Recipes from my first live cooking session

Posted On May 11, 2020

Considering the current COVID situation in mind, we planned to send out live cooking invitation ahead so colleagues can pick up ingredients in their regular planned shopping time! And I planned to have minimal use of spices but to have the essence of Indian Kitchen.

Here goes the content that I have already made available to my colleagues so they can be ready for live cooking together. The preparation part was explained in the virtual live session. Now that I have added the preparation text along with recipes, so anyone can use these recipes from here directly without the need for video.

“All Indian food is not difficult to cook. A good understanding of spices and right combination of using them is important. How much to add and when to add the spice while cooking makes your dish outstanding.

There are dishes which take years to expertise, but there are also some dishes which are easy to prepare and yet delicious and nutritious. Here is such an easy & healthy recipe.“

Indian cooking Ingredients list for 3-4 people

Menu: Butter Chicken, Rice, Coconut milk Spinach, Colorful Salad, Payasam/kheer

Please read pre prepare steps and keep all the ingredients ready before the cooking session. You may need 20 mins for this step. Some ingredients are mentioned optional and you may omit it if you can’t find them.

Butter Chicken 

Ingredients for Butter Chicken

1. Chicken breast fillet 600 gms
2. Butter -100 gms
3. Fresh cream or cooking cream– 50ml
4. Onion -2 medium size
5. Tomato -5 medium size
6. Cashew nut or de-skinned Almond -8 numbers
7. Fresh coriander leaves- few sprigs
8. Salt
9. Ginger- 2 inch long piece with diameter 1 inch
10. Garlic – 1 bulb
11. Sugar – 1Tbs  (optional)
12. Turmeric/Kurkuma
13. Cayenne Chilli powder or Substitute with paprika powder according to spice level – 3.5 tsp (I used Kashmiri chilli powder)
14. Coriander powder – 2tsp
15. Garam Masala – 1tsp
16. Dried Fenugreek leaves or powder – 2tsp(optional)-I used it.

Pre-prepare: 

1. Peel ginger and Garlic and blend in to fine paste together(you can add little water). If you don’t have blender, you can mince them together and keep it ready.
2. Ingredients like Turmeric/ Kurkuma, Chili powder, Coriander powder, Garam Masala is also available in normal grocery stores. Alternatively, you can also order in Amazon or any online Indian grocery store. 
3. Roughly chop Onions and keep it ready. Similarly chop tomatoes and keep it ready.
4. Cut the chicken in to thin long strips of 1cm thickness.
5. Equipment: You will need stand Mixer for making puree. If you do not have mixer, you can also use hand blender(with hand blender you will need a sieve for straining the sauce).
6. Utensils: One medium deep pan with lid, Spatula and cooking tong.

Preparation:

1. Marinating Chicken: Add Chicken into bowl and add the spices. Turmeric, salt, chilli powder -1.5tsp, Ginger garlic paste 1 and half tsp. Rub the spices with chicken and let it marinate for min 15 minutes.
2. Preparing sauce base: In a pan add 1 Tbsp of oil and when it is hot, add Onion and cook until soft and translucent. Add Cashew nut and Tomatoes and cook until tomatoes are soft. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool. Grind the mixture along with ¼ cup of water in hand blender or mixer to make a fine puree. If the puree is not smooth, use sieve to discard solid remains and collect the fine sauce.
3. Preparing the chicken for sauce: Use the same pan and add 2 Tbsp of oil. On a high heat, layer all your chicken pieces and cook for about 2 minutes on each side or until the chicken turned into light brown. Remove them and keep it aside. Chicken should be around 80% cooked.
4. Assembling the final sauce/gravy: Using the same pan, heat it to medium. Add 2 tbsp of oil and add 50gms of butter. When butter has melted, add ginger & garlic paste and cook in medium heat and until the raw smell is gone. This takes about a min.

Move the pan out of heat and add the spices Chili powder-2 tsp, Coriander powder, Garam masala and cook for about few seconds.( The spices should be cooked and not burnt).Add the Ground puree and required salt only for the sauce(salt is already added to chicken ). You can add another ¼ cup of water, if you sauce is thick, Bring the sauce on heat and cook until it is boiling point. Add Chicken and fresh cream and allow in to boil. Now the sauce is nearly ready. Add dried Fenugreek leaves, Sugar and another 50gms of butter, mix it and switch of heat. Add fresh Coriander and Enjoy your Butter chicken. Your chicken should be tender, and the sauce is creamy, buttery and smooth!

Tip:

• Spices takes only few seconds to cook when added in oil. Keep the next step ready to move on, so the spice is not burnt.
• Cook the chicken on high heat to keep the juices intact. Do not over the chicken in your pan grill, that will release all juices.
• Use fine pureed blended sauce base, this gives a smooth taste of Butter chicken to your palate.

Spinach in Coconut milk

Ingredients for Spinach in Coconut milk

1. Coconut milk – 200ml
2. Spinach – 500gms
3. Garlic  – 3 cloves
4. Mustard seeds – 1tsp
5. Cumin seeds– 1/2 tsp
6. Dried chilli or green chilli – 1
7. Asafoetida (optional) 
8. Vegetable oil – 1 Tbsp
9. Curry leaf – 1 sprig( optional)

Pre-prepare: 

• Ingredients from 4 to 9 can be made optional if you can’t buy the ingredients before live cooking session.
• If you are using Baby Spinach or Fully-grown Spinach, wash it ahead and chop it in to small pieces. You can also use frozen Spinach.
• Utensil: You will need a cooking pot with lid and spatula and one small pan.

