Galouti Kabab

The very famous Lucknowi cuisine Galouti Kabab, was originally conceived for the toothless Nawab of Lucknow. So delicate that it just melts in your mouth.

Ingredients:
For the marinade -
Minced mutton - 350 gms
Raw papaya paste - 3 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Salt to taste

For the masala -
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Saunf - 3 tbsp
Coriander seeds - 3 tbsp
Poppy seeds - 1 ½ tsp
Ghee - ½ tsp
Nutmeg - ¼ tsp, grated
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Mace - 1 whole
Red chilly powder - ½ tsp
Garlic Cloves - 6-7
Gram flour - 3 tbsp
Black pepper powder - ½ tsp
Onion - 2 medium, finely sliced
Oil for deep frying
Salt to taste

For smoking the meat -
Coal pieces - 2-3
Cloves - 3
Green cardamon - 3, crushed
Ghee - ¼ tsp

Oil for shallow frying the kababs

Method:

Mix the minced mutton, papaya, ginger garlic paste and salt, marinate for around 4 hours.

Dry roast cumin seeds, saunf, coriander seeds, poppy seeds, keep it aside and cool. Meanwhile in a small pan, heat ghee to smoking point, switch off the heat and add nutmeg, cinnamon and mace. Heat oil in a kadhai and deep fry the sliced onions till they turn crisp and brown. Grind to a paste, the dry roasted spices, pepper & chilly powder, salt, garlic, gram flour and the spices we had fried in ghee. Nicely mix the ground paste into the minced meat (use your hands if you wish).

Heat the coal pieces in an open flame till red hot and place them in a steel katori or any small bowl. Place the meat in a large bowl, make a depression in the middle and place the katori. Add ghee, cloves and cardamon on the coal. Cover the bowl with a lid or with aluminum foil. Leave it for around 15 minutes so that the aromatic smoke incorporates well into the meat.

Make 2 inch tikkis (patties) out of meat using both your palm(in case the mince sticks in your palm, you can dip your hands in water before). Take some oil in a pan heat and shallow fry the tikkis for around 4 minutes on both sides or until brown.

Serve the kabab with finely sliced onions.

Laal Maas

Red meat or Laal Maas is a cuisine from Rajasthan. The original recipe has loads and loads of red chilly, I've modified the recipe a bit to suite my pallet.

Ingredients:
For the marinade -
Mutton - 500 gms
Raw papaya paste - 2 tbsp
Whole red chilly - 10
While Kashmiri chilly - 6
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
Curd - 1 cup, beaten

For the gravy -
Oil - 3 tbsp
Onion - 4 medium, finely sliced
Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Pepper corns - 10
Cinnamon - 1 ½ inch
Cloves - 4
Bay leaf - 1
Green cardamon - 6
Black cardamon - 2
Salt to taste

Tempering & garnish -
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Whole red chilly - 2
Coriander leaves - ½ cup

Method:

Dry roast and wet grind red chilly, kashmiri chilly, cumin and coriander seeds. Mix the ground paste with curd, papaya paste and marinate the mutton in it for 2-3 hours.

In a cooker, heat some oil, add the dry masala (pepper, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf, black and green cardamon), saute for 2-3 minutes. Now add the onion and fry till golden brown, add garlic. Now add the mutton, saute for around 4-5 minutes, pressure cook for 4 whistles or till the mutton is tender. Temper with ghee & red chilly and garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Serve with hot puris or rotis

Chocolate Sponge Cake

What a nice way to kick off the new year with a delicious chocolate cake topped with two layers of icing.

Ingredients:

For the cake -

Refined flour (maida) - 2 cups

Baking powder - 2 tsp

Cocoa powder - ¼ cup

Milk - ½ cup

Butter (Unsalted) - 100 gms softened @ room temperature

Powdered Sugar - 1 ¼ cup

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Eggs - 3, seperate the egg white and yolk

Butter icing -

Butter - 45 gms softened @ room temperature

Icing sugar - 1 cup

Vanilla essence - ½ tsp

Royal icing -

Egg white - 1

Icing sugar - ¾ cup

Lemon juice - few drops

Method:

Take butter in a mixing bowl. With the help of a hand mixer (use egg beater attachment) start blending the powdered sugar into the butter on medium speed (put the powdered sugar slowly into the butter). Blend the sugar nicely into the butter to form a creamy texture. Now add the egg yolks one by one (keep mixing) into the mixture. Add vanilla essence and blend for another ½ a minute.

At this point you can pre-heat the oven to 180º C. Grease and line a 10-11 inch round cake tin with butter paper.

