Showing posts with label Methi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Methi. Show all posts

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Ahona Gupta's Methi Machchi -- my style

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This is a recipe from Ahona who had said in a FaceBook comment two months back that she is in love with Methi and suggested her recipe of Sindhi Methi Machchi.

That "Methi Fish" remained in the subconscious strata of my brain. Now you might question the existence of "my brain" but we will not go there, we will just dwell on the subconscious where the "Methi Machchi" had sunk deep.

More than two months later, one hot, sunny morning in August I went on a quest to find that recipe. From my own FB page. It was a gargantuan task. Yes, "gargantuan". I have wanted to use that word for a while now and have never found the opportunity but this one fits, so we will stick with it. I searched high, low, through the timeline, through other people's vacation pics, through total stranger's family photos but could not find Ahona's recipe. There it was one fine day. Right there as a comment on one of the umpteen status messages I tend to post on my FB blog page. And then Boom, the next thing you know it was lost in the bottomless sink of FB status.

That kind of worried me. I mean here I am striving each day, spending precious time, trying to think up smart "Status Updates" and then couple months later ta-da there is no way to find them. My precious pearls of wisdom gone down the drain and without any copyright notice attached to them.

The very thought that there is some FB bin where my hard-worked on status is being messed around with someone's dumb updates like "Guess???" is totally freaking me out. Gawd, who ever wrote the code to this thing.

Anyway thank my stars that I finally found that recipe of Ahona's. By then it was almost lunch time and I had not moved a finger except on the scroll button. And then I realized that I did not have tomatoes or fresh methi which would have been good, errrm actually required ingredients for the dish. But I am an improvisation master and so I substituted tomatoes with yogurt, fresh green methi gave way to Kasoori methi and then I did a whole lot of other changes.By the time I was done and the house reeked of Kasoori Methi and the fish simmered in the beautiful gravy, I did not dare to call this dish "Sindhi". I have no clue on the "Sindhi"-ness of the dish, the "Methi" part is 100% fulfilled though.

This really is a beautiful dish with newer flavors to the same fish curry and was a hit at my home. Thank you Ahona and I am so glad you shared your recipe with me.




Methi Machchi -- Fish cooked in a Methi flavored Curry


I used Tilapia Fillet for this fish. You can use fillet of any other firm fish. You can also use steak pieces of Rohu or Katla. Pomfret too would be a good choice.



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I started off with two fillet which I cut in 3x2 pieces. Rubbed the fish pieces with
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder 
1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder 
1 tsp Coriander Powder 
1 tsp Ginger-garlic paste 
Salt 
Little Lime juice 

Heat 2tsp of Oil in a Fry pan.
Fry 3/4 cup of chopped red onion(half of a large one) and
about 8-10 clove of garlic(6 of the fat ones should be good) till onion is soft and browned.

Cool the onion-garlic. In a blender jar put
 fried onion-garlic 
1/4th cup thick yogurt
Blend to a thick paste with aid of little water.
Note: Alternately, instead of yogurt use 1/2 Cup of pureed tomato


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Next add 2 tbsp oil to the same pan and heat. Shallow fry the fish till they are golden brown on both sides. Remove and keep aside.

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Now we will make the gravy so if needed add 1tbsp more oil to the same pan.

Temper the oil with 1/4 tsp Methi(Fenugreek) Seeds.

Once the oil is flavored, lower the heat and add
the onion-garlic-yogurt paste
along with 1/2 tsp sugar
Also add 1 tbsp loosely packed Maida/AP Flour and fry the paste for couple of minutes.
Note: If you are using the tomato, then add the pureed tomato after the above step. Fry till raw smell of tomatoes is gone

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Next add the spices
1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder or 1 tsp Kashmiri Mirch(adjust the red chili to your taste) 
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder 
1tsp Coriander Powder 
2tbsp Kasoori Methi crushed between your palm 
Note: Mix the spices with 2-3 tbsp of yogurt and then add
Raise heat to medium and with sprinkle of water fry the masala for 3-4 minutes till there is oil separating from the masala and the masala has no raw smell.

Add a fistful of chopped coriander and about a cup of warm water. Add salt to taste. Add couple of slit green chilies. Mix everything together and let the gravy simmer and come to boil.

Simmer till you feel the gravy has reached right thickness. It should not be too watery or soupy. 

