[thumpingheart]

I have fallen in love with this thread!! Team-BHP is one talented bunch ain't it!

I am more of a ''EATING" fan but love to do some cooking now and then, especially stuff that isn't cooked in a normal household (read - beaf/pork ) and are a tad too expensive outside. Have found awesome recipes here to try!

But I live in Pune and I have no idea where I can get good quality Beef and Pork. Can some of you Pune guys help me?

Thanks. And Happy Eating!!

[drk_411]

Mod note: Please avoid using all bold for the posts.

Cheesy Chicken :


It is a delicious recipe. But at the outset I must admit that in this recipe we use Parmesan cheese which is harder and drier than the processed cheese, but since I had run out of the Parmesan cheese, so in came the normal processed cheese. The results were equally tasty.

Take a chicken breast

Put it in any polythene bag and hammer it with your meat mallet to make it evenly thick



Remove from bag and cut out the excess chicken to make it a rectangle











Now take your parmesan [ ooh, we had processed cheese ] and using the special grater to make ribbons out of it






This is the contraption. Graters come in very many sizes and shapes to give you all sorts of grates.




Talking of graters, take another grater which grates very very fine and grate some more cheese



and add a tablespoon full of all purpose flour [Atta] to this very finely grated cheese



and mix it well



Take two eggs and separate their whites. We can use the yolk in some other dish.



Add some chopped coriander leaves in the whites of the egg



Ok. Let's make this beauty.

Take the flattened and squared chicken breast on the chopping board and season it with some salt



and some black pepper on both sides



Now place the chicken breast on the finely grated cheese and flour mix and pat it till the mix is finely engrained in the chicken breast.





on both sides



Now place this chicken breast in the beaten egg white mix and let the egg white drench the chicken breast thoroughly



again on both sides



Have a "dekho"



Now place the drenched chicken breast on the ribboned cheese and pat these ribbons into the chicken breast on both sides



till you are pleased to have a "dekho"





Take a heavy flat griddle , drizzle it with olive oil on medium heat and put the beauty on it





Have a close look. the sides would start to sizzle.




We had some pretty anxious moments till we flipped it after a minutes and a half






Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaama Mia.

It worked.... Hummmmm , this old nut is really crafty.

Ok. after another minute and half on the other side we transfer it to the microwave oven and let it bake for another minute in 250 Centigrade along with microwave






Remember we had flattened the chicken breast, so a minute and a half was more than enuff for this beauty to get roasted on the griddle


Take the beauty out. Plate it and "Pyar se dekho"...... Had this been Parmesan Cheese, the ribbony flakes would have been much evident, making it look like fish scales and really beautiful. But anyways, beggers are not choosers.








Khane ko dil kar raha hai na ? ... To shuru ho jao aur bana daalo. Der kis baat ki hai ?

.

[drk_411]

Ok Folks, here is Keema stuffed Karela.

We proceed normally and make the Keema dish where only difference is that we use less oil, different spice mix and try to make this as dry as possible because this would be basically a filling.

We also process the Karela as usual as we do for any stuffed Karela recipe, only difference being that we remove the seeds too to make much larger room for the filling.

We took two front legs of the lamb weighing 1.6 Kg which came to 1.5 Kg after trimming and cleaning. We took out the soft meat chunks and ground them for minced meat. It came to about 510 gms. The rest of the kilo meat went for rogan josh.

I may add here that we ordered the butcher to manually grind the meat and not by the electric machine and also ordered him to mince only once contrary to twice that is usual. The idea being that we wanted the minced meat to be coarser than usual.

We make the keema in our household in many different ways. The keema, keema kaleji , keema gurda kaleji or keema with aalloo or with aalo and green peas or the Keema Gobhi that is made in the household are different recipes than this.

I ALSO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO EMPHASISE THAT THE MOST PROMINENT SPICE FOR KEEMA OR KARELA IS SAUNF AND SAUNF POWDER [ FENNEL SEED AND FENNEL SEED POWDER ]

So here we go :

