Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Homemade Indian Food in....Boston?


I was recently afforded the opportunity to spend a lovely weekend up in Boston at the home of my girlfriend's family.  In addition to being made to feel exceedingly welcome, I was treated to a wonderful dinner of homemade Northern-style Indian food.  Now, I didn't prepare any of this and have little insight into its preparation, so this post won't be particularly educational.  It was, however, delicious and worth relaying, so here we are.  I've enlisted the help of an expert (my girlfriend) to tell me what exactly all of this was, so if I've made any mistakes, blame her.



I took a few pictures of the raw ingredients.  Here we see some very verdant okra.  Who doesn't love okra? 

Whenever I have Indian food, I always have samosas, but they've never been like this.  Ususally they're little pastry triangle bites that are tasty but bland.  I'm always left wondering, "Why didn't that taste better, and where did all that corn come from?"  These were different.  These were closer to a knish, with lots of spicy potatoes and interesting vegetables wrapped inside a humongous pastry shell.  They were awesome, either hot or cold (we tried both).  The Spongebob-looking things are dhokla, which are made from fermented chickpea batter and steamed in a pot.  They're a bit spicy and have an interesting texture.  Also they really do look like little edible Spongebobs, and who doesn't want to devour that little monster?

Some more process photos.  Those are potatoes on the top and that's the okra from earlier being cooked.  My photography skills failed me in this picture, as the okra was much more green and vibrant in real life than it is in this picture.  That one's on me.

 After all that preparation, we sat down to eat.  Tandori chicken, rice with daal (lentils), sookhe aloo (potatoes sauteed in spices), and bhindi (sauteed okra with a tomato sauce).  We also had a heaping bowl or raita (yogurt with cucumber and spices). 

We also opened a bottle of Chateu Moulin de Lagnet, an organic vinyard in Bordeaux.  I'm a sucker for Bordeauxs in general, and this was a good one.

A wonderful dinner with a wonderful family, and I'm glad I had my camera with me.

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