Three Indian Home Cooking Recipes
Indian cooking can be very complex, with sauces containing dozens of ingredients that take hours (if not days) to cook. But that’s high-end cooking, the kind the maharaja’s ate and restaurants specialize in. Home cooks in India make much simpler dishes, using the same flavor palate, but with less complex techniques. Here are some very common, Indian home-cooking dishes.
Abby Schweber
Jalfrezi Anglo-Indian Chicken in Tomato and Pepper Sauce Ingredients
Jalfrezi is a tomato-based curry, like butter chicken and tikka masala, but with a difference. Where butter and tikka dishes are made with rich, heavy cream, chicken jalfrezi is a lighter, fresher curry, based on tomatoes and peppers, with a nice kick of ginger. It’s usually made with the addition of turmeric, which gives it a bright, orange color, but if you don’t have any that’s fine. In Britain, where Indian food is one of the most popular cuisines, chicken jalfrezi is the most popular Indian dish of them all.
1 medium onion*
2 red bell peppers*
2-3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken pieces* (thighs or breasts)
2 Tbs. ginger*
3 cloves garlic*
1 Tbs. garam masala
1 tsp. turmeric* (optional)
2-3 lbs. tomatoes*
2-3 hot chilies* (green or red)
2 tsp. salt
½ cup cilantro leaves*
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
*These ingredients can be found at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market
Method
Cut onion and bell pepper into ¼” dice. Cut chicken into ½” dice. Grate ginger. Finely mince or press garlic.
Sauté onion in vegetable oil on medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add chicken, cumin, turmeric (if using), garam masala, and garlic to the onion, and pan-fry for 5-7 minutes, scraping the pan and turning the chicken pieces regularly, until the spices are fragrant and the chicken is browned.
Cut tomatoes into large chunks. Remove stems and seeds from chilies. Put tomatoes and chilies in your food processor or blender and blitz until they make a rough paste.
Add the tomato mixture, bell pepper, chickpeas, salt, and ginger to the pot, and scrape the good, brown stuff from the bottom until it’s all mixed in. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
If the sauce is too runny, continue cooking for 5 minutes uncovered to evaporate off the extra liquid.
Chop the cilantro. When the curry is finished, mix in the cilantro.
Aloo Gobi Chaat Ingredients
The word chaat describes savory snacks, often sold on roadside stands in India. In Indian restaurants in the US, however, chaat generally means leftovers with green chutney. I’ve seen all sorts of things used in chaats, from proteins, like tandoori chicken or spiced fish, to starches, like crisped-up bits of samosas or flat breads. These are often tossed with vegetables or herbs, along with bright, herby, citrusy chutney, sitting on those wonderful, all-you-can-eat Indian lunchtime buffets. One of my favorites combined roasted potatoes, cauliflower, and chickpeas, which I recreated to come up with this recipe.
2 lb. waxy potatoes*
1 small or ½ large cauliflower* (about 1 ½ lbs.)
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 can chickpeas (~15 oz.)
2 tsp. salt
Chutney:
1 medium onion*
1.5 cups cilantro* (1 large bunch)
1” ginger*
1-2 green chilies*
1 lime
1 Tbs. cumin
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. sugar
¼ cup water
*These ingredients can be found at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market
Method
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Cut potatoes into 1 ½” dice. Cut cauliflower into large florets, about 1 ½” across. Place on baking tray, and toss with oil and salt. Roast in oven for 20 minutes.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then pat dry with a paper towel and let air dry while the potatoes and cauliflower are roasting.
Add the chickpeas to the tray and toss. Roast for another 20 minutes or until the potatoes and chickpeas are nicely browned.
While the potato is cooking, cut onion into quarters. Set aside ½ cup of cilantro leaves, then cut the rest of the cilantro into 3-4” lengths. Cut ginger into ¼” rounds. Remove stems and seeds from the jalapenos. Put onion, cilantro, ginger, and jalapenos into your food processor.
Zest and juice the lime into the food processor bowl, then add remaining chutney ingredients. Blitz until it makes a smooth sauce, adding extra water if needed.
Roughly chop the reserved cilantro leaves. Toss the cilantro, roasted vegetables, and chutney in your serving bowl.
Macaroni Masala Ingredients
When Italian-style pastas were introduced to India, people there found the Italian recipes too bland for their palates. Similarly, Indian people were not used to the flavor and fattiness of pork products, like sausage and pancetta, that are used in so many Italian pasta dishes. So they developed their own versions using more familiar ingredients. This dish, which can be eaten as part of any meal, starts with the base of an Italian sauce, tomato, onion, bell pepper, and garlic, replaces the pork products with an assortment of vegetables, and uses Indian spices instead of Italian herbs. The liquid in the sauce comes from the tomatoes, but fresh tomatoes can have more or less liquid. If your tomatoes are on the drier side, you’ll need to add water as the sauce cooks.
1 medium onion*
1 green bell pepper*
2 medium tomatoes*
4 cloves garlic*
3 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 lb. macaroni
2-3 carrots* (about 8 ounces)
1.5 cups peas* (in season or frozen)
½ cup cilantro*
1 Tbs. garam masala
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
*These ingredients can be found at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market
Method
Cook the macaroni according to package directions, then drain and set aside.
Cut onion, bell pepper, carrot, and tomatoes into ¼” dice, keeping the onion separate. Finely chop or press garlic. Roughly chop the cilantro.
Sauté onion in oil in a medium frying pan on medium heat for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the carrot and fresh peas, if using, and cook for 2-3 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the garlic, garam masala, and cumin and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.
Add the bell pepper, tomato, frozen peas (if using), salt, and pepper, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally for 3-4 minutes, until the tomatoes are soft. If the mixture starts to dry out, add a few tablespoons of water.
Stir the macaroni, cilantro, and sauce together in a large bowl.
