Spicy Meat Roast

Did you miss me?? I guess yes!!! Well, though I couldn't post last 2-3 months, I'm glad to be back again..Food blogging is a passion for life time you know. If not the first day of the year, Here I'm the last day of the first month. My my see, how January has gone I like a breeze..
So let my first post of this year start with some real spice. Here's to all meat and spice lovers..presenting a spicy meat roast.
Choice of your meat, preferably red meat and go for rib eye of eye of round cut. Meat is cut into small cubes and pressure cook with various masalas and then comes the intresting part of tempering it with dry spices with elevates the level of taste to an extreme satisfaction
Ingredients :
1 lb meat
2 + 1 Tbsp of Ginger Garlic paste
3-4 Green Chillies Slit
1 + 1 Tbsps of Olive or Sesame oil
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1/2 tsp Red Chilly powder
1 Coriander powder
3/4 + 3/4 Tbsp of Garam Masala powder
1 tsp Fennel seeds
5-6 Red Chillies dry
10 or handful of Curry leaves
1 big Onion sliced

Method:
Place meat in the pressure cooker and to it add 1 tbsp each of ginger-garlic paste, oil.
Add ginger chillies, turmeric, chilly, coriander and 3/4 spoon of garam masala powders.
Add 1 cup of water and pressure cook for 25 minutes or more depending upon the choice of meat. Once the meat is cooked empty it in an vessel and keep aside.
Heat oil in a wok or kadai.
Roast fennel seeds till aromatic.
Add red chillies fry for 5 seconds till color slightly changes.
Add Curry leaves and fry till crisp.
Add onions and roast half cooked.
Add remaining ginger-garlic paste and fry.
Now add the cooked meat with gravy and keep stirring thoroughly till all the waters evapourates. Sprinkle remaining garam masala powder mix well till you can smell the aroma of the spices. Remove from heat and transfer into a serving bowl. Serve hot with Rice and Dhal curry or sambar.
If you are on low carb diet, skip teh rice and have it as side with any stir-fried or baked veggies.
I bet you will say "Yummy!!!"

Shallots in Tangy Stew or Small Onion Gravy

--AKA Sambar Vengayam kuzhambu/Chinna Ullipaya Pulusu--

Continuing the `Pulusu` special..this shallot gravy is yet another creation from my mom, which she use to frequent in my childhood. As a practise, I usually add shallots when I make sambar, but once in a while for a change I manage to make this spicy tangy onion gravy. The sweetness of  tendorly caramalized shallots is complimented by spice of red chilly powder and sour of  tamarind juice. The result one aromatic gravy that you can`t wait but to gobble with rice.

I must mention though, that the best sides for this gravy with plain rice are Boiled Stir fried Eggs, Fried dried salt Fish or if you don`t have them handy, our keeper papads/appalam would do. So friends and readers who have not yet attempted this south Indian, Andhra special gravy, don`t forget to pick a small bag of shallots when you grocer next, in an Indian/Asian store and try it for a change.


The recipe is no different from a regular tamarind gravy/pulusu/kuzhambu recipe. It more an idea of making the gravy with the main ingredient as the whole shallots.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb or  a small pkt of Shallots/sambar vengayam/chinna ullipayalu
1 Tbsp - oil
1/2 Tsp - Onion seeds/Kalonji
3-4 Green Chillies
10-12 Curry leaves
2 Tbsp -Tomato Puree
1 tsp - Red Chilly powder
1 tsp - Cumin powder
1 tsp - Coriander powder
Soak Lemon size Tamarind/Puli/Chintapandu ball in 2 cups hot water
Finely chopped coriander leaves - a small bunch

Method :
In a pan or kadai, add oil, when heated add Onion seeds.
Fry a little and then add the green chillies, shallots, curry leaves and keep stirring till onions turn their color.
Now add the tomato puree and cook for about 1 - 2 minutes.
Add all the masala powders, mix and cook another 2 minutes or till the mixture leaves the container.


Now squeeze the Tamarind/Puli juice from the soaked tamarind & water into the cooking mixture.
Mix this well and bring it boil,
Once the gravy seems to attain a good consistency add the coriander leaves and remove from heat.

Spicy Shrimp or Prawn Curry - Andhra Style

Andhra is supposed to be the spiciest state in India. So most of the NV dishes are all spiced up to the core. Andhra style prawn/shrimp curry is no different. Usually the dry spices like cinnamon, cardamom, fennel, cloves are not accompanied with the Seafood varieties. But this prawn dish is an exception. It gets its unique spice flavour from the crushed cinnamon and cloves. Also a generous amount of ginger garlic paste makes this dish a real spice of Andhra.

