Chicken Dum Briyani

Even though variety of Briyani's available. There is a special  place for chicken briyani. Follow the method given below and enjoy the taste.

Ingredients for marinating the chicken:

1 /2 kg of Chicken 

1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste

1 tsp of coriander powdeR

1 cup of curd with one lemon juice

1 tsp biriyani masala (2 cardamom,1 in cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ( fenugreek, 3 clove. Dry roast all these, fry them without oil, make them powder.)

A pinch of salt
Mix all of the above ingredients and let the chicken marinate for 2-4 hours in refrigerator, the more the better.

Ingredients to prepare Briyani:

4 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

6 green Cardamoms

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp Fennel

1 maze

1 tsp Coriander powder

1 tsp red Chili powder 

1 tbsp Gram Masala Powder

5-6 tsp of chopped fresh mint

2-3 chopped green Chilies

2 tomatoes ground into paste Fresh coriander leaves

1/4 kg basmati rice

1 cup milk, cream, or yoghurt

About 4 medium size onions for fried onion

Oil for deep frying 

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1/2 cup of milk

A few strands of Saffron 

Ghee about 6-7 tbsp 

Cashew nuts ( a few or as many as you want)

Raisins and almonds are optional

Salt to taste

Method:

1.While the chicken is marinating, slice the onions very thin. You can use a food processor for this or a slicer. Now heat oil and fry these sliced onions in batches. The heat should be medium. Definitely not high, otherwise the onions will get burned. Stir the onions continuously for uniform browning. When they become light brown, drain them on kitchen paper. Keep them aside. They will get nice crispy as they cool down.

2. To Cook the Chicken ,take a deep, wide mouth vessel and heat 3-4 tablespoons of oil in it. In this add the bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamoms, little bit of shahi jeera and allow to crackle.

3. Now add a tablespoon of ginger garlic paste and stir a little. Now tip out all the marinated chicken and the marinade. Cook on a high flame so that the water gets evaporated quickly. Add the chopped tomatoes, mint, green chilies, all dry powders(coriander, chili), and salt. Cook till the chicken is cooked and the gravy (masala) is not watery. Add one third of the fried onions. Mix well and keep aside.

4.Parboiling the rice is one of the most important part of cooking a biryani. The rice needs to be parboiled. Meaning, it should be three fourth cooked. The rest of it gets cooked on dum (when we layer the chicken and rice, seal it and put on a very slow fire). Take a big deep wide mouth vessel, add lots of water (at least 10 times more than rice). Add ample salt (this is very important because the rice needs to be salty when cooked). Also add a cinnamon stick, a couple of green cardamoms, a few cloves for flavouring the rice. Now boil all this for a few minutes on a high flame .

5. Take a few grains of rice (use a clean spoon to take some out of the boiling water), break a grain, if it breaks into 3 parts easily, your rice is done. Strain the rice and spread it on a clean surface (a tray or something), so that it cools faster. If you want to pick out the whole spices which you added, you can do that now. Or else just let them be.

6.Keep all these ready,now that the rice and chicken are cooked. Fried onions are ready. You just need to get a few more things organized, so that the layering can be done.

7.Chop the coriander leaves. Boil the milk and add crushed saffron in it. Give it a stir.

8. Fry the cashew nuts till golden brown.

Layering the Biryani:

1.Take a heavy bottom vessel,
take some melted ghee and grease the bottom of the pan with it.

2.Then put a layer of rice, then a layer of chicken followed by a layer of fried onions,  then a layer of chopped coriander. Repeat and finish off with the rice layer. Lastly, sprinkle the leftover fried onions (if any), cashews and other nuts. Pour the saffron milk on top. Also pour some ghee down the sides of the pan and some on top of the rice. It will trickle down with the heat.

3. Seal the lid by sticking it with some chapati dough or simply fix a big foil before placing the lid. The idea is to restrict the steam from escaping. Ideally place this vessel on top of another flat pan(this is dum) .so that the bottom of the pan doesn't come in direct contact with the heat source.

4.Let it be in dum for 1/2 hour.

Now open the lid and enjoy the awesome flavor. Serve it with onion cucumber Raita.

Plantain Chops

Plantain Chops

Plantains look like bananas, but unlike their doppelganger, plantains are almost always cooked before they're eaten. Raw plantains have a bitter taste, and cooking them brings out their flavor and makes them more appetizing. The banana-like fruits are rich in certain vitamins and minerals that contribute to good health. Plantains are available at most large grocery stores and can add new flavors and recipes to your healthy-eating plan.

Ingredients:

• Plantain-1 no
• Buttermilk- 1 glass
• Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
• Chilli powder-1 tsp
• Curry powder-1 tsp
• Ginger Garlic paste-1/2 tsp
• Salt for taste
• To Grind:
• Red chilli-4-5
• Jeer -1/2 tsp
• scrapped coconut-1/2 cup
• Coriander seed-1/2 tsp
• To Temper:
• Mustard-1/4 tsp
• Urad dhal- 1/4 tsp
• Curry leaves 
• Cilantro

Method :

1. Peel and cut the plantain into cubes. Soak them in butter milk to maintain the color.
2. Heat oil in kadai, add plantain ,salt and ginger garlic paste roast till cubes turns golden brown.
3. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, curry powder.
4. Grind all Ingredients under to grind ,into coarse paste and add it to curry and fry well.
5. Garnish with things under temper.

Bengali Spongy Rasagulla

Bengali Spongy Rasagulla

One of the popular desserts of west benfeedbis often prepared during festivals. Indian cottage cheese balls boiled in sugar syrup.
Previously I use to cook them in pressure cooker,but this is easier and very spongy.

I boiled 2 litre milk and made 20 rasagulla's

Ingredients (240 ml cup used):

• 1 liter whole fat milk
• 10 ml vinegar you can use 1 full lemon's juice too
• 1 liter ice cold water 
• 2 cups sugar 
• 4 cups water
• ¼ tsp. cardamom powder
• Few saffron stands (optional) for garnishing

Instructions:

1. Bring the milk to a boil and use a spatula, to mix the malai deposited on the the sides,pour the vinegar.
2. Let the milk curdle. If the milk doesn’t curdle in 2 to 3 mins, add some more vinegar while the milk is still boiling.
3. Add chilled water to the curdled milk. Leave it aside for 2 to 3 minutes.Filter and collect the cheese in a cheese cloth or muslin cloth.
4. Rinse the cheese under running water if you have used lemon juice or vinegar to curdle.
5. Tie up the cloth and hang it for 30 mins and drain excess water.
6. Add sugar and water to a wide pan or pot, bring it to a boil.
7. Knead the cheese well to make it a smooth dough. Take small portions of this and roll to 1 inch balls.
8. Add it to the boiling sugar syrup, add cardamom powder and rose water.
9. Let the sugar syrup boil, add the balls one after the other gently.Cover the pot with a lid and cook for 10 mins on a medium high flame.
10. Gently stir every 3 minutes to ensure even cooking and puffing. They double in size when done.

Use it after min 6 hours,enjoy the tasty rasgulls.

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