The Dish!

So I'm going to ignore everything that has happened since last posting (well, okay, here's a quick recap: I graduated law school, took the MA bar exam, went to Seattle and Mexico, moved to Malden, and I'm still waiting for the results of the exam)and jump straight into making my first submission to Ginger's The Dish! Sadly, I did not take a picture, as it didn't quite occur to me at the time. But that's really not such a problem because 1) I don't know how to add pics (yes, I'm sure it's quite simple, but whatever), and 2) Indian food, for the most part, is not the most attractive looking, no matter how freakin tasty it is. Yes, that is what I am reviewing: the Indian feast that somehow snowballed out of a small dinner with a friend. What started with plans for just B and myself (which was actually inspired by my randomly picking up a new Indian cookbook) ended up being a small dinner party also including my roommates, my old roommates, and B's boy (and was also supposed to include another couple, who were unable to make it). And as the guest list grew, so did the menu. At first, I was just planning on two dishes. But half of 2AM doesn't eat red meat, so I needed something chicken. And then I decided I also didn't have enough vegetables. And then I realized I had everything on hand for a dahl recipe, so I figured why not? So as I'm adding more dishes, I'm also thinking that I need to double most of these recipes, which say they serve either four or six. But as I did that, I failed to realize that these serving sizes refer to when that is the only dish, not one of five... Needless to say, my roommates and I have been eating Indian food all week. But at least it was good Indian food! And so now, enough rambling, and on to the menu:

Saag paneer
Wok-cooked chicken in tomato and fenugreek sauce
Peshawar-style beef curry
Cauliflower and sweet potato curry
Tarka dhal
Spiced basmati rice
Cucumber raita
Chile-cilantro naan
Tamarind vodka cocktails
Fresh fruit with rose water syrup
Spiced fresh orange and honey sorbet

I'm one of those odd people who actually enjoys spending the entire day in the kitchen cooking, so I really enjoyed creating all of this. Because yes, all of this was indeed made from scratch. The only shortcut was not making my own paneer, but instead buying it (which, based on the recipes for paneer I've seen, is really the best way to do it if at all possible...kind of like not bothering to make your own puff pastry, even though you can).

Nearly everything turned out perfectly. The only exceptions were the tarka dhal (oddly a little on the bland side) and the naan. I believe the naan is going to take a couple of tries to get the hang of. The dough itself was easy enough, but we had a hard time with the baking. First batch set of the smoke alarm because it cooked much faster than predicted, and while salvageable, was much more cracker-like than the proper soft, chewy bread. The rest, while they were not burned, I believe were too thick. They, too, lacked the proper texture, and were rather stiffer than they should have been. But I am by no means discouraged. I will try again, and hopefully get the hang of it!

The tarka dhal, red lentils with some tomatoes, onions and spices, was, as I mentioned, oddly rather bland. It was simple to make and contained many spices, but, oddly did not taste as such. It was so very disappointing that I will likely not bother with it again, even trying to amend it. (Don't get me wrong, it was by no means inedible, but given the wide array of options, it's not really worth it). It was actually able to serve almost as a starch type to soak up some of the tasty sauces from the other dishes.

By far my favorite was the saag paneer. (For anyone not familiar with the dish, it's the pureed spinach with chunks of cheese [paneer]) Oddly, my cookbook did not have a recipe for it. So instead, I found one from a fabulous blog that I stumbled across a year or so ago, and can be found here. I had used fresh spinach instead of frozen, and I may have drained a bit too much water from it, as the resulting dish was rather dry. So I decided to thin it down with a bit of yogurt (based on other recipes I looked at), and it worked wonderfully, giving it a subtle tang. As I was doubling the recipe, I also discovered that I did not have enough paneer, and the Indian market was not open on Sunday. However, I did happen to have some extra-firm tofu on hand, and so after draining and pressing that, cooked it like the paneer. I don't think anyone noticed. Indeed, I could hardly tell the difference between the two once it was all assembled.

The peshawar-style beef curry was also quite delicious, with a rich, creamy, spiced sauce. And the best part? The creaminess did not come from cream, but instead Greek yogurt, which I used the non-fat Fage kind. An extremely decadent tasting dish that was actually quite good for you. It was also rather easy to make, just needed quite a bit of time to simmer and let all the spices fully infuse the meat with flavor. The biggest thing that helped everything go smoothly is that before I started with the actual cooking, I measured out all the spices and had them ready in little dishes with labels of what they were for. With so many spices, it really helped keep me organized.

The chicken dish had a light tomato based sauce, which provided a nice contrast and did not overpower the chicken. The odd thing with cooking it, though, was that the juices, which were supposed to evaporate and cook down into a bit of a thicker sauce, did not. Instead, there seemed to be more and more juices as I let it simmer. Not quite sure what to do about that. Perhaps it was because I doubled the recipe? Perhaps I should have left out the juices of the canned tomatoes? Not sure, but definitely will be making again, and can figure it out then.

The cauliflower and sweet potato curry was quite delicious, and, to my mind, rather surprising. I guess I don't really associate sweet potatoes with Indian food. But the spicy curry sauce was a lovely complement to them. I'm really glad that one in particular turned out so well, because that's what we ended up with the most of. And somewhat surprisingly, none of the veggies ended up soggy after sitting in the sauce and being reheated as we ate leftovers. Again, another successful recipe.

Finally, dessert was something on the lighter side, after so much food (a change from my original plan of cardamom ice cream). The sorbet (made possible by the use of 2AM's ice cream maker...I really need one of those!) was delicious, spiced with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and a bay leaf (of all things). The fruit was a mixture of strawberries, blackberries, black grapes, pear and orange, and the rosewater syrup (also flavored with cinnamon) was a new and interesting accompaniment. Luckily, no one seemed to think it too odd...

Though speaking of too odd, I'm wondering about the tamarind cocktail. It is basically a juice made from tamarind concentrate, water, sugar and lime juice, then shaken with vodka. It wasn't as tart as I was expecting, with a slightly richer flavor. However, it was still rather tasty, though definitely a bit out of the ordinary.

Overall, quite a successful meal. While I will definitely be using most of those recipes again, I probably won't for a while, because, well, having the same thing for that many days in a row results in needing a bit of a break. But if anyone else would like any of the recipes, let me know, and I'll be happy to share!