The Paella

The more I've delayed attempting paella in my kitchen, the more the idea has increasingly intimidated me. Paella enthusiasts are very particular about doing it right. Some say garlic and chorizo do not belong in an authentic paella, and mixing seafood and chicken is nothing short of sacrilege. The fact that I used a nonstick frying pan instead of a paellera pretty much begs for scorn. Nevertheless, I love paella too much to never try. And try I did. And somehow managed to burn the bottom just a little, just the way it's supposed to be! So here is my easy, blasphemous recipe.

Chicken paella

Heat a little olive oil and add a fat spoon of chopped garlic and some sliced chorizo. Also add two bone-in thigh and two leg pieces and let fry on both sides for 15 minutes. Then add two diced tomatoes and some green beans and cook for a while more. Finally add two and a half cups of medium-grain Spanish rice or Arborio (risotto rice), a dash or three of smoked paprika, two branches of fresh rosemary and a few strands of saffron, with three cups of water and salt to taste. Simmer till the rice is cooked; try not to stir the rice too much. Dry it up and serve!

PS: some recipes will ask you to add stock. All I'm saying is, if it's a one-pot recipe involving cooking chicken with the rice and then simmering, the water becomes broth anyway. You don't need stock.

The Gozleme

Long weekends = Picnics = Picnic food.
Turns out gozleme is a really fun and easy picnic food for a bright Sunday at the beach like the one we just had :)

Lamb gozleme with feta and spinach

Knead about 4 cups of flour for 6 fat gozlemes with a pinch of salt and some water. Set aside. Meanwhile add half a chopped onion to a pan with some oil, and add a spoonful of chopped garlic. Add salt, sumac, cumin and chilli flakes to taste, and then add about half a kg of minced lamb. Cook until done and dry, and set aside to cool.

Take a fat ball of dough and roll it out into a large thin rectangle. Place the cooled lamb mixture on one half of the rectangle and fold the other side of the rectangle over. Pinch down the sides to seal. Heat a grill pan with a little oil, and cook both sides of each folded rectangle. Cut into smaller pieces and serve with a lemon wedge! Pack and take to the beach!

The Chemmeen Thoran

Fuel your week with this quick and fiery Kerala-style prawn coconut roast! I'm told smaller shrimp are a more appropriate choice for this dish, but I didn't exactly mind fat prawns in mine!

Grind a cup of coconut with two green chillies, a little turmeric, a shallot or two, a small stick of cinnamon, saunf seeds and red chilli powder. Keep it coarse. Meanwhile heat a little coconut oil in a pan and add to it some mustard seeds, two sprigs of curry leaves, two broken dried red chillies and half a sliced onion. Add chopped garlic and grated ginger and cook till onions become translucent. Add prawns and salt to taste. Add maybe half a cup of water (or not) and cook till prawns are cooked through and dried up. Then add the ground coconut mixture and roast with the prawns till cooked, dry, and pretty :) serve!

The Mint Goat

I ran a half-marathon last Sunday, and came home to a fabulous feast with mutton curry thanks to my mother-in-law. Here's her recipe.

Mint mutton curry

Marinate a kg of mutton in a cup of yogurt, a little lemon, ginger-garlic paste, a paste of mint leaves, and freshly ground pepper. Meanwhile purée an onion and set aside. Grind a handful of coriander leaves separately and set aside. Heat a little oil and fry two dried red chillies and remove from oil. Also thinly slice up a shallot and fry until crisp; set aside.

Now heat a spoon of butter and a spoon of oil together in a pan, and add to it cumin seeds and two bay leaves. Once the seeds begin to sputter, add the onion purée and cook until the oil starts to separate. Add the marinated mutton (leave the marinade behind) and the paste of coriander leaves. Cook up until dry, then add salt to taste. Transfer to a pressure cooker and add a little water and a few chopped green chillies. Pressure cook until done. Garnish with the crispy shallots and dried red chillies, and butter! Yum!

The Stuffed Naan

Naans are awesome. That's all I got.

Lamb keema naan

For the dough, knead 3 cups of self-raising flour with a cup of yogurt and water as needed. Add a little oil to your hands once you're done and tap your hands all over the dough to make it smooth. Set aside for an hour at least.

For the stuffing, fry a chopped onion and two chopped green chillies with some ginger and garlic in a little oil. Add half a kilo of minced lamb, salt, turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala. Cook till done and dry. Cool.

Divide the dough into little balls. Take one and roll it out. Stuff it with some cooled dry minced lamb and close with the sides of the rolled out dough. Roll it out again carefully into an oval shape. Spread a spoon of melted butter, chopped garlic and sesame seeds on one side. Grill on a grill pan or bake in the oven! Serve hot.

The Pancake

Pancakes remind me of my precious boarding school days; my first dorm there served these for breakfast every Thursday with the option of syrup or condensed milk to pour on them. Pancakes require literally no extra ingredient that you might not already have in your kitchen, and are so easy to make for a big bunch of people. Just whip up a big bowl of batter and get going!

Dark chocolate chip pancakes

For about six pancakes, beat together a little more than a cup of flour with two eggs, a spoon of cinnamon, a big spoon of sugar OR 5 crushed sugarless sweetener tablets in my case last weekend, two or three spoons of melted butter, a dash of vanilla essence, a tiny sprinkle of salt, a cup of milk and a spoon of baking powder. Then add a fistful of dark chocolate chips and fold in with a spatula. Heat a frying pan and pour some batter on it after it's hot. Once the sides start to bubble, flip and cook the other side for about a minute before taking off the pan. Repeat till you run out of batter!

Top with a slice of butter and some yummy maple syrup and serve hot!

The Sushi

I've been meaning to try making sushi at home for ages, but somehow never got around to it. But here it finally is. Shrimp tempura rolls are typically supposed to have rice on the outside and nori on the inside (inside-out roll) but because it's my first time and I generally love nori rolls so much, I had to try it this way first! Next step: Dragon rolls! (soon)

Shrimp tempura nori roll. You will need a bamboo mat.

Boil some sushi rice (such that all the water gets evaporated, no draining). Once it boils, cook on low for a while. Use a wooden spoon to transfer the rice into a non-metal bowl. Once it cools, per one cup rice, add about 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar, a sprinkle of salt, and two spoons of sugar. Stir it into the rice with a wooden spoon and set it aside. Meanwhile, make some tempura batter by mixing a cup of flour with a cup of beaten egg and a cup of cold water (or buy some tempura batter!). Dip shrimp in the batter and fry in hot oil for 30 seconds. Set the shrimp tempura aside.

Slice a cucumber length-wise into quarters, and slice up some avocados as well. Now place the bamboo mat flat on the counter, and put cling-wrap on it. Now lay down a nori sheet (shiny side down) on top of the covered mat. Wet your hands and use them to put and spread half a cup of rice evenly onto the nori sheet - wet hands will prevent the rice from sticking to your hands. Make sure the rice covers all corners except for a centimeter from the right edge of the nori sheet. Now on the left side edge, place a long slice of cucumber, a few slices of avocado, and shrimp (lined from top edge to bottom). Put a thin drizzle of mayonnaise (or peri-peri mayo, or Japanese mayo) on them. Now it's time to roll from the left edge to the right. Grab the cling-wrap and bamboo mat on the left side, slowly roll over the filling, and keep rolling to the right, making sure the nori overlaps over itself - keep a hold on the cling-wrap and mat, don't let them become part of the roll! Slice up and serve immediately with dipping soy sauce and wasabi!