When Life Needs Spice: Add Indian Food

I will let you in on a secret. I hate cooking. Yes, my husband and I used to own a restaurant. Yes, I can apply myself in the kitchen and come up with some interesting dishes. Yes, I enjoy talking about foreign, exotic dishes but I just have to get that little secret off my chest. My husband always finds it odd I never taste what I'm cooking and always serve the meal with a disclaimer, "I don't know if it turned out or not so try it at your own risk." Definitely not a good cook's habit. Alas, I do not let my disdain for cooking stop me from actually doing it.

I've posted about my love for Tiki Masala a few years ago on this blog. I came up with a flotsam and jetsam crockpot recipe I was proud of at the time. I was desperate. I needed the flavors of home, I needed that comfort food to help transport me to a place of great aromas, mixed with family, friends and  familiarity. I still need it, so I decided to fine tune my minuscule Indian cooking skills over the weekend and try to be authentic to some of my favorite Indian food dishes and see if I could get close to the tastes I remember.

Masala, Saag, Somosa, Naan
Made by: Chandra Brown

I have been working on Tiki Masala (without the crockpot this time) and finally have this one down to memory.  I even make my own garlic, ginger paste from scratch. I love Saag and found an authentic recipe online. The ingredients made me venture to our local Indian Grocer, Man Pasand. I found the paneer, and fresh spinach I needed and even brought home Somosas for an appetizer.

I used every pot and pan I own, my food processor did double duty, my grill was fired up in the wet, cold outdoors and my oven was cranked to 400. This meal was firing on all cylinders, my spice cabinet was half emptied onto the countertop  and I just dove in and did it, not tasting as I went but waiting until I sat down at the table to share with my family.

I must say, the Saag Paneer was the real deal. My husband even replied, "You made this!" Ha, his surprised comment was a compliment, if it made him think of authentic Jewel of India's recipe, then I was successful.

I have to thank my parents for the success of this cooking ordeal. They recommended I watch, The Hundred Foot Journey, a delightful, clean, culinary movie about an Indian families' restaurant venture across from a successful, snooty French restaurant. There are hints of Romeo and Juliet and the Father's attitude in the film will make you giggle. I loved the son's passion for food and thought if I could just mimic that, I may come up with something enjoyable.

What foreign food do you want to try to learn to make?

I recently just tried making my own fermented kimchi (Korean). I made some pulled pork to go with it, added BBQ sauce and placed it all in a Romaine Lettuce leaf from our Winter Garden. It was wonderful!