Spinach Pakoras with Royal Dip

I first had these delicious veggie fritters at a stand at the farmer’s market.  I’d never seen them before, but it was love at first bite!  I swore I’d have to find a way to make them at home – and I did!  Spinach Pakoras with Royal Dip are healthy, tasty, vegetarian and gluten-free too!  These Indian snacks are eaten with a minty yogurt dip and are a popular street food.

The only ingredient that may be a bit tough to find is chickpea flour.  Also called gram flour or besan flour, it’s just dried garbanzo beans ground powder-fine.  I made it at home, and while it took a bit of time because my food processor is wimpy, it worked very well!  If you do grind your own, you will need to sift it through a fine sieve, and return any pebbles to the food processor for a finer grind.  After that, it’s smooth sailing.  Bob's Red Mill has a really good packaged chickpea flour, and is available at most grocery stores.  If you’re lucky enough to have an Indian grocery store nearby, stop in and buy some chickpea flour – and whatever else catches your eye and tempts your nose!

Spinach Pakoras with Royal Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• 1 tablespoon cilantro, finely minced
• 1 tablespoon mint, finely minced
• 1 cup chickpea flour
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon  ground fennel seeds
• 2 tablespoons rice flour (or use more chickpea flour, or use regular flour)
• 2 cups fresh spinach or other hearty greens (mustard, collard, kale), chopped
• 1/2 onion, cut into very thin strings
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water (may use more or less)
• oil for frying:  grapeseed, coconut, peanut, or vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Make the Royal Dip:  stir together the yogurt, garlic, cilantro, and mint.  Cover and refrigerate.
2. Mix together the chickpea flour, curry powder, fennel, and rice flour in a large bowl.
3. Mix in the spinach and onion. Stir to combine.
4. Add about 3 tablespoons of water and stir.  Mix it all very well.  You don’t want a thin batter – you just want the flour to be wet and coating the veggies.  Add a bit of water until you make a thick batter.
5. Heat the oil over a medium burner and drop the pakora batter in by the tablespoonful.  Try to flatten them out a bit so they are pancake-shaped as opposed to spherical.  Cook for about 3 minutes until crispy, then flip and cook the other side.
6. Remove pakoras to a paper towel-lined plate and sprinkle with a bit of salt.  Serve hot with the Royal Dip.

Crockpot Chicken Curry and Curry Chicken Stew

Two for the price of one!  That’s what you get when you start this recipe in the crockpot.  It’s not very glamorous, but oh boy! does it smell and taste divine!  A simple list of ingredients  and a crockpot are all you need to make two delicious meals: Crockpot Curry Chicken and Curry Chicken Stew!

First you need a can of coconut milk or coconut cream.  It needs to be a can, because the coconut milk “beverage” they put in cartons is all watery, and you need the high fat content of the canned stuff.  Trader Joe’s has both canned coconut milk and coconut cream, or you can try an Asian market or online.  Next thing you need is curry.  You can use curry paste; I just used curry powder and it was lovely.  You’ll need an 8-ounce package of mushrooms, any kind – I used regular button mushrooms, but shiitakes or creminis would be nice too, and give it a stronger flavor.  And last is this beauty:

I buy it at the farmer’s market from a Vietnamese lady who tells me it’s called “Chinese broccoli”.  A little online research shows its real name is kai lan.  Its leaves are like spinach, and its cooked stems have the consistency of asparagus.  If you can’t find it, use spinach instead…although the Chinese broccoli has a stronger, more bitter flavor.

I made this with whole chicken legs – skin, bones and all – but I think next time I’ll try it with just boneless, skinless thighs.  Chicken skin in the crockpot is not a nice thing – we actually peeled it off before we ate the Curry Chicken the first night because it just seemed kind of rubbery.  But I think the skin and bones do add to the stock for the stew the next day, so it’s up to you.  Either way, you get two healthy, delicious meals out of one crockpot – you can’t beat that!

Crockpot Curry Chicken

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds whole chicken legs
• 1 can of coconut cream, or use coconut milk (not low-fat)
• 3 tablespoons curry powder or curry paste of your choice
• juice of 1 lemon or lime
• 1 tablespoon salt

Directions:

1. In a large crockpot, set the time for 8 hours on low or 4-6 on high.  Put the chicken legs on the bottom.
2. Mix together the coconut cream, curry, lemon juice and salt.  Pour over the chicken and stir to combine.
3. Cook until a thermometer reads 180*F.  Remove chicken legs from the pot and cover them with foil.  Pour the coconut broth into a large pan and simmer for about 15 minutes.  It will reduce a little.  Serve chicken legs with coconut broth.

