about ajoy

i’ve been a chef for over three decades now! i trained in chennai and started off with the taj hotel group. i’ve owned nilgiri’s indian restaurant in sydney for over 15 years. i’m on a mission to dispel the myth that indian food is no more than a ‘curry in a hurry’! come with me as i try and educate. indian food is my passion (alongside cricket!) and i’m enjoying exploring the new social media to fulfil this passion! i’ve also published cookery books, been on tv, the radio, won awards! now i’m also moving into making cookery videos. these are simple and easy to follow and don’t go on for hours like some Bollywood movies!

prawn biryani - serve with coconut chutney and masala pappadums (see below)

Anyone who studied at The Madras Catering in the 70s and 80s would remember that these were (and possibly still are) the best known places to eat when in Madras, especially when you were broke!

Honestly.

If you don’t believe me, ask Sriram, Murphy, Dexter, Praveen (these guys live in Australia today), and a thousand others will confirm this, “Yup,” they will say, “you bet!”

These foodie joints also had something else in common – they were all owned and operated by a community that comes from the west coast of India, known as the Malabar Coast.

These people are descendants of the Arab traders who traded in spices way before the Dutch, the Portuguese and the British came to this part of the world. They are called the Moplahs or the Mapillai, literally meaning the son-in-law or a person held in high esteem!

These people don’t just know their spices, they have created a wonderful cuisine called the Malabar Muslim Food!! Their pathiri and the muttai masala and the meen mulakkithattu and the chemeen . . . are to die for!!!

What memories! These were the best days of my life koi lauta de mere beetein huay din!!

But let’s get back to the food joints, Kaanagam was popular for a cup of chaaia (the best cup of tea you’ll ever have!), Runs made (the best) mutton korma with kerala parota and Coronet cooked (the best bl..dy) prawn and fish buryaani, and to top it all you could pay when you (or any of the above mentioned friends) had  the money. The only condition was that you had to be from Madras Catering!!

I am extremely happy that I got a taste of  some of the best Southern Indian food that one can find anywhere on the planet!

These restaurants were basic food joints with a table, a chair, a spoon, a fork and a glass tumbler and that is it.

There was a cashier counter, too, where the boss sat and counted his takings while keeping a close eye on all the operations!

This boss managed all the people who worked at the restaurant and the product took care of itself. Eating there was never a let down!

My relationship with Coronet restaurant began when a bunch of my seniors (Praveen, Dexter, and others), took me to the restaurant during the ‘initiation process’ (a.k.a mental disintegration process) that was customary at the college, and asked me to ‘wait’ at their table while they sat, chatted and happily enjoyed the fish buryaani.

I had to serve them, clear their table, wash their plates and cutlery and also settle the bill for them. How cool was that?!!

Well, not cool at all. In fact, it made me so angry and hungry (in both meanings of the word) that I promised myself that I would come back  some day  and treat myself to a buryaani when these seniors were at college.

I did get my chance but it was a complete disaster.

The owner managed to get in touch with Dexter who was still at college and asked him to come in immediately as there was a junior sitting at the table having his buryaani.

Now Dexter (who now lives in Melbourne) picked up Murphy (who also lives in Melbourne!) and drove straight down to Coronet just as I was about to have my first mouthful of the much awaited buryaani and they sat either side of me at the table.

So, forget about having the bur . . . ni, I ended up peeling onions and garlic for the chefs!

This was to be my first taste of a commercial kitchen and, believe it or not, I have lasted in one for over three decades!

Years later, when I finally got a chance in Mangalore  to learn this wonderful art of buryaani making I wasn’t going to miss it, no way!!

So, in an effort to make amends for that time, here’s the biryaani that I love to cook. It’s with prawns, or chemeen as they call them, which make a delicious biryani.

Please try it yourself and let me know what you think. If you’d prefer to see a one page version of the prawn biryani, click prawn biryani recipe.

So, before we begin, in summary here’s what we’ll be doing. (Don’t be put off by the 11 steps! A lot of the steps are very quick. Basically, from start to  “Okay, let’s eat!” is about 90 minutes.)

First: prepare our clay pot; 2) prepare the rice; 3) make prawn stock; 4) caramelise our red onions; 5) marinate then 6) sear the prawns; 7) make the biryani marinade(masala); 8) mix it together and bake in the oven. Whilst it’s baking away we get on with our accompaniments: 9) make our masala; 10) cook our pappadums (yes folks, these are bought!); 11) make our coconut chutney.Oh, and use the seafood garam masala (click garam masala blog for the seafood garam masala recipe).

That’s it. So, let’s get started.

Biryani recipe

Ingredients

Ingredients: clockwise, in the plate: oil, unsalted butter, salt, ginger paste, garlic paste, crushed coriander, crushed biryani garam masala, ground fresh chillies, turmeric powder, chilli powder, lemon juice. outer ring, clockwise: sliced red onions, sliced white onions, kari leaves, chopped coriander leaves, polished rice (sona masoori), shelled and de-veined fresh prawns

Special utensils

a clay pot will give a delicious, earthy flavour to the biryani

Preparing the clay pot and its lid

immerse both the lid and the pot in water and place 4 cm of water inside both the lid and the pot: this will ensure the clay pot doesn’t crack when it is in the oven

Cooking rice using the draining method

choose your rice

choose your rice: shown are sona masoori rice (top left) and basmati rice (top right). I could have used the longer grained basmati rice from the north, but chose to use the short grain sona masoori rice from the south because this is a southern style biryani!!

Soak your rice

Step 1

add 3 cups rice to mixing bowl n.b. do not wash the rice!

Step 2

add water until rice is covered with 2.5cm of water

Step 3

set aside - make sure you do not disturb the rice as it is absorbing the water - if you do disturb the rice it stops absorbing water evenly

Step 4

when the rice has risen to the surface, it is ready. n.b. the water will be clear as you didn't wash the rice beforehand so the starch won't have released, making the water cloudy

Step 5

drain rice

Cook your rice

Step 1

add plenty of water to saucepan and add 1/2 tsp salt when boiling, just like you would when boiling pasta

Step 2

add rice to boiling water

Step 3

stir rice continuously to prevent it from sticking

Step 4

rice will be al dente when it is at the surface and the froth has disappeared

Step 5

check rice is al dente - there should be a white 'dot' in the centre of the grain

Step 6

drain rice in colander

Step 7

remove water from clay pot and add half the rice

Preparing your prawn stock

Step 1

add coriander roots/stems and prawn shells to large saucepan - do not use prawn heads as this will make the stock too pungent

Step 2

add enough water so contents well covered

Step 3

bring water to boil and then simmer

Step 4

delicious, clear prawn stock will be ready in 10 minutes

Caramelising red onions

Step 1

heat 4 tbs polyunsaturated oil in shallow frying pan; when oil is smoking, add 2 tbs butter

Step 2

wait for the bubbles to disappear

Step 3

when butter has melted and there is no more froth, add 2 red onions and 1/2 tsp salt

Step 4 – caramelise onions – watch my video if you need instructions – don’t discard oils afterwards; leave it in the frying pan

Prepare prawns

Marinate prawns

step 1

add 1/2 tsp chilli powder to prawns

Step 2

add 1/2 tsp turmeric

Step 3

fold prawns in marinade

Sear prawns

step 1

add 1/2 tsp salt to prawns - this is done just before they are seared to add flavour without dehydrating the prawns

step 2

add 1/2 cup kari leaves to prawns and fold

step 3

heat oil already used to caramelise red onions, when it starts to smoke, add prawns

step 4

fold prawns so they are evenly seared

step 5

prawns are perfectly seared when the marinade is golden and crusty

step 6

remove prawns but don't discard oil; leave it in frying pan

prepare biryani masala

Step 1

heat oil previously used to sear prawns; when smoking, add 2 sliced white onions, add 1 tbs salt and fold until golden

Step 2

add 1/2 cup kari leaves and fold

Step 3

add 2 tbs garlic paste and fold

Step 4

add 2 tbs ginger paste and fold

Step 5

add 2 tbs freshly ground coriander and fold

Step 6

add 11/2 tbs biryani garam masala and fold

Step 7

add 2 tbs green chilli paste and fold

Step 8

add 1 tbs turmeric

Step 9

add 2 tbs chilli powder and fold

Combine seared prawns, masala and prawn stock

Step 1

add seared prawns to masala and fold

step 2

add 2 ladles (2 cups) of prawn stock and fold

step 3

turn off heat

step 4

add 1/2 cup lemon juice

step 5

add 4 tbs chopped coriander

Cook biryani

Step 1

place the clay pot with rice in it near the stove

Step 2

place prawns on bed of rice

Step 3

when all the prawns are in the pot, they should cover the bed of rice and be evenly spread

