My Indian Dinner, Again?

Yes, again! I am currently having a crave for Indian food, which has always been one of my favourites. Luckily, my hubby is not complaining! Over the years, looks like I have turned him from one who is not familiar with spicy food, to someone who looks forward to any spicy dish that I cook!

For our dinner a couple of days ago, I cooked an Indian Rice that goes together with a vegetable curry and a spicy meat dish. It was really good. I'm giving two of the recipes first, otherwise this post will be really long.

My Indian dinner menu :

Aromatic Indian Rice with Peas

Cauliflower, Pea and Potato Curry

Goan Pork with Hot Spices

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Aromatic Indian Rice with Peas: just as the name implies, this is an aromatic rice with the fragrance from the cardamom pods, cinnamon and cloves. This rice is good eaten with any curries. You may follow the instructions on how to cook the rice, or for convenience, cook it in the rice cooker, as I did. It cooked perfectly.

Aromatic Indian Rice with Peas

(adapted from "Curries 500" by Mridula Baljekar)

Serves 4

1-3/4 cups basmati rice
600ml/2-1/2 cups water

3 tbsp ghee or 2 tbsp vegetable oil and a small amount of butter

1 cinnamon stick

6-8 cardomom pods, crushed

4 cloves

1 onion, halved lengthways and sliced

25gm fresh root ginger, peeled and grated

1 tsp sugar

130gm fresh peas, shelled, or frozen

1 tsp salt

1. Rinse the rice and put it in a bowl. Cover with plenty of water and leave to soak for 30 minutes. Drain thoroughly.
2. Heat the ghee, or oil and butter, in a heavy pan. Stir in the cinnamon stick, cardamom and cloves.
3. Add the onion, ginger and sugar to the pan, and fry until golden, stirring frequently. Add the peas, followed by the rice, and stir for 1 minute to coat the rice in ghee.
4. Pour in 600ml/2-1/2 cups water. Add the salt, stir once and bring the liquid to the boil. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed.
5. Turn off the heat, cover the pan with a clean dish towel and the lid, and leave the rice to steam for a further 10 minutes. Spoon the rice on to a serving dish.

(my notes : I cooked the rice in the rice cooker. Follow instructions up to step 3, transfer everything into the rice cooker pot, add water and salt, stir, cover and leave to cook! Simple and easy!)

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Cauliflower, Pea and Potato Curry : A light wonderful curry that is suitable for vegetarians. The potatoes are pre-fried first and the cauliflower are blanched briefly in hot water. I did the short cut way, (no need to wash addtional pot for blanching, am lazy!), just microwave the cauliflower on high for 2 minutes.

Cauliflower, Pea and Potato Curry

(adapted from "Curries 500" by Mridula Baljekar)

Serves 4

500gm/1-1/4 lb potatoes

1 small cauliflower or 350gm/12 oz cauliflower florets, with outer stalks removed

45ml/3tbsp sunflower oil or olive oil

1 large onion, finely sliced

5ml/1 tsp ginger puree

5ml/1 tsp garlic puree

2 green chillies, chopped, seeded if preferred

2.5ml/1/2 tsp ground turmeric

5ml/1 tsp ground coriander

175gm/6oz fresh tomatoes, chopped

5ml/1 tsp salt, or to taste

115gm/4 oz frozen garden peas

15ml/1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (cilantro), to garnish

1. Halve or quarter the potatoes - the pieces should be quite chunky so that they do not fall apart during cooking.
2. Divide the cauliflower into 2.5cm/1 in florets, then blanch them briefly and plunge them in cold water. (I microwave on HIGH for 2 minutes)
3. Heat the oil in a large, non-stick pan over a medium to high heat and brown the potatoes in two or three batches until they look a little like roast potatoes. Drain them thoroughly on absorbent kitchen paper.
4. In the same oil, fry the onion, ginger, garlic and chillies over a low to medium heat, stirring regularly, for 6-8 minutes or until the mixture begins to brown.
5. Add the ground turmeric and coriander; cook for 1 minute and then add the tomatoes, fried potatoes and salt. Pour in 400ml/14fl oz/1-2/3 cups warm water. Bring this to the boil, reduce the heat to low, then cover and cook for 15 minutes.
6. Drain the cauliflower and add to the pan with the coated potato mixture. Add the peas, cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve, garnished with coriander.

The recipe for Goan Pork with Hot Spices shall be on the next post.