Pan Asian: Vegetable Kurma (South India)

With spring upon us and summer right around the corner, I’m inspired  to get outside more, and start hitting the farmers market for fresh produce. It’s also time to start shedding that winter weight and get healthy again, and vegetables are the perfect tonic. Since the south of India is known for its primarily vegetarian diet, and also some incredibly tasty dishes, I looked in Healthy South Indian Cooking by Alamelu Vairavan and Patricia Marquardt for inspiration, and pulled this amazing recipe for Vegetable Kurma. It uses carrots, potatoes, cauliflower and peas, but feel free to use whatever vegetables you like. I also substituted cashew nuts for almonds (since I didn’t have any handy), and, of course, upped the heat quotient by adding more green chilis. While the dish is simple to prepare, there are a lot of ingredients involved, but mysteriously enough, no garlic! Though it turned out great, I think next time I will add some garlic as it can only enhance an already delicious dish. Also, salt to taste as I believe the recipe called for not enough salt.

The Recipe

from Healthy South Indian Cooking (Hippocrene Books, 2008)

by Alamelu Vairavan and Patricia Marquardt

Ingredients:

½ cup ground fresh coconut or unsweetened coconut powder

1 green chili pepper

12 raw almonds

1 tablespoon white poppy seeds (optional)

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

2 thick slices ginger root (peeled)

1 tablespoon roasted chickpeas

2 tablespoons canola oil

6 to 8 curry leaves

1 dry bay leaf

3 or 4 slivers cinnamon sticks

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped tomato

2 cups peeled and cubed Idaho potato

½ cup peeled and thinly sliced carrots

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon curry powder

½ cup green peas (fresh or frozen)

1 cup cauliflower florets

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1.)   In A blender combine coconut powder, green chili, almonds, white poppy seeds, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, ½ teaspoon fennel seeds, ginger root slices, chickpeas. Add 2 cups hot water and grind the ingredients to a smooth paste.

2.)   Heat oil in a wide-bottom saucepan over medium heat. When oil is hot, but not smoking, add curry leaves, bay leaf, cinnamon sticks, remaining cumin and fennel  seeds. Cover and fry to a golden brown.

3.)   Add onion and ½ cup of the chopped tomato to saucepan and stir-fry for a few minutes until onion is lightly translucent.

4.)   Add potato and carrots to saucepan. Add turmeric powder and stir well.

5.)   Add curry powder and stir-fry for a minute or two.

6.)   Add peas and cauliflower to mixture and stir fry for a couple of minutes.

7.)   Add ground spices from the blender to vegetable mixture in saucepan plus 2 cups of warm water. Mix thoroughly.

8.)   When mixture begins to boil, reduce heat. Add remaining ½ cup chopped tomato, salt and cilantro leaves. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Serve with rice or bread.

Serves 6

 

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The 2012 World’s of Flavor Conference, Part 4: Food Porn

The CIA World’s of Flavor was literally the best place to eat on planet Earth for those three days of the conference as premiere chefs from everywhere were cooking up a storm for the daily World marketplace, which is presented in the video. So I couldn’t leave you folks without some good ole food porn to get your stomach juices churning and your tongues suitably lubricated for that impending Thanksgiving feed! Enjoy!

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The 2012 World’s of Flavor Conference, Part 1: Inside the CIA

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the picturesque Napa Valley for the CIA’s 15^th Annual World’s of Flavor Conference. No, I’m not a spy, and I’m not talking about that CIA, but rather The Culinary Institute of America, one of the country’s most well regarded cooking schools. Each year they assemble top chefs and culinary professionals from around the world at their beautiful campus in St. Helena, CA for a summit on food without parallel. This year’s theme was “Arc of Flavor: Re-imagining culinary exchange from the Mediterranean and Middle East to Asia.”

