Fried Potato Cakes with Chana Masala

I was feeling vegetarian and I had an Indian friend make this for me a while back, so I thought I'd try it. I found a recipe for fried potato cakes and varied the usual way I have been making chana masala. I was hoping for a thinner, saucier, yellower curry to pour over the cakes and this one ended up being a little reddish with more of a tomato flavor than I wanted, but it was still very good. I know it's not traditional but next time I'd like to coat the cakes in egg and panko to make them really crispy and give another layer of texture to the plate.

Chana Masala and Pooris

This one turned out very good, I more or less followed Vahrehvah's recipe. This one called for frying whole garam masala at the beginning, which was different. Definitely the best one I've made so far, but I will keep trying. The pooris were okay but I didn't quite have the right kind of flour. Let's not even talk about the raita. One of these days I'll be honest and admit I don't like raitas of any flavor and not waste my time.

Youtube Recipe Video

Twin Curries: Corn on the Cob and Chicken

From the Best Ever Indian Cookbook, served with papad and chapati.

Vindaloo with Papas Criollas

One of my favorites is vindaloo, which usually has cut-up potatoes. I really like the little yellow-skinned potatoes called papas criollas, so I thought about making chicken vindaloo using those potatoes cooked whole. It came out pretty good but next time I'd like to try it with the potatoes dusted with a spicy coating and fried until crispy and then added to the curry at the end.

Divali Nagar and Chana Masala

After slaving all night on the demi-glace, I got out of the house and went to a local Divali Nagar festival, hoping to eat some good Indian food. The festival was pretty small and all of the food booths were Trinidadian and other West Indian foods. Still I managed to try a few things and enjoyed going.

Some fried thing (I don't remember) and a chickpea curry stuffed roti called "doubles". The curry was different from other Indian-style curries I've had before: it was sweet and savory and had lots of cinnamon.

A biryani combo: fried rice, another version of chickpea curry, and a samosa and kachori. Although the chana needed some more heat, it was more what I'm used to than the one stuffed in in the doubles. The rice was really good. The green chiles in the rice had a mild, wilted poblano-like flavor which worked really well. The samosa was just potatoes and spices and could have used some meat texture and richness. But the fried potato was amazing; apparently it was coated in gram (chickpea) flour which gave it a very light crispiness after it was deep fried. I definitely want to try that.

As usual after trying something new or different, I came home and tried it. I've made chana masala before but I haven't been too happy with it. I've tried using raw spices and also boxed chana masalas, but I still haven't been able to capture the flavors I want. This time I asked a friend for advice and tried to follow it:

Frying onions and spices (cumin seed, mustard seed, a few cloves and peppercorns, coriander powder).

Add turmeric, garlic and ginger paste, some spicy raw chili, garam masala, some water, simmer and then purée until smooth. Then return to heat and add the chickpeas and simmer until done.

I ate it with basmati rice, some papadums, and spicy pickle. This was the closest I've come to the flavor I want but I still need to keep trying.

Shrimp Madras Pizza

I've made curry pizzas before but never a shrimp one. This time I made a quick and easy sauce in the blender and then let it thicken and reduce. I like making the pizza on a few overlapping tortillas because they end up nice and crunchy and zero effort for the crust.

Sauce

onion, garlic cloves, whole tomato, Madras curry powder, salt, pepper, lemon juice, dried whole Indian red chili, cumin seed, butter/ghee, heavy cream

Toppings

shrimp marinated in salt, pepper, olive oil, Madras curry powder, lemon juice

bamboo shoots, mozzarella (yes it works with curry), dusted with red chili powder and garnished with cilantro after baking

Verdict:

The shrimp were a good consistency after baking at 500 F for 10 minutes, not rubbery at all. I would do it again and fine tune the sauce a little next time.

Chicken Chana

I had the Chicken Chana from Bombay Cafe for lunch and liked it so much I wanted to go home and make it again for dinner:

It came out pretty similar to the one from the restaurant. Of course their curry seems to have a more "focused" taste but I am still learning. I added some of those papas criollas just to empty the bag in the freezer and it gave me a new idea: chicken vindaloo made totally from papas criollas that are not peeled or cut up. I will try that soon.

Fried Chickpeas and Makhani Sauce

Okay, so no, these two things don't have much in common. But still it's fun to make a nice snack like fried spiced chickpeas while you are slaving on making something like homemade makhani sauce.

Now on to the makhani sauce.  Puréed tomatoes:

All the spices: garlic and ginger pastes, chili powder, green chili, cinnamon, fenugreek seeds, green and black cardamoms.

Frying the spices in oil (bhuna):

After it's done. I froze most of it at this stage, and then added cream to the rest to use on a pizza. Supposedly you shouldn't freeze curry pastes or concentrates with cream in them.

Chicken Makhani Pizza

For this curry pizza I made everything from scratch. I made a dough flavored with Indian spices, makhani sauce from scratch, grilled chicken, and then topped the pizza with the sauce, chicken, peppers, onions, tomatoes, and paneer.

It turned out good except maybe for the paneer. I was trying to be traditional and avoid using cheese on a curry pizza but it would have turned out just fine. The paneer dried up a little in the oven and I didn't like the texture. Maybe next time I'd crumble it up and put it in the sauce beneath the toppings.

Egg Curry Wrap

This one kinda evolved as I was cooking it but I ended up making a chickpea/boiled egg curry and making a whole wheat wrap out of it.

I seasoned the thin sliced potatoes and tried to get them slightly crispy before adding the spice pastes, eggs, and chickpeas.

Verdict:
Too much tomato and could have used some fresh vegetables added at the end to give a crunchy contrasting texture. Maybe some celery even, or shredded carrots or radishes.