Sicilian Onion and Tomato Salad

3 -4 large ripe tomatoes

1/2-1 medium sweet onion, depending on how much onion you like .

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1/8 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper

Fresh Mint or Basil leaves for garnishing.

Preparation:

1. Cut tomatoes into bite size pieces.
2. Sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper.
3. Peel a cut onion in half vertically.
4. Along edge of open side, “sliver” cut onion and add to tomatoes.
5. Add the rest of ingredients and toss lightly.
6. Marinate for at least an hour.
7. Serve with  bread/rice/fried rice, provolone or emmenthal cheese or chicken/meat.

Kaju Shimla

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon oil
• ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste (equal quantities of ginger and garlic)
• 200 gms mixed peppers, deseeded and sliced
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• Salt
• 2 tablespoons cashew nuts
• 2 tbsps grated fresh coconut
• 1 large tomato, sliced
• chopped fresh coriander leaves to garnish

 Preparation:

1. Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan and add the cumin seeds. When they begin to turn dark add the onion.
2. Chop the peppers finely.
3. Stir until the onion turns translucent then add the ginger garlic paste, turmeric, salt and cashew nuts. Stir and allow to cook for 7-8 minutes to just soften the mixture. 
4. Remove th saucepan from heat & cool the mixture.
5. Pour the cooled mixture in a mixer -grinder jar & grind it into a fine paste.
6. In a shallow pan , stir fry the peppers & let it cool.
7. Remove the stir fried peppers from heat , pour little ghee or oil & add the coconut & cashew mixture in the same saucepan .
8. Donot add water at all.The consistency of the gravy should be thick.
9. Beat some fresh cream & add in the coconut & cashewnut gravy.
10. Add the stir fried peppers to the gravy & simmer for 2 minutes so that everything mixes well.

11. Garnish with saffron threads or fresh coriander leaves along with a dollop of fresh cream, as desired.
12. Kaju Shimla is ready to eat.
13. Serve with Pulav , plain steamed rice or roti.

Paneer Pasanda

Ingredients:

500 gms Cottage Cheese (Paneer) How to make paneer
6 Onion (Pyaj)
400 gms Tomato (Tamatar)
1 " long piece Ginger (Adrak)
2 Green Chilly (Hari Mirch)
1 cup Cream (Malai)
1 cup Curd (Dahi)
100 Butter
1 tsp Red Chili Powder (Lal Mirchi)

Fine paste of khus-khus or poppy seeds 25 gms approx, soaked almonds 10-12  and cashewnuts 8-10
1/4 tsp Turmeric (Haldi)
1 tsp Dried Pudina Leaves
1/2 tsp Garam Masala
1/2 cup Milk

How to make paneer pasanda:

• Cut cottage cheese in samll pieces.
• Chop onion very finely.
• Grind tomato, ginger, green chilly,.
• Heat butter in a pan.
• Saute onions till pink in color.
• Then add tomato paste.
• Continue cooking it on medium flame till ghee/oil begins to separate.
• Put off the flame.
• Add cottage cheese, cream , curd, paste of poppy seeds, almonds n cashewnuts,salt, red chili powder, turmeric, garam masala, dried pudina leaves and mix well.
• Keep it aside for an hour.
• Put the pan on the flame and then add milk to the mixture.
• Simmer for 5 minutes and then finally put off the gas.

• Take off the fire and serve hot with roti, naan ,kulchha or veg/ kashmiri pulav as desired.

Malabar Prawn Curry

Ingredients



 Fresh tiger Prawns- 250 gms
 Few  fresh curry leaves
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
1 inch fresh ginger finely chopped
3-4  green chillies sliced
1/2 tsp fresh chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp tamarind paste
300ml thick coconut milk or cream
6-8 fresh garlic cloves , thinly sliced
2 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste

Marination:

De-shell & de-vein the prawns one by one properly.
Clean the prawns  in running water.
Marinate the with salt, red chilli powder, turmaeric powder &a small spoon of tamarind paste & keep aside in refrigerator for about an hour for proper marination.

Method

• In a wok or sauce pan heat 2 tbsp of oil until hot.
• Add the  chopped onion, green chillies, garlic and the fresh ginger one by one and saute  for 30 seconds.
• Donot fry them for too long.
• Add the chopped tomatoes and remaining tamarind paste and fry for a further 2 minutes
• Add  warm water and continue to simmer (the consistency should not be too watery , so add warm water slowly, little by little)
• Add the marinated prawns and cook for 10 minutes
• Then reduce the heat to low and add the coconut milk

• You can add 2 tbsps of Eastern Prawn Curry Masala ,for more zing, if desired. 
•  Garnish with coriander leaves of fried Curry leaves
• Stir, taste for seasoning and serve immediately.

