Indian Condiments: Coriander Chutney, Raita, and Onion Relish

Fresh Coriander Chutney
from Madhur Jeffrey's Indian Cooking

3 oz fresh coriander, coarsely chopped
1 hot green chili, chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
pinch salt
1/2 tsp ground roasted cumin seeds
freshly ground black pepper

Combine all in a blender, blending well until you have a paste.


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Raita

1 pint yogurt
5" cucumber, peeled and grated
2 Tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground roasted cumin seeds
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

Beat yogurt lightly until smooth. Add everything else.

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Onion Relish
from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking

1 medium onion, sliced crosswise as paper thin as you can
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne

Mix all together. Let stand at least 30 min to let flavors blend.

Mixed Veg Curry

Curried Vegetables in a Mustard/Cumin Sauce
from Madhur Jafrey's Indian Cooking

1 lb potatoes, boiled, cooled and peeled
veg oil for shallow-frying
1 medium-sized cauliflower, broken into chunky florets
7cm fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
8 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
4 Tbsp plus 1 pint water
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp kalonji
1/4 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp salt
2 c. finely chopped tomatoes
2 medium carrots, cut into 1cm thick rounds
1/2 tsp garam masala(*)
1/2 c. peas (fresh, or frozen and defrosted)


(*)if you want to make your own garam masala, grind together the following:
1 Tbsp cardamom seeds
5 cm cinnamon stick
1 tsp black cumin seeds (or regular cumin is fine)
1 tsp whole cloves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/4 average-sized nutmeg

To make the curry:
1. Cut the potatoes into thick 'chips' about 4cm long. Put the oil in a wok or frying pan and set over a medium-high heat. When very hot, put in the potatoes and fry them until they are golden-red. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels. Put the cauliflower into the same oil and fry until golden-red. Remove with a slotted spoon and put on another plate lined with paper towels. Turn heat off and reserve the oil.

2. Put the ginger and garlic into the container of an electric blender or food processor along with 4 tbsp water and blend until you have a smooth paste, pushing down with a rubber spatula when necessary.

3. Put 4 tbsp of the oil used for frying into a large, preferably non-stick, frying pan and set over a medium-high heat. When very hot, put in the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds begin to pop - this takes just a few seconds - put in the kalonji and, 2 seconds later, the fennel seeds. Give one quick stir and put in the paste from the blender. Stir and fry for 2 minutes. Put in the turmeric, ground cumin ground coriander and cayenne. stir once or twice and put in the salt and tomatoes. Stir and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated and the tomatoes are soft. Add a pint of water and bring to a simmer. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer for about 7 minutes. Put in the carrots, cover again and simmer for 3 minutes. Now put in the garam masala, peas, fried potatoes and cauliflower. Mix gently and bring to a simmer. Cover and continue to simmer on a low heat for 6-7 minutes, stirring gently now and them.

Chicken Korma

Chicken Korma
(from a cookbook I lost long ago...)

1 Tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
seeds from 6 cardamom pods
3 whole cloves
2 Tbsp dry flaked unsweetened coconut
2 Tbsp ground or finely chopped cashews
1/2 tsp. finely chopped lemongrass
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp tumeric
2 1/2 lbs chicken thighs (skinless, but with bones)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp finely minced ginger
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 medium tomato, coarsely chopped
1 c. plain yogurt
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
3-4 small potatoes, cut into small dice
chopped fresh coriander for garnish

Season the chicken:
Toast coriandar, cumin, fennel and fenugreek seeds. Cool, then grind with cardamom, cloves, and coconut. Combine ground spices with lemongrass, cinnamon, cayenne, tumeric and mix thoroughly. Pour spice mixture over chicken thighs, turning to coat. Let stand in refrigerator at least 2 hours.

