Archive for the ‘Indian Cooking’ Category
Madras Beef Curry
January 12th, 2014 | 
Author: 
This is a spicy beef curry dish that is relatively easy to make. It can be made from good quality cuts of meat or cheaper cuts if desired. I have made it with skirt steak and sirloin steak cut into stew meat but it can also be made from cheaper cuts of meat like chuck steak.
I have even made this recipe with key limes in place of the lemon. They are very tart like lemons and they have their own unique flavor. You can also add half and half lemon juice with lime juice. You can try different combinations of lemon juice and key lime or lime juices to vary the taste.
Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken tikka masala can be prepared quickly and easily in about 10 minutes or so with simmer sauce either pre-prepared and available in a jar from a grocery store or from simmer sauce made from scratch. It is a mild curry sauce made with tomatoes.
The recipe for making tikka masala simmer sauce from scratch can be found at this website. Please check the “Sauces and Dressings” section on the Recipe Index Page (a link to the Recipe Index is located on the main navigation menu at the top of the page).
Vegetable Curry
Vegetable curry is made by sautéing ingredients in a pan and gradually adding them a little at a time, infusing flavor into the ingredients as they are added. Heat up a little vegetable oil and then lightly sauté the garlic. Next, add whole cumin seeds and allow them to brown very slightly (about a minute or so). Then add some chopped red onions. Cook for a few minutes and then add some tomato paste (and, optionally, some chopped, ripe tomato). To this mixture, add spices (coriander seed powder and turmeric) with a little water. This will make a curry paste that becomes the base for everything else added later.
Add the vegetables that need the longest cooking time first (carrots and green beans), followed by the chopped chili peppers a few minutes later. Next, add the delicate flavors that you don’t want to get cooked away too soon (fresh ginger and lime juice). The last vegetables added are the ones that need to be crunchy and not overcooked (cauliflower florets, broccoli florets and zuchchini). Don’t add too much water. Keep the water level low and turn the vegetables often to bring them into contact with the hot cooking water. Serve hot and fresh right away. ... Read More
Mung Bean Soup
Mung bean soup is a thick, heavy bodied soup that you can serve as a meal in itself. Mung beans are sold in health food stores. They are used for sprouting (bean sprouts) and cooking in soups. Mung beans are popular with Indian cuisine and it makes a thick soup called "Dal". It goes great with curry dishes or all by itself
This recipe is very easy to make. It cooks pretty fast for a soup. A lot of soups take hours to cook but not this one. It has a mildly spicy flavor – not too hot. It uses Anaheim chili peppers, which are very mild – not very hot at all, so don’t be afraid to cook with them. It uses fresh ginger and cilantro which adds a lot of zing to the soup.
Posted in Healthy Meals, Indian Cooking, Soup Recipes, Soups | 
Tags: Healthy Cooking, Healthy Meals | 
No Comments »
Homemade Tikka Masala Sauce
Tikka masala is a mild curry sauce that you can use for simmering meat like chicken or turkey. Making chicken or turkey tikka masala is easy and convenient when you buy the tikka masala simmer sauce in a jar, because all you have to do is sear the meat, then add the simmer sauce and cook for about 7 or 8 minutes.
Tikka masala sauce in a jar usually contains heavy cream. With this recipe you can make your own homemade sauce and you can still use heavy cream or plain yogurt as a substitute. You can also use a cooking fat like butter or coconut oil to properly sauté the onions and to get the right flavor of the curry. ... Read More
Posted in Curry Recipes, Heart Healthy Recipes, Indian Cooking, Quick and Easy Meals |
Tags: Tikka Masala |
No Comments »
Vegetable Curry With Chicken
This is a basic vegetable curry recipe with chicken. The basic curry requires a little bit of vegetable oil for cooking, some chopped garlic, whole cumin seeds, red onions, tomatoes, mild green peppers, chopped ginger plus some turmeric root powder and some coriander powder. This is the basis for most any vegetable curry and takes about 6 to 8 minutes to cook thus far. Into this mixture you will add some vegetables. In this case I chose to add cauliflower, broccoli and yams. The vegetables require softening so they need to be cooked for about 25 to 30 minutes. Then I add some chicken cut into small pieces. Cook for another 5 minutes (don’t cook the chicken too much … you don’t want dry, hard chicken).
