Ok DD , here we go …
First thing first , this is the thread that you can go through for some inspiration and knowledge :
http://www.paklinks.com/gs/household-affairs-and-cuisine-corner/397588-cooking-the-beginners-guide.html
Everyone, Lets help each other learn .. hence please contribute your knowledge to this as much as you can .
Thanks :@:
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
Thank You CB - You are the best!
Please can you tell me first how each of the ingredients of masala in fact help in making the taste. e.g. salt we all know gives that saltish touch in food. But what about the taste of the following and how they contribute to the overall finesse & purpose of the food?
Garlic/lasan?
Ginger/adrak?
Sookha hua dhaniya?
tomatoes?
haldi?
etc.
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
Sookha hua dhaniya?
did you know that you can re-hydrate sookha huaa dhania to have the freshness and flavour return with a bang? :D
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
I didnt know and dont confuse me, i am focusing right now 
P.S 
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
DD k bahaney hamara bhi faida hojayega 
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
Daffy, as we agree , our first lesson is : **Chicken Karahi
**Since you are new, I advise that you only try this dish on half KG Chicken .. It can be boneless ... otherwise you can get the bone walay chicken pieces cut into small 2x2 inch pieces ... or even larger pieces , dont worry too much about the size of it ... Just keep in mind , the larger the chicken piece , the more frying of meat is required .
Preparation:
**Now wash the chicken carefully to remove any at and blood clots etc and keep it in a strainer to drain it well.
Now prepare all the other ingredients :
**Garlic : If you are using fresh ones, take half a garlic , peel it and pop it in the chopper , give it a good run for two minutes .. now take it all out in a plate and keep aside .. you will only be using one and a half teaspoon of it, rest you can put in the fridge for use for other cooking.
Ginger: **Takeone inch piece of ginger, peel it and pop it in the chopper ( dont try to do the ginger and garlic together , werna flavours get affected ) take it out in a plate , you will only need one tsp of it , store the rest in the fridge .
**Tomatoes : **Wash 8 medium sized tomatoes chop them into four pieces each , put them in the chopper and give it two quick runs, no more. The paste should not become too fine... Now keep this aside
**Green Chillies: take 6-8 green chillies, chop them finely and keep aside . If you like less spicy food, reduce the green chillies to 4-5
Fresh Corriander: half cup fresh corriander, chop it and keep it aside.
*Cooking *
Take a medium sized pot and add in 6 tablespoons of cooking oil. Make sure the heat is on medium flame.
The trick to good cooking is , that you always wait for the oil to get properly hot.. should take you about two minutes of waiting.
to check if the oil is hot enough, drop in a pinch of zeera seeds.. they will start sizzling due to the hot oil ... now lower the heat ...
Get the chicken and carefully add the chicken pieces into the oil , be quick coz you have to stir it so it doesnt stick to the pan ... but be careful too coz the oil will splatter for 5 seconds ...
now stir it once carefully .. objective is to ensure the pieces are coated with oil and pieces dont stick to the pan .. one stir is enough ..
Immediately after putting the chicken in , add in the garlic paste and stir... after two minutes add the ginger paste and stir ...
Now, keep the flame on medium and stay close by to the salan... keep stiring it for 20 minutes... when you start seeing the chicken getting less pink and no blood on the chicken, its now time for the next ingredient. At this stage the chicken is half cooked . If the chicken starts to stick to the bottom of the pan, dont panic, just reduce the flame to minimum , add a splash of water ( just a chinta , not half a glass of water ) and keep stirring...Make sure you use a strong Stir spoon ... because bits that have stuck to the pan , you must keep taking them off the bottom saat saat .. werna they will burn and your salan will have the burnt taste .. so zor sai hilana sometimes .. if the stuck bits are not coming off , then two spoons water exact spot per daal do and stir it quickly .. that will help it come off in a minute ...
now add less then a quarter glass of water in the chicken and then immediately add the salt , I use a one and a half tsp .. but if you eat lesser or more , ask you mom and add the salt accordingly ...
Add in red chilli powder , half tsp only
turmeric - half tsp only
Garam masala - half tsp only
Please note , that before we put spices in, its good to add just a bit of water in the salan so the spices wont burn .. but if you add too much water galti sai , it will ruin the salan ...
now let the salan cook for two minutes ... you will notice oil will start to separate ... nai huwa tou fikar not.. add in the tomatoes , stir .... now lower the heat to minimum, cover the pan and us ko pakna ki liye chor do ...
Return after every 10 minutes for a quick stir... the chicken will take about 25 minutes... you can time it too ... now check if the chicken is cooked properly frm inside and also check if the tomatoes have turned into a thick paste and the salan is not watery .. if yes .. then add the green chillies and the corriander ... cover the pot and leave it on slow flame for another 10 minutes ...
If it is still watery , then uncover the pan and cook it for 10 minutes on medium flame.
your mazai ki chicken Karahi is tiyyar ... its a simple recipe, inshallah you wont go wrong ... but read my tips carefully .. they are important for you to learn ...
Ask me any questions you have ...
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
Sure Daffy,
Each spice alag sai doesnt have a strong impact but when you mix them in right proportions , thats when they start giving us the taste ... so the quantity is very very important..
**Garlic
**Kills bacteria in the food and it also reduces the smells in the food , like meat for example ... plus it helps the food to cook from inside sooner... so when you are cooking vegetables, use only one teaspoon garlic .. but when you are cooking meat use one and a half tsp of it ... because meat has more germs and bacteria are gandi smell too ...
Remember,if you put too much garlic in a dish, it will become too spicy , like not the mirch wala spicy , but will have a bit too strong a taste ... so if you are cooking for 4-5 people stick to the quantities I mentioned above .. I will tell you in later posts what quantities to use for bigger quantities ...
**Ginger:
**Ginger helps with digestion that is why it is used so heavily in asian food .. and it makes the garlic smell nice therefore most people use garlic and ginger together because they enhance each other's taste and reduce each others sharp , pungent smells ... you should only use one tsp of it ... werna wohi garlic wala issue hai , if you put too much of it, it will make the salan too spicy ...
I have cooked some dishes with garlic only , no ginger .. doesnt make a lot of difference in taste .. but ginger just has a nice smell and added benefit .. specially when you are cooking daals and gobi , things that can make us gassy , its important that you add more ginger in them , as it helps reduce flatulence and improves digestion ...
**Corriander Seeds / sooka dhaniya
**It is used I think for its very strong antibiotic qualities ... plus it balances the salt and red chilli pepper flavours ... if you have added a certain spice ziaada galti sai , then you should add half a tsp of corriander seeds and it will reduce the spice taste thora sa ...
**Turmeric
**Haldi is also a very very strong and a good kind of antibiotic , it has alot of health benefits attached to it ... plus it gives a beautiful color to the salan ... so you should most definitely use halfi in all your cooking ... it helps improve the family's immunity against day to day illnesses as well as helps the body recover incase koi wound ho jaaye bi tou ... just half tsp is enough in the salan for 4-5 people ..
when we dont want the yellowish color in a dish, we dont add haldi ...
**Tomatoes:
**Tomatoes are extremely healthy ... they reduce the cholesterol levels in the body .. asians use tomatoes in their cookin coz we use loads of oil .. so to balance out the effect tomatoes are used heavily in our diet ... normally you can use 2-3 tomatoes in your daily cooking ... if we use more of it, then the it kills the taste of all the other ingredients in the salan ...
Just remember, by not adding an ingredient, nothing disasterous will happen... but if you over add a spice , khana ka taste mar jaaye ga bi ... so you have to be careful in adding just appropriate levels of spices ..
Thank You CB - You are the best!
Please can you tell me first how each of the ingredients of masala in fact help in making the taste. e.g. salt we all know gives that saltish touch in food. But what about the taste of the following and how they contribute to the overall finesse & purpose of the food? Garlic/lasan? Ginger/adrak? Sookha hua dhaniya? tomatoes? haldi? etc.
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
Awesome! I never knew that these ingredients help so much. I never liked ginger's taste so i used to ask my mum not to put it but she always did; now i know why she did so.
