Sabudana Khichdi

Many moons ago, a Chinese work colleague of the CC's asked him why all Indian food tasted like mush. To him, the texture of the food was very important (and rightfully so!)

The CC replied that what he ate in the "Indian" restaurants was hardly characteristic of real Indian cuisine.

To that end, the CC invited the colleague to his place, and not very surprisingly, he (and many others) were utterly delighted at the textural variety exhibited in this simple dish.

The dish is traditionally served with yogurt (thus making a complete meal if a tad carb-heavy.) It's utterly delicious. (The photographs are recent, of course.)

Ingredients

2 cups sago
4 serranos (chopped very fine)
1 cup peanuts (broken)
2 tbsp cumin
1 large potato (diced)
chopped cilantro (lots)
juice of 2-3 limes
salt (to taste)

good Greek yogurt (to serve alongside)

Recipe

Just use the food processor to coarsely break the peanuts, and then chop the serranos real fine.

The key thing is to soak the sago in ice-cold water for a few hours. Basically, it's going to soften via osmosis. To test whether they are ready or not, just pick one out, and press it. If you still feel a hard center, it's not yet ready.

After that, just drain the water, and dry the sago on a towel (as shown below.)

Soaking the sago
Drying the soaked sago
green chillies; crushed peanuts; chopped cilantro
fried cubed potatoes
The potatoes should be cut into smallish pieces. The CC has great success in "pan-frying" them in a non-stick skillet. The taste is outstanding without the grease.

Fry the green chillies, followed by the peanuts.

Add the potatoes and the sago, and stir it vigorously. The sago is going to start clumping no matter what. You just want to control it by stirring.

The cilantro and the lime juice should go in at the very end.

Sabudana Khichdi

Wood Ear Mushrooms

Also known as tree ear mushrooms, and frequently seen in dried form in Chinese stores by the Latin name auricularia auricula.

They are filled with an unbelievable amount of iron (traditionally used for anemia) and tons of nutrients. However, to cook them safely you must follow instructions.

Soak them in warm water for about 30 mins or so, and discard the water. The slippery texture and delicious taste belies how nutrient-laden they are.

Flatbread with Mustard Greens

This is one of those "fusion" recipes that a friend of CC's found in some magazine more than a few years ago.

The results of years of tinkering are presented for your collective delectation.

Ingredients

Topping

3" ginger
5 garlic cloves
1 large serrano

1 stick cinnamon
2 tsp whole coriander
1 tbsp whole cumin
1 tbsp ground cloves
1/2 tbsp whole peppercorns

5 shallots (or 1 large red onion, finely diced)
4 tomatoes (finely diced)
2 1/2 cups chopped mustard greens

crumbled feta

Dough

1/4 cup rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups white flour
1 tsp dried yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups water
minced cilantro (or minced mint leaves)
ground pepper

Recipe

First up, the mise-en-scène.

Diced Onions
Chopped cilantro
Diced tomatoes
Chopped mustard greens
Crumbled feta

Ginger-garlic-green-chilli paste
The ginger-garlic-green chilli paste was just ground together in a food processor.

The poolish
This is a critical part of good bread. Mix together, the yeast, the rye flour, and just enough water to make a paste. Let it sit for 30 mins.

Rye flour is like crack cocaine for yeast (the science awaits a future post.) They are going to reproduce like crazy. This is an old baker's trick, and a very good one, the CC may add.


Dough
Then, we mix together the various flours along with salt, lots of ground pepper (look at the picture closely!), and the chopped cilantro to make a dough.

Feel free to change the proportion of wheat to white flour. Just remember, you will need a longer rise for whole wheat flour.

The dough needs to rise for at least 2 hours.

Dry roasting the spices
This is a critical component of using Indian spices. You need to dry roast them. The idea is simple -- roast them till they smell "good". Start with the bigger pieces and work your way down to the smallest. In this recipe, that would be cumin (not shown in the above picture.)

Fry the onions at a medium-low heat. The goal is to soften them not to caramelize them.

This is what the onions will look like.

Add the ginger-garlic-green-chilli paste, and fry for a bit.

This would be the end result.

Add the homemade tomato paste, and fry for a bit.

Then, in go the tomatoes. Do not turn up the heat. Let them reduce at the same medium-low temperature.

Add the ground spices.

You can see the color darken from both the tomato reduction, and the masses of brown spices. This takes a while. Do not attempt to hurry the process.

In go the mustard greens.

They will wilt exceedingly quickly in the heat. This picture was taken barely 30 seconds after the previous one.

