Wendy Egloff, owner of Firefly Cupcakes has been remodeling the space into a sit-down cupcake shop and bakery, with in-house dining areas. The bakery currently makes seven standard flavors — vanilla bean, chocolate explosion, red velvet, the PBC, ‘Nilla birthday, chaulkit birthday and the PUNTcake — and nearly 10 other flavors based on the week.

Here’s a sampling of the rest of the flavors they have made on a rotating basis at their East Aurora location: Peanut Butter Bender, Trevoreo, Whoopie Cake, Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, Pucker Up!, Lucky 7, Apple Pie a la Noey, The Bugs B, Peppermint Case, EA Pride (Blue Velvet), Sea Salted Caramel, Dulce de Leche, Tres Leches, Churro, Margarita, Mojito, Strawberry Daquiri, Creamsicle, Root Beer Float, Pink Lemonade, Pumpkin Distraction, Key Lime Pie, I Do Love Lemon, Lemon Blueberry, Banana Bread, Lemon Poppyseed ,Cannoli, Gingerbread, Banana Cream Pie, Topless G, Mocha Mel, Blood Orange, Cookie Dough Extreme, Worms & Dirt, Tropical Pineapple, Golden Peach, Just Peachy, Vazberry, Chocolate Covered Strawberry, Cherry Chrissy, Campy Cake, Zulanque (Chocolate Champagne), Prosecco, Grande Poire Salut, Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup, PB & J, Ebony & Ivory, Coasted Toconut, Orange Cranberry, The Doug Eggnog, The Fremmy, The Sophia, Vanilla Peanut Butter Chip, Pink Lemonade, Chocolate Bacon, Black Forest, Blue Moon, Loco Lime and Chocolate Covered Coconut.

Breakfast cupcakes include: Maple Bacon Pancake, Blueberry Pancake, Banana Lime Coconut, Baked Caramel Apple, French Toast and Cinnalicious.

Cupcakes are $28 per dozen at the East Aurora location. The bakery offers vegan, gluten free and vegan gluten free cupcakes as well. They do not bake with tree nuts, but they use peanut butter in their peanut butter cupcakes. In addition, Firefly serves Stumptown Roasters Coffee and Organic Zhi Teas.

When I first dined at Firefly in East Aurora, I enjoyed a chocolate cupcake with toasted coconut and another with peanut butter. Both were yummy, but it has been almost a year since I was last there, so I look forward to trying more of their cupcakes. I’m most excited to try the churro and prosecco flavors, and the breakfast cupcakes are rather intriguing too! I expect that Firefly will carry its playful names and flavors and fun atmosphere over to Elmwood.

Happily, Zilly Rosen, proprietor of the former Zillycakes and cake artist extraordinaire, will be a cake artist in residence at Firefly. While I was terribly sad to see Zillycakes close, it is wonderful to know she will still be sharing her amazing talent this way.

Click here to read the complete farewell to Zillycakes on Buffalo Spree’s website.

I’m thrilled to welcome Firefly Cupcakes to the city! Best wishes to Wendy and the Firefly team!

Originally published in the February issue of Forever Young

In the winter months, with Western New York’s seasonal produce waning and the farmers’ markets closed, it’s an ideal time to explore our ethnic grocery stores. So become inspired to try new foods, learn about other cultures and inadvertently get to know Buffalo’s diverse food landscape.

So how does one do this? Simply select a jaunt or two and dive in with abandon. In each store, allow yourself to linger, pick up items, read labels and ask questions.

The food we cultivate, seek, cook, eat and love can tell us a great deal. You may learn a little lesson on what’s valued by the culture whose food you’re examining, and you’ll likely find a few familiar tastes or reminiscent names along the way.

Best of all, you can be bold with little risk. Let your instincts pick your parting items.

“There is nothing insular about the food scene here — immigrant or established,” says Erin St. John Kelly, director of development and communications at International Institute of Buffalo. “It’s earnest, it’s authentic, it’s accessible, it’s inclusive and inviting … Food is a warm way into another culture.”

