Chicken tomato masala

Serves: 2 Persons

Ingredients:

500gms Boneless Chicken

Fresh tomato puree* of 5 medium tomatoes

2  Paste of two Medium raw  onions

oil

2 Tsp (Heaping) Red chili powder

1 Tsp (Not Heaping) Dhania Powder

1/4 Tsp Haldi Powder

1 Tsp Salt

3 heaping Table spoons Curd

2 Table Spoons Garlic Paste

2 Table spoon Ginger paste

3 Table spoon Cashew Nuts

Method:

* To make fresh tomato puree boil water in a pan and put 5 tomatoes in it after scooping their eyes out and making a plus sign with a knife on the bottom of the tomatoes. after 5 minutes throw out the hot water and rinse  the tomatoes in cold water. Now peel off the skins and blend the tomatoes in a mixer.

Heat some oil in a cooker and add the fresh tomato puree. Cook till oil separates. Add the onion paste cook till oil separates. Add all the dry masalas with some water and cook till oil separates. Add curd and mix it well in hi-flame till oil separates.

Add the chicken pieces and cook on low flame for about 30 minutes.

(Take the specified amount of ginger, garlic and cashew nuts and make a paste in a mixer. Add a little water so that there are no lumps.)

Add this paste to the masala in the cooker and fry well till oil separates and the white color of the cashew paste is gone.

By now the chicken should be done. Serve hot with fresh chapaties.

 

How To Use The Leftover Roties?

Most of us live in nuclear families in urban areas in this age of modernisation so what do you do with the Roties you and your family members fail to consume at meal times? Earlier we used to feed them to the stray cows roaming in the streets. Those stray cows have been rounded up and given accommodation in Goashalas on the outskirts of the Urban areas to chew their cud in peace. Milk giving cows are expensive animals and are not allowed on the streets and are housed outside the Urban areas in Dairies any way. Not everybody has a dog. And you can not just throw away food! So only thing you can do is consume them yourself.

Here are five ways you can consume them depending on your taste.

1. Chach-Roti

Tear the Roties in little pieces and put them in a bowl and soak them in enough buttermilk so that they will be able to become soft. Add salt and red chilli to taste. If you like onions mince some and put them in the bowl and mix properly. Refrigarate the preparation before serving. It is a popular cooling delicacy in the harsh heat of Rajasthani summers. It is also perfect for people with teeth issues.

2. Anda-Roti

Here is a preparation for the egg lovers. Make preparations to cook omelettes in proportion to the leftover Roties. Put required amount of oil in a non- stick pan put a roti in the pan pour the egg mixture with salt, chilli and minced onions on the roti and cook them together in the pan so that the roti and the egg mixture meld together. A delicious preparation is prepared. Serve hot.

3. Parathas

This one, though a no, no for the calorie conscious is a very easy option to prepare. Just before sitting down for a meal fry the left over Roties in a non-stick pan like you would prepare a Paratha and they will be as good as new.
If you like your Parathas crisp, fry them on a low flame for a little while longer. If you like your Parathas soft like a roti, fry them on high flame for just a little while only. Depending on your taste you can use ordinary refined oil or desi ghee as a frying medium.

4.Churma

Finally an option for the people with a sweet tooth! Break the Roties in little pieces and grind them in a mixer. Add sugar powder and hot desi ghee to taste in the roti powder. Mix well. It can be served as a sweet dish or with fresh Dal.

Last but not the least you can always heat up the leftover Roties on open gas flame before serving. If you like them soft heat them up for a little while only on high flame but if you like them crisp heat them on low flame for a little while longer.

An Encounter With The Naga King Chillies

Chicken Preparation with Naga King Chillie

All trades & hobbies naturally have their pitfalls for a novice. By happenstance I cook as a hobby & am also an admin for a Facebook group about food for the city of Jaipur. When a member procured some Naga King Chillies & offered to share some with the group members I naturally also asked for some. He kindly brought some over when he visited the Guesthouse for dinner one evening.

You can imagine my apprehension when I saw that the jar in which the chillies came was pasted with a write up and also instructions on how to use them safely.

Anyway I decided to use them in a very simple recipe of Junglee Maans. This recipe is from the book “Cooking Delights of Maharajas” by Maharaja Digvijay Singh ji of the princely house of Sailana.

