Saturday, April 6, 2013

Mutton Rogan Josh Curry(Lamb Curry)

After tasting this dish several times i had to take up the challenge to cook it up all by myself. And to my surprise i did it. This Dish came out to be absolutely wonderful Lamb curry. I prepared it with Minimal use of spices thereby keeping intact Lamb's own flavour. One Challenge was to prepare it without the use of Pressure cooker, since i like meat on my plate to be buttery and not chewy. I cooked it slowly on the skillet and i reached to a point between chewy and buttery. Anyways i loved the gravy as well. I wish to prepare this dish Back home in India in my village and serve it to all my family members.



This recipe will serve- 4
Preparation- 5 to 10 minutes
Cooking time- 45 minutes.
Level of difficulty- Easy

Ingredients:

  • Lamb or mutton- 500 gms
  • Onion-400gms
  • Ginger garlic paste- 1 Tbsp
  • Salt as per taste
  • Red chilli powder or Paprika- 1 Tbsp
  • Green Chillies-2(optional)
  • Curd- 1 Tbsp
  • Coriander leaves for Garnishing
  • Oil for cooking
  • Salt as  per taste
  • Water- 1 liter
Following Whole spices are required

  • Cinnamon stick-1
  • Pepper con- 4
  • Cardamom brown or normal- 1 to 2
  • Cloves- 3 to 4
Roasted masala and then powdered 1tsp (optional) This can be prepared in following manner-
  • Coriander seeds- 1 Tbsp
  • Cumin seeds- 1/2 Tbsp
  • Pepper cons- 4
  • Red dry chilli-1 to 2
Roast all the above and grind it into a powder.


Preparation:
  • Heat 2 Tbsp of oil in a Pan.
  • Add the whole spices and wait until you can smell some aroma out of them.
  • Add green chillies and onion. Season onion with salt.
  • Saute until onion becomes golden brown.
  • Add the ginger garlic paste saute for 1 minute.
  • Now add the washed mutton or lamb. Carefully season mutton with salt.
  • Give it a qick mix and add around 500 to 600 ml of water . Cover the pan and in medium heat let this simmer for 25 minutes.
  • After 25 minutes add the Roasted masala powder, Yoghurt and paprika powder.
  • Add 200 - 300 ml of water. Cover and let it simmer for another 20 minutes until your lamb is cooked as you desire chewy or buttery.
After this your mutton Rogan josh is absolutely ready to be served. Garnish it with coriander leaves and serve it hot with Nan , rice or Chapati.


Enjoy and happy Cooking ...
By- Sushmita pandit.



Friday, April 5, 2013

Mushroom and Pea's Curry(cooked with just two spices)



I have always been hunting for quick easy and delicious curry recipe. And my search ended with this curry which is so easy in preparation and tastes awesome.

This recipe serves- 4
Preparation time- 5 minutes
Cooking time - 15 minutes
Level of difficulty- low, Easy

Ingredients:
For making mushroom pea curry we need
  • Mushroom- 250 gms washed, dried and then quartered
  • Peas- 1 Cup
  • Whipping cream - 200ml
  • Cinnamon powder- 1 tsp or garam masala- 1 tsp
  • Curry powder-1 tsp ,it is optional
  • Salt as per taste and oil for cooking.
  • Turmeric powder- 1 Tsp
  • Coriander Powder- 1 Tbsp
  • Cumin seed- 1 Tsp
  • Kasoori methi leaves
  • Tomato and ginger paste. For preparing this paste: take three to four  small size tomatoes and chop them. Take 1 inch of ginger chop it well too. Adding green chilies is optional. Now make a paste out of these using a blender , mixer or a food processor.
Mushroom Peas curry
Method of Preparation
Step 1
Heat two table spoon of oil in a pan.
Once the oil is hot add cumin seed, once it starts crackling add the turmeric powder,
fry for 10 seconds and then add the tomato paste.

Step 2
To this tomato paste add the coriander powder, garam masala powder and the curry powder.
Fry these spices until the all the moisture from tomato is absorbed and the colour of the masala turns little brown.You will also find that the oil has got separated from the masala or spices which indicates masala is ready.

step 3
To this masala add the green peas, season the peas with salt. Give it a stir and then cover and cook for two minutes. keep stirring in between to avoid burning of peas and masala.

step 4
After two minutes add the whipping cream and let it come to boil, once it comes to boil add the mushroom.
Season mushroom with salt. be careful while adding salt because foe peas we have already added the salt.
Sprinkle little obit of garam masala powder.
Add some crushed Kasuri methi to this.