The basic idea for making curry is to have the ingredients all chopped up and prepared ahead of time. Start by sautéing chopped garlic in oil and gradually add each ingredient one after the other in a certain order, cooking each ingredient a little at a time. After sautéing the chopped garlic for a couple of minutes then you will add the whole cumin seeds. Cook them until the seeds are dark and the garlic is a very light tan color. Next, add the onions and cook them … you don’t want them brown., Next, add the tomatoes … this will slow it down because tomatoes will contain some water. The last ingredient before adding the vegetables is the chopped ginger. You don’t want to cook it too long and cook away the flavor … then you add the vegetables. You will probably need to add a little water for the vegetables. ... Read More
Palak Moong Dal
This is a delicious recipe for Palak Moong Dal. Dal is a thick soup or other Indian dish made with legumes. Palak Moong Dal is normally made with clarified butter or ghee, but plain butter or even coconut oil can be used in place of ghee if ghee is not available. Palak Moong Dal is a very healthy thick soup made with fresh vegetables and dried mung beans. It takes a couple hours to cook and you have to chop a lot of vegetables, but it is worth the trouble.
Start by obtaining all the ingredients from your grocery store. Some of the items you’ll probably have to buy from a health food store – like dried mung beans and fresh ginger root. We make it using organic vegetables.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup whole mung beans, rinsed clean
- 5 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 3 cups fresh spinach, cleaned, stemmed & sliced (or a 10-oz pack frozen spinach)
- 2 cups finely sliced onions (approx. 1 large onion)
- 4 cups red ripe tomatoes, sliced and chopped into chunks (approx. 3 large tomatoes)
- 3 cups chopped Anaheim chili peppers (approx. 3 large peppers)
- 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger (minced with a chef’s knife)
- 1 tbsp crushed or minced garlic
- 1/4 cup fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1 1/2 tbsp whole cumin seeds
- 4-5 tbsp ghee (or butter or coconut oil if unavailable)
1. Cook the Dal
Measure out 1 cup of whole mung beans into a large cooking pot with lid. Rinse the beans then strain through a mesh colander 5 or 6 times until beans are clean. Add 5 cups water to the pot and then add 1/4 tsp turmeric and 1 tsp salt. Place lid on pot and heat over high flame just until the water starts to boil, then turn the flame way down and cook slowly over a low flame for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Cook very slowly over a low flame to make a nice, creamy soup. After the mung beans have cooked for 1 1/2 hours, add the sliced spinach, then cover the pot and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. Prepare the “Spicy Tomato Butter”
While the dal is cooking, chop all the vegetables and prepare the spicy tomato butter. It is called “spicy tomato butter” because normally, you would use ghee (clarified butter) but you could also use butter or coconut oil if ghee is unavailable. The vegetables are cooked in a large skillet, adding ingredients gradually taking care to time everything very exactly.
- Start by adding ghee to the skillet, then bring to a boil and then add the whole cumin seeds. Cook the cumin seeds for about a minute or two until they begin to darken.
- Next, turn down the heat to a medium flame and add the sliced onions. Cook for about 10 to 12 minutes, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon until the onions are soft and translucent and the flavor of the cumin seeds is infused into the onions. There should also be a very nice aroma of cumin seed at this stage.
- Next, add the chopped chili peppers, chopped coriander, ginger and garlic. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon and cook at this stage for a couple of minutes. Just cook long enough at this step to infuse the flavors a little bit.
- Next, add the chopped tomatoes, then stir with a wooden spoon and cover the skillet and cook for about 20 minutes until the tomatoes are broken down and a are reddish yellow color. Stir occasionally during this time, taking care not to burn the vegetables. Add a little water if needed and adjust the flame as needed.
