More indian recipes

[eve11]

Vegetarian recipes. There is an Indian place on campus that makes two really good dishes that I love: one is potatoes and green peppers, one is tomato/cauliflower. I have yet to make something that tastes right. This time around we're trying again. The tomato/cauliflower recipe is done and although doesn't taste too much like the restaurant version, it's still not bad. Slow cooking the other recipe. So as usual, all spicing is approximate


Tomato-Cauliflower dish

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
2 tomatoes, cut into chunks
1/4 onion, sliced into wedges
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp sour cream
2 tsp curry powder
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp cayenne powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil

1. To a pot of boiling water (enough to cover the cauliflower), add salt, turmeric, 1 tsp chili powder and cauliflower. Boil for 10-12 minutes and drain, reserving 2/3 cup of the pot water.

2. Whisk together 2/3 cup of the cauliflower water with 1 tsp chili powder, cayenne, tomato paste and sour cream.

3. In a skillet, heat oil. Add crushed red pepper and garlic, saute 30 seconds, and add onions. Saute for 2 minutes, add tomatoes and water mixture. Simmer for 5 minutes, add cauliflower and mix together in the skillet. Heat through and serve with rice.



Potato/green pepper dish

I'm giving this a shot real simple-like. Basically, I had about 2 cups of Curry Masala Gravy" frozen, I thawed it out, added 2 big potatoes, cubed, one green pepper, cut in large-ish squares, and a 2 tsp chili powder in a slow cooker (with some water to cover) and am making a kind of stew. We'll see how it turns out.


ETA: Damn, now I have to do the dishes again!

Comments

[ansel1.livejournal.com]

You've probably encountered this technique already. A key to many Indian dishes is a base of slow fried onions. It's a basically a bunch of chopped onions in a generous amount of veg oil, that's fried for 30 min or more, until the onions completely carmelize and break down. It ends up looking like a brown, oily mush.

It's pretty unhealthy (it's really a lot of oil), but it has a unique sweet flavor that I've never tasted with any other technique. I made a couple kormas that started with that base, and they tasted pretty much like indian restaurant food, and I suspect it was the onion base that did the trick.

You might try a variation of the recipe above, where you start the onions first, fry them in oil over medium heat (I think, I'll check in my cookbook), for 20-30 minutes or until broken down and deep golden. Then add the red pepper and garlic, fry another 30 seconds to a min or until fragrant, etc. And increase the amount of onions, since this method will shrink them considerably. I'm not saying this will be good, but it'd be an interesting experiment. :)

[hasudeva.livejournal.com]

Is that different from caramelized onions? Sheesh, you think growing up eating Indian food every day, I would know this. *blush*

Also, Ms. Eve 11, what restaurants were you referring to? I recommend People's on Penn Ave.

[eve11]

see, I just got notification of these replies today! *sighs*

The restaurant I'm referring to is just this place on campus: Taste of India I think, for the green pepper/potato stuff. The cauliflower recipe is from Sree's in Squirrel Hill. They do some things very well and some things not so well, imo, but I like their spicy cauliflower.

I will have to check out your recommendation! If I can get the comic-geeks to try something other than Chinese one of these Wednesdays, that might work :)

[ansel1.livejournal.com]

It's not really different. I mean, the onions are definitely caramalized in the process.

I got this from "Classic Indian Cooking" by Julie Sahni. She calls it "Geela Masala Bhoonana" or "Brown frying onion". To fry 2 cups thinly sliced onions, heat 4 tbls oils over medium high heat, add onions. Stir often for 10 min while onions lose moisture and start to fry. In another 10 min, the oil separates from the onion, the onion starts to clump, and then gets a deep brown color. Many of the recipes add some yoghurt at this point. The onions pretty much turn into the thick brown sauce. That is wonderful.

[eve11]

I'm all for experiments! Actually, the potato-green pepper stuff I did was pretty good except for one flavor that didn't sit right. I'm not sure what it was -- might have been cloves from the garam masala.