Bong Chilli Chicken

There is nothing even remotely Chinese about the Chilli Chicken that is served in most Chinese restaurants in Calcutta, that we Bongs so love and cannot do without. Yet, it has become an essential part of our cuisine, and we have found a million different ways to cook it. Most restaurants make a pakora out of boneless chicken, and then prepare a sauce with onions, capsicum, garlic and the most essential ingredient, soy sauce. I have my own way, which I think is slightly healthier, since it avoids deep frying completely. It is simple and straightforward and produces reliable results, if the recipe is followed closely.

Although this isn’t an authentic Chinese dish, I do use authentic ingredients, and for the right taste, it is essential that you find these, especially the dark and light soy sauces. Light soy sauce is light only in colour, it has an extremely strong flavor, and is very very salty, so salty infact, that it is used instead of salt. Dark soy sauce is much less salty, and is used mostly for colour. Try and find soy sauces made in an around south east Asia, if not China. Another ingredient is the green chilli sauce, which is crucial. In Calcutta, the best brand is the one made by Pou Chong Brothers.

INGREDIENTS

Boneless chicken – 300-400 gms, cut into medium sized pieces

Light Soy Sauce – 4 tablespoons

Dark Soy Sauce – 2 tablespoons

Vinegar – 1 tablespoon

Green Chilli Sauce – 2 tablespoons

Ginger paste – 1 teaspoon

Garlic paste – 1 teaspoon

Black pepper powder – 2 tablespoons

Onions, diced – 1 cup

Green Capsicum, diced – 1 cup

Green chillies, chopped into large peices – ½ cup

Cornflour – 1 teaspoon, dissolved in ¼ cup of water

White oil for cooking - 4 - 6 tablespoons

Hot water for gravy

NO SALT!!! That's right, NO SALT!!!

METHOD

• Marinate the chicken with the light soy sauce, green chilli sauce, vinegar, ginger and garlic pastes, and 1 tablespoon of black pepper powder for atleast an hour. I usually marinate the chicken overnight.
• After atleast an hour, heat oil in kadhai to smoking, and add the chicken with the marinade, and stir on high flame for a minute. Add the dark soy sauce, reduce flame to low, cover and allow the chicken to cook down, stirring occasionally to ensure nothing stick to the bottom of the kadhai.
• The chicken will release a lot of water, once this water has died down, and the oil seperates at the sides, raise heat and add the capsicum. Stir around for a minute, and then add green chillies and onions. Stir well for half a minute and then add ¾ cup hot water and mix well to make gravy.
• Once the gravy starts to boil, add the corn flour mixture and stir well. The gravy will thicken immediately and a glaze will appear.
• Once this happens, add the remaining black pepper, stir and immediately turn off flame.

Serve with steamed rice.

Serves – 3

Preparation time 1 hour

Cooking time – 45 minutes

Headbanger’s Delight Chicken Curry

This dish was inspired by India’s only heavy metal chef, Sahil “Demonstealer” Makhija, and is my take on his Black Label Chicken Curry. You can check out the original recipe here…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7RyN6n8-RU

Both Sahil’s show and band, Demonic Resurrection, are very very cool, and I find his cookery show, Headbanger’s Kitchen to be tremendously inspiring.

Now, if you’re ready to cook with me, we shall begin by preparing the ingredients

INGREDIENTS

Boneless Chicken –350 grams (approx), cut into medium sized pieces.

FOR THE MARINADE

Plain yoghurt (non sweetened) – 150 grams

Ginger paste – 1 teaspoon

Garlic paste – 1 teaspoon

Red chilli powder – 1 teaspoon

Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon

Garam Masala powder – 1 teaspoon

Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon

Salt – 1 teaspoon

FOR THE PHORON

Whole cumin seeds – ½ teaspoon

Whole black pepper – 1 teaspoon

Bay leaf – 1 large

FOR THE GRAVY

Onion – 1 large, finely chopped

Tomato – 1 large, finely chopped

Green chillies – 2, medium sized, slit but not deseeded

FOR GARNISHING

Fresh Coriander leaves, finely chopped – a handfull

Oil for cooking

Salt

Hot water

METHOD

Blend together all the marinade ingredients into a smooth paste, mix well with raw chicken and set aside for atleast an hour. For best results, marinate overnight. Just mix the chicken and marinade, cover well, and leave in the refrigerator (not freezer)

Heat about 4 tablespoons of oil to smoking. I use rice bran oil. You can use any white oil, not olive oil. If you’re using ghee, do not heat it to smoking, just ensure it is hot enough so that the phoron ingredients sizzle.

