Kalmi Kabab

Kabab, Kebob, kabob or kebab or whatever variation you may have tried of this all time hit, you gotta admit this must be the oldest celebrity meat dishes in this world. The word itself is so old (from Akkadian:kababu - "to burn, char"), it makes you think - people of this world probably started enjoying this delicacy long before the advent of the written word. Perhaps one of the most loved, most customized, most delicious and the most simple non vegetarian stuff there ever was, is and will be!

No wonder I am a fan of kababs. So I set about making one of my personal favorite variants - the "kalmi kabab" - and it turned out super! So here's the secret folks. Well, no secret really - it's way too simple. Indian spices, yogurt, all purpose flour, egg and you are done!

You need:

(For four chicken legs) 

Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Shahi jeera (roasted and ground) - 1/2 tsp
Cloves - 2
Cinnamon stick - 2 inch
Yogurt (set dahi) - 1 cup
Lime juice - 6 tbsp
Egg (beaten) - 1 no
All purpose flour (maida) - 1/4 cup
Saffron - 1 pinch
Salt to taste

1. Wash and dry the chicken leg pieces and make small incisions at a few places with your knife. This will make sure the marinade stays in.
2. Take 1 tbsp of milk in a small bowl and warm it up in the microwave for 3-4 seconds. Add the pinch of saffron into the warm milk and mix well.This releases all the color and flavor really well.
3. Mix all the ingredients above, and the milk and saffron from step 2.
4. Coat the chicken thoroughly with the marinade and set aside for 2 hours
5. Pre heat oven to 450 F for 10-15 minutes
6. Place the chicken pieces on a rack with a drip tray beneath so it does not get sticky and gooey as water oozes out during the grilling process.
7. Spray some oil/butter/ghee on the chicken pieces (or just drizzle if you don't have a cooking spray)
8. Grill for 15 minutes, turn the pieces over, spray some oil/butter/ghee on the other side, and grill for 15 more minutes to ensure its done well from all sides.

Serve with onion, lime, thinly shredded cabbage and mint chutney, eat well and come back and tell me about it!

Chicken Ghassi/ Kori (Koli) Gassi

This chicken curry reminds me of my crazy days in Manipal. Though hostel food was not really worth eating, but some generous local friends did treat us to good Mangalorean food! And it's during this time when I discovered home made Mangalorean cuisine that is so full of life and flavor! 

Chicken Ghassi or popularly known as Kori Ghassi goes so well with the sweetness of Neer Dosa (Neer means water in  Kannada and this dosa is super soft, super light pancake made with a very diluted batter) or steamed rice! I had initially made only 2 doses for myself but ended up eating a lot more!! The lovely coconutty flavor with the spice of the red chili is mouth-watering. It is definitely worth a try. Fairly simple to make too!

You need

For Chicken Marinade:

Chicken, 1 inch pieces - 400 grams

Lemon juice –  ¾ Tbsp

Ginger paste – ½ Tbsp

Garlic paste – ½ Tbsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Salt 

Marinade for an hour atleast

For the Curry:

Fresh coconut scraped and dry roasted– ½ Cup 

Coriander seeds – 1 tsp 

Black peppercorns – 4-5 nos. 

Fenugreek seeds/ Methi  – ¼  tsp 

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp 

Whole dry chillies – 3-4 Nos. (adjust to taste)

Oil - 3 tablespoons

Onions – 1 medium size (chopped, will be used in parts)

Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

Curry leaves – 6-7 nos. 

Garlic – 3-4 cloves (minced)

Tamarind pulp – ¾ Tbsp

Coconut milk – ¼  Cup

1. Marinate chicken with lemon juice, ginger, garlic paste, turmeric and salt for an hour. 
2. In 1 tsp of oil lightly sauté coriander seeds, black peppercorns, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds and whole red chillies.
3. Grind these along with roasted coconut and half an onion to a fine paste using a little water if required. 
4. Heat remaining oil in pan. Add mustard seeds.
5. Once they splutter, add garlic, remaining onions and curry leaves. Sauté for five minutes on low heat till its golden brown in color. 
6. Add marinated chicken and fry till it turns brown on all sides.
7. Add the ground masala made of the coconut, onion and whole spices  to the chicken and coat it well. Sauté for five minutes till you get nice aroma. 
8. Add 1 cup of water, adjust salt. Stir, cover and cook for ten minutes or until the chicken is cooked.
9. Add tamarind pulp and stir well. 
10. Add coconut milk and remove from heat just when it comes to a boil. 
11. Serve hot with Neer Dosa or steamed rice. 

*To make neer dosa, use regular dosa batter and dilute it till its almost buttermilk consistency. Pour on a hot non-stick griddle and turn your griddle a little bit to spread the batter. You can spread the batter like regular dosa since its too tin. Spray a little oil and fold the dosas into a semicircle and again fold triangles directly on the griddle. Don't worry if they break as they are too soft to stay firm. 

Chicken Hara Masala

I loved this chicken curry. That's all I can say!!

A true Hyderabadi delicacy, for the nawabs! Well, since we are no nawabs, regular yogurt is replaced with no fat yogurt, 1 cup almond is reduced to 10 almonds (limiting consumption to 5 almonds per person, which is considered a healthy portion! Feels good, isn't it!) and doing away with cream altogether.  But feel free to add if you want it real creamy.

For those who may want to know what taste and flavors to expect, let me do that quickly as I can't wait to share this awesome recipe with you all. Its nice refreshing and a very mild yet flavorful chicken curry. This is one of those recipes in which, the spices are so few that you begin to wonder if the curry will have any taste/ flavor at all (there are no whole spices too!) and within the first 5-10 min, you will know you are making something special! 

And for those who are curious about food, it's interesting how there is always some science behind food preparation. When the royal chefs/ khansamas prepared food for the royals, they carefully chose ingredients that would go in a specific dish. For this recipe, the heat of the almonds is compensated with the cooling property of the coriander and mint! 

You need:

Chicken – 500 grams 

Fresh coriander leaves/ Cilantro – ½  Cup

Fresh mint leaves – ¼ Cup 

Green chilies - 4 Nos. (adjust to taste)

Coconut, scraped – ¼ Cup

Almonds – 7-8 (peeled and made into a paste)

Yogurt – ½  Cup (I used no fat yogurt)

Salt -to taste

Oil- 3 tablespoons

Onion -  2 medium (thin sliced)

Ginger paste – ½ Tbsp

Garlic paste – ½ Tbsp

Curry leaves – 7-8 nos. 

Coriander powder – 1.5 tablespoon

Cumin powder – ½ tsp

Turmeric – ¼ tsp 

Fresh cream - 1 cup (Optional, I skipped this in my dish as it was creamy enough)

1. Grind the coriander leaves, mint leaves, green chilies, scraped coconut, with minimum amount of water to a very fine paste. 
2. Grind almonds to paste.
3. Marinate chicken with 2 tsp of yogurt, salt, a pinch each of turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala. Cover with a cling wrap and keep it in the fridge. 
4. Heat oil in a pan, add chopped onions and sauté till brown. The onions should be slightly dark brown(see my note below to cut down on oil consumption). Add ginger paste, garlic paste and sauté for 1-2 min.
5. Add curry leaves and mix well. 
6. Add coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric, salt and mix well. Fry for 1 min. 
7. Add the chicken and fry for 2-3 min till it coats all the masala.
8. Add yogurt and mix well. 
9. Add the ground green paste
10. Cover and cook for 5 min on medium high. Make sure you check in between so that it doesn't burn.
11. Add almond paste, mix well, cover and allow to cook on a slightly lower heat for 5 minutes or till chicken is cooked through.  
12. Lastly add fresh cream and mix well. (adding cream is optional, I had skipped in mine :) )
13. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp of garam masala, mix well and remove from heat. 
14. Serve hot.

