Makki Ki Roti & Sarson Ka Saag

Hello, boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun. Back in 2011, when I made my first trip to Geneva, Switzerland, to visit my cousin, I planned it such that I could also meet up with a friend who lived in Zurich. My friend and I had been acquaintances for years (she was one of a host of North Indian students I had done my M.S. with) but we had never really hung out, so we started off chatting online as I was planning my trip. Over the course of a few weeks, as she helped me plan my trip, we became pretty good friends, and soon the time to leave couldn't come fast enough.

I left from Belfast, Northern Ireland on a Friday night for London, England to catch my connecting flight to Geneva, and 9 hours (and a cold hard floor at Heathrow Terminal 1) later, I was off. I landed in Geneva, and the next day, my friend, whom I very creatively dubbed, 'Ms. Zurich', came down to see me. I met her at the train station and we hopped on a tram to my cousin's place to drop her bag off before we could go exploring. After riding the tram from end to end twice (since we were so busy talking that we missed the stop!), we finally made it home and after we'd had a bit of a rest, set off on foot for Lake Geneva. It was a 20 odd minute walk that was quite pleasant, and since neither of us had seen the city before, there was plenty to keep us occupied as we shuffled down the busy streets to the lake. Once we were there, we walked around all the attractions set up for Fêtes de Genève until we reached a little area that had been gated off where people could go into the water for a swim. We made our way inside, past a crowd of sunbathers and swimmers and splashers and came to what can only be described as a multi-level diving platform a short swim away where people were jumping off into the icy water. Eager to get into the water (and eager to impress my lady friend), I changed into a pair of shorts and entered the water. Shivering, I swam over to the platform and climbed up the stairs to the highest level (because you know, 'Go big or go home!') and looked down. Big mistake #1. The second I looked, my fear of heights kicked in and my legs turned to jelly, but I was already up there and I could hear Ms. Zurich cheering me on, and even as I contemplated chickening out, a couple of kids made the jump to riotous applause. Taking a deep breath, I took a running start and jumped off and butt flopped into the water. Yes, it's like a belly flop but on your bum. As the icy water relieved the stinging on my bum, I got cocky (as I have been known to do from time to time) and made my way up the platform for a second jump. Having done it before, I was slightly less shaky and I decided to do a sort of back dive off the 30+ foot high platform. I looked across at Ms. Zurich who was grinning from ear to ear, and assumed the diving position. I pushed off and for reasons unknown, my stupid brain made me go for glory and attempt a flip. Big mistake #2. I faceplanted. And you know it's bad when 50 people collectively go 'Oooh' and wince, which is the last thing I heard as I hit the water. I broke to the surface and tried to arrange my features into what I hoped was a nonchalant look and swam over to where Ms. Zurich was sitting with a horrified expression on her face, where I sheepishly exited the water and headed to change.

Fortunately for me, I escaped with only a nosebleed and a bruise covering half my face, but you may not be so lucky. My advice to you is, if you want to impress a Punjabi girl, don't put yourself at risk by doing stupid things, cook her a Punjabi meal. And what meal is more Punjabi than Makki Ki Roti & Sarson Ka Saag?

For my Makki Ki Roti & Sarson Ka Saag, you will need the following:

Sarson (mustard leaves)	500 gms
Palak (spinach)	couple of handfuls
Onions	2 medium
Tomato	1 medium
Green chillies	2-3
Jeera (cumin)	1 heaped tsp
Dhaniya (coriander) powder	3-4 tsps
Red chilli powder	2-3 tsps
Jeera powder	1 tsp
Garam masala	tiny pinch
Makki ka atta (yellow corn flour, unrefined)	3 cups
Ghee	large dollop
Ginger garlic paste	2 tsps
Salt	to taste

Prep:

1. Clean (unless you like a fresh muddy taste) and roughly chop the sarson and the spinach.
2. Quarter the onions.
3. Dice/blitz the tomato.
4. Chop the chillies.
5. Knead the makki ka atta with water until you have the right consistency. (Add a splash at a time.)
6. Locate your blender.

