Pumpkin Risotto - great veggie broth idea

Its pumpkin season here in the US - they seem to be everywhere. I bought a slice with the intention of making something South Indian, but I found I had a craving for something smooth and cheesy and slightly sweet and utterly comforting. Risotto it is.

The base of risotto is a special kind of rice, arborio, which is a short grained starchy variety. The rice is cooked with gradual addition of the cooking liquid, all the better to coax out that starch. The flavourings are whatever you like and the dish is finished with a good dusting of cheese, preferable good parmesan (NOT from a green can).

My introduction to 'real' Italian food was in graduate school where one of my closest friends was an insane and insanely intelligent Italian guy and his on-again-off-again girlfriend. They introduced me to the concept of 'al-dente' pasta, vodka sauce, bruschetta, mozzarella-in-carozza and many other yummy things. Till then, I thought I was pretty fancy, washing my pasta in cold water after cooking to prevent it from sticking, but from them I learnt that this is heresy, starch is your friend and helps the sauce adhere to the pasta.

Same thing with risotto, starch is your friend, however overcooked rice is not. It needs to be just cooked, read the recipe for more on this.

Every risotto recipe seems to ask for broth and I never have any, so I made up my own flavouring liquid which really worked out well.

Ingredients

water
bay leaves
thyme

pumpkin
onion
garlic
arborio rice
parmesan cheese

butter
sage leaves

Method

Peel the pumpkin and cut it into 1/4 inch cubes. Cook it till soft with a little water and salt.

Bring about 4 cups of water to boil (for about a cup of arborio rice) and add a few bay leaves and a bunch of thyme. Reduce it to a simmer and keep it hot.

Finely mince half a shallot and couple of cloves of garlic. Heat butter in a pan and add the onions and garlic. Cook on a low flame till softened but not coloured. Add the pumpkin and the rice. Add a cup and a half of the spiced water, salt and pepper to taste. Stir everything together and cook on medium heat.

After this, every two or three minutes, when the rice has absorbed most of the liquid, stir and add a couple more tablespoons of spiced water. Cook the risotto this way till the rice is cooked to your liking. Start tasting the rice in about 15 minutes. Basically, as soon as the rice is no longer hard in the center, it is done.

Take off the heat, stir in a good handful of grated parmesan.

As a lovely garnish, heat a tablespoon of butter in a pan and once melted, add a few sage leaves. Let the butter brown. Top each portion of the risotto with some of the butter and a sage leaf or two.

Potato Leek Soup

This soup was made for me first by my talented awesome-o husband, its easy and delicious.

Leeks in this soup are a revelation, they lighten the soup and add a delicate flavour.

The real trick here is the sour cream added in the end. It adds a slight acidity that really lifts the flavours in the soup. The idea for the sour cream addition came from the best potato-leek soup I I have ever had - from a great little take-out place called Gregoire's in Berkeley, CA. Their version had truffles which put it over the top.

Ingredients

Leeks
Potatoes, cooked and peeled
garlic
sour cream

(Yes, just four ingredients!)

Method

The main thing to be real careful about with leeks is that they tend to have a lot of sand trapped between their leaves. So chop the white parts of the leeks roughly (discard the green parts) and thoroughly wash them. And I mean thoroughly.

Add butter, garlic and leeks to a pan and cook till the leeks are softened. Chop the potatoes roughly and add to the pan. Season with salt and pepper, add some water and stir everything together. Let it simmer for a few minutes.

Transfer to a blender and puree till smooth. Return the soup to the pan and stir in a few tablespoons of sour cream to taste. Thin out the soup with milk/water to the desired consistency. Serve hot.

For two big leeks, use about one big potato. The potatoes should not overpower the leeks.

Bacon and Chanterelle Salad

I rarely make salads - just not part of the Indian food ethos, but I do enjoy them immensely when I have them in restaurants. I tried to rectify this for last friday's stay-at-home fancy dinner. I was inspired by the chanterelle salad in Saveur cooks Authentic French, a very lovely cookbook with a to-die-for tarte tatin recipe that I have to try someday.



Chanterelles are a "wild" mushroom that have a chewy meaty texture that goes really well with bacon. I almost regard bacon as the equivalent of ghee, cooking anything in its fat makes it taste better.
I hate iceberg lettuce in salads, I just feel they taste of water and even worse, remind of me all the worst salads I have had the misfortune to consume. Using a good quality mix of greens is key to a salad.
The dressing is a warm vinaigrette flavoured with bacon fat.


Ingredients

chanterelles
bacon
salad greens

olive oil
mustard
shallots


Method


Mushrooms cannot be washed as they get waterlogged and wont brown. So, wipe them gently with a damp kitchen towel. Cut the mushrooms into biggish pieces. Heat butter in a pan and toss the mushrooms in. Season with salt and let the mushroom brown on medium heat. Once they have been sufficiently burnished, remove from the pan and reserve.

For a handful of mushrooms, I used two rashers of bacon. Dice the bacon, a biggish dice, and add to the pan. let them render their fat and brown on medium heat. Once they are done, remove the bacon pieces from the pan and reserve. Pour off most of the bacon fat except a small little bit ( this is not for health concerns, but because you don't want the salad to be dominated by bacon). Reserve this pan as you want to use it to make the dressing.

When ready to serve, heat the mushrooms and the bacon in a separate pan. Mince the shallot very fine. Add the shallots to the bacony pan and heat gently. Add the vinegar and stir vigorously. Remove from the heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, oil and shallot-vinegar mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the various ingredients till you have the right mix.

Toss the greens with the above dressing and put into serving plates. Mound the warm mushrooms on top, sprinkle with the warm bacon and serve.

Camp Food #2 : Paneer Kebabs

On our camping trip to Limekiln SP (see my last post), my veggie dish for dinner was these Paneer Kebabs. The recipe is courtesy of my lovely friend Nija, inspired by kebabs she made for my graduation party.


Again, like with the chicken, its super easy, I marinated it in ziploc bags the previous night and carted it to the camp in my trusty cooler.

Ingredients

paneer

Chile pickle

yogurt

lime

tomatoes, onions

Method

Use a good brand of Chile pickle - Pataks or Mothers Recipe. Puree a tablespoon of the pickle with a couple of tablespoons of yogurt. Adjust seasoning, adding lime juice for a bit of acidity.

