eat your skin like a whole almond" - Pablo Neruda

Since it is Durga Puja I thought an Indian dessert would make for an appropriate post and this kheer recipe is perfect. The ingredients are easy to find, the recipe is simple (though you will need upper arm strength, I will explain later) and almost impossible to fup up! My favourite kind of recipe!

Getting back to the upper arm strength, so if you read the recipe you see there's a point where I tell you to stir the milk till it thickens. This means you will keep stirring the milk (on a medium low flame) till you reach a a point where you're sure nothing is happening and the whole recipe is a cruel lie and you're going to be left with 2 litres of cardamom flavoured milk. Don't lose heart. It WILL (eventually) get thicker. And then you'll feel like you can do magic. Maybe not so much but you will feel proud (and your arms will be tighter).

What you’ll need:

30 – 35 almonds

2 litres milk (the more fat the milk has – the less effort you will expend trying to get it to thicken)

½ cup sugar

5- 7 green cardamom pods

Handful of raisins and pistachios

10 strands of saffron (optional)

How to:

1. Soak the almonds in hot water for 30 minutes and peel their skins off. Add some water and grind to a paste.

2. Soak strands of saffron in a couple of tablespoons of water.

3. Crush the cardamom pods and keep aside.

4. Pour your milk, crushed cardamom, sugar and almond paste into a heavy bottomed pan and boil. After one boil reduce the flame and let it simmer till the milk thickens. Try to keep stirring the mix.
 

Note: This whole milk thickening business is fascinating – it took me 35 minutes of stirring because I didn’t realize I was working with some kind of fancy zero fat super skim milk. Even if you are one of those people who drinks this kind of milk go buy full fat milk for the kheer. Or stir for 35 minutes. Your choice.

This is also a good time to check for sweetness – if you want more sugar, add it before you put in the saffron and stir till the sugar dissolves.

5. Add saffron strands and raisins. Cook for a further 2 minutes and take off the heat.

Note: If the kheer feels too thick add some milk to water it back down to the consistency you want.

6. Serve with chopped almond and pistachios. You can serve this hot or cold.

Note: I’m not too sure what it’s like chilled because in my house it was over before it had a chance to cool.

 

 

 

THE PERFECT CHEESE PLATTER

In advance of party season, here's a great post from Elsie + Emma's beautiful blog on how to put together the perfect cheese platter! If you don't intend to start putting together cheese platters you might enjoy their gorgeous photographs and other diy projects.

APPLE CORNFLAKE CUPS

“You don't get mood swings from eating cornflakes”  ― O.J. Simpson, If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer

This dessert is so easy it's funny. No seriously, half way through putting it together I was giggling to myself.

It's a wonderful combination of taste, crunch and resourceful ingredient matching. Shouldn't (I will go so far as to say CAN'T) take you more than 15 minutes to put together. By dessert standards this is pretty much as low calorie as it's going to get without lying to yourself.

Sometimes I find a recipe I want to hit you on the head with and force you to make. This is one of those.

Serves about 6

Adapted from Good Food Magazine

 

 

What you’ll need:

4 apples

1 cup corn flakes

4 tbsp butter

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 carton fresh cream (200 ml)

2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

3 tbsp honey

How to:

1. Peel and then chop the apples into 1 inch cubes.

2. Put the apple, sugar and a little bit of water in a pan and heat. Cook for about 10 minutes till the apple is soft and cooked. Divide this up between 4 bowls.

3. Pop the honey and butter in a bowl. Heat till the butter is melted. Mix.

4. Tumble the cornflakes into the honey butter mix and toss till all the cornflakes are coated.

Note: Do this right before you’re going to serve the dessert to make sure your cornflakes don’t get soggy.

5. In a separate bowl whip the cream and cinnamon till the cream is a little stiff. Store in fridge till assembling the dessert.

Note: You can skip the cinnamon but I can’t bring myself to make an apple dessert without cinnamon in it. Some flavours are meant to be together.

6. For assembly take the tumblers with the apple chunks. Pour cinnamon cream. Top with honey butter cornflakes.

 



The return of Hungry Brother =)

 

CUCUMBER AND MINT SALAD

“I have a problem. I wouldn’t say I’m in a pickle. More like a vinegarized cucumber.”

― Jarod Kintz, At even one penny, this book would be overpriced. In fact, free is too expensive, because you'd still waste time by reading it.

It's going to be festival season AND wedding season soon. This simple salad is perfect for giving your tummy a break from the avalanche of junk coming its way. Make it. Eat it. You can thank me later.

What you’ll need:

2 cucumbers

1 small onion
¼ cup chopped mint

For the dressing:

3 tbsp white vinegar
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
¼ - ½ tbsp pepper (depending on how much spice you like)
1 tsp sugar

How to:

1. Cut cucumbers in thirds and use a corer to take out the seeds or cut them lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Cut into slices. Toss with salt and pop in the fridge for 30 minutes.

2. Soak onion in ice water for 10 minutes – this will make the stinky, eyes watering burn of the onion go away.

3. In a bowl mix together the dressing ingredients.

4. In your salad bowl, throw in the cucumber, mint and onion and toss.

 

Note: Some people have fancy tossing spoons and strange salad tossers but your hands will work just fine - just make sure to wash them first.

5. Pour on dressing. Mix well again.

 

6. Refrigerate for 20 minutes before serving.

 

RESTAURANT REVIEW: DZUKOU - THE TRIBAL KITCHEN

For a gorgeous afternoon

Dzukou – the Tribal Kitchen is a happy new addition to the crowded lanes of Hauz Khas Village. Perched way up high on the rooftop of the building next to Elma’s they’re serving up north eastern food with a lot of love.



