16 recipes that use coriander-cumin powder, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Masala cashewnuts, takes 15 minutes. It is most often cooked with coriander, cumin seeds and ginger paste.
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Cashews fried until golden and tossed while hot with black salt, coriander-cumin powder, chilli and turmeric. Black salt gives them a tangy, savoury flavour. Cool them before serving; they keep for 2 weeks in an air-tight jar.
Crisp-fried brinjal and potato slices layered with a rich gravy of tomatoes, fresh fenugreek (methi) and ground peanuts, tempered with mustard, cumin and asafoetida, and baked. Serve hot with naan or paratha.
Whole aubergines charred over a flame until the skin blackens and the flesh turns soft and smoky, then chopped and tossed with onion, tomato, ginger, garlic and green chillies. A few black specks left in the flesh add to the smoky flavour. Serve hot with yogurt and millet rotla.
A quick pressure-cooker curry of chana dal and plenty of spinach with onion, tomato, ginger, garlic and green chilli. It's earthy, lightly spiced and full of goodness. Serve hot with chapaties or boiled rice. For a change, use green gram lentils with skin (soaked for 8 hours, then washed to remove the skins), or replace the lentils with four potatoes cut into 1 cm cubes and ½ tbsp lemon juice.
Paneer two ways, fried cubes and coarsely grated, with green peas in a silky gravy of onion, tomato, yogurt and cream, flavoured with whole spices, poppy seeds and cashews and then blended smooth. It's rich and mildly spiced. Serve hot with naan.
Soya granules soaked until soft and cooked like a kheema with lots of browned onion, ginger, garlic, tomato, fresh fenugreek and coriander, spiced with cinnamon and clove. It's hearty and high in protein, with a texture just like mince. Serve hot with naan or bread.
Home-made paneer mashed with peas, carrot and potato, rolled into small koftas and fried, then dropped into a mildly spiced, creamy gravy of onion, tomato, cashew and mawa. Add the koftas only just before serving so they stay soft but whole. Serve hot with naan or paratha.
A Gujarati favourite: tender valore (Indian flat beans) cooked in a sweet, sour and spicy tomato masala with ajwain, then mixed with crisp fried methi muthia, little dumplings of wheat and gram flour full of fresh fenugreek. The muthia soak up the gravy beautifully. Serve hot with chapaties.
The great Gujarati winter feast: papdi, fresh pigeon peas, baby potatoes, suran, sweet potato, small brinjals and ripe bananas, slit and stuffed with a green masala of fresh green garlic, coriander and coconut, slow-cooked with fried fenugreek muthia. It's cooked gently under a plate of water so the vegetables steam in their own juices. This makes a big pot for 20; serve hot with chapaties or puri.
Oval potato koftas with a hidden filling of paneer, cashews and raisins sharpened with lemon and chilli, fried crisp and served in a smooth tomato and onion gravy finished with cream. Add the koftas to the hot gravy only at the last minute so they stay whole. Serve immediately with naan or parathas.
A quick Gujarati and Kathiawadi favourite: ripe tomatoes cooked down into a sweet, sour and gently spiced curry, with fine jini sev stirred in at the very last moment so it stays slightly crunchy. Serve sev tomato curry hot with chapaties.
Small long brinjals slit and packed with a spiced filling of coconut, peanuts, gram flour, fenugreek and coriander, then cooked slowly in tomato with a topping of coarsely ground peas. For a stuffed potato and brinjal curry, fill small potatoes too and cook them the same way; for a stuffed banana curry, fill ripe bananas and cook them in a saucepan, without pressure or baking. Serve hot with chapaties or naan.
Tindora (ivy gourd) slit and lightly fried, then stuffed with a sweet, sour and nutty masala of peanuts, coconut, tomato and spices and cooked gently until tender. A simple everyday Gujarati shaak. Serve hot with chapaties.
Short lengths of okra slit and stuffed with a spicy masala of peanuts, coconut, onion, coriander and gram flour, then cooked covered until tender and finished with tomato. The lemon juice in the filling keeps the okra from turning sticky. Serve hot with chapaties.
Everyday Gujarati dal: smooth, thin pigeon pea lentils simmered with tomato, peanuts, drumsticks, kokum and dried dates, sweet with jaggery and sharp with lemon, under a fragrant tempering of cloves, curry leaves and mustard. Vary it by changing the seasoning and tempering: for example, temper it with curry leaves, mustard and onions fried in oil, and finish it with green chillies, sambhar masala and kokum pieces. Serve hot with plain boiled rice.
