Delicious Indian Dinner!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mike's friend Trisha's mom gave us some great Indian recipes to try out, along with some spices for each recipe. We did a test run of two dishes (I made the Masala Masoor and Mike made the Alu Gobi), and they turned out really REALLY well, so we decided to invite Trisha and our friend Gabe over to partake in the delicious Indian food. Plus we definitely needed validation from Trisha that our dishes were made correctly!

Mike made the Alu Gobi again, and I reprised the Masala Masoor recipe this evening. I also made Indian spiced rice (recipe below).

All in all it was a great evening. We ate, talked, ate some more and then we relived our childhoods by playing a couple of rousing games of Candy Land (which, by the way, was A LOT more challenging when I was 6 years old...). We're going to try more of the recipes and then have them over again sometime soon!

Aromatic Rice

Loosely adapted from a recipe I hand wrote in a notebook in college - I have no idea where I got it

2 cups jasmine or basmati rice, rinsed

3.5 cups vegetable broth

1.5 - 2 tbsp olive oil

2 shallots, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp salt

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and saute, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for an addition 60 seconds. Add the cumin, coriander and salt and stir to incorporate. Stir in the rice and saute for 1 minute - until the grains become translucent. Add the vegetable broth, bring to a boil and stir the pot one time to incorporate all of the spices into the rice. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is fully cooked.

Fluff with fork and serve.

Roasted Garlic Soup

This soup recipe showed up one of my favorite food blogs and looked too good to pass up. I imagine this soup would be best served in a bread bowl, as the author recommends, but Brit and I didn’t have easy access to any. Either way, the soup is delicious and I’d highly recommend making this. The smell and taste of the roast garlic and shallots are fantastic and I’d love to incorporate them into more dishes.

Roasted Garlic Soup

(originally posted on the Macheesmo food blog)

serves 4

2 heads of garlic

2 shallots

Olive oil

1.5 lbs potatoes, cubed

1 quart vegetable stock

2 cups water

½ cup parmesan cheese

1 tbsp lemon juice

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Slice off the top of the heads of garlic and shallots. Place them all into some foil, drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top, sprinkle some kosher salt, and place the wrapped package into the oven. Roast for 40 min, remove from the oven, and set aside until they are cool.

Pop the garlic cloves and shallots out of their skin. Place them in a large pot with the cubed potatoes, stock, and water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Use a blender (an immersion blender would be best) to puree the soup. Mix in the lemon juice and parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper. A ¼ cup of cream can be optionally added at this point.