Sara Dhanani

Archive for the ‘Favorite Recipes’ Category

Kulfi

In Dessert, Favorite Recipes on August 27, 2011 at 5:31 am

With Eid coming up next week, I’m dreaming of milky goodness like Kheer, Sheer Khurma and Ras Malia. Phoenix reminds me of Karachi, the tiled roofs, concrete homes, the date tree’s, the heat!! There’s a sense of peace here, or maybe its my state of mind. I’m feeling whole again, that inner restlessness is quietening down and focusing is becoming easier.

This is an excellent recipe for Kulfi. Its creamy and sweet with a delicate flavor and scent of cardamom. I may try some saffron next time. Traditional nuts used are Pistachios and Almonds.   I dint have any pistachios at hand so I used cashews and almonds.This recipe is inspired by Shayma from The Spice Spoon. You can find her recipe here.

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup cashews

1 1/2 tsp fresh ground cardamom

1/4- 1/3 cup of sweetened condensed milk

Method:

Grind the cashews and almonds in a blender till its almost flour consistency. It should still be a little toothy.

Heat the heavy cream in a heavy bottomed saucepan on a medium flame, till some bubbles rise to the surface. Add the powdered cardamom and nuts. Cook this on a low – medium heat till the mixture is almost boiling. Stir frequently while it cooks, so that the milk doesn’t stick to the bottom of the sauce pan. Add the condensed milk and continue cooking and stirring. Once its thick and coats the back of a wooden spoon, the kulfi is ready to be placed into molds.

Freeze at least overnight. This made 7 kulfi’s for me.

Mirchon ka Salan

In Favorite Recipes, Vegetarian, Week night meals on July 22, 2011 at 2:15 am

I first had this curry at one of my dearest friends home 12 years ago. I loved it!

This recipe does require quite a bit of prep time, but its worth the effort! The husband won’t touch it, to him this is “girly food”, kinda in the same category as Quiche :).  This hasn’t been a problem since mirchon ka salan has become one of my favorite foods!

I got this recipe from Zaiqa.net. I tweaked it a bit keeping in mind things I had on hand:

Ingredients:

Green chillies – approximately 12-14

For masala

Sesame Seeds – 1/2 cup

Cashews or peanuts– 1/2 cup

Dry desiccated Coconut – 3/4 cup

Whole garam masala – 1 tablespoon

For gravy:

Coconut oil – 1/4 cup

Onions – 3, chopped

Ginger & Garlic paste– 2 tsp

Salt – 1 tbsp

Turmeric/haldi – 1/2 tsp

Cumin – 1 tsp

Cilantro – 3 tbsp, finely chopped

Tamarind paste – 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Slit the green chillies and take out the seeds (maybe a good idea to use gloves).  Keep aside.
2. Cover a cookie sheet with foil. Place the desiccated coconut, sesame seeds, nuts, garam masala in a thin layer on a cookie sheet. It wont take long for the coconut, nuts and seed to brown, so please keep checking every minute or before. Once there is an aroma from them, remove from the broiler and let cool. Grind them all in a food processor to a smooth paste and keep aside.

Gravy:

Heat a large sauce pan at medium high heat, add 1/8 cup of coconut oil. Once the oil is warm, add the chopped onions. Let the onions sweat and keep stirring them until they are just starting to brown up in color. Once the onions are soft and lightly browned in color,  remove from heat and keep aside. Once the dry roasted onions are cool, puree them in a grinder until smooth. Keep aside.
4. Pour remaining oil in the saucepan and once hot add the green chillies. Cover with lid. Stir fry them till blisters form on the skins.

5. Fry the onion and ginger garlic paste in the leftover oil from the chillies. Add the desiccated coconut, sesame seed and nut paste and stir fry it for 2-5 minutes or until you see that the mixture comes together and starts leaving oil. Now add 1 teaspoon of the cumin powder and the turmeric powder. Mix well and keep stir frying it for a further 2 minutes on medium low heat. Now add the chopped cilantro and mix well.

6. Next, pour in 3 cups warm water and the tamarind paste. Mix well. Finally add the fried green chillies . Cover with a lid and let cook on simmer for 15 minutes while stirring frequently, until all the oil has separated.

