Friday 14 October 2011

The "Curry Lover's Cookbook" Lover

Last night I cooked a couple of dishes from Mridula Baljekar's "Curry Lovers Cookbook". This is a favourite of mine and thoroughly recommended for anyone, as the name of the book suggest, loves curry.
The first dish was an old favourite, of chicken saag. I tone down the heat a little, with a but less curry powder and chilli than asked, but otherwise stick much to the recipe in the book. I won't reproduce it here (buy the book!) but here's the potted version:



Cook the spices and onions, then add the tomatoes.



Blend cooked spinach, garlic and ginger.



Mix together the onion, tomatoes and spinachy goodness.



Stir in the yogurt and simmer.



Add the chicken, cover and simmer until lovely...



...ignoring requests to dish up early!
For the second dish, we were a little more adventerous and went for something new. I've never cooked okra before but my wife is a big fan, so I made the "okra in yogurt". There's actually not much yogurt involved but it's very easy and super-tasty. Best of all, you only need on pot and you can prepare the whole lot while the chicken saag is simmering away!



Wash and chop your okra into chunks.



Fry some onion seeds,
chilli and sliced onion.



Add turmeric and dessicated coconut.



Add the okra and stir-fry briskly.



Then stir in some yogurt, tomatoes and coriander before serving.



Finally, make the cat jealous!
As well as yummy recipes, the book starts with great sections on the different regions of India, their cuisine, and lots of great stuff about the different ingredients that you find in curries and how to balance a menu etc. Educational, beautiful and delicious!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment! (Unless you're a spammer, in which case please stop - I am only going to delete it. You are just wasting your time and mine.)