Sweet, sticky and spicy...

Am talking of lamb chops children. If you thought something else, then you definitely gotta wash your thinking with some Harpic! Dirty Rotten Scoundrels! Anyway back to the topic on hand...Lamb chops. I always feel so immensely happy when there is something as robust as red meat for a meal, don't you? I get excited just thinking about it. Imagine pimping up an ordinary meal with some meat that has been slathered with this spicy, sticky and sweet marinade and dropped on a hot, sizzling pan till it is caramelised, juicy and falling off the bone. Ahhh, just warms the cockles of my cold, cold heart. And if you're eating this after months of depriving yourself of meat, you'll see heaven for a little while at least. I know I did. I swear to you, if you're not careful you might eat up your fingers, that's how tasty they are.

Normally I'd put up a picture at this point. But there was nothing left by the time I found the camera. I think it would be fair to say that the lamb chops disappeared at the speed of light. The idea for this recipe sadly is not original. The credits go to Nigella (my kitchen goddess) and Ravinder Bhogal (who in my opinion is a little fake). I know, I know...that is an unusual combination, if ever there was one. Nigella's spicy lamb chops are simplicity itself as she refers to it, but I felt that it lacked some zing, it needed something to make it more Indian to suit my taste buds. Sorry, Goddess. Lets introduce Ravinder at this point. For the most part, I feel Ravinder's recipes are unnecessarily complicated. But surprisingly her lamb chops were quite close to what I wanted. So came the idea to experiment on my own till I had the perfect lamb chops recipe.

And since I don't have any pictures to post,lets get right to the recipe. Now I have pictures!

Sweet, sticky and spicy Lamb Chops with Mint and pomegranate Raitha
Serves: 5-6

Lamb Chops
Ingredients:

Lamb Chops - 500 gms, cleaned
For the marinade:
2 teaspoons Fennel seeds, roasted till dark and ground
2 teaspoons Coriander powder, roasted till dark (take care not to burn)
2 teaspoons Paprika powder
1/2 teaspoon Ground pepper
3-4 Birds eye chillies, chopped very fine (adjust to your taste)
2 teaspoons Kodava Pork masala, recipe included below (I find that this particular ingredient makes the lamb chop taste even more exotic)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon Apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Ginger garlic paste
4 tablespoons Tamarind pulp
1/4 cup  powdered Jaggery or palm sugar
Salt to taste

Directions:
1. Mix all the ingredients for the marinade together in a large, shallow dish until you have a thick but spreadable paste. Dilute with a little oil if necessary, but don't thin it out too much.
2. Rub each lamb chop with the marinade, massage the meat so that it's well coated with the marinade on all sides. Place the lamb chops in the dish with the marinade, cover with cling and refrigerate for about 5-6 hours.
3. When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
4. Place an oven-proof deep-bottom dish on medium-high heat, drizzle a bit oil on the pan. When it starts to smoke, place each lamb chop on the heated pan and cook on each side for about 2 minutes or until well caramelised on both sides. Take the dish off the heat, pour over the left-over marinade and cover with aluminium foil on top.
4. Place the dish in the preheated oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes until they are cooked. Serve hot with mint and pomegranate raitha.

Mint and Pomegranate Raitha
Ingredients:
1 cucumber, de-seeded and diced finely
1 cup thick yoghurt
1/2 a pomegranate's seeds
a small handful of  mint, chopped roughly
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon chaat masala
1/4 teaspoon Paprika
1/4 teaspoon Sumac powder
5-6 Pistachios, roughly chopped
Salt, to taste

Directions:
1. Into a medium-sized bowl, add the yoghurt, cucumber, half the pomegranate seeds, mint, sugar, salt and other spices. Mix well.
2. Garnish with the rest of the pomegranate seeds and roughly chopped nuts. Refrigerate until you serve.

Kodava Pork Masala
Now, being a Kodavathi, I can tell you how treasured this recipe is. Each family will have a recipe that differs slightly from others, because they each have a special ingredient that will enhance the taste. And every single one of those people are tight-lipped about their recipe, lest it gets out. This here is a basic recipe.

Ingredients:
4 tbsps whole coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp peppercorn
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
Few grains of fenugreek seeds
3-4 dry red chillies

Directions:
1. Roast all the ingredients separately until dark, but not burnt. Grind all of it to make the powered dark masala. Store in an air-tight container.

* With all the aromas of the roasted spices wafting around your kitchen, you'll feel like the 'Mistress (or master) of spices'. 

Notes:

I put the lamb chops back on a hot pan (without oil) once they were out of the oven, just for a few minutes to make sure they were cooked. We don't like out meat cooked rare. This also made sure the chops were extra caramelised and juicy. 

Do taste the marinade before you spread it over the chops, so that you can adjust it to your taste.

All this talk of Lamb chops has got me drooling again. And since there is nothing left over after our greedy piggy behaviour from last night; I just gotta satisfy my cravings with something else. Talking of Greedy pigs, it's unfair isn't it to liken our greed to that of piggies, considering they don't even eat Lamb chops. Poor Souls! 

Until next time then,

Happy baking and stuffing yourselves.

Roasted Chilli Garlic Potatoes

This is my go-to recipe when we have unexpected guests or a last minute party. It makes for great finger food and the recipe can be altered to suit your needs. Again very little washing up or effort of any kind required, which just makes it even better for me. And even better...people of all ages love it. The best part it needs only the 3 things mentioned in the name itself with a li'l bit of seasoning and for extra oomph just jazz it up a little with some cut veggies or herbs or even bacon and cut sausages.

The potatoes roasting in the oven.

