Tag Archives: Pakistani

Mixed Sabzi

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When you are sick of eating meat everyday, have a green day…. Its super easy, super fast and high of flavour ❤

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Ingredients:

  • 1 cauliflower (heads)
  • 1 cup peas
  • 2 carrots (peeled, sliced or diced)
  • 2 capsicums (cut into cubes)
  • 3 potatoes (cut into cubes)
  • 1 tbspn heapful of crushed ginger
  • 2 green chillies chopped + 2 green chillies whole
  • ½ cup chopped coriander
  • 2 medium onions (sliced)
  • 3 tomatoes (sliced)
  • 2 cups boiling water
  • 1 cup oil
  • 1 tbspn ghee or butter
  • 1 tspn kasuri methi/ dried feugreek leaves
  • 1 tspn garam masala
  • 1 tbspn coriander powder
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tspn red chilli flakes
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • ½ tspn red chilli powder
  • 1 tspn turmeric
  • 1 tspn cumin seeds

Procedure:

  • Wash, peel and cut all the vegetables according to the instructions given.
  • Put peas in 1 cup of boiling water and keep aside until needed.
  • Mix all the spices except garam masala, black pepper and feugreek leaves in a bowl
  • Heat oil in a pan and fry onion. Add ginger when the onion is translucent. Fry until everything is golden brown. Add tomatoes and cook until tomatoes lose the stiffness. Add a splash of boiling water and stir.
  • Add potatoes and mix. Simmer on medium flame for 5 minutes, adding splash of boiling water whenever needed. Add rest of the water and cover the pot. Cook for 5 minutes on medium low heat.
  • Now add carrots, cauliflower and peas along with the spice mix and stir. Cook for 5 minutes and then cover and cook for 10 minutes on low heat.
  • Add capsicum and let it cook on low heat. Meanwhile melt some butter or ghee in a frying pan and fry fenugreek leaves, garam masala and black pepper for 30 seconds. Add this mixture to the vegetables, add some coriander leaves and green chillies, give it a final stir and take it out in the serving dish.
  • Garnish with the left over coriander and green chillies and serve hot with home made rotis.

Bhuna Gosht (Mutton)

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Bhuna Gosht has many variations in Pakistan but this is my very own recipe. I find it more flavorful and desi, the tempering of kashmiri chilli powder and fenugreek leaves make it more special. Try my recipe and let me know how you go with it…. I am sure your family and friends would love it.

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Ingredients:

  • 1 – 1.5 kilo mutton with ones
  • 2 medium sized onions, sliced
  • 4 – 6 green chillies
  • 3 tomatoes, sliced
  • 2 tbspns heap full of fresh ginger and garlic (crushed)
  • 1 cup oil or ghee + 2 tbspns extra
  • Some water

SPICES

  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tbspn Kashmiri red chilli powder
  • 1 tbspn red chilli flakes
  • 1 tspn heap full turmeric
  • 1 tbspn coriander powder
  • 1 tbspn garam masala powder
  • 1 tbspn cumin seeds
  • 1 tspn whole cloves
  • 1 tspn whole peppercorns
  • 2 cardamoms, slitted
  • 1 tbspn fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)

GARNISH

  • Green chillies
  • Fresh coriander

Method:

  • Heat oil or melt ghee in a cooking pot and fry onion until it is translucent. Add ginger, garlic, cumin, cloves and peppercorns and fry until the onion is golden brown and ginger garlic is cooked.
  • Add mutton pieces and fry until the meat changes its color.
  • Add salt and fry until the water from the meat gets dry. Add 2 cups of water and cook until the meat in tender or add one (1) cup of water and pressure cook for 30 mins after the whistle.
  • When the meat is 85% cooked and the water is dried from the pot, add rest of the spices, tomatoes and green chillies and cook for further 10 – 15 minutes on medium flame. The moisture from the tomatoes will cook the remaining 15% of the meat. Add a splash of water if needed.
  • Meanwhile in a frying pan, melt 2 tbspns of ghee or heat 3 tbspns of oil and fry cardamom, fenugreek leaves and Kashmiri chilli powder for 30 secs and add this to the cooking pot.
  • Give it a final mix and garnish with some green chillies and coriander.
  • Serve hot with roti or naan.

Fried Batere (Fried Quails) (Desi Style)

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Bater is Urdu name for quails. These are small chicken like birds with very less quantity of meat but they are very famous in Pakistani (specially Gujranwala City) and Lebanese cuisine. In Pakistan, there are 3 methods of cooking Quails, in curry, fried or barbecued. This is my version of fried quails. I add spices and herbs and fry with a thin coating of gram flour to give it crunchy outside.

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Ingredients:

  • 24 batere (quails, skinless)
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 – 1 ½ tbspns Red chilli flakes
  • ½ tspn turmeric powder
  • 1 tbspn cracked dried coriander
  • 1 tspn cumin seeds
  • 1 tbspn minced garlic
  • 1 tspn fenugreek leaves
  • 1 tspn carom seeds
  • 1 tspn garam masala
  • 1 tspn chaat masala
  • 1 cup gram flour
  • 2 green chillies (chopped finely)
  • 1 bunch coriander, chopped
  • 2 tbspns mint, chopped
  • 4 lemons (small size) (squeezed, seedless)
  • 2 tbspns vinegar
  • Oil or deep frying

Method:

  • In a mixing bowl, mix all the spices, lemon and vinegar into a thick paste.
  • Take a big, not very deep platter and pat dry the quails. Apply this spice paste to the quails and keep aside for 1 hour in refrigerator. This will help in marination and maintaining the shape of the bird.
  •  After one hour of refrigeration, add gram flour and mix with the juices, lemon and vinegar without adding any additional liquid.
  • Heat oil in a deep pan, wok or kadai and fry in batches depending on the size of your wok. 5 – 8 mins per quail on medium heat.
  • Serve them on a platter with some lemon slices, green chillies and fresh coriander.