The Finished Topping
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, and top it with the topping, followed by the crumbled feta.

Bake this in an oven at 450F for 8-12 minutes. (You will need to check when it's done.)

The Final Product

Mystery Mushrooms

The CC was in Chinatown recently, and he spotted what could only be dried mushrooms except he hasn't a clue of what they are, or how they could be used.

Any clues, fellow foodies?

On Bouillabaisse

Right after she gives the recipe, the lovable Paula Wolfert had something to say in her book "Mediterranean Cooking" on why one could never make a true bouillabaisse in America.

1. For a true bouillabaisse, people will tell you that it must be made in sight of the Mediterranean and, at the very least, cooked within 100 kilometres of Marseilles. There are even purists who proclaim that the water in the soup must be taken from the fishing grounds off Cacalaire. The fact that this air and these waters are now polluted is, to the fanatic gastronome, utterly beside the point.
   
   
2. For a true bouillabaisse, as I noted above, you need rascasse. A scorpion fish is hideous and you should touch it unless its poisonous fins have been removed. A variant, Heliconlenus dactylopterus, is found in North American waters but fishermen ususally toss it back.
   
   
3. For a true bouillabaisse you need a base broth made from at least a hundred tiny Mediterranean rockfish and clam juice simply won’t do.
   
   
4. Finally, no matter what you do there will be some silly snob who will say “This is a rather nice fish soup, my dear — but, of course, NOT a true bouilabaisse.”

Pumpkin Risotto

Well, it's the season and all so what better way to spend a bitterly cold evening than cooking a delicious pumpkin risotto?

First, the CC hied himself to the farmers' market where two small pumpkins, and two leeks were sourced.

After that, the CC made a jaunty saunter to his freezer where previously frozen vegetable stock could be obtained.

Ingredients

1 red onion (diced fine)
2 leeks (diced fine)
2 small pumpkins (or 1 large one)
1 stick cinnamon

2 cups vialone nano, or carnaroli rice

freshly shaved parmigiano-reggiano

Recipe

We roast cut the pumpkins, sprinkle salt and pepper over them, invert them over some water, and roast at 400F for 45 mins in a tightly covered pan.


When they are cool, scrape out the flesh. It should be roasted and very soft. Mash it to a pulp.

Here's the mise-en-scène.

First, the roasted mashed pumpkin.


Here are the diced onions and leeks.


Here is the grated parmigiano-reggiano.


Add the stick of cinnamon to the vegetable broth, and keep on a low simmer.


Sauté the onions on a medium-low heat. The point is soften them by evaporating their water. Do not let them brown.


Add the leeks, and sauté for a bit.


Then, add the rice and let the oil coat each grain. Do not worry if they toast just a little bit.


Now, here's the trick. You want to ladle hot broth into the rice so that the temperature does not fall. Plus, you would like to add the pumpkin.

So alternate! Broth, pumpkin; broth, pumpkin.



Finally, the mantecura. Tasty milk fats to finish off the risotto. First take the pot off the fire, then add the shaved parmigiano-reggiano.


Doesn't that look gorgeously yummy?

Special-ized Equipment

A martini maker.

Now the CC has seen everything.

It's "special" alright, just like the Special Olympics!

A martini is not exactly hard to make as the recipe here points out. Of course, we've seen our share of silly ideas like here.

"Deconstructed" Gazpacho

Before we proceed on this deconstruction, let's just observe what makes the gazpacho so tasty.

First off, the overwhelming purity of the tomato taste. Secondly, the textural crunch of the vegetables (onions, bell peppers, cucumber.) Thirdly, the starch via the bread (which makes it "filling"), and lastly, the sharp tartness of the vinegar (which makes it "vibrant" or "alive".)

So all we have to do is capture the above flavors. The "deconstruction" is going to consist of the fact that we are going to keep each of the ingredients separate and blend them so they are clearly observable.

The heart of it is capturing the tomato flavor. Enter tomato water.

Ingredients (tomato water)

2 lbs ripe tomatoes

Recipe (tomato water)

Pass the tomatoes through the finest screen of a food mill.

Line a fine sieve with multiple layers of cheese cloth. Put the apparatus over a bowl. Pour the above tomato puree into it.

Cover, and leave overnight.

You will see that the puree splits into two components: the tomato water below, and a solid gelée in the cheese cloth/sieve above.

Just taste the water. You will see that it has an intense tomato-ey flavor.

(Save the gelée for later. It makes a delicious "savory tomato sorbet"; or just salt it and gobble it up!)

