Chicken Biriyani - in Pressure Cooker

Do you get food dreams? Yes, you read it right, I did mean food. I get them...quite often. It happens usually when I don't get to eat something that I badly want to. In this case it was Chicken Biriyani. So much so that I could see the fluffy rice, tender chicken pieces and caramelized onions...sigh. Being in that part of the world where an Indian take out is not at all an easy option, I had to either make it myself or ask someone else to make it for me. 

Disclaimer: For those looking for the authentic biriyani recipe, this is not the one. This recipe is with the normal white rice and made in a pressure cooker. 

Serves: 4

What you need:

• Rice: 2 cups
• Water: 2 1/2 cups (the rice I use needed less water)
• Medium sized Chicken pieces: 1kg or less
• Eggs: 4 nos, boiled
• Red Onions: 1 big or 2 small - thinly sliced
• Small/pearl onions: 5 nos
• Green Chilly: 3 small ones - randomly chopped
• Ginger-Garlic paste: 1 tsp
• Turmeric: a pinch
• Red Chilly Powder: 1/2 tsp
• Garam Masala/Chicken Masala: 1 1/2 tsp
• Finely chopped coriander: 2 tbsp
• Ghee/Oil
• Salt

Whole spices:

• Cloves: 6-7 nosCinnamon - a medium piece
• Cardamom: 3-4 nos
• Bay leaf: 5-6 medium sized leaves
• Fennel/Cumin seeds: 1/4 tsp

To Marinate:

• Turmeric: a pinch
• Red Chilly powder: 1/2 tsp
• Ginger-Garlic paste: 1/2 tsp
• Garam Masala/Chicken Masala: 1/2 tsp
• Thick curd: 1 tbsp
• Salt: 1/2 tsp

Marinate the chicken with these ingredients and keep aside for at least 30 minutes.

How to make:

• Wash and soak the rice.
• In the pressure cooker, heat 1 tsp oil/ghee and fry the whole spices for a minute.
• Add the small/pearl onions and fry then in medium heat for 4-5 minutes. Mash them slightly.
• Add 3/4th of the sliced onions and the green chillies. Saute for a minute.
• Add the ginger garlic paste. Saute till the raw smell goes and onions are golden brown in color.
• Add the masala powders, mix well. Add a few tablespoons of water and mix again.
• Now add the marinated chicken pieces to the cooker and mix, ensuring that the onion masala coats it well.
• Add enough salt. Check the taste and add more salt/ masala powder if necessary.
• Cook the chicken in medium heat till it is half done - it takes about 5-6 minutes.
• Now, drain the soaked rice and add it to the cooker. Add 2.5 cups of water and mix well. If you feel the water is less when compared to the quantity of the rice and chicken, add half a cup more.
• Check the salt and masala again and add if necessary.
• All 1/2 tsp ghee to this and mix well. 
• Once this boils, turn down the flame to low and close the cooker with the lid.
• You now have two options - Either put the whistle on and cook the biriyani for two whistles. Or do not put the whistle and cook the biriyani with the lid on for 20-25 minutes.
• While the biriyani is getting cooked, take a pan and fry the remaining sliced onions in a tsp of ghee till it is caramelized.
• Once the biriyani is ready, take it out of the cooker and place it in a serving bowl. Cut the boiled eggs into two and place it over the biriyani. Garnish with chopped coriander and the caramelized onions.
• Serve with curd or onion raitha.

Roasted Veggies

This is an ideal dish for me when I'm in one of those lazy moods but still want to cook and not order takeout. This dish has endless options. You can use any vegetable of your choice. I only had some fingerling potatoes, sweet peppers and carrots so that's what I used. I love garlic and always have it at home, so added a good amount of garlic too.



What you need:

1. Medium sized Sweet Peppers - 5 nos
2. Fingerling potatoes - 8 nos
3. Carrot - 1 or 2
4. Garlic - a small bulb or 5-6 cloves
5. Parsley - a sprig or two finely shopped
6. Olive Oil
7. Salt & Pepper

How I made it:

• Chop the veggies into any shape you like. I cut them all in roughly the same size except the garlic.
• Cook the potatoes for about 3-4 minutes separately with some salt over the stove. Instead you can microwave it for a minute or two if that's what you would prefer. Or skip this step altogether.
• Mix the potatoes, chopped veggies, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. If you are not so health conscious, be generous with the oil.
• Take a roasting pan and cover it with foil. I have roasted without the foil too, but had some foil handy so used it. If you do not have a roasting pan, use any oven-safe flat pan.
• Dump the mixed veggies on to the pan, spread them a bit so that they are in a layer.
• Sprinkle some more salt & pepper on top if you feel like it.
• Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees F and roast for about 30 minutes. Check once in between and mix them again if required (The time varies depending on your oven and veggies, so keep checking at intervals).
• Take the veggies out of the oven. Toss with the chopped parsley and serve hot.

P.s. Any leftovers are good as a cold salad the next day. Add some grated cheese, give it a mix and enjoy.

Spicy Prawn Curry

I've been planning to cook prawns for a while now. My better half is allergic to prawns and so I never cook them at home. But today the craving for some spicy prawn curry was a little too much to handle. So off we went to the nearby supermarket and got some prawns as well as some Pink Perch for the hubby. This is a fairly easy recipe and the prawns take very less time to cook.

What you need:
1. 250 gms medium sized prawns (I got about 15 of them)
2. Curry leaves
3. Salt to taste
4. 1 tbsp Oil

For the masala:
1. A small onion finely chopped
2. 2 cloves garlic minced
3. 7-8 dry red chillies roasted
4. 1 tsp roasted coriander seeds
5. 1/2 tsp Tamarind Paste

The pic is of the turmeric and salt marinated prawns, hence the yellow color.

