Wrapping Up Indian Cooking, and an Announcement of Sorts

I love Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking. Love, love, love it. Her recipes are easy to follow and execute. Most of them use the same spices over and over, so it may appear daunting at the outset, when you need to load up on whole seed spices that you may not have on hand, but once you have them, they get a lot of use. I found that all the spices I needed were loads cheaper when I bought them from the bulk bin at the organic market instead of the commercially packed versions at the supermarket. By loads cheaper, I mean it would cost me thirty cents to buy enough to fill a normal sized spice jar. Can't beat that.

I was intimidated at the thought of cooking Indian food, but I shouldn't have been. Some of the recipes take a little time and forethought (soaking beans for a few hours, etc), but most of the main course dishes I tried were fairly hands-off. Get them going, then just let them simmer away in a pot for an hour. Believe me, if I can cook great Indian food, so can you.

This is a wonderful cookbook, and one which I'll refer to often. Without doubt, a keeper.

Now, with some amount of regret, I want to say that I'm taking a hiatus from this blog. When I started it last May, it was a fun distraction from my boredom, and a way for me to have fun cooking dinner every night. I did not enjoy cooking or feel confident in the kitchen at the time, and that has all changed through this project. Now that Indian food's under my belt, I can't think of anything that I'd be afraid to attempt. The attitude of "if I can't buy it, I'll make it myself," has been hugely rewarding. I like the method of concentrating on one cookbook for a chunk of time, and will probably continue to do so, but the actual blogging part has begun to feel like a chore, which defeats the whole purpose. I'm consumed with planning a trans-oceanic move, and I keep forgetting all about the blog until right before I go to bed. So, for the time being at least, I'm letting myself off the hook. The blog is going on the backburner.

I do still plan to participate in French Fridays with Dorie, and also with Andrea's monthly challenge at My Kitchen, My World, because I'd love to try recipes from less mainstream food cultures. March's challenge is Finland. They eat food in Finland?? Who knew? haha

If you want to keep tabs on my wheelings and dealings, I'll continue to post on my other blog, Mandatory Fun. Posts over there are much more sporadic, so I feel less pressure. I'll miss hearing from you guys so often. See you for French Friday!!

If Not For the Carrots

I have several dishes from Indian Cooking to report on, and with the exception of a carrot side dish, they were all winners.

My eternal quest for different ways to cook the lowest maintenance seafood in the world (assuming that you buy them debearded, and they don't poison anyone) made it a sure-fire bet that I'd make Goan-Style Mussels (pg 117). This broth is very different from any other mussel recipe I've cooked before, and I loved it. One qualm I have, and this isn't the first of Jaffrey's recipes that's given me this problem, is that she says to make a paste of ginger, garlic, and water in the food processor, which you then cook in oil with other spices, and it becomes the base of your broth. Sounds lovely, except for one thing...

The liquid I produced from using her measurements could not in any way be considered a paste.

This recipe calls for fresh coconut, but that is just not something I feel like dealing with, so I used dried, unsweetened coconut. I was surprised by how much coconut flavor seeped into the broth.

Conclusion: Loved it. The flavors--especially the coconut--worked perfectly with the mussels.

If you can make meatloaf, you can make Jaffrey's Turkey Kebabs (pg 104). Ground turkey, mixed with spices, is formed into hamburger-sized patties, dredged in breadcrumbs, then pan-fried. I would have preferred smaller patties, but the big ones cooked through perfectly according to her timing instructions.

Conclusion: Liked it.

With it, I served Red Kidney Beans (pg 169). Man, these were delicious, but with 2/3 cup of heavy cream and three tablespoons of ghee (clarified butter, which I scored at the organic market), they're a cardiologist's nightmare. Especially because you'd never guess all that fatty goodness was in there. Oh well, it was a delicious treat, which I won't be making often.

Mmmmm. Heart attackey.

Conclusion: Loved it.

And now I come to those carrots. Carrot and Onion Salad (pg 217) didn't sound exceptionally tasty, but I had the ingredients for it, so I gave it a shot. Matt said it tasted like carrots in vinegar, which is an accurate description, despite the absence of vinegar. The dressing is lemon juice, cayenne, salt, pepper, and grated ginger. Neither one of us ate it.

