When I came to Australia was really dying for real Indian food and I really missed my mom’s cooking. I have never ever entered into my home kitchen ever before in my life so stared to cook by the tastes which I felt from my mom’s cooking long before.. Trust me, true fact I have never been trained or thought by others to start a cooking in a kitchen, now most of our friends and family members like my cooking. I usually try some by myself and other recipes from internet and tried different ingredients as well for that recipe from internet.
I'm on a mission to give busy people easy recipes, cooking tips and tricks so they too can cook healthy Indian food from now on,
My first cooking in Brisbane - Briyani, that's my husbands all time favorite
let me start with my yummy dishes,
cashew butter chicken
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 pound chicken (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 tablespoon cashew butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 lime (juice and zest)
2 cloves garlic (grated)
2 teaspoons ginger (grated)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons chili sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 cup cilantro (chopped)
1/4 cup cashews
2 green onions (chopped)
Method:
Heat the oil in a pan.
Add the chicken and saute until cooked, about 4-7 minutes.
Mix the cashew butter, soy sauce, lime juice, lime zest, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, chili sauce and sesame oil in a bowl.
Toss the chicken and cilantro in the cashew butter sauce to coat.
Serve on salad, rice or pasta and garnish with cashews and green onions.
Tandoori chicken
Ingridents:
Makes 1 Kg. (about 2.2 lbs) of chicken
SPICE MIXTURE:
2 Tbs. masala ( I prefer to use tandoori masala)
about 1 Tbs. cumin
about 1 Tbs. coriander
about 1/2 tsp. chili powder (in a pinch, cayenne or dried chillies will do). Careful, you don’t want the chicken too hot.)
1 tsp. turmeric
1 Tbs. crushed garlic
1 Tbs. crushed ginger
2 tbs. veg. oil
1 -2 tsp. garam masala (optional)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1.5 cups plain yogurt
Method
In a large sealable plastic bag, mix all the spices, ginger, garlic, oil and lemon juice to a paste. Then, add yogurt. If the mixture looks dry, add more yogurt. Finally, add the chicken and mix well. Marinade overnight, or at least 18 hours (the chicken in its marinade can be frozen. Defrost in the fridge). Remove chicken from the marinade (discard the marinade) Bake at 400 for 30 minutes or grill.
Goat briyani
Ingredients
500 gms Basmati Rice (pre-soaked in water for 1 hour).
1kg. of Mutton (lamb) chopped in 1 inch chunks
2 tsp Garam Masala.
5 nos Red chilies
3 tbsp of Turmeric powder
6 nos. Green chilies
A handful of cashew nuts
5 nos fine sliced Onions
3 nos. Cardamoms
2 nos. Cloves
2 Cinnamon sticks
4 tsp. Ginger Garlic paste
1 small bunch of chopped Coriander leaves
1 small bunch of chopped Pudina (Mint) Leaves
2 pinches Saffron (dissolved in ¾ cup milk)
1 cup beaten Yoghurt
8 tbsp of Lime juice
4 nos boiled Eggs
6 tbsp. Ghee (clarified butter)/Butter /Oil
Method
In a large bowl mix the mutton chunks with yoghurt, one tbsp garam masala, turmeric, garlic- ginger paste and salt. Marinate this mixture for at least 3-4 hours in refrigerator.
Make a fine paste of red chilies and cashew nuts.
Heat 3 tb.sp. of ghee and pour it on the red chili masala, fry it for 3 minutes and keep aside.
Fry ¼ of the onion slices to golden brown and add the marinated mutton to it.
Add enough boiled water in wok and cook till the rice is half done.
Drain any excess water and Sspread the rice on a plate.
In a small bowl, mix 1 tbsp. garam masala , fried onion the chopped coriander leaves and mint leaves and keep this mixture aside.
Take a heavy wok and add 3 tb.sp. ghee .Make a layer of rice at bottom and above that ¼ of the mutton. Sprinkle half of mixture of coriander leaves and 1 tb.sp. lime juice.
Make such 2-3 layers of rice followed by a mutton mixture. Top layer should be of a rice .
Sprinkle saffron milk on the top of it.
Cover the wok tightly and cook on a low flame it for 20 to 30 minutes tll the rice is done.
Garnish the Hydrabadi mutton biryani with boiled egg cuts, fried onions and serve it hot.
Goan fish curry
Ingredients:
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp black peppercorns
2cm piece fresh ginger (10g), grated or chopped coarsely
2 cloves garlic, grated or chopped coarsely
sunflower oil
400g white firm fish (e.g. monk fish fillets or blue-eye cutlets)
2 medium brown onions, sliced thinly
1 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
4 dried or fresh curry leaves
180ml water
1 tsp chicken stock powder
2 fresh lime juice
1 tbsp fish sauce
Method :
Clean and pat dry fish pieces.
Mix vinegar and salt with the fish and marinate for 1/2 hr(minimum) at room temperature.
In a large pan (preferably flat bottomed), heat the oil and add garlic, ginger, chillies and onions.
Fry until the onion browns lightly. Add the salt, turmeric and garam masala and fry for 2 mins.
Add water and when it begins simmering toss in the kokum pieces. (Otherwise, simply continue simmering until the onions are cooked).
Add the fish, pour the coconut milk second extract and continue simmering until the fish is cooked.
Turn off the heat and after 2 mins pour the coconut milk first extract. Gently stir the curry and garnish with the curry leaves. Serve immediately with rice and poppadoms.
Tomato curry
Ingredients
for the curry:
2 x 15ml tablespoons cold-pressed rapeseed oil or regular olive oil
2 large onions (approx. 350g total), peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes or 1⁄2 teaspoon pouring salt
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1kg cherry tomatoes
halved 2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon English mustard powder
1 teaspoon hot chilli powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
200g frozen peas
for the coconut rice:
1 x 15ml tablespoon garlic oil
4 spring onions, finely sliced
2 teaspoons nigella seeds or blackmustard seeds
300g Thai or basmati rice
1 x 400ml can coconut milk
600ml freshly boiled water
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes or 1⁄2teaspoon pouring salt
juice 1 lime, or to taste
Method
For the curry:
Heat the oil in a wide casserole or pan that comes with a lid, and add the chopped onions, sprinkling with salt, and stirring frequently as you cook them over a low to medium heat for about 7 minutes.
Stir in the chopped garlic, then add the halved tomatoes, before stirring in the spices, and cook for 20 minutes with the lid on over a low heat.
Cook the peas in another pan (in boiling salted water as usual), drain and add to the tomato curry for the last 5 minutes’ cooking time. By all means cook the peas directly in the tomato curry, but be prepared then to sacrifice both the vivid red of the tomatoes and the bright green of the peas.
For the coconut rice:
Warm the oil in a heavy-based pan that has a lid, add the spring onions and nigella seeds (or black mustard seeds) and cook for a minute or so, pushing this way and that with a wooden spoon.
Stir in the rice, letting it get slicked with oil and thoroughly mixed with the black-dotted green shreds.
Pour the coconut milk into a measuring jug and top up to the 1 litre mark with freshly boiled water, then add this to the rice, stirring it in with the salt.
Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and put on the lid. cook for 15 minutes, by which time the rice should be cooked and the liquid absorbed.
Fluff up with a fork as you pour in the lime juice, and taste to see if you need either more salt or more lime.
curry in a hurry
Ingredients
2 x 15ml tablespoons wok oil
3 x 15ml tablespoons spring onions, finely chopped
3-4 x 15ml tablespoons green Thai curry paste
1kg chicken thigh fillets, cut into strips about 4 x 2cm
1 x 400ml can coconut milk
250ml boiling water enough chicken stock concentrate or cube for 500ml water
1 x 15ml tablespoon fish sauce (nam pla)
185g frozen peas
200g frozen soya beans
150g frozen fine beans
3 x 15ml tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped
Methods
Heat the wok oil in a large saucepan that owns a lid, or the Flameware large buffer, drop in the spring onions and cook, stirring for a minute or two, then add the curry paste.
Add the chicken pieces and keep turning over heat for 2 minutes, before adding the coconut milk, stock (i.e. the water plus stock concentrate or cube) and fish sauce, then the frozen peas and soya beans.
Simmer for 10 minutes, then add the frozen fine beans to the mix and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
Serve with rice or noodles, sprinkling the coriander over as you do so. Put out a plate of lime wedges for people to squeeze over as they eat.
Kearala fish curry
Ingredients
1.25kg firm white fish
Salt
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 medium onions, halved and cut into fine half-moons
2 long red chillies 4cm piece fresh ginger
Pinch ground cumin
1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
1-2 tablespoons concentrated tamarind
1 tablespoon liquid fish stock
Method:
Cut the fish into bite-sized chunks, put them into a large bowl, and rub with a little salt and 1 teaspoon turmeric. Heat the oil in a large, shallow pan and peel and tip in your fine half-moons of onion; sprinkle them with a little salt to stop them browning and then cook, stirring, until they've softened; this should take scarcely 5 minutes.
Cut the whole, unseeded chillies into thin slices across (although if you really don't want this at all hot, you can deseed and then just chop them) and then toss them into the pan of softened onions. Peel the ginger and slice it, then cut the slices into straw-like strips and add them too, along with the remaining teaspoon of turmeric and the cumin. Fry them with the onions for a few minutes.
Pour the tin of coconut milk into a measuring jug and add a tablespoon of tamarind paste and the fish stock, using boiling water from the kettle to bring the liquid up to the litre mark. Pour it into the pan, stirring it in to make the delicate curry sauce. Taste and add more tamarind paste if you want to. And actually you can do all this hours in advance if this helps.
When you are absolutely ready to eat, add the fish to the hot sauce and heat for a couple of minute until it's cooked through but still tender
