Lamb Kheema - My trick to making my hubby happy

Saugar absolutely loves lamb and I used to be a bit wary of it cause I know it takes a long time to cook unlike chicken. And I'd never tried making it. 

But feb last year, the day after he proposed to me, I really wanted to do something special and gave it a try (I also made chicken cause I was scared the lamb wouldnt turn out right! hehe)...but it did! and he loved it! and can't have enough even now (If I send him to the grocery store saying just bring some sort of protein, he will probably return with ground lamb). Anyway here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1lb/0.5 kg ground lamb

1 and a half onions

1 and a half tomatoes

1-2 green chillies

2 tsps ginger-garlic paste

3 tbsp yoghurt

2-3 tbsp grated coconut (i used dried - this is optional, but i really like the extra touch it adds)

a few springs of fresh mint (also optional)

1-2 bay leaves

3 pods cardamom

1 stick cinnamon

3 cloves

1 tsp cumin

Pinch of turmeric

1/2 tsp red chilli powder (or more if you like it spicy)

1 tsp coriander powder

salt

Marinate the ground lamb in yoghurt, half of the ginger-garlic paste, turmeric and a little salt. Mix it well and let it sit for about an hour.

In the pan add a little oil (don't need a lot because the lamb has a fair bit of fat in it) and add the cumin, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves and let them toast a little. Add finely chopped onions and fry till they are translucent to light brown. Add the remaining ginger garlic paste and fry a little more. Add the chopped tomatoes with the chilli powder, coriander powder and salt and let the tomatoes cook down. Once they are well cooked (don't appear like separate pieces - i dont know how else to describe it!), add in the marinated lamb and stir well so the whole thing is mixed. Cover the pan and let it cook for a while (shouldnt be more than 10-12 mins) on medium heat. Take off the cover and let it cook uncovered till the lamb appears completely cooked and a bit more dry. At this point add the grated coconut and cook for 2-3 more mins. At the last minute add the chopped mint and take it off the heat.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do - or rather as much as my darling hubby does! lol

luv

M

Paneer Paranthas

Hey Megha

 

If you really want to make paranthas and also have paneer, what about paneer paranthas?

 

Here's a really quick recipe for it:

 

Make the paneer at home (im going to assume u dont know how and tell u  :p hehe just in case).

 

Bring whole milk to a boil in the pan and then curdle it with natural yoghurt once the curds have seperated from the water pass it through a sieve. 

 

Now put the paneer in a bowl and mix in chopped corriander and a little bit of garam masala and make sure u mix it throuhoughly so there are no huge lumps in the paneer mixture.

 

Parantha Dough:

 

Knead your atta with a tiny pinch of salt and a sprinkling of ajwain if you have iti looked it up on wikipedia and its called oma in telugu hehehe

 

The one thing to note is that your dough should be soft but not sticky or too wet or your paranthas will break. 

 

When you stuff your paranthas the best way to do it is roll out ur dough to almost a small chapati size...put the stuffing and then fully close it and re-roll....dont try and expand the ball and then put stuffing in immediately that's what makes ur paranthas break and also doesnt spread the stuffing evenly.

 

Cook paranthas in oil and serve with dahi, mango chutney and a nice cold glass of LASSI or garam garam chai :)

 

Ok im hungry now.....

 

Neeti try my parantha tip to see if yours come out better...its all in the dough tough...drier than a chapati dough but not as stiff as a poori dough ;)

 

xox

A

Butter Paneer

Ingredients:

Paneer marinade:
~500g Paneer
1tsp Ginger garlic paste
2tsp Tandoori masala (or garam masala if u have that)
1tsp chilli powder
3tbsp yoghurt

Gravy ingredients:
1-2 Onions (sliced finely)
2tbsp tomato paste (this is a must, makes a big difference.. worse case you can just use puree)
1tsp ginger garlic paste
1tsp garam masala
some chilli powder
~500mLs heavy cream. If you need even more gravy, you can add more cream or half n half (to feel better)

Method:
Add all the marinade ingredients together and set aside for about an hour
At the end of an hour, either bake it at 350F/180C for about 30min or just shallow fry in a pan with a bit of butter.

For the gravy, fry the onions with the ginger garlic paste until translucent.
Add salt, chilli & garam masala and continue frying until almost golden.
Add the tomato paste/puree and fry until it doesn smell 'raw' anymore
Finally, add half of the cream and heat through (try not to let it boil)
Add the baked/friend paneer and the rest of the cream. Mix and heat through.

