Aloo Anday ka Saalan (Potato and Hard Boiled Egg Curry) #2

A very simple recipe to use for daily cooking, I make this a couple of times a month. I typically serve this with a wet daal or a simple vegetable dish such as bitter greens or karela. The gravy, potato, and egg taste delicious mashed into plain rice. You could even serve this as a solo dish and set out a selection of pickles and a raita on the table. This saalan (wet curry) also goes well with roti.

Oil has been poured off but you can still see some oil in the finished dish or this wouldn't be a proper saalan!

For this dish you need 5 hard boiled eggs peeled and cut in half. I discovered a couple of years ago that if I steam hard boiled eggs on medium heat for 14 minutes, then remove them from the steam and let them rest for 15-20 minutes, they turn out with a perfectly cooked yellow yolk.

In addition you need 1 large potato or 2-3 small potatoes peeled and cut into wedges that are similar in size to the hard boiled egg halves.

The saalan:

1/2 cup oil (oil will be poured off later)
1 tsp whole cumin seeds (sabut zeera)
1 medium onion sliced thinly
1 heaping tbs ginger-garlic paste
2-3 finely chopped green chiles (I ground these with the ginger-garlic paste)
2 large ripe, juicy tomatoes finely chopped, or 2 cups of roughly pureed tomato
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1/2 tsp red chile powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tbs coriander powder
2 cups water
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 pinch Shan Curry Powder or any Kitchen King Masala
1 pinch dried methi rubbed between palms (qasoori methi)

Heat oil in pot and add in cumin seeds. As they sizzle toss in the sliced onions. Stir onions frequently on high heat. When you see that a lot of moisture has evaporated from them, turn down the heat and allow the onions to cook until they are golden. Turn up the heat and add in the ginger garlic paste and finely chopped green chile. When the ginger garlic paste changes color from pale to golden, add in the tomato. Stir tomato on high heat for a while. Add in your turmeric, red chile powder, cumin, and coriander. Cook this gravy for a while until all of the moisture has evaporated from the tomatoes and you have a paste with all of the oil on top of it. Remove from the heat and pour off as much oil as you can without losing any gravy. (You can discard the oil or re-use it in a red meat curry dish.) Put pot back on the stove. Set the flame to high and add in the potato. Stir for a moment, then pour in the water.  Stir in the salt. Allow this to come to a boil. Cover the pan and turn the heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are completely cooked. When they potatoes are cooked, turn off the heat. Toss in the curry powder and the dried methi and stir. Add in the hard boiled egg halves and gently shake the pot to allow the top of the eggs to get covered lightly in gravy. Ideally they shouldn't be completely submerged so that they are visible and look pretty. If you care to make this daily dish fancier, pour the gravy in a flat rimmed serving dish, then arrange the eggs in the dish, spooning some gravy on top of each egg. The eggs should sit in the gravy for 5-10 minutes so that they pick up the saalan's flavor.

For an alternative alu anday recipe that does not use the typical tomato-onion masala, see here.

Served with healthy brown basmati rice with the gravy mixed and mashed in. Yummy to eat with fingers!

Aloo Chholay Chickpea and Potato Curry

This is a #whattodowithShanMasala recipe, meaning that it is required that you have Shan Chana Masala Mix (or your channa masala brand of choice) to make this recipe.

Alu chholay, a classic dish of Punjab. Serve this with roti, or even puris or kulchay. Make it thick or liquidy as per your taste, and if it has a wetter gravy, enjoy it with rice.

You may be wondering why Shan labels their mix chana (also spelled channa), but some people call this legume chhola (plural chholay). Chhola is the Punjabi word. This is what we call in English chickpea or garbanzo bean. To distinguish from the indigenous strain of desi chickpea, the channa daal with it's black outer skin, many people also call the larger, non-indigenous garbanzo Kabuli channa (channa from Kabul, Afghanistan) or safaid channa (white chickpeas).


Step one: Preparing the chholay

Chholay are best prepared in a pressure cooker, but can also be boiled in a regular pot. You will need:

1.5 cups of dried chickpeas
pinch of baking soda
1 black tea bag
1/2 tsp salt
water

Put your dried chickpeas in a deep bowl and wash them well. Cover them in double their amount of water. They will swell and grow as they rehydrate, so you want to make sure that they are in a deep enough amount of water. Add in 1 pinch of baking soda. This helps them soften when they soak and cook. Soak these at least 5 hours, or overnight.

