Recipe of the day

jyotirmoy

Bhai Somnath,
I wrote about Rabri to tease Vinay.
So your mother cooked Malai curry & Nalen Gurer Payesh? I envy Tomi! I really mean it.

Lakshmi Bhabi

....and so I ask yet again...what IS rabri ?????

Hyderabadi

Rabri, is thick creme, here is a recipe for Mango Rabri.

And another one:

Rabri

Ingredients
4 cups full cream milk
75 gms khoya - grated (1/2 cup)
2 tbsp sugar
6 - 8 pistas chopped
3 chhota illaichi (green cardamoms)
Powdered rose petals or silver foil (varq)

Method:
Boil milk in a heavy bottomed kadhai.


Add khoya and sugar. Simmer on low-medium heat for about 40 to 45 minutes, scraping the sides till the quantity is reduced to almost half and the mixture turns thick with a thick pouring consistency. Remove from fire.


The rabri turns thick on keeping. Add some chopped pistas and cardamom powdered into the mixture.


Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with pistas and rose petals. Chill and serve plain by itself or with jalebis or with some fruit.
(from: http://www.shaadi.com/wedding/kitche...i-desserts.php )

And then of course there's the combo - Rabri Devi and Laloo Pershad Ji of the "Jabtak Rahega Samose Mein Aloo, Tabtak Rahega......." fame.

Lakshmi Bhabi

Thanks Hyderabadi, that sounds wooooonderful!

vinayverma

Huh??? where was I ? How did I miss this? Anyway, I got away on that Jyoti-da, but please I'm not reading food threads anymore. .I can't take it...
it makes me pick-up the Delhi food guide to search the right restaurant which would have all these dishes you all write about....haven't found many who qualify.

BTW Ploof got the bar license

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If Life is a journey....travel on...and on..on..on.....

jyotirmoy

Yes Vinay I read about it & I recommend Sploof for their seafood a real great value for money.
Bhabi,
Rabri is made by reducing milk. Milk is heated on a very big shallow karahi over low flame. The surface of the milk is fanned by using a fan made of palmyra leaves. The faning produces a film to grow on the surface. This film is continuously picked up and stored. This process continues for long till slabs of film about 4mm thick have been generated and the milk has reduced to a thick consistency. Now sugar is added to the milk and the slabs of the film are immersed in the reduced milk to soak. This is how Rabri is made.

Lakshmi Bhabi

Hi Jyoti,

I expect this will be one of those recipes that SOUNDS easy at first but ends up stuck to the bottom of the pan or splattered on my ceiling. Good thing I'm fresh out of palmyra leaves....I will wait for your dinner party to taste it!

jyotirmoy

A constant friction I have at home is regarding meat. I prefer red but my daughters are for white. These girls are a misguided lot. Some moronic preachers have preached that every thing that is good on the palate is bad for health. This is utter blasphamy. I also suspect that most of these preachers suffer from chronic gastritis or somthing else which has made good eating impossible for them. Many of them have taken up mightier than sword pens & keyboards with a vengence.
Anyway a truce is always good so its chicken tonight. A whole stuffed chicken.
For the marinade
2.5 cm ginger piece
8-10 garlic cloves
6 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
½ tsp white pepper powder

For the gravy
3 medium onions-thinly sliced
10-12 almonds-blanched & slit in half.
10 – 12 Pistachios
2 cups yogurt
4 tbsp oil
a pinch of saffron diluted in warm water

Grind ginger & garlic & mix with lemmon juice & salt. Make slits on the chicken by sharp knife. Rub the marinade on the chicken & let it marinate for at least 3 to 4 hours.

Cook half cup of Basmati rice. Mix some almonds & Pistachios with rice. Add a few drops of saffron water, salt to taste. Stuff the chicken with this. Sew the opening.
Heat oil in a pan, lightly sauté the whole chicken.

Heat oil in a frying pot; add the onions and fry until they turn dark brown. Drain the excess oil and keep aside to cool. Once cool, grind the onions with the some more almonds, return to pot and then add the yogurt and make it into a smooth paste. Place the stuffed chicken in the pot and turn it so that the masala covers the whole surface. Might need to add a bit of warm water depending up on the water content of your yogurt.. Cover and cook until tender, turning occasionally to cook evenly.
Before serving, pour the liquid saffron over the chicken.
Serve it with nan.

Wine suggestion: A good semi dry white.

jyotirmoy

Yes bought a free range chicken last night, marinated it the way I wrote & cooked. Turned out damn good, for the veggie part made Baigun Bharta cooked with the great cow milk ghee from Bangalore's Nilgiri's store. For dessert we have lemmon suffle which defies gravity!

Lakshmi Bhabi

Thanks, Jyoti, I thought you'd have a good idea for today's dinner...I'm off to shop...

sadhuji

nice thread on the move since november. now, how about this? anyone heard of bhatua? no? well, here goes -

it is something that was aired in all india radio kolkata way back in the sixties in the ladies corner by the hostess known to the womenfolk of those days as bela-di.

it is a wonfderful preparastion of the large head of the rohu or the katla fish. in those days, really large fish would come to the market - weights of the order of around 20 kilograms. the heads would be sold separately. the bhatua consisted of fcooking this head (broken into manageable pieces) with beaten rice along with whole spices. kish-mish and bay leaves added to the flavour and taste.

we still have it fior dinner once in a while. unfortunately, the large fish are not available here. so we make do with the smaller versions.

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mooning over a moon journey

jyotirmoy

Thank you Sadhuji for reminding me of Bela di. I think she authored a few books too.
Here is Fish Head preparation:
Ingredients
1 Big Size of Fish Head ( large carp fish) needed to be cut into “manageable pieces” as Sadhuji has said. He is very much right & wise.
50gms of beaten rice.
1 tbsp of Garlic paste
1 tbsp Onion Paste
1 tsp of Ginger Paste,
1 teaspoon Chillie powder
4-5 Bay Leaves
! inch piece of Cinnamon,
4 Cloves
4 Green Cardamom.
4-5 Tablespoon of Mustard Oil.
2-3 Medium sized potatoes peeled and cut into pieces.
Method of Cooking:
Clean the fish head pat it dr & rub it with 1 tsp of salt and turmeric powder.
Heat oil in a kadai when about to smoke add the fish heads, Fry them & keep it aside.
Fry the potatoes in it and saute the beaten rice. Keep these aside.
Add the bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves & the cardamoms, fry for a while.
Add the rest of the spices
Fry it in slow flame till the oil leaves the masala.
Put 2 cups of hot water and let it start boiling add the potatoes.
Mix in the fried fish heads.
Keep it with covered lid for sometime on slow flame till the head pieces are done..
Add garam masala & the beaten rice.
Serve it with rice.

sadhuji

thanks for the compliments and for filling in the details.

jyotirmoy

Always glad to be of service Sadhuji.

lonelywanderer

Quote:

The fish head preparation

I think this is popularly known as MURI GHONTO