RECIPE: Thai Green Curry

I just went by an excited Tuesday. I took a day off from work and by evening i was feeling useless until i realized i have some fresh ingredients in the fridge and i could put myself to use and make some dinner for the chaps.

I decided on Thai green curry with chicken. I could not find any prawns at the moment.

GREEN CURRY PASTE:

INGREDIENTS

• Green chilies, 6 medium sized ,de-seeded and roughly chopped

• Ginger 5cm/2in piece, peeled and sliced

• Garlic 2 cloves, crushed or equivalent Garlic Paste. Paste can be bought at here

• Coriander, fresh medium size bunch, stalks and roots attached if possible

• Lemon Grass 2 tbsp dried

• Lime, 1 1/2, grated zest and juice

• Kaafir Lime zest of one lime.

• Coriander seeds, 1 tbsp crushed

• Ground cumin 1 tsp

• Black peppercorns, 1 tsp crushed

• 2 tsp Thai fish sauce

• 4 tbsp olive oil

METHOD:

Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and blitz to a paste.

GREEN CURRY

INGREDIENTS

Coconut Cream, 300gm

Chicken Breasts, 400gm, Strips or Cubes are per your choice.

Garlic Paste: 2 Table Spoons

Green Curry Paste made Before

Lots of Love

METHOD

Stir Fry chicken 3 minutes in garlic paste and Olive oil Preferably.

Take the Chicken out

Add the green curry paste and coconut cream and on low heat cook for 4 mins

Add the chicken to the mixture and cook for about 5 mins.

Serve with Love and White Rice Of course !

“choen thaan krup”

RECIPE: Tour of Morocco Pizza

Greetings !

Today was a fun day at the office. I had a guest over for lunch, and i thought, why not make a pizza and add some Moroccan touch to it.

I sourced Moroccan Harissa Sauce by Chatkhaar. It is very Spicy and extremely hot in taste.

Black olives, diced onions, diced tomatoes, diced capsicum and lots of mozzarella cheese. boneless chicken.

The recipe of the dough i can share with you if required. just message me.

Stir fry the chicken pieces with some Moroccan harissa sauce 

Spread Some Morrocan Harissa sauce on the dough instead of the usual tomato paste or pizza sauce.

Do your toppings, you might want to add mushrooms if you want i did and it tasted good although doesnt go with the moroccan cuisine.

8 Mins Bake at 240 Degree. and Tadaaaa !

It tasted good, did not look so pretty but yes the taste was extremely spicy.

Tip: First test the harissa sauce for hotness. You dont want to destroy your hard work !

RECIPE: BEETROOT HUMMUS

Greetings, its been a while i posted something. I was away for Hajj, well now im back with a few inspirations. read below for one of them.

For me, when its about food, Fusion also tags along. This time, i tried to infuse Beet root into a plain hummus, and guess what, it worked. Tasted perfect and looked impeccable.

INGREDIENTS:

Beetroot, Chopped, 500gms

Canned Chickpeas, 450gm-500gm. Rinsed and then drained. this will reduce the salt in the chickpeas.

Garlic cloves, 3, roughly chopped

Tahini (Sesame Paste), 1 Table Spoon

Lemon Juice, 1 Table Spoon

Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 2 Table Spoons.

Turkish Bread or Pita bread for serving with.

METHOD:

Place the beetroot, chickpeas, garlic, tahini and lemon juice in a food processor and whiz to a slightly granular paste. Keep the motor running and slowly add the oil through the small feeding tube of the bowl that has the mixture. The mixture will become smooth and a bit thick. A few moments later its ready.

Season well coriander maybe & serve with warmed Turkish bread or Pita bread

RECIPE: Mustard Grilled Prawns & Moroccan Grilled Fish ( Croaker Drum / Mushka )

Karachi has a lovely weather these days especially the nights. A little windy, absolutely no heat infact a little cold at some nights. The last sunday was one of those, and i had planned a little seafood bbq at my home. Wanted to share the pics and recipes i hope you all like it.

