egg biryani

To go with the indian spiced marinated roasted chicken I wanted to make a biryani which is an Indian rice dish.  Rice has never been a favourite of mine, but cooking it this way gives it some flavour and can actually be a main dish not just a side dish. I used several different recipes as an inspiration for this.

This made enough to feed 12 as a side dish or 6 as a one dish meal.


1 onion sliced and browned in oil until crisp
1 tablespoon of oil or ghee
1 bay leaf
5 green cardamom pods
2 black cardamom
1 broken stick of cinnamon
1 large onion chopped
2 garlic cloves grated
1" fresh ginger grated
4 medium tomatoes or equivalent cherry tomatoes chopped
1 jalapeno chili chopped
small handful of fresh mint chopped
small handful of fresh cilantro chopped
6 eggs hard boiled
1/4 cup of roasted cashew nuts
2 cups of almost cooked rice

Fry the whole spices in the oil along with the chopped onion and garlic.  When the onion is soft and just turning golden, add the tomatoes and cook down a little, then add the grated ginger and jalapeno peppers.

Stir in and cook a little longer, then add the min and cilantro

Add the hard boiled eggs sliced in half and cashew nuts stir in.

Indian spiced marinated roasted chicken

I was having some long time friends over for dinner on Saturday.  It was a good job that they were good friends as we were redoing our main floor bathroom. On Saturday morning, not only was the bathroom gutted and empty the entire main floor was covered in a thick layer of drywall dust and littered with plumbing supplies and tools.  Amazingly with a lot of help from friends and family by 6:00 the worst of the dust was gone as were all the plumbing supplies and we had a working bathroom!

This is a recipe that I have done many times, it is easy can be done ahead and is incredibly tasty.
I was cooking for 12, but I will give the ingredients for 6, but having a little left over chicken is never a bad thing. I used chicken thighs as they are my favourite part of the chicken, but you could use 6 breasts or even a whole chicken cut up.

1 cup of yogurt
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of turmeric
one clove of garlic grated or through a garlic press
1" of fresh ginger grated
1/2 teaspoon of salt
12 chicken thighs

Vij's grilled tamarind marinated chicken

My Father came in to meet me for lunch the other day and we went to one of our favourite Vancouver restaurants Rangoli's.  This is the casual cousin to Vij's restaurant on West 14th.  The food is every bit as good and if you arrive just before 12:00 noon you can usually get a table with no problem.  We both ended up ordering the same dish, tamarind marinated grilled chicken, which we also both really enjoyed.  So when I looked on Vij's website and found that they had a recipe for this dish I had to try it.

So Sunday night dinner I cooked an Indian meal with this as the star.  One of the main ingredients for this dish is tamarind paste.  You could of course buy tamarind pods, peel them soak them and push the pulp through a sieve, or you could buy a pot of tamarind paste. I think you can guess what I did, you can pick this up at any Asian market and it keeps for a long time in the fridge.

Feeds 4

• 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 3/4 cup of plain low fat yogurt
• 1 tablespoon of tamarind concentrate
• 1 large garlic clove grated or finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of cayenne 
• 1 tablespoon of ground cumin

Aroma Restaurant Port Moody

Aroma restaurant is my new favourite restaurant in Port Moody, and second only to Vj's as my favourite Indian restaurant.  It has taken over the space at 50 Spring Street in Old Port Moody that up to this point has been the home to one unsuccsesful restaurant after another.  Aroma has found the secret, serve really good food, friendly personal service and reasonable prices.  My Father and I went there a couple of weeks ago for dinner and I realised that though I have been there many times I have not posted about it, so I thought it was about time.

To start with we ordered shrimp pakora $11.95

These were lovely fresh plump shrimp marinated battered and deep fried they were very tasty, crisp and not greasy at all.

Vij's Cilantro mint chicken curry

Connie and I felt like cooking Indian food, and as I had recently been to  vijs restaurant I wanted to cook something out of his cook book.  So we chose this chicken curry dish as it sounded good and we had all the ingredients. Though of course I changed it a little cutting down on the oil a little and I did omit the asafoetida as that is one ingredient I did not have.

