Indian Food - Retro Food For Modern Times

Tag: Indian Food

21
Apr
2024

April 2004 – The Letter L

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Breakfast, Delicious, Drinks, Fruit, Lamb, Lemon, Magazines, Mango, Meat

Hello, retro food lovers! Today’s post features the letter L and Delicious Magazine from April 2004. Our meal today has a slightly Indian feel with a lassi, some lamb and a lovely lemony dessert! But before we get to the food, let’s set the scene.

The Da Vinci Code was the best-selling book of the first half of April. Quelle surprise! However, for the remaining two weeks, Glorious Appearing stole the number-one spot! Before you get excited, this book sounds dreadful! I would rather read The Da Vinci Code! Toxic by Britney was number one on the charts and Hellboy was number one at the box office.

Hopefully more on the side of glorious, rather than toxic or hellish is our menu for April 2004!

Mango Lassi

I am starting my L themed meal with a Mango Lassi. Lassis are yogurt-based drinks often containg spices. Think of it as a Punjabi smoothie. Lassis boast a long history, dating back to 1000 BC! People believed they had healing properties. Drinking lassis could improve your digestion and your skin and reduce bloating just to name a few!

Lassis can be sweet or savoury. The mango here makes this one quite sweet so it would have been an equally nice way to end the meal! This also takes less than a minute to make so quick as well as delicious. I used frozen mango in mine so you do not have to wait until mangoes are in season to make this!

Mango Lassi Recipe

Spiced Lamb Lollipops with Korma Sauce and Toasted Almonds

This, like the Mango Lassi above comes from an article called “Curry on Jamie”. No surprises for guessing that the Jamie is one Mr Oliver, who seems to be featuring in thee 20 Years Ago posts rather a lot. The Lamb Lollipops were a version of a curry. The twist was that instead of the meat being cooked in the curry, it was grilled and served with a curry sauce for dipping. It was absolutely delicious! I served my Lollipops with a radish and coriander pickle from the same article and some bought paratha.

Lamb Lollipops Recipe

Lemon Posset with Lemon Crunch

Apart from the letter L, there is another linking factor between today’s recipes. The lassi dates back to ancient times, Korma is believed to be created in the 16th century for Shah Jalan at the inauguration of the Taj Mahal and our dessert also has it’s roots in history. The OED traces posset back to the 15th century where, like the lassi, it was known for it’s healing properties. I liked the lemon crunch because it added some texture into what was otherwise a very soft dessert. The texture of the posset was panna cotta-esque. An almond biscotti would have also gone down a treat with this…and created a link with the lamb dish!

Lemon Posset Recipe

I found the quantities here made for quite a sweet mix so l added more lemon juice, specifically as I also knew the crunch would also be sweet.

My Nigella Moment – Breakfast Almond Croissants

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious. In these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in because it is too good not to share.

One of my favorite bakery treats is an almond croissant so I was delighted to find a recipe where I could do a cheats’ version at home. These were delightful. And also went nicely with some mango lassi!

Breakfast Almond Recipe

Oh, I just realised another link. These meals all belong in a spectrum from yellow to brown…the posset is light lemon yellow, the mango lassi is a pale orange, the korma sauce was a deep orange and the croissants were brown. These colours are also all autumnal so maybe I was also channelling the seasons with my meal!

Have a great week!

29
Oct
2020

Lord Mayor’s Mango Chutney

categories: Condiments, India, Mango

Over the next week or so election fever will hit many of us like a less lethal but possibly more pervasive version of the ‘rona. After all, the fate of many will ride on the outcome of this highly important and contentious race. I am, of course talking about our local Moonee Valley council elections! And yes, of course, there is another far more important election happening shortly. But today, we are keeping it local and going exotic with a recipe for the Lord Mayor’s Mango Chutney!

The recipe comes from the June 1991 issue of Vogue Entertaining Australia. It features in an article called “Banquet by The Billabong” which is all about posh dining outside

What that glamourous description doesn’t tell you is that the calls of the river life probably include crocodiles that will kill you quicker than you can blink and mosquitos carrying dengue fever, Ross River virus and Murray Valley Encephalitis . Then there’s the venomous snakes and the poisonous spiders and the drop bears. And the occasional serial killer to boot. That rustle of linen could well be the noose around your neck and the chink of silver the knife about to slit your throat!.

Come on, it’s Hallowe’en! if we’re not going to get dark at this time of year when are we????

Something a lot less Wolf Creeky is this recipe for Mango Chutney which comes from Alex Fong Lim who was Lord Mayor of Darwin from 1984-1990. This is a fabulous recipe too. I don’t like a lot of commercial mango chutneys because I find them too sweet. This however, has the perfect blend of sweet and spice and heat. And it is so pretty as well! The chunks of mango become almost translucent as they cook so they look like gorgeous bright jewels. This is the perfect accompaniment to a curry – the picture directly below had it paired beautifully with Nick Sharma’s Chicken Biryani Tagine and the one below that has it matched up with a Sri Lankan chicken curry badun.

Lord Mayor’s Chutney – The Recipe

You can, of course, adjust the amount of chilli to suit your taste. I only used 500g of mango and 2 birdseye chillies in my chutney. I also used fresh grated ginger and sultanas because I can’t abide raisins. Most importantly for those of you who cannot get ripe or under-ripe mangoes, or it is not mango season even if you can, I used a packet of chopped frozen mango for my chutney and I was very happy with the results!

I’m not entirely sure about what the other duties of a Lord Mayor are. I guess they are boss of the council? But if the quality of this recipe is anything to go by, then maybe part of their job description needs to be that they all have to share a recipe with their constituents!

I’d vote for that!

Have a great week!

06
Feb
2020

Prawn and Potato Curry

categories: 1970's food, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, India, Prawns, World Cooking

Greetings people of the internet. This week we are returning to our sojourn around the world via Good Housekeepings World Cookery. Last time we visited this book we were in Pakistan for a subcontinental take on Scotch Eggs. Today we are moving south and east into India for a super easy, super delicious Prawn and Potato Curry.

I threw some baby corn in as well because this is my year of not wasting food and we happened to have some in the fridge that was not going to last the week. To be honest, the baby corn should never have been bought. It was on sale and the fussiest eater in the world said he wanted it.

“For what?” I asked.

“I’ll think of something”

Something was not thought of. Hence the fact that the baby corn went into the curry.

There seems to be something in the air this year around reducing waste/saving money. I set a goal for 2020 to be my year of reducing kitchen waste. Halfway across the world, the lovely Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers is also cutting down on waste this year. My boss is radically cutting down on her kitchen waste this year by living off pantry supplies every fourth week and donating the money she would have spent on food to charity. I LOVE this idea!!!! Such a bold and generous move!

But back to the curry. This curry is very easy to make and for a curry, few ingredients. It is also very tasty! Here’s the recipe, direct from the pages of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery. But please feel free to add in any veggies you may have that would otherwise go to waste!

Have a great week! And please tell me any tips you have for reducing kitchen waste!