Lemon rice, aloo paratha, stuffed baby baigan, kale chole palak

We were craving Indian food at the weekend so I made this spread on Sunday. Both the stuffed aubergine and kale chole palak were taken from the Khazana cookbook. I’ve liked everything I’ve made from the book but his recipes aren’t always especially well written. No real problems, just things like spices added to the dish not in the same order they’re listed in the ingredients list etc.

I’d been looking for other ways to use the black chickpeas I bought for the puttu kadala and this was an amazingly tasty way to use them. The aubergines were stuffed with a ground peanut and spice mixture then steamed. It was a very good way to stuff aubergines and I’ll certainly use this method again and vary the stuffings. The lemon rice was from one of the Rasa cookbooks and was just rice cooked plainly with lemon juice and zest and a tempering of oil, urad dhal, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Again I’ll be using this method again and again as it was a very easy way to add interest to rice.

I have to admit that the aloo parathas came from the freezer. I’m terrible for stocking up the freezer with things like that “in case of emergency” and those emergencies are rare! My freezer is so full that I’m having to use up my emergency items even though it wasn’t an emergency and I’d rather have made my own. Still, they were good and tasty and just needed a few minutes per side on a hot tawa straight from frozen – so they really would be good for emergencies!!

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