Indian Food Take 37

Its no big secret that Indian food tops my list of favorite ethnic foods (right behind sushi). So I find it unbelievably unfair that I live in a place that has 2 Indian restaurants both terrible. (Luckily there are several excellent sushi places around.) In an attempt to satisfy my needs, I have tried and tried again to work my Indian food skills in the kitchen. After countless attempts, some better than others, I think I'm actually getting somewhere. Thanks to a surprise issue of this month's Saveur to inspire me, I was able to make two dishes rather successfully and even naan!

Matar paneer is pretty typical Indian fare. This version is slightly different than others I've tried. It lacked cream, used red onions, and required infusing the base with whole spices instead of ground. I made the paneer from scratch, which is how this whole overly involved dinner started. When milk is about to go bad in my fridge I simply make Indian cheese with it and I can either freeze it or turn it into a paneer dish right away. The recipe made enough to feed 8 people, I would say, and was wonderfully fragrant.

Bhagan bharta looks like a bunch of mush, and it is. Three red onions are cooked down to a nice sweet mush with cumin. Then tomatoes are added, some more spices, and two perfectly mashed roasted eggplants. This is typically a super hot dish but after four serranos, mine was mild at best.


I've tried making naan before but I didn't have a rolling pin at the time and it was a disaster. This recipe was a piece of cake since it required no yeast and just a little bit of elbow grease. The secret is to roll them out very thin so when they hit the skillet they puff up nicely and cook evenly. You can mix spices in the dough like garam marsala, coriander, or garlic is great too.

Indian food, I shall conquer you one of these days. I'm hoping for a trip to Hyderabad, India in the near future so I'll have to be patient until then. In the meantime, I need to figure out how to make Indian food in under 4 hours. It is killer.