Cabbage Kofta

The majority of the dishes I've made in the last two years are meatless. If you see non-tasty recipes with meat on buildabelly in the future, you should know it's because I like meat, and its small presence in our house means that just about any meat tastes grand. This hasn't been an entirely deliberate decision and came by degrees. John didn't eat meat for a six-month stretch two years back due to several reasons, and since we normally didn't eat mounds of it anyway due to its cost, it was pretty easy to phase it out entirely for that time. Our health did not suffer, and we still ate like kings. Good things!

Many meals I make in the winter months feature beans and rice or are soups (some featuring beans...and rice), so Indian curries are a refreshing change. I usually wing curries, throwing vegetables in at random and adjusting spices as I go, but they all turn out too similarly for me to feel like I'm doing anything special.

For this curry, though, I followed a recipe, and I loved it. The star of the show is....cabbage balls! Don't worry, cabbage haters. Cabbage balls don't taste much like cabbage. They're savory and sweet and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside and really, really good. (Did I sell you with that "really, really good" description? Good.)

Who knew they existed, or, if Who did know, did Who know they were so delicious? Who, this one's for you!

Recipe butchered greatly adapted from this wonderful blog, which I really should visit again sometime. (The recipe's adapted because I didn't have all the fancy ingredients and had to improvise. I give you permission to do the same; my changes are marked with annoyingly bold font.) Oh, and if you do go to that wonderful blog, be assured that I don't know much about Indian cuisine. I usually look for recipes that include vegetables we have, which in winter months are carrots, onions, potatoes, and frozen spinach, as well as last summer's green beans, corn, zucchini, peppers, and tomatoes frozen and canned for keeping, and then I wing things. This makes for some weird curries, and sometimes some yummy ones. My family loves me.

Cabbage Kofta
(Makes about 30 koftas)

Serve over rice with naan.


Gravy
1 pound tomatoes, 2 tbsp coriander seeds, 2 tbsp cumin seeds, ½ tsp poppy seeds, 1/2 tsp saunf seeds, 1/2 tsp anardhana powder, 2 tbsp minced/grated ginger, 2 medium green chillies, 3 dried red chillies, a large handful of cilantro, 1 medium onion, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1 clove garlic minced (optional)

1. Grind all the ingredients for the gravy together into a fine paste, adding about 2 cups of water. 2. Sauté the gravy with 2 tbsp. butter letting it thicken. Bring this to a boil, seasoning with salt.

Okay. Big changes. Saunf? Anardhana? Don't I wish.
I used the following:
-one medium onion, diced
-@ 1/2 inch fresh ginger, minced or grated
-5 smallish cloves garlic, minced
-one and a half tsp. ground coriander (I now have seeds, but ground coriander worked well)
-1 and 1/2 tsp. ground cumin (ditto)
-1 tsp. poppy seeds
-1 tsp. turmeric
-1 tsp. dried cilantro (If it had been summer, I would have snagged the fresh stuff from the garden and used more.)
-ground cayenne, to taste (Again, in summer, I would have snagged fresh hot peppers from the garden, instead.)
-@ 5-6 tbsp. plain yogurt
-1 quart canned tomatoes with juice
-one pinch of sugar
-salt, to taste
-a few tablespoons of ground cashews (I was given some cashews, so why not?)

I sauteed the onion in a bit of olive oil until soft and translucent and added the minced garlic and ginger for a minute or two at the end. I added all remaining ingredients, breaking up the tomatoes with a spoon (home-canned tomatoes easily fall apart; store-bought would have to be smushed in a food mill or whizzed in a food processor). Let simmer over low heat for the flavors to meld while you make the koftas.


Koftas
1 small head cabbage, 1 carrot shredded or finely minced, 3/4 cup besan* flour, 1 tsp garam masala, 2 tbsp red chilli powder, Salt, oil to deep fry.
*Nope. Sorry. This is what I used.
-1 small finely shredded cabbage (@ 4 and 1/2 to 5 cups)
-Did I use carrot? Had we run out of carrots? I can't find "carrot" on my scribbled notes. Will someone please tell me? (Add it if you want it; omit it if you don't.)
-2 finely minced medium onions
-1 tsp. garam masala
-1/2 tsp. ground cayenne
-3/4 tsp. salt
-garlic powder, to taste
-I added about one cup of regular flour until the texture was right for frying instead of besan (chickpea flour). I plan on grinding some besan to have on hand, though, because enough interesting recipes include it.

