Another popular Indian dish is the Eggplant Masala. We’re confident you’ll love this tasty treat – it’s ideal before you head off to your usual casino night out or trip to the movies with friends. It can be knocked up very quickly with ingredients close to hand.

Ingredients

• 1/2 Kg. Small Long-shaped brinjals/eggplants (Baingan – Indian Eggplant)
• 2 Onions
• 6 Tomatoes
• 1 Small Garlic
• Whole Black Pepper
• Cumin Seeds
• Methi (Fenugreek)
• Curry Leaves
• Oil for frying
• 1 1/2 Teaspoon Vinegar
• Ghee

Method
# Cut Brinjals into Half from the middle.
# Fry the Brinjals in oil.
# Brinjals are not to be fried for long so take them out and keep them aside.
# Take some ghee in a pan and put in Onions, Garlic, Cumin Seeds, Methi(Fenugreek), Curry Leaves, Salt to taste, Black Pepper, Red Chilli Powder, Haldi.
# Fry for 2-3 minutes and put in Brinjals and Tomatoes
# Put in a little of water to make gravy.
# Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes.
# Add Vinegar to it and keep it for a while before serving.

Tags: vindaloo, gosht, murgh, indian curry, dosa, desi, handi, tikka masala, kebab, naan

How can we prepare milk cream  for curries?can we use 25% reduced milk instead of milk cream? – asked by Ms. Sridevi

Answer by Kuntal :  First of all we have to understand that the characteristic of milk and cream are quite different . The milk fat which you notice on the top of the milk after the hot milk has cooled down is the cream which again goes through the process of homogenization to obtain smooth cream. This type of cream you find in dairy shops or in supermarkets. Reduced milk is the process of evaporation of water (milk contains 70-80% water) and when reduced completely produces mawa/ khoya.

As you can see that milk and cream properties are not the same, it is not advisable to substitute the cream with reduced milk.

As far as obtaining milk cream for curries are concerned, you can try the following.

Remove the top layer of milk (often referred to as malai in Indian home), churn slowly in a blender with 1-2tbsp of ice chilled water for 5-10seconds until you obtain a smooth white liquid.

Tags: murgh, dhokla, paneer, dosa, balti, chettinad, gosht, chana, vindaloo, chicken

There are so many variants of the paneer ball recipe available on net and in the cookbooks. I presume that you wanted to learn the paneer or cheese balls starters served during the social gatherings. I hope you have read the blog on making paneer.

Listed are the steps to ensure that you get well rounded and soft paneer balls even when you try at home.

1) The very first essential would be to obtain a soft paneer without any pressing, which means that the coagulated milk solid is collected in a muslin cloth and hung from a height for 1 hr to drain the whey. Please refer to the blog on paneer making for complete recipe.

2) Once you have removed the paneer from the cloth, crumble them into small pieces and knead with your palm like you would do for rasagulla (please refer to the blog on rasagulla)

3) Add fine grated boiled potato which will act as a binding agent. Potato also helps to keep the paneer ball soft when it is deep fried.

4) Add the seasoning and flavouring to the paneer dough mixture and divide it into equal portion. Shape them round and deep fry on medium hot oil. Serve immediately with the chutney or sauce of your choice.

Tags: chicken, kebab, roti, lentil, indian food, indian curry, tandoor, naan, dosa, desi

Tags: balti, curries, lentil, naan, desi, karahi, tandoor, indian curry, chettinad, idli

