A comeback, with Mutton Tahari

I feel like mouthing an aging bollywood actress, "comeback? What comeback? I ‘ve been here all along." But the facts are clear, the ‘latest post’ is dated April 2013, and an embarrassingly poor frequency of posts, this is definitely a hiatus.

The apologies
Dear Blog,
You've been in my thoughts for months and probably years, thought of you when I traveled to a fascinating place, ate a memorable meal, cooked a half decent dish. In the pictures I’ve clicked, in the notes I made, in the thoughts in my head, the experiences I’ve had, lie a lot of unfinished stories, some written and some unwritten. You, my blog, hold a special place in my heart to say the least, but like many a well-placed intention, this one failed to translate into a well-run, well updated place. Sorry.
Love (really)
Wajiha

The promises
I don’t promise to not go missing in action once again or lose steam to pen (in this case type) my thoughts, but what I do promise is to keep the passion for all things food up and running, no matter what, because that’s what brings me back to this place again and again. I also hope to include travel and, for the lack of a better word, lifestyle content onto this blog. So here’s to the person from Poland who probably uses a linux OS to browse my blog (courtesy blogger stats), I love you and I will try not to disappoint you.

The proof
Writing a comeback post on a food blog with no recipe is like saying, “I’ll be back soon”, only to disappear from the back door.
So here goes my recipe for Tahari, a hyderabadi dish that ranks way high up in my list of comfort food. It’s like biryani but not as grand, it’s like pulao but way wholesome. The bonus is that it is a one pot dish that can be eaten with just a side of yogurt raita. I’ve eaten quite a few versions of tahari, but this one is my favorite, it’s a well balanced flavor that is relatively lighter, provided you don’t binge on multiple servings!



Ingredients
French beans (deveined and cut into 1 inch pieces) – 8-10
Potatoes (cubed) - 3
Carrots (peeled, cored and cut into 1 inch pieces) – 3
Peas (shelled) -1/2 cup
Methi leaves (big leaf, whole without stems) - 1
Tomatoes (medium sized, finely chopped) - 7-8
Limes (juiced) - 1
Coriander leaves (finely chopped) – ½ cup
Mint leaves- (finely chopped) -1/3 cup
Green chillies (slit) -10
Onions (medium, sliced) – 5
Ginger garlic paste -4 tablespoons
Yogurt – 400 gms
Mutton (with our without bone)- 1 kg
Redchilli Powder -4 teaspoons
Turmeric- ½ teaspoon
Cloves – 3-4
Cinnamon – 1-2 medium sized
Cardamom – 3-4
Shahzeera (thin variety) -1 teaspoon
Garam masala powder -1 teaspoon
Salt -2 tablespoons
Rice (Basmati or plain) -7 cups
Oil – about 6 tablespoons
Hot water - as required

Preparation

• Wash, clean and cut all veggies and set aside separately. Preheat oven to 200⁰C. The more traditional method calls for deep frying the vegies but I prefer baking them, both taste pretty much the same. If you feel that the potatoes are slightly tough, a short boil should help.
• In a pressure cooker pour oil and fry the onions till golden brown, take care as to not turn them dark or crispy. After about 5-7 mins, add ginger garlic paste and continue frying.
• Meanwhile, place the potatoes in one baking tray and carrots and beans in another, drizzle some oil and bake the former for 15 mins and latter 10 mins.
• Back to the onions, add a dash of water if needed to fry them further, there should be no smell of raw onions persisting. Next add the following at 5-10 minute intervals, tomatoes; red chilli powder, salt, garam masala powder; yoghurt; meat. Place the whistle of the cooker and cook for about 5 mins on high followed by 10 mins on medium heat. The tomatoes and yoghurt should provide enough liquid for the meat to cook but if you feel appropriate you may add a little hot water before fastening the whistle.
• Wash and soak the rice for 30 mins, while the meat cooks
• Open the cooker, check for the ‘doneness’ of the meat, it should be almost done but not falling apart. Add the baked veggies, methi leaves, coriander, mint, lime juice and continue cooking. Add the whole garam masala- cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, shahzeera. By this time the meat veggies mixture should be in the form of a thick spicy gravy with the oil floating on the top.
• Add about 2 cups of boiling water to the mixture, plus a teaspoon of salt, you can transfer the mixture into a larger cooking vessel if you want. Add the rice and cook for 5 mins uncovered followed by 10-15 mins covered. Additional water may be needed for the rice to completely cook.
• I’ve seen people serve a tablespoon or so of hot liquid ghee over their plate of tahari, personally, I cannot bring myself to literally add extra calories to a dish, but if you don’t mind it I guess it will taste pretty delish. Otherwise just raitha should be perfect.

