Category Archives: Indian

Roasted pumpkin & curry leaf salad

February 25, 2015 5:47 pm / Leave a Comment /

Roasted pumpkin & curry leaf salad

Adam Liaw cooked a dish like this on his show on SBS TV so I thought I would use the same combination of flavours and turn it into a salad.  I guess we can call it an Indian salad with the addition of the curry leaves.  It would certainly be delicious served as part of a shared table with Indian inspired curries or roasted meats.

Roast the pumpkin in a hot oven and let it come to room temperature before adjusting the dressing and adding the leaves.  You can also add some other green vegetables if you wish.  Remember to steam those quickly to retain the nutrients.  You can find the steaming timing here for vegetables.

You could steam the pumpkin too but the flavour is better roasted.  I have done other salads with steamed pumpkin which you can find in the salad category.

Ingredients:

Large chunk of pumpkin, diced into medium size pieces
Handful shallots, peeled
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 bulb of garlic, broken into cloves and left whole
2 tbsp. Olive oil
4 branches of fresh curry leaves, removed from the stalk
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp sherry vinegar
Handful of baby spinach to serve
½ tin chickpeas, rinsed
¼ cup pumpkin seeds

Extra sherry vinegar and oil to taste

Method:

  1. Toss everything together except leaves, chickpeas, pumpkin seeds and extra vinegar & oil in a large bowl.
  2. Place a large piece of baking paper on a flat oven tray and pile on the vegetables.
  3. Roast @ 200°C Fan forced for 45 minutes.
  4. Remove to cool to room temperature.
  5. Mix in leaves, chickpeas, seeds and other steamed vegetables if you are using them.
  6. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more sherry vinegar and oil to dress the salad if necessary.

 

Posted in: Indian, Salads, Traditional Ovens, Vegetarian

Slow roasted lamb with garam masala

September 3, 2014 11:47 am / Leave a Comment /

Slow roasted lamb with garam masala

This is a recipe adapted from Karen Martini where she used similar ingredients for the marinade and then slow cooked it, covered in a conventional oven.  As anyone with a combi steamer knows, slow baked lamb is even better with the added moisture a combi can provide see here.  Karen’s recipe was good but had too much yoghurt for a combi slow cook.  There is no need to cover the dish so the marinade needs to be intensified and baked with less liquid as the steam will add to the moisture in the pan.  I have reduced the yoghurt to only enough to marinate and the results were excellent.  Melt in the mouth lamb that fell off the bone with those delicious Indian spices that had seeped into the meat overnight.

A lovely change from the traditional garlic and rosemary that I used before.  Serve it with the meat juices, some Red cumin lentils, tomato and onion salad and some thick yoghurt with a little garlic and grated cucumber.  Yum 🙂

Ingredients:  Serves 4-6

1 x 2kg lamb shoulder or leg (shoulder is better)
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
knob of ginger, grated
1½ tbsp. garam masala
2 tsp ground cardamon
1 lemon juice and rind grated finely
2 tbsp. Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp. sea salt

Method:

  1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together, including the salt.
  2. Trim the lamb of any large pieces of fat that you can remove easily and ‘spear’ the meat all over with a sharp knife at random intervals so that the marinade may permeate into the meat.
  3. Rub all over the with marinade and place it into a plastic bag, tie it up and place it on a plate in the refrigerator overnight.  You should use all the marinade and it should just be enough to cover the lamb thickly without any excess.
  4. Remove from the fridge 1 hour before baking.
  5. Make sure your fan cover is installed on the back of the combi if you have one, place the lamb into the solid steamer tray and bake on Combination mode @ 120°C + 80% moisture for 4 hours.
  6. Remove from the solid tray and place onto a large, warmed serving platter.  Remove the bone if using a shoulder.
  7. Strain the juices into a jug and remove the fat.

There is no need to rest the lamb when cooking like this.  The bone should just fall out of the meat if you use a shoulder and be meltingly tender.  I used a leg this time around so after the meat was carved I poured over the meat juices before serving.

Enjoy.

 

Posted in: Combi Steamer, Gluten free, Indian, Main Courses

Red cumin lentils

August 26, 2014 7:00 pm / Leave a Comment /

Red cumin lentils

Lentils are fantastic cooked in the steam oven.

The great thing about cooking a lentil dish or dahl in the steam oven is that you now don’t have to worry about it catching on the base of the pot!  Anyone who has ever cooked dahl will understand and appreciate this.  The last time we tried this recipe on the stove top it not only caught on the base but was too dry and gluggy.  As the steam oven adds moisture whilst cooking this wasn’t a problem anymore and the result was really light and ‘fluffy’.

This is our favourite recipe which I have adapted from the old Bathers Pavilion cookbook and substantially reduced the quantity of fat.  This lentil dish packs a punch with the spice paste, lime juice and fish sauce and is really delicious with roast meat, chicken or curries.

Ingredients:

1 medium onion
knob of ginger
3 cloves garlic
2 large green chillies
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cups red split lentils
2½ cups beef stock
1 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp fish sauce

Method:

  1. Peel and roughly chop the onion, ginger, garlic and chillies
  2. Place them all into a food processor.  Add the cumin and process until you have a paste.  You may need to add a little water.
  3. Heat the oil in a shallow casserole that will fit into the steam oven over a low heat.
  4. Add the paste and fry until fragrant, about 10 minutes.
  5. While the paste is frying, place the lentils in a fine sieve and rinse under running water for a few minutes.  I like to do this a few times.
  6. Add to shallow casserole with the stock.
  7. Place into the steam oven @ 100°C for 15 minutes
  8. Remove from steam oven and add the lime juice and fish sauce.  Taste, adjust seasoning if necessary with a little more fish sauce or lime juice.

Keep warm until ready to serve.

 

Posted in: Gluten free, Indian, Side dishes, Steam Oven