March Cookery Book Club - Made in India and Prashad

[HuevosRancheros]

Welcome to the Mumsnet Cookery Book Club :)

Every month we choose two books to cook from - we aim to cook at least two new recipes during the month, reporting back to the group on how we got on.

This month our books are Made in India by Meera Sodha and Prashad by Kaushy Patel

Recipes are also available on line if you don't have access to the books - Meera Sodha's here and Prashad's here

If you would like to see what we cooked last month, the thread is here

Everyone is welcome, don't be shy :)

Science on your childhood food - my mum passed on one recipe that I'd cook, everything else was pretty hideous.

Wow Science that sounds amazing :)
Can I ask - do you cook all that from scratch, or have a few things ready in the freezer?
I love eating and cooking Indian food, but I get a bit daunted by the feast/banquettyness of the food - so many dishes, then bread and rice as well. So I tend to reserve it for weekends when I have more time - but clearly Indians cope with this! So would you usually have only one dish on week nights?

Silver, I am very lucky, my mum is an amazing cook (and an amazing person). I will never ever be as good an Indian cook as her, but I can cook other cuisines, which she has never really done! Now she and my father are quite elderly, I regularly go and fill their freezer for days when they are too tired or poorly to manage it themselves.

X post :)

Oh and it seems Diana Henry has been bought by quite a few people this month, so could be good for April?

Huevos, I find it impossible to only cook one indian dish! Of tonight's feast, only the keema is out of the freezer. Everything else is made from scratch, but it only took me around an hour (apart from the daal, which puttered away for a couple of hours). I do use some cheats though - i stick onions, garlic and ginger in my mini chopper and then divide it between dishes, I buy pre-chopped paneer from my local Sainsburys, and I am not making my own chapattis tonight, but have bought some (again, my local Sainsburys has excellent ones). I haven't made chutney either, but that would have been the work of seconds if I had had the ingredients! I'll reheat the keema, potatoes and paneer in the oven, and the daal and fish curry will be warmed on the hob while I do the rice and warm the chapattis. It sounds impressive, but it really isn't!

I did an Indian feast last week for guests, I fell at the last hurdle, it was tasty but only luke warm...so hard to read recipes, drink wine and entertain, my only cheat was the nann bread...but the ultimate compliment was the paucity of leftovers - it felt bitter sweet.

I'm going to work my way through all the mains in Made in India Pistachio and yoghurt chicken curry is next but dh is allergic to pistachio - would almonds or peanuts work, he's allergic to all the others too - which would be best? Any thoughts?

huevos I think it has something to do with familiarity of the cooking.
I find it really daunting to do a proper Indian meal (according to those meal plans in books).

But it's the same with Chinese food where a family meal is consisted of 3 dishes, a soup and rice. (Just bento said actually Japanese family dinners are the same). I don't make soup but that's a background dish where you put in a slow cooker. Otherwise I can do 3 dishes and the rice. I think EGOR has some sample meal plans in the beginning which shows what I mean.

I will be away for half the month for April. But I love Diana Henry. Cook simple is one of my favourite books. Got her new chicken book and haven't cooked from yet. And I am cooking from a change of appetite spring chapter atm (That's the new healthy eating me). Would be happy to join once I come back.

Wow, Science, I feel really inadequate now!

I think you are all right, it is about having confidence with the food.
My issue is timing, I think, I worry about getting everything ready for the same time. As a veggie family, we have never got into the Sunday roast thing, and at Christmas when I do one, I find it really stressful, trying to get everything cooked just right, all at the same time.
Looking at some of the recipes, Indian food should be a little more forgiving as most things will sit and wait.

Silver, re: the pistachio chicken, I would have thought almonds would work best - just my opinion though! :)

I will probably give next month a miss, unless it happens to be a book I already have, as I want to give more attention to the (three!) curry books I've got in the past month And Plenty More is still unused from Christmas! That said, I do tend to only do curries at the weekends, so could maybe do something midweek if it's online. Either way, I shall still lurk/read with interest :)

huevos I can't see how I can get all of what science cook on the table at the same time either. I sure there are some tricks. Indians would learn it growing up seeing their mums cooking it.

I also have plenty more unopened from Christmas! I have only done one thing from it iirc.

Made the pistachio chicken curry for dinner tonight. It's lovely and definitely child friendly. DD1 looked at it suspiciously, had a couple of mouthful and said nice. DH and I yummed it all down.

Oh, please don't feel inadequate! I am no supercook, by any stretch of the imagination! I often cook indian food for guests because I can do most of it ahead. The keema, paneer and potatoes I heated up in the oven, the daal was heated on the hob and I had made the masala sauce for the fish so put the fish in to cook as it heated. The hob warming happened as the rice was cooking, and I did the chapattis at the same time and put them in a tin to keep warm. Indian food is quite forgiving in terms of temperature, I think, much more so than, say, pasta.

