Roasted Lamb

I remember how my mom always used to tell me that mutton (Goat) is better than Lamb because Lamb is strong smelling meat and the stench doesn't go away even after cooking. This is a general impression of my people since we don't get very good quality Lamb in our region.

New Zealand Lamb however, is a completely different league of lamb! I buy the frozen lamb meat imported from New Zealand and every time I wonder what the fresh version would taste like!

So for roasting a boneless shoulder piece, I cleaned up most of the fat off from the meat.

For the marinade I toasted some cumin and coriander seeds and ground them in the good old coffee grinder (which is used less for my hubby's coffee and more for my spices!) and made a wet rub of yogurt, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, ground cumin/coriander seeds, juice of half a lemon (approx 2 tbspn), fresh ginger and garlic paste, and some garam masala.

Add the marinade to the meat and rub well, occasionally poking with a knife. Wrap up the meat in a stretch cooking band, cover with foil and bake at 300 F for 3-4 hours. Towards the end, remove the foil and increase the temperature to 350 F to make the outsides crispy.

You could bake without the stretch band but that way you might get crispy meat all over. This way when you cut open the band, the meat falls out with crispy sides on the outside and very nice and tender lamb meat in the centre.

Great for eating with brown rice, potatoes and some Tzatziki. Leftovers best for wraps and sandwiches!

Masala Chicken

I've got so bored of the standard Chicken Salan that I had to come up with something new to make with bone-in chicken. So one day when all I had left in my freezer stock were Curry-cut chicken pieces I decided to marinate that like Chicken Tikka and cook it like salan - Most Yummy it turned out! Of course it had no name (not that I know of) so I call it Masala Chicken.

Marinate the (1/2 kg) chicken in Yogurt (1/4 c) with ground roasted cumin and coriander seeds (1 heaped tbsp each). Mix in the spices according to taste (Turmeric, Salt, Pepper, Cayenne or Red Pepper, Garam Masala). I just use approx 1/2 tsp of each. Add 3 cloves of crushed garlic and 1 tablespoon of crushed ginger. (Its always easy to use the cheese grater for garlic and ginger when you have such small quantities). Add juice of half a lemon (the big ones) - 2 tbsp approx and mix well so all the pieces are well coated.

Leave the marinade for at least an hour.

Saute some onions (1 small) till browned and add the chicken along with all the sauce. 

Cook on med-high for a few minutes and toss the chicken regularly. Cover with lid and reduce the heat to med-low. Cook with lid on for another 5 mins. Meanwhile chop 1/4 cup of green onions and one medium tomato. Add to the mixture and cook till meat is tender. For this dish I try and cook the chicken without the lid so it stays on the dry side. If you want it to have some more gravy you can leave the lid on longer.

Enjoy with Roti or Rice.

Papri Treats!

It was one of those days when I woke up with a Chaat craving. And Chaat is actually pretty simple to assemble at home: just boil some potatoes and chickpeas (or use the canned ones) and add some chopped parsely, tomatoes, onions and green chillies. Mix in some spiced up yogurt (you can use a Chaat mix or just make your own blend at home) with Imli (Tamarind sauce) and voila! The tricky part is the Paapri - especially because Chaat is never complete without Papri!


To prepare the Papri these are the things you will need:

  - 3 cups Maida
  - 1/2 cup Wheat Flour
  - 1/3 cup Oil
  - 1 tsp Red Chili Powder
  - 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
  - 1.5 tsp Cumin Seeds
  - 1.5 tsp Ajwain Seeds
  - Salt (according to taste)
  - some water (3/4 cup approx) to knead the flour

Crush the Cumin and Ajwain seeds in a processor till they are a coarse grind. Mix up all the ingredients EXCEPT water in a bowl and slowly add water as you knead the mixture to a hard dough. Remember that the dough should not be too soft like the way you would make for 'Rotis'. So add the water slowly.

Switch to a flat surface and make small balls for each Papri. Its completely upto you how big or small you want the Papri to be. I usually roll out mine to around 6 inches in diameter. Sort of the size of a large donut maybe. 

Deep fry in hot oil till both sides are brown and drain on a paper till dry.

The original recipe that I modified to this one did not state how long to rest the dough before rolling it out so the first time I just kneaded the dough and started making the Papris. They turned out fine but I noticed that when I used the same dough after keeping refrigerating it overnight, the Papri was even crispier. So I suppose if you can be patient enough you should let the dough rest in the fridge for a while, but if you can't that's good enough too!

 This recipe yields 10-12 Papris approx. The yield varies according to how big or small you roll out your Papri.