Golkonda Biryani and a Celebration

25th jan 2009 was the day i posted my first recipe Capsicum Rice. The journey continued for last five years and made me a better person, i should say a better cook. Learnt a lot and learning continues.....

The stats says: 5 years of blogging
                      363+ recipes
                      385 readers
                      729634 hits

I would like to thank all my readers, without you all i wouldn't have completed five years of blogging...

And also i would like to thank my mom for been my inspiration to cook...My mom was a working women and every day morning i used to assist her doing small things in our kitchen. Had my mom shooed me from the kitchen i wouldn't have learnt cooking.

Then i would like to thank my husband and kids. In particular husband been a foodie who loves food and of lately trying out recipes and giving me break. Lastly but not the least my kids, who bear with me when i am taking pictures of the food to post in on my blog.

Today i am posting biryani done by my husband. Most of the hyderabadi who visited hotel golkonda would have tasted their biryani. When i used to work in hyderabad i used to have monthly meetings in hotel Golkond and i used to eat. Now its almost a decade i went their and almost forgot the taste of the biryani their.

Husband was browsing youtube videos and chanced upon  golkonda biryani recipe. So he made it and i should say it was awesome. The colour,texture and taste was awesome.

 What is needed ?

Mutton 1 pound
Ginger garlic paste 2 tbsp
Mint chopped half a cup
Coriender leaves half a cup
Curd 2 cups
Oil 3 tbsp
Fried onions 1 cup
Salt to taste
Raw papaya paste 1/2 cup
Green chilly paste 2 tbsp

Marinate all of the above ingredients for 1-2 hours.

For rice

Basmati rice
Cinnamon 2 inch pc
Cloves 4-5
Elachi small 3-4
Mint chopped half a cup
Coriander half a cup chopped
Salt to taste

Take all the whole masala in a big bowl with water. Let the water comes to a boiling point. Add basmati rice. Cook until the rice is half cooked. Switch off the flame.

Other ingredients which are required are:-
Star anise 2
Biryani leaf 2
Patter ka phool little
Marathi mooga 1
Fried onions few
Mint and coriender leaves
Safforn soaked in warm milk
Lime juice 1/4 cup
Ghee 1/2 cup
Garam masala powder 1 tbsp

Now add star anise, biryani leaf, patter ka phool,marathi mooga and fried onions to the mutton.Then take out the rice from the water and spread it on the mutton. Pour ghee on the rice. Sprinkle lime juice,garam masala powder,fried onions,mint and coriander leaves.

Lastly add milk and saffron.

Cover it with foil and cook on high flame for 5 minutes and low the flame to minimum and cook for 30 minutes.

Biryani is best eaten with mirchi ka salan and raita. But if you are lazy like me biryani can be relished with only raita. ;)

Small Onion Sambar

My house is also like a typical south indian house where you have idly,dosa,pesarattu,rava dosa,rava idly and upma for breakfast. When i was a kid i never used to eat idly. Poor my mom used to make dosa with idly batter only for me, rest everyone used to have idly. I always used to think idly as a patient food which i still think of. Husband likes idly and younger daughter hates idly. Some how i blackmail her and make her eat idly.

When my m-law was living with us she used to make small onion sambar with idly and i never showed interest to learn from her. The reason behind of not learning is that her sambar is very thick and i like thin and watery sambar. And husband prefers thick sambar. So when ever i make sambar once the sambar is done i take out my portion and let it boil until it becomes think.

Husband always tells me to make small onion sambar and honestly i never tried to make an attempt to browse for the recipe on the net. Once i brought small onions and sent an email to my blogger friend Sandhya ( she blogs at Maradhi Manni and Swaadhisht) to check if she has small onion sambar recipe. I was too lazy to check her food blog Swaadhisht. She was so nice that she immediately sent me the recipe which i made for Sunday breakfast to go with idly.And also i made peanut chutney and recipe of that is here. Here goes the recipe..

What is needed for sambar

Small onions 10-15 (skin peeled)
Toor dal 1/2 cup boiled
Hing a pinch
Sambar powder (i used sanjeev kapoor sambar powder) 3tbsp
Tamarind lemon size (soaked in warm water, extract puree)
Oil 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
Methi/fenugreek seeds 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves few

How to prepare it..

Take two cups of water in a pan. Pour the tamarind puree in the water and bring to boil.

In a another pan take oil.When hot add mustard seeds,methi seeds and curry leaves. When methi seeds change colour add onions. Saute for a while and add sambar masala powder.

Add this to the boiling tamarind water. Let the onions become soft. Now add the cooked dal and salt.

Adjust the seasoning and serve hot with hot idly and chutney.

