kaye16's Reviews
14 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 14Sort by: Title 
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Made in India: Recipes from an Indian Family Kitchen
By Meera Sodha
Flatiron Books - 2015
20-Minute Fish Curry : page 131
I made a half recipe with swordfish, since that's what looked best at the shop. Easy to assemble. Quick if you aren't seeding 7oz of cherry tomatoes. Very tasty.
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Beet and Feta Samosas : page 48
I chose this recipe because it sounded a bit odd for an Indian meal. But it was a hit—both we and company loved it.
I made 18 samosas for dinner; four of us ate all of them. Later I made up another 10 to freeze.
Sodha's instructions for folding up the filo aren't the best, but luckily I've done this kind of thing before. I lay out the strip, then put the tablespoon of stuffing on what would be the second triangle. Fold the first over that, then continue folding till you get to the end.
I'm curious now how the frozen ones will do.
5sep18: The frozen samosas are great. Pop them frozen into the oven as Sodha instructs.
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Good enough, but nothing special.
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Really yummy.
- My bite-sized bits of cauliflower took about twice the time to cook as specified.
- The cashews added a nice bit of texture.
- A half recipe was a lot fo two.
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Chaat Salad : page 192
Yes! Delicious salad. Easy to prepare. Cuke, radish, scallions, cilantro, and pomegranate seeds for crunch, topped with spicy fried (canned) chickpeas. Different and very tasty.
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Golden Garlic Raita : page 178
Made a half recipe to go with Roasted Butternut Squash Curry. Easy to do and very good.
This sauce would go with lots of things, not just Indian. Easy to make.
Might use some red pepper flakes rather than a fresh chili.
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Great Grandma's Mango Chutney : page 215
Easy to make. Not bad.
Made on 17jan; first taste was a bit salty and blah.
First served on 22jan; much better.
Sodha says this is a fresh chutney that should be used in a week. I think it didn't get good till a week had past.
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Docking 1 point for poor instructions.
1) First instruction: Preheat over to 275F. Next instruction: Prepare a spice paste for the lamb, rub it in, and let marinate for up to 8 hours. My oven does not take that long to preheat.
2) Toasting spices. The ingredient list asks for 1/2 tsp ground cardamom (or finely ground seeds from 6 pods). I really don't think I want to put any ground spice in a hot skillet with a bunch of seeds that I'm toasting to grind. Maybe I should have toasted the seeds from the pods, but I just added the ground cardamom (which I go through pretty quickly so it's not old) with the ground cinnamon, etc.
Beyond that, this was easy to prepare and delicious, like Indian pulled lamb. Amazing how only one star anise dominated the other flavors, but the total effect was yummy.
A nice main for a party, since you can prepare the meat up to pulling off the bone, putting it onto an oven-proof platter or flat casserole, then letting it do its final 20min in a hot oven while you're having drinks or a starter.
My 1.4kg (~3#) shoulder fed four people nicely. I wouldn't want to serve 6 or even 5 with that amount.
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Mint and Yogurt Chutney : page 219
Ok. Two basic problems ...
1) It's way too sweet. I cut back the sugar but it was still unpleasantly sweet to my taste. (1tsp for 5tbl yogurt in the US edition)
2) It's too runny. In Jaffrey's books, I learned to purée only a part of the yogurt with the herbs, then stir this into the remaining yogurt. Whizzing all the yogurt makes it too runny.
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Oven-Roasted Chicken Tikka : page 36
The result is a 5, only downgrading because of poor instructions. This is yet another recipe where Sodha has you preheat the oven then marinate something for a long period. Poor editing.
Oh we loved this. There were no skinless-bonless chicken thighs at the shop this week, so I bought turkey oysters instead. (You know, that nice bit of muscle at the back of the pelvis on each side.) With 454g/1# of turkey, I used all the marinade. Easy and delicious.
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An excellent vegetarian main course. I made a half recipe and served over brown rice with Golden Garlic Raita as suggested.
It's easy and fairly fast to assemble, longer that a usual week-night dinner, but with lots of time for other activities.
Yum.
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Pretty good way to do cauliflower. Nice flavors.
Took longer that 30min in the oven to get the cauliflower done; either I didn't cut my cauliflower small enough, or I didn't blanch quite long enough.
Lemon juice should be tossed into the cauliflower.
NB: Sodha calls for a large cauliflower of 1-1/4#. I just bought what I would call a medium-large cauliflower and it weighs in just over 3#.
6apr18: Blanched for about 4 minutes I think, getting a still crunchy texture on its way to soft. Roasted 30min plus an extra 5min. They were perfect.
My 3# cauliflower would have served 5, maybe 6.
Because these are fine served at room temp, they're a nice dish for a party.
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Easy and delicious.
- My three thighs (for 2) were about 600g, more than the 14oz asked. I did not increase ingredients; it wasn't necessary.
- I used about 2-1/2tbl honey; probably 2tbl would be fine.
The skin was remarkably crispy. I don't usually eat this, but it was nice.
The prep time is quite fast and the oven time is unattended, so this could be a good weeknight meal.
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Salmon and Spinach Curry : page 141
The result was tasty, and an attractive dish, but I'm a bit doubtful about the recipe.
First of all, the recipe serves four with 14 ounces of salmon. I had about that for two (a bit more than I usually get, but the smallest piece available). Even with the spinach to fill it out, this seems a bit skimpy for a main course for four.
I more-or-less halved the rest of the recipe, although I went long on the spices. Because I had to deseed my tomatoes, I added a bit of tomato paste with the chopped tomatoes.
I had only 200g of spinach, instead of 225g asked (for half). I didn't add all of of what I had. I know spinach cooks down a lot, but it still seemed like a lot. I suppose I could have persisted, but I thought there was plenty of spinach.
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