Growing up mom never use to make it so spicy. she never added the garam masala powder and sometimes even omitted the GG paste. So I used to taste this special prawns curry sometimes in take outs or restaurants. I remember one such occasion where the taste of this prawn curry had left its memory with me..

Here I tried to duplicate that taste...
Ingredients:
2 lb shrimp or prawns - medium size, deshelled, deveined
2 Tbsp oil (Vegetable/Canola/Sunflower)
2 large tomatoes or 1 cup tomato puree
2 large onions finely chopped
5 -6 green chillies slit
12-15 curry leaves
1 tbsp Ginger Garlic paste
2 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp turmeric power
1 tsp finely crushed cinnamon + cloves or garam masala powder
1/2 cup finely chopped coriander leaves.
Salt to taste

Directions:
Place the cleaned shrimp/prawn in a bowl and add enough salt, turmeric and chilly powder.
Allow to marinate for 5 - 10 min.
In a Kadai/pot, heat oil add the seasoned prawns and saute till prawn smell is gone and a wonderful aroma starts to come, the prawns are almost cooked here...
Remove from the kadai and keep aside.
Add more oil to the kadai and after the oil heats ups, add the crushed cinnamon + cloves, saute' till nice aroma is smelled.
Add cut onions, green chillies, curry leaves, and saute' till onions are fried and cooked fully.
Add ginger garlic paste and saute till raw smell is gone.
Add crushed tomatoes and cook till smell changes.
Add red chilly powder, salt and cook till oil leaves the thick gravy.
Add the sauteed prawns and mix well to coat them with the masala evenly.
Add a bit of garam masala powder now.
Once the red color is achieved, and the gravy is very thick sticking the prawns add the finely chopped coriander leaves and remove from heat.

Serve with hot rice and sambar.

This prawn curry dry is best accompanied with sambar though you can just mix the thick gravy with plain hot rice.

Spicy Sardine Fish Gravy.

For those of you who come from bay area back home and who eat fish, Sardines(English), Mathi(Tamil) and Kavadalu(Telugu) should be most familar. This is another nutritious fish.

I enjoyed this fish gravy in my childhood several times. I simply used to love this gravy whenever my Grand mothers made it. In my home town " Vizag" we use to get these baby sardines too. Though lot of work goes in cleaning them, this is one fish gravy that I used to crave alot. With the tangy taste of tamarind and spiced up with green chillies and red chilly powder, one has to drooool for this dish.
My grand mothers used to add spring onions(Ulli kada) to this gravy sometimes. A simple variation which really gave a lift to the gravy in flavour. Also sometimes they use to replace the ripe tamarind with the raw one. My, my, what a taste that use to be, still lingers in my mouth. When I visit home, one thing I would want my GM to cook is fish gravy. Specially with the small baby Sardines and the real big King fish.

In Chennai or Toronto, I was able to get only the big sardines. My mom always use to fry this type of sardines. She never made gravy with these. Here we get only the frozen version of these sardines in Asian stores. If the frozen packet is not too old we are lucky to make the gravy straight away. But now a days I started to pan fried the Sardines just with minimal masala, - Red Chilly powder and salt, and then drop them in the boiling tamarind gravy.

Ingredients:
1 Pkt - Descaled & Cleaned, cut into halves if long.(about 10 fish)

To Pan fry the Sardine:
Marinated it with 1 tsp of Red chilly powder and add Salt to taste.

Seasoning and Masala:
1 Tbsp - oil
1/2 Tsp - Mustard seeds
5 Pods - Garlic finely chopped
1 Big - Onion cut into length wise
3-4 Green Chillies
10-12 Curry leaves
1 big - Tomatoe made into pulp with fingers or 2 Tbsp -Tomatoe Puree

Spice Powders:
1 tsp - Red Chilly powder
1 tsp - Cumin powder
1 tsp - Coirander powder

For the Gravy:
Soak Lemon size Tamarind/Puli/Chintapandu ball in 2 cups hot water

Herbs to Granish:
Finely chopped corainder leaves - a small bunch

Procedure:Fry the marinated Sardines both sides for 2-3 minutes in a little oil on a heated pan and keep aside (This is take away the fishy smell in the gravy)

Heat a pot, add oil, when heated add mustard.
After mustard splutters add chopped garlic, fry a little and then add the green chillies, fry, add onions, curry leaves and keep stirring till onions are cooked.
Now add the Tomatoes crushed or the tomatoe puree and cook for about 1 - 2 minutes.
Add all the masalas, mix and cook another 2 minutes or till the mixture leaves the container.
Now sqeeze the Tamarind/Puli juice from the soaked tamarind & water into the cooking mixture.
Now mix this well and bring it boil,
Add the fish and cook another 5 minutes.
Once the gravy seems to attain a good consistency add the coriander leaves and remove from heat.

