Cooking with Madhur Jaffrey's Vegetarian India

[Chris Hennes]

Nepalese "Pickled" Potatoes (p. 344)

 

This potato salad is flavored predominantly with sesame paste and mustard oil, with chili powder, turmeric, green chilies, lemon juice, and cilantro rounding out the flavors. It looks more or less like a standard American-style potato salad, but tastes nothing like one (of course). I enjoyed the flavors, particularly the pungency of the mustard oil and the heat from the chilies.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Cucumber Spears (p. 37)

 

Cucumber halves sprinkled with cumin and chili powder and then topped with a tarka. A delicious and refreshing first course.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Flattened Rice with Tomatoes (p. 205)

 

This reminded me a bit of a Mexican style of serving rice: it's not terribly strongly flavored so the pops of tomato predominate, with a relatively subtle spice blend. Tomatoes are out of season here right now so I used canned since they get cooked anyway, but I think fresh would be better.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Yogurt Raita with Tomatoes, Shallots, and Cucumbers (p. 334)

 

This is a very substantial raita, really nearly a salad in its own right. 

 

[Chris Hennes]

Salad with Indian Style Bean Sprouts (p. 342)

 

When I read the recipe before making it I was somehow left with the impression that the bean sprouts made up a substantial portion of the salad, but in reality they play a bit part. This is really a cucumber salad with tomatoes and mung bean sprouts added. Obviously you could make it with whatever proportions suited your taste, but I simply made it as written.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Whole Moong and Masoor Cooked with Meat Seasonings (p. 149)

 

The dal here are cooked with cinnamon, bay, and cardamom. Then a sauce of onion, ginger, garlic, tomato puree, coriander, cumin, turmeric, chili powder, and garam masala is added before serving.

 

[Okanagancook]

3 minutes ago, Chris Hennes said:

Whole Moong and Masoor Cooked with Meat Seasonings (p. 149)

 

The dal here are cooked with cinnamon, bay, and cardamom. Then a sauce of onion, ginger, garlic, tomato puree, coriander, cumin, turmeric, chili powder, and garam masala is added before serving.

 

I love Dahl.  Looks delicious.

Edited February 17, 2018 by Okanagancook (log)

[Chris Hennes]

Just now, Okanagancook said:

I love Dahl.  What is the kind of lentil are used?

 

Oh, sorry to be cavalier with the term here. No actual dal were harmed in the making of this dish, it uses only whole moong and masoor lentils.

[Okanagancook]

Still looks delicious.  

[Chris Hennes]

South Indian Dal with Vegetables (p. 166)

 

Like many of her dal dishes, as written this one comes out quite thin -- in this case I left it as is and served it with some pancakes. For vegetables it's got yellow squash, green beans, and tomato, and the lentils are toovar dal. The spice mixture is fairly complex this time around and includes sambar powder, fenugreek seeds, turmeric, onion, asafetida, mustard seeds,  dried chiles, and curry leaves.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Chickpea Flour and Tomato Pancakes (p. 248)

 

These chunky pancakes were delicious, plain or dipped in the night's dal. They require a couple of hours of lead time so they are only a weekend dish for me, but they're not hard to make. You make a chickpea flour batter with turmeric, chili powder, asafetida, and garam masala and let it sit for two hours. Then stir in chopped onion, green chili, and tomato. Fry them in a  bit of oil and serve immediately. 

 

[Smithy]

It will be at least 3 weeks until I have access to a store that sells asafetida.  How important is this particular seasoning?  It seems to appear quite often in the recipes.

 

Those pancakes look particularly inviting.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

25 minutes ago, Smithy said:

It will be at least 3 weeks until I have access to a store that sells asafetida.  How important is this particular seasoning?  It seems to appear quite often in the recipes.

 

Those pancakes look particularly inviting.

 

What?  No amazon prime in the desert?

http://amzn.com/B006POH22Y

 

This is the asafetida I have.

 

 

[Chris Hennes]

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

It will be at least 3 weeks until I have access to a store that sells asafetida.  How important is this particular seasoning?  It seems to appear quite often in the recipes.

