Recipe Watch 2: Indian Entrees

We meet again in the "Recipe Watch" segment, where I try out recipes from other bloggers and find some great new entries for my recipe file. This time, to celebrate the blossoming of so many great new Indian food blogs, I chose the theme Indian Entrees, and made a dish from each of my favorite main-course staples.

1.Eggs: Everyone seems to have a favorite recipe for egg curry. Me, I want to learn how to make 'em all! It is amazing how you tweak the spice mixture a little bit and change the curry base around somewhat, and end up with a whole new delicious curry. This time I tried Mangalorean Egg Curry, a family favorite kindly shared by Tina of the new blog Tina's Cooking. This turned out to be a fabulous Sunday lunch for us, the curry is aromatic and subtle, very flavorful indeed. I served this with brown rice and a simple salad of cucumber and tomatoes.

2. Vegetables: Cauliflower seems to have a bad reputation in the blogosphere ("Oh, that smell etc!), but I have to say that it is one of my favorite veggies! Courtney and her friends from Naughty Curry posted a recipe called 'Magical Peppercorn' Cauliflower Korma that sounded so tempting...and am I glad I tried it! The combination of peppercorns and cashewnuts was delicious and unusual. This recipe is a keeper.
Green peppers are humble and ubiquitous, but they usually play a supporting role in most dishes. Kay of the beautifully named blog Towards a Better Tomorrow posted her friend's recipe for Marathi-style Green Peppers dish that showcases this vegetable. This is a wonderful method of stir-frying veggies that I will be talking about again when we come to the "Z of Marathi food"...and this green pepper dish was simple and tasty in combination with some roti.

3. Beans: They are the very backbone of my diet, and I stock my pantry with a variety of beans, looking for new recipes to cook them. Recently, Priya of Priya's Kitchen posted a recipe using black "chana" or chickpeas...I had to run out and get these and add them to my "dal" collection. The resulting Kadala Curry was delicious with brown rice and yogurt, and the leftovers made for a tasty lunch the next day!

4. Soy: Bilbo from Smorgasbord and I have been friends for half a decade (before either of us knew what a blog was!) and now I love visiting her kitchen virtually. I enjoyed making her recipe for Kheema Mutter or (faux) minced meat with peas. Ground soy nuggets look startingly like meat! This curry was very tasty with some fresh crusty bread. It also calls for all pantry ingredients (I always have frozen peas on hand), which gets bonus points during winter.

5. Yogurt: Yogurt is something that completes and complements almost every Indian meal. Shammi from Food-In The Main made this amazing savory Yogurt Curry that is creamy and comforting! It goes well with plain rice or pilaf.

My theme for the next Recipe Watch is Salads!...I plan to find some great salad recipes from my fellow bloggers and try them out for myself. If you spot a great salad recipe on any blog, do give me a holler!

P.S: I know the photo of the hollyhocks (I thought they were poppies but stand corrected!) is irrelevant, but I like posts with pictures so I put it in :) It was taken by V last summer at the Cloisters, the medieval collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.