Tamarind-Chile Chicken with Mint

• approx. 1 lb chicken of some variety, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 inch ginger, peeled and minced
• sliced green chiles to taste (crushed red pepper is ok too, again to taste)
• 2 tablespoons mint, torn
• approx. 3/4 cup tamarind extract
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 2 large tomatoes, cut into large pieces
• vegetable or other neutral oil

1. Boil the chicken in enough water to cover until most of the way done, about 10 minutes.

2. Heat oil in pan, add ginger, onions and green chiles. Fry until onions are beginning to become transparent.

3. Add chicken, tomatoes, mint and tamarind extract. Reduce heat and cover until chicken is cooked through.

Spinach and Potato Curry (adapted from Mridula Baljekar et al, Best Ever Indian Cookbook (London: Hermes House, 2004), 318.)

• A double handful of spinach, uncooked (measuring is an exact science for Christopher D Russell)
• 1 large potato, cut into small pieces
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 inch ginger, minced
• 1 med. sweet onion, sliced
• 1 tsp. black mustard seeds
• 2 tsp. red chile powder
• salt to taste
• approx. 1/2 c. water
• vegetable oil or other neutral oil

1. Blanch the spinach in boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain in a colander and squeeze out excess water.

2. Splutter mustard seeds in oil under medium heat. Add onion and aromatics and saute until onions begin to become transparent.

3. Add potato, salt and chili powder and stir fry for 6-7 minutes.

4. Add water and spinach. Reduce heat and cover for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through.

Gobi Manchurian

This dish is served in Indian Chinese restaurants, and is a favorite of Thara’s.

Part 1, the sauce.

• 1/2 large tomato, diced
• approx. 1/4 cup green onions, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp. sambal oelek or to taste (chili paste, available in the asian section of most grocery stores)
• at least 3 tbsp. kecap manis
• vegetable oil or other neutral oi
• corn starch for thickening

1. Heat oil in pan. Add garlic and fry until aroma is released, then add tomatoes and green onions. Fry until the tomatoes begin to release oil, about 3 minutes.

2. Add sambal oelek and kecap manis. Adjust heat level as desired, adding more kecap manis if too spicy. If mixture becomes to thin, add 1 tsp. corn starch in 2 tsp. cold water to thicken as desired.

Part 2, frickin fried cauliflower.

• 1 head cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces
• 4 tbsp. flour
• 4 tbsp. corn starch
• vegetable oil for frying

1. Cut cauliflower into slightly larger than bite size pieces. Heat 1/2 inch oil in shallow frying pan to 275-300 degrees. Incidentally, although I usually don’t truck with them gosh darned fancy kitchen appliances, an oil thermometer is basically a must here.

2. Mix the corn starch and flour in a small bowl, and add water until the consistency of buttermilk. Dip the cauliflower in the batter and fry until brown and crispy, turning once. Incidentally again, here I would normally suggest taking off your shirt and enjoying the spluttering of hot oil searing bare skin, but due to the wetness of the batter this is not required. A mesh cover will significantly reduce the damage to your person.

Serve dishes with steamed rice. The Gobi Manchurian can be served with the sauce poured over top of the cauliflower or on the side. I’d suggest the latter, since the dish can become soggy if allowed to sit in the sauce.

In practice, the chicken turned out a bit on the bland side, and thus I would suggest using storebought tamarind extract rather than making your own as I attempted.

Anyway, today I made this curried lentil stew with sweet potatoes and chard, and it might be my new favorite. Kind of ugly, though! All I’ll say is you can fudge your own garam masala by googling it if you, say, live in an outer borough where they haven’t heard of such things. The lime and cilantro at the end might be a bit much – you could cut down either the lime juice or the zest, I think – but they make the whole thing much lighter and less overpoweringly dense than it could otherwise be. This dish is great also because it doesn’t really need accompaniment – it’s protein, starch, and green veggies all at once.

And for reference, here is my now second-favorite recipe for Lentils With Stuff In: Ethiopian spicy tomato lentil stew. I usually make this without 4-3 of the ingredients due to not having them on hand, but I’d say the peas are really non-negotiable. Mysteriously enough, they make the dish. I guess some other kind of sweet green would work as well, though.

