kaye16's Reviews
29 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 29Sort by: Title | Date | Rating
30 Minute Indian: Cook Modern Indian Recipes in 30 Minutes or Less. (30 Minute Cooking)
By Sunil Vijayakar, William Reavell
Laurel Glen Publishing - 2000
Spiced Beets : page 88
This jumped to the top of the queue as a favorite.
We can get 500g vacuum-packed packages of cooked beets, which I used for a whole recipe. Might use a bit less coconut milk next time, since there was a bit too much sauce.
Two of us ate a lot; this would probably only serve three unless they were dainty eaters.
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Kachumber : page 37
A really nice salad. Needs to be made a bit ahead of time so the flavors settle down. Nothing particularly "Indian" tasting. Would be good as a side for a bbq.
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Salmon in Banana Leaves : page 58
We really enjoyed this one. No banana leaves; parchment paper works fine.
Salmon fillet, topped with cilantro, mint, garlic, ginger, red chiles, ground cumin, ground coriander, brown sugar, lime juice, and coconut milk that had been blitzed into a sauce.
Very tasty and the salmon was nicely done.
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Jeera Potatoes : page 85
These were a hit.
If you have everything ready (potatoes boiled, flavorings prepped), they finish up quite easily at the last minute.
Vijayakrar says these potatoes go well with chicken and fish dishes, but we thought they were quite fine with lamb.
Jeera, it turns out, is alternative name for cumin seeds.
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Ginger Chicken : page 42
Half recipe for two, although I'm fairly sure the two of us could have eaten a whole recipe. It was delicious.
At the end of cooking, I thought it was a bit soupy still so I stirred in a bit of potato flour mixed with water. Zap, it was perfect.
A really delicious main course within 30 minutes.
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Spicy Pan-Fried Cod : page 60
Made a half recipe with lieu noir, which seems to be a distant cod relative.
Pretty good and easy (and fast) enough to make.
The instructions have mix a bunch of spices and "dust" it on the fish, but the spices include grated fresh ginger and a crushed garlic clove (I grated mine), so the result is more like a paste to be spread on. Never mind, we liked it.
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Shrimp with Curry Leaves and Fenugreek : page 68
Very tasty recipe, and fast.
Made half recipe, with half of most spice, but a whole red chile. The result was not challenging.
Served with Jeera Rice.
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Jeera Rice : page 99
Very good rice. This may become my standard rice dish. Half recipe was a generous serving for two.
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Tamarind and Date Chutney : page 30
Easy and really yummy. I tasted at some point and added more tamarind, since I thought more of that nice sour taste was needed to balance the sweet of the dates. Next time I'll double the tamarind asked. But definitely a next time. This is a favorite.
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Coconut Rice : page 100
Pretty good, and good for using up that extra bit of coconut milk leftover from another course.
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Kashmiri Lamb Chops : page 52
Cooked these under the broiler. Delicious. They'd probably be good on the grilled on the barbecue too.
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Fish Mollee : page 61
Quite good and very easy to make. Used cod. (Shrimp can also be used used.)
N.B.: There is an error in the ingredient list, which says only "4 fresh green chilies, deseeded and". The following line is missing. I finely chopped mine.
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Broccoli Sabzi : page 91
Good.
I covered the broc while it was cooking and finally added a bit of water for the last minutes to help the broccoli cook it since the pan seemed a bit too dry to me.
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Chettinad Chicken : page 43
Very good. Onions and chicken thigh meat in a tasty sauce.
Next time I'll coarsely chop the garlic cloves instead of just crushing them as instructed.
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Mutter Paneer : page 81
(I'm unsure if this is meant as a main or a side. I served a full recipe as a main, over plain rice. Two of us could eat it all. It would have served three easily.)
Not bad at all. Can't say it was fast, though. Too much measuring, chopping, etc. Once that's done, it goes together quickly.
(Dhanajeera seems to be a 1:2 mixture of ground cumin and ground coriander.)
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Onion Bhajiyas : page 17
The major problem with this recipe is that it calls for too much salt. That 2 tsps should probably be 1/2 or maybe 3/4 tsps. (I reduced to 1 tsp and they were still too salty.
