Indian cooking

I recently realized that there are no Indian restaurants in my vicinity. Not that I can afford to eat out regularly, but every once in a while I have a craving, and this time I discovered that it could not possibly be filled in any reasonable way. In the meantime, I have a friend in Arizona who regularly brags about the power of her Chicken Vindaloo, which was making me mildly insane.

So I started looking up Indian recipes.

The amazing thing about Indian food (not actually that amazing when you think about it) is that it's incredibly economical. Unlike many other varieties of Old World cooking, the basic ingredients tend to be dirt-cheap, once you have the required panoply of spices.

I already have almost all the spices. I was Spice Queen, after all...

So here are my first two recipes. I would just link you to the online recipes I started with, but I am never content to just use a recipe untinkered-with, so I altered then significantly.

Chicken Vindaloo

2 TBSP butter
1 teaspoon turmeric seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds

2 teaspoons garam masala
1 chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 TBSP fresh chopped ginger
1 whole chopped serrano pepper
2 tsp salt (or to taste)
3 TBSP flour, preferably chickpea but wheat will do

2 1/2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

4 fresh diced tomatoes (or 1 16-oz can)
6-8 skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
6 small potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces

Melt the butter in a deep saute pan over medium-high heat, and add the first 6 ingredients. Saute until the seeds crackle.
Add the next 7 ingredients and cook until onions are brown on the edges, and translucent.

Add the vinegar.

Dump everything but the chicken, potatoes, and tomatoes into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Pour over the raw chicken, stir, let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Add all the ingredients into deep saute pan, cover, simmer 40 minutes. Serve with basmati rice and naan.



Saag Aloo:

A 16-oz bag of frozen spinach (fresh is fine, just more expensive)
2 cloves chopped garlic
About 2 TBSP fresh ginger, chopped
One chopped onion
One chopped Serrano pepper (with seeds)
Four medium potatoes, cubed
1 teaspoon turmeric
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon plain yogurt
salt

Cube the potatoes and parboil (about 10 minutes) with the turmeric and some salt.

Melt 2 TBSP butter in a pan and add the ginger, onions, serrano, and garlic. Saute on med-hi heat until the onions start to brown. Add the spinach and heat thoroughly. Briefly process in food processor or blender (if you don't have one, chop everything really finely before you start, then dump it into a bowl to free the pan for the next step)

Melt the other 2 TBSP of butter in your pan, add cumin seeds and heat until they start to crackle, then return your spinach mixture to the pan and add the garam masala, coriander and ground cumin.

Drain the potatoes and add them to the spinach mixture. If it's too thick to simmer without scorching, add a bit of water, but not enough to make it soupy. Salt to taste and simmer for 20 minutes or so.

Stir in the yogurt and serve it with naan or basmati rice. Or both.