Methi Mutter Paneer Malai

I just love paneer curries. I always browse net and my recipe books to find out paneer recipes. My blog has got few recipes which i make quite often. This recipe is a mixture of methi mutter malai and paneer. I cook paneer atleast weekly once and we all enjoy eating the curry with roti or paratha. I have peas paneer makhani in my blog. The recipe is almost similar but addition of methi leaves enhance its flavours.Here is the recipe:-

What you need ?

Paneer cubes 10-15
Peas 1 cup
Methi leaves (fenugreek leaves) 1/2 cup
Onion 2 (made into smooth paste)
Amchur powder 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Red chilly powder 1 tbsp
Malai (fresh cream) 3-4 tbsp
Onion 1 chopper finely
Oil 3 tbsp

How to prepare the curry??

Boil peas and drain water. Keep aside.

In a 1 tbsp of oil fry paneer until light brown colour and leave them in the water for 2-3 minutes. Drain water and keep aside.

In the same pan add the remaining oil. When hot add chopped onions. Fry until light brown colour.

Add ginger garlic paste, red chilly powder and amchur powder. Saute for a while.

Add onion paste. Saute until oil starts leaving the pan.

Then add chopped methi. Fry for 4-5 minutes. Add peas and again fry for 4-5 minutes.

Add salt and 1/4 cup of water. Let it cook for a while. Here the gravy thickens.

Now add paneer pieces. Mix well.

Lastly add malai and serve hot with roti or paratha.

Nacho Chips

 I have been living outside India for 8 years but i didn't develop liking to other international cuisines, only exception mcdonalds, KFC, Subway and Pizza. Pizza too i prefer normal veg or chicken pizza...no goat cheese or other ingredients which i am not used to. There is one fast food chain by name Taco bell. When we came here last year we didn't had car and we used to use buses for our commute. Once we got down at a bus stop and younger daughter was hungry. She said we will try Taco bell, i was against it but has to listen to kids and that too when the kid said i am hungry. We went and ordered burritos and nacho chips. My kids are also like me they don't eat other cuisines apart from what i mentioned above. I was forced to eat burritos and that was first and last time i ate that. Coming to Nacho chips kids liked it so do I.

Elder daughter always asks for nacho chips but we never went to Taco bell after that. For Christmas husband got a goodies bag and there were quite a few items which i don't use in my kitchen nor we eat them. Planning to give them to a food bank. There is one such item which says corn tortillas  .Googled it to check what can be done with that. Bang on i got a recipe for Nacho chips and it was great hit with kids and myself. I liked the easy recipe and can be made to our taste.Very simple and easy to prepare it and can be served with dip of your choice. I used our green chutney and sweet chutney to get that desi taste.

Corn tortillas 3
Oregano 2-3 tbsp
Oil 2 tbsp
Chilly flakes 2-3 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method:-

Cut tortillas into triangles. One tortilla will get around 8 triangles. Apply oil on each triangle. Sprinkle oregano,red chilly flakes and salt.

Arrange them on a baking tray. Bake for 5-8 minutes or they change colour at 175 degrees Celsius.

Serve with any dip of your choice.

Oregano and chilly flakes can be replaced with anything of your choice.

Banana and pecan muffin

Happy new year to all my friends and to my readers, may this year brings you all lots of joy and happiness.

This year i am starting with a dessert, i don't think actually this is a dessert and it is not that sweet and my kids munch it as a any time snack. The recipe i am posting is a muffin. I am not sure whether this is correct or not, my 9 year old daughter told me the difference between a muffin and cup cake. According to her a muffin is without icing where as cup cake is with icing. I am not that good at icing and planning to go for a baking classes to learn about icing and frosting the cake. Now coming to the recipe this muffin is not that sweet,it has flavors of banana, lemon rind and vanilla essence. Here is the recipe:-

Ingredients:-

Ripe Banana 4
Plain flour 1 1/2 cup
Butter 1/3 cup
Sugar 1/2 cup
Egg 1
Vanilla essence 1/4 tsp
Lemon rind 1 tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Baking powder 1/2 tsp
Baking soda (soda bicarbonate) 1/2 tspPecan pieces 5 tbsp
Walnut pieces 4 tbsp

Method:-

Mash banana. Add egg,vanilla and sugar.Add vanilla essence and lemon rind. Beat until soft and creamy.Mix dry ingredients baking soda,baking powder,salt and plain flour.

Mix dry ingredients and banana mix. Add pecan and walnut pieces and mix well.

Pour the batter in the 16 muffin cups.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in 180 degrees or until risen. Let it cool.

Enjoy as morning breakfast with chai or eat as snack or pack it for kid's school tiffin.