Indian Food, mmmm

Indian cooking night! I decided to make a couple recipes from a book I read a while back about the culinary history of India, especially how it relates to England. The book was quite enjoyable to read, and I'd recommend it (especially if it happens to be in a library near you). Curry, written by Lizzie Collingham.

http://tinyurl.com/yr2qzy
Anyway, there are only a few recipes in the book, but all of them have been great. Susan's Chicken was one of the recipes I made, basically a tomato based sauce supplemented with a variety of Indian spices. I think I added too many tomatoes to the dish, and I decided to par-cook the chicken on the grill instead of in a fry pan.

The other recipe I made was Bengali potatoes (2nd time making them). They are also quite good, especially since I found actual cardemom pods to use this time instead of just powdered like last time. It makes quite a difference given the method of cooking.

Notice the sad lack of rice on my plate... forgot to cook it. It would go quite well with the tomato sauce on the rice, so some good basmati rice would really add to the dish. I served it with a little bit of naan, which would have been better fresh, but always a good pairing. In case you are curious, wine doesn't go particularly well with Indian food generally... better sticking to beer. The chicken might be compatible with a strong red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon or something.

ps - added recipes to recipebox