Spring Indian dinner

March 15 2009

How do you decide what make from a pile of Indian cookbooks and recipes?
My sources were from various sources and my own concoction.

1. Indian Street food with Leena Ezekiel
2. Vij's Indian cuisine, by Vikram Vij
3. The Food of India, by Whitecap
4. Feast Bazaar, by Berry Vera
5. My own crazy ideas

I always think people need things to munch on while I get my act together in the kitchen. Also helps when they starve themselves for a few days to eat a big meal and arrive ready to devour the place mats.

Spiced roasted Cashews (2)
Toss cashews with oil, amchur or mango powder for sweet and tangy, garam masala for some spice, and salt.

I know Indian food is not served in courses like a nice french meal but I can't resist making appetizers. Like Cartman says, "This is what you eat before you eat, so that you'll be more hungry." I think it really does work. Plus I get a few more minutes in the kitchen to compensate for my obsessive recipe making adventures like this dinner. I made two little apps and three chutneys to go with them. I had a third appetizer planned. Lamb curry filling for samosas but, it got turned into a curry when I ran out of time to be able to stuff and fry them.

Idlis (3)(5)
I started out making these little dumplings from a plain version from soaked Urad Dal. I wanted more flavor and forgot to allow an extra 8 hours for fermenting. The other recipe for Idlis was quick, full of spices, yogurt, and baking soda. Tossed in curry leaves, mustard seeds, fenugreek, ginger, yogurt and soda to the first recipe. They steam in these cute dumpling stacked molds. Once they were done I got a small piece that broke off when I was unmolding them. I hear they were good, proof was in the disappearance.

Aloo Ki Tikki (3)
These were the equivalent of little Indian style potato cakes. I will admit that if I did not have help the day before, by a little pair if 11 yr old hands, they would of taken to long to prepare the day before. I dub these potato tasty cakes.

Chutneys

• Tomato Chutney (1) - sweeten tomatoes with nigella (onion) seeds
  
• Mint Chutney (1) - mint and cilantro, I add a bit of yogurt to it
  
• Cucumber Raita (2) - cucumber, yogurt, and garam masala
  

The Main course(s). First the meats, Somehow I went from 4 meat dishes to 6. Yes I am very much in the carnivore court. One of the lamb dishes was the appetizer that grew up to be a main course.

Whole roasted tandoori chicken (4)
Originally I didn't want to do the usual Indian dishes like butter chicken and tandoori. I wasn't sure what made tandoori so freakishly red. Then I saw it in the recipe, red dye. So I caved on the tandoori when I found a recipe for a whole roasted chicken tandoori, sans red dye.

Cilantro Chicken (3)
If you can't enough mint cilantro chutney then this your dish. Basically it is deep fried black mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Then add some kitchen danger by adding yogurt to hot oil. That will wake you up if your not ready for this one. Add chicken then tons of the chutney and a LOT of salt.

Lamb in fenugreek cream sauce (3)
If there is only one recipe that makes a cookbook worth its $20 this one is it for me. Cream sauce with turmeric makes for a dramatic vat of yellow gold. The flavor is fenugreek leaves. I can't describe the flavor but it makes this dish savory. Dip a few marinated and grilled lamb chops into the liquid goodness and your set. Just don't check your cholesterol for a few weeks.

Lamb Mutter (2)
This was the filling for little Singharas. You know dough stuffed with meat then deep fried. Since I ran out of time the lamb and peas filling got an extra dose of tomato sauce and called Mutter.

Beef in cinnamon spice (3)
Totally modified for westerners by Vij. Beef ribs in a tomato and red wine sauce spiced with cinnamon. For the sake of ease of eating and cost I layered strips of round, about 3 pounds, in the sauce then left in the oven for a few hours. Instead of cinnamon sticks I used Taj, a cinnamon like plant called cassia.

Fish wrapped in banana leaves with coconut (2)
Ok if you have a bunch of banana leaves this is the perfect use for them. Little packets of fish, I used cod, rolled in shredded coconut and spices. Tie them up in coconut leaves. Fry up a few minutes on each side and unwrap. The coconut toasts up and the fish cooks nicely.

Bread, rice or filler

• Naan - Plain tasty, chewy, buttery, bread.
  
• Spinach chipatis - simple but I like the plain chipati's that puff.
  
• Rice - plain jasmine. yeah I know I ran out of basmati.
  

Gotta eat your vegetables. I like the Indian vegetables, always tasty. An Indian college told me that he couldn't understand this need to make vegetable dishes a mixed medley surprise of the entire garden. Each dish should feature the vegetable and the spices compliment that vegetable. I totally agree. It's not the plan I follow when trying to kill off the last of the frig contents with curry, but I totally agree.

Salad (4)
This was a nice salad. Basic mixed greens with cucumber, tomato, and onion. The added twist was shredded diakon and a vinaigrette of lemon, olive oil and ginger.

peas and carrots (3)
Do all cultures have peas and carrots? They do say spring do I added them to the menu. they were cooked in a base of onion puree, ginger, garlic, and spices.

potatoes (3)
These make awesome leftovers. Toss potato cubes in oil with black mustard seeds, curry leaves, turmeric, ginger, and onions. Just enough spice to make them interesting but not over powering. You could use this as stuffing for samosa's.

Spinach\Arugula over paneer (2)
Making cheese is step one. Or as I like to say waste one gallon of milk. You don't get much paneer from a gallon of milk but its enough for this dish. Over the cubes of paneer pour a tomato and coconut base curry with about 2 lbs arugula\spinach mix in, then toss some of the roasted cashews on top.

roasted eggplant (2)
I am not the biggest fan of eggplant. I found these eggplants about the size of English cucumbers. Sliced them up into rounds, tossed with onion slivers and oil. made the mistake of putting the roasting pan on the baking stone in the oven. I was running out of space an in the oven, see above contents. The result was eggplant rounds that got really crispy on one side. I liked those eggplant chips. They got tossed with mango powder and fresh tomato slices. Not the greatest dish but it was ok.

After all that food some one is going to get thirsty. Made up a ginger-lime-lemonade for all those nondrinkers. So the drinkers decide to mix it with pepper vodka called Hot monkey. But I think the Pama, pomegranate liqueur, would be a better match. Gotta love it when someone brings new drinks. For after dinner there was the obligatory chai. Most folks drank lots of wine, beer, and mango lassi's. I forget how refreshing a good mango lassi is, especially when served with an umbrella and straw. (Thanks Dez!)

Lemon and Ginger with sparkling water (4)
Chai tea(5)

Finally the desserts. This is the point when my friends think I am truly evil. After the dinner dishes are cleared. And my wonderful sous chef\prep cook\dishwasher husband has tackled the dishes its time for the last bite.

Cardamon creme brulee
I was thinking about this one for awhile. Nice classic french creme brulee with ground cardamon and a few pods steeped in for that extra punch. Since I had a new jar of vanilla paste I added a bit if that too. When caramelizing the top I forgot to add a bit a cinnamon to the top. Always love the cracking sound of the spoon hitting the caramelized top of a good brulee.

Mango Kulfuti
This was mostly a not to sweet mango ice milk. I guess I should try it to really find out if it is any good.

I was up cooking for a long time but it was worth the sore legs. We had 15 happy, full, and spirited folks over for another great Sunday dinner. I would have to mark this dinner as a 10 on the dishwasher workout. 8.5 on repeat recipes. 9.0 for overall dinner.

Thanks everyone who came. For all those I could not invite, don't worry the next Sunday dinner is coming soon.