A Curry Love Affair in the VeloKitchen

November 22, 2009

I haven’t always had a love affair with curry, especially Indian curries. In fact, when I met Tony and we began our long distance, (7,253 miles or 11,671 km), year long courtship between Seattle, Washington and Wellington, New Zealand via email and I learned Indian food was his favorite, a thought crossed my mind that we might not be as compatible as we had seemed in person. I now realize my Indian curry experience had been quite limited.

Hundreds of emails in 12 months where his burning question EVERY day was, “What are you having for dinner?” made me realize the way to this man’s heart was through his stomach. It wasn’t until after we were married and he moved many jars of assorted spices, seeds, pods, sticks, peppers and leaves into the spice cupboard that I learned he was quite serious about his curries. I made a mental note that to have harmony at our dinner table I should learn to embrace Indian curries. As it turned he introduced me to my first homemade Indian curry via his favorite recipe book “Indian Curries” by Madhur Jaffrey. Timatur Murghi (Chicken with tomatoes and garam masala) was delicious! That dish is what I now call my “comfort curry.”

With curry peace achieved my husband cooked about two curries a week for several years. I started reading curry recipes, but felt intimidated by the long lists of ingredients. It’s not unusual for a curry recipe to call for 10 to 15 spices PLUS another five or more other ingredients (meat, tomatoes, onions, etc.). Most curry recipe instructions are fairly precise in the order to add each ingredient and the duration to stir, cook or simmer each before adding the next which makes them seem complex, but once I got brave enough to cook the first few, the steps became logical.

I don’t remember which curry recipe I chose first to prepare on my own and without a pre-made curry mix, but I found cooking Indian curries quite enjoyable. That led to our next step, our 50 Curries Project, where we are cooking our way out of a curry rut of preparing the same 6-8 recipes. We decided to stretch our apron strings and are experimenting with different curry flavors by cooking our way through Camellia Panjabi’s “50 Great Curries of India” cookbook. The photos in the cookbook are mouth watering.

We are cooking the curries at random and a few weekends ago we prepared our eighth curry from Panjabi’s book, Malabar Shrimp Curry (Konju Curry). The photo of this curry graces the cover of the cookbook and is a beautiful combination of red and orange accented with green curry leaves and hot peppers. We made this curry with U15 prawns. The most interesting and different preparation step from other curries we have cooked was heating two teaspoons of oil in a ladle over the stovetop burner and adding sliced shallots and curry leaves to infuse the oil which was poured over the prawns just before serving. We rated this dish 8/10 and will certainly be preparing this curry again.

Next weekend we invited friends to dinner for the ninth curry. I’m pretty sure we will delay making the egg curry, (I’ve got to get my head around hard boiled eggs and curry), or the Aab Gosht (Lamb Cooked in Milk). The photo of Aab Gosht shows white meat, apparently from the milk, served on white rice which doesn’t look too appetizing in the photo. But every curry in this cookbook has surprised our taste buds, so stand by for the next curry post and the rest in this book. We are committed to cooking all 50!

Do you enjoy preparing and eating Indian curries? Check out our Curry Crazy Project on our 50 Curries Project page where we are cooking our way through Camellia Panjabi’s 50 Great Curries of India cookbook!

©2009 Cycling_Chef’s Velokitchen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Rights Reserved.


Death Row Meal in the VeloKitchen

October 31, 2009

The D.C. sniper’s execution date is set for Nov. 10th, but I’m not here to debate the death penalty. Nor is this post meant to be morbid or macabre even though it’s published on Halloween. However the topic brings up the question, if you were able, ”What would you choose for your last dinner?”

death row mealMy husband has a menu he has long called his “Death Row Meal.” (He’s not planning anything sinister. Neither am I). His ultimate comfort food meal is braised lamb chops with onions and gravy served with boiled potatoes, green peas and cauliflower with English cheddar cheese sauce. This supper is a simple and hearty dish he insists on preparing whenever I bring home lamb chops. If I were choosing my last meal, I think I might like someone else to prepare my dinner. In my research for this post it seems that inmates on death row choose comfort foods or foods unique to their culture rather than meals that are exotic or rare. Some do not make a final meal request. Reportedly the most requested meal by death row inmates is a cheeseburger and fries.

Last year, at a wine dinner with our foodie friends, we went around the table and asked each person to describe their Death Row Meal. Because we are cooking and food enthusiasts, our conversation took a couple of hours and we ended up going around and around the table describing our “last” entree, appetizer, dessert and salad. The wide variety of choices, some simple and others rare, made for very interesting debate and quite a few laughs.

