Barbarians at the Kitchen Gate

Masala Dhokla

2011-12-24T17:23:00.004-06:00

I use this when I have leftover curry to use up and I don't want to serve it again with plain rice - the Masala Dhokla is a quick and easy way to vary the meal.

You can use any fairly dry leftover curry, such as chole, channa masala, any potato curry that doesn't have a lot of gravy, etc.

Make the dhokla as per below - it's a "quick" dhokla recipe that doesn't require any fermentation and only takes a few minutes to mix up.

Pour the dhokla into the greased cake pan per the directions below. Let it set up for about 3 mins in the steamer, then spoon small amounts of your curry over the surface of the dhokla (for safety's sake remove the steamer from the pan so you don't get a steam burn while doing this). Then simply replace in the steamer and continue to cook. Voila, easy, quick Masala Dhokla!

1 cup besan (chickpea) flour
2 T cream of wheat (farina, semolina, rava)
1/2 tsp Fruit Fresh or citric acid or Eno salt
Salt to taste

Stir dry ingredients together

Add
2 tsp ginger paste
1 green chili, finely minced
1 T light sesame oil
1.5 c water

Mix well with a wire whip or a fork

Add 1.5 tsp baking powder and another 1/2 tsp of the Fruit Fresh or citric acid crystals, or 2 tsp of Eno salt. Mix well but quickly.

Let the batter sit while you bring water to boil in a steamer or dutch oven with a cake rack in the bottom. When it reaches the simmering point, turn the heat down to keep it at the simmer (covered) and pour one-half the batter into a greased 8" cake pan.

Set the pan in the top half of a steamer or on the rack in your dutch oven. Cover the pan.

The water should not touch the cake pan, you will have to watch and add water if it gets too low during the steaming process. This shouldn't be to much trouble if you keep it at the simmer and keep it covered.

The batter should be done in 13 minutes or so (less without the masala). Use a knife to test for doneness (just like a cake).

Remove from the steamer and loosen the edges of the dhokla with a knife. Put a plate over the top of the cakepan and flip the whole thing out to flip it out of the cake pan. You may have to shake it a few times to get it to drop out. Then put another plate over the plate with the dhokla on it (which is now upside down) and flip again, to get it right side up. Serve with ghee.

Simple as that!

Honey Apple Mango bread

2011-12-24T13:52:00.017-06:00

I made this up to enter a contest on Manjula's Kitchen site for a desert that incorporates apples. I could have used just apples but I was in a mood for something a bit more complicated. So Honey Apple Mango it is!

Hey, at least I controlled myself enough not to drop in the raisins I was contemplating adding as well.

I would normally have made this with egg but the contest rules specified eggless, so I used apple-banana baby food to replace the eggs. You could use real mashed bananas or applesauce or any combination thereof, but I keep the baby food on hand for small tasks like this because (a) it's handy and (b) I have a bazillion uses for baby food jars and never have any on hand. I would have preferred to use just plain banana baby food in this case because you get better binding from bananas, and frankly probably real bananas would have been best, but just about anything in the apple-banana line as an egg replacement would do.

I seriously contemplated using the silken tofu, but when push came to shove, I just wasn't ready to try it. Besides, I really need some baby food jars - I'm out of empty small jars and I have stuff to put in 'em!

It made a nice, moist loaf. Next time I would leave the chunks a little larger - I diced them about the size of, well, actual dice. You can see chunks in the bread but they cooked quite thoroughly, so larger chunks would have been fine.

It came out great:

* 8 T (one stick, 1/2 c) SOFTENED butter
* 2/3 c brown sugar
* 1 T vanilla
* 1 t cinnamon
* 1/2 heaping tsp ground cardamom
* 1/2 tsp nutmeg
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1 tsp salt
* 2 T honey
* 2 T mango puree (OPTIONAL)
* 2 eggs OR add 1 tsp baking powder to dry ingredients plus one of the following

1/2 c silken tofu (blended with the rest of the liquids)
1/2 c mashed bananas
1/2 c applesauce
1/2 c (about 1 4oz size jar) banana/apple baby food

* 1 medium size apple, peeled, cored, and cubed
* large ripe mango, pitted, peeled, and cubed
* 10 oz by weight All Purpose flour

In case you don't know how to peel a mango, watch this video

I used the baby food option for this. I think the mashed bananas as a substitute for the eggs would have been a little better maybe, but I didn't have any bananas, so baby food it was!

Take out one stick (4 oz, 1/2 c) butter to let it soften. GIVE IT SOME TIME - a couple hours in advance at least.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Yes, all at once, it works out just fine! Beat til it has a smooth consistency.
Add the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the apples, mango, and flour, and beat till smooth again. I do this in my Kitchenaid stand mixer with the wire whip.
Replace the wire whip with the beater blade, scrape the bowl down, and stir in the diced fruit, just to incorporate.
Stir in the flour on a low speed, stirring just to mix. You want a smooth mixture but don't over beat it or it will be heavy and dense.
Grease a 9x5 loaf pan (I use vegetable shortening and a Pyrex pan, but butter or veg. oil would work) and pour the batter in. Smooth the top so it's more or less even-ish.
Bake in a 350 F oven for 55 mins to an hour, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cover the top with foil towards the end if it is browning too fast.
Let cool, slice and serve.

Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with the remaining 2 3/4c of mango pulp.... oh, the burdens of the baker!

Allagada Podi

2011-12-23T11:13:00.003-06:00

This is a variation of potato curry that includes some spices I don't typically cook with when making Indian food. It's a tasty change of pace.

3 T oil - peanut or mustard oil, or 1/2 veg oil and 1/2 ghee
3 to 4 med red potatoes, about 1 1/3 lbs
1 large onion, diced or thinly sliced
OPTIONAL 2 roma style tomatoes, cubed, or 1 sm can diced tomatoes

1 tsp poppy seed
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp sesame seeds
OPTIONAL 1 T UNSWEETENED coconut flakes

2 to 3 green chili, to taste
1.5 tsp ginger
1.5 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp black mustard seed
8-12 curry leaves

1/8 tsp clove powder
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of turmeric (scant 1/8 tsp)
2 tsp salt
2 T plain, unflavored yoghurt
Coriander leaves, chopped, as garnish

Cut the potatoes into cubes, slices, or shoestring style strips. Cut the onions and set both aside.

In a coffee or spice grinder (used only for spices), grind the poppy seeds, coriander powder, and sesame seeds. Also the coconut, if you are using it. Set aside in a small bowl.

Measure out the ginger paste and minced garlic and set aside, mixed together, in another small bowl. Add the minced green chili to this bowl as well.

Put the cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon in another small bowl.

Measure the turmeric out into a small bowl and set aside with the other pre-measured spices.

Heat the oil in a pan. Which oil you choose will have an effect on the flavor of the dish. Note that mustard seed oil is more sensitive to heat than peanut oil or ghee; I prefer peanut oil for this dish myself.

Add the chana dal to the oil as it heats. When the chana starts to fry, add the mustard seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds start to crackle, quickly stir in the cardamom, clove, and cinnamon mixture.

When the mustard seeds start to actually pop, add the curry leaves and then quickly add the onion and turmeric and fry for a few minutes until they start to brown, stirring frequently.

Add the ground poppy seed, sesame seed, and coriander powder (and coconut if you are using it) mixture and stir well, IMMEDIATELY add the tomatoes and the potatoes. Stir quickly, sprinkle on the salt, then stir to coat the potato pieces evenly. Turn heat down to med, cover, and let the potatoes cook, stirring occasionally, until they just barely begin to soften.

Turn the heat up to med high, uncover, and fry the potatoes. As they brown, turn them gently, sort of like a hash brown. Do not stir as this will break up the potato pieces. When they have browned sufficient unto your taste, add the plain yoghurt if you have it, then sprinkle with the torn or minced coriander and serve with rice, naan, chappati or puri.

Enjoy!

You GHEE, girl!

2011-10-12T23:21:00.002-05:00

Ghee is the king of oils in India. It has historically been a sign of wealth, health, and even beauty. It's certainly tasty! And so easy to make.

Take 1 lb of UNSALTED butter.
Melt it over a low heat.
Gently cook until the milk solids precipitate out and turn crispy, lightly browned.
Strain the solids out - I use flour sack cloth lining a small metal strainer.

Store in a metal or glass container. Ghee may be kept on the countertop for at least 3 to 4 months (assuming you properly cooked and strained out all the milk solids).

You can use it in place of oil in Indian recipes. It's kind of expensive to do on a regular basis but a nice change of pace once in awhile. The flash point of ghee is quite high - if the milk solids have all been removed it is actually higher than most vegetable oils. So it won't burn the way butter does at higher temps when frying.

Or serve warmed so that diners can drizzle a bit of ghee over their food as they eat. This is particularly good with dal dishes.

That's really all there is to ghee.

A Word About Garlic

2011-09-11T15:53:00.002-05:00

Over the years I've gradually switched from using fresh garlic to nearly always using the pre-minced stuff that comes in jars. Foodie purists may sneer, but it tastes just as good to me.

However, over the years, so gradually that I didn't even notice it, some producers seem to have switched over to a weaker, less garlicky variety of garlic. Christopher Ranch in particular is now using a weaker garlic. Hence, 20 years ago when I first started using the pre-minced garlic, I was using 1/2 tsp of the pre-minced per clove of garlic called for in the recipe, whereas now the CR pre-minced states to use 2 tsps per clove, four times as much.

This was brought home to me when I purchased a jar of crushed garlic at Costco instead of from the grocery store, and suddenly it was MUCH STRONGER. Upon checking the label, I discovered that this garlic states that 1/2 tsp of the crushed garlic is equivalent to 1 clove of garlic.

As it was in the beginning ...

I don't buy my minced garlic at the grocery store anymore, needless to say. I much prefer the stronger variety. If you don't have a Costco membership, many ethnic grocery stores still carry the stronger varieties. An Indian grocery store would be a good source.

Just one more example of the ways we need to watch what we are buying! I didn't even notice the shift to the weaker variety, though I did keep wondering how I could ever have thought 1/2 tsp per clove was enough, LOL!

Vegetable Pizza Casserole

2011-08-24T18:14:00.008-05:00

What do you do, when your son says at the last minute he wants pizza for dinner, and the dough is in the freezer?

Well I don't know what YOU do, but this is what *I* did!

Go directly to the ingredient list

I had half a can of diced tomatoes in the fridge, as well as half of a not very good recipe for pizza sauce (it was too thick and overspiced).

I had 8 lbs of potatoes languishing in the cupboard, just begging to be used. You can tell when potatoes are begging to be used. They start putting out little sprouts. Those are desperate cries for attention.

I had pepperoni and cheese in the fridge, as well as a green pepper that wasn't getting any younger.

If only I had some pierogi, I could make that Pizza-style pierogi casserole my son likes.

Hey, wait - what's in those pierogies? All they are is a flap of dough folded over some very bland mashed potatoes. I suppose I could cook up the potatoes and make pierogi. Or wait - quicker yet - why bother with the dough?

So having had this epiphany, I washed and sliced the better part of the lonely, languishing potatoes. I love my mandoline! In nothing flat I had about 4 lbs of potatoes sliced up and ready to go. These were a very thin skinned variety so I didn't even need to peel them.

Again with the mandoline, making short work of dicing some onion. Too bad I haven't figured a way to cut up bell peppers on the mandoline - by the time I've got them cut up enough to seed them there's not enough left to stick on the mandoline. (SAFETY NOTE: Regardless of what superchef you've seen on TV slicing things on a mandoline with his/her bare hands, remember, YOU are NOT a superchef! Never ever use a mandoline without the pusher! Not if you love your fingers, and the flesh attached thereon)

So anyway. Cover a cookie sheet with foil, oil it with olive oil, spread the sliced potatoes out, and bake in a preheated 425F to 450F oven for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and layer into a large Pyrex baking dish. Dump your diced onions on top. Add "enough" pasta sauce (I used about 3.5 c). Or cut up about 6 or 8 Romas and pile them on. I was cooking with what was on hand (read: improvising) and that wasn't one of the things in the fridge begging to be used up before they grew fur coats. I had what amounted to about 3.5 c of tomatoes and sauce when all was said and done, in a 13x9 pyrex baking dish. I wouldn't use plain canned tomatoes unless you drain the juices off first - that will turn this into a stew rather than a casserole. I had some RIDICULOUSLY thick pizza sauce that in combination with the half can of tomatoes worked out to be about the right consistency overall. When I say ridiculous, I mean you could cut it with a knife. I've seen jams that were less thick. Anyway.

I added about 2 tsp fennel seeds, and roughly 1 tsp of dried basil, and oregano, sprinkled evenly over the top. Now is the time to add crushed red pepper if you would like to - I meant to but forgot. Or "Italian seasoning", if that floats your boat.

Then I spread the green peppers on top, kind of mooshed it all flat, then added pepperoni in a single layer. On top went about 2c of mozzarella cheese.

Turned the oven down to 350F and put the whole thing in the oven. Checked after about 20 minutes - the cheese was just starting to brown. After another 10 minutes (total 30 minutes) I had a nicely browned crust of cheese on top with all that vegetable-y goodness bubbling away below.

SOME ALTERATIONS THAT SEEM LIKELY TO MEET WITH SUCCESS

You could make this with just about any dry-ish vegetable. Something like summer squash (zucchini, etc) would likely be to wet, although you might get around that to an extent by adding pasta or rice. Personally I think that would detract from the overall character of the dish (funny to talk that way about what was literally thrown together at the last minute, but nevertheless true). That's why I roasted the potato slices instead of boiling potatoes and dicing them or something like that. By slicing and then roasting them, I dried them out quite a bit while retaining their flavor and texture.