How to make it:

• Clean the prawns well. Make sure that you take off the vein from across the back of the prawns. This if left behind can upset your stomach and even make you sick. 
• Rub the prawns with salt and turmeric and keep them marinated for about 30 minutes.
• Grind the ingredients for the masala to a smooth paste. Add a little bit of water during grinding.

• Heat the oil in a pan. Add the ground masala and fry till the raw smell is gone (2-3 minutes).
• Add the prawns and enough water depending on how much gravy you want.

• Keep on high flame till the gravy starts boiling and immediately reduce to low flame.

• Add salt to taste and mix well.
• Take off the stove once done. The prawns will not take more than 3-4 minutes to cook. If in doubt, taste a small piece to check if its done.
• Fry the curry leaves in a little bit of oil, add to the prawns and mix well.

This goes well with hot rice/appam/dosa. Or anything you would like to have it with :)

P.s. I'll post the Pink Perch recipe soon :)

Ripe Mango Curry (Mambazha Koottan)

If you get to eat any fruit of your choice every single day for the rest of your life, which one would you choose? I'll choose Mango in the blink of an eye. I love mango in any form - as a whole, pickle, juice, milkshake, in curry or even just raw mango with a little bit of salt and chilly powder. 

Mangoes make me happy. And I am feeling happy right now. So today's recipe is going to be a Mango dish. Ripe Mango curry a.k.a. Mambazha Koottan. It's a very common summer dish at my home. We prepare it with peeled whole mangoes so that each one of us gets one whole mango to ourselves. No more cat fights on who got more mango pieces :). 

What you need:

• Whole Ripe Mango - 4 or 5 medium sized ones
• Grated coconut - 3/4 cup
• Chilly Powder - 1 tbsp
• Jeera/Cumin - 1 tsp
• Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
• Beaten Sour Curd - 1/2 cup
• Salt - As required
• A sprig of curry leaves
• For Tempering: Mustard, Dry Red chillies, Fenugreek seeds

How to make it:

1. Peel off the skin from the mangoes. You can then cut them into pieces if you don't like the idea of whole mangoes in curry.
2. Cook the mangoes in a deep bottomed pan with the chilly powder and turmeric. Once the water starts boiling, add salt to taste.
3. Grind the grated coconut with cumin, salt and a little water to a fine paste. Beat the curd for a minute in a mixer (or by hand).
4. Once the Mangoes are almost cooked (say 5-6 minutes for a medium sized mango), reduce the flame to sim. 
5. Add the beaten curd, mix well and cook for another 5 minutes. Make sure you keep a close eye on the curry, else the curd will split and our curry will be a lumpy mango curry.
6. Next, add the ground coconut paste, mix well. Cook for a minute and turn off the stove.
7. Mix the curry leaves in the curry. 
8. Temper the mustard, dry red chillies and fenugreek seeds in a little oil and add this as well to the curry. our Mambazha Koottan is ready.

Chilly Chicken - Amma's recipe

From ancient times, from the moment Eve bit the proverbial apple, many things have shook the world. Dinosaurs, World Wars, My husband (he added that) etc... None of those shakes have quite affected my laziness on starting off on my food blog. So you may wonder, why the social activism suddenly? Karma, ladies & gentlemen or in modern parley, also known as "Likes" on a Facebook food photo.

So starting with a motherly recipe. Fail-safe. My mom is an awesome cook. She used to cook chicken every Sunday when we were kids. Kerala Chicken Curry with ground spices as well as Chicken dry-fry were her specialties. But she had a special Kungfu-Panda type, secret Chilly Chicken recipe, and my brother and I absolutely loved it, and still love it. A few weeks ago, I had a sudden craving for this dish. Going to some "Planet of Chinese"-wala Chinese restaurant was pointless as I knew I will end up craving Mom's version more. So called her up, got the recipe and tried it out last weekend. It did come out well though not as tasty as the original version. She took one look at the pic I sent her and told me what I missed - Vinegar. Moms, phew...

Here goes the recipe: 

Chilly Chicken - Amma's recipe

What you need:

• Chicken             1/2 kg cut into small pieces
• Maida                2 table spoon, 
• Egg white          1 egg
• Onion                2 nos cut into squares
• Green chilly        3 or 4 sliced (Adjust the # based on taste)
• Garlic pods         3 or 4 pieces cut in round shape
• Capsicum           1 cut into square shape
• Soy sauce          1 tsp
• Chilly sauce       1 tsp
• Tomato sauce    1 tsp
• Vinegar             1 tsp
• Salt                   Very little as soy sauce has salt in it.

How to make it:

1. In a small bowl, mix the Maida, Egg whites and a bit of salt with a little water to make a paste.
2. Add the chicken pieces and mix ensuring that all pieces are coated well with the marinade  Keep aside for 30 minutes.
3. In another small bowl, make the sauce base by mixing Soy, Chilly, Tomato sauces and Vinegar.
4. In a tawa or frying pan, heat oil and half fry the maida smeared chicken pieces. Keep aside. The health conscious folks can keep the chicken on a few tissues to drain off some of the oil.
5. In another pan (or drain the oil and use the same one), fry the onions and green chillies till onion is translucent.
6. Add the fried chicken pieces, mix well and cook covered 5 minutes.
7. Add the sauce mix prepared in Step 3 and cook for another 6-7 minutes or till the chicken is almost done.
8. Add capsicum pieces and mix very well. Add salt if required.
9. Turn off the stove and serve it hot

Here's the final product:

P.s. You can add spring onions as well if you like, just add them along with the capsicum. Also I had to add a tad more sauce, so do adjust the quantity based on your taste.