Sinful Khatta Meat

I am not really known for my cooking skills. In fact, people are wary of my cooking, since they need to praise it (sometimes even if things don't taste good). The things I cook mostly involve about 30 minutes of cooking time. I firmly believe that, if something can not be cooked in 30 minutes, then it's not worth trying it.

:-)

Given choice, I would always avoid any of those meat recipes (especially Indian once). All of them consist elaborate steps and they take forever to complete. But when I tasted this Khatta meat, it made me want to try it myself. My father-in-law cooks this with such a finesse, that it's lip smacking taste lingers on for days together.

If you like your meat with a bit of zing, then this recipe is for you. It's sinfully dark (black with a hint of green) and just enough sour (to give you a kick). It doesn't need too many spices, just a bowl of good fresh meat and lots and lots of patience. So try this recipe, if you have at least four hours to spare.

Ingredients:

1. Meat (cut into medium size pieces) : 1 kg
2. Onion (coarsely chopped) : 500 gm
3. mustard oil : 200 gm
4. bay leaves : 2-3
5. garlic (crushed) : 15-20 cloves
6. ginger (finely chopped) : two inch piece
7. coriander seed powder : 2 tablespoons
8. Asafoetida : two pinches
9. turmeric powder : 2 teaspoons
10. Aniseed (sounf) : 4 tablespoons
11. fenugreek seeds (roasted and crushed): 1 teaspoon
12. green cardamom (make a slit in each) : 8
13. aamchur : 8 tablespoons
14. Daikon Radish or mooli (take only white part and cut into 1 inch long pieces): 250 gm (this is not mandatory)
15. Salt as per taste

How to get going:

Take big enough pot (I use one big 24cm dia dutch oven), so that the meat can be mixed easily. It is very important to choose right pot. It must have heavy bottom since traditionally this meat is cooked for long hours on low flame. If your pot is not thick enough, it will start burning the meat towards midway.

Heat the pot and pour mustard oil. Once oil is hot enough (you should be able to see a sort of smoke rising), put onions and saute for about two minutes until onion turns transparent. Add meat pieces and salt (will need about two spoons) as per taste and mix it well.

Let it cook for about 60 minutes (yes, you got it right) on the lowest flame possible. You need to keep stirring it every five minutes or so. Add Daikon Radish pieces and let it all cook for another 30 minutes. You will need to stir the mixture once in a while to avoid burning. Once it starts boiling, the onions will slowly dissolve and meat pieces will release juice. The pieces are to cooked in their own juices. The sauce will be reduced until oil is released.

Keep track of the meat. Once you see oil separating in the mixture, check if the meat is cooked. If meat is not cooked then you will need to put meat pieces in pressure cooker to cook separately. Try not to add too much water as it will need more time to reduce it later. If meat is cooked too early while mixture it still watery, take out the meat pieces and then reduce your sauce. If you continue to cook "cooked" meat further it will break into very small pieces.

Once meat is cooked and oil is released, add the spices - coriander seed powder, asafoetida, turmeric, aniseed, fenugreek seeds, ginger, garlic and bay leaves. Mix the mixture until oil separates further. When it becomes sort of dry, add aamchur and cook for another 10 minutes.

Now the dry meat is ready. (You can eat this stuff as starter as well. It tastes yummy). Add water (and salt, if needed) as much required for curry and let it boil for about 10 minutes.

Tadah, your mouthwatering khatta meat is ready. Enjoy it with plain rice.

What's cooking today?

Nowadays, the most difficult problem for me is to plan for food at home. I dread the time when my cook comes and asks me "What should I cook today?".

It's due to number of reasons. I never get enough time (mainly due to lack of interest) to find out inventory in my kitchen. Buying stuff in supermarkets is my favorite time-pass. I also enjoy buying vegetables from the street market. It's so much fun. You can roam around aimlessly and decide on which vendor has the freshest vegetables. Also there are so many vegetables out there that one can plan for the meal right there. I love deciding what to cook depending on what vegetables I see in market. Not to mention that I end up buying veriety of things whenever I go for veggie shopping.

Though I like to buy vegetables, I don't get to do that. Our new house is bit far from the market place, so I rarely go for vegetable shopping. Thus I never know what's available either in home or in market. There are very few dishes which one can make without any advance notice, so I have no choice but to choose from one of the vegetables available at home. In short, we end up eating bread-butter from breakfast, beans for lunch and capsicum for dinner (ok, sometimes we cook peas too).

Sigh!

Couple of days back, when I was looking at my outlook meeting calendar, one idea struck me. I decided to prepare a complete menu for breakfast, lunch, dinner for a week. This way, my cook can stock the required vegetables and preplan the soaking, boiling et al. and the biggest relief is that he won't have to come to me to ask the same question everyday.

Deciding what to eat is such a big challenge. When we don't notice, we can afford to gobble as many calories as we can. But when things are put down on paper, the whole equation changes. One becomes extremely "health" conscious. Hmm, if I have aloo-paratha for breakfast, I should have only salad in night. OMG, How can I have Rajma four times a week? And the list goes on....

It took me whole three days to plan the menu, but I am happy with the outcome. It looks colorful and delicious (at least on paper). Now that I am done with it, it will keep on repeating (until we get bored of it).

Sushi

Ma is here and she is vegetarian. She keeps making lot of things for me, so I decided to cook something different for her.

Suddenly I got up with this idea of sushi. I am no fan of raw fish, (but Aaditya seems to adore sushi). I decided to try out veg sushi instead, so that we all can enjoy it. There are plenty of recipes on net and the process of rolling sticky rice on nori sheets sounds pretty manageable to me.

Now the quest for nori sheets, wasabe and Japanese sticky rice has started. Can somebody help me in finding these things in Bangalore?

I like momos

Ok, So far I have figured this part out. Now the next thing is to find out how to make them.

What is "All-purpose flour" BTW?