Fish In Pepper Sauce With Herb Butter Rice

Hello, boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! Now, I don't know about you, but I personally think that the most depressing time of the week is Sunday evening. The weekend is winding up. You've hit the pubs. You've eaten out. You've partied hard. You've even had a bit of a lie in. Your reward for 2 days of 'you-time', is a work week. When hit by this gut wrenching reality, you turn to the one thing for comfort that never lets you down. Food. But as you scan the kitchen for something to cook, you realize you don't want to spend 2 hours cooking. You want quick, easy and delicious. You, my depressed friend, want what I'm offering!

This is the recipe for Fish in Pepper Sauce with Herb Butter Rice. The fish will take you 10 minutes to make and the rice will take a standard 20. If you play your cards right, you could be done cooking in 25 minutes; be picking food out of your teeth in 35; and letting one rip in 40.

For my Fish in Pepper Sauce, you will need the following: 

Fish	4 fillets of white fish (I recommend Atlantic Cod)
Onion	1 medium
Butter	big glob
Chicken/Fish stock cubes	2 (I prefer chicken)
Soy sauce	splash
Cornflour	1.5 tbsp
Pepper	to taste
Salt	to taste

Prep:

1. Defrost (if you have frozen fish) & cut the fillets into halves.
2. Slice the onions.
3. Dissolve the stock cubes in 2 cups of water to make your stock.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pan on.
3. Drop in the butter.
4. Watch the glob melt into a golden pool of awesome.
5. Toss in the onions.
6. Wince at the sizzling that ensues as the water from the onions hitting the butter causes the butter to sputter. (Heh heh.. gotta love it when stuff rhymes!)
7. Add in some cornflour.
8. Cook until the onions are brown.
9. Add in the stock.
10. Stir the watery mixture that doesn't remotely resemble a decent sauce.
11. Splash in the soy sauce to give it some colour.
12. Add in the pepper.
13. Sprinkle in the salt.
14. Dissolve the rest of the cornflour in some water.
15. Add it to the pan. (This will thicken the sauce. For a thicker sauce, add more cornflour.)
16. Simmer for a few minutes.
17. Add in the fish.
18. Cook for 5 minutes.
19. Turn off gas.
20. Serve with herb butter rice. (Refer to Rice Rice Baby!)
21. Stuff face. 
22. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish. 

Tip: Use fresh fish if you can. Frozen fish is ok but there's a world of difference in the flavour!

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!

Classic Punjabi Chicken

Hello, boys and girls!

Welcome to another spicy edition of cooking with Varun! Navratri is long gone, Diwali isn't here yet and it's a Thursday which means no one should have an excuse (or be obligated) to be vegetarian! (Unless of course, you are vegetarian, in which case you can refer to some of my vegetarian recipes.)

Now, it's no secret that I'm Punjabi. Not that you can tell, seeing as I've never lived in Punjab; but having grown up in a Punjabi household, being called things like 'khota' and 'kanjar' and eating rajma and chole and kadhi (among others), my 'Punjabiness' does tend to reflect in my (Indian) cooking.

Today's dish is my version of the classic Punjabi chicken. Chicken curry with Punjabi spices, simple enough to be cooked by anyone, spicy enough to warm you from the inside on a cold day and tasty enough for you to sneak a sideways look to see if anyone is watching and then lick your fingers.

On that note, let's begin!

For my Classic Punjabi chicken you will need the following:

Chicken                                  500gms (on the bone or boneless, you pick)
Onions                                    2 large or 4 medium
Tomatoes                                2 medium

Jeera (cumin)                         1 heaped tsp
Dhaniya (coriander) powder     4 tsp

Jeera (cumin) powder            3 tsp
Red chilli powder                     4 tsp
Haldi (turmeric)                      pinch
Garam masala                         1 tsp
Ginger garlic paste                  3 tsps
Dahi (yoghurt)                        1 tbsp
Green chillies                          2
Salt                                        to taste
Ghee/oil     

Prep:

1. Put your right leg in.
2. Put your right leg out.
3. Put your right leg in and shake it all about.
4. Do the boogie woogie (or hokey pokey if you prefer) and turn your self around. That's what it's all about!
5. Shake head at my juvenile attempts at humour and get on with it.
6. Wash and cut up the chicken. (If it's boneless. If it's on the bone, get it cut from the butcher.)
7. Toss the chicken into a bowl.
8. Add in the dahi, 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste, pinch of haldi, 2 tsp of red chilli powder, 2 tsps dhaniya powder, 1 tsp jeera powder and salt.
9. Lovingly mix the contents of the bowl.
10. Wash hands.
11. Cover the bowl up and put it in the fridge.
12. Blitz/grate the onions.
13. Blitz/grate the tomatoes.
14. Chop the chillies.

