Making Indian Food

I got to spend a day making delicious indian food with a friend’s mom.

Do i know how to do it again… probably not. But i definitely have 5 pounds of chipati flour, so i have already tried those again. Sadly – i can’t roll out my chapatis so they are round… but i’m getting the hang of it and this website has helped! I’m also saving this site for when i run out of chapati flour!

We made a dal – it was a mix of red and moong lentils, similar to ones i’ve made before.. but i gotta say, much better… Although i just looked up my version and they both look similar!

Not sure of what all went into this one, but here is the shopping list:

We could make a combination masoor (red) and moong dal. You could get 1 lb bags of each.Whole jeera 2 tsp, turmeric, red chilli powder, ginger root fresh, fresh tomatoes 2, cilantro, onion 1.

We also threw in a couple of the chilis for fun!

We also made Chicken Kurma or what the following recipe card says. As when following any other good cook, some don’t always follow the recipe… pretty sure she winged quite a bit of it from experience! She would show me how much salt she was using or some other spice and it was just a portion of her hand. I chuckled inside! This was most interesting having to grind the cashews into a paste… i’d use a blender next time..

Shopping list:

Chicken kurma (drumsticks are best )

Onions (3-4), 1/2 cup raw cashews to be ground, ginger, garlic, 1 c.plain yogurt, 1 c milk, garam masala powder, bay leaves (3) green cardamoms 6-8. cilantro, oil. For 4 to 6 people 2 legs each.

We also make Kheema with ground turkey. Pretty yummy and interesting. Whole cinnamon sticks… Not exactly sure of it all – but here is my shopping list for it:

1 1/2 lbs gr.meat ( I prefer turkey or chicken)

Onions (3), Tomatoes- sauce or strained/bottled variety, ginger, garlic. Turmeric, red chilli powder, coriander powder, jeera powder, cilantro. Oil.

Note to the uninitiated – jeera is cumin!

Found this site and could be a good starting point for next time i make this!

For a win for the hubby i also made butter chicken and found this recipe. My “mom for the day” didn’t usually make this dish, so it was my job to find a recipe! She thought the fenugreek was weird and would have ground it. Also having used the bottle tomato sauce in her recipe for kheema, i would totally do that here… My sauce ended up less thick than i would have liked… But i did like the tikka marinade for the chicken and might do that on it’s own in the future!

We made a dry vegetable curry too!

Mixed vegetable dry curry.

Potato, colored peppers, mushrooms, cauliflower, onion, fresh tomato.

2 potatoes, 2 peppers, 4-6 oz mushrooms (optional), half a cauliflower, 1-2 small tomatoes, ginger, garlic chopped, onions 2.

turmeric, red chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala, cilantro.

It was a ton of veggies and it made my spoon smell funny… as in like curry… but it’s delish!

There was also an order… mushrooms last… onions first…

Onions

Potatoes

Cauliflower

Peppers

Mushrooms

Tomatos

We also made a riata with grated cucumber, a diced jalapenos some spices and yogurt. Yum! According to the indian recipe site i found there are a multitude of riatas you can make… i still have some yogurt… i might see some riatas in my future…

Shopping list: plain yogurt, cuke, jalapeno peppers 1-2, ginger grated pinch.

But i’m sure she threw in some other spices as well!!

Things i learned

I do have a cover for every pot

I don’t have too many spoons

grating garlic is amazing

my coriander is no good. Buy the whole pod, grate/grind before use!

some things don’t need to be hard

Some times too much food really is too much food!