Indian Food Fest

Earlier this week, my friend Sonic sent me a text message wanting to hang out. Being in the middle of my semester and completely swamped with classes and research and proposals, oh my! I asked if we could meet for dinner this evening because my husband was having a man date. Everyone needs to eat, right? She came over, drank some home brew, chatted, and ate delicious food. I almost killed our lungs, when I put chilies, spices, and other hot things on the hot cast iron pan. The vapors came up and into coughing fits we went. I opened up the window and and door and put on the fan to try and blow the vapors away. Other than that, a successful dinner!

I was planning on making samosas using phyllo dough as the pastry, but we were getting too hungry to wait for it to bake, so we just ate it as is.



Ingredients
Aloo mattar based the samosa recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance
cumin seeds
mustard seeds
coriander seeds
potato, diced into cubes
onion
carrot
garlic
ginger
peas or edamame
curry powder
turmeric
cayenne pepper


Red lentil dahl
onions
garlic
ginger
hot chilies
red lentils
water or broth
curry powder
turmeric
cumin powder
sriracha


Method
Aloo mattar
Bring the potatoes to boil in a sauce pan. Boil until the potatoes are tender, about 10 or so minutes. Drain and set aside.

Heat a cast iron pan over medium heat and add a bit of olive oil. Add the seeds and stir constantly until they start popping and turning brown. Add the onion, carrot, garlic, and ginger to the pan. Stir to combine. Add any spices to the pan. Turn on a fan, so the vapors don't kill your lungs. Stir to combine. When the potatoes are done, add them to the pan, along with the peas or edamame. Use a potato masher, or the back of a spoon to mash everything together. Add a spash or two of water to help combine everything. Taste and adjust seasonings.


Red lentil dahl
Sauté the onions, garlic, ginger, and chilies in a bit of olive oil over medium heat in a sauce pan until the onions are browned. Add the red lentils and enough water or broth to cover the lentils. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until most of the broth is absorbed by the lentils and it is pretty mushy. Add seasonings and sriracha and adjust to taste.

Serve with rice and fresh fruit.


Notes
This was quite delicious. The dahl was super duper easy to put together. I forgot to start boiling the potatoes before I sautéed the vegetables, so they had to hang out for about 10 minutes until the potatoes finished.

As evidence that we did eat the deliciousness, I present: Sonic!


Nom nom nom

Thai Green Curry

I had been wanting to make my own curry paste for a while and when I saw this on the Fat Free Vegan blog, I decided it was time to do it.



I followed the recipe pretty closely from the blog.

Notes
Making curry paste is incredibly easy with a food processor. Put everything in and pulse until combined.

I did not use tofu in my curry and for vegetables used potatoes, carrots, and onions. I also used a can of coconut milk and kale.

I served with jasmine rice.

We both really enjoyed this a lot. The curry paste has a fantastic taste and I used about twice as much as was called for in the recipe. I like things hot!

Thai Tofu Cake

I have curry paste kicking around in my fridge from making the green curry the other day, so today I decide to make another recipe from the Fat Free Vegan website.



I followed the instructions as given on the blog.

Notes
First off, this was really really really tasty. I added about double the curry paste. I used panko bread crumbs for the breading. I used hijiki instead of arame seaweed. For the dipping sauce, I used white balsamic vinegar. I baked half of the cakes and cooked the other half in my cast iron skillet. I think I liked the texture of the ones baked better. Also, I think next time, instead of adding the full 1/2 cup of broth to the tofu mixture, I will just add enough for everything to hold together. It became pretty runny after adding the broth and hard to handle. I don't think I let the mixture sit in the fridge for the recommended 30 minutes and maybe if I had, then it would stick together better.

The leftovers from this went into the lunchboxes for tomorrow. Seriously, this was really good.

EDIT: My husband also thought that these were magically delicious.

Red Tofu Curry

My husband and I had been buying the small can of curry paste, when I saw the large tub and decided to try it out. It was great to have curry paste on hand for a quick dinner. I have plans to make my own curry paste with the chilies and everything this summer. For right now, the prepackaged one works well for me.



Ingredients
4 T Curry Paste
1 can coconut milk
potato
carrot
onion
broccoli
tomato
firm tofu
cilantro
peanuts

Method
Press your tofu.



I was inspired to do it this way after seeing the TofuXpress. Genius! I take two tupperware containers and sandwich the tofu between the two, place a cutting board on top and something heavy like a cast iron wok. Let is sit for 30 - 60 minutes.





In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the curry paste and coconut milk until combined. Add the potato and carrot chunks and allow to simmer until nearly tender. Add the onion, broccoli, and tofu.

While the potato and carrot chunks are simmering, sauté the tofu in a cast iron pan over medium heat in olive oil until browned on both sides.



Right before severing, stir in the tomato, cilantro, and peanuts. Serve with rice.


Notes
We are both big fans of this curry paste and will probably eat a lot of it in the years to come. I know that we probably shouldn't eat an entire can of coconut milk in a sitting. Maybe I can do half a can of milk and half water or almond milk.

You can use whatever vegetables you have lying around your kitchen for this.

Simple Split Chickpea Curry

For my birthday this year my sister added to my cooking obsession by buying me a cast-iron wok and a cookbook. The cookbook is The Indian Slow Cooker and it is pretty fantastic. It is mostly vegetarian with only seven out of the fifty recipes containing meat. I looked at a few of those recipes and they are easily veganizable. Well, everything in here is easy to make without the dairy. I have a slight criticism of this cookbook and it is some of the recipes are really similar. For example, are two recipes called "Split Green Lentil and Rice Porridge" and "Whole Green Lentil and Brown Rice Porridge" really necessary? Overall, I am pleased with the book, though, because I love Indian food.





This is adapted for my 1.5 qt slow cooker.

Ingredients
1 cup dried chana dal, cleaned and rinsed
onion
1/2 tomato
fresh ginger
garlic
hot chili pepper
1 t cumin seeds
1/4 t turmeric
1 t chili powder
salt
3 cup water

Method
Put the chana dal, tomato, chili, garlic, water, and half of the rest of the spices in a slow cooker. Cook on low for about 8 hours. Add the rest of the spices and stir to combine. Using an immersion blender, pulse the soup until there is still some texture left.

Notes
I have decided that cooking Indian spices for a long period of time does not make them intensify, it only makes them mellow and disappear. My husband had the great idea of only adding half the spices at the beginning and then the rest right before serving. Such a great idea. I did have to add just a bit of sriracha because my grocery store only had mild chilies and not any hot ones.

This was the first dish I used with our immersion blender. Oh my goodness, how did I get by before without one? It worked so well (maybe a bit too well, there is not much texture left, but that is really because I was playing around with it) and so quickly. I was amazed. No more hot liquids in the blender for me!

I am going to increase the spice level for sure next time.

Why yes, I did eat this with a toasted whole wheat hot dog bun.

No Hurry Vegetable Curry

Tonight's dinner was pretty good. It was much too watery, so much so that I did not add the coconut milk called for because it would add too much to the liquid. Next time, much less water.





Into my slow cooker went:
potatoes, diced
celery, diced (I would have also added carrots, had I not just run out)
red chili
garlic
ginger
curry powder
coriander seeds, crushed
cayenne powder
Better than Bouillon Broth paste
Water

It cooked on low for about 8 hours.

I had chickpeas cooking in my other slow cooker and when I arrived home, I added about a cup to the curry. I also added a couple of hand fulls of kale and turned the curry up to high while the rice was cooking. I added a bit of cornstarch in the hopes it would thicken up the sauce, but it never got hot enough for that to happen. I need to start making a roux in the morning because my soups have not been very thick.



Dual slow cooker mania!


Our food lately has been really meh. Maybe I'll remake the hot and sour soup due to it being one of the best things I have made lately.