Soak the paneer in this marinade for a few hours or overnight. Skewer with tomatoes and onions. Grill in an oven or on a bbq till charred in spots, about 5 minutes or so on a hot fire.

Yum.

Camp Food #1 - Chipotle Chicken Skewers

We camped a while ago at Limekiln State Park in Big Sur, CA and it was truly beautiful. It is a magical campground with redwoods on side and a beach on the other. We had a site next to a burbling brook and under the redwoods.

As always with me, food is a big part of any activity and camping gives me an opportunity to cook on fire. Plus everything tastes good around a campfire.
On camping trips, I usually marinate some kind of meat the previous night and seal in double ziploc bags. The meat is perfectly safe stored in a cooler with plenty of ice. This recipe is particularly easy, and the meat being boneless, cooks quickly on the fire.

One thing I have learnt over several camping trips is that the quality of the cooked product really depends on the coals/fire. Use a lot of coals and wait till they get really hot and completely ashy. This takes a good 25-30 minutes. Also, make sure your grill is fairly close to the coals. On this trip, the fire pit was really deep, so we made a bed of rocks in the fire pit and put the coals on top of them to bring them closer to the grill.

Chipotle chiles are basically smoked jalapenos. They are easily available in the US (dont know about India) in canned form, soaking in adobo sauce, which is made up of tomato paste, garlic, cumin and vinegar. The end result is a deep smoky heat that I love.

Ingredients

boneless skinless chicken thighs
chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
ground cumin
garlic
yogurt

cherry tomatoes
onions
green peppers
lemon

Method

Make a marinade by grinding half a can of chipotle peppers with two cloves of garlic and a teaspoon of cumin powder. Salt heavily and taste. If the you've blown the roof off your head, mellow the marinade with yogurt.

Cube the chicken and mix with the marinade. Leave for several hours or overnight.

Skewer pieces of chicken, alternating with tomatoes and chunks of onion and green pepper. Grill/roast till cooked. Serve drizzled with lemon juice.

Bitter Gourd Chips

Bitter gourd to me is a vegetable with a story to tell. A story of some far off women with nothing by way of easy food around and hunger in their children's eyes. Foraging women determined to eke nutrition and taste out anything and everything.

Bitter gourd is bitter- there is no way around it. However, as generations of determined cooks have taught us, the bitterness can be harnessed and converted into something absolutely delicious and addictive.

My ammamma (literally, mother's mother) did it this way.

Ingredients

bitter gourd
salt
chili powder
besan/gram flour -though I dont see why regular flour wouldnt work in a pinch

oil to deep fry

Method

Slice the bitter gourd into coins. (At this point, you can toss them in salt, leave half an hour and rinse to take out some of the bitterness, but I find it unnecessary in this recipe.) Toss them with salt, chili powder to taste and sprinkle a small quantity of the flour over them. You are not looking to make a batter, just a light coating. Leave them to rest for half an hour. The gourds will have given out some water. Toss them again to make the flour coating even.

Heat the oil till a drop of flour lifts to the surface almost immediately. Turn the heat to medium and lower the gourd into oil. Fry till golden brown and crisp.

Easy-Peasy dessert - Profiteroles

So, I had a big lunch party the next day and suddenly felt the lack of dessert in the menu at 11pm. I was looking for something easy and impressive, and believe you me, profiteroles fit that bill. The recipe is from the Gourmet cookbook.

Profiteroles are a traditional french dessert. Add some cheese to the mix and you have gougeres or cheese puffs. I had them for the very first time at the impressionable age of 17 in a hip restaurant in Bangalore, while lunching with my very hip aunt. Oh the hip-ness of the whole thing! Hyderabad, my hometown, felt like the boondocks in 1996 and though I was in my Weekender best, I felt decidedly like a country-mouse.

(disclaimer : this picture is not mine, but do believe me when I say that mine looked similar:-))

Ingredients

3/4 stick or 6 tablespoons butter

3/4cup water

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup flour

2 whole eggs and 1 yolk

Method

Preheat oven to 425F.

Bring the water, salt and butter to a boil, stirring till the butter is melted. On medium heat, add the flour all at once and stir constantly till the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the heat and let cool for about 5 minutes. Beat the eggs into the dough ,one at a time, till well combined.

Line a baking sheet with foil and butter the foil generously. The profiteroles have a tendency to stick.

If you are the type that has pastry bags lying around, good for you, otherwise use a Ziploc bag with a corner snipped off for the next step. Spoon some of the dough into the bag and pipe about 1.5 inch swirls/circles at 2 inch distance from each other onto the baking sheet. You want to achieve some height so pipe one big circle and a small circle on top of it.

Put the profiteroles in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, till puffed and golden and you cant believe something so simple can come out so gorgeous.

The fabulous thing is that they can be made at this stage the previous night, stored in an airtight container and refreshed the next day with a few minutes in a hot oven.

Serving options basically involve some kind of ice cream and complimentary sauce.

I served them with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. For the chocolate sauce, I melted some dark chocolate with cream and grand marnier in the microwave. Cut each profiterole in two, not going all the way, and put a scoop of ice cream in between. Serve drizzled with warm chocolate sauce.

Honey-Sriracha Chicken Wings and Ginger-Soy Noodle Soup

I love chicken wings and, inspired by an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats, decided to try some at home.

A good chicken wing has a really flavourful sauce, crispy skin and hopefully moist meat and you know you've got it right if you cant stop eating them and the beer seems to go down extra-easy..

I didn't think it was possible to find something that would best the classic of my childhood for all and anytime sauce - Maggi Hot and Sweet. But, Sriracha has done it for me. Chillies do for me what chocolate does for others- gives me that sweet endorphin rush. Sriracha has the perfect combination of chillies and garlic.

The idea of boiling them before hand is courtesy of Alton Brown's method of steaming them beforehand. Since boiling is easier than steaming and yields stock, I went with boiling. Cooking the wings before baking achieves two things: infuses the wing meat with flavour and moisture (the lack of which is a crucial shortcoming of most chicken wings) and leeches out the fat.

I was able to make this a complete meal by making a noodle soup of the stock.

