What’s Cooking This Sunday?

Most people who eat non-vegetarian stick to cooking the more complex dishes on the weekends, and go for easier, simpler veg meals throughout the week. This only increases the expectation in terms of the taste of the food cooked in the weekends.

Last week, I decided to make some Chicken Mughlai for my family. It’s a north Indian dish that has a heavy, delicious gravy along with tender chicken. I often store up some of the gravy and freeze it, and use it during the week with some sauted vegetables.

I am not going to pretend like it’s an easy dish - even with the perfect spice mixes, it takes a lot of sauteing and grinding to make this dish. But the plate is always licked clean, and that gives me enough motivation to go ahead and make this dish.

Marinate some chicken in turmeric powder and soak some cashews in hot water. Then, take some oil in a pan and cook some finely chopped onions until they caramelize. Churn the caremalised onions, soaked cashew nuts, garlic cloves, ginger, green chilies and 1/4 cup water in the food processor. Now, heat some ghee in the same pan and add your whole spices. Add the onion paste, and some chicken. And cook until its ready!

Garnish the sabzi with some fresh cream, and you have a bestseller in the house!!

Another dish I really enjoy cooking on weekends is fish fry. There’s just enough time to go through the ardous process of cleaning the fish and marinating it for the long enough. It also helps that my kids love seafood and we generally don’t encourage them to eat seafood outside. So, making fish fry for Sunday lunch is the easiest way to convince them to stay at home.

Here’s a tip for cooking crispy fish fry: have control over the temperature of the oil. Watch the bottom of the pan while it is heating. Once you see wave-like ripples, the oil has reached its desired temperature. If the oil is too hot, your fish will burn. If it’s not hot enough, the fish will become soggy.

Here’s another tip - If you want it to have a crispy texture, don’t flip it constantly—once is enough.

Another favourite for weekends is Hyderabadi Biryani - it took me a lot of attempts to get it right. And then, it was a South Indian friend who helped me make it perfectly. I will always be thankful to her!!

Here’s the trick - add a good amount of spices, it is possible that the marinade seems spicy at first but trust me on this, after you add the meat the spiciness will decrease considerably. I prefer to buy a little more expensive spices to ensure that the flavour is not compromised.