Kadhai Gosht/Kadai Gosht (A North Indian Mutton Curry in Tomato Based Sauce)

This is one of most popular Indian non-vegetarian curry that you will come across almost every Indian restaurant menu anywhere in the world. Much before I started blogging, I was always tempted to try these popular dishes at home, and perfecting it as possible as I could. One among them was this Kadai gosht. When I started preparing this curry dish at home, the recipe was quite different, and I was not 100 percent satisfied with the outcome. Either it was a bit to tang from the tomatoes and the curd and sometimes the lemon juice that was added in the recipe. Made it several times making few tweaks here and there and this is so far the final version that I make these days and the best that I could make. Kadai gosht also known as Karahi gosht is prepared in large woks called ‘Kadhai’ or ‘kadai’ or ‘karahi’ and hence it gets its name. The curry is normally red in colour, quite a delicious one and it’s one of the best combinations of naan bread. Whenever we get it ordered from restaurants, many a times I have also found capsicum added to it. Capsicum would’nt be fully cooked, but crunchy. And I guess that is added at the final stage of cooking to bring that flavour and hold its shape without overcooking it. I have never tried with capsicum though since the capsicum taste will overpower the taste in the dish. You may try it at home, if you love the taste of capsicum in your dish.

Here, my meat got slightly overcooked because I forgot to take into account the time that I simmered the mutton before pressure cooking it and cooked it as it should be done without sautéing. You can see that in the outcome. My meat has started breaking down from overcooking. But apart from that the curry was really good and my hubby even asked me if it was Mutton Kadai even before I told him that it was. It pairs the best with butter naan, or simply plain naan and may be served along with rice, tandoor roti and even chappathis along with plain curd, raita and pickle.

Ingredients:

½ kilo lamb meat cut into 2 inch chunks

Marinade:

2 medium onion grated (scant 1 cup, 220g)

1 Tbsp dry fenugreek leaves (Kasury Methy) crushed using fingers

3 Tbsp creamy yogurt

1 tsp garam masala

½ Tbsp minced ginger

½ Tbsp minced garlic

Salt

Others:

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 cardamoms

3 cloves

2 small pieces cinnamon stick

2 tsp Kashmiri Chilli powder

1 tsp roasted coriander powder

¼ tsp fennel seeds/aniseed

¼ tsp cumin seeds

¼ tsp turmeric powder

2 large tomatoes chopped (1 cup, 200g)

2-3 green chillies (Optional, add only if you need to give some heat to the curry)

Preparation:

1. Wash mutton pieces and drain well. Marinate lamb with the ingredients under marinade and refrigerate in a container with lid for a minimum of 4 hours or over night. (I always marinate it for one day.)

2. Bring the marinated meat to room temperature before cooking.

3. In a pressure cooker, heat oil. Add cardamom, cinnamon and cloves and sauté for few seconds till it leaves aroma. Add in the marinated meat and sauté for 10 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally.

4. Add chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, green chillies if adding and tomatoes and stir fry for 8-10 minutes until the tomatoes are cooked and the meat is smothered in thick spiced gravy.

5. Add ¾ cup water, stir well and cook till done. Adjust the salt if need be. Normally the gravy is very thick and is delicious that way. But if you want little more gravy, add few tablespoons of water. Since we already sautéed meat for sometime, it would take less pressure cooking time. So don’t forget to check in between for doneness.
Garnish with coriander leaves and ginger juliennes and serve hot with naan.

Nutty Pineapple Dessert with Caramel Crunch

Hi all,

Hope all’s well out there. Here I am sharing with you a decadent dessert, that I recently discovered on Curryinkadai. You can read her story on the divine dessert as she calls it (and I believe it too) and find her version of the dessert there as well. I prepared this few weeks back when I had canned pineapple and condensed milk that has been sitting in my cupboard for some time. I was so in the mood of preparing some desserts and started blog hopping in search of recipes and this was the recipe that really caught my attention. I fell in love with it at first sight and I knew the flavours are gonna be amazing. Gave it ago and it was much more than I expected. I made few changes though because I am not a fan of frozen dessert much.

