Gulab jamun

August 1, 2020

While browsing the pantry last week, I was reminded that we had most of a can of milk powder. (I bought it back in April to make rosmalai.) Milk powder isn't something we regularly use at all... as I searched the blog and my memory for other dishes that make use of it I came across a batch of biscuits, White Christmas slice, and a 15-year-old recollection of that one time I tried making gulab jamun.

My understanding is that gulab jamun is most traditionally prepared using a dense dairy product called khoya or mawa. There are also lots of recipes based on milk powder instead, and plenty of people who recommend packet mixes like Gits. It's the milk powder version that appears in the High Days and Holidays chapter of Mridula Baljekar's The Low-Fat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook, and that's the recipe I made back in 2005. I remembered it being stressful - probably because I was catering for at least 10 people, and because it was messy and uncomfortable to deep-fry so many dumplings in my Queensland kitchen. This week I felt ready to take it on again.

The recipe below uses the overall quantities from the original recipe, but I adapted it this week to accommodate the larger amount of milk powder I had to use up. Somewhere along the way my dough ended up with a cake batter texture rather than a rollable dough, so I've included notes to add the milk a bit at a time and not use it all if it's not needed. Thankfully I got my batch to a rollable state by leaving it on the bench to dry out a bit, and then dusting my hands in flour to prevent the dough from sticking.

I expected the deep-frying to be a hassle, but it went just fine. The dough balls needed a little prod to stop them sticking to the bottom of the pan, but after that they expanded and rose to the surface, and happily bobbed about while I gently turned them to even out their browning. The sugar syrup soaking brings a second phase of expansion, and my gulab juman ended up bigger than golf balls! I'll have to start smaller if I ever do this again.

My other stand-out memory from making this recipe 15 years ago is that I overdid the rosewater, so I toned it down here. Maybe my tastes have changed, but I think I could've used more! Mridula Baljekar serves her gulab jamun with rosewater whipped cream, but I think they're already plenty rich and fancy on their own.

Gulab jamun
(slightly adapted from Mridula Baljekar's The Low-fat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook)

3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon saffron threads
350g sugar
4 cups water
1 tablespoon rosewater
175g milk powder
90g semolina
2 teaspoons plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon baking powder
40g ghee
oil for deep frying

Heat 2 tablespoons of the milk and soak the saffron threads in it. Set aside to infuse.

Place the sugar and water in a large saucepan and set them over medium-high heat. Bring everything to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and simmer for 6-8 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the rosewater. Allow it to cool down a bit and transfer the syrup to a very large serving or storage container.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the milk powder, semolina, flour, cardamom and baking powder. Melt the ghee and stir it into these dry ingredients. Add the saffron and the milk it was infusing. Pour small quantities of the remaining milk into the mixture to form a soft dough (don't use all the milk if you don't need to!). Knead the dough until smooth.

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Break off scant tablespoons of the dough and roll them in your hands to form a smooth ball, then drop the balls into the oil. Lightly flouring your hands may help if the dough is sticky. Also, be careful not to overcrowd the dumplings in the oil because they will expand! Use a fork or similar to gently scrape the dumplings off the pan if they stick to the bottom - if they're not stuck, they'll soon float to the surface. I also used the fork to turn the dumplings and try to even out their frying. When the balls are dark brown on the outside, use a slotted spoon to retrieve them and drain off as much oil as you can before dropping them into the sugar syrup. Repeat the dough-rolling and dumpling-frying until all the dough is finished. 

Allow the dumplings to soak in the syrup for at least 2 hours before serving.

Potatoes & chickpeas with sun-dried mango

December 4, 2016

We had a big hunk of pumpkin leftover from our veggie box and Cindy decided that a big batch of pumpkin flatbreads was the way to go. To accompany it we turned to Mridula Baljekar's Indian Vegetarian Cookbook for ideas, settling on this potato and chickpea curry with sun-dried mango.

There's not too much work involved - you pre-boil the spuds, but otherwise everything just goes in one big pot. We had some sun-dried mango powder (amchoor) on hand from ages ago. I'd really recommend tracking it down for this dish, it really adds something interesting. Otherwise this is a pretty straight-up curry - it probably needs another dish on the side to round out the full meal (we chose a side of spiced coconut spinach). It's good though - a great addition to our weeknight roster (although with the pumpkin bread as well, this was definitely a weekend job).

