For this awesome foursome the party started in Bangalore in 1985 and is still going on . . . 28 years later, in Sydney!!!

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!

Talk of a ‘team’ and you hear phrases like ‘having a goal’, ‘making sacrifices’, ‘blending in with the other members of your team’, ‘understanding one another’, and blah, blah, blah!!

 

For Chari, Deepak, Vivek and Ajoy we were the team that knew nothing about the above-said phrases, we just had FUN.

Cooking was terrific enjoyment for us. There were no ‘personality’ clashes, no ‘inflated’ egos, nobody was a ‘boss’ and nobody worked for the ‘boss’.

We had an executive chef, but we did not need him, we had a general manager, but he was the big boss and was too busy with his own stuff to bother with the likes of us. Then we had the food and beverage manager and it was this man who was the one who ‘ran’ the hotel. For him we were the ‘doers’. It did not matter who did the job as long as it was done!! So for PK Mohankumar we were all the same, we weren’t individuals, we were the team!!

The four of us worked for each other and had a ball.

We also had our fair share of  troubles like this one, and it’s this one I want to share with you.

In 1985, Bangalore got its first ‘pub’, called The Ramada Pub, which sold draught beer and it was my ‘duty’ to try it out (every night!) as I considered myself  a self-proclaimed ‘beer guru’.

So, without fail after my breakfast shift at the Taj, I would take off and reach my chosen destination, The Ramada Pub.

After the first week of my regular visits (there were no ‘off’ days, and never any ‘sick’ days for this shift!), I saw a figure sitting at the opposite end of the bar table. He wore glasses, had a mole on his cheek and kept staring at me over his glasses.

He was with another mate of his from the Reserve Bank (I think he called himself Murthy).

There was something familiar about this figure. I knew I had met this man before but I couldn’t place him till I had downed my fourth draught beer and then it was all clear. Sh–t!

This was my chef, the guy who looked after the breakfast at the Hotel and I was his commis!!

All the time he’d been sitting there he wasn’t so much interested in watching me but he was counting the number of glasses I had consumed!!

He was thinking about tomorrow and about the breakfast that the hotel was to serve to the 200 or so guests who were staying at the hotel.

I quickly finished off my self-proclaimed quota of six glasses of draught beer and headed off to the Shanti Apartments in Ulsoor where we lived. I needed a good sleep as I had an early morning shift starting at 6 am. At this time of day they call this shift the ‘form an impression’ shift. Know why? Because if I was late for this shift I would remain a commis for the rest of my life, or at least till I survived in the Taj group of hotels. I wanted to grow and grow fast but this damn’d Ramada pub was . . . well, I can leave it to you to guess that one!

Anyway, I made it back to work early the next morning and was late by about 10 minutes and guess who was there to receive me in the kitchen?

Yes, that’s right, it was the chef with the mole, no less than chef Chari himself!!

Chari

“Bu…er!”, I thought to myself as I gave him a cheery “Good morning!” kind of smile.

But he was having none of it, chef Chari calls me aside and says, “Ajoy, what you do in your personal life is none of my business, but if you are late for work, then it is the hotel’s business and I am the hotel. Get it?”

“Yes chef,” I mumbled.

But there’s no time for remorse. Breakfast is done and so is lunch. We are on our way home when chef Chari says to me, “Mate, I am off to the Ramada Pub, want to join me?”

That was 28 years ago and we are still having a drink in Sydney today!!

Chari was the mentor of the team, if such a hierarchy existed!

But there were other men in the wings.

Enter Deepak Mohan Rao.

Deepak

He is the short guy in the picture with no hair. (Say it how it is, Deepak.)

Now, this guy could have been a head chef anywhere in the world, and I mean anywhere, yes, even in France!!

It’s like he has the Larousse Gastronomique at the tips of his fingers. Name a sauce and he can list all the ingredients.

French Food was his forte. He made the best blo..dy steak in Bangalore back in those days. No, not the Aussie way but the classic, French way.

We started in the hotel industry on the same day and moved up the ladder the same day.

Deepak was the ‘banker’ in the team. He lent money at no interest!

He was a teetotaler, well, back then. He was my personal banker and my personal chauffeur, too, as he’d always drive me back home after a party!!

