Rain, Mohammed Irfan and Aloo Gosht

Right.  So the third and final India/Australia ODI got cancelled due to the weather.  The final score is a 2/2 tie between India and The Rain.  Poor Australia lost the series.  If the weather was favourable do you think India still would have won?  It looks like India did have the superior bowlers, but we really won't know because of the two cancelled ODI's.  Better luck next time, Aussies!

In other cricketing news, the pakistani giant bowler Mohammed Irfan ( this is not a metaphor, the man is over 7 feet tall) signed on with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.

Ho ho ho, Green Giant!

                                
 Now, he wasn't too impressive when he made his international debut with Pakistan against England recently (England made 15 runs off his first over), but maybe with some good coaching he'll be able to make good use of his height.  If he learns how to bowl like Shoaib Akhtar, that would really be something to see!  Terrifying!  Like Godzilla! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Now on to cooking.  We're going to make Aloo Gosht salan today.  "Aloo" means potato, and "gosht" means meat; therefore, we are preparing Meat and Potatoes.  It sounds plain, but it's actually a very exciting dish and we will be using many of the spices I told you to get in the last blog entry. (See Saeed Ajmal, Usman Salaudin and Necessary Spices if you haven't already).

Aloo Gosht
Ingredients
1 kg of beef, cut into 2.5 cm cubes
1 kg of marrow bones (not necessary but add a deeper flavour)
(or you can use 1.5 kgs of Osso Bucco instead of beef+bones)
2 or 3 big potatoes, each cut into 6 or 8.
1 onion, finely sliced
7 or 8 cloves of garlic, crushed or very finely chopped
4 cm piece of peeled ginger, crushed or very finely chopped
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
5 cloves
5 green cardamom pods
1 star anise
5 black peppercorns
1 or 2 teaspoons cuminseeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon more or less of red chili powder
1 big tomato or 2 roma tomatoes, finely chopped
chopped green chilies
chopped coriander
1 big handful kasoori methi (fenugreek leaves)
water
salt to taste
oil for cooking.

Fry the sliced onion in a big pan with some oil until it's golden, just like the photos in the Basic Vegetable Salan post.

While it's frying, add the cinammon stick, bay leaf,cloves, cardamom pods, black peppercorns, star anise and cuminseeds. 

When the onions have become slightly crispy, add the crushed garlic and ginger, turmeric and red chili powder.  DO NOT BURN THE GARLIC...turn down the heat if necessary!  Fry for a few seconds.

Add the tomatoes and salt, and follow the "bhunna" procedure which is described in the Basic Vegetable Salan post.  Cook, let the mix stick to the pan, add water to lift it, cook again, etc just like for Basic Vegetable salan. 

Once the oil separates from the tomato mix and it looks like a good, thick paste, add the meat and bones and fry it for a couple of minutes. 

Add a few cups of water and the kasoori methi (fenugreek leaves) and let it simmer for a while so that the meat will become nice and soft.  Let it simmer for at LEAST 30 minutes.  The longer you let it simmer, the softer the meat will be, and you'll get more delicious flavour from the bones.  I usually let it simmer for over an hour, sometimes 2!

Add the potatoes and chopped green chilies, and let everything simmer for another 20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.

When the potatoes are just about cooked, taste again and add some more salt if necessary.

This dish is usually served with basmati rice, but if you like, you can reduce the liquid until it's quite dry and eat it with roti bread or pita bread.

Enjoy the Aloo Gosht, and happy cricket!