Quick Indian Cooking

Sniff sniff. Sob sob. I have been ill.

Divine retribution. Poetic justice. Having made fun of my man I was now at the mercy of his creative cooking, i.e. pesto pasta and spaghetti bolognese.

By last night, I was feeling better. And a little desperate. My throat was dry, my eyes like slits and my hands quivering. I… needed… a… masala… fix… BADLY.

I settled on a pressure cooked Parsi lamb curry with apricots. Jordaloo Boti. Mother left me the recipe for this rich, sweet and sour curry in Summer and I kept it safe until the weather turned cooler.

But hubby was not quite ready to relinquish control of the kitchen, yet. He watched my every move, insisting the lamb wasn’t ready until it had dissolved into the curry, shaking the pressure cooker while its lid was on, throwing in extra apricots and whacking the flame up pointlessly when I wasn’t looking.

Did anyone say relapse?

Thankfully, the pressure cooker meant the lamb curry took 45 minutes to make. Hubby wolfed down his whole plate in seconds insisting it was “perfect for his palate” and “the lamb could have fallen off the bone more”.

I better recover soon. There ain’t no room for another cook in my kitchen…

This recipe feeds 3-4:

4 lamb shanks, 750 gm

2 medium tomatoes, chopped roughly

2 onions, chopped roughly

20 dried apricots

4 fat garlic cloves

1.5 inches ginger

8 whole black peppers

2 inches cinnamon

8 green cardamoms

Half tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp sugar

Half tsp chilli powder

3 drops of worcestershire sauce

1 large potato, peeled and cut into thin strips

4 tbsp sunflower oil

Salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius or gas mark 6. Place the three whole spices on a baking tray and dry roast untilt the green cardamoms turn pale brown.

In a small food processor or blender, grind the whole spices together with the ginger, garlic and a tablespoon of water.

Leave the oven on. Bring a large pan/pressure cooker (at least 5l) with three tablespoons of oil to heat over a high flame.

When the oil is hot, add the onions and fry for about five minutes until they turn pale caramel. Then add the spice paste and stir for another five minutes until the onions soften.

If the paste starts getting stuck to the bottom of the pan, add a little hot water and scrape it off.

Now add the spice powders, the lamb shanks and the tomatoes, and stir like mad for 10 minutes. Add salt according to taste, submerge in hot water and either leave to cook on a medium flame covered for an hour or pressure cooker for 25 minutes after the first whistle.

In the meantime, coat the sliced potatos with one tablespoon of oil, some salt and bake in the over for about 25 minutes, flipping over mid way. Remove from the oven as soon as they are done, to prevent them from going soggy. You could just use readymade oven chips, but this was so simple and satisfying.

When the lamb is cooked, sprinkle the sugar, the worcestershire sauce and the apricots into the curry. It should be rich and thick, so do add a bit of water if it is too dry.

To serve, spoon a lamb shank onto a plate. Serve some potato chips and brown basmati rice on the side. Then sit back and recover.

There are some things that never change. Mother is one of them.

She arrived in London last week. Complete with three boxes of kasoori methi, 10 bags of savoury snacks and a lifetime supply of incense.

Despite a grand tour of my favourite Indian shop, she still brings me supplies like the global spice trade is about to implode.

And then I have to make that hateful trip to the Halal butcher. Mother crinkles her little nose and heads to the car, leaving me to haggle and watch Mia Sahib chop up the raan (leg of lamb), pack it, hand it to me, take my money and return the change. All using the same hands!!

The best thing about having her here, of course, is that she insists on cooking my all time favourites. And just her presence is enough to bring back memories of the delightful meals we ate at home in Kolkata.

We made mutton ishtew for dinner together. An everyday staple, this is a sublime goat meat and vegetable stew traditionally made to soothe the stomach on difficult days. We cooked it with Mia Sahib’s lamb and a host of veggies.

Steaming hot Basmati rice – essential. Doting mother who lovingly serves it up – optional extra.

This recipe serves 4:

750 gm diced leg of lamb (bones included)

2 medium onions, chopped roughly

1 tbsp ginger, chopped finely

3 large carrots, peeled and halved

2 small turnips, peeled and halved

1 large beetroot, peeled and quartered

2 black cardamoms

2 bay leaves

2 1″ by 1 cm cinnamon sticks

4 cloves

Half tsp black pepper powder

2 tbsp flour

1 large quartered tomato

1 tbsp butter (optional)

2 tbsp oil

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a large pot on a high flame. When hot add the whole spices – bay leaves, cardamoms, cinnamon and cloves. Fry these for a couple of seconds.

When they starts sizzling and releasing their glorious aromas into the kitchen, add the onions and the ginger and fry for five minutes until translucent. Add the flour and mix it well into the onions frying until the whole mixture goes brown.

Now add the lamb and the tomato and mix them into the masalas for two minutes. Now, chuck in all the vegetables, cover with hot water and cook covered on a medium flame until the lamb is tender.

This should take about 45 minutes. The vegetables will start melting into the light curry.

When the meat and vegetables are cooked, sprinkle the pepper, stir in the butter and add salt to finish.

Thwarted by the early summer we are having in London, I stayed out too long and missed the only thing worth watching this week on TV.

It was an investigation into India’s rise as a superpower and economic miracle on the one hand, while being mired in poverty on the other.

