Aloo Bhindi Curry

This is the last dish for TTCB's stop over in India, I haven't decided where to next. I will have to look over the list and choose.......

Recipie by Sulekha.com - http://food.sulekha.com/

Ingredients:

Aloo (Potato) - 1/4 kg (peeled and cut into small pieces)
Bhindi (Okra) - 1/4 kg ( cut lenghtwise into 1 inch pieces) - used tinned Okra
Tomato - 1 big
Onion - 2 medium
Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tbs
Salt - as needed

For Seasoning :

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves - a few sprigs
Oil - a little

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan and fry the potatoes & okra separately. Keep them aside.

2. Heat a little oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds and saute onion pieces till slight brown

3. Add diced tomato & curry leaves and cook over a low heat for a few minutes. On a low heat keep it cooking for about 10 minutes.

4. Add the fried Potato & Okra along with chilli powder & salt as needed (this does make a hot curry so you may wish to tone down the amount of chilli powder you use)

5. Stir till curry and vegetables are properly mixed and cooked through.

Potato~ Aloo

Okra ~ Bhindi (from tin with caps removed)

This recipe wasn't the easiest to follow....it was kinda limited in its instruction, at least this was what Mr TTCB said as he was cooking it. It was sweet of him to step up and do this dish for me as I really wanted to try it but was feeling too poorly to bother. I have added a bit of information to this that was not on the original site and fixed some of the English translation up to hopefully make it a bit easier on you guys if you wish to try it.

We just served this dish with plain boiled rice and some store brought Roti (bread wrap), you can also make yourself a Rasam to go over the rice if you wish to be more traditional.

I thought the curry and rice was a little dry but I imagine a Rasam would fix that as it is served over the rice so would add liquid to the dish. It was certainly full of flavour but Miss Three was really not having it...But she did eat the plain rice and the Roti.

TTCB Rating: 2/5

Still Here...

I know I haven't posted in a few days but I am still here and doing the food tour thing, I have not abandoned my goal. Painfully though I have been coping with headaches, and as those who suffer them will agree you just don't feel up to much when they are bad. So I have been taking it easy and not cooking.

I don't have a picture to show you yet but.........Some exciting news is that I won a competition over at "Not Quite Nigella" and I am excitedly waiting for my Citta Paper Napkins. I know some of you are thinking *rolling your eyes* yeah great wow napkins, but I love pretty and functional things and I enjoy cooking dinner for my friends and family and dressing the table. So I am excited to be receiving a little gift in the post. So thank you Lorraine over at "Not Quite Nigella" for hosting a great competition.

Great Northern Hotel‎
40 Elbow St, West Kempsey NSW 2440
(02) 6562 4323‎

Keeping with my Indian theme Mr Saphire brought home some Indian take out tonight, now this is quite a feet considering there is no Indian restaurant in our town, but he was excited when he spotted that the restaurants behind The Great Northern a local pub, does different cuisines on a Wednesday night.

This week it was Indian (next week I believe is Japanese if anyone is interested). The take out we had tonight was Rogan Josh, and a fish dish. I am not sure what the fish dish was called and either is Mr Saphire. The fish dish had a pickle or chutney on top and the fish was steamed. It was all quite nice but I do confess I have had better and it was rather similar to make at home kits you get from the supermarket in a jar or box. But I guess the luxury is in this case it taste fine and no one had to cook and there were no dishes either. Mr Saphire also managed to score an Indian desert called Burfi.

Burfi we had was a sweet coconut based desert, that we both agreed I should try and make. So I am going to share a recipe for Coconut Burfi with you that I found at http://www.bellaonline.com/

COCONUT BURFI

Ingredients:

2 cups grated coconut (you can use desiccated, just make sure it is unsweetened)
½ cup sugar (you can use Splenda), to taste
1, 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
pinch of cardamom powder
2 tbsp toasted coconut flakes for garnish

METHOD:

In a small dry skillet on very low heat, lightly toast 2 tbsp of coconut flakes until golden brown. Remove from the skillet immediately and set aside until needed. This will be used for the garnish.

