Desi Flavours: Mutton Tikka Masala

Being a stay at home mom, all i do every day is cook, clean and take care of the kids. It gets frustrating, it gets monotonous and most of the times it feels like a job with no rewards. Don't get me wrong, i do love the feeling when you get to play with your kids and they smile at you. But once you know you are capable of achieving much more in life, you are just never satisfied with a little less. I'm not being ungrateful, i know i have wanted to have kids for a long time, but staying home and cooking and cleaning all day is not really what i signed up for. This is mostly the reason i want to write more. I want to find joy in those daily monotonous chores. I want to be appreciative of the fact that all of those women out there who are sacrificing their careers for their families  are more than just cooks and cleaning ladies. In our part of the world it is considered a woman's "Job" to cook food for the family. If she fails to produce a good quality meal, she is a lesser person and no it doesn't matter how good she may be at something else. Anyway, enough of the rants, i only meant to write a pretext for this simple everyday recipe i wanted to share. Sometimes you need to look for the joy of cooking in simple everyday desi recipes. You need to photograph that "salan" getting cooked in your old pressure cooker while your maid stares at you thinking "baji harr waqt he khane ki tasweerain leti rehti hain". Just because you need to appreciate your own self and reassure yourself that you have what it takes and you are doing the best that you can.

Eid has just passed and i'm sure all of our freezers are stacked with meat waiting to be cooked either for family get togethers or an everyday meal. The simplest thing you can do with meat in a Pakistani way is to cook it in some yogurt, onions and tomatoes and you have a delicious meal ready in a jiffy to be served with hot chapattis. Here is a recipe for Mutton Tikka Masala. I use this procedure to cook everyday meat and poultry.

Ingredients:

Meat 1 kg (beef or mutton)
Yogurt 1/2 kg
Vinegar- 1 Tbsp(optional)
Onions 4-5 medium sized, finely chopped
Tomatoes 4-5 Medium Sized boiled in 1 cup water
Salt- to taste
Red Chilli Flakes-1 Tsp
Turmeric Powder- 1/2 Tsp
Fennel Seeds-1 Tsp
Ginger Garlic Paste- 1 Tbsp
Oil- 1/4 Cup
Fresh Coriander- 1 Tsp
Finely Sliced Ginger- 1 Tsp
Garam Masala Powder-1 Tsp
A small piece of hot coal placed on an aluminum foil with a tiny opening for the smoke to escape


Method:

Heat oil and add the chopped onions in it. Fry them till they change their color to white. Then add the ginger garlic paste and stir for half a minute. Then add the fennel seeds and stir until you can feel their aroma. Put in the meat and cook until it changes it's color and loses the redness. This is an important tip if you want to get rid of the smell of the meat. Add vinegar at this point if you are using it. The yogurt and vinegar will also help in the same way. Add the salt, red chilli and turmeric to the yogurt and mix well Pour it over the meat and stir it till the water evaporates and you can see the oil on top. Now boil the tomatoes and blend them well until you get a runny puree. (you can also use tomato puree but in that case you will need to add extra water to make sure the meat is cooked well) Now add this tomato mixture to the meat and cover it, Let it cook till the meat is done. Once it is done the water will have almost evaporated. If you think the meat is still uncooked, add more water and return the lid. Once the meat is done raise the heat and dry the gravy until it is reduced and oil comes on top. Sprinkle fresh coriander, garlic and Garam Masla and put the burning hot piece of coal on top. Pour some oil over it so the smoke starts to release and put on dum for 5 minutes. Serve hot with chapattis.

Note: The extra step where you first cook the meat in yogurt and vinegar helps to get rid of any sort of smell from the meat. You can skip it if you are not very picky. Just add a thicker tomato puree with less water as the yogurt has water content on its own which helps the meat to be cooked.

Apple Pie

Apples and cinnamon is probably one of my most favorite combinations. On a winter afternoon, there is nothing better than a homemade apple pie with a cup of coffee. While i prefer this dessert warm in the winters, it can also be served in summers with a dollop of ice cream. Make it a day before you want it to be served so the filling has time to set. I made one a few days ago though i could only photograph the leftover pieces. Here is the Recipe. 

