Indian Feast

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My good friend Crystal gave me Phaidon’s 990 page cookbook, simply called India, for my last birthday. I love Indian food but for some reason had never even considered taking a stab at creating those complicated flavors in my own kitchen.

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The huge book is both overwhelming and awe-inspiring. There are literally one thousand recipes featuring a bevy of aromatic sounding ingredients, many of which I had never heard. It took me over an hour to plan my menu as so many of the thousand recipes sounded equally delish – Raj Kachori (deep-fried lentil snacks), Aloo Kele ki Bhujiya (spiced potatoes and bananas in youghurt), Kairi Murg (mango chicken) and on and on it goes, one exciting recipe after another.

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We finally settled on a menu.

Curry Potatoes
Smoked Eggplant
Chicken Tikka Masala
Green Chutney
Walnut Chutney
Coconut Rice Pudding

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My friend Ellen came over around 2PM and we started cooking dinner for friends arriving at 5PM. Did you know that Indian cooking requires a lot of “soaking”? At one point I had three large glass bowls out, each filled with water and a different ingredient – potatoes, red chilles, and rice. Each had to soak for an hour.

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We poured ourselves a variation on my favorite summer refresher, replacing the St. Germain with Chambord. Equally thirst quenching on a hot summer day.

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The good news is we did everything ahead and served it room temp/warm. Once I finished with the rice pudding (which involved peeling and chopping fresh coconut and blending it with soaked rice), I sauteed the toppings – pistachios, almonds and raisins – in a pan with butter.

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Ellen prepared the green chutney, a blend of cilantro and mint (cilantro is my enemy so I avoided). Love how it looks in my red Heath bowl.

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The sight of the Chicken Tiki Masala simmering on the oven was particularly cozy. Served alongside basmati rice, this became the centerpiece of our plate.

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My favorite dish was the Potato Curry, because the flavor complexity was out of this world. Yogurt, tumeric, cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardomom, chilies and bay leaves are only a sampling of the ingredients that make this dish so rich, warm and simply incredible.

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We ended the evening with the Coconut Rice Pudding, which was as pretty as it was tasty. Very sweet but also comforting. Loved the crunch from the toppings.

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What did you cook this weekend? We obviously went a little crazy. I’ll give $5 to the first person who guesses how many dishes we had to wash! (i kid, i kid…)