Category Archives: Pakistani

Oct7

Karela (Bitter Melon/Gourd)

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I’m starting to run out of optimal grilling days. I wanted to cook outside this weekend but the second I stepped out the door to clean the grill it started to rain. Ah, well. I think some posts on grilling in the rain and snow are in my future.

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Instead, I turned my culinary eye to something a little exotic (at least to us here in middle America). Karela or Bitter Melon. If you are going to do this be aware (but never afraid!) that no matter how you cook it, there will always be an underlying bitterness to the dish. The goal here is to minimize the bitter flavor through salting and cover up take your mind off that bitterness with other flavor components – I did sweet & spicy. Read the rest of this entry →

Sep1

Shahi Chicken Pulao – 1st attempt

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I’m terrible at making rice. So, of course, the first rice recipe I blog about is this heavyweight. There are a wide variety of ways of making Shahi Pulao and Chicken Pulao – though not together. Truthfully, I got a little overwhelmed with my options. I like to think of this initial attempt as learning the method of making pulao. Thank my lucky stars that it turned out quite good. The rice was subtley sweet. The chicken had flavor, but I believe it can be improved.

Keep in mind: I don’t like sweet chicken, so I nixed the sugar in this recipe. If you must, a teaspoon of sugar is added after the cashews & raisins and before the onions. Therefore, caramelizing the onions. Yup, not gonna happen. Here’s what I did instead. Read the rest of this entry →

Apr25

Gajar Ka Halwa (Carrot Pudding)

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Everyone complains about how hard it is to make Gajar Ka Halwa. If you don’t have a food processor, I understand the difficulty. Otherwise, it’s pretty simple. Currently, the most difficult thing I’ve made were the Holiday Pin Wheel Cookies – they landed on the Kitchen Disasters page if your interested in my shame. I made the halwa in under an hour so it is definitely doable. Read the rest of this entry →