Sunday, September 26th: Indian Feast
We made some of our favorite comfort food this week; After some trial and error we have a Saag Paneer recipe to our taste and wanted an excuse to make a huge batch.
The only picture I have from this dinner is one, of the beans/legumes (dal) before I started soaking them the night before; I'm always amazed at the legumes used for Indian food.
I made Dal Mahkani similar to this recipe, and this one, and cooking for more than 4 hours on the stovetop to get the right texture. You can also pressure cook, but we've done it before and the texture wasn't quite right. I liked the mix of legumes (dal). The red are "rajma" (Red/Kidney beans), Phaseolus vulgaris. The yellow are "Chana Dal"(small split chickpeas), Cicer arietinum and are different than yellow lentils, Lens culinaris. The black are one of the keys to getting your Dal and Tadka (more on that later) to taste right - "Urad Dal" or "Kali Dal" (related to Mung Beans), Vigna mungo.
I also saw many mentions of asafoetida, an Indian spice, being critical for good-tasting dal. It's actually made from the resin of a fennel-like plant. I was scared to buy it as it is also very pungent...nicknamed "devil's dung", but I gave it a try and double-sealed it in a glass jar outside of the plstic container. It smells a little like rotten garlic and a little like sweaty shoes&socks, but as soon as it hits hot oil it has a very rich, umami-type flavor like roasted garlic but hard to describe. I think it did add something to the dal and chutney. I have more than I'll ever use so borrow the jar if you are curry-making!
(Sorry, was I being a scientist for a second...?)
We made our favorite Saag Paneer recipe... really it should be called Sarson da Saag, as we use mustard greens (Sarson) as well as spinach (saag). We found out that 2 bags of prewashed baby spinach from Trader Joe's to one bag of the "braising mix" with mustard greens, collards, & spinach is the right proportion for getting the flavor right. We make the recipe as at the first link with many changes;
Start with only one or two hot green chilies and work up (you can sautee more and add at the puree step if it's not spicy enough). Double all the other spices (coriander/garlic/ginger paste, coriander/cumin seeds). Add some black mustard seed, garam masala, curry leaves, and turmeric powder to your taste. Double the cashew amount and add a little cream or thick yogurt to finish.
What is a tadka? This has been my secret to having success making Indian food. All the spices must be bloomed or sauteed in oil when you add them. Sometimes you do this along with the sauteeing onions (in a curry), but often you add more seasonings at the end of cooking, especially for dal. You heat oil or ghee in a little pan and fry up the seasonings until they are fragrant before adding to a dish. This made a difference in my cold dishes like Raita also.
I also made some coriander/mint chutney and raita with carrots & cucumbers. I made some Naan which was fun to grill on the smoker but didn't have that stretchy-soft texture we wanted. John also grilled some tandoori masala lamb, using the yogurt-based marinade in Joy of Cooking.
We had a full array of Indian dishes from our guests to complete the meal;
Justin & Michelle: Cold veggie curry from Alton Brown, perfect with the rest of the meal.
Sol: Chicken curry, just delicious and flavorful.
Haley & Hannah: Samosas from Vik's with Chutney.. what we needed waiting for the other food!
Hannah also made a stellar Seviya Kheer/Payasam, which is like the rice pudding common to Indian restaurants but with the thin noodles. Her recipe was excellent!
Thanks everyone! Sorry for the wordy post, more pictures and less talk next recap.
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