There is this thing with baking that you must be precise in your measurements and follow the instructions of the recipe very carefully. I just cannot stress the importance of it more. For example in this recipe it says to place the pie at the bottom rack of the oven. You must do that. I placed it in the center and it took longer to cook. Which resulted in a little bit cracking of the crust from top. And DONOT forget to place something to collect the juices while the pie bakes otherwise you will have a messy oven and the drizzle itself will burn and create a lot of unwanted mess. 

Happy cooking!

The little munchkins turn 1

I have had a very busy week followed by a very lazy one and i kept putting off this blog post to the next day which as expected, didn't arrive until i had to push myself. Literally! The twins had their birthday last weekend and i spent the whole week preparing. It has been pretty stressful trying to put together an event you truly wish to be perfect with two wailing kids who refuse to follow their routines just when you need them to. I would cook during the day and craft decorations during the night when they would sleep. For some deranged reason, i had this notion of doing every single thing by myself. Whether i had a point to prove or not, i'm not sure, but eventually everything kind of settled and the event was pretty much a success. Phew!

The theme was Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. Here are a few pictures from the decor;

By the time i took this picture, the helium was evaporating from the balloons and they dropped down. It looked better when i put them up. The red hats with mickey ears were for the boys and the black hats with bows were for the girls. Same pattern followed for the goody bags. I was supposed to make a centre piece of mickey's head but i couldn't find a Styrofoam ball anywhere in the market so i had to drop the idea. Instead i placed the photo props in the middle since the background was supposed to serve as a photo booth as well. 

I have pinned dozens of crepe paper squares on this sign from my own bare hands, so i felt pretty proud of this one!

The number 1 pinata, photographed later. 

Some buntings, the first ones are printed, the second ones are simply cutouts from colored paper.

Photo timeline for A and Z. One side for Z and the other for A. And if you could see the garlands with mickey head silhouette hanging from the ceiling.  

By the way i have learnt the art of making tissue paper pom poms. It is pretty simple. I think i will share it on my blog someday. No need to buy the ones that are available in the market, they cost about 250 Rs. each. Whereas you can make one at home only with a crepe paper that costs Rs. 25. Budget friendly much? And the best part is you can make them in any desired color. Usually here in Pakistan the ones that we get from the market come in very few colors. 

The food was mostly served in individual serving. Bite sized items look great on the table but i have realized that they are much more time consuming to make.  I tried making most of it in advance and looked for recipes that could be frozen or half cooked because i wanted to focus on the birthday cake the last day. Little did i know all that will be no good and the cake will be pretty much of a disaster. I will share my cake story in a bit, first some pictures of the food items. 

Sugar cookies

This was my first attempt at sugar cookies. I didn't even have a mickey shaped cookie cutter. So i made one following a video on youtube. I used the same method to make a smaller one for the fondant cutouts on the cake. The cookies turned out great. Decorating them was a challenging part. I made the royal icing using meringue powder which turned out to be just the right consistency but it didn't dry hard like it is supposed to because the whether was too humid. I had to wait overnight for each color to dry. And even then the white icing was difficult to work with while making buttons. 

I took the recipe for sugar cookies and royal icing from glorioustreats. This is my favorite website for cookie decorating ideas. 

Chocolate Cupcakes

The recipe for these cupcakes comes from joyofbaking dot com. I have tried these a dozen times and they are your recipe for ultimate chocolate indulgence. to save time i had bought Betty Crocker's chocolate fudge frosting for these, but the one mentioned in the recipe also works great.  

Mini Burgers

This is my own recipe for the chicken patties and i will share it shortly in another post. 

Other savory item included Fish with Tartar Sauce, Chicken Tenders, Mini Pizzas and Pasta in Alfredo Sauce. All of which i was unable to photograph but i will share their recipes with new photos soon. 

Shortbread Tarts

These tarts are my favorite. They are easy to make, taste great and the best part is that you can freeze them. I made them a week ahead and put them in the freezer. I took them out one night before and they were as butter crisp and fresh as on the day they were baked. Just make sure to put them in a good wrapping so they don't smell of other food items in the freezer. I filled them with white chocolate (molten chocolate chips) as i was already using cream cheese frosting for my cake. Besides it was easy just to melt chocolate chips and fill the tarts. Here's a link to the recipe. 

