Green Chilli Chicken to Shahi Tukda: Explore these traditional dishes for delightful Eid feasting

Eid holds a special significance as it denotes the conclusion of Ramadan, a month-long period of fasting and spiritual devotion. It is a time of celebration and delicious feasting, and what better way to add to the festivities than with a delightful array of traditional dishes? 

If you are looking to invite people over for a feast, we have got you covered with these easy-to-make recipes of kheer, shahi tukda, and green chilli chicken by 'The Tastes of India' and 'Simple Recipes with Sanjeev Kapoor' on Audible. Check out these recipes and savour them with your loved ones during the festivities.

Kheer 

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup of basmati rice or gobindobhog rice. One of these can be used for this kheer because gobindobhog rice tastes well when you make kheer
• ½ cup of sugar
• ½ litre of full cream milk. Keep extra 1-2 cups so that you can adjust the consistency if required
• 100 grams of cashew nuts
• 100 grams of raisins
• 1 tsp of ghee
• 1 tsp of cardamom powder

Method: 

1. First, wash the rice till the water comes out clean and then soak it and drain all the water. Then, rub the rice with your fingers and break it properly
2. Boil milk in a cooker and once it starts boiling, reduce the heat to very low and add the broken rice to the milk
3. Then stir it well. Close the lid reduce the heat to the lowest and cook for half an hour
4. Turn off the heat and let the pressure release fully on its own before opening the lid. This is very important as the more time you keep it untouched, the more it tastes good and the colour changes from white to a slight pink
5. Open the lid, add sugar and mix it well
6. Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes on low heat. Switch off the flame and set it aside
7. Finally, you can heat the ghee and when it simmers, add raisins and cashews. Fry the cashew nuts in the ghee until lightly golden and after the raisins are plugged. If you want, you can break the cashew nuts as well 
8. Then add the cashews raisins and cardamom powder to the kheer and mix it well
9. Cool it to room temperature. The kheer will turn thicker as it cools so you can add the reserved milk that we kept as needed to adjust the consistency
10. Then you can eat it hot or if you want to serve it cold, you can do that as well. 

Shahi Tukda

Ingredients:

• 2 litre of whole full-fat milk
• 4-5 tbsp of sugar or as required 
• 1 tsp of cardamom powder
• A pinch of saffron strands which we call Kesar
• 4 tbsp of almonds, blanched and sliced 
• 4 tbsp of pistachios, blanched and sliced. You will have to soak these almonds and pistachios in hot water, and after about 20 to 30 minutes, you can just peel them and slice or chop them
• 8 slices of bread
• Ghee to deep fry
• 20-25 almonds, blanched and sliced
• 20-25 pistachios, blanched and sliced
• Some rose petals
• For the sugar syrup, you will need
• 250 g of sugar
• 250 g water
• 2-3 pinch of cardamom powder 

Method:

1. Let’s begin with rabdi. Firstly, pour the milk into a heavy bottom pan and bring it to a boil over low to medium heat. 
2. Boil the milk, stirring in between until the milk starts to form a layer of cream or malai on top. When you notice that the cream is floating on top, then gently move the creamy layer with the back of a spatula and bring it towards the sides of the pan
3. Keep scraping this cream and put it back into the milk.
4. Keep the heat to a low flame and continue to simmer. As it simmers, keep collecting the creamy layer on the sides of the pan.
5. Scrap it and mix it back into the milk. The cream rises to the top as it simmers, so keep bringing it to the sides of the pan and sticking it there
6. This process of collecting the creamy layer must be repeated several times and make sure that you're stirring the milk gently in between so that the milk does not get burnt from the bottom Keep in mind that if you do too much stirring, then you won’t get the layers of the cream in the rabdi, so you need to keep gently stirring it in between
7. Once the milk is reduced to half, add the saffron strands and the cardamom powder and stir gently
8. After adding saffron, the colour will change gradually to a beautiful yellow colour. Then keep collecting the cream and bring it to the sides of the pan and when the milk gets reduced to ⅓ of its original quantity, add the sugar and mix it well
9. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes on low flame or until it is reduced to about one-fourth of the original quantity
10. Scrape off the entire creamy layer as well as dried milk solids, add to the thickened milk and stir gently
11. Switch off the flame and let it cool down. The entire process took us two hours, however, it could take maybe a little less or more depending upon your environment
12. To make the sugar syrup, in a pan add water along with sugar and keep stirring until the sugar dissolves. Then, let it boil on a high flame. Once it starts boiling, add the cardamom powder and mix it well. Boil for another 3 to 4 minutes and switch off the flame
13. Now to fry the bread, cut the bread sides and discard them and then cut the bread into a triangular shape or whatever shape that you want, and then you can set it aside
14. Now heat, ghee or oil in a pan and deep fry these bread pieces from both sides. One or two pieces at a time are what is recommended and deep fry until it is golden and crispy
15. Once done transfer the fried pieces of tissue paper to remove the excess oil. Fry all of the remaining pieces and set it aside. 
16. For assembling, dip the fried bread slices in the sugar syrup. Dip them properly with the help of a spoon, ensuring that the bread slices are coated evenly with the sugar syrup and then take it out on a plate. Also, ensure that you’re not keeping the bread in the sugar syrup for too long or else, the bread will absorb too much sugar syrup and become a little soggy. 
17. Now take a bowl and pour some rabdi into it. Arrange the sugar syrup-soaked bread slices neatly on the rabdi. Then pour rabdi on the sugar syrup-coated bread slices
18. Finally garnish it with sliced and blanched almonds, pistachios and rose petals and serve the rich Shahi Tukda!

Green Chilli Chicken

Ingredients:

• 16-18 cut pieces of medium-sized chicken with bone
• 40-50 green chillis
• Ginger 
• 10-15 pieces of garlic 
• 1 cup of coriander leaves
• 3 spoons of oil
• 1 spoon of jeera
• Salt as required
• ½ spoon of haldi powder

Method: 

1. Take the cut chicken pieces with bone in a big bowl
2. Create a paste of garlic, ginger, green chilli and coriander leaves. Add salt and mix it well
3. Use this paste for the chicken, marinate it well and keep it in the fridge
4. Add oil to a pan and heat it
5. Now, add jeera into the pan and once it simmers, add green chilli, salt and mix it well and close the lid for 3-4 minutes to let it cook well
6. Don’t forget to put on the exhaust fan, as the smell of the green chilli may fill the room and is strong
7. Then, add the marinated chicken to the pan, add haldi powder and mix it well. Let it cook on a high flame for about 5-10 minutes
8. Then, lower the flame and let it cook for 20-25 minutes. You will notice that the green chilli softens and this tasty green chilli chicken is now ready to serve!

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