Step 4

evenly distribute the remaining rice on top of prawns

Step 5

evenly distribute caramelised red onions on the bed of rice

step 6

remove lid from water, place on pot and put pot in a cold oven (if the oven is hot to begin with, the pot will crack). Set oven temp. to 180C

step 7

after approx. 45 minutes, using oven gloves, remove lid

step 8

fold rice and prawns and add lemon juice

step 9

serve with coconut chutney and masala pappadums (see below)

Accompaniment – Masala pappadums

Masala

Ingredients

1 cup diced red onions, 11/2 tsp salt and 1/2 cup chopped coriander

Step 1

add chopped red onions to mixing bowl

Step 2

add coriander

Step 3

add salt

Step 4

mix thoroughly

roasting pappadums

pappadums

Step 1

Wwithout using any oil, place pappadums on hot flat surface such as a large frying pan

Step 2

using a tea towel, pat pappadums to keep them flat

Step 3

when the pappadum turns golden, turn over and repeat patting

Step 4

when they are cooked, layer them on top of one another

Adding masala to pappadums

Step 1

place a handful of masala on a pappadum

Step 2

repeat process, building a stack of pappadums as you go

enjoy!

Accompaniment – Coconut chutney

Ingredients: fresh grated coconut, sliced ginger and fresh coriander, without roots

add coriander and coconut to mixing bowl

add sliced ginger

blend with warm water - your chutney is ready

Well folks, this completes the long journey making our six garam masalas!! Please make any of the garam masalas for other dishes too. I’ll be returning to these masalas in the future.

I hope you have enjoyed reading it (and cooking it) as much as John and I have in bringing it to you!

Join us next week as we travel around this beautiful land called India and I will reveal some really unique VEG(AN)ETARIAN dishes for you to try!!

Anah Daata Sukhi Bhaava!!

You might not be able to have your cake and eat it too, but you can with fish!

But before I begin, if you want to follow the recipe on a single page, then please click smoked red snapper recipe.

“Well John, we can do a tandoori fish with different marinades. It’s no big deal.”

But I could see that this Aussie guy wasn’t quite sure if my ‘no big deal’ really was so small.

“No one has a tandoor in their backyard, Ajoy, we need to do something that will make an ‘Aussie’ cook it at home.”

cooking at home isn't a barrier to making amazing food

“How about cooking it on the barbie?” I suggested.

“Sure,” John replied.

But I knew what he was going to say next so I preempted him, “But,” I said, leaning forward, “Not every house has a BBQ in their backyard, lots of people live in units and can’t smoke out their neighbours and. . .” I continued, looking out of the window as the rain lashed down as it has almost all summer, “this means there is no way they can cook this dish. So, how about cooking it in the oven, or still better if we can ‘smoke’ it on the electric or gas burner?”

I could see John liked this idea but he still needed convincing that it could actually happen!

So, if we just marinated the fish in a tandoori marinade, cooked it in the pan, or a pot, or a skillet, or just steamed it we would have tandoori fish, just like they do ‘back home’ . . . but that would be cheating!

smoked fish and tomato chutney - this week's recipe

So, memory recall!!

It’s 1986.

Place: Taj Savoy, Ooty.

I am on assignment to cook food for the top officials of Citicorp and in one of their ‘themed’ dinners we were asked to create a ‘smoked fish’ for the ‘kebab’ dinner.

Now, as most of you will know and some of you might not, a kebab is literally cooking a large piece of meat without a sauce. Make this meat smaller and you get, guess what?, tikka! The ‘meat’, can of course be fish as well.

Mr Rao, who was the boss of Citicorp back then, was most adamant that no two kebabs on the menu should have the same cooking technique. It was therefore imperative that the kebabs come from all over India. He even included some from neighbouring Pakistan.

So, to give him what he wanted we served paththar ka gosht (boneless lamb barbequed on a stone slab) and khorme ka kebab from Hyderabad, kakori kebab (a very tender lamb kebab) from Bhopal, murgh tikka (chicken tikka) from the Punjab, chapli kebab (a beef kebab) from Peshawar, and so on . . . including a fish kebab that was not cooked in the tandoor.

Mr Rao wanted the chefs to create a fish kebab similar to a smoked fish using hickory.

Now, using hickory would have been easy, except that Ooty had no Hickory at that time and we were running out of time and had to do this dish!

So, never ones to be beaten by a lack of hickory (or whatever the missing ingredient happens to be), the chefs decided to trial smoking whole pomfret (a type of fish) using the bark of gum trees.

It worked beautifully except that the fish had a strong flavor of eucalyptus!

Thank whichever almighty G-d you follow that this was only a trial so I could keep my job or else. . . so we kept experimenting.

Next we tried smoking the fish using corn husks and tea leaves and it worked wonders!!

We called the dish dhuyein ki machchi!!

So, maybe it is time to recollect these memories into something concrete and try and create this dish for John and my Aussie friends.

ingredients for smoked fish from top, clockwise: ground garlic, ground ginger, chilli powder, turmeric powder, kebab garam masala (ground), oil, lemon wedges, salt; plate-sized NZ snapper (gutted and scaled); tea leaves for smoking

Then there’s the tomato chutney that you serve alongside and prepare whilst your fish is smoking in the oven.

ingredients for tomato chutney, clockwise: kari leaves, chilli powder, oil, black mustard seeds, dry red chillies, chick pea lentils, white lentils, salt, asafoetida powder, lemon juice, turmeric, tamarind paste, tomato purée, fresh coriander leaves

step 1

the fish can be red snapper (pictured), baby barramundi, flathead, in fact use any whole fish that can comfortably fill a plate. It's always a good idea to keep the fish on ice when out of the fridge

step 2

What's smoking? To infuse the fish with a smokey flavour, you need something to smoke. Pictured is black tea with some of the ground spices that make up the kebab garam masala...... You don't have to use tea! If you have time, use the fibre husks from sweet corn, dry in the sun for a couple of days. You can also use shaved hickory (available at all good BBQ stores)

step 3

If you're smoking the fish on a stove you'll need: heavy-based pan, glass lid, mixing bowl, whisk and a metal rack

step 4

if you're smoking the fish in an oven you'll need: baking tray, mixing bowl, whisk, metal rack

step 5

kebab garam masala - refer to my first blog on garam masalas for the ingredients

step 6

grind until garam masala resembles course sand

step 7

your fish should be scaled and gutted - clean the insides thoroughly

step 8

on a chopping board, score the fish, three slashes on each side, about 1/2 cm deep

step 9

this is the right cutting depth

step 10

After you have scored all the fish, discard the ice.

pat fish dry with a paper towel or the marinade won't stick

step 11

pat dry the insides of the fish as well

step 12

place fish in tray and cover with paper towelling whilst preparing the marinade

step 13: Preparing the marinade.

add 1 tbsp salt to mixing bowl

step 14

add 1 tbsp garlic paste to mixing bowl

step 15

add 1 tbsp ginger paste to mixing bowl

step 16

fold salt, garlic and ginger paste together

step 17

add 1 tsp chilli powder and fold

step 18

add 1/2 tsp turmeric and fold

step 19

add 2 tbsp ground kebab garam masala and fold, add any remaining garam masala to the tea leaves

step 20

add polyunsaturated vegetable oil and fold

step 21

your marinade is now ready and should look (more or less!) like this

step 22

smear marinade over fish and into scored cuts

step 23

smear marinade into fish cavity as well

step 24

this is how much marinade should be on the fish (both sides)

step 25

folding in remaining garam masala to the tea leaves

step 26

if cooking on the stove, add tea leaf mixture to pan - the tea leaves should be laid about 1-cm thick, covering about 60% of the base

step 27

place fish on rack, add more marinade if necessary

step 28

cover pan with lid - a glass lid is ideal as you can see when the fish is ready without having to take off the lid (which you don't want to do as the smoke will escape). As the fish cooks, the gills will open up and the dorsal fin will rise. The fish is cooked when the scored cuts 'weep' (fill with moisture).

step 29

scored cuts 'weeping' (moisture will bead there) means the fish is cooked

step 30

If using oven: turn on temp. to 180-200 C and also turn on the grill (if your oven is able to do both), to medium heat. Place tea leaves on aluminium foil in a tray on top shelf of the oven (closest to the grill). Tea leaves should be laid about 2 cm thick. Keep fish on the rack and place on tray. Then place on shelf underneath the tea-leaf tray, as shown above!