Some veggies that would probably do well in this dish include any of the firmer squashes (such as acorn, pumpkin, butternut, etc), Florence fennel, sweet potato, and leek. Some other less familiar possibilities I haven't tried yet include REAL yams (not to be confused with sweet potatoes which are often called yams), Jerusalem artichoke, Taro, and cassava/manioc/yucca, although I would be careful with that last - if improperly prepared it can be poisonous! If you decide to experiment with some of the more exotic examples of vegetables and tubers, be sure to research carefully how to properly prepare them. I was not aware that cassava contained cyanide 'til I looked it up.

Assuming you're sticking with some of the more familiar veggies, cut them up, toss with olive oil, and roast them as usual for about 20 minutes in a 425F oven. You may also roast the tomatoes if you are using fresh rather than canned. Stick with a paste variety such as Roma or San Marzano - other varieties will be too wet, in my opinion. You may roast them "plain", by themselves, or you may sprinkle with herbs such as thyme and rosemary.

Layer the roasted veggies in the bottom of the baking dish, as above.

Seasonings you might add to the casserole with the tomatoes include fennel seed, oregano, basil, and prepared Italian seasonings. I used oregano, fennel seed, and basil when I made this the first time.

Although summer squashes such as zucchini are often roasted, remember that once you layer on the cheese, you are essentially sealing this dish, just as effectively as if you'd put a lid on it. Any softer vegetable under that "lid" will start to stew in its own juices pretty quickly. I'm not saying you can't do it - roasting will help to dry these out too, and if combined with fresh rather than canned tomatoes you might manage just fine. Just be aware that it might not work as well as some other, dryer vegetables.

SO - an ingredient list would go something like this:

4 to 5 lbs assorted roasted vegetables, cut into roughly bite size chunks.
3 c (to taste) pizza or pasta sauce, if you didn't include fresh tomatoes above
1 med to large onion, diced (to taste)
1 large or 2 small bell peppers, diced LARGE (about 1" to 2")
(you may roast the onions and bell peppers with the other veggies if you wish, in which case I would cut the onions into larger chunks and add them about halfway into the roasting process because we don't want them to turn into mush)
Pepperoni, Italian sausage, or other sausage - leave out for a fully vegetarian dish
fennel seed
dried basil
dried oregano
crushed red pepper
For the roasted veggies - possibly some thyme and/or rosemary, cracked pepper
2 c mozzarella cheese, to taste

all baked as above in a 13x9 Pyrex baking dish, oiled with olive oil.

SOME OTHER OPTIONAL SAUSAGE TYPES:
Spanish (not Mexican!) chorizo
Cajun (not French, too wimpy!) andouille
linguica, a spicy Portuguese sausage that must be cooked first (it's not dry cured). If sliced thinly it will probably cook fine along with everything else.

If you leave out the pepperoni or other sausage, definitely add some crushed red pepper (to taste) - this dish will just be too bland without something spicy.

Bhindi (Okra) Curry

2011-08-20T12:54:00.011-05:00

I hate okra. You know that song - "Great green gobs of ..."?

Well, it always made me think of okra. It is slimy, gummy, gooey, green grossness.

I HATE okra.

But I like this curry. And it is made with okra.

Okra. There's a reason the soup that incorporates it as a mainstay is called "gumbo". "Mucilaginous" is the best, most polite way to describe okra. Mucilaginous. The very word has the ring of authenticity. That's got to be an onomatopoeia if ever there was one. Mucilaginous mucilaginous mucilaginous - I really HATE okra.

Poor okra has really gotten a bum rap all these years. Poor okra does not, after all, entirely deserve it's reputation as the slug of the vegetable world. It turns out that okra does not, in fact, HAVE to turn into something that exudes long strings of slime that something deep inside you knows will never never never EVER wash off.

It can do so, and easily does. But it doesn't HAVE to be that way. With a little tender loving care, you too can make unslimy, tasty okra dishes.

There are two ways to get around the sliminess of okra. One is to deep fry the little buggers so you sort of cauterize the wounds, causing them to cease their relentless gooey oozings. It works, there's no doubt, but it's really sort of an unnecessary step if you're going on to make a main dish with it anyway. Plus, I don't like deep-frying much. Plus plus, I can't shake the idea that deep frying okra somehow contaminates the oil permanently (as I typically use deep-frying oil at least 3 times before discarding). I'd have to be sure I was using the deep frying oil on it's last trip before the Long Goodbye if I were ever to risk deep-frying okra.

But that's just me.

The other is to pan fry the okra, sliced into little wheel-shapes, in a single layer, until they are brown and crispy. This does take some time, but it is time well-spent. So first I'm going to describe the technique, and then I'll put the actual recipe under that.

JUMP to the ACTUAL RECIPE if you don't want to read all about the technique.

The first way to fend off the oozies it to use the freshest, least mature okra pods you can find. If they're longer than 3", they're edging towards doddering okra senility. If they're longer than 4", AVOID AVOID AVOID! *SHUDDER*

So get the smallest, firmest pods. It's unfortunate but an awful lot of grocery-store okra is going to be, shall we say, "overdeveloped" for our purposes, but you can still make it work as long as you stay away from the biggest pods.

Wash your okra, then dry it THOROUGHLY. I toss it in a dishtowel and then lay it out on another, dry dishtowel to air dry. Yes, this takes some time, but it's time you spend doing other more useful and fun things. Like reading the 9 million free books I downloaded onto the e-reader my son gave me. YES!

When the okra is completely dry (I mean COMPLETELY dry, because any hint of wetness will bring on the oozies big time), cut it into wheel-shaped rounds, about 1/4" thick. Discard the stem end. Whether or not you discard the pointy end is purely a matter of - dare I say it, in connection with okra - aesthetics.

Yes, it will start to ooze while you're doing this. Your knife blade will collect a layer of goo with embedded okra seeds, and you will occasionally have to remove the odd piece of okra that has glued itself to the side of your knife. However, be of stout heart! Persevere in the face of adversity! Fear not! All will be well, and all manner of things will be well.

Heat a T or 2 of oil in the largest frying pan you have - because you want to fry these up in a single layer, as much as possible. Shallow is fine, as long as the surface area is as large as possible. (Alternatively, you can stir fry these in a wok at high temperature, which would probably go faster, but I don't have a wok at present so this is how to do it sans wok)

As the oil heats, I add cumin seeds first, then as they start to brown, drop in the mustard seeds (quantities are coming later, patience, gentle reader!), and as soon as the mustard seeds pop I drop in the curry leaves, which fry just long enough for me to pick up my already-cut-up okra slices and dump them right in the pan there. Stir around quickly to sear/seal the cut faces of the okra. Reduce heat to medium and settle in for the long haul.

I have never timed this but it's a strictly go-by-looks sort of operation anyway so I'm not sure timing would be of any real use. How fast the okra browns up and "crispens" is going to be a function of how hot "medium" actually is on your stove, what sort of pan you're using, the age of the okra (older okra will take longer to properly "cauterize" and may actually get tough if you go too fast), how willing you are to stand and stir, etc.

Since I am unwilling to stand and stir, I'm happy with the medium heat and checking the okra every once in awhile to give it a stir, flip it over, and generally patiently wait for it to get brown and crispy. DO NOT cover with a lid while this is going on, or you will be trapping steam = water = GOO.

Once the okra is all brown and nice and crispy (and it does take awhile), you can add in the onions, garlic, and other spices, and finish cooking.

OK. Now for

THE ACTUAL RECIPE

1/2 lb of okra
1/2 to 3/4 lb of diced potatoes (I actually julienned mine on my mandoline, which turned out roughly 2" long pieces of potato that looked sort of like short shoestring fries)
2 T oil
1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp black mustard seed
about a half dozen curry leaves
1 med onion (to taste), diced
2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground red chili (NOT "chili powder")
1/4 tsp ground fenugreek
OPTIONAL - 1/2 tsp good quality curry powder (not any American grocery store stuff)
2 T cilantro, coarsely chopped

You can make this with just 1 lb of okra (no potatoes) if you wish.

Wash and dry the okra, as above.
While okra is drying, dice or julienne potatoes and fry with as little oil as possible until they are nearly done. This will only take a few minutes because the potatoes are cut small. Set aside.
Heat oil in a large skillet
Fry the cumin seed, then the mustard seed, then the curry leaves (as above).
IMMEDIATELY add the okra, stir well
Reduce to medium - NO LID! Stir well, and stir occasionally till okra turns brown and crispy
Add onions, salt and garlic - stir 'til onions start to brown.
Add turmeric, chili powder, fenugreek, and curry powder (if you are using it). If I'm using curry powder I will typically leave the turmeric out or cut it to 1/4 tsp.
Add the (precooked) potatoes.
Stir well to coat with spices as evenly as possible.
Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice or chapatti, puri, or naan.

Vimala's Curryblossom Cafe

2011-08-06T23:42:00.006-05:00

Restaurant reviews are not really part of what I intended for this website, but the Curryblossom is so good that I just had to make an exception.

I love Indian food. I even like Indian-ish food. But the truth of the matter is that most Indian restaurants in the US are not real Indian food, they're an odd sort of Punjabi-Bengali-American-ish fusion that you would never find in any Indian home.

If you're fortunate enough to live in an area where there are a LOT of Indians, you may have stumbled across some of the exceptions to the above rule of thumb, but I have never had the good fortune to live somewhere like that. Mostly I've gotten used to the dishes inflicted on us by the more typical places serving sort of Indian-ish cuisine. Actually sometimes I like that style of cooking - but it's really not real Indian food. It is, however, what a lot of people now expect when they go to an Indian Restaurant.

After having tried several of the Indian restaurants in the area, I was pretty well resigned to the typical sort of Indian-ish fare I've come to expect over the years. Don't get me wrong - some of the other places in town are fairly good presentations of that sort of cuisine. But there was nothing new or special about any of them, including the one place in Durham where I found "Masala Dosa" on the buffet (the buffet - something else that seems ubiquitous now for Indian restaurants in the US). In fact the dosa were tough and rubbery. Not sure how that happened, but it was a disappointment. The only upside to that was that my dosa aren't THAT bad, so I got to feel superior. (They're not good, mind you. They're just not as bad as THAT.)

So one day I'm wandering around in downtown Chapel Hill, as I am wont to do (since it seems I'm perpetually a little bit lost these days), and I come upon the end of the run of restaurants on that section of Franklin Street. I want Indian food. Or Thai. Or good Chinese. Unfortunately there are no really good examples of any of those in Chapel Hill (at least not that I've found so far), and I'm just not up for the OK Indian-ish fare that's available. Plus the last time I set foot in the "upscale" Indian restaurant that everybody thinks is so good, they were SO incredibly rude that I ended up walking out. (I did go back another time - basically I got caught on foot in a downpour, and it was a choice between getting soaking wet or going in there. I chose wrongly - I went in.)

So I wander over to where there's a restaurant named "Penang", and discover that that is where there USED to be a restaurant named "Penang".

Darn! I was at least willing to TRY a new Thai place. Well at least I'd been told they served Thai food, although it sounds Malaysian. Anyway. Then I notice a little sign stuck in the grass strip there that says "Vimala's Curryblossom Cafe" - in "the courtyard", which I am guessing is to be reached by walking back between the (now missing) Penang and the OTHER empty storefront next to it.

I walk back, and there, tucked into a corner, is Vimala's. Drat it all, it's only 11 AM and they don't open 'til 11:30.

Oh well, I have a book, and there are places to sit. And I don't get around as well as I once did, so I'm happy enough to sit down, take a load off, and wait for them to open.

Eventually I wend my way into the restaurant proper. This is definitely not a "trendy", upscale place, like that restaurant which shall remain nameless of the rude rude staff, but that's not something I much care about (in fact I find that kind of ostentation a bit off-putting). I am a little worried, however, when I look around and see many many young people of the decidedly non-Asian-Indian variety behind the counter and in the kitchen. And that's ALL. Pretty sure I didn't spot anybody over the age of say 25-ish.

"Sigh" I sighed to myself. Well, I guess crunchy-granola-Indian-fusion is at least something different. (Yes, I was being a little judgmental. I'm sorry. I'm getting crotchety in my old age I think, LOL!)

Oh well. Like I said I don't get around that well anymore, and frankly I'd already walked through the vast majority of Restaurant Row without feeling like stopping anywhere else. So I lit.

I did feel a bit better when Vimala herself made an appearance (ah, there is the person who knows real Indian food! Little did I know how WELL she knows real Indian food.)

All I can say is, they blew my socks off. This is real Indian food like your mother would feed you, if she was South Indian. And if your mother is South Indian, then I hope she fed you food this good.

That day I had the Baingan Bharta, which was really good. I didn't notice the Masala Dosa on the menu until after I'd already ordered, so of course I had to go back for that another day. Except, when I did, the Uttapam seduced me away (oh, fickle fickle! To wear one's stomach on one's sleeve!) So of course, I STILL had to go back for the Masala Dosa.

The Masala Dosa comes with a thick, flavorfuly spiced sambar; coconut chutney; a dollop of potato curry; and something called "gunpowder", which I discovered, much to my embarrasment, I had been calling "chat masala" for something like 20 years. In my own defense, I think I finally figured out how I came to mislabel that. Long long ago I came across some of this stuff in an Indian grocery which was only labeled in Hindi. At least I assume it was Hindi; let's just say it WASN'T labeled in English.

