Sara Dhanani

Archive for the ‘Favorite Recipes’ Category

Puddle cookies

In Cookies, Dessert, Favorite Recipes on September 26, 2011 at 12:18 pm

Chocolate Chip Fudge Cookies
makes about 24 large cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder (optional)
1 pound (16-ounces) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
1 3/4 cups granulated white sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup Crunchie bars chopped fine

Directions:
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and espresso powder.

Melt the chocolate and butter in in the microwave, stirring until smooth.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the sugar and eggs until pale yellow and thick, about 5 minutes. The batter will fall back into the bowl in slow ribbons. Add in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla extract. Fold in the dry ingredients to the chocolate batter and mix only until incorporated. Stir in the crunchie crumbles. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the batter until firm, about 1 hour or overnight (the most important step)

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F (177-degrees C) and place rack in center of the oven. Drop batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto prepared cookie sheets, spacing evenly. . Bake cookies 8- 9 minutes.  Do not over-bake. 

They will be chewy and incredibly divine!

Raspberry Yogurt Pops

In Favorite Recipes on September 15, 2011 at 10:18 pm

With the hot hot summer, we needed a cool treat with some nutritional value. These little popsicles hit the spot! They are creamy and tangy at the same time.

I dont have a recipe for the pops. I heated frozen raspberries, sugar and a touch of lemon juice in a saucepan till it was reduced and coated the back of a spoon. You can blend the mixture for a smoother popsicle. Add greek yogurt and combine thoroughly. Pour into posicle molds and chill for 6-8 hours or overnight.

Sindhi Pulao

In Favorite Recipes, Meat & Poultry, Week night meals on September 3, 2011 at 4:09 pm

The aroma of cumin, coriander and cinnamon tickles my nose as I write this post. This pulao transports me to my chachi’s house. She makes the best pulao ever. She learn’t it from my dadi and I learn’t it from her. This is the pulao made in our family and this recipe has been requested by my sister. The bold flavors of rice laced with whole cumin, peppercorns and coriander seeds and leaves are delightful, even more so, however, are the memories this aroma evokes.

This recipe was hard for me, so if your pulao doesn’t turn out quite right, please let me know. I cook by andaza and while I tried to keep track of the teaspoons/tablespoons and cup measures, it may still need some tweaking.

Ingredients:

750 grams chicken – I prefer chicken thighs and breast with bone, cut into 5 – 8 inch peices

Two Potatoes – peeled and cubed into four pieces each

1/2 an onion – chopped finely

Two bunches fresh corriander

Three cloves peeled garlic

One inch of peeled ginger

Three small green chillies

Two tablespoons whole garam masala

One teaspoon ground cumin

Three cups long grain basmati rice

salt to taste

1/8 cup oil/ghee

Method:

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Saute the chopped onion till its translucent. Add the garam masala and fry till fragrant. Add the ground cumin, potato and fry for another minute. Now add the chicken and incorporate together. Place the lid on the pan and turn the heat to low, and stir intermittently so that the masala doesn’t burn.

In the food processor pulse the corriander, ginger and garlic together till it forms a smooth paste. You may need 1/4 of a cup of water to help with that. Pour this in the saucepan with the masala, meat and potato’s. Add 6 cups water and bring to a boil. Once it has come to a boil, add three cups of basmati rice and salt. Distribute the rice evenly by stirring once. Place the lid back on the saucepan and cook on a medium low heat for 30 minutes or until rice is cooked.

Serve with kachumber and or achar.

Kachumbar

In Favorite Recipes on August 31, 2011 at 4:19 am

There is really no recipe for kachumber. Its a relish made with onions, tomato and in our home, some cucumber and yogurt. A little bit of salt and cumin powder finishes it

I use half an onion, half a tomato, one fourth of a cucumber with 2-3 table spoons of yogurt. Add a pinch of salt and cumin powder. Its a refreshing raw relish with spicy curries.

Sindhi Biryani

In Favorite Recipes, Meat & Poultry on August 31, 2011 at 3:54 am

Eid mubarak!! Eid is not complete without Gosht Biryani and Sheer Khurma. My biryani is in the oven for the final round of preparation – dum. That means steaming the rice layered with curry so that the flavors mingle. I take the easy route and use the Shan Spice Mix for biryani. Its nothing like my Dadi’s Sindhi Biryani but I haven’t been able to track down that recipe yet.

Ingredients:

Beef – One pound

Potatoes eight quarters

Fried onions – 1 1/2 cups (can get these at any indian store)

Diced Tomatoes – 1 32 ounce can

Whole milk yogurt – 1/2 cup

Garlic – 3 cloves finely chopped

Ginger 1 inch finely chopped

Coconut Oil – 1/4 cup

Long grain white basmati rice – 3 cups

Shan Sindhi Biryani Spice Mix

Method:

Heat 1/8 cup oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Using a heavy bottomed pan is essential, otherwise all the spices with stick to the bottom and burn. Once heated, fry the Shan Sindhi Biryani Spice mix till fragrant. Add the fried onions and continue stirring for 3 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic. Bhuno the mixture on medium heat for 5 minutes with the remaining oil. Bhuno means to stir and cook on a medium – high heat. This step will intensify the color of the curry, giving it a rich reddish brown color. It will also incorporate the spices into the onions and garlic, melding the flavors together. Its important to keep stirring since you don’t want your spices to burn.

Once its a rich brown color add the diced tomatoes and cook for another 1 – 2 minutes. Now add the yogurt and mix into the curry so there are no more specks of white left. Lower the heat to low medium and add the meat and potatoes. Cover and cook for 5-10 minutes. Every 10 minutes for an hour, give the curry a quick stir to avoid the masala sticking to the bottom. If your masala is sticking to the bottom, add 1.5 cups of water and continue cooking. Chicken cooks faster than Beef, so I don’t have to much water to that.

The curry should reduce down to a rich brown curry. The onions should have melted and the oil risen to the top. The curry is ready now. I usually take one cup of curry and some meat and potatoes aside in a small bowl for the family. They snack on this while the biryani cooks. The amount of curry is a bit much for the biryani, so save a bowl of curry for a later meal.

I cook my rice in the microwave. Add 3 cups of rice in a large microwavable bowl and wash the rice once to get rid of the starch. Fill once again with water till the water covers the rice one inch. To semi cook the rice, as for biryani, cook for 8 minutes. Drain the water and add the rice on top of your curry. Sprinkle some coriander and fried onions on the top of the rice. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes (This is the dum stage).