step 31

A close-up of the tea leaves in the oven - they will start to smoke

step 32

The fish is ready when the gills are fully open and scored cuts are weeping

step 33

Making the chutney that goes alongside the fish (prepare whilst the fish is being smoked).

add 2 tbsp polyunsaturated vegetable oil to a hot frying pan

step 34

when the oil is smoking, add 1 tsp black mustard seeds - if the oil is hot, they will immediately sizzle and pop

step 35

add whole chillies and fold

step 36

add 2 tbsp lentils and fold

step 37

add 2 tbsp white lentils and fold till caramelised

step 38

add 11/2 tsp salt and fold

step 39

add 1/2 tsp asafoetida powder and fold

step 40

add kari leaves and let crackle (this is pretty instantaneous)

step 41

add 1 tsp chilli powder and fold

step 42

add 1/2 tsp turmeric and fold

step 43

add 1 tbsp tamarind paste and fold

step 44

add 2 cups tomato purée and fold (or you may add chopped tomatoes or a combination of both), cook until the oil separates and appears on the surface

step 45

tear coriander, add to pan and fold

step 46

add 1 tbsp lemon juice, to taste, and fold

step 47

remove from stove - then serve chutney as it is, or if you prefer, blend it for a smoother texture

step 48

your chutney is now ready!

step 49

place fish and chutney on a serving dish and enjoy!

But before I let you loose into your own kitchen to do this there are a few things I’d like you to remember when smoking fish:

1. Never add lemon juice to the marinade, this moistens the fish and will ‘break’ it up when smoked. Add lemon juice to the fish after it has been smoked and removed from the oven and whilst it is still hot.

2. Avoid small fillets of fish as they are too delicate, use whole fish, especially when the fish is ‘plate sized’.

3. If using fillets of a bigger fish, crust the skin side (making sure you do not skin the fish, dry the skin side and apply the marinade, the skin will get crisp after smoking) and cover the flesh side with aluminium foil to prevent the fillet from drying out.

4. You may use any wood chips as long as they are safe! Please check this before you use them. Also, try rose leaves mixed with tea leaves, it creates the most fabulous aroma and taste!!

5. Remember, never fry the fish before smoking it like they do on MasterChef , nothing is worse than this as the smokey flavour does not permeate through the fish.

6. This is the best way to impress your wife/girlfriend for a slightly belated Valentine’s day, in case you forgot to take her out for dinner and if you are not in the dog house already!!

Serve this dish with a glass of  Iron Gate Sweet Semillion or a glass of Nazaaray Pinot Grigio!!

Any questions about the fish? Any trouble with obtaining good wood chips? Don’t know what hickory is but only know it from that nursery rhyme? Want to know something that’s totally off topic? Well, please write to me and let me know your thoughts/comments.

And please, no jokes like I’ve heard from my son’s friends about ‘smoking fish’ as they stand there imitating a guy smoking a cigarette but pretend it‘s a fish!

So, happy cooking till the next one!

Anah Daata Sukhi Bhaava!!

the perfect dalcha (a slow-cooked Indian 'lamb stew' with lentils). see how easy it is to do this lamb recipe!

In 1991, when I decided to start my (sorry, I had a partner), when WE decided to start our first restaurant in Sydney ‘I’ was determined that this was not going to be another ‘curry house’. No way!!

I wasn’t going to cook any ‘bl..dy’ curries, not after having spent my time working with the Indian ‘masters’ (I called them ustaads), who taught me a simple lesson which I still hold true today.

“Son,” they said, “Indian food is a complete art. You can ‘see’ this art being created, you can ‘touch’ it, you can ‘hear’ the music when tempering a dish, you certainly can ‘smell’ the aromas wafting through the air, and last but not the least, you can ‘taste’ it.”

savouring the aromas wafting through the air

And they were right. Cooking is the perfect art that uses all the five senses!!

So, keeping these guidelines in mind we carefully worked out our menu and for the first time Sydneysiders got a chance to savour Indian food in its true form.

We had dishes like prawn balchao (marinated prawns in a spicy mix), chicken xacutti (a spicy chicken dish with cinnamon) and caril de piexe (another spicy dish, this time using fish with vinegar and coconut and chillies and so much more!) all from Goa, kozhi vartha kari (chicken pieces cooked in aromatic spices) from Tamil Nadu, meen porichattu (marinated fish cooked the Muslim way!) from Kerala, paththar ka gosht (slow-cooked lamb with cassia), shikampoor (delicious stuffed lamb kebabs), tali hui machali (pan fried fish with a spice crust), khatti meethi dal (sweet and sour dal), dalcha (lamb cooked with dal) and many more, along with my favourite masala dosai!!

However, the one dish that sold the most after the masala dosai was the dalcha.

I think the dalcha was so popular because it was the closest thing to eating a dal and roganjosh (lamb and lentils) with rice!! It was like an Indian lamb stew (or you may like to call it a broth) for the Sydneysiders!

So, here is how we made it then and how we still make it in my restaurant!

And yes folks, you’ve guessed it, this week’s garam masala is for, that’s right, red meat!!

If you’ve missed the other garam masala series that cover poultry, seafood, vegetarian and vegan meals, click six basic spice mixes

Ingredients for the red meat garam masala are as follows:
Step 1

red meat garam masala contains: 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 teaspoon cardamom pods, 1 teaspoon cloves, 1/2 nutmeg (that has been grated!) and 2 teaspoons black peppercorns

Step 2

grind the spices until they resemble coarse sand

Step 3

ingredients (clockwise from 12 o’clock) in the tray: slit green chillies, ground ginger, juice of a lemon, ground garlic, salt, ground red chilli, ground turmeric, crushed coriander seeds, vegetable oil; on the outside: chick pea lentils, yoghurt, diced lamb

PREPARING THE LENTILS
Step 4

add 1 cup lentils (you might know them as yellow split peas) to mixing bowl

Step 5

add 3 cups water (at room temperature)

Step 6

set aside to soak for about 15 minutes

MARINATING MEAT
Step 7

add garam masala mix (2 1/2 tablespoons for about 1 kg meat)

Step 8

add 1 tablespoon ground chilli powder

step 9

add 1 teaspoon ground turmeric

Step 10

add 2 tablespoons ground coriander

step 11

mix spices together

Step 12

add 2 1/2 cups full-cream yoghurt

Step 13

fold yoghurt into spice mixture

Step 14

keep folding until mixture is smooth

Step 15

add 1 kg diced lamb

Step 16

make sure lamb is well coated with yoghurt mixture

Step 17

keep mixing yoghurt and meat until smooth then set aside for about 15 minutes

CARAMELISING ONIONS
step 18

heat saucepan and add 1/2 cup polyunsaturated vegetable oil

Step 19

when oil is smoking, add sliced onions and 1 1/2 tablespoons salt

Step 20

fold onions till they star to caramelise!

If you want to see a simple video on how to caramelise onions, go to the techniques page of my blog.

Bringing it all together
Step 21

add 1 tablespoon ground garlic when onions have started to caremelise

Step 22

fold garlic into caramelising onions

Step 23

add 1 tablespoon ground ginger and fold

Step 24

when onions have caramelised, add marinated meat - set aside mixing bowl, you’ll need it in a moment!

Step 25

fold meat into caramelised onions

step 26

keep folding until meat is seared

step 27

drain lentil water into marinated meat mixing bowl

Step 28

add lentils to seared meat (with as little water as possible since you want the lentils to absorb the flavours of the marinade as they cook, not boil in water)

Step 29

mix the lentil water with the remains of the marinade to produce 'lentil stock'

Step 30

pour ‘lentil stock’ into pan when meat is seared and oil starts to appear, reduce heat to medium

Step 31

fold lentil stock into meat

Step 32

place shallow frying pan on stove (you will need one large enough for the meat saucepan to sit in)

Step 33

place meat saucepan into frying pan

Step 34

add sliced green chillies

Step 35

place clean stainless steel mixing bowl on top of saucepan

Step 36

add 3/4 cup water to mixing bowl

Step 37

use 3/4 cup of water

Step 38

water will evaporate (approx. 50 minutes) - when it has almost disappeared, turn off stove

Step 39

remove mixing bowl with tea tea towel as it will be hot!

Step 40

the meat will (should!) look like this

Step 41

add lemon to taste (I am using my hands as a ‘sieve’)

Step 42

fold lemon juice into meat

Step 43

serve with steamed basmati rice

Step 44

add tempered kari leaves for an extra 'oomph'!!