Feel free to leave a comment below of your Death Row Meal!

©2009 Cycling_Chef’s Velokitchen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Rights Reserved.


35 Green Cardamoms in the VeloKitchen

October 25, 2009

35 cardamomsIn my research to write this post I learned that cardamoms are part of the ginger family. There are three types: green, black and Madagascar. The Indian curries we cook usually call for green cardamom and we use two to three whole pods which are cooked in the sauce and then discarded. Sometimes we forget to remove them before serving and we find out when we bite into something crunchy and bitter. This recipe, Elaichi Gosht, (Meat cooked with Cardamom), on p. 86 on Camellia Panjabi’s cookbook “50 Great Curries of India”, caught our attention because it is prepared with 35 ground green cardamoms, ten times more than any other curry we have cooked.

The other ingredient curious to us, as compared to other Indian curries we cook, is that this recipe calls for two teaspoons of ground black pepper. Our cookbook explains that in many parts of India this dish is prescribed to women who have recently given birth and in the Sindh region new mothers eat this curry every day. It makes me wonder how this primes the palates of breast-fed babes in India.

Elaichi GoshtMy husband prepared this curry with lamb, although it could be prepared with chicken. He ground the cardamom pods in our coffee bean grinder. The black pepper flavor was very intense and overpowered the other flavors, (tomatoes, turmeric, chile, coriander powder). This is our fifth adventure in our “50 Curries Project” and we have no regrets about trying something different, but it did not rate anywhere near one of our favorite curries. If we prepare this dish again, we would season it with about 1/2 tsp. black pepper, add garam masala before serving and garnish with a flavorful chutney.

Do you enjoy preparing and eating Indian curries? Check out our Curry Crazy Project on our 50 Curries Project page where we are cooking our way through Camellia Panjabi’s 50 Great Curries of India cookbook!

©2009 Cycling_Chef’s Velokitchen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Rights Reserved.


Thick as Fog in the VeloKitchen

October 16, 2009

pea soup

Fall has arrived in the Pacific Northwest which means rain, showers, drizzle, … I’ve heard that Native Americans in this area have 100’s of different words for the drippy stuff that falls on us pretty much constantly from October through April. I usually garage my bike for the season and opt for other exercise since I don’t like to be cold and wet. My husband is a year-round rider. Me? I prefer to buy my winter clothes at Nordstrom rather than Performance Bike.

This recipe is for a hearty split pea soup. I make it after my cycling season ends because it’s no fun being the stoker on a tandem bike after the bike captain eats this meal! I prefer not to puree the veggies for this recipe, so I chop them in small pieces before cooking. If you prefer a pureed soup or a vegetarian version, leave out the chopped ham and remove the ham hocks before putting the soup in your blender. This soup can be cooked in a slow-cooker or in a dutch oven. Both methods turn out a tasty meal. Enjoy!

Split Pea & Ham Hock Soup
Serves 8 (nice for leftovers)

2 cups dried split peas
2-4 ham hocks
1 lb. of ham, cubed
3 chopped leeks (use the white & green bits)
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups chopped celery
2 bay leaves
Thyme – 3 tsp fresh or 2 tsp dried
1 tsp cracked black pepper
dash of cayenne pepper
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
6 cups water

1. I always forget to soak beans the night before so I quick-soak them by covering with cold water, bringing to a boil and letting sit for 1 hour.
2. Combine all ingredients. Slow-cook at low 8 hours or high 4 hours.

©2009 Cycling_Chef’s Velokitchen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Rights Reserved.


Rocking the Casbah in the VeloKitchen

October 12, 2009

About every three months we get together with three couples who enjoy fine food and wine for a homemade, gourmet meal of a specific cuisine. We rotate the preparation of each course, appetizer, salad, main dish and dessert. Recently we began stretching our cooking fortes by choosing cuisines out of our cooking comfort zones. At each dinner we continue to raise the bar of excellence! This weekend’s meal theme was Moroccan food and we prepared a Lamb Tagine. From my research I concluded that tagines differ in style and ingredients, especially in the selection of vegetables and fruits. For example, some recipes called for potatoes and peas and others for sweet fruits such as prunes or dates. The recipe below has none of these. If you already cook Indian curries, you will find the steps to prepare this tagine very similar. Below the recipe of my version of our tagine are some preparation tips.