Step 5
Cover the pan, lower the heat and let the curry simmer for 2 minutes.
Your mushroom pea's curry is absoluetly ready for taste after two minutes.

Serve it hot with nan, chapati or rice.

Enjoy and Happy Cooking
By- Sushmita Pandit

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Macaroni Cheese Au-Gratin


Mac cheese
Macaroni Cheese Au Gratin

Am fond of macaroni. The first time i tasted the spicy macaroni prepared by my friend. It was awesome  What i liked about it ,is its simplicity, the ease with which it easily gets blended with anything.
I had been preparing the masala macaroni for long, but it was only this year i learnt how to do it "Au-Gratin".  I loved the cheese and the bechamel sauce combination. These casserole recipe is quite filling.

This recipe will serve- 4
Preparation time- 10 minutes
Cooking time- 30 minutes

Ingredients:


  • Macaroni- 250 gms(Boil until al-dante )
  • Oil
  • Salt
Bechamal sauce
  • Cheese- 100 gms(combination of whatever variety you like)
  • All purpose flour- 1 Tbsp
  • Butter- 1 Tbsp
  • Salt- as per taste
  • Paprika powder- 1 Tsp
  • Pepper- Freshly crushed- 1 Tsp
  • Milk- 300 ml
For Au-Gratin
  • Cheese- 100gms
  • Herbs of your choice
  • Cherry Tomato-4 (optional)


Method of Preaparation

  • Boil 1 ltr of water in a pan and place Macaroni with little salt and oil. Boil until al dante.
  • For preparing Bechamal Sauce Heat butter in a pan, Add the flour and fry until slight brown in colour. To this add salt , Paprika and Pepper. Now add the milk and let it come to boil. Once it comes to boil add 100gms of cheese. Stir until cheese melts and gets blended well in the milk. Turn off the heat. Your Bechamal sauce is ready.
  • Preheat the oven at 220F for 5 minutes.
  • Quickly Layer the baking  tray with a layer of macaroni, Pour in half of the Bechamal sauce. Layer out rest of the macaroni and again pour the rest of the bechamal sauce. Now at the top, layer it with rest of the cheese and tomato. Sprinkle herbs of your choice.
  • Now at the bottom most area of your oven place the tray and bake it at 220F for 10 minutes. After that for 5 minutes grill it until you see a golden crust at the top of your baking tray.
  • Take out of oven and serve it hot.  
Your Mac cheese is absoultely ready to be served. Enjoy :-) Happy Cooking.

By -Sushmita Pandit.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Le Maharajah Indian Restaurant, Paris, Review



I have been recently on a holiday trip to paris, the city of Love. I had a great time being there. My only concern throughout the journey was if by chance i would get an Indian Restaurant near close to any Sight seeing area, and to my luck i found Maharajah very close to Notre Dame Cathedral.

The ambiance is good. You will find all carved dining chairs and lots of Mughal arts on wall as well as glasses. The Hospitality of the Hotel Manager Siddharatha is quite over whelming. Not to miss mentioning the punjabi Chef who creates magic in his creations.

The Food was great.
We ordered a vegetable soup with chicken as starter. The soup was extremely delicious and was an excellent appetizer.
Then in the main course we ordered Rogan ghost , Nan and masala kulcha. The ghost or the mutton curry was Fantastic, it had correct blend of spices and its texture was awesome . 1 plate of curry was okay for two people.
Masala kulcha was stuffed with potato masala . It was soft and the masala stuffed inside was mouth watering. Although Butter nan was ok.
We also ordered cocktail in drink. I liked it too.

Atlast, since it was extremely cold outside we ordered Masala chai, which was good too. You can ask them to adjust the amount of milk you want in your tea and they would happily serve you back.

Although the food was extremely delicious the price was okay can't say over expensive but then yes it was expensive. We paid 39 euro's altogether for this but i found it really really worth it.

http://www.maharajah.fr/#!/

On a scale of 10 I would rate this as
Ambience: 8
Cost: 7
Taste: 10


Notre Dame Cathedral
6 Parvis Notre-Dame
Place Jean-Paul II, 75004 Paris, France
1. Head southwest on Pl. du Parvis Notre-Dame/Parvis Notre-Dame - place Jean-Paul-II toward Promenade Maurice Carême
59 m
2. Continue onto Pont au Double
54 m
3. Continue onto Rue Lagrange
87 m
4. Continue onto Rue du Fouarre
37 m
5. Continue onto Rue Dante
140 m
6. Turn left onto Bd Saint-Germain
Destination will be on the left
100 m
72 Boulevard Saint-Germain
75005 Paris, France