"What's this?" I asked the proprietor. "Oh, that's spice powder." she says. I asked what was in it, and was told ground urud, ground chana, and some miscellaneous spices. You're supposed to mix it with ghee and serve with idli. Only I can't make idli, remember? I was afraid to try again after reducing my blender's motor to a smoking mass. So I didn't buy it.

This had to be over 20 years ago because I (barely) remember it being in Ohio.

Then a few years ago - maybe 5 - I came across something labeled "chat masala" in an Indian grocery in Missouri.

"What's this?" I asked the proprietor. "Oh, that's spice powder."

OK. So now "spice powder" becomes linked with "chat masala" as well as that stuff in the not-marked-in-English bag from 15 years before. Now put these 2 items next to each other and they look NOTHING alike; but it had been 15 years between sightings, after all, so I didn't realize at the time.

Now fast forward to the present day.

"My dad gave me this," sez my son, showing me some stuff in a bag that IS labeled in English, "What's it for?"

This stuff says "Chutney Powder". It looks vaguely familiar. I read the ingredients. 81% black gram, it says. (That's urud dal). "For idli, dosa" it says further on the packet. Oh yeah! I know what this is! Spice powder! CHAT MASALA!

So for years I've been calling this stuff "chat masala" when it was nothing like. Vimala set me straight, LOL! (It's GUNPOWDER. GUNPOWDER.)

But I digress. Since I have a strong aversion to anything coconut flavored - say, coconut chutney - I asked that they hold the chutney. Shortly Vimala herself came out and offered me several alternative chutneys. I picked the ginger chutney, and oh what a good choice that was!

Let me tell you, if I thought I'd had my socks blown off to start with, the Masala Dosa had to have blown me totally out of all my clothes and left me naked with all my food-related nerve endings tingling like they'd been struck by lightning. Which they had. (No, don't try to picture that. It would be a hideous sight. Just take it for a bit of hyperbole in service of TRYING to describe just how good that Masala Dosa was.)

I'm serious. It was so good I was bouncing in my chair making nomnom noises. There was a guy standing at the counter laughing at me. I was having paroxysms of joy!

Go ahead. Laugh at me. I've been cooking and eating Indian food for almost 35 years and except for my friend Usha's cooking, I haven't had anything that good outside of India. I make kind of crummy dosa myself, using cheaty kind of recipes that use pre-ground flours instead of fresh-grinding the whole dal and rice as you should. After burning the motor of my blender out lo these 30 years ago I never tried an authentic recipe again. So these were GOOD.

If you are ever anywhere in the area, give Vimala's a try. You only THINK you've ever had authentic Indian food up to now.

Unless of course your mother is Indian . . .

Honey Mango Banana Bread

2011-07-19T00:09:00.006-05:00

I make a lot of Indian food (in case no one had noticed that) and one of the products I have in my pantry at all times, for no particular reason, is mango pulp. It comes in large cans and it is, well, mango pulp.

I love mangos but you don't get good mangos here in the US (unless you're fortunate enough to live in Hawaii). Even so, I can only eat one raw mango because my lips blister if the juices touch my skin. So there I go, whenever I can manage to get a ripe-ish mango, carefully peeling it and cutting it into small chunks and ever so carefully edging it past my lips without brushing the skin . . . YUM!

If I eat 2, the inside of my mouth gets a bit raw, but one is safe. I don't know what causes it, but cooked mango products don't cause the problem.

So there's the mango pulp. I buy it all the time but I almost never actually use it because I don't know HOW. It wasn't something my ex's family used, so I've never really figured out what to do with it, other than make Mango Lassi (a drink with yogurt) which I don't really care for. My son used to eat it right out of the can with a spoon. Pretty sure that's not the intended use for it either. I keep hoping to figure out something useful to do with it because I absolutely LOVE mangos. So far I haven't really come up with very many uses for it.

In an attempt to incorporate some of this yummy ingredient into my repertoire, I came up with the following modification of a standard banana bread recipe (from the King Arthur website). It makes a very moist, flavorful quick bread. There's just a hint of the mango - in future I'd like to try incorporating some ripe mango chunks into the bread for a stronger mango flavor, but lacking ripe (or at least ripe-ish) mangos, this isn't a bad effort.

8 T (one stick) butter
2/3 c brown sugar
1/4 c honey
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 T cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
12 oz mashed overripe bananas
1/4 c mango puree
2 large eggs
10 oz by weight flour

I used King Arthur All Purpose flour, which is about the same as anybody else's bread flour at 11.6% protein.

Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Beat til it has a smooth consistency.
Add the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the flour and beat till smooth again. I do this in my Kitchenaid stand mixer with the wire whip.
Replace the wire whip with the beater blade and beat in the flour, stirring just to mix. You want a smooth mixture but don't over beat it or it will be heavy and dense.
Grease a 9x5 loaf pan and pour the batter in. Smooth the top so it's more or less even-ish.
Bake in a 350 F oven for 45 mins, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cover the top with foil towards the end if the top is browning too fast.
Let cool, slice and serve.

Matar Paneer

2011-07-18T01:49:00.006-05:00

Whenever milk goes on sale, I buy a gallon or two of whole milk and make paneer. My son prefers Paneer Makhni or some other form of paneer in a gravy, but my first love is and always has been Matar Paneer (peas and paneer curry). Although I must admit that Saag paneer is now possibly in a tie position for my favorite paneer dish. However today I'm making Matar Paneer, so here goes.

Ingredients

1 c paneer
1 c peas, fresh or frozen (never canned!)
1/2 c onion
1/2 c tomato, finely chopped
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 tsp cayenee
3 T ghee
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 c paneer whey or water

Directions

Pan fry the paneer cubes (about 1" cubes) using as little oil or ghee as possible. In my Scanpans I can do this without any oil at all, and usually do. Just brown the cubes on at least 2 sides, or all 4 if you have the patience. Set aside.
Heat the ghee over a low-medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and fry gently til the onions soften and begin to turn golden.
Add the turmeric, salt, garam masala, and coriander powder and fry about a minute longer.
Add the diced tomatoes and cook until they begin to soften.
Add 1/2 c of the whey and simmer for about 5 mins until the tomatoes become a pulpy sauce.
Add another 1/2c of whey and the peas, cover, and simmer until the peas are cooked. If you are using fresh peas from the garden, you may need to add another 1/2 c of whey to fully cook them (frozen peas will cook faster).
Remove the lid, add the paneer, and cook, stirring gently, until the remaining liquid has been absorbed by the paneer or has cooked down.
Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with rice, puri, or chapati.

Pie Crust - VICTORY!

2011-01-23T16:56:00.003-06:00

For many years I have avoided making pies. I haven't even tried to make a pie since I left home at the age of 17. Why? Because I was completely and utterly convinced that I could not make a decent pie crust to save my life, having been told this for years by my mother. So, much as I love pies, and despite the hundreds of pies I'd made while living at home (pies which, upon further investigation, it turns out NO ONE in the family ever complained about except my mother), I haven't tried to make a pie in 35 years.

Until now.

The first pie wasn't all that good, but you know what?

IT DIDN'T SUCK, EITHER!

What more could anyone want for the first pie in 35 years?

So I tried again.

This time the crust was pretty darn good.

In reality, I think any pie crust recipe would be fine, but here's the one I was using. Here's the original source.

I have found the suggested measurements for a single 9" pie crust is not enough. I use 1 ½ cups of the pie crust mix and 2 T of water.

Pie Crust Mix:

6 c All Purpose Flour
2 tsp salt
2 ⅓ c shortening (I used all regular Crisco, though the recipe calls for half regular and half butter flavored)

Use a fork or whisk to stir the salt and flour together in a mixing bowl.
Using a pastry blender, cut the shortening into the flour until you have a mealy mixture with particles varying up to about pea size. It won't be perfectly uniform, and that's fine. You just don't want big lumps or too many tiny crumbs.
The original directions say to cut the shortening in half at a time. I didn't do that and it came out fine, but it might be advantageous to go ahead and do it that way.

Store this mixture in the refrigerator. I'm told this can be held in the fridge for up to 3 months. I've had some in there for about a month now and it's still fine. I'm using a gallon size Ziploc freezer bag; typical plastic baggies are not heavy duty enough for this type of long term storage and the extra handling. In addition, the lighter weight plastic baggies may also tend to allow the pie dough mixture to pick up odors and flavors from other things stored in the fridge if its going to be in there for more than a week or so. A plastic tub or other container would be the safest storage option, but the Freezer style Ziploc has been adequate for me so far.

To make pie dough, use 2 T of ice cold water to 1 C of the pie dough mix. Add the water a little bit at a time - if the dough is too dry, it won't hold together. If it's too wet, it will stick to EVERYTHING. In either case you will end up over-handling the dough, which will make the pie crust tough instead of tender and flaky.

Stir with a fork until the dough just begins to hold together. Be careful about adding water a little bit at a time until you've achieved this.

Suggested measurements:
9" double crust - 2 c dough mix plus 4 T ice cold water
10" double crust - 4 C dough mix plus 8 T ice cold water
9" single crust - 1 ½ cups dough crust mix and 2 T of water.

The only one of these I've tried is the 9" single crust so I can't vouch for the accuracy of the double crust measurements. The original directions called for 1 ¼ c of dough mix and 2 T of water for a 9" single crust. I found this to be insufficient to fit into a 9" pie pan. It also made a very wet dough - I had to add a fair amount of flour the first time when I followed these directions. The extra handling contributed to the crust being only OK instead of pretty good. Increasing the dough mix to 1 ½ cups brought the dry to wet ratio closer to being correct.

ROLLING THE DOUGH OUT

This is the other area (besides getting the wet to dry ratio right) where things can get a little tricky. Over-handling is always the danger.

Pat the dough into a ball and wrap well with plastic wrap. Let rest and chill in the refrigerator for 30 mins to an hour.

Tape a piece of plastic wrap to the countertop or table (use masking tape). It needs to be at least as wide as the dough you want to roll out. I usually tape 2 pieces together from the underside. I used to use wax paper but a friend suggested using the plastic wrap, which actually works out better, I think. Wrinkles in the plastic will leave wrinkles in the underside of your dough, but in the end it won't matter. You should be able to stretch the plastic enough to eliminate most of that when you tape it down.

Dust this lightly with flour. Keep a small bowl of flour nearby so you can dust with more flour as needed.

Wrap a piece of plastic wrap around your rolling pin. I manage without any additional tape, but if this slips for you, you can wrap rubber bands or rolling pin rings around the ends of the rolling pin to help hold it on. I use the plastic the dough was wrapped in when it went into the fridge to chill.

A pastry cloth would probably be easier to set up, but harder to clean. Also I happen not to own one. This works OK for me. I've also seen it suggested that you use a gallon size ziplock bag, placing the ball of dough in the center of the bag, closing it up (squeeze all the air out), and rolling it out inside the bag. Then you cut the bag off.

Take the dough out of the fridge and place it on your lightly floured work surface. Flatten the dough into a disc, lift and flour the surface again. Roll out to about ¼" thick - there should be an inch or so of dough hanging over the edge of the pie pan. Roll out to about 13" in diameter to fit into a 9" pie pan, that'll give you enough overhang to form the edge.

There are a lot of ways to form the edges. I'll take some pictures next time I make a pie - this is easier to demonstrate than to describe.

About rolling pin rings: these can help you achieve a uniform thickness, but they're generally made for specific sizes of rolling pins. There are also guides (Perfection Strips) in the form of long strips that you lay on either side of your dough that will help to ensure a uniform thickness. These run about $10, but you should be able to easily make your own with craft materials or square doweling from a hardware store. Finally, there are adjustable rolling pins that come with ring inserts that you install on the ends of the rolling pins to create a gap between the rolling pin and your work surface. These vary in cost from about $20 up to over $100.

Personally I've found that it doesn't really matter that much - once I get enough diameter to fit it into the pie pan I'm good to go.

Baking times depend on what you fill the pie with, but here are a few tips:

Verify the actual operating temperature of your oven with an oven thermometer and adjust your settings accordingly.
Preheat the oven according to the recipe instructions.
If you are using a Pyrex pie plate, you might want to reduce oven temperature by 25 degrees. Personally, I have found that this matters when you're talking about cakes, but I have seen no difference with pies. YMMV.
Some recipes suggest chilling the pie dough after you've rolled it out and put it in the pie pan. If you're using a pyrex or ceramic pie pan, I would not suggest doing this. You increase the risk of shattering the pan when you put the cold pie pan in the hot preheated oven. A metal pan would be ok.
Place a cookie sheet or piece of foil under the pie pan to catch any overflow.
Often the top of the pie bakes much faster than the bottom. One way to deal with this is to shield the top with a pie crust shield or a piece of foil. Or if you have a baking stone, put the pie plate on the stone with a piece of foil underneath to catch any filling overflow. For a pyrex or ceramic plate, let it heat up in the oven for 10 minutes or so on the rack before placing it on the hot stone so it won't fracture. The hot stone will help the bottom crust brown up faster.
If you are baking a fruit filled pie with a top crust, sometimes the bubbling filling can make a real mess of your top crust, even if you've cut steam vents into the top crust. Making a lattice top is one way to avoid this, or get a pie bird - this is a little ceramic vent in the shape of a bird or other critter which allows the steam to vent out of the pie without making the filling boil over.
If you are making a fruit filled pie, pre-cook the filling partially so you can drain off the liquid, cook that down, and add back to the pie when you fill it. This helps to avoid a soggy bottom on your pie while retaining the full flavor of the filling.

Why I Prefer a Pyrex (glass) Pie Plate

I can see the bottom crust and know when it's done.
You can cut the pie in a glass plate without scarring up the surface
Ease of cleaning - glass is as close to durable non-stick as we are likely to get for the foreseeable future.
Glass is a poor conductor of heat. Oddly enough, this has the opposite effect one might expect; because it conducts heat poorly, heat is more evenly distributed, resulting in a more evenly baked filling and better browning of the crust. Metal pans often develop hot spots, leaving fillings underdone in the center and causing uneven baking.
I have NEVER experienced pie crust sticking in a glass pie plate.
They're cheap and durable. Unlike metal pans, they don't stain, dent, or ding. You can break one, but I never have.

Gadget Review - Pastry Blender

2011-01-23T04:57:00.010-06:00

A pastry blender is a fairly simple gadget, but one that has more uses than just for making pie crust. I use mine for

pie dough
biscuits
streusel or other "crumble" toppings
mashing potatoes, yams, squash, or bananas
breaking up cooked ground meat (say hamburger you want to use for taco filling)
chopping up eggs for tuna or chicken salad
flaking tuna or other canned meat

It's an easy tool to use. For pie dough, biscuits, and streusel/crumble toppings, thoroughly mix the dry ingredients together with a fork. If using butter, cut it into pats of about tablespoon size. Shortening is typically much softer but would still benefit from being cut into smaller pieces instead of one big glob.

Use the pastry blender to blend the shortening/butter into the flour mixture by "cutting" it in - press the pastry blender down through the mixture to cut up the pieces of fat and mix them with the flour.

For either pie dough or biscuits, you don't want to overmix. Most directions say to cut the shortening in until it's a "course meal" with "pea sized" lumps of shortening, but in reality, you will get better results if you don't expect uniform size particles. Some will be larger than pea size, some smaller. It is the variation in the size of the shortening pieces which, when rolled out, will create the flakiness of the dough. When those pieces melt, it creates steam that helps to separate the dough into the multitude of layers that make biscuits or pie dough so tender and delicious.

There are basically two types of pastry blenders.

First let's look at the wire type. I don't care for this one, as the wires tend to bend, tangle, or spread out too much in use.

The wire type is also not very useful for much other than making dough - it does a poor job of breaking up meat for tacos or mashing vegetable or bananas.

This type is more stable and has more versatility than the wire types. A good one makes short work of cutting through cold butter and easily handles other tasks such as mashing vegetables or mincing cooked ground meat. However, as for any tool, quality varies widely, and there are styles other than the "traditional" bladed configuration shown to the left.

This style has blades that go further up toward the handle. The advantage is that they don't clog up as quickly as the "traditional" style tends to. The taller profile provides more leverage and more clearance between your knuckles and the dough. I don't currently own one of these, but I would like to have one to see if it works out as well in fact as it looks like it should in theory.

UPDATED 12-23-2011: I have since acquired one of these, and it does seem to do a better job, mixing pastry dough with less clogging of the blade. It also seems to mash potatoes and meat (for tacos and the like) with a bit less muss, fuss, and bother. However, I'm not sure that it's enough of an improvement over a well-designed blade with the shorter handle that I would run out and replace the older design, knowing what I know now. It probably would be a better choice if you don't already have a decent pastry blender. It costs a bit more than the shorter handled version; probably worth it if you don't have one already; if you do, meh, not so much.

One of the issues to consider when looking for a bladed pastry blender is how far apart the blades are. If they're too close together, it will clog and will make the meal for dough too small. If they're too far apart, as these are, you will end up chasing big clumps of shortening and flour all around the bowl.

Finally, there is this style. This pastry blender is inconvenient to use and not very effective. The blades are flat instead of curved, which makes it difficult to use when you need to deal with the curved sides of a mixing bowl. It's also pretty expensive - $20 and up. I don't have one of these, but in this case I'm unlikely to buy one to try it out.

Paneer - or Ricotta. Whatever!

2010-10-26T03:26:00.009-05:00

So I'm cruising through the blogosphere and come across instructions for making ricotta cheese at home. I'm looking at this and lo and behold - it's basically unpressed paneer. Technically, ricotta cheese is made from whey leftover after making a cheese that uses rennet. I don't know about you, but I don't do much cheese making using rennet. Using whole milk makes an acceptable substitute, plus I already know how to do this - it's just paneer without the pressing!

Basically all paneer/ricotta cheese is is heated milk with acid added to separate the curds and whey, and then strained. Paneer is either kneaded or pressed, ricotta cheese is only drained.

The acid used could be lemon juice, lime juice, or distilled white vinegar. The acid most often called for in paneer recipes in the states is lemon juice. However using lemon juice requires that the paneer be washed or soaked in cold clear water for a couple of hours to remove the strong lemony flavor that leaves.

While I found the Serious Eats recipe interesting (for one thing I'd like to try the microwave method next time I make paneer), it calls for an inordinately high amount of acid - 1 T per cup of milk, which would be a full cup of acid for a gallon of milk. That's about 4 times more acid than I've ever needed to make paneer!

I usually don't need to use even the full amount of acid normally called for to make paneer, because I have found that I can often get the curds and whey to separate just using organic plain yoghurt. If that doesn't completely separate the curds out, just 1 T of lemon or lime juice, or distilled white vinegar will usually complete the job. I've found that distilled white vinegar doesn't leave a noticeable aftertaste when used in this small amount, and just 1 T of lemon juice leaves only a very slight lemony taste, not enough to be unpleasant if it's noticeable at all. This cuts out the whole soaking/rinsing step altogether and produces a smooth paneer with a neutral flavor.

One other thing I do to make paneer that I don't think most other people do (actually I've never known anyone who does this but me) is to use powdered milk to increase yield. This will make the curds denser and less ummm, fluffy? Not sure how to put it, but it gives it a consistency that is fine when you're planning to press it anyway, but not really what you want for desert paneer or ricotta cheese. You want desert paneer to be nice and smooth and creamy. For ricotta cheese, the additional milk solids increase the risk of ending up with curds that are too dense or even rubbery. The addition of powdered milk to grocery store 3.5% milk is optional for paneer intended for main courses, and should definitely be left out for any other use.

Finally, I do not find the addition of salt to be either necessary or desirable. YMMV.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

1 gallon whole milk, or, better yet if you can find it, raw Jersey milk.
1 c powdered milk (optional for paneer for main dish)
1/4 c organic plain yoghurt (you need LIVE culture)
1 to 2 T distilled white vinegar or lemon or lime juice, if the yoghurt doesn't fully separate the curds and whey

A colander
A large stainless steel or enameled pan or stock pot
A milk jug filled with water or other weight (not needed for ricotta or desert paneer)

Flour sack cloth or clean muslin intended for cheesemaking. Don't try to use typical cheesecloth - the stuff that looks like gauze. The weave is too loose. You want a lint free cotton muslin or linen towel, or flour sack cloth. You used to be able to get good flour sack cloth towels at Walmart but the ones they carry now are a much looser weave. The old ones were lots better, but the new ones will do. Or you could try these:

Flour Sack Cloth Towels

I can't tell from the pictures how tight the weave is but they're at least no looser weave than what you can get in Walmart, if you can find them there.

DIRECTIONS

Add the powdered milk if you are using it and stir well.

Heat the milk to just barely simmering. DO NOT LET IT BOIL! Mostly because you greatly increase the chances of making a mess, and also it just doesn't need to be that hot.

When you see the first few bubbles, add the yoghurt and stir. The curds should separate quickly. If the whey still looks milky, add the vinegar or lemon juice one T at a time until the whey is a thin yellowish-green color. It almost never takes more than 1 T. Remove from heat immediately.

Line a colander with your muslin or sack cloth. If you want to reserve the whey, suspend the colander over a large pan to catch the whey - you can use it to make soups and curries, to make chapati or puri, or just google "uses for whey".

After the whey has drained off, twist the towel to make a sort of a bag and suspend it over the sink or a pan to finish draining. (One way to do this is to tie this makeshift bag to a spoon laid across the top of a large stock pot).

FOR RICOTTA CHEESE:
Let the curds hang for about 15 minutes. Do not press. Unwrap it and you're done. The sooner you use it the better.

FOR INDIAN DESERTS such as Ras Gullah:
For desert use, you will not press the curds, you will instead leave it hanging until the curds are cool enough to handle and you will knead the curds.

FOR MAIN DISHES such as Mattar Paneer:
Fold the straining cloth over the drained curds, remove from the colander, set on a plate or inside a pan and put a heavy weight on top to press the curds. I usually put the paneer wrapped in the muslin in the bottom of a large pan and set a plate on top of it, then put a milk jug full of water on top. I let that sit in the fridge overnight. Take it out the next day - there will be additional whey pressed out - unwrap it, cube it, and you're good to go.

That's all there is to it.

Things in a can

2010-10-21T18:26:00.006-05:00

Some recent threads round about the chowhound e-world got me to pondering some of the things I've seen in cans that I would never never never NEVER never NEVER NEVER even considering opening, let alone actually ingesting.

These include:

Spam
Spam LITE
SMOKED Spam
Pork Brains in Milk Gravy
Potted Meat Food Product (Food product? Kind of like Cheese product when applied to yellow blocks of plastic?)
Underwood Deviled Ham - is no one suspicious of a potted meat product that comes from a company named PET?

BTW, some of these include something called "mechanically separated poultry".

While the immediate picture that springs to my mind is that of robots callously separating a loving hen from her chicks and rooster, apparently what this actually means (according to the USDA):

MECHANICALLY SEPARATED POULTRY
is a paste-like and batter-like poultry product produced by forcing bones with attached edible tissue through a sieve or similar device under high pressure to separate bone from the edible tissue. Mechanically separated poultry has been used in poultry products since 1969. In 1995, a final rule on mechanically separated poultry said it would be used without restrictions. However, it must be labeled as "mechanically separated chicken or turkey" in the ingredients statement. The final rule became effective November 4, 1996.

O.O

I quiver in terror!

You will be relieved to know that "mechanically separated beef" is now deemed unfit for human consumption (due to the mad cow disease scare).

However "mechanically separated" chicken, turkey, pork, and who knows what else are still "fit" for human consumption, apparently. So 'ware the Mad Pig disease outbreaks in our immediate future!

Here is one man's journey of discovery with regard to "Potted Meat Food Product"

Be sure to play the advertising jingle at the end - quite catchy!

Then there's lutefisk.

Yes, lutefisk. The Dreaded Lutefisk. Lutefisk does not, apparently, actually come in cans, or at least if it does, I've not been able to find it (much to my lack of disappointment). In fact I am unsure how you would properly package something one of the main ingredients of which is "lye". Perhaps in glass lined casks. I don't know. The gelatinous, pale, quiveringness of this substance - I hesitate to call it "food" - would be enough to put one off one's feed, were it not for the absolutely appalling smell. However, according to one lutefisk manufacturer:

Lutefisk has always had a bad rap because of the perceived nasty smell, but when it is processed correctly, "it doesn't stink," Kimmel vows.

"It doesn't have a strong flavor either," he said, smiling. So why do people eat something that has a sometimes-questionable texture, described by some as "glutinous" or like Jell-O and with very little flavor?

"It's the butter."

Yes. It's the butter. People eat fish dissolved in lye solely for the chance to nosh down on some butter.

Well pass me the butter dish and a spoon. Hold the lutefisk.

Here is the PROPER way to eat lutefisk.

Then there is Simmenthal Jellied Cured Beef. In attempting to research this item, I came across this blurb on the Kraft Foods website:

"Italians have long enjoyed our Simmenthal brand of canned meat in jelly. Simmenthal is a convenient ready-to-eat meal or can be used in many tasty recipes. It’s perfect with salad, vegetables, cold rice or pasta. Simmenthal’s latest products include beef in jelly with chili and chicken in jelly with curry. "

"Beef in Jelly with Chili" and "Chicken in Jelly with Curry". Just when you thought we had plumbed the depths of culinary depravity!

Oh my stars and little hoppy toads! WAIT! I take that back! Lest someone should think to come up with canned Hoppy Toads In Jelly With Milk Gravy!

Oddly enough, there are more depths yet to be plumbed. Let us consider Cuitlacoche.

What, you may very well ask, in your innocence (or more likely by this point, foolishness), is Cuitlacoche?

Well, it is also known as Mexican Truffles. Truffles! Yum! (not so much from my point of view, but whatever . . . ) Who would want a faux truffle?

Well truffles are AWFULLY expensive. A 750g white truffle recently sold at auction for 100k euros. For those Americans among us, that's almost $5300 per oz. Granted that was at the high end, but still. Truffles COST.

Cuitlacoche, however, are MUCH cheaper. You can get a 7 oz can of Cuitlacoche for about $8, or 2 lbs frozen for in the neighborhood of $40. Fresh Cuitlacoche? I'm not so sure anybody should actually want fresh Cuitlacoche (or frozen, or canned, for that matter). But you can get it that way, at least in Mexico.

Alright, alright, alRIGHT already! So I have made fun of Cuitlacoche (apparently also spelled huitlacoche) without telling you a THING about what it tastes like. So off I go in search of someone who has actually tasted the stuff, and what do I find, but a blog named "STEVE! Don't eat it!"

Apparently Steve DID eat it. And this is what he has to say about it:

"So, how does Huitlacoche taste? Does it matter?? LOOK AT IT!

I guess it would be fair to say it doesn't taste as truly horrible as it looks. The flavor is elusive and difficult to describe, but I'll try: "Kinda yucky." Hey, that wasn't so hard after all. (Sometimes I forget I'm a goddamn wordsmith.)

For any connoisseurs, I'm not sure if this stuff would go better with red wine or white. How about with a bottle of Bactine? I've always found that goes great with infections."

For the curious among you (who have hung with me thus far) I'll tell you what c/huitlacoche is.

It's corn smut. Yes, that awful, horrible, spore that if it infects your corn crop can only be BURNED out. Well, except for some farmers here in the states who have sued for and gotten permission to purposely infect their corn crops with smut so they can get a piece of that $20 a pound action.

Here is Steve's blog address so you can read the whole smutty story.

As a final salute to culinary depravity, I refer you to the following blog entry. Nothing I could say or do could possibly top this story, aptly, so APTLY entitled "The Six Most Terrifying Foods in the World".

I laughed so hard it hurt. My son asked me what the heck I was doing.

"Reading about horrible food" sez I.

Looking at me with sad puppy dog eyes, he pouted "Is that REALLY a smart thing to be doing just before you cook me dinner?"

So on that note, I must be off. Returning to the world of the merely plebian Marinated Tofu Stir Fry is such a let down!

Pasta e Fagiole

2010-10-20T15:19:00.006-05:00

This is a huge recipe, makes a bunch. When I make soup I like to make enough to freeze. It doesn't really take any longer and soup freezes well. This is one of my "freestyle" recipes, eg I never make it QUITE the same way twice. It depends on what I have on hand.

2 15 oz cans cannelini beans, or 1 C dried (cannelini is "white kidney beans")
2 15 oz cans red kidney beans or 1 C dried
8 c chicken stock
1 c tomato sauce
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
1 large onion coarsely chopped, or to taste
1/2 c chopped or diced carrots
2 to 3 stalks of celery, coarsely chopped
2 dried Bay leaves
1 T dried basil
1 T dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 to 2 T olive oil
2 T minced garlic
2 T white vinegar
1 T sugar
2 T crushed red pepper or to taste
1 lb ditalini or other small pasta

OPTIONAL
1 lb hamburger

If using dried beans:

I'm not sure if red kidney beans and cannelini have the same or different cooking times. To be on the safe side, if you're using dried beans for both, cook them separately. If I ever find a source of dried cannelini beans locally I'll figure this out and update this recipe.

Note that any white bean (navy beans, Great Northern beans) can be substituted for the Cannelini if you can't find them. Navy or Great Northern beans will also probably cost 1/2 or 1/3rd of what the Cannelini beans will cost you, and can easily be found dried. Cooking instructions for those may vary. Check the package for details.

Soak beans overnight in 2 to 3 c water OR

Put 1 c of dried beans in 2 c of water. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour off the liquid. We are "de-gassing" the beans, making them more easily digested and less likely to cause people, errrr, intestinal distress. Cover with 2 c of water, bring to a boil again, remove from heat and let sit for one hour.

After an hour or if you soaked overnight, bring beans to a boil again, then turn down to a low simmer for approximately 1 hour. This time will vary. Check the beans at least every 15 minutes, you may need to add water. Keep them covered with water. When they have softened (pick one out and bite it to check), remove from the heat and set aside.

Put your chicken stock in a large 8 qt stock pot (if you are making the full recipe). Bring to a boil. Add the chopped veggies, herbs, sugar, vinegar, and redd pepper flakes. Do a fast simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the chopped veggies, tomato sauce, and tomatoes, and let simmer on low for a few minutes.

While the stock is simmering, fry up the hamburger if you are using it. Pour off the oil and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan and add the minced garlic - cook for a few minutes over moderate heat. Add to the stock. Add the beans, with cooking liquid. Add the hamburger (if it clumped up you can mash it into little bits with a fork or pastry blender) at this time, if you are using it.

If it doesn't look tomato-ey enough for you, add some more tomato sauce or diced tomatoes at this time.

Bring all ingredient back to a boil and simmer for another 5 minutes to heat all ingredients through.

IF you are serving immediately, go ahead and add all the ditalini at this time.

If, however, you cooked up the whole batch intending to freeze or store until later, DO NOT add the ditalini at this time. Instead go ahead and package the soup up for freezing or the fridge. Do not add the ditalini until you are ready to serve! If you go ahead and add the ditalini now and then try to save it for later, you will end up with great big soggy ditalini and no soup. The ditalini will soak it all up. So add the ditalini just before serving - it takes 10 to 15 minutes to cook the ditalini, depending on the ditalini.

The entire recipe is intended for 1 lb of ditalini. You'll probably end up with in the neighborhood of 6 qts of soup. So when you do reheat it preparatory to serving, just add a proportionate amount of ditalini. Roughly 1.5 oz of ditalini per 2 c of soup, if you're heating it up later for individual servings. It will expand to about double it's size when it's cooked.

Peanut butter cookies

2010-09-22T07:21:00.004-05:00

Makes about 4 dozen

1/2 c butter
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c light brown sugar

2 large eggs
1 T vanilla
1 18 oz jar creamy peanut butter

2 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Melt butter over low heat - until it's just barely melted, don't cook it.

Stir in the brown sugar. Stir until it's well liquified, then add the granulated sugar and stir again.

Let cool to nearly room temp. You don't want to cook the eggs when you add them.

Add the eggs and vanilla and stir well. Add the peanut butter and stir well again.

Add the dry ingredients and mix just to incorporate.

Chill overnight or up to 2 days.

Form chilled dough into balls about 1" to 1.5" in size. Place on a greased, cool cookie sheet and mash down with a fork in the "traditional" criss-cross pattern.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 9 to 10 minutes (varies with the actual temperature of your oven).

Let the cookies cool for 2 minutes on the pan before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Let the cookie sheet cool between batches or the cookies will spread excessively.

Chocolate chip cookies - oven baked happiness!

2010-08-24T20:28:00.008-05:00

I've made chocolate chip cookies for many many years, but I've never been quite satisfied with the results. Most of the recipes I've come across other than the famous (or infamous) Tollhouse recipe differ so little from the original as to be indistinguishable.

But I wanted a softer cookie instead of the thin, crunchy cookie that I usually get from the Tollhouse recipe. I tried many of the other recipes out there and they still come out thin and crunchy.

This was not what I wanted. So I started reading - a lot - about baking, and about cookie baking in particular.

Here's what finally worked for me.

Melt the butter instead of using room temp
Chill the dough for at least 36 hours
Make sure your cookie tin cools completely between batches
Use good semisweet chips. The cheap ones don't melt when you bake the cookies. I never believed this information before, but this time I had some Nestle's and I had some super cheap chips and had to use about half and half of each. Sure enough, the cheap chips didn't melt and you could tell the difference in texture.

I made two slight changes to the Tollhouse Cookie recipe

used 1 T of vanilla instead of 1 tsp. That's just something I've always done.
I leave out the walnuts and add 1/2 c extra chocolate chips.

In detail:

First, I melt the butter - that's BUTTER, not margarine, and certainly not Crisco - over a low heat - just to melt it, you don't want to actually change the taste of the butter. Then I let it cool. While it is still liquid but not hot, then I add the sugar to the butter and stir well. I add the brown sugar first and make sure that is well liquified before adding the white sugar.

Then I mix my dough as usual. When the dough is mixed, I refrigerate it for at least 36 hours, but that usually ends up being 2 days (roughly 48 hours) since I usually end up mixing the dough in the early afternoon. If I tried to hit exactly 36 hours, that would have me in the kitchen at like 2 AM.

Heat the oven to 375F.

Make sure your cookie tin cools between batches, and keep the dough in the fridge when you're not actually using it. I made about golf ball size balls, flattened slightly between my palms, and placed these on the cool tin.

Even if your tin is in terrible shape, with black stuff burned into it that you can never scrub off, you can encourage release of the baked cookies by greasing. If you grease the entire sheet, you get more black goo burning into the tin where there are no cookies. What I do instead is to take a stick of margarine, peel the wrapping back slightly, and generously grease just the area roughly the size your baked cookie is going to be (just a little smaller actually). This worked out well even on the borrowed cookie sheets I was using which were well-used.

Just place the slightly flattened ball of cookie dough roughly in the center of your greased patch.

I baked cookies on two different cookie sheets, one heavy duty and one a typical lightweight cookie tin.

I baked batches one tin at a time - there's a pizza stone on the bottom rack and I only had the 2 tins to use anyway. Plus, it made it easier to have a cooled tin to work with as one would be baking while one was cooling.

I baked for 11 to 12 minutes. This will vary depending on the accuracy of your oven thermometer and your home conditions. I believe having the pizza stone on the bottom rack helped to stabilize the internal oven temp.

After removing from the oven, place the pan away from the oven (use a folded towel to protect a countertop or table top from the heat of the pan). Let the cookies cool for two minutes on the pan, then loosen each cookie with a thin metal spatula. Let cool on the pan for another 7 or 8 minutes before removing them to a basket lined with a towel and preparing for the next batch.

Scrape any residue from the by-now cooled pan with the edge of the spatula, regrease, and place the next batch of cookie dough on the sheet. Place in the oven when the last batch is done, and keep doing this until all the cookies are done.

I found that if I was using the heavier duty pan, I didn't need to rotate the cookie sheet for even baking. I believe this was because the heavier duty pan provided a more even temperature so the cookies baked more evenly.

When using the light weight pan, the cookies spread more. I believe this was because the thin metal heated up faster than the heavier duty metal and caused the cookie dough to "melt" and spread out more before it started to bake and firm up. Still, they weren't VERY thin, so if you prefer a thinner cookie that might be ok with you. Cookies on the front half of the pan were also noticeably browner than those on the back half, but with the pizza stone in the oven temp was stable enough that it didn't hurt if you forgot to rotate the pan. There was a noticeable difference in appearance so you might still want to rotate your pan even if you have the pizza stone in the oven. Without the stone, you would need to pay closer attention and remember to rotate the pan.

My son's roommate pronounced these cookies "delicious". They had the texture I've been looking for. I may start experimenting with ingredients now that I have the technique down. For example, the REAL Nieman-Marcus cookie recipe looks like it should have a slightly different flavor (leaving out the espresso powder as I hate coffee-flavored anything).

More Tofu Marinade

2010-08-19T16:48:00.008-05:00

This is an update for Tofu - Getting it Right

This is a Sake marinade for tofu that I think was even better than the first.

Sake Marinade for Tofu

Makes enough for 1/2 block of firm or extra firm tofu:

1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c sake
~~2 T Fish sauce~~
2 T rice vinegar
2 T Ginger paste
1 T Garlic, finely minced
1 to 2 T Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
2 T cilantro, stems and leaves, bruised and coarsely chopped

NOTE the removal of the fish sauce. It was a typo. Makes the marinade way too salty.

Mix well and pour over tofu prepared as in Tofu - Getting it Right. Let marinate at least 30 minutes, but preferably at least 6 to 8 hours. Overnight is even better. Refrigerate if marinating for longer than 30 minutes.

Use the tofu in a stir-fry, as for Thai Style Stir Fry, or substitute tofu for chicken in Thai Ginger Chicken

Basic South Indian Curry

2010-08-12T16:42:00.002-05:00

Nothing creates as much confusion and misunderstanding in Indian cooking as the use of the term "curry". Even dictionaries frequently define this incorrectly when applying it to culinary practices.

First, let me clarify for those who don't know, there is no such spice as "curry". Curry powder is a masala, or spice mix, which could contain any of several spices. Typical curry powder contains turmeric, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, and ground red chili. Other ingredients may include cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, asafoetida, cardamom, black pepper, or mace. There is no one true curry powder, it's just one of many types of masalas used in Indian cooking and varies from one cook to another, let alone from one region to another. Cheap pre-packaged curry mixes frequently include a large amount of turmeric, giving it the yellow color that many Westerners have come to believe is typical of curry. In India, at least, there really is no "typical" curry powder.

However, such has been the popularity of "curry powder" in the west that "curry powder" has become common inside India as well. Many cooks in India now rely on this as a staple of their cupboard, but there is still wide variation in the actual makeup of the mixture, so that each cook has a particular formulation or brand that they swear by which may bear little resemblance to someone else's favorite.

I actually don't have a lot of dishes that call for curry powder. I have more dishes that call for a different masala blend, garam masala. This, too, does not have a single formulation, but could be formulated in many different blends. It can still be a useful shortcut.

More typically, Indian cooks use individual ground and whole spices in characteristic ways. I'm most familiar with South Indian style of cooking, so I'm going to give you a basic "curry" recipe today.

This is a basic technique for making a vegetable curry.

We will be quick frying spices in hot oil, and some of these spices will burn quite rapidly, so you need to prepare all ingredients in advance.

Gather the following in small bowls (my bachelor son has been known to use a roommate's shot glasses) so they are ready to use immediately:

GROUP 1:
1 tsp urad dahl
1 tsp chana dahl

GROUP 2:
1 T whole cumin seed

GROUP 3:
1 T black mustard seed

GROUP 4:
1 1/2 tsp crushed red chili pepper
(HOT chilis, not American style chili powder)
10-12 fresh neem or "curry" leaves
If you absolutely can't get hold of fresh, you may use dried, but it's not nearly as good.

