Recipes for Madness-- Yummy Stuff!

Seriously, what are you doing in the recipe section of a marketing site? This really qualifies you to be el loco. But hey, welcome to the group.

Most of my skills are restricted to making some seriously delicious curries and biriyani. You've also got to taste the spicy mince. It's fast, easy and really delicious. If you're a foodie, you've got to try some of these recipes.

Three Absolute Winners!

Ok, if my brother knew I had this on the site, he would kill me. So if you read this, be sure not to tell him. I'm sharing some big family secrets with the Butter Chicken recipe, so cook it quietly in your kitchen. There's also the yummy Coconut Chutney and my Mad Mince recipe.

Coconut Chutney

Preparation Time: 10 minutes ( No, I'm not kidding!)
Serves: 6-8
Recipe: My mother + My own twenty cents

Ingredients:
1 cup freshly grated coconut
100g/4oz/3cups fresh green coriander, chopped
1 small onion chopped
1inch piece of fresh ginger, chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 lime or a reasonable bit of lemon juice
1tsp coriander seeds (good, but not necessary)
2 cloves
1cm/?inch piece of cinnamon stick
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
3-4tbsp Yoghurt

Method:
1. Put the coconut, coriander, onion, ginger, garlic, chillies and lemon juice in a food processor. Blend, adding 4 or more tbsp water as needed to get a thick, coarse paste. You may, if you wish, put this mixture into the container of an electric blender in several batches to get a much finer paste, adding a little water if needed.
2. Put the coriander seeds, cloves and cinnamon into a clean coffee grinder and grind to a fine powder. Mix the powder with the coconut mixture. Add salt and sugar. Stir to mix and taste for the blend of sweet and sour. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
Add yoghurt if you like (though this is not a common practice).
3. The chutney lasts 24-36 hours. It may also be frozen.

My own twenty cents: I use dessicated coconut from the supermarket or even shredded supermarket coconut. To substitute for coriander, I use leaves from some random lime-like plants in the garden. Unless you have random lime tasting leaves, stick to coriander. I also add yoghurt in the whole mix in the blender. It gives it a nice mushy dip like consistency and is great with anything from carrots to chips. Best eaten as a quick sandwich filler though.

Butter Chicken-- Chicken Makhanwalla (Mhuck-kuhn-wallah)

If you think you love butter chicken, make this stuff. It's pure dynamite!
Don't take my word for it. You'll be licking your fingers, dishes and everything else in sight after you're done. However, the downside to this is, it's not easy and many onions later, you're still at it. Well, it's worth it, that much I can assure you.

If you've got an Indian store down the road, you can pick up most of these ingredients without a problem. I've even seen some of the supermarkets stock them. It's not a treasure hunt. Most of this stuff is easy to find.

Preparation Time: Long time...
Serves: 4-6
Recipe: My brother, Warner the Great!

Ingredients:
100gm Cashewnuts (A handful)
1 kg fresh tomatoes or Puree
1/4 Litre Cream (Here come the calories!)
Boneless Chicken 1- 1.5 kg
Ginger 1/2" Piece
Garlic 1 Pod
Yoghurt 200 gms ( 1 Cup)
Salt (as per your high blood pressure...:)
9 Onions (ha, ha, ha-You'll need these laughs when you cry)

Indian Store Purchase Section:
Garam Masala (available at the store)
1 tsp Dried Coriander + 1 Dried Cumin Powder
25 Kashmiri Chillies (Red Dried Chillies)-Deseed them and make paste by soaking them in water.

To Do Section 1:
1)Marinate the chicken with garam masala, salt, yoghurt, and keep in the fridge overnight.

2)Chop da onions fine, and fry them in oil or ghee till brown. Add ginger and garlic paste and fry for some time. Add the Kashmiri chilly paste and cook for some time. Add the coriander and cumin powder and keep frying. Then add the garam masala and keep at it...Tomato puree is next on the list and fry well till cooked. As a finale, add the cashew nut paste and cook till it thickens and then set aside.

To Do Section 2:
Take the marinated chicken and lay the pieces in the oven tray greased with ghee or oil. Important-- Don't use the liquid from the marinade while roasting. Set the liquid aside for later. (This can also be done in a frying pan if you don't have an oven)

After the chicken is roasted, add the reserved liquid and the above (in section 1). Cook for some time. Finally add the cream and cook for 2 minutes. Set aside.

Smoking Section:This is a killer and not to be missed!
Take a couple of pieces of charcoal. Heat it on the gas till it gets really hot and glowing. Remove and put it in a small vessel. Warm some oil and pour it over the charcoal.

Then immediately immerse the vessel in the chicken dish (this is to give the flavour, so make sure it doesn't get into the chicken itself. It needs to be on top like a boat on the ocean). Cover the main chicken dish vessel immediately to seal in the flavour.

After a while open the vessel. Remove the charcoal stuff and your dish is ready to serve. Garnish with fresh coriander!

The trilogy-- Mad 'n' Spicy Mince!

Preparation time: About 45 minutes
Serves: 6-8

Most people love this mince dish. It's easy to make and is quite delicious. You will lick your fingers. If you want to win friends and influence people, I can think of no better way (eat your heart out, Dale Carnegie).

