Hyderabadi Tamatay Ka Salaan

Today I'm sharing the classic Hyderabadi dish, Tamatay Ka Salaan, which is essentially a very simple tomato and beef/veal dish.  It's a dump all the ingredients in the pot and cook recipe.  I actually don't remember having this dish growing up.  The first time I heard of it was when my friend, Sara, told me how it was her favourite dish and she couldn't believe I had never eaten it.  I asked my mom about this dish and she told me that my dad didn't like it so she never made it.

Few years later on after getting married, my husband and I had the Korma at Bamiyan Kebob and loved it.  When my parents were over we had ordered it and my mom said it was basically Tamatay Ka Salaan.  She made it for us and we've been hooked ever since!

I used to make this dish in a pressure cooker, but I find if you cook it low and slow on the stove the flavours develop much better.  Since there are a lot of tomatoes, it takes some time to cook because even after the meat gets tender there is a lot of water left that you have to dry out.  We love to enjoy this with roti or naan, but there is a good amount of sauce so it would go well with rice as well.

Chicken 65

When my boys come home from school the first thing they do is wash their hands and then check what's for dinner.  They always have to take a taste.  My eldest, Hasan, will then declare if it is Hasan Approved!  This Chicken 65 got a Hasan Approved +!  They absolutely love this dish.  If there are any leftovers, my kids like to take it for lunch in a sandwich.  This recipe is from my mom.  There is one major difference from the way she makes it from how I do. She deep fries the chicken.  I prefer to shallow fry in a skillet.  Of course, the deep fried one is more tasty and the chicken gets a little crispy from the cornstarch.  I shallow fry in an effort to try to make it a little more healthy.

I don't know where the name Chicken 65 originates from.  There are lots of theories from it being first made in 1965 to it having 65 chillies.  There are different ways of making it as well.  Some use soy sauce and some are very dry.  We've also tried Chicken 65 in restaurants but my mom's version remains our favourite.

Karahi Chicken

Today I'm sharing a recipe for Karahi Chicken.  It is one of my husband's favourite dishes.  There are a lot of tomatoes and they have to be cooked down and reduced so this dish takes some time to make. I prefer to make it with boneless chicken.  In the picture, I have double the recipe so it took quite a long time. In this recipe, I initially cook the chicken separately.  I find adding raw chicken to the tomatoes releases a lot of water.  Then reducing it results in the chicken becoming very dry.  I've tried this with bone-in chicken, but prefer it with boneless.