Folks, try this dish with goat or even lamb shanks, serve it with a bread of your choice, a simple salad of fresh greens and you have the most amazing and satisfying meal on the table!! For a one page summary of this recipe, click dalcha recipe.

If there are any leftovers (this does occasionally happen in my house as Meera doesn’t eat red meat, however usually Aniruddh and I generally wallop half the contents in one sitting!

However, as I started saying, should there be any leftovers keep them in an earthenware pot, covered. Place the pot in a ‘waterbath’ and leave overnight. It’s as simple as that, it’s the way many people cook in India and it preserves the meat. Make fresh basmati rice and serve the dalcha on to the hot rice . . . just like a Nihari!!

Need help with making basmati rice or tempering kari leaves? Then watch these quick videos and if you’re a diaspora Indian listen and weep!:

Till then, happy cooking!! Oh, and last, but by no means least, if you’ve got any feedback, your mother’s best recipe for this dish that has its own quirks, or any comment at all, I really enjoy hearing from you! So, let’s get the chat flowing, until then. . .

Anah daata sukhi bhava!!

how can you not smile when you are about to eat dum ka murgh?

Well folks, we’re onto another of our garam masalas! I hope you’ve enjoyed making some (or all, or none!) of these masalas. This week, as I said in my vegan blog last week, is my poultry masala. Well, as so much of my food is woven into my life here’s another little tale.

In 1995, my friend David Horton, an Englishman who lived in Australia, worked in a bank, loved Indian food (well, he is an Englishman!!) started a restaurant in a place called Noosa in Queensland (he was more passionate about food than money).

One day he called me and said, “I am staartin’ (sic) a restaurant, Ajoy, and I want you to do a cooking class on Indian food for me. You and Meera will fly down to Noosa stay with me and show the Aussies how to make a good khorma.”

According to David, the best khorma was made in London and the Aussies had to see and taste it, and I was going to make it in his restaurant as he felt that I was someone who could make it like they did back home (home in this case being the UK not India)!!

Done. We were both ready to go.

Now, not many of you know this but Meera is a damn good cook and a qualified chef from Bangalore. She is the ‘kitchen cabinet’ and the ‘Boss’ of nilgiris!

All of us, yes, including yours truly, work for the Boss but that’s another story for another time!!

But before all this happened Meera said to me in Noosa in 1995, “Ajoy, this is your chance to show the world that Indian food is no ‘curry in a hurry’. Do something that will make you and your ustaads proud. Go ahead and show them that the best khorma comes from Hyderabad!!”

So, what follows is my favorite chicken dish that uses a technique, the French call it confit, we Indians call it dum, a word derived from the Persian word ‘dum baksh‘  meaning ‘to give breath to’ or cooked in its own juices without the addition of any water.

Interestingly, this dish also has some Persian influences as you might notice. It uses ground sesame seeds, a.k.a. tahini, as a binding agent to hold the yoghurt together, preventing it from splitting.

The original recipe uses ground peanuts which are grown around that region but I use ground cashew nuts for the simple reason that cashew nuts are more acceptable than peanuts, a.k.a groundnuts, and many people who cannot tolerate peanuts can eat the cashew nut which, as we all know, isn’t a ‘nut’ as such.

garam masala for poultry

Step 1

ingredients - from top, clockwise: salt, oil, 1 kg chicken on the bone cut into small pieces, lemon juice, chopped mint, finely sliced white onions. in the tray, clockwise: garlic paste, ginger paste, green chilli paste, sesame paste, ground cashews, turmeric, poultry garam masala, 2½ cups yoghurt

Step 2

place garam masala in spice grinder: add cinnamon sticks first (break sticks in half, if necessary)

Step 3

grind spices until they resemble coarse sand

Step 4

Add ½ cup polyunsaturated vegetable oil to shallow frying pan

Step 5

your onions should be sliced evenly lengthways (i.e. from top to bottom, as you would cut an apple)

Not sure how to slice onions perfectly? Watch the quick video below!

Step 6

place onions in mixing bowl

Step 7

add ½ teaspoon salt (adding salt to the onions at this stage makes them caramelise better)

Step 8

mix salt with onions

Step 9

when oil is hot, add onions to frying pan

Step 10

fold onions into the oil so that they are thoroughly coated, reduce heat to medium

Step 11

fold onions regularly

Step 12

“]

leave the onions to cook, they will turn golden slowly [about 3–5 minutes

“]

the onions start turning golden, keep an eye on them and keep folding so they don’t burn! [about 7–11 minutes

the onions are now caramelising, this happens very quickly

Step 15

the onions are now perfectly caramelised and the oil starts to separate

Step 16

gather caramelised onions away from the oil with a spoon

Step 17

holding caramelised onions with spoon, drain oil

Step 18

set aside caramelised onions

To watch my quick video on caramelising onions, click on the arrow below

Step 19

Add 1 tablespoon garlic paste to mixing bowl

Step 20

Add 1 tablespoon ginger paste to mixing bowl

Step 21

Add 1½ tablespoons green chilli paste to mixing bowl

Step 22

fold mixture

Step 23

Add 1 tablespoon sesame paste (tahini)

Step 24

fold mixture

Step 25

add 1½ tablespoons ground cashews and fold

Step 26

add 1 teaspoon turmeric and fold

Step 27

add 2 tablespoons poultry garam masala and fold

Step 28

fold so that it looks like this!

Step 29

add 1½ tablespoons salt

Step 30

add yoghurt (full-fat yoghurt, please, just the way the cow made it!)

Step 31

fold the yoghurt to form a marinade

Step 32

keep folding until mixture is smooth

Step 33

add caramelised onions

Step 34

fold the onions to look like this!

Step 36

add the chicken pieces to the marinade or 'masala'!

Step 37

lightly massage the marinade onto the chicken

Step 38

....keep marinating until your chicken looks like this!

Step 39

transfer chicken to cold saucepan making sure chicken mixture will only take up a third of the saucepan’s depth. The remaining ⅔ of the saucepan is needed to circulate steam

Step 40

Select a shallow frying pan that is large enough for the chicken saucepan to sit in it and place on stove. Heat empty frying pan on high heat

Step 41

To determine when frying pan is hot enough, drop some tepid water into frying pan - the water should immediately bead and scatter

Step 42

Place chicken saucepan onto hot frying pan (n.b. the frying pan should have no oil, or water, in it)

Step 43

Place mixing bowl on saucepan like a 'lid'. Keep the heat to medium!

Step 44

Add ½ cup water to mixing bowl 'lid'. As the frying pan under chicken saucepan transfers heat to the chicken, the heat will also be transferred to the mixing bowl so the water in the mixing bowl will heat up (this is important to create 'indirect' heat for the chicken to cook)

Step 45

The water in the bottom of the mixing bowl

Step 46

the water in the mixing bowl will turn to steam and disappear, in about 50 minutes to an hour and 10 minutes, at least!! Remember, this is no "curry in a hurry"!!

Step 47

When the water from the mixing bowl has completely evaporated, your chicken will be perfectly cooked - remove bowl and voilà!

Step 48

Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice and ½ cup chopped mint

Step 49

Place a banana leaf on a plate (if you want!) and serve the chicken on top

Step 50

dum ka murgh

Remember, cooking chicken, or any other poultry, this way has a number of  benefits:

1. The meat is abso-bloody-lutely tender and juicy.
2. As there is no water in the dish, it is loaded with flavor.
3. The dish tastes better the next day (we have heard that one before, haven’t we?), because it is cooked well, and slowly, in its own juices (we did not know that before, or did we?!!).

For a one page summary of this recipe, click dum ka murgh recipe.

That is all for this week, happy cooking!!

See you next week and please do keep your comments coming in. I  enjoy reading them and I absorb them all. If I haven’t replied, it’s because I am still mulling over your comment and, who knows?, your suggestion/comment might become a blog one week!

Anah Daata Sukhi Bhava!!!

the final product: stuffed baby eggplants, bursting with a delicious filling and covered in a rich sauce

Welcome to part 3 of the garam masala six-part series! If you’ve been following this scenario you’ll know that I’ve been using different garam masalas for different foods; if you haven’t, then, if you’re curious, please click garam masala.

This week is my garam masala that goes with vegetables. No! don’t scroll down (or worse, away), I know lots of people have an issue with this cuisine. I have too. A challenge.

My biggest challenge over the years has been to create a dish for the vegetarians who come to my restaurant that not only tastes good but also looks really delicious!

