It has been exactly 3 months since I landed in San Diego and I am not going to bore you with my perceptions and opinions of America. Instead I am going to share something else.
Anyways, as you might have seen from my Orkut album I have started to "follow the book", which essentially is cooking. I would like to post one of my mom’s simplest recipes over here so that you as my friends can try it and cherish one of mom’s secret and simple recipes.
By the way, have you every wondered why the phrase is always called “Mom’s secret recipes” and not “Wife’s secret receipes”. There are even books on “Mom’s secret recipes” and a quick Google search revealed there are NO books on “Wife’s secret recipes”. Guess the generalization here is that a woman becomes a greater or even the best cook in the world for her children but not necessarily for her husband. (Perhaps her hubby is her test subject)
In my humble not-so-useful opinion, this point would be the seed of the for many quarrels between a woman and her mother-in-law. No point in blaming the woman for making an effort, she will try so hard to impress her husband with her cooking, but the mother-in-law would easily win the battle by using one of her secret recipes which she would have perfected to every single detail over the years. You can’t really blame the man for enjoying his mother's food.
As for the man, he tries his best to avoid uttering a single negative comment. He even tries constructive suggestions and hoefully cheers his wife up for the next round of cooking. Unfortunately, the moment he takes a bite of his mom's cooking, his face expressions would reveal, no more than necessary, his true innermost feelings. Oops, that was in front of his wife. He forgot to fake his expressions because sometimes "it is so hard to care about the world when the food is too darn good".
Chicken Briyani
Serves: 1 to 2 persons depending on the stomach capacity of the person.
Cooking time: <>
0. Take 1 cup Basmati rice (around 200 grams), wash it and soak it in water
1. Place pressure cooker on flame and once dry, pour 4 teaspoons of cooking oil and 1 teaspoon of ghee. (If you use butter instead of ghee, put the butter in first and once the butter melts, then pour the oil)
2. Add spices:
- 2 cloves
- 1 small bay leaf
- 1 cardamom
- 1 bit star anise
- 1 bit of cinnamon stick
3. Sauté for a few seconds
4. Add 2 green chillis, cut across the length + 2 medium sized onions sliced + some 10 to 15 mint or pudina leaves and ¾ teaspoon of salt
5. Sauté on a medium high flame till he onion becomes golden brown (You can add ½ teaspoon of sugar to get the brown color bit quicker)
6. Add 1 teaspoon of ginger garlic paste + 2 medium sized tomatoes (Cut into slices) + 200 to 250 grams of chicken (Cut into small pieces)
7. Sauté for 4 to 5 minutes and while stirring add
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon chilli powder (Try Kashmiri chilli powder if available, it will give good color)
- (1 teaspoon garam masala, if you did not add the spices)
8. Add 1 cup water, stir nicely.
9. Place the cooker lid and weight on top. Wait for 3 minutes or 1 cooker whistle. (This will cook the chicken nicely and all the masala will be absorbed into the chicken.)
10. Stop the flame and wait for 5 minutes. Let of the steam slowly from the cooker and once done, open the lid.
11. Stir once and add 1 more cup of water
12. Once water comes to a boil, add the rice and ½ to 1 teaspoon salt according to your taste.
13. Add 1 teaspoon of lime juice, if available
14. Place the cooker lid again, along with the weight and wait for 1 more whistle. Once the whistle comes reduce the flame from medium-high to low flame and let it cook for 3 more minutes on low flame. (Usually the next whistle would come at around 3 to 4 minutes)
15. Remove from flame and wait for 10 minutes for the pressure to come down
16. Open the lid and add coriander leaves on top.
For Vegetable Briyani:
1. Follow the same procedure up to step 7 and of course, add around 200 grams of mixed vegetables instead of chicken. (Don’t blame me if you get this step wrong :D)
2. Since vegetables cook faster than chicken, you can directly add the rice along with appropriate amount of water and cook only once in the cooker as in step 14. No need to include as in step 9.
Please use these tips from my cooking experience:
1. American basmati rice takes around 1:1.5 water ratio. So add the water accordingly so that there isn’t much water in the cooker once the Briyani is done
2. Don’t forget to cook the chicken first and then add rice and cook again. Otherwise the chicken would become bland or not have any taste in them
3. Prefer 1:1 ratio for Onion:Tomato. You can even try with less amount of tomatoes but certainly not more than onions.
4. Prefer 1:1 ratio for Chicken:Rice
5. Total of 1.5 teaspoons of salt is suffice usually
6. Depending on the hotness of the chilli, add the chilli and chilli powder accordingly.
7. If you use mutton, you may have to go for 2 cooker whistles instead of 1 in step 9 along with 1½ teaspoons of ginger garlic paste instead of 1 in step 6
Enjoy your cooking and Bon Appétit !
