Sri Lankan White Curry

Yet another South-Asian vegetable dish. This one is a keeper not only because it's crazy delicious but because it involves a flavor which I don't normally associate with coconut milk curries. The secret ingredient? A bit of fish! The recipe calls for Maldive fish which is "small dried chunks of tuna that are crumbled or shredded and added to many dishes." The authors of the cookbook state that this product can be found in Sri Lankan grocery stores. Terrific, if you have access to a Sri Lankan grocer. Thankfully, they include a substitute, bonito, which is MUCH more widely available. Bonito is a Japanese food ingredient and it is the dried, shredded flesh of a fish in the tuna (or mackerel, I can't seem to find a definitive answer) family. It releases a wonderfully smoky aroma when added to whatever you are cooking and is a basic building block of dashi, the staple Japanese stock. Bonito can be found in any well-stocked Asian grocer or Japanese grocer. Go find some...it's really great stuff.


Anyhow, this dish is GREAT. Phenomenally cheap, REALLY, REALLY delicious and super easy to cook, it is something I encourage ALL of you to try. A definite A++++++ for this recipe. And, click this if you don't know anything about Sri Lanka. C'mon, click it...at least do it so you can figure out where Sri Lanka is on a map!

Oh, and yes, I do realize that "white curry" is somewhat inaccurate...the dish, as you might have noticed has a definite jaundiced hue. "White curry" in Sri Lankan cuisine refers to the presence of coconut milk. There is your fun fact for the day.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes (Waxy potatoes refer to the white-skinned or red skinned potatoes...Russet baking potatoes would NOT be good.)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (maybe an equal amount of curry powder if you can't find fenugreek)
1 teaspoon Maldive fish or substitute bonito flakes, finely ground (I used my spice grinder to pulverize the bonito...works well.)
1/3 cup chopped shallots
2 green chiles, thinly sliced
8-10 curry leaves (no real substitute, omit if you can't find them)
1 teaspoon salt (I used considerably more)
1.5 cups water
1/2 cup canned or fresh coconut milk
1 teaspoon lime juice (use more if you like lime...I added extra because I liked the extra bit of zip)


In a large pot, combine the potatoes, turmeric, fenugreek seeds, Maldive fish or bonito, chopped shallots, chiles, curry leaves and salt. Pour in the water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender. (Took me about 20 minutes)

Stir in the coconut milk, bring back to a gentle boil. Remove from heat, stir in lime juice. Serve.


See how easy that was? Just dump a bunch of stuff into a pot and cook it. Pretty much dummy proof.

Time- 10 minutes of prep, 25 minutes of inactive cooking time.

Food cost- Too cheap to cost out. The most expensive thing in this recipe might be the $0.89 can of coconut milk.

LOLCat...another classic...there are tons of derivatives based on ceiling cat:

Nepalese Asparagus Stir-Fry

More South-Asian vegetable goodness. As I type this, I am also watching season 2 of "The Office." The dynamic between Dwight and Jim is priceless. Anyhow, I've got alot of work ahead of me so I better get right to this. Not much to say about this recipe. Pretty simple stir-fry but it is quite tasty. From Mangoes & Curry Leaves Culinary Travels Through The Great Subcontinent.

INGREDIENTS

3/4 pounds of asparagus
1 teaspoon mashed or minced ginger
2 teaspoons mashed or minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
2 tablespoons of oil
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (Might be hard to find, I'd say that it's okay to leave it out but the dish won't taste quite as exotic. maybe substitute a few pinches of curry powder)
1 cup thinly sliced onion
1/4 teaspoon turmeric (might be hard to find)
salt
1/2 cup water

Rinse and drain asparagus. Remove the bottoms if they are dried out. (Ever have fibrous, woody asparagus? I break off the bottoms...I just sorta bend the asparagus until the bottoms naturally break. I figure there'll be an organic break point between the tender part and the tough part. The possibility exists that you might lose some good asparagus but better that than woody, inedible asparagus that you have to spit out.)

