What's for dinner?

Having ingredients stocked in your cupboards is really important in Indian cookery, because there are usually many ingredients to include in each dish. I’ve come across a blog post called ‘The Ultimate Store Cupboard’ which talks about the essential ingredients to have in your cupboards. Interestingly, a quick poll on Twitter placed tomatoes at #1, garlic #2 and chillies at #3, which are all essentials for making many Indian dishes.

I think having stocked ingredients is always handy for people who want to experiment with flavours, as a lot of the time you only have inspiration for mixing certain ingredients when you’re actually cooking.

I would have to add cumin, chilli powder, turmeric, coriander and onion to this list as these are classic essentials for cooking various Indian dishes, especially curry.

This dish is a delicious idea for a quick and easy meal for the family or with friends. It can be a simple vegetarian option or if you prefer you could cook some chicken or prawns and add to the dish at the last stage of cooking.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 – 25 minutes

Serves: 4 people

Ingredients

250g    basmati rice
½    yellow pepper, thinly sliced
½    green pepper, thinly sliced
½    red pepper, thinly sliced
100g    potatoes, cut into small cubes
100g    frozen sweetcorn
100g    cauliflower, cut into florets
100g    courgette, cut into cubes
100g    natural yoghurt
120g    tomatoes, chopped
1.5 tbs    whole cumin seeds
6    small dry red chillies, whole
20g    garlic, chopped
20g    ginger, chopped
4tbs    coriander, chopped
2    green chillies, chopped
2    small onions, sliced
6 tbs    oil
Salt to taste

Whole spices:
1tsp    black pepper corns
4    green cardamoms
2    black cardamoms
4    bay leaves
1/2    cinnamon stick

Method

1.    Boil the rice with all the whole spices and a little salt
2.    Once the rice is cooked but still firm, drain the water (set to one side)
3.    Heat the oil in a large saucepan or wok, add the cumin seeds, chopped ginger, garlic and chilli and sauté for 1 minute
4.    Add the sliced onion and sauté for a further 2-3 minutes
5.    Put the cauliflower and courgette in a microwavable dish and cover with water. Cook in the microwave on a high heat for 4 minutes to soften the vegetables.
6.    Now put the diced potatoes in a microwavable dish and cover with water. Microwave on a high heat for 4 minutes
7.    Add all vegetables (peppers, potatoes, sweetcorn, cauliflower, courgette, tomatoes) to the pan, and cook for 3-4 minutes
8.    Add the yoghurt, season to taste, and cook for another 2 minutes. Finally add the rice and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.
9.    Garnish with coriander and serve with raita, salad, chutneys and poppadoms

There’s an old ‘story’ that I heard from growing up in India about an emperor, Shah Jahan, who was imprisoned for eight years until his death during his son’s quest for power. Shah Jahan was given the choice of one food type for every meal. A wise choice was made by the emperor, and his choice was yellow lentils or channa as we know it in Hindi, as they are so versatile.

You can make so many dishes with the yellow lentil – they are especially good with lamb, such as Daal Gosht, used with rice, in desserts, and for stuffing in parathas.

These lentils are also ground down to make flour, called ‘gram flour’ used for making bhajis and pakoras.

Before cooking the lentils it’s best to soak them for at least four hours in four times the amount of hot water to lentils. This reduces the cooking time. If you don’t have time to soak for four hours, you can wash then cook but this will increase the cooking time.

Yellow lentils do break-up a little when they’re soft, so if you’d like a thicker consistency to your daal, a good tip is to puree a small amount in a blender or with a whisk. This adds a bit of thickness to the dish and creates an interesting texture with a mixture of smooth and whole lentils.