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| Party on a plate |
I started the meal with an endive appetizer because they looked so good
at the store. I filled the endive leaves with lobster and crab salad and
garnished each one with a pinch of paprika. To counteract my hot apartment, I served freshly brewed iced Chai
tea. My dad had a gin and tonic, which I thought was fitting since I
developed my love for Indian cuisine while living abroad in England.
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| Lobster and crab stuffed endive |
The next course was chicken satay with peanut sauce. I now want to invest in a
cast iron grill for my stove since I had to partially overcook the chicken in
order to cook them all the way through (the bamboo skewers don’t fit well in a
pan!)
The main entrée was tikka masala. I seasoned the diced chicken with
curry, garam masala, salt and pepper. The vegetables included purple and
regular sweet potatoes fresh from NC (thanks, dad!), carrots, onions, red bell peppers
(If my mother wasn't sensitive to hot food, I would have used chilies), broccoli, fresh ginger and tomatoes. Once everything was mostly cooked, I simmered everything together
in the tikka sauce with half a cup of coconut milk. Cucumber from NC (notched using a lemon zester) was used as a garnish.
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| Chicken Satay |
I followed this recipe to use my saffron. I was very pleased with the
results. The only thing I changed was putting the rice in a bowl to keep warm
and firm instead of fluffing it with a fork (I’m partial to neither). The
saffron created wonderful aromatics and went well with the jasmine and onion
flavors.
To cool hot mouths during the meal, I made a cabbage and radish salad.
The organic radishes were also fresh from NC and looked beautiful. There’s an
Indian recipe for this salad that uses a citrus dressing. The dressing
consisted simply of fresh squeezed orange and lemon juice, mustard (I used my
grandmother’s homemade mustard), honey and a pinch of salt. I microwaved the
dressed a few seconds to help emulsify the ingredients.
Other things that helped put out the fire included toasted naan bread
and mango lassi, which I made using Greek yogurt with honey, fresh mangoes, and
almond milk.
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| Tikka Masala |
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| Saffron rice |
