A typical North Indian food consists of Chappatis, parantha or pooris (unleavened flat breads), dals, curries, green vegetables like spinach and green mustard cooked with paneer, north Indian pickles, fresh tomato, mint, cilantro chutneys and yogurt raitas. Some of the popular North Indian dishes are Butter Chicken, Chana Masala, Kashmiri Dum Aloo, Shahi Paneer and Gajar-ka-Halwa. The recipes of some of these popular dishes are described below.

Butter Chicken

Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 1 Hour

Ingredients:
1 Tandoori Chicken - cut into 8 pieces
1 grated onion
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
3/4 cup tomato puree
1/2 tsp chilli powder
2-3 green chillies - finely chopped
100 gms butter
salt to taste
200 gms cream
a few green coriander leaves - finely chopped

Recipe:
Melt butter in frying pan. Add the grated onions and fry until golden brown. Then, add the ginger and garlic pastes and fry it for a minute. Later, add the tomato puree. Now, add the chopped green chillies, coriander leaves, salt and the chilli powder and fry it for 2-3 minutes. Then, turn heat to low and add the cream stirring constantly. Do not let it boil. Cook for a minute and turn off the heat. Now, arrange the tandoori chicken pieces in an ovenproof dish. Pour the sauce on it. Heat in a preheated oven at 180 degree Celsius for 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Ingredients:
1 cup Chick peas (kabuli chana)
1 Onion
1 Tomato
1 Green chilli
4-5 Garlic
Ginger an inch
2-3 Bay leaves
1 teaspoon Red chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric powder
1 teaspoon Coriander powder
1 teaspoon Garam Masala powder
1 teaspoon Tea
3 tablespoon Vegetable oil
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves for garnishing

Recipe:
Soak chick peas in water for overnight. On the next day, take a small piece of white cloth. Place some tea leaves in the centre, gather the cloth and seal its mouth so that tea leaves don't fall out. Keep this in the pressure cooker along with chick peas. Pressure cook until tender. Tea adds brown color to the chick peas. Cut onion, tomato and green chilli. Grind it in mixie along with ginger and garlic and make paste. Heat oil in a pan and fry bay leaves for 30 secs. Add the paste and fry on medium heat until golden brown. Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, garam masala and salt and mix well. Fry for 2-3 minutes. Add enough water to make thick gravy. Bring the gravy to boil. Add cooked chick peas (along with the water in which it was cooked, remove tea cloth). Stir well and cook over medium heat for 5-7 minutes. Garnish with chopped green coriander leaves and serve hot.

Kashmiri Dum Aloo

Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 30 Minutes

Ingredients
18-20 small-sized potatoes
Oil to deep fry
5-6 dried Kashmiri chillies
2 cups of yogurt
½ tspn of cardamom powder
1 tspn of dry ginger powder
2 tblspns of fennel powder
¼ cup of mustard oil
A generous pinch of clove powder
A pinch of asafoetida
Salt to taste
½ tspn of roasted cumin powder
½ tspn of garam masala powder

Recipe:
Peel and prick the potatoes all over with the help of a fork. Keep them in salted water for fifteen minutes. Heat oil in a kadai and fry the potatoes on medium flame till golden brown. Make a paste of dried kashmiri red chillies. Whisk the yogurt with Kashmiri red chilli paste, cardamom powder, dry ginger powder and fennel powder. Heat mustard oil in a pan. Add clove powder and asafoetida. Add half a cup of water and salt and bring to a boil. Stir in the yogurt mixture and bring it to a boil. Add fried potatoes and cook till the potatoes absorb the gravy and oil floats on top. Serve hot, garnished with freshly roasted cumin powder and garam masala powder.

Shahi Paneer

Ingredients:
200 gms. Paneer
2 Medium onions
Ginger an inch
3-4 pieces Garlic
2 Green chillies
1/2 teaspoon White pepper powder
1 teaspoon Red chilli powder
3/4 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
1 teaspoon Garam Masala Powder
3-4 tablespoon Cream
1/4 Cup Dry fruits (cashew nuts, raisins, makhane)
1/2 cup Milk
8-10 tablespoon Vegetable oil
Salt to taste

Recipe:
Heat oil in a pan/kadhai. Cut paneer into small cubes and fry them over medium heat until light brown. Turn pieces while frying. Now, keep the paneer pieces aside. Saute the dry fruits in a tablespoon of oil. Grind onion, ginger, garlic, green chilli in a blender and make a fine paste. Fry the mixture in the remaining oil until golden brown and oil starts separating. Add salt, red chilli powder, white pepper, turmeric powder, garam masala and cook it for 1-2 minutes. Add milk to make the gravy. Bring the gravy to boil. Reduce the heat and cook until the gravy becomes thick. Put a portion of the dry fruits in the gravy while it is being cooked. This adds flavour to the dish. Finally add paneer pieces and 1 tbsp cream. Heat for 5 minutes. Decorate with cream and dry fruits.

Gajar-ka-Halwa

Serves: 6
Preparation Time: 1 Hour

Ingredients
1.5 kilo Carrots
200 gram condensed milk
Two tablespoons ghee or saltless butter
Handful of grated cashewnuts, almonds and soaked raisins

Recipe:
Take red carrots and grate them after washing thoroughly. Now, put the entire grated carrots in a pressure cooker and steam for two minutes. Thereafter remove the lid of the pressure cooker. Keep the flame on so that the excess water is dried up. Keep turning the grated carrots now and then to save them from getting burnt at the bottom of the cooker. Now, pour 200 gms. of sweetened condensed milk and two tablespoons of ghee over the carrots in the cooker, that remains on the flame. The Gajar-ka-Halwa needs to be quasi-dry so one must continue with the cooking till the carrots, milk and ghee are sufficiently blended. Then turn off the flame. Sprinkle a handful of grated cashew nuts and almonds, as also soaked raisins, over the Halwa. Serve it hot or kept in the refrigerator to be reheated and served as a dessert.