Survival Of The Fittest

Finished my 1st set of night duties as an RMO 2 Acute Medicine yesterday. RMO 2 is a sorry sight since he/she has to complete unfinished jobs in 18 wards, help the House Officer, clerk new patients, respond to peri-arrest calls and hold the crash bleep; picture me in scrubs with 2 bleeps on me that increase to 4 at 6:30 am, I felt smothered.

In the morning you join the post-take rounds which may end as late as 10:15 am. I then drive 20 miles back home trying my best to not sleep at the wheel (trust me I have done it :( ). I have to say I was lucky to be working with an excellent bunch of girls though and loved cribbing together. What doesn't break you, makes you! It felt wonderful at the end to conquer such an inundating task.

I was so ecstatic to survive that I celebrated with cooking up a feast yesterday: Lebanese Lamb Kafta with roasted Pita chips! Turned out YUM! I have posted the recipe in my next entry.

Since I promised my friends that I would cook and post a recipe to my blog today, here we go! I'd cooked this one up over the weekend in my Haandi (clay pot) and it was just too good. Very earthy creation. You can use whatever pot you like.

MURGH MASALA

INGREDIENTS

Chicken (bone-in) cut into 8 pieces-0.75kg

MARINADE

• Beaten yoghurt-3/4 cup


• Freshly ground black pepper-1 tsp


• Salt-to taste

SPICY PASTE

• Peeled Ginger-1 inch piece


• Garlic cloves-6


• Medium-sized onions-2


• Whole cumin (zeera)-1tbsp


• Whole dried red chillies-10

GARNISH

• Lemon slices


• Fresh coriander (Hara dhanya)


• Julienned ginger (Bareek kati adrak)

TEMPERING/BAGHAAR

• Vegetable oil-1/2 cup


• Whole garam masala (whole mixed spices): 10 black peppercorns (kaali mirch), 1 cinnamon stick (Daarcheeni), 3 cloves (laung), 1 black cardamom (bari ilaichi).

Coarsely pound the black peppercorns and add to the chicken alongwith yoghurt and salt. Leave to marinate for 30 minutes.

Dry roast the cumin and red chillies on low flame until fragrant

and then pound coarsely in a mortar and pestle. You could use a coffee grinder too but the spices
get slightly burnt in the process. Besides I like to put all my love into my meals.

Now pound together the garlic, onion, ginger, red chillies and cumin together to a thick paste. Don't worry if the consistency is not smooth. It tastes even better with partially ground ingredients. You can use a blender if you want. My theme for the day was 'earthy'.

This is how my paste looked like after a few patient minutes.

Crackle the whole garam masala in hot oil.

Now add the paste to the oil and stir on medium-high heat for 4-5 minutes.

Add the chicken with the marinade, mix well and

cook on low-medium heat for 10-20 minutes until the water evaporates and oil floats to the top.

Now uncover and stir quickly on high flame. Once the consistency of the gravy is nice and thick (4-5 minutes),

dish it out and garnish with julienned ginger and finely chopped coriander.

Ideally this should be served with chapati/paratha but I took an easy way out and served it over boiled rice. It was just too good. In case you were wondering, this is from a cookbook with some tweaking and tailoring :).

I will eagerly wait for your responses. Goodbye till the next post!