We've Gone Fishing - Well On Holiday In Any Event

It has been quite a year for our family and our journey on project paratha.  We will be taking a break on blogging until the turn of the new year.  Earlier today I was in a Cost Plus World market buying Bretzels (large thin pretzels from Germany) for the kids and happened upon a display of Indian sandalwood candles, paisley decorated notebooks, and silk bed curtains.  This reminds me that Indian influences are everywhere, even last minute holiday shopping displays.   We will be continuing with the curry portion of the project over the next few weeks; so more to come from the I Heart Curry book.

Have a great new year.

Bengali Mustard Fish

Anjum labels this as a classic and "absolutely terrific." I could not agree more; although I never heard of this before it is something I could see making again and again.

The ingredients include:
450 g of halibut steaks - whole or quartered
3/4 tsp of tumeric
salt to taste
1 1/2 small tomatoes
3 "fat" garlic cloves
4-5 green chillies (preferably Indian finger)
1 1/2 tbsp powdered brown mustard seeds (Lisa and I debated this over dinner and it seems like one might be able to use country mustard?)
4 tbsp mustard or vegetable oil
1 1/4 tsp nigella seeds
a handful of corriander leaves (fresh)

The fish is marinated in the tumeric, while the sauce is made. The tomatoes, garlic, and 2-3 chillies should be blended. The oil is added to a pan, nigella seeds added, sizzled for 10 seconds, and then the tomato-chilli-mustard paste is added. The sauce is cooked over a moderate flame so that the excess moisture is cooked off. Reduce the heat to darken the sauce. Add 400 ml of water and add the rest of the chillies, bring to a boil and simmer for 7-8 minutes. Look for the right consistency, i.e. not too soupy. The fish should be fried in a separate pan and then added to the mustard sauce - bringing that back to a boil for a couple of minutes (this will allow the fish to really absorb the sauce). The corriander leaves are added at the end.

We've made a lot of fish dishes and this one is quite near the top of the list.

Time for the Curries!

We are now well into Project Paratha but have yet to venture fully into the curry terrain.  Last Sunday I found myself in London Heathrow killing time by browsing the book stores there.  I came across this lovely title, I heart Curry by Anjum Anand.  Anjum was the popular presenter of BBC2's Indian Food Made Easy.  This text contains about 50 curry recipes from different parts of India which are served up in a straightforward manner.  What a perfect entree for us into curry realm of our project.  She put's her finger on something key in the introduction, noting that is all too common for some to refer to Indian food generally as "curries" or to reference eating at an Indian restaurant as "going for a curry."  When I lived on the East Coast of the U.S. in a small city this was common there too and surprisingly culturally narrow in thought.  The book starts with Anjum's 5 secrets to making a great curry: (1) starting with whole spices - heating them in a pan to release their flavours; (2) using an onion base; (3) employing a garlic or ginger paste; (4) adding the ground spices; and (5) employing some tomatoes and/or yogurt which will add some soft texture/creaminess and slightly sour bite.  Tonight Lisa made a wonderful Bengali Fish Curry from the recipe in the book.  We'll add a separate post for that.  

Cheers.  Michael

masala baked puffed lotus seeds shake me out of blog blahs

I just haven't felt like blogging the past couple of weeks.  I've been cooking and eating Indian foods, but just didn't feel inspired to write about it.  Until that is, I made this cool snack. (The bag in the picture is what is left after my son and I ate most of it and I packed it for his lunch tomorrow).
  I was looking for a crunchy, savory, healthy snack.  After a few google searches I hit upon a site called jugalbandi.info and a recipe for masala baked nuts and pumpkin seeds.  It looked intriguing but I really wanted to make it with tempeh.  Sadly, when I went to open my package of tempeh, I found that it had gone bad.  So I thought and thought.  I looked through my pantry and found an unopened bag of puffed lotus seeds.  HMMM.  So I proceeded to make this recipe with the lotus seeds.  OK, I was eating them while they were baking in the oven.  I kept opening the door and snatching a few just "to test if they were done" of course.  They came out suitably crunchy and so much fun to eat.  They have a coating kind of like a pakora, but these are baked.  I adapted the recipe, which calls for chickpea flour, rice flour, and other spices.  The batter I made is just chickpea flour with a touch of almond flour, some garam masala, cayenne, and salt.  I used almond four to give it some fat (the original recipe was for baked nuts, so the fat was already in that).  The puffed lotus seeds are almost pure protein (although you would have to eat a whole bag (200g) to get about 8 grams of protein) and almost no calories.  Virtually all of the calories in this dish are from the flours; and most of that is from the chickpea flour.  I used Bob's Red Mill.  You can see the nutrition info at the right. What a powerhouse snack!
All in all, a great snack that is easy to make.