Ingredients

chicken wings -fresh fare better than frozen

for the stock

ginger

garlic

soy sauce

black pepper

for the sauce

soy sauce - 1/4 cup

siracha - 1 teaspoon

honey - 1 tablespoon

freshly ground black pepper

spring onions for garnish

Method

Put the wings with the stock ingredients and water to cover in a pressure cooker and let it go for 3 whistles or so on high. If you are one of those unfortunate souls without a pressure cooker, just use a big pot and boil the heck out of the wings.

Strain the wings and dry them out on kitchen towels.

Line a baking tray with foil and grease the foil well. Spread out the wings in a even layer on the baking tray. Bake in a 450F oven for 30 minutes or so, rotating the tray once in between. Bake till the wings are golden brown but not too dark as they tend to dry out.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Bring all the ingredients for the sauce to a gentle boil in a saucepan. Taste and adjust sweetness/heat. Reduce till syrupy.

Toss the wings fresh out of the oven with the sauce, sprinkle with spring onions and enjoy.

Noodles

Basically, since it would be criminal to waste that yummy stock you made while boiling the wings,
round out the meal with a yummy noodle soup. Adjust the seasoning of the stock, add rice noodles and boil till they are cooked. Garnish with plenty of chopped cilantro and some lime juice. needless to say, serve piping hot.

Achari Lauki/Opo Squash with Nigella seeds

I never understand it when people talk about flavourless vegetables - to me all of them have their own unique flavour. I do concede that coaxing this flavour out is easier with some veggies than others.

Pretty much all quashes and especially the blander ones like opo fall into this category. But, as we well know, Indians have perfected the art of making any vegetable explode with flavour.

This is one of those magical dishes. It is very sim-ple, just the quash cooked with a few spices, but oh man what results is a silky, juicy and faintly sweet dish that is the epitome of what squash can be. To me it is the magic of Indian cooking in a bowl. Why more Indian restaurants dont serve dishes like this, I dont know and will never understand.

The spices are a combination called Panch-Phoran used by the Bengalis. This is another of the variety of tempering/tadka/talicchu kottal found all over India. The spices used are cumin, mustard seeds, fennel/saunf, fenugreek/methi seeds and nigella seeds/kalonji/charnoushka. The star is really the nigella that adds a flavour reminiscent of certain Indian pickles (hence the 'achari'). This is really a great spice combination to have around, I have used successfully with practically any vegetable.

Ingredients

One large opo squash, peeled and cut into chunks
cumin seeds
fennel seeds
nigella seeds
fennel
mustard seeds
turmeric
chilli powder
asafetida
oil

Method

Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a flat pan. Add a teaspoon each of cumin, mustard, nigella and fennel seeds. Add half a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds and sprinkling of asafetida. Wait till the mustard seeds pop, the popping reaches a crescendo and dies down. Add the opo squash, turmeric and chilli powder. Toss to combine, add about half a cup of water and cook covered till the squash is cooked through. You really want to have some liquid left in the pan at the end of the cooking time as this liquid is beyond yummy, so add more water as necessary.

Serve piping hot and enjoy.

Aloo Kabuli/Potato Chickpea Salad

So I was to meetup some of my girlfriends at the local Shakespeare-By-The-Sea performance. I had about an hour to go and I was yet to decide what my contribution to the picnic would be. My kitchen yielded chickpeas and potatoes and tomatoes and onions..et viola!

This really falls into that class of Indian streetfood/snacks called Chaat - characterised by chaat masala. Chaat masala is a combination of roasted cumin, roasted coriander, dried mango powder/amchur and black salt/kala namak. Black salt is actually pinkish-grey in colour and adds a very distinctive taste. The dried mango adds sourness.

Onions, tomatoes, green chillies, coriander and lime juice are the usual suspects in any chaat dish. Chutneys are also usually common, though this salad is yum without them and much simpler.

A really effort-free and addictive addition to any picnic.

Ingredients

a can of chickpeas
a medium potato, diced
onions
tomato
green chillies
cilantro
chaat masala
juice of half a lime
ginger
garam masala

Method

Boil the potatoes and chickpeas together with salt and some garam masala till the potato is cooked through.

Chop the onions, tomatoes, green chillies and cilantro fine. Add the potatoes, chickpeas, chaat masala and lime juice. Combine and adjust the seasoning.

Julienne the ginger. Heat a teaspoon of oil, add the ginger and let it sizzle for a few seconds. Take the oil off the heat, stir in half a teaspoon of garam masala and add to the potatoes.

Cover and chill. Serve cold. Yum.

Eggplant and Peas in Yoghurt-Poppy Seed Curry

One of the truly magical things to me about Indian food is how a more or less standard set of spices can be combined to form seemingly endless different tasting dishes.

The defining spice of this gravy is the poppy seed, the white variety called Khaskhas in India. Apparently the word is Persian in origin. Poppy seed gives a nutty taste to the curry. Yogurt smooths it out.

Eggplant is one of my favourite vegetables.(Though admittedly there is not a single vegetable that I dont like, only shoddily cooked vegetable dishes.) The eggplant here is cooked separately and added to the curry in the last few minutes. Yet it melds beautifully with the gravy.

The peas are a different matter though. Somehow, I find peas really take about 15 minutes of cooking in the gravy to soften and take on the flavour of the gravy. I really dislike the taste of the 'greenness' of peas sticking out in a dish where it is supposed to blend in, as is the case with most Indian dishes. Hard peas are a major put-off for me too. Ofcourse, most probably you have not spent quite so much of your life thinking about the taste of peas....

Ingredients

for the paste

a tablespoon of poppy seeds

a tablespoon of coriander seeds

a teaspoon of cumin seeds

a couple of inches of Cinnamon

a teaspoon of whole black pepper

3 cloves of garlic

an inch of ginger

as many green chillies as you like

2 tablespoons of freshly grated coconut

a handful of cilantro

about a cup and a half of cubed eggplant

peas

1/2 cup of yogurt

turmeric

chilli powder

Method

Heat some oil in a flat non-stick pan and add eggplant cubes, salt and chilli powder. Toss to combine and spread the eggplant out. Let it sit at a medium low heat till the bottoms are brown. Toss and repeat till the eggplant is cooked. You can cover the pan occasionally if you like. Remove from the pan and reserve.

