Fatima's Fabulous Kitchen

I don't eat to live. I live to eat.

Main Dishes

Afghani Mantu

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Mantu is my favorite thing to order at my local Afghan restaurant. Not only are these dumplings incredibly delicious, but they’re also quite the show-stopper making them perfect for a dinner party.

The mantu contain a ground-meat filling cooked in spices and copious amounts of diced onions. They are then steamed and layered with two different sauces – a yogurt and mint sauce and a tomato-lentil one.

Afghani Mantu are indeed a labor of love but you can certainly take a short-cut like I did with wonton wrappers.

Also vegetarians just know I made this once with impossible plant-based meat and it turned out amazing. Go ahead and try it!

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Afghani Mantu

Ingredients

  • 1 pack of wonton wrappers or homemade mantu dough

Mantu Filling

  • 3/4 lb ground meat (beef, lamb, or plant-based)
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 2 tsp coriander
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric
  • 1/4 tsp cardamom
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg
  • 2 cups diced onion
  • 3 garlic cloves (minced)
  • salt (to taste)
  • 2 Tbsp cilantro
  • 2 Tbsp oil

Yogurt Mint Sauce

  • 1 cup yogurt
  • 1 Tbsp dried mint (or to taste)
  • 1 garlic clove (finely minced)
  • salt (to taste)

Tomato-Lentil Sauce

  • 1/4 cup diced onion
  • 2 tsp tomato paste
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 1/8 tsp turmeric
  • 1/4 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp cumin
  • 1 garlic clove (minced)
  • 2 tsp channa daal (yellow split-peas soaked overnight)
  • salt (to taste)

Instructions

Filling

  1. In a pan, heat up some oil. Add in your ground meat.

  2. Once the ground meat turns brown, add in your salt and diced onions. Allow the onions to soften and cook down.

  3. Now add your spices. Cook for a few minutes. Taste and adjust for seasonings. Toss in the cilantro. Set aside and allow to cool.

  4. Once cooled, it's time to fill the wrappers. Take about a teaspoonful per wrapper. Fold the edges using water.

  5. Steam the mantu in a metal or bamboo steamer until the wrapper becomes translucent and almost clear.

Yogurt Sauce

  1. Combine the yogurt, mint, and minced garlic. Add salt and taste and adjust for seasonings.

Tomato-Lentil Sauce

  1. Add a tablespoon or so of oil into a pan. On medium-high heat, sautee the diced onion.

  2. Add your salt. Once the onions turn transluscent, add the tomato paste. Allow it to cook down and caramelize.

  3. Now add your spices and chopped tomatoes. Add water and bring to a simmer.

  4. For the channa daal (also known as yellow split-peas), make sure to wash and soak it in water overnight. You can add it to the tomato sauce or boil it separately. (Note – the daal can take longer to cook in the tomato sauce, so I would recommend quickly boiling it in a small pot separately and then adding it to the tomato sauce).

  5. Taste and adjust for seasonings.

Assembly

  1. In a serving dish, add a layer of the yogurt sauce, then the mantu, then top with more yogurt sauce and the tomato-lentil sauce. Finally top with a little bit of olive oil and more dried mint. Your mantu is ready to serve.

Butter Chicken Pasta

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This recipe is a combination of what TikTok seems to love the most – Butter Chicken and Gigi Hadid’s Penne Pasta without the Vodka.

A couple things I do differently here than my standard Butter Chicken Recipe –

  1. I add a good helping of tomato paste. Tomato paste enhances the flavor and it’s what Gigi Hadid uses in her viral pasta.
  2. Cashews are optional. While I love the nutty flavor in butter chicken, for this pasta I think you can omit them and save yourself the trouble of pulling out the immersion blender.
  3. Pasta water. This thickens the sauce nicely.
  4. Cheese! This is self-explanatory.
  5. I went a bit lighter on the amount of spices. You can certainly double up on the spices measurements if you’d like. But since I’m putting this in pasta with cheese, I added less garam masala which made for a more sweeter sauce.

This Butter Chicken Pasta is nothing short of comfort food at its finest!

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Butter Chicken Pasta

A cross between Butter Chicken and Gigi Hadid's Penne Pasta.

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  • 1 lb pasta of your choice
  • 1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Chicken

  • 1 lb boneless chicken
  • 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp garam masala
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Pasta Sauce

  • 3 Tbsp butter
  • 2 small onions (diced)
  • 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
  • 3 Tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1.5 tsp cumin
  • 1.5 tsp coriander
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • salt (to taste)
  • two 8 oz cans of tomato sauce
  • 1/4 cup yogurt
  • 1 cup reserved pasta water
  • 1 cup half and half (may substitute with heavy cream)
  • 2 tsp kasuri methi

Instructions

Chicken

  1. Dice your boneless chicken into small cubes. Combine the chicken, ginger-garlic paste, chili powder, turmeric, and salt. Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours. If you do not have time, you can skip the marination and jump straight to sauteeing.

  2. In a large pan, add a tablespoon or two of oil. Sear the chicken on each side until brown. Remove from pan. In the meantime, bring a pot of salted water to boil for your pasta.

Pasta Sauce

  1. In the same pan you pan-fried the chicken pieces you will make the pasta sauce. Begin by melting the butter.

  2. Add the diced onion and cook until transluscent. Then add the ginger-garlic paste and tomato paste.

  3. Allow the tomato paste to really cook down and caramelize. Now add your spices – paprika, cumin, coriander, garam masala, sugar, salt to taste. Cook for a minute.

  4. Now add your two cans of tomato sauce (8 oz each). Stir and bring to a simmer. (At this step you can begin to boil your pasta.)

  5. Once it's simmering on low heat, slowly stir in your yogurt. This will ensure your yogurt doesn't look messy and curdled in the sauce.

  6. Now toss your chicken that you cooked earlier into the sauce. Allow the chicken to simmer in the sauce.

  7. While the pasta boils, take some the pasta water and add it to the sauce. This will help thicken the sauce. Allow it to reduce down.

  8. Add in the half and half (may also use heavy cream).

  9. Toss in your pasta, grated cheese, extra butter (if you'd like), and kasuri methi. Combine. Taste and adjust for seasonings.

  10. Serve and enjoy!

Butter Shrimp Curry

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I know how much you all love Butter Chicken and Butter Paneer, so I’m sure you’ll also enjoy this Butter Shrimp recipe.

Butter Shrimp also known as Jinghe Makhani is a great weeknight shrimp curry (literally took me 30 minutes to make and that’s including washing the dishes) with a creamy and nutty gravy.

My version is pretty standard – for the gravy I sautee onions, ginger-garlic paste, spices, cashews, and tomatoes in butter which is all grinded into a fine consistency and turns creamy  and rich with the addition of heavy cream. Except instead of heavy cream I substitute half and half (it’s a little lighter on the calories) and add a good amount of crushed kasuri methi at the end.

Serve with some basmati rice or naan. Simple, straightforward, and delicious!

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Butter Shrimp Curry

Ingredients

  • 6 Tbsp butter (divided)
  • 1 lb shrimp (peeled and deveined)
  • 1 Tbsp ginger-garlic paste (divided)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 cups sliced onion
  • 1 Tbsp tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup cashews
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 3/4 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp garam masala
  • 1.5 tsp cumin powder
  • 1.5 tsp coriander powder
  • 1 tsp tandoori masala
  • 1/2 tsp fennel powder
  • 1 cup half and half or heavy cream
  • 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
  • 2 tsp kasuri methi
  • lemon juice (to taste)

Instructions

  1. Begin by melting two tablespoons of butter in a pan. Add your shrimp (peeled and deveined) and 1/2 tsp of the ginger-garlic paste. Cook until the shrimp is pink. This should only take about a minute or so.

  2. Remove the shrimp from the pan and in the same pan add the remaining butter.

  3. Sautee your sliced onions. Once they start turning brown, add in the remaining ginger-garlic paste and the tomato paste. Cook for a few minutes. The tomato paste should begin to break down and caramelize.

  4. Now add in your salt and spices. Cook for a minute or so.

  5. Now add in your cashews and allow them to turn lightly brown (if they are not already roasted). Add in your roughly chopped tomatoes. Stir and set aside.

  6. Now we're going to take the gravy we just made and blend it into a smooth paste. Use either a blender or chopper and add it to your machine once it has cooled down.

  7. Now take your smooth gravy and pour it back into the pan on low heat. Stir in your half and half and then the shrimp we cooked earlier.

  8. Lastly, stir in some crushed kasuri methi and a few squeezes of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Taste and adjust for seasonings.

  9. Serve with basmati rice or naan.