Ingredients ("deconstructed" gazpacho)

tomato water
1/2 spanish onion
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 english cucumber
5-6 dried sourdough croutons (per serving)
salt and pepper
champagne vinegar
extra virgin olive oil

Recipe ("deconstructed" gazpacho)

You still need to dice the onions, bell peppers, and cucumber as the original gazpacho. (Note the "half"; the rest is not needed.)

Note how the croutons fit the pattern of dicing too. This time you need the real deal. Real sourdough bread cut up into an appropriate size before allowing it to dry out.

Whisk together a vinaigrette with the olive oil and the champagne vinegar. (This is an O/W in the classification scheme.)

Mix everything but the croutons. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Chill.

Add the croutons right before serving.

"Traditional" Gazpacho

Before even beginning, the CC should note that gazpacho does not refer to the just the traditional "cold tomato" soup that is justly famous but really a family of cold soups from Andalusia.

In fact, one of the joys of life emanating from Andalusia is a "gazpacho bianca" made with almonds, garlic and grapes (sounds delicious, doesn't it?)

Secondly, there are as many recipes for "gazpacho" as there are Spanish mamacita's so there will always be some silly sausagey snob who will object to whatever is given below.

In fact, they will scoff at a very specific thing below which is that everything needs to be hand-pounded. Well yes, if the CC had super-ripe tomatoes, and a day to kill but there's reality and there's "reality" (see?!? those scary deconstruction quotes do actually work!)

However, they are not completely wrong. There's a method in their madness in their demand for hand-poundage.

What's given below is what the CC feels is a suitable compromise between spending a day pounding, and just tossing everything in the blender (which would just bring out the howls from the purists, and not give a very good result either, the CC may add.)

Also remember the recipe below is super-approximate so feel free to deviate. Just don't destroy the recipe's soul.

Ingredients

2 lbs tomatoes (left to ripen till nearly over-ripe)
8-10 slices dried bread (read below!)
1 medium spanish onion
1 english cucumber
1 large green bell pepper
1 large red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic
champagne vinegar
salt and pepper
olive oil

Recipe

The dried bread is something that is essential, and your gazpacho is only going to be as good as this bread. Ideally, you'd get a traditional sourdough (which will dry out.) This doesn't refer to the crap you get in a supermarket called sourdough. We are talking about bread that is "naturally fermented". (There's a scientific logic here that must wait for a later post.) Otherwise, just get the best baguette or Italian bread you can, cut it into pieces, and let it dry out for a few days.

Prep work

Peel the skin off the bell peppers with a peeler. (yeah! you heard that right!)

Peel the cucumber. (this should not be a surprise.)

Dice half of the bell peppers into uniform squares. Retain the other two halves.

Dice half the onion into the same sized squares. Retain the other half.

Dice half of the cucumber into the same sized squares. Retain the rest (see the pattern?)

Pass all the tomatoes through the finest screen of a food mill. This is labor-intensive work but is totally necessary.

Prep

Take the tomato pulp, the bread slices, the three halves that were not diced (onion, bell peppers, cucumber), the garlic cloves, and a slug of olive oil and blend them in the blender.

Go easy on the garlic. Raw garlic packs a fierce punch so tone it down.

Now, pass this mixture through the finest screen of a food mill a second time. Yep, this is hard work too.

Mix the diced stuff above with this mixture. Add salt, pepper, and the champagne vinegar to taste. There should be a slight vinegarish bite but overall the flavor should be balanced.

Chill and serve.

Obsessive Failure

So the CC seems to have lied albeit inadvertently. He has not sourced that elusive cuttlefish ink.

They lied. They always do!

Armed with a map of the Upper West Side, the CC scoured every single store between 72nd and 96th St, and nary a store carried it. The closest he came was one store that "usually" carries it. Ironically, this store is among the closest to the CC's apartment.

Yes, the CC is aware that he takes "obsessive compulsive" to a new level but what better way to spend a Friday evening than searching for "black nectar"?

After that, he called every single fancy store in town, and only one had it, and that too for nose-bleed prices.

There's always the internet but the CC remains optimistic. New York's reputation as a foodie town is on the line here!

Lemongrass Sorbet

This was the other wonder the CC encountered at the restaurant in San Francisco in August.

This is truly an object of greedy lust, and any of you who know that the CC is not that fond of dessert should know that when a dessert item inspires food lust in the CC, well...

Ingredients

7-8 stalks lemongrass (outer leaves peeled)
2 cups water
2/3 cup fine sugar
1 cup mint (torn into pieces by hand)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
large pinch of salt

Recipe

Cut the lemon grass into vague rounds. Smash them once with a pestle.