Add 2 tbsp of heavy cream towards the end for a richer taste

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Slowly add the fried pieces of fish to the gravy. Let the gravy simmer for couple more minutes and then switch off heat.Wait for around 30-40 minutes for the flavors to blend in. Serve with rice.

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Sunday, February 19, 2012

Methi Begun -- the way my Ma makes it

Methi Begun
My Mother's forte is the simple unassuming everyday Bengali meal which she cooks everyday. Even if there is two vegetables, a dal, a fish curry; all in their cold corning ware whites stacked up in the refrigerator, she cooks. I shout at her asking her to stay away from the kitchen, to relax; but at the end of the day, there is always a pyrex bowl resting on the counter, still warm and smelling better than Dior. And it doesn't even contain goat cheese. Or heavy cream. Or even a hint of saffron.

It is just a plain pyrex bowl with everyday Bengali food with a simple name that actually lists the vegetables in the dish instead of sounding like a bath product from the nawab's harem. Methi-Begun, Alu-Fulkopi, Bandhakopir tarakari, is how it goes instead of the glamorous Dal Maharani or Shahi Paneer or Chicken Nahanewali. Not that there is anything wrong with glamor or those names. It is just not what my Mother makes.

Now since all the food is cooked by the time I reach home and I have no intention to inquire after them or photograph them in dim CFL light, I never get around to writing about them. But my friend N (who has only recently got to know about the blog and so has taken over) insisted that I have pictures of my Ma doing the cooking and thus let the people know who is in actual charge of my kitchen. "Purdah Uthao", kind of thing you know.

So I said "okie-dokie" and strategically posed camera while my Mother cooked. I kept saying "Repeat, repeat" but she did not listen. She did not even want to place hand strategically over the kadhai with a spoon or something. Ultimately there are no good shots. But there is a very good Methi Begun-- fenugreek greens cooked with eggplant. And my Mother made it. And that is all that matters.

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Methi Begun

My Mother plucks Methi leaves, then chops them, saving the stems to be put into Dal. Me ? I go snip-snip with scissors. No wonder her Methi Begun tastes better.

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Heat Oil. Temper with slit green chilies and kalonji aka Nigella seeds

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Add about 3 cups of cubed eggplants and saute till it softens. My Mother covers and lets the eggplants cook, removing the cover in between and stirring till eggplant is soft.

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Next is the Methi's turn. Add about 3 cups of loosely packed methi greens.

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Methi, Methi, fresh methi. What aroma. In between here add the salt too.

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Cook till Methi greens wilt, eggplants soften and they both cuddle in harmony.

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Done !!!


From a FB discussion there were new ideas about tempering the oil with methi seeds for a more intense flavor. I will try this next time.

Other Recipes with Methi Greens

Aloo Methi

Methi Dal

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

My Sister-in-Law's Methi Chicken

Methi Chicken

Before any of you go ballistic and start crashing up your iPads and say this recipe is a hoax, let me come clean and tell you this recipe of Methi Chicken does not need a single sprig of fresh methi green.

I mean you can add fresh methi greens if you want and it definitely would be a nice thing to do but on a chilly October evening when you do not feel like donning a jacket to drive out in quest of fresh Methi greens, stay put. Chances are you still have those pale brown almost saffron colored methi seeds in a small dabba on the left corner of your second kitchen shelf. Pull them out and also the box of MDH Kasoori Methi, fragrant and crumbling like old parchment. This and the chicken and you are all set to make my sister-in-law's methi chicken.

She, the sister-in-law, the husband's younger sister cooked this for us when we visited her early last month. Well actually she cooked a lot of other dishes, a lot and I mean it. She would call me up every day, a week before our visit and diligently note down stuff we might want to eat. I really had no clue why she was asking stuff like "Do you eat Luchi for breakfast or Paratha?", "Do you prefer pav bhaji with afternoon tea or pakori?". I assumed this was some kind of survey to trend the obesity pattern among legal immigrants and tried to be as honest as I could.My oldest very innocently informed her pishi(aunt) that we actually eat luchi only when Didun(grandma) is here and thus made null&void my verybusy-cooking-working-notime image that I had painstakingly created over the years.

The sis-in-law took it to heart and cooked anything and everything that the nieces or we might have lacked in our diet.

So during our short stay, while I scoured through all her FB friend's albums, passed smart ass comments and raised my eyebrows in a very Bindu-ish manner ; trying to retain my elder bhabhi stature the poor girl cooked, cleaned and fed us like the sweet Jaya Bhaduri in Bawarchi.

