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.