So, as you can imagine, on the job Deepak was punctuality personified! You could set your watch based on Deepak’s arrival. He was also very conscious of quality. He wouldn’t receive any food that did not meet the standards set by the hotel. I remember, on one occasion, the fish supplier had brought some lobsters that did not have any eggs attached to them, so they were promptly returned. The fish supplier returned later that morning with the eggs carried in a separate container saying that they had been removed from the female lobsters just before being delivered. Deepak took one look at the lobsters and said that they were males and not females, as claimed by the fish supplier. When we asked him how he knew something so specific, his reply was that the first pair of legs (or swimmers as he called them) are soft in a female lobster!!

So this guy, this short fella, isn’t just a cook he’s a total Chef (capital ‘C’)!

Now, onto the third member of the team, he’s the other baldie in the picture and he’s called Vivek Anger, oops sorry, I mean Angre!

Vivek

So, this guy came to our hotel and had much to live up to. It was said that he had worked in a number of hotels around the globe as a baker and as a pastry chef. Now, that is a tall order as you are either a baker or a pastry chef, but this was both métiers in the one guy!!

We had high hopes of him and we just hoped he could deliver. He was also a big fella, around 120 kg, and he had a big voice, to match his size, that could travel to the general manager’s office when he used it. So, if you got into trouble with him, you also got into trouble with the bosses as they didn’t want all this extra noise and carrying-on.

He rode a Java motorcycle that would ‘fly’ really low to the ground and if you were riding pillion it could be your last ride to he.. you were so close to the ground!!

But come Christmas of 2005 and Vivek showed his true colours.

We had a pastry shop in the lobby at the Taj and I still remember the pastries and the breads that were made that year; they were to die for. The best dessert sold there was crème brûlée. I still think he makes the best bl..dy crème brûlée in the world!!

My close interaction with Vivek was when I had this big wedding to cater for, spread over three days and catering to about 4500 people. Vivek was given the biggest challenge yet when he was asked to create a wedding cake as big as a billiard table with the theme of a stud farm!! The wedding has long been forgotten but Mr Cawas (whose daughter’s wedding it was) spoke about the cake as late as 1996 when I last met him in Mumbai at the Taj!! I wish I could show it to you now.

And as for the fourth guy in the picture, well, I think you might know him by now, his name’s Ajoy and he has been hanging around these fellows for the past few decades still having a ball. By the way, all of us now live in Sydney and all of us are still cooking!

In 1985 this ‘team’ gave Bangalore its first ‘fine dining’ restaurant, The Jockey Club.

Ajoy

Anah Daata Sukhi Bhava!!

How do you get young chefs to cook an ancient cuisine?

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!

Put simply, I don’t know!

So, I ask my son, Aniruddh, and he says, “Dad, what made you cook Indian is what will…..” but I cut him short because I know he thinks that what made me cook Indian food is what will make a young chef do so.

So, I hang my head sadly and reply in all seriousness, so serious that I can tell my son thinks something is afoot, “I don’t think so, son. I have been looking around for a young chef who could (possibly) run nilgiri’s restaurant and maybe even take over the place. But what will make him cook Indian?”

“Well, dad,” he replies in the matter of fact ways only young kids can, “Indian food does not have the ‘glamour‘ that the other cuisines have. It’s seen as too ‘dull’ and too ‘boring’. Everything is seen as a ‘curry’, so how do you expect anyone to get into this when all you do is cook a ‘bit of this and a bit of that’ with curry powder? Young chefs want something exciting, something cool and something fancy! Indian food does not offer that.”

I’m not really surprised by his answer and I tell him so, “You are right right, son. But would you like to cook Indian food if you became a chef?” I ask.

After a long pause, he says, watching me carefully, “No dad, but I would like to cook Modern Australian food with an Indian touch,” and he leaves it there but then adds quietly, “if I ever become a chef.”

Now that is a very smart answer and I tell him so, because you can get away with anything and say this is ‘Mod Oz’ even if you don’t know the basics and certainly have no fre…ng  idea whatsoever about the use of spices and the philosophy of Indian food.

Cooking today is all about marketing and hype.

It has nothing to do with either knowledge or skill.

Look at all the so-called Indian cookery books and it is no surprise that the only thing they talk about is the ‘curries’ from different parts of India. Nothing is said about the different techniques used in Indian cooking, like dum or baghar. Similarly, there is no mention about the reason for the use of spices like achari masala for pickling, or the use of dry chillies and fresh chillies.

“Son,” I tell him, “every dish has a story to tell and that is what makes it so colourful and so full of flavour.” It might not have the ‘hype’ or ‘hipster’ trendiness to it but what’s amazing is that I see these kids wanting their vegan food and vegan cafes and chai lattes and I think, “Great! That’s the sort of food that is in my blood.”

