Sunday sonnet....dal murg and bhuna rice

The other side of a Sunday afternoon nap is this wonderful cozy laziness followed by a surprisingly invigorating feeling but only if you have been lulled by a delicious lunch.  And you don't have to slave in the kitchen for hours...all my main meals are cooked within 30-40 minutes start to finish.  So lets start on one such meal  (for 4 people) - Dal Murg (you can replace this with mutton or for veggie people leave out the meat altogether) and bhuna rice.

1)  Wash & Soak 3 katoris of basmatic rice for about 10 minutes.
2) Wash one and 1/2 katoris of tuvar dal and about 8-10 medium size pieces of chicken (i like to use legs or breast pieces only). Place in cooker with about 4 katoris of water, add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp haldi and cook. 2 whistles and then on simmer for about 5-7 minutes.
3) While dal chicken is cooking, cut up finely 4 medium sized onions - 2 tbsp of oil in pan - add onions let is saute until its slightly brown (not too golden though).  In mixer grind 3 tomatoes, 10-12 cloves of garlic, 1/2 inch piece of ginger. When onions done, add the tomato mixture and salt to taste (remember there is salt in the dal too, one and 1/2 tsp of red chili powder, 1 tsp of coriander power, 1 tsp of jeera powder, 1/2 tsp of garam masala, pinch of haldi.  Saute till oil separates. Then add 2 tbsp of vinegar (any kind), 1 tbsp of kasuri methi  (if you don't have this, no problem skip it - though its good to keep one packet of this in your fridge - it adds flavor to food).
4) Mix in the above masala with dal chicken you have cooked separately and let the whole thing cook for about 5-10 minutes - taste for salt and mirchi, sourness etc and adjust it all (always taste what you have cooked to perfect your dish).  The thickness of the dal can be adjusted too as per your liking. Garnish with coriander leaves.
5) Now for the rice -  take 2-3 onions and slice them.  In your rice cooking pot, add 3 tbsp of ghee or oil (ghee is better), put in a tejpata and the onions - saute till brown.  Drain water from rice and add to your pot with salt to taste (around 11/2 level tsp should do). Saute for a minute or two. Then add 21/2 katoris of water. Put flame on simmer, cover the pot with a flat plate - put about 1/4 katori of water on the cover and let rice cook - check it within 10 minutes - should be cooked. If there is still some moisture, put the pot over a tava and let it simmer.
6) Serve with onion salad and have some lasso or beer with it.
You can have the dal murg with roti as well.

Enjoyzzzzzzzzz.......

Fosters Draught Beer - and cheese ???

I bet you'd expect a beer connoisseur to write a review on beer.  But hey, connoisseurs are few and far; and who better to tell you about a beer than a non-expert who only relies on her taste buds and the followed joys?  I like beer when its really really chilled and i'm like very thirsty.  So here i have sitting in my deep freeze a chilled bottle of Fosters' Draught - to start with i love the bottle - its a one litre Pet bottle - nice, i mean easy to carry, no fear of breaking and the best thing is i can cap it if i don't want to finish the bottle in one go.  Now the taste,  for me the first sip of beer decides the fate of the beer - am i going to finish it or am i going to let it go flat and wash my hair with it?

So the first sip and hey.....so good....chilled, fruity taste with an immediate bite of bitter aftertaste which makes me tip the glass for another long thirsty sip. Hmmm...nice...the beer is light in color with not too much froth.  Ate some cheese with it and the salty sour taste complimented the beer wonderfully (who says cheese is to be eaten only with wine?).  Heres a quick easy cheesy, non-fried, snack to enjoy with the beer.

Mix in 1/2 cup of grated cheese, 1 tbsp butter, 1/2 onion very finely chopped, 2 cloves of garlic grated, 1/2 tsp of red chilli powder, chopped coriander leaves, very little salt.  Spread this on slices of bread and toast in an oven or in a non stick pan (you'll need some olive oil for the pan) cover and lower the flame s  the cheese melts in the heat.  Cut into some pieces before serving/eating.

A bit of heaven after a long day's work.... Recommend both the Fosters beer and the cheesy toast.   

The Spinach + Yogurt Story

We’ve frequented Sheetal Bukhara quite a lot, Rach & Me.  Sometimes my Mom, Sister and Niece too joined us for a meal there.  Once we ordered palak raita – the thing is I have to eat yogurt in some form with my meals – usually plain  - but this day I wanted to try something different.  And wow it was so good!  I asked the waiter if I could get the recipe and he got so distressed that I let it be.  Anyways, I dissected it via my taste buds and got it right soon enough. 

Put on a liter of water to boil; while it’s heating, clean up one bunch of spinach (palak) – break off the stems keeping the leaves intact. Once water boils, blanch spinach for a minute and take it off the heat.  Drain and rinse in cold water – leave to cool. While it’s cooling whisk 2 cups of curds with some salt (to taste) and half a teaspoon of jeera powder (ground roasted jeera).  Now the spinach should have cooled  – squeeze out excess water – puree in mixer with 1 clove of garlic and half a green mirchi.  Mix in yogurt – cool it for an hour or so and enjoy….

It’s healthy, it’s simple to make & it’s tasty.  You could even use it as a dip or eat it as a snack. Fiber + Proteins…

Recommend making this....:-)