On Sunday night, we had the opportunity to spend an afternoon cooking with M, who is a great cook (she’s Indian, but can cook all kinds of amazing foods). M mentioned doing this as part of our wedding gift, and it was such a great idea. We really appreciated learning about how to make authentic Indian food. In the end, we enjoyed our hard work and ate the feast with her family. It was a great night of food, friends, and fun.
The feast consisted of butter chicken, an eggplant dish, cashew shrimp, special rice, yogurt chutney, greens and cauliflower. We learned about the masala dabba, and now we have have one. It is a round spice box that most Indian families have for cooking, and it consists of (usually) turmeric, Indian red chili powder, cardamom pods, cloves, coriander, garam masala, mustard seeds, and cumin – basically whatever you would like.
Masala Dabba - ours has ground cumin, cinnamon, dried red chili, turmeric, Indian red chili powder, black and green cardamom pods.
Here are the recipes and pictures.
1 T = 1 Tablespoon
1 t = 1 teaspoon
Butter Chicken
- 2 lb chicken thighs (boneless, skinless); cut in halves
- 3 small onions
- 2 Tbsp garlic
- 1T ginger
- ¼ c yogurt
- 2 T tomato paste
- 2 cups half & half
- 1 bay leaf
- Garam masala
- Indian red chili powder
- Cumin powder
- Butter/margarine
- Fresh coriander/cilantro leaves to garnish
- Melt 2 Tbsp of butter/margarine
- Fry the onions, garlic, ginger until fragrant and soft
- Fry the chicken with it, adding the garam masala and chili powder and cumin on the chicken (distribute well), coating the one side evenly
- Put salt on the meat while it is cooking (this helps it absorb the salt better)
- Fry the one side of the chicken until browned and then flip chicken over. If you prefer hotter and want more spice, you can add more garam masala and chili powder here.
- Keep mixing and frying everything together until natural juices come out and is brownish in color.
- Add yogurt, tomato paste, bay leaf, and 1 cup of the half and half, and pepper to taste. Stir, and gradually add the rest of the half and half.
- When everything is mixed well and is to the right consistency, turn off heat, and add fresh coriander leaves on top at the end.
Frying the ginger, garlic, and onion
Frying the chicken in onion mixture. Distribute the spices well on the one side.
Chicken flipped over. Add more spices if you like spicier.
You can see the natural juices come out the chicken.
finished Butter Chicken (in the front)
Bagara Bigan
This is a Mogul eggplant dish that M’s dad used to make. Her dad is from Hydrabad, Indian.
- 2 T oil
- 3 (Chinese) eggplants OR 2 Italian eggplants – cut diagonally into 3 inches by 1 inch rectangles
- 8 curry leaves* see note on curry leaves
- 1 t cumin seed
- 1 t pureed ginger
- 1 t ground cumin
- 1 t ground coriander
- ½ t chili powder (Indian)
- ½ t turmeric
- 2 T tahini
- 1 T tamarind paste (combine it in 1 cup of warm/hot water)
- Heat oil in a VERY LARGE pan (the eggplants will shrivel, so you can do this in batches in smaller pans)
- Sauté eggplants (purple side down first, as this is less sticky). When it turns a light golden color, flip eggplant around.
- Add spices and ginger and mix
- Add tahini and mix well
- Use water here and there to scrape off the bottom, mix well.
- Add tamarind (with the water together), mix.
- Season with salt
- Simmer until water is evaporated, stirring; color should be light brown – it will turn out to be mush-like, but it is delicious!
Saute the eggplant puple side down first
Flip eggplant over when slightly browned and charred (golden brown).
Fried Eggplant
Finished Fried Eggplant - don't be surprised if only a little bit of the eggplant is left over when done - it will shrivel up
* Curry leaves are sold fresh – we brought them at a local Indian store, and we froze half of them after washing:
Curry Leaves
Yogurt Chutney
- 2 cups yogurt
- Salt
- Thinly sliced 1 small onion
- 1 diced tomato
- ¼ t turmeric
- ¼ t red chili powder (Indian)
- ¼ t mustard seed
- 1 t cumin
- 2 dried red chilies
- Add salt into yogurt a little at a time, stirring in between, until yogurt is no longer bitter (adding salt all at one time will not help)
- Fry a bit of oil in small pan
- Fry up the onions, tomato and the rest of the ingredients, until everything is soft and fragrant
- Mix yogurt and onion mixture together well
Making the yogurt chutney
Finished yogurt chutney
Special Rice
- 3 cups of rice
- 6 cups water
- 6 cloves
- 6 cardamom pods (green)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 t pureed/grated garlic
- 2 bay leaves
- Salt
–> Everything here can be adjusted according to how much rice one wants; do the math:
–> 1:2 ratio of 1 cup rice: 2 cups water
–> 2 cloves, 2 cardamom pods to every cup of rice (2:1)
- Put everything in a rice cooker or pot; stir everything together
- Cook rice as you would normally
Special Rice
Beans/Cauliflower (or other veg)
- 2 lb veg (we used beans and cauliflower – 2 lbs each, cooked separately)
- ¼ t chili, turmeric, mustard seeds (each)
- 1 t cumin seeds
- 2 dried red chilies
- Some garlic
- Pinch of salt
- Put the veg in a saucepan/shallow pot with just a little bit of water (to cover the bottom), to steam lightly, until just boiled or right before it (eg: ensure the green bean is still bright green color)
- Keep heat on, with veg still in pot, evaporate excess water
- Add oil and distribute the spices evenly over the veg (or else you would get some veg with a lot of spice, and others not enough!). If you have unfortunately put too much spice in one area, you can pour some water over that area, and stir it a bit to re-distribute the spices; you would have to cook it for a bit longer to evaporate the water though
- Cook until preferred “fried” consistency
- You can scrape the bottom of pan with a little bit of water
Cauliflower
Green Beans
Cashew Shrimp
This recipe is slightly modified by M; original recipe is from Bonnie Stern, who used the recipe by Vij (from Vij’s restaurant in Vancouver; amazing restaurant, by the way)
Marinade:
- 1 t grated lemon peel
- 1 t paprika
- 1 t ground cumin
- 2 T veg oil
- 2 lb chicken or shrimp
- 2 t “white man’s” red chili powder
Topping:
- ½ c thinly sliced garlic
- ¼ t cayenne powder
- 1/4 t salt
- Pepper
- 2 T butter
- 1 T veg oil
- ¾ c chopped, roasted cashews
- 1 T lemon juice
- Marinate the chicken/shrimp with the above marinade for approx. 20-30 mins
- Combine the cayenne, salt and pepper
- Heat butter oil, add garlic, cook for 4-5 mins until golden brown (not too brown, or else it will become bitter)
- Add cashews and lemon juice and a little bit of “white man’s” chili powder; transfer to plate
- Fry the chicken/shrimp in pan until done (not over done though).
- Add the cashew shrimp mixture together
Shrimp with lemon peel (part of the marinade)
Cooking the shrimp
Cashew Shrimp
It was a great night indeed!
The Feast!
