Chicken Pasanda

There's 2 things I need to say about this before we kick off with the recipe...

1. Chicken Pasanda is a wonderfully creamy, spicy, yet subtle dish from what is now Pakistan (it was all India once...). 

2. I cheated. You know, if you go to an Asian store in the UK, you'll be dazzled by the fantastic array of ready-made spice mixes. Now, normally I'd make the mix myself and do it the slow and hard way. But I thought I'd make it easy and just show how simple and enjoyable it can be to cook a dish like this from (almost) scratch (with a little help from our spice-blending friends). And blend they can!

It's good served alongside a vegetarian curry. I combined it with an aubergine curry (baingan bharta - more of that later!)

Serves: 4

Cost per person: 3.50 zl (70 UK pence, 84 Euro cents)

What we need:

- 500g chicken breast cut into small pieces

- 2-3 tbsp yoghurt

- 1/2 tsp turmeric

- salt and pepper

- 5-6 more good heaped tablespoons of yoghurt

- 2-3 good heaped tsp of Chicken Pasanda spice mix
- 2 onions finely sliced

- 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste

- 1-2 slit green chillies

Let's get on it!

1. The first part of this mimics the initial stages of the previous post (Mughlai Chicken - kid friendly) in its entirety. So, marinade the chicken in 2-3 tbsp yoghurt, 1/2 tsp turmeric, a good milling of black pepper and a little salt. Leave in the fridge overnight.

2. Get woking! 

3. 5 minutes later the chicken should be sealed. Remove from the wok. Set aside

4. Let's prep the stuff. Onions - sliced. Ginger and garlic minced into a paste with a fine grater. Chillies slit.

5. Prep the yoghurt and spice mix. 

6. Heat some oil in the wok. Get the sliced onions in there! Sprinkle over a little salt to speed up the cooking process.

7. Take your time! 10 minutes and they should be browned off a treat.

8. Grind up in a blender

9. Get that wok nice and hot. Glug in some veg oil. Get it hot. Ginger-garlic paste and green chillies in. Give them a minute to cook out.

10. Get the yoghurt and spice mix in there! Give it a couple of minutes for the spices to cook out and release their flavour.

11. Introduce the chicken you cooked earlier.

12. Not long after, get the onion paste in there

13. Simmer for around 1 minute. Add a little water if it's too thick. Ready to serve. Rice goes well. Or naan.

Cost:

- Chicken: 9 zl

- Yoghurt: 2 zl

- Rice: 1.60 zl

- Spices: 1 zl

- The rest: 0.40 zl

Total: 14 zl

Serves: 4

Cost per person: 3.50 zl

Mughlai Chicken (Kid friendly)

A Mughlai dish of Muslim North Indian origin, this will be a sure-fire hit with your family. The almonds and thick yoghurt combined with the aromatic spices make this a truly irresistible meal. I replaced the red chilli powder you'd normally use with a mild paprika which gives it a nice orangey red hue without any of the mouth-burn which tends to put kids off. 

Although this is inspired by Mughlai recipes, my two boys came up the the ingredients themselves (with a little help from me!). They also took most of the photos. So, cheers, lads!

Serves: 4
Cost per person: 3.90 zl (93 Euro cents, 78 British pence)

What you need:

- 500g chicken breast cut up fine
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp of turmeric
- 2 tbsp Greek yoghurt
- 2 green cardamon pods
- 1 clove
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 small blade of mace
- 1 tsp black cumin seeds
- 2 onions (finely chopped)
- 1 tbsp almond flakes
- 1 inch ginger (minced)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 tin tomatoes
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp paprika powder
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp cream
- handful of kasouri methi (dried fenugreek leaves - optional)

It's not as complicated as it looks so stay with me!

1. Marinade the chicken with yoghurt, turmeric, salt and pepper overnight. This makes the chicken nice and tender - it's going to melt in your mouth later!

2. Cook the chicken on a high heat in a little oil to seal. In a wok works well. Give it some wrist!

Should take around 5 minutes max for it to get to this stage:

3. Chicken out and leave to one side. Prep the onions. Slice finely then dice across.

4. Prep the ginger - slice off the skin

5. Prep the garlic - bash under your knife and remove the skin

6. Make a ginger-garlic paste by mincing both on a fine grater.

Onions and ginger-garlic paste prepped!

7. Prep the whole spices

8. Prep the powdered spices. Now it's all prepped, we're ready to rock!

9. Oil in the wok. Heat medium high. Whole spices in. 1-2 minutes till they start to brown.

10. Onions in. Sprinkle in a little salt to cook down the onions quicker.

11. After around 5 minutes, almonds in

12. Another 5 minutes and the onions are almost there (golden brown). Ginger-garlic paste in.

13. Turmeric in

14. Tomatoes. Give it 5 minutes

15. Now it looks like this. Blend up nice and fine in a blender (what else?)

16. Transfer back to the wok. Wash out the rest of the mix from the blender with some water - we don't want to waste anything! Add the rest of the powdered spices.