Grind all the paste ingredients finely. Heat some oil or ghee in the pan and add the paste. Cook the paste for about 5 minutes without allowing it to burn. Add the peas, salt and a cup of water. Stir, cover and allow to simmer till the peas are cooked to your satisfaction. Add the eggplant pieces and stir through.

Turn the heat to low. Beat the yogurt till smooth. Add to the pan to combine. Yogurt will split when added to warm liquids. You dont want to allow this process to continue, as you the yogurt will break down completely. So, let it just heat through for a minute or so, with no boiling at all.

Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with rice or roti.

Araithavitta Sambar and Aloo Curry

This meal means Sunday afternoon lunch at my childhood home - I am magically transported to the peach dining room in that beautiful and roomy house, with my beloved late ammamma (mother's mother) grudgingly accepting compliments.

These days cooking is seen and accepted as a creative outlet for the cook, and so compliments are almost expected. In my grandma's and my ma's days, cooking was part of the mother/wife's "duty". No other concept is so capable of leaching the joy out of any activity. If my generation has challenged any concept, it is this.

And what rewards it has brought us, atleast in the kitchen. Freed from that dreaded concept, Indian women and men seem to be passionately dishing out ever more complicated meals. I love it.

This sambar is a special sambar, more complicated than the everyday staple of Tamil kitchens. The masala is ground fresh, essentially a fresh version of sambar powder with coconut. The recipe is my Amma's (mother's), from a collection of recipes she wrote down for me from memory and from 'Samaithu Paar'. Samaithu Paar is a classic Tamil cookbook written by Meenakshi Ammal and has remained a go-to reference book for three generations now. It makes a quaint and surprisingly useful read, much like the Fannie Farmer's cookbook so beloved of Americans.

The aloo curry is fantastically simple and yum, my soul-food. I guess the right way to spell this "curry" is "kari", the Tamil root of the English word. In Tamil, and this will surprise many Indians also, "kari" means a dry saute like this dish. It specifically does not mean a dish with a gravy. I would love to read a detailed etymology of the word "curry", how it transformed from a Tamil dry vegetable dish to, pretty much, the whole of Indian cuisine.

Araithavitta Sambar

Ingredients

2 medium onions or a bunch of tiny purple skinned shallots
lime sized ball of tamarind
3/4 cup of toor/arhar dal (toram parippu)
mustard seeds
curry/kari leaves
turmeric powder
hing/asafetida
small lump of jaggery (optional)

dried red chillies - 2 upwards
1 teaspoon channa dal
1.5 teaspoon coriander seeds


Method

Cook the toor dal with water and turmeric. Get over the fear of the whistle and use a pressure cooker. It will open a whole new world to you. When it is thoroughly cooked, mash it to a paste. The classic sign of a bad sambar is distinguishable grains of dal.

Put the tamarind in a bowl with a cup of water and zap in the microwave for a minute.

Dry roast the red chillies, channa dal and coriander seeds till fragrant. Grind fine with the coconut.

Peel and chop the onions into large chunks. If you are using the shallots, good luck peeling them and leave them whole. Heat oil in a pan and add onions to it.

The tamarind should have softened by now, if you followed the order of steps above. The eventual aim is to get the pulp of the fruit out without the stingy parts and the seeds. This is traditionally accomplished by squishing with the fingers. I have used a small whisk occasionally. Squish away and reserve.

Once the onions have lost the raw pungent smell and have changed colour a bit, add the tamarind pulp, hopefully without the fibrous parts. If I am feeling particularly persnickety, I use a small sieve instead of my fingers to strain the pulp. Add more water to the tamarind and repeat the process. Add salt, and some sambar powder if you feel your paste is not potent enough. Let it cook for about 10 minutes, covered and at a slow boil. Tamarind needs to be cooked and turns cloudy and thicker when it is. Also, ofcourse, crunchy onions have no place in any sambar.

Once the onions and tamarind are done, add the coconut paste and mished dal. Salt generously and stir to combine. If you like a faint sweetness to your sambar, add the jaggery. Let if bubble away gently uncovered for about 15 minutes or so. Taste and adjust seasoning. You ideally do not want to make any changes after this. Turn off the heat.

Now comes the truly magical part of Tamil cooking - the talichhu-kottal or taalimpu or tadka or tempering. I really sometimes wonder who came up with it and what a culinary genius that person was. It fills the kitchen with a nutty herbal aroma and lifts any dish to a new dimension. Asafetida contributes greatly to this.

Heat about a teaspoon of oil or even better ghee to a small pan. Add about a teaspoon of mustard seeds and sprinkling of asafetida. Leave it be till the mustard seeds start to splutter. Uncooked, unpopped mustard seeds taste unpleasantly bitter. Wait patiently till the spluttering reaches a crescendo. Add the curry leaves and swirl. Again, wait till the spluttering seems to die down. Another way of knowing the mustard seeds are done is that they change colour from black to greyish. Pour the tempering into the sambar, magically transforming it.

Serve piping hot with soft rice and ghee.

Aloo Curry

Ingredients

waxy potatoes - like Idaho, floury ones fall apart
turmeric
chilli powder
mustard seeds
asafetida

Method

Boil the potatoes until completely cooked. Peel and cut into large chunks.

In a flat non-stick pan, heat a tablespoon or so of oil. Add the asafetida and mustard seeds. Wait till the spluttering reaches a crescendo and begins to die down. Add half a teaspoon of turmeric and as much chilli powder as you like to the oil. Quickly add the potatoes, salt and toss to combine. Try not to use a ladle which may break up the soft potatoes.

Spread the potatoes out and let them sit at medium low heat till the bottom gets golden crusty brown. Toss and repeat. You can pretty much let them go till they are browned to your satisfaction, or you are ready to eat.

Enjoy or should I say Yen-Jaaaay.

Vegetable Au Gratin

This recipe is a throwback to my childhood - vegetable Au Gratin or baked vegetables is one of the few 'Continental' dishes Indian restaurants featured in the 80s. I used to love it and, along with Sizzler, used to be my favourite restaurant food.

I think it is still a lovely recipe and, nostalgia aside, tastes great. After all, combine cheese and milk, crunchy crust and velvety interior, and you will have a winner every time.

