So you thought I am a chef ?
Well, to begin with, I am Debojyoti De, a die-hard Bengali, who currently is living in Atlanta, USA (due to his work assignment). I am trying my hand at cooking (have to eat, right ?)... So, to begin with, the first dish that I rustled up was bishuddho murgir mansher jhol (chicken with gravy). First of all, I do not like the type of burner I have at my apartment, the ones with flames in India are lot better (at least I was habituated to that), it will take some time to be comfortable with this type of burner. Not sure, a friend of me called this the hotplate, man, this is really badplate !!! Back to the recipe now...
Ingredients : 2 medium size onion (chopped), 2 medium size onion (minced), 2 medium jalepanos chopped (could not find any green chillie/kanchalonka in the Kroger near to my place), garlic minced - 1 spoon, ginger minced - 2 spoon, red chilli powder - 1 spoon, 2 tomatoes (finely chopped), 2 potatoes cut into 4 pieces (if you like potato), oil (did not get mustard oil, had to do with vegetable oil), garam masala - 1 spoon, cumin powder - 1 spoon, coriander powder - 1 spoon, haldi/turmeric - 1/2 spoon, sugar - 1 spoon, salt to taste. And, dont forget the chicken (2 lb or 900 gm approx)
How to make : If you are using potatoes, first fry them till brown. In a sauce pan, heat some oil, put the minced onions and fry for some time, now put the chopped onions, ginger and garlic and fry till the oil separates. Put the cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric, salt, sugar, red chilli powder and fry for some time. Make sure that the mixture does not get burnt, when the mixture is a bit dry and you feel that it may start burning, put the tomatoes and mix well.... let it cook for 2 min. If needed put 1 or 2 spoon water and stir frequently. Once the mixture is consistent enough, put the chicken pieces and mix thoroughly. Put 2 spoon more water and stir frequently. When you see that the mixture is sticky and may start burning (you can feel that), pour 2 cups of water (the chicken should be under water) and let it boil for 10 min (closed lid will be done early). Serve hot. You can garnish with cilantro (Green Coriander leaves / dhania patta), but the taste will change then. Let me know if you cook this dish and it came out good enough to eat. The dish that I cooked was not that bad :0)