7 July 

After a few sharp spells of rain, and what seemed like the monsoons were here, the rain has completely vanished from Pune. I see rainclouds crowding the peaks of the hillocks in the faraway horizon, and then raining as well, but none of that comes inside the city. Sinhagad Fort is partially visible from my home and on most days it just vanishes behind those clouds. Its a treat to watch but then I keep hoping that some of that rain pays us a visit at times. 

I was all set with my monsoon menus in July but since there is no rain and its still quite hot in the day, my love for summer drinks is still going strong. One of these days while I was neck deep in work and needed a water break, I went to the kitchen and on a whim made some saffron ice tea. It was quick , easy and refreshing. And I must say I was mighty pleased with the colour.

I mean look at that color! Doesn't it look tempting? They say we first eat with our eyes then with our mouth. I felt so happy how beautiful it looked and that heavenly aroma of saffron! It is something to cherish for sure. No wonder saffron is known as the 'sunshine spice'!

This concoction is perfect for the summers when you need your body to be hydrated all day long. Since now a days we are so much into flavored waters, this ice tea with the health benefits of saffron is definitely a winner. 

Checkout other beverage recipes on my blog:

• Persian Saffron Milkshake
• Strawberry Ghol 

Ingredients :

• Jug
• Large Mixing Bowl

Procedure:  

1. Grind the saffron and sugar to a fine powder using a mortar and pestle. Transfer it to a  large mixing bowl

2. Add the warm water to the powdered mixture and let it infuse for about 10 minutes.

3. Add the turmeric and drinking water and give it a stir. 

Note: Turmeric is optional. But I wanted to add an extra hint of healthy ingredient.

4. Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours. 

Note: This refrigerates for a day or 2 maximum. So consume within that time.

Serve it chilled with ice or as is. You can add a few strands of saffron for garnish.

Alternative Method:  

Grind the saffron filaments into a fine powder with a pinch of sugar, using a mortar and pestle. 

Steep Darjeeling tea, lemon slices, ginger (optional)  in hot water for few minutes. Add powdered saffron and steep further and sweeten it with honey. Chill and serve.

 

13 April

Happy Gudi Padwa, Ugadi, Baisakhi to everyone who is celebrating today!

Being in Maharashtra for over a decade, I always experience the Gudi Padwa Celebrations the day before we celebrate Poila Baishakh which is the Bengali New Year. Gudi Padwa is the first day of Chaitra month and marked as the New year in Maharashtra.  A 'Gudi', a beautiful arrangement of silk saree or cloth tied to stick with a 'Lota' on the top and then decorated with sweets and garlands made of neem and mango. The day symbolizes the victory of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj over his enemies and Shalivahan’s victory over the Sakas.

Its early morning and its New year time! Last evening it rained with thundershower hence the weather feels a little cold. Much respite from the hot and humid feel of last evening. I kept checking out the lovely pictures of Gudi Padwa celebrations that were happening in the houses of my society. It makes me think that every Indian festival has a sweet charm of their own and even if you do not belong to that region by birth, you can still enjoy the festivities.

In Maharashtra, today folks prepare a lovely festive meal which mainly comprises of Puran Polis, Shrikhand, sabudana vada, kothimbir vadi etc. Its primarily a vegetarian fare. Since it is summers and its always refreshing to have a glass of coolers I thought I will add a little festive vibe to the normal milkshake with this Persian milkshake. Its so easy and so creamy you will be delighted to have it or serve it to your guest even without an occasion. 

May you fill your New Year with new adventures, accomplishments and learnings!

Sending Good Vibes on your way, on this new year day!

Happy New Year!

January 1

Finally we have put behind the year which we thought would never end. A new year, a new beginning and new hopes of something better and fruitful. Although personally I think 2020 taught me more thangs than the entire 3 decade of my existence taught me. And I am grateful for that, really. If it wasn't for the pandemic I wouldn't have realized what exactly mattered to me and what I really like. I can see I added 55 posts to my blog this year and that was the highest in the decade I had this blog for. But I think I made at least 100+ unique dishes this year, not all of them are up in the blog yet because the post processing of photos and write up takes a lot of time. And managing a day job with social media can be taxing at time. Not to mention I feel lazy also at times when I am a little free. 

