Good thing dried is better for the environment too

An accomplished home cook of my acquaintance once chided me for using canned beans, commenting that the dried ones taste so much better. I duly got two books on the topic, The Bean Bible by Aliza Green and The Bean Harvest Book by Ashley Miller. I read the latter cover-to-cover before deciding to try making "Curried Chickpeas".

Soaking and cooking the chickpeas was mostly an issue of logistics - I had to plan for three stages of cooking. Miller said soaking more than 4 hours was a waste of time, Green said that chickpeas require at least 10 hours and sometimes as much as 24. d'oh! After 6 hours of soaking on my counter, I began to hear periodic pinging from the glass bowl; I suspect the chickpeas were splitting. I cooked them after 7 hours of soaking, and it took less than an hour.

As it was, it took me so long to get around to the food cooking stage, the stock had gelled. The recipe called for black mustard seeds and turmeric, onions garlic and ginger, potatoes and tomatoes, i.e. all the things I expect to put in Indian food. Unfortunately, the result is bland and there's so very much of it. It's also too watery, but with that much potato, I don't want to add more carbs.

Oh well, at least it's healthy? Read More......

Less Inauthentic Curry

I once bought some Trader Joe's curry-in-a-jar, thinking it would be a perfect solution for when my hunger didn't meet the local delivery minimums. It was awful: it didn't taste anything like actual Indian food and it was watery. I later made a second jar with less water, but it didn't save all that much energy - is it really that hard to chop an onion? - and still didn't taste particularly good.

I've heard many complaints about the inauthenticity of Cook's Illustrated recipes, but they're still better than curry-in-a-jar. Their lamb curry with figs and fenugreek isn't all that complicated - saute onions; add a large pile of the usual suspects at the same time as the lamb; cook until things start separating; add water, figs, and a jalapeno; simmer for 30-40mins and then eat. I know there's no such thing as "Indian curry" but it's the distilled essence of Indian food simplified for a busy cook. Ironically, it still turned out a bit more watery than I wanted, but the flavors are so much more intense. Since I already own all the spices, it's not that much more difficult than curry-in-a-jar. And it goes well with leftover matzah. Read More......

The Problem with Lentils

When you're a hapless cook, cellphone coverage is very important. I had a recipe for sopa de lentejas that I wanted to try, and I duly noted that it required lentils, a carrot, and salt pork/slab bacon. Fairway has horrible cellphone coverage though, so I couldn't call my mother to ask whether it ought to be red lentils or French lentils. I still had red lentils at home from the last time I'd cooked with lentils, so clearly that must be what I'd use this time. WRONG! Apparently the difference is that last time, I made mujaddara, which requires the lentils to dissolve, which I don't think is the right texture for soup :(

Fortunately, I discovered this by flipping through America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook: along with the bad news, it provided a recipe for "Indian-spiced red lentils". I know many bloggers complain their ethnic recipes are inauthentic, but sometimes that isn't the point. I had the requisite coconut milk and garam masala and substituted ground ginger for grated.

I wish it was still the pale red of red lentils - it's a brownish mush after 20mins of simmering - or that I'd had a nice tomato for garnish, instead of a weeks old thing from the back of my fridge. Nonetheless it tastes far better than it looks, a bit of warmth and filling for a cold winter's morning. Read More......