Kashmiri Chicken

Today my brother sent me a very interesting article about this entrepreneur in India who started a pearl farming business with an investment of USD7000 and within three years has grown it into a USD7M business.  He did not come from a family of pearl farmers.  Then what must have prompted him to go into this business?  An astrologer!  Yes, you read it right – an astrologer.  He met an astrologer who told him that he has a future in pearls and that is why he went and learnt about pearl farming and is a successful businessman today. 

India is the centre of the IT service industry and engineers and developers and computer wizards working here still would not even see the face of their new born if the stars are not in the correct position.  It is a country on contradictions.  There is belief and hope in everything.  This blind belief in more times than not is pure superstition but the nation is also a nation of hope.  Hope for the future – their future.  The country still has to deal with corruption, with over-population and age old beliefs and customs.  These things will not be changed over-night but you do see that glimpse of change. 

Preparation Time: 45 minutes + 2 hours marinating time

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1 kilo chicken, cut into medium sized pieces

2 cups yoghurt

4 medium sized white onions

2 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste

5 dried red chilies

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

2 bay leaves

2” cinnamon

10 green cardamoms

½ teaspoon black pepper  corns

6 cloves

½ cup cashew nuts, broken bits

10 almonds

¼ tsp saffron

2 tablespoons lime juice

¼ kilo tomatoes

Salt to taste

4 tablespoons sunflower oil

Method:

1. Grind two onions.   
2. Mix the ground onions, ginger-garlic paste and yoghurt and marinate the chicken in this mixture for 2 hours refrigerated.  
3. Lightly roast the red chilies, bay leaves, cumin, black pepper, cloves, cardamom, cashew and almonds on low flame till light brown in color.  
4. Now grind to a smooth paste along with the tomatoes and keep this aside.  
5. Finely chop the remaining two onions.  Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel and when hot, add these onions.  
6. When the onions turn golden brown, add the tomato mixture and fry for about 5 minutes on medium flame.  
7. Now add the chicken-yoghurt mixture and keep vessel covered on low flame till the chicken is cooked, approximately 30 minutes.  
8. Now add the lime juice and the saffron and cook for another couple of minutes.  Serve hot with rice or bread.  You can substitute the chicken with lamb, but then the cooking times would increase in step 7.

 

Aubergine or Brinjal Pahie

Growing up I remember several families who had fled from Iran and were living in India waiting to go to the West as refugees.  Families with small children, older couples, bachelors – everyone leaving the one place they knew and called home to find asylum in another country.  People who were fleeing religious persecution at the hands of the government seeking to find another place they could safely raise their children in and call it “home”.  A couple of decades later, I have connected to some of these refugees (thanks to social networking!) who are now successful businessmen and women, honest taxpaying citizens of the country that harbored them in times of need.  Their children are educated in the ways of their adopted country and they have in most cases forgotten the hardships and trouble their parents went through to bring them safely across. When asked where home is, the younger generation replies it is their adopted country while the older one still relates to Iran as their home. 

Are they nationalists?  No.  Are they unfaithful to the country that gave them safety and abode which Iran could not provide?  No.  My son was 4 ½ years and my daughter barely 9 months when we moved to Belgium.  I try to visit India and/or Yemen once a year at least so they are abreast with the culture and family over there.  I cook Persian or Indian food half of the week and listen to Eastern music.  I have applied for Belgian citizenship and taken classes in the Dutch language.  I have no hatred for the country or its people or culture or cuisine, but at heart I want to be associated with India.  That was the country I was brought up in – that is where I feel home is.  Similarly, my children think Belgium is home.  They crave for French Fries with mayonnaise and Dutch is the language they are most comfortable conversing in.  They have Yemeni and British passports, but want to get Belgian citizenship someday.  Does your passport or nationality dictate where you belong to?  Or is it the people and roots you develop while growing up that dictate where your heart truly belongs to? 

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

115 grams aubergine or brinjal

½ teaspoon mustard seeds

5 grams red chilies

1 sprig curry leaves

5 grams ginger

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

50 ml vinegar

A small piece of cinnamon

5 grams coriander seeds

A pinch of sugar

10 grams onion

A few cloves of garlic

5 grams green chilies

10 grams tamarind

1 cup coconut milk

2 tablespoons corn oil

5 grams turmeric

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Slice the aubergine lengthwise and rub over with turmeric and salt.  Keep aside.   
2. Roast lightly red chilies, mustard seeds, cinnamon, cumin seeds and coriander seeds.  Now grind these spices together and keep aside.   
3. Soak tamarind in salted water.  
4. Slice garlic, ginger, green chilies and onion.  
5. Heat oil and when hot, fry the aubergine and drain and remove.  
6. Mix together the fried aubergine in a vessel with the ground spices, vinegar, and tamarind, curry leaves and sliced ingredients.  
7. To the same hot oil, add this mixture and coconut milk.  
8. Simmer for about 15 minutes stirring all the time.  
9. Add the sugar just before removing from the fire.  Serve warm or cold with bread or chappatis.

Vegetable Dhansak

I work to earn and earn to consume.  So if I worked less, I would earn less and hence consume less.  Would I be happier if I worked less?  Definitely yes!  Would I be happier if I earned less?  I think probably not.  Would I be happier if I consumed less?  Not sure yet. 

