Archive for category Pakistani
Kashmiri Chai (Pink Tea)
Dima’s post makes me think that while Pakistani and Indians are really fond of tea and our day never starts or ends without it, we still have to learn to appreciate it as a custom like the Chinese.
The good part is that we’ve experimented with tea like we have with rest of our food and now you can find many types of teas in Pakistan and India. There is Kahwa (Green Tea), the Black Tea, Kashmiri tea, Masala Tea etc. etc. There is one more thing that is different from most of the countries. We add milk to our tea. Only green tea is taken without milk. I have yet to hear from Pakistanis and Indians who take their teas without milk.
The origin of Kashmiri tea must be Kashmir as it sounds (I am not exactly sure though). The tea leaves are the same that are used for green tea. They are found in abundance in Himalayan regions (China, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bhutan) and are mentioned here. Following is the recipe of Kashmiri Chai (Chai means Tea in Urdu/Hindi) or generally known as pink tea:
Ingredients
- Water – 2 cups
- Green Tea leaves – 2-3 teaspoons
- Salt and/or Sugar (according to your taste)
- Green cardamoms – 4
- Milk – 2 cups
- A pinch of Baking soda or Saffron (It will give pink color to the tea)
- Crushed dry fruits (Almonds and Pistachios preferably)
- Cream (optional)
Green Tea leaves
Recipe
- Pour 2 cups water in a pot and make sure that the pot you are using has a broad base. Crush green cardamoms in your hand until seeds come out.
- Add both the seeds and shell in the water. Add green tea leaves.
- Also, add baking soda or Saffron. Using soda or saffron will give pink color to the tea.
- Let the mixture simmer and boil for about 20 minutes until the water is reduced to half.
Top picture: "After adding ingredients" Bottom: Simmer and Boil
- Now add two cups of normal water while it is boiling. Stir the mixture.
Adding more water to the boiling mixture
- After adding water, let it simmer for 5-10 minutes. On the side start boiling the milk (you can add more cardamoms in the milk, if you want)
Keep stiring the mixture
- Add the tea mixture to the milk. Also, add sugar and salt or only salt or only sugar. Let it boil again. The more you boil, the stronger the tea will be.
Add tea mixture to the boiling milk and watch it turn pink
- Finally, take it off the stove and pour it into cups. Add crushed dry fruits into cups and enjoy the tea
Pink Tea without crushed dry fruit
With dry fruits
Traditionally, the tea is taken with salt rather than sugar. But it depends upon the taste of the individual. This tea is specially for people who live in cold climates. The tea and the dry fruits themselves provide warmth in a severe cold.
Chapli Kebabs
There are two things you should know and three things you should always have if you want to cook Pakistani food.
The first thing you should know is that cooking in Pakistan, is a serious affair and you should do it thinking you have all the time in the world, even if you don’t :). Home cooked food is given the highest priority and serving your guests with ready-made meal is frowned upon here. There is no such thing, in Pakistan as, “grabbing a bite”. Each meal is carefully planned and carefully consumed. Highest importance is given to breakfast and dinner as it is said here, skipping breakfast makes you weak and dull and skipping dinner is inviting old age early.
The three things you should have plentiful are Cumin Seeds (Urdu: Zeera), Garlic/Ginger paste and Mint/Coriander leaves. There is hardly any recipe that does contain at least one of the listed items.
The recipe I have chosen to write about is a famous recipe, common to both Pakistan and Afghanistan and the origin of this dish is Afghanistan (at one time, the northern areas of Pakistan were actually a part of Afghanistan and eventually Persia(Now Iran)). There is a heavy influence of Iranian, Turkish, Afghani, Arabian and Central Asian cuisine on Pakistani cuisine due to our ancestral roots there.
So here is the recipe of the popular dish. Another thing before I list down the ingredients is that these Kebabs can be made from either beef or lamb but my favorite type is beef and I think they taste best when beef is used so I am going to list minced beef as an ingredient. You are most welcome to try with other types of meat and let us know the experience.
Ingredients:
For Chapli Kebabs:
- 1/2 Kg. finely mined beef
- 100 grams Corn meal (Do not use Corn Flour as it makes them stiff)
- 1 medium sized onion, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp. ginger paste
- 1 tsp. crushed cumin seeds
- 1 tsp. crushed dry red chillies
- 1 tsp. crushed coriander seeds (pay special attention: seeds not leaves)
- 1 tsp. wild pomegranate seeds (I am not sure if it available easily everywhere, it can be skipped if not available although it gives a nice hint of sour flavor to the taste of the kebabs)
- 3 green chillies roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves (this time it is leaves)
- 1 tsp. lemon juice (vinegar can be used instead of lemon)
- 2 eggs and 1 tsp. salt
For dressing
- 1 tomato
- 1 small onion – slice it and fry the slices until it is brown
Podina Chutney (Mint Sauce) for serving:
1 ounce of mint leaves
1 tsp. salt
½ cup whole dried red chilies
5 tbs. tamarind paste
2 green chilies
Soak the Tamarind in water for an hour.
Remove the seeds from the tamarind.
Put everything into a grinder and grind until it’s a smooth paste. Refrigerate.
Kebabs Recipe:
Take the minced meat and take all the ingredients listed above (from 2 – 12) and mix them in meat as well. Knead carefully and gently until all ingredients are mixed thoroughly. At the end, the mixture would be a bit rough (as you can see that most of the ingredients are not powder crushed). Place the mixture in refrigerator and let it site there for 2-3 hours so that it is thoroughly marinated.
After it has been marinated, take a medium sized portion of the mixture and roll it till it forms a ball. Then place your palm on the ball and keep pressing till it is in the form of a roughly shaped disc. The thickness of the disc should be about 1/2 inch. Make discs out of the rest of the meat as well.
Fry the discs in the oil until brown. Do not use too much oil.
(Image Source: https://www.khanapakana.com/urdu-kebab-recipes/images/images/Chapli-Kabab.jpg)
I forgot to take pictures while cooking so I got the closest match that looks like my kebab from Google.
Serve it with Mint Sauce. You can also eat it with roti/naan (white bread) as is done in India and central areas of Pakistan. Or you can make a sandwich with it. Trust me, it’s better than McDonald’s beef burger :)