Feeds 6

2 tablespoons of oil
1 1/2 tablespoons of cumin seeds
1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 cup of plain yogurt
12 skinless chicken thighs bone in

Heat the oil in a deep sided frying pan, add the cumin and coriander seeds and sizzle them for about 30 seconds, add the garlic and some salt, turn off the heat and let it cool slightly then add the yogurt. Now add the chicken and stir in well turn the heat to medium, then cover and cook for about 25 minutes.

The yogurt had turned clear and created a very flavourful broth with the chicken juices.  At this point Vij instructs us to take the chicken off the bone, but we decided the diners could do that for themselves and so we skipped that step.  But if you are more accommodating hosts then go right ahead.

Vij's Restaurant

I don't think that there is any doubt that Vij's is the best Indian restaurant in Vancouver, possibly North America.  When he first opened up 18 years a go, I would eat there a couple of times a week for lunch. The food was amazing and cheap and Vij was always there greeting and serving and generally making everyone welcome. I went to Vij's restaurant this week for the first time in a while and it was as good as ever, and Vij was as welcoming as ever. I am afraid I did not take many or very good pictures, due to not wanting to embarrass my son too much.

We arrived at 5:15 and there was already a long line up to get in, Vij opened the door at 5:30 precisely and we all filed in.  We got a table for three, but we were near to the last table seated, the remainder had to wait until we had finished!  You can not make reservations and this was on a Wednesday night, it only gets worse on the weekend, but if you are willing to eat early it is worth the 15 or 20 minute wait in line.

My Father and Son both ordered spiced duck breast with fennel seed curry.

This cost $28.00 but the duck breast was very large and meaty, in the picture above several pieces had already been taken off the plate.  The duck was char grilled and still rare inside with the most delicious curry sauce and potatoes underneath.  I was jealous as this was very delicious, but they shared with me.  The food comes in serving bowls and everyone is given a small plate, so sharing is definitely encouraged.

vegetable biryani

I have always loved Indian food, but I have come to biryani's late in life.  I am not sure if I never had them when I was younger, or if I never had a good one.  A friend used to own a small Indian restaurant here in Vancouver and biryani was the special one day, so I decided to try it.  It was a revelation, a soft fluffy rice studded with intensely flavoured morsels including nuts and dried fruit. Since then I often order it when going to an Indian restaurant and have been experimenting with making it myself.

This Sunday evening a neighbourhood friend invited us over, along with a few others, for a Texas hold em game and potluck dinner.  So I decided to make a vegetarian biryani to take along as I know they like  Indian food and I thought it would travel well.  I found the basis for this recipe at vegrecipesofindia.com
But I simplified it a little and had to substitute a couple of items.

First partialy cook the rice.


1 and half cup basmati rice
2 green cardamoms
2 cloves
1 small sliver of cinnamon
1 bay leaf
3 cups water
salt

All the recipes that I found for biryani say to rinse and soak the rice, I assume to remove a lot of the starch, so I rinsed the rice in a colander then soaked in a bowl of cold water for 1/2 an hour, drained it and put in to a pot with the remaining ingredients.

Cook the rice with the lid on until all the water is absorbed and it still a little el dente, about 15 minutes then fluff with a fork and set aside with the lid on.

1/2 medium sized cauliflower, florets removed

1 medium sized carrot, diced

1 medium sized potato, cubed

1 cup of chopped greeen beans

1  onion, finely sliced

1 green chili, chopped

2 tbsp julienned ginger

1 tbsp chopped garlic

2 green cardamom

2 black cardamoms

2 cloves

small piece of cinnamon 

1/2 cup of plain yogurt

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp red chili powder/cayenne pepper

2 tbsp cashewnuts or whole almonds

1 tbsp sultanas/raisins/dates

3 tbsp olive oil

Whole spices in the vegetable mixture

Pot Roast Indian style

It is no secret that Pot Roast is one of me favourite winter meals, it is a lot cheaper than a standing rib roast and it cannot really be over cooked. You can put it in the crock pot on the way out in the morning and not only do you have a delicious warming meal at the end of the day, but also a kitchen that smells like some one has been cooking all day.  I do like to mix it up a little though and I am always looking for new flavours and ways of enhancing the good old pot roast.

