: Liver Kosha With Spinach::

There was this slab of liver lying around my freezer for a while. I wanted to use it up, and I also wanted to use up a bunch of spinach leaves I bought during my last visit to the East Austin Farmers' Market. This recipe was born out of that necessity to combine the two. I learnt, while surfing through the net that submerging the liver in milk for a few hours before cooking helps. Apparently, that way the liver loses some of its characteristic bitterness. I did that. And after six hours or so, I marinated it further in turmeric, cumin powder, coriander powder, paprika and a little bit of red chili powder for a couple of hours or so. I followed this recipe more or less. I did brown the liver and the potatoes separately. I also added some sour cream and sugar into the mix. In some ways, this is the standard recipe for cooking anything kosha. But because I needed to use up the spinach, I made it into a puree. And while the liver pieces and the potatoes were being browned in pot number one, I mixed the pureed spinach in pot no. 2, along with the onions and the spices and let it all mix together in a nice gooey thingie. And then added the liver pieces and the potatoes into pot number 2.

I loved the results. I think, this one is going to be a keeper in my kitchen. But still, I missed the taste of the fresh goat-liver that I have eaten in Kolkata. The frozen stuff simply did not taste the same. The again, who knows, maybe it's all in my head. Anyways...

Recipe : Chicken Paprika

I am always looking for new ways to fix chicken. There are quite a few chicken recipes about which I don't have to think much to cook. But most of them are very very South Asia inflected. And yesterday I was feeling like something different. I found this one. But I made few changes.

Ingredients2 1/2 lbs chicken, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp Hungarian paprika (sweet or hot)
2 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 cups (480 ml) of chicken stock
4 tbsp white wine
2/3 cup (70 ml) sour cream
1 bell pepper, seeds removed and sliced into rings for garnishing
salt and pepper to taste
DirectionsUsing a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken pieces and and brown, turning occasionally, until golden, about 6 minutes. Transfer to plate and cover to keep warm.

Drain fat from pan. Add the onions and garlic; cook until soft. Add the paprika and flour, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Gradually stir in the stock and bring to a boil, and continue stirring.

Add the wine and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Stir in the sour cream.

Arrange chicken on a large platter and spoon sauce over and around it. Serve with dumplings and sour cream on the side.

This was the original one. What I did :

1. I marinated the chicken (Cornish Game Hens with bones) in paprika, cumin and coriander powder.
2.  I didn't drain the fat from the pan.
3. I used ghee to cook.
4. Along with paprika, I added black pepper, white pepper and dill to season the onions.
5. I added tomatoes along with a little sugar (around one tbsp)
6. I added the sour cream in the actual cooking pan and let it simmer in the heat.
7. I used red wine instead of white.

So, at the end, I think, it became a very Bengaliized Chicken Paprika. What can I say-- I am an innovator. And this one kicked ass. 

::In My Kitchen::

I don't have a fancy kitchen. What I have is more of a half-kitchen than anything else. And I am not the most organized person in this planet. But, I like to eat. And I like to cook. And as much as I problematize domesticity, there is something about walking into my (relatively) clean kitchen during the break, grind the coffee-beans, make myself a cup of coffee, sit down to work. This semester had been particularly stressful for lots of different reasons. I didn't have much time to cook at all. On most days, I depended on another friend to feed me. On other days, when I did make something for myself, I boiled rice, potatoes, lentils and eggs, mashed them up and ate them with a bit of butter or ghee. Yes, the classic Bengali shedhho-bhat. So, it would be nice to get a chance to cook some simple dishes in my modest grad-student kitchen in the next few days. So these are the things I am planning to cook during the next week or so:

Chicken Adobo

Kosha Mangsho

Some kind of a vegetarian dish (I am not sure yet).

Tonight, I will marinate the meat for the adobo. And then, tomorrow I cook.

{Thursday Happy}

It is not like me to perform my "happyhappyhappy" self on blog and/or Facebook. That's why, I have mostly refrained from posting status messages on my fb page. I don't want to sound "happy" to the world, neither do I want to perform depressed. But right now, I am feeling pretty low. As I said, in one of the previous posts, I know the reasons. Some, I do have control over. But those are not things that can be taken care of right away. They need painstaking labor. Others, are beyond my control. Like the mental state of my childhood friend, whom I love deeply. Or the London riots. Or the war. So, this is an exercise I will indulge in for the next three months. I will list three things that made me happy during a particular week. This the first installment:

1.