The view from the rooftop at Dzukou

 

Looks like

The food at Dzukou was amazing but what really recommends the restaurant is the view!

The restaurant has a lower floor (with a very pretty balcony) and a sweet roof top –dressed up with warm bamboo furniture. The owners have demonstrated immense good sense by keeping the inside simple and opening up the restaurant to all the breezy green around.

Make the effort to climb an extra flight of stairs to the roof and space out over an incredible view of the lake.

Sticky Rice, Chicken and Pork Curry

Tastes like

Dzukou has a simple, honest menu (only 2 pages long) which sets out a small but delicious sounding list of starters, curries, chutneys and rice. We had the Smoked Pork Curry, which was excellent; Chicken with Anishi which is a peppery flavoured paste made of smoked yam leaves with Naga Sticky Rice. I can’t wait to go back with more of an appetite to try out some more of the menu.

The food here can get pretty spicy so if you’re scared you might want to check with the waiter on spice control.

Feels like

The service was very warm and friendly (without being annoyingly intrusive), a welcome change from the hyper enthusiastic or stoned/ bored service I usually struggle with at HKV.

More reading

I loved this article by the Delhiwalla on chef Aren Sanglir (part owner) talking about her growing up in Nagaland and the influence it has on her cooking:

 

http://www.thedelhiwalla.com/2012/07/04/city-food-julia-child-makes-esu-in-hauz-khas-village/

 

 

The rooftop and the ground floor





The view from their balcony

LEKHA'S BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

Writing a food blog didn't turn out to be as glamourous as I initially imagined it would be. Actually if there is one lesson I've learnt in life it is nothing is as glamourous as I initially imagined it would be. So instead of breezing through champagne lunches where I sample caviar I spend most of my spare time trolling for recipes on the internet. Every day I read many,many recipes which span from so simple as to be ridiculous (hot chocolate = melt chocolate and add milk) to the completely absurd (make chips out of carrots - I tried it doesn't work. Don't bother with eggplant either).

I'm not complaining but it's wonderful sometimes to have a friend forward a recipe! This way I know it works and I get to write about friends which is always happy!

Thanks so much for sending me this recipe Lekha! Also everyone please go check out the amazing writing Lekha and Danish have been putting up at http://reviewerswithoutborders.blogspot.in/. (The whole mosaic format is so sexy by the way - you must tell me how you do that)...

Find below the wonderful Srilekha Sridhar's breakfast of champions - the way I made mine looks like crud but it tastes amazing and is so simple that you have no excuse not to try it..

 

I've dripped more jam on top of mine but I understand normal humans don't consume so much sugar

What you'll need:

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 slices bread

Sandwich filling (cream cheese, jam, whatever)

1 tbsp milk

Pinch of salt

Lemon juice

Butter

Lekha:

I love breakfast foods for dinner, so I thought you might enjoy my favourite dinnerfast recipe: it's basically a french toast, but you toast a whole sandwich instead of a single slice. I don't know how popular this is, I discovered it on a Nigella website. Her version was all fancied up with berry compote marinaded in balsamic vinegar and emu feathers and whatnot, mine's a little more lowbrow:

 

1. Grab two slices of stale bread and slather them in peanut butter, cream cheese, normal cheese spread, marmalade or literally any sandwich filling and make a sandwich.

 

You can cut off the crust, but I don't because I love how french toasted crust tastes!

 

2. Whisk an egg, 1 tbsp milk, half tsp vanilla essence and a pinch of salt together. If you are using a "salty" filling like peanut butter or cream cheese, you can afford to add a bit of sugar to your egg mixture but skip that if you are going with a sweet filling.

 

Otherwise it can get cloyingly sweet!

 

3. Soak both sides of the sandwich in the egg and allow it to soak in the eggy goodness for about 15 seconds per side.

 

4. Cook in butter on a skillet till golden brown.

 

BAM it's done! All under 15 minutes and that's if you're slow!

 

Pro-tip: A squeeze of lemon juice on french toast does miraculous things!

 

TOMATO RICE

"Love is a tomato. And while it's true that I can live without a tomato, I could sure go for some ketchup." — Jarod Kintz (This Book is Not for Sale)

As a child I was never much of a rice eater though I grew up in Andhra Pradesh, a state with wonderful people known for many things (one of which does not include their roti making ability). But by the time I started cooking I was in Bombay and dinner was something I put together after a whole day of corporate law and the effort of rolling out a roti seemed like too much. Not that I didn't try. I did. My flatmate still falls over laughing when we reminisce about my struggle to roll the dough into a shape vaguely circular. After a while we stopped trying and any guests to our apartment knew to expect rice. When we got bored of plain, steamed rice we started pairing the rice with vegetables and meats and realized how easy life could be. We never used that belan again. Seeing this recipe in Good Food magazine made me so nostalgic I had to try it.

What you’ll need:

1 cup rice

3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion (thinly sliced)
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tsp peppercorns
1 tbsp cumin (jeera)
1-3 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
½ cup peas
1 cup chopped tomato
¼ cup tomato puree
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped coriander to garnish

How to:

1. Soak rice in cold water for at least 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. In a heavy bottom pan, heat vegetable oil and add onion, garlic, cinnamon, cloves and cumin. Stir till onions start to colour.

3. When your onions have softened and turned golden add tomatoes, tomato puree and rice. Stir for a few minutes.

4. Add just about 2 cups of boiling water, salt and pepper. Bring the pot to a boil, then lower the flame and cover the pan. Add peas. Let cook for about 10 minutes.

5. Check if the rice is done – if not let it simmer some more till completely cooked. 

 

6. Serve with chopped coriander on top.