Now, at this point, I had 2 very large legs leftover and about a cup of coconut broth.  I put them together in a Tupperware container.  Then the next day, I made…

Curry Chicken Stew

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon butter, coconut oil or olive oil
• 8 ounces mushrooms, quartered
• 1 pound Chinese broccoli, cut into 2-inch pieces  (or use fresh spinach)
• 2 large cooked chicken legs (or use 1 pound of chicken thighs)
• leftover coconut broth – as much as you have
• optional chicken broth
• optional jasmine rice to serve

Directions:

1. In a large pan, saute the mushrooms in 1 tablespoon butter, coconut oil, or olive oil.  Stir, and after five minutes, add the Chinese broccoli and cover.
2. While the mushrooms are cooking, prepare the chicken:  peel off the skin and any subcutaneous fat you find from the cooked chicken legs.  Remove the meat from the bones and roughly chop.
3. Add the chopped chicken and remaining coconut broth to the mushrooms and Chinese broccoli.  If you want it to be soupier, add some chicken broth.  Cook until the chicken is hot, about ten minutes.

This would be lovely with some steamed jasmine rice!  I ate this for lunch, and liked it so much I ate it again for breakfast.

Zoe's Crockpot Chicken

This past weekend, I invited my best friend and her family up to our house for dinner.  Instead of trying to make a meatloaf large enough to feed eight people, I decided to use my two crockpots to save time and effort in my prep.  In the one, a mushroom pot roast.  In the other, I made a lightly curried pot of chicken thighs.  I wasn’t sure if my friends’ kids would like it – they’re eight and ten years old, and I didn’t know if it would be a hit.  Ten year-old Zoe took one bite and her face lit up.  ”Mama,” she excitedly told my friend, “you have to ask Dana for this recipe so you can make it at home!”  I have to tell you, I’ve never been so proud of a recipe in all my life!  This, then, will be called Zoe’s Crockpot Chicken.

You can use one or two pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.  If you use one pound, you’ll have more sauce, and will probably want to serve this over rice or noodles.  If you use two pounds, like I did this time, it’s a thicker stew and doesn’t need anything under it – but jasmine rice would certainly be delicious.  Use any store-bought curry powder you like.  I have two, and the one I used this time was just a $4 jar from Trader Joe’s – nothing fancy.  I also used half a head of cauliflower, diced.  It doesn’t add much to the flavor, but it adds nutrition and body to the sauce.  I like to garnish with a big dollop of plain yogurt, and if you have cilantro, sprinkle some of that on top.  If you need a quick chicken dish that promises to please grown-ups and kids alike, check this one out.

Zoe’s Crockpot Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, sliced fine
• 1 or 2 pounds chicken thighs
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes (I like fire-roasted)
• plain yogurt and cilantro to garnish, optional
• rice or noodles, optional

Directions:

1. Place the sliced onions on the bottom of the crock pot.  Layer the chicken thighs on top.  Season well with curry powder and salt.  Open the can of tomatoes and dump on top.
2. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.  When ready to serve, shred the chicken with a fork and mix all the ingredients.  Serve on top of optional rice, garnish with optional yogurt and cilantro, and enjoy!

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries with Chipotle Sauce

I don't really care about football, but I do like the Super Bowl (tm) (please don't sue me, NFL!)  We usually invite friends or family over to the house, just a few people, and enjoy snacks and beer.  My favorite thing to eat during the game is Ruffles potato chips and sour cream and onion dip - you know, the kind that is comprised of a tub of sour cream and a packet of French Onion soup?  LOVE!  I only make it once a year, and it's my special, no-carbs-barred day with salty treats.  Only this year, I abstained.  It was hard, seeing all those shiny, brightly-colored bags in the store, but I made a commitment to treat my body better and lose weight, so I took a stand and passed.

Instead, I made these sweet potato fries.  They were incredibly tasty and easy to make, so I had to share the recipe.  The basic recipe, of course, is just sweet potatoes, oil, and salt.  And feel free to make them like that, they are wonderful!  But I found a jar of garam masala, a relative of curry powder, at my local Target last week, and I thought the two tastes would go well together.  I was right!  Garam masala ingredients vary by neighborhood in India, so there's no one "authentic" composition.  This one has black pepper, cardamom, anise, and other spices.  If you were to add sugar, it would remind you of chai.  If you add it to a savory dish, it is a fragrant, warm spice mixture that hints at sweetness and heat - perfect for sweet potatoes!

Eat these as-is, or make the chipotle dipping sauce recipe below.  I think these would be great with just a bowl of plain yogurt to dip into, too.

