Onion Bhajis & Raita

We had an Indian FEAST on Friday night. Vidi:

Clockwise from left: Sag Aloo, Onion Bahjis, Chicken & Chickepea Curry, Naans, Cucumber Raita, Rice.

In a fit of laziness, we bought the rice and naans and just warmed them up. I'm going to let Ana fill you in on the Curry and Sag Aloo (and hopefully, some better pics) at a later date, but Bhajis and (delightfully simple) Raita are below, both from a retro-tastic cookbook I found in a charity shop some years ago, simply titled 'Indian Side Dishes' (and apparently published in 1995, though it looks at least 20 years older).

Blurry Bahjis and curry; Sag Aloo; Raita

Onion Bahjis

2 medium white onions, quartered then sliced

1 egg

2 tsps plain or gram flour

1 tsp garam masala

Cumin 

Coriander

Salt

Add the flour to a bowl with the spices. Add the egg and stir to a gluey mixture, then add the onions, salt and coriander and stir. Add more flour if the mixture isn't stiff enough - the recipe says to add breadcrumbs but we had none handy...

Heat the oil in a deep pan until fairly hot, then form the mixture into balls with your hands and carefully drop them into the oil. Cook for around 5-6 minutes, turning occasionally, then remove and place on some kitchen roll to drain the excess oil.

We could cook around 3 balls at a time, and made 6 in total (of various sizes, but about a handful of mixture each time). 

The original recipe was for "Bite-sized Bajees"  - curious spelling - and was for 20 nibbles. It also advises that the pan and utensils are properly dried before use, as any contact with water will make the oil spit. Which is good advice and bears repeating. Also, use metal utensils, not plastic ones. Or at least don't leave the plastic ones in the hot oil for any great length of time. Seems obvious, but an old housemate ruined a good slotted spoon that way. Sigh.

Cucumber Raita

Serves... Well we made enough for 3 or 4, really. 

But we ate it all (indeed, we ate most of the food we made, which was probably ill-advised).

200ml (a.k.a. one small pot) natural yoghurt

1/3 cucumber, finely chopped

Salt

Pepper

The book did include mint in its list of ingredients, which I would've definitely put in for an even fresher dish, but again, we didn't have any.

Add all the ingredients to a bowl. Stir together.

Told you it was simple.

Testing, Testing: Fruity Beef Curry (& Dessert!)

those who follow me on twitter might've noticed me post this last night. a tweaked version of this recipe, as posted on the guardian website last week - here are there weights and measurements, and you can of course find my tweaks and method below, as well as the all important taste test...

Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 40 mins
Number of servings: 4

Nutrition information per serving:
Calories: 455
Sugar: 32g
Fat: 9g
Saturates: 3g
Salt: 1g

Ingredients:
2 onions
400g of lean diced beef
1 tbs of curry powder
1 apple
100g of sultanas
2 tins of chopped tomatoes (400g each)
4 tbs of low fat yoghurt
1 tbs of olive oil
160g of brown rice, uncooked weight

i can't speak for how my tweaks effect the calorie intake and such, but i made 2 small portions (one for tonight!) with:

1 small onion

1 clove of garlic

a portion of beef, with the fat removed, and cut into chunks

half an apple, chopped into chunks

a handful of raisins (for i had no sultanas)

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

3 tablespoons of natural yoghurt

1 heaped teaspoon of garam masala, and a sprinkle of curry powder

a sprinkle of coriander, salt and pepper

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add the rice to boiling water in one pan.

in another* brown the beef in a little olive oil, then leave to one side.

add a little more oil to the pan, and cook the onions and garlic until soft, then add the herbs and spices and fry for another minute or so.

add the beef back into the pan along with the apple, raisins and tomato. let it simmer until the tomato juices reduce, then add the yoghurt.

the rice should be ready now (20 mins, ish), so serve up and enjoy!

i had a mini garlic+coriander naan, too, which went under the grill for a minute or two, so make sure to heat the grill up if you're also having a naan. shop bought, but one day i will get around to making my own naans, as i keep saying about pasta. i have the recipes!

* if you don't already have one, get a non-stick wok. i use it for EVERYTHING - omelettes and pancakes come out perfectly shaped, and you can throw everything into it without fear of the bottom bits getting stuck in stir frys and curries. great for things like shallow fried chips too - again, no sticking (clue's in the title)

this is a wonderful curry - the apple is great, but the raisins were perfectly sweet and soft in the mixture. i don't know if sultanas would have had the same effect, but next time i'll definitely add more raisins than the small handful i added this time.

and for dessert?

well, i had to do something with the other apple half!

sweet fried apples with ice cream:

(serves one!)

thinly slice half an apple.

heat up butter in a frying pan, and add the apple segments.

sprinkle sugar over the apple and fry for a minute or so.

turn the apple over and sprinkle sugar on this side - add more butter if you need to!

when brown on both sides, add to a plate with vanilla ice cream (mine is haagan daas, ofcourse) and drizzle with honey.

they should be sweet and crunchy but soft on the inside, and a great accompaniment to curry (but especially this one!)