Group 5:
1 T garam masala
1 tsp turmeric (optional)

Group 6:
1 to 2 onions, chopped
1 T minced ginger or ginger paste
2 tsp minced garlic OR 2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 minced green chilis (OPTIONAL, only if you want it HOT)

VEGETABLES - add salt to taste with your choice of veggies

For the vegetables you could use 2 or 3 cups of the veggies of your choice, such as:

Potatoes
Potatoes and cauliflower
Carrots, tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, yellow squash
Eggplant
Eggplant, tomatoes, green peppers
Eggplant, tomatoes, carrots
Cabbage
Cabbage and potatoes

or just use your imagination. Just have them ready to go before you start frying the spices.

Now for the spice fry:

Heat 2 or 3 T of oil in a good quality heavy frying pan. The pan needs to be large enough to accommodate your veggies.

Turn heat to fairly high. Add GROUP 1 when it's hot, but not all the way heated up.

When the dahls start to turn color, immediately add GROUP 2, the cumin seed.

When the cumin seed starts to brown, IMMEDIATELY add GROUP 3, the mustard seed.

If the oil is hot enough, the mustard seed will start to pop within just a second or two. If they don't start popping in 10 or 15 seconds, turn the heat up just until they do. Immediately add GROUP 4, the crushed red pepper and fresh curry leaves.

The crushed red pepper will burn VERY quickly, so LOSE NO TIME, as soon as it starts to cook add GROUP 5, the ground spices.

Stir well and quickly add GROUP 6, the onions, garlic, and ginger. Turn the heat down to kind of medium and add your veggies according to how much time they need to cook - longest time required first. Stir well to coat. You may add a bit of water, cover, and cook on a lower heat to cook the veggies through. Not too much water though as this is usually intended to be a dryish curry, but cook it to YOUR taste. If you want a bit of sauce, just add a bit of water, but this isn't intended to be saucy.

Feel free to experiment with this. For example, fresh (but not dried) curry leaves can go in earlier, say with GROUP 3 or even GROUP 2. The dried curry leaves will tend to burn fairly quickly, but you could get away with a bit more with the fresh as far as length of cooking time. Change the amount of garam masala, or substitute or add a good curry powder (I would leave the turmeric out if you use curry powder).

Thai Ginger Chicken - Pad Gai King

2010-08-11T21:05:00.009-05:00

I used to eat at regularly at an excellent Thai restaurant in Springfield, MO, called Bangkok City. It's on Walnut Street near the University. The woman who owns the place is a perfectionist who insists on "correct ingredients". I developed a taste there for Pad Gai King which has not been satisfied since leaving MO.

SO I futzed around for awhile trying to figure out how to make the stuff for myself, and every recipe I tried just didn't taste right. The problem, I decided, was the oyster sauce used in nearly every recipe, giving it a kind of slick and almost slimy texture. Also, the thickish sauce that you end up with was nothing like the flavorful liquid that I remembered being a part of this dish. So finally I gave up and made up my own recipe, and while it doesn't taste exactly like the Pad Gai King at Bangkok City, it's really pretty good (even if I do say so myself).

Thai Ginger Chicken

2 T soy sauce
2 T fish sauce
1 T rice vinegar
2 T saki
1 - 2 T Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
1/2 tsp sugar

4 - 6 green onions
1 bell pepper
1 carrot
1/4 c fresh ginger root, slivered

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken
3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed

2-3 T coarsely chopped Cilantro (for garnish)
fresh Lime (for garnish)

Have all ingredients ready to go before you turn on the stove.

Mix the sugar, saki, soy sauce, fish sauce, chili sauce, and rice vinegar together in a bowl and set aside.

Peel the ginger and cut into matchstick sized pieces.

Cut the carrot into slivers (about TWO matchsticks thick).

Cut the bell pepper diagonally into strips.

Cut the chicken into thin slices.

Chop the green onions. Chop the white bulb ends into smallish pieces and the green tops about 1 to 2" long. Reserve the green top portions for garnish at the end.

Coarsely chop some cilantro (about 3 to 4 T) for garnish.

Heat 2-3 T oil in a large fry pan or wok. Turn to a high heat.

When the oil is hot, add the chicken and garlic and stir fry until the chicken is nearly done. Quickly add the sauce. Heat 'til the sauce is bubbling. Add the onions and the ginger. Stir together for a minute or two, then add the rest of the ingredients except for the garnish. Stir fry for a couple of minutes, until done. The veggies should still be crispy but not raw. Quickly remove from the heat and garnish with the cilantro and onion greens. Serve over rice with a wedge of lime on the side.

Yum! Even if I do say so myself!

The first time I made this, I used 1/2 c ginger. I've cut it back to 1/4 c because, as much as I like ginger, 1/2 c was just a bit much. Adjust the amount of ginger to your taste!

Easy Garam Masala

2010-08-08T13:39:00.004-05:00

A masala is a mixture of spices. Garam Masala is a frequently used mix which varies a lot from one cook to the next, let alone from one region to another. I've occasionally seen Garam Masala referred to as "curry powder" but it is a different mix. Curry powder as we in the west think of it is not actually a traditional Indian masala mix, but similar mixes have become popular in India because of their popularity in the West. "Curry powder" constituents vary widely depending on the manufacturer. Many cheap blends use a lot of turmeric, giving curry powder the yellow color we of the west have come to associate with "curry". Garam Masala, however, is a different masala altogether.

Garam Masala is best made from whole spices which are lightly roasted in a dry frying pan and then ground. I use a coffee grinder which is used for nothing other than grinding spices. You can usually find one for around $20. However, if you don't have access to the whole spices or a grinder, this recipe using ground spices is a fairly good substitute. Ground spices quickly lose their flavor and aroma, but if your spices are not too old this is a fairly good substitute.

Easy Garam Masala

1 T ground cumin
1 ½ tsp ground coriander
1 ½ tsp ground cardamom
1 ½ tsp ground pepper
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground nutmeg

Blend all ingredients well. Store in a tight container.

Here is a recipe for Garam Masala from whole spices. It's from one of Julie Sahni's cookbooks - I forget which one.

Whole Spice Garam Masala

2 tablespoons cumin seeds
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons cardamom seeds
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
1 (3-inch) stick cinnamon, broken up
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Instructions:

Put the cumin, coriander, cardamom, peppercorns, cinnamon, and cloves in a dry heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Toast the spices, stirring occasionally, until they turn several shades darker and give off a sweet smoky aroma, about 10 minutes. Do not raise the heat to quicken the process, or the spices will brown prematurely, leaving the insides undercooked. Cool completely.

Working in batches if necessary, transfer the mixture to a spice mill or coffee grinder and grind to a powder. Stir in the nutmeg.

Use immediately or store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.

Buckeyes! chocolate peanut butter candy

2010-08-04T11:17:00.007-05:00

Buckeyes are a symbol of the state of Ohio, and these candies have been very popular in Ohio ever since I can remember - which is a long time.

The internet is littered with recipes for these but none of them are quite like this one. Some use crushed graham crackers (yech!), some use way more butter or less peanut butter or both. This is the best of the lot.

The paraffin in the recipe isn't required, but it's what gives the chocolate coating its customary glossy, dark brown look, making it look more like a real buckeye. It also gives the coating body - makes it easier to dip the candies, and it sets up faster and is less likely to soften and smear. You can find it with canning supplies. It comes in a box about the size of a butter box with 4 pieces inside. Put the pieces you are not going to be using in separate zip lock baggies to store - that box won't keep the dust and stray stuff out.

Also, you can't use "natural" peanut butter in this recipe - if it separates in the jar, it will separate out of the candy. Use conventional peanut butter.

Finally, I can't stop you from substituting margarine for butter, but it will change the taste, and not for the better. Ditto leaving out the vanilla extract.

C'mon people, this is CANDY. It's not SUPPOSED to be good for you.

BUCKEYES

1 stick softened (NOT melted) BUTTER
1 18 oz jar creamy peanut butter
1 lb powdered sugar
1 T vanilla extract

12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 block paraffin

Cream together the peanut butter, butter and vanilla. You can use a food processor with the metal blade or a heavy duty spoon and bowl. I plan to try my KitchenAid mixer next time I make this. If you use a machine of any type it needs to have a heavy duty motor. Once you add the powdered sugar this becomes a very stiff dough.

Speaking of which, sieve the powdered sugar in about a cup at a time and mix in thoroughly, until you've added the entire pound.

Set aside - you can chill in the fridge if you'd like, I don't usually bother myself but some people seem to find this helpful.

You will form the peanut butter dough into approximately 1" balls.

The safer way to handle the next step is with a double boiler, but hardly anyone has one of these anymore. If you don't have a double boiler (and I don't), a small non-stick pan will do, but you MUST be careful with this. Do NOT walk off and leave this on the stove, and keep the temp fairly low, just warm enough to slowly melt the chocolate. The paraffin will actually aid in this - it makes the chocolate flow better and helps it melt more evenly.

So, in whatever pan you're using, melt the chocolate chips together with the paraffin. Stir to help it along.

When the chocolate/paraffin is melted and well-blended, use a pickle fork or fondue fork to spear the dough balls and dip them in the chocolate. I usually triple-dip - dip once, remove, swirl around to prevent dribbles, repeat 2 more times.

Set the now-dipped balls on a sheet with waxed paper. You can set in the freezer or fridge to fully set the chocolate. Once they've set up, you can smooth out the holes left by the dipping fork.

If you've used paraffin, once they're set you can put them in a large container piled on top of each other - if you skipped the paraffin, the chocolate coating may stick together on the balls and pull away from the peanut butter. You can layer them between sheets of wax paper if you like. Keep refrigerated to maintain their looks. Though if your household is anything like mine, they won't last long enough to make it to the fridge, LOL!

If you're in a hurry, you can press into a lipped cookie sheet (one with an edge) and pour the melted chocolate on top, then once its set up cut into 2" squares. Tastes just as good!

Tofu - getting it right!

2010-07-31T05:13:00.016-05:00

I don't eat a lot of meat, and my son eats even less. Several times over the years I've given tofu a try and came up "icky" every time. It tastes fine in restaurants or when prepared by other people, but every time I've tried it, it comes up bland at best, or crumbles to moosh at worst.

Well I've finally figured it out! The answer, as is often the case, is all in the prep.

I'm not even going to try to mention every wrong thing I've ever tried, but I will say that one of the "wrong things" has been trying to fry the tofu in oil before doing anything else with it.

All that happens when you fry raw tofu in oil is you're giving it a chance to soak up the oil. Tofu is like a sponge - whatever you put it in, it absorbs. Oily tofu is not my idea of yummy.

So here's what I've been doing instead. Note that this is only possible because I've been cooking on my son's ScanPans for the past several weeks - I bought him a set of the new ScanPans as a college graduation present and they're way better than my ScanPans (of the previous generation of technology) ever were! Gotta get me some of them!

To make this technique work, you need really good non-stick cookware like ScanPans, or a well-seasoned (and I do mean WELL seasoned) cast iron skillet.

I have not tried this technique with Silken Tofu, but if you're using that, skip the first step. Silken tofu doesn't need to have excess moisture removed.

Take your firm or extra firm tofu, drain, and press between clean, lintless kitchen towels (I use REAL cheesecloth, not the gauzy stuff but the real thing, sometimes called flour sack cloth) or paper towels to squeeze the moisture out.

I USED to think I needed to squeeze moisture out of the tofu before starting this - read it somewhere or someone told me so - but have found this not to be the case, and the tofu texture is better (I think) if I don't do this. Just frying it gets enough of the moisture out without turning it into little teeny bricks.

Slice the tofu to about 1/2" thick, then cut those in quarters to get triangular pieces. You could cube it, the shape is not actually all that important, we just want some regularity in the size of the tofu pieces.

Heat a heavy non-stick frying pan to a fairly high heat - water drops scattered on the surface should sizzle and jump. Lay your tofu pieces out and fry to a golden brown, then flip and brown the other side. This takes several minutes and the purpose is partly to get even more moisture out, as well as sealing the outside so it doesn't fall apart when you cook with it. I press gently from the top with a small metal spatula to help get even more of the moisture out. You can use metal with ScanPans, but some nonstick pans may not be so forgiving - use your judgment. I prefer a metal spatula because the plastic ones tend to stick, things stick TO them, and they aren't as handy flipping things.

When the tofu is as brown as you would like (could range anywhere from light golden brown to a quite deep brown, depending on your personal taste), flip the pieces and brown the other side. I will often then also flip them up on each edge, but that's not required.

When the tofu is browned to your liking, remove from the pan and soak for at least 30 minutes in a marinade. There are lots of marinade recipes out there for tofu . If you google them you will find them. But here's the recipe I used tonight, which is my own concoction and worked out quite well:

TOFU MARINADE:

for approx 1/2 block of tofu

1/4c fish sauce
3 T soy sauce
1 T lemon juice
1 T lemongrass, finely chopped
2 T finely minced ginger or ginger paste
1 diced green chili OR 1-3 tsp hot chili paste
2 T chopped cilantro, leaves and stems
1 T crushed garlic

Here is another marinade

Mix well in a glass or food-safe ceramic bowl (some metal bowls may react with acidic ingredients and change the taste), then add the fried tofu. Allow tofu to marinate for at least 30 minutes. If marinating for longer than that, cover and place in the fridge. I marinated for about 6 to 8 hours and it came out really well. My son even complemented me on it!

You can use the above prepared tofu in any recipe that calls for tofu. Also, the cooked tofu will store much longer than the raw stuff.

THAI STYLE STIR FRY:

Yeah, not really pad thai because it uses woon sen (bean thread noodles, made from mung beans). Not really Pad Woon Sen because it uses pre-canned Pad Thai sauce. BUT yummy!

I made this using what I had in the cupboard and the fridge, except for the bean sprouts which my son picked up on the way home (they don't keep long, it's best to buy them as needed).

