Indian Feast!

  

I was given to throwing an Indian feast last night. Every conceivable stop was pulled. As one can see by the plate awash in a background of blackness, the results were favorable. The menu was as follows: 

• Brown Basmati Rice (cooked with onions, garlic, carrots, turmeric, cumin seed and cardamom)
• Saag Paneer (Spinach and fenugreek leaves, cubed paneer, with spices)
• Dahl (Not the Roald variety, but actually red lentils, tomato, onion, garlic, curryleaves, various toasted spices and possibly a splash of wine)
• Cauliflower Curry Stuff (Cauliflower and carrot in a tomato and cream curry sauce, with hot peppers from my window sill)
• Samosas (homemade semolina and wheat wrappers enveloping a mashed potato-pea spice explosion, also including hot peppers from my sill)
• Tamarind Chutney (spicy and sweet, for the samosas)
• Papadums (bought in a non-descript package at the Indian grocery store, toasted under the broiler until wavy and crunchy)
  

  Our faithful captain, Lucas, made the cauliflower dish, the tamarind chutney, the amazing samosas, and the Saag Paneer, with help from some purple lipped prep cooks and paneer fryers of course. I made the dahl and the rice. Every dish was astounding. We outdid ourselves, I said to Lucas. He smiled and drank wine. So did I.

 Today, I am eating leftovers. 

 Today, I am drinking pots of tea at the coffeeshop and reading and writing.

 Today, I don't yet know what I am doing.

 I can't exactly do a step-by-step on these dishes since 1) I didn't make all of it and 2) Indian cooking is more of an intuitive task than one enumerated. We had vegetables, butter, oil, rice, lentils, many varied spices and love, and also wine, for the cooks. The best way to learn is to try it. Once I see it done before me, I am validated to do it myself, fail or win.


This site is where we found out how to do samosas:
http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/ 

Check out this site for sure. There are so many good recipes.