Preparation:

1. Add Spinach, Sliced garlic and Coconut milk to Pan and start the heat. Once the mixture is boiling, cook for 3-5 minutes or until Spinach is wilted.
2. Add required salt, mix it and switch of heat.
3. Tempering: Take a small pan, add 1 tsp of oil. When the oil is hot, add Mustard seeds and wait until it splutters. Switch of the heat. The remaining heat is enough to cook the rest of ingredients in oil. Now add cumin, chilli, Asafetida, curry leaf and mix. Add this tempering on top of cooked spinach. Enjoy your Coconut milk Spinach!

Tip:

• Use of fresh baby spinach is recommended to get a good taste.
• Keep all spices nearby and be ready to make the tempering. Once Mustard is cooked, the remaining spices takes less time to release flavors in oil.
• You can semi puree the spinach before adding tempering, by doing this spinach and coconut milk can come together instead of getting separated.
• You can also keep the tempering step optional and enjoy the simple recipe.
• Use good quality of coconut milk. (If a readymade canned one or from a packing is used.)
• Freshly extracting milk from Coconut is the best. If you are using fresh coconut milk, add the milk to the end without much cooking.

Rice

Ingredients for Rice

1. Rice – Any Basmati Rice 2 – 3 cups according to your appetite
2. Oil – 1 tsp
3. Salt – 1/2 tsp(optional)

Preparation:

This is absorption method of rice cooking.

1. Add the rice to your cooking pot and clean it with water and rinse it. You can do it couple of times to remove excess starch.
2. Soak the rice with required water for about 10-15minutes. (1 cup of rice to 1.5 cup of water). Based on aging of rice, the water quantity may be little less or little more. Add ½ salt for taste and 2 tsp of oil to the rice.
3. Bring the rice to boil in high heat. Once it is boiling cook for 5 min in medium heat. Now most of water is absorbed.  The last step is to cook the rice for last 5 min to low heat. You are done with cooking a fluffy rice.

Tip:

• Always buy an aged Basmati rice to get separate grains after cooking.
• Stick to a brand which works for you better.
• Rice cooker works best for Rice. You can also pressure cook. Please note that water proportion might slightly differ in each of the methods with the same rice.
• Wash your rice couple of times to remove excess starch
• Adding bit of oil or Ghee helps separate grains.
• Do not stir your rice unless needed.

Colorful and Nutritious Salad

1. Onion chopped –  2 Tbsp
2. Tomato cut in to small pieces – 1/2 cup
3. Carrot cut in to small pieces – 1/2 cup
4. Cucumber – cut pieces 1/2 cup
5. Raw mango- cut pieces 1 cup
6. Any Sprouts of your choice – 1cup (optional)
7. Any Micro greens of your choice – 1/4 cup (optional)
8. Pomogranate -1/4 cup (optional)
9. Roasted peanuts – 5Tbs(optional)
10. Lemon – 1
11. Ginger – 1inch piece
12. Coriander leaves – few sprigs
13. one Green chilli (optional)
14. Salt for taste

Pre-prepare: 

Please prepare and chop the veggies ahead in small pieces(approx. 1 cm) before the live cooking session. In the list of Salad ingredients from 3 to 8, you can choose any 3 or 4 ingredients which is available to you. You can be creative to add your own ingredient as well.

You can use teacup as your measurement.

Preparation:

 Add all the ingredients one after other into your bowl. Add deseeded chopped chili. Juice of half a Lemon/Lime. Crush the ginger with 2 tsp of water in a mortar. Add only the juice to add subtle favor from Ginger. Add salt for taste and coriander and mix all. Enjoy your colorful and nutritious salad.

Tip:

• Choose your salad ingredients also with different colors. It gives visual treat to the eyes and makes it more appetizing.
• Try to use Sprouts/Microgreens which add extra packed nutrients to your diet.
• You can add oil and that is optional.

Banana Kheer – Traditional Indian dessert

Pre-prepare: 

• Remove cardamom skin and grind the seeds with mortar. You can use the skin while making Indian tea to make Cardamom tea,
• Cut banana in to slices of 2-3mm thickness.
• Chop Dates and nuts separately

Preparation.

1. Heat a pan and add 500ml of milk.
2. Once the milk has come to boil, add banana and chopped dates.
3. Banana needs less time to cook in milk, so once the mixture boils, switch of heat and add cardamom powder.
4. Take a small pan and Clarified butter. When the Ghee is hot, add the nuts and cook it to slight brown is color. Add raisins at the end and stir until it is bubbled up. Add this mixture to your milk. Your Kheer is ready. Add additional sugar if it is necessary for your taste.

Tip:

• You can discard the oil or Ghee to the Kheer and use only nuts. Little of ghee can add flavor to Kheer, but if it is too much, the oil will float on dessert.
• When the Banana and dates are very sweet, you have to adjust the extra sugar that you add to Kheer. You can skip sugar if Banana and Dates natural sweet is sufficient.
• Nuts can be added on top just before serving to keep its crunchiness.

Note : Tbsp means Table spoon and tsp means teaspoon.

Hits: 1002