Cooking A New Chicken Dish

I have been on the lookout for a new chicken dish on the web for a while, and then I did run into one. It's a more spicy spin on the chicken korma that I used to cook. So, here is how I did it:

a. Marinate the chicken with ginger paste, salt, cumin and coriander powder, cayenne pepper powder.

b. Grind fennel seeds, peppercorn seeds, red chilli, cinnamon sticks and cardamom seeds.

c. Heat ghee/oil. I used ghee, since I am really keen on unhealthy eating.

d. Then pour in the ground spice mixture. Let it sizzle for a minute or two. Keep stirring the wok.

e. Slice onions, pour them into the mix, and put on a low-medium heat and cook it till the onions are brown and halfway between soft and crunchy. Sweat the onions so that the final dish is tastier.

f. Slice a tomato, and add it into the mix. Now, let everything turn slowly into a mush/paste.

g. Brown the marinated chicken. Once they have been browned, remove them into the main cooking pot. Stir and mix well with the tomato-onion spice mix. Feel free to add sugar, salt and chilli powder according to taste. I like to add a little sugar along with the spice, because I like the caramelized taste of the spices.

h. Then add1 cup of yoghurt. Add it one spoon at a time and mix thoroughly. Add chicken broth- about a cup and a half and cook it down till the chicken is cooked and the paste is thick. If the chicken isn't cooked and the broth is drying out, add more.

This turned out to be fairly good. And made me think, even if I cannot write a good dissertation or a good book of poems, or a good short story or whatever, I can still cook somewhat tasty meals for myself.

2.

Meeting With KA

KA and I had our poems published in a journal together. So, over the last two weeks, we had gotten in touch with each other over the email, and had decided on meeting for coffee, which we did yesterday. We hit it off immediately, and are trying to plan some activities/projects together. But, this meeting, I will count from now on, as an example of positive, productive, creative "networking", as against the totally inane "professional" kind, that I have come to hate so much in the recent years.

3.

Watching Fellini

Last night, R and I watched Luci del Varieta. As a film, it's an interesting one. But nothing that would turn my head off. But the fact that I could make time to actually sit down and see it, is something that needs to be celebrated. These days, I am so tired that I rarely find the mental peace and the intellectual energy to sit down and watch an intelligent film. I will write my thoughts on the film soon. But, for now, I am happy that I got to see it.

Dal With Cream and Salsa

In the last nine years, I have discovered that being a grad student means learning skills that you wouldn't necessarily think of possessing in normal circumstances. You might not even know that they exist. One such skill is throwing random shit together. Like today, I had some salsa, some whipping cream, half of an onion and some dal sitting in my refrigerator. And what do I do? I threw them together. And the result is, NOT TOO BAD! So, here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Dal ( I used mushur, or red lentils. Anything else will do too.)

Onion (sliced in rough pieces)

Spices (I used cumin seeds, coriander powder, red chili powder, paprika, turmeric)

Butter

Red Salsa (Store Bought Variety)

Whipping Cream

Preparation:

Boil the lentil seeds and the sliced onions together.

Heat butter in a skillet. Temper it with the spices. Let it sizzle for a while.

Pour the whipping cream. Let the spices mix well with the cream.

Now pour the salsa. Again, let them mix well.

Then, the boiled dal. Let it simmer for a while.

Slurp it with rice or rotis.

Pepperoni Fried Rice

I desperately needed to clean the refrigerator. Hence, this one.

Ingredients:

Pepperoni

Onions (I used pearl onions, around 8. But others would do too.)

Tomato (1, finely chopped)

Garlic (four cloves, finely chopped)

Green chili (1, slit in the middle)

Coriander Powder

Paprika

Red Chili Powder

Turmeric

Basmati Rice

Salt

Frozen mixed veggies (anything else will do too)

Preparation:

Heat butter in a skillet.

Temper it with cumin seeds, turmeric,salt, coriander powder, red chili powder, paprika.

Let the spices sizzle.

Pour in minced garlic, tomato, green chili, onion pieces.

Let everything mix together into a mush.

Throw in the pepperonis.

Then the de-frosted veggies.

Let everything mix thoroughly.

Throw in the rice. Let it mix with everything, fry them together a little bit. (I did it for around 7 mins.)

Pour some water. Cover the skillet.

As always, I don't really keep a record of the portions. I do whatever my eyes suggest. But the result wasn't bad at all!