*To peel almonds – In a bowl take enough water to cover the almonds and microwave for 45 seconds. Remove and check if the skin peels off when almonds are pressed. Be careful as the water may be hot. If not ready, heat a little more. Keep checking as different ovens may have different settings and it also depends on how many almonds you are trying to pee. It's important to check every 15-20 secs after the first 45 seconds, as you don't want to dry out the almonds by over cooking. 

**As soon as you tip in the onions, add a little salt. This will sweat the onions, release all the moisture and onions will not soak oil. Once the onions are brown, pull them to the side/ rim of the pan, let the oil ooze out of the onions and collect in the center. Remove this extra oil leaving just a little to cook the remaining ingredients that you will add later. This  makes sure your onions are nicely browned and at the same time no extra oil remains in the curry.

Nargisi Kofta (Chicken and Egg Curry)

It's funny how some dishes can be inspiration from music! To cut the long story short, I was trying to google this old Bollywood number - Ae Nargise Mastana. Some typo and there you go..Google suggests Nargisi Kofta!! The music hunt stopped right there and I was busy looking up for all the ingredients in my pantry to make this Mughlai dish. 

While the traditional recipe calls for almond paste, cream and a lot of oil/ ghee for deep frying and cooking, unfortunately, there was no birthday celebration or party tonight. So order of the day was to get a nice rich tasting kofta curry without the almond paste, cream and deep frying. Trust me, this recipe will take your taste buds for a ride. It's difficult to believe, this recipe could be so tasty and creamy, without all those forbidden ingredients! 

You need:

For the Egg Kofta :

Chicken keema (mince) – approx. 250 grams for coating 3 eggs (egg size keema ball for every egg is a good way to measure how much keema you need. And I used lean mince)

Besan/ gram flour – 1.5 Tbsp

Coriander powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Cumin powder – 1 tsp

Red Chili powder – ½ tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

Eggs – 3 nos.

Corn flour – 1 Tbsp

Oil – 3-4 Tbsp

For the Curry:

Onions – 2 large (thin sliced)

Salt – to taste

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Onion - 1 medium (fine chopped)
Ginger - 1 tsp (grated)
Garlic - 1 tsp (grated)
Mint - 1 Tbsp (fine chopped)

Cumin powder – 1 tsp

Red Chili powder – ½ tsp

Garam Masala – 1 tsp

Bay leaf – 1

Cinnamon – 1 inch

Green cardamom – 4-5 (will be used in parts)

Black cardamom – 2  (will be used in parts)

Sugar – ½ tsp

Oil – 2 Tbsp (you can reduce this too, will be used in parts)

Poppy Seeds – 2 tsp (optional if you are going really healthy)

Yogurt – 2 Tbsp (should not be sour)

Tomato Paste – ¾ tsp (adjust to taste)

Kasuri Methi/ Dried fenugreek leaves – ½ tsp (substitute with fine shredded mint leaves)

To make egg kofta:

1. Boil eggs – In a pan bring water to a boil, gently immerse the eggs. Cover and boil for 3 min. Now switch off the heat. Let the pan stay with lid covered just like that for 15 min. Rinse under cold water and remove the shell. 
2. In a bowl add the chicken keema, besan, onion, garlic, ginger, mint, turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili powder, salt, eggs, corn flour. Mix well with hand as if kneading a dough.
3. Divide the dough in 3 equal parts (since you are making 3 eggs). As I mentioned earlier, to coat one egg, take one egg size keema ball.
4. Damp your hands with little water since this stops the keema from sticking to your palms. Place the keema ball on your palm. Now flatten the keema ball using the finger of the other hand uniformly into a circular thin disc. Flatten enough so that when you place an egg in the centre of the keema and fold the sides, the egg can be covered with the keema from all sides.
5. Heat 2-3 Tbsp of oil a non stick pan. Gently place this keema-egg roll and cook till golden brown on all sides. 
6. Remove from the pan and reserve.

