This weekend we had a -40 degree blizzard and our city is covered in a blanket of snow. It's been so cold outside the air bites any exposed skin and it hurts to breathe. So our Secret-Secret Geography Club choice for this month being Indian was pretty much perfect. Indian food is so warm, fragrant and cozy and not to mention Dan makes homemade naan bread in his wood stove which chases away any winter chill.

I brought these Aloo Pakoras (like a potato fritter) as an appetizer with spicy mango chutney to dip. I've made these quite a few times and I improve upon the recipe every time, making these the best pakoras I've made yet.


I also made Tandoori Chicken from scratch, and while it doesn't have that same bright red color that store-bought tandoori paste has, it still has the delicious sweetness of tamarind and warm spicyness of garlic and ginger.

Lindsey tried a new Indian recipe she hadn't tried before and made Malai Kofta. These are veggie "meatballs" and they are really quite healthy. She said there's almost no fat and the dish is made of potatoes, carrots, beans, tomatoes, onions and a bunch of spices. It was really interesting to eat a non-meat meatball :)

An Indian meal wouldn't be complete without a dahl, which is cooked and spiced lentils. It was my first dahl and it was very interesting. I wasn't crazy about it, but I have yet to eat lentils and like them.

Lisa's famous Butter Chicken had us all licking our forks and scraping out the bowl and crock pot with our naan to get every last bit of delicious sauce we possibly could. If you haven't yet been to my Meal Planning website and tried this recipe, you seriously should.

And the dish we have all been waiting anxioulsy all year for was Dan's homemade Naan bread. He has taken 10 years to perfect his recipe, and now has the luxury of cooking the naan in the wood burning stove in his living room. It's as close to simulating a tandoor oven as possible. We all had seconds and barely used our forks, we were too busy ripping off pieces of naan and using it to scoop up all the fragrant food on our plates.

After we stuffed our faces, and rolled away from the table we had these candy-coated fennel to help aid in digestion. It's very traditional and very tasty.

For dessert Lindsey made Ginger-Mint syrup and drizzled it over fresh mango's. Very refreshing after such a rich meal.

Being warm and cozy and eating scrumptious food was the perfect way to spend a cold and wintery Saturday night.