My mum used to host a party (or two) for over 100 people each year. She and I would cook for two days and then stick everything in the hostess trolley, hob and oven and it would be my job to get the food onto the (full size table tennis) table and make sure everything was kept topped up as she would be circulating with a drink in her hand! This was no mean feat for me as she would have cooked rice, bhajis, puris, daal, kofta, chicken, papadams, chutneys, raita, and at least three other dishes! The only point at which she would enter the kitchen on the night of the party was to make coffee because she thought that was too dangerous for me to do

So I guess I am saying that it is in my blood!

silver I think almonds would work well.

We did the ondwa the other day. I somehow thought it said cornmeal rather than semolina and bought the wrong thing but it worked anyway and was absolutely delicious! Very veg heavy and relatively virtuous for something that is still interesting. Also easy to make and portable. Top marks. Would be interested in how it turns out with the right ingredients!

Made the rosewater and cardamom kulfi as well which is dead easy and is in the freezer awaiting sampling

Thanks glorious and Huevos, the pistachio/almond &yogurt curry is on the plan for this week.

We had the prawns with garlic and mustard seeds tonight accompanied by the green beans with mustard and ginger and rice (all from made in India). Went down a storm definitely having that again - so easy and quick to make too - I got the rice going, then the beans, then the prawns, everything ready together without manic stirring/ingredient adding to 3 pans at once.

We had the coconut fish curry again tonight, with frozen hake and a few(not the 20requested) curry leaves that I picked out at the end. Served with brown basmati, edamame beans and chapatti. I didn't make the bread but I will have a go next time. Hoping to make the mushroom pilaf tomorrow, got some wild mushrooms yesterday.

While browsing Amazon I picked up Rick Steins Spain for a fiver and Rosas Thai Cafe for even less.....oops.

Eggs with caramelized onions, tamarind and coconut for lunch today, from MiI
Really nice, very quick and easy to make, and good flavour combinations :)

I even made my own tamarind paste [smug, lentil weavery, knit-your-own yoghurt emoticon]

Lamb burgers, chips and chutney for tea here. Very excited to find 500g lamb mince 90p in whoopsie isle

Huevos that is serious stuff!

The kulfi is lovely but so rich and a bit fudgy. I ate too much and felt v sick indeed! So beware!

The lamb burgers were very nice, gently spiced, another good family based recipe. Had with the masala chips, ( lovely, no spice seasoning for dc) and the suggested tomato chutney. It's my first ever chutney and i love it. Though I did spend some time picking out all the skins before I jarred it- IMO this should be an instruction in the recipe as I can't see all those skins being nice in the end result. It really complimented the burgers, I had some to dip the chips in and I can't wait for an excuse for a strong cheddar sandwich with the chutney. Any excuse really- it's delicious

Hey pregnantpause i found the same thing with the chutney delicious but not digging the bits of skin might skin the tomatoes if make again.

last night I made The roast masala Chicken from Made in India lovely, smelt fab cooking too. did the sides, the ferarri potatoes and spinach both good but also made some of the Date and Tamarind chutney this is fab-u-lous and super easy.

Also I made at the Weekend the Beetroot and Feta Samosas, had nightmare with the Filo as forgot to take out of fridge and it all stuck together and used pre cooked beetroot as they had no fresh ones in waitrose (tsk!). However bodged them together and shoved in oven with very low expectations. THEY WERE DIVINE. highly recommend and will make again ASAP. served these with the Jaipur slaw which was a good combination.

liking the sound of the kulfi have not ventured into dessert section of MII but might at the weekend.

could we do a few Diana Henry books? would that work as I have Change of appetite and not used it much yet.

Name change for me - previously had silver in my name.
There's lots of veggie ideas in Change of appetite - I know she quite often suggests not bothering with meat. Does she have many recipes online?

Some lovely recommendations here, thank you :)

Interesting to hear about the date chutney Haywire, I was concerned about how it would taste because it wasn't cooked - as the Prashad version cooks for about two hours! May have a go at that then :)

Am doing MiI kitchari today, with garlic pickle - about to start on the pickle now.

The beetroot samosas do sound good, I may make them in a couple of weeks when DH is away, as it would only be me that would eat them! Ditto the slaw.

Shall we do Diana Henry next then? Any book in particular, or just any that we have?

Out of all the diana Henry books, I have cook simple, plenty, a change of appetite and a bird in the hand. I cook a lot from cook simple and a change of appetite. Cook simple is just brilliant for quick cooking. A change of appetite fits my lifestyle now (similar to Anna Jones, aka to eat better). I never got into plenty. And I just got a bird in the hand and haven't cooked from it yet.

I have roast figs and sugar snow of Diana Henry. Perhaps we could cook from any Diana Henry we have ? ( and when you lot say what you've cooked and how good it is I'll end up buying the other books anyway)

Maybe just have a Diana Henry month. Although I'm at pains to leave MII.

I'm making the pistachio and yoghurt chicken tonight with a cabbage thoran and rice.