Making the kofta gravy:

1. In a wide pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil.  Add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, 2 green and 1 black cardamoms seeds. Fry for 30 sec.
2. Now add onion, salt, poppy seeds, ginger chunks and garlic cloves. Adding salt as soon as you add onions helps in sweating the onions and stops them from soaking the oil.  (you may add garlic pods without chopping as they will anyways be blended with onions later). 
3. Once the onion is golden brown, push them to the side of the pan. All the extra oil will ooze out which can be used to cook the gravy. Once cool transfer the onion mixture to a blender. 
4. Blend the onions with the yogurt to a very fine paste. 
5. In the remaining oil add the remaining green and black cardamoms. Now add sugar and fry till it caramelizes, ie; becomes golden brown. 
6. Now add the blended onion paste. Fry for 4-5 min.
7. Add turmeric, coriander, cumin and red chili powder and garam masala. Fry for 2-3 min. 
8. Add tomato paste and cook for 1-2 min.
9. Now add the egg koftas and mix gently. Cover and cook for 8-10 min or till the inside of the keema ball is cooked.
10. Crush kasuri methi powder between your palms and sprinkle on the kofta curry once done. (If you are a cream lover, go ahead, drizzle that lovely silky stuff!! )
11. Serve hot with flaky parathas!

*If you don't have tomato paste or puree, give a gentle cut using a knife on the tomatoes to only cut the outer thin skin. This is done so that the it becomes easier to peel off the skin of the tomato after blanching it. In boiling water add the tomatoes and boil for 2 min. When you see the skin is peeling off, remove from heat. Peel off the skin. Remove the seeds from inside and blend. You can now use this tomato puree to make a  smooth creamy gravy.

Arabian Night - An All Mediterranean Dinner

The Mediterranean dinner menu consisted of:

Appetizer :: Hummus 

A creamy chickpea dip served with crispy Pita bread or nachos

Entree :: Chicken Shawarma

Pita bread filled with grilled chicken, grilled eggplant, garlic based sauce, pickled vegetables like cucumber, gherkins, (fresh tomatoes and lettuce- optional)

Side Dish 1 ::  Mutabbal (Baba Ghanoush)

A roasted eggplant based garlic infused creamy dip

Side Dish 2 :: Tzatziki 

Cucumber, yogurt dip infused with lemon zest

Dessert :: Baklava 

A rich, pastry made of layers of phyllo filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup 

Wine :: Sherry - Palo Cortado 

This aperitif compliments olives, nuts, meatballs

Post Dinner :: Darjeeling  Tea and a Majid Majidi movie

Relaxing tea with an uplifting movie :)

Other options:

*Add crispy nachos with the hummus 

or 

Eat hummus with vegetable sticks (healthier option) 

**Cut leftover phyllo sheets from baklava in squares, big enough to cover the cups of the muffin tray. Make several such cups by placing a layer of 2-3 phyllo sheets and gently pressing them to take shape of the cup. Now bake this at 350 F till it becomes crisp and golden brown. Fill with dips of your choice, like hummus, mutabbal, tzatzik.

Chicken Shawarma

There might be many authentic Shawarmas in this world, but the tastiest 'ever' for me, would be,  Anat's Shawarmas in Johannesburg! They were juicy, they were spicy, they had deep fried eggplant slices, potatoes chips and yes, they had that taste and crunch! My Jo'burg stay made me an Anat shawarma addict and I still crave for those Shawarmas!!! And therefore this post today.

Of course the eggplants are not deep fried, and the potato chips are missing from my shawarma - I don't want post- dinner guilt! :)

You need:

To make pan grilled chicken:

Boneless (skinless) chicken breasts – 2 Nos. (cut into thins strips)

Lemon juice – 1 Tbsp

Greek yogurt – 1.5 Tbsp (replace with thick yogurt that is not sour)

Garlic – 1 Tbsp (minced)

Salt – 1 tsp

Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp

Paprika -1/4 tsp

Dried parsley – ¼ tsp (replace with fresh)

Cayenne pepper – 1/8 tsp

Cinnamon powder– 1/8 tsp

Olive oil – 2 Tbsp

To assemble Shawarma:

Eggplant – Cut into 1 cm thick slices and pan grilled with very little olive oil, till brown.