When I made it, my husband’s eye wide opened out of bliss and asked me what it was! Now, that was the first time that I saw my hubby so happy after tasting a dessert, as he is not a dessert person himself. After he had them, all he said was ‘ Post it in your blog, it will surely be a hit’! I also served my friends who loved it and made it at another place as well because she so loved it too. The dessert is so simple to make, so easy to put together and tastes real good. It is creamy in texture with lovely crunch from the nuts; and praline adds in a little more luxury and an appealing look. Praline is simply optional, but we loved it

If you all know, I have an inborn affection with the orange zest and I can’t tell you the amazing orangey flavour that the dish gets from the zest. It won’t be over powering, but gives it a mild zesty aroma which is so refreshing. I love it like crazy and you can see the use of it in many other dishes like Palmiers, Pineapple soufflé, mango pudding , orange and raisin cookies, orange cake etc. I never let my orange peel go to the bin without scraping the skinoff. I zest it and I freeze it for later use. For zesting the orange, wash the orange thoroughly before cutting it, use the small holes of your box grader that you grate your vegetables, and grate it like you grate any vegetable making sure not much of the bitter pith underneath the skin is being used. Pith is quite bitter and it can make the dish bitter too. Try it once in your dish and you too will get hooked.

Nutty Pineapple Dessert with Caramel Crunch

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 x 405g Condensed milk

1 x 432g can of Chopped Pineapple in its own juice  (check notes)

284 mls double cream / whipping cream

¼ cup whole almonds

¼ cup Cashewnuts

¼ cup Pistachios

½ Tbsp gelatine

4 Tbsp (1/4 cup) Fruit juice (You can use orange juice, pineapple juice, or the syrup from the can. I used tropical fruit juice, a shop-bought one)

1 orange’s zest (Outer thin skin)

For praline:

4 Tbsp caster sugar

1/3 cup of chopped nuts

1 tsp butter

Preparation:

1.In a clean bowl, whip cream using an electric blender until it forms stiff peaks.i.e., when you lift the whipping whisk, it should form a peak (Refer to my Queen of pudding recipe to see the peak there.)

2. Chop the nuts in a food processor or using knife or you can place the nuts in freezer bag or any polythene bag and whack it using the rolling pin until you get coarsely chopped nuts. Reserve 1/3 cup of chopped nuts aside for making praline.

3. Chop pineapple into very fine pieces. Don’t puree, you need little bits of pineapple in the dessert.

4. Take ¼ cup of fruit juice in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatine and mix it with spoon. Place this bowl over simmering water and stir well and cook till all gelatine granules dissolves and you get a clear liquid. DON’T BOIL the gelatine mixture as this will destroy the gelatine’s setting property. You can also heat the gelatine mixture in microwave, if you can do it carefully without boiling and stirring often to avoid lumps. Let it cool.

5. After everything is prepared, combine all the ingredients. i.e. pour the condensed milk over the whipped cream and mix well using a wire whisk. Add the chopped nuts and chopped pineapple and the melted gelatine mixture. Mix well using a metal spoon to combine all. Pour on individual serving bowls and chill for minimum of 4 hours or until set. Serve by sprinkling the praline over.

6. For the crunchy praline: Place a pan on moderate heat and add sugar and butter. You will be tempted to stir, but DON’T. Let the sugar cook until it turns in to amber colour, or honey colour. You have to be quick here because if the caramel goes really dark, it will get bitter. So make sure you don’t burn it. When you get the required colour, add nuts and mix well. Pour this on an oiled aluminium foil, spread it and let it dry. Once dry, break them into pieces, put it in a Ziploc bag, and whack it with a rolling pin until you get chunky bits of nuts as you see in the picture or even smaller.

Notes:

If you are using fresh pineapple, make sure you cook the pineapple with few tablespoons of sugar for 7-10 minutes or till the pineapple is lightly cooked. If you use the fresh pineapple in the dessert it will impart a bitter taste.

Chunky Garlic Sauce

Have you heard of Marmite? It is made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing, and is similar to the Australian Vegemite and Swiss Cenovis . It is usually spread on toasts, bread, crackers and biscuits along with butter or sometimes used in sandwiches. If you have ever come across the ad, it says: “Marmite – you either love it or hate it”. If at all you are wondering why I had to mention the marmite story here, it’s just because, the slogan very well goes with this Garlic sauce as well.

