Soma Chaudhuri’s Methi-Murg Kebab, Not Just Another Chicken Kebab!

So Soma sent me her famous Methi-Murg Kebab one day. Nothing would be simpler to knock out than this chicken kebab recipe of hers.
Apparently, she stumbled onto this recipe in a tandoori cookbook many years ago in Calcutta. Since then she has played with the ingredients, and given it a Soma-touch! 

And this is something I made up of her Methi-Murg Kebab.


I have to admit, I did tweak Soma’s recipe a bit. I thought of playing around the idea of adding some yogurt in the marinade would make the kebabs more moist. Soma’s Methi-Murg Kebabs taste delicious and look really beautiful on a massive platter in the middle of a table. And the leftovers, if any can sneak into your pita/tortilla/paratha with some greens the next day for a take-to-work lunch!

Ingredients for Methi-Murg Kebabs are:

3 chicken breasts, cut in two-inch pieces
Half cup plain yogurt
3-4 tablespoons plain cream cheese
1 heaped tablespoon ginger paste
1 heaped tablespoon garlic paste
1 heaped teaspoon green chilli paste
Juice of one large lemon
Half teaspoon red chilli powder
2 tablespoons kasturi methi leaves, crushed
2 tablespoons besan
Bell pepper squares for skewering with the kebabs later
1 egg beaten, for basting
Salt
Oil

Make a marinade with the yogurt, cream cheese, lemon juice, ginger-garlic-green chilli, red chilli, kasturi methi and salt. Make sure you break down the cream cheese to mix well with the rest of the ingredients.

Now add the chicken pieces, and coat the marinade well. Keep covered in the fridge for at least 6-8 hours.

There are two steps to making this kebab. Heat a pan until really hot. Add a couple of tablespoons of oil and add the besan, quickly stirring and reducing the heat to low-medium so that we don’t burn the besan. After about 2-3 minutes of stirring the besan in the oil, dunk the marinated chicken into it (with the marinade). Cook the chicken on high for 10-12 minutes or until half-cooked, moving continuously and coating the chicken well with the besan and its marinade. Remove and let it cool for you to handle it.

Add the green (or red/yellow/orange) bell peppers to the half-cooked chicken and let it sit for 10 minutes. When you are ready to cook, heat a grill pan or you can even do this in a gas tandoor or broil.

Skewer the chicken and bell peppers alternately to go on the grill. If you are using bamboo skewers, make sure you soak them in water for sometime to prevent them from cracking under the heat. I use metal skewers, because I want mine to see me through the rest of my life!

Baste the skewered chicken and bell peppers lavishly with the beaten egg. Your grill pan should be really hot before you drizzle some oil on it.

Place each skewer gently on your grill pan and let it cook on each side for 3-4 minutes.

Turn and baste with the egg and some more oil, till you get a beautiful char on all sides.

Remove the kebabs from the pan and serve with salad, onion rings, and green chutney on the side. Preferably on that lovely platter you have been keeping away to serve a star dish.

Holiday Bling…

…from my dining table.

And a homegrown tangerine dropped in too to join the party.

Silver, green, purple may not be the traditional Holiday colors! But then, I was never a stickler for traditions. Not when I have a few colors bursting to be shown off this December.

My Notes on Anaarkali Butter Chicken (ABC)

My Blog has taught me to measure things when I post my recipe. But weighing and measuring 45 grams of green chillies is really not my thing! Plus I do know how to use my eyes and my ever useful “pinch”.

The ABC Team has a sample recipe on their site, which I have shared on my post too. But here it is once again. (http://www.anaarkali.in/Butter-Chicken/anaarkali_sample_recipe.pdf)

From this sample recipe, I have adapted my own version of ABC. I have eaten Butter Chicken at the best places in Delhi, but I’d say this one tops my butter chicken barometer. And it’s only the sample recipe! So I am eager to taste the real thing – maybe someday.

· To begin with, I don’t follow the two-step marinating process mentioned in the sample recipe; instead I marinate my chicken breasts all at one go. And it’s fine.

· Here is what I do – choose chicken breasts for this recipe. (Bone in/boneless; whatever you prefer. I love some bone in my butter chicken, it lends a whole lot of flavour.)

· Score the breasts and marinate them in –> ginger – garlic paste, green chilli paste, plain yogurt, cheese spread (I use Cheeze Whiz here), lemon juice, mace powder, white pepper powder, garam masala powder (ground cinnamon, cloves and green cardamoms in equal quantities), honey and salt.

· I leave my marinated chicken for at least six-eight hours in the fridge.

· Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). If you don’t have an oven, a gas tandoor is your best option.

· Keep chicken on a baking tray lined with aluminum foil. Pour in the marinade too.

· Drizzle some olive oil (or vegetable or canola oil) on the chicken; and bake for 25-30 minutes.