Add the water, sugar, and lemon grass together. Bring to a rolling boil.

Do not boil. Remove from the flame immediately.

Toss in the mint leaves, and let it steep for at least 20 minutes (until cool.)

Add the lime juice and salt, and blend in a blender.

If you want a sweeter presence, tone this down. If you want a traditional "sorbet", leave it tart. Remember that as it chills, the acid is going to lose a large portion of its edge so the solution may be quite tart but the sorbet will be "refreshing".

Line a sieve with several layers of cheese cloth, and filter the mixture. Toss the residue. (Yes! you need both the cloth and a fine sieve.)

Now, do the "sorbet" thing. Freeze, and every 30 minutes break up the mixture with a whisk/fork until you get fine crystals.

Langoustines

Also known as the Norway Lobster. A denizen of colder waters which you may have encountered under the Italian name of scampi.

It's quite delicious grilled, and in the spirit of Halloween, be sure to eat the salty succulent meat near the head and the eyes.

Don't be un Americain, as they say in France.

Food Deconstruction

Well, it's trendy and all but is it any good?

The CC having consumed a "deconstructed burger" at a cocktail party (mini-bun, meat, tomato, onion on a toothpick like a mini-kebab) and a "deconstructed gazpacho" at a fancy restaurant in San Francisco can say, "Yes, provided it's well thought out."

In fact, the CC was so impressed by the above "deconstructed gazpacho" that he spent a whole day making a "traditional gazpacho" and the "deconstructed version" side by side.

Just for the record, the scary quotes ("") are de rigeur. There's a difference between deconstruction, deconstruction, and "deconstruction" (insert literary theory joke here; or is that "literary theory"?)

Which brings us to a food riddle:

Q: Why is Derrida like a piece of wilted lettuce?

A: Because they are both wrinkled and rank-led.

(Get it?)

Anyway, back to the gazpachos. They were made a few months ago but in the spirit of exuberant discovery, and in the fading memory of a vanished summer, the CC will post the recipes soon.

Nero di seppia

Nectar of the gods assuming they like an iodized salty flavor. Rich, intense, over-the-top, and unforgettable.

For the record, this is not squid ink. Seppia is cuttlefish; squid would be calamari. They are quite different.

The CC has just sourced this after two weeks of trying in New York (which is borderline unthinkable) so there may be recipes forthcoming.

Strange Succulent Snacks

The CC is quite fond of these.

First up, we have tiny dried crabs in a faintly sugary glaze. You can just pop these like peanuts.

Dried Whole Crabs

Next up is dried shredded squid. Wonderfully chewy like jerky except it's tastier. Great with a beer or three.

Dried Squid

Sicilian Pasta with Broccoli

This is a sensational recipe marrying classic Italian technique with North African influences. A complete hit especially after a hard day's work.

In case you're wondering, the anchovies are critical.

A couple of points of note:

You should unambiguously see the medieval influence by the presence of the raisins. You can also see the influence of the New World via the tomato. Of course, the North African influence should be obvious.

Ingredients

1 large onion (finely diced)
4 anchovies
1/4 cup raisins
1/8 cup pine nuts
1 large broccoli (cut into small florets)
2 tbsp tomato paste (homemade)
1 large pinch saffron
salt and pepper
olive oil

shaved pecorino (or parmigiano-reggiano)

1 cup penne.

Recipe

Fry the onion at a medium-low heat until soffrito. Add the anchovies and fry for about another minute. Add the tomato paste, fry for a bit, and add some water along with the raisins and pine nuts, salt and pepper to taste.

Add the broccoli and cook until slightly under done. The saffron should go in towards the very end otherwise its delicate fragrance will disappear.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta slightly under al dente, and add it to the sauce. Heat, and serve.

The pasta should be thoroughly covered with the delicate saffron sauce, and will be tinged golden because of it.

Shave a modest amount of cheese over each serving. The dish has a really delicate taste where all flavors are key partners so be careful not to overwhelm.

Harmony is key!

French Classical Sauces

Escoffier may list hundreds but there are only 23.

