From jbolton@rochester.rr.com Mon Dec 4 16:18:29 2006 Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2006 04:49:25 GMT From: Judy Bolton Newsgroups: uk.food+drink.indian Subject: Re: Curry Party "Tubal Cain" wrote in message news:1164987505.640583.264550@73g2000cwn.googlegroups.com... > Curry dinner party for 4 to come next Saturday. > Me and the Mrs OK with everything so long as it has a decent heat to > it. > Male friend pretends he can eat hot stuff, but from experience I know > he suffers with it and doesn't enjoy it. > Male friends wife likes cool, creamy Korma like stuff, which none of > the rest of us can stomach. > Me and Mrs like potatoe dishes and bread etc, not great rice lovers. > Male friend is a definite fresh from the tandoor bread fan, and I am > buying in the bread not making it > Male friends wife is a rice lover. > > I have a vision of a thousand serving dishes and me slumped over the > table knackered wondering why I ever asked. > > Maybe I ought to go restaurant style and cook everything with the same > sauce in little kaharis. Here is the sweet potato recipe I mentioned, and a note about the author's site: I recently made ratala kees, which is a Marathi grated sweet potato dish that just knocked out socks off. I got it from Nupur Kittur's blog, One Hot Stove, which is located at http://www.onehotstove.blogspot.com Nupur has great recipes, and has a special series on her blog, "The A-Z of Marathi food," from where this recipe came (the letter R, of course). The recipe can be found specifically here - http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2006/01/r-is-for-ratala-kees.html Here is the recipe and her suggestions/notes below it. In it you'll see peanut powder. Nupur suggests using a mortar and pestle to create the powder (which is what I used after roasting the peanuts, but I probably did not need to grind it as finely as I did), or a spice grinder. Ratala Kees Ingredients: 2 medium sweet potatoes 1 tbsp vegetable oil 1 tbsp ghee or butter 1 tsp cumin seeds 4-5 fresh curry leaves 2 tbsp crushed roasted peanuts 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional) salt to taste 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice 2 tbsp minced cilantro leaves Method: 1. Wash, peel and grate the sweet potato coarsely into a bowl (this can be done manually or using the grating attachment of a food processor). 2. Heat the oil and ghee in a skillet. Add cumin seeds and curry leaves and sauté for a minute. 3. Add grated sweet potatoes, salt and cayenne pepper. Sauté for a minute, then cook partially covered on medium heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, till potatoes are just tender. 4. Add the crushed peanuts and sauté for a minute more. 5. Turn off the heat, then stir in lemon juice. Garnish with cilantro. This dish can be served warm or at room temperature. The natural sweetness of the sweet potato is a very pleasing contrast to the nutty peanut crunch and the slight spicy kick from the cumin and red chilies. Note that the sweet potato tends to stick to the bottom of the pan, so I had to use a non-stick skillet to avoid this. Another note: If you work reasonably quickly, the grated sweet potato does not discolor as it sits around. If the sweet potato is grated into a bowl of water, this is one way to avoid discoloration, but you will lose some water-soluble vitamins. I would suggest getting your ingredients organized, then grating the sweet potato (not into water) and sautéing it right away. Judy B - Rochester, NY, USA [Part 2, Text/HTML 120 lines] [Unable to print this part]