Bitten by the Superwoman Syndrome!

Savoury Cookies

2010-09-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

(Makes 12)

So I've been missing in action since April. And much fun things have happened to the Rams since. For starters I'm playing momma to this seriously cute imp:

And then, if that werent enough joy, I went and got myself an OTG. So its been baking ahoy! To be honest, baking is a new medium to me. So grappling with the sense of how long to bake and how to bake has been daunting and exciting at once.

So I experiemented, though not with flying colours today, with savoury cheese cookies. Here's what went into it:

Ingredients:

1. To pulse: 1 cup flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 70 grams of salted butter cut into cubes, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder, 3/4 cup of cheddar cheese grated, few sprigs of thyme;

2. Chopped capers (1 tsp), mixed with more thyme if you like.

3. 1 egg, lightly beaten.

Method

1. Throw into the mixer the flour, salt, cubed butter, red chilli powder, grated grated, and a few sprigs of thyme and pulse it a couple of times to get a crumbly shortbread-like dough.

2. Empty it into a wide dish and combine together to make a dough. Add half the beaten egg if you feel your dough is dry. If you're vegetarian, a few sprinkles of water or milk even can be adequate. Do not add any more fat or oil, as the butter and the cheese ensure that this recipe is no waist watcher's delight.

3. Roll out the dough into a spiral like this:

4. . Ideally if you have a cookie cutter, you could roll out your dough into a 1/2 inch thick giant roti and cut out cookies. If you're the amateur like me, you can start by chopping the dough into slices like this:

and flattening them into cookies. I tried different thicknesses, but my 1/2 inch ones turned out to be the best. The others? Well, they crashed and burned. :-(

5. Anyhow, so you place these on a greased baking tray, cover with cling film and throw them into the fridge for about 10 minues to cool.

6. In the meanwhile, preheat your oven to 200C.

7. Throw in your baking tray and bake till light brown. My guess is 8-10 minutes. And do hover around your oven if your a first timer. The original recipe for savoury cookies (of which this is a modification) said 12 minutes, which I followed to the T, left my oven alone and found my thin cookies burnt!

Of the ones I salvaged, they turned out yummy alright. Here's the pic of the survivors of the great burn:

You can see my cookie burn (and my laptop wire) peeking out of the edges. The subtle flavours of the cayenne and the thyme againt the butterry crunch of the cookie was worth the fire burn. But I didnt enjoy the burnt flavour in the not so fortunate cookies. I expect to be more successful the next time round, so I guess I'll replace this with some non burnt pictures.

If you tried this and were slightly more successful, leave me a shout. :-)

Until the next post, Ramadan Kareem, Happy Ganesh Chaturti and Bon appettit! :-)

Fish Puttu/ Fish Kheema

2010-04-30T03:32:00.001-07:00

(Serves 2)

What an odd combination, I thought, when I first sampled this sea fare made with shark meat in Tamil Nadu. But one glance at the dish and you'll see fillets of shark, minced and blended in fresh coconut, presented to visually remind you of crumbled Puttu. But the similarity ends right here, so you can go ahead and call this a kheema, if you will.

I used a soft fleshed fish like black pomfret instead of shark, which is the original ingredient. I really really regret not having a picture of this lovely fish stir fry and I promise I'll figure something out soon. In the meanwhile, if anybody has tried this, I'm happy to post pictures of your versions.

To make fish puttu, you need the following:

1. Pomfret (or any other soft fleshed fish that is not too bony) - 3 fillets, cleaned and soaked in a bowl of water into which the juice of half a small lemon is squeezed;
2. Pomfret marinade: 1 tsp red chilly powder, a pinch each of pepper, turmeric and coriander powder, and salt (quarter teaspoon), all mixed to a loose paste with water and 1 tsp cooking oil;
3. Onion - 1 large, finely chopped;
4. Garlic - 2 large pearls, or 4-5 small pearls, finely chopped;
5. Ginger - 3/4 inch piece, freshly grated;
6. Green chillies - 2 large dark green ones, slit and finely chopped;
7. Curry leaves - a fistful;
8. Urad dal, jeera and mustard - 1 tsp in all, for seasoning;
9. Fresh Coconut - grated/ ground to a soft powder- 1 small cupful; and
10. Oil to season and salt - to taste.