When you are ready to prepare the chickpeas, strain them from the water. Never boil legumes in the water in which they have soaked, as all of the gas causing properties of the legumes will be in the water. It should be discarded (or used to water the plants or something). Put chickpeas in a pressure cooker with double the amount of water of the chickpeas. Add in the black tea bag and the salt. Cover and pressure cook them for about 25 minutes. In my Hawkins, it takes about 8 whistles and then low simmer for 10 minutes. Your pressure cooker cook time may vary.

When done, the chickpeas should be beautifully tender. Keep them aside with their cooking liquid, and discard the tea bag, which should have done its job of coloring the chholay. You will need the chickpeas separately from the cooking liquid, so when you are ready to cook, have the chickpeas strained, and keep the cooking liquid in another vessel.

You can also soak the chickpeas overnight and boil them (no salt) on the stove top for 45 mins to an hour. Add the salt when they are soft. OR you can use canned chickpeas. Canned don't have the fluffy, soft texture of rehydrated boiled chickpeas, though. It's up to you.

Step 2: The masala

1/4 cup cooking oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 small onion chopped (lemon sized onion, or 1/2 American onion)
1 tbs garlic paste
1 tbs ginger paste
1 tsp red chile powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 cup roughly pureed tomatoes (or 2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped)
1 tbs Shan Chana Masala
3-4 small potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite sized cubes
1/2 tsp amchoor
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste (+/- 1 tsp)


garnish:
chopped green chiles and chopped cilantro

Method:

Heat oil in pan. Add in cumin seeds and allow them to color. Add in onions. Cook onions until they are translucent and turning golden, and browning a little bit on the outside. Don't let them become too brown or your curry gravy will be sweet. Add in the garlic and ginger when the onions are golden. Allow the garlic and ginger to color, then toss in the red chile powder, turmeric, coriander powder, and cumin powder. Allow this to sizzle for a second. Add in the tomato puree. Cook for a few moments until the tomatoes dry up a bit and the oil rises out of the masala paste. Add in the salt, then toss in the chickpeas that you had kept aside. Stir these for a few moments. Now, add in the Shan Chana Masala and stir well. Then, add in 1 cup of the chickpea cooking liquid. Allow this to come to a boil. Add in the chopped potatoes. Bring to a boil again. Cover, turn the heat to low, and cook for 20-25 minutes until the potatoes are completely done. When the cooking is done, turn off the flame and stir in the garam masala and amchoor. Cover and let this rest for 5 full minutes. The liquid will thicken at this point. If you want a wetter gravy, add in 1/2 cup or so more water. Stir in some cilantro, and then add more cilantro and chopped green chiles on the top of the dish.

Chicken dopiaaza: Chicken cooked in onion gravy

This dish is also called istew and istew dopyaaza. Dopiaaza is a reference to the fact that the dish incorporates bothe sauteed onions and caramelized (bhuna) onions into the gravy. My recipe was passed along to me by my mother in-law. As she is from U.P. originally, this recipe is yoghurt based and doesn't contain tomatoes. It requires whole garam masala (khara masala), as well as powdered garam masala. I keep fried onions ready in my freezer. You can also buy them ready fried at any desi grocer. The sauteed onions are easy to do, but these days you can also get packets of ready sauteed onions at the desi grocer. I also keep pre-ground ginger/garlic paste on hand in the fridge. These ready done items make this dish easy to make, but it is quite easy even if you start from scratch.

You will need:

1 chicken skinned and chopped into botees (bone in)
1 onion chopped finely for sauteeing
1 onion sliced from brown frying (or just use pre-fried bhuni hui pyaaz)
2 tsp ginger paste
2 tsp garlic paste
1 heaping tsp kashmiri chile powder
1 heaping tsp garam masala powder
1/2 cups yoghurt
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
2-3 tbs sunflower oil

Khara Masala:
1 cinnamon stick
1-2 bay leaves
5 peppercorns
5 cloves
5 green cardamon pods
1-2 large black cardamon pods
1 tsp cumin seeds

Mix all powdered masalas plus 1 tsp of ginger and 1 tsp of garlic paste into the yoghurt and set aside. Pre-fry sliced onions and set aside. Heat oil in pan. Add in khara masala and fry for a few moments. Add in chopped onions and sautee until the are clear. Add in the rest of the ginger and garlic paste and fry for a few minutes. Stir in the caramelized onions and chicken. Stir around until chicken is browned. Add in yoghurt-masala mixture and salt, plus 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat. Cook for about 25 minutes or so until chicken is done (chicken available where I live cooks very fast...it might take yours longer). The dish is ready to enjoy. Serve with basmati rice and/ or naan.

