Finding The Right Plate Of Food
Food has always been my answer to difficult questions.
Couldn’t solve that math problem? Let’s solve it with a snack. Need to make new friends? Offer them my lunch. Have to make up to my cousins for being rude to them? Make them a spicy treat. College is depressing? Take my friends across the city for amazing street food. Heartbreak? Fill that void with desserts. Lost my way and need to find a new path in life? Go on a journey with the one thing I’ll always be passionate about. Food.
Murg Mussalam. A whole roast chicken that has been my favorite thing to eat ever since I was a kid. My mom would only make it on special occasions. I would insist she make it more often. It was only after I made the recipe myself that I realised how difficult it is to prepare.
However, I haven’t found my footing in this journey yet. I have been fumbling around, wanting to find my own voice, my own style. I kept wondering whether my food journey should be about my discovery of exotic cuisines or my rediscovery of my roots.
I stayed away from the kitchen for a long time, trying to find answers. I was hoping these answers would tell me how to find my way back in life. That they would magically pull me out of depression and make things better. This time too, the answer was the same. It’s all about the joy of creating. Something that satisfies not just the stomach, but the soul too. The truth was simple. I had to stop hoping and just start doing things.
So, I made my way back to the kitchen armed with the happiest memories of my childhood. A table full of my favorite foods that mom would make on special occasions. In this blog, I’m going to be talking about making Murg Mussalam, a Mughlai dish that involves a whole roast chicken.
The roast chicken is accompanied by rice made with spices and nuts. The spread is made complete by bowls of traditional dessert that is eaten on the occasion of Eid.
The recipe begins with lots of sliced onions. If your chicken is about 1kg in weight, use 250 grams of onions. Take the sliced onions and fry them in oil until they have browned completely. Add 3 teaspoons of ginger and garlic paste. Next, add your spices. 1 teaspoon of cumin and coriander powder each. ½ teaspoon respectively of turmeric, red chilli and garam masala (a blend of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, peppercorns, and nutmeg).
This is going to be your stuffing and once you’ve added your spices, add your choice of chopped up nuts to the fragrant mix. My mom used to use dehydrated coconut, cashews, raisins and almonds. You can also add some mince and a boiled egg to the stuffing. Once the mixture is ready, put some aside and stuff the rest in and tie the legs together. Don’t forget to season the chicken before you put it in the pan. Traditionally, it is cooked slowly in a heavy pan but you can roast it in the oven if you wish. Put 1/4th a cup of butter or ghee in the pan before you add the bird. Turn the bird over a couple of times to make sure the skin has a nice sear on it. Sprinkle the remaining stuffing around the chicken and add a cup of water to your roasting pan. Put a lid on the pan, reduce the heat to medium and let it cook for half an hour. If you’re roasting it in the oven, surround the chicken with the remaining stuffing, add a cup of water and cover it up with foil. Then leave it in the oven for 30-45 mins at 200°C.
The dessert is a dish of fried noodles that are soaked in milk and topped with mixed nuts and sugar. It is a delicious concoction.
It might sound simple, but this recipe is a complete beast. After the chicken came out looking beautiful and all in one piece, I realised I love my mom so much more now for she had the patience to make this recipe for me. As I lay out this beautiful spread on the table, it did more than just remind me of my childhood. It made me proud of the person I have become today.
And all it took was the right plate of food.