Cake trufles

These were supposed to be cake pops. But i didn't have cake pop sticks and they just kept sliding off the skewers so i simply put them in a pastry liner and topped with some sprinkles. Which also brings me to my cake story. 

I chose to make a two tier cake, the bottom layer being a Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and the top tier was supposed to be a plain vanilla cake with buttercream. I dedicated one whole day to baking the cakes so i don't mess it up. I made two 9" red velvet cakes and one 6" vanilla cake following the recipes mentioned in the hyperlinks. The cakes turned out beautiful. I was actually feeling proud of myself until i had started to frost them!

The frosting just wont set. I had backup jars of store bought frosting but even that kept running. The weather was too hot. I had planned on frosting the cakes with colored icing rather than covering them completely with fondant but the icing simply refused to cooperate. Thankfully i had some left over fondant from my decorations so i thought lets cover it up. Bad idea! The fondant was getting hard to handle as well. Add more sugar, it stiffens, add shortening or water, it melts. I kept rolling and kneading and adding for a good one hour, finally getting it to cover the cake and wham, it just rip when it hit the icing. At that point i was too exhausted to think of more ideas so i let it rest in the refrigerator overnight and try again in the morning, The fondant was set in the morning but it wasn't really what you call a neat wrapping. I took out the cake to stick the decorations to it but then it started to melt again. The top tier actually started to slip off the bottom one. That is when i decided to stop. As much as i wanted the cake to be perfect, it just proved the fact that we can't get everything done on our own and at times it is okay to ask for professional help. I have worked with fondant before, but that was usually in spring or winters, i didn't think a humid weather would be an icing killer. I read a lot about this online later and now i am determined to learn how to tackle this issue in the future. For now, here is a picture of the cake. 

It is only decorated from one side because honestly i had given up. It did taste great though! My youngest sister practically finished it all in a couple of days. What a sugar rush i'm sure!

Anyway, all is well that ends well. Most of my husband's relatives don't have a sweet tooth and they don't really eat cake(yes that is true, such good people exist in this world unlike you and me!) so nobody was really concerned how it looked. The savory stuff was however gone in minutes and my sisters helped finish the rest! The kids were cranky but they loved it later when we opened the presents. I was tired and sleep deprived, but happy because i had finally pulled it off and everything was ready on time. At the end of the day, all that matters is the effort which you put in, especially for your kids who mean the world to you. 

We are having the next birthday at McDonalds though! Just Kidding! I would love to pamper my kids with theme parties of their choice every year. 

Disclaimer:

A few of the decorations (cupcake toppers, buntings and food labels) have been printed from HomeKeeters.com. The rest of the toppers and everything else has been hand crafted by me. 

Lemon Sponge Pudding

My dad lives in a different city and because of the fact that he hates to travel due to his health, it's is seldom i get to see him at my place. But whenever he does come over, i have this Honest-to-God urge to impress him. I don't know where it comes from, but i just need everything to be perfect when he comes over. A spotless house and the food being perfect and well presented. Maybe it is because he has done so much for us all our lives that it feels like now he deserves perfect everything in whatever capacity we can give him. Or maybe a part of me just wants to prove to him that i'm not just his little princess anymore and am an independent person capable of managing things perfectly, just the way he raised us all to be. I love to cook for my dad, he, like me, is also a food lover and appreciates new efforts. I believe the best part about cooking is to share it with the ones you love. I have always loved spoiling family and friends with good food.

So today he is coming over and i have been preparing since morning. Excited as i am, i decided to try out this new recipe for lemon sponge pudding. As i mentioned in my previous post that i have been wanting to experiment with lemons. Seeing my excitement hubby dear brought me these amazing looking lemons from the supermarket.

It is not everyday you see lemons this big over here in Pakistan. Usually the local "sabzi wala" has ones that are much smaller in size. I saved a lot of zest for future use so i guess you can expect more lemon-related recipes soon.