Method:

Saag:

1. Toss the sarson, palak and the onions into a deep bottomed pan/patila.
2. Splash in a cup of water. (Don't add too much, you'll have to drain it and in draining it, you lose the vitamins and iron content in the sarson and the palak.)
3. Turn on the gas.
4. Bung the patila on the gas.
5. Wait for it to come to a boil.
6. Move the contents around to make sure they are boiling away nicely.
7. Simmer until the leaves have wilted and the onions are soft.
8. Turn the gas off.
9. Wait a few minutes for it to cool down a little.
10. Plug in your blender.
11. Blend the mixture until it is smooth. (I prefer it slightly coarse, but to each their own.)
12. Unplug your blender.
13. Turn on a smaller burner.
14. Bung a pan on.
15. Plop in the ghee.
16. Add in the jeera and watch it snap, crackle and pop.
17. Toss in the chillies, and the ginger garlic paste and take a step back to avoid the flying ghee.
18. Add in the tomato.
19. Sprinkle on the dhaniya powder, jeera powder, chilli powder, and garam masala.
20. Cook for a few minutes.
21. Turn off the gas.
22. Turn on the palak burner.
23. Stir in the contents of the pan.
24. Add salt to taste.
25. Simmer for a few minutes.
26. Turn off the gas. 
27. Drop in a blob of ghee.

Roti:

1. Grab a chunk of the kneaded makki ka atta.
2. Ball it up.
3. Slightly flatten it in your hands.
4. Place it on a flat surface. (I usually put butter/wax paper on the surface. It makes it easier to lift and slap onto the non-stick/tava.)
5. Use a belan/rolling-pin to roll out (reasonably) round, thickish rotis.
6. Turn on the gas.
7. Bung a tava on.
8. Lightly grease it with ghee.
9. Count to 30. 
10. Slap the rolled out roti on the tava.
11. Cook on either side until it browns. (Lovingly slather it with ghee every time you flip it.)
12. Repeat until all rotis are cooked.
13. Turn the gas off. 

Serve:

1. Spoon a big helping on saag on your plate.
2. Slide a fresh-off-the-tava roti next to it.
3. Stuff face.
4. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: Don't faceplant off a height into icy water. I cannot stress this enough.

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

Chicken Biryani

Hello, boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun. In 2014, when I lived in Solihull, UK, some of the people from my workplace were having Friday drinks at The Slug & Lettuce, a pub down the road from the office. Since they were all client guys (and girls) who worked on a different floor, I didn't know them very well, so my TWM and I decided to only put in an appearance, and then head home where I was planning on cooking a chicken biryani using a method that my friend Thinks-that-she-can-sing-but-can't had taught me. We arrived at the pub and ordered a beer and a Gin & T at the bar and had a browse around to see if we could spot anyone we knew. TWM, being a client guy himself, recognized a bunch of people and we walked over so he could introduce me, his little brown friend, to the others. Introductions made, glasses were clinked, and we joined the conversation. Not long after, more and more people started trickling in, some of whom I knew by sight, and soon our little group had expanded to several times it's size. At some point around this time, my 2 beer rule went out the window along with any plan of nipping out early to go home and cook. Now, people who know me, know that I already am quite sociable, and the additional boost of liquid confidence only made me loosen up more and as TWM handed me drink after drink, I became more and more animated. As a drunken TWM bought bottles of champagne, I forged friendships with TWW, The-only-girl-I-know-who-can-pull-off-a-fringe, and Has-adorable-daughter, among others. An hour later I had lost my credit card, found it again, downed a bunch of shots, was buying random (pretty) girls drinks, and hugging the very sweet Smiling-girl-with-pretty-hair from the office as I nicked her Jack & Coke. As the clock wound down, people started to leave (including TWM) and soon there were only a handful of us left.

Perhaps it was the alcohol, actually I'm sure it was the alcohol, but someone suggested we pop over to an 'exotic' club in the vicinity (it wasn't me, I didn't even know that it existed!). We stumbled out of the pub, tittered down the high street, and pulled straight faces and 20 quid to be allowed entry. Unfortunately, it was at this point that I started to lose sense of what was happening and 2 ill advised shots of tequila later I could barely see the light bouncing off the well polished poles let alone the dancers wrapped around them. The club turned out be a bust (Heheh) and as we left, I called my roommate Ms. Popularity, who had earlier that night let me down by not calling the bank to block my thankfully not lost credit card, and asked her to send me a cab since I couldn't get through to the taxi service. I bid my new friends goodbye, and waited at the designated spot for ages until a cabbie came around asking if I had called for a cab and told me he'd been waiting but I didn't show. I argued that I was standing exactly where I said I'd be, he didn't believe me, asked for the money upfront, and dropped me home where I dragged myself up the stairs, plonked on my bed, and drifted off.

