2. Nihari Gosht
(Chef Abhishek Basu, Executive Chef JW Marriott Mumbai Juhu)
Ingredients: Baby lamb with bones - 400 gm, mace - 3 gm, bay leaf - 2 gm, green cardamom whole - 2 no, cloves - 2 gm, black cardamom - 3 no, garlic - 10 gm, ginger fresh - 10 gm, garam masala - 5 gm, coriander powder - 10 gm, yellow chilli powder - 10 gm, turmeric powder - 10 gm, cumin powder - 15 gm, fried onions - 30 gm, yogurt - 70 gm, salt - to taste, ghee - 20 gm, lamb stock - 150 ml, gram flour - 60 gm, kewda water - 2 ml
Method:
1. Boil lamb in a heavy bottomed pan and remove the scum.
2. In a hot pan, add ghee, whole garam masala and ginger garlic paste. Stir till the paste is cooked. Add fried onions.
3. Put turmeric powder, cumin powder, yellow chili powder and coriander powder and sauté with the boiled lamb.
4. Add Lamb stock to it and let it cook for sometime till the lamb gets tender.
5. Add nicely whisked curd and add diluted gram flour to the gravy. Season with salt.
6. Add kewda water to the gravy. And serve hot.
3. Butter Chicken Biryani Recipe
(Rachel Goenka, CEO & Founder of The Chocolate Spoon Company)
Ingredients:
For marinating chicken: Chicken (bone-in & skinless pieces, cut into 15 pieces approximately) – 1 ½ kg, curd/yogurt (preferably hung/thick yogurt) – 500 gms, ginger paste – 1 tbsp, garlic paste – 1 tbsp, turmeric powder – 1 tsp, kashmiri red chili powder – 3 tbsp, garam masala – 1 tsp, salt to taste
For butter chicken gravy: Onion (large, grated) – 1, ginger (grated) – 2-inch piece, garlic (grated) – 10-12 cloves, green chilli – 2, oil – 6 to 8 tbsp, butter – 4 tbsp, green cardamom – 6, cloves – 6, black cardamom – 2, cinnamon – 2-inch piece, mace – 1 to 2 pieces, star anise – 2, tomatoes (blanched and pureed or ½ cup tomato paste) – 6, sugar – 2 tsp, turmeric powder – 1 tsp, coriander powder – 2 tsp, kashmiri chilli powder – 3 tsp, garam masala – 1 tsp, kasoori methi – 2 tsp, salt to taste
For biryani rice: Basmati rice – 500 gms (washed and soaked for 15 minutes), bay leaf – 2, whole peppercorn – 1 tsp, salt – 1 tsp
Other ingredients: Onion (large, thinly sliced) – 5, Oil – 2 tbsp + more for deep frying, Butter – 6 tbsp (about 70 gms), Butter (cut into 8 to 10 small cubes) – 4 tbsp, Fresh cream – ½ cup, Fresh mint leaves – 1 cup, Fresh coriander leaves (chopped) – 1 cup, Saffron strands – 1 pinch, Milk (warm lightly) – 4 tbsp, Kesar/orange food color – ½ tsp (optional)
Method:
Marinating chicken:
1. Wash the chicken thoroughly and drain out excess water. Put the pieces in a large bowl and add all ingredients listed under marinade.
2. Massage all the ingredients into the chicken so that the masala coats all the pieces well
3. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and let the chicken marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.
Cooking rice:
1. Boil a large pot of water and add salt, bay leaves and whole peppercorn to it. When the water starts boiling, add the washed rice to it. Cook the rice until half-cooked which would take about 8 to 9 minutes on high heat.
2. Drain the water out immediately and spread the rice in a colander to let the excess water drip off. Do not rinse the rice in cold water.
Making brown onions:
1. Heat enough oil in a deep-frying pan to deep fry the sliced onions. Deep fry the onions in batches instead of adding all sliced onions at one go.
2. Once the onion slices turn golden brown, take them out and put them on a plate.
Cooking the chicken:
1. Heat a deep, heavy-bottomed pot and add 2 tablespoons of oil and the 6 tbsp of butter to it. Once the butter is melted, add the whole spices to temper it – shahi jeera, green & black cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, mace and star anise. Sauté them on medium flame until they become fragrant, about a minute or so.
2. Next, add the grated onions and cook it for a couple of minutes. Then add grated ginger, grated garlic and green chillies. Keep sautéing them on medium flame until they turn golden brown. This would take about 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Now add the marinated chicken along with all the marinating liquid.
4. Continue cooking the chicken on medium-high flame until the oil starts to separate. This will take anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes on medium flame.
