Ingredients :
Mutton or lamb pieces from leg or shoulder - 1/2 kg,
Curd - 115 gm ( beaten ),
Red chilli pwd - 1 tsp,
Corriander pwd - 2 tbsp,
Cumin pwd - 1 and 1/2 tsp,
Onion - 1 ( grated ),
Garlic and ginger paste - 2 tsp ,
Cloves whole - 6,
Black cardamom whole - 3,
Cinnamon stick - 1 ( 2 inch ),
Bay leaves - 2,
Oil - 2 tbsp and ghee - 2 tbsp- ( use 4 tbsp of oil if you do not like ghee ),
Onion - 3 medium size - thinly and evenly sliced,
Salt to taste,
Green chilli -2- deseeded and chopped or you can just make a slit in the middle.
Saffron - a pinch diluted in warm water .
Water - 2 and 1/2 cup or 650 ml.
Method:
Take a deep pan and heat 2 and 1/2 cups of water.
Take a bowl and mix mutton pieces, red chilli pwd, corriander pwd , cumin pwd, ginger garlic paste , ground or shredded onion , curd , cloves , big cardamom , cinnamon and bay leaves .
When water is warm add the mutton mixture and let it come to boil.
As it starts to boil , lower the heat and put a lid on it .
let it cook for 20 or till meat is half cooked .
Let the mutton cook on simmer .
Take a kadhai and put 2 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp ghee and fry the sliced onions to golden brown .
Close the gas and tilt the kadhai and with your spatula bring all the onions on one side .The extra oil will gather on one side .
Take out the onions in a bowl and let it cool and then grind it in a grinder .
You can add little water to make a coarse paste .Keep aside .
The left over ghee or oil will be used to cook to tender the mutton.
When mutton is half cooked ( 20 minutes ) close gas .
Take a bowl and put a strainer on it and cover with a muslin or cheese cloth.
Pour the mutton gravy with the pieces through the strainer .
The strained liquid will pass through the strainer and collect in the bowl below and the mutton and whole spices will be left on top.
Or
If you have problem handling the hot pan, than pick out the pieces and keep in a plate and then drain the liquid through the cloth strainer .
Take another small bowl and put 1/ cup of water and dip each mutton pieces to remove any spice on it .
The above water should be added to the strainer .
Once all the pieces have been removed squeeze out all the liquid so that maximum flavour is extracted . Since it is hot ,press with a spoon and as it cools down use your hands to take out all the juice.
Heat the kadahi in which onions were fried.
Pour the strained liquid ,mutton, fried onion coarse paste and salt .
Be careful with the salt as the gravy is thin .
When the gravy comes to boil , lower the gas and put a lid on it .
Let it cook for 20 to 25 minutes or till the mutton is tender .
Add saffron water and green chilli .
Let it cook for few seconds .
Taste salt .
Tabak Mans is ready. But if you like it dry then let it simmer till water dries up and only ghee or oil remain.
I like to have some gravy in my dish as it goes very well with roti.
This is a very light and delicious dish .
Ingredients:
Ripe banana - 3 - chopped and mashed about 1 and 1/4 cup,
Walnuts - 1 cup or 100 gms - chopped ( you can roast the walnuts if you like ),
All purpose flour - 1 and 3/4 cup or 230 gms ( sieved ),
White powdered sugar - 3/4 cup or 150 gms,
Butter - 1/2 cup or 113 gms ( melted and cooled ),
Baking pwd - 1 tsp ,
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp,
Ground cinnamon - 1 tsp,
Eggs - 2 ( lightly beaten ).
Pre heat oven to 350 F or 180 C.
Grease the muffin cups or lay the paper cups in the muffin tin.
Place the oven rack in the center of the oven.
Method :
Take a bowl and sieve together flour ,baking pwd and baking soda, then add the powdered sugar, cinnamon pwd and nuts and mix again.
Keep aside .
In a medium size bowl beat the eggs lightly for few seconds and then combine the mashed bananas, butter and vanilla essence.
With a wooden spoon lightly fold in the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients just until combined.
Do not over mix the batter as the muffins will be tough .
Spoon 2 tbsp of the batter into the muffin tins or paper cups.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Place on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes than remove muffins from the tin.
Serve the muffins, when at room temperature.
Banana muffins are best when eaten fresh.
Keep the leftovers covered in the fridge.
I garnished my banana muffins with banana slices glazed with caramalised brown sugar and butter .
Makes 15 muffins.
These pretty looking cherry muffins turned out well because I could pit out the stones of the cherry with a home made cherry pitter and I could get whole cherries to top the muffins. Thanks to Anshuman. He sent me a link where we can make our own pitter just by using an old fork or you can buy a cheap fork from the market for this. I have posted and written down below the way to make your own home made cherry pitter . It was a great help to me and now I have added it in my kitchen tools :)
Ingredients :
Fresh cherries - 500gms - pitted - 400 gms ( 18 cherries kept aside for topping ),
All purpose flour - 1 and 1/2 cup or 195 gms,
Baking pwd - 1 and 1/2 tsp,
Powdered sugar - 3/4 cup or 150 gms,
Salted butter - 1/2 cup or 113 gms,
Milk - 1/3 cup or 80 ml,
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp,
Zest of 1 lemon- ( outer skin of lemon- grate it with a cheese grater ).
Pre - heat oven to 205 C.
Line the muffin tin with paper cups or grease them.
Rinse and dry all the cherries and then discard the stem and pit out all the stones.
( If you are using the home made pitter than first pierce around the center so that stone in the cherry is loosened and then pierce the fork inside and scoop out the stone.
To make this cherry pitter ,take a plier and bend both ends of the fork needles. Then bend the center needles of the fork with your pliers to make a 90 degree bend , like shown in the picture.
This is a very nice method because the juice of the cherry stays inside and there is very little tear and you get the whole cherry intact leaving a few ones.
If you are not able to make your own home made cherry pitter, use a small knife to pit out the stone from the top of the cherry or make a slight slit ).
Method:
In a separate bowl sieve together flour and baking powder.Whisk the flour so that it is evenly mixed.
In a bowl of your mixer beat 2 eggs for 20 seconds then add sugar.
Beat for 3 to 4 minutes in high speed till thick and lemon coloured..
Add butter, vanilla essence and lemon zest and beat for 20 seconds then add milk and beat only for few seconds till combined.
Add flour and beat only till moistened .( less than a second )
Gently fold in the whole pitted cherry.
With an ice cream scooper or spoon , fill the muffin cups 2/3 .
Level the batter with a spoon.
Bake for 15 minutes and then remove from oven and quickly place a cherry on top of each muffin .
Quickly return it back to oven and bake it for 8 minutes more or until golden brown .
Insert a tooth pick in the center and if it comes out clean than muffins are ready .
Leave them in tin for 2 minutes and then take them out on wire rack to cool.
Isn't it a pretty sight to see these ladies sitting on the wire rack .
I was very happy too while baking them.
Enjoy the cherry muffins any time of the day :)
Makes - 18 muffins