Pita bread

Pickled vegetables like cucumber, gherkins, carrots etc. 

Garlic sauce – Mix 1 Tbsp mayonnaise with ½ tsp minced garlic. 

Tomatoes – chopped (optional)

Lettuce - optional

1. Combine chicken, lemon juice, Greek yogurt, garlic, salt, cardamom powder, paprika, dried parsley. Cayenne pepper, cinnamon powder in a large bowl, cover and let marinate for 2 hours in the refrigerator. 
2. In a non stick pan, heat  olive oil. Tip in chicken and let cook for 10 minutes until chicken browns, cook for an additional 2 minutes if necessary to brown. 
3. To make sandwich, open the pita bread like a pocket , spread garlic sauce on pita, add chicken, eggplant and pickles (you can add tomatoes and lettuce if desired). 
4. Enjoy with fries or salad on the side!

Malaysian Chicken Curry (Nyonya Style)

This is a typical Nyonya (also called nonya) preparation. Nonya cooking is the result of blending Chinese ingredients and wok cooking techniques with spices used in Malaysian and Indonesian cuisine. The food is tangy, aromatic, spicy and herbal.

Personally for me, its a perfect mix of Indian spices in a curry (like cinnamon, start anise) with Thai herbs (lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves). When you take the first bite, you will realize that all the herbs and spices lend a special taste to the curry as they blend in but at the same time hold on to their unique flavors as they unfold slowly, one after another.

Give it a try, as this Malaysian curry will take you by surprise. Tastes best with jasmine rice made with a little bit of coconut milk. Add Vietnamese Summer Roll with a peanutty dipping sauce as an appetizer and bingo! You have a perfect Asian dinner ready!

You need:

For the Chicken Curry

Paste:

Garlic cloves – 4-5 (peeled and roughly chopped)

Long red chilies - 4-5 (trimmed, deseeded and roughly chopped)

Lemon grass – 3 stalks (trimmed, outer leaves removed and thinly sliced)

Galangal - 5cm piece (or fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped)

Large shallots - 4 (peeled and chopped)

Ground turmeric – 1 tsp

Vegetable oil – 2-3 Tbsp

Curry:

Boneless chicken – 300 grams (thigh pieces cut into bite size cubes)

Vegetable oil – 2 Tbsp

Onions – 2 medium size (thinly sliced)

Salt – ½ tsp

Freshly ground black pepper – ½ tsp

Kaffir lime leaves – 4 nos.

Cinnamon stick – 1 no.

Star anise - 1

Coconut milk/ cream – 200 ml (try using a Thai brand which is thick)

Palm sugar (or soft brown sugar) – 1 tsp

Light soy sauce – 2 Tbsp

Fish sauce – 2 Tbsp

Long green beans - ½ cup trimmed and cut into 5cm lengths

Coriander leaves/Cilantro - Roughly torn

For the Coconut Rice:

Jasmine Rice/ Thai fragrant or other long grain rice – 300 grams

Coconut milk – 200 ml

Water – 200 ml

Fresh ginger, peeled - 5cm piece

Pinch of sea salt

1. First make the curry paste: Put the garlic, chilies, lemon grass, ginger, shallots and turmeric in a food processor and whiz to a paste. With the motor running, trickle in a little groundnut oil and blend well, scraping the sides of the processor several times. (Or you can pound the ingredients together in batches using a pestle and mortar).
2. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Keep aside.
3. Heat oil in a large heavy-based pan or a wok.
4. Tip in the curry paste and stir over a medium heat for a few minutes until fragrant.
5. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes until they are beginning to soften.
6. Add chicken to the pan and stir to coat them in the spice paste.
7. Add the lime leaves, cinnamon stick, star anise, coconut milk, stock, sugar, soy and fish sauces and bring to the boil.
8. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook gently for 12-15 min or until the chicken is tender.
9. Skim off any excess oil on the surface of the curry. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
10. Tip in the beans, put the lid on and cook for another 3-4 minutes until the beans are tender.
11. Scatter the coriander leaves over the curry and serve with the coconut rice.

