Afghani Chicken

Afghani Chicken 

The name of this dish is ‘Afghani Chicken’ but this recipe comes to you from a very authentic Parsee recipe book. Maybe some Parsee ancestors decided to settle in that part of the world for a while, when we were forced to flee Persia during the persecution and happened to pick up this gem from that region. Then again, maybe it was just a weird Bawa feeling the urge to name it so. These are the only (in)sane reasons that comes to mind for a Parsee naming the dish so. Well, food knows no religion or language. What matters is how it tastes, so regardless of whether it is India, Persia/Iran or Afghanistan, I vouch that this one tastes awesome. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 kilo chicken

4 onions, sliced

4” piece ginger

1 whole pod garlic

½ teaspoon turmeric powder/haldi powder

1 bunch coriander leaves

2 green chilies, slit

¼ kilo curds, beaten smooth

A few strands saffron

2 potatoes, peeled, quartered and fried

125 grams ghee/clarified butter

2 hard boiled eggs, quartered

Salt, to taste

Grind to paste:

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

10 peppercorns

7 white cardamoms

8” cinnamon

7 cloves

2 green cardamoms

1 tablespoon cumin

30 grams dry coconut

½ tablespoon charoli/chironji

4 dry red Kashmiri chilies

Method:

1. Clean and wash the chicken and cut into the required number of pieces.
2. Grind the ginger-garlic together to a paste.
3. Fry onions in ghee until golden brown and keep some aside for garnishing.
4. Add ginger-garlic paste to the onions in the ghee and fry well for a minute.
5. Add turmeric powder, green chilies and fry well for a few seconds.
6. Add the ground paste and fry well till ghee separates. Add coriander leaves and fry for a few more seconds.
7. Add chicken pieces, salt and mix well. Add water and cook till chicken is nearly done. Blend in curds.
8. Mix saffron with a little warm water and let it steep for a while, then add to the chicken.
9. Simmer the gravy till thickened to desired consistency.
10. Garnished with fried potatoes, hard boiled eggs and fried onions. Serve with parathas or tandoori naans. 

Chef Notes: 

1. If you reside in a country where they have strict restrictions in regard to the use of poppy seeds, feel free to substitute them with cashew nuts. 
2. The potatoes were to be quartered and fried but I prefer them as chips or wedges hence opted to cut them as accordingly. 
3. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism. 

Macchi No Ras (Fish in light aromatic gravy)

Macchi No Ras (Fish in light aromatic gravy)

This delicately flavored dish is made quite often in Parsee houses. Its best had with plain steamed rice, but then again when I'm in the mood for bread instead of rice, I sop up the 'ras' (gravy in Parsee lingo) with chunks of pau (bread).

Ingredients:

4 slices fish (i've used Surmai-Kingfish)

3 medium-sized onions, finely chopped
20 curry leaves

4-6 green chilies, finely chopped
6 teaspoons garlic, crushed or very finely chopped

6-6½ teaspoons rice flour
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, coarsely ground

½ bunch fresh coriander, finely chopped

Salt, to taste

6 tablespoons oil

Method:

1. Heat oil, add curry leaves and allow to splutter. 
2. Add onions, green chilies, saute till soft and translucent pink.
3. Add the crushed garlic, coarsely ground cumin seeds and sauté.
4. Cook for a couple of minutes and add the rice flour.
5. Sauté well for another two minutes.
6. Add 600-650 mils water and bring to a boil. 
7. Add salt to taste.
8. Carefully place the fish in the boiling gravy for 6 to 7 minutes (You may need to boil the fish for a shorter time if you are using smaller pieces of fish)
9. When fish is cooked, add chopped coriander leaves and give it a gentle stir or lift the vessel and give it a gentle shake to ensure the coriander spreads out evenly in the gravy. Serve hot with plain steamed rice.

Chef Notes:

1. Feel free to use any fish for this dish. Prawns too work beautifully in this gravy.
2. I had once substituted the rice flour with all purpose flour/maida, and most people wouldn't mind doing it, but having had both, i would definitely prefer to go with rice flour. I found all purpose flour/maida to be a tad heavy on the palate.
3. Please don’t overcook the fish. It should be light and perfectly flaky when you poke a fork into it. 
4. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.
   
