Stuffed Aubergines

From The New Tastes of India, Das Sreedharan, Headline, 2001.

When I read this recipe I was uncertain of it right from the start but, oddly, it was that uncertainty that made me want to make it.

I took an eggplant (aubergine) and cut it into quarters, slicing from the round end down to the base but leaving the base connected so that the four sections of the vegetable were still joined. I now added a little oil to a wok and placed the eggplant in it and fried it for about 5 minutes, turning it every so often in order to ensure it was cooked on all sides. It was then left to cool.

I now made the stuffing. About 50g desiccated coconut was placed in a pan with a tablespoon oil, about a teaspoon urad dal, a tablespoon cumin seeds, a pinch of asafoetida, 2 dried red chillies and some salt. This was stirred over heat until the coconut was golden. It was then taken off the heat and blitzed in the blender with a little water until it formed a rough paste.

The eggplant was now stuffed with this mixture. I could hardly call it stuffing as there was really no pocket in which to place the stuffing. It was more a matter of coating the sections of the vegetable with as much of the coconut mixture as would hold.

Now a tablespoon yellow mustard seeds, a teaspoon cumin seeds, a teaspoon urad dal, a sliced green chilli and 4 curry leaves were dropped into a little hot oil in a wok. When the mustard seeds began to pop the eggplant was added, the heat reduced, and a cover placed over the wok. The eggplant was now cooked for another 5 minutes, turning it carefully occasionally.

I can’t say I was really over impressed with this dish. Where the eggplant cooked through thoroughly it was not too bad, the stuffing was flavoursome and there was a little bit of crunch left in the toasted coconut, but there was an occasional patch where the vegetable had not cooked totally—and eggplant is quite unpleasant when this occurs.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔ 

Spiced Vegetable Soup

From The New Tastes of India, Das Sreedharan, Headline, 2001.

I had not realised that soups were part of the Indian cuisine so I was keen to try this one and, as I had all of the ingredients on hand, I got straight into it.

About 100g of cabbage was finely sliced and the same amount of cavolo nero sliced. The recipe called for spinach but I had cavolo nero on hand. A green chilli was also sliced finely. These all went into a saucepan on a reasonably low heat for 5 minutes to wilt but not completely cook.

At the same time a potato and a carrot were chopped and placed in a saucepan with salted water. This was brought to the boil and they were cooked until soft. They were then drained and part mashed.

Half an onion was finely sliced and cooked until soft in a little butter with 3 cloves and a cinnamon stick. A tablespoon of plain flour was added together with the mashed potato and carrot. This was stirred into the onion and cooked for a little longer.

Now almost a litre of water was stirred in with the green vegetables and two tomatoes cut into quarters. This was brought to the boil and simmered for 5 more minutes, stirring every so often. I tasted it now and it lacked flavour so I added a vegetable stock cube to the soup. This improved it considerably.

The soup was now served with finely chopped red capsicum and crisp onion flakes.

The spices gave this soup a distinctive flavour quite unlike any other soup I have had before. The cinnamon came through strongly though did not detract from the greens. 

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Black Pepper Rice

From ‘The New Tastes of India’, Das Sreedharan, Headline, 2001.

Whenever I cook rice I usually use the rice cooker so for this particular recipe I changed instructions somewhat to make it work in the cooker.

Firstly I fried a chopped onion until it had browned. I placed the onion in the rice cooker. Now in the same frying pan I cooked a halved green chilli, half a dozen curry leaves, a half teaspoon of mustard seeds and of cumin seeds, and a half teaspoon of black peppercorns which was a little bit more than the recipe called for. After the mustard seeds began to crackle I added the contents of the pan to the cooker.

Two hundred grams of jasmine rice was now washed several times until the water ran clear. This was added to the cooker with half a teaspoon of salt. Water was added and the cooker turned on to cook.

This was a good change from the usual plain cooked rice. The spicy flavours had fused into the rice and gave it a lift.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Avial

From The New Tastes of India, Das Sreedharan, Headline, 2001.

I am used to curries that have coconut milk in them and hence have a creamier texture. This particular curry turned out to be much lighter.

It had drumsticks as an ingredient—and this is a vegetarian cookery book.  However, it seems drumsticks are a type of vegetable. There were none available here so I settled for sticks of celery which I hoped would be perhaps close.

