Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I currently have Vegan Indian Cooking out from the library for a second time, and should really but it.

this cookbook and a slowcooker landed on my doorstep so i'm diving in this weekend!

I'm a bit behind you...both Anupy's books are winging their way to me from Book Depository as we speak. Can't wait!

I made the Goan-inspired curry with coconut milk and black-eyed peas earlier tonight. I had a bowl and some naan before I headed out to a meeting, and I just can't get it out of my head. I want to make this like, once a week.

We had the tofu curry and bell peppers and potatoes last night. Delicious as usual. Friends brought a couple things from an actual Indian restaurant and claimed that they preferred my dishes over those.

I made my first slow cooker soup yesterday - I am goofing on the name but it had lentils, yellow dal, hot peppers and toasted crushed red pepper on top, and holy heck, was it spicy. I did a half recipe and did need to add a few more cups of water towards the end to make it a soup again. Even so, it was flavorful and lentil soup goodness and yeah, so freaking spicy....which I blame/credit, really, on the 'extra hot' Indian cayenne I picked up from an Indian market.

many people mentioned the heat level being an issue in amazon reviews but i followed a recipe (can't remember the name) as written and it made my face sweat. i love spice but it was ridic.

Oh, my!

Yeah, looking back, the Goan curry called for 1-3 jalapenos or serranos, and I used one, and the heat intensity was present...

I halved the hot peppers in the Palak Paneer (mine had tofu instead, obviously) from Indian Slow Cooker and it was still way too spicy for me! From now on I will start at about a quarter of what she says!

Vegan Indian cooking came on Monday. I'm cooking the punjabi cabbage in the slow cooker. But it has no added water in it, so I assume the veg steam cook. I'm keeping my eye on it, though, because it has potato in it. I've never used the slow cooker without adding water...Hmmm, I hope it's not a typo.

Just reporting back...

I needn't have been worried. The cabbage and potatoes have cooked through without burning or sticking to the pot, and cabbage has never tasted so good, IMO. Can't wait for lunch, and dinner and tomorrow's breakfast, lol. I'll be serving with brown rice and homemade roti. Yum!

About the heat, we usually order medium or hot at Indian restaurants (U.S.), just to give you a reference for our heat preference. I always use the lowest number of chilies she calls for (if she says 2-4, I use 2, seeded), and I've started using regular chili pepper (ancho or whatever) instead of cayenne (but when I do use cayenne, I half her amount). Making those changes, we've found the perfect heat level. A little mouth burn and nose sniffles, but not so bad that our eyes are watering and we can't taste anything else.

I have increased the heat in all the recipes in this book! And been super happy with the results. But I do love my heat. The banquet of recipes I made at Christmas were too spicy for my boyfriend, but our dinner guest and I were fine with them.

Strawberryrock and I made the South Indian Curry with curry leaves last night and it didn't go over very well. The Goan curry, on the other hand, I want to make again ASAP.

Does anyone else find that her recipes take way longer to cook than she says? I've had this experience with almost all of them, but both eggplant dishes we've made were still practically raw at the time she says they should be ready. We ended up eating tough eggplant last night because of bad timing, because we got such a late start on dinner.

i had this issue with the cauliflower dish. the recipe stated to cook on low for 3hrs but the cauliflower was still raw. an additional 2hrs the recipe was fine so i chalked it up to some slow cookers run more hot than others.

in general, i've made a few duds and noticing a trend with her spice / vegetable usage. when i go to the indian grocery there are a lot of veggies and spices that she doesn't use in any of her recipes so i'm on a hunt for other books (Samayal - The Pleasures of South Indian Vegetarian Cooking and Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts: Recipes and Remembrances of a Vegetarian Legacy..etc)

of the two books, i prefer the slow cooker one. i find the recipes in the vegan indian to be bland or variations of those found in the slow cooker book. i'll probably try a few more recipes in vegan indian but i don't see myself hanging on to it for very long.

but i agree with jdfunks though, the goan curry is tasty!

YES! I usually end up ignoring her cook times and just wingin' it. I don't start out with that mindset, but that's what ends up happening.
I'm curious how long your eggplant dish took, and which one it was? I haven't tried any of her eggplant dishes yet and wanted to tackle one soon.

Is this the punjabi eggplant recipe from the slow cooker book? That one was a mess for me - I ended up adding a bunch extra water and it still took much longer. A friend of mine had the same experience. I emailed Anupy to ask if there was a misprint and she responded that she would look into it, but then I never heard back.

i made this in the pressure cooker yesterday and it was faaaaaantastic. It took about 10m total. #sorryidon'thaveaslowcookercanistillbeinyourclub

Same here, about winging it.

It was the eggplant and potatoes from Vegan Indian Cooking. We had the same issue with the cashew stuffed baby eggplant too. I don't remember the exact time, but she says something like 10 minutes after the eggplant was added, which just sounds like too little, and we ended up going at least 30 and then eating it tough, because we were hungry and it was getting late. I think next time I make any of her eggplant dishes, I'm going to roast the eggplant chunks first.

The South Indian salad was surprisingly good. I say "surprisingly" because it is super simple and fast to make. I used sprouted black chickpeas and black eyed peas for the beans and served it over cauliflower and okra. Perfect amount of salt, heat, and hing. And it looked kind of pretty with the different beans and the veggies - next time I'll have to post a pic.

I wasn't really familiar with Indian cooking before VIC, but I am finding its kind of my go-to for when I'm in a "what sounds good" mood. And so now I'm ready to try new cookbooks. I did see positive comments for both Indian Slow Cooker and 660 Curries on their respective threads, and they've both been on my Amazon wish list for so long, but I am totally suffering from indecisiveness. Any passionate votes one way or another? Or any other recommendations to compound my indecisiveness? :)