MUSTARD GRILLED PRAWNS

Ingredients :

1/2 Cup prepared mustard

1/2 Cup Water

2 Tablespoon Sugar

2 Table Spoon Sundip White vinegar

2 Table Spoon Horse radish Sauce, you can also use fresh ginger instead. about 4 chopped slices.

1 Kg Fresh Large prawns, not jumbo prawns.

Method:

1. Combine the mustard, water, sugar, vinegar and horseradish
2. Add shrimp to the mixture and chill several hours stirring frequently. Keep refrigerated.
3. Drain the shrimp, reserving the marinade.
4. Grill over medium coals, 3 – 4 minutes each side. Use the marinade while grilling. put on both sides for rich flavour of mustard.

Eat while hot, do not cook too much, the shrimp should not get dry and rubbery. Do not remove shells. Grill while the shell is still intact.

MOROCCAN GRILLED FISH (Croaker Drum / Mushka)

Ingredients :

4 pcs about 1 Kg in total. 250gms each fish.

200gms Chatkhaar Moroccan Harissa ( buy online at http://www.chatkhaar.com )

Method.

Clean the insides of the fish. Mildly Slit the fish on the belly. 3-4 slits each side.

Rub Moroccan Harissa Sauce all over the fish and leave to marinade for about 6 hours.

Evenly Grill fish on both sides. Keep brushing and oiling while grilling. This will make the skin crispier hence giving the right flavour intact.

Enjoy.

Sun dried Mint Leaves and Sun dried Green Chilli

Greetings,

As you know i have been slowly working on my own designer brand of food.

I call it Nu-Deli by Haris Shek

https://www.facebook.com/NueDeli

Initially, i launched Sun dried tomatoes and Sun dried tomatoes in Olive Oil.

Im happy to announce 2 new products that inspire a whole new range of recipes.

1. Sundried Mint Leaves
2. Sun Dried Green Chilli

If you are passionate about food, you will figure out what to do with them. 🙂

I have used them in making yoghurt mixes, summer cooling drinks, salad toppings etc. I will soon be posting a few recipes inspired by the above two ingredients. Hope fully you will like them too.

Happy Fooding !

RECIPE: Simply Pizza !

Last night, was pizza night for us. As foodies, we love to experiment with new flavours, tastes and combinations of textures. We want to keep it simple, yet it has to be tasteful and satisfying. Here is what i thought, a 6 ingredient pizza. Technically its a 6 topping, because the dough i got from the market, and used the toppings & baked it to perfection.

INGREDIENTS

• Pizza base, Medium. 8″-10″
• Black Olives, sliced. 7-8
• Onion 1/2 thinly sliced
• CHATKHAAR Piri Piri Sauce ( buy at http://www.chatkhaar.com)
• Cheese as per required cheesiness 😛 Cheddar 60% & Mozzarella 40%
• Chicken, Boneless pieces of breasts, cut small into cubes preferably. about 20-25 pieces.

METHOD

1. Marinate the chicken in the CHATKHAAR Piri Piri Sauce. for about 2 hour, Stir fry in Olive Oil

2. Take the Pizza base, Spread Chatkhaar Piri Piri Sauce same like we spread the pizza sauce, only in this case we are using CHATKHAAR.

3. Put chicken, Onions, Cheese, and Olives on the base. Put in the same order as described here.

4. Oven bake for about 20-25 mins.

“TADAaaa!!”

The simplest of all pizzas, with creamy cheese, crisp onions, crusty bread and flavours of portugal from the CHATKHAAR Portuguese Piri Piri Sauce. What else do we need ?

Try this at home with other sauces like i did with CHATKHAAR green chilli chutney. It turned out great. Take your pictures, share with me. Experiment with green olives, with Pizza, the flavors and textures you can play with are unlimited.

Buon Appetito

RECIPE: Roast Lemon Chicken, complimented with Veggies & bathed in Au Jus

Well then, Ramadan is coming up and one of our ramadan resolutions is going on a healthy diet and reducing weight. My todays recipe is about chicken, balanced with a few simple ingredients and hardly any oil added. Also a Mint lime that i call “Le-Mint” the compliments the food and leaves us refreshed for the next hour.