Moroccan Tagine

1. Toss 2 lbs of lamb (or chicken) cut into bite-sized cubes with 2 tablespoons of olive oil to coat.

2. I used the spices recommended in the following Lamb Tagine recipe (Allrecipes.com) for the marinade making the following adjustments: I cut the cayenne pepper by half and, instead, added a hot pepper to the sauce and used about 5 cloves of fresh garlic instead of garlic powder. Here’s the marinade link: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Lamb-Tagine/Detail.aspx

Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients. Most are probably in your spice cabinet. I marinated the meat for about six hours.

3. Brown the marinated meat in a heavy bottomed pan. We used our trusty cast iron fry pan.

4. To prepare the sauce the meat will simmer in for 2 hours, I used some of Jamie Oliver’s recommendations from this recipe, http://www.jamieoliver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=30442. Here’s my version:

In my cast iron dutch oven I sweated the following vegetables for about 15 minutes until they were soft and reduced in bulk by half.

2 cups onions, 1 red onion and 1 Walla Walla sweet onion
10 quartered carrots cut into three inch slices
6 celery sticks chopped thinly
5 garlic gloves
1 T freshly grated ginger
1 small hot chili (or more, or less, to your preference for heat)

5. Add 1 T balsamic vinegar and 1 cup of white wine. Simmer for a few minutes.

6. Add:
2 cans of chopped tomatoes with their juice
Zest of 1 lemon
6 anchovy fillets (Jamie Oliver says these bring out the flavor of the lamb and I agree. You won’t taste the anchovies in the sauce when the meal is cooked).

6. Add the cooked meat, bring to a boil and put in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 2 hours.
 
7. Serve over couscous and with Moroccan bread (or pita bread).

Preparation Tips:
- I attempted to make Moroccan bread from scratch, but mine turned out like hockey pucks, so, obviously, I need more practice.
- This recipe could easily be made in a slow-cooker. I would skip marinating the meat and add the spices to the meat and sauce. I haven’t tried this yet, but if you do, please leave a comment below.

Fig TartThis tagine was warm without overbearing heat from the chili. Each course of our dinner burst with flavors. We ate interesting appetizers of risotto cakes and chicken wings, a beautiful, colorful salad of roasted vegetables, an amazing fig tart with cardamon cream and nine bottles of fine wines. We enjoyed many laughs and another delightful wine dinner with our friends and we got to eat the leftover tagine which was just as tasty the the next day.

  

©2009 Cycling_Chef’s Velokitchen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Rights Reserved.


Slow-cooked Korean-style Ribs in the VeloKitchen

October 8, 2009

Long ago I established a “no appliance” rule for birthday and Christmas gifts. Since we eat at home most days and we cook from scratch, I consider kitchen accessories as “necessities.” Luckily, my husband agrees so when I decided to replace our old crockpot with a new model, I researched products, read reviews and chose the All-Clad Stainless Steel 6-1/2 quart slow cooker with a ceramic insert. Even though the All-Clad is more pricey than other products, I feel I made a wise long-term purchase since this is a product I foresee I will use often. Calling it a “slow cooker” instead of a “crockpot” helped me justify the extra expense, too. With this huge and shiny new toy on my kitchen counter, I decided I must get away from my old crockpot recipes, which to me, taste like the same old casserole. I am trying other cuisines in my slow cooker and they are turning out successfully.

Ribs (2)We are big fans of take-out Korean-style beef short ribs, and inspired by a Twitter friend I decided to try them in my new slow cooker. After reading a few recipes, I prepared the ribs as below. Below is the recipe and a few preparation tips.

Slow Cooked Korean-style Beef Short Ribs

Serves 4

3 lbs. beef chuck short ribs with bones, thin sliced

1. Stir together in a large glass measuring cup:
    1 cup orange juice
    1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
    2 tablespoons sesame oil
    2 tablespoons honey (or brown sugar)
    2 teaspoons rice vinegar
    1 tablespoon minced gingerroot
    1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
    5 garlic cloves, finely minced
    12 scallions, (include white and part of the green leaves) finely chopped

2. Pour about 1/2 cup of sauce into the bottom of the slow cooker. Layer the ribs and massage sauce into each rib. I don’t like to touch raw meat, so I use gloves. Pour a small amount of the remaining sauce over each layer.