Mix the ginger, garlic and ground coriander together.
Heat a wok or skillet on med-high. Add oil and, if using, the fenugreek seeds. Add the onion and cook until softened and a little brown. (This took me a good 8 minutes....if your onions are starting to burn but aren't yet soft, just turn the heat down!) Add the garlic/ginger/coriander paste and stir to distribute. Add the asparagus, turmeric and salt. Briefly stir-fry to mix everything together. Add 1/4 cup of water and bring to a boil. (Recipe called for 1/2 cup but I found that excessive.) Cover the pot and cook for 2-3 minutes. (Recipe says 2-3 minutes. 2 minutes was a bit much...I would cook for a minute, taste a piece of asparagus and go from there. Cooking time will, of course, depend on the thickness of the asparagus...mine were quite thin.)

Remove the lid, taste for seasoning and eat!

Time-10 minutes from start to finish.

Food cost-
Asparagus- $3.29
Incidentals- $0.50
Total- $3.79

LOLCat-This one is a classic in the world of LOLCats.

Cucumber Raita

Standard issue yogurt condiment here. I like eating it plain although it's nice with spicy food. Something about the yogurt helps cool down spicy food. This recipe is from Mangoes & Curry Leaves Culinary Travels Through The Great Subcontinent.

Ingredients

1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 of a peeled English cucumber (1 cup chopped)
Salt
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup coriander leaves or 2 tablespoons mint leaves
Black Pepper

Line a sieve with cheesecloth. Place sieve over a bowl and place the yogurt into the cloth-lined sieve. (I guess you could skip this step but it's cool to see the yogurt's transformation.) Let it drain for 30 minutes.

Finely dice the cucumber. Sprinkle the cucumber with salt, toss and let it sit for 20 minutes.

Transfer the drained yogurt to a bowl and whisk it with a fork. Add the water and whisk until smooth. Add the cucumber but not the juice. Stir the cucumbers into the yogurt. Taste for salt.

Just before serving, cut the mint and add it to the yogurt. Stir it all together and serve.

Time- 30 minutes, much of it inactive.

Cost- Cheap. Very cheap. Not going to cost it out.

Spiced Grated Carrots, Kerala Style

Grated carrots. Who knew they could be good? While I really enjoyed the flavor of this recipe, my execution sucked. I let the yogurt overcook and it sort of turned into a weird dairy curd. Oops, my bad. Mangoes & Curry Leaves Culinary Travels Through The Great Subcontinent even warned me that this could happen. Anyhow, my lust for Indian vegetable recipes continues. And so does my lust for a nice Irish lass. Rawr!

2 tablespoons of oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/2 cup of minced onion
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon grated or minced ginger
2 green chiles, seeded and cut up
10 curry leaves (exactly 10...I will hunt you down if you disobey my decree)
1.5 cups of grated carrots
salt
1/2 cup of yogurt (recipe says "preferably full-fat")

Heat oil (medium-high heat) in a heavy skillet or wok. Add the mustard seeds and cover until they pop. (You'll be able to hear them popping, trust me.) Add the onion and turmeric and stir-fry for a few minutes. Add the ginger, chiles and currry leaves and stir-fry until the onions are soft. Add the carrots and salt. Cook until the carrots are very soft. (Or, I guess you could just cook them until the carrots are done to your liking. I'm not a tyrant...really, I'm not.)

Turn heat to very low. Add the yogurt and stir the yogurt into the carrots. (You just want to heat the yogurt.) "Do not allow it to boil." I didn't. But it still separated on me. I guess the secret is to not use any heat at all? I dunno.

Time-10 minutes for prep, 10 for cooking.

Food cost. Again, I'm not going to cost this out but, rest assured, it's cheap. Do you see any ingredients that might be expensive? I thought not.

LOLCat:

Katchhi Village Potato Curry

This is the first post which will utilize the new picture widget. I think it is terrific. Food porn addicts get to look at the pictures without getting bogged down with the details. People who want to read the actual recipe can read the post and discover the details. I REALLY, REALLY like it. Uploading with Flickr's photo uploader is also a joy...much better and FASTER than Blogger's crap uploading. Lemme know how you like the new photo thingy. That's the BCC. Also trying to improve his readers' experiences. What a guy, what a guy (and he's still single!)

