Indian Food is scary

Or at least that is what i have always told myself. i LOVE Indian food, but have always felt like it is out of grasp of my cooking ability. i think it has something to do with some of the spices being unrecognizable. let's say you are making something and it you taste it and something is off. Does it need more Hing? Or does it need more Tamarind Pulp? How the hell do i know? WTF is Hing, anyways? you see? Scary stuff.

When Noelle and i are at the gym, we spend a lot of time noting how we married the same dudes. there is so much "really? he does that too?!!??" happening that our neighboring cyclists must be bored stiff by our ramblings after 3 minutes. too bad we have 27 more minutes to go, old guy! anyways, the one thing that makes me like Noelle's husband instead of Neil, is that if i cook a meal and it doesn't turn out well, just pack it up and go home. game over. nothing good here. move on. J and i are both super cranky like that.

So yes, indian food is scary. it could ruin two whole days, retrospectively, if you count the time to marinate the chicken.

But something got under my skin. Building our garden and the thoughts of being vegetably self sufficient, the crazy apocalyptic ramblings of those on the internets, i don't know.....i decided it was time to provide my family with Indian Food. no more blindly trusting that society will provide me with Indian food, just because i know i have a take out menu in the drawer. i pushed my fears aside. i found recipes. i even went to the fancy spice store and purchased what one can not find at safeways and such. People, meet Hing, Mango Powder, and Ghee (some people make Ghee. i think my cousing Kerry does. but she also has two kids and teaches. she clearly does a lot of things that i do not do):

So the menu was not to be a fancy one: tandoori chicken (grilled, since we do not have a Tandoor Oven, surprisingly enough), aloo gobi, naan, and cilantro mint chutney.

I don't bake. and i don't bake in Denver. and again, i do not have a tandoor oven. AND i am trying to cur back on the white carbs. so this whole naan plan is just really pushy in general. but i went for it, whole wheat in my oven at high altitude and all.

dough before rising:
then in the oven, science started to happen. Neil found out when i started yelling "science is happening in the oven!!!!!"
a little ghee brushed on top and we're looking good, people! that it totally naan!
the chicken marinated for 30 hours or so. i was surprised to read that most "authentic" tandoori recipes call for some kind of food coloring to get that pinky red color. regardless, i just took a recipe from Cooking Light and grilled it up. oh, and people, the wave of the future is in boneless skinless chicken THIGHS. they taste better, are cheaper, and they taste better and are cheaper. why are those two reasons not enough for you?


the aloo gobi freaked me out. maybe it is all the pot i smoked in high school but there just seemed to be So Many ingredients. so i got out all of my little glass bowls and did all my prep work. i lined it all up in order of appearance and opened all the windows in case i was going to burn everything and i just went for it.

and it worked!

the cilantro mint chutney was a breeze. i'd like to thank the Bhores once again for the food processer. i have no idea how we lived before it!






So, in all, the standouts were the aloo gobi and the chutney. those were to my previous professionally made Indian food standards. The naan was amazing for 30 seconds and then it went really hard, like a cracker. a yummy cracker, but the texture of naan is what makes it so dreamy. i'll have to readdress. the chicken's flavor was not tandoori, but it was good. basically, what one would expect from a Cooking Light recipe that is geared towards not having to go to the special spice store.

oh, and Neil hates cilantro and mint. but he ate the chitney cos i didn't tell him until after that it was cilantro and minto. oopsie!

My favorite thing to have discovered about all this is actually a financial one. Indian Food at a restaurant is expensive! i remember paying $7 for aloo gobi in SF! now, i have all of the spices in house, so i can make it for the cost of 2 potatoes and a head of cauliflower! tandoori chicken? $12 in a restaurant. i can now have it for $3 worth of chicken thighs. you catch my drift here, people? it's a nice thing to know.

so, come the apocolypse, you know where to get your Indian Food!