So here's how you make this very simple dish...

Wash and peel few potatoes and lot's of garlic (or less if you don't like garlic). Chop the potatoes (and sausage, if using) into 1 inch sized pieces and dice the garlic (and bacon, if using). Mix both together, add chilli flakes on top, sprinkle with salt and pepper (and herbs, if using), one tablespoon of oil and mix well so all the potatoes (and sausage, if using) are coated with oil. Transfer to a foil lined (so washing up becomes easy) roasting tray and place in a preheated oven at 190 degrees Celsius (374 F) for about 40 minutes or until the potatoes are golden brown. Serve Hot.

Until next time, Happy Baking!

Four posts in one day...ha! so much for laziness!!!

I guess I am wired from all the yoga today, hence so many posts. Also, I felt a wee bit guilty about ignoring the blog for so long and decided that I better catch up and post some stuff. And also, I forgot to mention that I had baked 4 wonderful Tarte Tatin's for Anjali Aunty's kitty party and I got rave reviews for them. I baked another Tarte Tatin last week for my aunt's party, so I guess I can say I am getting to be quite an expert at baking them. After all they are so easy.

Tarte Tatin with Tanu's finger!

Also I came up with a new recipe for Sweet n Sour chicken. It all started with an intense craving for Sweet n Sour chicken when I was at home in Coorg; and since there are no great Chinese restaurants nearby, I had to make some myself. It was sooooo goood, I think I almost bit off the tip of my li'l finger (hee hee). See picture below. Recipe to follow soon.

ooohhh...I wanna have some now!

I also baked some Red velvet cupcakes. I am crazy about red velvet cupcakes, and who wouldn't be...they look so pretty and taste so good too! And they are so moist...add a little cream cheese icing on top and it's the bees knees! See picture below.

The red velvet cupcakes just out of the oven...I didn't put on any cream cheese frosting coz there were no cupcakes left to frost, we ate 'em all :)

And finally to the recipes...the recipe that I am sharing is one of my own and it's easy (a li'l time consuming, but all good things to those who wait or something along those lines). And it's another of the recipes from the baking class.

Mushroom Pasta Bake

Ingredients:

Pasta – 200g pack (You can get any pasta of your choice, farfalle, penne, rigatoni, macaroni, fusili, ziti, alphabet pasta, paprdelle, rotini, penne rigate, conchiglie, orecchiette, rotelle etc.)

Mushrooms – 300g (You can get any mushroom of your choice or mix them, button mushrooms, shitake, porcini, chanterelles, oyster mushrooms etc) (cleaned and chopped)

Olive Oil – 1 Tablespoon (or any cooking oil) plus 1 Teaspoon of oil for boiling the pasta.

Salt to taste

Worcestershire sauce – 1 Tablespoon

Crushed Black Pepper – 2Tteaspoons

Garlic – 4 large cloves crushed

Parsley – 2 Tablespoons (chopped finely)

Coriander leaves and stalk – 1 Tablespoon (chopped finely)

Mint leaves – 1 tablespoon (chopped finely)

Dried Rosemary – ½ Teaspoon

Dried Thyme – ½ Teaspoon

Dried Oregano – ½ Teaspoon

Dried Chilli Flakes – 2 tablespoon

Cheddar or Mozzarella Cheese – 200g (grated)

1 large onion cut into rings

1 large bell pepper (capsicum) cut into rings

1 large tomato cut into rings

For the Béchamel Sauce:

Wheat Flour – 100g

Butter – 100g

Warm Milk – 400ml

¼ cup pasta water

Salt to taste

Crushed black pepper – 1 teaspoon

Cinnamon or Nutmeg powder - ½ teaspoon

Instructions:

Fill a large saucepan with water, add 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a rolling boil. When the water starts boiling, add a teaspoon of oil, then add the pasta and give it a stir. Cover the pot and let boil for 15 to 20 mins. Keep stirring in between or the pasta will stick together and burn. Also, keep checking to make sure the pasta is not overcooked. It should be just cooked “al dente”.

Once the pasta is cooked right, then immediately strain into a colander to remove the pasta water. Reserve ¼ cup of the pasta water and set aside. Run cold water over the pasta to stop the cooking process and set aside.

In another pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil, fry the crushed garlic and then add the mushrooms to the pan. Add salt to taste, Worcestershire sauce, pepper and the herbs and and sauté them till it is cooked. Add 2 tablespoons of the grated cheese and set aside.

To make the béchamel sauce, on low heat, roast the wheat flour till slightly brown, add butter and stir vigorously till you have a roux (the flour and butter mix to form a thin paste). Stir so that there are no lumps. Now pour in the milk and whisk continuously to remove all lumps, keep stirring until you feel the sauce thickening. Now add the pasta water, keep whisking, also add the salt, pepper and cinnamon or nutmeg powder. Whisk until you have a thick but pourable and smooth sauce.

Into a large baking dish, first add a 2 tablespoons of béchamel sauce and spread to cover the base. Now add the pasta and half the béchamel sauce and 2 tablespoons of grated cheese. Mix lightly. Next add the mushroom and cheese mixture and spread on the pasta. Spread the rest of the béchamel sauce and sprinkle half of the remaining grated cheese. Arrange the onion rings, bell pepper rings and tomato rings and sprinkle the rest of the grated cheese on top. Finally sprinkle the chilli flakes on top of the grated cheese.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes or until the cheese melts and top is bubbling and is lightly golden and crisp. Serve hot with fresh garlic bread.
And for all you meat loving types who can't live without it, you can add minced meat or even sausage to the same recipe.

Until next time, Happy Baking :)