Matar Pullao

Pretty good. Nice fresh green taste from the frozen (not canned) peas. A good break from the thick sauces of a lot of commonly prepared Indian dishes.

2 Tbsp ghee
1 onion, chopped fine
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground red pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 cups rice, rinsed 3 times and soaked 10 min
1 cup frozen green peas, defrosted

Melt ghee and add onion, ginger garlic paste, and spices. Cook 10 min and add rice. Stir, then add water to cover rice by 1/2 inch in pan. Bring to boil then lower heat and cook covered 10 min. Add peas and cook 10 min on medium low heat. Serve.

Mattar Panir

Really good. One of the best Indian dishes I think I have ever made. A little heavier than I am going for now, but tasted great!

1 can green peas, drained
1 small can mushrooms, drained
4 cardamom pods
1" cinnamon stick
1 medium onion, diced
1 1/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 can diced tomatoes
1 Tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder
1 Tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp Garam Masala powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 cup milk
4 tbsp oil or ghee

Heat oil and add onion, cinnamon, and cardamom pods. Cook until onions are translucent. Add ginger garlic paste and cook 1 min. Add tomatoes and cook 5 min. Add remaining spices and cook 2-3 min. Combine milk and cream in a cup and add togther to the pan. Bring to a boil and then add peas and mushrooms. Cook 15 min on medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until sauce is thickened. Serve.

Sage Liqueur

Many years ago I tried making wine. Rather than using grapes, I tried a variety of fruit wines. most of them were pretty bad. At one point, however, I tried making liqueurs. The first one was cherry, and it was great! This was followed by blueberry and a couple of others. About a month ago I started several different liqueurs, and the first one was ready today--Sage Liqueur.

Liqueur, brandy, schnapps--homemade drinks go by many names. At their core they are store-bought alcohol (of various varieties) infused with fruit, herbs, etc. I was a little worried because the first one finished was the Sage drink, and to be honest I was not quite sure what to expect from it. I was pleasantly surprised. Imagine a light, sweet taste somewhere between Galliano and Benedictine. In fact, after tasting it I realized how pervasive the sage aroma permeates many herbal drinks. It is not something I could drink every day, but then again neither are Galliano and Benedictine.

Important tip--While I firmly agree that you should never cook with alcohol that you would not enjoy drinking on its own, the ingredients in liqueurs do not follow this rule. Use the cheapest vodka, etc. you can find. You will be amazed at how the infusing process mellows even the most acrid of base liquors.

Sage Liqueur

12 fresh sage leaves
2 cloves
peel from 1/2 lemon, cut into strips
1 1/2 cups white wine (I used inexpensive unoaked chardonnay)
1 1/4 cups vodka
1 cup sugar

Mix ingredients together in a 1 quart container. Seal and leave for 6 weeks in a cool, dry, fairly dark place. After 6 weeks, strain and bottle.

Uzbek Plov

Today's adventure was a change from the Indian food of the past couple of weeks. Yesterday I started reading Shadow of the Silkroad, a travel journal written by Colin Thubron while retracing the Silk Road from Jangan, China (modern Xian) to Antioch, Syria. In honor of this, and due to an attachment I have to the ancient Uzbek city of Samarkand from my days playing the online game Silkroad Online, I chose to make the national dish of Uzbekistan--plov.

Plov, whose name is not merely coincidentally similar to both pilaf and pulao, is a rice based dish. This is historically the cooking provence of Uzbek men, for whom plov prowess is not unlike the American man's pride in his backyard barbecue ability. There are countless variations both in Uzbekistan and across Central Asia. I was very happy with my attempt. The plov was rich, but without any one overpowering flavor. The long cooking time gave the ingredients ample opportunity to meld together, and the carrots provided a nice background of sweetness. Next time, I will add dried fruits near the end for contrast. Barberries are most traditional , but apricots and raisins are also used.

Uzbek Plov
modified from here

1 lb basmati rice, washed 3 times and soaked 30 min in cold water
1 1/2 lbs stew meat
1 lb carrots, shredded
1 lb onions, diced
1/2 cup oil
1/2 Tbsp cumin seeds
5 cups water
2 pinches saffron, soaked in 1 additional cup water
2 whole heads garlic, with the bottoms sliced off
salt to taste

Heat oil and saute onions. Add meat and cook until browned. Add shredded carrots and cook on medum-high heat 10 min. Add water and saffron mixture and cook 20 min on medium to medium high heat. Add rice and increase heat to boil. Add cumin seeds and whole garlic cloves. Reduce heat to low and cook until water is absorbed. Salt to taste. Serve.

