Summer Specials: Paratha special, West India Special and East India Special

The summer of 2007 for Food Club distinctively saw three special meets: Paratha Special, West India Special and East India Special. The three were held at Sarang's place, Ritu's place and Pathikrit's place respectively.
'Paratha special' saw parathas coming out of result of both experiments as well as the traditional ones. The experimented ones were the onion paratha, mixed veg paratha while the traditional ones were paneer paratha and poren poulli. Each of the members demonstrated cooking one paratha each while the rest were already prepared.
The next to follow was 'West India Special' where the dishes came out from various parts of West India viz. Rajasthan , Gujarat and Maharashtra. This meeting saw Mr. Sanket Pattekar preparing an exotic maharashtrian non-veg dish known as Chicken Sukha dry. However, the proceeding started with Amit who prepared made to order Bhaigan Bhaaja which was an instaneous hit with empty stomachs. While Ashwini made preparations for ghee soaked marwadi suji ka halwa; Ritu started with preparing Kadi. The thick kadi had pakodis of peas. This was an experiment which paid off in the end. Amit, being Bengali though brought up in Gujarat, prepared his mixed 'Shaak' with Sanket's dish. The members enjoyed the dishes with rice. The last nail was the tasty sooji ka halwa which made us experience the ruchness of Marwad.
The end of summer saw 'East India Special' to compete the success of the previous meet. This meeting had Mr. Swaroop with his wife Sarbani as guest chefs who prepared an out of the world, 'Bengali Mutton Curry'. This spicy dish would definitely give chettinaad chicken run out of its money. Pat, played a real host and prepared the other dishes. Starter was Baigan Pakora, vegetarian was Gobhi and then the sweetish cutish dish 'Doi Mishti'. The main course was eaten with rice and members really had a tummy full day.

Chicken Sookha Dry By Sanket Pattekar

Ingredients:
500gm. Chicken.
1 tsp. chili powder.
1 tsp. garam masala.
1 tsp. dhania powder.
1/2 tsp.jeera powder.
1/2 tsp. poppy seeds.
1/2 tsp. nutmeg powder.
2 pinch of turmeric powder
Pinch of hing.
Salt to taste
5 flakes of garlic.
1/2 inch ginger.
4 green chilies.
Small amt. of coriander.
2 small onions.
1 tomato
1 tbsp. ghee.
3-4 clove
1-2 pieces of cinnamon
2 Black cardamom
Pinch of shahi jeera
1/2 tbsp lemon juice.
1 tsp. butter
Coriander for garnishing
Preparation:
Cut chicken into small, even pieces and put it in a bowl. Add chili powder, garam masala, dhania powder, .jeera powder, poppy seeds, nutmeg powder, turmeric powder,salt and hing and mix well.
Mix garlic, ginger, chilies and coriander to a fine paste, and add this to chicken. Keep this chicken marinated for at least 2 hours.
Take a heavy bottom pan, add ghee, clove, cinnamon, cardamom and allow it to sputter. To this add shahi jeera and onions, and sauté the same till onion become golden brown. To this add tomatoes, and sauté for 5 mins.
Add the marinated chicken and sauté it on high flame. Reduce the flame ad keep mixing till the chicken is dry.
Add some water and allow the chicken to cook. After the chicken is cooked sauté on high flame, till the chicken is completely dry.
Garnish this with lemon, butter and coriander
Tips:
Poppy seeds, Nutmeg powder, and Ghee are must for this recipe
This recipe is slightly spicy. Reduce the quantity of Garam masala, to ½ tsp, if desired
This recipe is very dry. If you want to have gravy, increase the onions to 3 in number and tomatoes to 2
This recipe can be had as starter or with roti.