Potato & Eggplant Dish

This is a totally vegetarian recipe, when you get bored of all the mutton, beef and chicken, this is your heaven :)

Servings: 3

Ingredients:

2 1/3 tbsp Cooking Oil

1 Onion (small-medium size) cut into slices

1/2 tbsp Ginger & Garlic Paste

1/2 tbsp Coriander Powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder

3 Tomato (big size) cut into cubes

2 Potato (medium size) cut into 2-3 cm cubes

4 Eggplants (medium size) cut into 4-5 cm cubes

3/4 tbsp Salt

Method:

Start by heating the oil in a cooker, after that add the slices of onion, let it fry till the color becomes brown, add the ginger/garlic paste, coriander powder and turmeric powder, after a while add the tomato cubes, cook it for while, using a spoon, smash the cubes of tomato into the bottom and side of the cooker (just to take out the juice from the tomato faster).

After that add the potato, cook it for about 10-12 min, add 1/4 tbsp spoon salt, and keep stirring. Add the eggplant, and then add another 1/4 tbsp salt. stir slowly (the texture of eggplant is lighter compared to potato), cook for a while and then add the 1/4 tbsp salt, taste it after a while, you might want to add more salt. you will be cooking for another 12 min after you add the eggplant. After that, there is your dish :)

while serving, you might want to add some coriander leaves on top of your dish.

Note: Great and simple dish, i really love the texture and taste of eggplant.. umm, delicious :)

i have some pictures, will be adding it later when i have access to my camera, I am writing this from my workplace (its break time in here).

Bombay Chicken Biryani - Farouq

A few weeks ago, Adnan offered me a position as co-editor for his blog; being a foodie / food lover, I willingly accepted his offer not knowing what I was getting myself into. Hahahhaha. While juggling work and school, I managed to cook Bombay Biryani on a Saturday morning within a short period of time, it actually took me less than an hour and half to cook a tasty biryani. This isn’t my first attempt therefore not many mistakes took place in this endeavour of mine. Please also take note that I improvised here and there to make up for lack of ingredients.

I was introduced to biryani at a very young age (like many Malays). The Johor Biryani or rather Beriani Johor is very much popular because it is known to be very rich and tasty. Beriani Johor is classified into a few categories such as Beriani Muar*, Beriani Gam, Beriani Dam and many more. I’ve also tried the Bengali Biryani, South Indian Biryani and also the normal Desi Biryani. I’ve yet to try the Lankan Biryani, haven’t had the opportunity, but soon inshaAllah.

Unlike Adnan I grew up here (Malaysia) and America (but my love for food knows no boundries), therefore the meals I make aren’t usually authentic neither conventional; because the ingredients I’d add into my cooking would be a mix of Malay and American spices. So please don’t feel offended if I add shrimp paste or rosemary into this biryani, hahahhaha. Plus everything has to be spicy, well almost everything, the spicier the better, that’s my motto.

To make this delicious dish, you would need the following ingredients:

1. Chicken Biryani:

- 4 pieces of chicken breast cut into small pieces

- Some onions (depends on the size really, because if it is really big than 1 would be enough)

- Oil (please use either vegetable or olive oil, don’t yall use that nasty palm oil ok)

- Tomatoes (4 to 5 cut into cubes)

- Green Chillies

- Ginger

- Garam masala

- Chilli Powder

- Paprika

- Turmeric Powder

- Coriander Powder

- Kurma Powder

- Times

- Fresh Cilantro

- Fresh Oregano

- Salt

Pour the oil into a pot, heat it up until it becomes reasonably hot. Then dump in the onions into the pot. Sauté the onions until they become golden brown. After you get the onions to turn golden brown, you will get this amazing aroma of cooked onions; that is the cue for you to put in your tomatoes. Leave your tomatoes to cook for approximately 4 minutes. After that, dump in your chicken breasts along with the abovementioned spices namely garam masala, chilli powder, paprika, turmeric powder, coriander powder, kurma powder, times, salt and also green chillies. Leave them to cook for about 8 minutes. Once chicken is cooked, turn off the heat and put in fresh cilantro and oregano.

Voila chicken briyani ready!!! Well not really!!!

