[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by Aroy

More than the scratches, it is the reflected heat that can crack the glass. ...

Unlikely - they wouldn't have deployed tempered glass otherwise (even in Induction cook tops). Such glass has a different formulation. Material science has quietly made rapid strides over the years - one gets 'plastic' stuff that can be used in conventional ovens upto 300degC.

Also, the tandoor has a rather small aperture at the bottom (look inside, it is just larger than the burner) meant to keep heat within the tandoor. A large flat bottomed utensil like a pressure cooker is likely to radiate more heat back the glass top. The truncated cone that one sees at the bottom is only to get a larger ring to keep the tandoor stable and clear the burner trivet. Lifting the bottom of the tandoor with stand-offs will promote more cold (room temp) airflow from the bottom, keeping the glass-top cool.

[Visaster]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Our daughter (14) decided to make dinner tonight - chicken lasagne!

I just took the pictures at different stages, but haven't received the recipe from her yet!

The lasagne sheets were the ready-to-bake type. The sauces she made herself.

Enjoy...

Thats one awesome looking lasagne. Mouth watering.
Can you share details on how it is made?
Cost of lasagne sheets?
Bake for how long?
How to make the sauces?

Thanks mate.

[manaa45]

Originally Posted by carboy

I am looking for a good Misal Recipe. I best like the roadside ones - where autoguys etc eat - where they have a big vessel cooking misal/usal through the day. Less stuff (other than the cut raw onions poured after cooking), mostly gravy but very tasty.

to make authentic misal, you will need two basic ingredients, one is the Ghoda masala which is a readymade mix of spices. Second ingredient is one I use which is a home made paste of cocunut, onions, ginger, garlic, chillies, coriander leaves, salt & water. Roast Cocunut, Onion, garlic, chillies in a kadai. Roast it on sim so as not to burn it. let the flavours of coconut waft through before taking it off the heat. Once it cools, put all the ingredients in the mixie with little water and make a thick paste. You can store it in fridge upto 15 days in case of fresh coconut and upto 1 month in case you are using dried coconut.

Now recipe of misal.

Lentils like Sprouted whole moong or sprouted whole matki or mix of both.

wash them thoroughly

in a kadai add oil to which mustard seeds are added.

once the seeds splutter add the coconut paste and ghoda masala to it.

let the paste leave oil which is a indication of it being cooked, add other spices like red chilli powder, turmeric and salt. Be careful with salt as there is salt in coconut paste too. once that is mixed thorougly, add the lentils to it and give it a good mix. add water atleast four times more than the lentils so if you have one cup of lentils add atleast four cups of water.

once the lentils come to boil you will see that the oily mixture will float on top leaving layer which is called "tari" in marathi.

cook with a lid till the lentils get soft. add more water as misal is watery gravy so that the Farsan mixture gets good amount of water.

once done, serve with farsan mixture, finely chopped onions mixed with coriander leaves and lemon slice.

you can have Pav with it for authenticity.

Hope you like the recipe.

Ingredients

lentils as mentioned above.
coconut paste
ghoda masala
red chiili powder
turmeric
salt to taste
oil
mustard seeds.

onions, coriander leaves and lemon slice for garnishing. farsan and pav as accompaniments.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by Visaster

Thats one awesome looking lasagne. Mouth watering.
Can you share details on how it is made?
Cost of lasagne sheets?
Bake for how long?
How to make the sauces?

Thanks. Here's what my daughter dictated:

White sauce:
Maida 2 tbsp
Butter 2 tbsp
Mix to grainy consistency in a pan over low flame
Remove from flame
Add milk (about 1/2 cup) and some water till the sauce reaches the right consistency and there are no lumps.
Let it boil for a minute
Add salt and oregano
Mix & remove from flame

Red sauce:
Tomato puree (1 pkt)
Onion puree (1 medium sized onion)
1 clove garlic crushed
Mix
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil and 'fry' all the above ingredients in a pan
Add salt, chili flakes and oregano
Mix and remove from flame

Pasta sheets:
Oven-ready type, procured from Modern Bazaar, New Delhi
Rs.200 for a box of 10 small sheets

Baking time: 20 minutes at 200*C.

