My Recipes

aroy

Senior Member
I cook for the fun of it, and some of my recipes have been honed so that they are repeatable consistently. I started taking images of the steps initially with my cell phone, and for the past year with my D3300. I will present the recipes one by one with detailed images and explanations.
 

aroy

Senior Member
Bread with roughage.

In India we use wheat flowers of different coarseness

1. Dalia is coarsest, particle around 1/2mm across. It is used mainly for poridges and sweets.
2. Semolina is a bit finer.
3. Atta is fine grind with bran . This is used for making flat bread all over India.
3. Maida or fine flour is the finest grind available. The quality varies and there is no bran.

I try to make bread a bit healthy, so mix about 10% Atta with flour. As the proportion of Atta goes up, the bread rises less, 50% is more or less the limit. So all the Brown Bread and Whole Wheat bread that is sold in the market is a bit of a misnomer as it always contains a lot of Maida - Fine ground wheat.

So here are the steps. I made two loaves with 1 kg of fine flour and 2 cups of Atta. The yeast is from a 1/2 kg bulk pack. Milk used is low fat variety.

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Water with sugar. heat the water in microwave for 30 sec
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1 1/2 TBS dried yeast
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Mix the yeast, it will rise while the flou is sisfted
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One 1/2 kg pack of Maida and 2 cups of Atta sifted. What you see is the bran, which goes back into the flour. The reason I sift is to check for insect if any
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Second packet of 1/2 kg MAida in. Now salt and more sugar
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The yeast has bubbled over. The milk at the right is also heated
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Pour all the liquids in the flour mixture. Add water as needed
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The kneaded dough after 15 minutes of kneading
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Rise after 1/2 hour. In winter it may take an hour to rise as much
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I decided to try "Braided bread for one loaf along with one loaf in the normal tin
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One loaf in the tin
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Braided Loaf on a lid. The lid is 12" across
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After 1 hour of rise
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Into the oven
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Baked
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Loaf in the tin
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Another View
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Out of the tin
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Upright on the stand

NOTES
1. I got two loaves from about 1.2kg flour
2. The salt and sugar add to the taste and aid in making the bread fluffy.
3. The stone in the Oven is my Thermal Regulator. Once hot it keeps the temperature constant and I can open the door to check the progress without cooling the oven. We use bottle gas, so there is always a chance that the gas cylinder may run out while baking.
4. What you see below the bread in the oven are potatoes in aluminum foil. A foolproof method of getting baked potatoes with no additional effort.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
Mutton Biryani.

MUTTON : In India, mutton is Goat meat, Lamb is rarely eaten as it has a strong taste, which most people here do not like. The meat is tough so all our recipes tend to have a long cooking time. When cooked on low heat for extended time, goat turns out to be more tender than lamb.

BIRYANI : Biryani is a dish where Meat and Rice are cooked together. There are two main cooking methods
- Lucknow style where the meat is cooked with spices. Then the broth is used to cook the rice. Both the meat and the rice are cooked to around 50%. Then the rice and meat are layered in a big pot, with fried onions added to each layer. The pot is then sealed to make it airtight and cooked over moderate heat. This method gives you control of each step, and you can "repair" any mistake at each step.
- Hyderabad style also called "Kacchi" or raw meat Biryani. Here only rice is cooked to 50% with select spices. The raw meat is spread in a large pot. Ideally it should be 1 1/2 layers of meat, not more. So more meat you have the wider the vessel. Meat is marinated in select spices and mixed with fried onions and the oil it was fried in. The rice is layered with fried onions and herbs on top of each layer. In this method you have to be precise in both the spice quantities and cooking time of both rice and the whole thing. Any deviation and you get either burnt meat or over boiled rice. The major plus point in this style is the preparation time and hassle free cooking. This method also gears up seamlessly with quantity. The preparation time is more or less one hour for various quantities - 1/2 kg to 5kg of meat and the cooking time same.

In both the styles you can add saffron mixed with a bit of boiled rice on top of the last layer. You can also add Kewra Water (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kewra) to add to the fragrance.

I use the Hyderabad method and over the last few years have kept a detailed log and images of each step. Followed diligently, this is a nobrainer and normally idiot proof method. As various rice have different cooking (and more importantly turning mushy) time, use the same rice you are used to. OK, now for the Images

1. Marinade for the Mutton. This lot has around 3 kg of Mutton. I made marinade in two batches once in the beginning and once after a day as I increased the quantity.