The International Institute of Buffalo recently put together a “Map For Adventurous Eaters,” a resource for diners and cooks in search of Buffalo’s international restaurants and provisions. The guide includes a plethora of restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, and markets.

“The map is to make it easy to venture somewhere new,” said Kelly. “It’s possible to travel to exotic places without ever leaving the city limits. Ethnic food is found in concentrations around UB’s two campuses, on the West Side, and down Hertel Avenue.

“It’s not overwhelming and seemingly impenetrable like the Chinatowns (there are three!), Koreatowns (there are two!) in New York or San Francisco or the locavore Brooklyn proud crowd. And it’s not expensive.”

Here are four options worth visiting.

Spice of India

Located at 438 Evans Street in Williamsville, Spice of India carries an array of affordable products in addition to what its name indicates it may be best known for — an impressive selection of fragrant spices.

The spice section boasts green cardamom, fennel seeds, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, mustard seeds, cinnamon sticks, black peppercorns, poppy seeds, and both ground garam masala and everything you need to make it yourself in a single bag. The next aisle offers teas from Masala to ginger, dal (split pigeon peas), and dried beans, ric, and flours in bags of all sizes.

Breads include roti, pita, and paratha. The store carries a small amount of produce, as well as jarred sauces and boxed mixes to make dishes such as curry without necessarily having all the spices on hand.

In addition, there is a small pastry case with house made goodies, including desserts and samosas.

Best Asian Market

Located at 1010 Niagara Falls Boulevard in Tonawanda, offers a great variety of Asian groceries with a focus on Korean products. There is an impressive choice of rice (white rice, brown rice, sweet rice, sweet brown rice, sushi rice, and more), many dried beans, including some rarely seen elsewhere in WNY (Mung beans), and many types of noodles.

Reasonably priced dried mushrooms, dried and jarred chili peppers, and several types of seaweed fill the shelves, and even more ingredients for making dinner lie in the frozen and refrigerated sections.

Perhaps most impressively are the competitively priced sauces, including soy sauce and chili garlic sauce; oils, ranging from American kitchen staples, such as vegetable to the Korean favorite, sesame; and vinegars, including many rice vinegars. They also have packaged cookies and candies.

Guercio’s

Located at 250 Grant Street in Buffalo, specializes in Italian goods, including shelves of imported oils, cheeses, meats and packaged products, such as cans of tomatoes and jars of pesto.

Over the years, Guercio’s expanded its wholesale business and began supplying to restaurants, but it remains a grocery store for neighbors near and far. The store has an impressive offering of packed bulk items, including less common finds, such as unsweetened dried coconut and roasted and salted fava beans.

Pasta brands range from Barilla to Garofalo. In addition, Gondola pasta is plentiful — squid ink, carrot, spinach and tomato noodles to name a few. It also has a produce section, deli counter, and cheese section.

Pete’s Lebanese Bakery

Located at 2468 Elmwood Avenue in Kenmore, always has freshly baked pita on the counter, and the small shelves are stocked with authentic goods that are hard to find, including pomegranate syrup and rose water.

There’s also hummus, plus ingredients such as tahini, garbanzo beans, and everything else you need to make your own hummus. There are also dried beans and spices, with some spice blends for making dishes like falafel.

The refrigerated cases include delicious house made goodies: lebaneh, a yogurt cheese; freshly prepared tabbouleh, a bulgur and herb salad; as well as sweets — baklava, pistachio cookies and more. The bakery serves up friendly service to boot.

Originally published in the January 2013 issue of Forever Young

This month sees the debut of a new monthly column in Forever Young: Buffalo by Mouth. Yep, it’s all about food, but with the kind of perspective that can only come from someone with a true passion for local cuisine. Our two columnists, Rachel Fix Dominguez and Nina Barone, are perfectly suited to the task. Rachel has written several unique articles over the years for Forever Young, and is a frequent contributor to Buffalo Spree. Nina also contributes to Spree, and blogs at buffalofoodie.com. This month, Rachel and Nina introduce themselves, and talk a bit about what food means to them.