   

Cheesy Corn Tikkis

Cheesy Corn Tikkis

I kid u not, these babies are melt-in-the-mouth. My mum loves these, which is why every time she returns to Mumbai after her holiday in Pune, i send a boxful of these tikkis (Mum calls them ‘tikkus') back with her. Mom, this one's for you <3

Ingredients:

5 large potatoes, boiled and mashed

2 egg yolks

¼ teaspoon baking powder

Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

125-150 grams cheese, grated (I cut out a piece from the Brittannia or Amul block)

1 big tin Green Giant corn niblets (340 gms)

Oil, to shallow fry

1-2 eggs, beaten with a tablespoon of water

1–1½  cups fine bread crumbs (not coarse) 

Method:

1. Mix the mashed potato, baking powder, egg yolks, salt, pepper, cheese and corn niblets together.
2. Shape into small flat tikki shapes (this quantity makes about 19-20)
3. Dip in beaten egg. Coat in breadcrumbs.
4. Heat oil in a non-stick pan and shallow fry the tikkis. Allow it to get to a golden color on one side then carefully flip the tikki and allow it to get equally golden on the other side.
5. Remove on kitchen towels/tissues. Serve hot with ketchup or sweet/chili sauce.

Chef Notes:

1. The quantity of cheese can be adjusted to suit your taste buds. If u prefer more, or less, cheese feel free to increase or decrease the quantity accordingly. Fair warning though; do not increase the cheese quantity by a huge amount as the tikki won't hold its shape and will split when frying.
2. Do NOT deep fry these tikkis as they will disintegrate in the oil. Shallow fry them turning them just once so that they don't break. These are delicate babies and have to be handled with a lot of TLC.
3. Do NOT crowd the tikkis in the non-stick pan. Fry them a few at a time, allowing ample space in the pan to flip them over.
4. If you wish to make them as starters/appetizers for parties, reduce the tikkis to 'finger food' size. Reducing the size of the tikkis will give you more tikkis but i would still advise that you make a bigger batch for parties. They get polished off in a jiffy because of their melt-in-the-mouth texture. And please serve them piping hot! 
5. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.
   
   

Crab Xec-Xec - Crab in Coconut Curry

Crab Xec-Xec (Crab in Coconut Curry)

Nothing beats a spicy, well-balanced crab curry. This one has all the makings of a ‘must-try’ dish.

Ingredients:

9-10 medium sized crabs, cleaned n big claws separated

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

2 teaspoons ginger-garlic paste

8 tablespoons oil

16 cloves

20 black peppercorns

2 two-inch stick cinnamon

4 tablespoons coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

20 dry red Kashmiri chilies 

3  cups freshly grated coconut

2 large onions, finely chopped

2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped

2 teaspoons lime juice

4 tablespoons coriander leaves, finely chopped

Salt, to taste

Method:

1. Marinate the crabs in a mixture of turmeric powder, salt and ginger-garlic paste for twenty to thirty minutes.
2. Heat four tablespoons of oil in a pan and stir-fry the cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and red chilies. Remove and keep aside.
3. In the same pan roast the coconut till it changes to a slightly darker shade. Remove from stove and keep aside.
4. Grind the roasted cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and red chilies.
5. Add the coconut to the ground spices and grind with one cup of water to a fine paste.
6. Heat four tablespoons of oil in a separate pan; add the onions and sauté till it changes color. Add the tomatoes and cook till soft. Add the ground paste, add water (desired consistency) and bring to a boil.
7. Add the crabs and salt and cook for about 10-20 minutes or till crabs are done (that will depend on the size of the crabs). Add the lime juice and simmer for a minute more.
8. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice, pau or any other Indian bread.

Chef Notes: 

1. I usually substitute lime juice with tamarind pulp.
2. Please do not overcook the crabs. The mushy flesh will taste awful.
3. I used 40 chilies instead of the specified 20 as i prefer my curries really spicy. Please adjust the chilies depending on your tolerance of spice level.
4. This recipe is courtesy Deepa Suhas Awchat. 
5. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.