The Malai Kofta

Stepping it up for the week of the 100th post, which will be this Friday. Creamy!

Malai Kofta

Grate maybe two cups of paneer and add to it a mashed potato, a tablespoon of cornflour, salt, red chilli powder, a large spoon of chopped cashews, a small spoon each of cumin and coriander powder, and a sprinkle of garam masala. Knead together before forming round shapes for kofta and deep-frying. Set aside.

For the gravy, sauté big pieces of a large onion with ginger-garlic paste. Add a diced tomato, salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, cumin and coriander powders and a sprinkle of garam masala. Take off the heat and grind to a textured pulp with some cashews. Return to heat, add a little water and simmer. Add a small spoon of sugar for that mild sweetness, and turn off the heat. Add a dollop of sour cream for creaminess and a garnish of kasuri methi, and just before serving, and the deep-fried koftas. Serve up with naan!

The Seekh

Happy Eid! We kept it simple with a favorite combination of mine from lazy evenings back in Saudi Arabia: seekh kababs with khubz and toum garlic sauce. These kababs are so easy to make!

Grind 4 green chillies into a paste. Chop an onion and a fistful of coriander. Mix half a kg of minced meat of your choice (we chose lamb) with the green chilli paste, chopped onions and coriander leaves, a little sprinkle of flour, sea salt, a small spoon each of cumin and coriander powder, and a little garam masala. Knead the combination with your hands for five minutes as you would knead dough. Let it sit in the fridge for a bit.

Preheat oven to 200C. The oven needs to be hot by the time the kababs go in. Pack the minced mix around the entire length of skewers to get the seekh kabab shape. Gently spray or brush with a little oil before placing in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, flipping after 10. Get them out after 20 minutes so that the inside of the kabab remains succulent. For additional browning, if you need, pan-fry for 2 minutes with almost no oil (we didn't need to!). Slide off the skewers and serve!

The Veggie Kabab

When life hands you failed matar kachori, make hara bhara kababs! This recipe can be used to make kababs, sandwich filling, little veggie balls for pasta or even veggie burgers. 

Hara bhara kabab

Boil and mash two cups of peas. Maybe even run through a blender to make them extra smooth. Add salt and set aside in a bowl.

Heat a spoon of ghee or oil in a pan. Add a spoon of ginger paste and two crushed green chillies. Then add half a spoon of cumin powder, half a spoon of coriander powder, a sprinkle of garam masala and a half spoon of chaat masala. Sprinkle a little gram flour (besan). Fry for two min and take off the heat. Add mix to the bowl of peas. Add chopped coriander if you like, and maybe some chopped peanuts for a crunchy texture (optional). Finally add a small spoon of flour (maida or all-purpose) and mix the entire thing together. Shape into small patties for kababs or large patties for burgers. Pan-fry in shallow oil; don't flip them until the bottom gets crispy, or it will collapse. Serve in a bun, or with a spicy sauce, or on other food!

The Coorgi

Pandi fry! It's my first time experimenting with Coorgi food, which obviously means there shall be pork. It's tough to find some of the key ingredients involved in Coorgi cuisine (such as the special vinegar called kachampuli) but I make do.

Pandi fry

Cook small pieces of pork (to avoid pressure-cooking) with a little oil, a large sliced onion, ground garlic, two-ish green chillies and a sprinkle of fresh curry leaves, plus salt and curry powder.

Simultaneously (or before cooking the pork), dry roast a spoon and half of Kashmiri red chilli powder, a small spoon of pepper, a small spoon each of coriander and cumin powder, a spoon of garam masala, and constantly stir the mix in a dry pan on low heat till the entire mixture becomes the color of coffee. Should take 10 minutes, and the low heat and constant stirring are key so that you don't burn the powder. Add to the pan of pork with a spoon of either kachampuli, or malt vinegar and a few drops of lime if you can't find kachumpuli. Continue to cook the pork till the dish is almost completely dry. Garnish with coriander and sliced green chillies! Spicy!

The Icy Inferno

So this didn't go as planned at all.

My original recipe idea, thanks to a wonderful friend of mine, was to make a spicy, tangy chutney out of some fresh Carolina Reapers that I had found at the supermarket. I did make it. It gave me a nosebleed. So I doused it in yogurt, sugar and lime and suddenly I had a pretty yummy dip! I'm going to run through a list of dos and don'ts after the recipe so you're in less pain than I was yesterday.

Chop about 2/3rds of a Carolina Reaper, deseeded, with half a red bell pepper/capsicum and a shallot. Sauté with cumin seeds on low heat for a very short time before adding to the blender with a big spoon of tamarind paste, a cup of yogurt, two spoons of sugar and lime to taste, plus a sprinkle of sea salt. Toast sesame seeds for garnishing. Chill in fridge before serving!

Warning: DO NOT touch your face.
                   DO NOT sauté without proper ventilation of fumes or on high.
                   DO NOT forget to take the seeds out.
                   DO NOT get ambitious and add more than the said amount of Reaper.

The Crumbed Calamari

Happy Friday, readers! It's comfort food night and I've been watching way too much MasterChef and feel the need to be grating lemon rind onto things.

Crumbed Calamari with Polenta

Get calamari rings. Mix together breadcrumbs, grated lemon rind, a few thyme leaves, salt and ideally some ground corn flakes for extra crunch (which I didn't have at home). Beat an egg in a separate bowl. Cover calamari with egg and then toss in the crumb mix. Deep fry.

Boil one part polenta in three parts water and add some butter and parmesan to make it creamier. Reduce to a creamy texture. I added some thyme leaves here as well.

Serve!

The Sweetheart

This is my best friend's recipe of mishti doi (literally sweet yogurt), which obviously is the best Bengali creation since... well... a lot of other awesome Bengali creations. I've looked at a lot of recipes online before, and who would've known that my awesome bestie was sitting on the easiest one!

 Mishti doi

 Beat equal parts evaporated milk, condensed milk, and full fat yogurt with a stand mixer till bubbles form. Preheat oven to 180 and turn the oven off. Either put the doi in oven overnight in that warm environment for setting, or leave it in the oven on very low for more than half a day. Let it sit out for a few more hours. Be sure not to move the yogurt around too much to let it set. Serve! Refrigerate for storage.