Potato & chickpea curry
(slightly adapted from Mridula Baljekar's The Low-Frat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook)

2 large potatoes
3 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2 green chillis
6 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
400mL can crushed tomatoes
400g can chickpeas, drained
2/3 cup warm water
1 teaspoon mango powder/amchoor
1/2 teaspoon garam masala

Scrub the potatoes, and chop them into 2cm cubes. Place them in a saucepan, cover them with water, and boil until just tender, about 10 minutes.

Heat the oil in a big saucepan and throw in the ginger, chillies and garlic, stir-frying for 30 seconds or so.

Add in the onion and salt and keep stir-frying, until the onion just starts to brown.

Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric and chilli powder and stir-fry for a jiffy, before tipping in the can of tomatoes. Cook for a few more minutes and then add the chickpeas, potatoes and water.

Cover the saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes. 

Whisk the sun-dried mango powder with a couple of tablespoons of water and stir it through the curry mixture.

Kill the heat and stir through the garam masala.

October 5, 2008: Giving Thai a try

   

Michael had recently been musing over how long it had been since we'd invited anyone over for dinner, and what fun it can be. It didn't take me long to gather together a gaggle of willing eaters, namely Mike, Jo-Lyn, Marty, Alana and Jos. Michael and I happily spent most of Sunday planning, shopping and prepping, though we were ultimately aiming for a casual meal. Actually, it would be forcibly casual since we don't own enough chairs to seat everyone around the dinner table!

We pulled together a mish-mash of used and new recipes, with a loose (and utterly inauthentic) Thai theme. The 'new' recipes actually come from a 7-year-old cookbook called Step-by-step Thai, a British publication credited to Carol Bowen, Cara Hobday and Sue Ashworth. We plucked it from the pile of books that Krusty and Jason were giving away when they left Melbourne for Colchester, England. It's not strictly vegetarian but there are plenty of meat-free recipes within the book.

We started off with its recipe for satay sticks (pictured above). Though the book uses eggplant and mushroom chunks, we tried a combination of faux chicken and mushrooms with great success. The skewers are marinated in a potent mix of spices, including ginger and lemongrass, and then served with an equally fragrant peanut sauce. Though the marinade is strong, a couple of us couldn't help picking the stray fragments of it from the tray - it was very addictive.

   

Michael was adamant that the main meal should feature noodles with basil, so we went on a hunt for a less rich vegetable dish to accompany it. Many of the ones in Step-by-step Thai were full of coconut milk, but there was a side dish of cucumber and bamboo shoots that we expanded to many more vegetables and a smattering of tofu. It wasn't all that remarkable but it filled the role we required - it was quick and easy to toss enough for seven people through the wok.

   

As always, I took on dessert. Though there are some lovely fruit and rice-based desserts in Step-by-step I had my heart set on ice cream, the more Indian white chocolate kulfi to be precise. Once again I had problems setting it, but teamed with canned mango and a sprinkle of cardamom it was still a pleasurable end to the meal.

Our offerings were happily more hit than miss and more importantly, so was the conversation. There's nothing like abundant beer and a room full of university types to get some fierce (but friendly) debate going.

"Chicken" and mushroom satay sticks

~200g diced "chicken" pieces, defrosted
8 large mushrooms, quartered

marinade:
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
5cm piece ginger, peeled and grated
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 stalk lemongrass, roughly chopped
4-6 tablespoons soy sauce
6 tablespoons sunflower oil
juice of 2/3 lemon (remainder is used below)

peanut sauce:
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
4 cloves garlic
1 onion, roughly chopped
juice of 1/3 lemon
1 teaspoon salt
1 red chilli, seeds removed and sliced
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup water

Soak the skewers in water for at least 5 minutes, to prevent them from burning later. Thread the "chicken" and mushrooms alternately onto the skewers, then layer them in a baking dish.

Next up, grind the marinade. Bash together the cumin and coriander seeds, ginger, garlic and lemongrass in a mortar and pestle. Then transfer them to a hot wok or frypan and cook, stirring, until fragrant. Take the spices off the heat and stir in the soy sauce, oil and lemon juice. Spoon the marinade over the skewers and leave them to soak up the flavour for 2-8 hours.

Then prepare the peanut sauce. Put the cumin and coriander seeds and garlic into the food processor and give them a good smashing. Add the onion and process a little more, then add the lemon juice, salt, chilli, coconut milk and peanut butter and process again. Scoop the mixture into a saucepan and stir through the water. Bring the sauce to the boil and then simmer it until you get a texture you like.

