Indian Night

I was perusing the bargain section of Barnes and Noble recently, when I stumbled across and Indian Recipe and Technique book for the low low price of $7.98. I thumbed through the recipes, and I knew I had to have it, had to try it. And thus a dinner party was born...

The book is Easy Indian Cookbook: The Step-by-Step Guide To Deliciously Easy Indian Food at Home and it is full of recipes, menus, and wonderful descriptions. I choose to do some of my restaurant favorites to see how I compared.

I made potato pakoras and samosas


Plus tandoori chicken skewers and lamb meatballs.


I also made a raita, a cilantro chutney, and even tried my hand at Naan, which turned out more like pita but was still delicious. And of course, even though I had enough food to feed twice my guests, I had to make dessert (I wouldn't be me if I didn't). I made a blueberry buckle, although I did not put a crumb topping on it, because, well I wasn't in that kind of mood, but I am still calling it a buckle. I served it warm with fresh berries and vanilla ice cream.


Blueberry Buckle:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup of yellow cornmeal
2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of salt
1 cup of sugar plus a handful for topping
1/4 cup of low fat or fat free plain yogurt
1/4 cup of skim milk
2 eggs
3 heaping cups of blueberries

Preheat the oven to 375. Melt the butter, and mix in sugar, milk, yogurt, and eggs. Stir in flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a few additions. Pour batter into a nonstick 9 inch cake pan (I love the spring form ones). Pour the blueberries on top (they sink into the cake as it bakes) and sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until a fork or toothpick comes out clean. Serve and enjoy.