Wednesday, June 16, 2010

When Life Gives You Monsoons, Make Indian Food

So, we haven't actually been having a monsoon here in my part of the world, but heat and humidity then thunderstorms with a brief cool off before heat and humidity then thunderstorms and repeat has been our weather pattern for the last several days.  Nothing puts me in the mood for Indian food more than hot steamy weather.  Okay, if the truth be told, I would eat Indian pretty much any time.

Channa masala over brown rice and whole wheat roti and a farmer's market peach.  Eaten on the porch during a light rain which was a calm before another storm.

Uttapam Rob made a while ago, but I don't think I ever got around to blogging about it.  Uttapams are hard to come by in my neck of the woods.  I desperately miss the days in Maryland when we had our pick of several completely veg Indian restaurants and we would stuff ourselves silly.  These days we prefer to eat at home and feel much better for it, but we still have a long, long way to go before our food comes close to the homemade fare of our Indian friends.  I served a red lentil curry soup to act as sambar.  I don't remember which cookbook or site we used for the recipes, but I've been wanting to make the recipe on Vegan Planet for a while so check it out.  While I'm talking about Robin Robertson's recipes, you must make the Spicy Indian Cauliflower, but didn't take a picture.  See Cooking From 1,000 Vegan Recipes for their review of this recipe.  It is spot on, I tell you!  I added white potatoes, but stayed pretty true to the recipe and it was excellent.  I can't wait to buy more cauliflower to make this again.

Sometimes I talk about things on the radio program and feel like I've blogged about it and vice versa.  I reviewed several Chicagoland restaurants, for Food for Thought, last time we were in the Windy City, but I don't think I mentioned them on this blog.  Since the topic is Indian food, I have to give big thumbs up to India House.  Sorry the picture is so "artsy" of Josie, but we were tired and hungry so photos didn't take priority.  We felt like things were crazy that night, but we had two diners from separate tables come up and compliment our children for their lovely behavior and one mentioned how great it was to see children enjoy Indian cuisine.  Definitely, check this place out the next time you are in the area and craving excellent Indian food.


I hope you've been keeping dry or you're happy when it rains.

4 comments:

Babette said...

Your Indian food looks excellent!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE this blog! Those dishes look absolutely delicious! Advice from one vegan to another, if you're in a hurry or just want to take a shortcut, check out this Indian food company called Tastybite. I've been buying their products for years now and they make my life so much easier! They're really delicious and easy to make - not high in fat or sodium at all either. They're sold at WholeFoods, Trader Joes, on their website, and at your local supermarket. Here's the link: http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/CategoryDisplay?cgmenbr=2105673&cgrfnbr=2717591&utm_source=tastybite_com&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=tyb_spice_it_up

The Voracious Vegan said...

Indian food is MY FAVORITE, and channa masala is my favorite of all! Your dishes all look delicious, what perfect summer eats!

Jessica said...

Sounds like it was a great place to eat. Looks very yummy!

Thanks for sharing.

jessyburke88@gmail.com