Once oil is heated, add the phoron ingredients, give them a quick stir, and before anything has a chance to burn, add the onions.Phoron is also known as "chhok".

Add a spoon of salt, and fry onions till they just start turning brown. Don’t wait for them to completely turn brown though.

Now add the chopped tomato and green chillies and stir, lower heat to low, cover and let it cook for 5 minutes atleast.

Once the onions have sort of broken down, and begin to look kinda mushy, raise heat to high and add the chicken, marinade and all. Stir well for a couple of minutes, lower heat to low, cover and let it cook for about half an hour.

While the chicken is cooking, do remember to stir it at 5 or 10 minute intervals. We’re using a lot of masala paste, and those will have a tendency to stick to the bottom of the pan and get burnt if you aren’t careful.

While all this is happening, heat 2 cups of water to boiling and keep ready.

This process of cooking on a low flame, with the cover on, is called “kosha”, it gives a very rich flavor to the dish, and the sign that the process has been completed is that the oil separates at the sides. Once you see that happening, raise the heat, quickly add the water, stir thoroughly, and bring the curry to a boil.

Lower heat to medium, cover and allow the curry to cook for another 5 minutes.

Taste a spoon of gravy at this point, and make sure you added enough salt. Remember two things. One, if you added less salt, you can always add more later, but once you add too much, it’s difficult to correct. Two, the more you thicken a gravy, the saltier it gets, since it’s getting more and more concentrated.

Raise heat, and reduce gravy to desired consistency, add the chopped coriander, give it a quick stir, and take it off the flame.

Serve with steamed rice.

Serves 4

Prep time – 30 minutes

Cooking time – 45 minutes

CREAMY CHICKEN CURRY WITH VEGETABLES

Here’s a slightly spicy chicken and vegetable curry with a creamy gravy. This dish will taste especially nice in winter if you’re in India, because that’s when we get the best vegetables. As with most of the chicken curries I make, preparation takes more time and effort and the act of cooking in itself is fairly simple.

INGREDIENTS

1. Boneless chicken – 600 grams
2. Onions – 2 large
3. Garlic – 6 cloves
4. Ginger – 1 inch piece
5. Green chillies – 3 medium sized
6. Carrot – 1 medium sized
7. Baby corn – 6 medium sized
8. Button mushrooms – 6, large
9. Yoghurt (non-sweetened) – 100 grams
10. Whole black pepper – 1 teaspoon
11. Bay leaf – 1 large
12. Coriander powder – 1.5 teaspoons
13. Garam masala powder – 1 teaspoon
14. Corainder/Cilantro leaves – a handful, roughly chopped.
15. Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon
16. Salt
17. Sugar
18. Oil for cooking
19. Ghee/clarified butter (optional)
20. Hot water – 1.5 cups

METHOD

PREPARE THE CHICKEN

• Cut the chicken into medium sized pieces.
• Blend into a fine paste the yoghurt, one of the onions, green chillies, ginger, garlic, turmeric, garam masala, coriander powder, and two level teaspoons of salt. Pour this mixture over the chicken, mix well, and allow it to sit for atleast half an hour. The longer you marinate, the better it tastes.

PREPARE THE MUSHROOMS

• Quarter the mushrooms lengthwise, making sure to slice off the end of the stems, which are usually dry, black and hard.
• In a kadhai, add about two tablespoons of oil, turn heat to full and with a spatula, coat the entire kadhai with the oil.
• Once the oil is smoking hot, add the mushrooms, a teaspoon of salt, stir, reduce heat, and cover.
• The mushrooms will release a lot of water, and as the water boils off, they’ll turn a darker colour. Once all the water has dried, the mushrooms are done.
• As the water evaporates, remember to stir every once in a while or the ones at the bottom will get burnt.

