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. 

Soy Chaap Shawarma Hummus Bowl

I was looking for the recipes people who post about soy chaap and I was intrigue to try one,since I am in Us, it was not that easy to find and its not that easy to make homemade. So when I visited India last year, I had a chance to try one dish in Delhi with soy chaap was chaap butter masala and it was delicious. So I had that taste in my mind and was looking for chaap here in US. One day I found it in my Indian grocery store, without thinking I just grab the can. It says in brine. Didn't know how it's going be , I thought will make something out of it. I was looking for shawarma marinade and found it here.   so it was perfect for my soy chaap to use this marianade and stop my craving for NY Style Shawarma food. So made it and enjoy it and I just used 4 soy chaap, saved 4 to make tikka , will make soon and post also. Till then enjoy this Soy chaap Shawarma hummus bowl. You can add purple cabbage instead of quinoa, or have it with just Hummus and Pita bread. You don't have to use Chaap, you can use chicken, lamb, paneer, Tofu.

Ingredients  :

4 Soy chaap
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp Honey
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1  1/2 tsp Paprika (you can use Kashmiri red chili powder)
3/4 tsp Ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger powder
3/4 tsp dried oregano
3/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp each salt and black pepper

To serve : 
cooked Quinoa - I cooked quinoa, after taking all the marinade from the bowl, add some water in the bowl and added that water in quinoa to give some flavor.

Pickled onions
Hummus
Lime wedge
Kalamata Olives
Cucumber


Little goes way too much so don't afraid of the quantity.

Method : 

Take one small bowl and mix  the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, honey, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, ginger, oregano, turmeric , salt and pepper.

In a big bowl, add 4 chaap and mix the marinade nicely. Marinade these for at-least 2-3 hours, I kept  it for 7 hours in fridge.

When its time to cook, take out the chaap, cut it from the middle for better flavor. Spread the leftover marinade in bowl to inside the chaap.

Heat a non stick pan, add little oil in it and cook the chaap form the both sides,  till its nicely cook and golden. 

 While its cooking, cook your quinoa on other burner.

When everything is ready, In a bowl, have some quinoa, hummus , cut the chaap in 3 pieces from one chaap, cut the rounds of cucumber, pickled onions, olives, fresh chopped cilantro and lime wedge and enjoy your trip to Mediterranean.

If you want you can have side of yogurt sauce and hot sauce on side.

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. 

Salatat Jarjeer - Middle Eastern Arugula salad

I am always look out for salad recipes that have minimum work and maximum satisfaction. This recipe has few ingredients but nice peppery arugula in it with tangy sumac, onion, and bite from Walnut. It takes no time to assemble it and you can eat it bowlful of it without guilt. If you don't have sumac, don't worry, mix the lemon zest with salt and you have your sumac. This salad goes perfect in summer BBQ parties, where lots of food is going on but you have to fill up your tummy with this healthy alternative. This is just for 2 people but you can adjust the ingredients as per the requirement.



Ingredients : 

2 cup Arugula
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 Red onion finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Dressing : 

Juice from 1 lemon
1 tbsp Sumac
3 tbsp Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method : 

Take a salad bowl, add onion, sumac, olive oil, salt and pepper, and lime juice. Mix it and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Then add arugula and walnuts.

Stir together and check the seasoning.

Enjoy alongside with any protein or meals.