American, Indian Recipes
11 recipes found
Garlic-Ginger Chicken Breasts With Cilantro and Mint
This chicken, which is the brainchild of my aunt Sonia, is legendary among our cousins. Until recently, though, no one knew what, exactly, went into it. Whenever my aunt would make it on a family vacation, she’d disappear for a half-hour and reemerge with a Ziploc bag filled with the marinade and the chicken breasts. No one (not even her only daughter, Isha) was allowed to know the contents. The marinating chicken would smell so good, I’d legitimately have thoughts about eating it raw, carpaccio-style (which is disgusting, I know!). Well, folks, I am here to tell you that, after much negotiation, I have finally pried that chicken recipe out of Sonia’s hands. Both the marinade and the cooking method (low and sort of slow) feel ingenious to me, and the payoff is huge: Charred, spicy, slightly funky, juicy chicken that is equally wonderful by itself or rolled up in a roti, taco-style, and served with various salads and chutneys.
Indian-ish Nachos With Cheddar, Black Beans and Chutney
These vegetarian nachos take their cues from paapdi or papri chaat, the spicy, tangy and sweet Indian snack of fried dough wafers piled with chickpeas, tomatoes, onions, yogurt and various chutneys. This take starts with standard nacho elements: tortilla chips, black beans and a healthy amount of bubbly, melted cheese. But the classic chaat pairing of spicy and verdant cilantro chutney with sweet and sour tamarind sauce provides another level of brightness and complexity. Don’t skip the chhonk, a sauce made of melted ghee, cumin seeds and red chile powder that is drizzled over the top of the nachos. It provides a rich finish and even more crunch.
Weeknight Fancy Chicken and Rice
This is a truly glorious one-pot weeknight meal. Feel free to experiment with the garnish, adding dried cranberries, hazelnuts, pine nuts or your own favorites. Ghee adds a nuttiness to the dish, but if you cannot find it, you can make it with unsalted butter using the chef Asha Gomez's method. Simply melt the butter in a pot over low heat. Let it simmer until it foams and sputters. Once the sputtering stops and the milk solids in the pot turn a khaki color, remove it from the heat and skim off the foam with a spoon. Strain remaining butter into a container, leaving behind any solids in the pot. Ghee keeps for up to six months in the refrigerator.
Suvir Saran’s Palak Ki Tikki (Spinach and Potato Patties)
These are adapted from Suvir Saran’s potato patties called palak ki tikki, from his lovely cookbook “Masala Farm.” They are a striking green because of all of the raw spinach that gets packed into them. The big, spicy burgers are incredibly easy to put together and to cook. Suvir serves them with chutney, either green or tamarind, but we both agree that they’re delicious with plain old ketchup. I made a quick raita to serve with the burgers by stirring sweet pickle relish into plain yogurt.
Tomato Rice With Crispy Cheddar
I could use all sorts of fancy words to explain this dish, but the best description is this: pizza in rice form. The inspiration for the recipe, though, is oddly enough not Italian — it’s a hybrid of a classic South Indian tomato rice with onions and a shockingly fantastic Spanish rice recipe my mom and I photocopied out of my seventh-grade Spanish textbook for a school project. The crispy, bubbly, broiled Cheddar topping (use the sharpest white Cheddar you can find!) adds a little something something, making it a worthy dinner party dish.
Indian-ish Baked Potatoes
Of all the places my mom, who lives in Dallas, has traveled for work, her favorite will always be London — the cobblestone streets, the limitless sights, the walkability and, most important, the pubs. She spent a lot of time in pubs on early '90s London business trips, and the only vegetarian dish was very often a baked potato. This is where she discovered the ingenuity of filling a soft, steamy potato with all kinds of tasty toppings that absorb nicely into the starchy flesh. In this recipe, she subs out the big potato for smaller, thin-skinned ones (for a prettier presentation), and the bacon bits, chives and packaged cheese for spicier, brighter toppings: chiles, chaat masala, onions and ginger. This dish takes almost no time to put together once the potatoes are baked, but looks very impressive as an appetizer or a small side. Tip: Cut the ginger, onion and chiles while the potatoes bake, so everything is ready for assembly.
Peanut Laddoo Buckeye Balls
Here’s a simple, no-bake sweet that riffs on peanut laddoos, a bite-size Indian confection made of ghee, sugar and nuts, with a chocolate coating inspired by buckeyes, the peanut butter and chocolate treat popular in Ohio. It was dreamed up by Hetal Vasavada, the blogger and author of the dessert cookbook “Milk & Cardamom,” which combines the traditional Indian flavors she grew up with and the Western sweets she encountered as an American kid in New Jersey. The cardamom, ghee and jaggery provide both an interesting twist to the traditional flavor combination and a slightly grittier texture, which Ms. Vasavada likens to that of a Butterfinger candy bar.
Suvir Saran’s Mushroom and Farro Burger
When I was introduced to these burgers, a creation of the chef Suvir Saran, I was struck by the brilliant idea of using sweet potatoes as a binder. I’ve struggled to find ways to hold my burgers together, and this solution was perfect. Try to find light-fleshed sweet potatoes; they are drier, and a little less sweet than orange yams. I also love all the textures in these hearty patties. I have made some changes to Suvir’s recipe, roasting the potatoes rather than boiling them, and I use less oil.
Sweet Potato, Quinoa, Spinach and Red Lentil Burger
You can use blond or black quinoa for these delicate burgers. Black will look striking against the sweet potato’s orange when you cut into the burgers. The red lentils pale to yellow when you cook them; they contribute texture and flavor. The burgers have a decidedly Mediterranean flavor, with feta and mint included in the mix. But I still like to serve them with raita or chutney; a more Mediterranean condiment would be yogurt seasoned with puréed garlic and mint.
Potato and Pea Patties With Indian Spices
The whole spices in this burger, adapted from the chef Suvir Saran, contribute not only amazing flavors, but texture as well. It's nice to use a combination of light-fleshed sweet potatoes, which go well with the spices, and starchy red boiling potatoes, which help hold the burger mixture together.
Crispy Spiced Cauliflower Steaks
This recipe, developed by 19-year-old Ella Heckert and her mother, the chef Kelsie Kerr, yields crisp cauliflower steaks with a golden crust so tender that they shatter upon first bite. Made with brown rice and tapioca flour, the incidentally gluten-free batter is delicate but unfussy. This version is spiked with fresh turmeric and garam masala spices, but consider it a blank slate and feel free to experiment with other spice combinations, too. At Kerr’s Berkeley restaurant, Standard Fare, the batter is used throughout the year to coat all sorts of other ingredients, including winter squash, eggplant and even housemade paneer, which is a perennial favorite. Try the dish with cauliflower, then make it your own — you’ll be surprised how long the crust remains crisp!