Quick Indian Cooking

A weekend away in Cambridge? In a house with a garden? And a BBQ? What an opportunity!

I threw myself into our Knight Rider piled up high with two brothers in law, the little sister and hubby at the steering wheel with all the essentials for a weekend in the countryside:

• Antihistamine: for any severe allergic reactions to fresh, country air
• Flat shoes: for walking (good heavens…)
• Oversize handbag and sunglasses: You never know who you’ll meet!
• Bag of spices: for an Indian BBQ

As per usual, the whole thing was disorganised. We took longer than planned punting in Cambridge, making friends on the River Cam with every boat stocked with alcohol.

Back in the house, the BBQ miraculously got ready before I could do any real marinating. And my third brother-in-law’s garden occupants turned from the quiet couple next door to an ASBO-worthy extended family, complete with Harry the Hungry Dog.

The obvious choice for the first BBQ dish on this blog was the much maligned chicken tikka – a kebab spiced with masalas, tenderised and grilled on a tandoor. More recently, this lovely, juicy wonder has been the centrepiece of a tasty but totally wrong English Indian curry – the chicken tikka masala.

In a rush, I forgot to use oil and the result was fantastic nonetheless. In India, we ate these with hot naans and some raita and cucumber salad on the side. And fresh air only makes it taste even better!

This recipe serves 10 if served with other BBQ dishes, 5 on its own:

1.5 kg chicken breast, cubed into bite-sized chunks

500 gm low fat natural yogurt

12 cloves garlic

3 inches ginger

4 green finger chillies

5 tsp coriander powder

5 tsp cumin powder

Half tsp ground black pepper

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon meat tenderiser

Juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed

Finely puree or chop the ginger, garlic and green chillies.

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients with the chicken. You want a strong marinade that forms an even coating on the submerged chicken pieces.

Leave them sitting in their marinade for up to two hours. I gave mine an hour.

Just as the BBQ is ready, skewer five pieces of chicken onto bamboo sticks keeping about half a centimetre space between each piece. Cook the skewers until the middle of the chicken is pale white, but still juicy.

Serve drizzled with fresh lemon and coriander leaves.

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As beach season draws frighteningly close, hubby and I are watching what we eat like hawks. My student sister is providing some inspiration with her GM diet, aimed to knock off the pounds before big nights out.

Indian food has a bad name for greasy fatty feasts, but summer in an Indian kitchen features many cooling, lightly-cooked meals. The BBQ becomes our very own tandoor as the weather turns, with sizzling tandoori chicken, nilgiri kebabs and shashliks. Curries are cooked with a light gravy and yogurt features in many guises.

One hugely popular yogurt dish is kadhi, a Gujarati specialty, that can best be described as a soup with tempered spices. It is very easy to stomach and is best served with khichdi.

In anticipation of the hot months lying ahead, I requested Coffee for the recipe for kadhi. Both Trupti and hers, combined with some experimenting, gave me the perfect result I enjoyed in India as a child. I ate it with Coffee’s nutty khichdi, which was absolutely delicious too.

These recipes serve 2-3:

Gujarati kadhi

2 cups plain yoghurt

4 tbsp gram flour (besan)

1 heaped tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

4 branches of curry leaves

1.5 tsp turmeric

1.5 tsp sugar

2 whole red chillies

1 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger

Quarter tsp asafoetida

Half cup water

2 tbsp ghee or oil

Salt to taste

In a large bowl, mix together the yoghurt, water, gram flour, salt and sugar. Whisk it briskly until bubbles appear. This will prevent it from splitting later.

In a small pan, heat the ghee and when hot add the asafoetida. When it dissolves, add the mustard seeds and the jeera. As they start sizzling, add the curry leaves, turmeric, ginger and chillies. The curry leaves change colour to a darker green and when they do, take the tempering off the heat and mix it well into the yogurt.

You can leave this mixture until you are ready to eat. Then heat the yogurt through gently on a low simmer until the raw taste of the gram flour disappears. Be sure to keep stirring so that the curd does not split.

The consistency should be light and runny and the kadhi should be sweet, sour and delicious!

Nutty khichdi

Half cup rice

Half cup toor lentils

4 cloves of garlic

Half inch ginger

2 green chillies

3 tbsp peanuts

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 cloves

1 inch cinnamon

Half tsp turmeric

Half tsp garam masala

2 cups hot water

1 tbsp oil

Salt to taste

Pound the chopped garlic, ginger, chillies and peanuts coarsely. I blitzed them in a blender but you could use a pestle and mortar or simply a plastic bag and rolling pin.

Heat the oil and fry the whole spices (cumin, cloves and cinnamon) until sizzling and then the peanut mixture for five minutes. Add the rice and the lentils, turmeric and garam masala and coat it well in the masalas.

Add the hot water, bring to boil and then simmer, covered, until the rice and lentils are cooked. Alternatively, you could pressure cook the whole thing (10 minutes after the first whistle).

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