(Speaking of velvety, the picture is a bit misleading, being of left-overs the next morning. I had some lovely pictures of the crust and the gooey interior the day I cooked it, but in a momentary lapse of reason, deleted them. The sauce tightened a bit the next morning, but the flavour remained and made me a great lunch. )

The British hung around in India for a full 300 years or so. Surprisingly little of the famed British Raj has remained in India, English being the exception. Food-wise the only real contribution has been in terms of baking, something alien to Indian food. Cakes, bread, curry-puffs and Vegetable Au Gratin are the only dishes that I ate on a regular basis in which I can discern a British presence. The influence of Indian food on British cuisine, however, is wide-spread and well-known. A historic commentary on the seductions of Indian food, perhaps?

Whenever I am recreating a dish from memory, I try to visualise what I loved best about the dish and try to focus on these aspects. If you get these right, you are home-free. The Au Gratin of my dreams has lots of cheesy, crunchy crust, and a cheesy, gooey sauce. I am happy to say I managed both.

The sauce is a regular White Sauce/Bechamel flavoured with onions, garlic and nutmeg. (The link leads to an interesting history of this sauce.) The nutmeg idea is from my go-to Italian cook-book 'the Silver Spoon'. I think a hint of warm spice really lifts a Bechamel
out of the ordinary. In the past, I played around with absurd things like heating the milk with an onion that had been stuck with cloves. But I find freshly grated nutmeg really hits the spot.

The sauce is made cheesy with a generous quantity of Parmesan. I would say dont even think about substituting any other cheese. Parmesan has a depth of flavour that is unparalleled.

The crust is a soft,melty cheese topped with bread crumbs. Any mild melty cheese will work here - mozzarella, swiss, fontina.

Ingredients

potatoes

peas

assorted vegs - pretty much anything else that goes with potatoes and peas

for the sauce

half an onion

2 cloves of garlic

3/4 stick butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk

nutmeg

parmesan cheese

for the crust

bread crumbs (unflavoured,please)

melty cheese - mozzarella,swiss,fontina

Method

Chop all the vegs to approximately uniform size of an inch cube. Cook them with salt and pepper until cooked through. We are not talking mushed veggies here. What I do is, start with the hardier veggies (potatoes, peas) and add the softer veggies ( carrots, cauliflower) in about 10 minutes or so. Reserve.

Butter a baking dish and pre-heat the oven to 350F. Choose a flattish baking dish - more crust.

Mince the onions and garlic. Heat a tablespoon of the butter,onions and garlic in a saucepan. Cook gently till softened, but do not let them brown. Add in the rest of the butter and the flour. Using a whisk, stir it around on medium-low heat. The butter will foam and give off a nutty aroma. Add the (cold) milk in all at once. Whisk everything till there appear to be no lumps. Leave it on medium-low heat, stirring the corners and sides of the pan. When the sauce comes to boil, taste it to ensure that there is no floury taste and turn off the heat. Add milk to get it to a pouring consistency, remembering that it will thicken as it cools.

Season the sauce with salt, pepper, nutmeg and parmesan. Be very careful with the salt to begin with, the butter may have had salt and the cheese adds salt too. You will know you have the seasoning right when you cant stop dipping your finger in for a taste.

Spread the cooked veggies out in the baking dish and cover evenly with sauce. You can do this is in two layers if you like. Cover with foil and put in the over for 15 minutes.

Retrieve the baking dish from the oven. Cover the top with an even and generous layer of mozz/swiss. Sprinkle a layer of breadcrumbs on the cheese. Return to the oven till the crust get golden and irresistible, about 20 minutes.

Serve hot with bread.

This is my submission for the "Think Nutmeg" event hosted by MyDiverseKitchen, a part of "Think Spice" hosted by Sunita's World.

It is also a response to a recipe request by lovely Aunt - Enjoy.

Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic

This is a classic Provencal dish and one we make often. On this particular evening, I had some time on my hands and the recipe below is more involved. In the past, I have made pared down versions and it is really a big pay-off for no effort.


The forty-cloves seems excessive, but is heaven for anyone that loves the sweet taste of stewed garlic. It also removes the need for any side dish. The dish is served with bread and the garlic is used as a spread on the bread.


I try to buy only "free-range, organic, naturally raised, antibiotic-free" chicken, in the hopes that it will have flavour and wont introduce anti-biotics into my body.


The link on "free-range" will take you to the page of an eminent food-writer, Micheal Pollan. Pollan actually investigated the growing conditions for "free-range" chickens for the common brands in Whole Foods and Trader Joes. What he found was depressing to say the least. Two thousand birds had a small door to an outside lot that they never used. Apparently this is "free-range" in legalese. Now, though I love animals and would kill for my dog, I am also realist. These chickens are raised to be food. They will be killed to become my dinner. Yet the practices of the poultry industry seem to be self-defeating on all fronts except profit. The animals have a terrible quality of life while they are alive and they make terrible cardboard-rubber chicken when they are dead.


I find it appalling that even in this day and age, where even Walmart touts organic, I am unable to find a really good tasting, bred as nature meant it, chicken, even though I am willing to pay and I live in LA. My only option seems to be getting it shipped, which defeats the purpose as the chicken will have been frozen.


In any case, the natural chicken does taste better than the drugged birds, however marginally.


The vegetables were from my local farmers market, lovely carrots
and cippoline onions. These really take on a lovely flavour when they are roasted as they are naturally sweet.

The sauce is a simple pan sauce with milk.

Ingredients

chicken thighs and drumsticks - about 2.5 pounds
three heads of garlic
onions
root vegetables - carrots, potatoes, parsnips
thyme
milk
white wine

Method

As I said, I had a bit of time on my hands on this evening, so I marinated the chicken with garlic and thyme for a bit. Obviously, feel free to skip this step. Put a three peeled cloves of garlic and some thyme leaves into the mortar and pestle and make a paste with a bit of salt. Being careful not to tear the skin, smear this paste under the skin of the chicken. Put aside until you are ready to cook. This results in really yummy skin.

Pre-heat oven to 300F.

