(aka, what to make when you’re stranded at home because the town is shut down from swine flu)

For some strange reason, I crave Indian food on sundays. It’s probably because we have more time to cook, and Indian food isn’t the easiest food to make. But today’s 4 course meal took only an hour from start to finish, and it was one of those meals where you just have to force yourself to stop or else you’ll overeat and regret it later.

In the spirit of freestyle, recipe-free cooking, these recipes are just ‘guidelines’ and you should feel free to add or subtract or change it as you go.  Here’s the menu:

1. Sultana & Cashew Basmati Pilau

2. Chicken Tikka Masala

3. Curried lentils & vegetables

4. Saag Paneer (a creamy spinach dish that is a staple of indian cuisine)

(optional: 5. Naans — we didn’t ‘make’ these today, because we had some flat bread laying around, but I did recently post a recipe.  If you make these from scratch, I suspect the meal is going to take you a wee bit more than an hour, unless you really book it..)

Sultana & Cashew Basmati Pilau

I just bought a massive bag of basmati rice from costco that I’ve been dying to try out.  And this was totally experimental, because I made this dish in the rice maker.  Basically, I just followed the rice maker’s guidelines of 2 cups rice and 2.5 cups water:

2 cups basmati rice, rinsed and soaked for a bit, then drained of course

2.5 cups chicken broth

1 cinnamon stick

1 handful of cashews

1 handful of raisins (golden are best, but I just had regular and it was fine)

1 handful of slivered almonds (I chopped up some whole almonds)

a couple spoonfuls of garam masala (from the store or make it yourself.. mine had coriander, tumeric, cumin, fenugreek and chillies)

some more tumeric

a little oil for good measure (I did a couple teaspoons of canola oil.. butter works too)

That’s about it. I just threw it all in the rice maker and hit the white rice button, but you could accomplish this by throwing it all in a pot on the stove and cooking it like any old rice dish (although you may want to get fancy and saute the rice and some spices a little in oil or butter first)

Saag Paneeer

Oil (or ghee.. but I didn’t have any and didn’t want to make it)
1 onion, chopped
5 Cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 can of diced tomatoes
1″ chunk of fresh ginger, peeled, chopped fine (I didn’t have this, so I used some powder)
1 lb fresh or frozen spinach, thawed (I used fresh, because I had a huge costco bag threatening to go bad)
1 c plain yogurt (or sour cream if you don’t have yogurt laying around)
2 t crushed red chili (or red pepper flakes)
1 t cumin seed

1 t mustard seed

2 ts Garam Masala (or curry powder if you don’t have garam masala)

1.5 c half and half (or use 1 cup heavy cream and 1/2 c water, mixed)
8 oz ricotta cheese, or 4% cottage cheese, or Paneer (you can make it yourself with milk, lemon juice, and a cheese cloth. Really.  Google it if you don’t believe me)
Salt & pepper to taste

Boil the spinach in 1 cup of water in a large skillet covered with a lid for ~ 4 minutes. Drain well in colander. Return the skillet to heat and add some oil or ghee. Add the onions & ginger, stir fry for a few minutes, add the garlic, tomato & cumin seed. Cook a few minutes then add the yogurt or sour cream, chili, and garam masala/curry powder and the drained spinach. Simmer at medium heat for 5 minutes. Mash the ingredients with a potato masher or use a hand blender to puree. Add the half and half. Add the cheese, simmer 5 minutes.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Ok, now here comes the secret to the (relatively) quick meal:

Patak’s Tikka Masala Curry Paste from the grocery store.  It is soo good. I basically just threw in a few chicken breasts into a pot with a bunch of this stuff on top, and cooked it.

Curried Lentils & Vegetables

For this one, just use your imagination.  Heat up some oil, saute some onions and indian spices (i.e. garam masala, cumin seed, mustard seed, tumeric, lots of curry…), add the lentils (whatever color you have), some water, and some veggies (i.e. carrots, cauliflower, potatoes, peas, etc..).  Cook until done.. and a bunch of spices to taste..

And here is the finished product.  The iphone camera and paper plate (albeit biodegradable) don’t really do it justice, but trust me, it was delish.

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