How To Cook Indian project - Dishes 109-113
I’m jumping ahead this week to what I actually cooked this week! It’s Thanksgiving and I wanted to plan a meal that was for Thanksgiving, and involved ingredients that would be found at a Thanksgiving meal, but were from this book!
I’ve also included notes on the recipes that I didn’t come from the book in case those are interest to you. The dishes are listed left to right from top to bottom.
— Top Row —
Urulai Chettinadu (Spicy baby potatoes - page 238)
I was hoping to find an Indian mashed potatoes recipe, but couldn’t find one in the book. Instead, I settled for this baby potatoes dish. As per normal, I reduced the spiciness, and thought it turned out pretty tasty. It was simple and thought it went well as a Thanksgiving side dish with a twist.
Beans Poriyal (Green beans with coconut - page 255)
Next up, some green beans! I love green beans and it’s one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving. It’s not a casserole dish, but there are green beans in it, and I figured that was close enough. I imagine this was a bit healthier than a casserole. Again, it was another simple dish and was quick to make. Though Instead of chopping the green beans up so small, like that recipe requested, I probably would have left them longer.
Part of making this recipe involved grated coconut. When I was shopping, I was at a store that had brown coconuts and decided to just get one and see if I could figure out how to deconstruct it. To crack open the coconut and remove the meat, I read through these tips. I used the butter knife technique to remove the meat, not the oven method. Then I used a hand-held grater to grate the meat.
Never-dry Roast Turkey
This recipe comes from Williams Sonoma. I’ve used it the last two years and feel that my turkey has come out great both years. The taste is delicious, the meat is juicy. I’m a huge fan. It’s a bit of work with the brining process, but I feel that the juiciness and flavor and fragrance make it well worth it!
I sliced the Turkey for this photo.
— Middle Row —
Lump-free Turkey Gravy
This is another recipe from Williams Sonoma. Again, I used this for the last two years and it’s been great. Super tasty. Probably because of all the turkey drippings and butter, but it’s only once a year, so I’ll let it slide.
Olan (Pumpkin Curry - page 288)
As I was digging through the recipes in the book, I saw this recipe for Pumpkin Curry. I figured pumpkins are things that are eaten at Thanksgiving, so let’s give it a try! I haven’t cooked with pumpkin before, and never cut up a pumpkin for cooking before, so this was going to be a new experience. The pumpkins used were a regular pie pumpkin and then also a white pumpkin (aka ash gourd, aka winter melon). I was only able to find the white pumpkin at an Asian grocery store. Taking apart the white pumpkin was the same as the pie pumpkin. The video I watched, which I’m unable to find again at this moment to link here (but I’ll update this post if I find it!), mentioned that it was important to cut off the part near the seeds because it’s more bitter or something like that. Other than that, it was the same as cutting up a pie pumpkin.
The recipe itself turned out great. It was subtle, but the flavors were great, if you paid attention. There was just a hint of heat from the spices. It was very unique.
Roasted-Garlic and Rosemary Sourdough Bread
This was made by a friend! It’s made in the shape of a pumpkin! Isn’t it amazing!? :D
Sweet Potato Kheer (Mashed sweet potato pudding - page 583)
As a kid, kheer was one of few desserts that I liked. And then I saw that the cookbook had a sweet potato version it seemed perfect for dessert for Thanksgiving. The recipe called for 2 “medium” sweet potatoes, and when I went online, the internet told me “medium” meant at least 5 oz. I had two sweet potatoes, one was 15oz and the other was 25 oz. It seemed that the 15oz sweet potato would be plenty. I made the recipe though, with just that and it was way too liquid-y. So mashed up the larger one and then, with 40oz of sweet potato, then the consistency became more pudding-like. So I would recommend at least 40oz of sweet potato if you’re making this recipe. The dish is topped with chopped almonds, cashews, and pistachios.
Cranberry Apple Pie
My friend also made this mini pie for me! It was super tasty, was the cranberry and apples at my Thanksgiving, and even had a spoke design made out of the pie crust!
The Bati bread and the sourdough bread are switched in this picture.
— Bottom Row —
Rajasthani Bati (Traditional baked bread from Rajasthan - page 462)
For Thanksgiving, my family would eat crescent rolls or dinner rolls. I looked through the cookbook and only found one baked bread that wasn’t a flat bread in this book. This dish… turned out…. ok. It’s pretty heavy because of all the ghee. But perhaps I made it wrong? At least it looks decent in the picture.
Pumpkin Pie
I got this pie from my real estate agent. It’s from the Essential Baking Company in Seattle. The pie was great.. (And if you’re in the Seattle area, looking for a home, my real estate agent is great. I would totally recommend her.)
Disclaimer and links: 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.
I couldn’t find a Kapoor recipe online for the Urulai Chettinadu. But an online search shows a number of options.
A Kapoor Bean Poriyal recipe on YouTube
A Kapoor Olan recipe online
A Kapoor Sweet Potato Kheer recipe online
A Kapoor Rajasthani Bati recipe online