The Best Ever Indian Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar, Rafi Fernandex, Shehzad Husain and Manisha Kanani was a gift to Scott at Christmas from his parents who know he likes cooking with me, and that he enjoys cooking dishes from the subcontinent.  As there were only 4 of us for dinner this night, I cooked two dishes from the book and some rice to go with them.  One dish worked out perfectly and we’ll do it again, the other one didn’t work at all, and I have some recommendations to make it work after the recipe.  I give this book 3 out of 4 stars, and if I get to cook more dishes out of it, that rating may change.

Chicken in Cashew Nut Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 medium onions
• 30ml/2tbsp tomato paste
• 50g/ 1/2 cup cashew nuts
• 1 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp natural yoghurt
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp fresh, chopped coriander
• 1 tbsp sultanas
• 450g boneless chicken, skinned and cubed
• 175g button mushrooms
• 1 1/4 cups water

Method:

1. Cut the onions into quarters, place in a food processor or blender and process for about 1 minute.
2. Add the tomato paste, cashew nuts, garam masala, garlic, chilli powder, lemon juice, turmeric, salt and yoghurt to the processed onions.
3. Process the spiced onion mixture in the food processor for a further 1 – 1/2 minutes.
4. In a heavy pan, heat the oil, lower the heat to medium and pour in the spice mixture from the food processor.  Fry for 2 minutes, lowering the heat more if necessary.
5. When the spice mixture is lightly cooked, add half the chopped fresh coriander, the sultanas and the chicken cubes and continue to stir-fry for a further 1 minute.
6. Add the mushrooms, pour in the water and bring to a simmer.  Cover the pan and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes.
7. After this time, check that the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thick.  Cook for a little longer if necessary, then spoon into a serving bowl.  Garnish with the remaining fresh coriander and serve.

Notes on this recipe:

• You’ll probably want to let it simmer covered for only about 5 minutes, and the other 5 minutes partially covered or fully uncovered – it was quite watery.
• We used chopped mushrooms instead of whole mushrooms, partly by accident, and partly because I don’t actually like the texture of mushrooms – this didn’t harm the dish.
• This was so tasty we’d do it again.

Spicy Potato and Tomato Curry

Ingredients:

• 2 medium potatoes
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 4 curry leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon onion seeds
• 1 fresh green chilli, seeded and chopped
• 4 tomatoes, sliced
• 1 tsp grated fresh root ginger
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
• 3 hard boiled eggs, to garnish

Method:

1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes.
2. Heat the oil in a heavy pan and stir-fry the onions, curry leaves, onion seeds and green chilli for about 40 seconds.
3. Add the tomatoes and cook for about 2 minutes over a low heat.
4. Add the ginger and garlic, chilli powder, ground coriander and salt to taste.  Continue to stir-fry for 1 – 2 minutes, then add the potatoes and cook over a low heat for 5 – 7 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
5. Add the lemon juice and fresh coriander and stir to mix together.
6. Shell the hard-boiled eggs, cut into quarters, and add as a garnish to the finished dish.

Notes on this recipe:

• Potatoes don’t cook in 5 – 7 minutes generally – and the potatoes I got for this recipe didn’t, even though we cut them into small cubes.  If I made this recipe again I’d par-boil the potatoes for 15 minutes and then add them to the sauce to cook for the final 5 – 7 minutes.  That way they’d be actually cooked in the time frame, and not having to sit on the stove for another 20 minutes, with them only mostly cooked by the end of that time.
• The sauce is really tasty, so I am disappointed that this recipe didn’t work the way it should have.