1,000 Indian Recipes (136 page)

¹
⁄
₂
cup plain
Yogurt Cheese

1 teaspoon
dry-roasted
and coarsely ground cumin seeds

1 tablespoon
dry-roasted
sesame seeds

1 teaspoon
Basic Curry Powder
(or store-bought)

4 large eggs

¹
⁄
₄
cup finely chopped fresh cilantro, including soft stems

1 tablespoon peeled minced fresh ginger

1 to 2 fresh green chile peppers, such as serrano, minced with seeds

¹
⁄
₄
teaspoon salt, or to taste

1.
Prepare the yogurt cheese. Then prepare the cumin, the sesame seeds, and the curry powder. In a medium saucepan, place the eggs in water to cover by 2 inches and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, cover the pan and simmer until hard-boiled, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool or plunge into cold water, shell them, then chop finely.

2.
Place the eggs in a large serving bowl, mix in all the remaining ingredients and serve.

Tandoori Chicken Salad

Tandoori Murgh ki Chaat

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Although smoky, tender
tandoori
chicken generally disappears fast, if there's any left over, it can be used to make other dishes. Here I transform it into a spicy and delicate
chaat
salad that gets its flavor boost from a sizzling ginger-mint
tarka
(sizzling flavor topping).

If you want to make this salad in a hurry, buy the
tandoori
chicken from an Indian restaurant already cooked, or make it with any type of grilled chicken.

1 (2- to 2
¹
⁄
₂
-pound) (1 recipe)
Grilled Tandoori Chicken

1 teaspoon cumin seeds,
dry-roasted
and coarsely ground

1 teaspoon
Chaat Masala
(or store-bought), or to taste

1 large tomato, cut into
¹
⁄
₂
-inch pieces

2 to 3 small seedless cucumbers, such as Armenian or Japanese, cut into
¹
⁄
₂
-inch pieces

6 to 8 scallions, white parts only, thinly sliced

¹
⁄
₄
cup finely chopped fresh cilantro, including soft stems

1
¹
⁄
₂
tablespoons vegetable oil

1 (1-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger, cut into thin matchsticks

1 to 2 fresh green chile peppers, such as serrano, minced with seeds

2 tablespoons minced fresh mint leaves

2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice

1.
Prepare the tandoori chicken, then pull the meat off the bone and shred it. Prepare the cumin seeds and the chaat masala. In a serving bowl, mix the shredded chicken, tomato, cucumbers, scallions, and cilantro.

2.
Heat the oil in a small nonstick saucepan over medium-high heat and cook the ginger, stirring, until golden, about 3 minutes. Mix in the green chile peppers and mint and stir about 1 minute. Then add the lemon juice and chaat masala and stir a few seconds. Add to the chicken and mix well. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Sprinkle with the roasted cumin and serve.

Minced Chicken Chaat Salad with Spicy Lentil Wafers

Murgh Keema aur Paapad ki Chaat

Makes 4 to 6 servings

As you cook the chicken, do not break up all the chunks. They add lovely texture to the salad.
Paapad
wafers are sun-dried, paper-thin rounds of lentil flour dough. They are available at Indian markets, and come both plain and lightly spiced.

1 large russet potato, unpeeled

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, minced

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon peeled minced fresh ginger

1 large clove fresh garlic, minced

1 fresh green chile pepper, such as serrano, minced with seeds

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

¹
⁄
₂
cup nonfat plain yogurt, whisked until smooth

1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

¹
⁄
₂
cup finely chopped fresh cilantro, including soft stems

4 to 6
Spicy Lentil Wafers
, microwaved for 1 minute each

1.
In a small pan, cover the potato with water, bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Let cool, then peel, finely chop, and set aside. In a nonstick saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat and cook the chicken, onion, ginger, garlic, green chile pepper, garam masala, fenugreek leaves, and salt, stirring to break most of the lumps, until the chicken is golden, about 5 minutes.

2.
Add all the yogurt at once, and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated and the yogurt is absorbed, about 5 minutes.

3.
Mix in the lime juice, red bell pepper, potato, and cilantro, and cook another 3 minutes. Let cool. Meanwhile, prepare the paapads.

4.
Transfer the chicken and vegetables to a serving platter. Break the paapads into small pieces and place them around the chicken. Serve.

Variation:
Mix some shredded lettuce into the chicken mixture, then break the paapads into bits, scatter them all over, and serve.

Gingered Shrimp Salad

Adrak-Jhinga ka Salaad

Makes 4 to 6 servings

The sheer visual appeal of this salad is surpassed only by its tantalizing flavors.

1 teaspoon
Chaat Masala
(or store-bought)

1 pound extra-large shrimp (about 20), shelled and deveined, with tails left on

1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into thin matchsticks

1 large clove fresh garlic, minced

2 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice

1 teaspoon coarsely ground ajwain seeds

¹
⁄
₂
teaspoon salt, or to taste

¹
⁄
₄
teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

¹
⁄
₂
teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons minced fresh mint leaves

2 cups mixed baby greens

1 each of red and yellow bell peppers, cut into thin 1
¹
⁄
₂
-inch matchsticks

1 small seedless cucumber, such as Armenian or Japanese, cut into thin 1
¹
⁄
₂
-inch matchsticks

3 to 4 scallions, white parts only, thinly sliced

1.
Prepare the chaat masala. Place the shrimp in a large non-reactive bowl. Add the ginger, garlic, lime juice, ajwain seeds, salt, cayenne and black peppers and mix well, making sure all the shrimp are well-coated with the marinade. Refrigerate about 2 hours.

2.
Heat the oil in a large nonstick wok or saucepan over medium-high heat and cook the mint leaves, stirring, about 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and the marinade and cook until the shrimp are pink, about 3 minutes.

3.
In a large bowl, mix the greens, bell peppers, and cucumber, and toss with the chaat masala. Transfer to a serving platter. Scatter the cooked shrimp over the greens, top with the scallions, and serve.

Yogurt Raitas and Pachadis

Indians have been eating and drinking yogurt for centuries. On the surface yogurt plays a vital, easily recognized roll as a fire-quencher—soothing the palate when the spicy hot foods of Indian or any cuisine are just a bit too much. But yogurt is also one of those multi-faceted foods, also believed to improve health and longevity. Rich in protein, calcium, phosphorus, and the B vitamins, yogurt is an almost-perfect food and unlike milk, it is easy to digest, even with people who have lactose intolerance.

When yogurt is eaten with a meal, it is believed to promote the overall digestion and assimilation of most nutrients present in the meal. It helps maintain a proper balance of the good and bad bacteria in the system, especially after the use of antibiotics. (Antibiotics destroy the good bacteria along with the bad ones, and yogurt replenishes the good bacteria in the body.)

With all the therapeutic benefits—some proved and others still-popular beliefs— it is no surprise that Indians have made yogurt a crucial part of their daily diets. Whether it is served plain and unadorned, or transformed into a
raita
or a
pachadi
, yogurt is considered a necessity, and not merely an accompaniment to a meal.

Yogurt becomes a
raita
when it is enriched with something as simple as salt and pepper or with anything you can think of, including cooked meats. A similar flavored yogurt in the southern part of India is called a
pachadi
. The main difference between a
raita
and a
pachadi
is that while the yogurt in the
raitas
is generally whisked until smooth, in the
pachadis
it is mostly (not always) incorporated in its thick and lumpy form. If the
pachadi
yogurt is smooth, usually some of the other ingredients give it some texture, such as pressed rice flakes or soft-cooked vegetables.