Then comes another challenge, it should have no onions or garlic but still taste good and look superb!

Why no onions or garlic? Because, in keeping with the Jain tradition, onions and garlic are omitted. Plants that grow beneath the soil aren’t eaten. “Amazing!”, I hear you cry, “you can make a meal fit for a king without onions or garlic; but what about the flavour? what about….?” and on and on you’ll go, finishing off with the fact that you only ever cook using onions and garlic.

But before we start another challenge . . . it should have no dairy or milk products… instead of wondering what on earth to cook your son’s girlfriend who’s coming for dinner and who, your son absentmindedly tells you at the last minute, “Oh, and by the way mum, she’s vegan.” Try this dish!

People often think that vegetarian (not to mention vegan) meals are solely a plate of sad-looking vegetables served without  meat. How wrong they are!

Or people think vegan cuisine is some sort of faddish macrobiotic meal that you need to go to a wholefood store to buy all the ingredients you’ve never heard of, or used before, and probably never will again.

But there must be something to the vegan diet that the Jains have been eating for thousands of years! Come see.

So, here is my version of a dish called ‘stuffed eggplant’ that the French call aubergines farces and the Italians melanzane ripieni alla Calabrese. My dish is called bharleli vangi which hails from the coastal region of Maharashtra in Western India. I assure you that once you make this, and your friends eat it, the other two will become history!! Believe you me. For a single page version of this recipe, click stuffed eggplant recipe.

Step 1

What you’ll need for the filling, starting clockwise from the 12 o’clock position : salt, vegetable oil, bay leaf, ginger paste, ground turmeric, chilli powder, vegetarian garam masala, desiccated coconut, chopped tomatoes. Outside the ‘clock’: baby eggplants, chopped coriander and lemon juice"

step 2

vegetarian garam masala

step 3

set aside the bay leaves

step 4

grind all the spices (apart from the bay leaves) for approx. 15 seconds

step 5

the ground spices should have the texture of coarse sand

step 6

add 1 tablespoon salt to 1/2 litre of tepid water in a large bowl to immerse the deseeded eggplant

step 7

slice top off the eggplant

step 8

score the diameter of the circle using the tip of a sharp knife

step 9

“]

scoop out the eggplant seeds [the scored circle will prevent the eggplant skin from tearing

scoop out the seeds until you can insert the teaspoon one inch into the eggplant’s length

step 11

in total, remove about 1 teaspoonful from each eggplant

step 12

this is how the eggplant should look after removing its seeds

step 13

place the scooped eggplants into the bowl of saltwater you prepared earlier - this will reduce the bitterness of the eggplant and prevent any discolouring of the inside

step 14, prepare the filling

add 1/2 cup of polyunsaturated vegetable oil to a hot frying pan

step 15

when the oil starts to smoke, add the two bay leaves

step 16

add 1 tablespoon of the ginger paste

step 17

fold in the ginger quickly

step 18

reduce the heat and add the turmeric and fold (note the vegetable oil base is becoming golden)

step 19

add 1 tablespoon chilli powder and fold

step 20

add the vegetarian garam masla and fold

step 21

add 11/2 cups desiccated coconut and fold

step 22

add 1 teaspoon salt

step 23

remove 1/2 mixture and set aside in a small bowl for the filling. The rest will be used to make the sauce!

step 24

add chopped coriander to the small bowl for the filling and fold

step 25

dry each eggplant using a clean tea-towel

step 26

with a small spoon, scoop up some of the filling and insert into each eggplant

step 27

place the filling into each eggplant

step 28

press down the filling firmly with the teaspoon

step 29

once stuffed, set aside the eggplant and repeat for each remaining eggplant!

step 30, cooking the stuffed eggplants

add 3 tablespoons of polyunsaturated vegetable oil to a hot frying pan

step 31

when the oil is hot, place the eggplants in the frying pan

step 32

turn the eggplants frequently to ensure each side is evenly cooked

step 33

the eggplants’ skin will change colour when it is cooked and it will become crisper

step 34

pour hot oil over the eggplants

step 35

the eggplants will soon look like this

step 36, slow cook the eggplants so that they cook on the inside

cover the frying pan to cook the eggplants on the inside

step 37

cover the frying pan and cook over low heat for ten minutes

step 38

when you remove the lid, watch out for the steam!

step 39

your eggplants will now be cooked

step 40

a close-up of the cooked filling

step 41

check that each eggplant is cooked – a knife inserted should slide through like butter

step 42, prepare the sauce,

return the frying pan with the remaining mixture added onto a medium heat and add chopped tomatoes

step43

fold in the chopped tomatoes

step 44

add any remaining filling and fold

step 45

fold until the oil comes away easily from the sides of the pan

step 46

“]

add 4 tablespoons of water, or vegetable stock, and fold [you want a sauce-like consistency

fold till mixture comes to the boil

step 48

place a banana leaf on a plate

step 49

place sauce on the banana leaf

step 50

stand each eggplant in the sauce

step 51

add all the eggplants

step 52

add remaining sauce on top of the eggplants

step 53

add 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice to bring out the aroma of the dish

step 54

serve with a chappati or bread of your choice

You may also try this dish with baby cucumbers or baby courgettes instead of the baby eggplants!!

Trust me, cook it for a meat-eating friend who thinks vegan food is for rabbits. They will be amazed.

Happy cooking! And if any of you have any trouble, hints or anything you want to say about this dish, please let me know at the end of this blog! I’d particularly like to hear from our Jain cousins or our vegan friends who’ve made either this, or any other, recipes and what they’ve found good about it. I’d also be amused to hear from you meat eaters out there who would usually baulk at a vegan meal and see what you think of it. So, get cooking and typing and let the feedback (no pun intended) begin!

Next week we will do a Hyderabadi version of dum ka murgh (slow-cooked chicken) using, guess what?, yes, the poultry garam masala!!

Anah Daata Sukhi Bhava!!

As it was fish, the focus of the debate centred around whether I was going to make a Keralan fish dish. One chef was convinced of it.

“No!” another chef immediately interjected, “he’s going to make his favourite Goan fish dish.”

“Never,” said another, taking both chefs by the shoulders and leaning against them both, “chef Joshi (that’s what they call me in my kitchen) will make a Mangalorean fish dish and he’s going to use a blue swimmer crab!!” and he winked at me knowingly and said, “isn’t that so, chef?”

Well, I like to do things my way as I’m sure my chefs know by now.

So guys, this week I am making a Hyderabadi-style machchi ka saalan,  a fish dish that uses both tamarind and tomatoes. How’s that?!!

I learnt this dish from chef Chaman Lal at the Banjara hotel in Hyderabad way back in 1980, it’s such an amazing dish that uses a river or a lake fish rather than a saltwater fish.

For this recipe I am using barramundi.

Remember in Hyderabadi food turmeric is used in very small quantities , just to make a dish look bright and yes we use both tamarind and tomatoes (a blend of south and north!)

STEP 1 – Plate your seafood GARAM MASALA that we made last week and stored in our glass jar, remember?!!

Place the seafood garam masala mix, that you made last week, on a plate – there’s no need to pan fry the spices because they will be cooked with the rest of the ingredients (roasting them and adding them to the cooking process would overcook them making them go bitter) . . . If committed, use a pestle and mortar – I prefer an electric spice grinder!

Grind the spices

Break up the chillies and place in the grinder. Do the same for the cinnamon sticks.

Add the rest of the spices. . .

Add the rest of the spice mix.

(Try and keep the grinder dry at all times!). For this recipe you will be using 2 tablespoons of the seafood garam masala (any left over should be stored in a clean, glass jar in a dry place).

grind for about 10 seconds.

the spice mix should be slightly coarser than sand . . .

it should be like ground coffee beans!!

STEP 2 – Prepare your garlic, ginger and chilli pastes. Don’t be put off by doing this, it doesn’t take long at all and the taste is definitely worth it!

You will need 1 tablespoon garlic paste

For the garlic paste, if you grind the cloves in oil it keeps the garlic ‘fresh’ for about 3 weeks in the refrigerator.

peeled garlic cloves

add the peeled garlic to the spice grinder

add the polyunsaturated vegetable oil (just enough to cover the garlic)

grind for about 20 seconds, or until a thick paste is formed

Making the ginger paste is just like making the garlic paste. (If you don’t scrape the skin off the tuber, the ginger will keep ‘fresh’ in the fridge for about 3 weeks.)