So this is, obviously, another Indian vegetable post. It is from Mangoes & Curry Leaves Culinary Travels Through The Great Subcontinent which I have cooked from before. It keeps its status as a great book to cook from. In fact, I've made it my goal to cook every vegetable recipe in the book...I'm about halfway through and it has been a mostly delicious experience.

Anyhow, here we go. I guess I will also use a more traditional cookbook format for recipes.

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons of oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic or garlic paste..(.oops...just realized I made a boo-boo in the above picture...pretty sure it says tablespoon...and it also includes ginger...my bad)
1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
1 cup of sliced shallots
1 cup of chopped tomatoes (I used canned, diced tomatoes)
2 green chiles seeded and chopped
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 cup of water
(NOTE-I MADE A DOUBLE BATCH AND THE PICTURES REFLECT THAT)

Heat oil in a large pot, toss in half of the garlic and cook until fragrant. Don't burn the garlic. If you do, you've failed and should start over. Add the potatoes and shallots. I cooked this until the shallots softened and went limp. Toss in the tomatoes, green chiles and give it a good stir.

Add the spice blend and the rest of the garlic. Stir well. Add the water and PLENTY of salt. Bring to a boil, cover and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are cooked through. After 10 minutes, give it a good stir to make sure nothing is sticking...if it is, add a bot of water.

OPTIONAL ACCOMPANIMENTS
Fresh sliced shallots
Fried green chiles
Jaggery
Chapatis

I opted for none of the above. Instead, I ate the starchy potato curry with rice. Starch and starch. Got a problem with that? Then you'll probably also have a problem with the fact that ate the starchy potato curry with starchy rice AND starchy lentils. 'Cause I'm tough like that.

Time-20 for prep, ~25 for the cooking.

Food cost. Not going to bother with this one...I mean, potatoes? Shallots? Some tomatoes? Cheap, cheap and cheap. It's got to be well under a buck per serving.



Wow. This new format is EASY. SUPER DUPER EASY. And fast. However, it seems like alot of the obsessive details which I used to add have been lost. Hmmm. I dunno.

Here's your LOLCat prize.

Cauliflower Dum

Given that I am trying to eat less meat, Indian vegetarian cuisine seems to be a treasure trove of boldly flavored replacement meals. To those of you who eat lots of Indian buffet, this recipe will seem somewhat familiar. It's tomato-ey, a bit yellow from the turmeric, and onion-y with a nice amount of ginger and chili spice. All in all, a nice, EASY way to introduce yourself to Indian cooking. One piece of advice: If you don't like cauliflower, don't make this recipe.

I also committed the ultimate sin when it comes to cooking from a recipe: I did not carefully read the recipe before I started. Yes, it led to problems halfway through but, happily, I was able to salvage a tasty result.

Oh, and I love how the authors make a comparison between the cooking technique used in this dish and the "oop" style of cooking from the Mekong region of SE Asia. I mean, it made sense to me because in one of their other cookbooks, they talk about "oop" cooking so I was already familiar with it. However, for the newbie, I could see them just reading that and saying to themselves, "Ahh, yes. The "oop" technique. Of course."

Let us begin.Not shown: garam masala or oil.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the cauliflower, this is one medium size cauliflower. Peel off the green stuff around the bottom and trim off the tough stem.Cut it in half vertically and use your hands to break it up into golf ball sized mini-florets. Set aside.

1 teaspoon of minced garlic or garlic paste. 2 teaspoons of minced ginger or ginger paste:1 cup of grated onion:

1 tablespoon of freshly ground coriander seed:
1 cup of diced tomato. Recipe calls for diced but I only had access to whole, canned tomatoes so I just processed those until they were in the appropriate size/shape:
1 teaspoon of cumin, 2 bay leaves:
Not shown, 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne, 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric, and 1/2 teaspoon garam masala.
Green chiles, I used two jalapenos. Just cut off the stems and quarter them lengthwise.

Start by browning the cauliflower florets. Hot pan, oil, add cauliflower...turn to brown as much of the surface area as you can. It will probably sputter and spit oil at you so watch out. When the cauliflower is browned, set it aside:
To the hot pan, add the cumin and bay leaf. Cook until the cumin browns. If your pan was hot, like mine, this won't take long at all...maybe 15 seconds. Add the grated onion and cook until the onion is light brown.

