Kesar Badam Milk...

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups milk
10-15 almonds
1/6 cup pistachios
a few saffron strands
1/4 tbsp cardamon powder
1/4 cup sugar
water as required


METHOD:

• Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed pan.Continue heating even after the milk boils.
• Heat about a liter of water in another pan and add the almonds and the pistachios. Continue heating until the almonds expand.
• Drain off the water and wash the nuts with cold water.
• The skin of the almonds and the pistachios can be easily removed now.
• Now grind the almonds and pistachios into a smooth paste and add it to the milk and stir well.
• Add the saffron strands,sugar and cardamon powder and mix well.
• Continue heating the milk for a few more minutes.
• When the milk becomes a little thicker than before,cool it .
• Refrigerate it for 1-2 hours and serve it cold.

Butter Chicken Masala

Butter Chicken Masala is a all time favorite dish in Indian cuisine. Lightly seasoned chicken dish enriched with butter and cream. Butter Chicken Masala recipe love by all age people.Serve with any Indian bread of your choice with Naan, Butter Naan or Garlic Naan.


Ingredients to cook Butter Chicken Masala:

• 1 kg    - Boneless chicken skin removed
• 2 tsps  – Garam masala
• 2 tsps  – Coriander powder
• 1 tsp     - Cumin powder
• 1 tsp     - Red chilli powder
• 1 cup     - Fresh yoghurt
• 1 nos    – Lime
• 1/4 tsp – Turmeric powder
• 8-10     - Peppercorns
• 6 nos     - Cloves
• 1 inch  stick – Cinnamon
• Cardamom  – Seeds from 3-4 pods
• 2 nos   - Bay leaves
• 2 tsps – Garlic paste
• 1 tsp – Ginger paste
• 8 to 10 – Almonds
• 2 nos – Onions chopped
• 1/2 litre – Chicken stock
• 3 tbsps    - Oil
• 3 tbsps – Butter
• Salt as per taste
• Coriander leaves to garnish

Direction to cook Butter Chicken Masala:
1. Marinate the chicken with lime juice, salt and red chilli powder in a bowl for an 1 hour.
2. Roast the cloves,cinnamon, cardamom, peppercorns, bay leaves and almonds till they brown slightly and then powder coarsely
3. Prepare the marinade by mixing the yoghurt, whole spice powder and all the other spices together and Marinate the chicken with the above for another 1 hour.
4. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions till golden brown before adding the ginger and garlic pastes. Fry for a minute.
6. Add only the chicken from the chicken-spice mix and fry till chicken will turn opaque .Now add the chicken stock and remaining part of the mix to the chicken.
7. Cook till the chicken is done and stirring frequently. gravy is reduced to half its original volume.Now Melt the butter and pour it over the chicken.
8. Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves and green chillies. Serve with any Indian bread of your choice like Naan ,Butter Naan or Garlic Naan.

Jevnache Taat

Jevanache Taat

A festive Maharashtrian meal can be very elaborate. It contains arrays of different vegetables, pulses, sweets and salads. The order in which the thali is presented is also given utmost importance. When arranging a meal, consider thali as a clock, the number 12 position is salt, to its left is a lemon wedge, and then to the left are array of chutney,pickels,(loncha) and salad koshimbir. To the right side of salt are different vegetables like paatal bhaji (vegetable curry),paale bhaji (leafy greens), suki bhaji (dry stir fry), usal (sprouts),amti (daals). Cooked white rice is molded in a small mound called bhatachi mood, with a bright yellow plain daal (varan) annointed with a dollop of clarified butter (toop).
There may be another variety of spicy rice dishes like masale bhaat. There could be two three types of chutneys typically a green chutney and tamrind,jaggery chutney. Koshimbeer – raw salads generally paired with roasted peanut powder (daanyache koot) and flavored with either lemon juice or a plainyogurt based koshimbeer. Mattha – a spiced buttermilk is always served with such an elaborate meal along with a variety of sweets like jalebi, shrikhand, modak, puranpoli etc. There could also be some fried crispies like bhuji (fritte rs), kothimbeer vadi or papad or saandge & Kurdaya.
If the meal is for any religious festivities, onions and garlic are avoided. I have eaten elaborate meals during weddings and big family functions. There are some other mandatory rituals before actually eating the meal as well. You need to pay your respects to food which is considered poornabramha – God. My grandfather used to recite the following Marathi prayer: