Chicken Tikka

Ingredients:
2 pounds boneless chicken breast (cubed)
1 large bulb garlic
1 piece (2 inch) ginger
1 teaspoon cumin (freshly ground)
1 teaspoon coriander (freshly ground)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1 1/2 cup yogurt
1/4 cup heavy cream
a few strands of saffron, toasted and melted in a Tbsp. of milk.
salt to taste
black pepper to taste (freshly ground)
bamboo skewers (soaked well or it will burn on the grill)
clarified butter (for basting)
pastry brush for brushing on the ghee (clarified butter)

Directions:

Peel and clean garlic and ginger. Grind to a fine paste. Keep aside. get the other ingredients ready. In a large glass bowl, place the chicken and the ginger-garlic paste, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, black pepper, yogurt, cream, saffron and salt. Mix until well coated.

Cover with plastic wrap and let it marinate in the refrigerator for 12 hours. An hour before your guests arrive, skewer the pieces of chicken, baste the chicken with ghee (clarified butter) and grill to perfection.

Complements to murgh ka tikka (chicken tikka) are naan (a flat bread that can be found in an asian store) and raita (relish made with cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, serrano peppers and yogurt) or salade (red onions, steamed beets, serrano peppers tossed in lime juice).

This recipe for Chicken Tikka serves/makes 6

Khichda

The origin of this dish 'Khichda' is associated with this story. They say when Noah's arc after experiencing lot of flood and cyclone came to a halt everyone who were there in the arc were very hungry, and they had very little food. So they decided to put everything together and cook. And they put all kinds of dals(lentils), rice, wheat, mutton and vegetables together and cooked. Thats how it got its name 'Khichda' meaning mixture. Now what is cooked is modified according to our taste.

Ingredients:

daliya 100gms
tuar dal 100gms
chana dal 100gms
moong dal 100 gms
masoor dal 100 gms
urad dal 100 gms
rice 100 gms

Boil all these things together in pressure cooker so that they become soft.

mutton 500 gm or 750 gms
onion 2 medium size
ginger garlic paste
salt to taste
red chili powder
turmeric powder
corriander powder
curd 2 Tbsp
lime 1
cloves 4-5
pepper 4-5
Cinnamon stick 3-4 (1 inch each)
cardamom 4-5
green corriander
mint leaves
lemon for garnishing

Method:

Take some oil in pressure cooker add cloves, pepper cinnamon stick, cordamom and allow it to crackle. Then add onion, cook till it turns pink. Add mutton and ginger garlic paste , salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, corriander powder, curd and lime and cook for few minutes. then add water and allow it to pressure cook till mutton becomes soft.
Then, to the boiled mixture of dals and daliya add salt red chilli powder, haldi powder and corriander powder also add garam masala powder, then add this cooked mutton and mix them well with a spoon. Also add water and cook till the mixture starts boiling.
For seasoning, Take a little oil in the pan and add chopped onion to it and fry till it becomes golden brown. Take out the khichda in a serving dish and season it with fried onion, garnish it with chopped green chillies, green corriander and mint leaves and lemon and serve hot.

Poha

I reached Bhopal around 7 in the morning. I was very hungry. This was the first time that I came here after marriage. My husband's friends who came to pick us up at the station, said the dish which is very commonly eaten here in bhopal for breakfast is 'POHA', that was the first time I tasted it. Its a very light dish at the same time very nutritious.

Subsequently, my husband asked me to make it at home. since I had never eaten it before so I just had no idea of how to make. So it was just trial and error method, each time I made it, the dish had a new taste. My poor husband had tough time eating it.

It took almost 2 years for me to learn to make good poha, and now I realise its very easy to make.

Ingredients:

Poha 250 gms
onion finely chopped 1 medium size
green chilli 4-5
curry leaves
mustard seeds(rai )
fennel seeds(saunf)
salt to taste
turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
sugar 1/4 tsp
green coriander
lime

Method:

Rinse poha well with water. Soak it in very little water and keep for 10 minutes.
Heat little oil in the pan add mustard seeds , fennel seeds and curry leaves . Then add green chilies finely chopped. and thne finely chopped onions. Let the stove be on simmer.
Add poha to it and salt, turmeric and sugar. Mix well on low flame.Garnish with green coriander and lime and serve hot

Chicken 65

This is quite a famous dish of Hyderabad. I simply love this dish. It is made with boneless chicken. It is usually taken as a starter . If you like to eat dry stuff then you can also have it in main course. Its very popular in our family,amongst all my relatives. Every one who visited Hyderabad from any part of India or from any foreign country we made them taste it, and yes, they liked it. Its just mouth watering dish. Please note down the recipe now.

Ingredients:

Chicken (boneless) 1/2 kg cut into small pieces
Egg 1
ginger garlic paste
salt to taste
red chilli powder
corn flour 1 Tbsp
maida 1 Tbsp

marinate chicken with above masala .

Curry leaves
Green chillies 10 (slit along the length)
garlic 5-6 (finely chopped)
ginger 1 inch (finely chopped)
curd 1Tbsp
salt 1 pinch
red colour

Method:

Fry pieces of marinated chicken one by one. then take little oil in the pan and put curry leaves , green chillies ginger and garlic, leave for few seconds. Add curd to it and then stir. Add salt and red colour. Allow it to cook for another few seconds. Then add fried pieces of chicken to the mixture and mix well so that the mixture covers all the pieces of chicken. Allow it to cook for 5 minutes on simmer. Your Chicken Sixty Five is ready.

Recipe for Hyderabadi Biryaani

On the demand of my friends I am posting here the recipe for Hyderabadi biryani recipe. All thanks to my sister's mother-in-law. It was she who gave me this recipe and then subsequently I practiced making it at home, now i have mastered the art of making it.

Ingredients:

Mutton 1 Kg
Basmati rice 1Kg
ginger garlic paste 2 tsp
salt to taste
red chilli powder to taste
turmeric powder 2 tsp
raw papaya paste 1Tbsp ( size of the papaya must be small)
curds 2 Tbsp
lime 1
onion 2 medium size ( fried)
garam masala( cardamom, cinnamon stick, cloves)
green chilly 5-6
green corriander and mint leaves.
a pinch of saffron (zafran)


Method:

Marinate mutton with the above masala and keep aside for at least 4-5 hours.
Boil rice with salt , cardomum and cloves till it is half cooked then strain the water and remove the half cooked rice in another pan. In the vessel, put oil or ghee in the base and spread mutton in the pan, then over the mutton put complete half cooked rice. Keep this vessel over pre heated tawa on full flame for 10 minutes and then on simmer for 35-40 minutes.

Mix the rice and mutton well before serving.