Heat

[AvT]

Yeah, this is where i will be posting stuff that i like to eat, and cook. There will be recipes, occasionally there will be random posts related to food but no recipes.  You know, how this goes.

A word of caution, the dishes/preparations i post here are from my neck of the woods and will most likely leave some of you perspiring, with a sense of having the lining from your mouth/gut melted away. I cannot promise you if your morning after session on the shitter would be entirely comfortable either.

If you have an aversion/fear of hot and spicy food, stay away.

[AvT]

Tabakmaaz:

To start you guys off, I am sharing my way of making this traditional dish from my homeland. Since it is the first one i wanted to make it so that heat is not a concern and all the tender palate'd folk can enjoy this too.  I swear i dont even add any chilli peppers to this.

Ingredients:
Lamb Ribs : 1 Kilo
Milk : About half a cup
Water : About half a liter
Dry Ginger Powder : 1 tsp
Aniseed Powder : 1 tsp
Cinnamon Powder : 1 tsp
Hing (Asafoetida) Powder : a pinch, no more than that
Ghee : 0.25 kilos or 250 g
Salt : to taste
cloves : 2-3

OK for this dish, it is essential that your meat be just right. You need a butcher and not a supermarket. Unless you are geared like me to prepare your own meat prior to cooking it.

What you need is that the ribs of the lamb be not devoid of the muscle. That is to say we do not want the "ribs-alone" the thick pad of muscles covering the ribs has to be retained. Each piece will be about 5 inches in length and about 2 inches in width. This means that each section would be 2-3 rib bones in it, also the ribs will have to be cut across. We also do not want the vertebrae in the pieces. So you take the entire rib section and cut it into rectangular pieces, cutting across the ribs.

Once you have your meat all cut up, do the following:

Take the water and add the milk to it, put in the aniseed powder, tumeric powder, ginger powder, salt, asafoetida and cinnamon powders. Add the ribs to this and boil it on a slow flame till the meat is tender and all the water disappears.

Take a kadhai and add the ghee to it and start frying the meat in it one by one, till they turn crispy on both sides.

Serve Hot.


Attention: i am not a beef eating person, i have no clue what this recipe would be like on beef. For that matter i have never tried it with anything other than lamb or goat, so basically, mutton.

[Dajobo]

What is Ghee?

[AvT]

You forgot!!!

One step more than simple Clarified Butter,  You have white butter, made from cream, you heat it, till the water evaporates, and then simmer it for a bit with the residual milk solids. Till it sort of caramelizes a bit.


http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.Xghee&_nkw=ghee&_sacat=0&_from=R40

OR

Alternatively

You can buy some, any indian grocery store would have it, even down under. For a slightly less tastier preparation, you could use vegetable oil for the frying part, typically something like Mustard oil (there are proper ways of using mustard oil), or refined soyabean oil, or even rice bran oil. I do  not recommend things like palm oil or palmolein, neither do i recommend peanut oil or corn oil for this dish, while there is nothing wrong with those two, they impart a too sweet flavor, which in my opinion clashes a bit with the dish.

I am sure that the indian store in your area does have Amul Ghee. Try it in dishes, it is awesome.

[AvT]

How me and the wife make ghee, or how my ancestors made ghee.

Basically, you take fresh milk, and you boil it, then let it cool, the fats, or the cream, rises up on cooling, forms a layer of malai or dense cream. You skim this off and set it aside, preferably in a plastic container, in the freezer (the part where ice forms).

You add to this daily. Then once a month, you have enough, let it out of the freezer, then whisk it, beat it once it thaws and you turn it into butter. In the older days, this butter would be edible, but now since we are making it once a month with month old cream... it turns out to be sour/bitter tasting and sour smelling.

Now what you need to do is to pour out the whey and put the blob of butter into a wok/kadhai and let it render down, till all the water goes away, keep stirring it up from time to time so that the milk solids do not burn at the bottom of the wok, once the water is all gone, you let it simmer a bit till the entire liquid attains a golden hue. Decant this, sieving it through a muslin cloth or a fine sieve. The rest of the milk solids left, can be scraped off the pan and put into the same cloth and sqeezed to get the most of the ghee out of them. Store this ghee either at room temp or in the refrigerator (no freezing). Use it as and when required.

In the older days, at least in the part of the country i hail from, people had many cows/buffaloes per household and as a result would have a load of milk and cream. Thus they could make butter daily and it would be fresh and awesome. the left over butter from the day was collected and stored, and once a month they would put all that together to make ghee. Or whenever they ran out of storage to store the butter, or ran out of ghee.

[Spaztik Muffin]

trusty ghee, always good

also i have been eating a lot of chilli - scorpion strike and a "mad dog" chili essence

if it is food we have put chili on it

[AvT]

This is yet another dish that i make for the family. It is a traditional dish, which take a long time to prepare. As a result it is dying down in popularity as normal folk cant seem to find the time to cook this anymore. I make it a point to cook this once a month so my sons know it and can appreciate it. So far they love it and Son #1 joins in with gusto while i prepare it.
Those that like Mutton Koftas, or Kababs, will find something new here. It is sort of like that, but elevated higher.