2. Biryani Rice:

- Rice

- Turmeric Powder

- Salt

- Cloves and Cardamoms (as much as you like J)

- Tomato Puree

- Olive oil

Since this isn’t the conventional biryani, you can just cook it in a rice cooker. The conventional way on the other hand would require you to boil the rice until it became half- cooked; you would then pop the half-cooked rice placed on top of the chicken biryani into the oven to be cooked all the way through (I’ve tried this a few times and the rice wasn’t cooked all the way through). The non-conventional way however would only require you to dump in all the above said ingredients into a rice cooker. You might wonder, why put in turmeric powder and tomato puree, well the answer is simple, I couldn’t find any saffron, so I improvised by replacing with turmeric powder for color and tomato puree for flavor.

After the rice is cooked, mix it with the chicken biryani, and for presentation sake, put some fresh cilantro along with fresh oregano into the biryani. If you have mint leaves, cut them up into small pieces and dump it in the rice for more flavour, and of course it’ll give the biryani more color.

There you have it, your Bombay Biryani.

chicken manchurian

Hi ppl, i have another great recipe today, you making it a unique way, and you will get a unique taste, i took some pics from my Camera, sadly i still didn't find the usb cable yet.. but anyway..

The recipe consists of 4 stages, i will go stage by stage mentioning the ingredients and the methods.

Stage 1:

1 Chicken cut into pieces.

5-6 garlic cloves finely chopped or even smashed

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp white flour (if its raw white flour, usually you will purify it by filtering it, i used the filter we use for tea =.=)

1 egg.

Add everything above (except the chicken) and mix well, after its liquid, pour into the chicken, and mix again to make sure every piece gets the gravy.

Now take out a large frying pan, pour oil and heat it, fry the chicken till the color becomes brownish/golden. and take out, put aside.

Stage 2

4-5 cloves garlic, cut in lenght

Fry it till it becomes brown/dark brown and put aside.

Stage 3

2 Capsicum (cut into medium square shapes)

2 Carrot (cut round slices)

Start by frying the carrot (since it take longer for the carrot to soften), after a while add the capsicum, fry for a while and then take them out and put aside.

Stage 4

7-8 tbsp tomato ketchup

4-5 tbsp hot sauce.

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup water

3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

pour everything in one bowl, and mix. put aside

Stage 5

2tbsp Cornflour powder

2 tbsp green onion cut into piece (you can take this by taking one green onion, and start cutting it into small piece, you will get roughly 2 tbsp)

Mix the cornflour with water and put aside.

Now put the chicken back into the frying pan, give it enough heat, and now add the gravy of stage 4, fry for a while, now add the cornflour/water mix (stage 5) , fry for a while, add the capsicum, carrot (stage 3) , green onion and fried garlic (stage 2). keep frying for while.

Bingo, you have your dish :)

*Comments,

i won't lie to you, i only did this for quarter of chicken, i was doing some testing, and if this turned out great, then i will have to cook about 2 chickens for a party on this weekend, err never mind that..

Taste was Great.. it had a mix fried chicken, little bit of barbecue taste, little bit of sweetness, plus the cooked veggie really added some flavor.

Recommendations

* You should try this recipe :)

Mutton

I honestly don't know what is the recipe name, lol.. but its one of those indian recipes full of spices :)

1 kg mutton

1/2 tsp turmeric

2 tsp salt

1/4 cup oil (5 tbsp)

2 dry red chilli (big)

5 dry red chilli (small)

1 tsp mustard seed

3-4 cloves (the small rocket shape spice :D )

1/4 tsp red chilli

1/2 tsp zeera powder

1/4 tsp black seed

1 tbsp brown sugar (if you using whit, use 3/4 tbsp)

1/2 tsp somf

2 tbsp ginger garlic paste

4 tbsp lemon juice

250 gram curd/yogurt

Bois mutton with salt and with 1 cup of water in a pressure cooker, close the lid of the cooker, take one whistle and then turn off the fire. let it cool and let the steam escape for a while, now open the cooker, separate the mutton from its water/mutton soup

in another cooker, heat oil, now add mustard seed, small and big chilli, cloves, cook for a while now add the mutton, after that add the rest of the ingredients except the lemon juice and the water you got from mutton boiling.

Cook for a while and now add the lemon juice along the water. now cook on a medium/slow fire till the water starts to look more like a gravy.

Enjoy the Meal :)

*Notes

I used 1/2 kg mutton, so what i did was i just slashed every ingredient by half (except water) but apparently, the spice was too much, and it was a bit too spicy, which should be fine if you like spices. But the taste was gooood :)

*Suggestions:

If you don't like spices, then just reduce the red chille powder, and the dry red chilles, both big and small.

Masoor ke Daal

its been a while since i last posted, so here is something on the run.