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:

• 3 small sweet potatoes, peeled
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil (if you don't have it, use all olive oil)
• 1 teaspoon garam masala (OR 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin and 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.  Peel the sweet potatoes and slice into wedges.  Mine were pretty thin - they will crisp up quicker if you cut them thinly lengthwise, and as evenly as possible.  
2. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients.  Pour onto a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and bake.
3. Flip sweet potatoes every ten minutes until they are crisp.  Mine were unevenly cut, so some were done after 30 minutes and the rest at 40 minutes.  When crisp, remove from pan to a cooling rack or a plate lined with paper towels.  Serve plain or with sauce of choice.

And if your sauce of choice is the Chipotle Sauce...

In a food processor, add 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon plain yogurt or sour cream, one chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, 1/2 lemon (juiced), and 1/4 cup cilantro stems and leaves.  Blend, taste, add salt, maybe some more adobo sauce from the can, or a little orange juice or more lemon.  Oh, ground cumin would be nice in here too!  Or, if you are lucky and recently made my recipe for Fajitas Salad, skip all this and use the leftover dressing!

Chickpea Curry

Not pictured:  fluffy naan to soak up the curry sauce

Two of the biggest gripes I hear when people talk about eating meatless meals are, "Not enough protein!" and "Not enough flavor!"  I gotcha covered on both counts with this recipe.  (This is my own recipe, and I've never made it for Indian friends, but I think it is spiritually, if not actually, authentic.)

Between the two cans of chickpeas and the large helping of spinach, you are totally caught up on your protein.  And with the fiber content through the roof, this will leave you feeling full and happy (but not bloated and gross.  Big difference there!)  As for flavor, fresh spices, two kinds of curry, and oven-dried tomatoes pack a potent punch and are the opposite of bland!

If you don't have the whole spices, you can use ground, but there is such a huge difference in quality that I really urge you to splurge for the whole spices.  If you go to an Indian market you will find whole coriander and cumin for a steal, way cheaper than the ground (flavorless, odorless powder) at the American grocery stores.  Also, find a few curry powders and pastes that you like.  I always have Madras curry paste in the fridge (it lasts forever) and two different curry powders.  Some are sweeter, some are more bitter - experiment!

Serve this with a green salad and bread, or with brown or jasmine rice.  I also like to eat the curry the next day, with a sunny side egg on top.  Like bacon, a fried egg makes everything better too!

Chickpea Curry

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• 1/4 cup oven-dried tomatoes packed in oil (homemade or store-bought)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 10-ounce box frozen spinach, or fresh
• 2 cans chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) - do not drain off water
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon Madras curry paste
• salt to taste

So pretty and festive before it all cooks down into curry!

Directions:

1. Drain the oil from the tomatoes into a large non-stick pot.  Over medium-low heat, add the coriander and cumin.  When you can smell them, about 3 minutes, add the onion and stir.
2. When the onion softens, add the tomatoes, spinach (go ahead, throw it in the frozen), and chickpeas.  Add the chickpea water too. If you must rinse them, or are using rehydrated dried chickpeas, add 1/2 cup water or broth.  
3. Add curry powder and paste, stir to combine, and reduce heat to low.  Simmer for 20 minutes.  Taste for salt and serve.

Project: Rescuing Rice

The Patient: 12 ounces cooked Basmati rice

Status: Declining

Solution: Indian Rice Pudding!

I love Basmati rice. It has the most wonderful perfume to it and isn't as sticky or heavy-feeling as the Korean rice we usually eat here. I made a pot of Basmati rice in the rice cooker, to go along with a vegetable curry and Lamb Kofta Curry. We ate everything but a good cup and a half of cooked rice. Instead of trying to cobble together something to eat with that small amount of rice, I decided to tackle it head-on. Rice, once cooked, doesn't stay nice for long, so that night, after dinner, I made Indian Rice Pudding.

In my pantry I had a can of coconut milk, and I pawed through my spice cabinet to find something to bring life to an otherwise bland dish. I think it was a success. The proof? I ate half for dessert and the other half for breakfast.

Indian Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups cooked Basmati rice
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 star anise pods
• 3 cardamom pods
• 1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)

Directions:

1. Place the rice and coconut milk in a small pot over low heat. Add the spices, stir in the sugar, and simmer on low for about half an hour. The rice will de-clump, the milk will thicken, and the kitchen should smell heavenly.
2. Once your preferred consistency has been reached, remove cinnamon stick, anise, and cardamom pods. Serve warm with cinnamon sprinkled on top. You could eat this with some sliced mangoes, if you have them on hand.

Indian Comfort Food: Lamb Kofta Curry

For Middle America, it's Meat and Potatoes. For Asians, it's Meat and Rice! Any way you slice it, protein and carbs go together to comfort and satisfy. This dish is one I've made several times now, and I think I like it more and more each time we have it! It's rich and spicy but not hot, and the ginger adds a bright and cheery note to a dish that could conceivably seem heavy. It's like the Indian version of Spaghetti and Meatballs!

