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Madhur Jaffrey’s Eggplants in a North-South SauceFor years, fans of cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey have complained to her that Indian cooking seems too complicated. As a result, Ms. Jaffrey decided to create a cookbook filled with some of the most simple Indian dishes she could find or create.
Delicious no-meat recipes for your holiday table.
Madhur JaffreyThe result is “At Home With Madhur Jaffrey: Simple, Delectable Dishes From India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,” published last month by Knopf. “My whole idea with this book is what I do with my everyday food,” she says. “I cook every day, and I don’t take several hours out to cook a meal. Indian food has so many simple dishes.”
To compile the dishes for “At Home,” Ms. Jaffrey not only collected numerous simple recipes, but she also tested ways to simplify cooking techniques and reduce the number of steps involved in each dish. Dishes that previously required adding a variety of spices in multiple steps, for instance, were changed to allow home cooks to mix all the spices together at once in a marinade. For an eggplant recipe that typically requires browning the eggplant in advance, she skipped the step altogether and discovered the dish tasted just as good.
For Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving series, Ms. Jaffrey offers four simple ways to add Indian flavors to your holiday table. She offers sweet and sour butternut squash or pumpkin, as well as eggplant in a delicious sauce. A simple aromatic corn will wow your guests. And for an unusual substitute for cranberry sauce, consider her Bengali-style tomato chutney.
“You get all the authentic taste as you would get with traditional Indian cooking, but you’ve spent much less time doing it,” she says.
See the recipes from Ms. Jaffrey below. And be sure to check the display page to see all the recipes from Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving series.
Madhur Jaffrey’s
Sweet and Sour Butternut Squash or Pumpkin
This dish belongs to a category of Bangladeshi foods known as bharats. Part relish and part vegetable dish, they add extra flavor to a meal. “We are beginning to find peeled and seeded butternut squash in our supermarkets now, making this dish a snap to make,” Ms. Jaffrey says. Use mustard oil for an authentic Bengali taste, or substitute olive oil. Mustard oil and other Asian ingredients and seasonings like asafetida and urad dal can be found in Indian food stores and specialty shops.
3 tablespoons mustard oil or olive oil
A generous pinch of ground asafetida
1/2 teaspoon whole brown or yellow mustard seeds
4 cups (1 1/4 pounds) peeled and seeded butternut squash or pumpkin, cut into segments 3/4- to 1-inch in size
3/4 to 1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon plain yogurt
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1. Pour the oil into a frying pan and set over medium heat. When hot, add the asafetida and mustard seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds start to pop, a matter of seconds, add the squash. Continue to cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes, or until the squash pieces just start to brown.
2. Add 1/4 cup of water, cover, turn heat to low, and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the squash is tender.
3. Add the salt, sugar, cayenne and yogurt. Stir and cook, uncovered, over medium heat until the yogurt is absorbed and no longer visible. Sprinkle in the cilantro and stir a few times.
Yield: Serves 4 to 5.
Madhur Jaffrey’s
Eggplants in a North-South Sauce
Madhur Jaffrey calls this “one of our most beloved family dishes, very much in the Hyderabadi style, where North Indian and South Indian seasonings are combined.” You can use the long, tender Japanese eggplants or the purple “baby” Italian eggplants, or even the striated purple and white ones that are about the same size as the baby Italian ones. “Once cut, what you are aiming for are 1-inch chunks with as much skin on them as possible so they do not fall apart,” she says. Serve hot with rice and dal, or cold as a salad.
4 tablespoons olive or canola oil
1/8 teaspoon ground asafetida
1/2 teaspoon skinned urad dal or yellow split peas
1/2 teaspoon whole mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole nigella seeds (kalonji)
1/2 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 pounds slim Japanese eggplants, cut crossways into 1-inch segments, or “baby” Italian eggplants, cut in half lengthwise and then crossways into 1-inch segments
2 medium tomatoes, grated, about 1 1/4 cups
1 cup vegetable stock or water
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1. Pour the oil into a very large frying pan and set over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the asafetida and the urad dal.
2. As soon as the dal turns a shade darker, add the mustard, cumin, nigella and fennel seeds, in that order.
3. When the mustard seeds begin to pop, a matter of seconds, add the onions. Stir and fry for a minute. Add the garlic and the eggplant. Stir and fry for 4 to 5 minutes or until the onions are a bit browned.
4. Add the grated tomatoes, stock, salt and cayenne. Stir to mix and bring to a boil. Cover, turn heat to low, and cook about 20 minutes or until the eggplants are tender, stirring now and then.
Yield: Serves 4 to 6.
Tony Cenicola/The New York TimesMadhur Jaffrey’s
Corn With Aromatic Seasonings
An easy, perfumed, stir-fried corn dish that can be made with fresh or frozen corn.
3 tablespoons olive or canola oil
1 teaspoon whole brown or yellow mustard seeds
4 cardamom pods
4 whole cloves
One 1-inch cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger
1 to 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh hot green chiles (do not discard seeds)
4 cups corn cut fresh off the cobs, or two 10-ounce packets of frozen corn, defrosted and drained
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup heavy cream
1. Pour the oil into a frying pan and set over medium heat.
2. Meanwhile, combine the mustard seeds, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves in a small cup.
3. When the oil is hot, put in all the whole spices. As soon as the mustard seeds pop, a matter of seconds, add the ginger and green chiles. Stir once or twice, and then add in the corn. Stir for 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Add the salt and cream. Continue to stir and cook for another minute. Turn heat to low and cook 1 to 2 minutes, stirring, until all the cream is absorbed. You can pick out and discard the cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves if you are serving those unaccustomed to large whole spices in their foods.
Yield: Serves 4 to 6.
Madhur Jaffrey’s
Bengali-Style Tomato Chutney
At Bengali banquets, this chutney, along with deep-fried, puffed white-flour breads (loochis) and pappadoms, is served as the penultimate course, just before the dessert. “Here in the Western world, I tend to serve it with the main meal,” says Ms. Jaffrey.
2 tablespoons olive, canola, or peanut oil
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole brown or yellow mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
2 cups tomato puree, canned or homemade
1 1/2 teaspoons very finely grated peeled fresh ginger
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons golden raisins (optional)
1. Pour the oil into a heavy, medium-size stainless steel pan and set over medium-high heat. When hot, add the cumin and mustard seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds begin to pop, a matter of seconds, add the fennel seeds.
2. A few seconds later, add the tomato puree, ginger, vinegar, sugar, pepper flakes and salt. Stir and bring to a simmer. Once bubbling, turn heat down to low and cook, uncovered, stirring now and then, for about 50 minutes.
3. Add the raisins and cook another 10 minutes. The chutney should be thick and have a glazed appearance. Put the chutney into a jar, allow to cool, and then screw the lid on and refrigerate.
Yield: Makes a generous 1 1/2 cups.
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