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Murgh Makhani

Murgh Makhani

A world-famous murgh makhani, also known as butter chicken, is one of the top dishes of Indian cuisine. It’s a spicy tomato based curry with chicken.
Murgh makhani was developed by three Indians – Kundan Lal Jaggi, Kundan Lal Gujral and Thakur Dass. They were Punjabi restaurateurs who were the founders of Moti Mahal restaurant in Delhi, India. The dish was made by mixing the leftover chicken in a tomato gravy, butter and cream.

It is easy to cook murgh makhani at home. All you may need is kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves), olive oil, onion, garlic, ginger, butter, chicken stock, and tomato puree. Then you will need to marinate the chicken twice, once in a dry rub and then in a yogurt mixture. This will make the chicken moist and flavourful. The chicken will need to be cooked in a tandoor (traditional clay oven), grilled, pan-fried or roasted. It is served with a tomato and onion based sauce.

This mouthwatering dish tastes great with kaali daal (black lentils), naan, and a green salad.

Perogies

Perogies

Perogies (also known as varenyky) are little dumplings staffed with potatoes, sauerkraut, ground meat, cottage cheese or cherries. This dish is of a Ukrainian origin, but well-known in many other countries.

Ingredients:

  • 3 large potatoes
  • 250-270 gr flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 100 ml milk
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • Salt to taste
  • Butter
  • Green onions, chopped
  • Sour cream

Directions:
Boil potatoes until fully cooked. Drain potatoes and mash.
Combine flour, eggs and milk, and mix together until mixture forms a ball. Cover and let stand at room temperature for half an hour.
Roll dough to about 3 mm thick. Cut in circles of approximately 7 cm diameter.
Place filling on half the circle, fold over and press edges together well.
Bring water to a boil, and add perogies to it. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to keep from sticking, for about 5 minutes (until they rise to the surface of the water). Remove with slotted spoon.
Meanwhile sauté the chopped onions in butter until tender, but not browned.

Add salt to taste.

Garnish with sour cream and green onions.

Gefilte fish

Gefilte fish

Gefilte fish is a pescatarian’s meatloaf made of fish, eggs and other ingredients. It is traditionally served by Ashkenazi Jews, usually on Shabbat.

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup carbonated water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
  • 5 1/2 lbs white-fleshed fish fillets (pike, yellow perch, carp, or whitefish)
  • Fish bones and skin
  • 2 white onions, chopped
  • 1 parsnip, chopped
  • 1 stalk of celery, chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled
  • Salt, pepper to taste

Directions:

Place the fish in a bowl and salt it. To remove as much liquid as possible leave it overnight.

To get perfect fillets, carefully remove skin, bones, head, and contents of the stomach, . Grind the fillets.

Place fish bones and skin in a saucepan, add water, salt, sugar, 1 onion, 1 carrot, and bring to a boil. Simmer for 1-3 hours (the longer, the better). Remove the foam, if needed.

Finely chop parsnip, celery, the remaining onion, and add the chopped vegetables to the ground fish. Add chopped eggs and mix it.

Strain the stock and place it back on the fire. Add the remaining carrot and bring to a boil.

Make balls of the fish mixture about 2 inches in diameter. One by one, add to the boiling stock.

Simmer with the pot lid partially on for approximately an hour. After cooking is finished and the pot has cooled, remove the finished gefilte fish balls.

To serve, decorate each fish ball with a slice of carrot. If you like, you can save the stock, which will gel once cooled, and serve it on the side.

Serve with a beetroot stained horseradish.

 

Lasagna

Lasagna

Lasagna originated in Emilia-Romagna (an administrative region in Northeast Italy) during the Middle Ages, but later this dish became popular, not only in Italy but also throughout the world.

For the first time the recipe of lasagna was recorded in the early 14th century in the Liber de Coquina (“The book of cooking”). This original recipe slightly resembled the traditional form of lasagna, featuring boiled and sprinkled with cheese and spices thin sheets of dough.

Interesting fact: back then Europeans didn’t know about tomatoes, so they didn’t use them in the recipes.

Later, lasagna was made of a certain number of layers of thin dough topped with a meat stew and Parmesan cheese, and then cooked in a kiln.

Over the years lasagna became such a popular dish that there is even a National Lasagna Day, which is celebrated annually on July 29th.