3. Slow cook for 6-8 hours.

Tips:
- When pressed for time, (and who isn’t?), I use chopped gingerroot from a jar instead of peeling and grating fresh gingerroot. The flavor from a jar is a bit milder, but a good substitute.
- My garlic press is one of my most important kitchen tools. I rarely mince or slice garlic with a knife to save time and to ensure the garlic pieces in my dish are small enough.
- Slow cooking the meat, (chicken could be substituted for beef in this recipe), replaces the need for marinating in advance since the slow cooking process infuses the meat with the spices and other flavors.
- The meat was very tender after cooking for eight hours and fell off the bone. The next time I will use a spatula instead of tongs to serve to try to keep the ribs together.

Serving suggestions: Steamed rice and Sauteed Red Swiss Chard with Garlic, recipe link: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sauteed-Red-Swiss-Chard-with-Garlic-13423

The next meal I am planning for my slow cooker is a Moroccan Lamb Tagine. Stand by for the blog post!

©2009 Cycling_Chef’s Velokitchen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Rights Reserved.


Palak Gosht (slow cooked curry) in the VeloKitchen

September 23, 2009

Palak GoshtWe finished eating dinner two hours ago and our house still smells like a curry! I broke in my brand new All-Clad slow cooker with an Indian lamb and spinach curry, also known as palak gosht. I was inspired by the recipe in the October 2009 “Oprah” magazine. Here is the link: http://www.oprah.com/recipe/omagazine/recipes/200910-omag-recipe-lamb-curry . If you have never made a curry or your family is not used to eating Indian curries, I recommend this recipe as it is mild and tasty. I think you could easily substitute chicken for lamb, or even make this recipe vegetarian with an equally succesful result. 

We eat Indian curries at least twice a week so I enhanced this recipe based on our experience of cooking with Indian spices and after consulting one of our Indian cookbooks, 50 Great Curries of India by Camelia Panjabi.  When you open our spice cabinet, the smells of curry ingredients waft out of the cupboard. We usually make a mild version for our youngster (little to no chili or cayenne pepper) and a spicier one for the adults. If my husband sweats from his brow, then the curry is hot enough! This was my first attempt at cooking a curry in the slow cooker. The advantages of slow cooking are that you can prepare the meal in advance and the meat turns out melt-in-your mouth tender.

To the recipe above, I added 3/4 tsp. coriander powder, a bay leaf and 2 cloves. The next time I prepare this curry I would also add 1/2 tsp. Garam Masala powder just before serving. To prepare a family-friendly recipe, I cut the cayenne pepper to 1/8 teaspoon while the curry simmered in the crockpot. When the slow cook cycle was complete, (eight hours on low heat), I removed my son’s portion and added two small Thai chilis to the rest to add heat to the curry. If you like your curries very hot, then you could add even more chilis at this step since adding the yogurt at the end cuts the heat of the chilis.

If your slow cooker has been on the warm cycle for an hour or more, you will need to slightly heat the curry before you add the spinach at the end so that it will wilt quickly (in about five minutes). Beware not to heat the curry too much or when you add the yogurt just before serving, the yogurt will curdle. This will not change the flavor, but curdled dairy looks clumpy instead of creamy. I served this curry over rice.  My vote for cooking a curry in a slow cooker is a win and I look forward to adapting other recipes. What’s your experience cooking Indian curries? Please leave a comment below!

Do you enjoy preparing and eating Indian curries? Check out our Curry Crazy Project on our 50 Curries Project page where we are cooking our way through Camellia Panjabi’s 50 Great Curries of India cookbook!

©2009 Cycling_Chef’s Velokitchen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Rights Reserved.


Green Lips in the VeloKitchen

September 19, 2009

My mom is from Cataluña, the northwest region of Spain, and our family grew up eating what’s now called a “Mediterranean Diet.”  The aroma of olive oil, garlic and onions sauteeing in a fry pan are comfort food smells in my kitchen. I often joke that when we were growing up my mom would begin cooking dinner each night with these three ingredients, and then say, “What should we have for dinner?” and then add chicken, fish, vegetables, etc. to the pan.

Green-lipped musselsA few weeks ago Scallywag, who as an unusual palate for a six-year old, requested one of his favorite dinners: greenlip mussels. I’m always looking for different “brain foods” to add variety to our diet. Greenlip mussels are reported to have low mercury content and are high in Omega-3 fatty acids. I have prepared greenlip mussels in many different ways, but my favorite recipe is a simple broth of my mom’s favorite meal starter plus chopped fresh ginger, red peppers, white wine, Thai fish sauce and sweet chili sauce. The greenlip mussels we are able to buy in our neighborhood are cooked and flash frozen so we only need to steam them for about eight minutes in the broth before we eat them. In this photo you can see apricot and cream colored mussels. The apricot colored ones are female; the cream ones are male. They taste the same.

