A friend from India had the Dussehra festival at the beginning of October and invited my son and I to stop by on the way home and see her decorations and sample some of their foods. You can find most of the ingredients at the market but some, like the paneer (Indian block of cheese), you’ll find at an Indian market.
The beautiful green cauliflower is from the farmers’ market in Frederick. Next time I’ll get an orange one if they still have them. The mixture I used is cauliflower, purple potatoes, and peas.
Dussehra is a Hindu festival that celebrates good over evil. Here are a few pictures of the Dussehra Golu at my friend’s home where she explained a bit about the Dussehra festival. Golu is the Tamil name for the stair arrangement of dolls. It’s mainly celebrated in south India and especially in Tamil Nadu. It is also called Navarathri – nav means nine and ratri means nights in Tamil. They celebrate for nine nights by doing fasting, dancing, prayer, etc. and the 10th day is when the goddess Durga (mother of knowledge, wealth, etc.) is victorious over the demon Narakasura, which is very joyful. In fact the goddess was said to do penance on a bed of needles for nine days so the people are not supposed to use any type of needle for those ten days. Really interesting, right?
I simplified the recipe to substitute ground spices so that I wouldn’t have to make a trip to an Indian market. If you want pods or some of the spices and cannot find them at your market and don’t have access to an Indian market, you can order them online. I marked the cardamom and cloves as optional because they are strong and you may want to leave them out or add them slowly to taste. Add the cashews if you like a much richer sauce.
Indian Curry Sauce/Gravy
4 large chopped tomatoes
2 sliced red onions
2 t cumin
2 t coriander
2 t ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 t paprika
1 t turmeric
1/2 t sea salt
1/2 t chili powder or a green chili
1/2 t cardamom or cloves (optional)
Handful of cashews (optional)
Sauté all ingredients in butter or oil until softened and combined, 8-10 minutes. Grind the mixture into a very fine paste using a food processor or Indian “mixie.” Store to use as gravy for any Indian curry dish.
Different vegetable dishes you can make with the Indian curry sauce:
- Cauliflower, Peas, and Potato – Boil vegetables and add to the curry sauce and cook everything together for 7-10 minutes over low flame.
- Aloo Muttar: Boil potatoes and peas then add to the curry sauce and cook everything together for 7-10 minutes over low flame.
- Muttar Paneer: Peas and Paneer (Indian Cheese) – Boil peas or use frozen peas directly. Cut paneer into 1/2” cubes and sauté the cubes in oil or butter. Add to the curry sauce along with 1 cup of cream and boil everything over low flame for 5-7 minutes.
- Rajma Curry: Potato and Red Kidney beans – Boil potato pieces then add to a can of red kidney beans and the curry gravy and boil for 10 minutes.
- Chole: Chick Peas and Onion – Cut onion into small pieces and fry in oil until golden then add a can of chick peas and the curry sauce and boil for 10 minutes.
Garnish: You can garnish all the above with some coriander and fried cashews. You can also add lime juice after the curry cools a bit and mix well.