This is how you make it:

Before you chop up any of the other ingredients, pick up your fish fillets soaking in the lemonade and smear with your pomfret-marinade. Reserve. Then prepare the rest of your ingredients which should give your fish a good 10 minutes to marinate.

In a tava/griddle, shallow fry the fish on both sides and cover if necessary. This method is recommended over boiling your pomfret, as its a soft fish and tends to mash or overcook if boiled. Also, your red masala-marinade will be a lost cause when boiled. The original recipe uses boiled shark. The Shark fillets are tougher meat compared to pomfret or sear fish. So they are first boiled in turmeric and salted water till the fillets are soft and thoroughly cooked and then shredded and used in the stir fry.

The pomfret with its marinade should be cooked in the griddle to the point where your fish breaks when you touch it with a ladle. Keep aside to cool. Once cool, shred the fillets and de-bone them.

For the "curry", or the base of the stir fry, in a non stick pan, add about 2 tsp of oil. When hot, throw in the mustard-jeera-urad dal to crackle. (the shark version also uses half an inch of cinnamon and 2 cloves in the seasoning. But since pomfret has a distinct flavour, you might overpower the fish if you add the garam-masala) Now, throw in the garlic, ginger, green chilly and curry leaves and fry in a high flame for a minute. Add the onion and fry till the onions brown. This dish is all about texture, so a ginger-garlic-chilly paste wont do it justice.

Once the onions are nicely browned, salt the dish, throw in the fish and the coconut and fry for a good 5 - 7 minutes. Serve hot with rice or rotis. You can catch photos of other bloggers who've tried their own recipes of this traditional dish here and here. This is a very heartening stir fry and does not compromise on the flavours of any of its ingredients.

Until next time, bon appetit!

Curry Pulav

2010-04-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

(Serves 2)

Yes, I admit it shamelessly. I am a huge pulav fan. Its quick, hassle free and very very flavorful. Its a weeknight after an intensive 10 hours at the work-desk and I felt like eating something filling and yet not too basic like a dal chawal. So I concocted the "Curry Pulav".

Why curry pulav? Because the traditional chicken curry garam masala is very similar to the pulav's. So when I made pulav using my chicken curry masala, the result is this ~~recipe~~ mouth full of heaven, which is a total keeper! :-)

Here's how I diddit:

Ingredients:

For the garam masala

Grind to a fine paste, with a little added water if necessary, the following:
1. Garlic - 5 large pearls, or equivalent;
2. Ginger - 1" piece;
3. Green chillies - 3 small;
4. Fresh coriander - a few leaves
5. curry leaves - a few leaves;
6. Pepper - 2 spoons;
7. cloves - 3
8. cinnamon - 1" piece
9. cardamom - green, 3
10. turmeric powder - 1/2 spoon;
11. coriander powder - 1/2 spoon;
12. red chilli powder - 1/2 spoon (you dont want to over do this, what with the pepper and green chillies!)

For the rest of the pulav

1. Basmati rice - 2 cups, soaked in water;
2. Two large frankfurters/vienna sausages - slit in the middle and finely sliced;
3. Medium sized onions - 3, finely sliced;
4. Mushrooms - 4, button, finely sliced;
5. tomatoes - 2, small, finely sliced;
6. Egg - 1, for the garnish
7. Oil to fry;
8. cashew nuts (optional) - 6-7
9. Salt to taste

Method

In a large non stick cooking pan, fry the onions in about 2 tsp of oil till deep golden brown. Add a handful curry leaves and continue frying till the leaves wilt. Reserve. In the same oil, saute the musrooms and reserve. Repeat with the sausages and reserve. Add a teaspoon of butter or ghee to the remaining oil and fry the cashew nuts till golden brown. Reserve. In the left over oil, fry for atleast 10-15 minutes the ground garam masala.