Bengali Mutton curry

Ingredients:

1.5 kgs of mutton
3-4 medium size potatoes cut into half.(Potatoes are very essential in cooking this style of mutton gravy)
1-2 tbs of mustard oil for frying potatoes.
6-8 onions

For Marinating the mutton:

garlic 10- 1ginger-1 ½ inch
2 tsp of turmeric powder
1 ½ tsp of salt
4 full (heaps) tbsp  of yogurt
1tsp of garam masala

For tempering :
10- 12 black pepper
3 bay leaf
4 whole cardamom
5 cloves (long)
½ inch long cinnamon stick
1 tsp of sugar
½ cup of mustard oil (Bengalis prefer cooking in mustard oil)
Marinating the mutton:

Fisrt make a smooth paste of Garlic and Ginger by grinding in mixer-grinder , add little bit of water also.Do the same with onions .

Marinate the mutton with Turmeric powder ,salt ,Coriander powder, Yogurt and 1-2 tbs of mustard oil and the garlic /ginger paste and half of the onion paste .Let it sit there for 1-2 hrs.

Heat up a kadai/ heavy bottom Pan ,add 1-2 tbs of mustard oil and fry the potatoes till brown on every side .Take out and keep aside .Dab with a tissue paper to soak excess oil.

Tempering the oil and deep Frying:

Add rest of mustard oil and temper it with Black pepper, Cinnamon stick,Bay leaf , whole Cardamom ,Cloves and sugar .Caramelization Of sugar gives a nice Red color to the Mutton gravy .Fry at low heat for 1 mints . Add the rest of the onion paste, and fry for 3-4 mints till the rawness of the onions is gone.

Add the marinated mutton at this point , deep fry at med for 15-25 mints, TIP-.If the oil comes out by the side of kadai , Mutton is deep fried well .If the mutton is raw it may take few minutes less to deep fry it.

Add fried potatoes and 2 cups of water ( it depends on the gravy you want , if you want a thick gravy don’t add much water).

Transfer the entire fried mutton to Pressure Cooker, add 1tsp of garam masala at this point, one whistle at high and then lower the flame and cook for about 15-17 mints .

Alternately you can cook the entire curry  in a deep bottom pan or kadhai at low for 1hrs and make sure it's covered,the gravy will be very dry or semi-dry.

Let it cool and open the pressure cooker lid  and sprinkle fresh chopped coriander leaves .
Serve hot with rice or poori  .

Chicken Chettinad

Ingredients:

 

 

1kg Chicken

2 tsp Poppy seeds (khus-khus)

1/2 Grated coconut

1 tsp Fennel seeds

1 tsp Coriander seeds

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

6-8 no. Whole red chilies

1" stick Cinnamon

3 no. Green cardamom

2 no. Cloves

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

1 no. Onion, large

2 tsp Ginger, chopped

2 tsp Garlic, chopped

1/2 Star anise

1 tsp Red chilli powder

3 no. Tomatoes, medium

1 no. Lemon

10-12 no. Curry leaves

Fresh coriander Garnish.

1/2 cup Oil

Salt To Taste

 

  

Preparation:

 

• Clean the chicken, remove the skin and cut into small pieces.
• Chop the onions and tomatoes separately.
• Roast the whole red chillies, grated coconut, poppy seeds(optional in uae, bcoz its banned here), coriander seeds, cumin seeds, green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, fennel seeds in oil and grind to a paste for 20 minutes along with ginger and garlic.
• Heat oil in a vessel and fry the onions till golden, then add curry leaves and the ground paste and sauté for some time.
• Add the tomatoes, red chili powder and turmeric powder and sauté.
• Add the chicken, mix and cook for 5 minutes and then add 2 cups of water and lemon juice.
• Cover and cook till the chicken is done.
• Serve hot, garnished with coriander leaves and accompanied with steamed rice, rotis or tandoori naan or appam .

Methi Muthiya

                            

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup bengal gram (chickpea flour)
• 1 cup fenugreek leaves (methi) ( frozen methi works too, but make sure you thaw it well before adding it and you need not add water additionally this way)
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder (or as per taste)
• 1 tsp coriander-cumin powder (Jeera-dhaniya powder)
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp curd (optional)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• salt to taste

Preparation:

 

1 Mix all the ingredients together.

 

2 Bind them together to form a stiff dough. If  muthiyas are too stiff

   add few tsp  of water to loosen it up and if too watery, add the

   flour and rest of the ingredients proportionately to tighten it up. 

   It should allow you to shape it into small sausage shaped pieces 

   or long cylindrical pieces or any shape you desire.

 

3 Deep fry them in oil until golden brown.

 

4 Place them in a paper tissue to get rid of excess oil if any.

 

5 Serve warm as a standalone or with tomato ketchup or mint-

   coriander-green chilli-garlic chutney.