Curses!

Conclusion: Disliked.

A chai-loving friend came by one morning, so I brewed up Spiced Tea (pg 234). Six teaspoons of sugar for two cups of tea is excessive for my taste. Still good, but I'd use lots less sugar in the future. Scanning the recipe, my friend said, "Wait, you just so happen to have cardamom pods in your pantry? Not cardamom, but cardamom pods?" That made me laugh. It's weird to think that a year ago, I didn't even know cardamom pods existed.

Conclusion: Liked it.

Biryani Bummer

Biryani is my second most beloved dish at Indian restaurants, so I was hell-bent on cooking it myself before my month with Indian Cooking was through. Jaffrey says that Lamb and Rice Casserole (Mughlai Lamb Biryani) (pg 204) is usually served at feasts, but I figured it being Saturday was a good enough excuse. It had to be on a Saturday, because it took allllll daaaaay looooong to make. I won't give you the blow by blow. Just know that it is a lengthy process. Not exceptionally labor intensive, but involving periodic measuring, seasoning, and browning, then leaving things to soak or simmer or bake for 1-3 hours, depending upon the step.

The eggs didn't jive with the rest of the flavors, in my opinion.

I'm certain that this did not come out as it was meant to. The rice was mushy. It's not supposed to be. I'm not sure what went wrong. I followed the nerve-wrackingly precise instructions to a T (soak for 3 hours, drain, rinse, boil rapidly for exactly six minutes, then quickly pile the rice on top of the lamb, drizzle a saffron/milk mixture and browned onions over the top, cover, and bake for an hour.) Maybe I wasn't quick enough. All I know is that the rice was fully cooked after it's 6 minutes of boiling, and baking it for an hour after that turned it into pudding. Jaffrey said to use long grain rice. I interpreted that as normal white long grain rice. I'm wondering if I was meant to use some heartier type that takes longer to cook?

If this dish came together in an hour, I may not have minded the result. This took four hours. For that type of time commitment, I expect it to work. The flavors were delicious, but the consistency of that rice really ruined things for me.

Conclusion: Just okay. I won't make this again. Biryani is restaurant food, not home food.

Red Food

Matt and I were in Germany a few years ago, and friends of his kindly offered us some post-dinner cherry schnapps. "It's sweet," they said. Cherry? Sweet? Count me in. Then I tasted it. Holy cleared sinuses, Batman! Sweet? Sweet? I thought it would burn a hole in my belly. I like to think I played it cool and drank it without flinching, but in reality, I'm no good with harsh liquor.

I had a similar reaction to Chicken in a Red Sweet Pepper Sauce (pg 101 of Indian Cooking). After the fact, I figure that the title indicates the use of a bell pepper instead of a hot chili pepper, but it led me to expect a sweeter, mellower dish. For this one, a red pepper, an onion, ginger, garlic, almonds, and spices are pureed into a paste, and that's what the chicken cooks in. All in all, spicier than I expected, but very tasty and lots of vegetables.

Conclusion: Liked it.

Delhi-Style Lamb Cooked with Potatoes (pg 73) is a tomato-based sauce. Potatoes are always welcome in this household, and they were much appreciated here. They absorbed so much flavor (garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne), I would have been perfectly happy eating a big bowl of just the potatoes. No lamb necessary. These potatoes were special.

Conclusion: Liked it.

Instead of plain old normal rice, I made Simple Buttery Rice with Onion (pg 194). Buttery. Oniony. Good.

Conclusion: Liked it.

There's a Pancake Day?

Never in my life have I heard of Pancake Day. It was today, apparently, and I unwittingly participated. For lunch, I made Jennifer Reese's recipe for Buttermilk Pancakes (pg 52 of Make the Bread, Buy the Butter), because I needed to use up some buttermilk before it went bad.

Conclusion: Pancakes make me happy. All pancakes. These were good. Liked them.