I like to cook the entire dish in a large non-stick pan which can go in the oven. Heat some oil and butter in the pan on medium heat. Grind black pepper over the chicken pieces and season with more salt. When the oil is good and hot, put the pieces in skin side down. At this point you will be "selling the sizzle" to the lazy members of your family sitting on the couch and waiting for dinner. Dont touch for 3 minutes or so. Only turn the chicken when the skin on the underside looks like golden brown- like you want to tear it off and gobble it right now. Same treatment on the other side. When the chicken is as nice and brown as you can get it, switch off the heat and take the chicken out of the pan onto a plate.

Separate the heads of garlic into cloves but leave them unpeeled. Dont crush them either. Crushing garlic releases their pungency. What we are aiming for is a sweet flavour. This is really why this dish can get away with so much garlic. If you like, you may peel and crush a few to add some garlic flavour. Peel the onions and the other veggies. Cut the veggies into chunks.

Spread the garlic, veggies and onions in the pan. Season with salt, and pepper. Lay the chicken over the veggies, skin side up. Throw in some more thyme. Pour in white wine till it comes half-way up the chicken. Cover the whole with foil and put in the oven.

Forget about it for an hour. An hour at low heat in a closed environment with all those yummy flavours will result in moist chicken.

Uncover the pan and drain as much liquid as you can out of it into another saucepan. Also take out a few cloves of garlic.

Jack the heat of the oven up to 425F and put the dry chicken and veggies back in. The chicken is naturally skin-side-up as the aim of this step is crispy skin. The chicken is likely to get there before the vegs, remove it and cover it with foil to keep warm. Toss the veggies at regular intervals. Remove them also when they have a fair bit of brown spots on them.

Now for the sauce. Set the saucepan with the liquid from the chicken on to low heat. Squish the inside of a reserved garlic cloves into the sauce. I use milk to make it creamy and flour to thicken. Add as much milk as looks appropriate. If the sauce looks runny, take a bit of it out, create a slurry with a couple of teaspoons of flour and add it back in. Let it simmer for half a minute. Taste and season. I like to add a dash of paprika to my sauce - just salt and pepper work fine too. Let it simmer till it reaches the right consistency.

Serve the chicken and veggies with the sauce and some warm bread. Squeeze the garlic onto the bread and dig in.

Kung Pao Chicken and Chinese Fried Rice

This is my riff on this classic. My biggest let-down with most stir-fries is the taste and texture of the chicken. How does it matter that the sauce is yummy and the peanuts are crunchy if the chicken is rubbery and flavourless...


This time around I fixed the problem of rubbery chicken. First and foremost, avoid chicken breast like the plague. All that muscle in the thighs and drums gives them much more flavour. I used boneless-skinless chicken thighs. Second, use the Chinese technique called 'velvetting' the meat. Essentially, marinate it in a cornstarch slurry for about half an hour. This is aimed at keeping the meat moist and thickening the sauce at the same time.


Indians believe in marinating their meat. Though this technique probably originated in preservation or injecting life into less palatable cuts of meat, I believe that it really enhances any dish. Lots of recipes require you to 'brine' your poultry before you roast/fry it, to make it more moist and juicy. Logically, the same is true for all other cooking methods.


So, in all my stir-fires and in this recipe, I combine the velvetting and brining technique by marinating the chicken thigh pieces in a mixture of soy, pepper and cornstarch. Marination brings up images of preparing menus beforehand and being a planning fiend. This is something I only manage rarely, but I have found that even half an hour, while I get everything else ready, makes a huge difference. If you eat dinner late like we do ( and most other Indians do), you can squeeze in a good hour.


I also upped the crunch factor and the vitamin factor by adding snap peas and sprouts.

As an added touch I used was Sichuan Peppercorns instead of the traditional dried red chillies. They transform the dish from mundane to why-does-this-kung-pao-chicken-taste-so-spectacular. These little red berries have a great flavour, quite different from regular black peppercorns, more smoky. They leave a numbing/tingling taste on your tongue. They are called tirphal or timmur in India and are a key ingredient in momos.

(Digression : I had no idea that they were the same thing until I came across a recipe for momos that used them. Momos are Tibet's gift to mankind and are very similar to Chinese dumplings/potstickers. India's culinary diversity is just something else. The very fact that we manage to stay together with a fairly strong national identity, inspite of all the differences, is just unbelievable. Ramachnadra Guha's masterpiece "India after Gandhi" gives fascinating insights into how my country was brought together after independence and how it was kept together in the following turbulent decades. It will also fill the glaring holes left by our history textbooks.)

This is my entry to the "Spice is Right" event hosted by Tigers and Strawberries. Do try Sichuan peppercorns sometime-they rock!

Ingredients


pound and a half of boneless skinless chicken thighs
teaspoon of cornstarch (or flour)
soy sauce
black pepper/chilli powder
sichuan peppercorns or dried red chillies
ginger
garlic
roasted peanuts
snap peas, sprouts
oil


Method


As soon as you can or think of it, get started on the chicken, it will only take a few minutes. Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces. Remember that chicken expands as it cooks and the smaller the chicken pieces, the faster they absorb the marinade and cook. Stir a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce, some ground black pepper or chilli powder and the cornstarch/flour together. Put the chicken in a bowl and pour the mixture over it. Get your fingers in there and mix things around so that the sauce coats all the chicken pieces. Cover with plastic wrap, chuck in the fridge, wash your chickeny hands and exit the kitchen, dreaming of the yummy stir-fry that awaits you.

When you are ready to cook, heat some oil on high heat in a wok or kadai(the indian word for wok, just use the dish that always seems to burn your food when you arent looking). Mince the ginger and garlic. If you are using the Sichuan peppercorns, crush them to a coarse powder in a mortar pestle. Wait till the oil looks like it will begin to smoke any moment. Add the ginger, garlic, peppercorns/dried red chillies, peanuts and swirl. Once the ginger and garlic are toasted, add the chicken. Toss.

The next step calls for a bit of judgement. If you have a great wok that gets really hot and your chicken is in small pieces, stir-frying it for a few minutes should cook the chicken. If not, sprinkle some water in and shut the pan for a minute. Once you feel the chicken is fairly cooked, uncover and let any remaining water evaporate.

Add a little more soy sauce or hoisin sauce if you feel the need. Toss in the snap peas and sprouts. Couple of swirls of the wok and you are done. Enjoy.


Chinese Fried Rice

The key to good fried rice is the rice - it should be cool if not cold and fairly dry with separate grains. I end up making fried rice mostly to use up left over rice.

