Cue the Bollywood dance number with more shiny and silky fabric than you can shake your bangles at....
One thing I have been lucky to have in my life is really, really good homemade Indian food. My longtime Indian princess pal, Trisha, opened that spicy door to me several years ago. Since she came into my life, I have received quite a schooling on Indian eating and customs. I have had chicken byriani so spicy it made me cry. I have had coconut prawns in the Bengali style of her family. I have had mango pickle, roti, aloo, chutney, samosa, raita, dosa and uttapam. I have learned the many incarnations of the staple lentil dish, daal. I have even eaten goat curry and drank authentic homemade chai.
Indian restaurants are still great, but now I have been spoiled with all these delicious home cooked Indian meals. Trisha gave me a cookbook with recipes by Ismail Merchant, the film collaborator of Merchant Ivory Productions who was also fond of throwing lavish dinner parties. She also gave me a spice tray with all the essentials, so I decided to kick off cooking in 2010 with my attempt at a homemade Indian meal.
I selected Ismail Merchant's Yogurt Curry Fish as my main dish. Collored bright yellow with the addition of turmeric and saffron, the curry sauce was sweet and lightly creamy in compliment to the firm fleshed Arctic Char that I fried up. To accompany, I simmered a pot of yellow lentils to make a Lemon Daal and continued the yellow theme with Saffron Rice.
By far the most fun was the naan which my favorite pastry chef Curtis whipped up by researching authentic Indian recipes. He brought over a tray with a simple rising dough including yogurt for us to grill into naan. I was so surprised how the result turned out impressively close to the real deal fired in a Tandoor oven. He rolled it out into oblong shapes and handed the thin dough to me to brush with homemade ghee butter before putting on the hot grill pan. It was really a home cook's thrill to see the naan, topped with ghee and chopped garlic, bubble up and char on the grill pan.
I am not sure if I would have gotten my Indian princess' stamp of authenticity, but the saucy, fragrant dishes and the hot, grilled naan really were amazing for a first try. I am already thinking about my next Indian cooking adventure. If I can just find a butcher around here who sells goat.