The girl cooked umpteen delicious meals but her methi chicken stuck with me from the moment I saw the delicious curry with a gossamer thin veil of oil which smelled of heaven. It is magical what power those tiny seeds can unleash all by themselves. White fluffy basmati rice drenched in this aromatic chicken gravy is what I will always remember of those four days and oh yes, some of her FB friend's scandalous photos but that we will not discus...

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I have cooked this particular dish about 3 times since. Come on, it is easy, convenient and quick. The first time it turned out to be really good, the second time I skimped on the oil and chili and it was meh, the third I skimped on the time and oil both and it was again okay but not like hers or my first attempt.

End point is, if you want this to be dramatic you have to go easy on the oil, spend the time a chicken needs for "kashano" or "bhuno" and also give in and raise the heat. A bird needs some love and also oil if I may say so.


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My Sister-in-Law's Methi Chicken

The recipe here is a rough one so feel free to use your cooking instinct

Marinate 2-2&1/2 lb of chicken( skinned and with bones or use boneless thigh portions) with
1 tsp Ginger paste
1 tsp Garlic paste
1 tbsp yogurt
1 tsp Cumin Powder
1 tsp Corriander powder
1/2 tsp Kashmiri Mirch
salt
a little Mustard Oil
a sprinkle of turmeric powder
Keep it in the refrigerator for 30 mins to an hour or more.

Now heat white oil in a deep bottomed pan or kadhai. Don't skimp on the oil unless you want a healthy chicken dish.

Temper the oil with 1/2 tsp of Methi seeds and 1/2 tsp of whole Cumin seeds. The Methi seeds should not burn but give out a nice fragrance. If you are unsure at the point the Methi seeds are turning brown, switch off the heat and wait for 2 minutes. Switch on the heat back again. The oil should be nicely flavored by now.

Add 1-2 cup of thinly sliced onions and fry till the onions are soft and turning brown. Meanwhile make a paste of about
4-5 cloves of garlic
4 hot Indian green chili
1" peeled and chopped ginger
Add this paste to above and fry for next 2 minutes

Follow with a chopped tomato and fry the masala till you know the usual "oil separates blah..blah"

Add
1 tsp of Cumin Powder
1 tsp of Corriander Powder
1 tsp of Kashmiri Mirch (I use kashmiri mirch powder but you can also use red chili powder according to taste)
and fry the masala with sprinkle of water

Add the chicken pieces, salt and then fry them till they change color.Let it cook uncovered for the next 15-20 mins or so, with frequent stirring. This process is actually called "bhuno" in Hindi or "kashano" in Bengali. At the end of this process you will see the oil separating , that indicates good things are in the making.

Now add 2 tsp kasoori methi crushed between your palm(or warmed a little in the microwave), mix everything well together and about 1/2-1 cup of warm water. Adjust salt for taste. Cook covered till chicken is done. By this point a thin layer of oil should float on the top indicating all is good.

Sprinkle some more of the kasoori methi and keep covered until you serve hot.


More Chicken recipes:

The Methi Murgh with methi greens


Indian Chicken recipes

Other chicken recipes

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

My Methi Dal -- simple rants

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**This is my pet rant. Brings out the dying, old feminist in me. While nouveau feminists have more important matters to deal with, me, I love this one. Solves my purpose **

Why is it that we women, educated and enlightened like a Sylvania Laxman 100watt bulb, tell the woman, whose husband loads the dishwasher every night, "You are so very lucky".Can someone please come up and ascribe some luck to the male too.

Why do we assume that just because the husband makes the occasional Sunday breakfast, the wife is a lazy slob who polishes her nails while all other house work gets done magically.

Why do we keep on insisting that the woman whose husband does a fantastic "dal tadka" should actually prostrate and worship the ground her husband walks on ?

Why do we think that it is perfectly natural for the wife to work outside the home, cook, clean, take care of kids and tell her it is really easy for her because her husband can change diapers ?

Why do we think that in the secret of their home the wife surely paints her face and dons a Nazi suit, how else can we explain the husband to remember buying "organic brown eggs" when there is "organic brown eggs" written on the grocery list ?

Why do we women think husbands helping around the house is an anomaly rather than the norm ?

I mean what happened to all that feminism thing and demand for equal work and pay and all that hogwash.

Hey, if we keep applauding and going "awwww" for every guy(in the capacity of a spouse and not your offspring) who manages to bake a cake at home aren't we lowering the standards or something? Where is the motivation if he sees his basic skill set is held at the pinnacle of excellence and he would be the best fit for any lucky woman with an open requisition for husband position ?

