Gulyas

Gulyas, or Goulash, this iconic Hungarian stew has far too many variations to count, and the only thing that really ties them together is the smoky-sweet paprika that gives it its characteristic rich red colour. The stew's name 'Gulyas' means 'Hunter' in Hungarian, a reference to its origins as a herdsman/hunter's meal and it is best made with off-cuts of red meat (like beef or mutton) or game meats (like rabbit) and hearty vegetables like potatoes and carrots. A vegetarian version is also possible with the use of broad beans or kidney beans in place of the meat. Goulash has a lengthly cooking time, with the meat braising in its cooking liqour for upto an hour and half, and thus off cuts and muscular cuts should be used, as they add a wonderful gamey flavour to the stew. 

Another tip to reduce the cooking time is to use a pressure cooker, as it reduces the braising time to a mere 15 minutes. For this Goulash, I've used boneless mutton cubes and smoked paprika, and added a little kashmiri paprika for a bit of heat. The recipe has been adapted from recipe on thehungarydish.com: http://www.thehungarydish.com/the-best-gulyas-recipe, which is an excellent site for traditional Hungarian classics, like Lecso and Slambuc. I've served up the Goulash with plain rice, and it can be served up on a bed of pasta or polenta, or with chunks of crusty bread or a Hungarian pasta called Csipetke.

Ingredients

• 200 g boneless mutton, cleaned and cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 large white onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 large tomato, roughly chopped
• 1 medium potato, cubed
• 2 medium carrots, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp cumin seeds or 1 tbsp caraway seeds, lightly roasted
• 3 cups water (use 5 cups if not using a pressure cooker)
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika (or sweet paprika)
• 2 tsp kashmiri paprika (or hot paprika)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• Salt to taste

Method

1. Rub a tsp of salt and the pepper into the mutton and leave aside for at least 30 minutes.
2. Heat a the oil in thick bottomed pot or a cooker bottom, and once hot, add the sliced onions. Add a tsp of water as well, to prevent the onions from browning. Lower the heat and stew the onions for at least 10 minutes, until they turn clear and glassy.
3. Take off the heat and add the paprikas, cumin/caraway seeds and another tsp of water to prevent the paprika from burning and turning bitter. Mix around till the paprika evenly coats the onions, and place back on the heat.
4. Raise the heat to high and add the mutton and garlic. Cook on high till the mutton turns brown and add the water. Stir vigourously and bring the stew to a boil. Once boiling, close the pressure cooker, and once the pressure its pressurised (when its on the verge of whistling or whistles once) lower the heat.
5. Cook on low for around 10 minutes, around 2-3 whistles, and then turn off the heat. Leave the pressure cooker aside and let it de-pressurise and cool naturally, which should take another 6-7 minutes.
6. Once its de-pressurised, remove the lid and check the salt and the consistency of the stew. Make sure to keep it a little under-salted as the excess water in the stew will be burnt away. 
7. The stew should be quite thin and runny, so place back on the heat uncovered and bring it to a boil. Add the potatoes, carrots and tomato and cook on high heat for another 10-12 minutes, until the potatoes are just done (everything else will cook before the potatoes). While cooking the potatoes, keep the stew uncovered until you get the desired consistency, and cover for the remaining time. I like my stews to be quite thick, so I kept it uncovered for the entire cooking time.
8. Take off the heat and serve over an absorbent base, like rice or poleta, or with thick crusty bread.

Laal Maas

Laal Maas is a Rajasthani curry that gets its wonderfully rich red colour from broiled onions, ginger and garlic, and a ground red chill paste. There are variants that use tomatoes to thicken the gravy and heady spices like cinnamon, cardamom and star anise, but that isn't true to the recipe. Rajasthani Laal Maas is made with a handful of cloves, and relies on the slow broiling of the onions, ginger and garlic in oil to a burnished red paste for that wonderful caramel flavour. This preparation also uses a thick red chilli paste, made with mathania chilies, which are a rich red colour but lack the bite of a chilli. To substitute, kashmiri red chillies can be used, or a combination of dried red chilies and kashimi red chillies, depending on your spice tolerance. The meat used is mutton, as it stands up to the slow broiling needed and has a flavour that lamb sorely lacks.

