This was my Saturday night dinner, an amalgamation of tried and trested recipes plus some experimentation. I spent the whole afternoon cooking these dishes plus some meat dishes for my family…and then the whole dinner was eaten in about 20 minutes!!! That tells me it was a success 🙂
Aubergine Madras
Note: this is lovely when first cooked, and even better if made then eaten later in the day, or even the next day, as the flavours have even more time to develop.
Ingredients
10 baby aubergines, cut into 1.5cm slices or 2 medium aubergines chopped into chunks
3 small green chillies (optional)*
5 tbsp oil
3 cloves
2 cardamom pods
2 large onions, finely chopped
2.5cm piece root ginger, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 (400g) tin chopped tomatoes, pureed
handful coriander leaves
1 tsp garam masala
Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan, add the cloves and cardamom and wait till they sizzle.
Add the onions and fry until dark brown.
Add the ginger and garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
Next add the red chilli powder, cumin, coriander, turmeric and salt and stir frequently.
Finally add the nutmeg and tomatoes.
Take off the heat and blend with a stick blender still in the pan (do this carefully otherwise your whole kitchen will get splattered!). Keep to one side.
*I add the chillies now so that I have the option to remove them. If you like a spicier curry, add them with the garlic and ginger and then they will be blended into the sauce.
Chop the aubergines (or whatever vegetable you prefer) and cook in another pan until soft then stir them into the sauce.
Simmer, covered, all together for 15-20 mins.
Finish with garam masala & chopped coriander to serve.
I made the onion bhajia using Naina’s recipe, however, I shallow fried them in vegetable oil as I do not have a pan like Naina’s, yet! Great flavours 🙂
I literally threw this bread together, trying to make a note of what I was doing as I went along. I split the dough in half and cooked half as bread rolls and half as flatbreads under a grill, and both worked well. The flatbreads came out with a crunch and the rolls were nice and soft and kept for the next few days.
Ingredients
500g flour – I used a mix of atta flour and plain flour (you may need more if the dough feels too wet)
15g fresh yeast
300ml warm water
2 heaped tbsp plain yoghurt
1tsp salt
2tbsp olive oil
1tsp ground cumin
1tsp ground coriander
1tsp turmeric
1tbsp nigella seeds
Add the yeast to the warm water and stir until dissolved. Keep to one side.
In a large bowl, add the salt, then all of the flour over the top of the salt.
Add in all of the spices, seeds, yoghurt and olive oil and loosely stir all together.
Pour in the yeast water then get your hands in and mix it all until it comes together as a dough.
Turn out onto a lightly oiled surface and knead for 5-10 mins until the dough is smooth.
Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a plastic bag and leave to prove for an hour.
After the hour, the dough should be well risen. Punch it down then turn out onto the counter again.
Split into 8 portions and either roll out to make flatbreads and/or shape into balls for rolls.
Place the portions onto a lined baking sheet, with space in between for expansion as they cook, and cover with oiled cling film and leave to raise again for half an hour.
Bake the rolls in an oven at 200C for 12-18 mins, or, grill the flatbreads under a medium heat grill until the surface browns then turn the bread over and grill the other side. Keep an eye on them as they can brown very suddenly, very quickly.
Before grilling, you can press your fingers into the surface of the flatbreads like I did if you fancy, or leave them as they are.
I also made some roasted potatoes as a side dish.
Serve it all together whilst it’s hot.
The following day, I had the leftover aubergine madras with some soft goats cheese and a couple of the bread rolls for lunch..nice!
I am taking my Indian feast to Whitney’s new Monthly Masala Link Party – why not join in or check out everyone’s recipes 🙂
Brilliant recipes!
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Thank you 🙂
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I love Indian food. Your table looks very delicious. And, the breads are so wonderful!
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Thank you lovely Fae xx
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Such an amazing spread girl!!!
That baingan ki sabzi is super awesome!!!!❤️❤️
And the pakodas/Bhajjiyas and breads are aweosme!!!!