Toss in the tomatoes, salt, ground coriander, garam masala, cayenne and turmeric. Stir and cook. The recipe says "until you see the oil rise." I never saw any oil so maybe I screwed up somewhere. Toss in the green chile and cook for a few minutes. Add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. It'll be sort of a thick, soupy stew. Season with salt. Toss in the browned cauliflower and stir well. Really slather the spice paste over cauliflower.

This dish is traditionally sealed with a strip of dough to lock in all the steam and help with the cooking. Creating a tight seal between lid and pot is the goal so just place a piece of tin foil over the pan and plop the lid on top. I do this alot whenever I'm braising something and want to limit the amount of evaporation. Pop it into the oven for 20 minutes or so. Garnish with cilantro. Or not, if that is your preference.

Time- 20 minutes of active time. If even that...really not much to do. Browning the cauliflower takes patience.

Cost-Pathetic. I mean, the cauliflower is the most expensive component and it cost $1.99. No more than $3.50 for this recipe and if it costs you more, you need to shop better.


Text only link click here.

LOLCat:

Garam Masala

As I understand it, "masala" is Hindi for spices and "garam" means heating so "garam masala" is simply heating (or hot) spices. The heating doesn't mean that it is fiery, chili hot but that the spices have been toasted (or heated) before they are ground. Another possible interpretation of the translation is that, in India, the spices, specifically the black pepper and cinnamon, are thought of as spices which heat the body.

Anyhow, here is a recipe. As the authors point out, there are as many recipes for garam masala as there are cooks in India. While the spices generally stay the same, proportions vary from cook to cook. Here is one such formula:

1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/4 cup coriander seed
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon seeds from green cardamom pods
one 1-inch piece cinnamon
Toast the spices individually. Each spice will toast at its own rate so, to achieve a maximum of flavor, do them separately. Just heat in a dry pan over medium heat under aromatic. Grind in a spice grinder.

BTW, I love both the cookbook and the authors who wrote this recipe. In fact, I love all of their cookbooks. Jeffrey Alford & Naomi Duguid, I thee! Jesus, I can't believe I just wrote that. Anyhow, they've recently released a new cookbook and it just came in the mail...I can't wait to start exploring it!

South-Indian Style Chicken with Curry Leaves and *Bonus* Fresh Mango Chutney

Sorry about the lack of updates...most of my free time was spent watching a Star Wars marathon and the rest of it was reserved for Champions League soccer games/NCAA Basketball. Hopefully, I've gotten back on the blogging horse and won't (again) fall off!

This is one of my favorite Indian dishes. It's not your typical red, tomato-y, turmeric-y stewed chicken. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with those kinds of dishes but I prefer the intoxicating/exotic aroma of curry leaves. There's really no way to describe them....to me, they're one of those unique ingredients that defy description, sorta like truffles. In addition, this dish, like most Indian dishes, is great due to the carefully calculated combination of spices. I neither understand how Indians build flavor nor do I understand the thought process behind it. The Indians believe that some foods warm the body, others cool the body and other foods stimulate the body etc. Apparently, this stems from the Ayurvedic belief system but I don't really get it. Furthermore, I am uniformly awful at creating my own spice blends...I've tried to improvise Indian food but it turns out crappy. I just don't have the necessary knowledge and am much better cooking from a recipe. Speaking of recipes, this one is pretty much ripped straight from Indian Home Cooking A Fresh Introduction To Indian Food.

I used to have an issue with this book because the author is a vegetarian but has included recipes for meat dishes. I couldn't fathom publishing a recipe that I hadn't tasted. It seemed....irresponsible. However, I've since learned that cooking meat dishes is fairly common for vegetarian Indians. In fact, one of the most well-regarded Indian restaurants in North America, Vij's (Vancouver), only hires vegetarian women to cook a menu full of meat dishes!!!
In addition, I've cooked lots of the meat dishes from the cookbook and they're mostly delicious! So, if it tastes good, I'm going to cook it. End of story. Having made peace with this cookbook, I can now heartily recommend it. Whew. Glad I got that off my chest!