Bake the skewers at 200 degrees C for 10-15 minutes, turning once. Serve them with the peanut sauce on the side, ready to pour.

Mild mixed vegetables

~10 cups mixed vegetables, roughly chopped
(we used snow peas, zucchini, cucumber, capsicum, carrot, mushrooms, and a bit of tofu)
2 tablespoons sesame oil
6 shallots, finely chopped
1 can bamboo shoots, drained
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons cornflour
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Make sure all of your veges are chopped and ready to go. Whisk together the sherry, soy sauce and cornflour.

Heat the sesame oil in a wok and add the shallots and garlic, stir-frying for about 2 minutes. Add the bamboo shoots and cook for a further minute. Add the mixed vegetables and stir-fry for a couple of minutes, until they're all heated through but still crisp. Pour over the sherry dressing and give it all another minute or two on the heat. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds and serve.

February 11, 2008: Bollywood banquet

We decided to make the final round of our SBS inspired Bollywood meals a bit special, and invited a gang of people around to enjoy Dhoom, an unintentionally hilarious 'fast paced motorcycle-robbery drama'. The movie was a hit (particularly the boat chase) and fortunately the food we'd prepared measured up.

As we were entertaining a few people, we needed to make sure we picked recipes that easily scaled up to feed 8 rather than 2 and were guaranteed to be delicious. Luckily, we have just the recipes: palak paneer and spiced chickpeas, both from our Mondo Organics Indian cooking class. We've made these trusty recipes many times, and they never disappoint. Cindy capped things off with a reprise of her Indian mango rice pudding, which cooled everyone down as Dhoom hotted up.

Now we've just got to figure out what to cook when we hire out Dhoom 2.

February 3, 2008: Khatti mithi masoor dal plus leeks in chickpea flour with sweet red pepper

The Indian food is coming thick and fast at the moment with thematically appropriate meals for SBS's weekly Bollywood movies. This week the movie was Devdas, the most lavish and expensive Bollywood film of all time (full disclosure: it's also one of the longest and we're still getting through it on tape). To match, I went for a lavish meal: dal from our Oxfam calendar and a vegie dish from Mridula Baljekar's trusty low-fat Indian vegetarian cookbook.

The dal was nice and simple and was meant to be sour, sweet and hot. To be honest it was mostly sour (tamarind puree) and tangy (ginger), but that's probably mostly due to my lax measurements. Despite not quite measuring up on the 'hot' front, this was one of the better dal recipes we've come across - maybe not quite up to these standards, but then there's no can of coconut milk in this one to fill us up with creamy, fatty goodness. Anyway, this was basically all about the ginger and tamarind flavours, and from my point of view, that can only be a good thing.

The second dish for the night was much more complicated. While I was getting all the ingredients together, I realised I had no real idea of what this dish was even supposed to look like, let alone how it would taste. Indeed, even after I'd got about three-quarters of the way through preparing this, I thought it was going to be a complete failure. The thing to remember is: leeks shrink. A wok overflowing with leeky bits and looking pretty uninspiring, quickly became a dense and tasty mush of leek with generous splashes of capsicum-provided colour livening things up. Lucky. It's hard to describe how this turned out, it was kind of chewy and full of spicy flavours, with the leek flavour notable but not as overpowering as I'd feared. It worked really well as a side to the dal, but might be a bit much on its own.

It's worth noting that it works really, really well as filling in a pastry, as Cindy demonstrated a few days later.


So, the recipes:

Khatti mithi masoor dal

225g red lentils
8 cloves of garlic
2.5cm piece of fresh ginger (I think I used something roughly twice this size)
2 dried chillies
1.5 teaspoons cumin seeds
1.5 teaspoons tamarind concentrate
1 tablespoon brown sugar
400ml water
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped

Put the lentils and the water in a pot and bring to the boil. Add turmeric and a dash of salt and simmer for 10 minutes or so.

Grind the garlic cloves, ginger, chillies and cumin seeds to a rough paste in a mortar and pestle.

Heat a little ghee or oil in a frying pan and add the spice paste. Fry for a minute or so (stirring) with a splash of water if things start to stick.

Stir the fried spice paste into the lentil mush along with the tamarind and sugar. Stir well and simmer until the dal has reached the consistency you like. We like it pretty mushy, so I simmered for maybe 15 minutes. You could get away with just a couple of minutes if you liked your lentils to retain a bit more texture.

