The other night we were lucky enough to have our good friend Felicity invite us over to dinner to show off her mad cooking skills. The theme of the meal was Indian—a cuisine that we love and is somewhat hard to find in Portland. Best of all, whenever we cook with Felicity she teaches us a lot of her cooking knowhow, and we come away able to better prepare our own meals. So we jumped at this opportunity to pick up some pointers.
One thing we learned is to use lots of garlic (don’t have to tell me twice :)). Felicity also taught us about a few Indian spices that we don’t ever really use: coriander and turmeric. Besides these new additions to our spice rack, Felicity also showed us why she uses grape seed oil for Indian frying: since it has one of the highest burning temperatures of any oil, it really sears in flavor well.
For her Indian feast, Felicity prepared a number of dishes: channa masala, saag paneer, and vegetable pulao (an Indian fried rice). The highlight of the meal for both of us, however, was fried sweet potato cakes. To make these, Felicity started by boiling chopped sweet potatoes and then mashing. She then mixed in peas, paneer, garlic and seasonings, then formed patties with the mixture which she coated in flour and fried on a griddle until browned.
It was some amazing comfort food goodness. We both ate way more than we should have and ended up waddling home.