It does have a lot of steps, but is a lovely dish. You can use the same curry with eggplant or fish and chicken.

 

 

Palak Paneer

In Curries, Favorite Recipes, Vegetarian, Week night meals on July 18, 2011 at 1:47 am

Palak Paneer. I have never made Palak Paneer until today. Inspired by my toddlers “I’ll eat anything green”, I decided to give this vegetarian curry a try. Palak Paneer is as green as it gets. My puppy girl loved the saag! I adapted this recipe from Indian Simmer by Prerna. I love her simple indian cooking and this recipe was easy to follow.

Here’s my adapted version of her recipe.

Ingredients:

Frozen spinach – approximately 4 cups

1/4 cup frozen methi

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

8 oz packet of paneer cut into cubes

1/2 cup red chopped onion

1 /2 cup crushed tomato

1 tablespoon ginger & garlic paste

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1 – 2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon garam masala

2 tbsp coconut oil

Salt

Method:

Paneer:

Cut Paneer into cubes. Boil water with 1 teaspoon salt. Once it has come to a boil, turn off heat and place the cut paneer in the hot water.

Spinach:

Simmer spinach in a saucepan with cilantro and methi. Once it is soft, turn off heat. Let it cool and then blend it. You may need to add water to make a thick paste.
Saute onion, ginger & garlic paste with cumin and garam masala in the coconut oil.
Cook till it is fragrant and translucent and then add the crushed tomato. Add this to the blended spinach and give it another whirl.

Return the contents of the blender to your sauce pan and heat till the curry simmers. Now add the heavy cream and drained paneer to the spinach. Cover it with a lid for 5 mins. If you think the gravy is too thick, add a bit of water.

Serve with hot chapati or rice.

Karhai Gosht

In Curries, Favorite Recipes on July 17, 2011 at 12:46 am
This karhai is incredibly easy and is very similar to the karhai served in dhaba restaurants in Karachi. In our home, we always made karhai with chopped onions. I decided to try making karhai without onions just to see if it was any good. My husband loved it and declared it the best karhai ever and I concur!
It was eaten up so quickly, I din’t even get a picture!
This recipe serves two, but it can easily be doubled.
Ingredients:
  • Thinly sliced steak or other lean cut of beef – 1/4 pound
  • 1/2 tsp meat tenderizer powder
  • 1/3 can of crushed tomatoes
  • 2 Whole Green Chillies
  • chopped Cilantro – a few tablespoons.
  • 2 tsp. of Ginger & Garlic Paste
  • 1/2 tsp garam masala
  • Salt (to taste)
  • 1 tsp. of cumin
  • 2 tbsp. of Oil
Directions:

1) Sprinkle meat tenderizer on beef.
2) Fry beef with the Garlic and Ginger paste in oil.
3)Add 3 glasses of water to meat.  Cover and let cook on medium heat until meat is tenderized and the water has evaporated.

4)Once the meat is tender and looks cooked, add salt, cumin and garam masala. Fry till the curry is fragrant. 5)Add crushed tomato and cover the pot. The curry is done once the oil separates
6)Add green chillies and chopped cilantro.
Serve with naan/paratha.

Risotto Rice Pudding

In Breakfast/Brunch, Dessert, Favorite Recipes on July 14, 2011 at 2:18 am

adapted from Joy the Baker.  

Risotto Rice Pudding with brown sugar

2 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/2 cup Arborio rice 4 cups milk ( whole milk)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch allspice

pinch of cardamon

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

almonds for topping

 

In a medium saucepan heat 4 cups of milk.  Bring the milk to boil and then turn off the flame and let it rest. In another saucepan, melt the butter.  Add the rice grains and stir to coat.  Pour in enough hot milk to cover the rice.  Stir with a wooden spoon while keeping the flame over the lowest setting. Allow the rice to absorb all the milk before adding just enough again to cover the rice.  Repeat this process until all the milk is used up. (this takes a while- but it is so worth it!, enjoy a cup of tea, read, relax and let the milk and rice do its magic). When you add the last bit of milk, also incorporate the sugar, salt, spices and vanilla. I let it cook till it was the consistency of chunky soup as I grew up with Kheer that was of a thicker consistency. The pudding is a beautiful golden brown color. It’s absolutely divine!

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