A DATE WITH LAMB CHOPS AND HUA JIAO (FLOWER PEPPER)

(It has Vege and Vegan option)
Here I am, after a long time minus travelogue. During my Sahara days, one thing I have realized, that Chinese food is  quite diverse as ours 

It was a great experience eating Chinese food covering many regions but predominently Cantonese, Beijing and fusion Sichuan (Sczchuan) dishes. It was difficult to learn all dishes because of language, ingredients unknown to me and  time. Friday after noon was the only free time in a week, and I could spend some time in the kitchen with a can of beer. The ancient sign language was a great help, like drawing a hen,  a duck or a turkey to understand the bird being used for cooking . ( The turkey I drew was replied with a sketch of a donkey by the chef to know , if I meant donkey meat and vehemently denying that a  donkey was not in edible list of animals, I need to increase drawing skills to learn recipes, engineering drawing no problem).    

Coming back, I am giving here a very simple fusion recipe of Sichuan origin. The Sichuan recipe is famous for fire-hot (The Chinese fire-hot is no patch on our real hot recipes). As most chinese friends do not belong to Sichuan region , they did not have much appreciation for firy hot food. The Chef made it a  point to cook less hot Sichuan dishes once in a while. 

The Sichuan dishes have lot of red chili , ginger, garlic and the famous flower pepper ( HUA JIAO) and of course Soya sauce, Chinese vinegar, rice wine at your discretion. 

HUA JIAO . I am sure , most of you know what it is. It is a small fruit , dried and have a distinct fragrance ( Not known to Indo-Chinese food eaters) and has a numbing effect in  mouth but makes you feel its fire at your throat. ( The so called fire at the throat is no patch on the fire we get if we chew few Indian black pepper , so relax) . The fragrance is very distinct , specially when combined with star anise.

THE RECIPE . Here I am giving a simple Mutton fry  with Hua Jiao, dry red chili and star anise  seasoning. You can make Tofu fry also.
INGREDIENTS

For Boiling 
Mutton Chap   500 gms ( You can take few ribs too, with a layer of fat)
Hua Jiao 1 tsp 
star anise 1/2 
Red chilli 2 cut to pieces.
Ginger , 2 pieces ( 1 inch by 1/2 inch)
Garlic 4 cloves smashed
Vinegar 2 tsp
Green chili 2-3 ( optional) 
Salt to taste
Sugar 1 tsp
( MSG is added in all Chinese dishes, I did not have any )
For seasoning 
Red chili 6-8 cut to pieces
Star anise 1/2 
Hua Jiao 11/2 tsp
Julienne of ginger 1 tbsp
Chopped garlic 2 tsp
Oil for frying 

HUA JIAO ( SIchuan Pepper or Flower Pepper) 

PROCESS
Boil meat with above ingredients till tender. You can use a pressure cooker.
Take out the meat pieces and leave for draining water
Filter the water and use it as a clear soup. It may be quite hot so dilute with water. You can reserve the thick extract as a stock for future cooking.
Dip fry the boiled meat for 1 to 2 minutes and drain on paper napkin ( Dont worry, the meat will not absorb oil).

  Take 1 tbsp of leftover oil and when hot add ginger and garlic , saute for 2 minute at high heat and add red chili, star anise and Hua Jiao. 

Stir for few seconds and quench with 2 tbsp water. Reduce heat, add the fried meat , mix and dry off quickly.
The dish is ready. The flavor is awesome.

TOFU..One can use Tofu with this spicing. One variation is, dust Tofu pieces ( about 10 mm thick and 50 X 50 mm ) with corn flour and dip fry to light brown.
Boil the pieces as above and finish with the seasoning. You may not fry the tofu, simply boil with the mix and then give seasoning. You may eliminate the garlic to make it a perfect Vege dish.
You can use Light Soya during Boiling or in the seasoning for meat or vege dishes.
I feel sad that I will be again out of kitchen and blog for some time. But will meet you at FB. 

MUTTON KASHA WITH VENGEANCE

Friends, bloggers , fellow Foodies, lend me your ears; If I had to eat, consecutively for 3 days , a "health-food" breakfast comprising of 2 chopped carrots, 3 chopped tomatoes (big ones) , a plate full of germinated Mung dal and Bengal gram, soaked peanuts, chopped raw turmeric , ginger, small pieces of Jaggery ; 1 banana, 1 hard boiled egg and a glass of milk; dont you think it is too much!! What was my offence for this punishment?? Because during my walking session, I was caught loitering in the park, instead of brisk walking. SOME ONE says Loitering is no exercise, a house wife loiters 3-5 KM in side the house and gains weight. One has to do brisk walking to a point one really breathes hard!!!

