Chicken Koftas

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! Back in 2012, I visited my cousin in Geneva for the first time. Unfortunately, my visit was at a time when only my cousin and his daughter were around as his wife (my bhabhi) and my nephew were off visiting relatives in the UK. This was less than ideal for 2 reasons. First, the more obvious one of not seeing everyone, and the second, missing out on my bhabhi's sumptuous cooking. 

So I landed in Geneva in the morning, got picked up at the airport and headed to my cousin's place. After a quick shower and a bite of breakfast, we were ready to head out to explore the sights. Since it was only my first day there, my cousin decided to take me to places not too far away and so we set off for Vevey and Montreaux which were only a couple of hours from Geneva. After arriving at our destination, we walked around as I did touristy things like taking pictures, looking at the pretty girls, and picking the nose of Miles Davis' statue. My cousin then told me there was a life size statue of Charlie Chaplin in the vicinity but he couldn't remember where exactly so we started asking people for directions. As fate would have it, the people we asked were tourists too and didn't know either and after striking out a few times, my cousin, for kicks, started asking people in Hindi. He'd walk up to people with a confused expression on his face as go, 'Charlie kahaan hai?' (Where is Charlie?), only to find his expression mirrored on their faces as they mumbled apologies and quickly shuffled away. We never did find Charlie but we did have a lot of fun trying. After Vevey and Montreaux we headed to Saleve, high above where we were, a place that my cousin had never been able to successfully make his way to. About halfway there he noticed that his car was running very low on fuel (his dashboard had a display for the number of kms possible based on the fuel in the tank and the driving speed) and thus a new game was born! 'How far can we go without having to stop for fuel?' We varied our speed to conserve fuel and passed gas station after gas station until we reached the top. After taking in the breathtaking views we resumed our game on the way down and when the car was nearly empty, there wasn't a gas station in sight! Thankfully (because my niece was starting get mad with panic), we found a gas station shortly, filled up and started our return journey to Geneva. The drive back was uneventful except for a quick stop at an Ikea for some Swedish meatballs where we convinced my niece that the tartar(e) sauce sachets were free and asked her to get 4, and after she had got them, told her they weren't and called her a thief all the way home.

This recipe is also a meatballs recipe, albeit not Swedish, and the meat used is chicken. The first time I made it, I got rave reviews and I haven't stopped making it since.

For Chicken Koftas, you will need the following:

Chicken keema (mince)	500 gms
Onions	3 (1 small, 2 medium to large)
Tomatoes	2
Green chillies	4-5
Ginger garlic paste	2 tsp
Red chilli powder	3 tsp
Dhaniya (coriander) powder	4 tsp
Jeera (cumin) powder	2 tsp
Garam masala	1 tsp
Dhaniya (coriander) leaves	couple of handfuls
Cloves	3
Salt	to taste
Oil

Prep:

For the meatballs - 

1. Chop the small onion.
2. Chop 2 green chillies.
3. Roughly chop a handful of the coriander leaves.
4. Plop the keema into a bowl.
5. Toss in the chopped onion.
6. Stick in the chopped chillies.
7. Add in 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste.
8. Sprinkle in 1 tsp of red chilli powder, 2 tsp of dhaniya powder, 1 tsp of jeera powder and 1/s tsp of garam masala.
9. Add salt to taste.
10. Toss in the chopped coriander.
11. Stick your hands in the bowl.
12. Mix well.
13. Roll into balls and keep aside. (You can stick the mixture in the fridge for an hour before you roll it into balls if you have the time.)

For the sauce/gravy - 

1. Grate the 2 larger onions.
2. Puree the tomatoes.
3. Chop the remaining chillies.
4. Roughly chop the remaining coriander leaves.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a little pan on.
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Count to 20.
5. Pop in a kofta (meatball) and roll it around till is evenly white all round. (This is to seal it so it doesn't disintegrate in the gravy.)
6. Take the kofta out and stick it on a paper towel covered plate to absorb any excess oil.
7. Repeat until all the koftas are sealed.
8. Swap the little pan for a big pan.
9. Splash in some oil.
10. Count to 20.
11. Pop in the cloves.
12. Slide in the grated onions.
13. Wince at the spatter.
14. Roll in the chillies.
15. Cook until the onions are light brown.
16. Spoon in 1 tsp of the ginger garlic paste.
17. Mix and cook until the onions are brown.
18. Sprinkle in 2 tsp of red chilli powder, 2 tsp of dhaniya powder, 1 tsp of jeera powder and 1/2 tsp of garam masala.
19. Mix.
20. Add in the pureed tomatoes.
21. Cook until the oil separates from the masala.
22. Pop in the koftas and mix until they are all covered with the masala.
23. Pour in 2 cups of water and mix.
24. Add salt to taste.
25. Pop the lid on and let it cook for about 20 minutes.
26. Take the lid off.
27. Break into a kofta to see if it is cooked. (Let it cook for another 5 minutes if it isn't.)
28. Put the lid aside, do a taste test for salt.
29. Add water or dry off the excess for the desired amount of gravy.
30. Turn the gas off.
31. Sprinkle on the chopped coriander leaves.
32. Serve.
33. Stuff face.
34. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

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

Tip: You can use any minced meat you want. The flavour will vary based on the meat. Also, if you up the quantity of meat, up the masala. I've fallen prey to the dreaded 'too-many-koftas-not-enough-gravy' problem. It's not nice.