Ingredients:
Mutton: 500g without bones and fat
Ginger : 1-2 inches
Green chillies: 8-9 (hot ones)
Coriander Leaves: A Bunch
Garlic: 7-8 average sized cloves
Tomato: 2 good sized ones
Onions: 2 good sized ones
Cumin Seeds: 1 tsp
Nutmeg Powder : a pinch
Brown Cardamom : 1
Green Cardamom : 4-5
Bay Leaves : 2-3
Red Chilli Powder : 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder : 1/4 tsp
Coriander Powder : 1 tsp
Salt : to taste

Preparation Stage One:
Mincing the Mutton - Normal minced mutton such as used in kababs and koftas will simply not be good enough here. What is needed is a fine, fine, fine mince. Something most food processor machines cannot achieve. In order to do this, you require meat that has been trimmed of all fat, yes even the fat layers between the muscle layers. You also need a comfortable wooden mallet, and a butcher's block. Or any suitable (non smooth) firm surface. Start pounding the meat. Slow, measured bangs, it will take time but the mince will reach a consistency where it looks like paste (almost)

Preparation Stage Two:
Pull out your trusty food processor/wet grinder, drop in the green chilies, ginger and garlic and let her rip. Add no water whatsoever. In the older days, this used to be done on something called a sill-batte, which was infact a stone slab and a stone rolling pin...

Cut up one of your onions fine, small pieces, very small. Fry them in ghee till they reach a golden brown caramelized, translucent stage.

Balls:
Add your ground wet spices, fried onions, and coriander leaves to the mince. knead it all together. Mix properly, try to get a homogeneous mix. Roll into balls about 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter.

Do not start frying them yet! And no, dont eat them yet. It is raw meat regardless of how tempting it looks or smells.

Pop these balls gently into a kadai/pan and cover the thing, add no oil or ghee at this time. Place on a low flame and gently let it cook for about 10 mins. This is basically a sloooow bake.

After about 10 mins, take them out, add ghee/oil to the kadhai and deep fry the cooked balls. Once fried, put them aside oft the time being.

Gravy:
Slice up your onion into fine slices, fry them in the pan till golden brown, again the translucence is a desired state. Prepare your dry spices, grind, ginger, garlic, cumin seeds, both kinds of cardamom, add pepper and nutmeg. Add this to your fried onions, add the red chilli powder, coriander powder, bay leaves, tomatoes and salt and cook till the oil separates from it.

Drop in your fried meat balls and about 1/2 a cup of water and cook covered for about 5 minutes on a medium flame.

Rista is ready, serve hot with Steamed rice. Chapatti will also do but we prefer rice as it is the traditional and tastier accompaniment.

Also, i firmly believe that it is better to eat this indian style with your hands instead of with cutlery. For one, it makes sure you wont burn your mouth due to over hot food, secondly, it is just more satisfying.

[AvT]

Ok ready for more Heat. This is a special dish, which like Tabkmaaz and Rista, forms part of the traditional 36 course feast.

It is called Marchwaangan Korma.

Ingredients:
Mutton : 1 Kilo, bitesized pieces.
Green Cardamoms : 2
Oil/Ghee : 2 Tbsp
Cloves : 5
Black Cardamoms: 2
Cinnamon Powder: 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon Stick:
Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder : 2 Heaped Tbsp
Turmeric Powder: 1/4 tsp
Garam Massala : 1/2 tsp
Ginger Powder : 1/2 tsp
Fennel Powder : 1tbsp
Cloves : 5

Method:
In a bowl, mix the red chili powder into 3 cups of water and set aside. In a kadhai or a thick bottomed pan, heat the ghee/oil, add to this hot oil the slightly crushed cardamoms and cloves. Add in the pieces of mutton and stir everything together to mix it well.  Add the cinnamon stick and the black cardamoms. Cook on medium heat, stirring to prevent sticking to bottom and otherwise burning the meat. Do this till the mutton starts turning a reddish brown, this will be about 20-30 minutes. At this pont, add in all the spices except the garam massala, add in the salt too.

Turn up the flames to about medium high, and add in slowly, while stirring to combine well, about 1/4 cup of the chilli water mix. Keep stirring till the water evaporates. Everytime the red water evaporates, add in another 1/4 cup of it till the red water is all gone.

NOTE: Make sure the contents dont get too dry between two successive adding of chilli water, but the meat has to release some oil and enough red water has to evaporate before adding more. After the last batch of water has been added to the pot and it too has evaporated, take a fork and test the meat, it should be fork tender. IF it is no tender yet (older animal) add a cup of hot water and cook for 10-15 minutes on low heat while covered so that meat is tender.

When it is fork tender, add 1/4 cup of water and the garam massala and cook uncovered till the oils separate and the gravy has a consistency like a thick sauce.

There, Marchwaangan Korma is done. Can be served with Naan, Rice or Chapatti/Roti

Make sure to serve piping hot. Can be accompanied with a simple salad of sliced cucumbers, onion rings and a dash of lemon juice and pepper. At the end of the meal, serve a chilled glass of Chass. Or Buttermilk as you may know it. Helps to settle the stomach and put to rest the raging inferno in the belly.

Morning after, make sure to bite your lip and bear it.

[Quantum Leap]

No way in H***

LOL

[Spaztik Muffin]

they look like nice recipies, needs moar chili

[AvT]

there be more coming man. Of course most of the heat is added by the spices, the chilli just adds the initial sting, the stuff that keeps your mouth smoldering after you have driven two miles away, is the spice, it also keeps you happily sweating.

Unless i add the special chillies... the Bhuts and the Scorpions.