Throw in half the onions-curry leaf mixture and the tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes soften. Add salt and the sauteed mushrooms, sausages. Fry for another 3 minutes. Add the rice and fry for about 4 minutes. Add water, drop in the egg with the shell to boil. At this point the riot of colors in your cooking pan should look simply lovely.

Reduce the flame to simmer and cover and cook for 30 minutes.

The best part of slow cooking biryani/pulav is the fragrance that seems to take over your house. That seriously works up an appetite!

when done, remove the egg, peel the shell and garnish the pulav with the remaining fried onions, cashews and boiled egg. Curry pulav is served.

Prawns in garlic butter sauce

2010-01-10T09:03:00.000-08:00

So we were in Goa last fortnight, taking in the sea, the sea view and the seafood. And I discovered a mouthful of heaven with goan shrimps in butter garlic sauce. The bad news is that I dont know the recipe for that. The good news is that I made up my own! And its yummy:)

INGREDIENTS:

1. Prawns 250 gms, freshly shelled and deveined;
2. Garlic 8 pearly, finely chopped;
3. Butter salted, 30 gms;
4. Heavy cream, 1 large cup;
5: Cheese, (parmesan ideally, but you can settle for cheddar) 2 tbsp;
6. Oregano, to sprinkle;
7. Milk, few drops;
8. Salt to taste;
9. Parsley/ Fresh coriander leaves, a handful, chopped;

FOR THE MARINADE:

1. Lemon juice, 2 tsp;
2. Black pepper; 1/2 tsp;
3. Green chilly, 1, finely chopped;
4. Cayenne pepper, 1, pinch;
5. Coriander powder, 1 pinch;

METHOD:

As always, this recipe is very very simple. Soak the prawns in the marinade for atleast 10 minutes. Melt the butter in a non sick pan on a very low flame and throw prawns, marinade and all in it. Cover and cook for 5 to 8 minutes on a very high flame, stirring intermittently. This seals in the juices. Simmer and cook till the prawns are almost done.

Now, add the oregano, cream and stir. Adjust salt. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes. Add a little milk if the sauce is too thick and switch off flame. Add the cheese and fresh parsley/ dhania. The cheese should blend and melt in the heat of the sauce. Serve warm with bread or plain long grained rice. Bon appetit! :)

Green chicken curry and stir fried potatoes

2009-12-05T09:17:00.000-08:00

Saturday night. Hungry and tired. Want filling meal with minimal effort. Went to Ria Patel's blog. Picked a mutton recipe and modified it. Happy me. :)

Green Chicken Curry (serves two)

Ingredients:

1. Chicken breast - 1 large, chopped into bite sized pieces
2. Onion - 1 and a half large, sliced
3. Curry leaves - few
4. Oil - 1 tablespoon (feel free to economise this)

For the Marinade:

Grind to a smooth paste following:
1. Ginger - 1 inch piece
2. Garlic - 5-6 pearls
3. Green chillies - 2
4. Coriander leaves - 2 tsp
5. Pudina leaves - 2 tsp
6. Dhania/ Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tsp
7. Amchur/ Dry mango powder - 1tsp ( the juice of half a lime can be a substitute)
8. Zeera/Cumin powder - 1 tsp
9. Curd - 2 table spoons
10. Pepper powder - 2 pinches
11. Salt - to taste

Method:

This is simpler than anything I've ever made I guess.

1. Chop up the chicken into bite sized pieces.

2. Pour marinade over the chicken and try rest it for atleast 20 minutes. I usually do this before all my chopping and other groundwork so that it gets the resting time.