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
CB..Thank you so much for this thread..i am loving it
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
I went home assuming there was chicken at home. When i decided to make the chicken karahi, there was no chicken! Blooper#1 
Anyway, I had to cook some thing for practice so i made aloo ki bujhiya - a very simple one.
Mom & Dad loved it because of its simple yet yummy taste! 
But i forgot to take pictures …
So today, I will hopefully get chicken and make it else I’ll end up making some other vegetable. hehe
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
Well done Daffy , that sounds really yummy …
**Lesson to learn:
**- Never add oil baad mai .. shuroo mai hi add kerna chaiye .. coz the oil that you add later will kill the lovely aroma of the cooked food . So try to observe how much oil your mom puts in the salan and then you stick to it too ..
Inshallah once you have tried a few dishes, I will teach you zaberdast ki alooo bhijia … theek ?
Now get the chicken sorted and make sure you take thora chicken , so that even if something goes wrong with the dish , saara waste ho nai bi ..
Waise i am sure nothing will go wrong inshallah with your dish 
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
I am hopeful as well that things wouldn’t go wrong since i have made it once before as well. But i want the finesse which some times comes some times doesn’t.
Do teach me a better version of the bujhiya as well. Acha aik aur cheez, I hate Baingain, Karele, Teenday, Kadoo aur in-laws fan hain inkai ..
I’ll have to make these as well toh ye bi seekhani hain ..
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
They are absolutely easy Daffy ... vegetables to bhot easy hotay hai ... fikar not, abi chicken karahi try karo , next one we will decide on a vegetable ..
The good thing is , once you learn to make a perfect basic masala , then you will always gets a perfect good looking salan ... Vegetables ka sab ka basic formula is the same ... bus spices ki variation hai , that you will learn easily coz its not tough at all ..
When do you plan to do chicken karahi ?
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
Hopefully today if i get back home early else tomorrow. I'll take pictures and upload for your approval. :)
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
zaberdast daffy really apreciate 
cb thanks for oil wali tip .i used to do add thora thora oil during cooking .. wil take care of this and the way u make alo ki bhujia i do it in a same wayk pehle i boil some alo 70% done and then make bhujia
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
Yes apple, oil retains its sharp taste which doesnt go away no matter what you do … that is why oil in which you fry fish , or oil in which you fry onions … is kept aside .. coz oil takes its taste once and doesnt let it go …
So when you keep adding it bit by bit , you are actually creating multi tasted oil content in the food and that reduces the taste of the khana as well …
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
hmmm thank you cb for sekhaing ghardari and making us ghareloo khatoon 
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
DAFFY MADE CHICKEN KARAHI!
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?093b694dc3.jpg
CB, I made the chicken karahi as per the recipe you gave but altered 1-2 things as per availability of items.
I took less than 1/2 kg chicken, added 4 full spoons of oil, added chicken (I had fried it just a bit in non-stick pan already), later added chopped ginger & 3 small cloves of garlic chopped, then after some time salt, red pepper, didn’t have garam masala but added v.v.less sookha hua dhania instead, added very less water and in the end added tomato paste and chopped green chillies.
My bhai & bhabi loved it and in fact we finished it all. 
.The only problem i felt was that the look was very reddish because of the tomatoes; either i added too many tomatoes or maybe garam masala would have given that little darker look. Also, the oil was a lot, probably my oil spoon is bigger which is why.
For a touch up, i decorated with some pudina. We ate it with raita & mangoes and it was so yummy! im so happy. Thank you CB!!!
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
Daffy , I am so happy to hear that , i was praying for you girl 
sabash … well done …
Yes this karahi style has a reddish color , coz it is mainly cooked in tomatoes … later in the process i will give you another recipe which will be cooked with onion base and lesser spices and will have normal color …
Now that mashallah this dish is successful , which is the next one that you would like to learn? shall we do a vegetable dish? let me know and I will write up the recipe for you
Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
Did you take a look at the picture? Is it supposed to look like this?
That is what i was wondering as well, why no onions were added. I have so far always made karahi with a masala of solid cut onions & tomatoes that havent been chopped but cut into slices.
I've already made alu ki bhujiya so i'd like to try SHAMI KABABs now. :)