Green beans - some.
Sorry, didn't measure
used french style frozen until it looked like "enough".
green onions 3-4
ginger paste, about 1 T
bell pepper, about one whole, cut in strips
2 carrots, cut into strips about 2 to 3" long
1 to 2 extra large eggs

approx 1/2 c Pad Thai Sauce (1/2 of the Thai Kitchen jar)
1 to 2 T Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
the pre-canned pad thai sauce is much too sweet without this.

4 bundles bean thread noodles (about 2.5 oz)
These came in 8 bundles, total weight 10.4 oz (300g).
Different brands are packaged differently.

Finally, cilantro garnish

If your tofu has been in the fridge, take it out before you begin the rest of the preparations.

Chop all your ingredients before you start stir frying and have them ready. Once you start stir-frying you need to move quickly.

Have a bowl or bowls ready to remove the veggies you've stir fried. I'm using a non-stick skillet to approximate stir-frying which means 2 things - first, you're not going to get the pan near hot enough to really stir fry. Second, it will not cool quickly as a real wok (not a wok-shaped object, but a thin metal wok) would so you need to remove things or they overcook - pushing them to the side as you would in a real wok does NOT remove them from the heat.

Actually it means 3 things. I use a LOT less oil than you would have to use in a regular pan. Adjust your oil use accordingly!

Soak the bean thread noodles in VERY hot water for 5 or 6 minutes.

If they're not "done" (bite one to see if it's the consistency you want) in 5 or 6 minutes, stick the (non-metal) bowl in the microwave for 2 or 3 minutes. They should be "done" unless your microwave is really weak or you have too much water in the bowl (water just to cover). Some people cook them in the stir fry pan, but I only reheat, I want them done beforehand. If you do it my way be careful not to cook them to mush!

My method of doing stir fry at present is fairly haphazard so I won't attempt to recreate it in detail here.

Basically, I add a small amount of oil to my 12" ScanPan frying pan - 2 or 3 T. This lasts me through all the veggies until I'm ready for the tofu (see below).

I stir fry the vegetables one or two at a time, remove, then do the next batch, reserving bean sprouts for last. I stir-fried the ginger and onions together since the ginger paste doesn't stir-fry well on it's own. If you want to watch someone doing it for real, check this out:

How to Stir Fry Woon Sen

When all the veggies except the bean threads are done, scramble 1 or 2 eggs in the pan. Remove that.

Then add a small amount of oil to the pan and add the drained, marinated tofu, at a lower heat - we're reheating them, particularly if they've been in the fridge. Place the lid on the pan and let the tofu warm thoroughly, stirring occasionally. The heat should be only moderately high. When the tofu is starting to get fairly warm, add the bean sprouts.

Moving quickly now, you don't want all your ingredients to get cold and you don't want your bean sprouts to cook to mush:

Add prepared, drained bean thread or rice noodles to the pan
Stir well to coat with the oil and aid in heating them up.
Add the sauce and stir well to coat.

Add in all the other cooked ingredients and cook only to heat through, stirring and lifting the noodles with a fork to mix well.

SERVE with a scattering of coarsely chopped fresh cilantro and a wedge of lime.

This makes a dry, tasty stir fry with a bit of a bite. Not really very hot at all - if you want to increase the heat, stir in some crushed red pepper when you're stir-frying the ginger and onions.

Makes enough for 2 people with leftovers for one the next day. This is even better as leftovers!

Murgh Makhani - Indian Butter Chicken

2010-07-16T05:46:00.009-05:00

This is my favorite chicken curry recipe, bar none. Here goes:

Ingredients

* ½ c unflavored yogurt, preferably organic or home made
* 1 tsp ground red chilies (NOT American style chili powder)
* ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
* ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
* ⅛ tsp ground cloves
* 1 tsp garam masala
* 1 ½ tsp Salt
*
* 1 ½ tsp minced ginger
* 2 cloves crushed garlic
*
* 4 - 6 Roma style tomatoes, diced, or 16 oz can of diced tomatoes
* 2 med onions, sliced fairly thinly
* 2 bell peppers, preferably red, yellow, and/or orange but green will do, sliced
*
* 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
*
* 4 T butter (½ stick)
*
* 2 T chopped fresh coriander
* ¼ c heavy whipping cream

Directions

1. Mix the dry spices into the yoghurt. Add the ginger, garlic, and tomato and mix well.
2. Cut chicken into reasonable size pieces, about 1” - 1.5". Try to make the pieces about even in size so they’ll all cook at about the same rate. Add the chicken pieces to the yoghurt (hopefully you used a large enough bowl to start with) and let marinate in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to an hour.
3. Melt the butter in a large wok or deep skillet and fry the onion and pepper slices until the onion slices are just beginning to turn translucent.
4. Add the chicken and its marinade and cook, stirring, for 5 to 10 minutes.
5. Add the cream and the chopped coriander and heat to just before the boiling point, stirring occassionaly.
6. Serve garnished with sprigs of fresh coriander

YUM!

Barbarians Redux

2010-07-15T01:57:00.004-05:00

Hopefully I'm coming to the end of a long hiatus. Just a brief explanation of where I've been.

I started this blog while I was caring for my elderly father because I literally was not getting out of the house. As his health worsened I couldn't leave him alone. The blog helped me to have some time for myself and something of my own while still allowing me to be there for him without interruption.

Then he died on June 12, 2009, just 3 days after my last posted recipe. He was 89 years old and it took 3 simultaneous cancers to take him down. About 6 weeks later, I lost my dog, Rusty. She was 18 years old. Nevertheless, I returned to school in August of '09. I had interrupted my doctoral work to care for my Dad and picked that back up.

Then, yay! It turned out I had some serious health problems of my own, and getting that taken care of has meant I had to leave the state I was living in, where they considered my student loans as INCOME and therefore said I did not qualify for medical assistance. Grad student here, meaning I have no medical insurance and the school I go to provides nothing meaningful in the way of health care for its students. When I went to the local free clinic (after being on the waiting list for several weeks) they determined I needed emergency surgery, which was canceled because in that state they consider student LOANS (that's right, LOANS, which are DEBT which has to be paid back) as income and I did not qualify for medical assistance. Since the docs knew they had no way to enforce payment (I make $3k a year in actual wages), the emergency surgery was canceled.

Emergencies don't count when there's no cash on hand.

I'm now staying with my son in another state which is considerably more enlightened about getting people the help they need. Here, student loans are specifically and emphatically EXCLUDED from being considered as income when determining need for medical assistance.

I have an appointment at a local free clinic on Friday, tomorrow, and hopefully the emergency surgery I was supposed to have had in March will take place soon. Hopefully it won't be cancer (which runs in my family in this particular form) and I'll be back at school in the spring.

In the meantime, while I'm staying here with my son I'll be cooking and posting again, at least semi-regularly.

I may not exactly be back in the saddle again, but at least I've made it as far as the barn. LOL!

Tomato Dahl

2009-06-09T04:11:00.008-05:00

Where to buy Indian ingredients

About Dals

Tomato dahl is as much a comfort food in Indian culture as tomato soup seems to be for many people here in the US (hence all those Campbell's soup commercials).

Personally I don't at all care for tomato soup, but I do love the Indian version!

If you're not afraid of calories or cholesterol, serve this drizzled with ghee.

1 c Toor dal, dry
3 c water

2 small cans of chopped tomatoes or 4 to 6 chopped Romas

2 large onions
3 green chili peppers, diced

1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp urud dal

1/2 T cumin seed

2 tsp black mustard seed

2 dry red chilis, to taste

6 to 8 curry leaves

Masala: mix together and put aside:
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 T coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 tsp salt

First set the dal to cooking. Use 1 c dal to 3 c water. Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer for 40 minutes to an hour, until the dahl is very soft and has absorbed most of the water.

Heat 2 to 3 T of oil in a karhai, wok, or large skillet.

When the oil is hot, add chana and urud dal. When the dal begins to brown, immediately add cumin seed.

When the cumin seed begins to brown, add mustard seeds.

When the mustard seeds begin to pop, immediately add the crumbled red pepper and the neem leaves.

The red pepper will begin to cook very quickly, as soon as it begins to brown add the masala. Fry the spices for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently, then add the onion and green chilis.

If you are using canned tomatoes, cook the onions until they are nearly soft, then add the canned tomatoes and mix well. If you are using fresh tomatoes, add the tomatoes with the onion and the green chilies and cook until soft.

Add this mixture to the dahl, stir well, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes to distribute the flavors throughout.

Chop some coriander leaves (cilantro) and garnish to serve.

Serve with long grain rice, preferably basmati rice.

Enjoy!

About dal

2009-06-05T22:13:00.014-05:00

This has been moved onto my static pages, see the links above for "Dal"

Bombay Potato Fry

2009-05-26T23:53:00.006-05:00

2 T Oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp crushed garlic
2 T curry powder
1 tsp ground cumin
4 to 6 medium russet potatoes
Salt to taste (about 1 tsp)
Cilantro (coriander leaf), chopped, for garnish

Peel and quarter the potatoes, then boil for about 5 to 10 minutes, until they just start to cook but are still crisp.
Drain and cool the potatoes, then cube them into about 1" cubes
Heat the oil over a medium high heat. If the oil doesn't coat the bottom of your pan evenly, add a bit more oil.
When the oil is hot, quickly drop in the mustard seeds. They will start to pop almost immediately if the oil is hot enough. (If not, next time heat the oil a bit longer before you add them).
When the mustard seeds start to pop, quickly add the onions and garlic and stir well.
Fry the onions until they start to soften, then add the curry powder. Stir well.
Add the cubed potatoes and fry until they are well coated with the spices and are browned on the edges.
Garnish with chopped coriander
Serve with basmati rice.

Enjoy!

Technorati Profile

The Indian Vegetarian 100 Challenge

2009-05-20T12:25:00.002-05:00

As posted on the One Hot Stove blog.

Copy the entire list, along with these instructions, into your blog post

Bold the foods that you have tried

Strike out the foods you would never try - I had to italicize and smallify them, not having a strike-thru

I put links on the ones I haven't tried that I'd like to try soon, to a recipe for that item.

Anything that depends on coconut strikes out with me; I HATE HATE HATE coconut! Anything I've marked to try that has coconut in it, I promise you, I'm planning to leave the coconut out. (We Kitchen Barbarians can get away with stuff like that, cuz we're, well, BARBARIANS, after all).

Were it not for my hatred of coconut I'd have a higher "I've already tried it" score, which ended up being a disappointing 46.

Nupur's Indian Vegetarian 100

1. Ripe mangoes
2. Curd rice - well I have to quibble on this one. My ex taught me to mix sour creme with rice.
3. Chaat
4. Phulka
5. Puran poli
6. Boiled peanuts
7. Samosa
8. Stuffed baby eggplants
9. Aviyal
10. Stuffed paratha
11. Masala chai - in fact, here's my favorite recipe for Indian Railroad Tea
12. Tirphal
13. Murukku
14. Curry leaves
15. Banana chips fried in coconut oil
16. Jaggery
17. Vada pav - I cheerfully lose the bread
18. Tender coconut water
19. Paneer
20. Madras filter coffee
21. Boondi laddoo
22. Boondi raita
23. Navratan korma
24. Kokum
25. Masala peanuts
26. A home-cooked Indian vegetarian meal
27. Sugarcane juice
28. Sabudana/sago in any form
29. Horsegram - apparently this is cowpea. I've eaten cowpeas. Not in Indian food, but I've eaten them.
30. Maggi noodles - my son's eaten it though
31. Podi with rice and ghee
32. Roomali roti
33. Bitter gourd - didn't like
34. Nylon sev
35. Vegetable biryani
36. Thali at a restaurant
37. Plantain flower
38. Undhiyu
39. Nimbu pani - essentially limeade
40. Papad
41. Kotthu parotta - I kept the original link to the recipe for this one.
42. Panch phoran
43. Drumsticks
44. Indian "French toast"
45. Sarson ka saag
46. Bhakri
47. Pav bhaji
48. Sitaphal
49. Glucose biscuits
50. Sprouts
51. Chole-bhature
52. Amla - gooseberries. I've not had them in years, but as a child one of my grandmothers made gooseberry pie.
53. Tomato "omelet"
54. A wedding feast - mine, actually
55. Grilled corn on the cob with lemon juice, salt and chilli powder - SACRILEGE! Corn on the cob is ordained to be slathered with butter! LOL!
56. Cadbury's fruit and nut chocolate
57. Sai bhaji
58. Solkadi
59. Indian-Chinese meal
60. Jalebi
61. Black forest cake
62. Bharwa bhindi - an okra dish, /me hates okra
63. Kashmiri saffron
64. Misal
65. Ripe jackfruit
66. Idli-chutney
67. 'Tadgola'
68. Bhut jolokia
69. Baby mango pickle
70. Meal off a banana leaf
71. Falooda
72. Moong khichdi
73. Bebinca
74. Daal baati
75. Methi greens
76. Basundi
77. Gunpowder
78. Appam-stew
79. Sweet lemon pickle
80. Ridge gourd
81. Bisi bele bhath
82. Coconut burfi
83. Caramel custard
84. Thecha
85. Rasam
86. Baingan bharta
87. Mysore pak
88. Punjabi wadi
89. Chhunda
90. Dal makhani
91. Paper dosa
92. Gongura
93. Hand-churned butter
94. Pakoda
95. Curd chillies
96. Mustard oil
97. Fresh cashews
98. Tomato pickle
99. Rajma-chawal
100. Chaas

Carmelized Onion and Angel Hair Pasta

2009-05-19T21:36:00.005-05:00

Blame this one on my son.