Comfort Food - Khichdi

There are some foods that you always associate with being simple and  home cooked. The humble khichdi may not make it to the menu of a gourmet restaurant (yet!), does remain fairly popular across different Indian cuisines. Most versions involve cooking rice to a soggy consistency, but this one, the hyderabadi style retains the grains intact and can be eaten on any day regardless of the condition of the stomach!

Ingredients
150 gms rice
20 grams masoor dal
Around 3 cups of water
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 an onion
1/2 inch cinnamon
1 cardamom
1 table spoon oil
Salt to taste
a few sprigs of cilantro leaves

Method
Wash and soak the rice and dal separately for about 15 mins.
Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel and fry the onions to translucent.
Drain the water off the dal and add to the onions. fry for about a minute.
Add turmeric, cardamom and cinnamon and mix for about half a minute.
Add the drained rice and water; sprinkle salt let in cook with the lid closed for 10 mins
One the grains are about 80 % cooked, check to see if a sprinkle of water in required. Add cilantro and let is cook for about 5-7 mins.

Serve hot with til ki chutney ( will do a post on it), tamatar ki chutney or kheema.

Prawn Biryani

I decided to give my husband a surprise a few days back by cooking one of his favorite dishes. Wanting to make something authentic, something reminiscent of the taste he grew up with I decided to go with – Prawn biryani. I had recently laid my hands on a traditional cutchi memon cook book by Hajira Mohammad and was waiting to try one of the recipes from there. I made a few modifications to the book’s version with inputs from my mother in law, so about 85% of the following recipes is Hajira’s. The result was quite spectacular, husband enjoyed it thoroughly and a new recipe made its way into my bank.

Will keep posting more recipes from the book.

Ingredients

For masala

1 kg Prawns
1 cup Oil
4 large onions
1 1/2 tbsp Ginger paste
1 1/2 tbsp garlic paste
2 tsp red chilli powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp garam masala powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tbsp salt
3 large tomatoes roasted , skinned and pureed
1 tbsp fresh coconut paste

Grind to paste

5 green chillies
1 cup coriander leaves chopped
2 tbsp water

Rice

1 kg basmati rice
8 mint leaves
4 tbsp sea salt


For layering

Juice of 2 limes
1 tsp saffron strands soaked in milk

Method

·         Shell and de-vein the prawns. Marinate the same in 4table spoon lemon juice

·         Wash and soak the rice for 30 mins 

·         Fry the onions in a heavy bottomed pan till golden broown ( the edges should start getting crispy)

·         Add ginger and garlic and fry well for about 15 mins . Sprinkle water if required

·         Add all the spice powders, spice paste and salt and fry for about 10 mins

·         Pour in the tomato puree and cook till raw smell is gone

·         Meanwhile prebiol the prawns in 3 cups water for about 3 mins

·         Add the prebioled prawns to the gravy and stir in for 3 mins

·         Add the coconut and continue stirring till the gravy just about begins leaving oil on the side.

·         Boil the rice with sea salt and mint leavestill its about 85-90 % done. Drain the watyer and start assembly

Assembly

·         Place a flat skillet (tava) on the stove

·         Place a large vessel on top of it and start layering the rice

·         Spread  half the  rice in the vessel

·         Add a layer of prawn gravy and then spread the rest of the rice (Sandwiching the prawns between two layers of rice)

·         Sprinkle some cilantro, drizzle the rest of the lime juice and the saffron milk.

·         Cook on high for 5 mins and for medium for 15 mins