The recipe was intended for the use of the Shikari who would not have any measuring tools or the various comforts of the kitchen & would have very limited masalas at hand.

So he uses only 5 ingredients mutton,whole red chillies,salt,water & Desi ghee or Oil. The measures are also approximate only.

Instead of mutton I used 1/2 a Kg of Broiler & for the whole red chillies I put just ONE Whole Naga King Chilli in 250 gms of desighee with some salt.

Later on I added little water at regular intervals to ensure that the chicken did not fry nor boil till it was cooked.

When I tasted it the slight bite of the chillies came when I swallowed the chicken bite.

Even if I say so myself it was a tasty preparation.

Now, the trouble started because I underestimated the punch of the chillies( The Desighee had taken off the full bite of the chillies) & on the next day made the same preparation but with 3 Naga King Chillies & had the whole dish all by my self.

Everything was fine till I finished eating, I could not get enough. But once I was through eating, my outer mouth area started burning. I drank copious amounts of water & ate large quantities of icecream, before things settled down.

When I related my experience to my wife who had been away at an opening ceremony of a Spa at a famous hotel, she very kindly suggested for me to avoid taking any laxative that night!

What’s Cool In This Heat?

As I write this post it is well above 42 Degrees Centigrade out side. My FM radio says the roads are deserted. The ceiling fan in the room is just throwing more hot air around  the room. This post is about all the cool things you can do, only in summers, when the mercury in the thermometers is raising northward. It might not be the most pleasant of   seasons but it has its uses. Imagine how you would define cold if there was no heat. The heat of the summer brings the rain bearing clouds of monsoon to India.

Here is a list of lesser known reasons to appreciate the summers you might not have considered before.

Amaltas In The Central Park-Jaipur

This is when the Amaltas, Gulmohar & Bougainvillea are gloriously in full bloom. However much might the heat be these trees are lush green & ever willing to shade you from the ever hot sun.

Cleaning and getting the air-cooler functional for the summer is a yearly ritual. In the dry heat of Jaipur where even the AC fails, the cooler keeps life bearable.

This is the season when you can take long afternoon siestas without any guilt.

The days start earlier and you can go for long walks in the nearby parks & gardens.

You have perfect excuse to wear minimum clothes. Cotton clothes in summer are a rare luxury.

You can store water in buckets to have bath with later when the water is colder & nobody will laugh at you.

There are hardly any mosquitoes around. Aside from heatstroke etc. this is a healthy season.

You get to MAX on watching IPL cricket at the beginning of the summer.

Now a days you can even go boating on the Man Sagar Lake.

You get to go swimming & enjoy pool side parties and freak out at the rain dances.

If you like to gamble you can bet on all aspects of the coming monsoon.

You can relish cool water from surahi or matka.

You do not see many flowers in summers but Water Lilly does bloom gloriously just now.

If you like mangoes all through summers a different variety of  mango is available in the market for your pleasure.

At no time is a glass of beer more welcome than on a hot afternoon.

In these health conscious days drinking sherbet might be out of fashion but I am very partial to sherbets in summers. They can cool you off better than a carbonated drink.

You can write a whole post on the wonders of having chach/lassi/ butter milk & curd in summers. You ought to try the meethi lassi in a kulhar on the M.I.Road at the Lassiwala next to Charmica to know what I mean.

You can have Paani Patasi with Iced-water on the Link Road next to Sarogi Mansion.

You get to drink iced tea & mint tea in summers.

This is the season when the whole family gets together to make mango ice cream in a bucket at home.

You get different types of melons to eat to cool off.

I hope reading this post took your mind off the heat for some time!

If you can think of some more cool things to do this summer please feel free to list them here.

Paneer Masala

Here is a simple recipe to cook Cottage Cheese Masala ( Paneer Masala) for two.

Time Taken : 40 Min.