For the coconut rice:

1. Rinse the grains in cold water to get rid of any excess starch.
2. Drain and tip into a heavy-based pan.
3. Add the coconut milk, ginger, water and salt. Stir well and bring to the boil.
4. Then reduce the heat to a simmer.
5. Cover and gently simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Keep the lid on, remove the pan from heat. Let it stay as is for 5-10 minutes.
7. Fluff the rice with a fork and serve while it is still hot.

Thai Red Curry (Vegetarian & Non Vegetarian)

Bright aromatic red curry is conventionally the strongest of  curries in Thai cuisine, while green curry is usually considered the mildest.  Like any other Thai dish, perfect balance between the sweet-sour-spicy taste is the only secret to an irresistibly tasty dish. 

With the ease of  availability of all kinds of curry pastes nowadays, it's pretty easy to make a decent Thai dish. But it's a different magic watching the bright, bubbling, fiery, red curry simmering on your stove, while the jasmine rice steams in the background. 

You need:

For the paste: 

Dried Thai Red Chilies – 7-8 or to taste

Galangal – 1/2  heaping Tbsp (Replace with ginger if not available.  But galangal does make a difference)
Shallots – 1/4 cup, chopped (use frozen if you don't have fresh)

Lemon Grass – 1.5 heaping Tbsp (finely chopped)

Cilantro Stems – 1 Tbsp (don't use leaves, only the stems)

Garlic – 3-4 cloves chopped

Thai Red Chilies – to taste (optional)

Kaffir Lime Leaves – 4 to 5 (Lime peel can be substituted but a huge huge difference in taste)

Whole White Peppercorns – 1/2 tsp (black can be substituted)

Salt – 1/2 tsp or to taste

Paprika – as needed and optional for red color

Oil – 2 Tbsp

* Zesty lemongrass and aromatic kaffir lime leaves are irreplaceable parts of Thai curries. And anyone asking you to substitute it with something else, is perhaps kidding with you! :)

For the curry:

Cut vegetable chunks of eggplant, carrot, onions

Shrimps/ Prawns

Kaffir Lime leaves

Lemon grass 

Lime juice - 1/2 tsp

Fish sauce (can replace with light soy sauce, but fish sauce does add to the real  flavor)

Palm Sugar/ Jaggery/ Sugar - 1 tsp

Thai basil - 3-4 leaves

Oil - 1 tsp

Salt - To taste

Preparing the paste:

1. Soak de-seeded dried red chilies in 1/3 cup hot water for 20 min. Remove the soaked chilies from the water and place them along with all of the remaining ingredients in a blender or spice grinder. 
2. Grind all of the ingredients into a smooth paste.
3. Heat oil in a pan and fry the paste. Cook until the oil starts to separate and the paste starts to clump together . This should not take more than 6-7 min. If you feel, the red color is not intense, add paprika and mix on a very low flame for 1 min.
4. Remove from the heat and allow the paste to cool down. 
5. Store it in a clean airtight jar. You can store unused paste to use it in future. You can refrigerate up to 1 month  and keep it frozen for unto 6 months. 

Preparing the curry:

1. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan, add lime leaves and lemon grass. Stir fry for 15-20 sec. 
2. Add the shrimps or chicken or both (skip for vegetarian curry), all the vegetable and 2 Tbsp red curry paste. Stir for another 1 min. 
3. Add half of a 14 Oz. coconut milk can, fish sauce, lime juice. 
4. Add 1 tsp of Palm Sugar/ Jaggery/ Sugar. Mix well
5. At this stage you can give it a taste and adjust the curry paste and coconut milk to get a balanced spicy-sweet taste.
6. Adjust salt if required.  Boil for 1-2 min. Don't boil too much else coconut milk will curdle and lose the taste and smooth texture of the curry
7. Add 2-3 basil leaves roughly torn. 
8. Serve hot with steamed rice.

