Frugal Friday: Vegetarian Curry Night

We love curries. At this time of year, we'll usually cook a curry once a week. Warm, fast, frugal and easy to freeze, they make the great lunches too. I try to cook at least two curries at the same time, because it feels decadent - and when you add raita, poppadums and chutney, it becomes a real feast.
This is my first entry for Frugal Fridays. According to the rules, a frugal friday entry should make a whole meal for at least 4 people, and cost around about $10. I costed this on Woolworths online, it came to fourteen dollars (AUD), and the mushrooms were disturbingly expensive. I buy my canned stuff on special (half the price) and my vegetables at the farmers market or Fyshwick wholesale markets - it really cost me around ten. So I'm hoping they'll let me stay. : )
(If somebody is feeling enthusiastic, do you want to price this out for me in the US? I'm just curious now...)
On to the recipes
Spinach Dhal
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
6 small potatoes, quartered
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 Cups water
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 400g can of brown lentils, drained
80g baby spinach
Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and potato and cook, stirring until onion is soft. Add spices and stir until fragrant.
Add water and tomato paste and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes (or until the sauce is reduced by half). Add the lentils, stirring until heated through. Add the spinach and stir until its all wilted.
The other dishes were just plain rice and Mushroom Korma (from Domestic Goddess in Training). We also had shop bought poppadums - it makes me giggle when I put them in the microwave and watch them puff!

Experiments in cheese

Or, how not to make palak paneer.
I found an awesome site about cheesemaking, here, via simplesavings. It's a very cool site, and has explicit instructions on making many cheeses, including panir, which is an Indian cheese. One of Ryan's favourite Indian curries is Palak Paneer, or Saag Paneer, which is this cheese in a spinach sauce. So I got all excited, thinking we could make the cheese and then the curry and it would be GREAT!
This was a great lesson in following instructions. I used the wrong sort of pot, treated the measurements as guidelines only, and finally, decided the texture looked funny. I pressed the cheese, even though the recipe only said to hang it. My cheese turned out dry, with a vinegary after taste, and a 'squeaky' texture. If you've ever eaten unheated haloumi, you'll know what I mean. But anything covered in a good curry sauce tastes ok, doesn't it?
I had to find a recipe for the curry. I eventually found one where I recognised most of the ingredients (still not sure what methi leaves are). There was no way that I could quit at this stage, so even though I only had half the required spinach, I pressed on. Normally, the spinach sauce for this curry is almost pureed, and a very lurid green. But mine was really only slightly mashed, and the spinach shortage made for quite a yellow result (almost as much onion as spinach).
The end result was edible. Not much like Ryan's favourite, but we both ate it. That could have been politeness though. Ryan made chapatti's from scratch to go with the curry, and they were fairly experimental as well.

Ignoring my cookbooks

I've been neglecting my hardcopy recipe books lately, and trying some great recipes on the web. My menuplan this week was deliberately vague; I didn't know what sort of stew I wanted to make, I just knew I wanted to find one with lamb chops. And I found one on the ABC. It was pretty good, but a bit greasy. Next time I'll trim the chops a bit better.

Tonight's meal was a bit more spectacular. I had spaghetti and meatballs on the menu plan, but when I saw Bill Granger's Baked Meatballs with Tomato and Tamarind Sauce, I changed my mind. I actually followed the recipe to a T (even substituting lime juice for the tamarind, which I didn't have). I even made all the side dishes. Everything tasted good, but there was way too much rice.

Ryan just wandered in to ask what I wanted for dessert.

Happy Thursday!