236: Curried Brussels Sprouts

This looks so freaking...festive. I used this recipe from Saveur, though my Brussels were so small (and only 1/3 of what the recipe called for) the recipe was more a guide. But this style of curry reminds me of ones I've done before so I knew the road map pretty well and just adjusted as I went.

I used a scallion instead of onion/garlic, as that was the most readily available thing I had. Most of the spices went down to pinches, and I kept the whole tomato because, you know, tomatoes are the best. I only wish I could remember where I'd put my hing, though it was lovely without it.

My only complaint was that I lost too much of that great roasted Brussels flavor- so next time I'd probably notch down on the spices a bit, or eat it night of. The curry-ness only gets stronger if you give it time in the fridge.

225: Spicy Indian Carrot Soup

So Tuesday it snowed. It didn't stick, but they were decently fat flakes, accompanied by wind and a general desire to stay in bed- or at the very least get hot chocolate. I'd been wanting soup for a while now, but that set me over the edge. I settled on a carrot soup, and this recipe, because ginger. The only thing I didn't have was heavy cream...and I'm in a healthy-as-possible mindset, so I didn't feel right about buying any.

Searching the interwebs, a few people suggested yogurt, though with the caveat they'd only really used it in Indian dishes...and then the lightbulb went off.

I followed the recipe better than I tend to, adding about 1/8-1/4 tsp of coriander, cumin and turmeric. I also halved a jalapeno, removed the seeds, and tossed that in towards the beginning. Oh and I tossed in a few garlic cloves, roughly chopped, assuming that once everything got buzzed with the immersion blender it wouldn't really matter.

After I took the soup off the heat I swirled in a little yogurt, which looks super pretty in addition to amping up the creaminess. Let's pretend that parsley leaf is cilantro, ok? And that I'd actually wiped down that bowl properly.

Were I to do it again I'd take the jalapeno out sooner and add a bit more Indian flavor- it was very high on the spicy but low on the spices. And I'd also start off with a little hing. But I'm really loving this soup, and would definitely do it again. Any excuse to play with Indian flavors.

135: Indian Slaw

My usual setup for recipes is as follows: get home, maybe have a little snack. Find the recipe(s) I'd like to work on, and transfer them to my basketball whiteboard clipboard (kinda like that, though mine is on the back of the clipboard) and cook.

Now and then I make a little mistake transcribing of reading. The latter is what happened with this slaw. I used a recipe from smitten kitchen (who in turn got it from here- linkage mostly for me, as the article seems cool). It seemed wonderfully simple, something I couldn't really mess up even though I'd never had it before. Of course I did, just a little though, and not enough to make it inedible. Lefty is the first version, righty is the correct one I whipped up the next morning.

In lieu of shredding the cabbage with the grater (which works, but makes more of a mess than I wanted), practiced my knife skills a bit and did a reasonably good job breaking it down. That wasn't the problem. Minced up my serrano, discarding the seeds. Added it to the lemon juice, salt and sugar. 

Mixed that with the cabbage and tasted. It didn't taste sweet at all- so I played that little game where I added some honey, which made it a little too sweet, then more lemon juice, and a little back and forth until it balanced well. A little tricky, but again, not the problem.

The problem came with the mustard seeds. Misread the 1/2 tsp as a 1/2 Tbs. Whoops! Beyond that it was fine, it's just that the toasted seeds (which did in fact taste like popcorn) kind of overpowered the rest of the flavors. Again, not inedibly, but a little stronger than one would like. And for whatever reason my seeded serrano had no heat at all.

Luckily my 1/2 cabbage had yielded about a cup more shredded goodness than the recipe required, so instead of another random dish I made a new batch before work this morning. Left the seeds in my serrano, measured my mustard correctly. Out the door on time for work, even.

The flavor is simple but good. Less mustard, more heat, and looking forward to lunch.

113: Baignan Bharta V5

This weeks baignan was all about whole spices. I liked how the last batch turned out so I decided to attempt with the coriander as I had with the cumin- putting the whole seeds in the beginning to fry a bit. I also (on a whim) added a "lipstick" pepper I'd had considered adding to my salsa. It was already charred, it needed to be put to use.

The end result, tasted good, just, again, not what I'm looking for in my Baignan Bharta. A little dissappointing after how close I was with V4. Overly salty and too... smoky? The cumin appears to have broken apart and dispersed, flavor-wise, but I'm not getting that bright coriander flavor.

Honestly I'd been so busy the last few days I'm happy I got around to using the eggplant at all. It was white, which again worried me that this would be too sweet, but I think the things I mention as being issues above actually took care of the sweetness well. Once I have a grain at home to mix I'll see how it is when a little less intense. It also seems to improve in the fridge after a day or two.

I'm not against trying the whole spices thing again, but it may be a dry toast/grind/then use situation as opposed to keeping them whole. Good to try though, just so I know it doesn't work.

