Trader Joe's Indian Dinners (And A Whole Lot More)

It's been pretty warm and really humid for the last few days, but last week it was cool one evening and Indian food sounded great. But instead of going out for dinner, I opted to make it home. I'll tell you how I did it. 

CURRY SIMMER SAUCE

I used to purchase Trader Joe's simmer sauces all the time, particularly the korma. Then the korma disappeared and I just stopped buying them. But I picked up the curry sauce to make this dinner.

 ORGANIC FREE RANGE CHICKEN BREASTS

I have never before had to trim so much fat off chicken breasts prior to cooking. I will never purchase these again.

But, since I already paid for them, I trimmed the fat, diced up the chicken, and cooked it in pan.

Then I dumped it into the slow cooker with sliced onions, the curry sauce, and 8 ounces of water. (That's what the jar recommends; personally I think that's too much and should probably be halved.)

BIRYANI

Biryani is a curried rice made with lots of veggies, like peas and even raisins. If you don't like raisins (or if, like Elizabeth, you don't like raisins in any form except by themselves) you probably won't like this. But I loved it. I thought the sweetness of the rice worked very well with the spiciness of the curry.

GARLIC NAAN

Naan is a leavened, baked flatbread. I will take it over any restaurant's bread basket. And the addition of garlic to the dough makes it outstanding. If you like garlic bread but have never had naan, please try this.

The chicken curry turned out great and we finished it off, which almost never happens.

Apparently it gets even colder in New York than the low-60s we experienced last week, so I plan to make this much more frequently over the winter.

 BREAKFAST BURRITOS

I have not had a microwave for six months, and 99% of the time I don't miss it. But there are a few things for which the microwave is perfect. A breakfast burrito is one of those things. The instructions for cooking this in the oven were to bake it unwrapped for ten minutes and then wrap it in foil for another 20 or so.

What happened was predictable: the tortilla was crispy by the time the insides were heated and the whole thing was devoid of moisture. It wasn't bad, just extremely bland. I added sour cream and Taco Lita hot sauce, and that helped, but not enough to overcome the baking. I would be glad to purchase these again if I ever get a new microwave, but not until then (which may be never).

 SHREDDED HASH BROWNS

I don't know if there is really any difference in the kinds of frozen, shredded hash browns you buy. These TJ's hash browns, which I ate with scrambled eggs and bacon, were very good... but so are all the frozen hash browns I make. I guess I'm not the right person to judge these.

SPIZZICO DI PIZZA

It's been many years since I've tried the Spizzico di Pizza so I thought I'd give the mini pizzas another try. They are dry and not very flavorful (until I added Texas Champagne). I would serve these at a party or in another situation with lots of people where everyone can eat one or two, but as far as cooking them for myself (or myself and Elizabeth), they get boring after a couple. And there are 12 in the box.

 STIR-FRY VEGETABLES

I ate these stir-fry vegetables by themselves, and they were good, but they needed a little something else. Next time I will toss them with rice or maybe whip up an Asian sauce to pour over them. 

VERY AMERICAN SALAD

I like all kinds of salad, but when I buy a bag, I usually like it simple. And this is very simple: iceberg, romaine, red cabbage. Perfect. If I want more flavors, like cilantro or corn, I can add them myself. 

CARBONARA STUFFED CHEESE RAVIOLI

I actually didn't know what carbonara means until I looked it up after buying these. (As you can probably tell, I'm a much bigger fan of Asian and South American cuisines than I am European.) It's a pasta dish based on cheese and bacon, both things I love, even if pasta itself bores me. But raviolis are all right, so I boiled these, thinking that if I did not like the flavor I could just add a red sauce. But it turned out I loved the flavor. I could only barely taste the pork, but the cheese ravioli were very nice.

 PASTRY BITES WITH FETA CHEESE & CARAMELIZED ONIONS

These little morsels have been on the blog before, but I don't believe they have ever been featured in a Trader Joe's post. And they deserve that, because they are great. Baked in the oven for 25 minutes, they turn out with a crispy pastry shell, creamy delicious cheese, and caramelized onions. I have made these quite a few times when friends have come over, and they always disappear. I don't believe I have ever heard someone say he or she did not like these. 

 PIAVE ORO DEL TEMPO

Piave is an Italian cow's-milk cheese with a strong nutty flavor, similar to Parmesan. As the cheese ages, the intensity of the flavor grows. Oro del Tempo is the most mature variety of this cheese, aged more than 12 months. If you like intense flavors (I love them) you will probably like this cheese. I ate it all in one afternoon, not counting the piece my cat absconded with when I went into the kitchen for ten seconds.

SPINACH, FONTINA & ROASTED GARLIC CHICKEN SAUSAGE

Like the simmer sauces that started off this post, Trader Joe's sausages are something I used to eat a fair amount but no longer do, for no particular reason. But, when wandering around TJ's the other day, I felt like sausage. I opted to get the variety with garlic and fontina, though after grilling two of them, I did not taste any garlic. They were actually rather bland. (Maybe that's why I stopped buying them.)

I added some chipotle mustard, which was a nice complement. I will give another flavor of sausages a try one of these days, but I think I will go back to not buying these.

GHOULIE GUMMY TUMMIES

I have a fondness for the silliness of Halloween. I have not dressed in costume for more than two decades - well, I guess I did go to a party as Max Fisher when I was 23, now that I think about it - but I still enjoy the day. (Probably because I love October and Halloween is a big part of the month.) So when I saw these candies by the checkout, I picked up a bag.

They weren't very good. I did not like them; Elizabeth hated them. Oh well. At least they're kind of cute. 

MARYLAND CRAB & CORN CHOWDER

I realize that a $2.99 crab and corn chowder isn't going to contain a lot of crab, but even I was shocked at how little was in this: I tasted it in one bite. Maybe there was more than one piece in the container (then again, maybe not) but I sure didn't taste any more than that. Now, that being said, it was pretty tasty. I would buy it again and hope for more crab. And if there isn't, well, it's only $2.99. (I'm also not opposed to buying a container of this and some lump crab meat and combining the two.)

 MANGO GINGER CHUTNEY

I was going to write a little about chutneys, but then I realized it's all right there on the container. So I photographed it to let you read about it, because, well, I've been working on this post for more than an hour and now I'm feeling lazy. 

This chutney was surprisingly spicy with plain bread, and one evening when we were having fries I mixed the chutney with ketchup, which was a very good dip. I would definitely get this again.

INDIAN DINNER #2

Last night I was again in the mood for Indian, so I thought I'd make something else to write about. 

 MASALA SIMMER SAUCE

The masala simmer sauce is a much milder flavor than the curry sauce, but still tasty.

I sliced up a Vidalia onion, cubed a potato, and cooked two diced chicken breasts in a pan, then added all of them to the slow cooker.

Onto that went the masala sauce and a quarter-cup of water. I left it alone for six hours.

This is what it looked like six hours later. The chicken fell apart, the potatoes and onions softened, and the smells were wonderful.

I added some fresh cilantro and served it up. 

 It wasn't as good as the curry (or the vindaloo and korma sauces used to be) but it was still delicious.

MALABARI PARATHA

Malabari paratha looks a little like naan, but it is quite different. Besides being made with a different kind of flour, milk and sugar are also used, lending a sweetness to the flaky dough. I don't like this quite as much as naan (though Elizabeth does) but it's still delicious. The only thing I don't like about it is that somehow one little tortilla-size piece is 290 calories. I don't know where the hell the calories come from, but that seems like a whole lot. Still, I don't have any trouble eating at least two of them.

That's it for this round of Trader Joe's products. Have a good weekend. There are lots of great football games tomorrow so I promise there will be plenty of good eats.