You will need 1 tablespoon ginger paste

unpeeled, washed, fresh ginger

slice the ginger into spice grinder

add polyunsaturated oil to the sliced ginger (just enough to cover it).

grind the ginger and oil, for about 20 seconds, until it forms a paste

Again, to make the green chilli paste (with the seeds retained, of course!) grind with oil and it will keep in the fridge for about 7 days.

You will need 1 tablespoon green chilli paste

fresh green chillis sliced in half

break up the chillies into 1-inch pieces and place in the spice grinder

add the polyunsaturated vegetable oil

grind for 10 seconds, or until a smooth paste is formed

If you snap-fry the kari leaves they will keep ‘fresh’ in the refrigerator for a few weeks. However, for this recipe try and use freshly fried kari leaves.

You will need 15 snap-fried kari (curry) leaves

To snap-fry:

use fresh kari leaves

add vegetable oil to a hot frying pan and heat the vegetable oil until it starts smoking

pour hot oil on kari leaves

drain oil using sieve

final result

Now that all your pastes are ready, let’s get on with our fish dish machchi ka saalan

cooking ingredients - lay out all your ingredients to cook the fish starting in a clockwise direction from the 12 o’clock position staring with: 2 tablespoons polyunsaturated vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds, 2 cups chopped oinions, 11/2 teaspoons salt, garlic paste, ginger paste, green chilli paste, seafood garam masala, 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric, 2 cups chopped tomatoes with the seeds and skin left on, 2 cups coconut cream, 1 teaspoon tamarind paste, snap-fried kari leaves and 1 kg barramundi

to serve: 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1/2 chopped coriander leaves

1 kg barramundi fish - 3 inch squares about 2/3 inch thick

1 kilogram barramundi chopped into 3-inch squares (about 2/3-inch thick)

onions finely chopped

2 cups finely chopped onions

tomatoes coarsely chopped

2 cups coarsely chopped tomatoes with seed and skin left on

Now we’ve got our ingredients sorted, it’s time to start cooking. . .

heat two tablespoons of polyunsaturated oil into hot pan on moderate heat

Heat frying pan over moderate heat. Add 2 tablespoons polyunsaturated vegetable oil to pan and allow to smoke.

when oil is hot, add fenugreek seeds

Add 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds and let crackle.

sizzling, some fenugreek seeds will pop (this is when the skin separates from the seeds!)

Add 2 cups chopped onions. And a hint! If you add the onions a little at a time this stops the oil cooling and the onions will cook better!

add onions a little at a time to stop oil cooling

Then add the salt. Fold the onions and cook.

add salt to onions to decrease cooking time and caramelise onions evenly

Keep cooking the onions until mildly caramelised.

onions will start to brown

Add 1 tablespoon garlic paste when the onions are mildly caramelised (light-golden).

when onion is a light-golden colour, add 1 tablespoon garlic paste and fold

Fold in garlic paste and cook till lightly caramelised.

folding in garlic paste and cook till lightly caramelised

Add 1 tablespoon ginger paste to the pan.

add ginger paste to the pan and fold

Fold in the ginger paste and continue cooking.

folding in ginger paste

Then add 1 tablespoon green chilli paste.

add green chilli paste to the pan

Fold in the chilli paste and cook.

fold in the chilli paste

Now add 2 tablespoons seafood garam masala and fold in with the onion mixtures and cook until fragrant.

add garam masala and fold in

Add 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric to the pan.

add ground turmeric

Fold and cook the ground turmeric.

folding the ground turmeric

Then add 2 cups chopped tomatoes.

adding chopped tomatoes

Fold the tomatoes and cook.

folding in the tomatoes

Continue cooking the tomatoes until they are soft.

cook until tomato skin easily separates when squeezed between your thumb and forefinger

Add 2 cups coconut cream and fold.

add coconut cream and fold

Keep folding the coconut cream, ensuring the cream does not come to the boil or else it might split.

fold in coconut cream, keep over moderate heat or else cream will separate

Add 1 teaspoon tamarind paste and fold.

adding tamarind concentrate/paste

keep folding until bubbles appear

Keep folding the tamarind paste until bubbles appear.

place fish evenly onto sauce, minimising any overlap

Add the chopped fish to the pan, ensuring no pieces overlap (so that each piece cooks evenly).

cover fish with paste using spoon

Cover each piece with the sauce.

cover pan with lid reduce heat to low

Cover frying pan with a lid and reduce heat to low.

cook with lid on for 10 minutes

Continue cooking, with lid on, for 10 minutes.

when you take off the lid, the sauce will have thickened

Remove lid and the sauce will have thickened.

adding the pan-fried kari leaves

Place the snap-fried kari (curry) leaves on top of the fish and let fish slow cook for a few minutes.

adding lemon juice

Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

add chopped coriander and fold

Add 1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves and fold gently.

serve with steamed rice and enjoy!

Next week we will use garam masala for vegetables. Hope to see you then!!

Anah daata sukhi bhava!!

Oh, it would be great if you could let us know where you are reading from.

 The above image shows the six garam masala spice mixes. From L to R top row we have the spice mixes for: seafood, vegetarian, poultry; from L to R [bottom row] for: red meat, nilgiri’s biryani mix, kebabs

How do you simplify a complex cuisine which has at least a billion different interpretations, all of them equally correct in their own way?

One way is to call it a ‘curry’ and just leave it at that!

But that is not the point and honestly does not do any justice to the millions of khansaamas, bawarchis, dastarkhwans, aka chefs, who have devoted their lives trying to tell the world that this is an intricate cuisine and not just ’a bit of this and a bit of that.’

So, let’s get down to one of the basics of any dish.

What is it? The type of pan used? Cast iron or copper, or is it the oil that should be used? Or the sort of bread that should accompany a dish?

No folks, none of these is the basics of a dish that I want to discuss [though hold your breath because in the following year I will be touching on some of these]!

But for now I want to direct my attention to spice mixes. This week I want to show you how to make, step-by-step, six spice mixes that we use in my kitchen at nilgiri’s.

Next week I’ll be using one of the spice mixes and over the next SIX weeks I’ll be be using all six spice mixes that I am explaining today. If you want to make the recipes in the coming weeks that use these spice mixes, get started and make all six now – since  they’re spices, they won’t ‘go off’, in fact, the more they’re left to ‘talk’ to each other in the jar, the more infused and enthused they’ll become! But  you must store your spice mixes in airtight glass jars that are kept away from direct heat, sunlight, or any moisture. If you get this right your spice mixes will be perfect for months.

Okay, so let’s start. You’ll need whole spices and six separate airtight glass jars and once you’ve got that, you’re sorted (of course, you can make one, or two, or all, or none of the spice mixes!). The choice is yours.

Follow my method of adding each spice as I have. Want to know why? I believe it is a good habit to add one ingredient at a time even if it is not being cooked as in this case.(When cooking it is important to add the biggest spice first followed by the next  in size and so on…. this gives the biggest spice a longer time to cook and bring out the volatile oils, you know what I mean!!!)

Anyway, the first garam masala mix that we’re setting up is for seafood.

I call this one, guess what? Seafood GM, not too romantic I know, but it does its job and is a sensible name.

Let’s begin.

SPICE MIX 1 ~ GARAM MASALA FOR SEAFOOD

Starting clockwise you have:  1 cinnamon stick, 1 teaspoon cardamom pods, 1 teaspoon cloves, 2 teaspoons black peppercorns, 3 dried red chillies and 2 teaspoons fennel seeds.

Add the cinnamon stick to your bowl

Then add the cardamom pods

The cloves

Then the black peppercorns

Then the dried red chillies

And finally, the fennel seeds

Here is your spice mix for seafood ready to be stored in its glass jar

Place spices in the glass jar

SPICE MIX 2 ~Vegetarian garam masala

As its name implies, this is great for flavouring vegetarian dishes, including dishes made out of paneer, or cottage cheese, or fresh cheese…I like to think of it as my “vegetarian garam masala”. You can call yours what you want but trust me, it’ll taste superb.

Starting clockwise we have:  2 teaspoons coriander seeds, 2 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds, 2 bay leaves and 3 dried red chillies.

First of all add the coriander seeds to your bowl

Then add the cumin seeds

The bayleaves

And finally, add your dried red chillies

Now store all your whole spices in an airtight glass jar

And as I mentioned before, keep your spices away from direct heat, light and moisture

SPICE MIX 3 ~Poultry Garam Masala

Poultry garam masala is as follows: 1 cinnamon stick, 2 teaspoons cardamom pods, 1 1/2 teaspoons cloves, 3 star anise, 2 teaspoons fennel seeds and 2 teaspoons mace blade.