The teaching kitchens at CIA

It was no small honor to attend the conference, and to represent Sri Lankan food for the very first time here, joined by my esteemed colleague, Chef Koluu, who traveled all the way from Colombo for the event.  Koluu was extremely helpful when I went to Sri Lanka to research my cookbook, and I made sure he was featured when I returned to shoot No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. As one of Sri Lanka’s most well-known and respected chefs, his attendance at the conference was a must.

 

Chef Koluu outside CIA Greystone, St. Helena, CA

Having just barely escaped the east coast and the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, I arrived in the Bay Area at night, so it was not until morning that I got a good look at the CIA itself. Occupying the former hilltop mansion of The Christian Brothers’ winery and overlooking acres of quaint vineyards, the school’s substantial facilities cut quite an impressive sight. The third floor teaching kitchens alone occupy a space about half the size of a football field, filled with every modern convenience you can imagine. What a joy it must be going to school in such an environment, much less cooking there for three days. This massive kitchen is where all the action was happening as chefs from across the arc of flavor prepared countless dishes for the various seminars, demo sessions, lunch, and, of course, the formidable World Marketplace, probably the best food court going on planet earth.

It was encouraging and inspiring to see so many foreign chefs interacting with CIA staff and students, and introducing so many new ingredients and techniques. Koluu made his famous pork kalupol or “black” pork curry, fish ambul thiyal, and crab curry, along with other Sri Lankan specialties like hoppers, sambol, and coconut roti. Like the other chefs, we had a whole crew of students working with us–none of whom had ever even tried Sri Lankan food before. But they picked things up very quickly as they took care of most of the prep. For everyone involved, however, the opening day proved to be an exchange of cultures, ingredients, ideas, and good vibes.

 

 

baby back ribs

 

 

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Pan Asian: Classic Sindhi Lamb (Sind Siyala Gosh) – Maharashtra, India

SInhdi lamb with brown Basmathi rice, sauteed greens and fresh tomato slices

There’s Indian food that you get at a restaurant, and then there are the regional cuisines of India–as distinct as the many different languages spoken in this diverse land. Prem  Souri Kishore does a great job of breaking down the latter in her new cookbook, India, A Culinary Journey (Hippocrene Books). Through insightful personal anecdotes interwoven with the complex history of the region, Ms. Kishore takes us on an inspiring and educational adventure from Kashmir to Karnataka,  Bombay to Bengal, destroying the myth of “Indian food” along the way. What we in the West have reduced to simply “curry,” is actually a collection of regional cuisines–each with its own influences, ingredients, and unique history, and the book provides stunning examples of each.  This classic Sindhi lamb dish, for example, popular in Maharashtra, may taste like something you’ve eaten on East 6th Street in Manhattan, but there are plenty of other recipes in here that you’ve never had.

 

The Recipe

From India, A Culinary Journey (Hippocrene Books)

By Prem Souri Kishore

 

1 lb. lamb, cut into cubes

¾ cup plain yogurt

4 tablespoons oil

3 onions, chopped

1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled & chopped

6 garlic cloves, chopped

4 green chilies, chopped

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon red chili powder

4 tomatoes, chopped

salt to taste

1 teaspoon chopped cilantro

 

 

1.)  Soak lamb in yogurt mixed with some salt for 30 minutes

2.)  Heat oil in heavy pan and fry onions, ginger, garlic, and green chilies until onions are golden brown

3.)  Add meat and yogurt. Cook until it is a rich brown color. Add ground coriander, ground cumin, and chili powder, and cook for a few minutes.

4.)  Add tomatoes, 4 cups water, and salt to taste. Simmer for 30  minutes until lamb is tender. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

 

Serves 5

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London’s Best Asian Supermarkets — from The Guardian UK

I don’t usually post articles from other publications on my site, but I consider this a public service announcement for all the home cooks looking for hard-to-find ingredients in London town.

Taj Stores supermarket, Brick Lane, London. Photograph: Rejina Sabur

When it comes to buying green finger chillies and rice wine, we Londoners have got it made. Flourishing Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Chinese and Gujarati communities have meant that Asian produce was available in the city long before the big supermarkets cottoned on. In the last decade alone, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Sri Lankan and Thai communities have bloomed across the capital and with them so has the availability of authentic ingredients.

