Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Bhugal teenwad / Bhuna Gosht / Goat Meat

Slow cooking brings out the best flavors when cooking goat meat. This recipe has been patented by ,The Bhagia" family I think :) My brother will enjoy meat cooked in this particular fashion and no other. Mahir on the other hand is always open to trying new recipes. On my last couple trips to India I closely watched my bhabhi cook this meat and I was fascinated by the amount of time it took to prepare this and get the desired color and aroma it emanates when slow cooked for hours at end. I also asked her to pack me the"sipri" made of thick cast  aluminium which she uses to  specially cook this meat. The ingredients  for this recipe are very basic,the key to its excellent taste is the amount of time that goes into its cooking. It is absolutely OK to prepare this in a pressure cooker,you will still achieve the desired results.I call this literally the labor of love,and use no pressure whatsoever :)

Time It takes To Cook: Approximately 2 hours


Ingredients:
Tender,young goat meat: 1 pound  mixed pieces
Red Onions: 3 medium chopped fine
Ginger paste: 1 tbsp
Garlic: 1 tbsp
salt: to taste
Red Kashmiri pepper: 1 tsp or more
garam masala: 1/2 tsp
Turmeric: 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder: 1 1/2 tsp
Tomato's: 3 medium chopped
yogurt: 1 cup
Olive oil: 5 tbsp

Take the meat and mix it nicely with the yogurt & half of all the dry spices and half of ginger & garlic paste.Let it the meat stay in the marination for at least 30 minutes.If you find the time,you can marinate it for longer. Do not add the garam masala to the marination.


Take a dutch oven or anything which is heavy and made for slow cooking. Heat the 5 tbsp oil to smoking point and then add the chopped onion along with salt.After sauteing it for a few minutes,cover the dutch oven for 5 minutes,till the onion turn pink and soft. Take off the lid and slow cook the onions without the lid on high flame and do not leave the onions unattended.

Now take the marinated meat and add this to the onions. There will be enough liquid in the beginning and you can leave it alone for the first 20 minutes but checking on it once or maybe twice.

When  all the liquid starts to get absorbed & dry ,the onions will start to get a golden color. You can reduce the flame to medium now and continue to scrape the bottom every now and then,this will give the onions a nice deep rich brown color.

Now add the remaining ginger and garlic to the meat and onions. Continue to cook on medium flame. every now and then when the onions stick to the bottom,sprinkle some water and scrape the bottom. Every time you do this you will notice the onions and meat will get a deeper color.

By this time you would have cooked the meat & the onions for 1 hour and also achieved the desired deep dark brown color. Now add the chopped tomato's and add the garam masala & the remaining dry spices .Continue to cook for more time ( 30 minutes or so) everything should by this time come together and you will start to see oil appear at the edges.

Now add 2 to 3 cups of water and if you are pressure cooking halve the quantity of water and pressure cook for 15 minutes and then drop the pressure by covering it with a wet towel. If not pressure cooking than add 2-3 cups water and cover it with a well fitting lid and leave it on low flame for 40 minutes to 1 hour or till the meat is tender and easily comes off the bone. garnish it with chopped cilantro and serve with garam rotis.






 

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Mushroom Matar Makhanwala- The best :)!!!

Sangeeta and I had been to PF Chang's last night and we had brought home lots of left over food from there,I enjoy their lettuce wraps a lot and between the two of us we had 4 each and were full by the time I had finished half bowl of the hot & sour soup so the entrees had to be packed. We were saving room for the dessert-which was carrot cake and lime cake...ooooh...that was good and yes- I have to mention we enjoyed dinner after having watched Kings' Speech- An excellent movie wherein Colin Firth has stolen many a hearts with his English accent stutter-Wow!!! I have watched him in Pride & Prejudice,Bridgete Jones and love actually etc and now this-His acting skills are phenomenal and he always does complete justice to the character he plays. I just hope he wins the Oscar's today*finger crossed* He totally deserves it .

Today Manasi is back from Chicago and on her special request I am making her most favorite Daal Chawal,something she always seems to miss when she is away from home for more than a week . No- I don't mean to post that now,I will be doing that soon though for Mahir,he needs to look at it and prepare it in my absence.That reminds me I have to do it soon before I stay back in India and he and Manasi fly back here. There is still time and being the procrastinator that I am-Think it will wait till the last minute :0

So today's post was technically prepared in Schenectady NY( Sangeeta's house) but is being published from CT. We were in no mood to eat PF Chang's food again ,moreover on our way from NY city we had stopped at Hannafords to pick up veggies ,so we were keen on exausting those while they were still fresh. I looked at the mushrooms and pictured something rich and creamy,I had a good  40 minute gruelling workout in the morning and wanted to reward myself :) I looked through Sangeeta's pantry and found everything I would need so Mushroom Makhanwala it had to be :) Very easy to prepare,no complicated steps,and turns out this dish is super delicious and goes very well with tandoori roti or even plain phulka. This is also a great main course dish for those who are fond of entertaining friends & family, fetches lots of compliments and it is hard for people to belive that it was prepared at home and not some topnotch resturant :)


Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
serves 3

Ingredients:
almonds: 15-20
Onion: 1 medium sized sliced thin
Ginger paste: 1 tsp
Garlic paste: 1tsp
white Button Mushrooms: 1 packet  about 20 mushrooms washed and halved
Green peas : 1 cup
Cinnamon: 1 inch piece
Green cardamom: take the seeds and save the skins for tea or something alike
fresh Cream: 2 tbsp optional
Olive oil or butter: 3 tbsp
Turmeric: Little more than a pinch
Kashmiri Red pepper: 1/2 tsp or to your taste
salt: 1/2 tsp or to your taste
Honey: 1 tsp
Kasoori Methi: 1 tbsp roasted ,cooled & then crushed on the vegetable as a finishing touch

Take a pan and heat the 3 tbsp oil or butter.
When the oil is hot add the cinnamon and cardamom,when it starts to emanate the aroma add the sliced onions and saute till they turn translucent.
Now add the ginger and garlic paste along with salt,turmeric and red pepper.
Take the almonds and grind them in the coffee grinder to a fine powder and add this to the onions. Add 1/2 cup water and turn off the flame.When cooled puree this in a smoothie maker. Turn it in to the same pan.
Now take a seprate pan,add 1 tsp oil and add peas and mushrooms to this saute this for 5 minute or till cooked but still crunchy to the bite.
Add these to the puree and put it back on the flame ,at this stage you can add a tsp of honey and blend it well ,and if you feel like add some fresh cream and serve with either tandoori roti or phulka or naan .