*Tips: I buy a bad of whole mixed garam masala and pick out the ones I need as pictured above, rather than buying individual quantities of each masala. Life is just easier that way.

An alternative style is to add finely chopped tomatoes and allow the water to evaporate from them when the finely chopped onions have melted down a bit and before you add the chicken to bhunofy. I have tried both ways, and both are equally delicious.

Melting the masala

Let’s look at how to make the basic tomato-onion masala that forms the flavor base of a wide range of North Indian/Southern Pakistani dishes, especially Panjabi dishes. I call this making the ‘Masala Melt.’ This is when you take wet aromatic ingredients such as onions, ginger, garlic, green chiles, and tomatoes, and you fry them for a long time until the moisture evaporates from them and the oil separates from the ingredients. Dry masalas such as whole and/or powdered spices are usually added to the Masala Melt. We don’t have anything equivalent to this in American cooking. Cooking onions this way goes far beyond our more common technique of caramelization.  But this technique is integral in producing authentic North Indian dishes. So, how do you make a Masala Melt? Start with finely chopped onions. Depending on the recipe, you may have to fry whole spices (khara or sabut masala) along with your onions. Add these to oil in a deep pot on high heat. When the onions have lost a bit of moisture, turn down the heat and saute them for a while until they are translucent, very soft, and almost falling apart, but not browning. If they are browning, you need to lower the flame. They shouldn’t start to brown too early or your onions will burn before the process is done. When the onions start to turn golden in color, you can add in your ginger, garlic, and chile pastes. Let this cook until the garlic and ginger are golden, too. By now, everything should be crispy looking and your onions should have taken on a reddish brown color. This indicates that all of the moisture has evaporated from them and they are properly fried. Now, turn up the heat and add in any powdered spices required for your recipe. Immediately after tossing in the spices, and before anything starts to burn, add in the tomatoes. The tomatoes should be chopped into fairly small chunks or roughly pureed in a food processor. You may also add salt at this point. Continue to fry the masala on high heat, stirring frequently until the tomatoes have ‘melted’ into a thick paste. The oil should rise to the top of the masala paste, and this masala paste should be slightly sticking to the pan. You now have a Masala Melt. The fried onions should have completely broken down in your Masala Melt and should no longer be visible. With some recipes, such as Rajma, Daal Makhani, Chola Masala, or some other lentil dishes, you will pour the Masala Melt into a pot of pre-cooked lentils. For some dishes, like Baingan Bharta, you will add cooked eggplant to the Masala Melt. You can also add various types of meat and use your Masala Melt as the base of a curry.

Tonight we are gonna do it Madras style

Tonite we are doing it Madras style. It is uttapam, sambhar, and coconut chutney. My husband isn't too much into this kind of thing...but too bad for him! I only serve it every once in a while. Since it seems novel, he appreciates it.

The recipe below isn't really helpful unless you have access to ready made dosa/idli/uttapam batter. I am just sharing because it is a favorite meal of mine, plus I feel accomplished for serving it even though I buy a ready-made batter.


For the uttapam: I buy Saravana Bhavan's ready made dosa/idli/uttapam batter from Lulu Hypermarket. Just pour into a hot pan like a pancake and top with chopped onions, chopped green chilies, cilantro, ground coconut, and a few slices of tomatoes. Making dosa batter from scratch would be above my level of cooking skills, though I have been told it is very easy. I have used the boxed Gitz dosa mix before, but I don't recommend it.

For the sambhar: boil toor/arhar ki daal. When it is done, add in a medley of vegetables of your choice, plus some garlic, ginger, and onions chopped. To be true to a sambhar recipe, I recommend tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, eggplant, drumstick vegetable, pearl onions, green beans, and some type of pumpkin. (I buy a packet of pre-cut up mixed veggies called "sambhar vegetables" from Lulu Hypermarket) and cook them till tender, add in about a cup of tamarind water, add in sambhar masala to taste---about 2 tbs (I use Eastern Brand), salt, and a tempering of mustard seeds and dried red chilies, and curry leaves.