Palak Rice

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! A few years ago when I was living in Northern Ireland, there was a girl in the office of the attractive variety. Very attractive. So my roommates and I did the usual walk past, sideways glance thing that boys do. Unfortunately, after a few days of this, we discovered that she was married, and to someone we knew from our limited conversions with to be a really nice guy. This brought the checking out to a screeching halt and we moved on from the 'checking out' stage to the 'friends' stage. What followed was several social gatherings and office events and the more we all hung out, the better friends we all became and soon she was no longer 'Hottie Hotterson', as she had been pegged (although I still call her that.. she knows!), but one of the gang.

Now, in all the time that I was in Northern Ireland, my roommates and I used to carry lunch to the office. What started off as a box of dal or curry and a box of rice, soon turned into a full-blown banquet with massive portions of food enough to feed an army (which we did, since a lot of our friends nicked food off us) and it became tradition to make lunch a pot luck with everyone contributing a dish. Some days it'd just be us 3 roommates and the Hottersons, on others we'd have a few of our Northern Irish friends braving the spicy food we'd set in front of them, and the pizza Fridays when we'd take the day off cooking and order in large pizzas and wolf them down as people sniffed the air in anticipation. Hottie was already a very good cook and I had been dabbling with cooking (thanks in no small amount to my roommates) so we would often discuss recipes and she would give me tips on how to make a perfect sambar. I remember in particular, she had this dish called 'methi chaman' that was absolutely gorgeous and like many of her dishes it was a something+rice dish.

Today's palak (spinach) rice dish is also a something+rice dish which I first made in an attempt to mirror Hottie's cooking style, and switched it around a little the more I made it.

For Palak Rice, you will need the following:

Spinach	300 gms
Rice	2 cups
Onion	1 large
Tomatoes	2 (tinned ones will work just fine)
Cinnamon	1" stick
Cloves	3-4
Jeera (cumin)	2 tsp
Peppercorns	small handful
Bayleaf	1
Green chillies	2
Ginger garlic paste	1 tsp
Dhaniya (coriander) powder	2 tsp
Jeera (cumin powder)	1 tsp
Garam masala	1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder	2 tsp
Biryani masala	2 tsp (optional.. but it does add flavour)
Salt	to taste
Oil

Prep:

1. Wash and roughly chop the spinach.
2. Pop the chopped spinach in a blender.
3. Whirl it around until it is coarsely chopped. (Do NOT puree it!)
4. Thinly slice the onion.
5. Chop the chillies.
6. Chop the tomatoes.
7. Rinse the rice out in cold water about 4 times.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pan on.
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Count to 20.
5. Float in the bayleaf.
6. Drop in the cinnamon.
7. Pop in the cloves.
8. Bounce in the peppercorns.
9. Cook for a minute or so until you can smell the aroma from the cooking spices.
10. Add in the jeera.
11. Roll in the chillies.
12. Slide in the onions and listen to them sizzle and pop.
13. Cook until the onions go light brown.
14. Plop in the ginger garlic paste.
15. Mix well.
16. Cook until brown. (Not too dark.)
17. Sprinkle in the red chilli powder, dhaniya powder, jeera powder, biryani masala and the garam masala.
18. Mix well.
19. Pop in the tomatoes and move them around to help deglaze the pan.
20. Cook for a minute.
21. Chuck in the blitzed spinach.
22. Cook for a minute.
23. Tip in the washed rice.
24. Add 4 cups of water. (Twice as many cups as the rice. Same size cup!)
25. Add in salt to taste.
26. Mix well.
27. Drop the heat to little above low and pop the lid on.
28. Cook for about 15 minutes.
29. Take the lid off and mix to unstick any of the rice from the bottom of the pan.
30. Pop the lid back on and cook for 3 or 4 minutes until the water has dried and the rice has cooked.
31. Turn the gas off.
32. Serve with chilled boondi raita.
33. Stuff face.
34. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: If you're in a rush and couldn't be bothered making the whole masala, just toss everything in the pan higgledy-piggledy once you can smell the whole spices, mix well, stick the lid on and let it cook.

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