Ingredients, slightly annotated. I am making a double recipe:
Juice of one lemon, two teaspoons of black pepper:
4 pounds of skinless chicken thighs. Mix well with the lemon juice/pepper. Set aside for half an hour.
Spices...click picture for specifics:
Curry leaves!So, what is a curry leaf? Well, it's NOT the secret behind the yellow powder that you find in the spice aisle at your local grocery store! Here's the Wikipedia page which informs us that the curry leaf is the leaf of a tree native to India. Ummm, not especially informative, no? Oooooh, I just remembered about this article from the SF Chronicle. I have an amazing memory for weird things like this. Anyhow, I buy mine fresh but keep them in the freezer until needed. Availability is somewhat spotty so I usually try to stock up whenever I find them in the market. This recipe calls for a total of 80 curry leaves but, for this step, we only need 40 of them.
Dry roast the spices and curry leaves in a dry pan. Roast until fragrant. It's gonna smell GREAT, trust me. All done:Let the spices/leaves completely cool and then grind to a find powder:I usually run freshly ground spices through a fine sieve. Whatever sediment doesn't make it through the sieve I re-grind and run through the sieve. I repeat until all of it is powdered.

More prep work...click picture for specifics:
Heat a pot over medium-low heat, add oil, toss in the sliced green chile and the whole cardamom pods, red chile etc. Cover with a lid until you can hear the mustard seeds popping...they will pop and jump. One issue here...I HATE eating whole cardamom pods. It's like swallowing a cupful of perfume. However, I've not yet come up with a way to remedy this unfortunate situation...for this batch, I laboriously picked through the dish and manually removed the cardamom. Maybe a muslin bag would be a good idea. Once you've heard them pop (or if you're impatient), toss in the ground spice mix and cook/stir for 30 seconds.Add 1/2 cup of grated, dried coconut. UN-sweetened, please.Cook for another 30 seconds and then add the chicken. I try not to add the lemon juice marinade. I don't like the flavor it imparts to the final dish but you can do as you please. Cook the chicken for 5 minutes or until it changes color. Add 27 ounces coconut milk. I love the green oil that's rising to the top. I imagine that if I were able to capture a sample of The Incredible Hulk's sweat, it would look something like that green oil. Mix it all up, turn the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes or until the chicken is tender. Halfway through, add salt to taste. And...that's it! Easy!

*Bonus* Fresh Mango Chutney
Just a little condiment to serve with the above dish. The chicken is quite spicy and rich so it's nice to have something sweet and refreshing to counter it. Here is what you need:
Mince the jalapeno. Here's what I do. Stem the pepper and cut in half:For this, we're going to remove the core and seeds:
Press flat:
Cut lengtwise into strips and then cross cut to mince:
Set aside.

For the 2 mangoes:
Cut:
In the center is the mango pit. We're not going to use it for this recipe so you can do whatever you want with it...I suggest peeling the skin off and nibbling around the pit:
Use a spoon to loosen the skin from the mango flesh:
Peel the skin off:
Et voila!
Cut into chunks.

Mix the mangoes with the jalapeno and a handful of cilantro leaves. Season with a pinch of salt and fresh lime juice. If your mangoes suck (like mine), you can add a bit of sugar to create more sweetness. I finished the meal with some stir-fried cabbage. A simple, somewhat neutral foil to the stronger flavors of the mango and chicken. Just halve, quarter and de-core a cabbage. Thinly slice half of the cabbage. Heat oil in a wok, toss in 3-4 flattened garlic cloves. Toss in the thinly sliced cabbage and cook until wilted. I don't like it crunchy...I like it soft. Not mushy, but soft...there IS a difference. Serve with rice.

Time (for the chicken)- 30 minutes of prep, an hour or so of inactive cooking time.
Food cost-
Chicken-$5.00 (Costco!)
Coconut milk- $2.00
Incidentals-$1.50
Total-$8.50...This recipe made 12 chicken thighs. I usually eat one thigh per meal so $0.71 per serving. Cheap-o.

Text only link click here.

Lolcat: