South Indian Lentils with Curry Leaves

This week has been a slow cooker week at this Patel household. My husband’s cousin recently gave me a slow cooker recipe book called The Indian Slow Cooker by Anupy Singla, and I have been trying recipes from it. While the recipes are quite tasty, I think the proportions are completely off. Either this book has made some severe misprints or Ms. Anupy Singla eats a spice level beyond anything I've imagined. I should point out that we don’t eat our everyday food at the absolute top of our spice tolerance, and I feel, and was told by the above-mentioned cousin, that the proportions of the spices in the dishes they tried made it too spicy to eat at all. So, here is a masoor recipe in which I have adjusted/ halved the quantity of spices. It turned out very nicely, and I will be making it again.

To make it easier to follow, I've changed around the language, but the gist is the same as the book. The word Tadka means a sort of garnish. It entails a few spices being fried in a little oil till it is fragrant, and then mixing it into the dish at the very end, enhancing the flavors of the spices that were already in the dish.

South Indian Lentils with Curry Leaves

For Dal

3 cups, masoor, soaked for at least 20 minutes

1 onion, chopped

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 Chili, finely chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

9 cups water

1 can coconut milk

For Tadka

2 tbsp oil

2 tsp cumin seed

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 small onion, finely chopped

15-20 curry leaves

Cook the lentils, chopped onion, tomatoes, green chilies, cumin and coriander powders, turmeric powder, salt and water (everything in the ‘For Dal’ list, except the coconut milk) in a slow cooker on low for 5 ½ hours. Then add the coconut milk, and cook for another ½ hour on low.

Once it’s cooked, heat 1 tbsp of oil in a small saucepan, fry the curry leaves, and set aside. Heat the remaining oil and add the cumin and mustard seeds, cook for a minute or so, stirring constantly, then add the onion and fry till light brown. When it’s done, mix it into the masoor in the slow cooker and serve (or keep on warm till ready to eat). Serve hot with plain rice. 

Masala Cauliflower and Potatoes

This recipe is from The Zoroastrian Stree Mandal Cookbook. It’s an old cookbook created with recipes that have been contributed by the ladies of Zoroastrian population of Hyderabad, India, including my grandmother and my great-aunts. I love trying recipes from this book. It reminds me of the kind of food I get at home. I added the cauliflower to this recipe; it turned out excellent and was extremely easy to make.

Masala Cauliflower and Potatoes

2 potatoes, sliced thin

1 tsp cumin, whole

½ tsp cumin, ground

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped fine

½ tsp chili powder

Few curry leaves

Salt to taste

Little oil

Peel and cut potatoes into thin slices. Heat the oil, add the garlic and fry. Then add the cumin, chili powder, salt, and curry leaves. Next, mix in the cauliflower, the potatoes and a little water. Cover and simmer till the potatoes are cooked. Serve hot with chapati.

Notes:

*Do not put in too much water. The potato cooks fairly quickly and the dish is supposed to be fairly dry. 

Fried Fish

This fish dish is extremely easy and very common in a Parsi household. At my house, fried fish is usually eaten on an auspicious day, like a birthday or anniversary, with a plain dal and rice. I am not a big fan of fish, until I discovered Tilapia that is, which really isn't a very fishy flavored fish, if you know what I mean. So now we make this fried fish very often, even on an ordinary day. You can try it with any fish you like, it doesn't have to be Tilapia.

All this talk of fried fish reminds me of a tongue-twister by Dr. Seuss that I learned as a kid. See if you can say it super quick while your fish is cooking. If you're not a tongue-twister kind of person, then skip it and go on to the recipe.

Fresh Fresher Freshest by Dr. Seuss

Do you like fresh fish?

It’s just fine at Finney’s Diner.

Finney also has some fresher fish

that’s fresher and much finer.

But his best fish is his freshest fish

and Finney says with pride,

“The finest fish at Finney’s

is my freshest fish, French-fried!”

SO…

don't order the fresh

or the fresher fish.

At Finney’s if you’re wise,

you'll say,

“Fetch me the finest

French-fried freshest

fish that Finney fries!”

FRIED FISH RECIPE
4 fillets Tilapia
salt to taste
turmeric powder to taste
chili powder to taste
Few curry leaves (optional)
2-3 green chilies (optional)
2-3 tbsp oil (for frying)

Marinate the fish in a generous amount of salt, chili, and turmeric powders and set aside for 10-15 minutes. Heat oil in a frying pan. Once the oil is hot, put in the curry leaves and chilies. Fry until the curry leaves are crisp and the chilies are well browned on both sides. Set them aside on a plate lined with a paper-towel. Line a second plate with a paper-towel for the fish too.

Once the curry leaves and chilies are done, put the fish into the frying pan, one or two pieces at a time. You must give yourself enough room to turn the fish. After 3-5 minutes check that the fish is starting to brown and crisp-up on the bottom. If it is then turn it over. Fry till the fish is cooked, and place on the paper-towel lined plate. Fry the other pieces and serve immediately with rice and dal, and garnish with the curry leaves and chilies.

Dosa Potatoes

Dosa Potatoes

One of the most popular foods in South India is Dosa. Dosas are like savoury crepes. They are extremely thin, crisp, and delicious. The batter is made out of rice and Urad dal. These two ingredients are ground together and allowed to sit out to ferment slightly. Making the batter at home can be tricky, especially if you live in a colder area, as it would take ages for the dosa batter to ferment. 

Luckily for us, most Indian stores in the U.S sell ready to use batter. You can get the batter in the frozen section or you can buy a box of dosa batter, to which you just add water and use. The dosa batter you get in the refrigerated section has been freshly made by someone and probably would be healthier. But you should only buy it only if you’re going to use it within a day or two, as it expires pretty fast. I prefer using the boxes as they have a longer shelf life and are a little cheaper. Also, if this is your first time making dosas, then the boxes give a much better explanation of how to cook them. I use either PRIYA or GITS dosai mix.

Dosas are cooked on a tava, or a thin bottomed, flat frying pan. All you do is spread some batter as thin as possible on the frying pan and then cook it till the bottom is brown and crisp. The trick to making a dosa that does not stick or break is to cool the pan before each dosa is made; for which I use a cold wet paper towel, to wipe the inside of the pan. Dosas are typically eaten with coconut chutney and a yellow spicy potato, for which I have given the recipe below. It is also eaten with a sambar, which is a very thin dal with vegetables in it. However, both my husband and I prefer the potatoes and the chutneys to the sambar, and so I never make it at home. Click on the link to see the coconut chutney recipe.

2 large potatoes, diced small

1 medium onion, cut to the same size as potatoes

2 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp (heaped) turmeric powder

1 1/2 tsp chili powder

2 tsp coriander powder

2 green chilies, slit (optional)

Curry leaves, about 12-15

Salt to taste

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Dosa, Potatoes, and Chutney

Peel and chop potatoes and place them in a pot of boiling water for 5-10 minutes, so that the potatoes are half cooked. In the mean time chop all the other ingredients and keep ready. Drain the potatoes and keep aside.  

In a pot, heat the oil. Once it’s hot, put in the curry leaves and the green chilies. Allow them to fry, stirring occasionally. Let the chilies brown on both sides (be careful, the curry leaves and chilies can splatter and burn you).  As soon as the curry leaves start to become crisp, take them out and set them on a plate with a paper towel, so that the oil is absorbed. Do the same with the chilies as soon as they brown.

Add onions, to the same pot, and fry till they are brown. Add a little more oil if necessary, but use the oil already in the pot, as it will be flavored with curry leaves and chilies. Once the onions start to brown, add in the mustard seeds. Give them a minute to get hot, so that it start to release it's flavor. Next add in the salt, and all the spices. Cook for a few minutes and then mix in the potatoes. Once the potatoes are well mixed, put in a half cup of water, or so, and close the pot with a lid. Allow the potatoes to fully cook, adding more water if necessary. Once the potatoes are cooked, allow all the water to evaporate. The potatoes should be served dry. Mix in the curry leaves and the chilies before serving. Serve them hot with dosas or chapatis.