This recipe is the recipe for the biryani I would have made if I hadn't gotten so uncharacteristically plastered (although I don't regret it one bit!).

For my Chicken Biryani, you will need the following:

Chicken	500 gms (on the bone)
Rice (basmati)	2-3 cups
Onions	4
Tomato	1 large
Ginger garlic paste	3 tsp
Bay leaves	2
Cloves	4
Cardamom (elaichi) pods	2
Cinnamon	1" stick
Dhaniya (coriander) powder	2-3 tsp
Red chilli powder	2 tsp
Haldi (turmeric)	pinch
Jeera powder	2 tsp
Garam masala	2-3 tsp
Dahi (yoghurt)	1 tbsp
Green chillies	2
Coriander leaves	big handful
Mint leaves	big handful
Salt	to taste
Kesar (saffron)	pinch
Milk	splash
Ghee/oil

Prep

1. Toss the chicken into a bowl.
2. Spoon in the dahi, 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste, pinch of haldi, 1 tsp of red chilli powder, 2 tsp dhaniya powder and salt.
3. Lovingly mix the contents of the bowl.
4. Wash hands.
5. Cover the bowl up and put it in the fridge for an hour.
6. Slice the onions.
7. Chop the tomato.
8. Chop the chillies.
9. Chop the coriander leaves.
10. Chop the mint leaves.

Method

Chicken:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pan on.
3. Splash in the ghee/oil.
4. Count to 20.
5. Pop in the bay leaves, cloves, cardamoms, and the cinnamon. 
6. Wait until you can smell the whole spices cooking.
7. Chuck in the onions.
8. Roll in the chillies.
9. Add in the ginger garlic paste.
10. Cook until the onions are brown.
11. Drop the heat to low.
12. Sprinkle in the red chilli powder.
13. Add in the dhaniya powder.
14. Shake in the jeera powder.
15. Pinch in the haldi.
16. Add in the garam masala.
17. Mix like crazy before it burns!
18. Toss in the tomatoes.
19. Mix well, using the water in the tomato to deglaze the kadhai i.e. get the sticky bits off.
20. Bump the heat back up to medium. 
21. Cook until the oil separates from the mixture.
22. Retrieve the bowl of chicken from the fridge.
23. Dump the contents into the kadhai.
24. Mix until the chicken is nicely coated with the masala.
25. Add salt to taste.
26. Add 1 cup of water. (Not too much, you don't want a gravy.)
27. Mix and slap a lid on.
28. Cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally until the chicken is done.
29. Take lid off and adjust the consistency. You want a thickish masala.
30. Turn the gas off.
31. Set aside for a few. 

Rice:

1. Rinse the rice 3-4 times with cold water in a saucepan.
2. Add the same number of cups of water as the rice.
3. Turn the gas on.
4. Bung the saucepan on.
5. Add in a big dollop of ghee.
6. Sprinkle in some garam masla and a couple of bay leaves.
7. Add salt to taste.
8. Crank the heat up to high.
9. Drop to low and put half the lid on when it comes to a boil.
10. Cook until the water is all gone. The rice will still have a bite but that's okay since it will cook after we layer it with the chicken.

Putting it all together:

1. Grab a pressure cooker (or a large patila/saucepan).
2. Layer the chicken at the bottom.
3. Add a layer of rice on top. 
4. Sprinkle on some garam masala and drizzle on some ghee.
5. Sprinkle on a handful of the chopped coriander and mint leaves.
6. Repeat the layers until you've used up the rice and chicken. (This quantity will safely do 2 layers.)
7. Pour a half cup of water over the top. (If you've cooked the chicken in a separate pan, pour the water into that and swish it around to collect the masala stuck to the sides and pour that over the top instead.)
8. Put the kesar in a splash of warm milk and drizzle it evenly over the top.
9. Slap the lid on and lock it so that it's airtight. (Line the edge with atta/dough if you are using a patila/saucepan)
10. Turn on the smallest burner on low, and pop the cooker on.
11. Let it sit for about 15-20 minutes.
12. Turn the gas off.
13. Pop open the lid.
14. Serve with raita and a sprinkle of crispy onions on top.
15. Stuff face.
16. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: I love aloo (potatoes) in my biryani so if you feel like throwing some in with the chicken as it's cooking, I'll understand.

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