Qubooli

Qubooli-chana dal flavoured in a yogurt and onion curry, layered with basmati,cooked in the aroma of cardamom,cinnamon and caraway seeds.
This recipe used to be our eid special,prepared for brunch with the traditional sheerqorma. Mom used to prepare it with dahi ki chutney(raita) and shikampur(minced meat patties with a filling of onion and yogurt,shallow fried). The festive air used to make it all the more tasty.
This is a very tasty one dish meal,and biryani equivalent for vegetarians :)
Now for eid generally I make mutton/chicken biryani,coz thats what is the PUBLIC DEMAND(read, husband demand),but cooking it in normal days makes me think of eid day back then when eid meant dressing up and looking good and doing hafta vasooli(eidi), making the most of being younger to people who can shell out cash(;)), wow I used to be rich after eid,with all the eidi collected(I was the youngest of all so,I didnt need to give it to anybody).
I was not able to cook this particular dish after marriage as I did not know the recipe,I missed it,but could not find a recipe close to what I ate.
which remindsme of a sher...arz hai
'rang laati hai mehandi sookh jaane ke baad,yaad aati hai khaane ki khaane se door jaane ke baad:)'(altered from original)
then recently found it in a google search and was more than happy to find it, I was in TN then, I made it, and it was an instant hit there,loved and relished by all,hope you like it too...




Ingredients:
1)Basmati Rice-2 cups
2)medium size onions-2(fried to golden brown)
3)chana dal-1/2 cup
4)yogurt-1/2 cup
5)ginger garlic paste-2 tsp
6)garam masala-1tsp
7)salt
8)cardamom 3,cinnamon-1 inch long stick,caraway seeds-1/2 tsp
9)turmeric-1/4 tsp
10)red chilli pdr-1 tsp
11)cilantro-1 cup chopped
12)8-10 green chillies chopped
13)Saffron,ghee
14)1 big lime

Method:
--Boil Dal till almost done,not mashed up,but whole.
--Wash and soak rice,put water,cinnamon,cardamom,caraway seeds,half of the cilantro,grren chillies and salt in a pot,cover and boil.
--In the meantime,heat ghee,whisk yogurt,ginger garlic paste,turmeric,red chilli powder,salt and ghee,cook till oil separates.
--Add daal and cook till dry,add garam masala and fried and crushed onion,squeeze out the juice of lime,mix well and keep aside.
--Add soaked rice to the boiling water,cook till 3/4th done, strain.
--Before putting it in layers,spread some oil,on the bottom of the pot,so that rice does not get stuck to the bottom .
--Now put half of the rice in the pot(first),then the dal mixture(second layer),then again the rest of the rice.
--soak saffron in 1/4 cup warm milk(if u dont have saffron use food colour)
--Spread blobs of ghee on the top rice layer,then sprinkle saffron milk,all over the top layer.Garnish with cilantro.
--cover it tightly with aluminium foil,then with a lid.
--cook for 10-15 mins on low flame(sim).
--Let it stand for 10 mins before serving,then mix the layers well and serve.
--Enjoy with Raita, tamate ka masale ka saalan or mirchi ka saalan.

The adventures of Tin Tin

There are somethings that you can never forget.

Back then, when I was a kid,I loved comics like any other kid,I read Archies,Tinkle..many more,but the first set of comics that I (not me exactly,will come to it later) read were' The Adventures of TinTin'.

I read it sooooooo many times, that I remembered every line of it.Actually those comics belonged to my sister.

Our school used to gave away gift vouchers from a bookstore for the students who stood first or second in class, so my sister had a voucher for each year,and she had a shelf full of books ,and I was the one who read it all the time:),coz she was busy reading school books!

Yeah I was an average student,'one day batsman:D',managaed to pull up in the top ten,sometimes missed top ten,so was on and off!e TinT

So that was long back,TinTin,is all over and done with no more TinTin now, recently when Sameeha wanted ro see cartoon,I searched for someting,and what I found was a whole series of TinTin episodes,thI was so overjoyed watching it,it reminded me of the good old days,remembered every dialogue in it! every character in it so well, how Captain Haddock says'millions of blue blistering barnacles!',snowy,professor calculous....loved it!

We had four comics of the TinTin series,some others I read it from library!