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Thank you so much xxx
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With such a wonderful spread, it is little wonder that the meal was over in 20 mins. I especially loved the bread. 🙂
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Thank you 🙂
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Such a colorful and aromatic dinner. Looks delicious! 🙂
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Thank you 🙂
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Wow Elaine, what an impressive Indian feast……
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Thank you 🙂
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Everything looks so yummy and I love the vibrant color Elaine! 🙂 xx
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Thank you 🙂 xx
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How do you do this? More absolutely beautiful plates loaded so much more than just beautiful food. Excited now, I bought some atta flour on Saturday so I don’t have to research what to do with it. I could live on Indian. Flavour, colour, emotion, got it all! The onion bhajia looks terrific, did you do the caramelised onion raita to go with it, that looks too good for words.Thanks, and I want that octagonal dish please! 🙂
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Ha ha! Thank you so much for all of your lovely comments 🙂 the bowl is fab isn’t it? My Mum found it for me in Abu Dhabi.
No, I didn’t make the raita. Atta flour is great, just work with it like you would plain flour, great for making all types of Indian breads and flatbread, just add some water to some flour to make a dough and you’ve got the basics for flatbread 👍🏻
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Oh my goodness I was dreaming about sown good Indian food last night… You got me drooling!
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Yay! I hope you get to eat some soon 🙂
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That looks like one fantastic satisfying meal. Loved all the recipes👍
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Thank you 🙂
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Your spiced bread rolls looks awesome!! The whole feast looks delicious!! No wonder It was devoured within minutes xxx
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Thank you so much 🙂 all that time making it and it just flies off the plate!! It’s the best compliment for a cook I guess 😉 xx
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Sure is!!
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😘😘😘
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Wow that table was a feast! Your bread rolls look just delicious, soft and colorful!
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Thank you so much 🙂
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Wow, my stomach just started rumbling! I totally agree, Indian food always tastes better the next day. It’s what my mom always taught me too. 🙂 I love the idea of spiced rolls. I’m not very good at baking bread. It’s one of the areas of baking I would like to improve upon. Do you think this bread recipe would be a good pace to start? 🙂
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Thank you Anita 🙂
I would start with this basic recipe:
500g strong white flour
1 tsp salt
300ml warm water
15g fresh yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
Melt the yeast in the warm water and put to one side
Put the salt into a large mixing bowl, add the flour on top then the olive oil
Add the yeast water, then mix it all together by hand
Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface and knead for 5-10 minutes then leave to rise for an hour – I leave it to prove in a greased and lined loaf pan with a plastic bag over it
Heat oven to 210C (fan) and bake for 15 mins; turn oven down to 180C and bake for a further 15 mins
Remove and turn out to cool
Once you get to grips with this and see how simple it is, you can start to play with adding spices or mixing up the flours or proving it for longer etc.
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Thank you so much, Elaine!! I will give your recipe a try soon and let you know how it goes. 🙂
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Good luck x
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Wow Elaine, I’m very impressed! You’ve got everything even that beautiful bowl to display your amazing feast. I’ll have to try your eggplant dish, I’ve been getting so many from the garden. How did you shallow fry your bhajias? I love them, but always afraid to deep fry anything for health reasons. Great meal!
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Thank you 🙂
I shallow fried them in a wide based pan with vegetable oil heated over a medium heat. I’d rather bake them to be honest, but I’ve tried that before and the boys weren’t keen, it creates such a different texture and finish from what they know onions bhajis to be; fried was better so shallow frying was the compromise and they were good x
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Your creativity is limitless, Elaine. You are such an inspiration!
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Thank you so much x x x
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oh crickey this lokos amazing and it is dinner time here, yikes! Now I am salivating, love all of it, but also your crockery, very pretty. Now will I ever be that clever to make bread like yours? x
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Thank you so much 🙂 I’m sure you could! X
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i like your confidence hah
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Wonderful cooking! Everything looks very good!
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Thank you 🙂 🙂
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Wow that is allot of work! Looks amazing
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🙂 🙂
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nice!!
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🙂
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What an AMAZING feast! I especially love that you included your “next day” sandwich. 🙂
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Thank you so much 🙂
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i must try these, i have been using yeast nearly every day during the last month and they look wonderful, yeast bakes are my current fancy 🙂 x
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Yay! Thank you 🙂 x
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That bread looks gorgeous! I haven’t cooked an Indian feast for what feels like so long, I’ll have to rectify that soon, you’ve got me craving it over here…
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Lovely! Enjoy it 🙂
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An amazing wonderful inspired combined dinner! i love it all! I made your buns! fantastic flavor, hun! x
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Oh really?? That’s brilliant, I’m so pleased x x x
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What an AWESOME feast you’ve got going on with this post! You amaze me, Elaine! Thank you so much for adding it to #MonthlyMasala!
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Thank you 🙂
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