Posted on 05/03/2019 4:30:10 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
Some years ago a little Indian restaurant opened not far from my home; for a tiny hole-in-the-wall in a strip mall, it has become very popular and received great reviews. This wasn’t my first experience with Indian food, but it certainly is the experience that made me an addict, and I wanted to learn how to make some similar dishes at home.
I posted an Instant Pot recipe for Butter Chicken last year:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3659886/posts
but last week I wanted to try an eggplant recipe. We adapted the following from the same book as the butter chicken - ‘The Keto Instant Pot Cookbook’ by Urvashi Pitre, and had some problems with it. I think there wasn’t enough liquid in it, and our cooker went kind of screwy. But after some tinkering – just adding some water - the resultant dish turned out delicious. We decided that next time, instead of using fresh tomatoes, we’ll use canned diced tomatoes with their juice, and perhaps avoid the problem of the pot going to ‘burn’. (I think you could easily convert this to a stove-top recipe by first softening the onions in an oil saute, and then adding canned tomatoes and the diced eggplant, and slow-simmering.)
Creamy Indian Eggplant (4 servings)
½ tsp. peanut oil (we just used olive oil)
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 tomato, chopped
4 cups chopped eggplant
½ tsp. Ground turmeric
½ tsp cayenne (we used more :-)
¼ tsp. Garam Masala (an easily found Indian spice mixture)
¼ tsp. Salt
¼ C. heavy whipping cream
Add oil to the Instant Pot interior pot. Place onion, tomato and eggplant on top in that order
Over the top of the veggies, sprinkle the spices and salt. Do not stir.
Lock the lid on the Instant Pot, select Manual, and adjust to low pressure. Cook for 4 minutes.
When cooking is done, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then quick-release any remaining pressure.
Select ‘saute’ and adjust to ‘More’ for high heat. When the mixture starts to bubble, add the cream, stirring well to incorporate. Allow the cream to thicken a little, about 2 minutes, and serve.
A lot of things that you may want to prepare an Indian-styled meal have become available in our supermarkets, now. When we were shopping for the eggplant ingredients, my husband remembered an Indian Lime Pickle that he had enjoyed in college, and went looking for something similar. We found Patak’s Lime Pickle, and it is a very unusual and interesting accompaniment to the richness of the eggplant - fresh, cool.
One of my favorite Indian food inventions is the Papadum. This is sort of like a cracker - when you see them in the store, they are very thin disks of black gram (urad – a bean) flour, but when you flash-fry them in oil, they turn into puffy, curly, crispy wonderfulness. They’re a lot of fun to make – some people grill them, or even microwave them; but the really satisfying way to cook and eat them is deep-fried. This is a very fast operation, as this video shows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRtFTWe9uiY
-JT
Undoubtedly!
Indians love color and use it beautifully. As Diana Vreeland once said: “Pink is the Navy Blue of India!”
Goanfood has a strong Portuguese influence. Also got to watch recipes if really get into their cooking style. It can often take several days to prepare in multiple steps and if you mess one up I’ve been told by an Indian chef who was also trained in Paris the dish is kind of ruined. My guess is it’ll be ok not great in most cases. Fish curry, however, is pretty easy.
Navy blue to you!
Now that you mention it.....that is a lovely shade of navy.
I think so.
Amazon. I looked it up some months ago. Not really my thing, but it'll give you an idea of what's available.
My only known gold consumption was a shot of Goldschläger at a neighbor's.
It’s called vark and it is probably behind locked doors in Indian groceries, lol. It’s a type of filigree, I gather.
I do not know if these are edible.
WARNING—HOPE THIS DOESNT SPOIL YOUR TASTE FOR IT.
Vark, Varak or Varakh is not vegetarian......it is a foil of very pure silver and is used for garnishing Indian sweets. The silver is edible, though flavorless. Large quantities of ingested elemental silver can cause argyria, but the use of vark is not considered harmful to the body, since the quantities involved in normal use are minuscule.
Vark is made by pounding silver into a sheet a few micrometres thick, and backed with paper for support; this paper is peeled away before use. It is extremely brittle and breaks into smaller pieces if touched. Vark sheets are laid or rolled over Indian sweets made from dates, nuts and various fruit and vegetable based rolls or sheet candies.
Vegetarian lobbyists claim that vark is hammered between animal fat or hide and is thus a non-vegetarian product.
The silver-topped sweet is even served as prashad in many temples and on auspicious and religious occasions.
Varakh is also used in flavoured syrups as in Kesar (saffron) syrup.
If one observes Vark under a microscope one will find traces of blood, stools and saliva of a cattle or an ox. Vark is not derived from an animal source. However, a crucial material of animal origin, ox-gut, is used in its manufacture. This ox-gut is obtained from the slaughterhouse.
The intestine (ox-gut), smeared with blood and mucus, is pulled out from the slaughtered animal by the butcher at the slaughterhouse, and sold for the specific purpose. This is then taken away to be cleaned and used in the manufacture of Vark.
Usually 4 foils are used per kilograms of sweets and the ox-gut of one cow is used to produce foil for approximately 4,000 kilograms of sweets. It is estimated that the average consumption of sweets by a middle class family of four in India is about 100 kilograms per year.
It surely does make for a pretty presentation, though it doesn’t actually add to the taste. It really helps devotees to know what not to consume, let alone offer in Bhoga or Prasad.
Silver, not gold! I wonder if it is allowed to be sold here given what you’ve written. As I said, I’ve never been able to find it.
Could be banned here......the process they use does not exactly stimulate one’s appetite.
Bacon Cheese topped with Fig Jam / appy
ING 8 oz ea Mascarpone, Cream Cheese, both room temp, cup grated cheddar 1/2 lb cooked bacon, 4 tsp br/sugar
tsp ea Cointreau, lemon juice 1/2 tsp lemon zest 1/4 tsp ea salt, ground mace, cayenne, 8.5 oz jar Fig jam (Dalmatia Orange Fig Spread is nice)
METHOD Proc/mascarpone and cream cheese til blended. Add brown sugar, orange liqueur, l/juice, lemon zest, salt, mace
and cayenne. Proc/blend. Add cooked bacon in large pieces. Add grated cheddar, then proc/pulse---just blend.
FINAL Double Line 2 cup ramekin w/ saran letting edges extend. Add bacon cheese. Wrap loose ends over top.
Gently press down to evenly fill. Chill preferably over night.
SERVE Invert the ramekin onto server. Peel off saran.Top with the fig jam. Line platter with crackers and apple slices. Serve.
Indian Espresso Coffee / Espresso without an espresso machine
Ing for one cup--- tb Instant Coffee Powder, 2 tb or more Sugar as per taste, cup Milk, tsp Water, Cocoa Powder garnish.
METHOD In a coffee mug, put instant coffee powder and sugar. Add 1 tsp water. W/ spoon, start beating vigorously. You have to incorpotate as much air as you can to get the whipped frothy coffee-sugar mix. The more you beat, the mix will become pale in colour. Make sure your mix is whipped and creamy enough. Now, heat a cup of milk and pour it over the whipped coffee-sugar paste. Stir.
SERVE Sprinkle w/ cocoa powder and serve immediately.
Chef Notes--To make extra cups, prepare the coffee-sugar paste in a bowl.
Divide equally into mugs; add hot milk. Stir and serve.
GRILLED NAAN
ING .25 ounce) package active dry yeast, cup warm water, 1/4 cup white sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, beaten egg, 2 teaspoons salt, 4 1/2 cups bread flour, 2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional), 1/4 cup butter, melted
Directions In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume. Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat. At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.
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