In any case, Indian Home Cooking is an excellent cookbook that makes no pretense of being exhaustive, either across regional cuisines or within any particular one. Instead, the author gives you the basic recipes and shows you how they might be adapted according to one's own ingredients or creative whims. He typically makes very few simplifications or substitutions, but suggests how you might make them were it necessary.
The first things I made from this cookbook were two vegetable dishes that, I realized after beginning, were almost identical. Oh well... these were just the vegetables I happened to have on hand. I tried to differentiate them by adding nigella seeds to one, omitting coconut from one, using bay leaves in one but not the other, and adding garlic in one. Both turned out quite well, but the amount of mustard seeds in the cabbage dish was a bit too much for my taste. I also struggled to follow the directions, which have you frying the spices and coconut in oil for quite a while before adding the veggies--I ended up with burnt coconut and undercooked vegetables, which suggests to me that you need to cook at a lower temperature if you're going to follow this method.
The real highlight of my first adventure with Indian Home Cooking was a dal, about which I'll post next!
Stir-Fried Cabbage with South Indian Spices
(from Indian Home Cooking)
Ingredients
3 TB canola oil
1 TB yellow split peas
1 TB black mustard seeds
1 TB nigella (kalonji onion) seeds (addition)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp red pepper flakes (substitution)
2 bay leaves (substitution)
*
1 small cabbage, cored and shredded (about 8 cups)
1/2 tsp salt
juice of 1/2 lime (or more)
Instructions
1. Fry spices in oil (do the split peas and mustard first, adding the rest after a minute or two).2. Add cabbage and cook briefly, until slightly wilted. Remove from heat, add salt and lime juice. Serves 4.
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Stir-Fried Mixed Summer Squash
(from Indian Home Cooking)
Ingredients
3 TB canola oil
1 TB black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red pepper flakes (substitution)
1 clove garlic
1/4 c shredded unsweetened coconut
2 lbs squash, halved and sliced
1/2 tsp salt, to taste
Instructions
1. Fry spices and coconut in oil (do the split peas and mustard first, adding the rest after a minute or two). Turn down the heat once you've added the coconut.2. Bring heat back up to medium high, add squash, and cook until slightly soft. Remove from heat, add salt. Serves 4.
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