We’re not sure whose cookbook this is in our house. No one remembers owning it, but since it was on my cookbook shelf, we cooked from it anyway. Sharda Gopal’s Step-by-Step Indian Cooking, starts with an introduction covering types of Indian food, presentation and regional specialities. The next section, which is fantastic, covers basic techniques such as how to peel tomatoes, grind spices, roast spices, making yoghurt and cheese, and information on various types of spices, pastes and spice mixes. If I had paid more attention to the book, I would have noticed that they had a menu section (which lists all the dishes which go together).
I cooked three dishes from this book, and of the three only one had issues, and I’m not sure if that was because the simmer I had it simmering at was too low, or because the instructions had me put too much liquid in. I’m not sure, but overall the tastes in this book are quite amazing and I recommend it. 3.5 stars out of 5.
Green beans and Potato Toran (Aloo Hari Moong Toran)
Ingredients:
- 225g green beans, trimmed and cut into 2.5cm lengths
- 225g potatoes, peeled and diced
- 50 – 75g butter or ghee
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 225g tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
- 1 green chilli, cut into pieces
- 15g fresh ginger, finely grated
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- leaves from 1 sprig of coriander
- salt
Method:
- Heat the butter or ghee in a large saucepan and fry the onion until golden
- Add the tomato, stir well and squash it with the back of a wooden spoon until it forms a paste
- Add the garam masala, turmeric and chilli powder and continue to fry, stirring, for about 5 minutes.
- Add the beans, potatoes, green chilli, ginger, garlic and coriander leaves with 1 tbsp water and cook gently over a low heat, with the lid tightly on, stirring occasionally, for 10 – 15 minutes, until the vegetables are done. Add salt to taste.
Notes on this recipe:
- You can cook this and let it simmer longer than the 10 – 15 minutes in the recipe, but you’ll need to add more water if you do.
- It’s really very tasty and very straightforward to make.
- We didn’t peel our tomatoes (way too much effort at the time with my home grown tomatoes) but the recipe did not suffer in the slightest.
Chicken Curry with Yoghurt (Murghi Dahi)
Ingredients:
- 1.4kg chicken, skinned and jointed
- 4 tbsp oil
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 15g fresh ginger, finely grated
- cardamom seeds from 2 pods
- 2.5cm cinnamon stick
- 2 cloves
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 125g plain yoghurt
- 225g potatoes, peeled and diced
- 225g tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- salt
- leaves from 2 sprigs of coriander
Method:
- Heat 3 tabsp oil in a pan, add the onion, garlic, ginger, cardamom seeds, cinnamon, cloves and fennel seeds and fry until the onion is golden.
- Add the paprika, ground coriander, cumin, chilli powder and turmeric and continue to fry until the oil runs free from the spice mixture.
- Drain off the oil, stir in the yoghurt and blend in a liquidizer until smooth.
- Fry the remaining onion in the remaining oil until golden, add the chicken and continue to fry for 5 minutes.
- Add the blended spice mixture, the potato, tomato, 1/2 tsp salt and 850ml boiling water and cook on a low heat for about 1 hour, until the meat and vegetables are done.
- Add extra salt to taste and spring over the coriander leaves.
Notes on this recipe:
- We didn’t have any oil to drain off the onion and spice mixture. So we didn’t do that. It’s probably important to turn off the heat before you stir in the yoghurt, and then remove the yoghurt and spice mixture to another device/container for the liquidising.
- In step 4 there is mention of remaining onion. We have no idea what that was about either – I recommend rolling your eyes at it and pretending it didn’t happen
- I think the 850ml of water is way too excessive. I’d start with 400ml, and add more water as needed. Always easier to add water than to remove it without seriously boiling everything out of the dish.
- We also just got 1.4kgs of chicken thigh chops from the shops because it was a lot easier than jointing a chicken.
Whole Eggs Fried With Spice (Unday Masala)
Ingredients:
- 6 hard boiled eggs, deshelled
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1/4 tsp ground pepper
- salt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
Method:
- Make several cuts into the eggs with the point of a sharp knife to allow the spices to enter
- Heat the oil, add the coriander, chilli powder, pepper and salt and fry for about 3 minutes
- Add the lemon juice and stir to make a paste
- Add the eggs to the pan and turn in the paste to coat. Continue cooking, turning occasionally, for 4 – 5 minutes.
Notes on this recipe:
- This is seriously good, I cannot see another reason to have plain boiled eggs ever again.
- Also, really easy
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