In another bowl sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder (I prefer to use Cadbury cocoa powder, the aroma is irresistable) and nicely mix them together.

Now add the dry flour mixture into the butter mixture slowly (keep blending on a low speed). Add milk. Once the flour is nicely blended into the butter mixture, keep it aside.

In a dry bowl, take the egg whites and beat it with the help of a beater (if you are using the same hand mixer, make sure you clean and dry the before using). You could use a whisk instead. Incorporate as much air as possible into the egg whites so that they form a foamy firm texture.

Add the foam into the wet cake mixture. The trick here is not to mix the egg white with the cake mixture quickly, but to fold the egg whites into the mixture in slow circular movements. Once all the egg blends into the cake mixture, pour it into the cake tin and bake for 40 mins @ 180º C.

When done take it out of the oven and let it cool. Once cooled, take it out of the tin and turn it upside down and apply a layer of butter icing. Once the icing is set, pour the royal icing mixture and spread it evenly with the help of a palette knife or a spatula.

For the butter icing - Take butter in a bowl, with the help of the hand mixer blend the icing sugar into the butter to form a creamy texture. Add vanilla essence and mix it nicely. Butter icing is ready.

For the royal icing - In a bowl, take the egg white and beat it so that it turns into firm foamy texture. Now gradually add icing sugar and continue beating on high speed to form a white and creamy texture. Add few drops of lemon juice to retain the whiteness.

Mutton Biryani (Thalassery Style)

Here's a different style of preparing biryani that is native to my home town Thalaserry in Kerala. Cooked this for my family on new year's eve. I'm sure you will like the simplicity of this recipe.

Ingredients:
Masala-
Mutton - 1 kg
Tomato - 6 medium sized (sliced)
Ginger paste - 25 gms
Garlic paste - 25 gms
Green chilly - 25 gms ground
Mint leaves - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - 1 cup
Garam masala - 1 tbsp
Lemon - 2
Salt to taste

Rice-
Basmati rice - 3 cups (Thalaserry Biryani uses short rice called "kayama". But I've used basmati here)
Water - 5 ¼ cups
Cinnamon - 1 inch x 2
Cardamon - 3
Cloves - 4
Ghee - 130 gms luke warm
Salt to taste

Garnish & flavouring-
Rose water - 1 tsp in 2 tsp water
Raisins (kishmish) - 50 gms
Cashew-nuts - 50 gms
Saffron - Two pinch soaked in ½ cup warm milk

Fried onion-
Onion - 6 medium sized (finely sliced)
Oil

Atta Seal-
Atta dough to seal the biryani vessel

Method:

Heat some oil in a kadhai and deep fry the finely sliced onions. Fry the onions till golden brown and crisp, be careful not to turn them into black mass else it will spoil the entire biryani.

Heat a pressure cooker, add tomatoes. Cook the tomatoes till they are nicely cooked and you get a pulpy texture. In case the tomato pulp becomes too dry, add may be 1/8 cup of water. To this, add ginger paste, garlic paste and ground green chilly. Stir nicely and cook for around 3 minutes or till the raw flavour of ginger, garlic is completely gone. Now add mutton, add salt to taste, mix thoroughly. Add ¾ of the mint leaves. Put the lid on the cooker and pressure cook till 2 whistles. I haven't added any water since mutton would anyways give away water in the cooker. But in case you feel you can add, may be around ¼ cup of water. Once done open the lid, keep the flame to medium, add ¾ of the fried onion, mix and leave for 2 minutes. Now add garam masala, lemon juice (2 lemons), ¾ of the coriander leaves. Mix thoroughly and cook for another 2 minutes. Take it off the heat.

Heat a big vessel, add water, cinnamon, cardamon, cloves and bring it to a boil. Now add ghee and salt. Add rice, bring to a boil. Once the rice starts boiling, lower the flame and cover the vessel. Keep stirring in between, make sure you don't mash the rice. Once the water evaporates, switch off the heat. Separate the rice with the help of a fork.

Take a large biryani vessel (thick bottom), empty the cooker into this. Level the mutton mixture, add the remaining mint and coriander leaves. Add half of the cooked rice. Sprinkle rose water. Top it with kishmish and cashew-nuts. Add rest of the rice, spread the balance fried onions on top of this. Sprinkle the saffron milk. Seal rim of the vessel with the atta dough and cover the lid. Put on the heat, cook on high flame for 5 minutes and then 10 minutes on low flame.

The fragrance of rose water and ghee is definitely a crowd puller. Enjoy the mouth watering biryani with onion raita. Please do leave in your comments and tell me how the recipe turned out for you.