For the coconut chutney: in a blender blitz 1 cup fresh ground coconut flesh, 3 chopped green chilies, 1tsp ginger, and some water, and salt to taste, stir in lemon juice, temper with a few curry leaves, 2-3 dried red chilies, a pinch of mustard seeds, and a pinch of unsoaked uraad daal.

Fish in tamarind sauce

I hardly ever cook fish but I like this recipe for when I do. It is a lot of ingredients but it takes 5 minutes to cook once u set out the ingredients. This should be cooked in a large non stick wok (karhai) if you have one:

3 hand sized fish filets, deboned and cut into large chunks. I use Arabic Grouper (hammour) but u can use any firm white fish that won't fall apart when you stir fry it. hmmm, i think striped bass would work for this in the USA.

Pour 1 tbs Shan fish masala on the fish and marinate for 1 hour or so.

For the stir fry:

4 cloves thinly sliced garlic
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/2 tsp whole coriander seeds
1 tsp crushed garlic paste
1 tsp crushed ginger paste
mix together 1 tsp each powdered: cumin, coriander, shan fish masala, 1/2 tsp turmeric and 1/2 tsp red chili for your spice mix
5 whole dried red chiles (less for less spicy)
3 green chiles chopped (less for less spicy)
5 fresh curry leaves (you can leave this out if you want)
A few leaves of mint chopped
A handful fresh cilantro chopped
1/2 cup tamarind water (soak 1 inch square of pulp in 1 cup hot water to get this, you've gotta squeeze the pulp, then strain it
Sprinkle of salt
Pinch garam masala
1/4 cup oil

Heat oil in wok, when hot add cumin seeds and whole dried red chilis, after few seconds add coriander seeds, curry leaves then thinly sliced garlic. allow to fry for 1 minute while garlic turns golden (don't burn it though), then throw in the salt and spice mix, let sizzle. then toss in the marinated fish. stir fry gently (don't break fish apart) fish will cook very quickly, maybe four minutes. When fish is done, pour in the tamarind water, let it heat up and bubble for a moment, then turn of flame. It is done. Now add the garam masala, chopped fresh cilantro, the chopped green chilis, and the chopped mint leaves. Stir once and serve immediately. Serve with rice or flat bread.

Pasanda: Thin rump steaks stewed in seasoned yoghurt gravy

My mother in-law makes these a lot when she comes to visit because quite frankly they are so easy, and they taste good. My husband likes them a lot, too. These two pasanda recipes are adapted from her original recipes.

Garam Masala Pasanda

1 lb beef rump sliced into 1 cm thick steaks (ask the desi butcher for pasanda)
(I have also made this recipe successfully with pasanda sized slices of chicken breast)
1 cups yoghurt
1 tbs good garam masala
2 heaping tbs coriander powder (pisa hua dhania)
1 tsb red chili powder
1 tsp salt or to taste
2-3 tbs oil

Pound the meat slices, stab them with a fork, beat and abuse to tenderize. Whip the masalas with the yoghurt. Add in the meat and marinate over night, or at least for a few hours so the yoghurt can tenderize the beef. Heat oil, add the meat and marinade. Cook on high heat for about 10 minutes or so until gravy separates from oil. If you are using chicken breasts, lower heat and simmer for 10 more minutes and you're done. For beef, add in about 1/2 cup water, allow to boil briefly, lower heat and simmer for 1 hour or more until beef is nice and tender. You may need to add a little more water if it gets too dry. The gravy should be thick, velvety and separate from the oil at the end.

Pasanda in Ginger Garlic Gravy

1 pound pasanda beef slices
1 cup yoghurt
1 tbs garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
2 tbs crushed browned onion (bhuni hui pyaaz---I fry and freeze in large quantities, you will need to fry some up, say about 1 medium onion, if you don't have them on hand)
1 tsp red chili flakes
2-3 tbs oil

Mix the yoghurt and all the masalas except the browned onion. Add in the meat. Marinate overnight. Heat oil and add in the browned onion for one moment (don't blacken, just sizzle), then pour in the marinade. Braise on high heat for 10 minutes or so, add in 1/2 cup of water, bring to a boil, turn down heat, and simmer for one hour or until meat is tender.

I also like the Shan Masala pasanda recipe. Be careful of your beef slices being too thin because they should be tender but not falling apart, and shouldn't curl. Pasanda gravy should be fairly dry , but if you want more gravy, use 1/2 cup more yoghurt. If you want to make it dryer, use 3/4 cups yoghurt instead of 1 cups and add more water in the recipe, then just dry up the water at the end of cooking. Serve with naan or basmati rice.

