Mega desi food night

So, apparently it was the day for many left knees to get injured. Vodka's in sick bay, his left knee is possibly sprained (I hope that's all it is and not a damaged ligament :( ). So, I made him a whole bunch of oatmeal apple cookies, he was quite happy!

My mum hurt her knee and is hobbling around! So, I did a desi food cookout for her, pretty fun!

Gobi & Broccoli Jalfrezi
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One of my fave desi cookbooks has an awesome recipe for Gobi Jalfrezi, I added some broccoli to this and it definitely enhanced the flavors. I pureed some roma tomatoes and garlic along with freshly ground spices (cloves, bay leaves, coriander, cinnamon, kalonji) - this made for a great gravy base. It tasted much, much better than using tomato paste and regular garam masala!

Baingan Bartha
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I love BB - one of the first edible dishes I cooked when I came to the U.S. (lifted off the amazing S.O.A.R. - desis often called it Bangin' Bart!) So, I made this a little differently - I used a giant eggplant as well as yellow squashes -cut them in halves lengthwise and broiled them for about 20 minutes. The sauce was minced red onions, ginger, garlic, green chillies and coconut (that was a definite twist, BB never has coconut). It turned out decent, the only thing that went wrong is that I didn't peel the eggplant and the peel was somewhat bitter. So, I had to enhance the flavors with a sweet'n'sour mix (a spoon of brown sugar + white vinegar + lemon juice). It did the trick, but next time, I'll remove the peel :)

Dal
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Nothing like good ole tuvar dal cooked up with sauteed bell peppers and onions. Perfect comfort food.

Rice Pilaf
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I cooked up this wild rice mix from PCC - it took forever to cook, but tasted yummy - some bits were juicy and chewy, others were soft, we loved it! Amma had the great idea of seasoning it with some roasted cumin, mustard, julienned ginger and red chillies. We threw in a ton of chopped cilantro and it tasted great!

*burp* :)