For a finishing touch, if u have it, you could fry a bit of dry methi leaves in a bit of butter n add it at the very end.. Gives a very nice touch of flavour.. Also, if u want, u could also add some almond slices/slivers before adding the cream for a nutty bite..


:)

Microwave self-saucing chocolate pudding

Hey girls.. I just re-discovered this awesome recipe that I used a few times when I was in NZ... it takes like 7 mins in the microwave and produces a yummy as chocolate cake with chocolate sauce on it!!! Very easy and quick dessert :) I've modified the recipe a bit from what I found online:

Microwave Self-saucing Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients (this makes around 4 servings)

Pudding:

• 1 cup self-raising flour (check if this has salt, if it does, omit salt from the recipe)
• 3/4 cup sugar (i like brown sugar better)
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons melted butter (i used unsalted but doesn really matter i guess)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence (i used to add a bit of orange essence when i had it and it gives the yummmmy jaffa taste)
• 1/2 cup milk (if the batter is too hard, u can add a bit more)

Sauce

• 1/2 cup sugar (brown is better again)
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water

Need baking paper (wax paper)
I usually just mix/make this in a large glass bowl/measuring jug.

Directions

1. Mix/sift (actual recipe said sift, i just mixed) flour, cocoa, salt and sugar into a bowl
2. Stir in milk, melted butter and vanilla till mixture is just combined.
3. Combine brown sugar and cocoa and sprinkle it over the batter.
4. Now, very carefully, pour hot water over the batter (best is to run it along the side of the container so it forms a pool on top of the batter) and cover with a sheet of waxed paper. Press the wax paper down onto the water so that it 'sticks' to the water. Its fine to have some paper sticking on the sides of the container too.
   
5. Cook on high for 6 - 7 minutes.

Voila! We had it straight but it tastes amazing with some ice cream :)

Trick to 'phooli-phooli' rotis

This is a VERY special technique for two reasons: Firstly you will get a phooli-phooli (blown up) roti every time if you follow this technique.  Secondly my naani ma taught me this and that is partly the reason I have been very reluctant to tell this to people as it makes me feel like naani ma has passed on a legacy to me. :) But the sisterhood needs to know and this awesome technique needs to be out there! :P

 

So first you have to make sure you bel (spread with the rolling pin) out the roti as evenly as possible. Then make sure the tawa is hot (I ususally use somewhere between medium and high)! Put the roti on the tawa for literally 5 seconds then flip it. If the tawa is the right temperature it would have just lightly browned that side. So once you have flipped it (after 5 seconds).. wait ... till little bubbles start appearing.. the bubbles will be like small bumps uniformly spread around the roti. Once you see them flip it again.. now this side will be completely cooked i.e. roti will be the whitish colour with light brown spots where the bumps had grown. Now you take a clean kitchen cloth and lightly press the roti (I have a dedicated cloth that I keep just for doing this). Once you start pressing you will start to see the roti blow up - almost instantly. Encourage it by lightly pressing the blown up bits so it spreads around. And thats it!! :)... fully cooked.. phooli phooli roti!!

 

PS: no oil needed to cook it... not even while kneading the dough.. just warm water and a little bit of salt while kneading.

 

S

Almond Cookies

I really wanted to bake something on saturday but didn't have any butter in the house and the weather was really bad so couldnt go grocery shopping.

 

So I hunted around for cookie recipes that didn't use butter. I found one, which I modified slightly based on the comments on the recipe that it was too sweet. I also simplified it a little with fewer ingredients. The whole thing took less than half an hour to make so i was pretty excited

 

Ingredients:

1 cup toasted almonds

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup sugar (you can increase this if you like it slightly sweeter)

2 large egg whites

A pinch of salt

 

Grind the almonds with the sugar into a coarse powder. Mix the almonds and sugar into the egg whites along with the flour and salt. The whole thing will be fairly dense. Spoon out individual cookies on to a cookie sheet. I made fairly small ones - so 1 tsp of dough per cookie. I didn't really shape it but you can if you want i guess. Make sure you don't flatten them out. Because there is no baking powder, they won't really rise or spread out.

 

Pre-heat the oven at 325F. Bake the cookies for 15 mins (the bottom of them will be brown and the top will be just golden. Let it cool

 

Have a lovely week!

:)