Cooking Misadventures of the Past Week

Egg DoPiaza - Chicken with veggies - Paneer Dhansak!

Why Egg DoPiaza? And not the more conventional Chicken Dopiaza? The reason is big - the last week in Kitchen Adventures ended in a couple of disasters!  Tried Paneer Dhansak - but it became too dry.True it tasted good - the right amount of spices,onion-ginger-garlic ensured that there was sanctity in the taste of the dhansak but the gravy had dried up.

So, lets proceed to the next day.

Background: We had been to Mocambo restaurant last weekend and everytime I go there I am left amazed by the variety and quality of dishes. And how every time we come back saying "wow.had a really nice time".For the last 10 years that I been frequenting the place I keep on thinking how can they maintain such a consistency of the preparation of each and every dish. I was left smitten by the Mixed Grill Sizzler and that lingering taste inspired me to experiment something on those lines very soon. Searching for continental recipes, I finally opted for "Chicken with Pasta and Vegetables". Picked up all the ingredients from nearby departmental store and had to loosen my purse a lot for them, marinated the chicken pieces overnight and was done with the preparation part - so that when I would be cooking the next day, I can concentrate solely on that part.The next day, returned back from office early and what finally turned out was a far cry from what Mocambo presents us!

So?

So, I swallowed these results with a pinch of salt but was cautious on what to try. That was when Chicken Dopiaza occcurred to me but wanted to try it with something more simpler. Egg, occurred to me and egg Dopiaza it was.  And boy it was good. And now that I had a good day yesterday, so,I look forward to prepare the chicken do piaza someday.

Dopiaza is so named because the onion (which is traditionally added only once to most recipes) during the roasting process is added twice in this menu. There are 2 different "cuts" of onion used in the two respective stages. The first set of onions will be "longitudinally" sliced, whereas, the next set will be larger peels of onion.

Tip: Slice an onion into 4 halves and take off the peels one-by-one.

Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Eggs - Depends on the number of servings. I prepared it for 2 people and took  4 in number.
• Onion - 150 gm(2 medium pieces). Some sliced and some peeled. Opt for 50-50ing the cuts.
• Ginger - a 1/4 inch piece - crushed.
• Garlic  - 2 cloves - crushed
• Yoghurt/Curd - 50 grams

The Paneer Dhansak Which I Cooked!

• 1 Dry Red Chilli(Sukno Lanka in bengali)
• Green chilly - 2
• Vegetable Oil - 3 tbsp.
• Salt - To taste

Spices:

Whole Spices:

• Green Cardamon
• Cloves
• Black Pepper
• Cinnamon
• Bay Leaf

Powdered Spices:

• Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Kashmiri mirch powder - 1 tsp
• Garam masala powder

Procedure:

• In 1 tbsp of oil lightly fry the diced onions and put aside.
• Boil the eggs and coat them with a light layer of turmeric powder. Fry them till they acquire a yellowish-brown colour.
• Now heat 2tbsp oil in a heavy bottomed pan
• Add the whole garam masalas,bay leaf and dry red chilli
• Wait until the garam masalas start to crackle and the essence becomes prominent and fills up the kitchen
• Add the crushed ginger  and garlic and the sliced onions.
• Fry till the onions start turning brown in colour and the raw "ness" disappears
• Add  turmeric powder, cumin powder,coriander powder and red chilli powder and green chillies
• Increase the heat and stir continuously.
• The ingredients will acquire a brownish colour
• Once oil starts to separate from the mixture lower down the heat and add the fried onion peels.
• Add a quarter cup of warm water to the mixture
• Lower down the heat. And add the curd.
• Stir and mix the ingredients thoroughly until the gravy becomes uniform.
• Add the boiled eggs now
• Cover the pan with a lid and let it cook for sometime until the gravy becomes thick.

Serve with parathas.

 For a thicker gravy, fresh cream may be used.I will come up with the more conventional chicken dopiaza next week.

Stay tuned!