Ingredients:
1 kilo beef mince
3-4 Medium Potatoes (Chopped into small cubes)
4-5 Large Onions (Chopped fine)
3/4 Cup of Peas (Frozen is fine)
400 gm can of tomatoes (3-4 large tomatoes chopped)
Some oil for frying
White Vinegar (Or Yoghurt)
Salt (As per what you're happy with)

The masala:
2 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp coriander powder
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp saffron powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
2-5 green chillies (or whatever you can handle)
20-30 black peppercorns
1 Pod of Garlic (or use 2 teaspoons of ginger garlic paste)
1 inch Ginger piece (Ditto)

Final Act:
Lime or Lemon
Fresh Coriander

Preparation for Masala:
Fry the onions. Let them get golden brown. Then fry all the powders and the green chillies together. Add the garlic and ginger paste. Fry some more. Add the potatoes and keep on frying. Add some water if you need and let the potatoes cook (covering the vessel will speed up the process considerably). Add the chopped tomatoes. Add the salt.

Note: Potatoes will not cook if there is yoghurt around, so don't make the mistake of mixing the stuff too early. Otherwise, you'll have to pick the potatoes out, one at a time and I can tell you it's no fun.

You are now ready to introduce the mince to the masala and once they say their hellos, be sure to stir it all together. The boring mince will start to get a nice brown look. Add the peppercorns and the peas when the mince is nearly cooked, as this will help keep the green colour of the peas. When the mince is cooked well, (yes you can have a taste). If it's delicious, you can assume you've done well. If not, start at line#1.

You're ready to get your spotlight. Add some lime if you like it that way (I do) and sprinkle the chopped coriander on the top.

Voila!

Quick Delicious Pork

Preparation Time: Anywhere from 15 minutes-2 Hours
Serves: 4

This is my own crazy recipe. It's delicious. It's easy and you cannot go wrong, even if you're completely useless at cooking. Best of all, it requires the most basic of ingredients.

Ok here goes
Ingredients
1) A kilo of pork-Either chops or roast
2) A couple of teaspoons of saffron powder
3) A couple of teaspoons of chilli powder
4) Salt to taste
5) Freshly crushed pepper
6) White vinegar
7) Some oil for frying

First cut the pork into pieced about 1-2 inch cubes. Take the chilli powde and the saffron and mix it together to create a sort of paste. Not too runny, yet not too thick. You can use either water or vinegar for this. Be sure not to make it too watery. Add the salt and mix well. You've now got a yellowish-reddish looking paste sort of liquid in front of you.

Smear the pork pieces with it so that it covers all the surface area of the pieces. Then mix some more vinegar, and marinade in the fridge for a couple of hours if you want it to taste better. If you have no patience, you don't have to wait.

Get a frying pan. Some oil and start frying the pork. Cover it and let it cook. It shoud have some sort of gravy to start with. Drain the gravy so the pork can fry a bit. Then you can add the gravy as the pork dries up. Cook on a low flame and as the liquid dries, keep adding vinegar. You decide when you want to stop. I've cooked it for a good two hours with about half a mug of vinegar.

It turned out absolutely delicious.

Serve hot, and serve with freshly sqeeezed lime. You can also sprinkle some finely chopped coriander leaves on top.

Warning: Beware of serving this when there are guests around. They will keep coming back for more. You want to eat this dish alone, it's so good!

Subscriber's Recipes:

Would you like to add your favourite to this list?
If you do, email me and I'll try it. If it passes the test, you're in! It doesn't have to be Indian food. If it doesn't get up and run from the table, it will do!

A New Addition to the Menu

Dry Mutton/ Lamb (Sabeeha Kader's mom's recipe)

If you notice, there are 6 green chillies in the recipe. If you want to run around in circles that's great. This recipe is a good one. Check it out!

Ingredients:
1.5 kg mutton/lamb
3 onions chopped fine
5 big tomatoes chopped
3.5 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoon red chilly powder
1/2 cup coriander seeds + 6 green chilies ground to a paste
1/4 tsp garam masala powder
Salt and oil as per your choice

Method:
1. Fry the finely chopped onions till they are brown.
2. Add 2 teaspoon red chilly powder, ginger garlic paste, coriander chilly paste, turmeric and salt.
3. Fry the paste till the water dries up and oil leaves the sides.
4. Add tomatoes, mutton and garam masala powder and saut? for around 45 minutes.
5. Next add around 2.5 glasses of water and continue cooking on high and slow flame till the meat is tender. Continue adding water as and when required so that the mutton does not stick to the bottom of the pan.
6. When the meat is cooked, squeeze some lemon juice and garnish with coriander.

Thanks to Sabeeha Kader for this recipe.

Pulao

Ingredients:
3 cups Basmati rice, washed, drained and dry on baking sheet
1 medium onion, chopped
1 stick unsalted butter (more or less, to taste and health)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 ? cups golden raisins
1 ? cups unsalted cashews (whole or pieces)
5 C water (boil it to save time)

Spices:
1-3 whole dried red chili, torn (to make it less spicy, discard the seeds or don?t tear them)
12 cloves
9 cardamom pods (green preferred; white will do, too)
? tsp turmeric
1 T ground cumin

? tsp ground cardamom (Peel a few cardamom pods and grind the seeds with a mortar and pestle. This step is optional but will bring out the cardamom flavor.)

? - 1 tsp red chili powder ? to taste

1-2 T sugar

1 T salt ? to taste

In a large pot over medium heat:
Gently melt butter. Add torn chili.

Add and fry chopped onions, stirring until they become translucent. Don?t brown them, and take care not to burn the butter.

Add the garlic, cloves and cardamom and heat for 1 minute. Add the rice and fry for another minute.

Add turmeric, ground cumin, ground cardamom and chili powder and keep stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking or burning. Lower the heat if necessary.

Once the rice becomes a bit fried (but not brown!) add the sugar, cashew and raisins. Stir well.

Add water and salt and bring to a boil.

Cover the pan, lower the heat, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or until the rice has absorbed the water. Check it after 15 minutes to see that it?s not sticking to the pan. If it looks too dry, add a bit of water. Cooking time will depend on the rice.

Thanks to Rita Wespi for this recipe