From kitchen novice to pro

You may be a novice, but cooking is no rocket science if you put your whole heart into it. Remembering a few key points will go a long way — start with simple dishes and opt for recipes that involve few steps and ingredients. Recipes for one are great maps and should be followed precisely. Altering proportions could lead to disastrous results.

But when it comes to cooking techniques, no book can teach you that. Only practise will make you perfect. Most recipes usually have a common base and if you learn basic curry bases, you will be able to handle most recipes effortlessly.

A good example of a base is garlic (lassun) chutney that I love. It can be stored for as long as a month and can be used in various ways. As a sandwich spread, a starter, with stuffed paratas or for curries. Many vegetables can be cooked in this base, be it okra (bhendi) or potato curry. Here’s how to make it.

Garlic chutney

INGREDIENTS

• 5-6 green chilies
• 100 gms coriander leaves
• 10 gms garlic (6-8 fat flakes)
• 1 ½ tbsp dhania powder
• ½ tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
• 1 ½ tbsp mango powder
• Salt to taste

METHOD

Grind to a paste all the above ingredients without any water. This will require you to use a chutney grinder or use half the quantity and grind twice.

With this chutney as the base, you can make garlic potatoes. Take 3 large potatoes, boil and dice them. Heat oil in a pan and add the garlic masala and stir for a few minutes before adding the potatoes and water. This can be served hot with rice or chappatis.

You can also take 12-15 bhendis, with head and tail cut and slit on one side, lengthwise. Stuff the garlic masala inside it and cook. The same masala can be used to make a Sindhi specialty, sale maani, which is made with around 10 chappatis/bread slices, which are torn into pieces and added to the gravy and cooked till the liquid is absorbed. Likewise, if you learn how to make a tomato base, you can use it to cook all veggies.

With daals too, the same rule applies. Once you can cook one type of dal, the others come easy. I recommend moong daal as it cooks the fastest and is more nutritious than other daals.

Learn these few tricks and you will learn to experiment yourself.

Easy stir-fried chicken

INGREDIENTS

• 4 skinless chicken breast fillets, cut into strips
• 2 red (bell) peppers
• Thai basil
• 30 ml olive oil
• 5-6 cloves garlic
• Salt and ground black pepper

METHOD

Slice chicken breast portions into strips. Halve the peppers, remove the seeds, then cut each piece of pepper into strips. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add chicken and red peppers and stir-fry over a high heat for about three minutes, until the chicken is golden and cooked. Season with salt and ground black pepper. Tear up the basil leaves, add to the chicken and peppers and toss briefly to combine. Serve immediately.

Makhani Daal (sindhi style)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup moong daal
• 2-3 green chillies
• Salt, to taste
• 3 tsp mango powder
• 1 tsp red chilly powder
• 2 tsp dhania (coriander) powder
• 2 tsp jeera (cumin) powder
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2-3 tbsp hot oil
• Coriander leaves, chopped

METHOD

Cook daal in a pressure cooker for 2 whistles. Open and mash the daal and pour into a shallow serving dish.

Sprinkle the garnishing masalas evenly over the top and pour the hot oil over it spreading so as to coat all over the garnish. Sprinkle coriander leaves. Serve hot with puris.

The writer is a culinary expert