I shifted from using my kadais to flat frying pans recently, the ones with raised edges.. those which look like saucepans with a growth impairment. The results, for some reason were amazing, an unbelievable improvement. Not sure about the science behind this as yet.. maybe an even distribution of heat?
I shifted to this after my recent Master Chef USA addiction. The contestants were using techniques with droolworthy names, pan-searing, braising, stir frying, pan fryinng(ok, am familiar with some of them). The common vessel seemed to be a flat bottomed pan and a lot of the more delicate meats seemed to be cooking pretty quickly on them too.
The other factor was not being able to find my microwave grill rack. I had this sudden desire to grill some chicken in a different marinade every day of the week, but my grill rack has disappeared. Pan-searing or tawa frying seemed likely to produce somewhat related results.
The first thing I did was winter stir-fried vegetables (separate post on that). They came out super-scrumptious. Then I shifted to the chicken. I got about 500 gms of de-boned chicken breasts (I prefer legs, but they didn't have deboned legs, and I thought boneless flat pieces would be easier to sear in a pan)- they look like flat strips. I cut them up smaller , divided them into sections and marinaded them as follows:
a) with soya sauce, honey, vinegar, salt and pepper- These were the first batch I tried searing in a pan. Searing basically involves keeping the chicken face down in a pan, and then once it browns turning it over and letting the other side cooked. Since these were the first batch I did, and I was REALLY sceptical about meat cooking in a really short time span, I kind of burnt this lot.. however the burnt part was easy to scrape off and the honey-soya sauce mix tasted good
b) Pesto and Yoghurt- Had a jar of rocket pesto which I mixed with some curd. These were the best of the lot. I had learnt my lesson the first time, that these were really small pieces and searing probably lessens the cooking time, so I turned them around and took them off the pan at what seemed like optimal times , and it worked. The chicken came out supple and tender which was a big surprise, because usually I find breast pieces stringy, tough and dry. I realised that this could be because: the breast pieces usually take less time to get cooked through, so while cooking a chicken with an assortment of parts, by the time the tougher pieces get cooked, the breast is already overcooked. Hav decided to work with specific pieces in future. In terms of the taste of the marinade also this was a clear winner.. tasted a bit like reshmi kababs with pesto. I was even able to manage a little glaze with lemon juice :)
c)Normal tandoori mix- curd, ginger, garlic, red chilly powder, salt, jeera, mustard oil,aamchoor.. I didn't burn these but definitely overcooked them. The marinade tasted ok.. could hvae done with sharper flavours. Guess will have to figure out the science behind this too.. are any of the flavours undercutting the others?
I used up the chicken making a normal kosha chicken with onion, tomatoes, ginger and garlic (shredding WHOLE spices) but more in the nature of a stir fry, where I prepared the masala first (frying onions, tomatoes, ginger and garlic)and then added the chicken and seared it.
So two more marinades still on the card, an orange/shredded ginger one, and a honey/mustard one
