Indian Feast: Introduction

For my 28th birthday weekend, Rachelle came over to my place and we had an indian inspired feast. We were in the kitchen for two and half hours just chopping, boiling, stirring, frying...It was exhausting, but the experience was memorable. We ran into a few speed bumps and resulted in a detour or two. Some things we cooked from scratch, some not so much...Here is a little photo collage of the food we did not make from scratch.

From top left (clockwise): Naan bread, Green peas and Paneer, Saffron Yellow rice, Papadums

We originally wanted to make home-made Naan bread, but decided it took too long since we had to let the yeast grow. So, we cheated and bought President's Choice Naan bread. Of course, we could have went to an indian restauarnt and get take-out Naan, but we were on foot.

The Green Peas and Paneer and the Saffron yellow rice are from Rachelle. She bought them on a recent trip to Ottawa. Both are pre-packaged. The GP & Paneer were microwaved...and tasted...like pre-packaged stuff. It wasn't aweful, but not good. The Paneer was mushy and tasteless, the peas were...well...I hate peas. I guess if you were incredibly desperate for some Paneer, these would be alright. The Saffron rice was a tad salty and even too mushy. Rachelle had followed the cooking directions on the bag. They were also not terrible, but not great either.

The papadums I bought pre-packaged. I had bought them when Kev and I were having butter chicken for dinner one night and I thought I could just tear the package open and eat the papadums. I should have read the instructions and realized that they were not ready-to-eat, I had to fry them in oil. It's important to mention that I have never, never, NEVER fried anything in my life. I hate the smell of oil in the house. Even when a recipes asks me to pan-fry, i almost always bake it instead. So to have the papadums, I gave in and decided to heat up a pot of oil. Rachelle and I were very afraid of getting burned. The papadums took no time to fry and they were yummy...despite the oiliness.

Things we made from scratch (posts coming soon)

• Sweet Potato Samosa
• Vegetable Masala
• Rainbow trout with Coconut-Curry Beurre Blanc
• Desert: Chocolate Soufflé with Gooey Center
• (Rachelle made Baked apple, which she will blog)