Supper Club: Hyderabadi Nights

Indian extravaganza! I have been wanting to do an Indian theme for a while. Daniel and I both love Indian food. When we lived back in Pennsylvania, it was a great day when we'd get a call from his mum, saying she was in the mood to make an Indian feast and would we like to come over for dinner? Carol makes delicious Indian food--maybe because of her British roots, or from living in Uganda in the sixties, where there's a strong Indian community. When I started cooking Indian dishes myself, Carol took me to her favorite Indian grocery in Paoli, PA. It's literally a gas station you might drive right by, but inside were heaps of burlap-wrapped basmati rice, big bags of fragrant exotic spices, and even a special oven that looked like a giant cauldron with a hole in the top where, if you were lucky, a lady would be making fresh naan. I used to load up on all my spices there, since the prices were so great--especially for rare spices like cardamom pods.

One of my dearest friends in the world, Asanuo, is from Nagaland, a province in northeast India, which has its own very unique food profile but also a lot of Indian influences. One of the first times Asanuo came to our house in Pennsylvania, she wandered around my spring garden with a quiet smile on her face. She picked off a pea shoot and ate it raw, which I'd never seen anyone do. And then she told me about the pea shoots in her mother's garden at home in Kohima and how they'd prepare them. That's when I knew we were going to be great friends. Asanuo is an incredible cook and we have always had fun in the kitchen together, whether in Pennsylvania or when they visited us here in Denver. After a year in Scotland, she and her husband Mike and adorable son Tristan moved to Kohima. Someday Daniel and I hope to make the long trip to Nagaland and stay with those crazy globe-trotters for a while.

And, of course, my sister-in-law Vivian grew up in Hyderabad. Vivian may need a cushion to see over the steering wheel (she's about 4'10"), but she's got a big, radiant personality. She's generous, artistic, smart, and hilarious, and speaks her mind. I love how she's never in a rush; despite a busy schedule as an architect who's now gone back to graduate school full-time, she always makes time to talk and listen and open her home to people. I'm so glad she's part of our family. Vivian and her mom are fantastic cooks. Whenever I see Vivian, I beg her to make me her mom's special Indian breakfast/snack (curried potatoes wrapped in bread to make a doughy packet and fried). Last week we spent a long time on the phone, planning out my menu for supper club and talking about the food of Hyderabad, which is apparently very famous in India. She gave me a family recipe for Hyderabadi-style chicken biryani, a chicken and rice dish served at special occasions. I felt so honored and nervous to take on a dish I'd never even tasted!

Two Indian groceries later: I've got some ingredients. (And I thought my spice cabinet was already overflowing!)

Boiling water for the basmati rice. Later you take a big pot (I used my Dutch oven) and layer chicken marinated in a heady blend of yogurt, herbs and spices, then caramelized onions, then the par-boiled rice. You pour saffron milk and butter over the rice, seal tightly, and bake. The process reminded me a lot of a similar-style dish from an amazing cookbook called Jerusalem. According to one of the cookbooks I consulted, some food historians think biryani comes from the Bedouins, who would put chicken, yogurt and rice in a sealed pot and "bake" it by burying it in the hot desert sand. When you think about the Muslim conquests of India, it starts to make sense that a Bedouin-style dish could make its way to Hyderabad. Of course thinking about this while I was working in the kitchen got my imagination cooking with novel or book ideas.... 

Ever since I read Monsoon Diary, a food memoir set in India, I've always wanted to make fresh coconut chutney. Vivian told me it's a breakfast food, paired with idli or dosa, but I wanted to make it so badly I decided to break with tradition and serve it as a little snack. This was really fun to make, especially since Daniel and I got to use ingredients that were new to us (fresh curry leaves, dried red chili, asafoetida). I LOVE this stuff. Will definitely make it again soon.

 Nicole's handmade samosas with cilantro chutney. Melt-in-your-mouth delicious. So tasty!

Leftover biryani and raita. I'm mad I didn't get a decent picture when Daniel first inverted the big Dutch oven (that baby was heavy!). It looked so pretty and smelled amazing. To dress up the raita, I made a special spice mix called Chaat Masala, with all sorts of freshly ground spices including two I'd never heard of: amchoor (dried green mango) and ajwain (a seed that's related to parsley and carrots).

For dessert, Amanda made Khubani Ka Meetha (an apricot dessert typically paired with biryani), but gave it her own twist. She served it on top of orange-cardamom panna cotta and garnished with toasted almonds. Wow. This was probably one of my favorite desserts EVER.  

All in all, I'd say the night was a success!

 Meanwhile, the kids played a little dress-up. Isn't Georgia adorable? It's hard to believe Amanda was pregnant with her when we first started Gourmet Supper Club.