An Indian Feast

I get a little enthusiastic when it comes to Sunday dinner. This week was an Indian-inspired feast (with very un-Indian carrot cake at the end). I inhaled a bunch of spices and stained all my cooking utensils (ah, tumeric!), but it was worth it.

From top, clockwise: basmati rice, naan (recipe in World Vegetarian, but others are all over the place - this version had yogurt and baking powder/soda instead of yeast), sweet curried carrots (I omitted the ground almonds), masoor dal, and matar paneer.

It was so much fun making paneer, and that dish was my favorite of the bunch, but everything was just delicious.

This time, instead of spending my last few hours of Sunday in the kitchen, I cooked earlier in the day and refrigerated everything. I was able to make most of the main dishes - the lentils and carrots were finished, but I just got through the sauce for the matar paneer. I made the naan dough and let it sit in the fridge until dinnertime. In the end, we just had to make naan, put together the matar paneer, cook the rice and heat up everything else.

I'd like to thank my friend Cathryn for her superior naan-baking skills, which allowed the last few minutes of cooking to go quickly and easily.

Verdict: Matar paneer - 5 stars; masoor dal - 4 stars; sweet curried carrots - 4 stars; naan - 4 stars