This recipe is very loosely and I mean loosely based on a recipe by Madhur Jaffrey , which a good friend had suggested as we were cooking Saturday night meal together and we had picked up a pot roast from Hopcott's.

2 tablespoons of ground cumin
2 tablespoons of ground coriander
1 tablespoon of ground dry ginger
1 tablespoon of paprika

2 cups of plain yogurt
1 large or 2 small onions chopped
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 medium sized pot roast.

Indian spiced cauliflower soup

Friday morning was spent in the garden digging over our new vegetable garden and planting out some vegetables.  After all this labour I felt like a good home made soup.  I looked into my fridge and there was a cauliflower that had seen better days, so cauliflower soup it would be.

Cauliflower has a very mild flavour which lends itself well to Indian spices.  If you did not want to bother with grinding the whole spices, then two tablespoons of curry powder and omit the turmeric or one tablespoon of garam masala would suffice. Also If I had had some fresh chilli's  or some frozen ginger/garlic/chili paste then I would have used that, but I didn't so chili flakes would have to do.

This made 4 bowls of soup.

• 1 whole cauliflower cut in to chunks
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic chopped
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon of turmeric
• 3 cups of chicken stock
• 1 potato (optional)
• Handful of chopped cilantro

Spice mixture

• 1 teaspoon of whole coriander
• 1 teaspoon of whole cumin
• 1 whole star anise
• 1'' piece of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of hot pepper flakes

Sweat the onion and garlic in the olive oil until just starting to brown. Wizz the spices up in a spice grinder (or coffee grinder which is what I use)

Eggplant (aubergine) and potato curry

This dish is my go to dish if no one else is home for dinner, I love eggplant, potatoes and Indian food so how can I go wrong.  It is quick and easy to make for one, often I will have it on its own with some chutney and yogurt, but this night I had some broccoli rabe that need using up so I cooked that too.

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of garlic ginger and chili see this link to Rogon josh for details on this
1 small onion chopped
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of turmeric
On small eggplant preferably the Asian type chopped up
1 medium potato
1 cup of chicken stock (or vegetable if you want to keep it vegetarian)

Coconut lamb curry

This is another of the delicious Indian dishes that we had on Saturday night.  Both Connie and I were craving lamb curry, so we picked up a boneless lamb shoulder at the big TNT shop, then searched for a recipe when we got back, which we almost followed.

We used one whole shoulder and it fed 9 with a spoonful for dinner on Monday night.

1 small boneless shoulder of lamb chopped in to small chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves
4 whole black peppercorns
1 small stick of cinnamon
1 star anise
2 medium onions chopped
2 large garlic cloves crated or finely chopped
1 teaspoon of ginger finely chopped
1 tablespoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of cashew nuts whizzed in a spice grinder
1 can of coconut milk
2 green chillies very finely chopped.
Garnish with fresh coriander

Place the oil and the first 4 whole spices in a large pot, cook them for a couple of minutes until they are fragrant.

Chicken biryani

To go with our prawns in coconut milk I decided to make chicken Biryani, I have seen several different ways of making this dish, and I wanted to try this one out.  This recipe was also from my Around the World Cook Book. I have never been a big rice lover especially plain boiled or steamed rice so this is a nice dish that makes the rice much tastier.

The recipe says this serves 4, it would if they were big eaters and if you were not serving a seperate meat dish we served 9 with enough for lunch left over. But we also had prawns, lamb and green beans.

1 1/2 cups basmati rice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 green chili finely chopped
1 inch piece of ginger finely chopped
1 1/2 lb chicken cut in to small pieces.  (we used thighs but breast would work as well)
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 tomatoes cut into wedges
1/4 teaspoon turmeric.
2 bay leaves
4 green cardamom pods
4 cloves

Curried prawns in coconut milk

On Friday night I went to see the Canadian film Cooking with Stella at the Port Moody Canadian film festival.  The film was OK and had a few problems but the scenes of cooking Indian Food were inspirational. (To me and Connie anyway.) So as we left the theatre we said "we have to cook Indian food tomorrow"

Curried prawns in coconut milk

As the next day I was helping my son move out there was little research or thought put in to recipes or ingredients needed when we went shopping.  Undeterred Kathy, Connie and I headed out to TNT to get some ingredients to make "Some Indian food"

At TNT they had some beautiful looking tiger prawns for only 6.99 lb, So we picked 1 1/2 lbs up and that was the inspiration for the first dish.

