An Invitation to Indian Cooking - Madhur Jaffrey [103]
To serve: Shake the jar. Remove one or two carrot pieces for serving, and arrange in a small bowl or on relish tray. Do not serve the oil.
Onions pickled in vinegar
ABOUT 1 QUART
This relish is served in Delhi’s famous Moti Mahal restaurant. It is extremely simple to make. The onions need to marinate in the vinegar for at least 24 hours, so allow yourself sufficient time. In this recipe, I have made enough pickle to fill a quart jar. It should keep a month.
1 pound white boiling onions (pick small, clean, even-sized onions)
2 cups red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
2 whole dried red peppers
1 tablespoon salt
Peel onions. Slicing only three-quarters of the way down, quarter them lengthwise. Each onion should stay whole, with the four sections attached at the bottom. Place the onions in a clean, wide-mouthed quart jar. You may have a few left over.
In a nonmetallic bowl, combine the vinegar, garlic, red peppers, and salt. Mix well. Pour this mixture over the onions to cover them. Put on a tight lid and set the jar aside for 24 hours.
The pickle is now ready. Refrigerate the jar. The onions can be taken out and eaten as and when desired.
To serve: Take as many of the onions out of the vinegar as you need and place them in a glass or other nonmetallic bowl. They go well with Tandoori Chicken and Whole Unhulled Urad and Rajma Dal.
Cucumber raita
SERVES 4–6
This is a refreshing, cool yogurt and cucumber relish. In the hot summer months, it really takes the place of a salad.
1 cucumber
16 ounces (2 containers) plain yogurt
1 teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon roasted, ground cumin seeds
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
⅛ teaspoon paprika (for garnishing)
Peel and grate the cucumber.
Empty the yogurt into serving bowl and beat it well with a fork until it is smooth and pastelike.
Add the cucumber, salt, black pepper, roasted cumin (reserve a pinch for garnish), and cayenne to the bowl with the yogurt.
Sprinkle with paprika and the pinch of roasted cumin. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
To serve: Bring bowl of cold yogurt to the table. This relish goes well with nearly all Indian meals.
Yogurt with tiny dumplings (boondi-ka-dahi)
SERVES 6–8
The only yogurt relish served at all our family wedding banquets was this one. Tiny little droplets of a chickpea flour paste are dropped into deep fat and fried. They are then softened in warm water. Finally they are combined with yogurt and spices, freshly roasted cumin being perhaps the most important ingredient used. You can make this relish as hot as you like. When I make it in America, I put in just a touch of cayenne pepper. But at those wedding banquets in India, it was a cool scorcher!
In India the dumplings are made by pushing the batter through the holes of a slotted spoon into the hot oil. The Indian slotted spoons have round holes about ⅛ inch wide. If you can find a spoon like that, use it. If you have a colander with holes this size, it could work as well.
FOR THE DUMPLINGS
4 heaping tablespoons chickpea flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cumin seeds
Vegetable oil for deep frying, enough to have 1 inch in the skillet
FOR THE YOGURT
24 ounces (3 containers) plain yogurt
1½ teaspoons salt
⅛–¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon freshly roasted, ground cumin seeds
⅛–¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
⅛ teaspoon paprika
Place the chickpea flour and the baking powder in a bowl. Add a little water at a time (about ⅓ cup altogether) and mix to a thick, smooth paste, stiff enough to stand in tiny peaks. Use a wooden spoon or your fingers to do this. Add ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon cumin and mix well. Set aside.
In an 8–10-inch skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Get your slotted spoon or colander, whichever you are going to use. When the oil is hot, place a tablespoon of batter on the slotted spoon or the colander and push it through with the back of a clean wooden spoon. Little droplets will fall into