Chicken Vindaloo (Balsamic vinegar style)

Confessions of a quickly turning Goan

It's really a sign of turning Goan when you choose to make your own Vindaloo, and you dare to improvise and adopt new flavours in your own kitchen, than just go out and get some Vindaloo!

This is another original recipe concocted by Anand, after much trial and error and permutations and combinations. But the winning factor, I think, is the use of Balsamic vinegar, as opposed to regular vinegar.

Believe him, like I did, and try this one out.

What you need:
900 gms diced chicken

For the spice mixture
1.5 teaspoon black peppercorns
1.5 teaspoon mustard seeds (black)
1.5 teaspoon cumin
2 medium sized stick of cinnamon
6 cardamom pods
10 cloves
6 red chillies (vary as per capacity for spice)
1 petal star anise
1 bay leaf

For the marinade
3/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons freshly crushed ginger + garlic
1/2 cup Balsamic vinegar
5 tablespoons tomato puree

For the curry
2 teaspoons coriander powder
2 large onions diced
2-3 medium tomatoes diced

What you need to do:
Wash, chop and get your chicken ready to marinade in a non-metallic bowl.

To prepare the spice mixture, begin by roasting all the whole dry spices on a low flame for about 5-6 minutes, till the aroma wafts through your kitchen.

Set aside to cool, and then grind to a fine powder.

Add the turmeric and salt to the chicken. Quickly crush up some fresh ginger and garlic (about 3 teaspoonfuls) and add it in too.

Next, in goes the Balsamic vinegar, followed by the puree.

Then, add in the spices and mix well with your fingers, so the chicken is evenly coated and sinks into the marinade.

Cover up in foil, and let this sit for up to 8 hours. Marinading it overnight usually results in wonderful deeply flavourful Vindaloo. But if you're badly planned like me anything from 4-8 hours should do.

In a pressure cooker add some oil and sauté onions till translucent. Add the coriander powder and stir till lightly cooked.

Next, throw in the diced tomatoes and cook till slightly soft.

Then, pour in the chicken with the marinade. Add water at this stage if necessary. cook for a short while and then shut with the pressure weight on.

Pressure cook for about 10 minutes on high and 10-15 minutes on sim. Once open, add salt if necessary.

Done!

This Vindaloo turned out darker than is usually is, presumably because I used Balsamic vinegar. However, it didnt disappoint. So much so that I'm considering pre-preparing the spice mix in bigger quantities, to enable making it more often.

It is best enjoyed, as we had it, with pao on the side. And if you can get your hands on Goan Poi, there's really nothing like it :P

And comments are closed. Head over here to leave a comment!

Patrani Macchi

Or what happens when the husband takes over my kitchen

VC has never made me anything more than some eggs, toast and my morning tea. And today I discovered that its not because he can't or he doesn't want to. It's mostly because I have never let him have a go, unperturbed, uninterrupted, unsupervised. So today, after much coaxing, I agreed. I tried to calm down and have an open mind because I have never known VC to cook, or even experiment. But I stand corrected. The man can cook. And how!

Here's how. From calling his mother up for her recipe, to bringing me some fresh water fish, to cleaning it, following the recipe step by step and ensuring that we had a wholesome lunch, VC did it all.

So this post is dedicated tot he surprise visitor who took over my kitchen for the day, cooked up a storm and left me very, very satisfied.

Here's what he used:
450 gms basa fish, deboned (We chose this fresh water fish because given that its the monsoon river fish is way fresher than sea fish, but technically any light, white fish would work)
2 handfuls of fresh coriander
1/2 coconut grated
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 big thumb of ginger
2 green chillies
Juice of half a lime
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon chaat masala (this was my little contribution/experiment, and it added quite a distinct tanginess to the dish)
2 large banana leaves

Here's what he did:
First VC ground together the coriander, coconut, ginger, garlic, chillies and salt till it was nice and pasty. Next, add in the lime juice, garam masala and chaat masala and grind again till well mixed.

Start off without adding any water, because you don't want a runny mix. What you can do is have a go without water, and then add in very little if need be so you end up with is a finely ground mixture slightly thicker in consistency than chutney.

Next, he heated some oil in a pan and sauteed the chutney for about five minutes. This is done to cook the masala a bit and get rid of any unwanted moisture.

Then set he the masala aside to cool till it was okay to handle it with his fingers when he got down to wrapping the fish in banana leaves.