So what is the new year resolution you may ask. Um, I don't do formal resolutions as such. Because most of the time I keep forgetting them. So I just want to be good in things I do and learn more and more. Also want to explore all new avenues in the food and writing world. I wish I can be same creative  this year too. And mainly I wish that everyone is granted a good health this year.

Since I mentioned I want to keep learning new things, so I thought let us start the new year with a new kind of recipe from Lebanese cuisine - Toum. 

On the last day of 2020 I went out with a friend and we visited this restaurant named Cafe Arabia where we had ordered a non-veg grilled platter.  It came with grilled chicken, sumac chicken tikka, seekh kebab and shish taouk. But what fascinated me most was the beautiful creamy white dip. I couldn't figure out what it was, tasted like a mayo but was so so heavenly. So after coming back home I looked up and understood it is called toum.

Toum is a Lebanese garlic sauce that’s actually more like a spread because of its thickness. It’s super popular to spread it over Shish Tawook, grilled chicken, shawarma, rotisserie chicken and many other Middle Eastern dishes. Its smooth and buttery and tastes heavenly. Toum is pronounced Toom, and in Arabic, it simply means garlic!

It only asked for 4-5 ingredients and apparently it looked easy peasy. But I must agree that though this gets done in a jiffy, it is one of the most technical preparations I have ever made. Technical because you may not get to the right consistency if you are not following the right order of the ingredients! also the speed of blending and adding the ingredients is a key! 

The disclaimer is you may not end up with the perfect garlic sauce at the first try, but you will come to know what suits your taste buds perfectly. Like the first batch I made, I felt I need to cut down on the amount of garlic I used. Also on top of the basic toum you can keep on adding any additional flavoring agents you might like.

This sauce goes so well with any grilled or fried preparations - both veg and non-veg. 

What is Emulsification?

Emulsion sauces are made by mixing two substances that don't normally mix. To do this, you have to break one of them into millions of miniscule droplets and suspend those droplets in the other substance by vigorously whisking, or rather blending them in a blender or food processor. Emulsions are especially important in creating thick, creamy sauces. 

There are specific emulsifying ingredient which cause emulsification. Which means certain substances act as emulsifiers and help two liquids which do not usually mix, come together and stay together (either temporarily or permanently) when the mixture is agitated. In the case of mayonnaise, it's the lecithin in the egg yolks that acts as the emulsifier. 

How to make the sauce less pungent?

The germ consists of a tiny future stem and leaf.

The toum recipe calls for de-germed garlic by default but you can bypass it if you can stand a little pungency in your sauce, as de-germing definitely takes a lot of time and patience. But it is always recommended.

If you get fresh harvested garlic you can make toum with the germ on, it wont add to pungency much. But if you are working with old garlic, if you split it into half you will notice the germ has become a little green and well defined. And this adds pungency to the dish in which it is used as whole. 

How long can you store toum?

This refrigerates well in the fridge. You can easily store it for 3-4 months. As time goes by the strength of garlic to start to fade.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes  

• Garlic cloves - 1/4th cup (approx. 5-7 cloves)
• Canola Oil/ Refined Oil/ Olive Oil - 1 cup (you might not need all)
• Lime juice - 1/2 lemon
• Egg white -  from 1 egg
• Salt - as per taste

For garnish:

• Parsley/ rosemary chopped - a pinch

Equipment:

• Mixer Grinder
• Spatula
• Knife
• Sanitized glass jar for storing

Procedure (Mixer grinder - with egg white) 

Before we begin, most of the times toum is made with just 4 ingredients - garlic, oil, salt and lime juice. And it is recommended you use a food processor and not a grinder when you are making toum or aioli, because you are going to add the oil in a thin stream while the garlic is being blended. 

Blending the garlic into a smooth paste releases the emulsifiers contained within its cell walls, which stabilizes the sauce without eggs. Alternating the addition of oil with a small amount of liquid, in the form of lemon juice prevents the emulsion from becoming overwhelmed with oil and breaking.

So if you have a food processor and don't want to add eggs, you can check the food processor method mentioned below. 

If you are okay with adding egg proceed with the below process which has 5 ingredients - garlic, oil, salt , lime juice and egg white. And no the sauce doesn't have any stink of egg.

1. Using a paring knife, split each garlic clove in half lengthwise. With the tip of the knife, remove the germ from both halves and discard.