- Scrap the karela
- slit them
- Deseed them
- put lots of turmeric and salt

karelas with turmeric and salt



karela with slits and salt smeared on the inside too


Take a pan and put two teaspoons of refined oil



Chop three onions and add to the oil



Spice plate having
half teaspoon full of salt
half teaspoon full of red chilli powder
half teaspoon full of cumin seeds
half teaspoon full of coriander powder
three teaspoon full of saunf powder [ Fennel Seed Powder ]




when the onions get translucent add teaspoon full of garlic paste and ginger paste


and add the spice plate

Attachment 285776

and bhuno the masala mix



add half a cup of tomato puree



and bhuno again



add six chopped green chillies



This is manually ground 510 gms of keema



add it to the mix



and bhuno


Wash the marinated karelas and squeeze out the water. See how much they have shriveled and how much soft they have become



when the keema is done add chopped coriander




the keema is done and is ready to be stuffed into the karelas



Stuff the karelas



and tie a thread to each karela


Now take the pan again and put two teaspoon fulls of refined oil


and add the tied karelas to the oil



stir fry them in open for about 6-7 minutes



cover the karelas and let them simmer in dum on a low flame for some 20 minutes. Stirring them once in while


This is your beauty


Remove the threads and plate them



Enjoy with roti or tandoori roti

[drk_411]

Ok Guys lets make Grilled Fish with Glazed Carrots :

Glazed Carrots :

Cut 4 carrots into half cm. thick pieces. Put them in a pan and add half a cup of water.



Add a teaspoon full of salt



Add a tablespoon full of sugar. The idea is to cook and glaze the carrots at the same time that is why the sugar.



Stir them



Cover them and simmer them for about 5 minutes.



Open and you would see that the margins of the carrot pieces have started to turn translucent



Carrots offer only little resistance when poked with knife or a fork.



Add another tablespoon full of sugar.



And 2 tablespoon full of butter.



Simmer in open pan without lid



Look how beautifully the sugar has caramalized and the carrots are glazed.



Add lemon juice of one lemon



Add a pinch of dried basil.



and you are done. you can plate it now and add a little seasoning of freshly ground black pepper corn, chopped fresh basil leaves.
You can also garnish with some honey too.

Bunnies can enjoy them as such. And believe me, you would love them, but today we have them as accompaniment to Grilled Fish


Grilled Fish :

Take a teaspoon full of lime juice cordial



a teaspoon full of vinegar



a teaspoon full of red wine vinegar



a teaspoon full of thai fish sauce



a teaspoon full of ginger garlic paste



and mix the marinade.



Place the washed fish fillet in the marinade for some 15 minutes



Take the roasting griddle put it on fire and lightly oil it. Place the marinated fish on it and roast it for 3 minutes. You must put the skin side first otherwise the fish tends to curl.



turn after 3 minutes



Remove after another 3 minutes and plate it.



Place the glazed carrots and season them with ground pepper corn.



Place a teaspoon full of butter in the griddle to make a sauce out of the fond [ the little roasty bits left at the bottom of the griddle ]



Put a teaspoon full of all purpose flour and roast it in the butter.



I did not have any chicken stock/mutton stock so used plain simple water and made the sauce.



Garnish the fish with the sauce




Garnish the fish with a twig of coriander.





Bon appétit


.

[anupmathur]

Gosh, drk_411, these are amazingly well presented recipes!
Haven't I seen all of them elsewhere?

[drk_411]

Originally Posted by anupmathur

Gosh, drk_411, these are amazingly well presented recipes!
Haven't I seen all of them elsewhere?

Sure, and I think I also know you

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

... I had just begun to pester DerAlte for the recipe ...

Sorry, I wanted to try it out before putting it up here, but my little old lady vetoed the idea given the fact that the freezer is full. Of my stuff .

I usually make a decent quantity (she is a pucca vegetarian, so self help is the best help), and immediately apportion and freeze whatever I will not eat immediately. Prevents those occasional urges to overeat if the dish has come out really good.

Originally Posted by drk_411

Mod note: Please avoid using all bold for the posts.

Cheesy Chicken : ...

Welcome to TeamBHP, sir, and thank you for the well illustrated recipes. Look forward to more of the same.

A humble suggestion: it would be great if you could reduce the size of the pics considerably; with large pics, it is difficult to scroll up and down and this reduces legibility and appreciation of the post.

Ditto for all bold text.

[drk_411]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Sorry,

Welcome to TeamBHP, sir, and thank you for the well illustrated recipes. Look forward to more of the same.

A humble suggestion: it would be great if you could reduce the size of the pics considerably; with large pics, it is difficult to scroll up and down and this reduces legibility and appreciation of the post.

Ditto for all bold text.

Thanks DerAlte,

Sure, would be posting more and more if you people like it. I have been cooking for the last 50 years..