—Christopher Schobert

Sharing Food Experiences, People and Places

—Rachel Fix Dominguez

I am thrilled to be writing about food for Forever Young. I’m even happier that I’m going to be sharing this space with Nina Barone, a wonderful cook, writer and all-around great person. For this, our inaugural column, Nina and I are going to introduce ourselves to you and tell you a bit about what motivates us when it comes to food and Western New York.

I was born and raised in the city of Buffalo, in that perfect amalgam of immigrant families: Polish on my mom’s side, Irish and German on my dad’s. My mom’s culinary influence was, perhaps unsurprisingly, stronger than my dad’s when we were growing up. So I have been a regular eater and creator of Polish-American food since I was young.

I moved away from Buffalo for college. I attended Oberlin College, located in northeast Ohio.

While in college, I never ate in a dining hall. Oberlin has a student cooperative association that runs both kitchens and housing. I learned a great deal about sourcing and eating local foods during my three years in Oberlin co-ops.

I also learned a lot about cooking in mass quantity, and ate a fair amount of other people’s failed experiments (inexperienced cooks making vegan pizza for 200 can be a literal recipe for disaster).

But these years, while not always delicious, taught me a lot about being fearless with food. It’s a lesson that has served me well.

My college days also included a semester in India, living in a Buddhist monastery and travelling throughout northern India. I gained an appreciation for spice, heat and complicated flavor profiles while traveling.

I had my first sip of butter tea in the foothills of the Himalayas, and shared more than a few groceries with a cheeky monkey who ran up and ripped a shopping bag out of my hand.

After college, I joined the Peace Corps and found myself in Mongolia, where I lived in a small mining town teaching English for two years. Mongolia, with its history of nomadism and its harsh climate, is not renowned for its cuisine. I ate a lot of mutton, potatoes, and dumplings (filled with mutton, mostly) for those two years.

My time in Mongolia was formative in many ways, particularly in terms of how I view and understand food. I lived in Mongolia in the mid-1990s, when the country was in transition from socialism to democracy.

Access to different types of food was limited then, even in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. It’s a different story there now, many years after the transition. But I left Mongolia in 1996 with a strong appreciation for how much dietary choice I have.

(I also left having met my now-husband, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer from the Bay Area, but that’s a story for a different column!)

During that time and the years that followed, I also had the good fortune to travel extensively around the world, thereby gaining the opportunity to try lots and lots of different cuisines, so there are many missing years, countries, flavors, and cuisines that I’m leaving out now but that I hope will come up in future columns.

Fast forward to 2012, when I’m a wife, mother, Ph.D student (in comparative education at the University at Buffalo) and freelance writer living back in my hometown.

I am delighted by the growth and change that’s occurred, food-wise, in Western New York. I have always known that this place is special. I have never been someone to denigrate who I am or where I come from.

Our ethnic foodways — both the ones that have been around for a while and the newer ones — combined with our heart and spirit as a region, make this a really unique and special place to live and eat.

And I’m delighted that I’ll be able to share some of those special experiences, people and places with you in this column.

A Passion for Food and Tradition

—Nina Barone

Although money was sometimes tight when I was a kid, there was never a short supply of fabulous food and homemade meals in the Cimino household. Quality was a priority, and my parents were creative about ensuring we had a steady stream of delicious and nourishing food.

We ate seasonally. Our plates transformed to reflect nature’s bounty. In the spring and summer, we cut hot chili peppers to top pasta; breaded and fried zucchini and eggplant as the backyard garden churned out monstrous looking specimens; and ended meals with tomato salad.

My parents went grocery shopping in small doses, nearly every day, or my father stopped at Gino’s or Premier Gourmet in Kenmore to scrutinize the deli counter if he hadn’t shopped in Ontario, Canada, to stock up on delicacies unavailable at the grocery store.