This sauce would be quite a strong one, spicy and tangy and you are supposed to consume in small proportions like pickles. If you are a garlicky person like many including me, this is for you and would be your favourite as well. This is one recipe I can’t live without while having certain meals and is a favourite of my parents and siblings. But there is one person who can’t digest it and that’s my hubby. He tried to have it many times when he saw me enjoying the sauce and kept praising it, but he always ended up asking: “ How could you have it?”. I normally have it along with my ghee rice, just a touch of it like pickle. My dad sometimes drizzles this sauce on his fried fish, chicken fries and sometimes he drizzle over the curries. It is something that should be used in moderate amount, much less than we use pickle (Well, it goes how much of pickle you use along with your dish).

P.S. Let me know if anyone out there just try their hands on this one.

Ingredients:

1 Large Bulb of garlic (12 Large cloves)

2 green chillies, you may reduce to 1 chilli if it’s really hot.

2 ½ Tablespoons (37 ml) of lime juice

¾ tsp salt

3 Tablespoons (45 ml) Olive oil

Preparation:

1. Peel the garlic and crush it in a grinder. You can also grate it using the smaller holes in the box grater.

2. Add the chillies and just pulse in the grinder to crush it. You don’t need a smooth paste. It is normally left chunky.

3. Tip the ground garlic and chillies in a bowl and add the remaining ingredients and mix well. You can store it in jars in the fridge (I am not sure how long this will last, will update it later.)

This can be drizzled on your roasted chicken, roasted lamb, fried fish and chicken as well.

Celebration Chocolate Cake

I always had the passion to bake or cook something sweet, but the only thing that kept me away was, I was the only one with sweet tooth at home and my hubby either hates it or just eats in a very moderate amount leaving the whole chunk for me. But recently I discovered that my son loves cakes. I haven’t noticed his love for cakes until I baked one on his birthday. He kept asking for it and that was when I realised that Richu loves cakes. It was a chocolate Madeira sandwiched with another vanilla cake. It was good, but not that great though. So I baked another cake of chocolate flavour after that and it was taken from Divya’s breath taking blog which she took from Hersheys site. Her blog is full of baked goodies and this particular cake was showcased for few days which really caught my attention. I just thought I had to bake it and here you go. The cake was really moist and tasted yum. Well, it doesn’t look as neat and pretty as Divya’s. I am just a beginner in icing the cakes and I am not happy with the look of my icing here. Hopefully it will get better in time. I knew that cake was going to be a huge one, so I halved her recipe and baked it in a 6 inch pan which was perfect for our small family. Even then after icing was done, it was quite a big cake. You can view the original version of her recipe here.

My son had been pestering me from the moment he saw the cake batter being prepared and was really impatient to have them. So, as you see the cake was iced whilst warm and the icing in the centre got melted and got absorbed into the cake. So you cannot see the middle layer in the picture. That’s why it’s always advised to ice the cake when it’s completely cool:). The cake was an absolute beautiful one in all sense and tasted simply yum. And the icing is fantastic too. Very easy to put together and tasted great.  Even my hubby who hates chocolate cake told me that the cake was real good.

Celebration Chocolate Cake

Serves 7-8 people

Ingredients:

6 Tbsp Cocoa powder

½ cup boiling water

80g soft butter (not spread)*

1 cup caster sugar

2 large eggs

½ tsp vanilla essence

¾ cup All purpose flour (Maida)

¾ tsp baking soda

A pinch of salt

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon whole milk

2 Tbsp greek yogurt

Chocolate Butter Icing:

50g butter

1/3 cup (5 Tbsp) cocoa

1 ½ cup icing sugar

2 ½ - 3 Tbsp milk

Preparation:

1. Mix cocoa with boiling water and stir until smooth and free of lumps. Set aside to cool.

2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy for around 2 minutes.

3. Add eggs, one at a time mixing well after each addition .

4. Add in vanilla and stir well. Add cocoa mixture beating well.

5. Sift flour, baking soda and salt 2-3 times. Add alternately with milk and sour cream to butter mixture, beating until blended.