When I think of Indian food, I never think of seafood. Maybe I'm too distracted trying to choose between saag or biryani when I read the menu that I don't notice it, or maybe the restaurants I've been to haven't served seafood. Regardless, I'm intrigued by the seafood section in Indian Cooking.

Dinner was Shrimp with Zucchinis (pg 118). The sauce was tomato based, which was a departure from other dishes I've made. Honestly, this one was unmemorable. I enjoyed it well enough while I was eating it, but an hour later, I can't remember much about it.

Conclusion: I'm going to call this one just okay. It did have a lot of veggies in it, so that was good, but it's not the most delicious thing ever.

We finished up our cucumbery yogurt, so I made a new yogurt accompaniment: Yogurt with Eggplant (pg 212). The eggplant offers no flavor, but a nice, softly chunky texture. This is seasoned with salt, pepper, scallions, mint, and a bit of cayenne. The flavor is mild. The effect is of a creamy side dish, vs. the sense of refreshment I got from the cucumber one.

Conclusion: Liked it.

So Many Flavors

Is it a good or a bad thing that I've been too busy to blog, and now I have a whole list of recipes to report on? Good, in terms of life activity, methinks. Bad, in terms of having unwieldy posts. Sorry. Again.

Numero uno: Minced Meat with Peas (Kheema Matar) (pg 62 of Indian Cooking). On day one, I thought this was pretty bland. I fully admit that I'm veering toward the lower end of her spicing recommendations until I get my footing, but still, this was "eh." However, the next night, Matt made sandwiches out of it on pita, with cucumbers and the leftover cucumber mint yogurt stuff. Insert Homer Simpson drool face here. It was so good.

Conclusion: Because of the sandwich, after a day of mingling, liked it.

Last night, I tackled Lemony Chicken with Cilantro (pg 95). I chose this because I had all the ingredients. Cilantro is not something that I normally spring into action for, and the recipe only calls for two tablespoons of lemon juice, so i didn't have high hopes. Foolish me. Brown chicken, and then quickly cook a butt-load of cilantro (1.5 cups for half a batch of chicken) with a million spices. Add water to the spices, and let the chicken simmer away for a half hour. I don't think I've ever had cilantro that was cooked down so much and used as a real present component of a dish. The meat was perfectly tender, and the flavor was surprisingly lemony and complex. Matt continually muttered, "Oh my God. Oh my God" while eating. It was cute. It seems like everything I make out of this book, he says is the best Indian food ever.

Conclusion: Loved it.

I'm not a huge lentil fan, but I've liked them in Indian restaurants, so figured I'd give it a shot. Madhur keeps recommending Red Split Lentils with Cumin Seeds (pg 165) as an accompaniment to dishes, so it seemed like a good place to start. There was no picture, so I expected the lentils to retain their shape and identity. These turned out to be the consistency of refried beans, which, in my opinion, is a great thing, because I'm a fool for refried beans. They had a ton of flavor (I fear I'll be saying that a lot this month), and were the highlight of the meal for me.

Conclusion: Loved it.

I had the bright idea to use some rotting bananas to make Cocoa-Nana Bread (pg 46 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking). It's in her "Breakfast Sweets" section, and I thought, "Hey! I'll bet Charlie will eat that." Wrong-o. What is wrong with the men in my house? Charlie wouldn't touch it, and Matt nibbled one bite, then said that he doesn't do chocolate for breakfast. Grumble. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that I better focus on loaves of bread (not the sweet kind) if I want my family to appreciate my baking. Forget them.

The Cocoa-Nana bread was way more chocolatey than I expected it to be. It was really more of a cake, and I'll admit I wouldn't normally want that much chocolate for breakfast either. For a snack or dessert, it's moist and choco-licious, though. I didn't expect the bananas to be able to compete with all that chocolate, but they did. More than anything, it reminded me of a banana split.

Apparently my loaf pan was not the right size.

Woops.

Conclusion: Liked it, but I sent it to work with Matt. I don't need to eat a whole loaf single-handedly.

For book club, I made Dorie's Brrrrr-ownies (pg 103 of Baking). They're brownies with chopped up York Peppermint Patties in them. Not my favorite brownie mixture, but I do love the York Patties in the brownie. I may just add them to David Lebovitz's "Robert's Absolute Best Brownies" instead, though, because they're the absolute best.

Conclusion: Liked it.

Saag-alicious

For my first foray into Indian cooking, I decided to make my favorite: Lamb with Spinach (Dilli Ka Saag Gosht) (pg 67 of Indian Cooking). I've never eaten most of the dishes in this book, so I figured I'd start with something I knew I'd like. Boy, did I like it. I ate waaay too much of this. Matt served himself first, and I thought he took half. I took the other half. Turns out, he did not take half. He thought he left enough for me, and for lunch tomorrow. Tee hee. I ate it all. Matt said that if every meal in the book is as good as this one, we never need to order out again.

 Conclusion: Loved it. 

Jaffrey says to make your own Garam Masala (pg 21), because the store-bought stuff uses cheap ingredients and has no flavor. I quadrupled her recipe, because I don't know how to quarter a nutmeg. Ground up cardamom seeds, cinnamon sticks, cumin seeds, cloves, black peppercorn, and nutmeg make a nice warm mixture. I tasted it, then tasted the commercial blend I had in my pantry, and promptly tossed the commercial blend in the trash. It tasted like sawdust. If I ever need garam masala, I will make it. No contest.

Conclusion: Loved it.

This wasn't a fiery dish, but Yogurt with Cucumber and Mint (pg 210) still provided such a lovely, cool contrast to the cozy heat of the saag.

Mmmm...palate cleanser.

Conclusion: Loved it. A clean sweep!

Wrapping Up How to Eat, and Up Next

 Nigella Lawson's How to Eat perfectly demonstrates why I shouldn't allow the design of a cookbook to factor into my expectations of the book's quality. I do maintain that this book is not laid out in a user-friendly fashion, and there is way too much chit-chat for my taste. I don't mind intros to recipes, and I don't mind essay-type writing at the start of chapters, but this book has big chunks of chatter in between the recipes. It's distracting, and hard to find what you're looking for. There are recipes, like the Exceptional Salmon that we loved so much, that don't appear in the contents, since it's in with the chatter instead of broken apart as a separate recipe. In the paperback version, at least, there are no pictures.

HOWEVER, nearly every recipe I tried was good, if not great. I was worried that Nigella was just an English Rachael Ray, with her emphasis on quick cooking. She's not. Nigella's recipes never feel cluttered. She uses fine ingredients and cooks them simply, to maximize their flavor.

I'm not bored with this book after a month, and there are lots of recipes that I still want to try. There's a treacle tart with my name written all over it. Trying to cut back on the desserts, so I didn't get around to making it this month, but I will. Oh, I will.

My only other minor complaint is that there are a lot of recipes for game and wild fowl that I just don't have access to. If you don't have access to them either, this may not be the book to start with. I'm trying desperately to control the urge to order all of her books. Santa brought me Kitchen for Christmas, and I can't wait to jump into it. Later.

For now, I'm very excited to start my next book. I've bitched and moaned often enough here about Corpus Christi's nonexistent Indian food offerings, that I'm guessing you've figured out that I really like Indian food, but am intimidated to cook it. Well, it's time to conquer that mountain, because from what I understand, Naples doesn't have a whole lot to offer in terms of non-Italian food. If I want Indian food without having to drive a few hours to get it in the next few years, I'm going to have to make it myself. For the next month, I'll be cooking from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking. 

Doesn't she have kind eyes? I trust those eyes, and the recommendation of my friend Brigit, who steered me toward this book. I bought myself another coffee grinder for spices and a mini food processor, since a number of her recipes involve small amounts of onion puree. I stopped at the organic store yesterday and picked up whole spices and dry beans. I'm ready. Now can someone tell me how to quarter a nutmeg?? Blood shall be spilled this night! Nah, I'm better off quadrupling her garam masala recipe, even though she says to just make a little at a time.

Fingers crossed that I'm not totally sick of Indian food by the end of the month. The recipes look pretty diverse, so I think I'll be okay.