Add the cinnamon stick to your bowl

Then add the cardamom pods

And the cloves

The star anise

The fennel seeds

And finally, the mace

Your poultry garam masala is now ready for storing in its glass jar

Putting the poultry spices into the glass jar

Voila! All ready for storage.

SPICE MIX 4 ~ Garam masala for red meat

Starting clockwise: 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 teaspoon cardamom pods, 1 teaspoon cloves, 1/2 nutmeg and 2 teaspoons black peppercorns.

Take the cinnamon sticks and place in your bowl

Then the cardamoms

The cloves

The nutmeg

Yes, you’ll have to grate your nutmeg!

But don’t grate it all, about a 1/2 a nutmeg should do

Then add the peppercorns

And your red meat garam masala is ready for storing in your glass jar

The final product for red meat garam masala!

SPICE MIX 5 ~Biriyani mix (nilgiri’s garam masala)

From clockwise: 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 teaspoons cardamom pods, 4 black cardamom pods, 2 teaspoons cloves, 1 nutmeg, 3 spears mace, 4 bayleaves,  2 teaspoons black peppercorns, 2 teaspoons fennel seeds and 1 teaspoon saffron threads.

Take the two cinnamon sticks and place in your bowl

Then add the cardamom pods

Then add the black cardamom

Then add the cloves

Add the nutmeg

And the mace spears or blades

The bay leaves

The black peppercorns

The fennel seeds

And finally, the saffron threads

Place all spices  into the glass jar,except the saffron. Place the saffron in a separate container as this will be soaked in milk when we use it for our recipe for the biryani!!!

And your biryani garam masala is ready for storage

SPICE MIX 6 ~ Kebab Mix

Starting from clockwise:  2 cinnamon sticks, 1 teaspoon cardamom pods, 2 teaspoons cloves, 3 mace spears, 5 dried red chillies, 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, 2 bay leaves and 1 teaspoon saffron threads.

Add the cinnamon sticks to your bowl

Then add the cardamom pods

Then the cloves

Then add the mace spears or blades

And the dried red chillies

The coriander seeds

The bay leaves

And finally, the saffron threads

Here is your melange of kebab garam masala without the saffron. Place saffron in a separate container.

Storing your spices in the ubiquitous glass jar

Ready to be stored. A visual feast!

Phew!!! Once done we will use each one of the above spice mixes to create a dish starting with the seafood spice mix next week.
My plan is to create a southern style fish with coconut.
Until then. . .

Anah Daata Sukhi Bhava!!!

So, this year, folks, in my Wednesday blogs I want to focus on the dishes, the spices, namely all the things that go into my cooking.

“What?” I hear you say, “You mean you haven’t been doing that already?”. Well, yes and no.

Take garam masala, for instance, which I’ve written about in a previous blog here.

My son, as a very young boy, thought that garam masala was a spice. Imagine! A spice like nutmeg that you grate called garam masala!

So in my blog next week, I will focus on making six garam masalas that go with different foods (chicken, fish and so on) including nilgiri’s own garam masala. There will be photos of each recipe step together with recipes for each gram masala. For those of you familiar with my recent weekly blogs there will be lots of  detail and  photos and for those of you not familiar, well, come give it a try!

Now, as we’re into the new year and reflect on our last one here’s my “The Best of 2011”.

It’s interesting to see what blogs get the most attention, and what get the least.

Is there any rhyme or reason to it?

I think that’s as hard to say as trying to predict a cricket score (we didn’t know Sachin would get out so early). Is it the topic, the weather (when it’s cold people stay inside), the time it’s sent (if you’re at home or at work and want to do something different)?

Well, whatever the reason I’m not a Google Analyst and I’m not going to do that here . . . but I will tell you about the favourites.

The simple, unassuming lentil, red kidney bean and chickpea were our outright favourite! That’s right folks!

red kidney beans

Would I have guessed this?

No way.

The simple dish was hit upon most times. I hope that you tried it. I hope that you soaked your pulses and added one ingredient after another whilst cooking. I guess not many of you have a tandoor to make this dish so I hope you followed the recipe alongside.

You didn’t see this blog? Don’t remember it? Well, here is the quintessential dal makhani blog.

I know that many mothers worry about their vegetarian teenage daughters (and their sons, but there are fewer vegetarians in this group) getting enough protein and I know that this dish is bung full of the stuff if served with rice or bread and with a side dish of palak (spinach) or paneer, well, you’re sorted! So perhaps that’s why it came in at number one?!

Spices came in at number two!

black pepper

So here it is if you want to refresh your memory or see if for the first time: When should I add whole spices and when should they be ground?

I’d written about when spices should be left whole and when ground. I know that many people find this issue confusing or don’t even know that you can use whole spices and grind your own given that you can buy convenient ground spices in jars from the supermarket . . . but don’t!!! Often these things are fine when you first open them but then turn to nothing more than coloured dust with no smell whatsoever.

Dry-fry your whole spices, grind them (in an electric spice grinder which is less romantic, I know, than a pestle and mortar but boy is it more convenient for me and my staff) and you will never want to buy pre-ground stuff ever again (with the exception, as you know, of turmeric as it’s like cement when whole and no one wants to grind diamond-like substances in their own home!).

My operatic paneer came in third which sort of didn’t surprise me.

palak paneer

Palak paneer – the ultimate opera on a plate.

This wonderful dish that seems so complicated can be made at home. People are amazed they can make cheese at home, so easily and in such a short time. I’m often told how they never imagined they’d be able to make their own paneer at home…..they often say that during my class they didn’t imagine they’d be watching me make paneer.

Andhra chicken pulao was fourth. Yes!!!

one of the star ingredients in Andhra chicken pulao!

It’s called andhra chicken pulao and not ‘curried rice’ for heaven’s sake.

Well, you know I’m trying to move away from Indian food being seen as nothing more than a curry in a damn’d hurry (which, for your information came in at number five!!) and this one topped that table at number four.

And last, but my no means least, the blog that got the most comments and was fifth in the list and which I’ve just mentioned above: This ain’t no damn curry in a hurry.

this ain't no curry in a hurry - the classic rogan josh

So, there you have it.

And as for me, I must say that my two favourite blogs would have to be the one on Vishwanath Apte, not so much for the dosai that he liked so much but for the fact that he was a true inspiration to me.

Vishwanath Apte

Who was Vishwanath Apte? A tribute to an inspirational Indian from down under.

My second would be the one on chutneys. Why?

nilgiri's chutneys

Is it because of the pickles and achars that can be served alongside my dishes? Is it because my ajoba used to make his own pickles?

Well, as for the dosai, let’s face it, it’s the person behind the dosai that made the blog so special to me as is the case for the chutneys!

making dosai

Chutneys, chatni, pickles, achars and my ajoba.

So, keep reading, cooking and sending in those comments and the best of 2012 [the year of the bear] to you all!

Well, folks, at this time of year with Christmas and the ever-important cricket match between India and Australia the usual Wednesday routine of the blog appearing had a slight hiccough! Be that as it may, I want to share with you the class I gave to a group of young Sydney girls.

I have always wondered how you change young people’s perceptions about anything, especially food, and even more so when it comes to Indian food.

The answer came in the form of 33 young girls from a school in Sydney who were aged between 12–14 years.

(This, incidentally, is the age-group my son is in and I have learnt watching him that this is the age when impressions are formed either good, bad or ugly!! Get the young kids into the ‘good’ category and you have probably done a good job as a parent!!)

So, what about these young girls?

Well, they came to my restaurant to learn how to cook an Indian dish.

We could have cooked any of the million or so dishes from India but I decided on making paneer for a number of reasons, namely:

Paneer is something most Indians love to eat (in different forms) but very few can make it correctly.

Paneer is a dish that is very similar to fresh cheese made in different parts of the world, where it is called by different names you’ll be familiar with, such as haloumi, feta, mozzarella and bocconcini.

Paneer is a great substitute for meat and is extremely nutritious. And given that many young people, particularly girls, are vegetarians, I thought this would be a useful dish.

Paneer also has that “wow” factor that can lure kids into making it at home to show off to their parents, and even to their siblings, to get a little respect from them!

So this is what we did.

We divided the class into groups of three.

Each group would make their own paneer [following my paneer recipe] and allow it to set.

They would then return the following day and create the dish paneer makhni using the paneer that they had created.