112: Curry Chicken Sandwiches

This is the last of the party food I'm going to post about. There was a tart, but I wasn't in love with it and I didn't actually use share ingredients for it. This one is tenuous as best (tomatoes and hot peppers), but it was soooo good I just have to share.

Do I have a recipe? No. Should you still try and make it, of course!

Originally the plan was to fire up the grill on the roof and make burgers or something. The grill grate was disgusting, and I was too lazy to clean, so I decided to make Indian. 

Actually no. The second string idea was to make some kind of pulled pork/chicken in my crock pot, that could hang out on warm for whenever people were hungry. But BBQ-flavoring required a ton of extra ingredients, so I said eff that and just did Indian. The best choice over all. 

I followed my standard Baignan Bharta seasoning profile, though I added some actual curry powder to make my life a little easier. The powder is apparently Jamaican style curry, so this may be more of a roti filling than straight up Indian, but it's delicious nonetheless.

I started this off with the chicken in my dutch oven. Eight thighs total, done in two batches to get a good sear and render off some fat. I didn't brown them a ton, but I did get a lot of grease out of them. Removed the chicken, placed in a bowl to cool for a bit and removed the skins before adding them to my crock pot.

Back to the dutch oven! Added a decent amount of hing to the rendered fat, then my spices (curry powder, turmeric, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, a little smoked paprika). Let those fry up then added my onions and some of the hot peppers. Once the onions got soft, added garlic and ginger, then the tomatoes. Added some lime. Adjusted the spices some more, then added everything to the crock pot.

I was worried the chicken would dry out/not be completely covered, so I added some turkey stock. It wasn't exactly necessary, not sure I'd do it again if/when I make this again.

Set the crock pot to low, went on a bike ride and did some shopping.

After a few hours came back, removed the chicken (which was falling off the bone, yay!), removed those bones, and put the (very thin) sauce back into my super wide dutch oven. Set it to a simmer and continued my party prep while it reduced to a significant degree. Added a little additional diced hot pepper, as the heat had mellowed considerably. Shredded my chicken, put that and the sauce back in the crock pot.

It was so good. Letting everything cook for a while liquified the tomatoes and onions. It was like pulled pork. Part of me was hoping the flavors would be a little brighter- next time I could probably add the ginger and lime to the pan during that final reduction, but it's not entirely necessary. I did what I could with the sandwich toppings: some tomato and cilantro.

I ate like three of these during the party, the perfect sloppy drunk food. And then this morning I did the best thing ever, cooked two eggs over easy and made myself an epic birthday breakfast sandwich. I would like all my meals to be this, please :).

106: Curry Beet Burgers

Chomp! Ok, so. Still haven't worked out the patty cohesion situation (you can see it smushing there), but definitely improved in the flavor department.

While working on my prior beet burger experiement, the thought occurred to me to do an Indian one. Not sure what sparked it, other than my always craving good Indian food. So I did that thing, and attempted some of the changes I'd mentioned in my prior post to help keep it together. Those definitely didn't work. Anyway.

Ingredients (as always, approx. as always, I'm a little sorry):

Pinch of hing

~3/4 tsp curry powder

~1/8 tsp tumeric

~1/8 tsp cumin

~1/8 tsp coriander

Pinch cinnamon

Pinch smoked paprika

~ salt, pepper

1 beet, diced

1 smallish onion, diced fine

1 jalapeno (or some kind of spicy pepper), mostly deseeded and diced

2 garlic cloves, grated

~1/2 tbs ginger, grated

1/3 cup spelt

1/3 cup cannellini beans

Spoonful of flour

1/2 beaten egg

Paneer

Cilantro

Similarish methodology. I started my onions and pepper  in a pan until they got soft. Then I remembered the hing, so I took those onions out, heated a little more oil, then fried the hing and most of those spices above. Added the onions back in, then the ginger, garlic and beets. Let that go for a bit.

Mixed and mashed my spelt and beans, then in an attempt to dry those out, added them to the pan for a few minutes.

Put that mix in a bowl, let it cool, then added the egg portion and flour. Cooked them up in a pan and topped with paneer and cilantro. Had a few bites then remembered that rest of egg, so fried that up and added that to the burger, too. Nom!

These fell apart pretty quickly. I'm always hesitant adding flour, as I feel it'll make the burger bland, but these were spicy enough that they could've stood up to a bit more binding. I used high gluten flour, too, but it didn't help that much.

After a quick search on the internets, I'm not sure if I did anything wrong, per se. I just need to toy around with it a little more. Suggestions: leaving it in the fridge overnight, cooking it in the oven- though I'd really like to not heat up my apartment every time. Using potato is an option I was considering, but I was running a bit short on time and didn't want to fuss too much with an extra step.