And so I follow my son into the kitchen and while he makes a sandwich I continue. He listens because he knows it means we’ll watch the cricket later together!

“Take this dish that I am making today. It is called hare masale ka pulao, it’s nothing fancy, it’s just a green herb baked rice dish (pulao).” And I proceed to cook the dish.

When I go back to Hyderabad, my mother makes it with all the love and affection that it deserves, cause it is my favourite!!

As for the technique, the herbs must be finely puréed, with no water (as this will discolour them) when cooking. They need to be bhunaoed, or fried, with the vegetables to retain the colour. The rice needs to be soaked beforehand, as we have done in previous blogs such as What unites Runs, Coronet.. , and it must be cooked in 2½ parts of liquid (by the absorption) method.

I know what my son is saying. I know that the young kids, the young chefs, want the ‘wow’ factor and to mix cultures. I think that’s to be encouraged. I know we all like the hype and get moved by it. But like the bicycle movement, or the slow food movement, I also want to return to basics, to have real knowledge, real discussion and real passion in cooking. We all like froth but it’s important to have good substance beneath it!

So, please follow the method for this vegan dish. By the way, if you want to keep the accompaniments vegan, please simply omit the buttermilk, you’ll still have a delicious side dish. Please let me know what you think of it. Also, if you prefer a one-page listing of the ingredients for the pulao, please click green pulao recipe. For the coconut and spinach accompaniment, please click coconut spinach recipe.

The ingredients

ingredients: in the plate (centre): cauliflower florets, beans, lemons/limes, snow peas, diced carrots, broccoli florets in the bowl (centre): cassia bark, cardamom pods, cloves, black cardamom pods, nutmeg, mace blade, bay leaves, peppercorns, fennel seeds in the outer ring: coriander leaves, mint leaves, diced potatoes, polished grain rice, soaking, crushed green chillies, oil, kari leaves, chopped onions, salt, crushed ginger, crushed garlic

Blending the coriander and mint

Step 1

place coriander and mint in a blender or food processor

Step 2

blend until smooth

Cooking the vegetable pulao

Crackle only half the spices, grind the rest and set aside, covered.
Step 1

heat oil in a saucepan, when oil smokes, add half the spices - fold and cook until cassia unfurls and the rest of the spices start to crackle

Step 2

add the chopped onion and fold, then add the salt

Step 3

fold onions until they look like this (as above!)

Step 4

add garlic and fold - then add the ginger - you can also add turmeric at this stage to enhance the colours of the dish

Step 5

add chopped fresh green chillies and fold

Step 6

add diced potato and fold

Step 7

add carrots and fold

Step 8

add beans and fold

Step 9

add snow peas and fold

Step 10

add cauliflower and broccoli florets and fold

Step 11

add blended coriander and mint and fold

Step 12

keep folding until the vegetables are coated, as above, and the colour is bright green!

Step 13

add vegetable stock, or water, and fold, then bring the stock/water to the boil

Step 14

bring stock/water to the boil, drain the rice and add to the boiling stock.

Step 15

check seasoning and add more salt, to taste

Step 16

add spices

Step 17

add lemon/lime, to taste

Step 18

when stock has been absorbed like this, it is time to cover the mixture with a cloth

Step 19

place wet tea towel like this, folding over the edges

Step 20

when the tea towel looks like this (above), place lid on saucepan

Step 21

place in medium oven and cook for 20-25 minutes

Step 22

after 20-25 minutes, check pulao has thoroughly cooked by flicking water onto side of saucepan - the water drops should sizzle and evaporate within seconds

Step 23

remove cloth

Step 24

fold pulao and serve

Serving suggestion

Whilst the pulao is in the oven, there is plenty of time to make the garnishes and optional sauce (vegetarian, not vegan).

How to julienne ginger

Step 1

cut skin off ginger

Step 2

Step 3

slice ginger thinly

Step 4

stack the slices then slice them into slivers

Coconut spinach

Step 1

blanche spinach and place in mixing bowl

Step 2

add shredded coconut and fold

Step 3

fold thoroughly

Step 4

add salt, to taste

Step 5

add lemon/lime, to taste

Step 6

fold and set aside

Plating

Step 1

Step 2

place spinach on top as a garnish

Step 3

place julienned ginger on top of spinach

Step 4

add coriander and your pulao is ready to eat!

