Aloo Gobhi

Indian food always seems so mysterious, with its complex flavors and rich mixtures of spices. And some of it can be complex - I have yet to mess around with making my own curry pastes, which has always seemed beyond my expertise (although now that I have an actual spice grinder and won't have to struggle with a mortar and pestle, I might change my tune).

This dish, however, is not complex at all. It's extremely simple and low stress. Just chop a few things, toss your ingredients in the pot and let them go. Minimal watching is involved to make sure the liquid doesn't boil off too soon. Other than that, sit back and wait for your house to fill with lovely spicy smells. (I haven't made this recipe in a while, so I forgot how easy it actually was. I had assumed I was going to be spending a lot of time in the kitchen and, instead, got to spend some extra time on the couch with a book!)

Aloo Gobhi
From Jamie's Food Revolution.

3 tbsp canola oil
small bunch cilantro
1 onion, chopped
1-2 jalapenos, minced
1" fresh ginger, minced
1 tbsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp ground turmeric (it might be interesting to try fresh turmeric in here some time - I've seen it at Whole Foods, looking just like ginger except yellow-orange under the skin)
1 tsp ground cumin
3 c cauliflower, chopped into florets (I used about half of a medium-sized one - you can include chunks of the stem in this dish, too, if you'd like)
1 lb potatoes, peeled and diced
2 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 lemon

Preheat oven to 425° F.

Pour the oil into a large ovenproof pot over medium-high heat. Separate the cilantro leaves from the stems and set aside. Mince the stems finely. When the oil is hot, add the onion, chiles, ginger, cilantro stems, mustard seeds, turmeric, and cumin and stir to combine.

Cook 7-10 minutes until the onions are softened. Stir in the cauliflower, potatoes, coconut, salt and pepper.

Add 1 2/3 c water and bring to a boil. Cover with a lid and simmer 10-12 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Stir to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot (you can also add a bit of water here, if you think it needs it). Cover the pot and stick it in the oven for another 20 minutes. Check seasonings and add more if necessary.

Garnish with chopped cilantro leaves and a big squeeze of lemon juice. Serve over rice.

Sweet Curry Carrots with Yogurt Sauce

I was invited by Cathy Elton of What Would Cathy Eat? to participate in her Healthy Thanksgiving Challenge. I first found Cathy's blog earlier in the year, after I'd been diagnosed with high cholesterol and was frantically looking for heart-healthy recipes. There are some totally delicious recipes on her blog - I definitely recommend checking it out. I may even be making her Caramelized Onion Tart with Greens and Cashew Cream to bring to my in-laws for Thanksgiving!

As my family has learned over the past several years, dealing with my dad's heart condition (and now my cholesterol), making a fantastic, healthy holiday meal isn't as difficult as it sounds. Of course you should treat yourself - no Thanksgiving table is complete without pie - but you don't have to make every dish a special (read: diet-busting) treat.

Fall vegetables should be at the center of every holiday meal. Sweet potatoes, winter squash, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts are some of my favorite things and all quite delicious without much adornment. Naturally, I had a very difficult time deciding what to make for this challenge. How could I choose? What ultimately happened was my CSA chose for me. Last Friday, part of my last farm share of the season was a bunch of gorgeous baby carrots - adorable, delicious and photogenic. This was the inspiration I was looking for. They brought to mind this recipe I'd pulled out of Better Homes and Gardens back in April. While this recipe was meant to grace an Easter table, it will do just as well for Thanksgiving.

The carrots are soft and delicious, the honey-curry glaze sweet and savory all at once, and the yogurt sauce adds a creamy finish. Jeff and I sat down and nearly finished off the platter by ourselves (of course, they'll go farther at a Thanksgiving table with several other side dishes - the original recipe claims it serves 8-10). I just hope I can get my hands on some more of these sweet babies to make for my own Thanksgiving dinner!