About bolds. My age warrants that I use rather high amblyopic lenses. So that was a habbit. But I would be careful not to use bold.

Regarding the size of the pics. I have already made them less heavy with Irfan View, but kindly suggest ways to make them more light and small. Sure would try to follow. Would Irfan view help ? What should be the ideal pixel size of the pics here. I use 800X600.

I live in Dehradun. Do drop in sometime. We can cook together.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by drk_411

... Would Irfan view help ? What should be the ideal pixel size of the pics here. I use 800X600. ...

Yes, you can use Irfanview. Ideally one should be able to see 2 pics and some text, so that would mean pictures of size 320x240, 400x300 or 480x360. That is usually enough to see the contents of the pics well enough. 800x600 usually covers most of the browser, and does not leave enough space for text to be visible.

In your situation, perhaps you should try a. keeping the screen resolution to 800x600 and b. use the Universal Access features like Zoom. I am sure you would have played around with the settings on your machine.

Karela stuffed with keema - must try it sometime, though the thick-walled karelas available down south are not so amenable for "bharwa" recipes (walls too thick). I have usually used Udad Dal based stuffing for karela, lauki, parwal etc. Keema goes well in parwal, Shimla mirch (capsicum) and grape leaves - Turkish Dolma! I am already salivating

By the way, what did you 'retire' from? Having cooking as a diversion usually starts with a moderately stressful profession.

EDIT: Thank you, I will definitely take on your invitation if I am in that area!

[drk_411]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Yes, you can use Irfanview. Ideally one should be able to see 2 pics and some text, so that would mean pictures of size 320x240, 400x300 or 480x360. That is usually enough to see the contents of the pics well enough. 800x600 usually covers most of the browser, and does not leave enough space for text to be visible.

....................

Karela stuffed with keema - must try it sometime, though the thick-walled karelas available down south are not so amenable for "bharwa" recipes (walls too thick). I have usually used Udad Dal based stuffing for karela, lauki, parwal etc. Keema goes well in parwal, Shimla mirch (capsicum) and grape leaves - Turkish Dolma! I am already salivating

By the way, what did you 'retire' from? Having cooking as a diversion usually starts with a moderately stressful profession.

EDIT: Thank you, I will definitely take on your invitation if I am in that area!

The few recipes that I quickly posted here had been posted at bcmtouring and it was rather quick to provide the url links. I think I would have to resize all the pics and post them here. So please teach me how to post pics here.

1. After proper marination with TONS of salt, the karelas do become soft and supple and usually there is no problem in stuffing them. Don't worry about the quantity of salt, it gets washed anyway. But if you still have problems with their thickness try steaming them for few minutes or microwaving them, they would yield to your commands. Pat them dry and fill them up.

2. Since you like stuffed karelas and for our bunny friends. I would be posting a vegetarian stuffed karela recipe today. But you have to live with larger pictures at least for this post.

3. I have lived in Middle East for donkey years and got sick of eating Guards filled with keema and rice at Egyptian friends houses. But those were delicious to say the least.

4. I am an Ophthalmologist that is eye-surgeon for you. The father of one of the mods here was my class-fellow in medical college long long time ago. Cooking is another story. May be some other time as I get to know and be known more.

[drk_411]

Ok Guys, Let's make some stuffed Karelas for our vegetarian friends.

Take 6-7 Karelas. [ Now Wikipedia calls them bitter melon, bitter guard or bitter squash. ]

Do the following :

Scrap the surface,
Slit them up,
Wash them and pat them with dry kitchen towel.

Now apply turmeric powder


and lots and lots of common table salt


and rub this salt thoroughly on them

This is important. Don't worry about the quantity of salt. It would get washed away and it is cheap.


And let the turmeric and salt do their work, take away the bitterness, for some 30 odd minutes.

Meanwhile chop two onions into chunks


and about 5 green chilies, washed and tops chopped off. You can vary the number of green chillies according to your heat level.


put them both in the blender


and blend them into paste


Take a pan and pour two teaspoon fulls of refined oil


and add half a teaspoon full of cumin seeds. Let me add here that the masala is your personal choice.


Now add the blended onion and green chillies


and bhuno them for some time till it becomes dry and runs with the laddle


Add half a teaspoon full of red chilli powder


half teaspoon full of turmeric powder


half teaspoon full of Garam Masala [ Indian Curry Powder ]


three quarter full of coriander powder


half a teaspoon full of salt


half teaspoon full of amchoor [ dried mango powder ]


and three heaped teaspoon fulls of Sauf Powder [Fennel seed powder]. Thsi is the prodominant spice out here.


and bhuno the masala


It is about 30 minutes since we added turmeric and salt to the Karelas. Now it is time to wash them under running water.