Tiger prawns waiting to be curried

Chana dal

Sunday night we had some people over for dinner that the rest of my family had met, but I had not. They were a family originally from India and the Mother was vegetarian, so (quite bravely I thought) I decided to make one of my favourite Indian vegetarian dishes Chana Dal.

This is a dish that comes together quickly, especially if you use canned chickpeas like I did.

Easy week night tandoori style chicken

I had some boneless skinless chicken breasts that need to be used for dinner last night and it was just me and my son and we both love Indian food so I decided to make a winter version of tandoori chicken.  Normally in the summer I would barbecue this, but it was snowing outside so there was to be no barbecuing.

Marinade

• 1/2 cup of plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon of garam masala
• 1 garlic clove crushed
• 1 tablespoon of grated fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon of chili powder
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Ground lamb and Peas - Indian style

This is an old favourite and comes from Madhur Jaffrey my favourite Indian cook book author see Cook books. She says that this is a dish that many young Indian people arriving in London would cook to remind them of home. I was feeling like Indian food and I had 1/2 Kg of ground lamb in the freezer so I phoned my Father (if he saw me blogging Indian food and he had not been invited I would be in trouble)
All though in this case it was not a week night this is definitely week night dinner material.

2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 Jalapeno and 2" of fresh ginger all finely chopped (or see make ahead Indian base)
1 Onion finely chopped
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
2 medium tomatoes chopped (or equivalent canned)
1 1/2 lb of ground lamb (or beef)
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of frozen peas

Aloo Gobi - Potato and cauliflower

This is my version of Aloo Gobi which is a very popular indian dish, I have used about 3 different recipes mushed them together and come up with this which works for me and tastes great.

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of cumin seeds
• 1 cube of ginger, garlic and jalapeno see Rogon Josh recipe (or one garlic clove, 1" ginger and 1/2   jalapeno all finely chopped )
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 small head of cauliflower cut into flowerets
• equivalent amount of potatoes cut in to the same size as cauliflower and boil for about 5 minutes
• 3/4 cup of water.
• Handful of cilantro

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the cumin seeds and cook until they are popping and fragrent.

I wish this was a scratch and sniff screen

Easy butter chicken

Tonight my Father was coming for dinner and my youngest son was not home for dinner, so Indian food it would be and I had defrosted 3 chicken breasts so butter chicken was on the menu.

I do not know how authentic this is, but it tastes good and I suspect butter chicken is really a western thing or at the very least an Indian dish in the same way as sweet and sour pork is to Chinese food.

1 tablespoon of oil
1 onion chopped
1 large garlic clove
1 teaspoon of grated ginger
1 jalapeno pepper finely chopped
1 tablespoon of turmeric
1/2 tablespoon of cumin seeds
1/2 tablespoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of salt
3 chicken breasts
1 1/2 cup of crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup of light cream

Rogan Josh

I love Indian food and when it is done well the flavours can be rich and complex There are so many different styles of Indian food, it upsets me to see them all lumped in to a generic curry. In true Indian food there is no such thing as curry powder, there are different mixtures of spices, but really if you use the whole spices or grind them fresh the flavours are so much better.

Rogon Josh

There are 3 ingredients which are in almost every Indian dish, garlic, ginger and chili pepper.  I was taught by a friends wife, who owned an Indian Restaurant, that the easiest way to deal with these was to process a large batch and then keep them in the fridge and just spoon them out. This is a great idea if you cook Indian food every day (or own a restaurant).  But this year I got another suggestion from a local cook book author that you can freeze small quantities and pull them out and use from frozen.  I added my own twist which is freeze in an ice cube tray.

Tandoori Palace

Finding ourselves on Commercial Drive after work we decided to get a quick bite to eat and headed over to the Tandoori Palace 1439 Commercial Drive .  Having been here before we knew that the food is good and very reasonable. Previously we had been two of the only customers early on Friday night, but today the place was packed.  Undeterred we put in our order, butter chicken with rice and Chicken tikka with Naan.  We grabbed one of the two tables outside and watched the drive go by.