Just as the lentil series was threatening to take centre stage in the preceding blogs, I have
decided to change the topic a little just as to make a happy co-incidence with the election of US
president. The mood obviously is cheerful and optimistic and so wines will take the rightful
place during the celebrations centered on food and dining.
While some of the world cuisine goes very well with wine even to the extent of matching each
of the courses with appropriate grape variety and fizz. Same is not true of Indian food which we
are trying to investigate and explore today.
With the surge in economic activity and globalization of market, it is only a matter of time that
foreign businessmen and visitor will push the Indian dining experience towards acquiring a new
dimension in the form of pairing of Indian food with wine. One could very soon see the a bottle
of wine with the slightest excuse to go with popular Indian food like curries, kormas, biryanis
and tikkas. Some of the prominent Indian restaurant under the aegis of well known hotel
brands like Caridges, ITC and Hyatt have already started the initiative with guarded caution and
some other restaurants, within the hotel and standalone, would follow the suit to bring out the
culinary subtleties of food to complement the notes of wine.
Role of Sommelier
The surest way towards a better melody of curry and wine is to trust the knowledgeable
sommelier (the French term for wine waiter) but the overzealous waiter is equally bad. The
final decision is yours and your ability to afford the elixir of life. One should still be prepared to
question the selection of wine by the sommelier if all the notes are pointing to the same
direction without much informed choices. The idea is to develop the mutually complementing
symphony than the one overpowering other.
Most of the better Indian hotels and some of the up market Indian restaurants have tied up
with their foreign counterpart and arrange training and workshop for its staff to develop the
knowledge and skill. This is also a very good exercise in revenue maximization because of the
margin involved in wines and low labour cost implication in the long term. While the pairing is
still in the infancy in India, it is a common practice in western countries to plan the food around
wine, tapas like food being one of the examples.
Challenges of Pairing Indian food and wine
While it is easier to pair food with some of the cuisines of the world notable amongst them are
Italian, French, Mediterranean because it is a part of their day to day culture, it has always been
difficult to do so with most of the Asian cuisine as it was not a part of their culture. For example
drinking Sake is always very popular with Japanese cuisine. Indian food on other hand has never
been on the same side as that of their western counterparts.
The use of spices, the distractions of oil, the pungency, the inconsistency of recipes that one
wine working with the same food in one restaurant may not be the case with other restaurant.
Mushrooming of Indian restaurants all over the world with their own anglicized Indian recipes
has also not helped the cause. Exception to the rule will always be the delicate Indian
preparations the recipes of which are always guarded secrets of some select few in the India
kitchen.
The complementary notes:
While champagne will always be the natural choice to go with almost the endless variety of
food, the selection though will have to made between brut (dry) and sec (sweet).
Italian red wines like Chianti, Amarone, Barolo, or Barbaresco will go very well with chunkier
Indian food like lamb curry, tikkas and kormas. A good Riesling (white grape) from
Germany, France or Austria would do absolute justice to spicy and lemony food.
Some of the smarter people who do not wish to experience the pain of uncertainty of
choosing red or white would go with Rose wine (wine with the reddish tinge which renders a
pink hue to the liquid) to carry them through the entire meal experience.
Surprisingly the new world wines have charted the lesser known territories than their famed
old world counterparts. Young vintages work well with most of the food and if consuming
more than one wine during the meal experience, chose the lighter wines before full bodied
ones, dry wines before sweet one and lower alcohol wines before higher alcohol wines.
Always insist on tasting the wine before approving the entire bottle; for balance of flavour
work well when you know the spices and herbs and the floral notes of your wine.
We will try to explore more of it in the coming blogs with suggestions and alternatives. Unil
then just remember the popular Latin phrase “ In vino veritas” which means there lies the
truth in wine.

Tags: chana, handi, kebab, desi, roti, tikka masala, bhatura, curries, paneer, kulfi

While the debate about the difference between yogurt and curd will always go on, the good quality contained within will remain same always. While there are no stringent laws in India which defines the production of yogurt as per its guidelines, the US Food & Drug Administration agency is forthcoming as to what can constitute yogurt. As per the definition available with them, the inoculation of pasteurized milk has to be done with permitted cultured bacteria which contains Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus.

You will find that most of the Indian households make their own yogurt which finds variety of uses in the house ranging from being eaten sweet with sugar or jaggery, savoury as raita, curry and “kadhi” and even as a natural face cleanser.

Recipe for “Punjabi Kadhi”

Even though Kadhi is, more often than not, made as a stew to immerse gram-flour dumplings, the recipe given below can be also used on its own as an accompaniment for Indian breads or rice.

1 cup Curd (yogurt), preferably a day old,
2 tbsp Gram flour (besan)
¾ cup water
2 tbsp cooking oil
½ tsp cumin seeds
1/3  tsp Fenugreek seeds
6 garlic cloves, chopped finely
2 no. Dry red chili whole
1 tsp Turmeric powder.
Salt As per taste

Method:

Beat yogurt and gram flour in a large bowl until smooth. Add water and blend again to obtain a smooth mixture. Keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan, crackle cumin and fenugreek seed and add garlic and dry chili. Cook for 30 seconds until the garlic has just turned golden. Reduce the heat to low.

Pour in the yogurt mixture in the pan and stir. Slowly bring to boil, stirring from time to time to avoid curdling, and allow to thicken to the consistency which you like to serve with your bread or rice.

Note: If you cannot use all the kadhi in a single meal, store them in the refrigerator. When you bring them out again, they would have thickened invariably. Boil some hot water, add the kadhi and stir them back to normal for further use.

- Kuntal

Tags: chicken, dhokla, curries, sambhar, chettinad, idli, handi, naan, tikka masala, murgh

Question : What would you reccomend for someone who is trying Indian food for the first time?
My boyfriend is Indian and I want to show him that I care about him and want to learn about his culture by trying Indian food. I am a picky eater and not a big fan of spicy foods. What would you recommend for someone who wants to try Indian food and will like it? (It is asked in reference to people going out and picking a dish from a menu)

Kuntal Answers : At the outset, allow me to dispel the notion that Indian food is spicy and oily. The spice present in the Indian cuisine is more than often confused with Chilli which is definitely spicy. The other spices are there to create the particular flavour and aroma which is distinctive in several of curries found in India, even with the use of same spices. The other common spices used in Indian cuisine are cumin, coriander, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, fenugreek, dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi), dried bayleaf (tej patta), peppercorn (kali or gol mirch), saffron etc.

