Mum's Recipe: Hyderabadi Harees

I will cut short to the ingredients this time but just to save you some thinking, this recipe is easy to cook but requires some muscular efforts in the end to mash it up all together!

Ingredients:

1) 1 Kg Chicken
2) 1 and half cup Wheat grains
3) 1 Tablespoon Ginger Garlic Paste
4) 1 Table spoon Garam Masala
5) 1 and half teaspoon Crushed Black Pepper
6) 3/4 cup Yogurt (whipped)
7) 1 Onion
8) A cup of Cashews (Optional)
9) A cup of Oil/Ghee (Split in half)
10)Lots of butter/ghee

Preps:

1) Soak wheat for 2 hours. Then using a pressure cook (That's what I did) cook it until its half done. Keep aside.

Tip: To avoid some hard work, use chopper and chop your half done wheat. DO NOT make a paste just into some pieces.

2) Make Chicken Broth: Dump all your chicken into the boiling water and let it all cook. Separate chicken from broth. And then bones from the meat :D Keep aside the chicken not the bones!

3) Take half of the cashews and make paste with water. ( Optional)


Method:

1) Use pressure cooker. Heat half cup of ghee then throw in your spices, ginger garlic paste and in the end yogurt. Keep stirring! Once you can smell all the aroma add cashew paste. Stir for a while again.

2) Add wheat, chicken and broth all together. Close your cooker now and keep it on low heat.

3) Once your chicken and wheat are blended and you think your wheat is well cooked, get ready for the fun part. Using a heavy wooden hand mixer, mash up everything and keep adding some water and butter. You do not want it to get thicker!

So, this hand mixer is easily available in Pakistani/Indian markets and you can see it in the picture above. We can also use machines but the hand mixing gives it rich and traditional texture. In Urdu we call it "Ghota" .

While mixing/blending, add 1-2 tablespoon at a time and then use some water. Don't worry wheat absorbs both really fast.

4) This is your tardka: In another pot, heat remaining oil/ghee, add your sliced onions and cook until almost brown then add cashews. When onions are brown add this to your Harees mixture and close the lid!

And Tadaaaa you are done!

Do you have some lemons? Serve your Harees with them :D


Blunders & Tips:

Garam masala was way too less in my Harees. So, I used my Maa's advice and added some garam masala to tardka (Oil and onions) and added to my Harees. Doesn't make a difference :)

Ask a male member to do the hand mixing / Ghota, my arms were aching all night. But worth it.

This dish requires a long time, so keep the serving time in mind. 

Serve some butter/ghee along. I did not and my family complained :/

Happy Cooking 

xx

Pasta Shells with stuffed Mozzarella and Chicken and Béchamel Sauce

Pasta Shells arranged in the Pyrex dish.

What you need:

For Filling:
Pasta Shells - Half a packet
Mozzarella - Half Cup
Shredded Chicken - 1 Cup (I used leftover chicken from chicken broth)
Green Chilli - 2 pieces
Egg - 1 
Red Chilli flakes - 2 Teaspoon
Salt to taste
Oregano - 1/2 Teaspoon

For Béchamel Sauce:
Butter - 2 Tablespoon
Flour -  2 Tablespoon flour
Milk (heated) - 1 1/4 cup
Salt to taste
Fresh ground pepper
Grated cheddar or Parmesan - 1/2 cup 

Instructions:

Boil the shells like any other pasta and carefully spoon them out, try not to break.

Now mix all the filling ingredients. Remember egg is used for binding the filling together.

Pre-heat the oven at 350 F. 

Put a saucepan on medium heat and add butter. Once the butter starts to melt add milk.
Simmer milk and then add flour to it and keep stirring it with the  help of whisk. (it shouldn't have any lumps).
Now add salt, pepper and cheese. Keep stirring with the whisk until you achieve the require consistency of your sauce. Your sauce is ready, keep aside.

Take a pyrex dish, spoon out some sauce into the dish. Now arrange the pasta shells in the dish.
Pour over rest of the sauce and sprinkle some mozzarella cheese. Cover it with the foil and put into over for 30 mins. Pasta Shells are ready to serve!

You can do all sort of variations with this and try Napolitana Sauce instead of  Béchamel Sauce.

Kung Pao Chicken

Kung Pao Chicken

Kung Pao Chicken is originaly known as Gong Bao Chicken and it is cooked with beef or shrimps as well.

What you need:

For Marination:

Boneless Chicken Breast - 2 Pieces 
Dark Soy Sauce  - 1 1/2 Tablespoon 
Oyster Sauce - 1 Tablespoon 
Corn Flour  - 1 Tablespoon
Olive oil      - 1 Teaspoon 

For Sauce

Dark Soy Sauce - 2 Tablespoon

Oyster Sauce - 1 1/2 Teaspoon

Sugar - 1 Teaspoon  

Other Ingredients: 

Red Chilli Peppers - 8 

Garlic Cloves - 3 

Spring Onions - 1 cup  

Olive oil - 4  Tablespoon 

Szechwan peppercorns (Optional)  - 1 Teaspoon 

Cashews  - 1/4 cup 
Peanuts  - 1/2 cup 

Method:

Cut the chicken breasts into medium sized slices, remember not too thick and not too thin!

Mix all the marination ingredients except corn flour and pour onto the chicken. Mix well and then add the corn flour. Mix Mix Mix :P 

Keep it in refrigerator. 

For atleast half an hour ! 

Now keep your wok at high flame and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Toss the peanuts and cashews, fry them for 3-5 minutes. Keep aside.

Mix together ingredients for sauce. Keep that aside too! 

Chop the garlic finely. 

Cut the spring onions diagonally.

Ok, we are done with all the cutting, marination and mixing. Let's get to real work! ;)

Put the wok at medium-high flame add 2 tablespoon of olive oil and add your chicken.

If the chicken is white or let's say 80% cooked, take the wok off the flame.

Now take the frying pan and add last 2 tablespoon of olive oil (Oh you can use sesame oil as well) and add garlic, Szechwan peppercorns and red chilli peppers. Stir until they are aromatic and red.

Add the sauce into the frying pan give it a little boil. Toss the chicken in and then the spring onions and nuts. Cover and let it cook for atleast 5 minutes, so that the aroma of all the ingredients is mixed well together. 

Kung Pao Chicken is ready now! Serve it hot with Chinese fried rice.

P.S: I also added powdered peanut mixture to the sauce. 

Please give me your feedback \m/