Prompted by another pound of beautiful green beans in my last produce delivery and by a desire to try some new recipes, those beans led to my cooking an Indian(-inspired) feast...
Chicken Makhani, Saag, Dal, and Green Beans with Coconut Spice... (Plus homemade Naan, of course...)
The green bean recipe that led me towards this Indian-inspired feast was from a book by some of my favorite authors. I hadn't actually cooked from Seductions of Rice before (it's one of their books with less shiny pretty pictures, so it's less fun to just flip through absent-mindedly and ends up on my lap less often than the others...), but I think I'll be back to it after trying the Green Beans with Coconut Spice...
The spice paste has a base of fresh (or frozen) grated coconut and minced shallots...
The green beans, meanwhile, are topped, tailed, and chopped...
This starts as a bit of a stir-fry... Mustard seeds, curry leaves, dried chili, and a mix of dals, rice, and shallots...
After these are toasted, the coconut spice mix goes in and stir-fries a bit...
Followed by the beans...
A little water goes in, and things cook until the water evaporates... The texture is intended to be tender (rather than crunchy, which is my usual preference), and they turned out kind of perfect...
Not much to look at, necessarily, but packed with flavor and absolutely fantastic...
The main course was a Chicken Makhani recipe from Floyd Cardoz that I found online... It was pretty kick-ass. I think the only real change I would make is to double the amount of chicken (or cut the amount of marinade in half if you want to stick with the saucier version as written... Either way, there was about twice as much marinade as you could possibly need for the listed amount of chicken...).
Things start with chicken thighs in your typical Chicken Tikka marinade...
I threw the chicken on the grill rather than doing it in the broiler (as the recipe suggests) because (a) it's too hot out to turn on the oven for any serious period of time, and (b) grilling is one million times better than broiling...
The sauce comes together quickly and easily with fire-roasted tomatoes, onion, ginger, garlic, chilies, "ground cinnamon," and butter... lots of butter...
I'm going to get on a soap box here briefly to endorse fresh-grated cinnamon. In the same way that everyone who first tries fresh-grated nutmeg has their world rocked, you'll be blown away by how much brighter the flavor is... If you need more than a tablespoon or so, you can break up a stick and throw it in your spice grinder for a whirl.
Everything eventually simmers together while you go do something else...
It was supposed to reduce to two and a half quarts, but I ended up with two quarts after running it through the blender... Slightly over-reduced is way better than slightly under-reduced in my book... (I opted out of straining this, as well, because it was pretty darned creamy and I couldn't be bothered...)
This went into the fridge until I was ready to finish the dish. One other modification was that I couldn't find fenugreek leaves, so I used a mix of celery leaves (because the internet said I could...) and curry leaves (because I like them)... Everything turned out delicious, so I recommend this substitution if you find yourself in the same boat...
I made the sauce base and grilled the chicken a day ahead, then I just had to warm the base and stir in the crushed toasted leaves, black pepper, honey, and cream...
When it was almost time for service, I stirred in the grilled chicken and heated gently until just warmed through...
Yummy! Chicken Makhani was one of my favorite dishes from the place that delivered to me in Boston, so it rocks to have a great recipe to make it at home...
The Saag was prompted because my parents picked me up a giant $2 bundle of what is apparently quintoniles at the Community Market... I had no plans for this weird green (and it took much googling to even determine what it actually was), so Saag seemed like the way to go...
The recipe called for a 10-ounce package of frozen spinach, but by the time I stemmed and gently steamed the greens, I had about 5 ounces. A half-batch it is!
Thanks to this recipe I also ended up with a quart of "Pre-Cooked Masala." This is the flavoring base for the Saag (and several other recipes in the book). It's super-delicious and freezes well, but I may have made less if the recipe had mentioned how much I was making... Ah, well... Onions, tomatoes, chilies, and lots of spices...
(Oh, and the recipe was actually for Saag Paneer, but I didn't have any paneer and didn't feel like making it from scratch, so I just made Saag... This is what happens when I decide on menus spontaneously...) That's all there is to it other than a bit of simmering, so I can make Saag in a flash any time now that I have a lifetime supply of Pre-Cooked Masala in the freezer...
I decided on a whim to make dal, too, but again this lack of planning meant that I didn't have ingredients on hand for any of the versions in From Mom with Love. I perused the interweb a bit and came across a recipe I could make with items on hand... Again, I was all about doing things in advance for this feast, so I did the initial cooking of the lentils a day ahead. The day of, they just needed to simmer for 15 minutes with some salt and a couple chilies...
...before being tossed with shallots, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and chili flakes that were all toasted up in some ghee...
The dal is topped with fresh cilantro before serving, and the ends up being lovely as well as yummy...
While I was toasting things in ghee, I toasted up a few more cumin seeds and mustard seeds to toss with the rice just as it finished cooking... This added a really nice seasoning, and I will totally do it again in the future...
The dough for the Naan also came from From Mom with Love... but my mom made it for me (with love, I presume...) because I needed to rest, so I can't say for sure that it's as easy as it looks. I divided the dough into 8...
... then stretched and rolled the individual flatbreads... (I put kalonji on one, as per the recipe... and don't mock my shapes... I was going for "rustic"...)
Because, as I mentioned above, it was way too hot to be cranking up the oven, I decided to use fire bricks and cook the naan on my grill...
This method is still in the experimental stage for me (for example, I was in a hurry and probably could have stood to heat the grill longer...),
... but the breads puffed beautifully and even picked up a bit of color... I'll keep playing with it and report back when I've perfected my skills...
Mmm... flatbread...
So, there you have it... When it came time to prep for lunch today, there were only brief moments spent in the kitchen over the course of about a half hour... Not bad for such a delicious feast...
I expected the star for me to be the Chicken Makhani, but it ended up tied for first with the totally awesome green beans and the Saag... (I've tried to make versions of Saag several times, and this is the closest I've ever come to the flavor profile I have in my head. I don't know if that profile is authentic or not... It's just what I crave...)
This is a feast that reminds me of my favorite meals from the trashy place we frequented in Santa Barbara and from the less-trashy place I had deliver to me in Boston, but with the added bonus of the green bean dish that was all new to me. I'll have to make this for friends and family some time. With all the advance prep you can do, it ends up being pretty easy to throw together at the end... For now, I'm definitely looking forward to the leftovers...
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