Sweet Curry Carrots with Yogurt Sauce
Better Homes and Gardens April 2012

1-1 1/2 lbs baby carrots (the tops should be trimmed down but still on)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt, divided
3 tbsp honey
1 tbsp curry powder (a heaping tablespoon, if you know what's good for you!)
2/3 c plain fat free Greek yogurt
1/4 c thinly sliced green onions (darker green ends only - reserve the white parts for something else)

Preheat oven to 425° F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spread the carrots on the baking sheet, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp salt. Roll the carrots around with your hands to coat them in oil. Roast for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the honey in a microwaveable bowl and heat for about 30 seconds, until nice and runny. Whisk in the curry powder. When the carrots are done, remove the tray from the oven and drizzle with the honey. Roll the carrots around in it to coat. Return to the oven for 10 minutes, until all the carrots are tender.

While the carrots finish roasting, combine the yogurt, green onions and remaining 1/4 tsp salt in a bowl. Serve alongside carrots for dipping.

Stuffed Curry Sweet Potato

I totally wish I had one of these right now. This delicious sweet potato was made and consumed over a week ago. I sneakily stocked up on stuff to blog about, knowing I had many long hours of train travel to fill. So I sit here, rocking to the rhythms of the last car of the train somewhere between Buffalo and Rochester (actually, we seem to be passing near Attica - I'll be on the lookout for escaped convicts), mentally drooling over this healthy, flavorful lunch as I try to write about it.

Actually, my lunch today wasn't half bad. I got a pretzels and hummus snack pack on the train and followed it up with some vegetable crudites I got to take home from the conference yesterday (it pays to get to know the local grad students). But there is no question that I would rather have had this potato.

When this recipe showed up on Naturally Ella, I spent some time drooling over it, but for one reason or another months passed before I actually tried it. Warm, mashed sweet potato blends with dense chickpeas and a pile of curry powder for a healthy, tasty and well-balanced entree. It's a great go-to recipe to keep in your repertoire - the most time-consuming part is baking the potato. The first time I made it, I forgot how long that can take. Just make sure you plan ahead and you'll be fine.

I think I'm going to have to make one of these for dinner tomorrow. Or maybe lunch - dinner's too far away!

Stuffed Curry Sweet Potato
Very slightly adapted from Naturally Ella.

1 medium sweet potato
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 c frozen peas, thawed slightly
1/2 c chickpeas
2 tbsp vegetable stock
1 tbsp curry powder

Preheat oven to 400°F. Poke some holes in the sweet potato and place it on a baking tray. Bake 45-50 minutes, until softened. Remove from oven and set aside to cool slightly.

Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add in onion, pepper and garlic and saute a few minutes until translucent. Add in chickpeas and frozen peas and cook until heated through. Set aside.

Lower the oven temperature to 375°F. 

Slice the sweet potato in half and scoop out the insides, leaving 1/4" or so around the edge (I like to use a melon baller for this). Mash the removed sweet potato well, then add curry powder and stock. Set aside about a third of this mixture, and combine the rest with the chickpea mixture. Stuff the sweet potato shells with it, then cover (as best you can) with the reserved sweet potato mixture. Place back on the baking tray and return to the oven for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!

Vegetable Samosas

Who needs to order out when you can make your own samosas? This was fairly quick and quite easy - the next time I have extra mashed potatoes lying around, I'm definitely going to do these again. Other than the egg roll wrappers, and perhaps the lentils, these are easy to throw together from ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry!

Anything wrapped in dough is a good call, in my opinion. These are comforting little packets of Indian flavor, ready for an appetizer, side dish, or even a snack. They were great with a little of our homemade spiced apple chutney, canned earlier in the season. Since the process was fairly quick, I would consider bringing these to a party as a crowd-pleasing appetizer.

My one complaint is that, in trying to keep things light, Cooking Light doesn't call for enough oil to get these truly crispy. You can see in the pictures the nice crispy spots where each samosa touched the pan - other than that, they got a bit doughy. I think some extra oil in the pan would fix this, however. And if you want to keep them light, just stick with the original recipe.

Vegetable Samosas
From Cooking Light's Way to Cook Vegetarian.

1 1/4 c mashed potatoes (we used two medium-sized, peeled russets with a little butter and half-and-half)

1/4 c cooked yellow lentils

1 1/4 tsp curry powder

1 tsp butter, softened

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/2 c frozen petite peas, thawed

12 egg roll wrappers

1 egg, lightly beaten

cooking spray (or a few tbsp oil)

Combine potatoes, lentils, curry powder, butter, salt, and cumin in a medium bowl. Fold in peas gently.

