An Indian Dinner Party

Friday night:

Went out for dinner and got a great meal at 25 EST with a serving of chicken, pork, and sausage. Awesome. Time flew and didn't get home till 3am. Then had a 3-way skype conversation with Aaron and Tim till 4.30am. Crazy!

Saturday night:

Indian dinner party at my place! Amanda and I did a cooking class in Udaipur and I made a few of the recipes from that night, courtesy of Shushma...

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• Dal

1 cup lentils (any kind) or beans, soaked in hot water for at least an hour

2 medium onions, finely chopped

10-12 small cloves of garlic

[optional: 2 tsp grated ginger]

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp red chilli powder

Salt (according to taste)

1 tsp garam masala

3 medium tomatoes, finely chopped

4 tbsp oil (any kind except olive oil), ghee or butter

[For Tadka Dal, add ½ tsp black mustard seeds and ½ tsp cumin seeds]

1 tbsp chopped coriander for garnish

Boil soaked lentils with ½ litre of water in a pressure pan for 10 minutes, or

in an open pot for 20 minutes. In a separate pan, add oil, then onions. When

onions turn golden (this takes quite a while), add crushed garlic, all spices,

then chopped tomatoes. Roast until oil and masala separate (this is the base

of Indian food – at this point you could add anything: eggplant, steamed vege,

mushrooms, pasta or meat), then add boiled lentils, sprinkle over coriander

and cover for two minutes.

Variation: To make dal makhani, soak black lentils, kidney beans and yellow

lentils (1 cup total) overnight, then boil in milk for 20 minutes. The rest of the

recipe is the same, but be sure to use butter instead of oil.

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• Aloo Gobi

1 floret of cauliflower (1/2 kg) [note: you can use any veges, peas carrots etc]

2 medium potatoes

4 tbsp cooking oil (soya oil is good, but can use anything except olive oil)

½ tsp fennel seeds

½ tsp mustard seeds

½ tsp fenugreek seeds

½ tsp asafetida

½ tsp garam masala

½ tsp turmeric powder

½ tsp red chilli powder

Salt (according to taste)

½ tsp chopped green chilli

2 tomatoes, finely chopped

½ tsp chopped ginger

Heat oil in pan, add all seeds until they start to crackle. Add adafetida, then

potatoes, cauliflower, turmeric powder, salt, garam masala, chilli powder,

and mix well. Cover for 10 minutes until the vegetables become soft, then add

chopped tomatoes, ginger and green chilli. Mix well, cover and leave for a few

minutes, then garnish with coriander.

• Chapatti

6 cups of fine whole wheat flour (called Atta in India)

2 ½ cups of water

Very slowly add water while mixing into a dough. The dough should be quite

soft and a bit sticky. Roll into balls with hands then use rolling pin to press

dough out into thin flat discs. Cook as Sushma demonstrated (good luck)!

Guys notes: A ball the size of a lemon, then lightly cover it in flour. Roll, then

cover in flour again. Then put in pan. Bubbles…turn…then it starts to brown.

Put the not-brown side on live flame of the gas cooker for about 3 seconds.

It puffs up in a ball, then take off – it’s done! (it will puff down again). OR

without gas: press with a wet towel around the edges, and it will puff up the

same.

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• Paratha (stuffed bread)

100g grated paneer

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tsp mint powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp garam masala

Salt (according to taste)

[Note: you can basically put anything you like inside – cooked and mashed

potato, grated cauliflower or cabbage etc]

Mix all ingredients well. Roll a little dough out (not too thin), put a spoonful of

the filling into the middle, then seal like a dumpling. Roll out again, and cook

using butter/oil/ghee on both sides.

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• Chai (recipe for two people)

1 cup water

2 big ass pinches of chai masala (You can leave this out for normal chai - indians only put it in for special occasions)

Bring to the boil, add 1 tsp of assam tea (the flash stuff) or any other chai tea leaves, then add 1cup milk and add sugar according to your taste. Bring to the boil for two minutes, then coverfor two minutes [ this is exactly as she says it, but I think you must have to turn the heat downor off, then cover it], strain it and drink.

Dal & Aloo Gobi

15 hungry hippos to serve.

Lots of people helped out with the cooking ("Yes Chef!"), which was really great because I'm a stressy unpracticed cook...but it all turned out great!

The Chai tea was excellent too. SO much sugar. And with added Garam Masala it tasted super authentic.

The night was really fantastic! Great company. Great food. Great fun. We ate and drank and danced and chatted and played party games. Charades at 3:30am got intense.

It was also a great way to introduce Victoria - our new little classmate from New Zealand - to the group. She's taking the Characters workshop and staying with me for the month. :)

Sunday: Recovery.