Spicy Butternut Squash

Here is another recipe from The Indian Slow Cooker by Anupy Singla. It's an interesting and very different way to make butternut squash and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Once again, it's a spicy recipe, so hold back on the quantities if it's too much for you. I did already reduce the spices, but it might be a little too much for some palates. Hope you like it...

Spicy Butternut Squash

2 tbsp oil
2 tsp fenugreek seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2-3 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
1 onion, chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into pieces
2 chilies, chopped
2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a pan, when hot, add the fenugreek and cumin seeds, the cardamom and cinnamon stick. Cook till they start to sizzle, stirring frequently, about 1 minute. When it starts to smell fragrant, add the onion and cook till the onion starts to brown. Next put in the tomato, turmeric and coriander powders. Stir in well and cook for a few minutes. In the mean time, chop up the butternut squash and place it in the slow cooker. Mix in the cooked onion and spices into the squash and add ½ cup of water. Cook on low for 4 hours, stirring once or twice.

When it’s done, add in the chopped green chilies, the brown sugar, garam masala and chili powder. Cook on high for ½ hour or so. If you want to dry out the liquid that the squash has released, leave the slow cooker open for the last 20 minutes of cooking. Serve hot with chapatti.

Notes:

*Cooking the green chilies and garam masala at the end will mellow the spices a little. Ms. Anupy Singla mixes these in and serves immediately; however, I prefer to have these spices cooked so as to reduce the harshness in its flavor.   

Palak Paneer

Apparently, my husband is a big fan of Palak Paneer (Palak translates to spinach and Paneer, a form of cottage cheese), so when he saw it in Anupy Singla’s book The Indian Slow Cooker, he asked me to make it. The recipe is extremely easy, so go ahead and try it. It results in a nice spicy dish, so if you want a toned-down version, you should use half of my quantities of chili powder, chilies, and garam masala. Also, like Ms. Singla says in her book, you do need to cook it for about 2 hours after it’s been blended, so that the spices have a chance to finish cooking.  

Palak Paneer ingredients going into the slow cooker

Palak Paneer

2 lbs fresh spinach, washed and drained

2 onions, chopped into 10-14 pieces

2 tomatoes, chopped into 10-14 pieces

1 4” piece of ginger, chopped up

1 large pod garlic, cleaned

2-3 chilies, stems removed

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tsp (heaped) chili powder

1 tsp garam masala

Salt to taste

12 oz paneer, cut into pieces

Put all the ingredients into the slow cooker except the paneer. Cook on high for 3 hours, stirring once or twice. Check that the onions are soft, if so, switch off and blend using an immersion blender or food processor, till the vegetables are smooth. Place back into the slow cooker and cook for 2 hours on low. Put in the paneer about 10 minutes before serving. Serve hot with chapatti. 

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. 

Beef and Barley Stew

When I was in college, my favorite soup at the cafeteria was the Italian Wedding Soup, mainly because I loved the barley in it. So I decided to try and make something with barley in it. My husband isn’t a big fan of soups, so I decided to try making this beef and barley stew. It is a modification of a recipe I found on The Food Network Website. Hope you like it. 

Beef and Barley Stew

1 lb beef stew pieces

1 cup pearl barley

1 pkt frz green beans, thawed

1 pkt frz three peppers and onions, thawed

1 onion, chopped into 6 pieces

7-10 baby carrots chopped in half

1 tbsp chili flakes

1 sprig fresh oregano

2 sprig fresh thyme

3-4 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 tbsp soy sauce

Salt to taste

1 tbsp pepper

1 tsp sriracha

5 cups beef stock

In a bowl mix together one cup of stock with the soy sauce and sriracha. Place all the ingredients in the slow cooker, except the fresh herbs and the beef. Give all the ingredients a good stir, so that they all mix together. Then add the beef and top with fresh herbs. Cook on low for 6 hours. Serve hot. 

Chili-Lime Thyme Leg of Lamb

My husband bought be a slow cooker for Christmas, with the promise that I would make him some fall-of-the-bone lamb, and since his family was visiting over the Christmas-New Year week, we bought a leg of lamb and used a piece of it for dinner. I wasn't very happy with any recipes I found online, so I decided to create my own.

It was extremely tasty, but also swimming in fat from the lamb. The next time I buy lamb, I’ll be asking our butcher to cut off all the fat, and not just the little bit that he did remove.

Chili-Lime Thyme Leg of Lamb

3 potatoes, skinned and chopped into 1” pieces

3 onions, cut into 4 or 6 pieces

10-15 baby carrots, cut in half

1 4–5 lb piece of lamb leg

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 tbs dried thyme

2 limes

2-3 fresh green chilies, chopped fine

Salt to taste

1 tbs pepper

4 cups chicken or beef stock

5 cloves garlic, whole

Rub the dried thyme, salt, and pepper on the lamb and set aside for 10-15 minutes. Finely grate the rind of one lime. In a small bowl, squeeze out the lime juice of both limes. Soak the chopped green chilies and the lime rind in the juice.

Chop all the vegetables and put into the slow cooker, with the garlic. Place the lamb on top of the vegetables, then pour in the lime-chili mix. Lightly crush the thyme, but keep the sprigs whole, and place it on top of the lamb. Pour in the chicken stock.

Set the slow cooker on low for 6 ½ hours. When it’s done, you should be able to pull the lamb off the bone with a fork. Serve with a crusty loaf of bread and salad.