I recently checked out Madhur Jaffrey's Vegetarian India from the library, and after making these two recipes, I went ahead and bought it. The book seems full of simple recipes, but unique and canonical, that I look forward to mainstreaming in our kitchen.
I made these first two dishes the same night - a Roasted Cauliflower with Punjabi Seasonings and Stir-Fried Baby Kale Cooked in a Bengali Village Style.
I largely followed the marinated cauliflower recipe as is, though I omitted the ground coriander to meet my personal preferences. I really liked the tart lemon and ginger marinated cauliflower. It was a savory and spicy dish with a pleasing mouth pucker. And because it's a largely hands off prep via oven roasting, it's a good side dish to add into any meal.
The kale – in which I've twice substituted collard greens, and once curly kale – was nothing short of outstanding. I would make this with every meal if I could. The kalonji adds a nice herby flavor to the greens, and the chile adds a wonderful fresh spice flavor. I really like the approach of steamed the greens in the pot with some water after sautéing with the flavored oil.
No need to use Bengali mustard oil – though I recently bought some – and the slightest bit of sugar seems to do wonders as well to reduce the inherent bitterness in these dark greens. Perfect, simple greens for any meal!
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