3. Add the Cooked Vegetables to the Dal
After the vegetables are cooked and the mung beans and spinach have simmered for 15 minutes, add them to the dal. At this time, add 1/2 tsp of garam masala and perhaps another 1/2 to 3/4 tsp of salt (to taste). Stir with a wooden spoon, then cover the pot and simmer for an additional 15 minutes to marry up all the flavors. Serve hot.
Shown below is a photo of most of the ingredients. Starting from the back row and going left to right: turmeric, chopped garlic, whole cumin seeds, garam masala, 3 large tomatoes, onion, dried mung beans, ginger root, coriander (cilantro) and Anaheim chili peppers.
Shown below is the rest of the ingredients – fresh spinach.
Start by rinsing the mung beans. Rinse them a few times until the water is clear, straining through a mesh colander after each rinsing.
Add 5 cups of water to the rinsed mung beans plus 1/4 tsp. of turmeric and 1 tsp. of salt. We are using sea salt. Place the pot over a high flame then cover and bring to a boil. After it comes to a boil, turn the flame way way down and cook slowly for 1 1/2 hours. Cook it over a low flame to get a creamy texture. Cover it with a lid while cooking.
While the dal is cooking, chop up all the vegetables. Start with the Anaheim chili peppers.
Cut the end off the pepper, then cut the pepper in half.
Remove all the seeds and ribs.
Slice the pepper halves lengthwise into about 4 or 5 slices each.
Now chop into medium sized chunks. Repeat for all three peppers.
Gather up al the chopped peppers into a bowl and set aside for now.
Slice the onion into thin slices. Start by quartering the onion. If you are using two small onions instead of one large onion, you can cut them into halves instead of quarters.
Peel the skin off and slice each part into thin slices.
When the onions are all sliced up, set them aside.
Chop the fresh coriander (cilantro).
Peel the fresh ginger root and slice up into chunks.
Either use a chopper or chop the ginger root with a chef’s knife. Chop it up real fine – nearly minced.
I like to prepare all the chopped ingredients in bowls so they are ready to add when the time comes. Shown below left to right, back to front: ginger root, chopped garlic, coriander and whole cumin seeds. Lately I’ve been doing this a little differently. I place all the chopped peppers in a bowl, then add the coriander, ginger and garlic over the top of the peppers because they are all added to the skillet at the same time.
Finally, chop all the tomatoes and set them aside in a bowl.
Check the dal and stir it with a wooden spoon once in awhile. Keep it covered while cooking.
In a large skillet, add about 4-5 tbsp of ghee or butter over a medium flame. Then add the whole cumin seeds.
Cook the cumin seeds for a minute or so until the seeds start turning dark.
Add the sliced onions, then cook over a medium flame for about 10-12 minutes. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon.
After the onions have cooked for about 10-12 minutes, add the chili peppers, coriander, chopped garlic and ginger root. Cook for 2 minutes and stir with a wooden spoon.
After the chili peppers, coriander, chopped garlic and ginger root have cooked for 2 minutes, add the chopped tomatoes.
Stir all the vegetables together with a wooden spoon.
Cover the skillet and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After the dal has cooked for 1 1/2 hours, add the fresh spinach. I like to cut the spinach into smaller pieces so they aren’t too stringy in the finished soup.
Stir the fresh spinach into the dal until it is completely covered.
Cover the pot with a lid and continue cooking over a very low flame for another 15 minutes.
When the vegetables have finished cooking 20 minutes after the tomatoes have been added, they are ready to be added to the dal.
Add the cooked vegetables to the dal.
Stir the cooked vegetables into the dal and add 1/2 tsp. of garam masala. At this time I like to add about another 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. of salt.
Simmer for about 15 minutes to marry up all the flavors, then serve hot. Serve with brown rice and some naan bread. Naan bread is really good but it can make you hungry so go easy on it.
Posted in Healthy Meals, Heart Healthy Recipes, Indian Cooking, Soup Recipes, Soups |
Tags: Indian Cooking |
No Comments »