6. Grease and line a 6 inch pan and pour this mixture in the pan. Keep the cake tin in a pre-heated oven of 180 degrees and bake until well risen and the cake springs back up when lightly pressed. Or to to check the doneness, insert a skewer in the centre and the skewer should come out clean without any crumbs clinging to it. I was hoping my oven was a fan assisted one, so baked it @170 degrees Celsius for 1 hour and 10 minutes and it came out perfect even though it took long time. But you can bake it at 180 degrees and bake till done.

For the Chocolate butter Icing:

Melt Butter and stir in cocoa powder. Add in powdered sugar and vanilla essence and mix till smooth. Add in enough milk to loosen the icing just enough to a spreading consistency mixture. If the icing becomes loose, add in some icing sugar and if it goes too stiff to spread, add in some milk. Make sure you sift the icing sugar and cocoa to avoid any nasty lumps.

For assembling:

Let the cake cool completely before frosting. Cut the cake horizontally into two using a serrated knife. Spread little icing and sandwich the cakes. Spread rest of the icing outside using a palette knife (Which I don’t have, so I used a regular one). After icing the cake, dip the knife in hot water and smooth the icing using the warm knife. Or you can use warm knife through out icing to get an even smoother finish.

Notes: * While using butter make sure that you don't use spread here for cooking as most spreads are not suitable for baking.

Chilli Garlic Prawns

Recently we went on an amazing Scotland trip for few days where we visited many places in and around Scotland and tried different cuisine on all days. One among them was a Thai lunch from a Thai restaurant near the Edinburgh Castle called ‘Thai Orchid’. I vaguely remember when I had Thai food before that. At Thai Orchid, we ordered a platter of starters to start with, which included chicken satay with peanut butter dip, Thai omelettes, Thai samosas, and deep fried prawns wrapped in wonton wraps, along with three other dips. They all had certain names in Thai language which I would never remember any ways. For the mains we ordered a seafood Pad thai, chicken Red curry and coconut rice. And Boy, it was finger licking good. The only negative point that I could point out was the amount of oil that was added to each dish.

If you have never eaten Thai, I strongly recommend you should. I have tried creating it at home, but cheated on it using ready-made curry paste. I would try to post the recipe when I try the authentic way rather than the cheat’s way. Thai dishes uses coconut milk immensely in their dishes and it has slight resemblance in taste to our Kerala dishes. Thai dishes are very aromatic as well due to the use of different flavours like lemon grass, galangal, Kaffir limes leaves, basil, Shrimp paste and most importantly fish sauce and coconut milk. I really got hooked to Thai cuisine ever since I had it from Edinburgh and badly wanted to recreate it at home. So started for researching on the net for Thai recipes, came up with many recipes from many sources and Finally I planned to make Thai red curry. When I went over the ingredient list, there were many ingredients that were not at home. Went to the supermarket and found that they dint have many either. So I thought I would cheat on the recipe for the time being by using a ready-made curry paste. So brought home a readymade Thai red curry paste and made a delicious meal consisting of a simple chicken red curry, Thai coconut rice and these Garlic prawns that I posted today. It was really easy to prepare all the dishes. I also tried garlic stir fried in red curry paste which was amazing too. You can find many of Thai cuisines at http://www.tan-kitchen.com/. I was always looking forward to make red curry paste at home, but it never worked until now. May be in future I would be trying it. And you too can create amazing Thai flavours at home.

I also bought a really good book on Chinese-Thai-Indian cuisines and can’t wait to try the dishes out. If you are in the UK, and you have W.H.Smith nearby, Go and grab this Asian book on deal: 400 recipes WOK & STIR FRY. RRP was £14.99 and now down to £2.99. I guess they are clearing them off. It was £5 before that when I purchased a similar book on cake decoration book. The book is really a chunky one and has 512 pages which also includes step by step preparation and pictorial representation of each dish. Below is how the book:

Ok, stories apart, when coming to todays recipe, Chilli garlic prawns, as the name indicates is a very simple garlic dish packed with garlicky flavour with a kick from the chilli heat. I prepared these as a side to go with Coconut rice and red curry. The flavour was very good but I guess it will only pair with Thai – Chinese dishes. It went well with Thai coconut rice. This can also be served along side noodles and fried rice.

