Weekend cooking update

Read more here about the Madhur Jaffrey project - one of my 2010 goals. For an index of recipes, click here.

There are 484 recipes in this cookbook. I'm freaking out a bit here.

But, I did cook this weekend. Saturday night, I cooked a bunch of food for the upcoming week (it looks like another busy one, and I'll appreciate having food at home.)

Cooking for the week - November 21, 2009.

Shredded cabbage with mustard seeds and fresh coconut


Mung or masoor dal (this is masoor dal, aka red lentils)


Salabat (Ginger tea)


Cooking notes:
Dear Madhur.

Every Indian person I know uses a pressure cooker to cook lentils. You know why? 15 minutes vs. 1.5 hours. Sheesh. (I did it your way though.)
However, the cabbage was both simple and tasty. A bit of redemption.
And while other people might drink the ginger tea plain (it is just steeped ginger and honey, there is no tea in it), I intend to mix it with some club soda to do a ginger-beer-like beverage. Which would be quite tasty.

Cheers,
Reethi

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Sunday afternoon, I had my family over for lunch, and cooked a mini-Iranian feast. The menu - Kateh (Rice with a crust), Eggplant with tomatoes and Yogurt with dill.

Lunch - Sunday, November 22 - (in order) Yogurt with Dill; Eggplant with tomatoes; Kateh




Cooking notes:

- Madhur calls the Kateh recipe deceptively simple, and I agree. The rice is supposed to have a golden crust, and slide out in one piece, which you then cut like a cake. Umm. I burnt my crust, it did not slide out, and certainly didn't cut like a cake. It was, however, tasty. (If you avoided the excessively burnt bits.)
- The yogurt with dill took 5 minutes to make, and it was amazing. I don't think I've ever eaten dill raw (just in pickle usually), and it is delicious.
- The eggplant was also yummy, but it would be, considering the copious amounts of oil that went into it. First, the eggplant gets shallow-fried in oil, then cooked with scallions, tomatoes and parsley. Madhur doesn't do calorie counts, and I understand why. (She also insists that tomatoes be peeled. I have so far ignored each one of these directives. A little peel never killed anyone.)

My parents and brother ate every little bit, and pronounced it delicious. Awesome! (Just a bit of rice as leftovers - even better. When you cook 484 recipes, you don't have room for leftovers.)

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Sunday evening, I had a potluck to go to. I took the easy way out, I made this delicious, but very easy lentil salad. Takes about 30 minutes to make, much of the time is just letting the lentils cook.

Dinner - Sunday, November 22 - Lentil Salad (for a potluck)