Malvani Murgh

Malvani Murgh 

Its hot spicy and coco-nutty 

I believe there is nothing better in this world than the exchange of recipes for its not just ingredients and processes sometimes you get your hands on someone's heirloom recipe and I believe a recipe as as much value as any other historical item because it upholds the culture and lives of real people. And once you get a recipe from a faraway land you might just surprise yourself by finding a subtle similarity with something close home.

Take the beautiful Western coast of India. Its green , its where the hills  meet the sea and then there is that lovely Konkani cuisine, well I visited Malvan a tiny place in the southern most tip of Maharashtra, a coastal town with a slow paced life, smiling people, virgin beaches which are cleaner than most commercial beaches in India and thick spicy hot curries with that delightful taste of coconuts.

It is usually the Southern cuisine that we associate coconuts with but you see being born in one of the few states which can boast of a coastline , mountains , mangrove swamps and forests Bengali cuisine has its way of imparting coconuts. We usually use grated coconut in all our special curries but then there is that distinct difference which makes each cuisine unique for though we love adding grated coconut to vegetarian dishes when it comes to non vegetarian dishes other than the 'Chingri macher malai Kari' Lobsters cooked in a gravy of coconut we usually shy away from using coconut in our non vegetarian curries.

Anyway coming back to the delightful Malvani curry thanks to Meena Phatke I have this wonderful Malvani Chicken recipe which is her mother's recipe and with enough freshly grated coconut at home I decided I must 'strike the iron while it is hot'

So here is a recipe for 2 one that is spicy hot and coconutty

300gm chicken with bones
2 tsp smooth ginger garlic paste
Salt as per taste

For the Malvani essence

8 to 10 dried red chilies the hot variant
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 large onion
1.5 cup of grated coconut (cups which hold 200ml liquid)
6 to 7 cloves
20 black peppercorn
Half an inch cinnamon
2 tbsp oil (I used refined oil . You may use coconut oil or peanut oil or even sesame oil)
1.5 cups of water (cup that  holds 200ml of liquid)
Pinch of turmeric

Simply marinate your chicken pieces in the ginger garlic paste with a pinch of salt and let it marinate for 1 hour to 2 hours.

In the meantime slice the onion and fry it in 1 tbsp oil. The trick is to keep the flame to low and cover the wok so that your onion softens and browns and you do not use too much of oil. Once the onion turns mildly pinkish brown let it cool down. Now dry roast the dry spices and once the fried onion has cooled down blend the onion, coconut and dry spices.

Now heat 1 tbsp oil and add the marinated chicken and seal the juices on high flame for 2 minutes and then add the beautiful coconut base that you have created and coat the chicken and add the water and bring to a boil. Add some salt and turmeric and simmer covered for 15 minutes. Serve hot with steaming rice

Patishapta

Nolen Gurer Patishapta
(Bengali crepes with Date Jaggery)

Lost traditions , Date Jaggery and  Bengali Crepes (Patishaptas)

So what you take for granted at one point becomes necessarily important on the road of life. So my year started in this clean coastal town of Vizag at my mother-in-law's. Lazy days, a beautiful view of the sea right from the balcony, morning walks made easy with a wonderful rule of no traffic on the road right adjacent to RK beach. "Rotte" (a fluffy crispy idli) for breakfast made by my adorable mother-in-law who adores me and spends her time writing science books while I engage in dinner.

Without internet connection I was happily immersed in Anna Karenina , morning walks, lazy mornings enjoying rottes, making rajma or chole or something else in the evening when  I suddenly heard my husband speak about sankranti. True it was spoken in a language completely alien to me and other then the word sankranti I did not understand a word but that itself opened my inner window to all those years till last year when my grandmother would churn out these Bengali sweet delights on Sankranti, the festival celebrating harvest. Since back home my doctor father still kept our Rice business alive I am even close to this beautiful festival and images of white "pithas"  (stuffed sweet treats which are steamed) and browned "pithas" (stuffed sweets which are fried but my favourite are these pancakes or crepes with stuffing. Now there is no hard and fast rule to what one uses as stuffing but for me these treats with Bengal's other reason for joy during the winters, the fabled "Nolen Gur" Palm date jaggery is blasphemy itself. That typical delightful taste is exotic and delicious.

So in a land far away with reminiscence of my grandmother using the bell. Well here is what would happen , my mother's method of teaching was what legends are made of. So every evening from 6 to 10 it would be war with my mother's shrill voice and my voice which would range from squeaky to whiny. In-between my grandmother would provide these amazing comic reliefs by suddenly pressing the bell. Well when you stay in an old house which is multistoried it is essential to adopt some method of communication other than the most natural way unless you are happy having screamed and sounding like a croaking frog. So just when my mother was ready to throw a book at me ting tong came the sound and during this time of the year it would essentially mean a plateful of pithas and patishaptas.

I decided on the crepes because it is easy and being far away from home and my mother-in-law having just moved from Ranchi and having three huge chunks of date jaggery had me craving for these Bengali crepes doused in liquid date jaggery. I was superbly satisfied with the results when my lovely grandfather-in-law (my mother-in-law's) husband asked for a second helping and could not stop praising these "amazing sweet dosas"

So for this recipe you basically need a little bit of hard work but its all worth it. I have used the date jaggery with homemade reduced milk and grated coconut as a filling which made it the most wonderful delight.

Start by making the reduced milk for which you need :

1 litre full cream milk
1 teaspoonful of ghee
2 green cardamom
1 big bay and 1 small bay leaf

Bring the milk with the ghee and spices to boil and simmer for 1 hour 45 minutes. Now the usage of ghee (clarified butter) gives the reduced milk an amazing smoothness and besides that it ensures that the milk doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Now if you are planning to make the dish during the evening I suggest starting in the morning hours. Say 11 a.m.to keep everything ready because making the reduced milk takes some time say about 1 hour 45 minutes and one very important point to note is that one must use low flame and must keep stirring from time to time and after 1.5 hours one must stir continuously.

For the filling one needs:

3/4th of the reduced milk
3 cups (250ml) of grated coconut
2 tbsp ghee
1 green cardamom
Grated Jaggery as per taste

Start by gentle heating the ghee and sauteing the coconut with the cardamom and add the reduced milk and slowly add the grated jaggery. Now for the jaggery keep adding a bit and stirring and taste  and add more if required. When the content becomes pudding like and everything mixes well and the educed milk si well incorporated you are done. Now remember once you are done with cooking the cooked coocnut will anyways dry up a bit more so keep it a bit soft.



For the crepes or pancakes one needs

1 cup all purpose flour'
Half a cup semolina
Half a cup rice flour
Ghee

Mix everything with 1.5 cups water but when mixing mix bit by bit so that no lumps are formed. Spread it on a  girdle as you would make crepes but thin ones turn and immediately add the stuffing and fold from both sides and serve drizzled with liquid jaggery or the saved reduced milk.

Nawabi Murgh

Nawabi Murgh 

Fit for a nawab indeed. A nawab is a royal prince. This was one of the first recipes that I had collected and have probably cooked it for many a lunch party of dinner party. Easy to make with a regal taste this one sure does make you feel like a Queen or King. There is the aromatic clarified butter , the regal cinnamon and nutmeg, the rich taste lend by the cashew buts, poppy seeds and coconuts and of course not to for get the beautiful work of ginger garlic and onion chili paste. Now finding its exact origin is difficult because such is the delightful taste and with so many former princely states of India many a  princely state has claimed the recipe to be theirs but I would say this is essentially a part of  Awadhi cuisine and so Uttar Pradesh which houses some of the greatest historical marvels of India is the state from where this amazingly delicious cuisine was born. I can well imagine the Nawab of Awadh enjoying a delightfully scrumptious meal of this decadent dish before a musical concert.

I did learn to better the recipe over the years by say marinating the chicken for 1 hour which helps aid in faster cooking and results in a tastier dish.

Here is what you need

750gm of chicken cut up in medium but towards the small pieces
100gm pure clarified butter /ghee
About 300gm of whipped curd (300gm after it is whipped)
2 heaped tsp ginger paste
2 heaped tsp garlic paste
200gm of smooth onion paste (I usually make the paste with 2 green chilies)
2 tablespoonful of poppy seeds soaked in milk for 1 hour
1 large bay leaf
1 half of a coconut grated (I used a total of a handful of grated coconut + about 1 tablespoon for garnishing)
50gm of cashew nuts soaked in milk
Milk to soak the poppy seeds and cashew nuts in.
Salt
1 stick of cinnamon (which should yield 1 to 1.5 tsp of powdered cinnamon)
Pinch of nutmeg
2 tsp black pepper
Pinch of garam masala
2 tablespoonful of cream (optional)

So start by first marinating the chicken in 1 tsp garlic and 1 tsp ginger paste along with a little salt and keep is aside. Soak the poppy seeds and cashew nuts in milk. Once soaked for an hour blend the poppy seeds and cashew nut in smooth pastes. Whip your curd as well. After an hour first heat about 50gm of the clarified butter and on high heat saute your chicken to seal the juice in for about 2 to 3 minutes . Stir to make sure it does not brown one bit. keep it aside . Add the rest of the clarified butter , fry the rest of the ginger garlic paste and then the onion paste along with the bay leaf  and crushed cinnamon and cook on medium heat stirring constantly to make a beautiful spicy mixture. It should be well cooked. Add the yogurt and bring to boil while stirring constantly. The constant stirring when curd is added makes sure that the curd does not separate. Now slowly add the poppy seed paste and the cashew nut paste. It will almost immediately thicken so make sure heat is on low . Add a little water to the bowls in which the poppy seed, yogurt and cashew nut has been kept to make sure you get all its goodness and then add the chicken pieces. Cover and cook for 15 minutes on low heat stirring from time to time to make sure nothing gets stuck at the bottom of the wok. Add the pinch of nutmeg and black pepper (optional) the grated coconut and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes till chicken is tender enough to melt in the mouth. I usually forgo the addition of cream in the end since the dish itself is so heavy and opt to garnish with grated coconut.

Serve hot with plain basmati rice or rice cooked with a stick of cinnamon and clarified butter.

Here is my recipe for a mild cinnamon rice which is the perfect base for this dish.

2 cups basmati rice
4 cups water
1 stick of cinnamon
2 tablespoonful of clarified butter

Wash the rice and then soak with 4 cups of water  for 15 minutes (soaking aids in faster cooking) then drain and reserve water. Add the ghee to the drained rice as this makes sure that each grain remains perfectly separated. Then add the water and rice and cinnamon stick and bring to boil. Cover and simmer till rice is done. Once done keep covered for 7 minutes to 10 minutes. Immediately transfer to a colander else the rice will take the shape of the container it is kept in and you can wave goodbye to the perfectly separated rice. Serve immediately with the chicken. Feel like a queen or king and enjoy your lunch or dinner :)

This is part of Kolkata Food Blogger's Kashmir to Kanyakumari Project