We had the most wonderful visit from our son Jarrod. He is visiting from Montreal, Quebec - across Canada. And when he gets in the kitchen....Oh Mama, am I happy! He is an outstanding cook. I kept wanting to help...but then I didn't. I just wanted to kick back and allow his amazing creativity happen. And happen it did. Here are a few pictures:
It began with this:
Then this happened:
And after this picture came this:
Then came a most wonderful beginning:
Lord have mercy....then came the best part:
Let me have the pleasure of introducing you to Jarrod - Head Chef in our kitchen tonight - and what a feast it was, thank you Jarrod:
Hey there everyone, my name is Jarrod, and three years ago I found myself in the province of Kerala in Southern India. My wife and I were serving at a meditation course there, and when it was done we decided to go explore the territory. We ended up getting invited for lunch with an Indian family living near the meditation Centre. After lunch and tea had been served I decided to use the opportunity to get some real authentic Indian recipes. One of these recipes was a recipe for masala dosas, which is what you see served with in the above picture (left hand side). It is usually served with chutney but this time I chose to serve it with Cabbage Raita, which is the sauce shown in the blue bowl surrounded by fresh cut mango. I also prepared rice and Daal Mahkani on the side, but in retrospect I think I went a little overboard, cause it ended up being a lot of food. We were all stuffed!!! Just the Dosas would have been enough.
I won't bother going into the step by step process for each recipe because a close facsimile of each recipe can be found at www.indianfoodforever.com, but to tickle your taste buds here's a brief description of each part of the meal.
First of all what is a Dosa?
Well a Dosa is something like an Indian crepe made from a mixture of rice and urad daal, soaked, ground and fermented and then fried like a crepe and served with chutney and sambar. A Masala Dosa is stuffed with a vegetable curry.
The curry I used to stuff the Dosas was an Aloo-Gobi curry which in English is simply a potato(Aloo) cauliflower(Gobi) curry.
And what is Raita?
Raita is an Indian sauce made from yogurt (known in India as "curd") and diced vegetables. It can be made sweet or savory depending on what it is accompanying. The recipe I used was the Cabbage-Raita recipe found on the Indian-food-forever website.
But what is Daal?
I'm sure you already know, but if you don't, it is a thick soup-like Indian dish made from different types of cooked beans, and spiced with a mixture of spices (a masala).
The Daal I prepared for this meal was Daal Mahkani, a Daal normally made from Urad Daal and Red kidney beans, Yogurt and cream, and is seasoned with Garam Masala and Coriander. Here I substituted the kidney beans with Pinto beans and left out the cream (Ina is lactose intolerant). This dish is then garnished with a dollop of butter and a sprig of cilantro.
For dessert I simply cut up an organic mango, after such a hearty meal you won't want much more.
Anyway thanks for reading, and check out:
www.indianfoodforever.com for all the ins and outs of the recipes.
-Jarrod Gawne
I love Indian food. I have to make it myself as we have no access to Indian restaurants where we live. I've got a couple good cookbooks but I need to check out your site.
Hi Tracee - we got so spoiled last night! We hope to do a few more Indian Recipe posts down the road, as well I would like to learn some more recipes too. Ina
Looks like my kitchen! What a great evening.
Hi Cari - what a great evening it was! So yum! Ina