Bin Masala Chicken: Chicken cooked without a heavy masala

Here is an extremely easy and delicious chicken "curry" recipe from Lucknow, UP. It was shown to me by my mother in-law. It is called Bin-Masala Chicken which means chicken cooked without spices--- although there are spices in the recipe, it doesn't have the usual garlic/ginger paste or caramelized onions that typify many "curries." You can do this recipe two ways: chicken is cut into pieces and cooked stove-top, or whole skinless chicken is cooked partially stove-top but finished off in the oven (pictured above). Here is what you need:

1 whole chicken, skinned and cut into medium pieces, OR one skinless whole chicken
1.5 cups real yoghurt (buy it from desi or Middle Eastern Market)
2 tbs of a good brand of "garam masala" which can be bought an Indo-Pak grocery store
small pinch each (1/4 tsp each) of nutmeg and mace (this is necessary to make it Lucknawi style)
1/2 tsp of Kashmiri chili powder or paprika if you don't like heat
2-3 tbs oil
salt to taste

Fully Stove-Top with Chicken Pieces: First whip the spices and salt into the yoghurt. Add chicken pieces and marinade at least one hour or up to 24 hours. Heat oil in pot, add chicken with marinade and stir on medium heat until the oil separates from the yoghurt (+/-10 mins). Turn heat down very low and cook until the chicken is fully cooked. (around 30-40 minutes depending on how fast chicken cooks where you live, where I am it is very tender and cooks very fast and will fall apart if cooked for more than 30 minutes) When finished, the gravy should be slightly thick. If it is not, remove chicken pieces from gravy, turn up heat and stir for a few minutes till it thickens, then return the chicken to the gravy and serve immediately. You must remove the chicken or it will break apart--the yoghurt marinade makes it extra tender and sensitive also.

Whole Skinned Chicken: Whip powdered spices, salt and yoghurt together in a large bowl. Add the whole skinless chicken to marinade. Allow to marinade from 1 hour up to 24 hours. Heat oil in pot. Add in chicken and marinade at medium heat and cook, stirring around gently until the yoghurt is cooked and the oil rises to the top of the gravy. Once the oil has risen to the top of the gravy, lay the chicken on one side, breast and thigh piece down, and cook covered at a simmer for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, turn the chicken so that the other breast and leg are at the bottom of the pot and cook covered for another 12 minutes. Stir in a little bit of water if the gravy looks dry. After the 12 minutes is up, turn the chicken so that the breast side is down and cook off for a final 12 minutes, adding a tiny bit of water if necessary. This rotation method insures that the thigh-leg pieces stay in a good shape and don't flail out. Once this 12 minutes is up, transfer chicken and gravy breast side up into a baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes to brown the chicken and make sure that it is cooked through. Baste it with gravy once it is remove from the oven, then allow it to rest for 10 minutes or so. This whole chicken is nice to serve at a small dinner party so that you may cut it up in front of the guests and impress them. :-)

Best with naan or plain basmati rice.

Aloo Anday: Potato and Hard Boiled Egg Curry #1

Aloo anday or potato and hard boiled egg curry:

3 medium size potatoes- they should be a quick cooking variety as in will be ready in 20 minutes, not a hard variety. Chop into chunks that are the size of hard boiled eggs. you can peel or not peel at your discretion.

5 hard boiled eggs. Peel, and cut in half. Set aside.

1 1/2 tbs finely crushed garlic
1 tbs finely crushed ginger
1/4 tbs ground turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1 heaping tsp ground cumin powder
2 heaping tsps ground coriander powder
1/4 tsp whole cumin seeds
1-2 roughly chopped fresh green chilies
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3/4 cup water
pinch of salt
3 tbs oil

Heat oil in pan. Add garlic, ginger and whole cumin seeds. Lower heat and cook this stirring frequently on very low heat for 15-20 minutes. Be sure not to burn it. But the garlic and ginger should caramelize like a Cuban mojo. This will cook all the bitter strong garlicky taste out of the garlic and leave you with the base of a delicious sauce. Okay, when you have cooked the garlic paste, turn up the heat and add in the turmeric, the red chili powder, and the cumin and coriander powder. Stir around once quickly. Do not allow to burn. Toss in your potatoes, stir once, then pour in the water. Allow to cook for 20 minutes or so until potatoes are ready and the oil has separated from the gravy. When it looks ready, add in the fresh chopped green chili cover the pan with the heat off for about five minutes just to steam the chilies. Serve immediately. When ready to serve, pour into a casserole type dish and add in the halved hard boiled eggs, spooning a bit of the sauce over them. Be gentle and don't stir the dish because you don't want the egg yolks to break up into the gravy. Garnish with chopped cilantro. The main trick in this dish is cooking the garlic/ginger paste until done perfectly so that the sauce tastes great. If you haven't done it right, it will taste bitter or like raw garlic. If you have done it well, it is heavenly.
Serve with basmati rice or wheat flour flat bread.

