Cookbook 75: low-fat indian cooking

I’m not laying any claim to owning low-fat Indian cooking by Shezad Husain.  This is not to say it’s a bad book, just that I don’t think I’d buy a book on the amount of fat contained in the recipes.  To me, some food is lean, some food is not, and there is no judgement on which one you choose to eat at any given time.  Of course, too much of anything is bad for you, that’s what too much means after all (to paraphrase Jean Kitson).

But of course you’re more interested in whether the recipes are any good or not, and that’s what I’m here to tell you.  The instructions in the books are clear, and the recipes are tasty, though they were unusual (to me at least).  The portion sizes are completely made up, the three dishes I made allegedly served 4 people, and the 5 of us who were there ate everything – there was no food left at the end of the meal, and we weren’t overfull by the end of it.  I’d give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Karahi Chicken with Mint

Ingredients:

  • 275g chicken breast fillet, skinned and cut into strips
  • 300ml water
  • 2 tbsp soya oil
  • 2 small bunches spring onions, roughly chopped
  • 1 tsp shredded fresh ginger
  • 1 tsp crushed dried red chilli
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
  • 3 tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped
  • 1 tsp salt
  • mint and coriander sprigs

Method:

  1. Put the chicken and water into a saucepan, bring to the boil and lower the heat to medium.  Cook for about 10 minutes or until the water has evaporated and the chicken is cooked.  Remove from the heat and set aside.
  2. Heat the oil in a frying pan (skillet) or saucepan and stir-fry the spring onions for about 2 minutes until soft.
  3. Add the boiled chicken strips and stir-fry for about 3 minutes over a medium heat.
  4. Gradually add the ginger, dried chilli, lemon juice, fresh coriander, fresh mint, tomatoes and salt and gently stir to blend all the flavours together.
  5. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the fresh mint and coriander sprigs.

Notes on this recipe:

  • This dish was surprisingly tangy, which would have been due to the lemon juice.  I didn’t expect the tang, so it was odd to start with, but once I got used to it, it was good.
  • Boiling chicken is gross, even though the final outcome is good.
  • This dish, once you cook the chicken is really quick to come together, so if you are cooking this with other dishes, be prepared that the final steps of this dish take about 3 minutes (and that’s including frying the chicken).

Potatoes in a Yoghurt Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 12 new potatoes, halved
  • 1 1/4 cups natural yoghurt
  • 1 1/4 cups water
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp soft brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp white cumin seeds
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
  • 2 fresh chillies, sliced
  • 1 fresh coriander spring

Method:

  1. Boil the potatoes in salted water with their skins on until they are just tender, then drain and set aside.
  2. Mix together the yoghurt, water, turmeric, chilli powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, salt and sugar in a bowl.  Set aside.
  3. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and add the white cumin seeds.
  4. Reduce the heat, stir in the yoghurt mixture and cook for about 3 minutes over a medium heat.
  5. Add the fresh coriander, green chillies and cooked potatoes.  Blend everything together and cook for a further 5 – 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  6. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the coriander sprigs, if you like.

Notes on this recipe:

  • Oh this was delightful and my favourite dish of the whole evening.  The potatoes were creamy and spicy and absolutely delicious.
  • This recipe was also very easy to make.

Vegetables with Almonds

Ingredients:

  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 medium onions, sliced
  • 5cm piece of fresh ginger, shredded
  • 1 tsp crushed black peppercorns
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/4 tsp tumeric
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp garam masala
  • 175g mushrooms, thickly sliced
  • 1 medium zucchini, thickly sliced
  • 50g green beans, sliced into 2.5cm pieces
  • 1 tbsp roughly chopped fresh mint
  • 150ml water
  • 2 tbsp natural yoghurt
  • 25g flaked/slivered almonds

Method:

  1. In a medium deep frying pan, heat the oil and fry the sliced onions with the shredded ginger, crushed black peppercorns and bay leaf for 3 – 5 minutes.
  2. Lower the heat and add the turmeric, ground coriander, salt and garam masala, stirring occasionally.  Gradually add the mushrooms, zucchini, green beans and the mint.  Stir gently so that the vegetables retain their shapes.
  3. Pour in the water and bring to a simmer, then lower the heat and cook until the water has been absorbed by the vegetables.
  4. Beat the yoghurt with a fork, then our into the vegetables and mix together well.
  5. Cook for a further 2 – 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Serve garnished with the flaked/slivered almonds.

Notes on this recipe:

  • The “cook until the water has been absorbed by the vegetables” thing is misleading because vegetables release water when they’re being cooked – so really you end up with more water.  I kept this at a high simmer so the vegetables would cook and then once enough water had boiled away, continued with the recipe.
  • I’m not fan of pepper, so I didn’t enjoy this one much.  However, everyone else did.

Lassi

Ingredients:

  • 300ml natural yoghurt
  • 1 tsp sugar, or to taste
  • 300ml water
  • 2tbsp pureed fruit (optional)
  • 1 tbsp frushed pistachio nuts

Method:

  1. Place yoghurt in a jug (or blender) and whisk/blend it for about 2 minutes until frothy.  Add the sugar to taste.
  2. Pour in the water and ad the pureed fruit, if using, and continue to whisk for 2 minutes.
  3. Pour the lassi into serving glasses.  Serve chilled, decorated with crushed pistachio nuts.

Notes on this recipe:

  • I’m not sure how 2 tablespoons of pureed fruit would actually make this recipe successful.  In the photo in the book they’ve added raspberries, and it looks like more than 2 tablespoons.  In the end, I added an entire tin of mango cheeks, just so it’d taste like mango, because it certainly didn’t after adding two.
  • Once I’d added enough mango so you could taste it in the lassi, this was awesome and really complemented the meal.  I skipped the nuts, because I didn’t want to accidentally swallow them while soothing chilli tingling.