Sardines and King fish have this amazing property to drink all the sourness from the puli, so leave the gravy aside for about 1/2 hour to marinate the fish with the tamarind.

Serve hot with hot Rice, or Dosas/Idli, or Chapathi/Parota/Roti

This is my entry for Grindless Gravies Event hosted by Sra, cause this gravy, is the simplest with minimum time required to cook and no mixer grinder used. Hope this qualifies!!! What do you say Sra?

Egg Plant Masala

Egg plant is widely used in Indian Cooking. It's not only good in taste but also carries good nutritional value.

There are Indian chefs who can cook the eggplant in 1000 varieties.

This post describes one of the methods Egg plant or Brinjal(as it is called in India) (Vankaya - Telugu, Bhaigan - Hindi & Kathirikai - Tamil) can be cooked with a tangy tamarind juice.
This dish is a perfect condiment for Biriyani.

In most of the Indian Biriyani Stalls this is accompanied with a plate of Lamb or Chicken Biriyani. And therefore whenever I cook Biriyani I make it sure to add this too to my menu.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
Egg plant - 6-7 Small, or 3-4 Medium - Cut into small cubes
Oil - 1 Tbsp

For Seasoning:
Mustard Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Fennel Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon 1 big or 2 small
Cloves- 4
Cardamom - 3
Green Chillies - 2
Onion - 1 Small or 1/2 Medium
Curry leaves - 8-10
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

For gravy/sauce:
Tomato Paste - 2 Tbsp or 1 Tomato cut into small cubes
Salt - to taste
Red Chilly Powder - 1/2 - 1 tsp depending on how spicy you want.
Tamarind Juice - Made from a small lemon size tamarind ball soaked in 1/3 cup of hot water

For Flavor:
Black Pepper balls : 10-12
Finely chopped Coriander leaves

Procedure:
1. In a deep pot add oil after heated. When the oil is hot add mustard seeds.
2. After the mustard cracks add the whole spices and sauté till they change color.
3. Add cut onion, green chillies; curry leaves - sauté till onions change color.
4. Add ginger garlic paste and mix well so that it doesn't stick to the edges and get burnt.
5. Add tomatoes or tomato paste and mix.
6. Once cooked add the cut cubes of egg plant, add salt, chilly powder and mix well to coat all the pieces with the masala.
7. Add 1 cup water, mix and cook for 15- 20 minutes covered.
8. Keep mixing in between and add more water if necessary.
9. Once the egg plant is almost cooked, add the tamarind juice, mix well and add the black pepper balls.
10. Cook for another 5 - 7 minutes and add the coriander leaves, cook for another minute and remove from heat.

Leave the gravy to set for 1/2 - 1hour, so that the egg plant will absorb the tanginess of the tamarind.

Serve with Rice, Biriyani or Roti.

Tandoori Chicken Baked in Oven

The word Tandoori is synonomous to India. Tandoori Chicken is so famous in India as Pizza is in Italy.

My Tandoori chicken recipe is not made in the traditional Tandoori oven but can be baked in our home conventional oven or on a Barbaque Oven.

It has a simple recipe and except for the time to bake all that takes is a 3-5 minutes to prepare the marinade for marinating the chicken overnight.

It tastes better when consumed fresh and hot. So at times when we feel we may not finish all the chicken that is marinated, bake only the amount that can be finished at that time. We can save the remaining for the next day to bake it fresh.

Ingredients:
Chicken Thighs with Drum sticks : 4 (Skin and fat removed)
Magarine to coat a Baking Tray lined with foil.
Marination:
Yogurt : 1/4 cup
Ginger Garlic Paste : 1 Tbsp
Tandoori Chicken Masala : 2 Tbsp ( I use Kissan Brand)
Finely chopped Mint and Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Salt - to taste
Oil - 1 tsp
Optional
A hint of Seekh & Bihari Kabab Masalas - 1 tsp together ( I use Shan brand)
Red chilly powder - 1/4 tsp (for extra spice)

Procedure:
1. Prepare marinade with the marination ingredients above.
2. Marinate the chicken in the marinade masala, preferably overnight or atleast for 3 hours, in the fridge.
3. Pre heat the oven for 350 C,
4. Arrange the Chicken on the foiled tray and place it in the oven to bake for 20 - 25 minutes on one side.
5. Now drain off the excess water and the oil that comes out of the baking chicken in the tray and turn the chicken peices and bake them on this side for another 10 - 15 minutes.
6. Again drain off any excess oil and water, turn the chicken again and bake for 5 minutes more for the final finish and the red color.
7. Remove the tray from the oven, keep aside for 5 minutes and then transfer the chicken peices into the serving plate.

This is served with a salad, slices of cucumber, onions and lemon.