I loved tagging along on those trips. Sundays meant a pot of sauce bubbling on the stove for hours, followed by family and friends coming over for an early dinner.

For much of my childhood, eating at restaurants was for special occasions. Despite being busy with the activities of overachieving teenagers, the majority of our nights ended with the five of us (and often a friend or two) eating a dinner prepared by my mother after she got home from work.

As I grew older, I appreciated how incredible it was that my mom cooked every day. I also realized my dad didn’t trust the food served in restaurants. It wasn’t that my father was a snob because he had access to plenty growing up. It was the exact opposite.

He didn’t have restaurants or big box grocery stores in his small village in rural Italy. But he had everything he ever wanted, because fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients meant he never questioned how a product was made or raised.

My brothers and I grew to intimately understand and adopt this thinking in our lifestyles.

Holidays were built around iconic dishes, and I’m pleased to continue the traditions today. Thanksgiving’s first course was grandma’s homemade ravioli, sauce, and meatballs before beginning a turkey-centered meal. I now make the coveted ravioli when I host.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, struffoli, laden with honey and nonpareils, waited for me in grandma’s crystal serving dish. Signal cookie-baking time, which has grown to epic proportions today.

Our assortment features hundreds of Italian cookies: pizzelle, cucidati (fig), giuggiulena (sesame seed), chocolate clove, almond, ricotta cheese, biscotti.

On Christmas, a spread boasts customary antipasto, arancini (stuffed risotto balls), panettone (a sweet bread studded with dried fruit) and torrone (nougat).

By high school, I knew my way around the kitchen well, particularly when baking, and I set out to become more comfortable cooking. I took copious mental notes when we dined in restaurants for our newly minted Friday meal out, and went grocery shopping for ingredients that weren’t in my mother’s repertoire.

Increasingly, I sought the unusual and seemingly exotic. I suddenly wanted to know all about French, Thai and Indian cuisine. Unfamiliar spices fascinated me. Cookbooks expanded my bookworm status to new heights, and the Internet opened limitless possibilities for searching recipes.

This continued through college, when I met my husband and had the added fun of cooking for him and exploring the area’s wonderful restaurants together.

Following college, my husband and I have had opportunities to move to other cities, including many we love to visit, but we’re content continuing to see the world through travel so we can call Buffalo home.

Saving our pennies to venture the globe is a priority for us, and we’ve fortunately explored beautiful markets and dined at renowned restaurants worldwide.

I’m thrilled to be a part of the exciting food scene in WNY, which I believe will play a crucial role in its renaissance. And I’m delighted to share this column with the talented and insightful Rachel Fix Dominguez.

I’m thankful to know her, as we enjoy a love of food that makes us part of a special community comprised of the area’s foodies and food champions. As writers, we share the story of awesome chefs, farmers, entrepreneurs and others who aim to bring quality food to WNY.

As I embark on this column, I remain extremely grateful for my father’s fanatical fascination with food and my mother’s talent to turn his requests into reality. Their passions for food and tradition made me who I am today.

On Monday, April 15, specialty food market Orchard Fresh will celebrate the grand opening of its first location in Western New York, located at 4050 North Buffalo Road in Orchard Park, N.Y. At 18,000 square feet, Orchard Fresh boasts a unique combination of upscale and gourmet foods with a focus on natural and organic, a strong emphasis on the health-conscious consumer, and food items sourced locally and globally. They offer a plethora of gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options, not only in the packaged food or produce sections, but in their carry-out offerings as well. Western New York-based Tops Friendly Markets has created and is supporting this store.

On Saturday, April 13, my husband and I attended the preview event for Orchard Fresh. We were welcomed by many of the store’s employees, including a produce manager, Allison, who showed us around each department. As with any new store opening, there was definitely a buzz of excitement and anticipation in the air, but Allison’s descriptive tidbits regarding product offerings really enhanced my experience. It’s always enjoyable to understand more about why certain decisions are made regarding carrying organic produce and sourcing local.

