Back in Pune the weather is right now in a transitional phase - neither hot nor cold. A couple of days last week we even got Kalboishakhi during afternoon hours which brought down the temperature considerably. But the morning hours especially around noon time is pretty hot. This kind of weather makes you feel lazy and I am no exception. I just want to have a good plate of wholesome meal and lay back with my books or indulge in writing. One pot meals are my usual go to thing when I am especially in the lazy zone but still want to have something delicious. Shah Jeera chicken pulao is one such recipe which I made by chance one day.

During my last summer visit to Kashmir I had got some really good quality Shah Jeera from the Gurez hotel chef. Shah Jeera is something which usually is very rarely used in Bengalis cuisine. So it never was a pantry staple for me. But post my Kashmir visit, since the chef had advocated about the aroma these tiny little things impart to any dish I was curious to try it out in some of my rice preparations to start with. The first thing I had made was a simple Jeera rice substituting the regular jeera with shah jeera and oh boy what a taste transformation it was! I was hooked after that. Usually during weekends I would prepare quick and dirty veg pulaos to go with some non veg dish. I started using Shah jeera in some of my veg pulaos and definitely it was a game changer for me. Without too many masalas the pulao would still turn out yummy. 

It's been more than a year since my last post and I have been missing this space to say the least. But ya several personal and professional commitments kept me busy all this while and now I am again trying to post a new recipe today.

Its Christmas and probably the time of the year I love the most. I feel like a kid when I see all this Christmas trees and lights and decor.

Usually at this time of the year I am on vacations off to Kolkata my hometown. But due to some other things I had to spend the Christmas in town. I was feeling a bit down about it since I was going to be alone at home that too on Christmas week. But so far I must say its the blessing of the season that it has turned out to be a rather eventful week for me.

We started off with the Secret Santa celebrations last Friday. In case you dont know what is a Secret Santa, its basically a celebration that office guys do wherein you need to pick up a random chit having the name of any of your colleague and you will become the Secret Santa for that person for the next whole week. So in that week you may give your chosen colleague small gifts or chocolates or make them do some fun task like singing or acting etc. and in the last day of the Secret Santa week you give a nice gift to them and reveal the Santa's name. So it has been a super duper fun week so far. Finding clues to get to those chocolates your Santa has left you is the most nail biting event ever! And finally just before Christmas I got a nice pair of earphones from my Santa which made my Christmas a lot more merrier. The celebrations would continue till the end of the year however.


Since I was full of Christmas spirit from the morning I decided to do some impromptu cooking in the kitchen to celebrate the occasion. Christmas means rum, the spirit to the festivities. I had this bottle of rum languishing in my pantry which I had got from Panchgani. I decided to make use of it and make it a fun rum day.

So started off the day by baking some yummy Chocolate, Rum and raisin cupcakes. They smelled heavenly when freshly got out of the oven. My breakfast was thus sorted. Then came the lunch part. I did a quick inventory round up as to understand what can be my possible recipes. When I am happy I always experiment with food. My happiness is directly proportional to good food for sure. So I decided to make a nice mixed noodles and for the side I wanted to make something festive with Chicken. I wanted to make an orange chicken but I didn't have any so the next best thing I could have my hands on were these sweetlimes which I hadn't eaten yet. A quick google search didnt yield any recipes so I decided to make something on my own. And I am glad I did because the flavor of the sweetlime is as enticing as an orange and a good alternate too. All in all it turned out to be a great dish so I decided to share the same with you.

Its an easy breezy recipe with not too many ingredients. I will be posting the recipe of the mixed noodles in another post and link it back.




Procedure

1. Juice the sweetlime, it should be at least half a cup. Make sure you are discarding all the seeds.
You can add a little flesh from the sweetlime in the juice. Keep it in the refrigerator till you are ready to cook.

2. Wash and drain off any excess water form the chicken. Cut it in small cubes of maximum 2 inch pieces and keep in a mixing bowl

3. Bruise the garlic and the green chilli with a mortar and pestle and make a coarse paste. Add this to the chicken. Add the fresh ginger paste and 1/2 a teaspoon salt.




4. Add half of the rum to the chicken. Toss everything together to mix it well. Marinate for an hour.




5. Meanwhile prepare the tomato puree. In a grinder grind the tomato and 1 tsp of sugar together to a smooth paste.  It should be about 5 tbsp, even if you have a bit more it wont be a problem as we are going to reduce it while cooking.




6. Take out the marinated chicken and add 1/2 tsp of cornflour to it and give it a nice toss to coat it well

7. Heat oil in a wok. When the oil is hot add in the marinated chicken. In medium flame fry the chicken for about 4-5 minutes to take off the extra water and the chicken becomes white from pink

8. Add 1/2 tsp cornflour to the tomato puree and add it to the chicken. Add the red chilli powder at this stage. The chicken will cook in the juice of the tomato. If required add a bit of water but not too much to make it runny. Adjust the salt and sugar level. Cook till the gravy starts to thicken and water is all gone.

9. Melt the butter and add it to the chicken. Add the coarsely grounded black pepper and the sweetlime juice. Deglaze the wokand let it simmer to thicken the gravy. Adjust the salt and sugar at this stage as well.

10. You can add grated sweetlime rind at this stage. This is optional.

11. Add rest of the rum and give it a good stir and make sure the gravy sticks to the chicken. Switch off the flame.

Plate it and garnish it with sesame seeds and sweetlime skins. Serve it with fried rice or noodles.




Hope this recipe brightens up your festive season. Wish you all a Merry Christmas!