PREPARE THE VEGETABLES

• While the chicken is marinating, and the musrooms are cooking, chop the other onion. Take the time to chop it really fine, as it will mix into the gravy and add to it’s creaminess.
• Cut the carrot into large cubes. I do it by slicing the carrot lengthwise, then slicing each slice lengthwise again, and finally slicing horizontally a couple of inches apart.
• Slice each baby corn in half lengthwise, then slice those halves into 2 inch long pieces.

COOKING

• In a kadhai, heat up 3 tablespoons of oil and 1 tablespoon of ghee/clarified butter. Once it has begun smoking (don’t wait for too long, or the kadhai will go brown and it will affect the taste), add the bay leaf and black peppercorns, give it a quick stir, and add the chopped onions.
• Add half a level teaspoon each of salt and sugar, and continue frying the onions on high heat till they begin to turn golden brown.
• Once the onions have started changing colour, add the chicken, marinade and all, and stir well for a couple of minutes.
• Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook for around ten minutes.
• After ten minutes, open the lid and you will find the chicken has released a lot of water. Into this, add the baby corn, stir, cover and let the chicken continue cooking for another five minutes.
• After ten minutes, open the lid, and add the carrots. Once again, stir, and cover and let the chicken bubble away for another ten minutes.
• After ten minutes, add the mushrooms, stir, cover and continue to cook. Check back in another ten minutes or so.
• Once the water has almost disappeared, and the oil starts to separate at the sides, raise the heat, give the chicken a stir, add the hot water and bring to a boil.
• Boil the curry on medium heat if the vegetables are still not soft enough, with the lid on, and check every few minutes or so by poking the veggies with a spoon.
• Once the veggies have cooked through, raise the heat and reduce gravy to desired consistency, while stirring frequently.
• Once gravy has reached desired consistency, add the chopped cilantro, give it a quick stir, and take it off the flame.

Serve with hot steamed basmati rice.

NOTES

• The potency of green chillies varies widely, so please exercise caution.
• You can add broccoli or other vegetables if you want, but make sure to add only small quantities. Too much of vegetables will make the dish soppy and tasteless. Remember, this is primarily a chicken dish, with a few vegetables for flavor/texture.

Serves 4

Prep time – 1 hour
Cooking time – 1 hour

Deep's Special Green Chicken Curry

Want to impress your friends with your fantastic culinary skills? Here’s one way to do it. Not quick, but simple, and with a little bit of acting, you can pass yourself off as a master-chef. Here’s what you need…

 

INGREDIENTS

Boneless chicken – 300 grams

FOR THE MARINADE

Ginger (roughly chopped) – one heaped teaspoon full

Garlic (roughly chopped) – one heaped teaspoon full

Plain yoghurt (non-sweetened) – 3 tablespoons

Green Chilli – 4 – 6

Coriander powder – 2 level teaspoons

Salt – 1 level teaspoon

PHORON

Coriander seeds – ½ teaspoon

Jeera seeds - ½ teaspoon

Whole black pepper - ½ teaspoon

Bay leaf – 1 large

FOR THE GRAVY

Coriander leaves (roughly chopped) – 2 cups full

White oil for cooking.

Water – half a cup at room temperature, and half a cup, warm.

 

METHOD

1.       Cut the chicken into bite size pieces.

2.       Put the ginger, garlic, green chilli, yoghurt, salt and coriander powder in a blender, and blend it into a smooth paste.

3.       Marinate (that’s just a fancy word for mix and let be) the chicken in the paste for at least half an hour.

4.       Put the two cups of coriander leaves in a blender, add half a cup of room temperature water, and blend into a smooth paste and set aside.

5.       Heat oil to smoking, and add the coriander and jeera seeds, whole black pepper and bay leaf.

6.       Now, without giving the phoron a chance to burn, add the chicken, marinade and all, and keeping the heat high, cook, stirring frequently, for five minutes or so.