While it’s easy to overspend in certain shops, there are always some excellent bargains to be had (think sacks of rice or big bottles of fish sauce) and exotic products to be pored over. In cities across the land, fresh tamarind pods and galangal are proving easier and easier to locate, and for those further afield, online options are improving (although these can add up and it’s always nicer to handle produce when checking for freshness).

Yes, supermarkets have started selling pak choy and wasabi powder, and have special “ethnic aisles” with bulk bags of lentils and spices, but while these are competitively priced, they’re limited in variety; if you’re trying to find that special brand of miso or roasted curry powder, nothing beats a specialist shop.

Korean

Kimchi Village, New Malden. Photograph: Rejina Sabur

Boasting the UK’s largest Korean community, New Malden – and Burlington Road in particular – is the epicentre of Korean food in the UK. For paper-thin chadol baki (brisket), samgyeopsal (unsalted bacon) or an assortment of ready-prepped bulgogi, head to the New Malden Butchers (104 Burlington Road, New Malden, KT3 4NT). Nip next door to Kimchi Mal (Kimchi Village) for an excellent range of home-made pickles and side dishes or check out Hyun’s Bakery for mochi doughnuts (94 Burlington Road, Town Centre, New Malden KT3 4NT).

Back on the High Street, K Mart sells tubs of fantastic home-made chive and chonggak kimchi and hefty sacks of Rhee Chun rice, or there’s Jinmi for takeaway Korean sushi (127 Kingston Road, New Malden, KT3 3NX). While you’re in the area, don’t forget to pick up persimmons (plumper and cheaper than usual) and deeply fragrant nashi pears. It’s also worth seeking out bulgogi sauce with a high fruit content (for example, the “Choripdong” brand has around 17%) which will cost a little more, but that extra pear factor makes the dish.

Hannah Paek of Su La restaurant (where the bargainous barbecue galbi is a must) has seen major improvements in the availability of ingredients over the past 15 years. Her folks once ran a local supermarket and she recommends the new H Mart for its sheer variety. Offering rarities like fresh, pink pistachios, bunches of dropwort, sesame leaves (their vegetables are flown in on Thursdays), unusual cuts of meat and a live crab counter, if they don’t stock something they’ll happily order it in.

Further down the road, Korea Foods has served the community for a decade and does a great line in traditional rice cakes. It’s a good idea to take a car and fill up with long life products and value sacks of rice. Other decent (but slightly dearer) places include the Centre Point Food Store (20 St Giles High Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 8LN), the K Mart in North London (869 Finchley Road, London NW11 8RR) and Arigato (48-50, Brewer Street, London W1F 9TG).

Japanese

The Japanese tend to be fairly evenly distributed across town, although there are steadily thriving enclaves in Finchley, Acton and Ealing. Reiko Hashimoto (http://www.hashicooking.co.uk) reckons the price of ingredients in the UK is still too high and the availability of supplies too limited, although the basics of soy, mirin, miso, rice and wasabi have gained prevalence over the past few years. She often seeks cheaper alternatives in Korean supermarkets, but would advise against using Korean seaweed or Thai pickled ginger as substitutes for Japanese nori or gari. For Japanese food it has to be Japanese soy sauce (as the Chinese stuff tends to be saltier). She also recommends splashing out on good miso and particularly rates “kyo kaiseki” paste.

Unfortunately, Japanese food is pricey wherever it’s sold, so for the widest selection the Japan Centre is the place to try. For top quality sashimi / sushi grade fish it has to be Atari-Ya. Fumio runs the ShoFooDoh okonomiyaki stall at Chatsworth Road market and prefers the slightly cheaper Rice Wine Shop (82 Brewer Street, London W1F 9UA) and Arigato (see above) as well as buying online from TK Tradings. Every now and again he’ll indulge in the odd Japasta sauce (cod roe with cream, pickled vegetable and tuna mayo flavours are guilty favourites), some quality pickles or shochu. When it comes to eating out he recommends Asakusa 265 Eversholt Street NW1 1BA and the udon at Koya.