3. Fry the onion until golden brown and reserve half the fried onions for the end.

4. Throw the curry leaves into the pan with the remaining onions and fry for about 3 minutes.

5. Empty the chicken with the marinade into the pan and fry on high flame till the oil separates. Reduce the flame, cover and cook until the chicken breast is tender and done. Open the pan and dry out the gravy a bit if you like, until the green curry just about sticks to the chicken. Adjust salt at this stage.

6. Remove from the flame, garnish with the fried onion and serve warm with chapatis and stir fried potatoes.

Stir Fried Potatoes
(Serves 2)

Ingredients:

1. Hard boiled potato - chopped into small cubes
2. Half a large onion - finely sliced
3. Minced garlic - 2 pearls
4. Curry leaves - few roughly chopped
5. pinch of turmeric
6. Oil - 1 tsp
7. Salt to taste

Method:

Another simple quickie. Warm 1 tsp of oil in a kadhai. Throw in the aromatic ingredients - curry leaves, garlic and chilli. Before they brown, add the onion and fry until he onion is a nice golden brown. Add salt and turmeric, fry for a few seconds before you throw the potato. Stir fry on high for a few minutes until the raw smell of turmeric disappears. Remove from heat and serve hot.

Sorry guys, I haven't yet figured a way to take pictures of the food I post here. Will sort that out soon enough. Thank you for your patience. :)

Chettinad Pulav Quickie (Mom's variant)

2009-10-15T04:21:00.000-07:00

(Serves 4)

The great thing about conditioned taste buds is that we all end up having a common favourite cook - our mom! Often, after a tired day at work, or on just those days when you want to curl up with something comfortable, one cant help but think of that particular dish mom used to make all the time:) Comfort food?

My mom is a healthy cook. Her food is simple, hearty and wholesome. And her flavours - very authentically tamil. I could go on and on about her cooking, but we need to get to the point, right? Well, mom's pulav, as is typical of chettinad cuisine, is quick, simple and flavourful. The original recipe uses colourful veggies like carrots, beans, peas, soya chunks and corn (yup, thats mom feeding us veggies alright!).

I have a rather peculiar situation at home. My subject of food, or object of affection (thats the husband) will not even touch with a barge pole any thing that does not have meat in it. So I decided why not throw in chicken with some veggies?

I tweaked mom's recipe by substituting her choice of veggies with chicken, mushrooms and babycorn. Here's what I did:

INGREDIENTS:

(A) For the masala:

Grind into a fine paste the following:

1. Onion - half a large one;
2. Ginger - 1 inch piece;
3. Garlic - 5 large ones;
4. Green chilly - 2 (these were the really spicy ones, so tweak according to taste);
5. Pepper corns - 1/2 teaspoon (now, I must tell you to be careful when you use pepper with green chillies. While the smokey peppery flavour is what we're gunning for, the heat tends to add to the chilly heat to reduce one to tears!);
6. Whole fennel (saunf) - half a teaspoon (this is a very important ingredient. It is this spice that sets apart this chettinad flavoured pulav from its north indian counterparts);
7. Cloves - 3;
5. Cinnamon - 1 inch piece;

(B) For the pulav:

1. Onion - remaining half of the large onion;
2. Chicken - a cup of assorted pieces (I used only a cup, considering I threw in other veggies);
3. Baby corn - a cupful, sliced sideways like wedges;
4. Mushrooms - a cupful, cleaned and sliced;
4.A. Tomatoes - 1 sliced, optional;
5. Basmati rice - washed and soaked for atleast 20 minutes (prior to cooking) in water;
6. Oil - 2 tablespoons (the health conscious can judiciously bring this down and cook in a non stick pan);
7. Cumin seeds (zeera) - 1 tea spoon for seasoning;
8. Curry leaves - 5-6 leaves (this is the southern replacement to the bayleaf (tez patta). If curry leaves are not available, fee free to substitute);
9. Salt - to taste.

