Where art thou, Portland Tikka Masala?

We have been craving Indian food lately. Unfortunately, in the southern end of the Portland Metro area it seems that really good Indian food, or for that matter, any Indian food, is tough if not impossible to come by. For us, Indian food is the equivalent of home fries and chicken fried steak for many cold-weather Northwest folks - It's comfort food in a nice red, green, or yellow sauce.

Investment tip: For the thousands of restaurateurs and investors out there looking for that winning idea (and who depend on Metroknow for advice on all of their future moves, ahem), Please take note: As far as I can tell, there are NO Indian restaurants in Oregon City or West Linn. None. I think its not too big of a leap to say that I am sure that a quality Indian restaurant would do really well here since the disposable incomes and urban tastes of West Linn and Lake Oswego are easily within striking distance. The closest that we've found is Got Curry in no-man's-land on the 99E, which is reasonably good, but doesn't inspire me to go there unless I happen to be driving by.

So, rather than being frustrated by the lack of instant turmeric and cardamom gratification, I decided to take the plunge and use the craving as inspiration to make it myself from scratch (be-still my beating heart) - something I've wanted to do for a long time now. Fortunately, we have good friends who know that we have an interest in Indian cuisine, we have the Internet, and I have resident chef April here to bail me out when I get in over my head, which actually did happen this time (I bail her out on fried eggs and toast in the morning, she bails me out on anything else requiring culinary skill - symbiosis at its finest). Over time our closest friends have given us an excellent Indian cookbook and bags full of Indian spices, so I had a lot of help. Combining that with a few recipes from the Web and a trip to the grocery store, we had a royal experiment in grinding, marinating, sauteeing, broiling, and simmering that would put my brain and fingers to the test.

Here's what we had:
Cucumber and Red bell pepper Raita
Chicken and shrimp Tikka Masala
Aloo Gobi
Naan (packaged)
Coconut rice with cashews

Sounds simple enough, but after having made these for a single meal, I am literally in awe of those who make this on a daily basis. One of the best meals I have ever had was homemade Indian fare at J. and S.'s house, care of their visiting friends from France (ah, southern california backyard evenings in the cooling breeze among our dearest ones...hang on, gotta go add another wet log to the fire). Nothing I made was particularly exotic; In fact, there are a lot of folks who are quick to point out that Chicken Tikka Masala is not truly an authentic Indian dish (we added the shrimp to extend the protein a bit). Of course, it is served at nearly every Indian restaurant I've been to, and has become a favorite of mine, authentic or not, so it was on this evening's menu.

Things that went right:
The Tikka Masala turned out extremely well, and I'm really excited that I now know how to make this with a pan and a whole lot of spices. The rice was reasonably good, although the coconut milk and cashews were an improvisation that seemed to throw off the moisture content of the rice a bit, so the rice was a little soft. Oh, and the Raita was excellent. I improvised quite a bit there too to taste, and it turned out stellar.

Things that went less than right/things I would do differently next time:
Serrano peppers varied wildly in potency. First one, I bit the tip off and got no heat at all. I then de-veined and de-seeded the others with my bare hands, which I regretted later (should have worn latex gloves), as the remaining peppers were extremely hot, which I discovered later. I say, "regretted later," because the acids in the hotter peppers continued to burn my fingers through the next day (April has actually gotten blisters from this process when she makes chile rellenos from scratch). I also overcooked the eggplant for the Aloo, so it was a bit on the mushy side, but turned out alright. Oh, and I'm definitely buying a food processor. Hand-milling the paste for the Aloo was fun and all, but took 30 minutes of continuous mashing to get it to a paste. Also, a little prep-planning would have saved a lot of time; I chopped the same vegetables at least 3 separate times rather than all at once for every dish. In the end, to speed things up and give me a bit of a mental break, April stepped in and helped with the Aloo in particular, which made a big difference. Thanks, Dahling!

That said, all together it took 4 hours of intense cooking to create our dinner. But they were 4 well-spent hours. We invited our friend E. and her boyfriend D. over from next door to share the feast, and while dinner wasn't exactly on the table at 6PM sharp (3+ hours later than that, actually), they assured us that it was worth the wait.

Here are a couple of photos. For our close friends reading this from afar, rest assured, this is one of many trial runs that are all done with the anticipation of a family feast of Bollywood proportions, when we reconvene.


The verdict:
All in all, I must say I consider this to be a glowing success. I am confident that this is the first of many from-scratch Indian excursions to come. I definitely want to deepen my understanding of the regional differences in Indian food, and can't wait to try it again.