Thai

Jasmine rice at Muay supermarket in Earls Court. Photograph: Rejina Sabur

Like the Japanese, Thais are spread across the capital. However the heart of the community is around Earls Court, Putney, Hammersmith and Bayswater. Many will happily purchase Thai specialities in Chinatown’s New Loon Moon or See Woo; but for treats like homemade layer cake, they’ll head to Thai shops like Muay in Earls Court (8a Hogarth Road, London SW5 0PT). Also specialising in a cracking range of fresh curry pastes (made by a local restaurant), they sell home-made chilli pickle sauces, tiny pea aubergines, sweet, glutinous rice, fresh pig’s blood, galangal root and holy basil leaves.

Over in Hammersmith, Thai Smile sells popular brands like Aroy-D and Chao Koh coconut milk. It’s also a great place to stockpile frozen coconut cream desserts, fresh banana leaves, saw leaves and turmeric root. For great value Thai jasmine rice it has to be Tawana Oriental (18-20 Chepstow Road, Bayswater, London W2 5BD).

Mark Dobbie of Nahm restaurant tells me that for fresh lime leaves he always goes to Talad Thai. For an up-market Thai restaurant experience the Nipa Thai does a gorgeous soft shell crab with spicy mango salad, or for a more casual bite Rosa’s Ta Lae Pad Cha (seafood stir fried with mixed spices, chilli and galangal) is a popular choice.

Vietnamese

London Starnight Vietnamese supermarket, Mare Street, London. Photograph: Rejina Sabur

If it’s fresh ho fun noodles or pho herbs you’re after, then the shops of Hackney and specifically Mare Street are your best bet. London Starnight (203-213 Mare Street, London E8 3QE) is a firm favourite of the Hung Viet restaurant on Kingsland Road (Hung Viet’s char grilled quail is just incredible) and Hoang-Nam supermarket (187 Mare Street, Dalston, London E8 3RH) have myriad fruits, vegetables and herbs including rau ngot and cai cuc.

Uyen Luu has lived in Hackney for 30 years and is a big fan of Longdan. She prefers buying her fresh goods on Thursdays (the main delivery day for the area) and likes to spend a bit extra on decent fish sauce. Her favourite is Viet Huong, “the Three Crabs brand. It’s expensive [around a fiver] compared to other sauces, but tastes a thousand times better”.

Bangladeshi

Inside Taj Stores on Brick Lane. Photograph: Rejina Sabur

For anything from Bangladesh, whether it’s a carrom board or a fresh jackfruit, Aldgate (or “Banglatown” as it’s called) has it all. Established in 1936, Taj Stores is the longest-established Asian greengrocers in London. The meat counter brims with alternative cuts and they sometimes have goat, venison, pheasant and pigeon. The fresh Bangladeshi fruits and vegetables vary according to the season (on my visit I spotted four varieties of lemon, countless types of spinach, water pumpkins and five kinds of aubergine) and traditional utensils and cookware are piled high at the back.

A few doors down, the slightly cheaper Banglacity (86 Brick Lane, London E1 6RL) also stocks towering aisles of spices, lentils and exotic vegetables. Around the corner off Hanbury Street is the massive Banglatown Cash and Carry which is a great place to stuff the boot of a car with giant bags of rice or a whole spectrum of frozen fish or halal meats.

For the best take away samosas in the area, try the (Punjabi) Needo Grill or for other savouries the Ambala on Brick Lane also has a reasonable selection. For one of the better curries on Brick Lane, ask for the (off menu) paneer shashlik at Muhib Indian Restaurant (73 Brick Lane, London E1 6RL).

