Indian Weekend Feast
On the way home from work on Friday, I stopped in at the Indian grocery store and picked up a pound box of sweets. Which served as the inspiration to this weekend's menu. I also picked up a few other goodies to round out the meal.
Menu inspiration: back row (rasgulla and gulab jamun), front two rows (various burfees or Indian fudges)
I've made Indian foods from scratch before, but sometimes, you need a break, so buying one or two items to add to your meal isn't a bad thing. Nor is using prepared pastes, chutneys or even breads.
I was going to make mattar paneer but I didn't have enough milk in the house to make my own paneer (cheese), and I blew the budget with the other items, so I couldn't BUY it. Still, I think the menu was good enough, even if it was one of the easiest I've made in a long time.
Samosas, easy chicken vindaloo, cheater's chickpea curry (or chana masala), basmati rice, roti and various sweets.
Chicken vindaloo - a very spicy chicken and potato stew made with a jarred paste mixture and served over plain basmati rice with some cooling yogurt or a cucumber or tomato raita (yogurt based dip)
Close-up of the interior of the samosa - potatoes, peas, toasted spices in a crispy pastry, served with a mint chutney
Two of my favourite Indian sweets - rasgulla (left) and gulab jamun (right)
Both of these sweets are milk based and soaked in a sugar syrup. Cardamom is a flavouring that's sometimes used in the syrup. The rasgulla is made with kneaded fresh paneer cheese poached in a sugar syrup. When you bite into it you get the squeaky texture of biting into fresh cheese curds. The gulab jamun is made with milk powder and butter or whipping cream, kneaded into a ball and deep fried and then soaked in the sugar syrup.
Closeups of Indian sweets - various burfees (fudges)
Menu inspiration: back row (rasgulla and gulab jamun), front two rows (various burfees or Indian fudges)
I've made Indian foods from scratch before, but sometimes, you need a break, so buying one or two items to add to your meal isn't a bad thing. Nor is using prepared pastes, chutneys or even breads.
I was going to make mattar paneer but I didn't have enough milk in the house to make my own paneer (cheese), and I blew the budget with the other items, so I couldn't BUY it. Still, I think the menu was good enough, even if it was one of the easiest I've made in a long time.
Samosas, easy chicken vindaloo, cheater's chickpea curry (or chana masala), basmati rice, roti and various sweets.
Chicken vindaloo - a very spicy chicken and potato stew made with a jarred paste mixture and served over plain basmati rice with some cooling yogurt or a cucumber or tomato raita (yogurt based dip)
Close-up of the interior of the samosa - potatoes, peas, toasted spices in a crispy pastry, served with a mint chutney
Two of my favourite Indian sweets - rasgulla (left) and gulab jamun (right)
Both of these sweets are milk based and soaked in a sugar syrup. Cardamom is a flavouring that's sometimes used in the syrup. The rasgulla is made with kneaded fresh paneer cheese poached in a sugar syrup. When you bite into it you get the squeaky texture of biting into fresh cheese curds. The gulab jamun is made with milk powder and butter or whipping cream, kneaded into a ball and deep fried and then soaked in the sugar syrup.
Closeups of Indian sweets - various burfees (fudges)