On the way home from work on Friday, I stopped in at the Indian grocery store and picked up a pound box of sweets. Which served as the inspiration to this weekend’s menu. I also picked up a few other goodies to round out the meal.
Menu inspiration: back row (rasgulla and gulab jamun), front two rows (various burfees or Indian fudges)
I’ve made Indian foods from scratch before, but sometimes, you need a break, so buying one or two items to add to your meal isn’t a bad thing. Nor is using prepared pastes, chutneys or even breads.
I was going to make mattar paneer but I didn’t have enough milk in the house to make my own paneer (cheese), and I blew the budget with the other items, so I couldn’t BUY it. Still, I think the menu was good enough, even if it was one of the easiest I’ve made in a long time.
Samosas, easy chicken vindaloo, cheater’s chickpea curry (or chana masala), basmati rice, roti and various sweets.
Chicken vindaloo – a very spicy chicken and potato stew made with a jarred paste mixture and served over plain basmati rice with some cooling yogurt or a cucumber or tomato raita (yogurt based dip)
Close-up of the interior of the samosa – potatoes, peas, toasted spices in a crispy pastry, served with a mint chutney
Two of my favourite Indian sweets – rasgulla (left) and gulab jamun (right)
Both of these sweets are milk based and soaked in a sugar syrup. Cardamom is a flavouring that’s sometimes used in the syrup. The rasgulla is made with kneaded fresh paneer cheese poached in a sugar syrup. When you bite into it you get the squeaky texture of biting into fresh cheese curds. The gulab jamun is made with milk powder and butter or whipping cream, kneaded into a ball and deep fried and then soaked in the sugar syrup.
Closeups of Indian sweets – various burfees (fudges)
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 
This is just a gorgeous feast!
Thank you. There are so many great Indian dishes out there that this doesn’t even scratch the surface.
What a beautiful spread! I used to have an Indian friend who lived nearby and I got to try more homemade Indian food and desserts. Ah your food made me miss it so much! All dishes look excellent!
Thank you for the comment.
I’ve never eaten an Indian dessert. They are very pretty. You certainly put on a great Indian feast and I love the look of the samosas xx
Thank you for the comment. There are quite a few amazing Indian desserts/sweets and this is only a small sampling. I’ve only made a few myself … a besan or chickpea fudge, rasgulla and gulab jamun. I’ve made samosas in the past but these were purchased as were the roti and the sweets.
I have only ever eaten one Indian dessert and that was at a food blogger family trip and by the time I got to the desserts I’d sampled so much I couldn’t fit a cat’s whisker in my mouth. I think I’d love these.
Indian desserts are quite pretty. Here’s a link to an earlier Indian dessert post with an ‘apple’ made with ground nuts. I was struck by the similarities between them and the marzipan fruits made in Italian cuisine. I’ve also seen ‘strawberries’ made out of similar ground nut mixtures.
http://a-boleyn.livejournal.com/113099.html
The bright orange coloured jalebis (fried batter soaked in a sugar syrup) are another favourite. There are also some ladoo/laddu in the picture above the jalebis.
http://a-boleyn.livejournal.com/83703.html
Wow delicious😋😋😋