Mince the cabbage (best done with a food processor). I grated mine with a hand grater. Add salt and leave it for a few minutes, then squeeze as much of the water out of the cabbage as possible.

Add the besan (or regular flour) to the cabbage, along with the rest of the kofta ingredients, and knead it together. Form this mixture into small balls, and fry them in hot oil until brown. Add the balls to the gravy, and let it soak for about half an hour (we ate it immediately, without the soak).

Her tip: Squeeze as much water out of the cabbage as possible so the balls will absorb less water while frying. Add the carrot after you squeeze out the water in order to squeeze out the maximum amount of water.

My tip: Wait until a pinch of flour sizzles before frying the kofta, otherwise they'll soak up a bunch of oil.

My second tip: Don't eat all the kofta immediate after frying them. I had to restrain myself.

Curried Red Lentil Soup

It's 10:30 p.m. on a Monday night, John's in the shower, and I should be cleaning the house.

And that, my friends, is the dullest possible sentence I could write to usher in the rebirth of buildabelly. Two years have passed, and a million + three recipes are wasting away to nothing in the attic.
The time of liberation has come!

Alright. That's all the pomp and circumstance I can muster at this hour. Onward!

I'll start with the most recent new recipe that I will make until I die. I made it a few nights ago, and it's so good that I had another bowl after I was stuffed to the gills. Gluttony is not something I am proud of nor is it something to which I should admit in this setting, but there you have it. I'm a sucker for Indian food. John loved it, the girls loved it, my sister loved it; what more proof do you need? Just make it already.

It may not be the most lovely picture, but it is a lentil soup, after all. There's only so much one can do.




-2 cups red lentils (I only had one cup of red left and substituted brown for the second cup)
-8 cups vegetable stock (I used water + veg. bouillon paste)
-1 and 1/2 tsp. turmeric
-4 skinny carrots, diced in small pieces
-*I can't remember, but I may have also dumped a package of last summer's frozen parsley into the water while the lentils cooked (@2 tbsp. frozen fresh parsley)

Place the lentils and stock in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add the turmeric, carrots, and parsley, if using. Partially cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 45 minutes or until the lentils are soft and tender, stirring occasionally.
______________________________________________

-extra virgin olive oil
-1 large onion, chopped
-@ 1 and 1/2 tbsp. fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated
-@ 1 and 1/2 tbsp. fresh garlic, finely chopped
-1 tsp. ground cumin
-2 tsp. ground coriander
-2 tsp. curry powder (I used red curry); if this is your first foray into making your own Indian food, start with less and add to taste.
- ground cayenne, to taste
-1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
-salt, to taste

For the seasoning, heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. When hot, add the onion to the pan and cook until the onion is softened and begins to brown. Add the ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, and curry powder; cook and stir for one minute. Add to the lentils, along with the tomatoes and their juice. Simmer til heated through; add cayenne and salt, to taste, and add more water as needed to reach desired consistency.

*Recipe credit: I adapted this recipe from Lisa at foodandspice.blogspot.com, who herself adapted it from At Home with Madhur Jaffrey. Also, Lisa suggests blending a portion of this soup with an immersion blender before serving. We don't own that gadget, and it was delicious as is.

More to come later this week.
Prepare those bellies, people.

Rajma (Red Kidney Bean Curry)

Thanks to Deb of Smitten Kitchen for making me crave this. I used her recipe and also this one as a guide. If you're a purist, I guess you don't add all the extras, but I found this meal absolutely lovely. John devoured it, too, so it's definitely on the permanent rotation in this house now.

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, freshly chopped or pressed
one inch fresh ginger, chopped or grated (about 1 tbsp.)
about 5 cups cooked red kidney beans (or two 16 oz. cans, beans rinsed and drained)
1/2 of a quart jar canned tomatoes (about 2 cups)
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2- 1 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. coarse sea salt
*Garnish with dried cilantro. If you're lucky enough to have fresh, go for it!