PROCEDURE:

1. Take a large cooking vessel like a dutch oven/ handi. (You may use a pressure cooker, like my mom does. I dont, because I like each of my ingredients al dente, which I cant manage in a cooker);
2. Add the oil in your vessel. Now add the zeera into the oil and wait for it to splutter.
3. Throw in the curry leaves and a moment later, the sliced onions. Fry till your onions are a light brown.
4. Add the corn, mushrooms and fry for 2- 3 minutes.
5. Now add the ground masala and fry on a medium flame for atleast 7- 8 minutes, or until such time the raw masala (the onion/ginger/garlic) smells completely cooked.
6. Throw in the chicken, (and sliced tomatoes for an extra tang, if you like at this point) and fry for 3-4 minutes for it to be coated evenly with the masala. (I make slits in the chicken before throwing it in for the masala to enter)
7. Drain and add the rice to the vessel and stir for a few minutes.
8. Add salt and water. (Water added should be twice the quantity of rice, so that the rice and chicken dont compete for water while cooking. Chicken tends to get rubbery in pulavs if not given enough water. If you're woking with pure veggies, you can do the 1 rice to 1.1/2 water ratio depending on how your basmati cooks).
9. Cover and cook in the lowest posible flame for 25 to 30 minutes.

Open and serve hot with raita and papad. I dont bother to garnish my pulav because the smell is so tempting that I just want to eat straight out of the pan. But should you care to, the standard fried onions and/ or coriander works just fine.

Pic coming up soon (some minor technical glitches)... until then... Bon appetit!:)

Prawn Sausage Stir Fry

2009-02-05T09:37:00.000-08:00

Fridge raid day!! So made a simple stir fry with freezer left overs. Quick, happy, filling. Superwoman like? Absolutely.

You need:

Jumbo prawns (cup full, shelled, deveined); Chicken sausages (3, finely sliced); Onion (1, medium, finely sliced); Garlic (3 tsp, roughly chopped0; ginger (1 tsp, grated); Green chillies (2, wedged); Curry Leaves (handful); Coriander powder (1/2 tsp); Turmeric powder (pinch); Cumin seeds, mustard seeds, urad dal (1 tsp each); Oil (2 tbsp); Salt to taste.

This is how we make it:

Heat the oil, add the cumin seeds, mustard and urad dal. When the mustard sputters, add the onion. when the onion gets transparent, add the green chillies and stir fry in high flame for a minute. Add in the ginger and stir fry for another minute. Throw in the garlic and stir fry until the onion begins to brown just a wee bit. Throw in the jumbo prawns and keep stir frying on a high flame until the prawns curl up and turn a bit opaque. Throw the curry leaves, stir fry. Then, add the turmeric, coriander powder, reduce the flame to medium and more stir fry. Finally, add the sausages and stir fry until the sausages brown just a bit.

And thats your easy peasy stir fry!

Punukulu

2009-02-03T08:23:00.001-08:00

Thats Telugu for deep fried dosa batter dumplings. I believe its popular street fare and served with a variety of chutneys like onion and peanut. Not that I need much incentive to make anything deep fried. But this went awfully well with coconut chutney and filter coffee. And the best part is that you can whip this up very very quickly.

I picked up the original recipe here and tweaked it just a litle bit. I'm a huge fan of Sailu and her wonderful recipes. What I particularly love is her precise measurements and accurate instructions. So here's how we make punukulu.

You need:

For the punukulu: Leftover dosa batter (about 6 - 8 ladlefuls); Onion (1, medium sized, finely chopped); Ginger ( 1 tsp, grated); Green chillies (2, finely minced: I used the light green ones You may adjust according to heat); Curry leaves (handful roughly torn); Semolina (thats rava or sooji) (4 spoons); Cumin seeds (1 tsp); Salt to taste, oil for deep frying.

For the chutney: Fresh coconut (1 cup); fried chana dal (1/4 cup); Green chillies (2, light green); Ginger (1/2 inch); Tamarind (Optional, 1/4 teaspoon); salt to taste.

How to make it:

Mix well the dosa batter, the semolina, the onion, ginger, chillies, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Adjust salt. You may want to go easy on the salt if your dosa batter is already salted. Spoon the batter into the oil and there! Your punukulu is ready to serve.

For the chutney, grind all ingredients into a fine paste using minimal water. If you want to, you may season it with mustard, urad dal, curry leaves and asafoetida (hing). I didn' bother with the seasoning as t would completely kill the point of an evening quickie.

Notes: I noticed the punukulus fried well on a low flame as the batter inside gets uniformly done. The semolina helped ensure that the fritters dont take too much of the oil.

As you can see, there are limitations of photographing food from a 2 mega pixel cell phone camera. And feeling lazy to colour correct in photoshop. But what I can tell you is that these fritters are crispy as ever on the outside and melt in your mouth when you bite into it. So until next time.... Bon Appetit!:)

Kheema pav and such comforting sunday food

2009-02-01T01:28:00.000-08:00

The yearning for mutton kheema with pav dates back to our college days at Pune. We'd line up at Nayab, a little kabab-kheema joint off Shivaji Market, for some incredibly cheap, yet flavourful, delectable, oily kheema pav. The move to Bombay introduced us to Khayani & co, military cafe, stadium hotel - more cheap yet filling kheema pav, parsee style. This is one comfort food thats been a total winner at home.

Over the years, I've developed my own little kheema recipe that makes me just as happy as a kheema pav at stadium. I must share it with you.

You need:

Mutton kheema (thats hindi for minced lamb) (500g); Onions (2 large, finely chopped); Tomato (1 large, finely chopped); Garlic (2 tablespoons), Ginger (chopped 2 tablespoons) and Green chillies (2 large, although you may adjust according to taste) finely ground to paste; Mustard, urad dal and cumin seeds (a teaspoon each for seasoning); Curry leaves (a handful); Red Chilli powder (2 tsp, I used to kashmiri red chilli powder to turn down the heat, yet render the flavur and colour); Coriander powder (3 tsp); Cumin powder (1 tsp); Turmeric powder (3/4 tsp); Mutton masala powder (1 tsp); Tandoori chicken masala powder (1 tsp, optional); Oil (4 tbsp) and Salt to taste.

And this is how we make it:

Season the oil with the mustard, cumin seeds and urad dal. Throw in the chopped onions an stir fry till it starts getting transparent. Add the ginger-garlic-chilli paste. Add curry leaves, stir fry for about 5 minutes. Add turmeric, chilli powder, coriander, cumin and the masala powders. Stir fry for a minute or two, then add the mutton kheema. Add the tomatoes, and stir fry for about 5 to 7 minutes ensuring the tomatoes cook. If the mixture looks dry, sprinkle some water and cook covered for 10 to 13 minutes or until well done.

Serve with pav, rotis or plain bread. I tried it malabari parottas and curd, and guess what. I think it packed a punch!

Sorry, didnt have time to dress it up. Also, the last coupla times, some of you wonderful guys had trouble viewing the entire post. Lemme know if alls well this time. Until the next meal, seeya around...

Basic Tomato Pizza

2009-01-07T00:19:00.000-08:00

(Serves 1)

This one is for my mommy. Who is a hard core vegetarian and a huge pizza fan! And for all of you who like to cook up something interesting in 20 minutes! This is not an authentic Italian decadent pizza recipe. This is merely how to throw in a bunch of your favourite ingredients to come up with a quick-fix pizza.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. Store-bought pizza base (You’ll find this off most supermarket shelves. I used one that measured about 6”);

2. Tomato (1, chopped);

3. Garlic (3 pearls, roughly chopped/crushed);

4. Basil Leaves (2-3, torn; alternatively, if you’re a desi fan, just tear up 3-4 curry leaves. The fragrance is to die for!);

5. Cilantro (coriander)Leaves (half a handful, finely chopped)

6. Ketchup;

7. English Mustard (skip if you don’t like the taste);

8. Grated processed cheese (any store bought cheese like Amul or Britannia cubes works fine);

9. Olive oil (3 spoonfulls);

10. Seasoning and Salt to taste.

To start off, we make the topping first. Throw in the chopped garlic in 2 spoons of olive oil and take in the aroma of frying garlic. Simply comforting, isn’t it? Throw in the chopped tomatoes and stir fry for 3-5 minutes on a high flame. Add salt and the basil leaves. At this point, you may season it with your favourite seasoning (like chilli flakes, oregano, black pepper etc). If you are a die-hard desi food fan, and you like the spicy twang, alternate the basil with curry leaves and feel free to add a teaspoon of red chilli powder, coriander powder and cumin to season your tomato gravy.

While I kept my topping simple with just a simple tomato gravy, you can feel creative and throw in boiled corn, olives, paneer, baked beans, sliced onion or just about anything you like keeping in mind the proportions. (For one tomato in your gravy, you can throw a teaspoon each of the other ingredients.) Non vegetarians can at this point also do a freezer raid, maybe tear up a salami slice or add finely chopped sausages. Cook for another 3 minutes with the extra ingredients so that they take in the flavours of your seasoning and turn off the flame.

Add tomato ketchup to the topping enough for it to achieve “perfect gravy” status (the gravy should be thick enough to spread evenly) If you like mustard, add about half a teaspoon for taste and mix well.

Spoon the topping over your pizza base evenly. Sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves over the topping, then sprinkle it evenly with grated cheese ensuring that the entire topping is covered by the cheese.

Place a griddle (tawa) on the stove top. Now coat the griddle evenly with the remaining olive oil. Place your topped up pizza base gently on the griddle. Cover and cook on a very low flame for approximately 10 minutes or until your cheese melts. The bottom of your base should’ve turned crisp and brown, but not burnt. Your pizza is ready for your platter!

Say "Open Sesame"! and lets make some pork curry

2008-12-27T11:17:00.000-08:00

The wonderful thing about cooking, specially Indian cooking, is that there are a million ways to make a dish. Each method is unique and each outcome is one hell of a keeper. I guess one can spend a lifetime and yet not exhaust methods on innovating and tweaking recipes that we know. Like most of you guys out there, I’m a complete self confessed foodie and I love to cook. I’m always on the prowl looking out for newer ways to dress up food, enhance the flavour of ingredients and come up with a newer and tastier dishes.

We as women usually wear different hats - at work, at home; and all that juggling usually puts most of us women in the quest for the quickest ways in getting work done to get the most satiating of results . Or, in other words, the Superwoman Syndrome! This blog is my attempt to document my various culinary trials and to motivate myself to keep tweaking recipes and hopefully, with your inputs, get better at it. That said, this blog is also my excuse for picking up some HTML on the way, some photoshopping skills eventually and figure out all things coding. So my fellow sufferers of the superwoman syndrome, let’s get started…

**cue: applause**

Pork Curry: (Serves 3-4)

You will need the following:

1.		Pork – Lean cut	500 g
2.		Potatoes (optional)	1-2 medium sized, boiled and quartered
3.		Onions	2 medium sized, sliced
4.		Tomatoes	2 medium sized, sliced
5.		Green chillies	1, angularly sliced side-wide
6.		Garlic	8 cloves
7.		Ginger	½ inch piece
8.		Curry leaves	Handful
9.		Coconut	1inch by half inch piece, thinly sliced
10.		Vinegar	2 “large” teaspoons (which is the size of spoon between a tea and a table sppon)
11.		Ginger-garlic paste	2 “large teaspoons”
12.		Turmeric powder	1 teaspoon
13.		Red Chilli powder	1 teaspoon
14.		Meat masala	1 teaspoon
15.		Cooking Oil	5 tablespoons (no, this is not a healthy dish)
16.		Salt	to taste
	To powder in a mixer:
17.		Red Chillies	4, roasted on a high flame
18.		Whole cumin seeds	2 teaspoons
19.		Whole coriander seeds	2 teaspoons
20.		Whole pepper corns	2 teaspoons
21.		Nutmeg	Half (of a small nutmeg)
22.		Green cardamom	3 (you may alternate with 1 black)
23.		Cinnamon stick	1 inch piece
24.		Cloves	4-5
	To season:
25.		Cumin seeds	1 teaspoon
26.		Mustard seeds	1 teaspoon
27.		Curry Leaves	handful

While the list of ingredients seems long, this dish is actually quite a breeze to cook up. It goes quite well with rotis or just plain bread. In fact, it tastes quite splendid by itself. I promise to clock myself rather precisely the next time I document a recipe, maybe even do a step wise photo-op. :) So sorry guys, I’m hoping you’ll let the maiden attempt slip.

Step 1: Marinate

Chop the pork to bite sized pieces. Add the vinegar, the ginger garlic paste and most of the ground powder to the pork and set aside. You may use any left-over powder to season pulavs or meat curries. Vinegar is a big favourite in goan meat dishes, specially pork dishes like sorpotel. Adds a perfect tang to balance out the spices, apart from tenderizing the meat. This dish does not require too much marination, although prior marination usually only makes meat softer and better.

Step 2: Pressure Cook

In a pressure cooker, add 2 table spoons of cooking oil. When the oil heats up , add 4 cloves of garlic, equal amount of sliced ginger and then go on to add the marinated pork, a handful curry leaves, and the coconut slices. Stir fry for bit, maybe a minute or two. Add salt to taste, turmeric powder. Add about half a cup of water, if necessary. (Increase the quantity of water if you’d like to have some gravy) Pressure cook on a high flame for two whistles, and continue on a low flame for another four minutes. Open once the pressure from the cooker fizzles out. Pressure cooking is pretty much the fastest way to cook meat dishes. That apart, I’m really big on the tape worm phobia. So for me, cooking pork always means pressure-cooking pork.

Evaporate the excess water in the cooked pork on a high flame constantly stirring to avoid burning. If you’re really cringed on time, your pork should be good to eat as is. Should you want some gravy , just skip this step.

If have a little more time on your hands for the pork dish, read on for the “curry” or the “sauce” recipe.

Step 3: The curry

In a pan or a kadhai, add the remaining oil. I’m a big fan of non stick cookware. Apart from conserving oil, one also does not have to worry about burning food, unless well, you totally forget about it. To the oil, add the seasoning ingredients (minus the curry leaves). When the seasoning splutters, add the sliced onions, the green chilly, and add the remaining garlic, roughly crushed. Caramelize the onions a tad, a healthy golden brown should be perfect. Add in the tomatoes, and let it cook until the oil separates leaving you with a lovely red curry. Add in the curry leaves, the cumin powder, red chilli powder and the meat masala, and adjust the salt carefully. Now since you’ve already salted your cooked pork, very little to no salt should work fine. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes.

Add the boiled potatoes if you like it with your meat. I look at it this way: pork is no fat-free, health friendly meat. So if you’re going down, you might as well go the whole hog. Let the curry cook for a minute or two and then add the cooked pork from step 2. Stir well and simmer for about 5-8 minutes and turn the flame off. Now pat yourself in the back for making some decadent, sinfully awesome homemade pork curry. :)

Here’s an amateur click of the curry, with a little dressing up . (Oh well, go ahead, hoot at the absolutely stunning debut of Miss Tomato Rose!)

Like I said, you may serve the pork curry with rotis, white bread or just eat it as is. I’d recommend a weekend, a hearty movie and may be even cold beer to go with it.

I’d love to know how it turned out and your variations of this. Blog on!