I had luck last time getting a good sear on the patties. A hot pan does wonders. These were in a low pan for a while, and it was obvious when flipped that they were only lightly browned, and already splitting a bit. a uniform patty shape would help, too.

Onto the good, though. They were DELICIOUS. Sweet and spicy (spices-wise) up front, then a nice building heat from the peppers. And oh how bloody and raw they looked. Definitely want to do this again in front of people, but not tell them they're veggie burgers and freak em out a bit. Unfortunately I'm out of beets. For now.

100: Baignan Bharta V4

Ok. So. Don't want to jinx it, but I'm nearly there. This smells spot on and it tastes very close. Looking at more and more recipes I've been noticing the general shape of baignan bharta, which ingredients are common and which aren't, so this time I didn't so much use a particular recipe as my favorites from each.

Things that still need adjusting:

- correct eggplant type: got a white eggplant from my csa, sweeter/lighter than the regular purple

- spice level: used just one small chili I'd picked up at Kalustyan's. No seeds. Still a little on the spicy side. Kamal's has a nice slow burn, may move back to jalapenos next time.

One benefit to this method is I more or less kept track of my ingredients. I'm listing them a bit weirdly, as the spices are especially iffy, but I think you can still follow along at home if you'd like.

Ingredients:

- 1 eggplant, roasted and mashed

- juice of one lime

- 3-4 Roma tomatoes, diced

- 2 medium onions, diced (one sweet, one regular)

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 1 green chili, minced

- 2" knob of ginger, grated

- 2 tbs cilantro, chopped

 Spices:

- pinch of hing

- 3/4 tsp cumin seeds

- 3/4 tsp coriander

- 1/2 tsp black pepper

- 3/4 tsp turmeric

- pinch of cinnamon (needed?)

- pinch of red pepper flake (needed?)

- salt to taste

Here's the game changer, people: Hing (so much easier to spell than asafoetida, and less threatening, too)

This is how I need to store hing. It's in its plastic container (from india, it looks pretty cool), in a plastic bag, in a mason jar on top of my fridge. No enclosed shelf spaces for this guy- I had it just in the plastic bag in my cupboard and overnight it was reeking up the place.

It's a very subtle but important flavor, very happy I picked it up the other day. Not sure how much importance to give it- as my last attempt was too spicy to really discern the flavors- but I don't think I'll try baignan bharta again without it.

Begin by roasting the eggplant under the broiler until the skin's nicely charred and the eggplant is soft. I usually cut mine in half and place it cut side down, then piece it all over with a fork. Once it's soft I put it in a pyrex tupperware container to steam and cool. Remove the skin (I find it easiest to lay it skin side down then scrape/scoop the contents out with a spoon) and mash with the lime juice. I'm thinking of cutting back on the lime juice next time- it mixed in with the rest of the flavors eventually but was very strong for a bit.

Sometimes I do the eggplant a day (or two) before, grouping it with another thing that needs to happen in my oven, but this time it was the same day. I don't think that makes a difference.

I started a little oil in a pan, added my cumin seeds and a little sprinkle of hing (you pierce a hole in the container and sprinkle the contents out, no measuring here). Let those sizzle a bit then added my onions.

Once those got soft/translucent added the garlic and chili, as well as the grated ginger. Next time I'll wait a little on the ginger, it can burn/stick pretty quickly. 

Then added the tomatoes and spices. Speaking of spices those are, at best, iffy amounts. A lot of the 3/4 tsp levels started at 1/2 tsp then I added (without measuring) to nudge the taste a bit one way or another.

I'm undecided if it needs the cinnamon. There was a flavor level missing, which it hit, but last night it smelled so strongly of it. I think it mellowed out with a night in the fridge, maybe cut that back a touch. It's best when you don't really know its there.

The red pepper flake, too, may not be necessary, given how hot those chilis are. Or maybe I could try just using the red pepper flake with no physical chili?

Anyway, after the tomatoes have been going for a bit (recipes usually say to wait until the oil separates- I've seen that once making this, maybe I'm not adding enough oil ha), I added the eggplant mixture, and let that go for a while as I did dishes, stirring occasionally so it didn't burn.

Turned off the heat, stirred in my cilantro and served on a little quinoa.

I'm really excited about this.

Too excited? Maybe. But given how much work I've put into this dish it's great to see it coming together.

98: Indian Leftovers Pizza

What do you do with Indian leftovers? Make pizza! May be one of my favorite things when it's done well (aka with Kamal). Still, pizza is pizza and fresh is inherently delicious, even if your repeated attempts at baignan bharta don't turn out as expected.

I still had some dough in the freezer from the last pizzas I made, stretched those out on some parchment topped with a little cornmeal as the oven preheated to 450. 

