A few weeks ago, I hosted my first three-course Indian food dinner party! It was a lot of work for a newbie like me, but it was much appreciated by our non-Indian guests. To make my life a little easier, I thought about sticking with easy desserts, like fruit. Then I thought about making kheer, a dessert I have always loved and which is not difficult to make! Kheer (also known as payasam in South India) is a type of rice pudding. It is usually flavored with saffron, almonds, pistachios, and/or cardamom. Kheer has a milkier texture and is not as thick as American rice pudding. If you ever have last-minute company, I highly recommend preparing kheer as dessert because it does not take a long time to make and is liked by most people. Our dinner party guests absolutely loved it!
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My husband V and I have been quite busy as of late: we are busy at work, we are planning a few vacations for the summer, and we are looking for a new place to live as our apartment lease is up soon. In the midst of our daily hustle and bustle, it can be difficult to prepare home-cooked meals. Whenever I feel that my days are overwhelmingly busy, I turn to my favorite kitchen appliance: the slow-cooker. My mom provided me with a recipe for making raajma, a curry made with red kidney beans, which is made on a stove and takes roughly 30 minutes to make. Not that 30 minutes is a lot of time, but the idea of dumping the ingredients into the slow-cooker and not having to worry about it was much more appealing. I often use my slow-cooker to make chili, and it turns out amazing because the ingredients have time to blend together and thicken.
Raajma has always been one of my favorite dishes. It is so comforting, whether you are eating it with bread, rice, quinoa, or by itself. I have found that many cultures have some variation of "beans and rice" as a comfort food. Chutney is a general word used in Indian cuisine for a condiment made with some mixture of spices, herbs, and vegetables or fruit. Chutneys may be sweet, sour, spicy, or a combination of all three. Chutneys are used frequently in Indian dishes to add flavor or heat to food. Indian grocery stores all sell a variety of pre-made chutneys, and when you are a jam they are great. If you have a little bit of time, however, nothing tastes as good as homemade chutney, which you can tailor to your tastes. Another big plus, as always, is that you know the ingredients you are putting in your homemade chutney and there are not artificial ingredients or preservatives!
Aloo gobi raswali is one of my favorite dishes, but this was not always the case! As a child, I did not like the taste or texture of cauliflower. When my mom would make this dish, I would often seek out and eat only the pieces of potato. As an adult, however, I have grown to love the light and crisp texture of cauliflower. This recipe is one of my "new" favorites because it is full of many different vegetables and a variety of nutrients. I made a slight change to my mom's recipe--to cut down on the amount of starch, I use less potato and added chickpeas instead. The addition of chickpeas makes this an even more well-balanced meal because chickpeas are chock-full of protein. I really cannot think of many other dishes that are so nutritionally well-balanced!
This recipe is also fantastic because you cook everything in one big pot! I am a huge fan of making food that requires the least amount of tools--especially on a weeknight--so that there is less to clean up. The first time I ate fish was on one of my first dates with my husband, six years ago. I had told him that I wanted to try fish, so he took me to an American "surf and turf" restaurant that he had eaten at previously. This restaurant offered a tandoori halibut and he suggested that I order it because it was flavorful, light, and did not taste or smell "fishy" (the turn-off of every new fish eater). I still remember that tandoori halibut and it is the inspiration for today's post! My husband and I went to a local fish market over the weekend, and I had set out to buy halibut for this recipe. When we got to the market, however, the red snapper looked incredibly fresh so we went with it!
The lesson here: you can use any type of lean white fish and it will turn out just fine! If you want to know what types of fish would be a good substitute for red snapper, you can check out the New York Seafood Council's handy fish substitutions chart. I would suggest using tilapia, rockfish, or maybe halibut. Tilapia might be a good choice if you are new to cooking and eating fish! |
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July 2015
AuthorExploring Indian cuisine and trying to learn the recipes of my family. I hope to help and inspire others along the way. |