Spicy Couple's Night in the Kitchen

For my First Food Fight Friday, @creationofcare assists me with a full Indian meal of Lamb Tikka Masala, Saag Paneer, Coconut Rice, and Cucumber Mint Raita, all from scratch.

@creationofcare and I LOVE Indian food. I have made a few Indian-inspired dishes over the last couple of years, but this time I decided we should make an entire meal; like we would normally order at a restaurant. So, we headed out to procure the necessary spices and ingredients. We decided on a Tikka Masala meat dish, and my favorite vegetable dish: Saag Paneer. I love Saag Paneer. I mean, come on… Its second ingredient is fried cheese! Now that is my kind of vegetable dish. We were hoping to find some lamb--for some reason lamb is not very common in the US--and we were able to find a nice piece of lamb leg. Perfect.

One thing I have learned about making Indian food: it takes a Lot of spices. A LOT! No… more than you are thinking… here we go:

Here are the players in this round. Behind the cloves is a jar of coriander seeds. Most of these jars were full before the start of this meal. I begin by making a Garam Masala mix:

*2 tablespoons Cardamom seeds
*2 tablespoons Coriander seeds
*1 tablespoon Cumin seeds
*1 tablespoon mustard seeds
*2 tablespoons peppercorns
*20 cloves
*1 dried arbol chili (seeded)
*1 tablespoon cinnamon
*1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

I made a double batch of this so when we want another Indian dish we can just grind it up with little hassle.

We purchased Cardamom pods this time, hoping they would stay fresh longer than the ground cardamom we got last time. I start by toasting the pods a bit before crushing them in the mortar and pestle to get them to release their seeds. I removed most of the pod material before adding the seeds to the mix. This was a lot of work, and I think I will stick to buying just the seeds if possible next time. Unfortunately our local store seems to only carry ground, or still in pods.

Next was the dried Arbol Chili. I tried to use the blender, but the chili was not quite ‘dry’ enough to blend easily. I threw in a small amount of the cardamom pod shells to help grind it up and that seemed to work nicely.

With all the spices in the bowl, I mixed them up and filled a spare spice jar with the ‘extra’ for use later.

Into the mortar went 3 tablespoons of this mix to be ground up for the lamb dish.

Next, I prepared the lamb. I cut it from the bone, and into 1” strips. This was a 2.5 lb piece with the bone in. This yielded about 1.75 lb of sliced up lamb.

The slices where put in a 1 gallon ziplock, and 2 tablespoons of the ground Garam Masala spice was added and mixed to coat the meat.

Next, about a cup and a half of plain, whole milk yogurt was added and the bag was ‘smooshed’ and squeezed until all the meat was coated with the marinade, then into the refrigerator it went while I continued working on the dish.

I prepared six cloves garlic, one tablespoon ginger, and a fresh Serrano chili from the garden, grinding them in the mortar

By the time I have the Chili paste prepared, it’s time to get the BBQ going! I fill up the chimney starter with some lump hardwood charcoal, stuff a couple pieces of newspaper under it, and get the fire going!

While I wait for the coals, I might as well whip up some Raita

*1 cucumber, peeled and minced
*1/4 cup fresh mint, minced
*2 cups plain yogurt (whole milk)
*1 fresh cayenne, seeded and minced

Into the refrigerator the Raita goes to chill and allow the flavors to meld.

Meanwhile, @creationofcare has been making cheese! I did say this was ‘from scratch’, right? She has been working on this as long as I have been preparing the Lamb, spices, and Raita!

Holy crap! This is her first time making cheese and it turned out great!

*6 cups whole milk
*1 cup plain 2% Greek yogurt
*1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
*2 teaspoons kosher salt

Bring the milk to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in yogurt, lemon juice, and salt. Stir until curds form and separate from the whey… drain the whey from the curds through a cheesecloth lined colander, then bundle the curds in the cheesecloth and squeeze out all the excess whey. Hang the bundle from a wooden spoon over the colander, and let drain for 10 minutes. Then twist the cheesecloth again and squeeze out any more whey. Place the cheese on a plate with another plate on top, weigh it down with something heavy, and put it in the refrigerator until a firm cake forms (about an hour). Whew…

Then it’s time for the meat to go on the grill

And while that cooks, it’s back to the kitchen to blanch 2 lbs of fresh spinach. Washing this much spinach filled the entire sink! It wilts down to a much more reasonable size, though.

After the spinach has been blanched, it is left to drain while we go check on the meat. We are not fully cooking the meat, just trying to get a nice char on the yogurt marinade.

I didn’t light up quite enough coals, and the meat is not charring as I would have liked, but it will work. Flip the meat over and back to the kitchen.

One diced onion goes into the cast iron skillet with some olive oil to brown up. When all the edges are browned up, a tablespoon of the garam masala spice goes in, to be mixed into the onions while they continue to cook until completely browned.

At this point, the lamb is done on the grill, and is brought inside. I quartered 2 pounds of cherry tomatoes, without any of @creationofcare's tomato-pushing machinations! Really, canned tomatoes are typically used in this dish, but we have an abundance of cherry tomatoes from the garden right now, so that is what we are using. By the way, quartering 2 lbs of cherry tomatoes is a PITA, and was probably overkill. Just slicing them in half would have been much faster, and probably just as effective… anyway, into the skillet go the tomatoes.

Cook down until tomatoes are cooked through and soft. Then, another extra step from using the cherry tomatoes: into the blender the entire concoction goes!

After blending, it looks more like the sauce it's supposed to be, and we can throw the lamb in.

And lastly, stir in a can of coconut milk:

And this dish is pretty much done! It just needs to stew for a while, which is good because we need to get back to that cheese and make the Saag Paneer!

We cubed up the fresh cheese, dusted with flour, and fried it in oil until golden brown:

Dice and brown another small onion with 2 tablespoons of butter and some olive oil. Meanwhile, we combined the spices, yogurt, and chili paste. Upon reflection, we realized we ought to have added the dry spice mixture with the vegetables, and add the yogurt later. It still tasted great!

*2 teaspoons ground coriander
*1 teaspoon ground cumin
*1/2 teaspoon turmeric
*3/4 cup plain 2% Greek yogurt

After the onions are browned, the spinach goes in to heat thoroughly. Then, the yogurt mixture is added and mixed thoroughly before adding the fried cheese and 2 more tablespoons of butter.

Are we finally ready to eat?!

What Indian feast is complete without a bed of rice? @creationofcare made her specialty, coconut milk Jasmine rice, this time ramped up with some cardamom pods, star anise, and a splash of mango nectar for good measure.

Beautifully plated by @creationofcare, who was instrumental in helping me prepare this dish; from making the amazing cheese, to constantly keeping up with the dishes mid prep. Somehow she kept everything I needed clean and at hand, and the counters clear enough for me to work!

And thanks to @foodfightfriday and all the #FFF contestants who inspired me to not only make this dinner, but document and post about it!

Everything turned out really good. @creationofcare‘s fried cheese was the best I have ever tasted. I don’t normally even eat the Raita at restaurants, but this was so fresh and refreshing. The Lamb Tikka Masala was delicious. My only complaint was the ‘heat’ was missing from the Tikka. I realized upon eating it that I had forgot to double the arbol chili when I made the garam masala mix. I think it probably needed at least 2 more chilis. The flavor was all there, it just needed a little more ‘kick’. I suppose I could have just added some cayenne powder at the end… next time.

Happy #FoodFightFriday !

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