I will never forget the first time I tasted greenlip mussels at the Mussel Boys Restaurant in Havelock South, near the top of the South Island in New Zealand in the year 2000.  They were that special! The Mussel Boys Restaurant was once described by Travel and Leisure magazine as a “funky roadside shack.” Greenlip mussels are endemic to New Zealand and although the mussels are large in size, they are not chewy, but tender and flavorful. The Mussel Boys prepare greenlips is many different ways. If you have the opportunity to visit New Zealand, don’t miss this great delicacy! And if you can find greenlip mussels in your neighborhood, they are easy to prepare to make a quick, tasty, nutritious meal.

©2009 Cycling_Chef’s Velokitchen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Rights Reserved.


Figs and Rocket in the VeloKitchen

August 30, 2009

Eruca Sativa is the Latin name for arugula, also known as rocket, an edible green often used in salads. This summer we have enjoyed rocket’s peppery flavor tossed with lemon olive oil and feta cheese. A friend suggested adding fresh figs to add another late summer ingredient. Fresh figs are not a staple in the VeloKitchen, but I decided to give them a try. The result was splendid and the combination of colors of the figs’ purple skin and reddish and white flesh made a beautiful presentation!

FigsFigs are often called a fruit, but the fig is actually the flower which blooms inside the skin and the seeds are the fruit. The fig has a long cultural history starting with Adam and Eve’s fig leaves. The flowers of the common fig are female and require no pollination and some believe the fig is the oldest fruit. Aside from tasting delicious, figs are also nutritious. If you are interested in learning more, I suggest checking out Wikipedia’s entry on figs.

Figs are called “higos” in Spanish and I have eaten them in Spanish, Italian and Colombian dishes. After reading about and researching information on figs, I am inspired to look for recipes to incorporate them into our meals. If you’ve never tried a fresh fig, cut one open and taste it. If you have a great recipe, please share it!

Cycling_Chef’s Velokitchen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

©2009. All Rights Reserved.


Pavlova in the VeloKitchen

August 26, 2009

Pavlova is a heavenly meringue dessert with a crunchy outer layer and a soft, marshmallowy interior topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit. The dessert is said to have originated in honor of the Russian ballerina, Ánna Pávlova, who visited New Zealand and Australia in the 1920s. Both countries claim to be the inventor of this dessert, and not that I want to contribute to the controversy, but since my husband grew up in New Zealand I stick to the version that Kiwis were the creators.

Individual Blackberry PavlovaMost often pavlova is prepared as a large, single dish and then servings are cut and shared. As far as I can tell, just about any fresh fruit or combination of fruits can be served in a pavlova. I prefer to make mini-pavlovas from Nigella Lawson’s recipe from her cookbook “How to be a Domestic Goddess” and top them with berries. These look beautiful and I find the presentation more manageable in individual serving sizes. Also, if any of meringue shells crack in the preparation process, repairs can be easily covered up with the other ingredients without ruining the entire dessert.

This recipe calls for beating egg whites, a pinch of salt and baker’s sugar, a very fPavlova Shelline sugar also called caster sugar, and folding in corn starch, white vinegar and vanilla flavoring creating, as Nigella describes “glowing, satiny, snowy meringue.” Next I spooned the meringue in circular shapes onto parchment paper lined baking sheets and created a “bowl” shape in the middle to fill with whipped cream and fruit later. Then the shells bake 30 minutes in a warm oven and are left in the turned off oven for an additional 30 minutes. The shells are a very light brown color when they come out of the oven to cool.

For our paBlackberriesvlova filling, Scallywag and I ventured out to our “secret spot” in our neighborhood to pick wild blackberries. I should have worn long sleeves and pants to avoid getting scratched by the thorns. The end of August is the ideal harvest time for blackberries, which are considered by some as a pesky weed in the Pacific Northwest. Scallywag ate more berries than he picked, but this has become an annual tradition in our family.

The rest is simple. To ensure the meringue shells are crispy, just before serving we whipped fresh cream, dolloped spoonfulls onto the shells, added the blackberries and garnished each mini-pavlova with mint leaves from our herb garden. The combination of the sweet meringue, plain whipped cream and fresh fruit is a combination of textures and flavors that is a luxurious dessert in any season.

Cycling_Chef’s Velokitchen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

© 2009. All Rights Reserved.