Indian Warm Cabbage Salad

 I love this warm cabbage salad.  Its Anjum Anand's recipe from Indian Food Made Easy. I was so happy when my mom got me her cookbook a few years ago.  The funny thing is that I mostly just make this salad.  In Kansas I don't use curry leaves so I use frozen basil leaves (crazy??? but it works) I've been using other nuts than peanuts because of the baby.  I like cashews. 

Simple and yummy well worth buying mustard seeds, nigella seeds, urad dal and curry leaves even if thats the only thing I use them for!  Mustard seeds double as a childrens toy....maybe not but Joe like it!

Mango Mint Salad

My mom has been visiting me over the past few weeks. We both had planned on cooking and eating great food while she is here but the lure of sightseeing was too great. My mom did make this lovely Mango Mint Salad to go with the chicken curry I made a few nights ago.

Mango Mint Salad
Serves 6
1 large ripe mango
1/2 English cucumber
1/2 red onion
1 orange
1/2 lime
2 Tbs mint
1 Tbs coriander
1 Tbs chives
1/4 tsp mango powder (Amchoor Powder)
1/2 tsp ground coriander seed
1 tsp of ground cumin seed
Salt, Pepper and hot red pepper flakes

Peel and slice mango into long strips. Slice cucumber into strips. Finely slice the red onion into crescents. Zest the orange, peel and slice. Zest the lime and juice half. Chop the herbs. Mix everything and add the spices and salt and pepper.

I would have used tons more hot pepper, but my mom wanted to make something cooling to go with the spicy curry.

Tomato Dal Soup

Its soup weather here. Dal or yellow spelt lentils take a while to soften, but are so creamy. One of my favorite soups.

Fry 1 chopped onion in 1 tsp oil and 1/4 tsp turmeric.
Add:
1/3 cup Dal
1 can of Tomatoes
1 cup water
Bring to a boil, cover and lower the heat. If you soaked the dal before cooking then the soup should be done in 30min, I did not soak my Dal, so it toke 2 hours and some mashing for mine to soften. Check for salt, pepper and sugar. Its great just like that, but it can be spiced up!
For Spice fry in 1 tsp oil for 2 min:
1 tsp mustered seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 Tbs dry coconut
chili powder to taste.
Mix in with the soup.

Enjoy a small bowl with rice or naan.

Polow meets Pulao

Fresh Dates! Hard to find and seasonal. These are very unripe, like a green bannan. We had rice with fresh dates at our wedding, and I wanted to recreated it, but with a twist. This is Irinian meets Indian (in Ireland) or Polow meets Pulao.In addition to fresh dates I used traditional Iranian ingredients for Jeweled rice: orange peel, barberries and onion but seasoned them with Indian spices, cumin and green cardamom.
Fry in 1 tsp oil for 2-3 min.

Make Polow:
Soak 2 cups of rice in salted water for a few hours.
Drain soaked rice and bring a big pot of water to boil. Add rice and boil until aledenta about 5 min. Drain the rice and rinse.
Put 1/2 tsp oil in the bottom of a pot or rice maker. Layer 1/3 of the rice on top of the oil then1/2 of the spice mix, and repeat ending with rice. With the end of a wooden spoon make five steam wholes in the rice. Just stick the spoon in the rice! Put 1 tsp oil over the top. Wrap a clean kitchen towel around the lid of the rice maker or pot and pop on top. Steam the rice for 30 min. Can put a few tsp of butter in the last few min of steaming.

Very Tasty!

Indian Takeaway

Last night we treated our self to an Indian takeaway. Were did we order from? Me.
I made Ginger Beef which I saw on This Morning and Baingan Bhurta from Show me the Curry.

I made small changes to both recipes. The beef was should have been lamb and I added some tomatoes for a richer colour. The Baingan Bhurta calls for pea, but I used soy beans. Both dishes where tasty and we didn't have to pay for delivery!