Do we even understand that this pulls down the global standard for men helping with housework and there could be serious consequences if we all live beyond 2012 ?

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to characters in real life is purely unintentional. As if.

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My Methi Dal is just my regular Dal made magical with Methi Greens(Fenugreek Greens). For more of a star kind of Methi Dal, check this.


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My Methi Dal
Step 1: Wash part Masoor, part yellow Moong Dal in several changes of water --> put in Pressure Cooker with a pinch of turmeric, a roughly chopped tomato and enough water(water should not overwhelm the dal, very important, copyright Sra) --> cook till dal is done --> roughly mash the dal

Step 2: While Dal is cooking, wash and chop methi greens. I just go snip, snip with my scissors. That is as much patience I can muster.

Step 3: Heat Oil or ghee in a deep, thick bottomed cooking pot. Temper the oil with few cumin seeds, 1 clove of garlic minced and thinly sliced onions. When the onion starts browning, I said browning and NOT burning, so take care. Anyway when it starts getting brown or whatever color deemed fit, add the chopped methi leaves. Saute for a minute and those leaves will start wilting.

Step 4: Add the cooked dal and saute for couple of minutes. Add salt and sugar to adjust. Add some slit green chili if you are that kind. Now add the dal water or if no dal water regular water.

Step 5: Bring to a boil and adjust the consistency. Squeeze lime juice to finish off.

Step 6: Serve with rice, ghee and aloo methi.

Step 7: Experience Bliss.


Monday, June 29, 2009

Brown Rice -- Methi Rice


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My Container Garden


The last few days have been super busy. Pardon me, I have neither blogged nor visited any blogs. There were so many unread posts in my blog reader and I felt so restless that I closed my eyes and clicked "Mark all read" for all of them.


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In other news the 5 year old graduated...ahem, only from Kindergarten. But they had a full ceremony with a cap and a robe followed by a luncheon. It seems like just the other day that S started going to daycare/pre-school, bawling her lungs out and turning my knees into jelly. She has certainly graduated from a crying 2 year old to a school loving 5 and once again I feel the butterflies in my tummy as she looks forward to Grade 1 in the bIIIIg school. But that is not until September and till then she still has summer camp to enjoy at her old school.

We also got the house painted over last week (To expel any doubts I just want to edit to add that we didn't do the painting ourselves, we are not that great :)). Choosing colors is a nightmare cum pleasure rolled into one, a nightmarish pleasure if you wish. All I did till the last minute was bought sample jars while S and D painted test swatches. Thankfully most of the colors came out as expected except one which we had to re-do. So while the nightmare is over, I am sorely missing checking out paints and pairing them on the world wide web. The kitchen got a much needed break and except for Baby A's Khichudi I hardly cooked anything


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After a hectic week of a ramshackle house and eating out almost all week, I wanted to bring some sanity to the body over the weekend. The body was craving something earthy with the lightest hint of spices. Made a simple Methi Rice with methi (fenugreek) greens from my container garden. I planted methi, corriander, basil, lemon balm, swiss chard and some beet in containers on the patio. D has tomatoes, squash, okra, pui saag(pohi greens) and some other stuff in our small backyard veggie patch. He started late though and I don't know when we will see any produce.

The Methi Rice or Rice with Fenugreek Greens I made was with Brown Basmati and it is not much of a recipe, more of a coming together of ingredients around the house. I did not measure anything and what I have here is more of a ball park estimate than approximate. This goes to The Heart of the Matter # 27 whose theme is Best of June's produce.


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Methi Rice with Brown Rice



Wash and soak 1 and 1/2 cups of Brown basmati

In a Kadhai or a heavy bottome pan, heat oil

Temper/Chaunce with 4 Elaichi/Cradamom, 4 Clove/Laung and 1" stick of Cinnamon/Darchini

Add 1 cup of finely chopped red onion and fry with a sprinkle of sugar till light brown

Add 1 tsp of Ginger paste and 1/2 tsp of Garlic paste and fry

Add 1/4 cup of Methi greens(I only had this much, add more if you have) and 1 cup of peas or frozen mixed vegetables(defrost before adding) and fry till the veggies look cooked

Add a little Kasoori methi and 1/2 -1 tsp of Biryani masala and fry for a minute

Add the rice and saute for couple of minutes. Add 1/2 cup of milk + almost 4 cups of water and let the rice cook. Flavor the water with some lime zest, I added 2-3 leaves from my lime balm plant. Note: Amount of water will depend on the type of rice you are using

Season with salt and pepper.

