Boiled chicken with mashed potatoes

This was another accidental creation. I was in the middle of boiling some potatoes when a power-cut made me abandon them for the time. Later in an attempt to use those half-cooked potatoes I bought some chicken and made up the following:

Ingredients:

Chicken: 1/2 kg (with bones) cut into large (~3"x3"x1") pieces.
Coriander leaves with stem: 50 g
Cumin seeds: 3/4 tsp
Salt: 3/4 tbsp or according to taste
Potatoes: 3 medium sized
Butter/ghee: 2 tbsp


Procedure:

1. Clean the coriander leaves and separate the leaves from the stem.
2. Peel and chop the potatoes into thin pieces (the thinner they are, the faster they get cooked)
3. Add 1 tbsp butter/ghee and 3/4 tbsp salt to the chicken and mix well.
4. Add 5 cups of water and cook in low heat with lid on for 1/2 an hour (until the chicken is cooked). I used the "soup" mode of my induction cooker. Add the coriander stems and 1/2 tsp cumin seeds halfway through the cooking.
5. Remove the chicken pieces and add the potatoes and keep boiling at low heat until soft. The stock should have almost dried up by now
6. Heat up 1 tbsp butter and add the rest of the cumin seeds. 
7. Add the boiled potatoes along with the stock and mash them up with a ladle. 
8. When it dries up, crush the coriander leaves and mix them with the potatoes (you may want to use a small fraction of the leaves to avoid too strong a smell). You can also add some chopped green chili.

PS: I expect you won't have half-cooked potatoes, so I guess you can cook them entirely in the stock.

Induction cooking: starting out

Recently I went on to make my personal cooking arrangements. I decided to buy an induction cook-top. The important points for me were:

1. portability, 
2. size (space requirement)
3. cleanliness, 
4. price
5. energy-price
6. versatility

After getting the cook-top I went on to buy an ordinary "kadai", a plate to cover it and a ladle (all of stainless steel) as my only utensils. On my first trial I made some "khichdi" with potatoes and eggs in it. Not too bad. But there were several technical issues:

1.  stainless steel works fine with induction although a magnet does not stick to it (which is a test everybody says you should do to check if a utensil is usable with induction).
2. Stir frying is difficult with a pot with thin bottom as it gets too hot too quickly. Also, the "kadai" base heated up unevenly. It did not conduct well enough, causing the bottom to expand more than the sides - making the base warp.
3. Boiling works better. But uneven heating and low conductance causes some parts to burn while others remain undercooked. You need to stir the contents to avoid that.
4. With induction heating and cooling are very rapid (especially with a thin vessel of low heat capacity). For those used to cooking with some "inertia" of heating it will take some experience to adjust the timings and temperatures. 

Afterwards I found some information on utensils. I particularly liked this one:
http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/02/16/heavy-metal-the-science-of-cast-iron-cooking/#more-3385

And there is a website on induction cooking from where I got the above link:

http://theinductionsite.com/induction-cookware.shtml

Murg malaikari (chicken curry with coconut milk)

This dish can be called "niraamish"[1] in a sense because it is cooked without onions or garlic.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken - 1 kg
2. Potatoes - 250 g 
3. Coconut milk - 1 cup
4. Ginger - 2" stick (made into paste)
5. Green chili - 4 (slit into two halves)
6. Dried red chili - 2
7. Bay leaves - 4
8. Cinnamon - 2" stick
9. Cardamom - 3-4
10. Cloves - 3-4
11. Pepper corn - 1/2 tsp
12. Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
13. Coriander powder - 2 tsp
14. Cumin powder -  2 tsp
15. Coriander/parsley leaves (chopped)
16. Sugar - 1/2 tsp
17. Oil - 1/2 cup
18. Salt - 2 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Clean the chicken and drain out any water. Add 2 tbsp oil, 1" of cinnamon stick (crushed), 1 tbsp salt,  1 tsp each of coriander powder, cumin powder and turmeric powder. Mix well and keep aside.
2. Peel and quarter the potatoes and add 1/2 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and marinate for 10 minutes.
3. Heat oil and fry the potatoes until they start getting a red tinge.
4. After taking the potatoes out, add half the bay leaves, the red chilies and the sugar.
5. Add the green chilies, 1/2 of the ginger paste and keep stirring.
6. As the chilies and the bay leaves get darker, add the chicken and mix.
7. Cook at medium heat and stir occasionally. The meat will release a lot of water. When the water starts to reduce, add two cups of water and let it cook with the lid on.
8. When the water starts boiling again, add the rest of the coriander, cumin and turmeric powder, put the lid again and cook until almost done (use your judgment here, checking the chicken occasionally).
9. Add the potatoes and cook with lid on until both the chicken and the potatoes are cooked. If you add the potatoes too early, they will get overcooked by the time the chicken is done. If you put them too late, the chicken will be overcooked by the time the potatoes are cooked. 
10. Now crush the pepper corns, rest of the cinnamon stick, the cardamoms and the cloves and add. Crush the rest of the bay leaves in your hand and add. Squeeze out the juice from the rest of the ginger paste into the chicken. Add the coconut milk. Mix well and let it cook for another couple of minutes.
11. Sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves and the dish is ready.

Footnote