Cook onions in some olive oil until translucent. Add garlic and ginger and cook for a few minutes more. Add tomatoes and spices and cook until tomatoes have broken down into small pieces. Add kidney beans and cook until the curry is thick. Garnish with cilantro, and serve over basmati rice with fresh naan.

Curried Indian Chickpeas

Yet another spicy one to fill your nostrils with the scent of faraway places.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 onions, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. fresh ginger root, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander (the ground seeds of the herb cilantro)
Salt, to taste
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. ground turmeric
* I usually shake on some garam masala, too
Two 15-oz. cans garbanzo beans or the equivalent of freshly cooked
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro, optional

Heat onion in a large frying pan over medium heat and fry onions until tender. Stir in garlic, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, salt, cayenne, and turmeric. Cook for one minute over medium heat, stirring constantly. Mix in garbanzo beans and some of their liquid (I usually only put in some of the liquid from one can so the flavor is not diluted, though the recipe calls for all the liquid from both cans). Continue to cook and stir until all ingredients are well blended and heated through. Remove from heat. Stir in cilantro just before serving, if desired. Serves 8 or serves one bearded husband for three lunches. (He requested that I pack it for his lunch EVERY SINGLE DAY, but I haven't been a good enough wife to do it more than half a dozen times so far.)

Chicken Tikka Masala

John and I have only been to an Indian restaurant once, and I don't know if anything we ate there was Chicken Tikka Masala, so I don't know if this recipe I cobbled together from a several others is spicier than typical. I do know that it's spicier than any of the Indian and Pakistani dishes I make, and that my hot-pepper munching husband even thought it was spicy. When I asked if I should alter the recipe, though, he said that it was, and I quote, "Perfect." Since this is now his favorite, and his opinion matters most in my eyes, we'll keep it. Chicken tikka masala is a hybrid dish and has no set recipe, anyway, so if you want to tone down the heat, just cut the cayenne and black peppers in half and reduce the garlic and ginger. (Our poor girls thought it was too spicy even with only basmati and the chicken and requested peanut butter and jelly naan. Seriously.) **Edit: I've since made it identical to this recipe only using 1 tsp. of cayenne instead of 3-4 tsp. total for the recipe. The girls and I love it this way, but John thinks we're wimps and adds about a teaspoon of cayenne to each helping.

Marinade:
1 cup yogurt
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. cayenne
2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 to 1 tbsp. ginger root, grated or crushed
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes

Mix all the above ingredients together and marinate for a couple of hours before broiling or grilling. Place on broiler rack or grill; marinade should cling to the cubed chicken. Broil or grill until fully cooked and browned on top.

Masala Sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves freshly minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon crushed or grated ginger root
1 medium onion, chopped

Saute the above in butter until translucent, then add:

1 and 1/2 tsp. garam masala
1 and 1/2- 2 tsp. cayenne
1 16 oz. can stewed tomatoes (Separate into small chunks with spoon or knife after adding)
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream (Okay, I'm lame. We only have heavy cream in the house for special occasions, and I substituted evaporated milk.)
a pinch of sugar
a few good shakes of cilantro, to taste (torn, fresh cilantro when in season)
1/2 tsp. salt/black pepper, to taste
a good shake of cumin
a good shake of turmeric

Heat the masala sauce over medium heat until blended and heated through. Spoon over basmati, top with the broiled/grilled chicken pieces, and serve with naan.

Wow. What a dish.

Scrumptious Pakistani/Indian Something-or-Other

I don’t know what to call this dish, and I don’t want to make something up for fear that a Pakistani who knows better will stumble across it and leave a critical comment about how I butchered a wonderful standard by crossbreeding it with others. But I didn’t butcher it! It’s delicious and has joined the permanent rotation of meals in our house. I like it best of the Pakistani meals I make. Anyway, it’s chicken in a masala sauce, served with the everpresent naan and basmati—it’s kind of a cross between butter chicken masala (thanks to a yummy recipe from Sandy), chicken bhuna, and the buriyani recipe I use, but it’s none of those exactly.