I've been making Madhur Jaffrey's Onion Fritters/Onion Bhajias for quite a while. Those are tasty, but not really crispy. The major differences I see between these recipes are that Jaffrey uses an egg and a full cup of besan, rather then 5 tablespoons here, and Vijayakar adds baking powder. I wonder if that isn't the magic "crispy" ingredient?
I will definitely try this again, using much less salt and adding Jaffrey's extra spices (turmeric, cayenne, cumin seeds, and ground cumin). But we're definitely going in the right direction with our onion bhajis now.
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Bombay Chicken Masala : page 46
Good stuff. Easy.
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Tomato Fish Curry : page 72
Easy and tasty.
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Lamb Kebabs : page 52
Good stuff.
I did mince the garlic cloves, rather than crush them.
Rather than baking meatballs, I made patties and we bbq'd them.
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Lime Pickle : page 34
Have put this together; now waiting 10 days for results.
- Makes "1 jar" it says. This is a mightily big jar. Ten limes in sixths fills most of the largest (2-1/2qt?) of the nested pyrex bowls most people (my age, at least) have. I'm guessing I'll get it in a 1-liter/quart jar when it's ripened.
- First time I've ever seen so much asafoetida in one recipe--1/2tsp! (When I took a little Indian cooking course a long long time ago, our teacher said the little container of asafoetida that you buy would last a lifetime. I may have to buy a new one before long, or die soon.
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Gujariti Carrot Salad : page 32
Ok, but Madhur jaffery's Gujerati Carrot Salad is better.
Honey not needed.
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Tandoori Chicken : page 40
Good enough, but nothing very "tandoori" here.
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Seekh Kebabs : page 51
These were pretty tasty, if a bit dry.
- I had only 350g of ground beef (rather than 400g) and made only eight kebabs (rather than twelve). Even with the full amount, twelve would have been more like smallish meatballs.
- I didn't add nearly enough salt, so we had to salt them at the table.
- The meat mixture wasn't firm enough to stay put even on my flat skewers. I ended up turning them by hand and using some wooden skewers to hold three or two together in the right position. I think it would be better to start with a pair of wooden skewers in each kebab.
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Kitcheree : page 99
Maybe meant as a side? We had it for dinner
Should be made with rice and moong dal. I thought I had moong dal on the shelf, but it turned out to be chana dal, which takes a bit longer to cook. A quick look online showed split peas as a substitute. I happened to have some yellow ones (but no green ones-->inventory failure), so used those. I soaked them for a while with the rice, but that didn't really work. They were still a bit on the crunchy side at the end.
In spite of all the spices (cinnamon stick, cloves, peppercorns, ginger, green chiles, cumin seeds, and ground coriander), this was quite a bland dish so the Lime Pickle was a nice addition.
I don't think this should be thought of as a 30-minute dish. Moong dal or split peas, either need more time to cook.
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Seviyan : page 114
Made this quite some time ago (2008, didn't realize I'd had this book that long). My notes say ...
Tasty but too thick. Covered cooking was 3x 5min. Might try 2x 5min.
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Cauliflower Relish : page 30
We didn't like this much at all.
- The cauliflower should be in bite-sized pieces. For a relish? I think it should be pretty well chopped up, not bite-sized.
- We found it too crunchy for a relish, but this could be because the pieces were too big.
- Nothing special taste-wise.
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Paneer : page 34
Um, find another recipe. Madhur Jaffrey's paneer works.
This recipe says it makes 5oz of paneer; mine weighed in less than 4oz.
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Naan : page 103
I was curious about how you can turn out a 30-minute naan. The answer is that you can't. This recipe takes a minimum of an hour. And, while the result was more or less edible, to me it tasted of baking powder.
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Kheer : page 116
Reasonably good taste. Poor texture, poor instructions.
- I used basmati rice, rather than jasmine, since that's what I keep in-house and I didn't think to buy jasmine this week. These cook the same as far as I know
- The result calls for 2-1/2 cups milk. I used almost the whole liter, and the "pudding" was still as stiff as could be.
The recipe has another unclear ingredient/instructions. It asks for 1 teaspoon of crushed cardamom seeds. I suppose he means for you to take the seeds out of the pods and crush them. That's what I did. But this is a 30-minute cookbook. Why not just use ground cardamom?
Very unhappy with this one and trying to think what to do with a bowl of stiff rice pudding to make it edible.
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