7.       After five minutes, lower the heat, and cover and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally. The chicken will release a lot of water, and will cook slowly.

8.       Once the water has reduced, and the oil has separated from the gravy, stir half a cup of warm water into the coriander leaf paste, and pour it into the chicken.

9.       Raise the heat, stir and reduce the gravy to desired consistency, but don’t overdo it. This dish will have some gravy, and the freshness of coriander leaves is destroyed upon prolonged heating.

10.   The gravy should be done in about two minutes, take it off the flame immediately, and serve with steamed basmati rice.

 

Serves – 2 to 3 people

Preparation time – 30 minutes

Cooking time – 1 hour

 

NOTES

The potency of green chillies varies widely, so please be careful. I used the short stubby ones. If you get the giant ones, please use your intelligence.

Be careful not to allow the phoron to burn, it will make the dish taste bitter.

Adding warm water for gravy prevents the temperature of the dish from getting suddenly lowered, and is better for the taste of the dish.

As always, try it a few times, and you will get it right.

Pink Chicken Curry

 

This has got to be the simplest chicken curry in the history of chicken curries. It is so simple that I think the chicken can make it himself! Jokes apart, this dish emerged from my dabbling with the minimalist approach in various things in life (not including clothing!). I was thinking of ways of making a chicken dish that would cook fast and could be made with the bare minimum of ingredients. The whole point of this dish is to do as little as possible, and yet, unless you’re a complete nut, you will have a great tasting dish, that goes well with both rice and roti.

INGREDIENTS

• Boneless Chicken – approximately 600 grams, chopped into bite sized pieces
• Plain yoghurt (the non-sweetened variety) – 1 and ½ cups
• Red Chilli Powder – 1 level teaspoon
• Flour – 1 level teaspoon
• Whole Black Pepper – 1 teaspoon
• Salt – 2 level teaspoons, or to taste
• Ghee – 3 heaped tablespoons, or 4 tablespoons of any white oil

PROCESS

1. Blend together the yoghurt, chilli powder, salt and flour into a smooth paste, making sure there are no lumps.
2. Mix the chicken into the yoghurt mixture, cover and leave overnight in the refrigerator (not the freezer!)
3. Next morning, in a heavy bottomed pan, heat ghee, add the whole black pepper, wait for 10 seconds and add chicken and marinade.
4. Stir for half a minute or so, reduce flame to low, and cover, stirring occasionally.
5. The chicken will release a lot of water and will cook slowly.
6. Once the water has reduced, and the chicken is cooked (taste a piece at this point), if you desire more gravy, add half a cup of warm water, if you want it drier, increase the flame, bring gravy to desired consistency, and serve.

Wasn’t that simplicity itself?

Cooking time approximately 60 minutes

Serves 3 – 4

NOTES

• The whole point of this dish is to use as little as possible, however if you so wish, you may add whole garam masala to the ghee before adding chicken, just remember to crush the masala, or it will explode, and be careful not to burn the masala. No one likes burnt cardamom.
• Further improvisations and additions to this dish will turn it into my version of chicken rezala, which we shall discuss on another page.
• The flour is not added for taste, but rather for consistency. Yoghurt, when cooked, has a tendency to curdle, and a gravy with water and milk solids totally separated, does not look or taste particularly nice. Be sure not to overdo the flour though, unless you want a curry where the gravy looks and feels like industrial glue.
• Once again,  the potency of red chilli powder varies widely. If you have the super-hot variety, use less. If however, you have Kashmiri red chilli powder, use more. As always, play around a few times, and you will get it right.
• The drier you make the gravy, and this holds true for almost any dish, the saltier it gets, so do be careful.

Chicken with mushrooms and vegetables

You know how most Chinese restaurants in the city serve something called “chicken with mushrooms and vegetables” with a kind of white gravy? Well, we can make a healthy version of it at home. The recipe might look complicated, but trust me, it’s laid out systematically, and is fairly simple.

One thing you must remember is that this is a stir-fry style dish, and hence, we will not be cooking the chicken or the veggies in the Indian way, i.e., for a long time over a low flame, instead we will be doing exactly the opposite, quick cooking over a high flame. If this is to work, you have to be careful when you’re chopping and make sure you get uniform pieces.