Ingredients

• 500 g mutton, cut into bite sized pieces
• 4 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 large onion, sliced lengthwise
• 10 cloves
• 1 1/2 cup whisked curd
• 8 mathania red chillies, ground into a thick paste
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbsp mustard oil
• 1 small piece of charcoal
• 1 tbsp salt

Method

1. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in thick bottomed pan, until its hot but not smoking. Add the cloves and let them crackle. Then add the onions and cook until it turns translucent.
2. Add the ginger-garlic paste and stir vigourously to prevent it from sticking. Lower the heat and slow broil it till the onions and ginger-garlic paste caramelise and turn a burnished red colour.
3. Add the mathania chilli paste and continue cooking on low heat until it melds into the paste. 
4. Add the mutton pieces and toss around to make sure the paste evenly coats the pieces. Continue slow broiling and brown the mutton pieces.
5. Add the curd and salt, and mix around. Add the water and bring to a boil.
6. Transfer to a pressure cooker and cook on high heat till the pressure builds. Once the pressure builds, lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes, until the meat is tender and falls off the bone.
7. Heat and activate the charcoal, then transfer it into a shallow bowl.
8. Place the charcoal bowl in the middle of the curry and pour the remaining mustard oil over the charcoal.
9. Once it starts smoking, cover the gravy with a tight fitting lid. Let the gravy absolve the smoke for a at least 20 minutes. Then remove the lid and bowl and serve hot with plain rotis or rice.

Awadhi Ghost Biryani

Wonderfully fragrant and lightly spiced, I love awadhi biryani and have been looking to make it for quite some time. This style of biryani has its origins in the kitchens of Lucknow, the erstwhile capital of the kingdom of Awadh, and is distinguishable form other styles by the melding and light use of spices and heavy use of aromatics like Kewra extract and rose water. I've also added mint as I love its wonderful fragrance when baked. 

The fragrance of the biryani is also enhanced by its cooking style, where it is cooked on a low flame in a sealed container to seal in the flavour and aroma of the ingredients.

A word of warning, the preparatory time for this biryani is upwards of 2 hours, as it has a number of components that need to be separately prepared and assembled together just before the last round of cooking.  

I used mutton for this biryani, as its the preferred meat in awadhi cooking, but this can just as easily be made with chicken, with suitable variation in the cooking time, or with boiled eggs or vegetables, with the use of stock cubes for the savoury broth.

Ingredients

Meat Marinade and Gravy

• 500 g mutton, with bones and cut into bite sized chunks
• 2 medium onions, one finely chopped and other cut into thin longitudinal slices
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1" ginger, chopped
• 3 cloves
• 5 peppercorns
• 1" cinnamon
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 dry red chilies, chopped
• salt to taste
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt

Rice and Savory broth

• 2 cups basmati rice, washed
• 5 cloves
• 1 star anise
• 1" cinnamon
• 2 bayleaves
• 8 peppercorns, cracked
• 3 black cardamoms, slit
• 1 small piece of nutmeg
• 2" ginger, sliced
• 2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
• salt to taste

Garnish

• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced longitudinally
• 4-5 cashew nuts, roughly chopped
• 4-5 almonds, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)

Aromatic milk

• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 green cardamoms
• 3-4 strands of saffron
• 1/2 tsp kewra extract
• 1/2 tsp rose water

Method

Mutton Marinade

1. Crush the dry spices in a mortar and add it to the chopped onion, garlic and ginger. Add the yogurt and make a thick marinade. Add around a 1 tsp of salt.
2. Add the mutton pieces to the marinade, and toss around to make sure that it evenly coats the mutton.
3. Leave in the fridge overnight, or for at least 6 hours.

Savoury Broth

1. Place all the spices in the middle of a cheesecloth and tie its ends together to create a spice pouch.
2. Take the mutton pieces out of the marinade and keep the marinade aside.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a pressure cooker and add the mutton pieces. Brown the pieces on all sides and add 3.5 cups of water. In case you don't have a pressure cooker, use a heavy bottomed pan and cook with a lid. Also add an extra half cup to a cup of water, to ensure that you have 3.5 cups of the savoury broth after cooking the mutton.
4. Add the spice pouch and close the pressure cooker. Cook for 8-10 minutes until the mutton is tender and falling apart.
5. Separate the mutton pieces and the savoury broth using a sieve. Remove the spice pouch. The spice pouch can be thrown away, or dried out and used for spicing soups.