Next VC mopped the banana leaf dry so there was no moisture getting in the way.

Once he had chopped the leaf into squares big enough to wrap the pieces of fish, he placed a piece of fish towards the top.

Then, he covered both sides with masala, dabbing it with his fingers so it was tightly packed.

Next, I helped him wrap the fish in the banana leaf and secured the pieces with thread.

In a pressure cooker with more water than you would usually use, place a deep dish/vessel. Cover the vessel with another shallow one. Place the wrapped pieces of fish in it and steam in the cooker without a whistle.

15 minutes later, when we opened up the cooker, the entire kitchen was filled with the aroma of freshly steamed coriander and spices, and VC peeped over the dish with a look that can only be compared to a toddler with a new toy.

Carefully pulling them out, he heated some oil in a pan and lightly pan fried the fish, which was still intact, wrapped in the banana leaf.

When slightly browned on either side, it was time to open it up!

Done!

For all those of you who love fish and thought this was a complicated, intimidating dish to try at home, you have to try this out. If VC can make it, so can you!

Channa masala

Or what to do when you soak too much channa and dont know what to do with it

In my haste to make my hummus experiment a success, I ended up with a little too much channa that had soaked overnight and tripled in quantity. Making jummus of all of it would have given me enough to feed my neighbourhood. So I decided to make channa masala.

The way I usually make it is exactly like I make home-style rajma, where I grind and cook my masala, add in the rajma and pressure cook the whole thing.

But the channa was pre-soeaked and pre-cooked just the way you need it for the hummus. So what I did was this:
1) Used the exact same ingredients for my masala, as in the rajma recipe
2) Roasted it nicely, till it was almost completely cooked and blended in with the onions and tomatoes
3) Threw in the cooked channa and some water (lesser than I would have added if i were pressure cooking it)
4) Added a tablespoon full of kasuri methi, just to see how it turns out
5) Let it simmer away for 15-20 minutes
6) Topped it up with freshly chopped coriander and a squeeze of lime

Channa overload, one might say. But when I can make tomorrow's lunch, today, I can't complain!

Crispy Potatoes

Another quickie!

Im on a quest to learn to cook things that are easy to make, dont take much time and are tasty. So here's another recipe that definitely goes into my quick-to-make-and-perfect-to-take-to-work log. Because its simple, quick, crispy and tasty. Oh and it features POTATOES. who doesnt like potatoes? And when the potatoes in question are crispy, theres no doubt about it.

Here's what I used:
Potatoes, chopped into fingers. Not too thin so they turn into wafers, and not too thick so they dont get crispy. They need to be just right.
Jeera
Mustard
Turmeric
Chilli powder

Here's how I made it:
Peel, wash and chop potatoes into slender fingers.



Heat a little oil in a pan. When relatively hot, throw in some jeera, followed by mustard and a pinch of turmeric. When the mustard and jeera begin to sputter, throw in the potatoes and toss around continuously.


Continue to toss around on a medium-high flame, so that the potatoes cook and get crisp. Add some chillipowder, as per taste/spice threshold and continue to toss. The potatoes will first turn a golden brown, and later crispy brown. You'll know when its done.

Crispy Potatoes go best with a humble dal rice and a wintry night.


Done!
EDIT: Not quite done. As my mother rightly pointed out i forgot to mention the pinch of asafoetida that needs to go in right after the jeera and mustard seeds and right before the turmeric!

Home-style Rajma

Giving in to my Rajma calling

Its been a week since work started and I have yet to wholeheartedly fall into the new schedule and routine of things. I have to now cook my lunch for work an evening in advance, to avoid a maddening rush the next morning. So I have resorted to the few 1-2 dish meals I know, basically combining rice or rotis with a curry of some sort, or dal or gravy. A lazy Sunday demanded that I make something utterly simple, something that involved throwing together a bunch of things, but with a yummy result. Thats how we decided rajma it would be.

I have tried several different versions of rajma, based on recipes Iv found online and some techniques people have recommended. But Iv finally hit upon this method, after much trial and error, and this works best for me. Most recipes I have seen call for the rajma to be pressure cooked separately and then added to the masala and cooked together. But I have taken a short cut of sorts, which funnily enough, I have found to be much tastier. I love how it turns out, and I love the process because its basically a 3 step easy-peasy way of doing it. Mince/grind, roast, pressure cook. Done. Just what I needed today.