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Herbs - Chillies, Basil, Holy Basil (these two are there just because they grow in my garden, otherwise you can use mint), garlic, ginger, Fenugreek leaves
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Spices (clockwise) Red Chilly powder, Pepper, Cloves, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Salt in the middle. The quantity of salt has to be determined after the meat is immersed in marinade. The marinade should taste slightly over salted.
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Additional herbs. These are there as I increased the quantities otherwise I add them at the same time.
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Added pepper to enhance the taste
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All spices and herbs ground and mixed
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Yogurt
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Mutton
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Everything mixed and "bagged'. A bag is ideal as you can squeeze air out, so that you have to use less quantity of marinade.
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Added more mutton and a few spices
 

aroy

Senior Member
Mutton Biryani

2. Frying onions and Cooking Rice. I carry out both the steps can in Parallel. If you cannot manage that, fry the onions first and then cook the rice.

ONIONS
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Around 1.5 kg Onions for 3kg Mutton. I will fry them in three batches.
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Use just enough oil to fry 1/2 kg of onions (cut fine), as the oil will be mixed with mutton at the end. The oil can be any white oil. At times I use Ghee (clarified butter), which results in a heavenly smell but like cooking with lard quite heavy for some.
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Onions are just browning. Be careful at this stage as they can burn fast.
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This is how they should look. After cooling for a few minutes the onions should be crisp like potato chips

RICE
As a shortcut I boil the spices in a smaller vessel till the colour turns dark. The spices are then filtered and the broth mixed with water in which rice will be cooked

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Spice for rice - Large Cardamon, Cinnamon, Cloves, Mace, Pepper and Salt. The quantity of salt here is just an indication. When mixed with main water the broth should be mildly salty. The more water the more salt.
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Spices in the beginning
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Colour at the end. 10 minutes of boiling should be enough, but you can do it longer
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Drained spices. There is quite a lot of potency still there, so you can use the spices in cooking later.

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Rice, washed a number of times to get rid of the accumulated dust (old rice has a lot of rice dust), Wash till the water is clear.
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This is what the water looks like when you add the spices broth
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Rice nearly done. Good Basmati will rise fast. Here it has grown around 30%
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Rice cooked to 50% (approx). When pressed the rice will be hard but pliable. What is to be remembered that the rice will cook fully in the pot, so slightly underdone rice at this stage is better than over done.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
Mutton Biryani

3. Layering and cooking. Normally it is either two or three layers. This lot has two layers

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Mix the last batch of fried onions and the oil. Mix well. The oil and onions will give the mutton a good gravy, and also prevent it from sticking at the bottom.
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Check the fluid level. If a bit low then add Curd. The fluids should be just below the mutton. The quantity of fluid determines how much the rice will fluff up. There fore you have to estimate only after the rice is cooked. If it is cooked more then use less fluid if less use more.
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First Layer of Rice. Fried onions and herbs are strewn. I used Basil and coriander leaves, but traditional recipe states mint. You can use what ever you have as each herb has its own flavour none is good or bad.
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Second Layer
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Lid seal. We use Atta - flour used for making flat bread and found in practically all Indian household. You can use any flour if you have no atta, as its only job is to seal the lid tightly
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Sealed pot on the gas.. To dissipate heat evenly (so that there are no hot spots in the pan) and to lower the heat there is a Tawa - thick iron disk we use to cook flat breads. You can use any flat iron or aluminum sheet for this purpose. The stone at the top is our traditional plat mortar used for grinding every thing. As the pressure build up in the pan the lid seal may not be enough and it will leak. The heavy weight ensures the seal. Use high flame initially for 10-15 minutes and then use the lowest flame you have as there should be just enough heat to keep the stuff cooking.
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Cooked
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As the meat is at the bottom, you have to mix the whole Biryani well. This pot is a around 18" diameter with around 30L capacity. With 3kg meat you use 1.2-2kg rice to get around 15L of Biryani, enough for twelve large eaters.
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Served

NOTE.
1. I use Atta Seal by baking it. It makes excellent dog biscuit for our Lab.
2. Excess Biryani can be frozen. We normally make excess and freeze the leftovers. Just microwave it with a sprinkling of water and it tastes as good.
 
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