Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Going Indian- Vindaloo, savory rice and papdums!

Most of you know that my H2B (forum lingo for hubby to be) is from a Indian/Chinese heritage. His ancestors (i.e. grand father and above) were from North India. Besides pratas (or roti canai or flat breads) and Indian rojak (a kind of salad), I'm still quite ignorant about Indian cuisine. Doesn't help when AR isn't exactly clue in about it either!

In his defense, his mum raised him up with a healthy diet of Chinese meals but introduced dahl and other sorts of curries when he was a child. His father supplement that diet by bringing both brothers to Indian coffee shops for great roti canai and Thosai for breakfast every weekend.
I still look forward to those big hearty breakfasts with them on our yearly trip back. Not to mention, those trips got me hooked on THOSAI! Thank goodness for our ex-neighbor who recognize our love for thosai and regularly invite us over to their house for a decent Indian meal. Despite her best effort to teach me how to make thosai... I still don't get it! Apparently we need a grinder or blender to make the paste. Oh well, more reasons to pop over to their new place I guess. :P

One of our most memorable dates was at D'Tandoor. I guess AR decided to introduce me to proper Indian cuisine then (so that I know Indian food isn't all about thosai and dahl). Besides Tandoori, we had a go at Vindaloo-and I remembered leaving with tears in my eyes. Not tears of joy mind you.. more like tears of spiciness.

*Now that everyone knows our wedding dates are 25th of April 2009 (Perth), 1st of May 2009 (Singapore) and 3rd of May 2009 (Subang, Malaysia)-we can't afford to go D'Tandoor anymore....

Hence the need to improvise and make something similar at home.

Given that I'm such a newbie in experimenting and cooking Indian food PLUS I'm still in my lazy mode, I took a short cut and used ready-made paste instead (*embarrassed*) .

At least it tasted like the real deal!

Vindaloo (serves 4)
Benjamin's brand of HOT vindaloo paste (about 3-4 tablespoons-anything more is lethal)
300grams of cube chicken (or pork or beef)
chopped onions (half)
plain yogurt

Marinate meat with vindaloo paste and yogurt for about 20 minutes.

When ready, fry onions till soft. Cook meat till just done, adding water or stock till suitable consistency. Serve with savory rice and vegetables

Savory rice
2 cups of rice
water

chopped onion (Half)
1 tablespoon of garlic
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
cumin
2-3 tablespoons of oil

Heat pan with oil. Add mustard seeds and fry till you can smell it! At that point, add in other spices. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon till it becomes a paste. Fry onions and garlic using the paste. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, wash rice. Parboil it. (whether on the stove or rice cooker).

Add paste with onions and garlic in. Fluff up rice as much as you can. Leave it to steam for about 5-10 more minutes. Garnish with fried shallots.


Papadums
Brush each papadum with some oil (u can also obmit this step)
microwave each papdum for about 15 seconds.

Serve with vindaloo! It's a myth that you need to deep fry the papdums!!


*PS- It sounded so wrong saying "wedding dates"- I'm only marrying ONE man!! Not three....

6 comments:

SIG said...

Oh yummy Indian food. Hehe. I love those instant stuff too when I visit Ireland. Can't resist them at the supermarkets when I browse the aisles. Wow! Three celebrations! *faint*

Little Corner of Mine said...

The Vindaloo looks good and nothing wrong with using ready-made paste. It's better than T.V. dinner right? ;)

tigerfish said...

I just used ready made paste for something Indian (Punjabi eggplant) yest. too! (but got no photo lah!).
I toss in mine with cauliflower and potato. Very nice :)

Wandering Chopsticks said...

Yeah lady! Why do you need 3 weddings? :)

Hottest vindaloo I ever ate was in Stockholm and they had chopped peppers all over. My friend literally had sweat running down his face.

wmw said...

I love a spicy Vindaloo but once in awhile don't mind the buttery Makanwala version too (I think I got that right, or didn't I?).

Flower said...

Maybe this is a bit too late. I'm in Perth and used to live in Subang jaya. Guess what, you can still enjoy D'Tandoor in Subang. The shop itself is near Subang Jaya Medical Centre.

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