Posted in Indian Food, tagged aubergine and paneer curry, baby aubergine with indian spices, baby eggplant with indian spices, eggplant paneer curry, eggplants indian curry, eggplants with paneer, indian curry with eggplants, indian spiced eggplants, paneer and baby aubergines, uses for baby eggplants, uses for paneer on February 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Aubergine (eggplant for my American friends) has always been one of my favourite vegetables. It’s the perfect ingredient to add to any sauce from pasta to curry and works especially well with Indian spices. In fact, a simple side dish of aubergines were always a staple in my home.
Posted in Desserts, Indian Food, tagged banana and coconut fritters, banana fritters, fritters recipe, how to make coconut plaintain fritters, how to make fritters, how to make plaintain fritters, plaintain and coconut fritters, plaintain fritters, plaintain fritters recipe, uses for overripe bananas, uses for ripe plaintains, what to do with plaintains on January 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Plantain fritters definitely fall in my category of comfort foods. It brings back memories of those far and few train journeys of my childhood from our hometown on the Southeastern coast of India to my father’s village in Kerala, on the Southwestern coast. The monotony of the more than 30-hour train journey was broken as soon as we entered the lush green coastal landscape of Palghat – the first stop in Kerala. This is where you would hear cries of ‘pazham pori, pazham pori’ from vendors selling steaming hot plantain fritters wrapped in plaintain leaves. My father who otherwise was strict about not feeding us kids anything that was not home made, would give in to our sullen looks and we would all look on in anticipation as he purchased a few of those golden nuggets. Big chunks of plantain fritters and greasy palms were the one saving grace of that otherwise never ending journey!
Posted in Chicken, Indian Food, Meat & Poultry, tagged chicken in yoghurt sauce, chicken yoghurt curry, chicken yoghurt marinade, indian chicken curry, indian chicken yoghurt curry, indian mild curry, mild chicken curry, mild curry on August 28, 2013| 2 Comments »
If you’re looking for a mild curry to satisfy your curry cravings then you should try this one. I made this simple dish to accompany the fiery beef stew the other day so that everybody at the table had something to their taste. It went down a treat and so, I thought I’d share it here.
Posted in Indian Food, Meat & Poultry, tagged beef curry, beef in spicy sauce, indian beef curry, indian beef stew, indian spicy curry, indian style beef stew, slow cooked beef recipes, slow cooked beef stew recipe, spicy beef curry, spicy beef stew, spicy beef stew with indian spices, spicy indian beef stew, stewing beef recipes on August 25, 2013| 4 Comments »
The last few weeks have been both busy and quiet. Busy with family and quiet as we took a week long trip to the Dordogne region, some 3 hours from where we’re at the moment. So, although I’ve been in the kitchen and have tried out interesting recipes, I never really got around to documenting them here.
Yesterday, however, I made an Indian dinner on special request from my dear step father-in-law whose b’day it was and who really loves spicy exotic food. The menu included chicken smothered in a yoghurt sauce, a spicy beef stew and a side dish of pan fried aubergines along with a cucumber coriander raita to cool things off. Dessert was creme brulee indianised by the addition of cardamom and orange zest for extra measure.
Posted in Indian Food, tagged bhindi fry, curried lentils, dal tadka recipe, easy dal, easy lentil curry, easy okra dish, how to cook okras, how to make tadka dal, okra fry, okra with indian spices, spiced okra recipe, yellow lentil curry on June 4, 2013| 1 Comment »
We are in Paris for the month of June. During the first couple of days of exploring the city, we happened to be around the Indian quarter – a vibrant part of town choc-a-bloc with Indian eateries and stores rubbing shoulders with Middle Eastern and African joints reflecting the true cosmopolitan nature of this lovely city. While looking around a well stocked spice store, I couldn’t resist getting a few Indian spices and some okra. Okra or any other seasonal vegetable cooked with onions and spices are staple dishes back home. A simple and reliable side dish – something I’ve missed for a very long time.
That’s how the first meal I cooked here in our little rental apartment’s kitchen turned out to be one with Indian flavours. And I can now fully appreciate the challenges of working in a tiny Parisian kitchen!
Posted in Indian Food, Lamb, Meat & Poultry, tagged gosht dopiaza, indian lamb curry, lamb curry recipe, lamb curry with onions, lamb dopiaza, meat curry recipe, meat curry with onions on May 12, 2013| 2 Comments »
I do cook Indian meals quite frequently (although this may not be reflected in the number of ‘Indian Food’ posts here). A hot meal of dal, roti and rice with maybe an additional side dish or meat curry has become a staple in our household.
India is a large country with very distinct cultures and cuisines in its different regions. This means that I still follow recipes once in a while when I feel like doing something different. A few days ago, when there was a request to make an Indian dinner for some family guests, I turned to the internet to look up some inspiration. What I found was a lovely recipe for ‘gosht dopiaza’ or meat with lots of onions – a very popular dish back home in restaurants. I thought I’d give it a try, of course, with heavy customisation. Once you’re comfortable making a curry of any sort, customising recipes to suit your tastes and what’s available becomes second nature.
Posted in Indian Food on May 25, 2012| 5 Comments »
Located in the beautiful French village Vergheas is Le cuisinier en Combraille, a charming chambre d’hote owned and operated by an equally charming couple, Jacco and Cees. Jacco is also a very keen cook and provides guests at the lovely farmhouse with a culinary journey and an opportunity to try their hand at cooking during their stay.
Having decided to take a break from the 9-5 routine, myself and Peter have just left Ireland to kick off the beginning of our travel-around-the-world adventure by first unwinding in the lovely countryside of Auvergne where Peter’s mom and her husband reside. His stepdad, Rien, is an enthusiastic cook and on learning that I’d completed my one month cooking course at the Dublin Cookery School, asked me if I’d be interested in trying out a class with Jacco and Cees. It turned out to be even more exciting when I was asked if I could instead share some Indian recipes with some of their guests and guide them while they tried it out in the kitchen.
I immediately agreed and so it was that I turned up in a well equipped kitchen guiding a group of 6 cooks in the methods of basic Indian cooking and the use of Indian spices last Saturday.
Posted in Chicken, Indian Food, Meat & Poultry, tagged indian chicken recipe, indian tandoori recipe, tandoori chicken, tandoori marinade, tandoori poussin, tandoori recipes on April 11, 2012| 1 Comment »
I came across poussins or spring chickens while we were at Fallon & Byrne a few days ago and could not resist the temptation to purchase a couple of them. I’ve never seen poussins anywhere else in the city, not even at specialist butchers where usually you always have to place an order in advance if you want anything other than the usual fare that’s available.
Posted in Indian Food, Lamb, tagged atul kochhar, atul kochhar indian curry, indian curry, indian food, indian lamb curry, kerala lamb curry, lamb curry, lamb with coconut curry, slow cooked lamb curry, spiced lamb curry on April 26, 2011| 3 Comments »
Indian food is as diverse as its culture, regions and people. Each region has its own distinct cuisine that may be similar in some aspects and at the same time, completely different from each other. The cuisine of Kerala where my family is originally from relies heavily on seafood, vegetables and coconut. Given the large Christian minority in the state, meat also forms an important part of our food culture more so than any other state in India.
Though I’ve learned the basics of South Indian cooking from my mother who’s an excellent cook, I’ve been looking for ways to expand my repertoire of Indian recipes. I am now pretty comfortable with cooking up a few North Indian dishes as well thanks to my North Indian friends and excellent online resources.
In my quest for new Indian recipes, I chanced upon an Indian cookbook by Atul Kochhar titled, ‘Simple Indian: The Fresh Tastes of India’s New Cuisine’. It’s a collection of recipes from different parts of India and gives a refreshing insight into flavours from various regions of the country. A welcome change from the usual ‘rogan josh’, ‘butter chicken’ type recipes ;) So far, I’ve tried a few recipes from this book and all have turned out really delicious. The only issue I had with one or two of them was with some of the instructions not being clear enough, especially, with things like the time required to cook something or whether the pan should be left covered or uncovered while cooking, etc. You’ll see what I mean when you read the method for the lamb curry.
Posted in Indian Food, Snacks, tagged indian snack, samosa, snack on April 5, 2011| 1 Comment »
April 2nd, 2011 will go down as a momentous day in the history of Indian cricket. On this day, the Indian cricket team trounced the Sri Lankans to bring home the cricket World Cup once again after 28 long years.
And how did we witness this great event unfold? Unfortunately, not a single sports channel on our Irish cable network was showing the match. We watched it via online streaming which wasn’t the best experience but we savoured the various heartbeat-stopping, nail-biting moments along with some hot samosas and cups of steaming hot Indian tea. Whoever said cricket is a boring, long and slow game! (more…)
A Plate of Good Food 