Since the condensed milk is already sweetened, you may not need to use any sugar. This is a personal preference depending on your level of desired sweetness.

In a saucepan on medium low heat, add the condensed milk and the sugar. Stir well and allow the sugar to dissolve. Add the coconut, stir well to combine and let cook until all the liquid has been absorbed and the coconut starts clumping together. Keep stirring continuously so the mixture does not burn. Add the cardamom powder, remove from the heat and allow to cool just slightly.

Spread evenly on a lightly greased (butter or cooking spray) baking sheet or tray. The thickness should be at least ¼ inch but no more than ½ inch thick. This is easy to do while the mixture is still warm. Decorate with the toasted coconut flakes and allow to cool. Cut into diamond shape pieces and refrigerate in an airtight container.

help with an ingredient

For my next Indian dish I need Okra or Ladies finger and I have no idea where to get this, does anyone have any suggestions or ideas for substitutes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okra

Chicken Shorba

Chicken Shorba

recipe by Indian Food Forever - http://www.indianfoodforever.com/

Ingredients:

100 gms Boneless Chicken Shredded
500 ml Chicken Stock
1 tblp Garlic Finely Chopped
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tblsp White Flour
2 tsp Butter
1 tblsp Oil
Salt & White Pepper to taste
1 tblsp Fresh Cream

How To Make Chicken Shorba:

1) Heat the butter in a pan and fry the shredded chicken pieces till tender.
2) Remove and keep aside. In a pan heat oil and let the cumin seeds splutter.
3) Add the chopped garlic and sauté for a few seconds.
4) Add the white flour and fry for 1 min.
5) Add the chicken, chicken stock, white pepper powder and salt.
6) Cook on medium level for about 4 minutes while stirring all the time. Stir in the fresh cream just before serving.

Note: For 500 ml of chicken stock, cook about 500 grams of chicken bones with one liter of water add chopped onions and garlic till the stock is reduced to half the quantity

( Chicken Shorba Ingredients)

This was a quick and easy recipe and it tasted so good, was perfect for when your feeling down and want something a bit more substantial then packet chicken noodle soup in a cup. It smelt wonderful and has a wonderful mild Indian taste, that comes from the cumin seeds.

(My Chicken Shorba Cooking )

The only change I would make to this dish would be to double or even triple the quantities, because this recipe only made enough for about two people, three if you stretch it.

This was a family pleaser, even little miss three came back for more and the sick weak husband sat up to eat a bowl full and fought off miss three who was trying to help him consume it. I think this will become a winter favorite.

TTCB Rating: / 5

(Finished Chicken Sorba served with Naan )

Sick Family - Chicken Shorba

Because the whole family is ill with a yucky virus at the moment, aching bodies, headaches, temperatures and upset tummies galore.

I decided we needed some chicken soup....because lets face it, its good for the soul and nothing beats chicken soup when your feeling poorly.

I then wondered if India had its own version of good old chicken soup, a quick google search found me with a Chicken Shorba recipe.

I was concerned that it might be too spicy but this recipe doesn't have any heat in it and the only spice is cumin. Which shouldn't be harsh on upset tummies.

So I will be off to the shops later today and hopefully will be making Chicken Shorba for dinner....lets hope its a miracle cure.

Sabudana Payasa

Sabudana Payasa/Kheer: Sweet Pearly Delight
recipe by Beyond Curries - http://beyondcurries.blogspot.com/

Ingredients:

1 cup Sabudana/Sago/Tapioca Pearls
2½-3 cups Water
1 cup Whole Milk
1¼-1¾ cups Sugar
A Pinch of Saffron, crushed
5-6 Green Cardamoms, peeled and seeds crushed to powder
Few Cashews
1 tbsp Ghee/Clarified Butter

(Serves: 5 - 7 people )

I wont write out all the directions because the recipe is not mine, so please click the name of the dish or the website link for the full directions. I suggest when making this dish that you should have all your ingredients measured out and on hand. It can be hard to stop the sago sticking if you have to take the time to measure and crush during the cooking.