In the produce section, variety is evident: from dozens of kinds of potatoes in a tidy presentation to three different kinds of eggplant to less common fruit, such as dragon fruit, the shelves were brimming. I asked about the ability to carry local produce, and there are plans in place to receive heirloom tomatoes and summer squash from local farms, corn from Eden in fall, and more. The produce department has fresh juices and fresh cut fruit daily. Allison told me, they strive for “as fresh market as possible.”

When searching for cupcakes to make for my friend Marianne’s engagement party, I called upon a memory of one of my favorite cupcakes from Zilly Rosen, from the now-closed, Zillycakes. I naturally gravitated to the delicious almond cupcake the first time I saw it because I love all things almond. Almond croissants. Bostock. Italian almond cookies. Marzipan.

After much research, I grabbed a few recipes I wanted to test and got to work, with a clear front-runner emerging–a recipe from Martha Stewart using orange and marmalade, which featured buttermilk. I am bias toward dessert recipes featuring buttermilk because I think it’s magic. It transforms ordinary ingredients to extraordinary desserts. The result for the party was heavily adapted from Martha’s recipe, with raspberries and jam in place of the orange and marmalade. Since this is a denser cake, I sensed my fluffy mascarpone frosting would be a decadent accompaniment, and indeed, everyone remarked on the frosting’s wonderful consistency. Best of all, the bride and groom-to-be loved them. Here’s the recipe for these scrumptious cupcakes:

One of my top pantry staples is canned tomatoes. Whatever the time of year, however bare my stock may get, I keep canned tomatoes around. From making traditional Italian tomato sauce to chili, I go through a fair amount of canned tomatoes in a year. Growing up, RedPack was one of the brands my mom used regularly to make tomato sauce. RedPack Tomatoes has been around since the 1940s.

RedPack has a website with plenty of ideas for how to use their canned tomatoes. Click here to search the recipes on their site.

In partnership with RedPack, we’re giving away a prize pack of RedPack Tomato products! Leave a comment here about your favorite way to use canned tomatoes and you’ll be entered to win. You must leave your name and email in order to be contacted following the drawing. Winners will be drawn via a randomizer. Contest entry ends on Tuesday, April 9, at 10:00 p.m.

Good luck!

Originally published in Buffalo Spree magazine, September 2012

We know it’s a commitment to pack healthy and fun school lunches, but aren’t the kids worth it? It may be easier than you think to feed them the same fresh and nutritious foods they like to eat at home. One key lies in the box itself. As important as the contents, it provides a basis for what food you can send your child to school with. Opt for a model that keeps food separate and cold, and select one that’s washable (many are dishwasher safe too) so you need not rely on prepackaged foods or purchasing sandwich bags every week. Many new lunchboxes offer hip options to keep fresh food crisp, cold, and safe.

Consider:

• Goodbyn: Made from recyclable food-safe plastics, the Goodbyn is easy-to-open and features built-in handles. Its container system fits everything from sandwich halves to vegetables, and it’s ideal for dips, sauces, and small snacks, such as nuts or dried fruit. Each comes with an eight-ounce drink bottle and stickers so kids can decorate their lunchboxes.
• Laptop Lunches®: This American-style bento box has an outer container that acts as a lid for unlidded containers, with each set including two unlidded containers and three lidded water-tight containers. Stainless utensils are included, as well as a book with healthy lunch ideas, tips, and recipes.
• PlanetBox: A stainless steel container with five compartments, the PlanetBox is divided into spaces suggested for a main course, fruit, vegetables, and snack. Separate “dipper” containers come in two sizes and feature a silicone rubber seal to prevent leaking. Various magnet sets come with them so kids can personalize.

The next step is to provide tasty and nourishing contents that are just as attractive as the lunchboxes. A poor lunch can cause a child to have trouble paying attention in school or come home cranky or lethargic. Although it takes valuable time to prepare packed lunches, there are some ways to ease the time commitment and stay organized, such as keeping a designated spot on your refrigerator shelf for lunch necessities, getting a head start on Sundays, and packing lunches for two days at a time. Lastly, get your kids involved—they are more likely to eat it if they help pack it.