For a more traditional alu anday recipe, see here. 

Aloo Gobhi

Here is my recipe for aloo gobhi, or cauliflower and potato stir fry. The trick is not to add any water. It is a dry veg, not a wet one. This is easisest to cook in a non-stick wok shaped pot with a lid, but any deep non-stick pot with a lid will do.


1 small head phool gobhi--cauliflower, chopped into florets and washed

3 quick cooking potatoes, (they must be the kind that cook in 20 minutes, not the baking kind that take an hour) cut into small cubes and soaking in water

1 small onion sliced

4 garlic cloves cut into slivers

1 tsp crushed fresh ginger

1 tsp whole cumin seeds

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2-1 tsp red chili powder

1 heaping tsp ground cumin

1 stick cinnamon

3-4 cardamon pods

2 bayleaves

5 black pepper corns

5 cloves

(all of these whole spices come together in a packet of whole garam masala in small quantities to make it easy for you so you don't have to buy separate packets of each)

2-3 whole red dried chilies

2 fresh green chilies cut in bite sized chunks (de-seed if u like)

2 table spoons of roughly chopped fresh cilantro

1/2-1 tsp garam masala powder

2 tables spoons oil

salt to taste


Heat oil in wok until very hot. Add in the whole red chilies, the cumin seeds, the bay leaves, cloves, pepper corns, cardamon, cinnamon stick, and fry around for about 1 minute. Then add in the onions, garlic, ginger. Fry until onions look translucent and garlic looks crispy. Then add in the turmeric, red chili powder, and cumin powder. Let this sizzle for one moment, then add in the potato cubes. They must still be wet from soaking in water...this creates steam to help them cook. Stir around well for a few minutes, getting the masala color on them. Then lower heat to medium and cover. Leave for 10 minutes, stirring a couple of times to prevent bottom sticking. Then turn up the heat and add in the gobhi---it helps if you gobhi is a tad wet from being washed as well. Stir again coating in the masala oil. You should add your salt now, too. Then lower heat to medium again and cover for about 10-15 more minutes, stirring occasionally. By now the potato and cauliflower are both cooked, and it is done. They should be fully cooked, but slightly crisp. Definately not mushy and falling apart. Now add the pinch of ground garam masala and the chopped green chilies. With the heat off, cover again and allow the green chilies to steam a bit for a few minutes. Then uncover, add in the chopped cilantro garnish, and serve.

Paalak Chicken

Here is a recipe for paalak murghi. The end result will be the spinach makes a wet gravy clinging to the chicken pieces, not a curry drowning the chicken in spinach. Don't add water to this recipe because both the spinach and the chicken will throw off water into the gravy:

3 tbs oil
1 skinless, bone-in chicken cut into 12 pieces
2 tomatoes chopped
1 onion finely chopped
5 cloves garlic crushed into a paste
1 inch piece ginger crushed into a paste
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3-4 dried red chilies whole
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1 heaping tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 packet frozen chopped spinach (it will be 2.5 cups or so)
1 tsp salt or more to taste
1 tbs qasoori methi
pinch of garam masala
1 pat of butter

garnish:
chopped green chiles, fresh cilantro


Heat oil, brown chicken pieces on high heat and remove from oil. Set aside. Heat oil again, add in the whole cumin and dried red chilies, then after about 30 seconds, the onions and saute, stirring frequently on high heat until they start to brown a bit and get soft (8 minutes or so). Add in garlic and ginger, stir for minute till garlic looks cooked, then toss in all the rest of the powdered spices except the garam masala, then after 30 seconds, add in the tomatoes and salt. Keep stirring on high heat for about 5 minutes and allow the tomatoes to melt down a bit. Then add the spinach in and when it is no longer in frozen chunks, add the chicken back in. Allow to bubble up once, then lower heat and cover. Keep covered for about 25 minutes on very low flame (or longer, my local chicken cooks very fast and will fall apart if I cook for longer), stirring occasionally. It is done when the chicken is cooked and the oil separates from the gravy. At this point add in the qasoori methi, garam masala, and butter. Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro. Serve with basmati rice or some type of flat bread, plus plain Greek yoghurt on the side.

