I'm doing Indian week. Sort of.

[Flamingoose]

I am feeling a bit fed up with the usual meals. Decided to have a 'themed' week. Approximately Indian, though not at all authentic I know.
I work full time and the kids all have very busy schedules so nothing too time consuming. Did a bit of prep over the weekend.

Monday: Chana dal (v quick in the pressure cooker) and baingan bharta (eggplant curry) with rice and roti. I already flame roasted the eggplants, so just 20 mins prep time and 35ish cooking.
Tuesday: Moong dal (pressure cooker again) and a made-up Sri-Lankan (ish) potato and green bean curry. Rice and roti again.
Weds: Quite a busy day for us, so just a kidney bean dish with rice (rajma chawal).
Thurs: Besan Chilla (gram flour pancakes) with mixed veg.
Friday: Leftovers!

We're vegetarian, so no meat recipes. It has been quite a cheap week to shop for, which is nice.

If you have leftover rice, you could make a veggie Nasi Goreng. (I use tinned tuna and prawns as well in mine - so I use the tuna in oil, and use that oil for the frying part, but just regular oil or ghee are great).

Fry a chopped onion, add sliced garlic, then in bits (as you would a stir fry) add various veg (I tend to use a mix of whatever I have of things like thinly sliced carrot, very small cauliflower and brocolli florets, sliced mushrooms, shredded cabbage, beansprouts, mangetout/sugarsnaps, french beans, frozen peas, sliced courgette, half a small tin of sweetcorn, sliced peppers, etc).

(Add the tuna and prawns).
Add the rice and a couple of table spoons of mild curry powder - stir through very well to mix. Add a couple of tablespoons of water if needed (should be a dry dish but you may need a tiny bit of water to finish it cooking and help spice coat things properly) and allow to cook enough so rice is piping hot.

Great to use up small bits of things from the veg drawer and storecupboard items. (1 bag microwave rice, tin tuna, tin corn, onion, garlic, frozen peas and frozen or tinned prawns are always in our house and there's usually some reasonable mix of bits of veg in the fridge but it works well with the carrot that is wrinkly, cauliflower that is going a bit yellow, wrinkly peppers, etc). Tinned beansprouts also work well to add to it. And it's also a good one to hide strips of the brocolli stalk - peeled and sliced like bamboo shoots might be - into the mix.

If you learn how to cook the kidney beans well, that's also great for your Mexican week! (I'm always terrified so do the tins).

Haha!! Well I've learned something!

Yes, if you put your spices on with onions or tempering, it develops the flavour.

Good news! It's been 12 hours and everyone is fine post-kidney-bean!

Excellent You'd know within about 3 hours anyway if you'd eaten undercooked kidney beans.

I'm veggie and love paneer and use it a lot

The chana dal was the most popular dish with the kids this week. Last night's kidney beans also v popular, and so were the besan pancakes. The adults also really liked the eggplant.

The moong dal was a bit of a miss. I followed a recipe that put dry beans, water, raw onion, tomato, spices etc all in the pressure cooker. Texture was not great. Might try and rescue it.

I think I might just continue with this. Another Indian week?! It's been easy, cheap and delicious. What's not to like?!

I've got some paneer in the fridge. I have a great palak paneer recipe, but no spinach unless I go to the shops.

I've also got a cauliflower that needs eating. And some potatoes. Aloo gobi?

But plenty of leftovers, so prob won't cook today.

I want to be ambitious and try and make a decent dal makhani!

Are you saying you have not learned the art of 'roasting' your spices in a pan before adding other ingredients?

You are not used to the 'pop' of whole coriander seeds?

You will tell me next you don't put cardamom in your tea.

I'll leave a link to Madhur Jafrey's advice, she is the queen of roasting spices.

www.masterclass.com/classes/madhur-jaffrey-teaches-indian-cooking/chapters/spice-fundamentals-roasted-cumin-and-garam-masala#transcript

Can you tell I like Indian food?

I'm lucky I live where I do, I have access to Asian supermarkets and Jamaican grocers.

This is a great idea, I'm so bored of my usual cooking and my DC are probably too. I can do a basic veg curry but it's never been great, it tastes more like stew.

Does anyone know a good, basic Indian cookbook? Preferably vegetarian.

This cauli recipe is a big hit in our house: www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/cauliflower-korma

Split mung Dal doesn't take long to cook so wouldn't really benefit from a pressure cooker. I'm doing one, tonight, with spinach in. It's 20 mins to half an hour on the hob, chucking stuff in at various points. I'm also doing a quick courgette dish and have a chicken in the oven as Ds2 is most definitely not vegetarian and won't touch the lentils or courgette.

Your kids might love brown masoor Dal. There is so much flavour in the skins, compared with red lentils.

@SheilaWilde try Meera Sodha's Fresh India. Straightforward and tasty with simple spicing.

That's brilliant, thanks @PickAChew. I've just looked at it on Amazon. 'East' looks good too.

This sounds delicious. I need recipes. I went to a festival recently with the best Indian street food!

@Flamingoose pleeeeeeaase can you post recipes and photos each day? Even if they are quick take before you shovel it down? This sounds like my idea of heaven! Any room for an extra Ken?

I don't know who Ken is 🤣 I meant an extra one!

My father in law is a Ken. Whatever curry he'd make, he'd insist it was the BEST curry ever made and leave my MIL with a massive pile of washing up (plus she is made to pre chop all of his ingredients in little bowls).

This thread has prompted my husband and I to ponder whether canned kidney beans are cooked (I presume so?)

Tinned kidney beans are fully cooked and safe.

Yes, canned beans are cooked!

I've got red lentils and potatoes and cauliflower so I might try an aloo gobi and Dahl tonight.

I've found some good recipes here. Very step-by-step for beginners, but you can whoosh straight to the recipe at the bottom if you prefer.

Hashbrown - I haven't taken any pics!

Just as well, I'm no great photographer.

@JanisMoplin Any good family favourite dishes to recommend?!

wow, I too am really impressed with the besan chilla on your menu, OP. As pp said, it isn’t well known in the UK but is pretty straight forward to make and really delicious.

instant pot is an electric pressure cooker and absolutely wonderful to Indian food. I have used some of the recipes from this site and am really impressed. Some people may find that they need to add more chillies but we like our food fairly mild so the recipes are perfect for us.