Mutton Gravy

1. Heat a tbsp of ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and add the sliced onions and brown on high heat. 
2. Add the marinade and cook until the oil starts to separate.
3. Add the mutton pieces and 1/2 cup of the savoury broth. Toss around lightly to create a thin gravy.

Aromatic Milk

1. Crush the cardamom pods lightly. 
2. Heat the milk and add the crushed cardamom.
3. Bring to a boil and remove from the heat.
4. Crush the saffron and add it to the milk. Stir it into the milk, cover and leave aside to cool.
5. Stir periodically to prevent the cream from separating.
6. Once cool, add the kewra extract and rose milk and keep covered.

Garnish

1. Dry roast the chopped almond and cashew, till the pieces are lightly tinged with brown specks.
2. Heat a tbsp of ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and add the onions. Brown the onions on high heat, and leave aside to cool.
3. Once the onion has cooled, add the roasted almonds and cashews and the chopped mint.
4. Toss around to evenly distribute the ingredients.

Rice

1. Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a pan with a lid. Add the washed rice and stir around until the rice glistens.
2. Cook on high heat till the rice turns opaque.
3. Add the savoury stock, reduce the heat and cook covered for 10 minute, or until the rice absorbs the stock.
4. Take off the heat and keep aside, covered, for ten minutes.

Assembling the Biryani

1. Take an oven proof bowl with a tight fitting lid.
2. Pre-heat the oven at 220 C/gas mark 7.5
3. Add half the rice to the bowl and flatten it out. 
4. Pour half the aromatic milk over, in a circular pattern.
5. Add the mutton gravy and spread it to create a mutton layer.
6. Add the half the garnish and spread it out.
7. Cover with the remaining rice and flatten out.
8. Pour in the remaining aromatic milk in a circular pattern, and spread the remaining garnish. Close the bowl and place in the pre-heated oven, at 220 C/gas mark 7.5
9. Let it cook at 220 C for 10 minutes and then lower the heat to 120 C/gas mark 4 for 15 minutes.
10. Once done, take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes.
11. Carefully remove the lid and let those wonderful aromatics tease your senses. Serve   up with a raita of yogurt and cucumber and onions.

Mutton Donne Biryani

A gloriously minty and ever popular biryani here in Bangalore, with significant variations from one locality to another. This quick and hassle-free biryani comes in colours that vary from bright almost phosphorent green to a muted yellow with specks of green. This biryani can be made with chicken or mutton and needs around 40 minutes to prepare, with the cooking time being around 15-20 minutes. The proportions in this recipe will be enough for around 4 people. Serve with a chilled cucumber and onion raita and a hard boiled egg.

Ingredients

Mutton

• 1/2 kg Mutton, cut into big bite sized chunks
• 1 tsp red chili power
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp oil

Mint Paste

• 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 green chilies, chopped
• 1 bunch mint leaves, chopped
• 1 bunch coriander leaves with stalks (or substitute with a handful of mint)
• 1 tbsp oil

Biryani

• 3 cups basmati rice, washed and cleaned
• 3 green cardamom pods
• 2-3 strands of mace
• 8 black peppercorns
• 2 inches cinnamon, broken
• 1 tbsp ghee
• salt to taste

Method

Mutton

1. Mix the ingredients, other than the mutton and oil, together to create a thick paste and rub it into the mutton.
2. Set aside for 2 hours.
3. Heat the oil in a pressure cooker and add the mutton with the marinade.
4. Stir and cook the mutton for 2-3 minutes and add 5 cups of water.
5. Close the pressure cooker and cook for 10 minutes, until the meat is tender.
6. Separate the meat from the stock and keep both aside.

Mint Paste

1. Heat the oil and ghee together and add the onions.
2. Fry the onions till they turn brown around the edges.
3. Add the ginger garlic paste and chopped green chilies and let it cook for 2 minutes.
4. Add the mint and coriander and let it cooked covered for another 2 minutes.
5. Take it off the heat, let it cool and make a blitz in a food processor with a little water to make a thick paste.

Biryani

1. Heat the ghee in a cooking pot and add the spices.
2. Cook until fragrant and add the mint paste, rice and mutton.
3. Stir it around to ensure that the paste evenly coats the mutton and the rice.
4. Add the stock, cover the lid and let it cook on medium/high heat till the rice absorbes all of the liquid.
5. Serve with raita and a hard-boiled egg.