Each girl would also come with at least one question/doubt that she had about the dish whilst they’d been cooking it, it could’ve been about a spice, or the amount of chillies used, or the addition of salt, etc.

I just wanted them to think about the dish, to question the reasons we do things and to get their minds whirring.

We also gave each student a recipe to take home [as you know how easy it is to forget what one has put into a dish on arriving home and all the other in-between stuff from cooking the paneer to arriving back home!].

So, off we went to the demonstration table so that the girls could watch me make the paneer from scratch to finished product.

After they’d watched me make the paneer the groups retreated to their ‘work stations’ to recreate the dish.

stirring the milk till it comes to room temperature and then cream is added, while it heats

continue to add vinegar till the curds separate from the whey

straining whey using a muslin cloth

sieving the whey

tying the muslin cloth

tying the muslin cloth into a tight knot and allowing the cheese to set

And here is what the girls did the following day when they came back to make a superb tomato dish that the paneer is added to for the paneer makhni.

checking the pan is hot enough to add oil to make the 'sauce'

adding oil and clarified butter

adding chopped white onions with salt, stirring till the onions are caramalised. this is followed by ground ginger and crushed garlic, added one at a time.

adding chopped tomatoes after the spices go in, again, one at a time

after stirring in tomatoes they are cooked till the oil comes to the surface and the skin of the tomatoes comes off

adding honey at this stage

adding all of the honey to get a balance between the acidity of the tomatoes and the chilli and salt, a unique way of cooking!!

followed by fresh cream (optional, but the girls were keen to add it) and dried fenugreek leaves

dicing the paneer that was made the previous day

adding paneer to the sauce, fold and voila Paneer Makhni ready to serve your guests!!

Well, after the cooking was done and all the pots and pans were cleared away we decided to make some steamed baasmati rice to accompany the paneer makhni and also to talk about spices and chilli and salt and turmeric as one does with young girls!

Joking aside, their insights and what they knew was interesting. Here goes:

It was amazing to learn from these 12-14 year-old kids that they all had used chillies at some stage in their ‘young life’ and that, as one girl told some of the others, “A chilli is hot when you bite into the seed,” and one girl even knew the medicinal benefits of eating it, namely that it helps in reducing weight!!

So, as one girl would reveal a little fact about something, the others would chime in, “Turmeric,” one said “is good for giving colour to a dish.” And no sooner had she said this than another girl promptly corrected her that it was not ‘just to add color’ but to ’bring out’ colour in the dish, as her mother had told her (who had, apparently, done a class with me a few years ago!!!).

One girl said that baasmati rice was low in GI and was good for people with diabetes.

I was pleased and impressed by the girls’ knowledge but towards the end of this session one girl called the dish we had just cooked a CURRY but she was soon corrected, gently, by some of the girls and yours truly!

How interesting, I thought, as the last wave of girls had left the class, that when you come with a pure and clean mind you have no preconceptions and these young girls proved it. They were keen on learning, they were interested in giving their knowledge and, most importantly, they were able to change their view and learn something (as well as taking home a superb dish for their family to sample).

JOB DONE AJOY, time to go on a break. . .

And that’s what I did folks. You all know about the Boxing Day match and so off I went to Melbourne to watch the little master Sachin Tendulkar score his 100th international hundred, well almost!! (what a marvellous innings that was, and if he is even half as good as Don Bradman, I’ll be content with that!)

Anah Daata Sukhi Bhava!!!

No, it is NOT butter chicken, it is NOT palak paneer, it is also NOT rogan josh and it certainly ISN’T vindaloo!!

It is the most artistic and yet simplest of dishes.

In the north of India it is called dossa, in the south they call it thosai, but I call it dosai!!

In 1990 I moved to Sydney from Melbourne.

Well Melbournians, I had to as the restaurant I worked for closed down and after a good two weeks of trying with no luck, I was asked to go north.

Sydney was not entirely different to Melbourne except that Sydney restaurateurs, unlike their Melbourne counterparts, always gave me hope, which helped me feel good but did not pay my bills!!

But, after a good four weeks on the run I finally got a job as a ‘dish washer’ in an Indian Restaurant in a suburb called Mosman!

This restaurant was owned by one Mr Ronnie, who was a food and beverage manager in a 5-star hotel during the day and ran this restaurant with his wife in the evening.

My job description was very clear, I was to wash all the crockery, cutlery and the pots and pans. Simple!

Although I had worked as a chef in India (actually, I had been an executive chef in the two years before leaving India), Ronnie did not trust my skills as a chef.

This was perfectly fine by me at that time as it meant less responsibility and, of course less, headaches!!

Who wants any headaches?!!

On the menu in Ronnie’s restaurant was a dish I had not come across before in Sydney, and believe you me, I had seen a lot of menus in Sydney as I had tried my luck in around 60 odd restaurants, or so, looking for a job.

It had been my favourite dish as a child, masala dosai!

So many Indians were living here in Sydney, there were so many Indian restaurants and not one was serving masala dosai. How could this be?

It was unbelievable!!

Ronnie’s restaurant, however, served masala dosai but it was not made in the restaurant, it came from his kitchen at home and was re-heated in a microwave and served to the customers!!

Never in my 10-year  short life as a chef had I seen anything like  this before.

I had learnt the art and craft of making masala dosai in Taj Residency, Bangalore from KK Shiva.

So, on a ‘not-so-busy’ day in Ronnie’s restaurant I called the chef, who was from Bangladesh, and showed him how to make this dish, from start to finish, just the way my friend KK Shiva had taught me years ago in the Taj Residency, Bangalore.

Ronnie’s wife saw me do this and I was promptly asked to move on.

That was the day I decided, if I was ever to run my own restaurant it would always have this dish on it even if the menu was from the North of India!

Masala dosai, I believe, is the national dish of India and is cherished by both the rich and the poor equally who stand shoulder to shoulder and have it made right in front of them, from the roadside stalls of Bandra (in Mumbai) to the restaurants  in Bannerghatta (in Bangalore)!!

At nilgiri’s I don’t care whether you’re a king or a pauper but I do care  to make fresh masala dosai  in our open kitchen so you can see for yourself that it is made fresh for you. If you want to try out this recipe at home please follow the recipe (all the quantities are shown in this recipe) and follow the pictures to make sure you’re getting things like consistency, and etc., right.

Good luck. As we all know, you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs so don’t be put off if your batter doesn’t seem to work the first time or the second time!

Usually by your third attempt the dosai will be good.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and it takes practise but you’ll enjoy eating the ‘rejects’ along the way.

Anah Daata Sukhi Bhava!!

Can I also take this opportunity to wish you all the best for 2012 and I hope you have a Happy Christmas.

The ingredients: 1 part white lentil flour, 3 parts rice flour, a pinch of salt [to make the pancake golden

adding salt to the rice flour and white lentil flour

mixing the ingredients with the best and most natural whisk otherwise known as fingers!

“]

add water [approximately 3-3 1/2 parts

mix or whisk

more mixing

check texture, it should be a ‘dropping-like’ consistency

pour into pot to let it ferment and rise!!

the mixture will ferment

cover fermenting mixture with a moist cloth, set aside for a few hours or overnight

remove cover to see it rise like a soufflé

set aside a teaspoon of the risen batter to form a ‘starter’ for the next batch

keep ‘starter’ in the refrigerator covered in cling wrap

add water to prepare batter for dosai

mix, or as I say, ‘fold’

check consistency, it must be close to a ‘pouring-like’ consistency for making the pancake

get ready for the act!!

prepare cooktop, or a griddle plate, or a ‘tawa’ by heating it and putting salt on the cooktop

wipe away the salt thus leaving behind a teflon-like surface when the salt starts to ‘cook’

add mixture to the smooth cooktop, just a big drop, holding the steel cup with 3 fingers only!

pouring the mixture on top of hot plate/griddle plate

smoothing the mixture with a circular motion, moving outwards in a concentric ring-like motion

enlarging the circle

enlarging the dosai

enlarging the circle, at this stage you drizzle clarified butter and oil over the dosai, or, if you are vegan simply omit the butter and use oil only

clarified butter

adding oil to the butter stops it burning

drizzle butter in a circular pattern

gently spread butter with a spoon

the upper surface of the dosai will fry and start to turn golden

the dosai will fold

roll the dosai

the first dosai is never perfect so don’t worry!!

the second dosai is never perfect either!

the third dosai; well from now on it is perfect!

the beautiful circles left by the cooked dosai

add potato filling

gently lever under the dosai, working around its perimeter

lever the dosai upwards gently

fold over filling

roll over