What’s Cooking?!
This review especially written for tormented souls like spooks and others for whom dho waqt ki roti is also huge pain in the stomach! Though I don’t know much about rotis, I can give you some “general” tips on cooking something very “general”. What I mean is, if you have the same “general” background, any sabzee is as easy as making an ice-cream. All right, lets get to see what Mr. Not-more-than-20 Minutes Cook (that’s me) manages to teach you. All tips consider 4 people’s stomachs.
The Generic Gravy
Ingredients
The Obvious Onion – 3 of them.
The Tasty Tomatoes – 5 of them.
The Good Garlic – 4 of them (not the whole piece – I mean just the piece as in singular)
The Gooder Ginger – 1 inch piece (don’t measure using a ruler – talking from experience!)
The Goodest Green Chilli – 3 in no. More adventurous spirits can try from 10-30.
The Usual Suspects – Jeera, Mustard, Hing (asafetida)
The Mast Masalas – Masala powder, Haldi (Turmeric), Mirchi Powder (Red chilli powder), Dhania Masala (ground dried coriander) – Swaad anusar (according to taste – I put 2 spoons of everything except of course the Mirchi Powder!).
Method
Heat oil in a pan (what else?), Fry mustard, jeera, and hing. Oops before that…do grate the onion, tomatoes, garlic, ginger and masalas into a thick paste.Use water if necessary. Now add that paste into this already hot affair going on the pan. Fry. Wait. Wait. It takes patience Neo! Stop! You will burn it! Simply put, wait till the gravy cooks. How do you know if it is cooked – you should start seeing some oily padarth all around the pan to know it is getting cooked. Wait for another minute or two to make sure, and remove from heat.
Voila, your generic gravy is ready!
Extensions on the Generic Gravy
Listed below are recipes which I make based on the gravy above.
Channa Masala– Add 3 spoons of Badshah Channa Masala, 1 cup yoghurt to the gravy, Channa (of course) in a pressure cooker and let it blow for 2 whistles. Let the cooker cool, and voila chatpata channa masala is ready.
Paneer Tikka Masala – Again to the gravy add Paneer cubes with some yoghurt. Also add some more mirchi to spice it up.
Navratna Kurma – Add choicest vegetables of your liking. Cook till you feel that vegetables have gone soft. Add cheese (yeah baby), (ricotta cheese will do) in good amounts to the gravy. Cook again till the color fades and you can see cheese melting totally.
Pav Bhaji- A bit longer process. Boil Vegetables (as much as you want) and mash them partially in a mixer and keep aside. Boil 4 potatoes and mash them with some water to make a paste. Next cook the gravy with 5 spoons of Badshah Bhaji Pav masala (it’s the best one in town). Add mashed vegetables and cook. If you feel the color is light, add puree (not more than 2 spoons). Add mashed potatoes once vegetables are cooked. Cook for another ten minutes – your Bhaji is ready, all u need is pav. Note that this recipe does take lots of time to cook!
Dum Aloo, Vegetable Kadai – Simplest of all the things. Just Boiled potatoes or Vegetables to the kadai, put some water (not more than a glass) and cook.
Chicken Tikka Masala– In the gravy add boneless chicken and a cup of milk. (yes milk). Again use the pressure cooker and pakofy the chicken for 4 whistles. Cool the cooker. Hog. Not the cooker, but the chicken :)
Pulav – Strange isn’t it?! Okay, now to this gravy add any kind of pulav masala you have. If you haven’t got, its okay, it will do without it. Put some washed rice in gravy (Washed, not boiled). Cook the gravy with washed and drained rice for sometime. Then put ingredients in a cooker and cook rice normally.
Allright! By now you must have figured out what a boring cook I could be. Hold on folks, the generic gravy simplifies your life a lot. If you want to experiment with it, then here are some suggestions you can try –
Don’t add Dhania powder when you make the gravy.
For a more chatpata swad, add a little bit of lime juice or tamarind paste. (little bit would be 1 spoon. That’s all)
Don’t add any powder to gravy except haldi and generic masala powder. Some dishes taste lovely with it.
Don’t add tomatoes to gravy. Instead add Mint leaves (pudina) and Coriander leaves in good amounts to make greenish gravy. Mix boiled rice in the mixture to make fantastic green flavored rice. (note – don’t over do pudina and coriander – they can kill each other. A bunch of pudina and coriander should do the trick).
Khichdi – Heat oil. Put jeera. Put haldi and turn it off before turmeric turns black. Add it to a 2 cups rice and 1 cup tuver dal mixed. Cook rice normally. Experiments may vary with adding onions in it, garlic or even peas.
Poha / Avalekki– Take some poha. The thick ones mind you. Take as much as you want to eat. Drain them for about 40 seconds in water and remove all the water. Heat oil, fry some onions and chillis. Add Haldi. Add poha. Stir. Add lime juice when done.
Dahi Poha– Take poha. Put lots of yoghurt in it. Add salt – voila a simple dish is ready. Best enjoyed with pickles.
Pakodas – Take 3 cups of Besan. Add one huge glass of water and make it into a good paste. This requires practice. Add all the masalas mentioned above and mix again. Make pakods of anything – Onion, peas, Potatoes or my favorite – spinach (palak) pakodas. One needs to have practice to get the consistency right, else your pakodas will be at one place and besan at other place!
Some General Tips
If the above recipes ain’t enough, Let me also share with you some basic art of cooking
Unless you believe, you cannot cook. You have to love cooking to enjoy cooking. Else you can never cook. Period.
Be clean. Wash utensils after and before you start cooking. That way you save post and pre cooking troubles.
Arrange your stuff to be cut in one place and cut all of them together. Don’t try to cut things on an on-demand basis!
Also remember friends, you can cook something out of nothing provided you know how. Also, cooking is an art. You really need to develop an interest in cooking and be brave enough to experiment. Guinea pigs can be got anywhere – just tell them you are cooking something out of the ordinary! Also don’t forget to garnish any of the recipes above with coriander. It’s a god gift to cooking!
Well then, that’s all I have the space for now. For more recipes, I bet people know where to catch me these days :)
Happy cooking!
Sorry – no bushisms this time – ran out of 8000 character limits!