Slice each egg roll wrapper into two long rectangles. Brush the edges of each wrapper with egg. Add about 1 tbsp of filling near the bottom edge of the wrapper. Take one of the bottom corners and fold up to the opposite edge, forming a little triangle. Seal the edges well. Continue to fold like you are folding a flag, sealing the edges tightly as you go. Repeat with remaining egg roll wrappers.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Coat the pan with cooking spray (or add oil, if you'd prefer). Lightly coat samosas with cooking spray and add to pan. Cook about 1 minute each side, then drain on paper towels.

Serve with your favorite chutney!

Garlic Naan

I am vindicated!

I have not made a yeast bread since this debacle last year. I found it much more disappointing than I acknowledged in that post. I have been reticent to use yeast again, since it takes so much time out of my day to get such a mediocre result.

When I saw this recipe in the Vegetarian Times that I got from my neighbor (thanks, Marie!), I knew I had to give it a shot. I planned a nice Indian dinner for Sunday afternoon, determined to conquer the naan. To my extreme delight (no, seriously, I was bouncing around and grinning the whole time), it went beautifully. The dough rose perfectly, was easy to roll out, and started sizzling as soon as it hit the pan. As soon as the first one was flipped, I knew we had it. It looked like naan! It looked like something you could buy at the grocery store or be served at an Indian restaurant. It was perfect - bubbly on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside. If I weren't so stuffed, I'd grab another right now!

From now on, there will be no fear. I will plan to make fresh bread on a weekend. There is no reason I should not make my own pizza dough and flatbreads. I will even go back to making sandwich bread. I can do this! Although in the near future, while I still have a huge tub of plain yogurt to use up, I may be sticking with this naan!

Garlic Naan
From Vegetarian Times November 2011.

1/4 oz active dry yeast
3 1/3 c bread flour
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 c whole-milk yogurt, at room temperature! (I neglected to notice this direction before proofing my yeast, so we had to jump through hoops trying to warm it up a bit.)
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 tsp garlic, minced

Stir yeast into 1/4 c warm water (105-115°F). Let stand 10 minutes.

Whisk together 3 c flour, sugar and salt. (If using a stand mixer or food processor to knead, combine these things in your machine. I preferred to do this one by hand. If not kneading by hand, include all the flour.)

Combine yogurt, 2 tbsp olive oil and 3/4 c warm water (105-115°F). Pour this mixture and yeast mixture into flour mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine (or use your machine!). When the dough forms a ragged ball, pour it out onto a floured surface (using that remaining 1/3 c flour) and knead until all the flour is absorbed and the dough has become a smooth ball (or use your machine). Place your kneaded dough into an oiled bowl, cover and allow to rise 45 minutes to an hour, until doubled (I used the proofing setting on my oven and it was perfect in 40 minutes or so).

Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured counter or board. (Sorry, but in my haste to get it divided, I neglected to get a picture of the risen dough.) Divide dough into eight roughly equal pieces. Form each one into a ball, then press into a small disk. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rest 10 minutes.

Combine 1 tbsp olive oil with minced garlic and let stand, so the oil begins to absorb the garlic flavor. Preheat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, until a drop of water evaporates on contact.

After the dough has rested, on a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into an 8" round.

Transfer to the piping hot skillet and cook 1-2 minutes, until the bread begins to bubble up and the bottom begins to turn golden brown (you can lift the edge with tongs to check its progress).

Flip and cook for another minute, pressing down with a spatula to deflate any big air bubbles, until black blistery patches begin to appear on the bottom (and it looks like naan!).

Transfer to a serving plate, brush with garlic-oil mixture and serve with a nice curry!

Indian-Spiced Cauliflower and Tomatoes

Have I mentioned that I love cauliflower? I think I have. Roasted cauliflower is the best - the roasting brings out an almost nutty flavor. The only negative might be that the cauliflower can dry out a bit with roasting.

This recipe fixes that - the juice from the tomatoes soaks into the cauliflower and adds moisture, as well as flavor. On top of that, the Indian spices, cilantro and lemon juice provide a huge flavor kick. It's a tremendously tasty side dish, and incredibly simple - just toss everything in a bowl and roast. This is quickly becoming my favorite way to eat cauliflower - and, for that matter, tomatoes, which I do not normally eat. I'm not a fan of their squishy texture, but the roasting takes some of that away. The other thing I like about this recipe is that I can really taste every one of the flavors - it seems to have a lot of ingredients, but all of them make a difference. And who doesn't mind cranking up the stove on a chilly April evening?