W
O
W/S
O/W
S/W
(O + S)/W
(W/S)/W
O + (W/S)
(G + O)/W
(G + O + S)/W
(O + (W/S))/W
(S + (W/S))/W
((W + S)/O)/S
(O + S + (W/S))/W
((W/S) + (S ⊂ W))/W
(O + (W/S)/W)/S
((O + (W/S))/W)/S
(O/W) + ((G + O)/W)
(O + (W/S) + (S ⊂ W))/W
(S + (W/S) + (S ⊂ W))/W
(((W/S) + (S ⊂ W))/W)/S
(O + S +(W/S) + (S ⊂ W))/W
(O + S +((G + O)/W))/W

Key (letters): O = oil, W = water, G = gas, S = solid
Key (operators): + = mixed into, / = dispersed into, ⊂ = included into

For example, both broth or vinegar are just W, and butter is (W/O)/S.

Note that in a given formula, the multiple W's and S'es may be different.

This is the work of the magnificent Hervé This, co-inventor of the field of molecular gastronomy.

See if you can come up with examples of the above sauces, fellow gastronauts!

Garnish

When the CC looks back on Wall St. in his anec-dotage, he will be pondering one eternal question:

Who, in their right mind, would garnish a bowl of cut fruits with parsley?

Comparing Parsi Cookbooks

Well, a few months ago, the CC was cooking traditional dhan-saak (recipe to follow) for some friends, and had the opportunity to actually sit down and compare all his Parsi cookbooks.

There were three in all.

A tiny book by Bapsi Nariman, a recent one by Niloufer Ichaporia-King, and two books published in India by Katy Dalal.

Right off the bat, the CC noticed that Katy Dalal's books are written for other Parsis so you can only understand it if you already know how to do it, or have eaten it before. There is no hope for a beginner here.

Niloufer Ichaporia's is excellent but she has lived in the US way too long starting at a time where things were not easily available. Now that they are trivially available everywhere, she has not actually gone back to the originals. The recipes are top-notch, and the explanation of technique is impeccable but why substitute when you don't need to?

For example, she excludes vaal from the dhan-saak recipe. The CC considers it utterly crucial. While the CC agrees that the soul of dhan-saak comes from the masoor, the sweetness comes from the vaal so to get that effect, she adds sweet potatoes but starch has very little place in a meat-lentil dish.

No matter what she thinks, balsamic vinegar is not a substitute for tamarind + sugar. It just isn't. No one would ever confuse the different tartnesses of lemon, lime, vinegar, and tamarind. They are just too different. And fine vinegars taste nothing like the much cruder coconut vinegar necessary for certain Indian dishes.

She only states the importance of masoor in a traditional Parsi household in a throwaway sentence or two on page 302. If you were someone who already knew what masoor was, you'd probably just miss the sentence. The CC only found it because he went looking for that sentence, and that particular cultural interpretation.

The other two state it upfront.

Many Parsis will simply not eat a meal without a side helping of masoor, and they have tons of creative ways of cooking it to avoid boredom. Virtually every culture or sub-culture has a signature dish, and it behooves a good cook to know cultural details of this nature.

Bapsi Nariman, on the other hand, gives the recipe straight. No messing around, very minimalist but he takes other short-cuts which are not right. For example, it is important that the meat and vegetables be cooked separately, and then combined. The CC knows why his short-cut would work in India but it won't work here because you have fattier meat.

Oddly enough, Ichaporia's masalas are much more detailed and authentic, and "correct". However, she makes them in industrial sizes. Anything that starts with 1/4 cup of cumin is doomed. You'll never use that up in this lifetime.

But they are absolutely amazing and delicious!

The CC also hopes her readers know that if you toast cloves, cumin and poppy seeds, you need three rounds of roasting because if you toss them all in, the poppy seeds will burn. (It's a simple size thing.)

So what's a beginner to do?

Use Ichaporia but cross-check with Nariman. Adopt her techniques for the spices but check his basic ingredients first.

Vaal

Also known as "split lablab beans". They have a unique sweetish taste, and silky texture.

The CC was known to compose odes to this bean at a very young age.

Gingered Cauliflower

One of the CC's favorite "home" recipes. Particularly good when served with parathas.

Ingredients

1 large cauliflower (cut into florets)
5-6" ginger
4-5 Thai green chillies (substitute with serranos.)
1 tbsp roasted cumin (ground into a powder)
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp garam masala
oil
salt to taste

Recipe

Grind the ginger and green chillies into a paste. (This is where food processors rock! Just try and use the minimum amount of water to get a paste with some texture.)

Fry some oil. Fry the ginger paste. Toss in the spices, and the cauliflower. Sautée for a while. Add some water, and let it cook until done.

Sometimes the CC adds fresh beans.

Oddly enough, this is one of the few cauliflower recipes that does not work with broccoli.

Orange Cauliflower

Bounty from the Farmers' Market!