As you know, there are many types of daal, this is for Masoor daal. this is one of the basics that almost every "indian" house will have 5 times a week at least.. this consists of 2 rounds.

Round 1

1 cup (170 ml) masoor ke daal

1 1/2 onion (medium sized)

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp red chilli powder

2-3 tomato (depends on size)

2-3 cup water

3/4 tbs salt

Cut onion and tomato into small pieces, smash garlic, now add all of the above in one pot and cook for a 12-15 min.

Let it cool, after that put what you cooked in a grinder, and mix it till everything becomes liquid. (or is it called a blender.. not sure =.=).

now put everything back in the pot, taste for salt, if you need more then add. keep on low fire.

Round 2

2 tbsp Oil

1/2 onion (slices)

1/2 tsp zeera seed

6-8 karya patta

while the daal is slow cooking, prepare a frying pan. heat oil, now add the onion, then zeera seed, then the karya patta, heat for a while, now put everything in the daal pot, and close the lid of the pot (this gives a nice aroma, and a unique taste, this is one of moms special tricks) and now turn off the heat from the daal pot. don't open the lid till 10 min later. and enjoy the glamorous taste of the daal :)

FYI: i am cooking lamb now, don't know what is the recipe name, but inshallah will put it up later after i have done cooking it and tasting it.

Beans with Minced meat

This recipe is another one of moms originals, great to eat with Daal, Bread (roti) or rice.

Ingredients:
1/4 kg Beans
380 gram Minced Lamb Meat
3 1/2 tbsp oil
3 onion (medium size)
3 tomato (medium size)
1 potato
1 1/4 tbsp Ginger Garlic paste
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1/2 tbsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp Red chilli powder
1/2 tbsp Salt (add more later)
1/2 tsp Garam Masala
bunch of coriander leaves

Preparations:
Clean the beans, and cut it them into small round pieces, around 7-8 mm each.
Cut the onions into slices.
Cut the tomato into small-medium pieces
Clean and then cut the coriander leaves intso small pieces
Peal the potato, and cut into small pieces


Directions
First, you want to make sure that your minced meat doesnt have any fat in it, you will do this by heating the minced meet in a cooking pot, for 15-20 mins the fat should form liquid in the bottom of the pot, after that the minced meat out leaving the fat in the pot.

We will be cooking in a pressure cooker, so take one out, put the oil in it, let it heat for a while, then add the onion, heat it for 10-15 min, till it becomes soft and the color changes, now add ginger garlic paste, turmeric, coriander powder, red chilli, salt. and cook it for 5 min, add the tomato, cook for another 5 min, now add the beans, and then add the the minced meat and the potato, cook it, because the beans has a high content of water, you should see liquid forming up in 15 min or so, if you still don't see it, then add 1/3 cup of water, close the lid of the cooker. and put the regulator (where steams escapes from) and cook it in medium fire. after the first time the steam escapes, slow the fire to the lowest. let it cook till the steams escapes the 2nd time from the regulator, then close the fire, let it for 15 min. Open it, cook on low fire, add the garam masala and coriander leaves, leave it for 5 min, and now its ready to be served.

Suggestions.
My brother was saying the spice wasn't that much, so i guess if you felt the same way, you can try adding more spice. Chears :)

Sheep Feet

Alright, today i am going to cook sheep feet, this is according to moms recipe, and i don't have to tell you how delicious it is :)

Ingredients:

3 tbsp cooking oil

8 Sheep Feet

2 onions

1 small tomato

2 green chille

1 tsp salt (can add more later if needed)

bunch of coriander leaves

1 1/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 tbsp coriander powder

3 tbsp coconut powder

2 bay leaf

1/2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp ajwan (read note below)

1 tsp sonf seed (its either fennel or mustard, need to make sure)

1/2 lemon

Directions:

Cut the each sheep foot into pieces, clean the feet by scrubbing with knife (there is also tiny hair there, so make sure you clean it all), after that take white flour or rice flour, and scrub the feet, after that wash it again (this will help reduce the smell).

start heating the oil in a frying pan. Now take the onion, cut it into small slices, put it in the frying pan. slow cook the onion till it becomes light to medium brown, after that take onion out, make sure you dry take the oil with the onion, pour the whats left of the oil in a pressure cooker. Put the feet inside the pressure cooker, and let it cook slowly (this is to drain any moisture from the feet)

While the feet is drying up, prepare a mixer or a grinder, divide the bunch of coriander leaves into two halves, add one half inside the mixer, cut the tomato and add it, add the 2 green chilli, and add the fried onion. mix it well. after its done keep it aside.