The celery and carrots were cut into pieces. I like them larger sized in my curries. They were placed in a saucepan, covered with water and brought to the boil.

While they were simmering the potatoes were cut up and then added to the pot to cook until they were nearly tender.

While the vegetables were simmering, ginger, a green chilli and cumin seeds were pounded in a mortar and pestle with a little water until the mixture became a paste.

When the potatoes were close to cooked green beans were added to the mix with a teaspoon of turmeric, some salt and the paste. This was simmered for a few more minutes and some yoghurt and desiccated coconut were added. A few curry leaves were also added and the mixture was gently heated through though not brought to the boil.

It was served with rice, paratha and coconut chutney.

This was a light, gently spiced curry. Though my preference is for the hotter, spicier thick curries I did enjoy this one.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Kerala Paratha

From The New Tastes of India, Das Sreedharan, Headline, 2001.

I really enjoyed making this paratha.

I measured out wholemeal flour into a bowl and then added olive oil, one tablespoon to each 50g of flour. Gradually I added water until I had a reasonably mouldable dough. This I kneaded for a while before it was put aside to rest.

After about an hour the dough was divided into portions. Each portion was then rolled in the palm of the hand until it was a ball shape. It was then sprinkled lightly with flour and rolled out on the benchtop to a round of about 15cm.

Each round was then brushed lightly with oil and rolled up like a sausage. The rolled dough was then carefully wound up. The best way to do this seemed to be to place one end in the palm of the hand and then wind the remainder around this. It was then flattened in the palm of the hand.

This flat round was then placed back on the benchtop, lightly dusted with flour and rolled out to a circle, this time a little smaller than the previous one.

It was then only a matter of heating a pan, dropping on a little oil and then frying the paratha until it was browned on both sides.

Fun to make and fun to eat. They really went well with the curry I made.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Coconut and Tamarind Chutney

From The New Tastes of India, Das Sreedharan, Headline, 2001.

I thought I might go for an Indian meal so consulted my copy of The New Tastes of India. Firstly I settled on making this chutney.

A small amount of tamarind pulp was placed in a bowl with an equally small amount of hot water. With a spoon this was broken down as much as possible and then left for half an hour. It was then strained. I ended up with about a tablespoon of tamarind juice.

The tamarind was placed in a blender with coconut (the recipe called for fresh but I used mine from a packet), a couple of chopped green chillies, some ginger (I used half the amount in the recipe because I find they generally overdo the amount of ginger), a glove of garlic and a little salt. This was blended until it was as fine as I could make it. It was supposed to become a fine paste but this was beyond my blender’s abilities.

Before serving, some oil was heated in a frying pan and a teaspoon of mustard seeds added. When they were popping I added a teaspoon of urad dal, a couple of dried red chillies and some curry leaves from the garden. They were stirred for a while and then poured over the coconut mix.

I think it missed a little from not using fresh coconut but, all in all, it was a very acceptable chutney.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Mushroom and Cashew Nut Samosas

From The New Tastes of India, Das Sreedharan, Headline, 2001.

Jamie Oliver describes this as ‘a really wicked book’. I guess he means it in a positive way. I have yet to find out whether it is really wicked or not. I don’t really pay much attention to selective quotes that are included on book covers.

I had to make a basic change to these samosas. The ingredients included ready-made samosa pastry which I was unable to obtain. I hunted around in some other cookery books and found one that used filo pastry. This made an easy wrapping to use though the samosas turned out rather large, like big pasties. Perhaps I should have cut the sheets of filo to the measurements in the Sreedharan recipe but followed that of the other book.

The filling was not difficult to make. It followed the usual method of popping mustard seeds first, then adding onions and curry leaves. The next stage was adding the spices, followed by the cashews to be cooked for a few minutes.

The potatoes, mushrooms and carrot were added and cooked until tender. When the mixture was cool it was wrapped in the pastry to be deep fried at the final step.

The recipe suggested using a tomato chutney from further on in the book. All that had to be done was to put the ingredients (tomatoes, green chllies, garlic and salt) in a blender and give them a quick burst. Some coriander leaves were added to the final mix.

The samosas were a good eat, not particularly out of the ordinary. I guess I wouldn’t make tem again.

The tomato chutney was more like a very liquid salsa and quite ordinary. I had an extra special salsa to compare it with that I had made the previous night with Mexican quesadillas. I think that salsa will be my benchmark for future one.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