Optional sauce (vegetarian)

pour 500mls of buttermilk into a mixing bowl

step 2

add salt

step 3

add lemon/lime, to taste

step 4

make spinach and coconut mixture as described above, place in a mixing bowl and add buttermilk mixture

step 5

step 6

serve the palao on a plate with the spinach sauce alongside

So I dish out the hare masale ka pulao along with the saag ka raita and hand it over to my son. As he comes back for seconds, he says, “Dad, this is great but could you please call it ‘green herb and summer vegetable risotto with baby spinach, shredded coconut and buttermilk relish’!!

Anah Daata Sukhi Bhava!!!

The many faces of cocos nucifera. . .

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!

vegetable ishtew

What in the world is cocos nucifera?!!!

Simply put, this is the nut with a ‘smiling face’ as the Portuguese call it.

I call it coconut.

Indians call it nariyal, narall, thengai or caai . . . depending on who you talk to.

It is the most versatile vegetable, fruit, nut . . . and much more!

My association with this ‘smiling faced’ nut started in Bangalore as a ‘punishment’ when my chef asked me to shell shrimps, only 15 kgs of the things.

Now, shrimps in India are miniature prawns that do not grow beyond 2 inches in length.

To shell them is a highly skilled job and I was not trained to do this.

I was trained to become a ‘chef ’, not a bl..dy masalchi, or a helper, or so I thought. However, I could not escape, I HAD to do it.

So, this is what I did . . . for every four prawns that I shelled, two unshelled prawns went into the bin!!

Who would notice if I discarded just a few?

After nearly 3 hours of  ‘shelling’ I handed over my labour to Chef Alex who promptly thanked me for doing the work and I was ready to go home.

Just as I was about to leave the time office at the Taj Residency, I heard a familiar, but stern, voice call me on from behind, it was Chef Alex himself.

What followed was not exactly pleasant but it was one of the most important lessons of my cooking life which basically boiled down to: can’t shell?, then, will break coconuts!!!

If you can’t do the hard yards now, son, you will never get to the top!!

For the next four weeks I was asked to break coconuts, by hand.

I had to grate them and squeeze the extract out of nearly 20 of them so that they could be turned into a Kerala style ishtew to accompany appams, or pancakes.

Besides this, I was also asked to break from anywhere between 10 and 25 coconuts for the banquet kitchen if there was a function on!

So, whilst breaking the smiling faces was far from easy work, working with Unnikrishnan, Jose and KK Shiva, three of the best chefs from the south, taught me not just how to cook with the coconut but also how to appreciate this wonderful nut.

Indians, especially from the coastal regions, use every part of this plant. It is used in every aspect of their life, they drink the water of the young coconut, eat the ‘meat’ of it, use the extract of it for making sauces, ferment it and make ‘vinegar’, use the husk for handicrafts, cut and clean the shell to make kitchen utensils, and much, much more!!

Then there are the medicinal benefits, too many to name in this blog so that can wait for another time, or another blog!!

We Indians even worship this fruit!  There is a festival named after it called Narayali Poornima which is celebrated in the state of Maharashtra to mark the end of the monsoon period!!

Phew!!!

Now it’s time to do a recipe using the ‘smiling’ nut!! Please click coconut vegetable ishtew recipe for a one-page recipe of this dish.

ingredients clockwise starting in the 2 o'clock position: coconut oil, chopped red onions, sliced green chillis,broccoli and cauliflower florettes, diced tomatoes, kari leaves, ginger juliennes. outer ring: diced beans, cassia bark, green cardamom, cloves, mace blade, black peppercorn, star anise, caramelised onions, coriander leaves, coconut cream (or whole coconut if you are really keen; otherwise use coconut cream), diced potatoes, diced carrots

If you want instructions on how to caramelise onions (or even slice them), check out my techniques page.

Blanching the vegetables

Step 1

prepare mixing bowl of iced water

Step 2

add salt to boiling water in a large pot

Step 3

add diced potato to boiling water

Step 4

cook the potatoes until they are al dente

Step 5

to check of the potatoes are al dente, remove one from the pot and cut it with a knife - it should slide through like 'cutting' butter

Step 6

when the potatoes are al dente, scoop from the pot and place in iced water to stop the potato cooking any more

Step 7

Repeat this process for beans, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower – cook each vegetable separately when blanching.