Chinese cooking happens in Chinese wok. If you don't have one of those, use a large, non-stick frying pan. But an Indian kadhai is an absolute NO-NO for stir frying.

INGREDIENTS

2 boneless chicken breasts

Carrot, 1 small

French beans, 200 grams

Button mushrooms, fresh, 200 grams

Capsicum, 1, medium sized

Onions, 2 medium sized

Spring onions, 3 stalks

Ginger, finely chopped, 1 tablespoon

Green chillies, finely chopped, 1 tablespoon

Garlic, finely chopped, 1 tablespoon

Light Soya Sauce

Black pepper, freshly ground

Salt

Chinese rice wine/cooking sherry

Corn flour

Half a cup of hot water

Sesame seed oil for marination

Any white oil for cooking (DO NOT COOK WITH SESAME SEED OIL!!!)

PREPARE THE CHICKEN

1. Slice the breasts into quarter inch thick strips, cutting across the grain, make sure no strip is more than 3 inches or so long.
2. Add to the sliced chicken 3 tablespoons of light soya sauce, 2 teaspoons of freshly ground pepper, a tablespoon of rice wine or sherry, a tablespoon of vinegar, a tablespoon of sesame seed oil and three teaspoons of corn flour, mix well, and keep aside.

PREPARE THE MUSHROOMS

1. Quarter the mushrooms lengthwise, making sure to slice off the end of the stems, which are usually dry, black and hard.
2. In a kadhai, add about two tablespoons of oil, turn heat to full and with a spatula, coat the entire kadhai with the oil.
3. Once the oil is smoking hot, add the mushrooms, a teaspoon of salt, stir, reduce heat, and cover.
4. The mushrooms will release a lot of water, and as the water boils off, they’ll turn a darker colour. Once all the water has dried, the mushrooms are done.
5. As the water evaporates, remember to stir every once in a while or the ones at the bottom will get burnt.

PREPARE THE VEGGIES

1. Peel the onions, cut off the tip and tail, then quarter them, and separate the pieces, and keep aside.
2. Quarter the capsicum, making sure you clean out the seeds, and keep aside.
3. Discard the top 3 inches and the root of the spring onions, cut the rest into one inch pieces, and keep aside.
4. Slice the carrot into quarter inch thick slices, the beans into once inch pieces, making sure you have one cup of each, and bring to boil a medium sized bowl of water. Mix one tablespoon of salt in the water and once it is boiling, add the carrots and beans, turn off the heat, cover, and after 2 minutes, discard the water and keep the veggies aside.

METHOD

Heat oil till smoking, add the capsicum, then onions, give it a few stirs, add the carrots and beans, and finally the spring onions. Add a teaspoon of salt, stir well, take off flame and keep aside. We are not trying to “cook” or “fry” the veggies, they have to remain crisp, so this whole process should take no longer than 2-3 minutes.

Bring half a cup of water to boil, mix in a teaspoon of corn four, and keep aside.

Add more oil, and once it’s smoking, add the ginger garlic and chillies, and give it a quick stir. Before it has a chance to get burnt, add the chicken and stir, making sure the chicken is well coated in the ginger-garlic-chilly mix. Let the chicken settle for half a minute, then stir vigorously, all the time on high heat.

Once the chicken loses it’s translucence and becomes white, which should be in about 4 minutes or so, add the veggies, mix well, and add the hot water mixed with corn flour, a teaspoon of salt and stir well. Bring to boil, stir well, thicken gravy to desired consistency, take off flame, and serve with plain or fried rice.

Prep time – 1 hour

Cooking time – 10 minutes

Serves – 4

NOTES

1. As always, the potency of chillies varies widely, so use your discretion.
2. Be creative with the veggies! Add golden corn, cabbage, broccoli or anything else that you think goes well with this dish.

