Anyway, I did pick up some garlic naan, which means, tonight I'm cooking Indian. I'm going to use a spice mix for Biryani chicken that I picked up at the Indian grocery store in Grand Rapids, Michigan--Spice of Indian. That should be the easy part of the meal. But I also want to make a Raita. This is a yogurt based dish that is a nice compliment to a spicy dish. I had it for the first time at Pal's Indian Cuisine, also in Grand Rapids. They serve it with their Biryana. After searching through the web, I'm not finding a recipe that I'm totally satisfied with. I've been able to glean some ideas from the variety of recipes, so I'll be putting together these ideas to make my own. I'll add to this post when I get started. As of right now, I need to pick up a few ingredients: English cucumber and Greek yogurt. I already have an onion, some tomatoes, and hopefully, all the spices I will need. I'm going to try to use the mint from the spindly plant growing in my garden.
Too be continued...
Good thing I stopped at a friend's to get mint leaves before I went to the store. When she gave me a giant zucchini from her garden, I realized that I probably would have a few cucumbers growing in my garden. So, I stopped home first and YEP! I had two cucumbers ready to be picked. Bonus--So here's the Raita recipe. It turned out super tasty. I could probably have just eaten that for dinner. The Biryana was just okay. I've got to realize that the pre-made spice mixes, even when imported directly from India, are never as good as what it would be if made from scratch. I've just got to find more confidence in my Indian cooking. So far everything I've made from scratch: samosas, naan, and now Raita has turned out yummy. The only pre-made Indian foods that I've found are any good at all are the Kitchens of India brand. Otherwise, most are just okay at best. I think the big thing is that when it's made from scratch you can adjust the ingredients to fit your tastes. That's what I did with the Raita. I wanted to combine a recipe for onion Raita with cucumber Raita. I decided to leave out the tomatoes this time as I don't recall ever having it with tomatoes in any Indian restaurants before.
Ingredients that I used (measurements are approximated--that's just how I roll) :
2 cups Greek yogurt
2 cucumbers--peeled, seeds removed (for the most part), and diced
1/4 cup diced onion (I used yellow onion, but pick your favorite)1 jalapeno--seeds removed and chopped into very tiny pieces
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1-2 TBS. minced fresh mint leaves--I used scissors to mince these
2-3 TBS. minced fresh cilantro leaves--once again, use scissors
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. ground mustard
dash of tamarind
dash of freshly ground pepper
pinch of white sugar
dash of red pepper
Steps:
1. Prepare your cucumber and set diced cucumber on paper towel to dry for a bit. Some recipes say to squeeze it dry, but then to add water to the yogurt to thin it. I decided to not squeeze the water out of the cucumber and not add water. I figured the natural moistness of the cucumber could thin the dip a bit. That seemed to work perfectly.
2. Dice onion, jalapeno and add to the cucumbers on the paper towel. Mince your herbs and set those on top.
3. In the bowl that you'll be serving the Raita, add your yogurt and stir in all your spices and sugar. When these are spread well throughout the yogurt, stir in your vegetables and fresh herbs. It will look chunky at first, but it eventually melds together nicely.
4. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Stir before serving. It gets a little watery on top, but the stirring redistributes everything.
5. I served mine with garlic naan, and chicken and peas Biryana. It was really good on top of both the Biryana (which was just okay) and the naan.
I think I'll try tackling Biryana from scratch soon and I'll blog about that. But just look at the list of ingredients...Can you see why I'm intimidated?
- For the meat: 1kg lamb/ chicken cut into 2" pieces (if using chicken, use breast or thigh fillet)
- 4 large onions sliced thin
- 2 tsps garlic paste
- 2 tsps ginger paste
- 1/2 cup almonds
- 6 tbsps ghee/ vegetable/ canola/ sunflower cooking oil
- 1" stick of cinnamon
- 5 cloves
- 3 pods cardamom
- 8 peppercorns
- 2 tsps coriander powder
- 1 1/2 tsps cumin powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 cup yoghurt
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 cup chicken/ beef stock
- 2 tbsps finely chopped coriander leaves
- 2 tbsps finely chopped mint leaves
- Salt to taste
- For the rice: 2 cups Basmati rice
- Hot water
- Salt to taste
- 3 drops orange food coloring (optional)
- 3 drops green food coloring (optional)
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