I am not a lazy person.  I would work less at the work place, but would instead dedicate more time perhaps in my kitchen, meeting more people and maybe even undertake a service project for the community.  Since I would work less, I would have more time with the family, would not require a maid anymore and all sickness associated with work like stress would disappear.  My work-life balance would be perfect – or I at least hope so near perfect.  If I earned less, it means I would have to be more careful spending money on whims.  I would not starve or be homeless.  I would only be able to afford the necessities in life – not the luxuries. Then why are some decisions so difficult in life when we already know what is the right thing to do?

Preparation Time: 1 hour

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

55 grams split pigeon peas (tuvar dal)

30 grams red lentils (masur dal)

30 grams mung beans (moong dal)

15 grams field beans (val dal)

30 grams bengal gram dal (chana dal)

55 grams red onions

115 grams red pumpkin

1 cup fresh or frozen fenugreek leaves

115 grams potatoes

A sprig of mint

1 cup coriander leaves

1 green chili

1 dried red chili

2" piece ginger

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

15 grams dry coconut

1 garlic pod

½ teaspoon black pepper powder.

½ teaspoon turmeric

115  grams tomatoes

115 grams egg plant

15 grams sweet potato

½ teaspoon coriander powder

½ tablespoon sambhar masala

½ teaspoon garam masala

2 tablespoons corn oil

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Cut vegetables and chop half the onions.  
2. Pick and wash all the beans/dals.  
3. Chop the coriander and mint leaves and the chili.  
4. Roast and grind the red chilies, cumin seeds and dried coconut to a fine paste and keep this aside for later.   
5. Grind ginger and garlic.  
6. Into a pan put the ginger, garlic, dals, cut vegetables, chopped coriander leaves and mint leaves, green chili, turmeric and pepper powder.  Add enough water and let it cook.  This can also be pressure cooked.  
7. When the dal is cooked, add the tomatoes and salt.  
8. Sieve the dal through a soup strainer.  
9. In a separate vessel, heat the oil.   
10. Fry the remaining chopped onions, ground spices and sambhar masala and garam masala and fry this for a few minutes till the onions turn translucent.  
11. Now add the dal mixture to this.  If dal is too thick, make it thin with more water.  
12. When it boils, take off flame and serve with fried rice.

This is how the mixture looks after it has been pressure cooked

Warm Thai Style Chicken Salad

The video of a 68-year old lady, Karen Klein, who was abused by four teenagers while on a bus in New York has gone viral on the net.  Donations have been collected for her and the overall response from people has been kindness.  But who has apologized to her for what she had to go through?  I have seen people debate whether it is the school or parents’ responsibility for how those teenagers behaved. 

Where are our morals?  We always stood up when an elderly person needed a seat on the bus, always wished and thanked people for kindness shown.  We have never abused the elderly.  We have never been disrespectful towards our elders.  We have always set our morals high.  Then why is this degradation in morals affecting our new generations?  Where are we going wrong?

Preparation Time: 30 minutes + overnight marination

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1 red/yellow bell pepper, deseeded and cut into juliennes

2 carrots cut into juliennes

1 cucumber, cut into juliennes

2 spring onions, sliced

1 cup loosely packed fresh coriander leaves

1 cup Thai basil

3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

1 tablespoon olive oil

For the chicken and marinade:

2 skinless chicken breasts

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons fish sauce

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander

For the Dressing:

1 small fresh red chili, finely chopped

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Juice of 1 lime

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons oriental stir fry sauce

Method:

1. Flatten the chicken breasts slightly and cut each lengthwise into two.  Further cut these pieces into thin long strips.  Combine all the marinade ingredients in a shallow bowl and mix well.  Add the chicken and toss to coat.  Set aside, covered in a plastic wrap in the fridge overnight.  
2. Combine all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until well combines.  
3. Combine the bell pepper, carrot, cucumber, green spring onions and herbs on a large serving platter.  
4. Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan until smoking.  
5. Fry the chicken on both sides until cooked through, about 4 minutes.  
6. Remove and place on the platter of vegetables. 
7. Drizzle on the dressing and sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds.  Serve immediately while the chicken is still warm.

 

Date Apple Cake

If you see a 12-year old driving a car on the highway, what would your reaction be?  How would the authorities respond to this act if bylaw a person is allowed to drive only when he is 18 years after holding a valid drivers’ license?  Knowing that this 12-year old is endangering his life and those of others on the road, as a responsible citizen, what should you do?  I am guessing you would each in the same way like me – alert authorities, the responsible guardian/parents of the child and if possible, perhaps even ground the child and vehicle till authorities arrive and take charge.

The legal age to sell cigarettes to a person in Belgium is 16 years old.  How many of us have seen this law broken time and again – children below 16 years come into possession of tobacco and openly flaunt disobedience of the law.  At bus stops and in front of schools you must have often seen children as young as 10 years puffing smoke.  As responsible citizens, how do we have to react to these circumstances?  Ignore the law being broken?

Preparation Time: 55 minutes

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

½ cup white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup shortening

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon dried ginger powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1 cup dates, deseeded and chopped

Method:

1. Cream sugar and shortening; dissolve soda in apple sauce and add to the sugar mixture.  
2. Sift the ginger, cinnamon powder, flour and salt.  Add to the wet mixture and mix well.  
3. Now stir in the dates.  
4. Grease a loaf pan and pour the batter into it.  
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C for about 40 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean when pricked in the middle of the cake.