When it's ready to go, stir through the coriander and serve it up.


Leeks in chickpea flour with sweet red pepper

4 leeks (seriously - I was sure this was going to be too many, but remember: they shrink!)
1 red capsicum
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
10 fenugreek seeds
8 cloves of garlic, peeled and chrused
1 dried red chilli, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves
3/4 cup chickpea flour (besan), sifted.

Trim the green bits and the roughest root sections off the leeks and slice them in half longways. Wash them thoroughly and then chop them finely.

Remove the seeds from the capsicum and chop it into 1 inch strips.

Heat the oil in a wok and add the mustard seeds. As soon as they pop, lower the heat and add the cumin and fenugreek seeds, plus the garlic. Stir-fry for about a minute.

Add the crushed chilli, the leeks, capsicum and salt. Increase the heat and stir-fry the whole lot for at least five minutes. It took us a bit longer because there was too much food mass for our wok - maybe 10 minutes.

Add the coriander and a splash of water and then sprinkle in the chickpea flour, stirring it evenly through the vegetables. Cook for another minute or so, stirring well.

We love our legumes, but none could be more devoted than Susan, the Well-Seasoned Cook! She's hosting a beany blog event this month, called My Legume Love Affair. Make sure to visit her website later this week for many more delicious dishes.

October 20, 2007: White chocolate kulfi and a bit of Bollywood

It's that time of the year again. Nope, it's not Halloween I'm excited about, or even Vegetarian Awareness Month. I'm psyched for Nova Cinema's Indian Film Festival! I'm always keen for an over-long and overly obvious story of love and dancing in the Subcontinent, and to keep Michael interested there's usually plenty of Indian-style eating to go along with it. On Saturday night I booked tickets for Chak De! India and invited Tracy and Lee to join us for dinner beforehand.

During our day-trip to Brunswick we stopped by the Indian grocery for a few supplies. I was very pleased to find there Lay's latest foray into potato chips for the Indian market: a packet of Masala Magic chips resplendent with Indian World Cup Cricket logos. Even better, it was bundled up with a bonus small sample of Mint Mischief chips. With Taj Mahal beers in the fridge, pre-dinner nibbles were all sorted out.

For the main meal, we called on a few previously successful dishes. I shelled some fresh peas and baked a batch of jumbo samosas, while Michael prepared our favourite spiced chickpeas and steamed some rice. Raita and two kinds of pickle guaranteed that everyone could adjust the spiciness to their liking.

I can't leave a theme alone without planning something for dessert, and I was keen for kulfi. I already have a favourite recipe, but instead I tried a non-traditional and eye-catching version by Mridula Baljekar which includes white chocolate. Although kulfi doesn't require an ice-cream maker and is usually rather firm when frozen, I elected to pop it in the machine for a lighter, airier version. I also couldn't resist adding a couple of pinches of ground cardamom to the mix. Unfortunately I didn't leave enough time for the mixture to freeze fully, and we ended up with bowls of sweet cream only slightly firmer than slush! Never mind, it still tasted great, and the leftovers were even better, topped with some canned passionfruit pulp.

While this white chocolate kulfi is far from traditional, I think it's very much in the spirit of an Indian dessert: milky and very sweet, it's the ideal cooling finish to a fiery meal.


White chocolate kulfi

1 x 375mL can evaporated milk
300mL double cream
1/4 cup castor sugar
180g block white chocolate (I won't tell if you eat one or two pieces)
two pinches of ground cardamom
1 small can of passionfruit pulp to serve (optional)

Combine the evaporated milk, cream and sugar over low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat - it need only be lukewarm.

Melt the chocolate gently in a double boiler (or your own preferred set-up). Stir it into the milk-cream mixture until well combined. Add the cardamom and stir through.

If you're not using an ice-cream maker, pour the mixture directly into a pretty mould or other container and freeze for at least 5 hours. If you are using an ice-cream maker, refrigerate the mixture until it is very cold, then churn it according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Serve the kulfi in slices or scoops topped with passionfruit pulp.

March 29, 2007: Tandoori veges with lemon rice

The last installment in SBS's Hooray for Bollywood movie series was the fabulous Kuch Naa Kaho. It's a fine example of a modern Bollywood romance and includes one of my favourite musical numbers, where a traditional engagement party in a lavish setting is transformed into a battle-of-the-sexes dance-off: how frustrating that subtitles for the lyrics disappear half-way through!