(My Sago After Soaking)

( The Sago Turning Translucent During Cooking )

I also discovered when buying Saffron that you need to be cautious of what brand you buy, I picked up one brand that was $13.50 and then was luckily pointed to another that was about $6 and had 5 times the amount in the container. A pretty big difference on the hip pocket. I managed to buy all my ingredients at Woolworth's so I imagine you should be able to find them at most grocery stores.

Changes I would make next time would be, only 1 cup of sugar as 1 and 1/4 cups was just too sweet for my families taste. Thinking about it I wouldn't bother with green cardamom seeds either, I would simply put in a teaspoon of cardamom already out of the shell that I crushed. I also added some raisins to the cashew mix to my Sabudana Payasa.

The dish was easy to make and quite lovely, certainly a different desert to plain old vanilla ice cream and chocolate topping that is pretty much a family norm unless its a special occasion.

My three year old daughter unfortunately screwed up her nose and said she didn't like it, but she was also intent on playing at the time. Don't you just love the fussy stages, I will try her again on it tomorrow cold and during the day so the sugar rush has time to burn off.

TTCB Rating : /5
I will certainly be trying Sabudana Payasa again, maybe a fresh fruit variation I saw with mango. The day after I made the Sabudana Payasa dish, I tried the left overs cold with plain vanilla ice cream and it was divine the ice cream cut the sweetness and balanced it out very nicely.

(My Sabudana Payasa - with raisins and cashews)

India

As I mentioned the other day the first destination for TTCB is India. I can smell the curry and exotic spices already. I have never cooked Indian before and I have only eaten Indian a handful of times, so I am in no way an Indian expert or guru. However I do have a fondness for naan bread I can seriously just eat the stuff all day, pulling off piece by piece and popping the warm bready goodness into my mouth.

My favorite would be garlic naan, I was recently sitting in a shopping center food court (usually not drool worthy food). I was enjoying my chicken and pasta salad, when someone sat down next to me and this amazing smell wafted over to my table and I began to drool. The woman had obviously been to the Indian food outlet and they had made fresh naan it smelt hevenly....so much so that I had to go buy some fresh garlic naan to eat in the car.



(Garlic Naan)

Because of my limited expertise with Indian food, I reached out across the Internet and contacted a friend from South India to point me in the right direction. Don't you just love how cyber space brings us closer to our fellow man regardless of distance and the oceans between us.

After talking for a few hours and a lot of patience shown on his part, dealing with my ignorance of the cuisine culture of India and not to mention the language barrier when it came to some of the ingredients. We finally narrowed it down to a few dishes, that he claims to be "simple" for me to try my hand at first. Please remember those are his words not mine, so that when you hear of me screaming in frustration and stamping my feet when it doesn't work out.....we shall blame him.

Okay, so I wont really blame my Indian friend but it sounded like a good back up plan. I am a little nervous about some of the new ingredients I will be playing with but excited at the same time. I also came to an interesting revelation about pressure cookers.

Pressure cookers? your now asking yourself what revelation could I possibly come to about this humble cooking appliance. Well I confess I thought of the pressure cooker as an appliance my grandmother would use, hardly something found in a modern kitchen. I know I don't have one and never thought of buying one but as I began to browse for recipes I actually found a lot of modern Indian recipes using them. I also opened up the latest junk mail flyer in my mail box the other day and there as if like some sign from the cooking gods was a brand new cook book advertising recipes for the pressure cooker.

I guess cooking is like fashion and everything old becomes new again in some way shape or form. I do not have a pressure cooker as yet but this weekend I am still going to try my hand at Indian cuisine.


-:On the Indian menu:-

* Rasam and Rice
* Potato Lady's Finger Curry - Aloo Bhindi Curry
* Sabudana Payasa/Kheer: Sweet Pearly Delight* Chicken Shorba

Once I have completed the dishes, I will post up the recipes with my review of the outcome for each including photos. Please note none of the recipes are my own so I will be giving credit where credit is due to the owner and source of each recipe on TTCB.



Happy Travels
Saphire xxx