Chana Saag, version 2

Although I liked my first version of chana saag, I was not happy with the consistency. This second version is great. I compiled suggestions from many sources and made some changes. The consistency of the saag was perfect. The only slight disappointment was the hardness of the chickpeas. I soaked them overnight and added them earlier in the cooking process, but they were still fairly hard. Next time I will try what I had originally planned for today--saag panir.

Chana Saag, version 2

3 Tbsp ghee (add more if needed)
1/2 medium onion, diced very fine
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 can chopped spinach, drained
1 can mustard greens, drained
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 cup half-and-half
2 tsp Kashmiri chili powder
2 tsp Garam Masala powder
2 cups (after soaking) chickpeas, soaked overnight
salt to taste

Melt ghee. Saute onion, garlic, ginger garlic paste, and Garam Masala 10 min. Mix milk and yogurt together and add. Add spinach, mustard greens, chickpeas, chili powder, and salt. Cook 20 min on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Add half-and-half and cook 15 min. Serve.

Kalai Dal Bengali

This is a Bengali-style version of urad dal. It was made into more of a soup-consistency than some of the other dals I have recently made. I was worried at first about using so much fennel powder. In the beginning, its aroma completely overpowered everything else. After cooking, however, all the flavors blended together, creating a very balanced dish.

Kalai Dal Bengali

2 Tbsp ghee
1/2 cup urad dal, soaked for 1 hour
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 Tbsp saunf (fennel powder)
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground red pepper

Melt ghee. Cook cumin seeds 2-3 min. Add ginger garlic paste and saunf. Cook 3 min, stirring regularly to achieve a grainy paste-like consistency. Add more ghee if paste is too dry. Add urad dal and cook 5 min. Add 4 cups water, turmeric, ground red pepper, and salt. Bring to boil and reduce to low heat. Cook approx 40 min. Do not let all the water evaporate. Lower heat or stop cooking early to avoid this. Remove from heat and serve on rice.

Vadapappu and Khara Pongal

Vadapappu is a simple Indian holiday preparation consisting of moong dal (split moong beans without shell) soaked in water overnight. It has a fresh, refreshing flavor which almost reminded me of chestnuts. I ate some of this and then used the remainder for khara pongal.

Khara pongal is a southern Indian dish. It has many incarnations and uses, and is often a breakfast food. I can understand this. As the dal and rice cook together, both disintegrate into a soft mush-like consistency. Being from the southern U.S., I was struck by the similarity of this dish to grits. In particular, the creaminess of the cooked dal gave it the texture of cheese grits, although admittedly with a kick from the Kashmiri chili powder. I had some this afternoon, and saved some for breakfast tomorrow.

Khara Pongal
adapted from here

1 cup pre-soaked moong dal
1 cup rice
2 Tbsp cashews
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 1/2 tsp Kashmiri chili powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
2 Tbsp ghee

Heat ghee. Saute cashews and remove. Cook mustard seeds and cumin 2-3 min. Add moong dal. Cook 1 min and add rice, salt, sugar, turmeric, and 3 1/2 cups water. Bring to a boil, then lower heat. Simmer 10 min, or until water is absorbed. Stir in Kashmiri chili powder and cashews. Stir.

Dum Aloo Kashmiri

Ok, I normally strive for delicacy in my speech. The world is full of over-obvious blatancies. I must, however, abandon all such delicacies in my explanation of my preparation of dum aloo kashsmiri. It was an unholy regurgitation of the highest order. It was horrible. I will have nightmares for years as I gaze back with horror upon the abomination which was this dish.

Ok, now that I got that off my chest, let me explain.

One of the many ingredients added to this dish was kala jeera, or black cumin seeds. I have never used these before. From the explanations I had read, I was expecting some form of unity between cumin and caraway. I was mistaken. (...the Horror...the Horror...) Little did I know, but these seeds must be cooked perfectly. A little too done (or not quite done enough), and they are bitter. Bitter... Bitter... from the Anglo-Saxon biter "to bite", and futher from the proto-Indo-European *bheid- "to split"... Yeah, that's about right. As in so bitter that they almost split my consciousness from the fragile veil of reality and thrust it into the depths of a bizarre swirling void. (...in other words, it was really, really bad...)