Masala Baked Puffed Lotus Seeds.

One bag of puffed lotus seeds 200 grams
1 cup of chickpea flour
2T almond flour
salt to taste
your choice of spices to taste (I used garam masala and cayenne)
1/3 cup of water
another 1/2 cup of chickpea flour

Place the lotus seeds in a large bowl.  combine the 1 cup of chickpea flour, the almond flour, salt and spices is a big measuring cup or bowl.  Add the water and whisk until smooth.   pour into the lotus seeds and mix until coated.  Then sprinkle on the additional chickpea flour (you can spice it if you like) and mix until coated, should still look floury.  Spread onto a baking sheet line with a silpat.  (you will probably need two sheets for this amount). Bake in a 350F degree oven for 10-15 minutes.  After that time use a spatula to mix the seeds.  If they appear to be dry on the outside, slip out the silpat and continue to cook them on the baking sheet for another 15 minutes.  Cool and store in an airtight container if there are any left.

Call me the Rooster

If you are a David Sedaris loyalist you will recall one of his short stories about his brother who insists on being called the rooster and takes on a street/rap persona in the process. Reading it was one of the few moments I've had in life where I simply could not stop laughing to myself aloud as I read.

In LA there is a company, Huy Fong Foods, Inc. that makes a Hot Chili Sauce that is out of this world. I tell Lisa that after years of cooking with it I've make the transition from hot to sweet - what was once wince inducing hot is now tangy and sweet. This is like jumping the shark in a good way (although, I insist there were plenty of good Happy Days episodes after Fonzy took on the California Kid). The bottle for this condiment comes with a unique green tipped top with a rooster prominently featured on the front. So, call me the rooster as I am close to in love with this spicy mixture. There are about 5 calories per serving, no fat, and 1 gram of sugar - so you can cook with it without guilt.

Tonight Lisa made a seeded rice, a basmatti rice with cumin, black pepper, fennel, nigella, and fenugreek seeds. I mixed in some egg whites, a bit of percorino and quite a bit of the rooster. This was paired with a McGregor 2007 Red Russian wine with a beautiful purple hue. We'll give some tasting notes on this wine in another post. McGregor is perhaps the only grower and producer in the U.S. of these wines. The saperavi (Georgian: საფერავი; literally "paint, dye" - due to its intensive dark-red colour) is an acidic, teinturier-type grape variety native to Georgia and is a wonderful base for a higher-end red wine that will age nicely. This wine had pleasant blackberry aromas joined by light floral notes. It has a juicy and soft mouth feel and is a great compliment for meats and if you are willing to experience it hot foods like the rice we made tonight.

Holiday Pizzelle

Pizzelle are a traditional Italian waffle-like cookie made to celebrate annual festivals.  The word meads small flat round.  The tricks to a good pizzelle include a sturdy iron and a reliable recipe.   The origin of these cookies dates back to the 8th century in the south-central area of Abruzzi (now Abruzzo).

This is another recipe that can cross over ethnic palates and go fusion if you'd like.  I made about 50 of these yesterday for the kids using the following recipe.  They came out perfect which means thin enough to have a crispy snap when you bite into them, not too sweet, with hints at the key spices, and of course not too oily (which can be a problem if you use a traditional recipe with butter - which as you'll see below we substitute for...)

Batter Recipe:
5 eggs
3 teaspoon of almond extract (traditional recipes call for anise or anise seed)
2 table spoons of baking powder
1 cup of canola oil (standard is to use butter - which I think makes the dough cloying and greasey)
1 handful of coco or chocolate chips
4 pinches of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups of sugar (2 brown and one white or 2 brown and some honey) - don't go for all white processed sugar it will make the batter way too gritty no matter how you mix it
1 twist of some citrus - orange or lemon
3 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons of garam masala, red hot pepper (if you are ok with sweet and hot mixed together)

Cooking:
Heat your iron or pizzelle maker for about 5 minutes, batter should make a sizzling sound when touched to the iron.
Press about a teaspoon of batter in each mold for 1 1/2 minutes.  Allow cookies to cool on a rank individually first.  Hold stacking them until they are not hot.

Cheers.