Hi all,

I am holding a dinner party tonight, serving grilled haryali chicken bites, spice crusted seabass on mustard sauce and kulfi.

Can anyone recommend a nice cooling dip to serve with the haryali? I would normally serve a mint, coriander & yoghurt sauce with tikka pieces but the ingredients are bit similar to the marinade of the chicken. I would like a nice complimentary accompaniment.

Any ideas folks?

THank

James.

Nothing can beat the cooling yogurt - mint-coriander sauce as you obviously dont want it hot. If you want to try something different --just add some tamarind paste to it (freshly made is much better), if too sour add some sugar. Tamarind goes very well with yogurt - mint.

Hope your dinner was a success James?

Rajneesh,

Thanks for your tip. I tried a tiny bit of concentrated tamarind with the yoghurt, corriander and mint (with a little sugar). It went really well with the chicken.

Mamta, very successful dinner thank you. We started with a wonderful fresh tasting Haryali chicken which was just so tender after the overnight marinade. We then moved on to spice encrusted sea bass on a Bengali mustard sauce, completing the feast with your very own mango kulfi which ended up in my daughter's ice lollie moulds as I didn't have time to buy proper kulfi ones!!

Love this site!!

James.

I am glad it went werll. Well you had Mango Kulfi Lollies then, a new dish!

Hi James, is the Haryali chicken recipe on Mamtas? I did a search but couldnt find it. Sounds nice.

Cheers

Steve

Hariyali Chicken

I wonder why the ready made tamarind paste in the market is so dark in colour --almost black, only once i managed to find a ready made paste which was brown in colour (as it should be) and it did taste like tamarind :D

Hi Steve,

I actually used a different recipe to the one on this site which doesn't use yoghurt. I'm sure Mamta's is very nice, but I haven't tried it. I used my own recipe taking ideas from others I'd seen. Results superb.

Recipe below...

Small bunch fresh mint leaves

Half bunch of coriander

2 large garlic cloves

small piece of fresh ginger

fresh green finger chillies to taste (I used 1)

Salt to taste

juice of half a lemon

a couple of teaspoons of veg oil

Method

Wizz everything up with a hand blender and rub over chunks of chicken breast (or thighs / legs etc) and leave overnight to marinade.

Thread chunks onto skewers and balance skewers over each side of a roasting pan. Place in a preheated oven on highest heat until done (turn half way through) - approx 20 minutes.

Put on cocktail sticks and serve with fresh lemon juice. A fabulously fresh, low fat treat!!!

Cheers

James.

...sorry forgot to mention to baste kebabs in melted ghee during roasting process - so not as low fat as first thought!!!

James.

Looks tasty, chicken marinated and barbecued in an almost 'green chutney' like sauce, lovely James!

Raj, I assume you are talking about the tamarind concentrate and I don't like it one bit. I much prefer to buy a few blocks of tamarind and make my own -- which I store in the freezer and it lasts forever. I do use quite a lot of tamarind actually and I normally make enough to last me about six months. Mamta's karela bhaji is by far one of my favourite dishes on site and it calls for tamarind!! I can't get enough of that dish...awesome...thanks Mrs G!

I am glad you like my Karela bhaji with tamarind sid. I love Karelas (bitter gourd) too, especially cooked with tamarind. This I discovered only after I gave up eating mangoes (north Indians uses raw, sour mangoes or amchoor, raw mango powder, in cooking karelas and several other dishes). I wanted so use something sour, so tried Imli/tamarind. It was so much tastier than mango in my view, that I mostly make it with Imli now.

Commercial Imli paste is NOT NICE, I have tried it. I use the tamarind pulp with seeds in it, the quick soak type. You soak it in hot water for a few minutes, mash a little and then sieve it. You can freeze it in an ice tray and then use imli cubes as required.

I am making a new dish with karelas today; Karela Chutney. I ate it recently, cooked by my SIL in Deli, it is soooo tasty. I have her recipe now (see new recipes). I guess I will tweak the amounts/methodology a bit as I go along and adjust it if required. Not sure what it's shelf life is, don't think anybody knows. The one I ate was in a jar and at least a month old, tasted perfect.

Now my mouth has started watering .......must try this hariyali recipe next or maybe when cooking tandoori chicken next time i shall blitz coriander and mint leaves as well.