Bhuna Gosht

Bhuna is fried, brown fried to a crisp sort of. For bhuna gosht, the gravy should be very well fried and dried up, or bhunofied in Hinglish.

Yet another goat meat Pakistani family favorite. The end result should be a rather dry and thick velvety gravy paste.

2-3 tbs oil
2 finely sliced onions, fried until reddish brown (bhuni hui pyaaz)
1 pound bone in goat meat in stew sized chunks
2 tbs yoghurt
1 tomato roughly pureed
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 heaping tsp good garam masala
2 tsp ground coriander powder
1 tsp or so salt or to taste
1/2 to 1 cup water for the "dam"
chopped cilantro and green chilies for garnish

*TIP*I fry up large quantities of browned onions and freeze for use about once per month. It is a huge time saver to not need to caramelize onions for every dish that requires them, since they are so widely used in Pakistani cooking. For this dish, I use pre-browned onions. Be sure when you add them in to the hot oil, you do it shortly before you add in a wet ingredient to prevent them from burning.

Brown the meat very well, add in the fried onions, garlic, ginger, and fry some more. Add in the tomatoes, garam masala, dried coriander powder, and salt, and continue to stir on high heat for a while until oil rises from the gravy. Add in the yoghurt and stir until the yoghurt separates from the oil. Add in the water, the goat should be about 1/2 covered in water. Allow to boil, cover the pot, and simmer on very low heat for 1 hour and 15 minutes or so until the goat is nicely tender. When the meat is tender, turn up the heat to high again and stir around for a few moments to thicken the gravy a bit more, until you have a dark brown paste. I often remove the goat from the gravy and stir the gravy to thicken on high heat to get a very thick paste. Then I add the goat in again. The results should be a brown, very well bhunofied gravy that is fairly dry and clinging to the meat. This is what is "bhuna" about it and why it is different from a saalan. Garnish with the "green masala" or cilantro and green chilies.

Alu Gosht

Alu gosht is meat and potatoes. It is a Pakistani home cooked standard.


You will need:
2-3 tbs oil
1 onion sliced finely
1 tsp crushed ginger
1 tbs crushed garlic
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chili powder (or use less for less heat)
1 tsp coriander powder
2 large tomatoes chopped
1 kg bone in goat meat cut into 2 inch chunks
3-4 potatoes cut into large wedges or even just halved
salt to taste, like about 1 heaping tsp
1/2 tsp ready made garam masala spice mix
chopped cilantro and chopped green chilies for garnish

First you have to brown the onions. Fry them in oil on very high heat, when they have lost a lot of moisture, turn down the heat and allow them to turn reddish brown, stirring occasionally. This will take maybe 1/2 cup of oil, so you can strain them from the oil, take out your oil for the rest of the dish, and set aside the remainder of the now onion flavored oil for something else.

Now, brown the meat well on high heat, when it looks nice and browned, add in the garlic, browned onions, ginger, garlic, turmeric, red chili powder, and coriander powder, stir around for a few moments just to sizzle and cook the garlic/ginger through. This should be a very quick step, do not burn the spices or the browned onions at this stage or your dish is ruined. Once you have given it a good sizzle, quickly add in your tomatoes, the moisture of the tomatoes will prevent anything from burning. Just stir as the tomatoes melt down---you can add your salt now, too. Keep stirring until everything is melted into a dark brown paste clinging to the meat, as for bhuna gosht. After a few minutes, add about 1 1/2 cup of water. Allow this to come to a boil, then turn down the heat to very low and simmer covered for about 1 hour. Stir occasionally to prevent the bottom from sticking. When an hour has passed, add in your potatoes. You may need to add a tiny bit more water, like 1/4 cup. Allow this to boil for a quick moment, then lower heat again and cook for about 20-30 mins more until potatoes are done. The goat should be very tender by now and you should have a wet 'shorba' (soupy) gravy. Turn off the heat and stir in the garam masala. Garnish with the chopped chilies and cilantro. Serve with some type of brown flatbread or basmati rice, and plain live yoghurt on the side.