Here's what I use:
1 and 1/2 small cups rajma (for 2 people)
3 small onions
4 small tomatoes
3-4 cloves of garlic
Ginger
2 green chillies
A handful of fresh coriander
Turmeric
Chilli powder
Jeera powder
Dhaniya powder
Garam Masala

Here's how I make it:
Wash and soak the rajma in sufficient water for at least 4-5 hours prior to cooking it. I usually leave it soaking overnight, but today I soaked it in the morning and cooked it in the evening. I doubt it really makes a life changing difference.


When ready to cook, peel and roughly chop the onions. Also chop the tomatoes into smallish cubes.




Grind the onions to a paste along with the green chillies, ginger, garlic and coriander.



In a pressure cooker/pan, heat a bit of oil and ghee, and roast the masala (paste) on a medium flame until its semi cooked and has dried up sufficiently. Add in the turmeric, chilli powder and chopped tomatoes, and continue to mix and cook well on a medium flame. Keep this going till the masala has fully cooked, the tomatoes are almost pulpy and the masala begins to release oil.



Next, drain the soaked rajma and add it in to the masala.



Mix well, add sufficient water and shut the pressure cooker/pan. On a high flame, cook for an appropriate number of whistles, till the rajma is soft.


Make yourself a cup of chai and kick back and relax while the pressure cooker does its thing and fills your kitchen, your senses and your head with the amazing aromas of what lies within. But you'll have to waitforitttt!


Done!
This tastes equally good with rotis and with hot rice, along with a simple onion and tomato salad, drenched in lime, salt, a dash of pepper and coriander!

Vegetable Pulao. My way!

When I decided to get brave and let the experiments begin

Its been a while since I made a veggie pulao at home. Mostly because I have never been able to get it right, spot on. Yeah its always just short of hitting the spot and leaves us feeling like "something's missing", without being able to really say what that something was!

Today though, I decided to give it another shot. I decided to trust my instincts and the many months of experience I have added on to my culinary repertoire. I decided to go with my gut and throw things in as I felt they would fit, combining a few lessons and tricks I have picked up along the way, with my sense of smell and flavour. Dont look so confused. I did say this was going to be about being brave and letting the experiments begin.

What you need
For the pulao:
Assorted chopped veggies. I used potatoes, carrots and beans, but feel free to add in whatever you want.
Rice, soaked for at least 30 mins before cooking. I used 2 cups, and it was enough to feed 3 hungry people.
One handful of roughly chopped mint leaves

For the pulao masala
1 large tomato chopped
1 medium onion chopped
1/2 a handful coriander leaves
2 green chillies
A large-ish piece of ginger
3-4 cloves of garlic

Dry masalas for the rice
1 tsp jeera (whole)
2-3 cloves
1" piece of cinnamon
1-2 bay leaves
1 star anise (if easily accessible)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp dhaniya powder

What you need to do
Wash and clean the rice. Leave it to soak in water for at least 30 minutes (until you get all the rest of the preps done).


Chop up all the veggies you need and keep them aside.


Grind all the ingredients for the wet masala to a fine paste.



Dont add any water to begin with as the tomato and onion releases juices. If it is too dry you can add a wee bit of water, just enough to grind it easily.


In a pressure cooker/pan, heat some ghee/oil. When its hot enough, throw in the whole spices like jeera, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon, and star anise, and saute till it smells divine.

Next, add 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder and 1/2 tsp dhaniya powder. Then, add the wet masala and saute continuously till the masalas cook well, dry out a bit and the oil begins to separate.


Next, throw in the vegetables and mix it well with the masala. Add salt to taste at this stage. It will release a bit of water, so dont add any extra water just yet.



Add the soaked rice and slowly add the required amount of water to cook it through.



Finally throw in the chopped mint leaves and mix well. Shut the lid and let the pulao cook to as many whistles as your pressure cooker would need to cook rice.



Done!

If I started off by calling this an experiment, I must say it ended being a successful one. The pulao was fresh-tasting (thanks to the coriander and mint) and light and flavourful. I tend to enjoy a pulao when its not overly packed with masala. While I did use a wide variety of spices, using them in smaller quantities balances it out, giving just the right amount of flavouring.

I can already see this recipe being repeated at our home on a night when I cant think of what to make and dont wish to spend too much time in the kitchen!