Tonight’s adventure is Chicken Tikka Masala (or CTM as Cali people call it) and Josh’s naan recipe.  The CTM is also based on an allrecipes.com recipe, but modified to 1) feed twice as many people 2) not use a grill 3) not have a gross amount of salt.  I am doing both at the same time by cleverly utilizing the inherent gaps in both recipes… this may not end well.  The CTM is pretty much restaurant quality IMO — I would say the only place where I’ve had better was Milan in C-ville [Edit: and Flavors of India in Rockridge CA, I must admit].  I haven’t ever made naan by myself before (or really baked anything other than brownies and cornbread from the box…), so we’ll see how it goes.

CTM Ingrediants

Meat: 3-4 Boneless/skinless chicken breasts, cut into bit-size pieces

For the marinade:

• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt

For the sauce:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1+ jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon tumeric
• 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
• cayenne pepper to taste (or more jalapenos)
• 1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 3 1/2 cups heavy cream (oh yeah)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

CTM Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, ginger, and salt. Thread chicken bits onto skewers, coat in yogurt mixture, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Preheat the grill (I use the oven broiler).
3. Take the chickened skewers from the fridge and discard the marinade. Grill/broil until juices run clear, about 5 minutes on each side. In the oven I use a pan to catch the drippings (see Figure 2).
4. Melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat (I use our wok). Saute garlic and jalapeno for 1 minute. Add cumin, paprika, and salt and mix around until it gets clumpy. Stir in tomato sauce and cream. Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 20 minutes. Add grilled chicken, and simmer for 10 minutes. Here I add tumeric, cayenne and salt to taste. Transfer to a serving platter, and garnish with fresh cilantro.
5. Profit

Om Naan Naan Report

This worked out pretty well overall.  I just followed the directions, but doubled all of the amounts.  Instead of a grill I just used a well-buttered skillet. The first few pieces weren’t rolled flat enough and so ended up kind of biscuit-like.  The later ones were better but still a bit chewy in consistency rather than light and fluffy. Perhaps I was too lazy with the kneading. Any suggestions from real bakers?

Timing

Interleaving the two worked pretty well, starting with making the dough.  Overall it took about 3 hours, but a lot of that time was grilling the naan at the end.  Traditionally I can pump out a CTM in about 75 minutes (shortening the marinade time to 30 min).

In conclusion, indian food is delicious and you can make it at home.

I found the original recipe off of allrecipes.com:

.25 ounce Active Dry Yeast

1 cup Warm Water

1/4 cup White Sugar

3 tablespoons Milk

1 Egg, Beaten

2 Teaspoons Salt

4.5 cups Flour

2 teaspoons Minced Garlic

1/4 cup Butter, or Olive Oil

Bread is a curious creature. I’m of the wrong generation to be termed a Doughboy, but it seems there’s no way to avoid becoming covered in it nonetheless. Accept it, kneading the dough with your hands is the best way to go about making it.

I dissolved the yeast in warm water, let it sit, then added & mixed the sugar, milk, egg, & salt. I slowly added flour until it thickened significantly, ~2.5-3 cups, covered it and let it rise. Be sure to dampen the cloth, dry dough is no fun.

After about an hour, I kneaded in minced garlic, and continued to add flour to keep the dough at a good consistency. All in all, I doubt I used 4.5 cups of flour, but I was concerned about over doing it. Roll dough into small golf-ball sized cubes, cover them with a damp cloth or paper towel and turn on the grill.

I used a panini pan instead of a grill, not ideal, but it worked nicely. The dough cooks far better when covered in olive oil or butter; I used olive oil. I heated the pan to a medium heat, (I needed far less than I originally anticipated.) and grilled the flattened dough about two minutes per side, occasionally brushing olive oil whenever I flipped the loaves.

...and one was Juuuuuuust right!

This is a poor picture, I wish I’d taken more when I’ve become better at the process.

My biggest error was using the panini pan top to flatten out the loaves. While this worked, it compressed the dough more than rolling it out would have. The bread was amazing while warm but became far tougher than I liked by a few hours later. Next time I make naan, smaller loaves, roll the dough flat instead of pressing it, and be conservative with the heat. Hopefully it’ll be fluffier, and more golden brown right from the beginning of the batch.

Best eaten drizzed with honey! I think this is too much work for me to do on a strict basis, but making everything from scratch gives a strange satisfaction!