So the four that we had were

1)The Black Island

black island-1

black island-2

black island -3

black island-4

2)Castafiore Emarald

Castafiore Emarald-1

Castafiore Emarald-2

Castafiore Emarald-3

Castafiore Emarald-4

3)Flight 714

Flight 714-1

Flight 714-2

Flight 714-3

Flight 714-4

Flight 714-5

4)The seven crystal balls

The seven crystal balls-1

The seven crystal balls-2

The seven crystal balls-3

The seven crystal balls-4

So enjoy the cartoons that I grew up with ....

fried rice and chicken munchurian

You know what nutritionists say, they say that in the bowl or plate that you eat you should have at least 5 colors, to make the food apeal to the eye....fried rice is one of those foods, instantly apealing to the eyes!

Fried rice coupled with chicken munchurian is an ideal indo chinese food, though I miss the chinese restaurant I used to go , when I was in hyderabad..and especially the Basket noodles, I plan to make it someday,alas one day will come when I will try out that recipe, but seriously I love the crispy noodles, .nearly 8-9 mnths back when I was pregnant, I had cravings for chinese chopsouey,every now and then I used to bug my husband to take me to all the chinese restaurants, one day we were grocery shopping in Carrefour, my husband found a frozen chopsouey vegetables, he`also took the noodles, next day it was my day off in the kitchen, my husband cooked the chopsouey, but so much that I had to eat that the following night,next day for lunch and then for dinner, now nomore I crave for that:-D.

Lets get back to fried rice,.It is a comon recipe, but every person has their own version of it, so lets try it out!!
Fried rice::


Rice 3 cups, cooked(long grain rice would be good)
beans:250gm chopped
carrot : 1.5 chopped
springonions : 1/2 bunch chopped
eggs :2
chicken : 100 gms cut in cubes
soyasouce
ajinomoto
oil
salt
ginger garlic paste: 1/8th ts(I know we dont use in actual recipe,but i love the flavor of ginger garlic)

proceedure:



-->After cooking the rice, spread it on a tray so that the rice grains dont stick
-->mix the chopped vegetables (beans,carrot spring onion) in a saucepan, and boil in water for about 3 mins.
-->boil the boneless chicken cubes in about 1 cup water with salt, pepper and a pimch of ginger garlic paste.
-->in a bowl break the eggs, put a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper and beat it well
-->In a wok heat oil put the,beaten egg,fry till it is scrambled,then put the boiled chicken, fry for 2 mins then, put the chopped vegetables,fry for 2 mins, put the ginger garlic paste,soya sauce,ajinomoto,salt, pepper, fry for around 2 mins then put the rice and fry till the vegetables and rice are properly mixed.

-->Ta Da your fried rice is ready

Chicken munchurian::

250 gms chicken breast pieces cut in strips
2 capsicum also cut in strips

1 onion sliced

5 flakes garlic chopped

4 green chillies slitted

3 tbsp tomato sauce

2tbsp hot sauce

1 tsp vinegar

1 tsp ginger garlic paste'

2 tbsp corn flour

1 egg

ajinomoto

soyasauce

oil

proceedure:

-->Mix `the chicken strips,soyasauce,ginger garlic paste,ajinomoto,salt, 1 tbsp hot sauce,vinegar....mix well and let ot marinate for about 1-2 hour.

-->make batter of 1 egg and corn flour,heat oil in sautepan, dip each chicken strip in the egg batter and soft fry each strip drain i on a paper towel and keep aside

-->now in a wok heat oil, put the sliced onion,fry till the onion is transparent, the put the chopped garlic and slitted green chillies, fry for 30 secs, then put the capsicum fry till it gets soft,then put salt, remaining 1 tbsp hot sauce, tomato sauce,,mix well .

-->Then put the soft fried chicken in the wok and mix till the masala is nicely coated on all the chicken pieces

--> Serve Hot with fried rice

-->

Hyderabadi Biryani

Hyderabadi Biryani......mmmmmmmmm doesnt it sound yum..
Well...thats my favourite....and my husband's too....

