Indian recipes: Butter Chicken

Have some friends who absolutely adore the Indian dish Butter Chicken, and, have been asking me to show them how to making it, sans any chillies...

So finally, yesterday, held a small class for 4 of my friends where we decided to make Butter Chicken with Naan. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun, my kitchen looked like a war zone after we were done, and, I was the only one who was not eating, since I am a vegetarian!

Now usually I do not post recipes, but they all liked it, and, asked me to post it on my blog so that they don't have to write it down, and they can direct their friends to it as well.

This is how I make my butter chicken, I sure plenty others would have different and better recipes..but everyone at home seems to like it!

Butter Chicken / Chicken Makhanwalla
Serves: 4

For Marination
750 grams of chicken cut into pieces (boneless)
3 tablespoon yoghurt
3 tablespoon lemon juice
3 teaspoon each of coriander, cumin and red chilli powders
1 onion chopped and made into a paste
4 teaspoon each of ginger, garlic pastes
salt to taste
you could add orange food colour to get that authentic look to the chicken but that’s optional. I dont usually add colour cos my husbandis allergic to soem artificial colourings

Gravy
4 large tomatoes, roasted, peeled & chopped
6 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoon fresh cream
1 teaspoon each of coriander, cumin, red chilli powders
2 teaspoon each of finely chopped ginger and green chillies (the chillies is optional)
salt and sugar to taste
melted butter, fresh cream and finely chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

Preparation
Cut chicken into medium sized pieces (slightly larger than bite sized). Make small cuts in the chicken pieces. Mix the ingredients for the marinade and coat the chicken pieces with the marinade. Let the chicken marinate for a few hours, overnight if possible. Keep it in the fridge if you are marinating overnight.

Heat 2 tablespoons butter, in a pan and put in the chicken along with the marinade. Cover and cook for about 25 minutes or till the chicken is fully cooked. After the mixture turns dry, stir fry the chicken for some time.

Roast the tomatoes on fire, then peel the skin off and chop. Alternately, you can even puree the peeled tomatoes & then use it. Its a little more cumbersome, but thats what I do.

Heat the remaining butter (4 tablespoons) in a saucepan and add the red chilli, coriander, cumin powders. Fry for a few seconds.

Add the chopped tomatoes, sugar, salt and cook uncovered on medium level for about 8-10 minutes till the puree thickens and the fat separates. Stir in the beaten cream and reduce the heat to low. You can thin the gravy a little bit by adding milk, but not too much otherwise you will loose the taste.

Add the chicken, chopped ginger and green chillies to the simmering gravy. Sprinkle salt to taste if needed. Mix well. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes or till the curry is thoroughly heated through.

Just before serving pour melted butter over the curry. Garnish with a swirl of fresh cream and finely chopped coriander leaves.

TIP:
If you want a richer gravy, then you can add cashew nut paste (soak cashew nuts in water for an hour or so and grind them) while making the gravy - fry it along with the spice powders and then proceed as above.

Gulabjamuns

One of the things that I miss as an Indian in Cairo is the ready availability of Indian sweets. And the two sweets that I miss the most? Ice cold rasagollas and steaming hot gulabjamuns. Ah what pleasure there is in partaking the soft wholesome sweetness of these two "mithais"! You have to taste them to understand what I mean.

Out of the two, a gulabjamun is relatively easy to prepare. A nationally popular sweet delicacy, it is made with khoa (a desiccated milk product) and maida (wheat flour). Shaped round or cylindrical, a gulabjamun is golden to dark brown in color and has a soft yet firm body and smooth texture. It is soaked in thick sugar syrup. In 1858, it attracted the fancy of Lady Canning, the first Vicereine of India, after whom a variety was "created" in her honor, named Ledikeni.

Gulab Jamun is a sweet basically of Bengali origin and has been happily adopted and claimed to be their own by all regions in India. Perhaps this is one Indian sweetmeat, called the same thing practically throughout India. Gulab in Hindi means rose and jamun is a fruit of deep purple colour. The sweet must have got its name because of its size/shape /colour and the fact that rose essence is added to the sugar syrup.

In a quest for making something familiar, I managed to get a recipe for making gulabjamuns at home from my aunt-in-law! It comes from a good cook, so should taste good. Most importantly, it can easily be made with locally available ingredients. So go right ahead and read this very accurate, yummy tasting recipe with its deliciously wicked writing style. Thanks maashi, you are a treasure! (and I love the style of writing!!)

"GULABJAMUN - the recipe

Take one cup of Nido milk powder, preferably made of FULL CREAM milk (I sense u wince!) and 1 tablespoon of flour.

Use MOSTLY oil or GHEE,and virtually no water, to knead the dough (I hear u groan!).

Add 1/4teaspoon of baking powder.

Make the dough into balls that could expand to the size of jeejays, preferably with a pistachio nut, elaichi at its centre.

Make a THICK, SYRUPYconcoction, obviously letting sugar & water come to a boil (I see u throw up your hands in despair!).