Ingredients

Cooked rice
ginger
garlic
soy sauce
ground black pepper

optional:
egg
green onions/spring onions
veggies- carrots,beans
green chillies

Method

Mince ginger, garlic,green chillies and the white parts of the green onions. Chop the veggies into tiny pieces or strips. Cut the green parts of the green onions diagonally into half an inch pieces.

Heat oil in a wok on high heat. Wait till it is nearly smoking. Break the egg into the oil and stir it around. Hot oil and egg leads to yummy fluffy scrambled egg. Once it sets, take it out, leaving the oil behind. Reserve at arms reach.

Add the ginger, garlic, white parts of green onions and green chillies to the oil. Toss till softened. Add the veggies and toss till cooked. Add the egg and the rice. Add soy sauce, salt if needed and a generous quantity of ground black pepper. Stir the rice around, breaking up any lumps and making sure all the rice is coated with soy sauce. In a minute or so, taste, adjust seasoning and serve piping hot.

Lamb Kofta in Yogurt-Onion Gravy

I was vegetarian for the first sixteen years of my life, being born into a vegetarian family. Once I started eating meat, I took to it like a duck to water..however, that doesnt mean I cant do without it. One of the joys of growing up in a culture that respects its meats as much as its vegetables is having a deep appreciation for both.

Meatballs or kofte (plural of kofta) are probably found in every meat eating culture. In this recipe, you are looking for delectable silky textured meat with a delicate anise/fennel/saunf flavour. The Kashmiris are particularly fond of fennel/saunf and dried ginger flavours. They are also reputed to be masters of the meatball - they call it gushtaba or rista. It is one of the major components in a traditional Kashmiri banquet called Wazwan. This website contains some very authentic looking recipes http://www.koausa.org/Cookbook/.

I buy lamb mince for this recipe and it is fairly easy. The gravy is also interesting and a nice change from Mughlai gravies.

If the recipe looks complicated, well lots of good things in life take effort and attention to detail. The multiple stages and methods of cooking all reward you with complexity in flavour and texture. That said, this recipe is actually fairly low on effort.

Ingredients for the meatballs:

lamb mince* - 1 pound

fennel seeds/saunf - 1 tbsp

cumin/jeera - 1 tbsp

garam masala -1 tsp

cilantro

bread crumbs** - 3 tbsp

a tablespoon of minced ginger

a tablespoon of minced garlic

red chilli powder/cayenne powder

bay leaves, black cardamom

*if you cant find lamb mince, you can produce your own by buying shoulder or leg meat, cubing it and mincing it in the food processor. The fattier the meat, the juicier and yummier the meatball. In fact in Kashmiri recipes, lamb fat is beaten into the meat to make the meatball.

**always unflavored panko

Method

Grind the fennel seeds and cumin fine. Add this to the lamb mince along with all the other ingredients. Season with salt. Gently combine - kneading with gusto will result in meatballs the consistency of tennis balls.

Set a pot of water to boil. Add bay leaves and black cardamom. Do not salt the water, the meatballs already have the salt they need.

Form the lamb mince into loose balls, again, dont apply any unnecessary pressure. Slide them into the broth. Turn the heat to medium-low. You want to maintain a rolling boil.

In half an hour, drain the meatballs and reserve the broth.

Ingredients for the gravy

two medium onions sliced thin and long

two cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

ghee/oil

yoghurt

red chilli powder/cayenne powder

paprika

cilantro for garnish

Method

Heat a couple of tablespoons of ghee/oil or a mixture thereof in a wide pan. Add the onions and sprinkle with salt and sugar. Cook on medium heat , add the garlic in ten minutes and continue to cook till the onions are thoroughly browned. This means you have to stir it so that the onions dont blacken but brown evenly. The salt and sugar aid this caramelisation process. There is nothing quite like the sweet yet savoury taste of slowly browned onions.

Leaving any oil in the pan, transfer the onions and garlic to a blender. Puree and reserve.

Add the meatballs to the pan and brown evenly on all sides. I suppose you could skip this step, but it adds a whole other dimension to the meatballs.

Transfer the onion puree back into the pan. Add cayenne pepper/chilli powder and paprika. The paprika adds colour and the chilli powder adds heat. I put in 2 teaspoons of mild paprika and a teaspoon of chilli powder. Ofcourse, what proportion you add is upto you. Stir. Add enough broth to cover the meatballs. Salt the gravy to taste and being to rolling boil.

Working in one corner of the pan, whisk a cup of yoghurt into the gravy. This is to keep the yoghurt from splitting and to keep the gravy homogeneous. Cover and let it go for about half an hour. Check and adjust seasoning/thickness of gravy. I personally like the gravy here a little runny, all the better to soak up with rice.

Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with rice.

Paneer Paratha and Pahadi Raita

I love parathas of ever kind - the best I have ever had were from a roadside dhaba in a small town in rural Rajasthan (my university town - Pilani). On cold winter days we would skip the mess and head to the Paratha Dhaba, along with all the truckers, for Mooli/Alu/Gobhi paratha. It looked pretty much like the picture..unappetising, I know, but one taste of the parathas and oh man! They usually just came with yoghurt and some achar/pickle.

Last night for dinner I made paneer paratha and raita to go with it.

The dough

It takes about 2 rounded tablespoons of atta (whole wheat flour) to make one paratha. Put as much as you need in a wide bowl and add a little bit of water at a time to make a tight dough. You only need as much water as will make it come together. Knead till smooth and put it aside, covered, for about an hour. This is for the gluten to develop - to develop that crucial stretch in your dough.

The filling

Crumble the paneer with your fingers. Again about two tablespoon of filling per paratha, as you filling will compress.

Chop a small quantity of onion and green chillies fine. To this add a generous quantity of finely chpped ginger and garlic. You really dont want any pieces fo ginger or garlic floating around.

Saute these in pan with a little bit of oil till soft and aromatic. Add a cautious amount of garam masala, swirl in pan to gently toast and drwa out the aromatic oils.

Add the onion mixture to the paneer. Also add a liberal amount of finely chopped coriander. Salt to taste. By that I mean, actually taste the filling to see if you got it right. Once it is in the paratha, the horse has fled the barn.