If you don't like onions - and "like" should be more properly spelled "LOVE" - you're not going to like this dish.

If you are, like me, solidly addicted to onions, then you just might be in for a treat.

This is an adaptation from a recipe I read 25 years or more ago in a cookbook. I have no idea what the original recipe was like, and I can't remember the cookbook. But this dish has been one of my favorites from the very first time I cooked it.

It's simple.

Carmelize some onions.

Cook some angel hair pasta.

Ladle the carmelized onions over the angel hair pasta and chow down!

Done. Bye now. Later. Shortest posting you're likely ever to see from me.

OK, seriously, I'll tell you how to carmelize the onions, but that's about the extent of any actual cooking. And even that's not a big deal.

CARMELIZED ONIONS

Cut up 2 or 3 lbs of onions, in thinnish slices.

Dump them in your crockpot.

Drop in about 1/4 to 1/2 stick of butter (about 1 T per pound of onions).

Turn the thing on medium, go to bed, and 8 to 10 hours later, voila!

Carmelized onions.

I used to spend a couple of hours doing this on the stove top. I like this method muuuuch better.

And you actually might want to start them early in the morning for dinner (I love onions but I'm pretty sure even I don't want to eat them at 8 AM).

OK, seriously, that's it, done, tata, buh-bye.

Masala Chai - Indian Railroad Tea

2009-05-18T18:10:00.017-05:00

Photo courtesy of Shrk

It took me YEARS to finally figure this one out. Tea is such a simple thing. You would think.

After I'm-not-kidding like 20 years of stumbling around and finally all but giving up, I finally figured out the secret to authentic Indian railroad tea.

It's using CHEAP TEA. The cheaper the better. CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. The stuff that sells for like $4 a lb. Not that expensive Assam or Darjeeling that'll set you back $16 to $20 for 4 oz. CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP loose granulated (mamri-style) black unflavored tea, the kind of stuff that looks frighteningly like gunpowder.

You can buy this ultra cheap tea at any Indian grocery or online. But more on that later.

On to the Masala Chai Recipe!

First thing you should understand - chai is just the Hindi word for "tea". So if you ask for "chai tea" you are asking for tea tea. And if the brand of tea you are using is Tata, then Tata chai tea is the same as saying Tata Tea Tea. (Sorry, I can't resist puns and alliteration. Get used to it if you're going to read my blog, LOL!)

What we are talking about is spiced tea, or masala chai. Now there are a LOT of different ways to make this, and most are probably about as "authentic" as the next, but this recipe is my favorite. It tastes the most like the stuff the vendors hawk at the railroad stations and hand through the windows to travelers.

If you've been drinking "Chai tea" from Starbucks, or the stuff labeled "Chai" that comes in cartons at the yuppy organic groceries, be warned - that's not Indian Railroad Tea. It's not what most Indians I know think of when they talk about masala chai. That stuff has all sorts of extra ingredients like vanilla and cinnamon and who knows what else in it that you wouldn't find in Indian Railroad Tea because the watchword of the day is "tasty", yes, but also "CHEAP".

CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. A category not to be achieved if you are loading the tea up with vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, and whatnot. Also it detracts from the simplicity of the recipe, which is another requirement for Indian Railroad Tea. These guys are (or at least used to be) brewing this stuff by the gallon right there by the railroad tracks, or at least as close to the station as they can get and not get arrested. Then they send runners out with trays and trays of the stuff, steaming hot, as the train pulls into the station. Then there's a mad flurry while competing runners (often from competing tea makers) jostle and jockey to be the first to sell out and run back for more. I've seen runners working in relays, where one guy pushes his way to the front of the crowd, empties his tray, and runs back to the back of the crowd to grab another trayful from a confederate, sort of like a bucket brigade only for tea. (Picture courtesy of Shabbir Siraj)

So anyway, quick, easy, tasty, and CHEAP are the watchwords for Indian railroad tea.

This is not your Starbucks Chai here. But it's REALLY REALLY good, and a heck of a lot cheaper than $6.75 a cup.

OK. Here's the recipe. Let me say right from the start, DO NOT try to substitute ground spices for the whole seed. You won't be able to strain it out and the proportions won't be right. Use the whole spices as indicated. You can substitute cardamom in the pod for the hulled cardamom, but I prefer to use the hulled variety (loose seed) because it's easier to deal with, cleaner, and generally cheaper ounce for ounce.

Masala Chai - Indian Railroad Tea

2 c water

2 c whole milk

1 T fennel seed

1 1/2 tsp whole hulled cardamom, or 6 to 8 bruised cardamom pods,
to taste

4 to 6 whole cloves

4 T Indian CTC mamri-style (granulated) loose tea, or 4 to 6 cheap
unflavored black tea bags

Sugar to taste

Directions

Boil the water. Add the whole spices and leave at a slow boil for 3 minutes.
Add the WHOLE milk and bring back to a slow boil.
Add the tea or tea bags and boil on low for no more than 2 to 3 minutes. It can get bitter if you leave it on the heat longer than that.
Remove from the stove, strain, and serve.
Sugar to taste.

It's important to use a CHEAP granulated tea - for years I tried to make this using the best Darjeeling and Asaam teas that I could find and it never came out right. The cheap granulated tea (basically what we put in tea bags) is the key - it takes a strong flavored tea to stand up to the flavor imparted by the spices. This stuff will be labeled "CTC" or "mamri-style" tea.

The brand of mamri-style tea that I most often use is Brooke Bond Red Label. I've also occassionally used Brooke Bond Taj Mahal and Tea India. There are cheaper mamri-style teas and they work fine too, but be warned - you may need to experiment with the amount and the brewing length. Some teas costing as little as $2 a pound (454 grams is about a pound, that's a common size for Indian packaged teas) will quickly get bitter if you brew them too long. With cheaper teas you may need to cut brewing time (after you add the tea to the boiling water/milk) to 2 minutes instead of 3, and you may need to use a little more tea to make up for the shorter brewing time. Be prepared to experiment a bit.

Also, you do NOT allow this tea to steep. You brew it and then you strain it through a very fine strainer immediately upon removing it from the heat. Allowing it to steep will make it bitter.

Finally, if you can't find an authentic mamri-style tea, you can try cheap tea bags. Again, you may need to experiment a bit to get the flavor right. One of these days I'm going to buy some cheap decaf tea bags and try for a decaf version, because I have a sensitivity to caffeine and if I drink a whole quart of masala chai (which I will cheerfully do because the stuff is like liquid crack to me) I will be pinging off the ceiling for hours.

But I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Now, where to buy ingredients? You can buy from a local Indian Grocery or you can buy from an online source. I've often found the spices I need in Organic Groceries that have bulk spices for sale. You CAN buy the spices in any grocery store, but in the amounts used here you'll find them to be very very expensive. The mamri-style tea I've never found outside an Indian or International grocery.

To locate an Indian Grocery near you (in the USA):

Thokaloth.com Indian Grocery Locator
SearchIndia.com Indian Grocery Locator

And here are some online resources as well:

iShopIndian.com
India Spice House
India Blend
Indian Foods Co

A Google search will probably turn up some more if you want to look around.

That's it! It took me longer to tell you how to make it than it will take you to actually make it.

Tasty, quick, simple, easy, and cheap. My favorite kind of recipe!

Sailing the Spice Islands

2009-05-17T18:26:00.011-05:00

I grew up in the Midwest on a fairly typical diet for the time. Meatloaf, fried chicken, pot roast. "Italian" food was spaghetti or pizza; "Chinese" food was the impossibly exotic Sweet and Sour This'n That served by a local hot spot decorated in a "polynesian" theme.

"Vegetables", properly cooked, were boiled to near unrecognizability, unless they were fried to nearly the same state. Meat was sometimes treated the same way ("Dredge the roast in flour, then boil until tender"). "The Joy of Cooking" still had the section on how to clean game - and people still used it.

My mother had two kitchen gadgets. One was a copper bowl she never used that was ostensibly for making meringues (but in actuality gathered dust where it hung on the pegboard - yes, most of our kitchen tools were hung on a pegboard, ala Tim Alan).

The other was a plastic cylindrical thingy with round flat inserts and a sort of a push rod thingy that I believe was called a "hamburger press". The idea was you dropped a dollop of the raw meat into the cylinder thingy, topped it off with one of the round inserts, then squished it flat to make the Perfect Patty. You could make several of these - six is the number that springs to mind - and then freeze them for quick burgers at a later date. The circular discs had a tendency to slip at odd angles if you loaded up too many patties for squishing at once, making a lopsided burger that was thicker on one side than the other. Oh well.

That was the extent of kitchen tomfoolery in my household. Oh, we had lots of kitchen gear, but they were all TOOLS (hence the appropriateness of the Peg Board). We had two sets of pots, the "everyday" pots which were cast iron, and the "good" pots, which were Revere Ware Copper Bottomed Pots and were considered the height of culinary cookware attainable by mere mortals. When I took over as Kitchen Witch at the tender age of 6, the "good" pots quickly became the "everyday" pots, as the cast iron ware in general weighed more than I did.

Some of our kitchen tools were quite frightening. There was the meat grinder, and yes, I used it on a fairly regular basis. We also had a butcher's saw, bone saw, meat saw, whatever the proper name for the thing was - an implement that would no doubt be totally at home in a modern-day slasher flick, but not so much in a modern day kitchen. Unless your name is Hannibal Lector, that is.

I contend that it is my early exposure to What Goes Into Home Cooking that largely turned me off meat in later years. If adults don't want to know what goes into sausages, then 6 year olds don't need to know what that chicken looked like BEFORE it got fried. Not to mention beef liver, which came in a huge slab that had to be cut up before being, yes, "dredged in flour" and fried with onions.

Do you know what happens to your fingers as you dredge strips of beef liver in flour? Let's just say "ICK!" and leave it at that. Even eggs had to be carefully sorted, breaking them one by one into a teacup lest you come across one that had been fertilized.

Again, just say "ICK!" and leave it at that.

So, somehow, while learning to cook in ways to keep the small town Midwestern palate of 40 or 50 years ago happy and well fed, I did not develop a love of the very food I was cooking for others. Possibly I'd have been better off if I had had some guidance in the kitchen other than being tossed in the deep end with a stepstool and a cookbook. At any rate, I developed a very low tolerance for the "ICK!" factor and a dislike for most of the very dishes I was cooking. Even now the smell of corned beef and cabbage can put me Right Off food altogether for hours.

Every once in awhile, my brother will wax eloquent about some dish I cooked routinely in our youth. He'll go on and on about how good it was, what a wonderful aroma wafted from the kitchen when I was cooking it, and how eagerly he anticipated dinner on the occasions when I was preparing said dish. He'll look at me expectantly, and I just stare back at him blankly, because invariably it is some concoction or other that I would never, at that age, have even CONSIDERED actually eating, especially not if the title included any of the words "Salmon", "croquette", "pot pie", "casserole", or "soup". Don't be too impressed; one of the dishes he remembers so fondly was our family's version of "Spanish Noodles" which basically consisted of egg noodles, Campbell's Tomato Soup, and a pound of ground beef.

Once I left home, I virtually stopped cooking. Given that I didn't much care for meat, and given that "vegetables", in my milieu, generally meant something green and boiled to squishiness, I didn't have a lot of culinary options anyway.

That I knew of.

Then I met and started dating my ex and a whole new world opened unto my wondering eyes - and nose, and taste buds.

A world where "spice" meant a whole lot more than black pepper.

A world where vegetarian cooking was the norm, and people expected their vegetables to taste like something besides each other. Where "vegetables" meant more than carrots, peas, lima beans, and green beans chopped, sliced, cubed, and frozen into submission.

Where garlic was more than the stuff they put in bologna that made people avoid getting too close to you after lunch. Where cabbage took on many different forms, totally distinct from "boiled". Where a mango is a fruit and not a green bell pepper.

Where ginger was something much, much more than a pale tan colored powder in a can that you used on rare occasions to make cookies.

Where the exotic became attainable, but never (to me) ordinary. A whole new world of Spices.

Now I began to understand why countries went to war over control of "the Spice Islands".

Kalonji. That's onion seed. Zheera, cumin. Ajwain, Carom seed. Dhanya, coriander. Methi, fenugreek. Curry leaves. Amchur, mango powder. Hing, asofoetida. Imli, Tamarind. Saffron or it's poor cousin, turmeric. Chili peppers - not the anemic "chili powder" blends I was familiar with, or paprika, but REAL, fiery, hot chilis. Fresh ginger.

Since then I've embarked on a long journey of discovery, finding herbs, foods, and spices from foreign lands that to me were utterly novel and unique. Over time I've picked up a repertoire of Indian dishes which I have of late begun to flesh out with cuisine from Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, China, and Japan.

I'm still learning, still exploring. My sensibilities are not the sensitivities of a native from any of those lands, nor even my own. I'm the quintessential Barbarian, knocking at the gates, or more likely knocking them down, in search of culinary booty. When I've done looting the area, what I concoct may or may not much resemble a "native" dish. I'm inspired by, I borrow from, I out and out steal bits and pieces and stick them together in no doubt odd and garish - but tasty! - ways.

So, armed with the East Indian recipes I've developed over 30 years, internet access, and a half dozen South-east Asian cookbooks, I'm tackling new frontiers (for me) in Indian, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Korean cuisine.

Kitchen Barbarian. Coming soon to a cookstove near you.