I’m continuing to cook India-inspired food after getting home from a trip. We enjoyed dal makhani with chapatis enough that I’ve already made it twice (though it’s rich enough that I shouldn’t too often…). For a recent dinner party, we put together a few dishes that worked well together, so I’m jotting down a few notes to remind myself in the future (caveat: these are more haphazard / incomplete ‘recipes’ than usual): ...
When I travel to a new region, I’ve realized the meal I’m often most interested in is breakfast. One reason is that most restaurant experiences at home are dinners– it’s rare to go out to eat and see what people make for breakfast. Fortunately, in many places around the world even modest hotels serve a breakfast buffet, so it’s easy to see and try a wide range of dishes. I was in India for the first time recently (maybe I’ll post a few food highlights later), and one of my favorite breakfasts was milagu pongal– a savory, soft rice porridge where the main flavors seemed to be ghee, cashews, black peppercorns, and lots and lots of fresh green curry leaves. I ate various versions of it– some white in color, some more yellow (whether from the addition of a yellow-colored dal, turmeric, or something else), and served with either coconut chutney, sambal, or a light yellow potato curry (aloo bhaji). Sadly, I may have only taken this one blurry phone photo of pongal (at the top of the plate)… ...
I’ve always enjoyed lentils as a quick-to-cook legume, and at some point I picked up Tarla Dalal’s “Dals” cookbook. Between that and living near Vik’s Market in Berkeley I had an excuse to try a range of dals (which I realize refers to more than just ’lentils’). ...
Earlier this fall I made some delicious tandoori-style chicken for an Indian-themed dinner party. This may be the best-tasting chicken I’ve cooked in a long time. I figured, I have a kamado-style ceramic-walled charcoal grill / smoker that can easily get up to 700 degrees F (which I’ve used to make pizza in the past)– there must be some way to use this as an approximation of a tandoor. I did some reading, and as often seems to be the case, there was an article by Kenji on Serious Eats on this very idea. ...
For an Indian-themed dinner party that included tandoori chicken cooked in the charcoal grill / smoker, I also wanted to make fresh naan. As usual, there’s a Serious Eats article about it. I made a few test batches the previous weekend with both white and whole wheat flour, cooked under either the broiler or in a cast iron skillet: While I liked the taste of a 50% white-whole-wheat-flour naan and it cooked fairly well, white bread flour combined with a preheated oven + pizza steel + broiler on during cooking led to a really fluffy, puffy naan, which I used for a larger dinner party. If I tried it again, I’d use whole wheat flour but add some vital wheat gluten powder as I’ve done with bagel-making. ...
In Portland recently, I had delicious Indian street-food-style dishes I’d never heard of, in a casual airy space with mismatched chairs and Bollywood movies on a projector. The highlights were the vegetarian kati roll (paneer, egg, pickled onion, chutney rolled in a paratha– every bite delicious) and the vada pav (potato dumpling dipped in chickpea flour and fried, with chutneys).