Back to the cooker, after the moisture has evaporated from the feet (check the bottom of the cooker, only oil should remain, and no water). add 750 ml water add the mixture you made above to the cooker, add the ginger garlic paste, add coriander powder, add the garam masala, add the salt, add bay leaf, add coconut powder.

Now here it gets a bit tricky, get a small piece of clean cloth, put ajwan and sonf inside it, now wrap the cloths and put it inside the cooker also, you only want the flavor of these last two elements, at the end you will take it the cloth.

close the cooker lid, and waittill you hear the first time the air escapes from the top of the cooker, then let it cook on slow fire for 45 minutes. after 40 minutes stop cooking it, let it be inside the cooker for 25 min or so to let the pressure inside the cooker release slowly, after that open the cooker, and check if its fully cooked or not, if needs to be cooked more, then close the lid of the cooker and cook it more. If its done, then cook it again, but this time keep the lid open, this time, you want to evaporate a small portion of the water, but not fully, check for salt, if you need then u can add more.

At the end, add the lemon juice to the final cook, cut the other half of coriander and put it inside the cooker, now u can serve :)

NOTE:

i cooked this a 2nd time, this time i used a dozen feet instead, added a little bit of extra ingredients, remember the cloth trick, this time mom said to add a whole dry ginger (instead of ajwan) with sonf, and wrap it inside the cloth and drop in in the pot.. it was Delicious and better from the first time.

Kharai Fish

http://www.khanapakana.com/recipe/templates/cooking-recipe.aspx?articleid=8F1525C3-74DB-477B-B08A-59004015697D&zoneid=210&zn=Seafood-Fish-Recipes&rn=Karhai-Fish

so this is the recipe i cooked the other day.. i almost followed same recipe.. except:

*instead of 1/2 cup oil, i used a little bit less than 1/4.

*Used just 1 green chilli, since our family are not fan of spicy food.

in the directions:

*in the ingredients, 250 gram tomato was asked, but it wasn't mentioned when to cook it, so i added it with garlic paste after i heated the oil with fenugreek seed.

Result:

The taste was good, should be served with Daal as the dish doesn't have much liquids and might turn out a bit dry.

The fish i used didn't absorb the spice that much, from inside it was a bit tasteless

Recommendations

After initial cooking till the fish becomes tender, should give it 3-4 hours before continuing to add the other ingredients to let the fish absorb the masala.

thats all :)

Update:

I had some left overs of this, the taste was more towards sour than yesterday, i think we put too fenugreek seeds and leaves.. next time we should cut the quantites of those by half.. thats what mom said :)

Baked Tilapia in Garlic and Olive Oil

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Tilapia-in-Garlic-and-Olive-Oil/Detail.aspx

So this is the recipe that i tried out, but i used different fish, and i didn't use fillets, instead i took a whole fish (para para fish i think, thats what the fisherman told me) total weight was 1 KG, it was cut into 8 pieces. and i did the serving for 7 people.. the ingredient is the same as the original recipe, except that i mixed 2/3 tablespoon of salt with the chopped garlic.

Also, instead of Cayenne Pepper, i used black pepper, although i am a fan of spice, but am not a fan of hot spices.

I did one mistake thou, i used virgin olive oil instead of normal ones, i don't know why, but looking online it says that we should keep virgin olive oil for dressing for cooked vegetable or things like that, for cooking and so on, better go for normal ones

Finished Product:

Honestly, as my first dish, it was disappointing, there was no taste basically (maybe my taste buds are used to the spices), or maybe its because of the extra virgin olive oil i used, and the fish taste wasn't that great for baking.

Recommendations for next time:

*Use olive oil.

*Use different type of fish, maybe a fresh tilapia or Hamour will do.

*Add more spice with chopped garlic and mix before rubbing it with the fish.

Beginning

Okay.. so this is my first blog, i don't know if there will be any one reading this, but if you are, then i am glad you are :)

I love food, i love it soo much, but i don't know how to cook, only recently i have started cooking, just taking some online recipes, trying it out, so basically i will be posting in here what ever i have cooked so far, how was the taste, and if any recommendations for next time..

Every thing in food interests me, lamb, beef, chicken, fish, prawn, shrimp (yes, they are a bit different) , crab, shells, fruits, vegetables.. you name it..

And then i have three different food backgrounds, since i am an Indian, my family raised me in Saudi Arabia, and i did my degree in Malaysia..

Well.. i guess i will go on and do my first post :)

Cheers