Simple Sunday Chicken

The single Indian male is supposed to be the worst cook in recorded history, especially when living alone. They are supposed to be sloppy, ham-handed, slow to learn and just plain helpless in the kitchen; or so goes the stereotype. Doubtless a lot of this comes from the fact that the kitchen in India, for generations, has been the domain of the women of the house. Macho Indian men thought of cooking as a woman’s work, and I know of men who were actually called “girly” because they used to help out in the kitchen, chopping onions and the like.

But there are exceptions to the rule, and situations are rapidly changing. The vast majority of young women I know have no clue about cooking, and I know a very large number of men who are good cooks, my father being one of them. I am not someone who thinks that women should not work, or that a woman’s place is at home. But it remains a sad fact that two generations or more, of women moving out for work has meant that the skills of the kitchen, secret recipes, and grandma’s tips for adding zing to an ordinary meal, have not been passed down. Too many women I know tend to sneer at the kitchen, thinking of it as a symbol of their subjugation. I feel sad when people go out to restaurants to eat some of the most basic dishes which I have had for years at home.

I labour under the impression that it is far more satisfying to cook a simple meal at home than to order pizza or something similar ( and probably better for your health as well). Cooking has always been a great experience for me personally, and there are very few things that make me happier, than when someone enjoys a meal that I have cooked. For those who really do not enjoy cooking and think of it as a chore, I can only quote Michael Caine, “Pretend to have fun…and you might just have some by accident”.

This dish is something that I thought up when I started cooking the Sunday lunch some time ago, and probably the most attractive thing about it is that it’s really really simple, and can be made by the sloppiest of men (or women). There is nothing complicated about the process or the ingredients, and it is very light while still being tasty, and cooks fairly fast.

INGREDIENTS

Boneless Chicken – 600 grams, chopped into bite-sized pieces.
Onions - 3 Medium sized (or 2 large) – chopped fine
Garlic - 6 pods – chopped fine
Ginger - 2 inch piece – chopped fine
Green Chillies – 2 large, chopped fine
Whole black pepper -1 teaspoon
Fresh coriander/cilantro leaves -1 cup, finely chopped
Salt - 2 level teaspoons or to taste
Juice of one lemon
Oil - 4 tablespoons of for cooking (groundnut oil, rice bran oil, sunflower oil, or even olive oil will do)
½ a cup of hot water

METHOD

1.Mix together chicken, lemon juice and salt and set aside for one hour.

2.In a thick bottomed pan, heat oil to smoking.

3.To the smoking hot oil, add the whole black pepper and wait for about 5 seconds.

4.Throw in onions, and fry till onions start turning brown.

5.Add garlic, ginger and chillies and fry for about 30 seconds till ginger becomes fragrant, i.e., starts giving off a “cooked” smell.

6.Add chicken, along with the marinade, and stir thoroughly.

7.Reduce heat to low, and cover, stirring occasionally.

8.The chicken will release a large amount of water, which will slowly reduce, keep stirring periodically, or the stuff at the bottom will start burning and sticking to the pan.

9.Once the water has reduced, and you can see oil separating from the remaining gravy, add the hot water, stir thoroughly, turn the heat up and bring to boil.

10.Once the gravy has reduced to the desired consistency, add the chopped coriander, stir for about 10 seconds and take off the heat. Serve with steamed rice.

Average cooking time 40 Minutes
Serves 3 to 4

NOTES

•The potency of green chillies varies widely, and you may have to improvise with the amount to use, depending on the chillies and how much of it you can handle.

•You can use ghee instead of oil for cooking. I am a big believer in the fact that ghee, sparingly used, can make dishes more tasty without making you drop dead from cholesterol.

•You can improvise further, by adding some whole garam masala (2 cloves, 2 green cardamom pods, 1 inch piece cinnamon, crushed) and a bay leaf, into the smoking hot oil, right at the beginning, along with the whole black pepper. Be careful about crushing the spices, because if you don’t, they’ll explode once you put them in hot oil, with all the force of a firecracker.

•Do not keep the chicken on the flame for too long after adding the coriander. The fragrance of coriander is easily destroyed by heating.

•Take some time out to chop your onions, garlic and ginger really fine. The finer you chop them, the more readily they will dissolve into the gravy, making the gravy thicker and giving the dish overall, a more rich taste.