Vengeance is the answer to this, so I pulled out a pack of lamb which I had kept in the fridge among frozen spinach, turnip, peas, fish, chicken etc. ( Luckily SOME ONE doesn't believe, the cholesterol and red meat hoax predominantly going around in India, so there is no restriction on red meat, but majority at home believes in fish and chicken eating )

 I cooked this dish after many decades to please SOME ONE so that if I am caught next time loitering around in the park, the offence will be pardoned. But I must admit in absence of this SOMEONE , I wouldn't have existed so far in life.

THE RECIPE

This is a simple recipe, but carries lot of emotional values. Many decades back, when I did not have a proper kitchen I developed this dish, I did not have anything to grind spices or  make paste of ginger, garlic , onion;. the powdered spices were not reliable. To thicken the gravy I used chopped Tomato and onion in such a way that you cant make out that tomato was used.  The oil used was removed before serving and kept as an  Oil extract of Garam masala flavor for future use. Turmaric and Garam masala plays a key role in the flavor. It is quite thick , called as " KASHA MEAT" type in Bengal. I have recently introduced bit of ginger garlic paste but it is optional.
It is some times customary to add a suffix to a dish, Like Mutton Kalia rasala, Gost Sunderpuri, chicken Kolhapuri etc. So the name of the dish has a suffix of vengeance  to counter the effect of health food..

INGREDIENTS

Lamb/ Goat meat 500 gms

Onion 300 gms

Tomato 300 gms

Green chili 4

Garlic 6 cloves ( large ones)

Oil 4 tbsp ( more the merrier)

Turmeric 1 level tsp

red chili powder 1 level tsp ( More the merrier , I use Very hot chili powder)

Sugar 1 level tsp for caramel ( will not sweeten)

Marinade

Ginger garlic paste 1 tsp , optional

Curd 1 heap tbsp

Mustrad Oil  2 tsp
Blak pepper 6, smashed

Turmeric powder 1 level tsp.
Coriander leaves chopped , 2 tbsp heap
Salt as required

Spices

Cardamum 6, smashed

Cinamon 1.5 inch broken into pieces

Clove 2
Bay leaf 1

PROCESS

Marinate the mutton/lamb and keep aside for 30 min or more.

Cut the onion into thin slices
Cut the tomato into circular thin slices ( for faster frying./ dehydration)
Chop garlic coarse
Chop green chili 6 to 10 mm 
In a thick bottom pan or in the pressure cooker, heat oil , add sugar and caramelize ( it will melt and become brown ), immediately add 2 cloves, bay leaf, green chili, garlic and soute for 15 sec.
 add 3/4th of chopped onion and soute to light brown, 
Add Tomato and reduce heat so that the tomato releases water.

Tomato frying half way through

Keep Frying the mix so that most water is driven out. It will look like a dark brown paste and tomato would lose all its sour taste and tomato flavor and identity.
Add the meat, balance 1/4th of the onion , spices, 1 level tsp Turmeric, red chili powder, and all the ingredients.. 
Mix thoroughly and and Bhuno ( Stir fry) for 5-10 minutes, until oil starts separating.
Add 1.5 cup of water, 
Pressure cook for 5-6 minutes ( i.e. 6 to 8 minutes after the 1st whistle , reduce flame)
( Note: If it is a good young lamb it will be cooked in 6 minutes assuming that , the stir frying was done for 10 minutes. I like the mutton bit stiff, I mean the fiber should not fall apart or leave the bones. But if you like very soft and falling apart type mutton  you can pressure cook longer, it wont make any difference if you cook for 12 minutes or 20 minutes.)
Cool the pressure cooker on its own, open and if it gravy is thin, boil and expel water,  adjust salt if needed.
Eat with rice or Roti.

Removing excess oil
I normally use bit excess oil, and remove from the top, as much oil as possible. This oil is very rich in aromatics and can be used for dishes where the aroma of this extract ( Yakhni) is acceptable. Most people will keep the oil in the gravy, choice is yours.

For my great foodie friends Colorful geranium leaves from the Himalayas