*Lemon grass - use from the root till the point where it is soft and juicy. Only this part has all the flavor, discard the rest. 

**Reserve the water used for soaking chilies and use it to grind a smooth paste is required.

***Wear gloves while de-seeding whole red chilies to avoid any burning sensation. Its a much cleaner process and helps you remove all the seeds. Hand are all clean and eyes safe, so its worth wearing those gloves!

****If you are refrigerating, place a parchment paper or plastic sheet on a plate. Now    put tablespoonful mounds which are a little spread out. Freeze them. Once frozen, store them an air tight, freezer safe container. This way, you can use as much as you want each time, without having to thaw all of it. 

Mughlai Chicken Korma

Hands down, the BEST chicken dish I have ever made so far. Of course, its rich, but then, its Muglai! When you bite into the first morsel, you know it was made for Moghuls! In a nut shell , this chicken dish is Royalty personified!

Have tried cutting down on oil and cream, and quite satisfied with the effort vs result. While going by my standards it is a rich gravy, but for some others, 6-7 tablespoons of oil with 3 tablespoon of light cream (for a gravy that serves 2-3 people) may not be a big deal for such an aromatic royal treat. Trust me, make it for your guests, and they will soon be spreading the word around about your cooking skills!

As most other recipes, this is my version of the Muglai Chicken Korma (no store bought special korma masala), which has been improvised over a period of time. And looks like, this time around, it was made to perfection. Follow the recipe as is, it's fool proof !!

You need: 

Don't let the extensive list scare you, as most of them are regular spices we use for daily cooking. And the cooking steps are super simple.

Chicken - 300 grams (preferably big pieced with bones, moguls didn't ever eat get to eat  boneless I guess:) )

Onion - 3 medium (sliced)

Garlic - Large cloves - 5-6

Ginger 1/2 inch piece

Tomato - 1 large (finely chopped)

Curry Leaves - 10-12 nos. 

Black Cardamom - 1 no.

Green Cardamom - 5-6 Nos.

Cinnamon Stick - 1/2 inch

Cloves - 8-10 nos.

Whole black pepper - 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

coriander powder - 1.5 tsp

Red chili powder - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Dry ginger powder/  Sonth - 1/2 tsp

Garlic power - 1/4 tsp

Green cardamom fine powder - 1/4 tsp

Oil - 6-7 Tbsp

Yogurt - 3 Tbsp

Light cream - 3 Tbsp (usually its heavy cream, but I use light and it works just fine)

Almonds - 7-8 (skin removed. Though this makes the dish look even more special while serving, but I skip it. It's totally optional)

1. In a heavy bottom pan add 2 Tbsp of oil. Fry the onions with chopped ginger and garlic for 1-2 min. Blend well into a very fine paste without adding any water (this step removes the pungent and bitter taste of onion and at the same time, you will need much lesser oil now to make the same recipe )
2. In the same heavy bottom pan, add the remaining oil. Add the onion, ginger, garlic paste now and fry for 2-3 min, till nice pink color is seen. Blend this into a fine paste/
3. Add chicken and mix well. Cover and cook for 4-5 min.
4. Add tomatoes, curry leaves and all other spices (both powdered and whole)
5. Stir well. Cover and cook till chicken is done. You can make out when the masala starts leaving oil on the sides and also starts sticking a little to the base. 
6. At this stage,  mix yogurt and light cream thoroughly to get a homogeneous mixture. Add this to the curry above, cover and cook till its done well. 
7. Add almonds and raisins once you switch off the flame. (skip if you are watching your weight but if you are inviting special guests over, you can always add almonds/ raisins to make the dish look so very Muglai!)
8. Serve hot with Paratha or Naan.