Curries! Galore

i know jenn has already posted a curry recipie (am i spelling that right?) (no, you are not, it is recipe. loveforyou - jenn) but here are 4 of my favourites...

Tikka Chicken (per person)
1 chicken breast
3 tablespoons natural yoghurt
2 tsps Tikka seasoning (this is available from most supermarkets, its bright red)
4 cherry tomatoes
fresh coriander
1 tsps garam masala
salt and pepper
squeeze of lemon

combine all the ingredients on a bowl, mix well and leave in the fridge for no less than 6 hours. mix everything but the chicken first and taste and add more spice the spicier you like it.
heat some oil in a frying pan, and pick out the chicken pieces and fry until they turn a darker colour. bung in the rest of the sauce and stir. add a little more yoghurt if it looks dry. preheat the oven to 180. put the chicken and sauce in a overproof dish and put in the oven for half an hour. when serving, blop on about a table spoon of yoghurt.

Vegetable Curry
for the basic curry sauce:
2 cloves of garlic
2 tsps Garam masala
1 tsps chilli powder
squeeze of lemon
seasoning
half an onion
half a can of chopped tomatoes

fry the garlic gently in oil, make sure you dont burn it. add chopped onion, and fry to soften them. add the garam masala and chilli powder, stir into the garlic and onions. add a little bit of water if it looks dry. add the lemon juice and seasoning, stir then add the tomatoes. at this point you can add any precooked veg you like. butternut squash is particularly good, and even spinach. when you've added the veg, pop the curry in the oven at 180 degrees for half an hour

Bombay Potatoes
follow the basic vegetable curry recipie, except cut out the chilli powder and tomatoes. add par boiled halved new potatoes. if the curry is too dry, use water to make the sauce less thick. still bake in the oven at the same temperature and time

Spiced Rice
enough brown or white rice for one person (half a cup)
1 tsps tumeric
1 tsps garam masala
2 tbs chopped onion (pre fried)
2 tbs peas

prepare the rice as usual. when cooked, add the spices, onion and peas. continue to heat through until all the ingredients are hot.

Sweet Potato, Spinach & Mushroom Curry.

it comes to my attention that mostly we write and post at night here, and I find this odd cos I always post on ventures first thing.
i mean, currently i'm supposed to be on a night out, but I'm tired and lazy and have to be in uni at 9, so i'm sat in bed, eating chocolate and writing. dumdedum.

anyways, i made this a couple of nights ago - i'm usually a chicken korma or tikka masala kinda gal, but i acquired a free bigass bag of mushrooms and had to have mushroom based meals for the rest of the week - you have a mushroom pasta bake to look forward to, too.

i served this with brown rice, but you can add whatever (rice, naan, poppadoms, mango chuntey..mmm...), just follow directions on the packets etc etc.
i might get around to making a naan sometime, cos i have the recipe, but we will see, we will see.
(note from Ana - try making a refreshing raita...it's super easy and cools your mouth if your curry is too hot, otheriwse it's just a tasty side dish!
chop 2inch of cucumber into small quatered pieces, keep them quite thin. add to some natural yoghurt and season. you could try adding some lemon juice to. to add a sweet twist, which works well with this kind of curry, add some dessicated coconut or even replace the cucumber with banana. i tried this at a curry place is spain and it worked surpirsingly well)

these veg portions are rough guides - put in the amount you'd like, if you're more of a certain type of veg.

ingredients

3 small sweet potatoes, diced
2 handfuls of mushrooms, diced
one handful of baby spinach

half a large onion (or a whole small one!), chopped
one garlic clove

one small tub of natural yoghurt
1/3 of a bar of creamed coconut (you can usually get this in the world foods aisle; and blue dragon do a slightly more expensive one), cut into slices

spices - one teaspoon of each!
garam masala (essential for curries, really!)
ginger
cinnamon
coriander

+salt&pepper to taste

optional - if you like a spicier curry, i'd recommend adding a chilli or two (instead, or as well as the chilli powder!), and maybe less yoghurt.

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chop all your veg and fry off the sweet potatoes in a large flat pan or frying pan for 2 mins. add the onion and crush or chop the garlic and add this too (if you're adding chillis, these go in now too!). fry for another 2 mins.

add the mushrooms. keep frying, keep stirring...throw in the spinach after another couple of mins, then add all the spices and herbs and stir, making sure all your veg is coated in them!

add the creamed coconut and add a little water, a bit at a time, until the coconut has melted. you don't want to add too much water otherwise it will take a long time to reduce and the veg will be overcooked, and you'll be hungry.

add in the yoghurt and stir a lil bit more, til it's all mixed in, then simmer until your curry has reached peak consistency - I'm a fan of the thicker sauces (as likely you can tell from the pic), but if you like a runnier sauce then don't simmer for so long!

curry really isn't that hard to make at all!
(i doubt this is particularly authentic, but it is easy...)

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if you're a curry fan and this is the first one you've made, it's worth experimenting with flavours and spices, and trying different amounts until you find the flavour for you.


by the way! this should make 2 small portions or 1 really big one - I had a small portion for tea and the rest for lunch (without side dishes) the next day. woo, value for money!