Method

There are essentially two epiphanies on the road to yummy parathas - the more filling the better and paratha is not a low-fat food.

So, your aim should be to really fill those suckers up and to fry them in as much ghee/oil as your conscience will allow.

My method to really get a ton of stuffing in there is two-step. This also greatly improves my work flow. I first make stuffed balls, roll them out and fill them again.

Make a lime sized ball of your dough. Working in your hand and

pinching the edges with your fingers, make a vague cup shape,

as in the picture. Now fill this cup with as much filling as it will take. (Be brave - the dough will strecth and holes can be patched.) Close it up and roll into a smooth ball. Finish the rest of your dough.

Do not be afraid of the filling leaking out. This will happen and is a good thing. Miraculously, or through the magic of gluten and dough, your paratha will hold together. You want yummy bits of paneer filling frying up in the pan.

The next step is the frying. You should by now have a hot, dry pan. Slap on your masterpiece paratha. In about a minute or so, flip it. The side facing you should have pale brown spots. Baste this side with oil/ghee/mixture of both. As I said, let your conscience and potbelly be your guide. Flip again, the oiled side will now be sizzling on the pan, filling your kitechn with paratha aromas. Baste the dry side. One more flip and you should be looking at something like this:

Take off the pan, wrap in a clean kitchen towel to keep warm. Oh wait, be sure to taste the first one - more filling? less filling? some salt sprickled on the paratha?

Serve with plain (full-fat) yoghurt or raita and pickle.

Pahadi Raita

I am married to a Kumaoni - people from Kumaon, a beatiful mountainous region at the foothills of the Himalayas. Now a part of the state of Uttaranchal, the major cities are Nainital, Almora and Ranikhet.

One of the signature dishes of Kumaoni cuisine is this raita. In its authentic version, it is made with hemp/bhaang seeds. Not wanting to get deported on drug charges, I make it with mustard seeds. I absolutely love the unique spiciness that mustard seeds give. Grinding them and letting them soak in the curd/yoghurt, as in this recipe, really brings this out. So beware, dont go nuts, you will fumes coming out of your nose.

Ingredients

2 small Persian cucumber*/half a regular large cucumber

a cup of yoghurt

a teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 1/2 teaspoons of black mustard seeds

salt, sugar

Grind the cumin/jeera and mustard seed fine. I use my mortar and pestle, it is surprisingly easy.

Grate the cukes and try to get rid of any seeds. Combine the cucumber, spice powder, yoghurt, some salt and a pinch of sugar in a bowl. Whisk till smooth. Add water to loosen to your desired consistency. Taste, adjust seasoning and stash in the fridge till your ready to eat. The mustard seeds will develop their pungency gradually. About an hour or so should do it.

Variations : Sometimes, I grind a bit of black pepper in. Coriander is a great addition. Grated carrots work fine instead of or in addition to the cucumbers.

Crispy Fish Fry

This is exactly what I want from a fish fry - crisp, light and flavourful batter. I like this pan-fried version for a lighter dinner.

The not-so-secret ingredient in the coating is -you guessed it - panko bread crumbs. They really do wonders. For spice in the marinade, I use a masala that I came up with and use often, a warm/spicy spice mix, not unlike garam masala, but without the sweeter notes. (More about this below.)

Needless to say, the most crucial thing is the quality of the fish. I ask to smell the fish and bring it right up to my nose before I buy it. I didnt believe all the smell-of-the-ocean stuff, until I tried it myself. Fresh fish really has no unpleasant smell and you shouldnt buy any fish that does.



Things needed:


2 fish fillets ( I used red snapper, any mild fish should work)
2 tablespoons of CCCP masala*
1 tablespoon flour (besan or chickpea flour is traditional, ordinary flour works well too)

a pinch of turmeric
juice of one lime

salt
panko bread crumbs
oil

Make a paste out of the masala, flour, turmeric, lemon juice and salt. Slather both sides of the fillets with this paste and leave covered in the fridge to marinate for about half an hour. Beware that fish begins to cook in acidic mediums, so dont leave it in there too long.

Spread out about a cup of bread crumbs on a plate. Warm a couple of tablespoons of oil in a (non-stick) pan that will fit your fillets comfortably. Test the oil with a bit of panko for a good and instant sizzle. Dredge the fillets well in the panko and lay in the pan. Ignore for several minutes to allow the bottom to get golden and delicious. Flip carefully and repeat on the other side.
Serve with lemon slices.




CCCP Masala

I have often heard of Indian cooking dismissed as disguising flavours or muddying the flavour of the ingredients. Much more so with all the focus that there is today on quality ingredients. The multitude of ingredients and spices brought to bear on a simple piece of fish or cauliflower is understandably puzzling to palettes accustomed to cuisines that are based on making single ingredients shine.

Indian palettes and dishes swing both ways. To me, there is as much pleasure in sushi as there is in the above fish fry. Cauliflower stir fried with cumin and salt is as beautiful, albeit in a completely different way, as tandoori cauliflower. After all, the magic of cooking in general and Indian cooking in particular is the alchemy that happens when you put several ingredients together and come up with a whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts. This lies at the heart of the Indian palette and the Indian cooking aesthetic.

Hence our long and complicated love affair with masalas.

Coriander and cumin roasted and powdered by themsleves have completely different characters. Ground coriander is mild and lemony, while ground cumin is sharp and assertive. Put them together, they temper each other and form a warm earthy blend that provides the bass note in a lot of Indian dishes.

Garam masala, easily the most commonly used masala, adds to coriander and cumin a variety of 'sweeter' spices, like clove, Cinnamon, bay leaves, cardamom, mace and nutmeg. These introduce a sweeter taste and smell component, resulting in an altogether more assertive flavour.

I use the CCCP masala when I want a deep (not sharp) heat and a warm, but not sweet, flavour. I grind it fresh every time, there is really nothing that can take the place of absolutely fresh and popping-with-flavour masala.


Things needed


2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon whole black pepper
2 dried red chillies or 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes


Add all of the above to a small pan and roast on a low flame till your kitchen smells heavenly. Watch that nothing burns or turns black. You are trying to impart a smokeyness to the chillies by roasting them, but this may result in fumes that, if inhaled, can cause lots of coughing etc., so watch out. Slow and steady is the key.
When done, powder fine in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle.