How to Cook Indian project - Dishes 9-10

 

First, a little disclaimer, while I didn’t post this until August, I actually made this in May.

Why didn’t I post this for so long? Well, in case you were sailing around the world, or hiking the PCT, or for whatever reason haven’t been aware of the news/away from any/all media, people in the US are confronting systemic racism. And it didn’t feel right to post about some food in the midst of all that. I’m terrible with words, so I feel ill-equipped to say what I feel. But what I can say, is that I was lucky enough to be born and raised in the US. My parents immigrated from India in the late-70s/early-80s and were able to do so because of all the brave men and women (and children!) who stood up against racism in the 60s, during the Civil Rights Movement. As a female, of South Asian descent, I know I’ve had way more opportunities growing up in the US than I would have if I had been raised in India. I am so grateful for all of it and words cannot describe the breaking of my heart over all the innocent lives that have been lost, or pained due to systemic racism. I stand with you as an anti-racist. #BLM

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So then why I am posting now? Systemic racism hasn’t been resolved in any way in the last couple months. But as I’ve thought about it, I feel that one reason I never got very interested in Indian culture was because I was trying to be more “American”. Even though I was born and raised here. I was “different”. I was part of some “other” group. As a girl who was raised outside of Chicago, and no matter how many Cubs games or Bears games I watched, hot dogs or burgers that I ate, I would be part of that “other”. No amount of baseball, football, or barbeques would change the color of my skin. But with the time on my hands this year, the after years of slowly trying to reconcile where I grew up, how I grew up, and where my parents are from, cooking Indian food has been my slow introduction to me exploring that part of me. I’m slowly trying to internalize that I don’t have to completely assimilate to be American. I don’t have to deny that I have a certain ancestry. (And even with assimilation, other people may, and will, still judge you as not “one of them”!)

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So here we are, on to the next set of dishes I made. Going from left to right here:

Palak Paneer (Pressed cheese with spinach - page 299)

Growing up, I didn’t like any of the spinach dishes. Saag just didn’t look appetizing to me. And as a kid, I didn’t appreciate the texture either. But I guess you grow out of somethings and into others because I really like this!

This recipe called for 3 large bunches of fresh spinach. I tried looking up how many ounces a “bunch of spinach” was, and couldn’t find anything precise. So I just used 16 oz of baby spinach from those pre-washed greens containers. And again, would recommend cutting the number of green chilies in half. I forgot to for this recipe and it was too spicy for my tastes.

Other than that, it was great! I would love to have this again.

Kadai Chicken (Spicy Chicken cooked in a wok - pages 418-9)

This has been one of my favorite recipes so far. I really need to remember to take pictures as I cook, because the colors of this dish, as they are cooking in the wok, are beautiful. So colorful!

This recipe calls for cashew paste, and if you’re smart (unlike me), you’ll read the recipe and realize that you should do this first, or ahead of time! So yeah, do that! I doubled this recipe because I wanted to make a lot of it (I’ve been trying to make food last a whole week, so I can cook once and have it last. Indian food takes a bunch of time to make, so having only a few servings doesn’t seem to provide the best return on time investment.) But with doubling the recipe, I still reduced a few ingredients. In stead of 4 large red onions, I actually used only 1 large red onion. I also only used half the number of green chilies. For the chicken, I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts again.

As I cooked, I decided to not add any extra water, when I added the cashew paste. It seemed watery enough. The recipe turned out great, with my adjustments. If I were change anything, I would perhaps use a little less salt. It seemed plenty salty.

 
 

As I can’t just post the recipe from the book (I guess I don’t want to get in trouble over copyright) I am including links to similar recipes. That said, I didn’t make the linked recipes, so I can’t vouch for them. I’m only including them in case you want to make something similar, but don’t want to buy the book.

 
Pooja Mathurhowtocookindianproject, chicken, paneer, vegetables