Welcome to Paneer Avenue

Pioneer Avenue in Artesia, CA might as well be named Paneer avenue. This was the most fantastic Indian experience of our adventures yet. The green chili pepper samosa Lisa describes is pictured to the right. Talk about a burn that stays with you. 5 hours and the memory of this dish is still emblazoned in my mind. The coating was pleasant, nicely spiced and not oily at all. The peppers held their heat and were crispy - they actually snap when you bite into them; how these guys do it is a mystery. One can find any of the freshest ingredients, grains, spices, etc. to prepare an authentic regional fare. Our Son is pictured with his fresh coconut find. Sadly we did not meet the specs for the local PBS casting call notices posted near the spice and candy shops we visited upon (they are also pictured). We are thoroughly energized for a sound week of cooking and writing.

L'Chaim (to life)

Michael

Love-in-a-Mist

Love-in-a-Mist.  What a romantic name for a flower.  The purple on is what is called Love-in-a-Mist.  Nigella damascena is the botanical name.  The white one is Nigella sativa (sativa, meaning "cultivated").  Nigella sativa is the plant that gives us the delightful little seeds called Kalonji.  If you want to be prosaic about it, call them: Nigella Seeds.  I have been working with Kalonji this week, because I wanted to discover a bit more about the taste and properties of this seed.  I used it in a simple roti, just cooked the kalonji in a bit of oil and added it to a plain wheat roti dough.  That simple addition gave a wonderful rich oily taste with a bit of pungency.  It also adds a visual dimension to the bread (or whatever you put it in): tiny black spheres dotting the dish like a negative of the night sky.  OK, that was a bit weird, but, hey, it's my blog.  

We took the kids on an adventure today.  We went to "Little India" on Pioneer Avenue and 183rd St in Artesia.  We only went to a few shops, but it was like a mini vacation.  We will blog more about it in the coming days.  We ate at Udupi Palace, a south indian vegetarian restaurant.  The atmosphere was casual and the food was, I don't use this word very often, amazing.  We had two types of idli, samosas, a huge puri with chickpea curry, and a chili pepper samosa that was so hot I could only take a few bites.  Michael managed to eat two pieces.  I also bought an idli stand so that I can now try to make my own idli.  Now that I know what good idli are like, the bar has been raised quite a bit on our little project.  I figure I have another 10 months to try and master idli, paniyaram, roti, and all the other fabulous foods.

Mommy's Fried Chicken & Cutting the Mustard

So, as my better half tells me, "pretty much everything has mustard seeds in it." Although, "not really." There are an abundance of Indian dishes that rely on mustard seeds. When I think of mustard I generally consider a grainy US deli variety, the horseraddishy English type, and french stone ground mustard.

But, mustard for me also brings to mind the saying "cut the mustard." Solly and I have written a song about cutting the mustard, that basically contains numerous questions about whether "you can cut it, cut the mustard, ... people all over the world want to know can you, can you cut the mustard" which annoys Lisa to no end.
There are two common explanations for the origin of this phrase. One is that cutting mustard seeds or the plant is difficult (the seeds are tiny - the plants dense). Another is that it is not "mustard" but "muster." Cutting the muster meaning to break with rank, order, or military protocol.

Know one really knows the answer to this and the venerable OED (Oxford English Dictionary) offers no solid answers.

Dinner tonight was a "mommy chicken" with Nathan's deli mustard. The chicken is dredged in flour, dipped in egg, then coated with panko breadcrumbs mixed with Bragg Organic Sprinkle. The chicken spayed on each side with Olive oil and is then baked at 350 degrees for 10 minutes on each side. This is delightful and healthy fried chicken that can be seasoned with Indian spices as desired, a bit of cardamon and hot red pepper really would add a kick to it.

Fusion Foods and Food Musings

I have been enjoying my Indian food journey so far.  Of course, I still like to eat other kinds of foods, like spaghetti, and a japanese rice porridge, known as okayu.

So, I was craving a hot porridge a few days ago and wanted to eat okayu (which I would normally make with rice, tofu, miso, umeboshi paste, and cabbage and spinach).  I decided to try to make it Indian style.  I heated some oil in my saucepan and threw in my favorite spices (cumin, mustard seeds, nigella, and fenugreek).  After tempering them a couple of minutes in went my rice, tofu, spinach and water and salt.  Cook for 30-45 minutes til the rice is nearly dissolved.  Not surprisingly, this turned out great.  (cooked it again today).  Nice and warming and easy to digest for breakfast.

Two days ago, my son wanted angel hair pasta with tomato sauce.   Dutifully I made that.  It looked good so I decided to have that for my dinner as well.  Normally, I would put red pepper and romano cheese over such a dish.  This time, I got a bit crazy, and, ... if you are a total food purist or feel strongly about eating spaghetti a certain kind of way, don't read any farther.  I poured on some of the spicy lemon vinaigrette that I usually have in the fridge.  Guess what?  It was terrific.  I can imagine morphing that into a tangy fresh tomato lemon basil chutney.  Too bad my cherry tomatoes are about done in the garden (too cold at night to set fruit now).  Guess I'll have to spring for a tomato at the farmers' market.


I hear that one of our readers has tried the Curried Cabbage Bubble and Squeak Style from my last post.  She says it turned out great.  After I wrote that post, I was leafing through, wouldn't you know it, Lord Krishna's Cuisine, and it turns out that there is a dish called Charchari that results in a browned bottom similar to Bubble and Squeak.  The veggies are wet cooked first and then the heat is kept on until the liquid evaporates and the bottom gets charred.  Then the charred part is stirred into the rest and people probably fight to get the yummy browned bits.

So what is the moral of our story?  Fusion works.