Topped the dough with some leftover baignan bharta and some paneer I picked up at Kalustyan's (got another goodie from there I'm looking forward to trying). I made two mini-pizzas, one with an egg per my tradition. Cooked on my pizza stone for about 15 minutes (looking for a soft yolk and some crust browning so timing is variable) and topped then a little cilantro when it came out of the oven.

This was my first time working with paneer. It definitely helped mellow out the spiciness, but didn't realize it wouldn't melt at all. Next time I'll mix most into the sauce.

I'm surprised this kind of thing doesn't happen more often- it's my favorite way of using leftover Indian or chili, or anything that's spreadable but not super runny. 

Helpful equation:  __________ + fresh dough + cheese + egg = delicious. Doesn't matter what it is.

81: Curried Summer Squash Pickles

I feel much more confident about this batch of pickles. I used the same recipe (from The Pickled Pantry) as the cucumber batch I made last week, only actually followed/was able to follow the recipe. 

Differences:

- Squash instead of cucumbers

- Sliced these much thinner

- Used pickle crisp

- Used raisins

It took a little less than the two squash I'd gotten in this week's share to make the 2.25 cups called for in the recipe. Sliced up half a walla walla onion as thin as I could manage (which was reasonably thin). Let those soak for (ok, let's be honest here) a little longer than the 2-6 hours the recipe says with a tablespoon of fine sea salt. 

As those drained I heated up a pint jar in my 4th burner pot, and mixed the ingredients for the brine:

- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1.5 tsp curry powder

- 1/2 tsp coriander seeds

- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds

- 3 tablespoon raisins

Brought these to a boil once the jar was ready and packed, then poured in, bubbled, and topped off. It took all of my brine to basically cover. 

Processed- well started processing in a water bath before remembering that pickle crisp I had to try four stores before I was able to find. So I quick took it out, threw a new lid in the pot to soften, added the crisp, relidded, and processed for 15 minutes. The seal seems to have held, I'll let you know how these turn out in six weeks :)

Noted Improvement: the zucchini was much skinnier than the cucumbers, and cut much thinner, so were able to fit with the onions and everything into the pint jar. Doesn't seem to be floating, either.

Notes for Further Improvement: I'm worried I packed the jar too tightly, that everything may not have gotten covered by the brine. Maybe next time I'll leave a little extra room so there can be an uninterrupted layer of brine covering everything.

More notes will have to wait for tasting/comparison with the cucumber pickles. 

71: Baingan Bharta

My favorite Indian dish. It's my go to when I try a new place. The high bar for me is Kamal Palace in North Arlington, NJ. Seriously the best Indian food I've ever had- very fresh, not super oily or heavy.

I want to make that. So while I originally linked to this recipe from the Times, there are a few other recipes that look a little closer to my goal. I did the "few" recipe, despite the comic sans. I didn't have the peas or the asafoetida, subbed out garlic powder for the latter.

It looked similar to Kamal's and had a similar smell, but the spices were too strong and muddy.

Drunken leftovers with a few eggs (would've been one but the yolk broke so...) were delicious though.

And honestly even sans egg the flavors melded and were less offensively spicy after a night in the fridge. It's still not what I wanted, though. I'm not sure how to combat this in the future.

Notes for (possible) Improvement:
- More tomatoes? Kamal's was brighter. Or more cilantro or lime could add that too.
- Less spices. Less turmeric and cumin for sure.
- Try another one of those recipes to see if it turns out more as you hoped.

Dish 42: Cabbage Curry

I love Indian food and have wanted to experiment with it for a while, so I was super excited when this recipe came up in a search for what to do with cabbage. I decided to go all out and do coconut milk instead of yogurt. 

I didn't have asafoetida so I included one of my scallions to infuse some oniony flavor to the dish. I also used yellow mustard seeds instead of black and about half the salt called for. 

The results were decent. I tend to go for the tomatoey Indian dishes instead of creamy, so this was a bit heavy for me. Especially for summer. It also still tasted salty somehow- or maybe I'm not used to the turmeric. Something about the spices were off.

What happened? My heirloom cabbage (which was delicious and sweet on its own- cole slaw next time?) was smaller than a standard cabbage. Also the Internet tells me black mustard seeds are stronger than yellow. The cumin comes through, would've loved more mustard flavor. 

After a night in the fridge it definitely looked like the recipe pictures. 

And mixed with some quinoa for lunch was infinitely better. Next time I'll stick within my flavor wheelhouse next time (I want to try baingan bartha), so at least I know what I'm dealing with. 

The sauce is very fatty (1/2 cup oil + 1 1/2 cups coconut milk? Eek) so I'm trying to spread that out a bit. May tweak and use it in something else. We'll see.

Notes for improvement:

- Go to an Indian grocery store (you're in NYC after all)

- Taste and adjust

- When trying something new, pick a time when you're not working around someone else in the kitchen so you can focus
- Have more rice on hand