Chana Chutney

mix 1/2 cup grated nariyal with 1/2 cup of chana and blend it. Saute curry leaves, mustard seeds and put the nariyal mixture to it. Add salt and red chilli powder to taste.

Sewai

Saute 1 cup of sewai pieces in desi ghee.
Get 4 cups of milk to a boil. Add cardamom powder to it, with sugar and khoya. After a couple of more boils, add the sewai. Can replace khoya with condensed milk.

Dudhbaraa

mix 1/2 cup maida in 1/2 cup water. In a pan, put 1 tbsp of oil and and this mixture. Keep stirring, till this mixture condenses like dough. (Test: with a lil watery fingers, see if the dough sticks to your fingers. The dough is ready, when it does not stick)
Once it cools down, put some oil on fingers and make small balls and deep fry it.
For the syrup, put a pan on fire and mix 3 cups of milk with 1 cup khoya and sugar to taste. When this thickens, put the balls. Garnish with saffron, dry fruits and cardamom powder.

Malpua

mix 1 cup Maida + 1 cup milk to get to an omelet consistency. Add to this, grated khoya (1/2 cup), kishmish, nariyal, kaju and badam.
Shallow fry the malpua.
make chaashni out of 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water. Once this is done, add the malpua to this sugar mixture.

Sattoo Paratha Mixture

Grind chana, then add ajwain, namak, chopped onion, dhaniya patti, garlic paste, hari mirch and oil.

Chana Dal Paratha Mixture

Soak 1.5 cups of Chana Daal in water overnight.
pressure cook a combination of slight heeng + 1 tbsp jeera + Sabut mirch + Haldi + Namak + Daal + 1 cup Water.
After 1 whistle, put the cooker on low flame and after 5-7 mins remove from fire.
Blend in chopper. After blending the daal, add dhaniya patti + garlic paste.

Malai Kofta

Ingredients:

Paneer

Khoya

Onion

Tomato

Ginger-Garlic Paste

Milk

Sugar

Salt

Garam Masala Powder

Dhaniya Powder

Chilli Powder

Raisins

Cashew

Whipping Cream

Steps:

1) Mix Paneer, Khoya, Dhaniya Powder, Garam Masala Powder, Salt and Chilli Powder into a nice and smooth mixture.

2) Make small koftas out of the above mixture and fry it

3) In a pan, heat oil and put chopped onions. After the onions are transparent, add some ginger-garlic paster and saute.

4) Once the onions turn golden brown, add copped tomatoes. Add a pinch of sugar.

5) After the onion-tomato curry starts leaving sides of the pan, take it off heat and cool aside.

6) After cooling the curry, blend it in a mixer using Milk and not water.

7) Heat Oil in a pan, add the blended mixture, add salt, garam masala powder and chilli powder. Allow it to boil.

8) Once it starts boiling add, fried raisins and cashews.

9) Right before serving add whipping cream, bring to a boil and add the Koftas.

Baingan Kalaunjee

Combine Coriander Seeds + Cumin Seeds (half of Coriander) + Fennel Seeds (half of Cumin) + Onion Seeds/Kalonji (half of Fennel) + Fenugreek/Methi Seeds (half of Kalonji)

Sauté the above mixture of seeds just a little and then grind it to make a coarse powder

Add turmeric powder, salt, red pepper powder, garlic paste, cut coriander leaves, cut dill leaves per taste, along with 1 tsp oil to the above made powder and mix well.

Make slits in the eggplant and stuff it with the mixture made.

Put about 1-2 tbsp oil in a pan and place the stuffed eggplants in the pan over low flame. Cook it covered by turning eggplants occasionally till the eggplants are done completely.

Navratan Korma

Sauté shredded Cauliflower, Carrots, Beans, Bell Pepper, Cabbage with Potatoes and peas in about 1 tsp of oil. Keep aside.

Sauté dry fruits of choice with Makhana (dry lotus seeds) & keep aside.

Shallow fry cut pieces of Paneer and keep aside.

Boil tomatoes and puree it to make a paste.

Grate onions and fry them in about 1-2 tbsp of oil. When transparent, add ginger-garlic paste. When onions turn golden brown, add the tomato paste along with Garam Masala powder, Jeera powder, Red Pepper powder, turmeric powder and salt to taste, and fry this mixture till oil comes out and the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Add grated Paneer to this mixture.

Add a mix of water and milk to form the gravy. Immediately add the sautéed veggies, Paneer and dry fruits. Bring to a couple of boils.

Garnish with coriander leaves, 1 tsp Kewra Water, and 1 tbsp of Kasoori Methi (if available).

My Ultimate Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

This is one recipe that I am famous for in my entire circle of family n friends. People request me to make this one every now and then. So here it goes:

Ingredients:

Chicken

Yogurt

Ginger-Garlic Paste

Lemon Juice

Chilli Powder

Garam Masala Powder

Dhaniya Powder

Oil

Almonds

Mint Leaves

Corriander Leaves

Rice

Saffron

Steps:

1) Marinate chicken with yogurt, oil, salt, ginger-garlic paste, lemon juice, chilli powder, garam masala powder and dhaniya powder. chicken should be marinated for atleast 3-4 hours, but the more the merrier. :D

2) Soak Almonds in water for almost 1 hr.

3) Cook Rice to a well-done state

4) Take out almonds from water and blend it with mint and corriander leaves. Once the paste is ready, saute it with salt, well (till it leaves the sides of the pan)

5) Once chicken is marinated well, heat oil in a pan. Put the Whole Garam Masala (Bay Leaves, Badi Elaichi, Cloves, Cinnamon, 

nutmeg). After that, put chicken in the pan and fry it till its done.

6) Once chicken is done, put layers of Rice and Chicken in a pan. On the top put a rice layer and garnish with mil soaked saffron.

7) cover and let is cook for some time.

Chicken Biryani is ready to be served.

The purpose of this blog

This blog is put in place for two reasons:

1) to get all my family recipes (some of which are age-old and passed down the generations), in place together, so that I do not have to search for my notebook every time i wanna make something, nor do I have to call my mom in the middle of the night (depending on which country she is in) to ask her for the recipe.

2) to share with people the recipes I tried and my family really enjoyed.

These recipes are dear to me and really enjoy making these, and to top it, my family enjoys these too. Here's hoping you your family enjoys it too when you try any of these.

Happy Eating!!