2. Take about 1/4th cup of  de-germed peeled garlics and a pinch of salt into a mixer jar and blend until it’s well mixed, scraping down the sides as necessary with a spatula. Now when the garlic is minced add the egg white and pulse again.

Note: Adding the egg whites to this toum is technically cheating, but it works every time resulting in the fluffy sauce you want which might be difficult to achieve if you using a mixer to make it or making it for the first time. Egg whites are a sure shot solution!

3. Now open the lid of the mixer jar and add a little lemon juice and 1/4 cup oil and pulse it again. Keep repeating it for at least 3 times before you get the fluffy buttery texture into the sauce.

Note: If your garlic sauce split or curdled. Take the whole sauce in a cup and add 1 cold egg white in the blender and add the curdled mix little by little and keep blending till it gets thick

4. Now take a sanitized glass bottle and store the sauce in it. Once it comes to room temperature, chill it for a couple of hours to let the flavours develop in the best manner.

Procedure (Food processor - without egg white) 

Place the de-germed garlic and salt in the bowl of a heavy food processor. Pulse garlic until very finely minced, occasionally removing the lid to scrape down the sides of the blender. Make sure you continue to pulse the garlic until it is completely pureed. The garlic needs to be fully broken down in order for the proteins and stabilizers to be released from within its cell walls. Add 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice and continue processing until a paste begins to form. With the food processor running, slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup oil in a very thin stream, followed by 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice. Keep repeating the process alternating between the two till you get a nice and fluffy sauce.

Dec 14

Chicken Mandi has always been on my bucket list. The soft succulent meat pieces soaked in beautiful aromatics, the fragrant long grained rice having a dash of freshness form the lemon slices - if there is something I like over biryani at times is this meat & rice dish.

Mandi (مندي‎) is a traditional Yemeni dish that originated from Hadhramaut, Yemen.  It consists of meat and rice with a special blend of spices, cooked in a pit underground for long hours. It is a very popular dish in the Arabian Peninsula and also a staple dish in many areas like Egypt, Turkey, the Levant etc. Mandi has become equally popular in our country because it is less of a hassle than a typical biryani and yet has richness of flavors and taste.

Mandi is considered the main dish served during special events, such as Eid, weddings, and feasts in Yemen and southern Saudi Arabia. In Arabic themed restaurants, apart from the regular seating, there are some sections where you can sit on the floor cushions and rice & meat dishes are served in a large plate when two three people sit together and eat from the same plate. 

The word "mandi" comes from the Arabic word "nada", meaning "dew", and refers to the moist 'dewy' texture of the meat, which is result of the slow cooking it in a clay oven or tandoor, typically a hole dug in the ground. Dry wood pieces are burned in the tandoor and once it reaches a certain temperature the rice pot is then suspended inside the tandoor without touching the charcoal and the meat marinated with the special mandi masala is then placed on a wire rack on top of the rice. The tandoor is then closed and the meet and the rice is cooked on slow heat of the oven. The fat and the spices that drips from the steaming chicken infuses the rich flavors into the rice pot below, while the tandoor adds the smokiness to the overall meat and rice.

Even though it all sounds too elaborate and hard to replicate at home, but that is not the case. humans always find a workaround to do difficult things easy way. So today I will be talking about how we can make this amazing flavorful dish right in the comfort of your home without even having a tandoor!

And after all what better than to flag off the winter season with a heart warming plate of chicken mandi. I had a lot of fun cooking and eating it and hope you will enjoy too!

Marination time - 2 hours to overnight

Mandi Marination Paste:

• Mandi spice - 2 tbsp 
• Lime juice - 1 tsp 
• Ginger powder - ½ tsp 
• Red chili- ½ tsp 
• Refined Oil - 2 tbsp 

Mandi Chicken and Rice:

• Chicken with full leg pieces - 2 
• Mandi spice mix - 1 tbsp
• Long Grain Basmati Rice - 2 cups
• Cashews - 3 tbsp 
• Almonds - 3 tbsp 
• Raisins - 2 tbsp 
• Onion - 3 tbsp 
• Green Chilli - 2-3 (slitted)
• Dry whole lemon - 1 ( 2 weeks old lemon*)
• Garlic Ginger paste - 1 tsp 
• Salt - 1 tsp 
• Saffron Strands - 4 to 5
• Water - 4 ½ cups 
• Cooking oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• Ghee - 1 tsp

