Soy Chap Hyderabadi Biryani

I am a big biryani lover and just love different ways  to make and different ingredients to make my biryani. I already have posted Soy chap Dum Biryani, but this is little different than dum. This biryani is very flavorful , spicy and lip smacking good. I keep my soy chap can in the pantry and leftover chap will go in freezer for later use. I am not making chap at home since you will never get that texture from home made. 

This recipes serves two and I used 3 sticks of soy chap. You can always adjust the quantities as per your taste and quantity. Biryani has just two steps, make rice separately  and make masala separately and then cook it in layers and done. If you have time, you can give dum too  otherwise perfectly layered one is fine to eat it. I had it with Raita and papad. 

Ingredients : 

3 soy chap stick in brine from can

2 cups basmati rice

2 big onion finely sliced

1/2 cup tomato puree

1 tbsp. ginger garlic paste

2 green chilies slit

whole spices - cinnamon stick , cloves, black and green cardamom, star anise, bay leaves

2 tbsp. biryani masala

1 tbsp. turmeric powder

1 tbsp. cumin coriander powder

1/2 tbsp. red chili powder

2 tbsp. Kashmiri red chili powder - its not spicy but for the great flavor

1/2 cup coriander and mint leaves chipped

Salt as per taste

3 tbsp. ghee

1 tbsp. oil for frying chap

Method : 

In big pot bring water to boil. Add salt, whole spices and add soaked and washed rice in it. Cook till the rice is done 85-90%, I personally like 80% since it will get more flavor in it while cooking with masala.

When rice is done, drain the extra water and keep it aside. I like to take out whole spices too since my kids don't like to eat those masala by mistakes and any ways, you got all the flavor in rice so you don't need it now. 

Now let's prepare masala, 

First take the sticks out of the chap, cut it from middle and make 3 inches long pieces.

Heat the oil and fry those pieces till its golden brown in color. 

Keep it aside. 

In the same pan, now add ghee and fry the onions till its golden brown. Take it out 2-3 tbsp. of onion to garnish on the top.

Now in the leftover onions, add ginger garlic paste and chilies and cook till its raw smell goes away. 

Add the tomatoes and cook till its cooked perfectly and masala is dry. 

then add all powder masala and salt and  mix it. Add fried chap pieces and water just to coat the masala. 

Cook for 2 minutes. 

Add cooked rice on top of the masala, then chopped coriander and mint leaves and leftover fried onions on top. 

Sprinkle biryani masala on top and my secret yellow curd mix and  cook it on low flame with cover for 10 minutes. 

Remove from heat and keep it aside for 10 minutes. DONT TOUCH THE HOT RICE, you don't want to break it. have patience. 

Once its little cool down, mixed gently to serve it and enjoy it with raita, dal, papad or as it is. 

Creamy Roasted Poblano Sauce

If you are looking for some easy sauce or dip then this is the easy and quick recipe. It just required few ingredients but flavor is so good. You can use it as dip or just pour it over the enchiladas and you can have a some good flavor dinner in no time. Just roast the poblano , take the skin off , add garlic, add half the ripe avocado  and let the grinder do the magic. For more flavor, you can add cilantro leaves and for dairy lovers instead of avocado, add sour cream or crema and it will be same smooth sauce. 

Ingredients : 

2 Poblano peppers

2 cloves of roasted garlic

1/2 ripe avocado

salt as per the taste

Method

Roast the poblano on gas flame from all the sides. When it got blisters on everywhere , put it inside of plastic or paper bag to rest for 10 minutes. 

After that take it out and remove the skin. NEVER WASHED IT AFTER ROASTING

You will remove all the flavors if you washed it. Just remove the skin and cut it out and remove the seeds. 

Put it in blender along with garlic and avocado and salt.

Grind it till it becomes smooth paste just a minute or two. 

Take it out and use it as desired. I had it as a dip with my grilled burrito but you can use it as enchiladas sauce or just use as dip too. 

 

Vegan Vietnamese Dipping Sauce ( Nước chấm)

I prefer South Asian cuisine than Italian or Mexican  since I don't like too much of cheese in my food. For kids, I just overload it but for me and hubby its a big nono. So I was making my usual Summer rolls  and wanted to try different dipping sauce and since summer rolls are Vietnamese dish I wanted to make same cuisine  sauce. I know that part of the world heavy on Fish sauce and Since now I have vegan , gluten free Fish sauce I can make anything so tried this and I just loved it. If you don't mind real fish sauce then you can make it with that too.

This is a dipping sauce they use in everything, They just keep this sauce ready in the fridge for regular meals for the week but when they make a special dish , they make fresh batch and as always fresh taste much better. 

Ingredients : 

6 tbsp water

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 cloves of fresh finely chopped garlic

2 thinly chopped Thai chilies

small finely chopped carrot

Method :

Combine warm water and sugar in a bowl, so it is easy to dissolve sugar.

Add lime juice in increments until its as per your liking. 

Add fish sauce in increments too. 

Top it with garlic, chilies and carrot and mix it.

Leave it for 30 minutes to mix the flavors. 

Use it for summer rolls or top it on pho

Zhug - Mediterranean Hot sauce

I am always on a look out for spicy , hot sauce or dishes. Since I was making falafel, I wanted to make different spicy sauce to go with that. I know about this zhug sauce, but I don't have or have seen red spicy peppers here in this part of world. So was thinking about making it green one using jalapenos. Zhug is sauce from Yemen, its pronounce different region to regions schug , shug, skhug , it can be red, green or brown but one thing is common is - its hot and spicy. It's a very simple sauce made with green or red spicy peppers, along with coriander, garlic and cumin.  I like smooth sauces that's why I made it smooth one in blender, if you like chunky , you can use food processor and keep it chunky. 

You can drizzle over your salad, or have it with falafel, shawarma, or any bbq meats or vegetable, it goes perfectly on those. Use the hottest peppers you find, I had it with jalapenos since that's widely available.

Ingredients : 

2 Jalapenos cut in big chunks

1 Large bunch of coriander leaves

4 big cloves of garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp fresh lime juice

Method : 

Put Jalapenos, garlic and coriander in blender. 

Blend it till you got nice chunky puree. 

Add salt, pepper , cumin and blend it again. 

Take it out in a bowl and add olive oil and mix it , this will keep green color vibrant. 

Enjoy it where ever you want, salad, falafel, bataka poha, bread. Possibilities are endless. 

Store in glass bottle for the future use, it can stay good till 10 days in refrigerator. But for me, it lasted only 3 days.