Mushroom Risotto

Priya loves risotto! She loved it the first time we had it together while we were in Vieques.. I know she will order it at a restaurant if its on the menu. It got me thinking about how difficult would it be to make... Looking at recipes I found out that the rice used to make risotto is kinda special. It's called Arborio rice. It is a medium grain rice and it is firm and creamy due to the high starch content. It was definitely not easy to make because you have to keep mixing the rice and adding the broth little by little, till it is cooked. It took me around 30 minutes.. Here is the recipe from my itallian cookbook



Ingredients

• 2 cups mushroom (we used a mix of portabella and crimini)
• juice of lemon (1/2 lemon)
• butter 6 tbsp
  
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 shallot chopped
• 1 1/2 cup risotto rice (arborio)
• salt and fresh ground pepper
• 3 tbsp fresh grated Parmesan
  

Method

• Chop the mushroom really small and then toss it with the lemon juice
• Melt 2tbsp butter and stir in the mushroom. Cook over moderate heat till they give up their juices, and begin to brown. Stir in the parsley. Cook for 30 seconds and then remove to a side dish.
• Place the stock in a saucepan and simmer till needed.
• Heat 2 tbs butter with Olive oil in the same pan the mushroom were cooked in. Stir in the chopped shallots and cook until it is soft and golden. Add the rice, stirring for 1-2 minutes to coat it with oils. Add the mushrooms and mix well.
• Now on moderate heat add one small ladle full of the hot stock and cook until the stock is absorbed or evaporates, stirring the rice with a wooden spoon to prevent it from sticking to the pan. Add a little more stock, and stir until rice dries again. Continue stirring and adding the liquid a little at a time. After about 20 minutes of cooking time, taste the rice . Add salt and pepper.
  
• Continue cooking, stirring and adding the liquid until the rice is al dente, or tender but firm to the bite. The total cooking time of the risotto may be from 20-35 minutes.
• Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the remaining butter and cheese. Allow the risotto to rest for 3-4 minutes before serving.
  

South Indian Spicy Chicken Curry

I havn't posted in a recipe in a while... I did make a few interesting dishes recently, but was a little busy to post the recipe. This recipe I made yesterday was something I came up with after getting inspired watching Sanjay Thummu of vahrehvah.com. His videos on youtube are so much fun to watch. His expressions are priceless and the best part is when you can see his mouth watering to what he has made!!! Other source of inspiration was this cooking show I was watching about this British guy traveling around India and trying out different dishes... His style was Unique and a little over the top for my taste as I felt that the spices he was adding was too much in quantity. Here is my version of a South Indian Spicy Chicken Curry -



Ingredients (in order of use):

1 cup Oil
1 Cinnamon stick
5-6 Cardamom pods
6-7 Cloves
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
4 medium sized Onions chopped
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
1 and 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
5-6 chopped green chilies
10 curry leaves
2 tsp coriander powder
3/4 tsp chili powder
1 and 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
4 pounds Chicken cut into small pieces
Ghee
Water
1 tsp Garam masala
Coriander Leaves

Method:

Heat the oil in whatever vessel you choose. I used a 10 inch wide, heavy bottomed saute pan. break the cinnamon stick and add that along with the cardamoms and cloves.
Then add the cumin seeds. Once you hear the cumin crackle add the chopped onions. make sure you don't burn the cumin seeds. This can happen if the oil is too hot!
After a minute add your salt and turmeric powder and continue to saute the onions.
Once they are brown, add the ginger garlic paste and saute till you see the ginger garlic paste mix up well with the onions. Now add the green chillies and curry leaves and then saute for 15 seconds. Add the coriander powder and chili powder and keep on moving the ingredients on the saute pan and make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. after around 10-15 seconds add the crushed tomatoes and continue to saute all the ingredients. The masala should be somewhat coming together by now. it should not be watery and should have a consistency of mashed potatoes. Add your chicken to the pan and mix the masala into the chicken. cook the chicken so it looses its pinkness. I added 3 tsp ghee at this point to saute the chicken which is optional. Once the chicken pieces appear to be seared seared add 3-4 cups of water. You can vary the amount of water here according to the amount of gravy you want. Put a lid on the saute pan and adjust the heat to medium and let the chicken cook for 5 minutes. Check every minute and half making sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. After 5 minutes add the garam masala and mix it into the gravy. Taste the gravy and add salt if needed. Then add the chopped coriander leaves and mix that into the gravy as well. Shut off the heat after a minute, but leave it on your cooking stove covered to continue the cooking process. Serve it with rice!!

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!!

Creamy Cheesy Pasta

Its been ages since I have written anything at all. It doesnt meen I havnt been cooking.. It just means, i havnt made anything interesting recently. Actually thats not true!

My Wife loves cheesy pasta.. She is a big fan of white sauce! When we go out to a Itallian dinner, thats what she looks for.. So I thought I would try to cook her something which would be cheesy and also different than what she is used to.

I turned to chow.com and posted a request for suggestions and a lot of people gave me good ideas. Finally here is what I made

sauted garlic and shallots in olive oil.
added chopped baby bellas.
Once the mushroom softened up a bit, added some flour and mixed it up in the mushroom and shallots and garlic.
Then added some white wine and cooked the entire thing till I reduced the wine.
Then added vegetable broth and cream and let it reduce for a few minutes.
I then added half a can of diced tomatoes and some itallian seasoning and salt to taste.
Once the entire sauce looked to come together, I added crumbled gorgonzolla cheese,
some grated smoked gouda cheese and grated parmessan cheese.

I finally mixed this into farfalle I had cooked earlier before starting the sauce.

The dish looked heavenly and the combination of the three cheeses was just so tasty!!

I will post a picture soon!

Fish Pakoda

My Friend Tina always complained that we did not visit her often, so she came up with a plan. She would call us and tell us that her mom prepared "fish". Me and Poorni would be there in a jiffy. Personally I dont like fish too much because of the fishy taste but aunty prepares it in such a way that it just tastes awesome!!


I decided to make this recipe for a get together and called up my friend for the recipe. It still did not come out as aunty's, nevertheless it tasted good. Here is the recipe -



Ingredients:

Pompfret Fish - 2 pounds (I used Tilapia)
lemon juice - 1 tsp
red chillie powder - 1 and 1/2 tsp
turmeric pwder - 1/4 tsp
black pepper powder - 1 tsp
ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 6 - 8 leaves
salt

Method:


Fish should be cleaned up and scaled. Rub salt all over the fish and wash it. Do this 2-3 times. I was told this helps in removing some of the fishy smell. Pat dry the fish abd cut into bite size pieces. Now mix all the ingredients and around half of the curry leaves in a bowl and marinate over night. When you are ready to make this, heat oil in a vessel and when the oil is hot add some curry leaves and deep fry the fish. Serve it with coriander chutney.

Chicken Biryani

This came out fabulously.. I looked up quite a few recipes and different styles of making biryani. Wikipedia gives a nice explaination in the different styles of biryani making. Finally I thought that for a first time biryani maker, I should try out Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe. Check out his video demo here.
Here is what it looks like right before I put it to dum.

And here I tried my hand at plating the biryani.. I know I need to work on making a better presentation :)

Recipe coming soon...

Spaghetti with tomato, basil, and mushroom sauce

I love to cook itallian food for my wife. Itallian cooking to me is very calming and very romantic and it always puts me in a great mood. I put on some nice music and open a bottle of wine and then start cooking... I think this is my first Ittalian recipe for my blog.. hope you try it out and like it!

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large shallot, minced (about 1/4 cup), plus 1 shallot,
sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
10 ounces baby portobello mushrooms, chopped into 4
parts each
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1 pack of
Spaghetti
3/4 cup vegetable stock or canned vegetable
broth
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, thinly
sliced
Additional grated Parmesan cheese

Method:

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add minced shallot and 1 minced garlic clove and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to high, add all mushrooms, and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer mushroom mixture to bowl.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in same skillet over medium heat. Add onion, sliced shallot, and remaining 2 garlic cloves; sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add diced tomatoes with juices and white wine and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in mushroom mixture and 1/4 cup fresh basil. Remove from heat. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper; cover to keep warm. (Mushroom sauce can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm mushroom sauce before continuing.)

Cook pasta in heavy large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain well. Return pasta to pot. Add mushroom sauce to pasta and toss to coat. Add vegetable stock and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, tossing to coat. Transfer to bowl; sprinkle sun-dried tomatoes and remaining 1/4 cup basil over. Serve, passing additional Parmesan cheese separately.

Goat Curry

I think this has been my best attempt at making goat curry. I have made goat curry both in south indian style and north indian style. the major difference between the two style is that in South indian Style I add coconut milk and curry leaves. The other big thing I have started to do is I pressure cook the meat to make it soft and tender.. I love it when the meat is falling off the bone. Getting goat meat has also become a little easier around the boston region. I used to buy it in Quincy from this middle eastern halal store.. but the meat was not that good... Somebody at work suggested I go to Cheema's on Cambridge Street in Allston, and I think they have their permanent customer in me...

Ingredients:

Goat Meat cut in small one inch chunks - 3 Pounds
Ghee (Clarified Butter) - 4 table spoons
Cinamon Stick - 2 inches
Cardamom - 5-6 pieces
Cloves - 5-6 pieces
Onions - 2 large chopped
Ginger Garlic paste - 2 tsp
Tomatoes - 2 chopped
Potatoes - 2 cut in big pieces
Salt to taste
Red Pepper Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam Masala - 1 1/2 tsp
Coriander (Dhaniya) Powder - 2 tsp
MDF Meat Masala - 2-3 tsp

Method:

Heat the Ghee in Stainless steel wok
Add the cinamom stick, cardamoms and cloves.
Saute till they start to crackle.
Add the onions and saute them till they are a nice golden colour.
Add all the powder spices except the meat masala and mix it into the onions
Now add the meat sear it so it gets cooked on all sides.
Once the meat is browned on all sides add the tomatoes and mix it into the meat.
Transfer all of this into the pressure cooker and add enough water to immerse the meat.
Add 2-3 teaspoons of MDF Meat Masala and the potatoes and close the cooker.
Cook for 20 miuntes.
Put the cooker under cold water if you want to check if the meat became tender.
Pressure cook again if it has not become tender.
Make sure you have enough water or else you might burn your gravy!
If the gravy is too watery just let it cook on medium heat.
Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice.