Gold in a Bowl

Continuing on with my color-themed thread titles, I am indeed cooking by color as my lunch today was lovingly golden.

The luminscence of my dish comes from the gorgeous spices of India.

123. Spicy Potatoes and Cauliflower (Aloo Gobi) - *Indian*

I had some cauliflower leftover from the soup, so thought it was smart to use it up for this recipe. As with many Indian dishes, the spices were left to develop and then the rest of the ingredients were added.

So, I heated up some light olive oil and butter in a non-stick pan. Then, I added cumin (Tom says to add cumin seeds, but I didn't have any), garlic and ginger. I let these fry for a minute or so, and then I added garam masala, turmeric, salt and chilli flakes. For the heat, Tom recommends green chillies actually but I am a woose when it comes to spicy foods. Then some chopped waxy potatoes go in along with some chopped cauliflower. Finally, water is added along with tomato purée. This is left to simmer covered until the potatoes are tender, and the aloo gobi is finito!


I topped the aloo gobi with chopped parsley and waited for it to cool down a bit so I can dig in.

This is really lovely and with a nice spicy kick. Did wonders to my sinus infection! LOL! Tom says this could be eaten cold for a retro potato salad in the summer. I'm inclined to agree with him. This dish is fierce and would be welcome at any type of occasion.

Says he: "I prefer the chicken"

I'm continuing on my cooking marathon and going back to the Indian chapter, which I haven't visited in a long time.

118. Aubergine Tikka - *Indian*

Last time I made tikka, it was a chicken tikka. At that time, I paired it with Tom's masala sauce. I remember how lovely it tasted, so I thought it'd be a good idea to pair the veggie version with the sauce as well.

I have to say at this point that Rafa was not too enthusiastic about eating a veggie curry. He has been craving curry, and so have I, but his cravings for anything usually include some sort of meat. He finally gave in, so I made this dish for two.

First, you 'marinate' the vegetables. The marinade is basically lemon juice, minced garlic and ginger, salt, cumin, coriander, light olive oil and smoked paprika. The veggies (aubergine, red pepper and red onion) are chopped and tossed in the marinade. Then, they are roasted for 40 minutes in a moderate oven.


I made the masala sauce and rice while the veggies were roasting. I didn't make any changes to the sauce, but did use red onions instead of white, to mirror the onions in the roast.

Once the vegetables were fully roasted...


I added them to the gorgeous and silky sauce. I then scooped them on top the rice and served dinner.


This was delicious!! Many of you know I don't like roasted vegetables, especially peppers, but they were nice and soft, and besides, this masala sauce is killer! I am thinking of making a couple of batches and bottling it for when Rafa is home alone, and he could make chicken tikka masala.

Speaking of which, I asked for Rafa's opinion of the veggie tikka masala.

Me: So, was your veggie tikka masala so bad?
He: I prefer the chicken.
Me: I know, but was it so bad?
He: It was OK, but I prefer the chicken.

Oh well, I tried. LOL.

Tikka With a Side of Masala

I adore Indian food but I find the task of cooking it quite daunting. Funnily enough, the actual recipes are not that difficult at all, it's just that Indian food implies a sort of curry feast and I've realized a long time ago that my downfall is producing a lunch or dinner with many dishes. But it seems almost inevitable when cooking Indian because I think to myself, 'oh a curry would be great with some rice, and that would be great with some naan and some veggie thing, etc.' I loved cooking for my friend and sister and Rafa a few weeks ago, but I did feel like I was a chicken running around without its head. So instead of abandoning the Indian chapter altogether, I thought I'd make it simple because it was just me and Rafa, and thankfully, he wouldn't be home until 8pm at the earliest!

53. (Sort of) Chicken Tikka - *Indian*
54. Want your tikka with masala? - *Indian*
55. ...and something from the Punjab - *Larder Salads*

So, I decided the main course would be chicken tikka masala, with a side of Indian-inspired salad.

Tom includes a recipe for tikka and a recipe for masala, because essentially, they are two different things. Many people, myself included, often order chicken tikka masala, but chicken tikka can stand on its own, and thus is prepared apart form the masala sauce that goes on top of it.

The chicken needed at least a day's marinading so I got on with that on Tuesday night. The marinade basically consisted of some hot smoked paprika (I used mostly sweet smoked paprika and a smidgeon of the hot because the picante I bought in Spain is BITCHIN' HOT!), cumin, ground corriander, and chopped ginger and garlic.

To this mixture I added some full-fat yogurt and light olive oil. I had to make a trip to the Russian supermarket for the yogurt - you could always count on them to have things in full-fat! Actually, the store is quite interesting in that Russians are big on importing goods from all over the place - they have a whole aisle of jams and preserves from various Eastern European countries. This is where I found greek yogurt closest to me, and they also have a selection of cheeses from all over the world. Since the store is only about a ten-minute walk from my apartment, it is a good alternative to posh, fancy Manhattan grocery store.

Ok, now back to the marinade. I rubbed the chicken breasts in salt and pepper and then sprinkled on some lemon juice. I then added the yogurt marinade, and it was ready to rest in the fridge for about a day.

So, as soon as I got home this evening, I thought it would be a good idea to start with the masala portion of the meal. I had full confidence that the sauce could be made in advance, and I was happy to find that I was right. The sauce was so simple -- I sweated some garlic and onions in some butter for a few minutes with some salt. To this I added some passata, and continued to cook on a low flame for a few more minutes. I finally stirred through some heavy (double) cream and full-fat yogurt, and then added the garam masala. The last step was just to add some corriander leaves (I decided on parsley as detest corriander!) but I thought that could wait until everything was more or less ready.

I popped the lid on the masala and got on with the salad. Tom's salad is inspired by Madhur Jaffery. It is basically a greek salad (hence the reason it is in the Larder Salads chapter) but instead of oregano and black olives and feta, the salad is flavored with Indian spices, and paneer is added at the end. Now, Tom says that buffalo milk mozzarella or feta would be a good substitute since paneer is crumbly like feta and similar in taste to the mozzarella. I really didn't want to use the substitutions because paneer is attainable. However, I couldn't make a trip to Jackson Heights again, so I had to make do using feta, as it was what I had in the house. I bought the rest of the ingredients right before making the salad --- what lovely colors they were!

The salad was first prepared by cutting some ripe tomatoes from top to bottom and deseeding them. They were chopped roughly and added to a sliced red onion. I got on with the dressing, that was chopped ginger and garlic mixed with ground cumin and black pepper. Some lemon juice was added to the other ingredients, and that was the dressing done.

I decided that I would add the dressing at the last moment, so as not to have a soaked salad.

Rafa had called that he was on his way home, so I wanted to get started on the chicken tikka. I took the chicken breasts out of their marinade and grilled/seared them on both sides on a hot grill.

grilling chicken with masala in the background -- with parsley added

Then, I transferred the chicken onto a roasting tray and put them in my oven at its hightest setting (but not the Broil setting! -- Ilana learning from experience!) for just a few minutes. Since the breasts were boneless and skinless, I knew they needed less time than Tom stipulates -- his breasts (tee hee) had the skin on.

I let the chicken rest for a bit....

And sliced them up and added them to the masala.

While all this was going on I also had cooked up some coconut rice, courtesy of Bill Granger, from Delicous Australia March 2006. It was my first time making coconut rice but I thought it would mesh well with the tikka masala.... and I was right!


The flavors were amazing together. I can't believe how well the tikka masala turned out. Creamy, warm, flavorful, probably better than any tikka masala I had eaten at an Indian restaurant. I think the difference was the richness and deepness of the sauce, and the fact that the chicken breasts were cooked to perfection. Perfectly moist and not dry, as some restaurant versions tend to be. My other bad experiences have been getting cheap cuts from the chicken - I am a chicken breast lover through and through.

The salad turned out really well too! I added the dressing to the salad shortly before eating and then some chopped mint leaves. I had completely forgotten about the feta cheese, and only realized it when I was already digging in at the table. I'm not sure it really needed it, as the chicken and rice were already so full of flavor, the crunchy and sharp tomatoes and onions did the trick in cutting through that richness. Part of me thinks the feta would have been too overwhelming, so if any of you were to make this salad to go with some curry, I'd suggest to use the milder paneer.

I did add the feta after dinner (there was lots of salad left since Rafa didn't feel like having any) and put in the fridge for leftovers.

The whole time I was cooking I was thinking how proud I was of myself for chilling out and taking my time with things. I find that when I am a nervous cook, the food doesn't always taste as it should be. Tonight's meal exceeded expectations. The only thing missing was that I couldn't be arsed to warm up some naan, as it would have been delightful to continue eating the sauce long after the chicken was gone. Oh well, there's always next time. These recipes are truly keepers!

A Very Quick Supper for One

After an invigorating half-hour at the gym (YES!), I came home HUNGRY!!! I had it in mind to make one of the smaller dishes from the Indian chapter, rather than save them for another curry fest, because I didn't have a specific date in mind and didn't want to let the opportunities to make them slip by. So, I was on my own for dinner, and in the mood for dhal!

50. A Very Quick Tarka Dhal - *Indian*

'Dhal', Tom points out, literally means any kind of pulse dish -- not necessarily lentils. But this particular dhal did include lentils, my faves, split red lentils! So, the first step was to boil up some water, lentils, a couple of slices of ginger, curry leaves (Tom says either a bay leaf or curry leaves, but since I was going Indian, I figured why not use the curry ones), and a whole dried red chilli.

This was allowed to come to a rapid boil, and it was cooked at this heat until done, skimming off any scum on the top. I started at 7pm, and by 7:20, the lentils were cooked completely. On a separate pan, I fried up some garlic (sans cumin seeds, as they look too much like fennel seeds to my liking!), in some oil and butter until lovely and caramelized.

Then, I removed the ginger, leaves, and chilli from the lentils and seasoned the dhal with salt to taste, and added the garlic. The final part was just to serve it up and garnish the lentils with some chopped parsley. My mini-curry fest was ready with some toasty naan and mango chutney!

All the elements worked really well together. The crunchy and smoky garlic worked perfectly next to the soft and warming dhal. I used the naan as a sort of spoon and ate the dhal that way too.. Fantastic!

I could see why many people wouldn't think of dhal dishes as very pretty, but dolled up as it is above, I can't find any another word for the dish other than 'beautiful'.

I was going to have one of Tom's Afters following dinner, but I figured if I worked so hard at the gym, there would be no point in having ice cream to work against that. My sweets eating days are not over, they're just not as frequent as they used to be.

Hope you like curry!!!

Friday night had finally arrived, and it was time to get my curry cooking underway! I had decided to invite my wonderful friend Rosie, who is probably the most appreciative person in the universe when it comes to food, and my sister and brother-in-law with nephew in tow. My bro-in-law couldn't come because my nephew wasn't having a good day, so was instead put to bed early, and my B-I-L stayed with him.

I knew that all of my guests love some good Indian food, so I knew that the meal would be a hit, provided nothing went totally wrong!

39. A (kind of) Prawn Korma - *Indian*
40. Peas Braised with Indian Cheese (Muttor Paneer) - *Indian*
41. DIY: Make Your Own Paneer - *Larder Salads*
42. An Easy Pilau - *Indian*
43. Mint and Onion Chutney - *Indian*
44. Tropical Shake - *Afters*

You may recall that I had already made the Mango Chutney, but I needed to get the rest of the stuff done just before eating so that it could be lovely and fresh. Usually curries are best left in the fridge for a couple of days, but since I was working with prawns and cheese, I didn't want to cook the meals too far in advance. So the whole thing was a bit of a rush but I am not one to shy away from a challenge.

As soon as I got home from Queens, we started getting ready as we weren't sure when my sister would arrive. I chopped up the onion for the chutney as it needed to sit in milk for about an hour to get rid of its acrid taste. (After the hour, all I did was add chopped mint and salt, and that was it!)


I then sliced up another onion for the garnish for the Easy Pilau. I added the thinly sliced onion to a pan of warm vegetable oil and slowly fried it until golden brown.

In the short time it took to brown, I defrosted the prawns for the korma. Once the fried onion was done, I removed it with a slotted spoon to a plate, and then I started on the actual pilau. Using a few of the tablespoons of the oniony oil, I slowly fried a cinnamon stick, cloves, and some cardamon pods to release their aromatic flavor. To this I added the rice, sultanas, a saffron-infusion made of water, and enough water for the rice to steam. I let the mixture boil and then reduced the heat and covered the rice. After about fifteen minutes, the rice was lovely and fluffy, and I let it sit covered until the rest of dinner was done. (The final stage was to add some butter and salt to the rice, but I did that last, shortly before serving.)

While the rice was cooking I was sweating some onions, garlic, and loads of spices for the Muttor Paneer. Once they had released their juices, I added passata, water, and peas. This simmered gently for about fifteen minutes. I then took it off the heat, so that I could add the paneer (lovely Indian cheese) later. You will notice that I added the DIY version in my recipe count and included it in here, as well. Well, Tom has a few DIY recipes; I gather they are a way of showing anyone they can make lovely shop-bought ingredients from things you have at home. I'm taking these suggestions with a grain of salt, as I find sometimes shop-bought would be ten times better than my concoction. I am not being overly modest; I am just really clumsy, and a bit lazy! So although I will be only making some of the DIY recipes, I have included all of them in my recipe count -- how naughty am I! Before you start throwing your CL's at me, I have to say I have counted some recipes in the count that I now find aren't actually separate recipes, like the 'raw toppings' for the pizzas, which I intend to make. So the count still stands at 201 as it is approximately how many separate recipes there are in the book... Phew, back to cooking!