Hope this helps, but I won't be responsible if someone botches it up!

Originally Posted by DerAlte

...was hoping @SS_ takes up the cudgels for his daughter.

Ah, she cooks much better than I do already. She just might take it up as a lifetime profession.

And the lasagne (apart from a lot of other stuff she makes nowadays) turned out really good, never mind how well it was plated.

[ridinthru']

Folks, I'm forward to going in for Raan (roasted mutton leg ) a la Karim's style - only thing I don't have the recipe for the marinade need some help on the recipe for the marinade.. thanks

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by ridinthru'

Folks, I'm forward to going in for Raan (roasted mutton leg ) a la Karim's style - only thing I don't have the recipe for the marinade need some help on the recipe for the marinade.. thanks

The marinade will help only if
. You marinate for two days or more
. You score the leg at close intervals with a knife. Else keep poking with a fork so that the marinade goes deep into the flesh

Marinade :
. Curd : 200ml
. Garlic : 1 TBS (Table spoon)
. Ginger : 1 TBS
. Kashmiri Mirch for colour :
. Salt to taste
. Optional - cinnamon, star anise, peper

1. Mix all ingredient in a bowl. The mixture has to be salty to taste, but not too much.
2. Cut slits in the Leg
3. Rub the marinade in
4. Put the leg in a plastic bag, and squeeze all the air out. That way all the marinade is in touch with the leg. Leave it for two/three days in a refrigerator.

I cook it in oven inside a big pot for 2.5 hours, and then brown it in plate for 0.5 hours.

Here are some pictures


The cooking pot. As I normally cook 2-4 at a time I need a large pot. This one is 20" across

Post Roasting in the pot.


Individual leg after browning

[bblost]

Originally Posted by ridinthru'

Folks, I'm forward to going in for Raan (roasted mutton leg ) a la Karim's style - only thing I don't have the recipe for the marinade need some help on the recipe for the marinade.. thanks

A very quick recipe with no marinade: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...ml#post2577217 (Recipes / Discussions on cooking from Team-BHP Master Chefs)

But chose a tender leg. Should not weigh more than 1 - 1.250 kilos.

[DerAlte]

Don't know the Karim's style (never had it) but here is one which I have tried. Raan is usually the thigh part only. The shanks should be removed if you buy the whole leg, since they would overcook if you time it by the thigh size, or the thigh would be undercooked if you go by the shank size

1. Grind together to a smooth paste
- 1 small green papaya (the size of a lemon; this is the tenderizer), or use a teaspoon of commercial meat tenderizer (uses papain from green papaya)
- 1 whole garlic (the small Indian one, not the large French or Chinese one)
- 2-3" of good fresh ginger
- 2 tablespoons of Kalonji (black onion or Nigella seeds)
- 8-12 of green chillies (depending on potency)
- some stalks (not leaves) of coriander

2. With a sharp small knife, stab the raan all over to make small slits (along the muscle fibers, never across it - that will make it go dry after roasting)

3. Take a couple of lemons, halve them, and use the halves to rub salt and some turmeric all over the raan, squeezing the lemon simultaneously for the lemon juice to come out

4. Insert a few slices of garlic, cloves (lavang/long) and cinnamon (dalchini) pieces into the slits randomly all over

5. Apply the marinade all over, taking care to rub it into the slits as much as possible. Put the whole thing into a polythene bag and let it marinate in the fridge for ~6 hours

6. Take the marinated raan out, and let it reach room temperature before roasting it. At this time, one can apply a thin layer of hung curds mixed with deghi mirch all over to get color, though the mutton really doesn't need it. Baste some ghee all over

7. Roast it for ~45 minutes on charcoal / open fire / OTG or oven (200degC; preheat for 15 min before). Turn every 7-10 min, and baste the top surface. The sign of 'doneness' is usually tendons coming away from bone

Once done, sprinkle some garam masala mixed with chaat masala all over, let it rest for 10 minutes, and then carve / slice. Enjoy!