Heat the oil to the maximum possible, and DEEP-FRY the sinful little globules in the even more sinful oil ( Oops! do you need smeling salts?).

Don't use a sharp implement so that the perfectly spherical, prospectively juicy mouthfuls don't suffer its sharp stabs and disintegrate.

Keep lowering the flame & stirring patiently.

Let your heart feel overjoyed and sing as you see the virgin white confections acquiring a golden brown tinge.

Don't let them become dark brown or black, or u will have a repeat performance of King Alfred and the cakes.

Let the treacle cool a bit before immersing the fleshy roly-polies in them.

Try dropping in one of them first to see if it breaks, and take further care that the others don't.

Play it by the ear for the chef's experience of such culinary catastrophes.

Justifiably swell with pride as you see your mushy, sachharine-sweet creations desirably puffup to a mature size and shape."

Om Ali

Had the most delicious Egyptian dessert today! Served at almost all notable Egyptian eateries, hotels etc, its called Om Ali. Cooked pieces of puff pastry combined with nuts, raisins and coconut, covered in hot sweetened milk and cream, Om Ali is a great comfort food. What makes it even more delicious, are the interesting (if gruesome) stories behind its origin!

Legend has it that Om Ali was the first wife of the Sultan Ezz El Din Aybek. In Egypt, women were not allowed to rule, but were permitted to be guardians to their sons who would become king when they came of age. When the sultan died, his second wife had a dispute with Om Ali over whose son would be the successor to the Sultan. The second wife was heavily guarded making it difficult for Om Ali to get rid of her.

Om Ali hatched a plot bribing the second wife’s handmaids. While the second wife went to the hamam for a bath, she was beaten to death, by slippers, by her own handmaids! To celebrate her death, Om Ali made this dessert and distributed it among the people of the land.

Another story involves again a sultan, who started to feel peckish during a hunting trip in the Nile delta. The hunting party stopped for food at a poor village along the way. The locals called upon their best cook, Umm‘Ali, to feed the hungry monarch. She filled a large pan with the little they had – scrapings of stale wheat flakes with bits of nuts – and put it in the oven together with milk and sugar. It was so well received that the sultan went back again and thus the dessert became known by its creator.

There is also a school (European of course!) that credits an Irish nurse by the name of O’Malley (mistress of the Khedive Ismail!) for the invention of this great Egyptian sweet.
Tales abound, but the most popular is the rather gruesome one about Om Ali.

As with most local dishes, there are a variety of ways to make it. Here is a basic recipe with ingredients that can be found in your store.

6 sheets of fillo (or puff pastry, pancakes, or bread)
6-8 tablespoons of butter, melted
2/3 cup black or golden raisins
1 cup mixed whole or slivered blanched almonds, chopped hazelnuts and chopped pistachios
5 cups whole milk
1 ¼ cups heavy cream
½ - 2/3 cup sugar
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon (optional)

Keep the sheets of fillo / bread in a pile, covered with a damp towel to keep them from drying out. Brush each one with melted butter and place them on top of each other on a buttered baking sheet.

Put the buttered fillo sheets in a preheated 350F oven for about 10 minutes, until they are crisp

and the top ones are slightly colored.

When cool enough to handle, crush the pastry with your hands into pieces into a baking dish, sprinkling the nuts and raisins between the layers. Bring the milk and cream to a boil in a pan with the sugar and pour over the pastry.

Sprinkle, if you like, with the cinnamon and return to the oven. Raise the heat to 425F and bake for about 20-30 minutes, until slightly golden. Serve hot.

Serves 8.

Bon appétit!

KOSHARY - you can't be in Egypt & not eat it!

In my quest for my Holy Grail (read Vegetarian food in Cairo), I stumbled upon Koshary! You can't visit Egypt and not have Koshary - that's akin to blasphemy!!

Koshary is a traditional Egyptian meal that consists of a strange combination of macaroni, spaghetti, rice, black lentils, chick peas, garlic sauce and a spicy tomato chili sauce, all topped with fried onions. It is sold from carts by street vendors, in restaurants or even made at home and each is considered a different taste experience. I am enclosing a recipe which is supposed to be quite authentic but every koshary stall, every home, every restaurant will have its own version...

INGREDIENTS
1 cup brown lentils

1 cup rice

1 cup uncooked macaroni (orzo, small shells or elbow macaroni)

2 large onions, diced

2 tablespoons oil

2 cups tomato saucehot chili powder or saucesalt

HOW TO MAKE IT

Cook the lentils in salted water until tender and strain.

Cook the rice in salted water until tender and drain.

Also cook the macaroni, rinse and strain.

Place lentils, rice and macaroni in a cooking pot.

Fry onions in the oil until browned, then drain the onions on absorbent paper towel and strain the oil into the lentil mixture. Return to the cooking surface and cook for 7-10 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking and burning.

Place mixture on each plate and top with tomato sauce, onions and sprinkle with hot chili powder or sauce if desired.