Consider:

Make your own

• Lettuce wraps with vegetables, chicken, and dressing packed individually. Toasted, cooled organic whole grain waffles for topping with nut butter, yogurt, and fresh fruit

New twist on a classic

• Peanut butter banana whole-wheat tortilla wraps; apple and cheddar slices
• Turkey sandwich with cranberry mayonnaise on whole grain bread; organic tortilla chips and salsa

Dip it

• Mozzarella and tomato salad; fresh pea pods and broccoli with yogurt ranch dip
• Pita triangles with hummus; fresh cucumbers, carrots, and celery sticks with tzatziki

Dinner favorites

• Cold, sliced roasted chicken with cubed cheese and vegetables
• Brown rice or rice noodles with fresh pea pods and sliced bell peppers

This is an authentic Southern Indian recipe from my friend Smita Chutke’s grandma’s kitchen. As Smita told me, Southern Indians like their daal this way. “Most of them make it very thick,” said Smita. “We have a unique way of making this and it is called aamti in our native language (marathi, from Bombay). But in Bombay or West India, this same daal is cooked without tamarind and still called aamti. Tamarind recipes are more southern.” Get the recipe here:

Hyderabadi Daal with Tamarind

• ½ cup Toor daal (split pigeon pea lentils)
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1 pinch turmeric
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 1 teaspoon tamarind paste
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder
• 1 handful fresh cilantro leaves

For tempering:

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 sprig of curry leaves (optional)
• 1 pinch asafoetida (optional)

1. In a pot, add daal, ¼ teaspoon of oil, turmeric and water. If using a pressure cooker, cook the lentils for 4-5 whistles and then cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Lentils should be soft and should mash easily with the back of a spoon. (If it is cooked, but cannot mash easily, then cook it some more.) If using a pot, soak the lentils for an hour, and then cook. Add more water and let it cook for an hour on medium heat. Note: Add 1 cup of water per half cup of daal for a pressure cooker and much more if cooking in a pot.
2. When cooked, mash with a heavy spoon or a potato masher. It shouldn’t have a runny consistency at this point. Add red chili powder, a little salt and tamarind paste; mash again to mix.
3. In another pot, temper the oil on low flame with all the tempering ingredients. Then add the daal to this carefully, as it can splutter. Add more water and adjust the consistency to the soupy one. Add cilantro leaves and salt; let it boil for 5-6 minutes on medium heat. Serve over rice or use to dip bread.

Visit www.facebook.com/superlikebook for more of Smita’s recipes!

Special thanks to Smita for allowing me to share her wonderful family recipes, and thanks to Ana Jacobs for the photos!

I love eggplant and was recently introduced to a new way of cooking eggplant thanks to my friend, Smita. A neat technique is used with this stuffed eggplant–cutting the eggplant with an “X” so there are four slits to hold your creamy, spicy coconut filling. Here’s the recipe for Hyderabadi Baby Eggplant Curry:

Hyderabadi Baby Eggplant Curry
Bagara Baingan

Serves 4-5

• 6-7 baby eggplants
• 1 cup dry unsweetened coconut powder
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon tamarind paste
• 1/2 tablespoon ginger garlic paste or (1 clove grated garlic + little piece ginger grated)
• 1 small red chili (adjust to desired heat)
• 1 pinch turmeric powder
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• Oil
• Salt
• Water

1. Dry roast coconut until lightly brown; add sesame seeds. Roast in the same pan and turn off heat. Add ginger garlic paste, red chili, turmeric, a little salt, tamarind and grind to a paste by adding a little water. Set aside.
2. Using a pressure cooker, heavy bottom skillet or oven safe pan, add a few tablespoons of oil and fry eggplants until softened, but not cooked. Remove them from pot and set aside.
3. Slit the whole eggplant, creating an “X” with four knife marks, but do not cut through to the bottom. (See images below for a visual.) The wide slits will absorb the gravy.
4. Add oil to the pot and saute onions over medium heat until golden brown.
5. Turn the heat to low, add the ground gravy  paste and stir in with onions by adding a little water (less than 1/2 cup). Shield and stir as it will splatter. When the oil oozes, add water and cover to let the spices cook in oil. Add the fried eggplant and cover to cook until all the gravy and spices are absorbed in eggplant and tender.