Here is the recipe for lemon sponge pudding. I love the tangy-ness in it and the soft texture. It can be served both warm and cold maybe with a dollop of whipped cream but personally i like it served warm with a dusting of icing sugar.

                            

On an ending note, I'm absolutely enjoying trying out all these zesty recipes. In my book, when life gives you lemons, you make lemon sponge pudding.

                           

Lemon Cake

I haven't been able to bake much lately, let alone post something. Z has been sick with some viral infection, and we all know how crazy life gets when one or more of your kids are under the weather. Anyway, she is feeling better now which is a relief. However i'm feeling quite paranoid about A now. It's like waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's inevitable that they both share germs and i know sooner or later he is going to catch it too. But so far he seems fine. *fingers crossed*

Today I'm going to share the recipe for a lemon cake that i made recently. I have never really experimented with lemons in baking. I remember making a lemon curd once for a Boston Cream Pie but that was a flop because it tasted too much of egg yolks. So i decided to start my lemon-y goods experiments the other way round and this time i made a simple lemon cake. Lemon curds and puddings will follow later. 

This is basically a pound cake which uses lemon juice and lemon zest to give that moist and tangy flavour. The final touch is your lemon frosting which is made by combining confectioners icing with lemon juice. Everyone in my family loved this cake. It is just the right amount of moist and sweet and tangy. My husband is not a fan of the tangy-ness of the glaze though. But i loved it. You can make the cake without the glaze and this will probably be the best recipe for pound cake in your recipe collection.

Here's the recipe.

And this is how it turned out. I made it in a loaf pan, but i would suggest to use a round cake pan so the frosting settles on top. With a loaf pan you have to make it real thick if you want it to drip along with staying over the surface.

Chicken and Mushroom Cannelloni

My recent haul and a fallen marble bundt cake

Online shopping is probably the worst kind for your budget. Otherwise it would mean stepping out of the house which stay at home moms like me seldom do and as a result we don't shop often. But having stuff just a click away is a little too hard to resist. Especially when you are all for trying out new products.

Recently i have been updating my stock of bake-ware and i got a little carried away with my recent purchases. Here is what i bought;

A mini cheesecake pan with removable bottoms. I have been really wanting this ever since my individual cheesecakes experiment.

A 9" non stick tart pan with removable bottom. I don't own a tart pan/ pie dish. I have always used my mom's for the apple pies. Really want to experiment with more pies and tarts.

A ceramic bundtform pan. Just because this was relatively cheap and bundt cakes are so pretty looking. I have never made a bundt cake in my life and as soon as i got my hands on it, i tried one. I used the marble cake recipe from joyofbaking.com and the result was a perfectly light and amazingly good tasting cake that fell apart due to my own impatience. (So no picture for you guys)

The recipe clearly said to make sure the cake cools in the pan before you turn it over. Well i being the impatient woman that i am, didn't wait long enough and it broke from the top as i flipped it over. Nevertheless it tasted good and as much as i wanted to save the leftovers for a later time, there weren't any. Here's a picture of the last slice i helped finish today. 

At this rate if i continue with my baking experiments and keep consuming them, i'm afraid i will never lose those extra pounds i gained during my pregnancy. (Yes i'm still carrying them) One of these days i would like to post about eating healthy. I really hope that is soon enough. My dear husband generously offered to take all these yummy goods off my hands by taking them along with him to work. I really like the offer, but to avail that i must make sure i make pretty looking cakes next time, not the ones that fall apart. 

Coming back to the online shopping part, i would like to add that there are a lot of pages on facebook these days which deal with all sort of baking supplies. Initially all these supplies were not available in Pakistan and they still are hard to find at local stores, so your best option is to shop online. The best part is that most of them let you contact them via whatsapp so you can inquire about the product in detail and they even let you have the cash on delivery service. I ordered the first two products from Bakers Supplies. I'm very happy with their pricing, the quality of product and their service. The bundt cake pan was ordered from Daraz.pk. I'm really looking forward to more bundt cake recipes. And i promise myself i wont let the next one fall apart. "Feeling Determined"!