It was aired on the same day The Sunday Times reported Calcutta-born Lakshmi Mittal as the fastest growing fortune in Britain with an average annual growth rate of £621million. And the day other media reported that ethnic minorities are twice as likely to live in poverty than white Britons, with some 30% of Indians in Britain living below the poverty line.

Ironic, that.

Britain’s interest in India doesn’t end in questionable economic miracles and Z-list Bollywood stars, we have the many curry houses to think about too. It’s been a while since I had a rant about the sludge passed off as Indian food in this country.

Lamb dhansak is a case in point. It’s a rich, healthy and delicious curry contributed to our cuisine by Parsis, which British curry houses have bastardised beyond belief with the addition of pineapple, spinach and other dubious ingredients.

Normally, a dhansak would be beyond the realm of my quick Indian comfort zone because of the long list of ingredients involved. But the recent purchase of a pressure cooker and a well-stocked cupboard made me tread where I dare not before.

Besides, it clearly has some kudos as a hearty weekday meal with vegetarian potential, so why not?

There are lot of recipes for dhansak, but there are few main things to remember:

• It is meant to be hot, sweet and sour. Use as much chilli (fresh green and dry red) as possible
• All recipes use pumpkin. This is not in season right now so I substituted it with sweet potato. Butternut squash would also work well
• Make sure you use large chucks of lamb so they don’t melt into the lentils
• Use whatever combination of red and yellow lentils you like. It won’t make a difference to the end result

My suggestion would be to cook this as a one-pot stew and eat it with steamed rice. Oh and don’t get put off by the long list of ingredients – think how much fun it’ll be telling your local balti where to dump their dhansak.

This recipe serves 4 hungry people:

500 gm boneless lamb, diced into large chunks
2 small tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 medium onions, roughly chopped

1 tsp tamarind paste
2 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

Lentil mixture

One-third cup toor dal
One-third cup masoor dal
One-third cup urad dal
1 small aubergine, chopped
1 small sweet potato, chopped
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
10 mint leaves
Handful of coriander
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp oil

Paste

6 cloves garlic
1″ ginger
2 red chillies
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1″ cinnamon
4 green cardamoms
4 whole black peppercorns
1 tbsp kasoori methi or 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
5 sprigs of coriander
Half a star anise
Half tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Put all the ingredients for the lentil mixture in the pressure cooker, bring to the first whistle and then simmer for 20 minutes until the whole mixture is overcooked. Uncover and mash wth a wooden spoon to get a semi-smooth mixture.

While the lentils are cooking, grind all the paste ingredients in a blender. Heat the oil and when hot, fry the two chopped onions until pale brown. Add the spice paste and the tomatoes and fry for five minutes, stirring regularly.

Then add the lamb and fry until they are brown all over and well coated in the masalas. When the lentils are done, put the lamb mixture into it and pressure cook again for about 15 minutes.

Open the pressure cooker, mix in the tamarind paste, add salt and enjoy.

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, just cook it on the hob. It will take more time, but you could be running chores while the dal and lamb cook.

It’s late. I’ve just got back from a bitch of a day at work involving a new client crisis, the biggest new business pitch EVER and two long meetings.

Changed into a retro nightgown (read: old, torn), I am now sipping vodka cranberry in our study. Our dinner is in the oven. Ready to bake breaded cod fillets. More bread, less cod. Thank you global, beastly supermarket. Every little does help!

It’s in moments like this that I am almost tempted to reach for the telephone and call Spice-Tandoori-Balti-Taj-Mahal whatever down the road to eat anything, just anything, that has chilli and turmeric powder in it. My colleague suggested curry porridge, his very own special recipe. It sounded quick, easy and… utterly revolting. Cod it is!

It’s going to be painful writing my last cooking from cookbooks recipe as I take the first hesitant bite into my dinner, but here goes. The last recipe I cooked this week from a cookbook was from The Calcutta Kitchen.

This cookbook is close to my heart for obvious reasons. I am a Bengali from Calcutta (now Kolkata) and I know both the chef and the co-author of the cookbook through common acquaintances. It still didn’t stop me moaning throughout the recipe breakdown.

I chose Kosha Mangsho, a dry lamb dish that is typical to Bengalis. First, I moaned because the recipe uses garlic and Bengali’s aren’t real garlic users. Then I had issues with the recipe using tomatoes when it should have worked with yoghurt. Finally, I couldn’t believe the author wanted it stuck in the oven for 20 minutes. Why, when the cooker would suffice?

I forced myself to follow the recipe and the results were amazing. My friend/house guest was licking her fingers clean! This recipe serves 2 people:

400 gm boneless lamb, cut into cubes
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 medium potatoes, peeled and halved
1 cup hot water
2 tsp garam masala

To marinade:

Mix the meat with all the marinade ingredients. If you can, leave it for two hours. I gave it 10 minutes.

In a pan, heat the vegetable oil and when hot add the meat and the marinade. Stire fry for 15 minutes. Add the hot water, cover and cook on a medium flame for half an hour.

Then add the potatoes, raise the flame and cook for another half an hour until the meat and potatoes are cooked and there is no gravy left. Stir in the garam masala just as the gravy is drying up.

This dish is great with Indian breads like parathas and puris.