5. Once the oil starts to separate, add tomato puree and sugar to balance the tartness of the tomatoes. Also, season with salt to taste. Stir to mix everything well and let the tomato puree cook for 10 minutes.
6. Now add all the powdered spices – turmeric powder, coriander powder, Kashmiri chilli powder and garam masala. Add a couple of spoons of water and fry the spices on medium-high heat for 2 minutes or until oil starts to separate again from the mixture.
7. Add kasoori methi to the chicken and stir to mix well. Sauté for a couple of minutes more.
8. Add about a cup of hot water to the chicken and bring it to a boil. Then cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked.
Assembling the butter chicken biryani:
1. First warm up the milk lightly and add the saffron strands to it to let them release their color. Set aside.
2. Take the pot of chicken off the heat for assembling the biryani in the same pot. Give the chicken a final stir; there should be some gravy left in the pot which will be absorbed by the rice while cooking biryani.
3. Using a spatula, evenly arrange the chicken at the bottom of the pot. Now drizzle the fresh cream on top covering the chicken. Do not stir.
4. Sprinkle half of the crispy brown onions, half of the mint leaves and half of the chopped coriander leaves on top. Try to sprinkle them as evenly as possible. Do not stir.
5. Now add the rice by evenly arranging them on top covering everything below completely so that the chicken is not visible from the top. Sprinkle the remaining fried onions, mint leaves and coriander leaves.
6. Mix the food colour, if using, in the saffron-infused warm milk and whisk thoroughly to dissolve the colour completely. Now drizzle the coloured milk on top distributing evenly all over the rice. The milk will trickle down below and colour the lower layers of rice too.
7. Finally, place the salted butter cubes all over the rice. You can replace this butter with a couple of tablespoons of ghee.
8. Now cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid. You can also seal the edge of the lid with some dough so that no steam can escape from the pot.
9. Place a heavy-bottomed tawa or skillet on high heat and then place the pot of assembled biryani on the tawa. Let the biryani cook on high heat for 2 minutes. Then reduce the flame to the lowest setting and let it cook for 30 minutes.
10. After 30 minutes, shut the flame off and let the biryani rest for 15 minutes more before serving. After 15 minutes, uncover the pot and serve the butter chicken biryani with raita!
4. Changezi Gosht and Kebab Platter
(MasterChef India Season 6 contestant Sudeep Chakravarty)
Ingredients: Millet (pearl, little millet, foxtail and banyard) - 1 cup, raw bananas (small) - 2, raw papaya - 100 gms, raw tomatoes - 2, mushrooms - 4-5, onion (medium-sized) - 3, ginger-garlic paste - 2 tsp, cloves - 4, cardamom - 2, almonds - 8-10, star anise - 1, jeera - 1 tsp, garam masala - 1 tsp, haldi - ½ tsp, red chilli powder - ½ tsp, red chillies - 2, ghee - 2 tsp, mustard oil - 50 ml, ragi aata - 1 cup, maida - ½ cup
Hero ingredient: cinnamon powder
Method:
Kachha kela kebab:
1. Steam raw banana and raw papaya with little salt and cinnamon in a pressure cooker. Once they are cooked after 1 whistle, mash them together. Add a bit of maida and ragi atta for binding, make sure the dough is tight.
2. Now, make flat balls of them and add stuffing made from mixing mushroom, chopped onion and chopped green chillies. Flatten the balls and shallow fry to perfection (outside crisp and inside gooey ).
For bhuna tamatar chatni:
Roast tomatoes, almond and green chillies on a dry pan till they have charred edges. Afterwards, put them in a grinder with coriander, salt and mint leaves. Blend to perfection. Add a tsp of olive oil, however, this is an optional step.
For Changezi keema gravy:
1. Take a pan. Add oil and allow it to get hot. Once ready, add finely sliced onion and fry them till they turn brownish. Now, take them out and grind them in the mixer.
2. Add 1 tsp of oil in the same pan, add "akkha " garam masala (cardamom/clove/cinnamon/bay leaves etc) then add ginger garlic paste. Once the masala starts to leave oil, add tomato paste and the fried onion mix and fry them for the next five mins on high flame. Add Chicken Keema and fry it for another 15 mins.
3. Now, add ghee and slow cook for 7-8 mins, add a bit of cinnamon again.
For Millet cake:
1. Soak the mixed millets in hot water for 15 mins, then pressure cook for 15 mins and add salt to taste and 1/4th tsp garam masala
2. Take them out and on a skillet, saute them with mushroom, chopped onion, green chillies and red chillies. Add salt to taste, 1/4th tsp pepper and cinnamon dust.
3. Plate them all together with the chutney and serve hot.