Flavouring Agent:

• Dry whole lemon - 1 ( 2 weeks old lemon*)
• Charcoal - 1 piece
• Ghee - 1 tsp

Procedure

1. Start by preparing the spice mix. Dry roast coriander, black peppercorn, cumin, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon sticks for about 1 to 2 mins flipping occasionally. Add all the roasted spices in a mixer grinder and add salt, ginger powder, red chilli, turmeric, and nutmeg ( coarsely ground) to it. Pulse it till you get a fine powdered spice mix. It will smell divine at this point!

2. Now to prepare the mandi marination mix, take about 2 tsp of the spice mix prepared above and to it add half a lemon juice and cooking oil. Mix well to prepare a thick paste.

3. Apply the paste on the cleaned chicken pieces and let it sit for about 1 to 2 hours. The longer the better.

4. Now take a steamer and let water boil. When the water comes to a rolling boil with lots of visible steam, place the chicken legs carefully on the steamer ( the steam will be very hot! so take precautions) and put the lid back on. Steam the chicken on 30 mins on medium heat. At half the time, just flip the chicken so that both sides are uniformly cooked.

Tip: Any steamer with ample holes would do. If you are using a pot with a lid which has hole, make sure you close the hole with a tissue paper to prevent the steam from escaping the pot.

Note: Use drinking water in the steamer because the masala that gets mixed with the water on steaming will be used later in the recipe.

5. While the chicken is steaming soak the rice in water. Also soak a few saffron strands in warm water and let it sit.

6. Once the chicken is steamed take it out in a plate. Reserve the stock. Now head up a griddle/pan and add some ghee + cooking oil to it. Once it is heated, place the chicken in a single layer and fry it for 2-3 minutes on each side, ensuring a light browning.

  

7. Take a deep bottomed pot and heat it. Add 2 tbsp of ghee and let it be fragrant. To this add cashew, almonds, raisins/black raisin and stir them till they start getting a little brown and fragrant. Remove from the pot and keep it aside.

8. Now in the same pot add some cooking oil, and once hot add the sliced onions. Fry until brown stirring occasionally. 

9. Stir in about 2 tsp of the mandi spice masala (dry), salt, dried lemon slices, slitted green chilli and ginger garlic paste. Fold everything in. Fry for a couple of minutes.

Tip: Dry Lemon slices are typically added to mandi rice as a flavoring agent. So I would recommend not to skip it. Have any fresh lemon sit outside at room temperature for about a week or two until the outer cover starts dying out and use that lemon for this recipe.

10. Add the reserve stock which was collected from steaming chicken the earlier. Bring it to a boil.

11. Now add the soaked rice to the water.

12. Add saffron water

13. Once the rice is 3/4th cooked, add the raisins and  steamed chicken leg in a single layer. 

14. Sprinkle some mandi spice mix over.

15. Cover the lid and block holes on the lid if any. Cook for about 15 minutes on lowest flame just like biryani. 

Note: If you do not have a thick bottomed pot then on the heat place a griddle or frying pan and put the pot on top of it. It will help distribute the heat evenly this way.

16. Now put a small steel bowl in the center of the pot on rice. Over a flame heat a charcoal by holding it with tong. When the charcoal is hot place it in the bowl inside the pot and add 1 tbsp of ghee on the charcoal. Cover the lid immediately. Let the steam collect inside the pot and flavor the rice.

17. When you are ready to serve, add the fried nuts as garnish on the rice and serve it with raita or salad.

Pro Tip: Do not cook the nuts with the rice on dum, as it renders the nuts soft. Adding the fried nuts as garnish instead preserves the flavors and the crunch of the nuts.

Please note: Ideally chicken mandi traditionally is cooked by placing the rice in the pot and putting a grill on top of the pot and the chicken is placed on that. So both chicken and rice is cooked together. But since I didn't have that big a pot hence I have broken it down to two step - steaming the chicken first, cooking the rice 3/4 and then cooking both on dum for the final outcome. Taste wise it is absolutely the same.

Brands I used for this recipe

1. Long gran basmati - Daawat

2. Black raisin - Vedaka

3. Almonds- Vedaka