An Invitation to Indian Cooking - Madhur Jaffrey [20]
When you are ready to fry them, heat the oil in a wok, karhai, or a utensil for deep frying. Keep the heat at medium. When oil is hot, drop a samosa in to check the temperature. It should start sizzling immediately. Fry 2 to 3 minutes, or until it looks a warm brown. Remove with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Do all samosas this way. If they brown too fast, lower your heat.
They can be reheated in a 300° oven.
To serve: Place samosas on platter and serve hot or warm with either Fresh Green Chutney with Chinese Parsley and Yogurt or Fresh Mint Chutney with Fruit. The chutney is used as a dip.
Cocktail koftas
SERVES 15
Follow recipe. Make the koftas smaller, about ¼ inch in diameter. They can be made a day in advance, and then reheated.
When serving, keep koftas warm in chafing dish. Place toothpicks nearby to aid self-service.
Broiled chicken strips
SERVES 8–10
See recipe. Instead of cutting chicken breasts into strips 1½ to 2 inches long, cut them into strips that are 1 inch long and ½ inch wide. Follow the rest of the recipe.
To serve: Place on warm platter and stick with toothpicks. Serve with drinks.
Khare masale ka gosht (meat with whole spices)
Pyazwala khare masale ka gosht (meat with whole spices and onions)
Kheema (ground meat)
Kheema with fried onions
Kheema with fried onions and peas
Kheema used as stuffing
for green bell peppers and long Italian peppers
for tomatoes
for eggplant
Koftas (Indian meatballs)
Nargisi koftas (large meatballs stuffed with hard-boiled eggs)
Cubed lamb with onions and raisins
Lamb with onions and mushrooms, or lamb do pyaza
Lamb korma
Lamb (or beef) korma with almonds, pecans, and sour cream
Lamb cooked in dark almond sauce (badami roghan josh)
Lamb with vinegar and mint
Lamb with spinach
Sindhi gosht (Sindhi meat)
Lamb chops with whole spices and yogurt
Pork chops cooked with whole spices and tamarind juice
Pork chops cooked with cabbage
Pork chops à la Jaffrey
Sweetbreads with Chinese parsley
SEE ALSO:
Mulligatawny soup
White soup
Seekh kabab, flat style
Leftover ham on toast
“Butterflied” leg of lamb, marinated and barbecued
Cubed leg of lamb, barbecued
Boti kabab (cubed meat kabab)
Kidney kabab
Seekh kabab
Marinated pork chops
Pullao
Chana dal cooked with lamb
hen an Indian sits down to eat meat, it is nearly always goat meat. The English have translated the meat as mutton, but it is not to be confused with the aged sheep meat available in England, Australia, and New Zealand. Perhaps the English in India didn’t know what else to call it—or perhaps they found a dish called “mutton chops” more palatable than if it was called plain old “goat chops.” Who knows!
At any rate, “mutton” in India is not old sheep meat—far from it. It is usually very fresh goat meat and therefore not always very tender. Because of the lack of proper refrigeration facilities in India (most butchers cannot afford any) the animals are slaughtered daily and the meat is sold within 24 hours. In the richer homes it is then washed and refrigerated or frozen. But in the poorer homes it is cooked immediately. Since the meat is fairly tough, it is cooked slowly, over a longish period of time. For quicker fried and grilled dishes, the meat has to be tenderized first. The cheapest and most common tenderizer is crushed green papaya, but marinades of vinegar and yogurt are also used.
Not only is Indian goat meat a little on the tough side; it is also very lean. The result is that we use a great deal of cooking fat to brown our meats. We tend to like this “browned” look. When I buy lamb here in America (lamb is the best substitute for the Indian “mutton”), I first trim away all signs of fat. Then, to make it taste like the food I have in India, I cook it in lots of oil. This cooking fat can, of course, be removed later, once the dish is completely cooked, by spooning it off the top just before serving.
There is another significant difference in the quality of Indian meat which influences cooking techniques. In India, meat dropped into fat can