Bajia's Cooking

could anyone who’s tried her recipes give a bit of feedback? i looked up her karhi pakora recipe and i’m tempted to go the long way instead of the quick-fix method i’ve been taught, but it looks like the level of spice is, as they say, just too damn high. i’d love to hear what those of you who’ve tried and tested her recipes have to say. if there are any specific ones you recommend, please share!

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

I haven’t tried that recipe but I’ve tried a lot of her other recipes and she’s the BEST! Everything always comes out delicious :yummy:

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

i haven’t tired her karhi pakora but i have tried some of other recipes of her. so far, they have all been good. the only thing i dont copy from her recipes is the amount of oil she add, i would say that is just too damn high lol. i try making things in lesser oil or my husband wont eat it. but other than that, her recipes are amazing. and simple too.

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

ive tried out some of her recipes too … but i always customize the quantities of spices to my liking. they do turn out pretty good.
my fav is her way of cooking bhindi gosht and channa daal gosht.
havnt tried the karhi and wont ever … cant stand the stuff :disgust:

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

wendy and bella, are there any in particular you’d recommend?

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

I like her recipes. I follow her basic chicken dishes, daal, gosht recipes to the T, as she uses 5-6 basic spices and have noticed that they remain consistent through many of her dishes. More complex dishes like korma and nihari, pakora kari etc, I would modify. She does use quite a bit of oil, and I always modify that. She gives great tips also.

I’ve liked her chicken karhai recipe, chicken shorba, and khara masala gosht was excellent.

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

her pulao, biryani, karahi, qorma, nihari are excellent. I am going to try her haleem tomorow, wish me luck! it seems really complicated though, i have never made haleem but hopefuly it turns out good.

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

haleem always seems more complicated than it really is. i made it for the very first time a few weeks ago – i’m a novice, so basically still winging it – and our houseguest commented that it tasted better than most seasoned cooks’ haleems he has had :slight_smile:

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

^ please share your recipe. I got the Shan haleem mix which includes all the wheat and barley. did you use the shaan packet ? also what kind of meat did you use??

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

i used chicken, because i personally do not eat red meat. i did use the Shan packet for the grains, not the masala. but i did add a handful more of chana, moong and masoor daal, and a bit of rice, to that mix too.

i boiled the chicken, bone in, with ginger and garlic and salt til it was tender. then i shredded it very fine with my hands – i know it’s time consuming, but it is so worth the effort in the end!

then put the daals on to boil in lots of water; keep skimming the fat off the top as you go.

make the qorma as you normally would: three medium golden-browned onions, a tablespoon garlic paste, and the spice mix included in the Shan packet, except that the chicken added in is the boiled and shredded sort. bhunofy it. once done, instead of water, you add the reserved stock from boiling the chicken and put it on dumm for 10-15 min.

when the daal is tender, add in the chicken. don’t panic if it’s watery – it still needs to cook down.

the trick is the ghotafying. it’s a ****load of manual labour, but it’s what makes the taste. let it cook on low, low heat and ghot it. my haleem slow cooked for a full day and i ghotafied it all with a Teflon masher.

wasn’t brave enough for it the first time, but next time iA i’m going to skip the Shan packet entirely, at least for the spice mix. i’d like to try making it from scratch.

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

I have tried her Karhi pakora recipe and I liked it.. I did modify though so it’s not like I did exactly what she said.

I like her sabzi recipes.. Always good.

And I learned the biryani chawal trick from her videos.. She is good.

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

thankyou so much for your detailed recipe. just one question. is ghotafying same as blending/mixing ? can i do it with immersion blender?

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

yes, ghotna means mashing the daals so they become thick and soupy instead of daanedar. see, of course you can do it with an immersion blender, but the taste won’t be the same. it’s quicker, but there’s a reason our generation wonders why we can’t get it right with cooking like our grandmas and mamas got it right, you know? :wink: do it with an immersion blender, but watch the consistency because you’re not trying to liquify it. tip – take out half the haleem and blend that, then add it back into the rest. even with the blending, let it slow cook for a long, long time and occasionally have a go with the masher when you go to stir it.

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Do not use an immersion blender to ghota-fy haleem. An immersion blender could be used for daals since sometimes people like a smooth consistency. But the key to haleem is the textures and grains in the haleem. You have to hand mix, mix and mix some more until the grains and lentils are broken down (the Urdu word would be *daanay-daar, *and no longer whole) and the meat is raysha-raysha - but do not blend it.

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

^ i think it depends on preference. haleem is definitely chunkier than daal, but i do prefer mine to be slightly smoother, at least enough that the daals are not alag alag. that said, i haven’t used an immersion blender and i don’t intend to. haleem is a delicacy, and it deserves a bit of attention to detail.

Re: Bajia’s Cooking

thanks everyone. i know what to use for ghota. my mom a wooden ghota thing. I never figured out what the purpose of that was until now lol :biggthumb: