Cucumber Peanut Salad

Cucumber Peanut Salad  Rating: 7

Our garden is generating a healthy supply of cucumbers so we made this Indian salad tonight and served it up with garlic naan (a type of flat bread) and a lemony yogurt sauce.  We substituted one seeded jalapeno in place of the serano peppers, olive oil instead of ghee. and regular yellow mustard seed in place of black.. It was refreshing and the warm heat was nice.  The peanuts gave it a nice crunch but would go soggy in leftovers.

Red Lentil Dal with Roasted Onions and Gobhi Paratha

Neal likes Indian food and so I am trying to lean in that direction more.  One of our friends, Jess, gave us a simple recipe for red lentil dal that Neal really likes.  I like it too, especially because it's a breeze to whip up.  We served it with Gobhi Paratha, a cauliflower stuffed bread.

Red Lentil Dal with Roasted Onions  Rating: 9
3 Servings

Ingredients
2 1/2 - 3 cups vegetables broth
1 Tbsp. curry powder
1 cup red lentils
2 medium onions, sliced in to rings
olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Scatter onions on a baking sheet, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and toss.  Roast them in the oven for 30-40 min., checking and stirring occassionally, unitl soft and browned. 

In the meantime, in a medium pot, bring vegetable broth and curry powder to a boil, add red lentils, simmer for 15 minutes (or until lentils are to your desired tenderness), stir occasionally.

Spoon some into a bowl and top with roasted onions.

Gobhi Parantha (Cauliflower Stuffed Bread) Rating: 5

These are definitely best served warm with yogurt.  We like bread.  We like cauliflower.  We did not like or dislike these.  The ajwain seeds are pungent and I would probably leave them out next time and double the cumin instead.  But I got them cheap at an Indian food store so I have lots of them now.  Oh well. 

My kids, on the other hand love bread and ate them up.  Love veggies in disguise. 

I really like the lady, Manjula, and that she provides a video to her recipes.  I actually felt calm and had fun while making her stuffed cauliflower bread because I knew what to look for due to her video.  This, despite, having the heat too high and burning my oil a bit, setting off the smoke alarms repeatedly, which might I add, did not happen in her video.  Hmmm.  Luckily, Neal had just gotten home and was available to air out the house while I finished up.  I am going to try more of her recipes and see how it goes.

 

Chicken Tikka Masala

I love Indian food and one of my goals is to get Keri to like it too (she fears the heat).  To that end I have been slowly introducing Indian flavors at home.  Garam Masala is the key to this recipe and can be found in any Indian grocery store.

I've split the recipe into two parts for convienence.

Chicken Tikka Masala  Rating: 9

Marinade
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
5 tbsp Garam Masala
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cayenne to taste
2 Chicken Breasts, sliced into strips

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and add the chicken.  Marinate at least 1 hour but overnight is much better.

Sauce
1 tbsp butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 15oz can tomato sauce
1  14oz coconut milk
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
3 tsp garam masala
Salt to taste
Cayenne to taste

Preheat your grill.

Saute the onion and garlic with the butter to the pot over medium heat until the onions soften, about 3-5 minutes.  Add the spices and mix together, being caseful to not burn the spices.  Add the tomato sauce and cocnut milk and simmer on low for 20 minutes.

While the sauce is simmering grill your chicken for about 4-5 minutes per side, its not necessary to cook your chicken all the way through because it will be added to the sauce later.  Remove chicken from grill and allow to rest for about 5 minutes.  Cut into bite size pieces.

After the sauce has simmered for 20 minutes add the chicken and allow to simmer an additional 10 minutes.

Serve with Basmati Rice and Naan