Indian-Spiced Cauliflower and Tomatoes
From Food Network.

7 c cauliflower, cut into florets (I just chose the biggest head I could find at the store)

3 plum tomatoes, chopped (I didn't use plum tomatoes, but I have a hunch they would work better - less pulp and seeds to deal with)

1/4 c olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 tsp cumin seed

1/4 tsp turmeric

pinch cayenne

1/2 tsp salt

pepper to taste

lemon juice

cilantro

Toss all ingredients except lemon juice and cilantro together in a bowl. Transfer to a foil-lined baking sheet.

Roast at 450° F for 25 minutes (didn't I say this was easy?). Garnish with a squirt of lemon juice and some cilantro and serve.

Curried Potato Fritters

Two posts in one day? And so close together? What could prompt this?

Well, I finished posting before and then immediately went to the kitchen with Jeff to work on dinner. And what a dinner it was! We made these deep-fried curried potato fritters and they were awesome. The outside was golden brown and crispy, but the cheesy filling was soft and gooey. The sweetness of the mango and heat of the ginger in the chutney complemented the spiciness of the curry beautifully. Even though I had no intention of blogging this one, once we'd tasted the first batch, I had to grab my camera and document as much as I could.

I think this is only the second time ever that we've deep fried something, primarily because it seems like a waste to me to use so much oil for one recipe (and, honestly, we even didn't use enough this time to make the oil as deep as it should have been), but for this recipe, I think it's worth it.

The recipe said that it should make 24 small fritters, and we managed to make exactly 24 (I'm pretty sure that's never happened to me before - it's because Jeff was forming them). Now that's too many fritters for two people in one meal, and our oil started to get a bit low, so we decided to experiment with them. We ate a third of them for dinner, fried another third and put them in the fridge, and froze the last third unfried. We're going to try baking the pre-fried ones in the toaster oven for dinner tomorrow. The frozen ones will be fried at a later date. I'll check back in and let you know how those go! I think this would make a fantastic party food - and an even better one, if it turns out they can be prepped in advance!

**We had the rest of the fried fritters the next day for lunch. We popped them into the toaster oven at 350° for ten minutes or so and they were nearly as good as the day before. We'll be frying up the frozen ones next week.

Curried Potato Fritters
From Food Network Magazine July/August 2010.

2 medium russet potatoes
1 c 4% cottage cheese (this is a substitute for the more traditional paneer)
1/2 c frozen peas, thawed (we used full-size peas, rather than petite)
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 c + 2 tbsp flour
2 tsp kosher salt
vegetable oil for frying (depends on your pot size, but you should definitely have a lot - we had a small bottle and used a small pot and it wasn't nearly as much as the recipe called for)
4 eggs
2 c panko
mango chutney, for serving

Prick potatoes all over with a fork and microwave 8-10 minutes, until tender. Peel the potatoes (I tried to just peel the skin off with my hands to mediocre results. Surprisingly, a vegetable peeler worked better - I had thought the potatoes would be too soft for it, but not so). Transfer the potato to a large bowl and mash with a fork until mostly smooth. Mix in the cheese, peas, curry powder, 2 tbsp flour, and salt. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Heat about 2" of vegetable oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat until it reaches 375° F (a deep fry thermometer would help with maintaining this temperature - although we let the temperature drop quite far - below 300° - and the fritters still came out fine. They just took a much longer time to get to that golden brown color).

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs in a shallow bowl. Add the 1/2 c flour to another bowl and the panko to a third. Form the potato mixture into about 24 golf ball-sized portions, then flatten each one into 2" patties. Dredge each patty in the flour (dusting off any excess), then the egg, then the panko (we had some trouble getting the egg to stick to all the flour - try to keep those bare spots to a minimum, though, because the cheese will leak out when they hit the oil).

Fry the patties in batches until golden, turning as needed. Each batch should take about 1-2 minutes, if your oil is properly hot.

Once the fritters are golden, transfer them to a paper bag or paper towels to drain. Once they've drained, serve with mango chutney.