Smokey Chicken Handi

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Chicken handi is one of the famous dishes of Pakistani desi restaurants. This is my version of boneless chicken handi and trust me this is the best one. Coal tempered boneless chicken cubes, cooking in light curry with basic and simple spices is a delight and a crowd pleaser on dinner table…. Try this recipe and let me know what you think by commenting below this post…..

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Ingredients:

  • 1.5 kg cubed boneless chicken (mix of thigh and breast pieces)
  • 3 medium – large size onions, sliced
  • 3 tomatoes, sliced
  • 1 cup yogurt
  • 2 tbspns ginger and garlic, freshly crushed
  • Green chillies (as you like)
  • Fresh coriander, chopped (1 cup)
  • 1 tbspn fenugreek leaves, fresh or dried
  • 1 cup oil + few drops for coal tempering

SPICES

  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tbspn red chilli flakes
  • 1 tspn carom seeds
  • 1 tbspn coriander powder
  • 1 tspn turmeric
  • 1 tspn garam masala
  • 1 tspn cracked black pepper
  • 1 piece of cinnamon
  • 2 cloves
  • 1 tspn cumin seeds

Method:

  • Heat oil in a deep pan and fry onion until they are translucent. Add ginger and garlic and fry until the mixture is golden brown. Add chicken and stir fry until it turns white. Add tomatoes and all the spices except black pepper and fenugreek leaves.
  • Cook on high flame until the tomatoes lose the stiffness. Add whipped yogurt and mix. Cover and cook on medium heat. Meanwhile put a piece of coal on flame so it is ready when needed.
  • After 15 minutes of cooking, check if the chicken is cooked and the oil has started to separate. If no, then cook for further 5 minutes. If yes, then turn off the flame, add cracked black pepper, green chillies, coriander and fenugreek leaves and temper it with coal.
  • Dish out and garnish with green chillies and coriander.

Aalu Papri Chaat

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Aalu Papri Chaat is a famous chaat in South Asia Sub Continent. It is a street snack often consumed during shopping or after school or college. The preparation time for this recipe is more than assembling time, but its really easy and each and every second is worth it.

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Ingredients:

  • 1 large potato (cut into small cubes and boiled to perfection, chilled)
  • 1 cup boiled chickpeas
  • 2 cups papri/ Namak Paare
  • 1 large red onion chopped
  • 1 tomato (deseeded and chopped)
  • 2 small green chillies chopped fine
  • 2 tbspns date and tamarid sauce or meethi imli chutney
  • 4 tbspns nimko/ sev (I used Haldiram Navratan)

FOR MINT SAUCE

  • 1 cup fresh mint leaves
  • 1 cup fresh coriander leaves
  • 2 green chillies (small size)/ 1 green chilli (if you don’t want too hot)
  • 1 cup yogurt whipped with ¼ cup water

FOR YOGURT SAUCE

  • 1 cup yogurt
  • 1 tbspn sugar
  • ¼ cup cold water

FOR SPICY SAUCE

  •  1 cup yogurt
  • 2 tbspns chaat masala
  • ¼ cup water

Procedure:

  • Cut and boil the potatoes and chop all the veggies.
  • Let’s make all the three sauces:
  1. Mint sauce: in a mortar and pestle, crush mint, coriander and green chillies and add salt. Mix with whipped yogurt.
  2. Yogurt Sauce: Whip all the ingredients together.
  3. Spicy Sauce: Whip all the ingredients together.
  • Now it’s time to assemble the chaat. Due to Papri and yogurt we can’t assemble and keep this chaat for long as the papri will get soggy so please assemble it 5 minutes before serving to get the best taste.
  • In two plates divide papri, chickpeas, onion, tomato, potato ad green chillies for each serving. This recipe will make two servings.
  • Now in the serving plate, first lay a layer of papri, some onion, tomato, chick peas and potato. Drizzle some of each sauce. Add remaining onion, potato and tomato and then another drizzle of each sauce. Drizzle some tamarind sauce and sprinkle some sev or nimko and serve.*Please make sure the sauces and the potatoes are chilled.

Dahi Phulki

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Dahi Phulki….. a side dish for Biryani or an appetizer in Iftar or a street snack…… tastes the best in any form. Very simple to make but your guests will be amazed by the effort you have put in….. If you are anything like me who likes to listen compliments…. go ahead. This is your dish!

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Ingredients:

  • 2 cups boiled phulki
  • 1 cup boiled cubed potato
  • 1 large red onion chopped
  • 3 cups yogurt
  • 1 cup cold water
  • 1 tbspn sugar
  • 2 tbspns chaat masala
  • 2 small hot green chillies chopped fine
  • 3 tbspns tamarind sauce
  • 1 cup thinly sliced cabbage

Procedure:

  • In a deep mixing bowl, combine yogurt, water, sugar and 1 tbspn chaat masala and whisk until its smooth. Add boiled pakorian/ phulki, cabbage, onion, 1 green chilli and potato and mix with gentle hands.
  • Take it out in the serving dish, drizzle some tamarind sauce, garnish with some green chillies and sprinkle rest of the chaat masala. Chill for 2 hours and serve.