Once the rice is done, add 1/4 cup of crumbled paneer and mix well.

Garnish with coarsely grounded roasted peanut.





Trivia: Methi or Fenugreek is popular both as a herb and as a spice(the seed). Supplements of fenugreek seeds has been shown to lower serum cholesterol, triglyceride, and low-density lipoprotein in human patients . Methi from Qasoor in Punjab is very famous in its fragrance throughout the country and known as Qasoori Methi.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Aloo Methi and Methi in my Dal


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I am having a choppy time, not physically but mentally. I always knew I was weird but then I thought everyone was in some way or other so that actually made me normal. Once I knew about hormones I was intelligent enough to assign my weirdness to them of course but the hubby thinks that is just taking advantage of the poor things. What does that have to do with blogging you might ask, nothing but it is just that there are days my interests take a dip and I don’t even want to open Blogger and so you don’t see me around. I still cook and eat though because that keeps me happy. Strange thing is I even take pics of all that food and not even download them. Real world friends (unaware of my blog persona) who happen to peek at them on my camera are convinced I am the weirdest.

Anyway, have you had days when you want go out and eat not because you want to eat something fancy or exotic but just because you are tired to whip up a simple homely meal and that is what you want to eat when you go out. You want to have a decent Indian every day meal and that does not mean a cream laden orange hued paneer butter masala paired with naan and a thick menacing Kali Dhaal. There is nothing wrong with these dishes and they have perfect right to be on the menu card but you go to an Indian restaurant (not a South Indian or Udupi restaurant) in one of USA’s 50 states and chances are you will only see variations of this on the menu.

Why can’t they serve phulkas I ask you, why should it always be Naan or Tandoori Roti ? And why can’t they have simple earthly dishes like alu-methi, bhindi bhaji, a simple toor dal flavored with garlic and red chillies along side the rich cousins? Am I the only one who wants to eat these stuff even if I am eating out or there is a market untapped? As it is there is no Bengali restaurant that I can hog at and there aren’t Indian ones that serve simple North Indian meals either, what is wrong with restaurateurs, I say.

Also the South Indian restaurants serve Thali with side dishes which I do not know the names of but taste like something you would have at a normal South Indian home too. Am I right? Are those dishes same as the ones you would cook for a weekly meal or are they typical special dishes too?

Disgusted with the restaurants and deciding to fend for myself I put the bunch of methi leaves from my Indian Grocery store to good use. I made a Aloo Methi ki Sabji and also added some of the methi leaves to my Dal. Served them with Brown rice cooked in water flavored with Cloves and Cardamom.





Aloo Methi


My Aloo Methi recipe is from here with some slight changes.

Finely pluck (a tedious job) and the wash about a bunch of methi or fenugreek leaves. Then chop them up. Peel and cut about 3 potatoes into small cubes. In a Kadhai/Frying Pan heat the ghee/oil. Temper with 1 tsp cumin seeds followed by half a clove of garlic finely chopped. Add the potatoes, salt, ¼ tsp turmeric powder, 3-4 green chilies and cook till the potatoes are cooked. Keep on stirring it so the potatoes do not get brown. After the potatoes are cooked add the methi (fenugreek) leaves and stir. The leaves will wilt in a couple of minutes. Add about ¼ tsp of Red Chilli Powder and ½ tsp of Kasuri Methi. Stir and cook for about 5-6 minutes. Serve hot.


Red Masoor Dal with Methi Leaves


I made a Red Masoor Dal exactly like my previous recipe here. After frying the onions and tomatoes I added the plucked and chopped methi leaves, sautéed for a couple of minutes and continued with the rest of the steps.


Plain Brown Rice


The Brown Rice, was hated by the husband unless it was a Fried rice he made or the Khichdi, but I am not the one to let go. So to make this rice I boil almost 3 times the water and flavor the water with a pinch of salt, Cardamom, Cloves and Bay Leaves. Cook the rice and drain the excess water. Now he likes the taste he says even if so at gun point.

Lastly Thanks Srivalli and Pooja for passing on such nice awards to me. I know, I know I am not doing tags either but I told you I am weird. For all you wonderful bloggers theres this wonderful music video from Shubha Mudgal featuring Nandita Das. And no I didn't make the video or music, I just loved both so sharing it with you guys.