 

It's probably in 2/3 to 3/4 of the recipes. I've made some of these same recipes without it and they are still delicious, but its flavor is certainly present when you include it. So there's nothing wrong with omitting it, but when you get it you should make the dish again to see what changes.

[Chimayo Joe]

6 hours ago, Smithy said:

It will be at least 3 weeks until I have access to a store that sells asafetida.  How important is this particular seasoning?  It seems to appear quite often in the recipes.

 

Just a word to anyone unfamiliar with asafetida, don't let the odor of it scare you away.   Cooking with it transforms it.

[blue_dolphin]

6 hours ago, Chimayo Joe said:

Just a word to anyone unfamiliar with asafetida, don't let the odor of it scare you away.   Cooking with it transforms it.

I agree.  

Though It is very pungent stuff.  I keep mine in a jar, in a ziplock bag, in another jar, in the garage.  

[Chris Hennes]

Whole Mung Bean Pancakes (p. 250)

 

These pancakes are made from a batter of soaked, but uncooked, mung beans that are pureed in a blender along with a few spices. They are relatively neutral in flavor, so the book actually uses them as a base for several other variants on the theme. This is just the plain version, served with a spinach dish, rice, and a raita.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Spinach with Dill (p. 110)

 

The truth is that I love spinach in pretty much all its guises, but the various Indian spinach dishes are unquestionably my favorites and this one is no exception. It's got a lot of dill and onion in it, plus some fresh tomato added at the end of cooking. The usual spice mixture applies, of course! This one is also pretty heavy on the garlic.

 

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:

Spinach with Dill (p. 110)

 

The truth is that I love spinach in pretty much all its guises, but the various Indian spinach dishes are unquestionably my favorites and this one is no exception. It's got a lot of dill and onion in it, plus some fresh tomato added at the end of cooking. The usual spice mixture applies, of course! This one is also pretty heavy on the garlic.

 

 

I'm 100% with you on the spinach. I'm surprised at dill, though. Not something I'd ever associated with Indian cuisine -  I would have thought it would be overwhelmed by the other spices - maybe that is why there is a lot of it. Interesting.

Edited February 20, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

[Chris Hennes]

8 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I'm surprised at dill, though. Not something I'd ever associated with Indian cuisine

She's got several recipes in here that are quite dill heavy, and my local Indian grocer sells the stuff in large bundles, so some region or other must make quite a bit of use of it.

[liuzhou]

22 minutes ago, Chris Hennes said:

She's got several recipes in here that are quite dill heavy, and my local Indian grocer sells the stuff in large bundles, so some region or other must make quite a bit of use of it.

 

I live and learn.

[Katie Meadow]

I'm following along here with interest. The book is on my library queue. I'm on a very annoying restricted diet right now in which most legumes  and all wheat is off the table, so Asian food rules. Mysteriously chickpeas seem to be allowed, so those chickpea tomato pancakes have extra appeal.

 

I love the marriage of curry or turmeric and dill. I've seen recipes for  chana dal that often use dill. And sometimes I put both curry and dill in chicken salad; at first I thought it was like opposite ends of the earth, but I really like it. One of the most dramatic and delicious uses of turmeric and dill is in the Viet dish Cha Ca La Vong, a fish dish with rice noodles, heavy on both flavors.  

[Chris Hennes]

Fresh Indian Cheese in a Butter-Tomato Sauce (p. 298)

 

Some version of this dish exists at every US Indian restaurant I've ever eaten at, I think (though often it's the chicken version rather than the paneer). It's very rich, with quite a bit of butter and cream in it, so it's unusual for the dishes of this book. In some ways it's redolent of some Italian pasta dishes with their cream and tomato bases, but of course the added spices are pure India. It comes out very saucy, so I served it with quite a bit of rice. It was delicious.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Fresh Cilantro and Yogurt Chutney (p. 307)

 

Cilantro, chiles, and yogurt, basically. I've put it on a bunch of different dals (and the paneer above, plus just plain rice), it's a nice accent point.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Black-Eyed Peas with Cilantro and Green Chiles (p. 122)

 

This is a very cilantro-heavy dish, which for those of us who like cilantro is a great flavor. Obviously those who can't eat cilantro need not apply here, it's not like you can just leave it out. I made it pretty spicy, which I enjoyed.

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Chris Hennes (log)