Saturday, August 31, 2019

Bengali potatoes and spinach and coconut milk

1 lb potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp panch phoron
3 dried red Thai or cayenne chilies
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
8oz spinach leaves, rinsed and chopped

Heat oil, add panch phoron, cook 15 seconds. Add chilies, cook 15 seconds. Add potatoes, cover briefly, stir once or twice, cover again, cook at medium for 5 minutes. Add salt, turmeric, and coconut milk and stir. Simmer on medium low for 12-15 minutes. Add spinach, cover, cook 2 minutes.

Source: 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Okra with coconut and chilies

1 lb okra, rinsed and dried
1/2 cup dried coconut, reconstituted in 1/2 cup boiling water for 15 minutes
1 tbsp fresh cilantro
3-4 green Thai, cayenne, or serrano chilies, de-stemmed
2 tbsp sesame or canola oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp urad dal
12-15 curry leaves
1 tsp salt

Trim the caps off the okra, cut into 1/2 inch rounds. Combine coconut, cilantro, and chiles in food processor, mince but don't totally puree.
Heat oil on medium-high, add mustard seeds, pop 30 seconds, add urad dal for 15 seconds, add okra and curry leaves, fry 15-20 minutes or until they blister in spots and get light brown. Stir the coconut mixture into the okra, add salt, simmer 2-3 minutes.

Source: 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Bitter Melon with onion and tomato

1 lb bitter melons
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp oil
1 cup chopped red onion
1 large tomato, chopped
1 tsp Punjabi garam masala
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 cup cilantro

Trim both ends of the melon. Scrape all the scales off and peel the melons. Slice in half lengthwise, scoop out all the spongy seeds in the center. Add salt and let it sit 2-3 hours or overnight in the fridge. Rinse, squeeze out water, dry with paper towels.

Heat oil on medium high, stir fry melon until light brown and slightly crispy, 8-12 minutes. Remove.
Heat oil on medium low, cook onion until caramel brown, 15-20 minutes. Add tomato, garam masala, cayenne, sugar, and turmeric. Cook 5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water and the bitter melon, boil and simmer 5-10 minutes. Serve with cilantro.

Source: 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Panch Phoron

2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp nigella seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds

Mix them together.
Source: 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Chicha morada

1 bag (15 ounces each) purple corn
1 green apple
1/4 pineapple (peeled and cored)
1 pear
2 cinnamon sticks
3 whole cloves
1 cup sugar, or to taste
1/4 cup freshly squeezed key lime juice, or to taste

Add like 3 quarts of water, simmer everything but the sugar and lime for an hour or so. Add sugar and lime juice to taste. I think it's supposed to make 3 quarts but it ends up with more like 2, so you can dilute it more too. The original recipe was 8x this big.

Source: https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/chicha-morada