Helpful hints from Superlikebook:

• This gravy can be used to also make stuffed tomatoes, stuffed peppers and stuffed chilies.
• A similar dish made using chilies is a side to Biryaani in Hyderabad and is called mirchi ka salan (green chili gravy). Biryaani is rice cooked slowly over meat or vegetables on coals.

Visit www.facebook.com/superlikebook for more of Smita’s recipes, and check back here again later this week for more!

Special thanks to Ana Jacobs and Smita Chutke for the photos!

This week, I’m pleased to bring you a very special treat–a series of Indian recipes from my talented friend, Smita Chutke, who happens to be an incredible cook and a beautiful person. Eating her food is always enjoyable, but making it with her is especially exciting. She’s a wonderful teacher and fortunately very willing to share her amazing recipes. Each of these recipes are from her hometown, Hyderabad, and not something you’ll find in restaurants anywhere–just actual kitchens.

Here’s the first recipe, Hyderabadi Chicken, which features chili peppers, coconut, and an irresistible blend of herbs and spices:

Hyderabadi Chicken

For chicken marinade

• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
•  1 tablespoon olive or canola oil
•  a pinch of turmeric
• 1 tablespoon of yogurt
• a pinch of salt

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 pound chicken, cleaned and chopped to bite size pieces (use breast and/or thigh)
• 1 tablespoons of fresh ginger garlic paste (made by blending ginger and garlic, or grate 2 cloves of garlic and a small piece of ginger)
• 3/4 tablespoons garam masala
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 tablespoon hot chili powder (for less heat, try 2 teaspoons)
• 1/4 cup chopped mint (about one handful)
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 3 green small chilies (if you like it hot)
• 1/2 cup dry unsweetened coconut powder
• Olive oil or canola oil (generous)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 3/4 cup water

1. Marinate the chicken for a few hours or overnight with 1/2 teaspoon garam masala, 1 tablespoon olive or canola oil, a pinch of turmeric, 1 tablespoon of yogurt and a pinch of salt.
2. Dry roast the coconut powder over a low flame until it is very light brown. Grind it in a spice grinder until it becomes oily and turns brown. (It should resemble peanut butter.) Set aside.
3. In a pressure cooker, oven safe skillet or heavy bottom pot, add a generous amount of oil — we’re talking a couple cups, not tablespoons — to saute the onions. Once golden brown, add the chicken pieces with a sprinkle of salt and the ginger garlic paste.
4. Over a medium low flame, cook for 5-6 minutes; add garam masala, turmeric powder, red chile powder, mint, cilantro and green chilies; mix until it is coated well. Add the coconut paste and mix well. With the heat on medium low, keep stirring until oil oozes from sides. Add water and salt once oil separates from side.
5. Cook covered for 25-45 minutes (depending on what you’re cooking it in, with a pressure cooker being the lower timeframe) or until chicken is soft and tender. Using a pressure cooker keeps the chicken moist and makes it very tender in much less time over a medium flame, about 5-10 minutes. You may also use a Dutch oven. The perfect cooked gravy should have red colored oil floating on top. Serve with Indian breads, rotis or rice.

Helpful cooking notes from superlikebook:

• You can use this recipe for any type of meat, but cooking time differs.
• This is a very authentic chicken recipe only found in home kitchens.
• There is no tomato used in this recipe, but gravy is made using various other things such as poppy seeds or just grinding the onions instead of coconut powder.

Visit www.facebook.com/superlikebook for more of Smita’s recipes, and check back here later this week for more!

Special thanks to Ana Jacobs and Smita Chutke for the photos!