Okayu

1/4 cup sushi rice (or any short grain rice)
1/2 cake of tofu
2 cups water
about 2 cups of finely shredded spinach and napa cabbage (your choice of one or both)

for Japanese version
1T of a light miso
1T umeboshi paste
Freshly grated ginger to taste
Lemon juice to taste

for Indian version
1T oil
1T each nigella seeds, fennel seeds, mustard seeds
freshly grated ginger to taste

For Japanese version place all ingredients in a pot, except the ginger and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and cook for about 30-45 minutes until the rice is completely soft and almost disintegrated.  Garnish with ginger and lemon.  Can use some soy sauce as well.

For Indian version, temper the seeds in oil for a minute until they darken, then add rice, tofu, water and greens.  Cook as above and garnish with ginger.

Too Many Teas to Please?

We did some take and carry from a place tonight called Holly Cow. Such a delightful name. My only problems with the name are: (1) the the place was not vegetarian - which one might otherwise infer - and (2) that I did not think of the name first. We didn't do enough of a taste to do a formal review. The name was so enticing though that at 7:50 p.m. I felt compelled to pull into their lot to try it out. More on them to follow.

The other picture to the right is only part of the tea isle at the Gelson's in Studio City, CA. Gelson's is a higher-end market and this local caters to a lot of industry (film) types. I tried to take a picture capturing the entire display but would have needed a professional fish-eye lens to do it.

As we talked about in a prior post, Indian teas are often custom blends. These blends are known as Masala Chai. They typically have a black tea base. One brand I particularly enjoy when we don't make our own these days is Tazo's Decaf Vanila Chai. The spices include cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, chicory, cloves, black pepper, and star anise. As with most things in life these days other-worldly mysteries are easily unlocked via the use of Google. A quick Google search on Tazo lead me to their web site whereupon I found they were acquired by Starbuks in 1999. So, things come back full circle to an earlier post about my potential additional to Starbuks' iced Chai and my potential propensity to drink it every day like a Don Gorske inhaling tea addict.

Cheers.

Tea Time? Too Many Teas?

Later tonight I'll be adding a post about our adventures to find a tea in the grocery stores that resembles closely the teas that we make ourselves. As a teaser I'll upload a pretty remarkable set of pictures that will surprise and shock! We'll also make a posting about Lisa's further Chutney adventures. Cheers. Micahel

of radishes and cabbages, and paniyaram and panir

The recipe for cabbage curry (see post below) looks very neat. I might actually do it as a bubble and squeak (you folks over in Britain know what I'm talking about). Steam the cabbage and potato and saute briefly with the spices and tomato, then into a non-stick frypan with a good bit of oil at the bottom. Cover and cook until the bottom is browned, (hear it bubble?), really browned, (hear it squeak?), don't be scared now, go on, let it cook. Flip if out onto a big plate. Yum. This would be great with a piquant tomato chutney, some marinated panir (soak it in the spiced lemon vinaigrette recipe for a half hour), and simple chapati or roti. Oh, YEAH!

So...radishes. Not just for salads anymore. I am growing some lovely watermelon radishes in the garden (see the cross section photo, how lovely). They are so peppery hot that I can't eat them raw. I was thinking of pickling them, but then decided to cook them using a recipe from Lord Krishna's Cuisine. I also happen to be growing swiss chard, which was also featured in the same recipe. This turned out beautifully. The radish mellows and turns soft and buttery. Married with the tangy chard and suffused with spices. It was just heavenly. One downside is that cooking radishes, as with most cruciferous vegetables, smells up the house. So light some incense and get cooking.

OK, by now you must have suspected that the cookware pictured above is, in fact, the aebelskiver pan that I have been waiting for. Aebelskivers are puffy Skandinavian delicacies, like little souffle cupcakes. What does this have to do with Indian food? Well, the same pan can be used to make Paniyaram: little Indian souffle cupcakes. Paniyaram are made with a thick, fermented, dosa batter, with added spices and veggies. I didn't have any dosa batter brewing, so I used pancake batter with a bit of cardamom and the result was so cute. Little round fluffy pancake muffin things. Of course I ate them with chutney. Next week I will experiment with the actual dosa batter paniyaram recipes. Various websites suggest that these make great lunchbox fillers for the kiddies. We'll see about that.

Now, on to panir. I did make some the other day and did make a salad with it. Best salad ever. Can't really say anything more. Recipes are below, try them out.

Radish and Chard (mooli sabji)

6 medium radishes
1/2 lb Swiss Chard
1 t cumin seeds
1 t coriander seeds
1/4 t ajwain seeds
3 T ghee or oil (or less as preferred)
1/2 t turmeric
1/4 t cayenne
2 t sugar, maple or brown
1 t salt
2 t fresh lemon or lime juice

Thinly slice radishes and chop the chard. Steam in a vegetable steamer until crisp tender 10-15 min. heat the ghee or oil in a non stick pan and toss in the seeds. Fry for a minute then turn in the steamed veggies. Stir fry for 5 minutes, then toss in the turmeric, cayenne, sugar, and salt. Stir fry 2 minutes more. Turn onto plate and sprinkle with the lemon or lime juice.

Lisa's spinach salad with panir.

1/4 cup dry garbanzo beans
1 t fresh grated ginger
1/2 bag of fresh baby spinach leaves (or a large bunch of leaves, torn to salad size)
1 or 2 carrots, shredded
2 or three oz fresh panir, cubed.
Spiced Lemon Vinaigrette (see recipe page)

Soak the garbanzo beans overnight. Drain and mix with the grated ginger. Set aside. Put the spinace, carrots, and panir in a bowl and toss with the vinaigrette. Arrange on plates and sprinkle with garbanzo beans.
Simple, healthy, and good.