Sri Lankan

Turn left out of South Harrow station and you could quite easily picture yourself in Colombo. Northolt Road is lined with Sri Lankan and Tamil grocers, takeaway shops and restaurants. South Harrow Food and Wine has been around since 1997 and is the biggest in the area. With a roaring trade in the more unusual Sri Lankan vegetables like fresh niwithi leaves, mukunuwenna and white kerala, the shop is a fascinating Aladdin’s cave of rare-find chilli sauces, Sri Lankan noodles, rice flours, dried fish and soy products. They also have a takeaway snack counter, Seeraga samba rice (the tiniest grains imaginable), millet flour, palmyrah cream, red rice and kithul treacle.

Across the road there’s Best Foods (249 Northolt Road, South Harrow, HA2 8HR) and also the Shankar Superstore (231-233 Northolt Road, South Harrow, Middlesex HA2 8HN), both of which have a good, if slightly smaller selection. Sambal Express is the place to assuage an aubergine sambal or mutton roll craving and for authentic Sri Lankan food the devilled chicken at Papaya comes highly recommended.

Chinese

Chinatown is the obvious place to pick up anything from a new wok to bags of fresh gai lan. For live seafood, extremely fresh sea bass or pomfret, head to the Good Harvest Fish Market (65 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 6LH). New Loon Moon is crammed with interesting staples and has a decent array of fresh vegetables and fruit as well as an irresistible wall of instant noodles. See Woo has plenty of Thai and Vietnamese fare as well as Chinese, and blogger Su-Lin likes to throw a bottle of her favourite Way-on brand of chilli oil in her basket whenever she’s there.

She also gives the Wing Yip in Cricklewood the thumbs up (she especially adores their selection of Tean’s Gourmet Malaysian curry pastes) and also recommends Hoo Hing on the North Circular. London is of course, full of Chinese restaurants, and two particularly good ones are Hunan (where it’s best just to put yourself in the hands of the owners) and for top dim sum try the Royal China Club (40-42 Baker Street, W1).

Indian

Indian shops are as evenly distributed around the big smoke as the people themselves. Having said that, suburban shops worth making the pilgrimage to, include V B and Sons in Kingsbury (738 Kenton Road, HA3 9QX) Deepak foods with its lengthy corridors of spices (953-959 Garratt Lane, SW17 0LR) and Bhavins (193-197 Upper Tooting Road, Tooting, SW17 7TG) for its astonishing vista of Indian fruits and vegetables.

Wassim Tayyab, the owner of Tayyabs restaurant (where the tandoori paneer is addictive) likes the Asian Mega Mart in Beckton “it’s like the Asian equivalent of Tesco” he tells me. He also shops at Quality Foods in Ilford (there’s also a branch in Southall).

For fantastic snacks, try the fryer fresh Bombay mix or the jalebis at Natraj. For good vegetarian food, there’s Saraswathy Bhavan, where you can order a six foot family dosa if you’re that way inclined (70 Tooting High Street, Tooting Broadway, SW17 0RN).

BY Rejina Sabur

guardian.co.uk, Monday 5 September 2011 06.00 EDT

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NYC’s Anjappar Restaurant — For Authentic Chettinad Cuisine

Anjappar — located at Lexington Ave. & E. 28th St in Manhattan’s “Curry Hill”

I have long been a fan of Chettinad food ever since I ate at the Anjappar Restaurant in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Yes, Anjappar is a chain, that happens to have locations all over the world–including the Middle East, U.S., Canada, Singapore and Malaysia. They finally made it to one of the biggest foodie towns in the world–good old NYC–to which I say, ‘What took you so long?’ But, really, ‘Better late than never,’ is more apropos. For despite its status as a franchise  (like Mickey D’s or Burger King), Anjappar serves up some of the tastiest, most authentic Chettinad food, this side of Chennai.

And just what is Chettinad cuisine, you ask? Unlike much southern Indian food, which is mostly vegetarian, the Chettiars, a merchant caste in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, who comprise about 14% of the population, do relish their chicken, mutton, and fish. And the way they prepare those meats is unlike any other Indian food you’ve ever eaten.

Mutton Sukka Varuval
(Fresh tender cuts of goat marinated in crushed pepper corns fried with chopped onions and curry leaves

Take, for instance, the Mutton Sukka Varuval, whose description in the menu does this dish absolutely no justice. Goat, usually a tough customer, comes out moist and tender here, coated in a fragrant paste of spices–including coriander, cumin, fennel, cardamom, cloves–ginger and garlic with fried onions and curry leaves to push it over the top on the flav-o-meter. Such complexity and layering of flavors is the hallmark of this cooking. My only criticism was that there was not enough chilies in the mix, which probably would not have been the case had I been served this dish in Chennai (Madras). Maybe I should have gone for the Chicken 65, boneless cubes of chicken breast marinated in a variety of spices that is supposedly super-hot. The only problem was that my lunch companion was vegetarian, so I did not want to order half the menu only to eat it myself.

The kingfish Thali meal

While he opted for the Chettinadu traditonal vegetarian Thali meal for a main course, I got the Kingfish thali. Both meals came with rice, chappathi, sambar, rasam, kootu, poriyal, lime pickle, curd, and pappad–all standard South Indian veg dishes–while mine came with an extra side of Kingfish masala curry made with a tamarind flavored gravy. Though tasty, the portion of fish was tiny, and I was glad I had ordered the mutton to supplement it.

 

Anjappar also features biriyani, and a selection of south Indian breads such as dosais, parathas, and utthupams. There were also some prawn and crab specials, but way above my budget for lunch. Your best bet is to come here with a bunch of people so you can order several dishes and try a bit of everything because I suspect everything here is good! Even the ambience and tasteful decor of the place proved very relaxing, and the service was up to snuff, making Anjappar a place that demands another visit.

 

a cool and comfortable interior makes for an enjoyable dining experience

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Pan Asian: Mixed Vegetable Curry (North India)

a creamy, tangy, spicy vegetable curry

One usually thinks of Southern India as the place to go for excellent vegetarian cuisine. But I found this recipe for a superb and tasty northern Indian vegetable curry, which is also really easy to make. The tomato-based sauce which I cook the vegetables in could even be used to make a meat curry, and, no doubt, you’ve even tried similar sauces at Indian restaurants. But if you are not a hardcore carnivore, let some vegetables in your life! They certainly won’t hurt you, and you may even develop an appreciation for them. I, for one, am trying to introduce more all-vegetarian meals into my diet–more as a lifestyle choice more than anything else–and dishes such as this make sure I do not have to compromise the taste!

The Recipe 

1 tablespoon butter or oil

3 green chilies, slit lengthwise

2 medium carrots, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 large potato, peeled and diced

1 cup diced pumpkin

2 cups cauliflower, separated into florets

1 1/2 cups French beans, cut into 1-inch pieces

1/2 cup fresh or frozen green peas

2/3 cup cream

1 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves (optional)

3 tablespoons finely chopped coriander leaves

Tomato Sauce:

2 tablespoons butter or oil

3 tablespoons ginger paste

3 tablespoons garlic paste

2 medium tomatoes

1 8 oz. can peeled tomatoes

salt to taste

2-3 teaspoons chili powder

3/4 cup water

1.) To prepare the sauce, heat butter or oil in a wok or saucepan. Stir fry ginger and garlic pastes. Add fresh tomatoes, salt and chili powder and fry until soft. Add the canned tomatoes and water. Cover and simmer until the tomatoes are very soft and mushy, about 15 minutes.

2.) Cool the sauce and puree either with an immersion blender or a regular blender.

3.) Heat the butter or oil in a wok. Saute the chilies, then add the diced carrots, potatoes and tomato sauce and cook for 15-20 minutes. When the carrots are softened, add the pumpkin, cauliflower, French beans and peas. Simmer another 10 minutes until all the vegetables are cooked through.

4.) Stir in the cream, fenugreek leaves and coriander leaves and mix thoroughly. Remove from heat and serve.

Serves 6

 

http://youtu.be/LLLaetFmddU

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Kerala Curry….In A Hurry

some Kerala Curry products....MMMMmmmmm!!

 

I first met Rollo and Ann Varkey at the Fancy Food Show in DC last summer. Among the glut of corporate exhibitors dominating the vast Walter E. Washington Convention Center floor, they represented  a handful of real “mom & pop” operations, coming all the way from Pittsboro, North Carolina in hopes of getting national distribution for their line of exceptionally good spices and condiments. One taste and I was an immediate convert. Not only did their glass jars stand out from the increasingly crowded field of factory-produced Indian meals, which came packaged in metallic pouches like military MRE’s, but what was inside them–the spirit of Kerala–provided a refreshing relief from the run-of-the-mill.

 

For those who don’t know, the state of Kerala is located on the south-west coast of India in a region once known as the Malabar coast, a popular stop on the spice route of antiquity. In addition to such valuable natural resources, Kerala is also known for its bounty of coconuts–the Sanskrit root ‘kera,’ in fact, means coconut–which figure prominently into the local cuisine. Plus, like Sri Lankans, they love their chilies. While there are certainly similarities between our curries, Kerala has a character all its own. It is also strikingly different from much of the north Indian fare popular in America.

 

Out of everything Indian I sampled at Fancy Food, I found the Varkey’s Kerala Curry line to be the best. I don’t regularly endorse products, but I’ll definitely tip you off when I taste something good. So when I received a couple of new products in the mail recently–Kerala Curry’s Vindaloo Curry Sauce and the Curried Lemon Chutney–I was looking forward to trying them out.

 

Trader Joe's frozen garlic naan

 

As much as I love to cook, inevitably, there comes a time when I don’t have the time. In these moments, I don’t turn to Kentucky Fried or Dominoes, but my freezer. Usually there’s something good left over that just needs to be heated up. This time, it was Trader Joe’s frozen garlic naan, a good foundation for any curry. I brush it with a little olive oil and stick it in the toaster oven. Meanwhile, I have some chicken breasts thawing. I cut them up, and throw them in a pan with sauteed onions and fresh curry leaves. I add a few chopped green chilies for good measure. The bottle of Vindaloo Curry Sauce that I take out of the cupboard says “hot” all over it, but these things are never really hot. I dip in a finger and take a taste: It is hot! But damn good. Only water, tomatoes, canola oil, onion, vinegar, red chili, salt, coriander, black pepper, Kerala Curry spice, ginger, green chili, mustard seeds, garlic, turmeric. I empty this concoction–reddish, rich and shimmering–over the chicken, and then fill the bottle with water and add that to the pan. A chopped red potato follows as an afterthought. I mix it all up and let it simmer.

Twenty to 30 minutes later the liquid has reduced into a thick gravy, and the smell is divine.  I serve some over the hot garlic naan and eat it with some fresh, sliced tomatoes; green chilies; mango chutney; and the curried lemon chutney, which tastes an awful lot like the popular Sri Lankan condiment, lime pickle. Not exactly fast food, but good food fast.

On a good day, I would have probably tried to make that curry from scratch. But it’s good to know that if I’m ever in a bind or just feeling lazy, I still have another bottle of Kerala Curry’s Vindaloo Curry Sauce in the cupboard as well as some Curried Lemon Chutney in the fridge.

chicken vindaloo with garlic naan, sliced tomatoes, green chilies, mango chutney, and curried lemon chutney

 

For some curry in a hurry, go to:

 

www.keralacurry.com

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Pan Asian: Mixed Vegetable Curry (Rasa Kayi) — Karnatka, India

 

I’ve been eating a lot of meat recently, so during my last trip to the local farmers’ market, I decided to go vegetarian for lunch and this is what I came up with. Feel free to use any vegetables that you like or have on hand. For a total vegetarian meal, pair it up with some rice and dhal (lentils) as I did. You could also just as easily enjoy this dish with some naan bread. Trader Joe’s sells a particularly good garlic naan in the freezer section, which I use a lot. Just pop it in the toaster oven and slather it with a little butter or ghee and you’re good to go. With such tasty vegetarian dishes as this, I guarantee that even the most committed carnivore will not miss their meat for one meal.

 

The Recipe

4 oz. (100 g) carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

4 oz. (100 g) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

4 oz. (100 g) green beans, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

3 tbsp. vegetable oil

2 onions, sliced

1 sprig curry leaves (optional)

1 green chili, slit lengthwise

1 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. coriander powder

1/2 tsp. turmeric

salt to taste

4 oz. (100 g) cauliflower, separated into florets

1/2 cup coconut milk

spice paste:

4 garlic cloves, peeled

1-inch piece of ginger, finely chopped

2 green chillies, finely chopped

1/2 tsp. fennel seeds

4 oz. (100 g) tomatoes, diced

1.)   Grind all ingredients for the spice paste in a blender, and set aside.

2.)   Heat oil in a large pan. Add onions, green chili, and curry leaves, and cook until onions are soft. Add the carrots, chili powder, coriander, turmeric and salt. Mix well. Lower the heat and add potatoes. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.

3.)   Add the cauliflower and green beans together with the spice paste and mix well. Cook covered another 10-15 minutes.

4.)   Remove pan from heat and slowly add the coconut milk, stirring to blend well. Serve hot.

serves 2-4

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Curry, A Tale Of Cooks & Conquerors

The modern concept of ‘fusion’ as applied to food often implies such recent innovations as Korean tacos or Chino Latino. But when you delve deeper into history, you realize that fusion is the way of the world and has been going on since time immemorial. Whenever and wherever different cultures come into contact with one another, and ideas and ingredients are exchanged, something new and delicious is inevitably born. Such is the premise of Lizzie Collingham’s fascinating study on what has become England’s national dish—Curry, A Tale Of Cooks & Conquerers.

European colonialism—driven by, among other things, the lucrative spice trade– obviously changed the face of the modern world, and brought about the first great cultural collision between East and West. But concurrent events such as India’s invasion by the Mughals of Central Asia, were just as important as far as food is concerned. Consider, for example, the popular dish biriyani—chunks of meat slow-cooked in fragrant rice with yogurt and spices, which ranks as one of the Persian empires great contributions to the cuisine of India.

Collingham begins with the Portuguese, the first Europeans to open up sea routes to the east—specifically India’s Malabar coast. In addition to reaping the benefits of direct trade with the East, they introduced a new crop that went on to revolutionize the various cuisines of Asia. Without the chili pepper, a plant of South American origin, Indian, Sri Lankan, Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese, and Chinese food would lack the ‘bite’ for which they are known. The Portuguese also brought other New World crops like potatoes and tomatoes with them, while taking a treasure trove of eastern spices back to Europe, where they were virtually worth their weight in gold.  A dish like vindaloo (a corruption of the Portuguese “vin de alho,” meaning ‘wine and garlic’) represents one of the first east-west fusion dishes, the combination of European cooking techniques and Asian spices.

You’ll find other tasty tidbits in this book as well. The popular English condiment Worchestershire sauce, for example, originated from a recipe provided by Lord Marcus Sandys, the former governor of Bengal in the 1830s. In an attempt to recreate his favorite Indian sauce, Sandys brought a recipe on a scrap of paper to his local chemist, Lea & Perrins, based in Worchester, England. Originally considered too piquant, a little aging mellowed the flavor, and this sauce became a huge hit, even back in India.

Implicit in Collingham’s detailed and scrupulously documented survey is the fact that as vast and regionally diverse a country as India is today, the western idea of ‘Indian food,’ really represents the preferred dishes of the British ruling class. In fact, even the term curry, she observes is, “a concept that the Europeans imposed on India’s food culture,” because no Indian would have referred to their food as curry prior to the time of the British Raj.

Curry, A Tale Of Cooks & Conqueres, provides a deliciously insightful look into the often ignored history of food. But as we are what we eat, and are influenced by who we meet, the exploration of food offers a very unique insight into a culture. This book more than validates the idea that when it comes to food, fusion is the rule rather than the exception.

 

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