When I got married I did not know much of cooking .. only the basic stuff...
since I was from Hyderabad.. there were lots of expectations with my first biryani...
but Oh my God...it turned out to be a disaster.....but...You know that was the thing that my husband loved.... and the saying goes that " practice makes man perfect".it came true to me... only me being a woman not a man;-)

You know what! I also got to learn the different versions of biryani...tamil nadu style being the spicier version.. with tomatoes an dlots and lots of ginger garlic..
then there is the keralite version of it that has alittle sweet taste with all these dry fruits like cashew.. and kishmish .

Some time back my husband gifted me a very interesting cookery book....that had the recipe of "Luknawi dumpuqt Biryani".
I tried that out... Man was that awesome?

actually I made that only once.. that was on my daughter's first birthday...I made that with all my love.. and I think thats why it turned out good..you know LOVE is an essential ingredient in every recipe :)

ok lets not b philosophical.. and move on...but seriously my husband says that..that biryani was my best biryani ever....Inshallah will post it recipe...whenever I make it.. and I know that will be soon.

So ok...lets now get down to business

ingredients:
1 Kg basmati rice
1 Kg mutton
200gms yogurt
3-4 Tbsp ginger garlic paste
1.5 Tsp chilly powder
1/2 Tsp turmeric
salt accd to ur taste
4-5 onion finely sliced
1.5 cup oil
2-3 Tbsp pure ghee
1 tsp garam masala powder
1 bunch cilantro
7-9 mint leaves
3-4 green chillies
5 cardamom
small stick cinamon
5 peppercorns
2-3 cloves
1 tsp black cumin(shahzeera)

Heat the oil..in a wok..when it is hot lower the flame and fry the sliced onions till..it turns golden brown in color.. be careful..you be around and be constantly be stirring otherwise the onions near the corners will get dark and onions inside wont be golden at all...so stir occasionally..after frying spread it on a paper towel..or a paper so that the oil is drained and spread it well.. so that it gets crisp..then crush the fried onions with hand.. and keep aside.

now...after cleaning the mutton...in a huge bowl..put the meat ,ginger garlic paste,chilly powder, turmeric, salt, yogurt, garam masala, .Allow it to marianate for at least an hour..2-3hours would b good..but 1 hr will be just fine...you know yogurt is a natural tenderizer... and also the meat will have the flavor infused of all the spices.

In a thick bottom pot..heat oil..the one in which u fried the onions..when its hot...slowly put the marinated meat first and fry for about 10 mins..then but the remaining marinade..the crushed fried onion...and half a bunch of cilantro...u can as well put a couple of slitted green chillies....lower the flame and cover the pot.. stir occasionally..now after some time..taste the gravy..you know it should taste little.. hot(MORE CHILLI) coz when it mixes with the rice..it will get neutralized.by little I mean little...:)

cook till the gravy thickens and till the oil separates and the meat is tender ....meanwhile you wash the rice and soak it for about half an hour...
Fill another big pot with water...in the water but cardamom, cinnamon, peppercorn, cloves, black cumin rest of the cilantro, mint leaves.. and the slitted green chilies..cover the pot and put it on stove...when the water in it starts boiling.. drain the soaked rice.. and put it in the boiling water in the pot..be careful with this too..the taste of biryani depends on how good the rice is cooked..it should not be hard, uncooked or cooked till its squishy.. just see that when the rice is boiling take one grain and press it between finger and thunb.. to see that its 75% cooked.. not 100%..then strain the rice....

You know when the gravy is made a layer of oil stands on the gravy that has rich flavor of the meat...what u do...u take out the rice in another plate.. put that flavored oil on the bottom so that i covers the bottom of the pot..u have 2 benefits from it,,...one being that the rice will not easily stick to the bottom of pot.. then another is.. the essence will go in the below layer as well
so after u spread the oil put a layer of rice then..the mutton gravy.. then again a layer of rice..then on top.. spread ghee...if u like colorful biryani...u can add either food color.. or saffron with half a cup warm milk and sprinkle all over the top layer.. i like the not colorful version.... cover the pot with aluminum foil.. so that it is sealed properly so that no vapor escape cover the pot... put on stove on hih for 1 min then lower flame and let it cook for 10 mins.. so that when U move the foil a little bit a lot of vapor appears....turn off the stove and let it stand for at leats 15 mins..unopened...then mix the layers well.. and serve hot with raitha.

I hope u like it!!!!
Do let me know