And squeeze out the water from them. You gotta put as much strength as you have.



Look and observe how the karelas open up now. Earlier it was difficult. The reason is that they have lost water content and have become more pliable.


And mind you, we had just put in the slits, we had not removed the seedss from the karelas.

Now fill in the fried masala into the cavities of the karelas


press them and wipe out the excess masala

and if there is any left over masala, keep it aside we would use it later and put it in the frying karelas.

tie them with a thread


Now take the pan again and put two teaspoon fulls of refined oil


and place the threaded karelas into it


stir fry the stuffed and tied karelas openly for 5-7 mintues


and then cover them


and shift the pan over to the smallest burner of your stove

Keep on stirring them once in a while. Only twice or thrice in the next 20 mintues or so.

and here is your beauty


Oh boy, You gotta believe me. They are just delicious.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by drk_411

... I think I would have to resize all the pics and post them here. So please teach me how to post pics here. ...

Yes, you will have to prepare the pics before you post.

Posting with pics is quite simple, actually. Compose your post first, and prepare your pics separately. Click on the Paper Clip icon at the top of the box, and an upload box will pop out. Upload all the pics in one go (it will help if you make the selection in the order that you would like the pics in the post).

Now position the text cursor at the point where you would like to insert a specific pic, and click on the DownArrow beside the PaperClip. From the list that drops down, select the pic you want to insert. Repeat till you have inserted all the pics!

If the ATTACH tag with the number confuses you, use the Preview button at the bottom to see if you got what you wanted to get. If not, delete the line with ATTACH, and redo with the correct picture.

Originally Posted by drk_411

... 1. After proper marination with TONS of salt, the karelas do become soft and supple and usually there is no problem in stuffing them. ...

No, that is where the south Indian karelas spoil the fun. The walls don't become supple at all after salting, and start cracking when stuffed. The wall thickness (after scooping out the seed part) is ~15mm, compared to < 6mm in the variety available in the north, and hence the proportion of fleshy part to filling does not come out right.

Originally Posted by drk_411

... got sick of eating Guards filled with keema and rice at Egyptian friends houses. ...

I am sure you meant Gourds, and not Guards! That's what I normally make - stuffed small lauki (bottle gourd) or zucchini - delicious in an aromatic tomato gravy, finished off with toasted pine nuts (chilgoze) and chopped mint leaves!

[Aroy]

We normally stuff Karela with vegetarian fillings. For mutton stuffing we use Parmal.

. Cut off one end about 5 mm.
. Use a small implement to scoop out the insides.
. Put the mutton keema mixture a bit at a time.
. Seal the end.
. Fry it.

[bblost]

Originally Posted by drk_411

Glazed Carrots :
.

Thank you very much.

I prepared this for dinner and it was perfect with the grilled chicken.
I did not use basil and next time I will add a little more sugar.
Have you tried this with brown sugar?

Its such a simple dish and I am sure once my daughter is back, she will like it as well. In fact I saved some just for her.


Chicken was marinated for a day in a sauce my mom prepares for me.
Its just some boiled red chilies with vinegar and some oil.

[drk_411]

Originally Posted by bblost

Thank you very much.

I prepared this for dinner and it was perfect with the grilled chicken.
I did not use basil and next time I will add a little more sugar.
Have you tried this with brown sugar?

Its such a simple dish and I am sure once my daughter is back, she will like it as well. In fact I saved some just for her.

Chicken was marinated for a day in a sauce my mom prepares for me.
Its just some red chilies boiled with vinegar and some oil.

I am glad that you liked it. Hopefully your daughter would also like it too. The lemon adds a dimension to it. It can be garnished with Honey. But try to eat it when it is hot.

Did you grill your chicken with bone or boneless and which part ?

It seems you like chicken so I would be posting "Stuffed chicken breast with green bean amandine" tonight. I am sure you would love it. Other chicken posts would follow soon.

Now I have a couple of questions for you.

Can you split your post in two because the pic count is capped at 30 ?

and secondly when would my post count would start creeping ? It seems to be stuck at 1.

aand generlly speaking we don't have much audience for recipes here. Is it so ?