Mix the following in a large bowl:

1 and ¼ cups plain yogurt

1 tablespoon garlic paste (finely chop/crush about 4-5 garlic cloves)

1 tablespoon ginger paste (do the same to some ginger root)

¾ tsp. hot chilli powder or cayenne powder, or to taste

¼ tsp. ground cloves

¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon garam masala (a spice blend found in most grocery stores, or make your own blend from the handful of internet recipes out there)

½ tsp. tumeric powder

1 tsp. dried cilantro leaves (use a few tablespoons of fresh in summertime)

½ tsp. cumin powder

1 tsp. cardamom powder (very expensive unless you can find it, like I do, at a place like Sweeney’s Meat Market five minutes across the Susquehanna River. Tone’s brand, ground cardamom, .45 oz, for $1.20. Woohoo!)

a pinch of black pepper

salt, to taste

* The spices aren’t always these exact measurements. I sometimes increase the sweet spices and decrease the hot spices, or vice versa.

Add a large can or two of diced tomatoes (I use tomatoes I canned last summer, almost a quart jar—about 3 cups or 24 oz)

Stir together until blended and then add 4-8 skinless (and boneless, if desired) chicken pieces (eight if using mixed parts; four if using breast halves). Make a few cuts in the chicken and stir to coat. Refrigerate for four hours or overnight.

Place in an ovenproof dish (I use a 13X9 glass pan) and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven until chicken is fully cooked. My oven runs hot, so it only takes about 30-45 minutes for boneless, skinless breasts, and a bit more when I cut up a whole chicken and leave the bone in.

While chicken is baking, soak and cook the basmati rice (about 2 cups dry) and prepare the naan. Serve over rice with hot naan.

Makes enough for yummy leftovers on the following morning

Indian Flatbread (Naan)

This recipe creates a mild, slightly sweet, buttery, soft, and chewy flatbread, an ideal balance for the spiciness of the dish below. I used a cast iron pan to cook these, which worked perfectly. I haven't tried them in the oven or on the grill, but either could be used, as well.

2/3 cup warm milk
2 cups white flour
1 tsp. yeast
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
4 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter; I just used regular, melted butter)
2 tablespoons yogurt
minced garlic, garlic powder, onion seeds or onion powder, if desired
(poppy seeds, raisins, etc., could also be sprinkled on the dough, depending on your tastes)

1. Mix warm milk with yeast and sugar until both are dissolved. Let proof for about ten minutes (until frothy).
2. Sift flour, salt, and spices, if desired, in a bowl, then add the yeast mixture, the yogurt, and half of the butter.
3. Mix into a soft dough and knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic (you'll probably have to work more flour into the dough for easier handling)
4. Place dough in warm place until doubled.
5. Punch down and knead for five minutes. Divide into 6 pieces, and roll each piece into 8-inch round naans. Cook one at a time (about 30 seconds on each side) in a buttered, cast-iron pan until puffed and just browned OR cover an oven tray with foil, grease the foil, and cook naan on your oven's highest setting for about two minutes on each side until puffed and just browned OR cook on a lightly greased grill for 2-4 minutes on each side.

Spicy Buryani (Chicken and Rice)

After eating some leftovers yesterday (I didn't have more than a few bites the night before), I've concluded that this isn't really super-spicy. It's spicy but not painful, so try it!

-8 medium pieces chicken
-2 cups basmati rice
-4 cups water
-1 cup plain yogurt
-1 tsp. red chilli (I used cayenne powder)
-1 tsp. tumeric powder
-1 tsp. garam marsala (a hot spice blend you can purchase or that you can make if you want)
-1 tablespoon each of garlic and ginger pastes (I made my own; just smush ginger root and garlic cloves in a food processor or in a hand-held garlic press; add a bit of water if needed)
-2 tablespoons butter
-salt
-2 medium onions

Make cuts in chicken pieces. Combine yogurt, chilli powder (or cayenne), garam marsala, half of the ginger/garlic pastes, half of the tumeric, and salt to taste. Rub onto chicken pieces and marinate in refrigerator for at least one hour.

Brown onion rings in butter and set aside.

Heat butter in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add remaining ginger/garlic pastes and tumeric powder and saute for a bit. Add chicken, rice, water, and salt, to taste. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until water has evaporated and chicken is cooked, about 15 minutes. Garnish with brown onions and serve with naan.