INGREDIENTS

CHICKEN MARINADE

• 50 ml Lime Juice
• 1 Table spoon Honey
• 2 teaspoon finely chopped thyme, or you can also use dry thyme available in super markets
• 2 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary or you can also use dry rosemary available in super markets.
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 Lime, large, sliced.

Combine all the ingredients for the marinade and rest for 5 hours. For the sliced lemon, put between the skin and the meat. Preferably thighs and breast.

INGREDIENTS FOR ROASTING PAN

• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 3 Medium size garlic cloves.
• Chicken Stock 1 cups
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter. 1 melted to rub on the pan before roasting. 1 cold to put small portions in the skin of the chicken.

Brush the roasting pan with butter, add chicken and the rest of the ingredients in the pan. Cover the pan with foil, and oven bake for about 30 mins. Every Oven has different setting. so you have to keep a good check on the chicken.

Take out the chicken and pan fry for glazing and get that brown beautiful colour on the skin.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE ” JUS ”

• Chicken bones ( neck, wings, leg )
• Onion 1/4 chopped.
• Garlic 2 cloves chopped
• Cloves 3
• Coriander Fresh Handful
• Chicken stock 1 Cup 200ml
• 1 Pinch Fennel
• Dry thyme and rosemary 1 teaspoon
• Worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon
• Vinegar 1 teaspoon
• Lime juice 2 teaspoons
• Butter 30gms
• Pinch of cornflour

Cook all the above ingredients on low heat for 2 hours and reduce to thick gravy which we call the Jus.

Steam fresh veggies, roast potatoes and top with seasalt.

Ingredients for ” Le’Mint ”

Make one Jug full of SUNDIP Lemon Squash. Add fresh chopped mint. and Chill for long time.

I froze the mint in ice cubes for a better refreshing effect.

Set your platter, take pictures and share them with me.

Bon Appétit

Buffalo Chicken MeatBalls! Ka-Chinng!

It was a lazy Sunday as usual. It had been a while i mixed up ingredients for a quick snack.Searched up the internet for a tasty Chicken meatball recipe. Found a few fascinating ones but particularly one which i thought i could give it a touch of my own.

I had an entire bottle of Frank’s RedHot ready to be used up, I just had to make these epic buffalo chicken meatballs. I am die hard buffalo fan and these meatballs blew my mind especially when complimented with Chatkhaar Arabian Garlic Sauce ( Buy now at http://www.chatkhaar.com)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound ground chicken
• 3/4 cup Panko*
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• Pink Himalayan Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 3/4 cup buffalo sauce
• 1/4 cup CHATKHAAR Arabian Garlic Sauce.
• *Panko is a Japanese-style breadcrumb and can be found in high end super markets like Naheed, ebco & Farids etc.

METHOD

In a large bowl, combine ground chicken, Panko, egg, garlic and onion powder and green onions; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Using a wooden spoon or clean hands, stir until well combined. Roll the meat into meat balls of your preferred size. I would recommend about 1 inch or 1 1/4 inch. Place meatballs in a pan for slow cooking. Add buffalo sauce and gently toss to combine. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 hours.

Place into a beautiful piece of cutlery. Toss fresh coriander, and Arabian Garlic Sauce. Take your pictures share with me 🙂

bon appétit

Sakura. but not for sushi this time.

Many a times, we have heard about Sakura and how great the food is, how wonderful the ambiance is, and how expensive your check will be. Well its true. Its all true, but have we ever thought, every good thing has a price and my visit tonight, i feel everything above is justified.

I have often observed people discuss sushi and Sakura together. Sakura, the very well set Japanese cuisine restaurant located inside the Pearl Continental hotel Karachi offers great food, good ambiance and excellent service. Booked a table for 3, me, wife and our son (4 years). Our reservation was for 8PM and we arrived around 830. We were given a good table next to a window with a beautiful view of the city of lights. Chic purple interior, neat clean tables, well set, chairs with arm rests i think i just wanted to be seated quickly.

We have been regular visitors of Sakura for almost 8 years now but this time our order was different. We wanted to avoid sushi and thought why not try something different today.