When trying to learn the cuisine of a particular country, it is advisable to stick to basic popular choices which are easy to understand, prepare and relish as well. Some of the examples can be Kadhai preparations like Kadhai chicken, lamb, vegetables or paneer, Curries like chicken curry, Lamb Rogan Josh, fish curry, Kormas like chicken, lamb, paneer or mixed vegetable. Some of the popular vegetarian dishes are matar paneer (green peas and cottage cheese), Palak paneer (spinach and cottage cheese), Aloo Jeera (potatoes spiked with ginger), Kadhai paneer (wok tossed cottage cheese with onion and tomato), Gobhi matar (cauliflower and green peas ) etc. Indian breads like tandoori roti, naan (plain or flavoured), Roti (Indian flat bread) or paratha (Triangular pan fried Indian bread which can be flavoured with fresh coriander, onion seeds, carom seeds etc.), For the rice preparation you can go for pulaos or biryanis of your choice. Spike your meal with Indian chutneys, pickles and papads.

For the starters you can go for Pakodas (Indian fritters), samosas (deep fried pastry with stuffing inside) or Tandoori vegetables and the chance for your success rate will be much higher.

For the desserts you can go with popular choices like Kulfi (Indian milk ice cream flavoured with saffron), gulab jamun (sweetened dumpling of reduced milk and cottage cheese) Kheer (rice and nuts pudding).

For more detail on popular choices of Indian dishes, you can also refer to the e-book “The Ultimate Indian Curry Manual” available with sonzykitchen.com where you will come across so many easy to prepare dishes with step by step instructions and explanations. Infact you can use that e-book to prepare a romantic dinner for your boy-friend.

Sonzy Adds : When choosing an Indian restaurant, ensure that it is run and owned by an Indian. Many Indian restaurants mislead people because cooks from other countries cook Indian food without knowing the authenticity or the technique of it.

Tags: tikka masala, tandoor, murgh, dosa, kulfi, indian curry, naan, tandoori, roti, kebab

Question : When making curry and adding coconut milk, should you heat the milk till it separates?

Kuntal Answers….

While some of the recipes require to cook the coconut milk longer along with the paste which act as a natural emulsifier for the milk and does not allow it to separate easily. It is quite common to see the fat from the coconut milk flowing on top of Thai curries and soups. In the Indian cuisine especially in the South India cuisine, most of the curries are thin; hence thick coconut milk is preferred. Reduce the heat to low after adding the milk and stir for a while to form an emulsion with the rest of the ingredients, allow the curry to simmer only to avoid the distasteful split which develops if one cooks on a high heat after the coconut milk is added.

Seasonal vegetable in coconut milk
Ingredients:

• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced into an inch
• 12-15 broad beans stringed, halved and cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 cup green peas, shelled
• 1/4 flower cauliflower cut into medium florets
• 2 medium carrot peeled and diced into an inch
• 100 gm red pumpkin, peeled and diced into an inch
• 1 ½ cup freshly scraped coconut flesh, (white part only)
• 2 tbsp tamarind  pulp
• 3 tbsp groundnut  oil (olive oil optional)
• 4 red chilies whole
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds
• 8-10 garlic cloves,  peeled
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• salt  to taste
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp black gram split
• 8-10 curry leaves

Method:
1.Add warm water to one cup of scraped coconut and extract the first pressing using a muslin cloth. Next blend the contents of the muslin with half a cup of water until smooth and strain again using the same muslin/ cheesecloth. Keep aside. Dissolve tamarind pulp in half cup of water.

2.Heat a little oil and sauté 2 whole red chillies, cumin, coriander, garlic and the remaining half cup of scraped coconut until aromatic. Grind into a fine paste using little water.

3.Simmer the vegetables in the thin coconut milk adding the hard vegetables first in descending order with turmeric powder, tamarind extract and salt until three-fourth done. Add the ground masala and cook for 10 minutes.

4.Heat a little oil separately and add the remaining red chillies broken into two, mustard seeds and Black gram split. Add curry leaves and add this to the vegetables.

5.Continue cooking the vegetables till done. Then add the thick coconut milk and simmer for two to three minutes. Serve hot with boiled rice.

Bon Appetit !

Tags: handi, dal, bhatura, dosa, tikka masala, gosht, paneer, balti, kulfi, curries

Bhatura is a fried indian bread made from refined wheat flour, typically served with chickpea curry.

Ingredients

• 1 Kg. Maida flour
• Sooji flour (Rava) 100 Grams
• 1 Spoon Baking Powder
• 2 Tbsp. Fat or Ghee
• 1 Cup Curd
• Salt To Taste
• Oil for Deep Frying

Method
Mix all the Ingredients.
After Mixing, make a dough out of it.
Leave the Dough so that it can ferment(because of Baking Powder and Curd) for 6-7 hours.
Make Pedas (small round balls )out of the dough and make Oval shaped Rotis or Chapatis ready for Deep frying.
Deep fry the kneaded Rotis out of the dough.
Serve hot with Khatte Chane.

- Sonzy.

Tags: karahi, tikka masala, tandoori, indian curry, tandoor, chettinad, murgh, handi, naan, dal