To accompany the movie, we prepared tandoori veges and lemon rice. Since sampling the delicious tandoori cauliflower at Tandoori Times, I've been re-inspired by the marinade that is so often only seen on chicken. Michael noticed a pouch of tandoori spices at Spice Bazaar last weekend and immediately I had to own it, I had to try my own hand at tandoori veges! After looking at one or two recipes on the internet, it was Michael who adlibbed his own marinade and it turned out very well. The resulting veges didn't closely resemble their TT inspiration, but a lack of oil and fake colouring can only be a good thing. A hot oven doesn't give as much charring as I like, but we did pack the veges in pretty tightly together. A barbeque would probably be an effective alternative cooking method.

What I particularly enjoyed about the Tandoori Times cauliflower was the distinct lemon tang, and this was what had me chasing up a lemon rice recipe as an accompaniment. It's another gem from Mridular Baljekar's Low-Fat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook - the mustard seeds and cashews are a real treat, and the luminous colouring comes not from scary fake lemon, but from ground turmeric.

Tandoori veges

Ingredients:

Lots of peeled and diced veges: we used 5 medium potatoes, a huge carrot, a head of cauliflower, 2 red capsicums and 8-10 large white mushrooms

For the marinade:
1 1/2 cups yoghurt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tandoori spice mix (a quick internet search will give you an idea of what ground spices to combine if you don't have a pre-mixed combination like ours)
juice of one lemon
1/3 cup water

Whisk together the marinade ingredients and a bowl. Arrange the veges in a couple of baking dishes and pour the marinade over. Gently stir the veges around so that they're evenly coated in the yoghurt mix. Let the trays sit for half an hour so that the flavours develop, then bake at 200 degrees for about half an hour. Stir the veges occasionally to recoat with the settled marinade.

Lemon rice

Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
a handful of cashews, roughly chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Wash the rice in cold water and leave it to soak for 15-20 minutes. Drain.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and then add the mustard seeds and cashews. Let them sizzle for no more half a minute, then remove the cashews (it doesn't matter if some of the mustard seeds come out too).

Add the rice, turmeric and salt to the saucepan and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. Pour in 2 cups of hot water and the lemon juice. Bring the rice to the boil and continue to boil for two minutes.

Cover the saucepan, reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let the rice stand for 6-7 minutes. Only now should fluff up the rice with a fork.

Serve the rice, garnished with the cashews.

March 4, 2007: Savoury Vegetable Loaf

Mmmm-mmm, doesn't that sound delicious? Savoury vegetable loaf. Sounds like it's made of sawdust and old potatoes. Luckily, this wasn't from some 1950s Woman's Day cookbook, but from our beloved Low Fat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar, so we were guaranteed something with a little flavour. Tonight's meal was being prepared in honour of SBS's month-long 'Hooray for Bollywood' extravaganza (four Sunday night movies celebrating India's finest), but neither Cindy or I were particularly enthused about a regular saucy curry. Instead, we browsed through the book trying to find something interesting but still Indian-themed. We settled on this baked loaf, served up with roti bread, yoghurty sauce, greens and the spicy mango chutney that came in the Oxfam pack that Mum gave us for Christmas.

The preparation was pretty time-consuming, with seemingly endless chopping and grating, some baking and a bit of frying at the end. Throw in the construction of the yoghurt sauce and the frying of the bread, and the whole process took a couple of hours. Luckily, it was well worth it, with a hot and flavoursome end product. The red chillies were probably a little hotter than ideal, and the yoghurt sauce had a bit more kick than necessary, meaning that the whole thing was spicier than Cindy would have liked, but I found it tremendous. The frying at the end crispies up the loaf slices perfectly, although I imagine it would still be fairly tasty if you were on a health kick and just ate it fresh from the oven. Definitely something to throw together again on a future Indian-themed weekend evening.

Savoury Vegetable Loaf
1 cup chickpea flour (besan)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 red chilli peppers, finely chopped
3 tablespoons coriander, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
2/3 cup grated carrot
1 cup white cabbage, finely chopped
250 ml tomato juice (we used V8 vege juice, which is something like 80% tomato)
2 tablespoons olive oil

From here, things look pretty easy, but with all the grating and chopping in the ingredients list above, you've already spent half an hour in the kitchen.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the besan, salt and baking powder. Add in the remaining ingredients except the juice and oil and stir into the bowl - try to make sure the flour mix gets distributed through evenly, rather than into little clumps.

Gradually add the tomato juice and stir everything together until it's a nice, juicy paste. Spoon the mixture into a baking tin (lined with greaseproof paper) and bake at 190 degrees for about an hour. I checked up on it a few times to make sure it didn't overcook, but it really did take about an hour - even in our overhot oven.

When it's reasonably firm, take it out of the oven and let it cool. Once it's cool, cut it into slices about an inch thick and fry the slices in the oil for about a minute on each side.

Minted yoghurt and coriander sauce
2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
1/3 cup fresh coriander, chopped
1 green chilli, sliced finely
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
200g yoghurt
1 tbsp slivered almonds

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and zap them a few times until everything's nicely combined. If you're organised, leave the mixture in the fridge for a few hours to let the flavours combine, but it's fine if you just serve it straight up.

January 11, 2007: Spiced chickpeas with stir-fried sweetcorn

Having slacked off for the best part of a week, I made Thursday night's dinner my responsibility. Having spent a few days eating nothing but pizza, I decided to put together an Indian feast. This was particularly appropriate given Emma and Simon were among a tiny minority of our friends who hadn't sampled my favourite Indian recipe: spiced chickpeas. The recipe is from a cooking course Cindy and I did at Mondo Organics. I think I must have been respecting recipe copyright when that earlier post went up, something I will rectify later in the post. As much as I love the spiced chickpeas, it's become something of a rule in our house that dinner requires at least one vegetable (and tomato paste isn't quite good enough). Thus, we tend to dig up a fairly simple veg-heavy Indian dish to accompany the chickpeas and make us feel vaguely healthy. This time, it was stir-fried sweetcorn with peppers and spring onions from Mridula Baljekar's 'Low Fat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook'.

As well as providing us with our nightly vegies, the corn stir-fry added vibrant colour to a meal that is otherwise pretty monochrome. Even better, it tasted good. The chilli powder added a nice kick to the fresh corn and capsicum and the coriander and lemon-juice gave it a gentle tang that complemented the chickpeas perfectly. The chickpeas were, as usual, the star of the show - the $130 that Cindy spent on the Mondo cooking course for the two of us has been paid back with interest for this recipe alone. Delicious fresh from the saucepan on warm chapatti, at room-temperature the next day for lunch, or rolled up in pastry and cooked as makeshift samosas.

Spiced Chickpeas
3 tablespoons ghee
3 cups cooked chickpeas
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons chopped coriander
1 teaspoon asafetida powder
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon garam masala
2-3 tablespoons lila masala (see below)
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the ghee in a medium sized saucepan. Once it's hot, add the mustard seeds and stir them about a bit until they start popping. Sprinkle in the asafetida powder and add in the lila masala. Cook for about three minutes, stirring constantly. Add in the tomato paste and cook for another few minutes, before adding in the rest of the ingredients. If the mixture is a bit dry, stir through a half-cup of water. The chickpea mix can sit happily over low heat while you make any accompaniments.

Lila Masala
1 bulb garlic cloves (peeled)
4 green chillies
1 bunch mint
1 tsp salt
1 stem of ginger
2 bunches coriander
Juice of one lemon

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and whizz until everything is combined. Add a little olive oil and whizz it some more.

This makes around 1 1/2 cups of the spice mix, which is more than you need for the chickpeas. We've frozen the leftovers for later use and noticed no ill effects.

Stir-fried sweetcorn with peppers and spring onions
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 bunch spring onions, chopped (I used shallots, which I don't think are the same thing. Close enough I suppose.)
1 large red capsicum, diced
1 large green capsicum, diced
2 cups corn kernels (it's a pain, but I recommend using fresh corn rather than frozen)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 tablespoon chapatti flour (atta)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
1/2 cup warm water
salt to taste

Fry the cumin seeds in the oil until they start to pop. Add in the spring onions and cook for about five minutes. Add in the capsicum and stir-fry for another few minutes, before adding in the corn, chilli powder and turmeric. Add the salt and then pour in the warm water. Sprinkle the chapatti flour over the vegetables and stir through, thickening the water and spices up into a saucy consistency. Cook for another minute or two and, just before you're ready to serve it up, stir through the lemon juice and coriander.

December 3, 2006: Parippu dhal and green bean salad

On Sunday we had a pub lunch with Michael's mixed netball team lined up, so we wanted to be prepared with a not-too-oily dinner in the evening. We pulled out a dhal recipe that we received during an Indian cooking course at Mondo Organics last year, and then looked for an Indian-style salad to munch on the side. Along with a bit of home-made flat bread from the depths of the freezer, this was a thoroughly satisfying meal. The common ingredients of black mustard seeds, green chilli and coconut meant that the dhal and salad weren't fighting for flavour domination, and the crisp cool texture of the salad was a great contrast to the thick soft lentil soup. This is a low-fuss combination worth repeating!

Green bean salad
(from The Low-Fat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 cup green beans, trimmed and chopped into bite-size pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
2/3 cup boiling water
A bunch of radishes, thinly sliced
1 green chilli pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped

Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds, then the beans and salt. Give it a stir, reduce the heat, cover the pan and cook for 6-8 minutes.

While the beans are cooking, soak the coconut in the water for 5 minutes, drain, and add to the beans. Mix well, remove from the heat and cool.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients and let the flavours develop for half an hour or more.

Parippu dhal
(from Dominique Rizzo of Mondo Organics)

250g red lentils
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, roughly chopped
1 can coconut milk
2 green chillies, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
10 curry leaves

Put the lentils into a saucepan with 2 cups of water, on medium heat. Add the onion, tomato, coconut milk, chillies, turmeric, ground cumin and ground coriander and bring the lot to the boil. Allow the mixture to simmer until the lentils are cooked to mushiness, adding a bit more water if it gets too dry.

Heat the oil in a separate pan, add the cumin seeds and mustard seeds, cover the pan and watch 'em pop! Add the curry leaves, and after a minute or two pour them into the dhal. Season with salt and continue to cook until the mixture completely disintegrates: you'll know when it's there.

Categories:

• Savoury
• Cooking
• Recipes

November 16, 2006: Dinner for Doof

To welcome our Bris-friend Doof to Melbourne's fair shores, a home-prepared Indian meal was necessary. With Krusty, Jason and Sharon included on the invite list, we had to upscale from 'meal' to 'feast'. Luckily, Cindy and I are well-practiced in the art of Indian feast-making and we called upon some previous successes: palak paneer and mango rice pudding. To make sure we had enough, we decided to add some roti bread (picked up ready-to-fry at IGA) and broccoli pilau to the menu.

Broccoli Pilau (from Mridula Baljekar's low-fat Indian vegetarian cookbook)

Wash about a cup of basmati rice and soak it in cold water for about 20 minutes.

In a good sized saucepan, fry a teaspoon of fennel seeds, half a dozen cardamom pods, 1/2 a teaspoon of peppercorns, a bay leaf and a cinammon stick in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. After about 30 seconds, add a finely chopped onion and a couple of chopped green chillies and fry until the onions have browned slightly.

Add a teaspoon of turmeric and the rice. Stir-fry for a couple of minutes and add about 3 cups of broccoli florets. Keep stir-frying for another minute or so and then add two cups of hot water. Bring to the boil and simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes or until the rice is cooked.

Everyone was very enthusiastic about the meal and there were at least a few trips back for seconds. The palak paneer is a sure-fire winner and it went down pretty well with the bread and pilau, while Cindy's dessert was as fantastic as last time. To be honest, I was too excited to see Doof again to really pay much attention to the food. At lunch the next day I found the spinach a bit gritty and got annoyed with the remnants of the cinammon stick, but on the night it was a roaring success.

Categories:

• Cooking
• Recipes
• Sweet
• Savoury

November 9, 2006: Eastern Vegetarian Burgers

After a few days of surviving on very poor conference food and some tastier night-time outings in Cairns, Thursday found me back in Melbourne and raring to cook. Cindy and I had our usual indecisive conversation about exactly what it was I'd be cooking, before settling on the Eastern vegetarian burgers from Mridula Baljekar's excellent Low-Fat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook. Seeing as I had a free afternoon, I decided to add a baby spinach salad (also from the book) and a made-up raita to the mix. The burgers were a spicy treat - the patties were 'meaty' and tasty and combined well with the salad and raita. They probably could have used some further accompaniment (e.g. tomato, for those who like them), but I was pretty satisfied.

Raita
Seed a small cucumber and chop it into little pieces, combine with a small tub of plain yoghurt, a few tablespoons of chopped coriander and a couple of teaspoons of ground cumin. And that's it.

Baby Spinach Salad
Chop up about 200g of baby spinach leaves and grate a medium-sized carrot and mix together in a large bowl with 1/4 cup of dessicated coconut. In a small saucepan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and throw in 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds and 1/2 a teaspoon of cumin seeds. Let them sizzle for a couple of seconds and kill the heat. After the seeds have settled down a bit, pour the mix through the spinach and add in a generous splash of lime juice and a dash of salt. Make sure it's all mixed together and it's ready to go.


Eastern Vegetarian Burgers
Combine a cup of dried soya mince (we use Sanitarium TVP) with a cup of hot water and allow it to sit for about fifteen minutes until the water has been soaked up. In a large bowl, combine the soya mince with a finely chopped onion and a couple of finely chopped green chillies, teaspoons of ground coriander, cumin and garam masala, 2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh coriander, a generous tablespoon of tomato paste, 25g of polenta, 2 beaten eggs and a sprinkling of salt. Mix everything together thoroughly.

Shape the burgers into appropriately sized patties (we got about 6 out of this recipe, although the book expects it to make 8). Dusting each burger pattie in plain flour helps to keep them together for the frying. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a frypan - once the oil is hot (if you start too soon, your patties will crumble) gently place your patties in the oil and fry for about three minutes on each side. You'll be able to tell when they're ready for flipping by carefully testing each pattie with your spatula - they should feel quite crisp on the bottom.

Sit the patties on some absorbent paper to soak off some of the oil and then serve in fresh bread rolls with your prepared accompaniments.

Categories:

• Cooking
• Recipes
• Savoury

October 14, 2006: Indian mango rice pudding

It isn't a themed evening without an appropriate dessert as far as I'm concerned, and I knew just the thing to make. I'd previously trialled this recipe for "Rose and saffron-scented rice dessert with mango" once while in Brisbane. I had had some agreeable creamy rice desserts served with thalis at various Indian restaurants, and I found my home-made batch to be an even more aromatic and satisfying end to a curry meal. The recipe comes from a fabulous and (in this house) well-thumbed cookbook instructively titled "The low-fat Indian vegetarian cookbook", written by Mridula Baljekar. However this is by no means a low-fat dessert: it comes from the more permissive High Days and Holidays chapter at the end of the book.

This dessert is quite simple to prepare and if you're planning to make a main meal on the same night, you can reduce the stress levels even further by doing the first half of the recipe a couple of hours or even a day earlier.

Indian Mango Rice Pudding

a pinch of saffron threads
1/2 cup full cream milk
2 tablespoons ghee (or butter)
9 green cardamom pods, bruised
1 inch piece of cinnamon stick
565g can of creamed rice (often near the instant cake and pudding mixes at the supermarket)
3 tablespoons double cream
1-2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
425g can of mango
1 tablespoon rosewater
pistachios or flaked almonds to garnish

Gently heat the milk in a very small saucepan and grind up the saffron a bit. Squishing it between two teaspoons with a small container underneath is a good approach. Stir the saffron into the milk and set it aside.

Get yourself a much larger saucepan (about 2 litres in capacity is good) and melt the ghee, subsequently adding the cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. Use more or less cardamom as you wish, but remember the number that you put in. You'll thank me later. Turn the heat up just enough to get the spices sizzling and infusing the fat with flavour, then turn it down again to low.

Once the ghee has settled down, cautiously add the creamed rice and saffron milk. I say 'cautiously' because the the ghee started spitting at me at this point. Once it's all combined, turn the heat up a bit and add the cream and sugar. If your creamed rice is very sweet, consider reducing or omitting the sugar. Simmer the mix gently, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. Set it aside to cool.

At this point you can plonk a lid on the saucepan and pop it in the fridge for a few hours or even a day. I changed into my most brightly beaded shirt and checked out a Bollywood movie at the festival. Another fine amusement is preparing and devouring a curry as a precursor to dessert.

Mridula's recipe calls for a large, ripe mango and on this day Piedemonte's was selling them for $1.99 each. I confess that I still went for the canned option because I don't really like the intensity of fresh mango (a shameful admission for a girl raised in Queensland). Whatever your choice, cut your mango into small cubes, perhaps saving a bit as a garnish. Retrieve the rice pudding and fish out the cardamom pods and cinnamon (aren't you glad you counted how many were in there?). Stir in the mango and rose water.

Serve in invidual cups, garnished with a few crushed nuts. Pistachios look beautiful against the soft orange of the pudding, but I'd used mine up and opted for flaked almonds instead.

Categories

• Cooking
• Recipes
• Sweet