Our order Crispy California rolls, Prawn Tempura, Beef Teriyaki, Garlic rice and Prawn Teppanyaki.

We were instantly served with warm green tea.

Excited to wait for our order, i noticed the restaurant was not too crowded and provided a great enviornment for a peaceful dinner. Minutes later the California rolls arrived. Topped with teriyaki sauce, crispy batter, these soft rice rolls are heaven. An ideal combination for your palate in every bite. All the textures in one place. The crispy batter, combined with the sauce and the soft rice it really felt great. Top it up with the chilli sauce and wasabi paste and there you go. I can have it all night and still feel light on the digestion. After every roll, clear your palate with the pink baby ginger pickles in vinegar and a bit of sweetness and take the other bite of another roll. Just Delectable !

The prawn tempura is an all time favorite. It comes with a special soy sauce, not too salty and balanced on the flavor over all. Crispy batter outside, soft prawn inside, cooked to perfection every bite of this treat was just exquisitely excellent.

The beef Teriyaki oh how much i love this and to top my expectations, it was perfectly cooked. The right amount of sauce, and the right portions of beef, cut marinated and cooked in teriyaki sauce. Mouthwatering and very well complemented with the garlic rice we had ordered. I, however did not like the plating too much. It had a slice of tomato and a cucumber, with that cheap shredded cauliflower topped with mayonnaise.

I was not very impressed with the Prawn Teppanyaki. Just lacked flavour. Its Wok fried with vegetables, and it was too oily for me. skimmed the prawns out of it. This was the best i could manage.

The total bill was Rs.8000 which i believe was not bad for 2 and half people. For an experience like this i would pay this price anytime.

Conclusion, yet another night at Sakura that just gave us many reasons to come back. They know how to treat you well, the service is excellent. They wont come to you every 4th bite and ask how your food is. They would not buzz near your table to see all the time if you are done with your food, yet some how, they would clear the table and your mess without you knowing that they were watching. I loved the privacy you get when you know that people around you are just minding their own business in their soft spoken languages.

Thank you Sakura. See you Soon !

RECIPE: HONEY LIME SHRIMP WITH SRIRACHA & CHATKHAAR

All you need is 15 minutes & simple ingredients. Voilà !!! its ready.

HONEY LIME SHRIMP WITH SRIRACHA & CHATKHAAR

This Honey Lime Shrimp with Sriracha is succulent, tender, and mouthwatering! Add Chatkhaar Piri Piri Sauce for a touch of African birds eye chilli !

I’m swimming with the current. Seafood lovers, dive on in. And if you’re not that into shrimp, perhaps this tantalizing dish will turn the tide for you or someone you know.  It’s a real thing. Spring and sunshine and warm breezes sing out for shrimp. Its getting warmer by the day, and some days its just too hot. Maybe it’s the whole ocean-crustacean vibe.

If you are a slave to lime, honey and shrimp, here is your 50 shades of grey. Your guilty pleasure.

I also tried to kick it up with combo of SRIRACHA & CHATKHAAR Piri Piri Sauce.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 TB olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• juice of 1 large lime
• 1½ tsp cornstarch
• 4 TB pure honey
• zest of 1 large lime
• 1-3 tsp Sriracha, depending on how spicy you want it ( available at good super stores)
• 1 tsp CHATKHAAR Piri Piri Sauce ( buy now at http://www.chatkhaar.com)
• ½ tsp SUNDiP Pink Himalayan salt (preffered) (buy now at http://www.naurusonline.com)
• 1 lb jumbo or large raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large nonstick pan, stir together oil and garlic over medium heat for 1 minute. Combine lime juice with cornstarch in a small bowl and mix to dissolve cornstarch. Add this to the pan. Add all remaining ingredients to the pan and continue to stir together just until shrimp turns opaque, about 1½ minutes. Do not over cook.
2. Garnish, take pictures and share with friends.
3. Serve warm shrimp with sauce over rice.

Note: This Recipe was inspired from an online recipe i saw for the same. I tried to change it a bit by adding CHATKHAAR Piri Piri Sauce and it turned out great.