[carboy]

Is "pork lard" or "beef tallow" to be used in cooking available commercially? If yes, where?

[bblost]

Extempore Cooking

Sugar, Oil, Egg, Vanilla Essence, Some left over lactogen powder that my daughter does not need, Baking Powder, Ripe bananas, Chocolate, Flour, Walnuts

Poured the batter and arranged strawberries on the top.

Cake was delicious though the texture was a lil off. No air in it.

When I told my mom she said, adding some yogurt would have helped with the texture.
My wife heard this and said that she also told me the same but I was not paying attention.

[rohanjf]

Originally Posted by carboy

Is "pork lard" or "beef tallow" to be used in cooking available commercially? If yes, where?

I don't think it is available, at least made in India. You might find it in hypermarkets with separate sections for imported deli meats.

I used to fry fresh pork until all the fat melted, then separate the fat and use the meat for cooking. I'd then bottle the fat in glass jar and keep in fridge. The fat is useful im making the boring vegetarian dishes tasty ;-)

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by carboy

Is "pork lard" or "beef tallow" to be used in cooking available commercially? If yes, where?

Don't think so. But you can always make pork lard at home
. Get pork with lots of fat. It will be sold quite cheap compared to fat free meat. I have seen pork with at least 3 inches of fat in Delhi.
. Separate the meat from the fat and skin.
. Cut the fat into small pieces and heat it in a large thick bottom pan
. After some time the fat will clarify. Let it cool down a bit
. Strain the fat through a muslin cloth and store it in jam jars in the refrigerator.

This will make excellent cooking medium. Before popularity of vegetable oils, pork lard was the preferred cooking medium.

some links
http://www.thenewhomemaker.com/makeyourownlard
http://www.spain-in-iowa.com/2011/02...ay-snow-white/
http://homesicktexan.blogspot.in/200...nder-lard.html

[brraj]

Who can tell me the recipe for the below attached chinese chicken.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by brraj

Who can tell me the recipe for the below attached chinese chicken.

This is the way I make this dish and it tastes good to my palate. It is an Indian-ized Chinese Chilly Capsicum Chicken with Onions.

Ingredients:
Half kg of cubed chicken boneless. Marinated overnight in a little turmeric and red chilly powder, pepper, salt and white of one egg. 2 tbsp soya sauce and 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce. Half tbsp vinegar too. Even 1 tbsp vinegar wont hurt.
4 capsicums sliced nicely with the inner white bits removed.
6 mid size onions quartered and diced.
6 green chillies longitudinally slit without removing the seeds.
Add 2 tbsp soya sauce later to taste
Add 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce later to taste.

Method:
Heat a shallow amount of oil in a wok and toss in the chicken marinade and fry until cooked with a slightly crisp crust. Add a little more red chilly powder and salt while frying.
Separately take the quartered, diced onion, longitudinally slit green chillies and capsicum and stir fry them lightly for a bit. Add salt and pepper to taste. Don't let the veggies go soggy. Ensure they remain crunchy. Next put the chicken and the veg together in the wok and stir fry/ toss them nicely together for a minute or two on high heat. Add the two sauces at this time and plate and serve.

Tasting notes:
Chicken will be flavoursome. The onion will leaven out the sharpness of the chilly seeds and add to taste. The capsicum gives the crunch. You can cook it in olive oil or regular vegetable oil but ideally add a small knob of butter for super taste! Olive oil is a bit of an acquired taste though...

Serve with/ Accompaniments:
Ideally serve this with those tiny little bakery buns, slightly warmed up on the oven. In particular the residual oil in this dish is very spicy and tasty accompanied by bread!

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by Aroy

... Before popularity of vegetable oils, pork lard was the preferred cooking medium. ...

Not in India, I guess. Here it only started the Mutiny (along with Beef Tallow). I think we were gorging on stuff made with mustard and peanut oil, as well as Ghee (till the Cholestrol scare started).