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.

Creamy Tarragon Chicken (& Spring Greens with Bacon)

(Serves 2)

We have a lot of spring greens in the fridge. I came across the SG&B dish on the BBC Good Food site, so they can take the credit for that (though I'm still typing it out here), but the chicken and potato goodness was one of those 'chuck it in, see what happens' sort of ventures that I enjoy so much.

It turned out well.

My Mam (who is my only customer) said it was delicious and probably the best thing I'd ever cooked for her. So there's a good review for you.

For the Chicken

2 chicken breasts (or 4 goujons, as we used), cut into slithers

5 or 6 new potatos, cut into bitesize chunks

1/3 red onion, sliced

50g Philedelphia

1 chicken stock cube

1 tsb honey (ours has lemon in it, I recommend a few drops of lemon juice if yours is normal honey)

a few drops of worcester sauce

1 garlic clove, crushed

tarragon

coriander

salt

pepper

For the side

Half a head(?) spring greens, thinly sliced

2 rashers back bacon - the BBC recommended a smoked, thick cut bacon. But we like/only had normal, unsmoked back bacon. So there.

1/2 veg stock cube*

A knob of butter

Black pepper

*Again, the BBC says to cook the greens in veg stock water for 5 mins but I think this made it a bit soggy. Perhaps it just needs to really drain, for a few minutes even, but if you like your spring greens really crispy, in more of a 'crispy seaweed' sense, then forego the boiling/veg stock part and just hoy 'em in the frying pan with the bacon.

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Chuck the chopped chicken and potatoes in an overproof dish with the herbs, salt and pepper and rub the herbs into them. Add the onions to the dish, and put all the other ingredients (except the Philly) into a jug with around 400ml of water until the stock cube dissolves. Pour the mixture over the ingredients in the dish and stick it in the oven on about 200º for about 40 mins (or until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are soft).

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Chop the greens and pop them in veg stock water to simmer for 5 mins.

Chop the bacon and add it to the butter in a frying pan. Add the greens and fry away until everything is crispy. Top with black pepper and serve.

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When ready, take the dish from the oven and pop it on top of a medium heat hob. Add the Philly and stir it in, leaving it on the heat for a few minutes until it's mixed into the sauce and thickened it.

I had to leave the dish on the hob for quite a while as I found my sauce to be a bit thin, but I had put more water in than I've noted here so hopefully you won't have the same problem!

Enjoy!

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.