· When the chicken is good to be handled with your hands, cut bite-size pieces of it. Keep aside.

· Now you can start on the gravy/sauce.

· Take a large, thick-bottom pan and melt some butter (I use unsalted here). Make sure you don’t burn/smoke the butter.

· Now add ginger-garlic paste and move it around in the butter on low-medium heat.

· Continue adding the ingredients in the order that they are mentioned in the sample recipe.

· I have started leaving out the black olives/kalamata in my version of ABC; I believe it’s just a frill and not really needed.

· When you are making this recipe, do choose the brand of ingredients which are available in your country.

· For the Dabur Homemade Tomato Puree, I use the Unico brand of tomato paste here.

· I have made ABC with both pinenuts and cashews, and I feel pinenuts make it creamier and richer in taste.

Let me know if you have any questions. For pictures of this delectable and simply out of the world Butter Chicken, please lick here. Sorry I meant *click.

My Green Tangdi Kebab

Mera Wala Pink!

Have a happy weekend. Don’t let a gloomy Fall day make you

Khada Masala Mutton

I made this experimental mutton curry for dinner last night. In between changing diapers, burping baby, feeding and singing lullabies till my voice turned into nothing but a hoarse.

So write down the recipe quickly. I have a very demanding two-month-old who wants me to do her a pony tail!

Ingredients for Khada Masala Mutton are:

Baby goat meat, 500 grams, bone in
1 medium size red onion, finely chopped
5-6 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1 heaped tablespoon of chopped ginger
2 teaspoons turmeric powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
20-25 black peppercorns
About 10 dry red chillies
1 medium stick of cinnamon
2 + 2 black and green cardamoms
4-5 cloves
2 bay
2-3 tablespoons mustard oil
Salt

Coarsely pound together cumin, coriander, peppercorns, cinnamon, cardamoms and cloves.

Heat the oil in a pressure pan. Add the onions, bay and dry red chillies. Sauté on medium heat till the onions start turning a light brown. Now add the coarsely crushed dry spices. Continue sautéing them on medium – low heat mixing them well with the onions. After about 5-7 minutes, add the meat pieces. Make sure there is no moisture in the meat. That way they will take a long time to brown and will also release water. We don’t want that.

Give the meat about 15-20 minutes of medium-low heat to get a gorgeous brown color on it. Add the turmeric powder and salt mid-way of the frying process.

Once the meat looks nicely seared, add enough water to cover the pieces of meat. Pressure cook till meat is done. It took me four whistles to get my meat to become tender. The Khada Masala Mutton does not need any garnish. We don’t want to drown the natural aroma of the spices we have added. Serve with roti or parathas. Make sure you include lots of fresh salad to your meal too.

Mutton Stew

This mutton stew is sure to keep you warm in the upcoming winter. Its got a rustic character to it because of the way the ingredients are cut. I love this stew with some freshly baked bread or Kaiser roll.

The earthy flavours of this Mutton Stew make it a household favourite of ours. I add big pieces of goat meat, whole baby potatoes and shallots and chunks of carrots for it to cook slowly and some of it to disintegrate into the liquid creating a great balance of the natural sweetness from the ingredients.

You can make this stew with chicken, but goat meat beats the chicken variation any day!

Ingredients for Mutton Stew are:

500 grams baby goat meat, cut into 4 inch pieces, fat and bone in (you can add a couple of pieces of liver too)
7-8 baby potatoes
1 large carrot, cut into big chunks
6-7 shallots or baby onions, peeled
1 medium size tomato, roughly chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons atta/whole wheat flour + extra if needed
15-20 whole black peppercorns + extra black pepper powder for seasoning
2 black cardamoms
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons canola/vegetable oil
Salt

Heat the oil and the butter in a pan or pressure cooker. Add the meat pieces and sear them on both sides on high heat. Make sure you do not crowd or cover the pan, that way the meat will not sear and will start releasing moisture. The idea behind searing the meat is that it will trap all the juices and flavour right inside the meat without releasing them.

Remove the meat from the pan and keep aside. In the same oil, add the black cardamoms, bay and peppercorns. Sauté for a minute and toss in the potatoes, onion (or shallots) carrot and garlic.
Mix everything together without moving them around too much. Let them brown a bit on all sides.

Now add the atta or the whole wheat flour directly to the vegetables and lower the heat. Mix well. This will create a rue for the stew which will help to thicken it when it cooks.

Add the seared meat to the vegetables. Give it a good mix and add salt and enough water to cover all the vegetables and meat. Now add the chopped tomatoes.

Pressure cook till the meat is done. I let 3-4 whistles go off for my stew. (If the liquid of the stew is still too runny, add some more atta mixed in a little water and add to the stew.) Season with black pepper powder and serve hot with your favourite bread.