That said, I've never made it exactly according to the recipe. The recipe (as the name implies) calls for ground lamb, and instead, I've used ground turkey, ground beef, and a combination of the two. Ground lamb is not something I see often in my grocery store, and when I do, it's usually a dollar more expensive than the beef. (Remember, folks, Frugal is the name of the blog!) Also, the recipe calls for a "fresh green chilli [sic - maybe an Indianized Britishism?], roughly chopped" and I've never added one, mostly because I'm afraid it would add more heat than my preschooler would eat (and she does like these), but also because I'm not sure what kind of chile I'd use. I'd probably play it safe and use a jalapeno, if you wanted to add it in at your house.

I serve this with Basmati rice with plenty of cilantro (what the book calls coriander) mixed in.

Lamb Kofta Curry

(Recipe courtesy of Best-Ever Curry Cookbook, by Mridula Baljekar)

Ingredients:

For the Kofta (aka Meatballs)

• 1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
• 1 fresh green chilli, roughly chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1-inch piece of fresh root ginger, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)

For the Sauce:

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1-inch piece of fresh root ginger, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 can (14 oz.) chopped tomatoes
• fresh coriander (cilantro) to garnish

Directions:

1.) To make the meatballs, put the lamb, chilli, garlic, ginger, garam masala, salt and cilantro into a food processor and process until the mixture binds together.

2.) Shape the mixture into 16 balls, using your hands. Cover with clear film (plastic wrap) and chill for 10 minutes.

3.) To make the sauce, heat the oil and fry the cumin seeds until they splutter. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and fry for 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining sauce ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes.

4.) Add the meatballs. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked though. Garnish with sprigs of fresh cilantro and serve with basmati rice.

Masala Channa

I love Indian food, but was always too scared to cook it. So complicated! So exotic! So far beyond the skills and ken of this humble white girl! Then for Christmas I received a big Indian cookbook, broadly titled, "The Best-Ever Curry Cookbook." Most of the recipes seemed uncomplicated, but filled with spices I knew were not available to me at my local American grocery concern.

I left the book alone for a few months, but my curiosity grew. I picked the book back up and read through the recipes in earnest, earmarking a few for trial runs. The huge library of spices I'd thought I needed to amass actually wasn't so big. I chose the 10 or so most common ingredients and went shopping ... at India Sweets and Spices, in Los Feliz.

That place was awesome! I have the most fun going to ethnic grocery stores: it's like a field trip, with so many sights, smells and sounds to take in. (Yes, sounds: my two year-old daughter danced to the Bollywood songs in the aisles, cracking up the girl at the cash register.) I purchased enough spices (whole cumin, coriander, mustard, star anise, and cardamom) and basics (canned coconut milk, garam masala curry paste, and tamarind paste) to last for a while, and got out for around $40. Not too shabby!

This recipe does have quite a few ingredients, but once you make that one trip to the spice market, you're set and can make all the rest of the recipes in the book. The recipe for Masala Channa required a lot of spices ... but the rest of the ingredients were not only readily available at the regular grocery store, they were cheap! This was my kind of food!

Masala Channa (tart and spicy chickpeas) are a street food, according to my book. They are served with flat breads like chapatis and parathas. I made them as a side dish, and they went very well with rice. They are nutty and bold, and are nicely offset by a cool raita. The leftovers? They landed on my plate next to fried eggs and toast and made a delicious, different (and distinctly colonial) breakfast!

I made some changes to the recipe for ease of use - I substituted canned chickpeas for dried, since I didn't want to soak overnight and then cook for another 2 hours before I could even start the recipe; and I replaced tamarind concentrate (in a convenient 4 oz. tub) for the tamarind pulp. The recipe below is from my cookbook, but reflects these changes.

Masala Channa

(Recipe courtesy The Best-Ever Curry Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar)

Ingredients:

• two 14 oz. cans of chickpeas, rinsed
• 2 teaspoons tamarind concentrate, diluted with 1/2 cup boiling water
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1-inch piece of fresh ginger root, grated or minced
• 1 fresh green chili, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon ground tumeric
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces tomatoes, skinned and finely chopped (I used canned)
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• chopped chilies and chopped onion, to garnish

Directions:

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok, karahi (an Indian-style wok) or large pan and fry the cumin seeds for 2 minutes until they begin to splutter. Add the chopped onion, garlic, ginger and chili and fry for 5 minutes

2. Add the ground cumin, coriander, turmeric and salt and fry for another 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and tamarind paste. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Add the chickpeas and garam masala, cover, and simmer for 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how firm you want the chickpeas. Garnish with chilies and onions.

Note: I didn't have any chilies, so my chickpeas were tart and nicely spiced, but not hot. I'm not really a heat-spicy person anyway, but I'm sure you could crank the Scovilles up on this one if you choose.