Notes about Recipes in this book

• Lamb in creamy tomato sauce (Malai gosht)

  • chriscooks on October 30, 2013

    This is yummy.

• Thyme-laced zucchini and black-eyed pea salad (Matar masala)

  • chriscooks on December 29, 2013

    This tastes OK but the appearance depends on how well-cooked the black-eyed peas are when you start. If they are not firm, the dish will have a sauce of purplish mushed peas. That's ok for a casserole but not for a salad.

• Vishal's cauliflower sambar stew (Gobhi sambaar)

  • eve_kloepper on January 16, 2014

    Didn't make this in microwave but adapted for cooking on top of stove. This was ok but not great. Despite all the spices rather bland.

• New Delhi spicy potatoes (Sookha aloo)

  • eve_kloepper on January 16, 2014

    Didn't make this in microwave but adapted for cooking on top of stove. Delicious!

• Moghul-scented basmati pilaf (Pullao chawal)

  • Thredbende on May 25, 2013

    This would probably be my desert island favorite rice dish. It is made with pantry items and water but has extraordinary complexity and depth of flavor. I make it for special dinner parties served with grilled meats because it requires no sauce. It freezes and reheats beautifully in snowballs in baggies. Tie the whole spices in a piece of washed white cotton muslin about 6 inches square in the first frying in oil step to keep whole spices out of the final dish. The flavors mingle fine through a spice bag.

• Parsi chicken braised in spiced pumpkin-lentil puree (Dhanshak)

  • springandfall on October 28, 2016

    I undertook this with suspicion: could anything this easy taste as good as promised? It does. Having no eggplant around, and having a butternut squash that yielded 3 cups of chunks, I doubled the squash instead of shopping for an eggplant. Also, not having a 5-quart microwaveable dish that fits in the microwave, I divided this between two Corning Ware casseroles. Adjusted recipe for higher wattage of today's microwave ovens: did about 3/5 of this recipe in 20 minutes, the other 2/5 in 15 minutes. Spectacular. Kitchen smells as if you were cooking on the stove. I might buy a larger casserole dish so that I can cook this in a single round.

• Goanese spicy braised pork chops (Baffat)

  • jdub1371 on August 13, 2017

    I had a couple of pork chops to use up, so, lacking a microwave, I modified this recipe for stovetop. Browned the chops and set aside. Then, because I wasn't sure I'd like thick slices of onion in the finished dish, I sauteed a minced red onion and a minced shallot in the chop leavings, then added the garlic and spices. Then added back in the chops along with the shredded green chilies and coconut milk, set it to a very low simmer, and let it cook for quite a while, probably more than an hour, until the chops were tender and the meat was just about falling off the bone. It's a pretty mild curry, pleasant if not earthshaking. Nice enough on a chilly evening with some brown rice cooked with coconut milk and some Indian-style cabbage. The meat, though tender, was a little dry, probably because the chops were so very lean to begin with (modern pork; sigh). ETA: omitted the cornstarch - the gravy had a nice consistency and didn't need it.

• Instant coconut chutney (Tenga chatni)

  • jdub1371 on June 19, 2022

    Easy and delicious! I adore the combination of coconut and green chiles. I'm pretty sure I would prefer this made with frozen grated coconut from the Indian grocery, or maybe mostly frozen coconut (depending on how sweet and flavorful it is) and a small amount of the sweetened flakes. But it's great with sweetened coconut if that's all you have.