Method: 

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a kadhai/pan on.
3. Add in the onions. (No ghee/oil at this point.)
4. Watch them sizzle.
5. Move the onions around until the water from the onions evaporates.
6. Add in the ghee/oil.
7. Make a little hole in the middle of the onions in the kadhai.
8. Toss the jeera into the hole.
9. Quickly cover the kadhai to stop the popping jeera from escaping.
10. Count to 10.
11. Take the cover off and duck as one overly enthusiastic seed makes a mad bid for freedom.
12. Mix the jeera and the onions.
13. Add in the chillies.
14. Add in the ginger garlic paste.
15. Cook until the onions are brown.
16. Drop the heat to low.
17. Sprinkle in the red chilli powder.
18. Add in the dhaniya powder.
19. Add in the jeera powder.
20. Add in 1/2 tsp of the garam masala.
21. Mix like crazy before it all burns!
22. Add in the tomatoes. (And a bonus squirt of tomato puree for colour!)
23. Mix well, using the water in the tomatoes to deglaze the kadhai i.e. get the sticky bits off.
24. Bump the heat back up to medium. 
25. Cook until the oil separates from the mixture.
26. Retrieve the bowl of chicken from the fridge.
27. Dump the contents into the kadhai.
28. Mix until the chicken is nicely coated with the masala.
29. Move the mixture around until the outside of the chicken goes from pink to white.
30. Add in the salt.
31. Add 2 cups of water. (Or more if you want a gravy.)
32. Mix it all up and put a lid on.
33. Cook for 15-20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
34. Take lid off.
35. Get hit in the face by a cloud of steam.
36. Let it simmer for 2 or 3 minutes.
37. Turn off gas.
38. Add a pinch of garam masla on top.
39. Throw on some chopped coriander leaves.
40. Put lid back on.
41. Let it sit for a few minutes.
42. Take kadhai to the table.
43. Serve with garam rotis or rice. 
44. Stuff face. 
45. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: Keep the gravy thick. With garam rotis, it will knock your socks off.

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!

Palak Paneer

Hello, boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! If you're Indian, odds are that every Navratri season,  most of you go (or are strong armed into going) vegetarian for a few days. As unfortunate as this is, let us take a moment to remember that there are still a fair few evergreen vegetarian dishes that go down very well with almost everybody and few are as popular as the one we will be making today. 

Palak paneer. Silky saag lovingly flavoured with spices. A hint of garlic. Soft chunks of melt-in-your-mouth paneer. Served with garam rotis or parathas. Maybe a side of dal. Some lassi perhaps. Your guilty pleasure soap on the telly. That's not too bad is it?

This one in particular, was a favourite of my roommate in Solihull, UK, Ms. Popularity, and since paneer was not hard to come by in Solihull, coupled with the fact that I could whip this up from scratch in 31 minutes (I'm quicker now!), I cooked it fairly regularly. Indians aside, this dish was quite a hit with the Brits as well (people and cats)!

Now that I've piqued your interest (I hope I have anyway!), on with the recipe!

For my Palak Paneer, you will need the following:

Palak (spinach)	500gms
Paneer	250gms
Onion	1 medium
Tomato	1 medium
Garlic	4-5 cloves
Ginger	small piece
Jeera (cumin)	1 heaped tsp
Red chilli powder	1 heaped tsp
Green chillies	1-2
Tomato puree	2 big squirts
Ghee (or Cooking oil)	large dollop
Salt	to taste

Prep:

1. Clean (unless you like a fresh muddy taste) and roughly chop the spinach.
2. Quarter the onions.
3. Dice the tomato.
4. Chop the chillies.
5. Slice up half the garlic.
6. Unwrap your cold, pre-packaged, store bought paneer.
7. Cut it into cubes.
8. Toss the cubes in a bowl and add water until submerged.
9. Bung it in the microwave for 2 minutes and drain.
10. Locate your blender.

Method:

1. Toss the palak, onion, tomato, half the garlic, and ginger into a deep bottomed pan/patila (or for a quicker option, a pressure cooker).
2. Add in a shot glass worth of water. (Don't add too much water. You'll have to drain it and in draining it, you lose the vitamins and iron content in the palak.)
3. Turn on the gas.
4. Bung the patila on the gas.
5. Take a short walk.
6. Come back to a sizzling sound.
7. Discover that the water has come to a boil and is bubbling over the edge of the patila and onto the burner.
8. Rush to turn the gas down a notch.
9. Move the palak and the onions around to make sure they are boiling away nicely.
10. Repeat steps 5 to 9 until the palak and onions are soft.
11. If using a pressure cooker, 3-4 whistles ought to do it.
12. Turn gas off.
13. Attempt to move the patila to drain excess water.
14. Burn fingers.
15. Yelp.
16. Run some cold water over the singed area.
17. Blend palak and co. until silky smooth. 
18. Turn on a smaller burner.
19. Bung a pan on.
20. Spoon in the ghee.
21. Add in the jeera and watch it snap, crackle and pop.
22. Toss in the chillies and the sliced garlic and take a step back to avoid the spattering ghee.
23. Bravely move close to the pan and stir.
24. Wince as you're peppered with tiny flecks of ghee.
25. Sprinkle in the chilli powder.
26. Squirt in the tomato puree.
27. Cook for a few minutes.
28. Turn off the gas.
29. Turn on the palak burner.
30. Stir in the contents of the pan, i.e. the 'tadka'.
31. Add salt to taste.
32. Add the paneer into the bubbling palak.
33. Cook together for a few minutes.
34. Turn off the gas.
35. Taste test for salt.
36. Add more salt if you need to. If it's too salty, mix in some cream after you've turned the gas off.
37. Stuff face.
38. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish. 

Tip: This is super simple recipe to bring out the taste of the palak complemented with garlic. For an alternate flavour, you can add coriander powder, cumin powder, and a tiny pinch of garam masala to the ghee after you add in the chilli powder.

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!