Interesting recipes to will tease your taste buds.
Photographs: Anshika Varma
India is a melting pot of cultures. The diversity ensures its cuisines and flavours vary every few 100 kilometres.
In her book Tiffin: 500 Authentic Recipes Celebrating India's Regional Cuisine, Sonal Ved has tried to put together cuisines from different parts of India.
Published by Roli Books, Tiffin features local, seasonal and lesser-known dishes contributed by home chefs and celebrated chefs.
We bring you five different recipes from the book:
Amritsari Bun Chaat
Indian-style potato burger
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 2-4
Origin: Punjab
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- 4 burger buns
- 2 potatoes, boiled, mashed
- 2 tsp red chilli powder
- 2 tsp ground coriander (dhaniya)
- 2 tsp chaat masala
- 2 tsp ground cumin (jeera)
- 1 tsp Indian black salt (kala namak)
- Salt, to taste
- 1 medium-size onion, sliced
- 2 tsp garlic chutney
- 2 tbsp date-tamarind chutney
- 2 tbsp mint-coriander chutney
- ½ cup spicy peanuts
- 2 tbsp fresh pomegranate seeds
- ½ cup nylon sev
- ½ cup finely chopped fresh coriander leaves (hara dhaniya)
Method
- Butter the burger buns and toast them gently in a hot skillet over medium heat. Set aside.
- In a medium-size bowl, stir together the potatoes, red chilli powder, coriander, chaat masala, cumin, black salt, and salt.
- Divide the mixture into small portions and shape each into a flat cake.
- Return the skillet to medium-high heat.
- Add the remaining butter. Working in batches, add the cakes to the hot skillet and pan fry on both sides until golden brown.
- Place a cake on a bun bottom. Top with sliced onion and the chutneys.
- Place the spicy peanuts, pomegranate seeds, nylon sev, and fresh coriander over this and serve immediately with the bun top.
Fish Musallam
Baked fish stuffed with spices
Serves: 6
Origin: Uttar Pradesh
Ingredients
- 1 dungaar (recipe below)
- 250 gm ghee
- 3 kg whole catfish (singhara), or sole, washed, insides cleaned, and scaled
- 1½ cups roasted chickpea flour (besan)
- Few drops yellow food colouring
- 2 cups sliced onion
- 10 green cardamom (choti elaichi) pods
- 10 peppercorns (sabut kali mirch)
- 10 dried red chillies (sookhi lal mirch)
- 5 whole cloves (laung)
- 5 black cardamom (badi elaichi) pods
- 5 tsp poppy seeds (khus khus)
- 5 tsp charoli seeds (chironji)
- 1 tbsp coriander (dhaniya) seeds
- 1 tsp ground mace (javitri)
- 1 (1-in. / 2.5-cm) piece peeled fresh ginger (adrak)
- 1½ cups yogurt (dahi)
- ¾ cup heavy cream
To make dungaar
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
- I piece coal
- 1 tbsp ghee
Method
- Heat the coal on a live flame until it turns red.
- This should take 8 to 9 minutes.
- Carefully, with a pair of tongs, place the coal in the dish you want to smoke. You can place the hot coal in the metal bowl or a piece of aluminium foil.
- Pour ghee over it and allow it to sizzle for a second. Cover the dish with a lid for 7 to 8 minutes to allow it to smoke.
- Open the lid and discard the piece of coal with the tongs and stir the dish well. This will ensure the flavour is absorbed thoroughly.
To make fish musallam
- Rub the fish inside and out, with ¾ cup of chickpea flour and then wash it off under running water. Do this twice or thrice.
- Cover the fish with the yellow food colour and put it on a large baking tray.
- Prepare the dungaar.
- Meanwhile, place the fish on a thoroughly heatproof surface and using heavy-duty grill gloves and tongs, carefully place the prepared dungaar.
- Pour 1 cup (240 g) or less of ghee on it, in order to sizzle the coal and emit smoke.
- Cover the fish tight.
- Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F).
- In a skillet over medium-high heat, heat the remaining 1 tbsp of ghee.
- Add the onion and fry until golden brown. Transfer to a food processor.
- Add the green cardamom pods, peppercorns, dried red chillis, cloves, black cardamom pods, poppy seeds, charoli seeds, coriander seeds, mace, and ginger. Process into a smooth paste. Transfer to a medium-size bowl.
- Add the remaining ¾ cup of chickpea flour, yogurt, and cream. Whisk to combine.
- Uncover the fish and fill the inside of the fish with this mixture. Use any extra filling to rub all over the fish.
- Bake until one side browns. Turn the fish over and bake until the other side browns.
- Serve hot with mint-coriander chutney, lemon wedges, and onion rings, if desired.
Bohri Style Chicken Nu Salan
Chicken in sweet and sour curry
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves: 2
Origin: Gujarat
Ingredients
- 1 cup chicken, bone-in pieces, chopped
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic-chilli (adrak-lasan-mirch) paste
- 1 tbsp vinegar (sirka)
- 1 and ½ cups water
- 3 tbsp chicken salan masala (available at grocery stores)
- 1 cup yogurt (dahi)
- ½ cup almond powder (badam)
- ½ cup ketchup
- ½ cup tomato paste
- 1½ tsp red chilli powder
- 1½ tsp garam masala
- Salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper (kali mirch), to taste
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 (1-inch) cinnamon (dalchini) sticks
- 2 curry leaves (kadhi patta)
- 1 medium-size onion, finely chopped
- ½ cup fresh coriander leaves (hara dhaniya), finely chopped
Method
- In a large pot over medium heat, combine the chicken, ginger-garlic-chilli paste, vinegar, and water.
- Cook for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the meat is tender. Drain the chicken and reserve the stock. Set both aside.
- In a blender, combine the chicken salan masala, yogurt, almond powder, ketchup, tomato paste, red chilli powder, garam masala, salt, and pepper. Blend until smooth.
- In a skillet over low-medium heat, heat the vegetable oil.
- Add the cinnamon sticks and curry leaves. Cook until the leaves begin to crackle.
- Add the onion. Stir-fry until golden brown.
- Stir in the yogurt-almond mixture. Saute until the water from the yogurt evaporates.
- Add the cooked chicken pieces along with 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Let it bubble for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Serve hot, garnished with fresh coriander.
- Season to taste with pepper just before serving.
Chettinad Nandu Rasam
Crabmeat rasam
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Serves: 4
Origin: Tamil Nadu
Ingredients
For the rasam paste
- 3 dried red chillis (sookhi lal mirch)
- 1 tbsp (5 g) coriander (dhaniya) seeds
- 1 tsp cumin (jeera) seeds
- 1 tsp peppercorns (sabut kali mirch)
- 1 medium-size onion, diced
- 1 tbsp (15 g) minced garlic (lasan)
For the rasam
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp fennel (saunf) seeds
- 3 curry leaves (kadhi patta)
- 1 medium-size onion, finely chopped
- 1 medium-size tomato, finely chopped
- 1 tsp ground turmeric (haldi)
- 1 cup water
- 1 kg crabmeat
- Salt, to taste
Method
To make the rasam paste
- In a skillet over low-medium heat, dry-roast the dried red chillis, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, onion, and garlic until fragrant.
- Transfer to a blender or mortar and pestle and grind into a fine paste, adding water if needed. Set aside.
To make the rasam
- Return the skillet to low heat and heat the vegetable oil.
- Add the fennel seeds and curry leaves. Cook until the seeds begin to crackle.
- Add the onion and tomato. Sauté for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the rasam paste and turmeric. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 4–5 minutes more.
- Add the water and bring the mixture to a boil.
- Stir in the crabmeat. Cook for 7–8 minutes until the crab turns orange-red in colour.
- Season to taste with salt and serve hot.
Bamboo And Pork Stir-Fry
One-pot curry with a bit of sour tang
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves: 2
Origin: Assam
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 dried red chillis (sookhi lal mirch)
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic (adrak-lasun) paste
- 450 gm pork, cubed
- 1 cup dried kidney beans (rajma), soaked in water overnight, drained
- ½ cup finely chopped tender bamboo shoots
- 1 tbsp tamarind (imli) pulp
- 1 tsp ground turmeric (haldi)
- 1 tsp red chilli paste
- Salt, to taste
- 4 cups water
Method
- In a pressure cooker over medium-high heat, heat the vegetable oil.
- Add the dried red chillis and ginger-garlic paste. Cook for about 1 minute, stirring, until fragrant.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the pressure cooker. Lock the lid and cook for 3 whistles.
- Release the pressure and remove the lid.
- Check if the beans are done.
- Serve the curry hot.
Excerpted from Tiffin: 500 Authentic Recipes Celebrating India's Regional Cuisine by Sonal Ved, with the kind permission of the publisher, Roli Books.