Back to sanity...the true mistake in this attempt was not testing the spices before adding them to the dish. After tasting the finished product and wondering what had gone so horribly wrong, I started tasting each component of the dish individually. Only then did I find the horror that can be kala jeera. (In its defense, black cumin is a very hard plant to define. A grocery store with 3 kala jeeras may in fact have seeds from 3 completely different species of plant, and thus 3 completely different spices.)

I love dum aloo kashmiri, and I thought this would turn out great, but the overwhelming bitterness of this overcooked dish simply ruined it. I even tried adding sugar to contrast the bitterness, but let's face it... really sweet bile is still really sweet bile.

Because of how much I love dum aloo kashmiri, I am sad that this did not work out. Next time, I will I try a little more kashmiri chilli powder and NO kala jeera. (Perhaps I will substitute caraway seesd on a whim.) Again, kala jeera can be a good addition, but only if you are sure what you have and only if you prepare it right. (On a side note, the potatoes were perfect.)

Here is the recipe:

Dum Aloo Kashmiri

2 cans whole potatoes
1 small onion, minced
4 Tbsp ghee
3 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 Tbsp (heaping) Kashmiri chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 cup yogurt
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp kala jeera (black cumin seeds) [...the Horror...the Horror...]
2 tsp saunf (fennel) powder
1/2 cup milk
4 bay leaves
1 Tbsp garam masala

Heat ghee and add potatoes. Cook untill lightly browned. Remove and set aside.

To remaining ghee add garam masalsa, fennel powder, and kala jeera (...the Horror...the Horror...), and cook 5 min

Add turmeric, chilli powder, and salt. Cook 1 min.

Blend milk and yogurt. Add and stir well. Stir in potatoes and cook potatoes are saturated with sauce. Serve and beg for mercy.

Kheer

I wanted dessert. I really wanted dessert. But, alas, there was no dessert to be found.

What to do? What to do?

But lo, I have rice. And with rice, I have sugar. I'm sure in some ancient text, be it Pythagorean or Vedic, rice+sugar=dessert. ...that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

(Did I mention I want dessert???)

Here is the result. Very rich and very good. It was from a sight I have come to respect. I was worries about the butter, but it added an ineffable savoriness that provided a nice background to the sweetness of the sugar and the ephemeral touch of the cardamon. In its totality--a delicious dessert decadent in its simplicity.

Kheer

1 cup cooked rice
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup milk
4 cardamom pods
1 Tbsp cashews
1/2 cup sugar
5 stands saffron

Melt butter and add rice. Cook 2-3 min and add milk. Cook approx 10 min, until milk has reduced 20-30%. Add sugar, cashews, cardamom, and saffron. Cook 10-20 min on low heat, and remove from heat slightly before it fulyl thickens to "rice pudding" consistency. Cool and serve.

Chana Saag

I love saag. I have eaten it countless times in Indian restaurants, but I could never seem to cook it right. No matter what recipe I used, it never came out remotely similar to what I was used to. Then I found this post with a saag panir recipe from a restaurant in Houston. This gave me some ideas, so I adapted the recipe to fit my style and used chana instead of panir.

The result was mixed. The taste was great. It was very creamy, and much more like what I have been attempting to make. The problem, however, was consistency. The sauce was a little too creamy, and even after cooking the spinach had too much of a fibrous texture. It was still tough. This is not necesarily bad (it almost reminded me of an Indian version of spinach-artichoke dip), but it is not exactly what I was trying to get. In addition, the last 5 minutes were not long enough to integrate the chana. Next time, I think I will omit the 1/2 and 1/2 and add the chana in much earlier. For the spinach, I will either try canned spinach or add the entire mixture (pre-chana) to the food processor to blend. (Some have also suggested using mustard greens or mixing mustard greens and spinach to better approximate the true Indian greens.)

All in all, this was not bad. Even though the consistency is not what I was going for, that didn't stop me from finishing the bowl! The flavors were quite good and well blended.

Chana Saag

1 small onion, diced very fine
2 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 pack frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 cup plain yogurt
4 oz milk
1/2 tsp ground red pepper
2 teaspoon Madras curry powder
1 cup half and half
1 can chick peas, drained
1 salt to taste


Melt butter. Sautee onions, garlic, ginger garlic paste, and Madras curry powder 10 minutes. Mix milk and yogurt together and add. Add spinach and cook 20 min on medium heat. Stir occasionally and lower heat if too much liquid evaporates. Add half and half and cook 10 min. Add chick peas and cook 5 min. Serve.