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