You have heard me moan about by back pain.
Well here’s the story of what set it off this time. The recipe of a sauce and noble intentions to please the little woman.
Deepti, who is the only person I know who puts more Facebook updates on food than me, recently made a meat sauce. I asked her what the recipe was. It seemed (and is) so simple that I decided to go home and make it for Kainaz after work. I felt that the dish would be right up my Continental loving Bawi’s (Parsi woman) street. To complete the evening I picked up a very girly movie, He’s Just Not That Into You.
I went to Pali Market next door, picked up the ingredients, and provisions like juices and Chicken Maggi (which I am suddenly addicted to) and the DVD from Movie Empire. Drove back, took the four bags out of the car, my laptop bag and brolly in one hand, opened the lift door with another… and ping!
Well I strapped up the belt around my waist and hit the pans. That’s how easy the recipe was.
So here’s the recipe, which is essentially Deepti’s:
Ingredients:
- Chicken kheema (mince): 250 g (I am sure she would use red meat)
- 3 finely chopped tomatoes
- A handful of finely chopped basil
- 3 red chillies, finely chopped
- A spoon of crushed garlic
- A table spoon of olive oil
- A pack of chopped button mushrooms (my contribution)
- Salt
- 1.5 cup of milk1 table spoon of corn flour ( I needed this as the sauce curdled. Doesn’t happen with Deepti though)
- And her secret ingredient – 2 small blocks/ pieces of dark chocolate. This was a new discovery for me but added a fantastic body, aroma and taste to the dish
Method:
- Heat the oil in a pan (1 min)
- Add the tomato and gently pat them with a ladle till they become soft (3 min)
- Add the meat, basil, crushed garlic, chillies and salt and stir till the meat cooks (5 min)
- Add the milk and let it boil
- This is where it begun to curdle. I added a bit of corn flour dissolved in a spoon of milk to stabilise it
- When it’s done (5 minutes later) add the chocolate and see the dish magically transfer from a pale face to rich ebony. The aroma is sensuous and the taste is magical. A whole new world.
- Deepti suggests eating this with herb rice (rice tossed in a bit of olive oil, oregano and chilly flakes). We had it with a baguette from Candies. You could toss it over some boiled spaghetti too.
Kainaz love the film. And the sauce.
So love’s labour wasn’t lost.