200 gms Paneer ( Cottage Cheese)

2 Medium Onions Minced

1 Medium Tomato Minced

2 Green Chillies Minced

1 Tea Spoon Garlic Paste ( Heaping)

100 gm Fresh Curd

100 gm Butter

100 gm Fresh  Cream

2 Table Spoon Refined  Soya Oil

1 Tea Spoon Red Chillies Powder ( Heaping)

1/2 Tea Spoon Coriander Powder (Dhania)

1/2 Tea Spoon Salt Or to taste

1/4 Tea Spoon Turmeric Powder

Pour the oil in a Wok and heat it to little short of smoking point and add the onions. Fry the onions on low heat till they are transparent. Add the minced tomato. Fry some more till the tomatoes are cooked. Add the red chillies powder, dhaniya powder, salt,  turmeric powder & some water to cook the mixture. You might have to add some more water once or twice to cook the mixture thoroughly. Add garlic paste & minced green chillies & cook some more. Add the curd and bring the mixture to boil. Making a point to keep string the mixture till it is boiling. Cook the mixture till the whiteness of the curd is gone and redness of the chillies is in the masala. Now stir in the butter. Add the milk cream and cook some more. Now cut the paneer in small pieces and add to the masala.

If you wish you can add a  chicken cube to the masala.

Serve it with crisp plain  parathas cooked in oil or butter-as per your taste & choice.

Recipes

These are the 10  links to the recipes found on this Blog. If you missed them some how here they are for your consideration.
DAL

Khichari

Fish Curry

ALOE VERA- Gawar Patha

KER SANGRI PICKLE

RED MEAT

SOYA CHUNKS IN MANCHURIAN SAUCE

RANGEELA OMELETTE

SPICY EGG CURRY

TEA

I am partial to each one of them.I would be happy to hear your opinion about them.

A Rajasthani Delicacy-Ker Sangri Pickle

In a guest post Ms.Vishnu Priya shares the recipe for preparing Ker Sangari Pickle.

Ker is a green berry like fruit of a thorny bush(capparis decidua) found in the arid parts of Rajastnan.It is very sour, and is commonly available during the months of April and May. In Jaipur you can buy fresh ker from Choti Choupar. (The traders go to the extent of sorting ker by size as the smaller berries are considered to be tastier. ) Local Pansari shops in the walled city provide dried ker all the year round. Fresh Ker has to be put in an earthen utensil or preferably a matka in salt water for 15 days so that it looses its sourness.After two weeks the salt water is thrown away and the vegetable is dried in shade to be stored for the rest of the year or to be cooked right then.Because of its numerous medicinal qualities ker is also used in many ayurvedic medicines.

Sangari are the bean like fruit of the Khejari (prosopis cineraria) tree.This tree is commonly found in rajasthan .And it gives its fruit, sangari, in the winters months.Thin and kachi sangri are plucked from the tree and lightly boiled and dried in shade to be used during rest of the year.They can be eaten as a pickle,vegetable or a snack-fry in oil & serve with salt and red chillies.

Ingredients

150 gm Dry Sangari

100 gm Dry Ker

50 gm Dry Lasore

250 gm Sesame Oil (tilli ka tel) OR Mustard Oil(Sarson Ka Tel)

50 gm Aniseed Powder ( Saunf)

50 gm Kachri Powder (A flavoring agent commonly found in Rajasthan.Also used to make uncooked meat tender)

25 gm pomegranate seed powder ( Anar dana)

100 gm Mustard seed powder( Raai)

1/4 Tea Spoon Asafoetida Powder ( Heeng)

1 Tea Spoon Mustard Seeds ( Sarson)

1 Tea Spoon Cumin Seeds ( Jeera)

1/2 Tea Spoon Fenugreek Seeds (Methi)

1 Tea Spoon Salt

1 Tea spoon Red Chillies Powder

2 Tea spoon Turmeric

Method

Soak the dried Ker,Sangri & Lasore in water overnight.

Throw away the water the vegetables were soaked in overnight and add the vegetables to a pot of boiling salt water till they are soft.

Throw away the salt water and put out the vegetables to dry on a soft cloth.

Heat the oil in a Wok till it is smoking and crackle cumin,mustard,fenugreek seeds and add asafoetida and take the wok off the flame.

Add all ingredients except raai and the vegetable and cook the masala on low flame till the masala is cooked.

Let the masala cool down after it is cooked and add the vegetables and raai and mix well and store in a glass jar for 2 to 3 days stirring 2-3 times daily till the mixture turns sour-khatta.

The pickle is ready to be served with poories or parathas.

If the pickle is to be stored for a long period of time, take enough oil to cover the pickle in the jar. Heat it till it is smoking. Let it cool down.Then add it to pickle in the Jar so that the pickle is covered in oil.The oil will make the pickle last longer.

Karan’s Guesthouse,In Jaipur