The usual chicken gravy recipe with onion and tomato paste. Very easy to cook, this spicy chicken gravy is ready in less than 45 mins.. You can hardly go wrong with this recipe.

Method

1. Clean and chop about 500 gms of boneless chicken. Add salt and set aside.
2. Roughly chop 3 medium sized onions. Blend in a mixie with about 7-8 pods of garlic and 1 inch ginger till you get a fine paste and keep aside. Blend 2 tomatoes in the same mixie and keep aside
3. Add 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 inch cinnamon, 5-6 cloves, 2 tsp coriander powder, 2 tsp chilli powder, 1 cardamom and blend in the mixie to a coarse powder. You can add some salt if you need to add some volume to blend.
4. In a pan, add 1 tbsp oil.  Add the coarse masala powder and saute till you can smell the aroma of the spices. Now add the the onion paste and saute till golden brown. Since the onion was blended raw, you need to ensure that you saute for a longer while till the raw smell of onions is gone. 
5. Add the tomato paste and some turmeric and again saute till the tomatoes are cooked. Add additional chilli powder if you want a spicy gravy.
6.  Add chicken and coat it with sauce. Add 2 cups of water and mix well. Now cover with a lid and let the chicken cook for 15-20 mins on a slow flame. Keep stirring in between and cook till chicken is tender.
7. Adjust the salt. Add 1 tsp of garam masala powder. Garnish with coriander leaves. Squeeze some lemon juice on the gravy and serve with rotis.

As you must know by now, Bhindi(Okra or ladies finger) is one of my favorite vegetable. Felt like cooking okra with dahi. Searched online and found this easy recipe on Tarla Dalal's site. This dish was really easy to cook and the total time is just around 45 mins along with chopping time. Whats best is that the dish is spicy yet not very hot.


Method

1.Wash, wipe dry and cut around 30 pieces of okra into 1 cm pieces. Cut them diagonally
2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan and sauté the ladies finger in it for 5 mins till almost cooked. Add a pinch of salt to the okra. Keep this aside.
3. In the same pan,heat 2 tsp oil and add 2 tsp fennel seeds(saunf) and saute for a minute. Add 1/2 tsp of fenugreek seeds (methi seeds) and saute. Now add 1 tsp mustard seeds and a pinch of asafoetida(hing) to it and saute til the mustard seeds crackle. Take care to see that the masala doesn't get scorched.
4. Add 1 inch of  ginger finely chopped to the pan and saute. Now add 1 big tomato finely chopped. Saute till the tomatoes are well cooked. Add 1 tsp of sugar to balance the taste.
5. As the tomato is cooking, whisk together 3 tbsp curds, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1tsp chilli powder, 2 tsp coriander powder and salt and mix well. Add this mixture to the pan when the tomato is cooked and cook for 2-3 mins. Add the okra that was kept aside and mix well and cook for 5 mins.
Serve hot with chapatis.

I had seen this episode of Chak Le India - Kachcha Raasta long back and had noted down the recipe. I like Aditya Bal's style of cooking where I see him char the aromatics regularly. This reduces cooking time and also gives a good consistency to the gravy.
Wanted to cook something quickly today and hence decided to try this recipe. The dish was amazingly tasty and ready in less than a hours time. 




Method
1. Take 250 gms of chicken, clean and keep aside. I used boneless chicken but you can use one with bones too. Marinate the chicken with 1 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp oil and salt and keep aside
2. Char the aromatics a la Aditya Bal - 2 medium sized onions cut into cubes, 5-6 garlic pods, 1 inch ginger, 2-3 green chillies and 1 bunch of chopped coriander leaves and stalks. Saute this well till the onions are slightly browned and the raw taste of the aromatics is gone. Keep aside
3. Now dry roast the 7-8  cloves, 2-3 cardamom pods, 7-8  black peppercorns, 1 tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds and 1 inch of cinnamon for 2 mins. 

4. Grind the dry roasted spices to a nice powder. Add the charred aromatics and again grind to a fine paste. Aditya Bal generally uses a mortar and pestle to grind the spices, but I used the mixer grinder to save on time. Add the paste to the marinated chicken. Add 3 tbsp curd to the chicken and mix well and keep aside. 

5. Take a pan and add 2 tsp oil. Add 2-3 green cardamoms and saute. Add a handful of raisins and saute again. Now add the marinated chicken and mix well. I added 1 cup of water but you can add water according to your preference. Adjust the salt.

6. Cover, simmer and cook for 20 mins.