Chilli Garlic Prawns

Ingredients:

250g cleaned Prawns

5 large garlic cloves

4 whole Dried Kashmiri chilli (Reduce if you are using a Hot chilli)

1-2 Tablespoons butter/Vegetable oil

Salt- as required

Preparation:

1. Heat a sauce pan and add butter. When melted, add chopped dries chillies and garlic and sauté till garlic goes soft.

2. Add prawns and required amount of salt; Cook for around 10 minutes or until done. This dish will pair well with noodles, fried rice etc..

Note: Too much of cooking will make the prawns hard, so check in between and if the prawns turn juicy and soft, that should be done. Cooking time may depend on the heat and medium of saucepan used.

Malabar Style Pepper Mutton Curry in two ways.

This curry is one that my mom prepares at home quite often whenever she gets hold of some mutton/goat meat. I love it when she prepares it, she makes them to go with the famous Malabar Neypathal, chappathi or sometimes Malabar Porotta. She prepares one of the best porottas at home. I have said it a zillion times here, but I can’t stop saying it; My mom is one of the best cooks and I just love her food. It’s not only my opinion, but anyone else who ever had her food. I don’t know if I will ever be able to create her taste in my kitchen, but I do try hard to bring that taste. Even if I cook exactly like her, and even under her guidance, I feel something is missing.

Not only my mom, my younger sis ‘Sham’ is also a great cook. One thing that never stops amazing me about her is that even if she doesn’t eat fish, she prepares one of the best fish curries! I don’t know how she does it without even tasting it. When I asked her that question, all she told me that she watched our mom cooking and cooks exactly like her! I sometimes call her to clarify the recipes because she was the one who learned all recipes from my mom exactly. I was also told by few of my family members who got a chance to eat her food; that her food is real tasty! This is one recipe that I called her up to clarify before sharing with you here.

Coming to the recipe part now, as I mentioned in the title, this curry can be prepared in two ways: One is by adding the roasted coconut and spices to the gravy, giving it a rich aroma of coconut and blended spices. That’s is pepper mutton in roasted coconut gravy. The other one is a simpler version without the hassle of adding the coconut – simple pepper mutton. This curry will be quite darker in colour since there is no coconut involved and is much easier since no grinding or anything is involved. Its tastier either ways, but adding freshly ground spices and coconut gives the curry an entirely different taste.

Ingredients:

520g mutton/lamb

240 g onion chopped (1 ½ large onion, 1 ½ cups)

160g tomatoes chopped (1 ½ large ones, ¾ cup)

1 tbsp minced garlic

½- ¾ tbsp minced ginger

3-4 tsp pepper powder

4 tsp lightly roasted coriander powder

¼ tsp turmeric powder

1-4 green chillies split lengthwise (opt out if you like it less spicy)

1/3 cup water or as required

Salt - as required

2-3 Tbsp coconut oil/vegetable oil

2 twigs curry leaves

To roast and grind:

½ cup freshly grated coconut tightly packed

2 cardamoms

2-3 cloves

1 small piece cinnamon stick
¼ tsp fennel seeds (perumjeerakam)

1 – 1 ¼ cups water

Preparation:

1.Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add chopped onion and salt. Saute on medium flame until it becomes soft and starts taking golden colour.

2. Add ginger,garlic and green chillies and sauté for a minute or two until the raw smell goes away.

3. Add pepper powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder and sauté for 2 minutes. If the masala starts sticking to the pan, add few drops of water and continue cooking.

4. Add chopped tomatoes, cover the pan and cook till tomatoes gets mushy and all oil starts leaving the sides.

5. Add washed mutton pieces, stir well. Add water and pressure cook till done. If mutton has released lot of water, boil of excess water until you get thick gravy.

6.In another pan, add coconut and other whole spices. Saute on medium flame stirring constantly until coconut turns golden colour. Grind this into smooth paste by adding required amount of water.

7. Add this coconut paste along with curry leaves to the mutton curry cooked earlier and cook for further 4-5 minutes.

8. If you don’t want the coconut based curry, after step 5, just add curry leaves and ½ tsp of garam masala and some water if necessary. Cook it covered for 2-3 minutes to infuse flavour.

This curry pairs well with almost anything including neypathal, paratta, chappathi, pooris, ghee rice and even plain rice.