It was at about this time that my sister arrived, and quite hungry, so I put the pedal to the metal and really cranked it up a notch! We put the naan and samosas in the oven to warm a bit, and then it was time to cook the korma, which didn't take very long at all. It involved also sweating some onion and garlic with water. To this I added some spices, and then the prawns. The final additions were yogurt, ground almonds and some water. The korma thickened slightly, I added the paneer to the muttor, Rosie did an excellent job with her pyrotechnics while charring the poppadums, and then it was time to serve it up!

muttor paneer - absolutely luscious and delicious -- fantastic!

Clockwise from far left -- fresh naan, mango chutney, easy pilau, mint and onion chutney, prawn korma, and lovely poppadums prepared by my pyromaniac friend (and aren't the chutney bowls so cute - courtesy of Patel Brothers)

Fabulous Rosie -- lover of fire, eater of everything, and the perfect sous chef always asking how she could help -- that is the pilau on the left, my favorite part of the meal

Another view of the table - better view of the pilau

My plate - poppadums with mango chutney and the spiciest samosa known to man!

Well dinner was a complete success!! Everyone seemed to really enjoy everything, but as usual I made too much! Tom's recipes served 2, so I doubled all of them, but I think since we had extras like naan, poppadums, and chutney, we could never finish everything, though the prawns and the rice were almost finished. I have to say I enjoyed everything except for the prawns. Tom commented in the beginning of the recipe that his was not a typical Anglo-Indian korma that many Brits, and Americans I daresay, are quite familiar with. I found his particular korma too watery; perhaps I didn't thicken it enough, or maybe I should have added a thicker type of yogurt, like greek yogurt. It was still pretty darn good though, piled high on top of the pilau. Speaking of which, the rice was so perfect, lovely with the scent of cinnamon and cardamon, and the added sweetness of the fried onions and sultanas. I am going to be making this again, curry night or no curry night.

After some lovely dinner conversation and lots of laughing, I got started on dessert. I hadn't planned on anything heavy due to the large amount of courses, and wanted something cooling after the heavy curry. The Tropical Shake was the perfect candidate. It was a blended mixture of vanilla ice cream, pineapple juice, ice cubes, and bananas. It turned into a perfect, cooling shake, and so unbelievably yummy!

We all had a fair share of the shakes, and then my sister finished all of them off in her lovely slurping manner.

So the verdict from last night's curry night: Yum, and fun! And I was lucky that my guests loved to eat, a lot!

Curry Prep - The Chutney

This upcoming Friday night I am having a sort of curry feast, courtesy of Cupboard Love. The preparations, however, started today, because the chutney needed to be stored for 'a couple of weeks.' So what's a day, or nine! I'm sure if I got the chutney done today it will be ready and lovely for Friday!

32. Mango Chutney - *Indian*

Ever since getting CL, I have loved the Indian chapter and dreamed of all the lovely curry events I would have. I could pretend I was back in England, feeding chutney and biryani to my guests, as we would laugh gingerly sipping mango lassis.

The Mango Chutney was a lot easier to make than I expected. First, I chopped up a semi-ripe mango. Tom writes that Indians wouldn't bother making chutney with fully ripe mangoes, as they'd be happier to eat it right there. My mango was definitely verging on ripeness, and after nibbling on some I really had the inclination to forget the whole chutney business and eat the entire thing. But a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.

So after the mango was chopped, I cut up some onion as well.

mango and onion

I heated up some sugar and red wine vinegar in a deep pan, and once the sugar dissolved I added the onion and mango. The heat was raised to get a rolling boil for a couple of minutes, and then reduced again to get a simmer.

everything in the pot

The mixture was supposed to reduce on a low heat for an hour, but I found it reduced in half that time - probably due to the fact that I halved the recipe, as it would be only four of us eating the curry.

The texture turned out lovely, and I stole a taste.. yummy and sweet, but not sickly.

the finished chutney

Rafa, however, did not appreciate the vinegar smell throughout our small apartment. I had to open up the windows, as the smell was quite strong... Actually, Rafa didn't shut up about it for a couple of hours, proclaiming the chutney a 'shit-ney'... Well, let's see what he says when he dips some lovely poppadums into the chutney on Friday night. We'll see then who gets the last laugh. ;)