Cooking the spices, onion, fresh chilli, kari leaves and tomato

Step 1

In a large frying pan, heat pan and add coconut oil. When the oil smokes, add spices separately, folding between each addition. Start with the cassia (cinnamon sticks), then green cardamoms, cloves,black peppercorns and mace blades.

Step 2

Look for signs that the spices have cooked. Initially the cassia will be furled. When it has cooked, it will be open.

cassia (cinnamon stick) not ready since it hasn't unfurled

unfurled, now it is perfectly cooked

cooked cardamon pods will swell, like this

cooked mace will only slightly unfurl, like this

Step 3

now the spices are cooked, add chopped onions and keep folding whilst the onions caramelise. n.b. the coconut oil will froth

Step 4

add salt and fold

Step 5

when your onions have caramelised like this, it's time to add the thinly sliced (julienned) ginger

Step 6

add the ginger and fold

Step 7

add fresh green chillies and fold

Step 8

add half the kari leaves and fold. repeat this process with the remaining half

Step 9

when your mixture looks like this, it's time to add caramelised onions

add caramelised onions and fold

Step 10

when your onions look like this, it's time to remove a cup of them to be used as a garnish

Step 10

setting aside some of the garnish

Step 11

add chopped tomatoes to the frying pan and fold until their skins have almost separated from the flesh (as above!)

Step 12

when the tomato skins have almost split, add coconut cream and fold

Step 13

turn down the heat so the coconut does't boil as it will split if it boils. Small sporadic bubbles are fine!

Step 14

drain blanched vegetables and keep discarded water

Step 15

add vegetables to pot and fold

Step 16

keep folding until all the vegetables are covered by the creamy sauce

Step 17

cover pot for ten minutes, remove lid: your vegetables will (should!) look like this

Step 18

check that your sauce isn't too runny - dip a spoon into the sauce and remove; the sauce shouldn't run off the spoon but drip off. If the sauce runs off, keep reducing the sauce

if the sauce doesn't drip off your spoon, add a little water (use the water from the blanched vegetables)

only add a little water (kept aside from the strained vegetables) at a time (if you need to)

Step 19

sample your dish - add salt to taste, if needed

Step 20 – Plate the dish

serve the meal - maybe on a banana leaf and red rice noodles a.k.a. Idiappam!

red rice noodles can be purchased from an Indian grocery store all ready to heat and serve!!

Step 21 Add garnishes and enjoy!

add chopped coriander

add caramelised onion/spice mixture you had set aside earlier

So folks, as promised, we are on a journey!! Not only am I ‘touring’ the vast land of India and showing you the great variety of its food, I’m also focusing on vegan dishes! Don’t, my dear meat-eating friends, be ‘put off’ by this. Make some of these as a side dish, if you want, with some kebabs (remember?) or lamb cutlets that take minutes to cook. And as for my vegan friends, well yes, I know, this is more than enough as a good meal in itself. Gotta try and please all the people all the time, don’t we?!

Next week we will travel to the state of Karnataka on the west coast for more coconut cooking, more techniques and maybe even a starter. . .

Until then, happy VEG(AN)TARIAN cooking and remember Indian food is NO DAMN CURRY IN…..!!! When I show this dish to people they say, “Is it Thai, Italian, Macrobiotic . . . etc. etc. etc.” and never bl–dy Indian. And on that merry note.

Anah Daata Sukhi Bhaava!!!

 

What unites Runs, Coronet and Kaanagam? Read this to find out !! Final part of my garam masala series

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

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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!!

 

Can smoke, will cook!!!

When John asked me to do a blog on bbq fish à la Inde, for people who ‘love to smoke their fish and have it too’, I said, “Sure! I can help them do both!!”

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!!

Lamb and lentils slow cooked to make the perfect recipe . . . dalcha!!

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!:

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Next week we have a ‘BIG’ surprise for you….

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!!

This dish is a work of art . . . I call it dum ka murgh!!

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!

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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

Step 13

“]

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

Step 14

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

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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!!!

An eggplant (aubergine) dish that’s fit for a vegan king!

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

step 10

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

step 47

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!!

Is it going to be Keralan or Mangalorean or Goan fish? . . . Let’s find out!! Part 2 of my garam masala series.

In my 22 years of running a restaurant in Australia, I have not seen so much anxiety and curiosity in my kitchen as I saw last Sunday, just a day before John (well, we all know who John is by now, he’s the man who puts visual life into my blogs) and I were to photograph a fish dish.

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.

Six basic spice mixes – you may call them “garam masala”. . .Part 1 of my garam masala series.

 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!!!