Recreating Darby’s Indian-style going away party

Divide the following components among all who attend. It’s a party folks -- everyone should contribute something.
--The following Indian recipes
--Naan from an Indian restaurant because nobody wants to make that stuff and Indian food can’t be eaten without it.
--The wine
--The scotch
--The ambiance
--The entertainment

Light candles. Put some music on. Push all the furniture to the corners of the room. Spread a big Indian bedsheet on the floor. Everyone sits on this blanket, cross-legged with a plate of food and a glass of wine. Water is optional. Eat heartily with your hands…no, your hand. The right one! The right hand; this is very important.

Eat all the food that will fit in your belly. Drink lots of wine with the food. When you can’t eat anymore, take a swig of scotch. It will burn the food fat or something like that (or so Darcy says). Eat and drink some more. Repeat. Repeat.

Read good poetry, everyone should take a turn. The musicians will perform a few songs next. Everyone must clap loudly.

Walk over to Mark’s in Dundee for some dessert, preferably the bread pudding (although Darby would likely recommend the chocolate mousse). Steer away from the coffee if you can; it’s lousy. And cold. But then, you should probably just go for it. Dessert is nothing without coffee. Even if it’s bad coffee.

Remember the evening for years to come -- you won’t be able to help yourself.

Saffron Rice
3 cups chicken broth
1/8 – ¼ tsp saffron thread
½ medium onion, chopped
2 cups basmati rice

Cook onion until it is soft in a little oil. Add chicken, brown and rice. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Daph uses the rice cooker to make this. Brown the onion then dump everything else and turn the sucker on. Eat this rice with the Egg Curry, Sag Paneer or Chicken Curry recipes. Or all three!

Chicken Curry (crock-pot dish)
Makes 4 servings
3½- to 4-quart cooker

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of fat and cut into 1-inch cubes
4 medium onions, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp curry powder
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. turmeric
q tsp. ginger powder
1 tbsp peanut oil
1/3 cup water

Mix the chicken, onions, garlic, soy sauce, curry, chili, turmeric, ginger, oil and water n an electric slow cooker. Cover and cook on low until the chicken is tender and cooked through, 7 to 9 hours. Serve the chicken over hot basmati rice.

Creamed Curried Spinach with Cheese (Sag Paneer)
½ c. water
1 lb. fresh spinach, washed, de-stemmed, coarsely chopped (sometimes I use frozen)
3 T butter
1 T finely chopped ginger
½ c. finely chopped onion
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground cumin
¼ tsp. turmeric
½ tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp. garam masala
1 cup cheese (paneer), cut into 1-inch cubes
the recipe doesn’t call for it, but I also use some red cayenne pepper to spice it up.

Combine ½ of the water and a handful of the spinach in a blender. Blend at high speed for 30 sec. Keep adding spinach until about half is blended. Add a little more water, if necessary, to puree.

In a large skillet, heat the butter over moderate heat. Add the ginger and sauté for one minutes. Add the onions and salt and continue sautéing for 5 more minutes.

Stirring after each addition, add the cumin, turmeric, coriander, and garam masala. Then stir in the leafy and pureed spinach. Reduce heat and cook mixture uncovered, for 20-30 min. Most of the liquid should evaporate. At the last minute, gently add the paneer. Serve hot.

***Paneer (cheese)
For the cheese, you can use any white cheese. But I discovered that it’s super easy to make the real deal Indian paneer. You just have to plan ahead a little.

6 cups whole milk
2 cups whole yogurt

Pour milk into a deeeeep pot (room to boil) and cook it to boiling, stirring almost constantly so it doesn’t scorch. after the milk boils, add the yogurt and continue to cook and stir. this gets a little gross….it will form curds and a greenish liquid will separate from the curds. this takes a couple minutes of cooking.

Pour the curds and green crap (is this called whey? like little miss muffet?) into a cheesecloth lined colander. Drain until the cheese cools and can be handled. ball up the cheese in the cheesecloth and squeeze out excess liquid. Twist it up tight and put a rubberband on it, then tie the ball to the sink faucet and let it drain for about half an hour. take off the rubberband and form into a block then put the block of cheese between two plates and put something heavy on top (like a pot of water, which is tricky to balance but can be done) for about an hour or so. Drain liquid off plate occasionally (if there is any. I usually try to squeeze all the liquid out and even use a paper towel to blot it out of the cheesecloth before I form the block. cause I think that liquid is disgusting don’t want it to touch my cheese for a long time). Cut it up and, voila! CHEESE.

Also, you can add salt and/or cumin after you add the yogurt if you want. But I usually keep it plain, cause the saag is already salty and savory enough for my taste. the blandness of the cheese helps to balance it out.

Egg Curry (Anda Kari)
Serves 4

In frying pan, sauté in 2 T. oil:
2 large onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced

When onions are transparent add:
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. paprika
1 ½ tsp ground coriander
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground red pepper
1 tsp. garam masala
Fry for 1-2 minutes

Add 1 ½ cup tomatoes (fresh or canned, I used chopped canned).
Cover and simmer until thick, about 20 minutes.

Add 4-6 eggs, hard-cooked and cut in half.

Simmer 5 min. Serve over rice with chutney on side.

Cucumber Raita
½ tsp. ground cumin (or cumin seeds)
½ cup plain yogurt
¼ tsp. salt
freshly ground pepper
1 medium cucumber (about ½ lb)
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

In a small frying pan, toast cumin over medium heat until fragrant and lightly browned, about 30 seconds. Transfer to medium bowl, add yogurt, salt and pepper, stir well. Peel cucumber and cut in half lengthwise; scoop out seeds with teaspoon and discard them. Slice cucumber lengthwise into ½ inch strips and then crosswise into small cubes and add to bowl, along with green onions and cilantro. Stir to combine well. Cover and chill until shortly before serving time, makes about 1 ¼ cups.

sorry this is such a long post! i hate long posts.