3 recipes that use thick yogurt, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Cauliflower and dates salad, takes 25 minutes. It is most often cooked with boneless chicken thigh, garlic and lemon juice.
Run out of thick yogurt? Sour cream or buttermilk, same amount.
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Raw cauliflower florets marinated in a little oil and vinegar, then mixed with sweet dates, banana, crisp red apples and celery on crunchy salad leaves. It is served with a creamy orange and mustard yogurt dressing. The mix of sweet, crunchy and tangy makes it a refreshing side for a summer lunch.
Chicken 65 was born in Chennai's military hotels in the 1960s and is now on every Tamil bar-snack, biryani-shop and wedding-starter menu, eaten hot with onion rings and lemon. Boneless chicken is marinated in red chilli, ginger-garlic and lemon, fried crisp, then tossed in a tangy seasoning of yogurt, green chilli and curry leaves. The mistake is crowding the pan, which drops the oil temperature so the chicken steams and the coating turns soggy; fry in small batches. For a vegetarian gobi 65, use 500 g cauliflower florets blanched for 2 minutes and dried, in the same marinade. Chef's tip: let the marinated chicken rest at least 30 minutes, and add the flour only just before frying so the coat stays light.
In Riyadh, Dubai and Kuwait City, chicken shawarma is the late-evening street food, carved from a turning spit and wrapped in thin bread with toum garlic sauce, pickles and chips tucked inside, Gulf style. At home, thighs marinated in yogurt, lemon and warm spices are roasted at a high heat until charred at the edges, then sliced thinly. Chef's tip: give the chicken a final blast under a hot grill after slicing; it recreates the crisp edges of the spit.
Indian