17. Get the brown sugar in. Cook down for around 5 minutes - this allows the spices to develop properly.

18. Add the chicken back in along with the cream. Cook for another minute. 

19. Add some kasouri methi if you fancy

20. Serve with rice!

Just to prove the kids liked it:

What this cost (serves 4):

- chicken: 9 zl

- tomatoes: 2 zl

- rice 1.60 zl

- the rest: 3 zl

Total: 15.60 zl

Per person: 3.90 zl

Baba Ghanouj (smokey aubergine and tahini spread)

The naughty sister of the mighty Hummus, Baba Ghanouj certainly is a cheeky little Middle Eastern spread! The basic idea is to replace the chickpeas of the hummus recipe with roasted aubergine et voila! Enjoy with bread and savour the earthy flavours - sure beats a processed cheese spread.

Cost per medium sized jar: around 5 zl (1 UK pound Sterling)

What you'll need:

- 1-2 aubergines
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tbsp tahini paste
- juice of 1 lemon
- salt and pepper to taste

What next?

1. Heat your oven up to max (over 220 degrees if you can)

2. Rub oil over aubergines. Give them a good massage. Lay on a baking tray. I'll be using one of these aubergines for the baba ghanouj and another for a recipe coming up soon!

3. Just look at those aubergines! Fresh from the market. Locally grown. Wonderful! Into the hot oven. 30 minutes. Out.

4. The skin should be brittle and the inside will have transformed into a soft pulp. Cool a bit and pull off the skin. Scoop out the pulp.

5. Put the pulp into a cheese cloth (or in my case, a poor quality yet hyper-clean tea towel which is quite porous)

6. Bring the sides of the tea towel up and start squeezing the pulp inside. A lot of moisture should come out and the tea towel will get a little stained - don't worry! Just clean later by boiling in a pan with a little washing powder.

7. After you've really squeezed the moisture out, scrape out the pulp into a bowl.

8. Prep the other ingredients

9. Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend up to a fine consistency. Add a glug of olive oil if it's too dry. Season. 

10. You're there!

Enjoy with crusty bread and maybe a little olive oil and a smattering of cayenne pepper.

Hummus

I think that if you were trapped somewhere with nothing but hummus to eat, not only would you survive, but you'd live well. Just look at the line-up of ingredients:

Chickpeas - packed full of protein
Tahini paste - calcium and iron
Garlic - antibacterial
Lemon juice - vitamin C

Tahini paste - what's that then, eh? It's a paste made of sesame seeds. Available from most supermarkets in the UK. Found in all Asian stores. Available in Poland from Kuchnia Swiata. (http://www.kuchnieswiata.com.pl)

I estimate that one jar would cost you around 3 zl to make (around a US dollar)

You need:

- 2-3 good handfuls of dried chickpeas
- the juice of one lemon
- 1 tbsp of tahini paste
- salt and pepper to taste
- a nice glug of olive oil

What you do?

1. soak the chickpeas overnight and then cook on a low heat with plenty of water for 2 hours till soft

2. Prep the ingredients

3. Juice the lemon. Add all ingredients to a blender and whizz up fine

4. Eat with bread!

There you go - another vegan classic!

Tarka Dal (Version 1)

Now then, if you're serious about being a vegetarian or vegan, you'll need to make friends with pulses - beans and lentils. Much of the world survives on them for their protein content. India would collapse without them.

There's a myth going round that lentils are boring: wrong! Depends what you do with them, eh? This dish will convince you that lentils can not only be as enjoyable as meat but even preferable!

There's another story going round that lentils are dirt cheap and you can eat well on next to nothing. That's entirely true.

Tarka dal is an Indian dish. 

Dal = pulses
Tarka = flavoured at the end by adding a tempered oil

This version I suppose is slightly Bengali influenced with its liberal use of mustard seeds.

Serves: 4
Cost per person: 1 zl (20 pence UK, 24 Euro cents, 31 US cents)

What you need:

- 4-5 good handfuls of red lentils (or a mix of red and yellow)
- 1 tsp coriander
- 2 tbsp veg oil
- 2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2-3 dried red chillies
- 1 tsp finely chopped garlic
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- 1/2 tsp turmeric 

This is easy to make, really. It's vegan (but don't tell anyone!).

Let's get to work!

1. Soak the lentils in a bowl for around 30 minutes

Rinse several times during the 30 minutes so that you move from a bowl which looks like this:

To one which looks like this:

2. Heat up the lentils in a large pan with water 2-3 cm above the line of the lentils

3. When it's up to boil, add the coriander powder. Reduce the heat and cover. Cook for 45 minutes (more or less). The lentils should get nice and mushy by then.

4. While the lentils are cooking, prep the ingredients for the tarka (the flavoured oil)

5. When the lentils are pretty much done, get cracking with the tarka. Heat around 2 tbsp of veg oil in a wok. Mustard seeds in.

6. When the mustard seeds start popping, add the cumin seeds in

7. The tarka is a quick process, so almost immediately after the cumin, add the chillies

8. Wham! Add the garlic and ginger

9. 10 seconds later, get the turmeric in. 5 seconds. Off the heat

10. Your tarka's ready! Add to the pan of lentils.

11. Season with salt to taste. Reduce a bit on a low heat for another 5 minutes. You want the consistency of a thin sauce.

12. Serve with rice!

Cost:

- lentils: 2 zl
- rice: 1.60 zl
- the rest: 0.40 zl

Total: 4 zl
Serves: 4
Per person: 1 zl