Cook:
In heavy pot, saute onion, garlic, ginger in the oil over medium heat, stirring, until vegetables are tender and aromatic. Place chicken and all the spice mixture in pot. Add salt, tomoatoes, yogurt, lime juice. Cover and cook over low heat 30 min. Add potaotes. Continue to cook over low heat, uncovered, stirring occasionally for another hour or so: until chicken is cooked and sauce thickened. Taste for salt & lime. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot with rice.

skd Beets Cupcake recipe goes here:

hahaha -- apparently this is supposed to be good for digesting lactose, complex carbs & protein. so, we should be fine!

meeting #5

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garXiv:0805.0001
Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 19:00 CT
Title: Meat, Fat and a Crushing Obama Victory
Authors: Chris, w/ a big assist from sous-chef sarah
Goodness: About 4lbs
Categories: gastro-ph
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I wasn't quite sure what to make for everyone, and I eventually got to thinking that you cannot possibly go wrong with meat, fat and wine! So lasagne it was to be...my favourite childhood food. I've since learned to make it much better than the foul frozen things you can buy around the world. There must be a single frozen-lasagne factory supplying the world with overly-salty limp concoctions. Urgh!

I discovered while experimenting on some friends a few years back that the more red wine you put in the meat sauce, the happier people become. So for 2.5lbs of lean mince i used easily half a bottle of wine. It also lets you cut back on the tomato sauce, which is always too sweet (unless you make your own, which i didn't have time for). And...as a minor concession in exchange for keren's fabulous salad -- no garlic!

Fresh pasta makes for a killer lasagne. People are always terribly impressed ("you made your own pasta? wow!"). Little do they know how simple it is! I had the assistance of a very skillful, albeit slightly inebriated, sous-chef (yay sarah!). I think we used maybe 2cups of flour to maybe 2 eggs and a half-dozen egg-yolk. Save the egg whites for the pavlova! Mix. Knead. Keeping kneading. No, you're not done yet, keep going. Now roll. And roll. Roll a little more, we need it a bit thinner than that. Ok, now meet my pasta machine, arnie (pasta la vista, baby!). Roll it through here a couple of times and we have lasagne sheets cut to size for the dish. Total pasta time: ~20mins.

The moussaka is almost hte same as the lasagne, just with lamb mince instead of beef, and eggplant instaed of pasta. Don't forget to generously salt the eggplant for an hour! Gets the bitterness out. Mix up a triple batch of bechamel+cheese sauce, and then we can construct both lasagne and moussaka at the same time, layering all 3 primary requirements.

For dessert I made pavlova. Or, more properly, sarah made pavlova while i watched and offered occasional encouragement (go team!) in this her first ever attempt. I think everyone agreed she did a fabulous job, even though the specially-imported-from-OZ passionfruit pulp turned out to be in syrup, not just pulp. crap! Anyway....tasted pretty good. If you want to have a crack, I use this recipe. The trick is to warm the eggs slightly. Take 'em out of the fridge and sit them in tepid water for 10-15mins. You want them just above room temp, so the proteins bind, and you get a stiff meringue you can shape properly.

Steph & Nathan made an amazing german cream strawberry thing, whose name I can't remember. Guys -- put the name here! Whatever it was, it looked particularly scrumptious, and tasted just as good. Please tell us what it was!

meeting #4

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Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2008 19:00 CT (>3500kcal)Title: goatstro-phAuthors: Steph & Nathan
Categories: gastro-ph\\

It all started with a stew.  (Perhaps) it started 15 years ago at a birthday party in which Nathan and his friends topped a meal with coconut, apples, raisins and anything else with a pretty color.  Think of the stew as the "suicide" beverage of your youth in which you mixed all the 

soft drinks available at the soda fountain together, only the stew actually tastes good in addition to being a daring venture.  The stew is a lovely mixture of peanut butter, tomatoes, onions, and spices.  It looks pretty spectacular when cooked in a black chamba.

Before we cooked the stew, though, we needed to go get the goat.  The stew can be cooked with a variety of meats or be left completely vegetarian.  But we both wanted to try cooking goat, and we also wanted a reason to go to a real butcher in the city, so this was the perfect opportunity. 1/2 day of calling butchers later, we tried calling a grocer in Greek town.  They didn't have goat, but their supplier probably did.  That's how we found Olympic Meat Packers on Randolph & Canal.  When we asked for goat that would be appropriate for a stew, the butcher brought out 1/2 of a goat, carrying it by it's legs.  He chopped it up a bit, and we left happily with 4.5 lbs of goat.

Another dish we've been dying to master is the spongy Ethiopian bread injera. It turns out that the best way to get a sour flavor in injera is to use teff flour (teff is the smallest grain in the world!) and then to let the base sit for a few weeks so that it can absorb yeast from the air.  But we decided to cheat by using seltzer water as the leavening agent.  

The samosas turned out to be really fun to make.  We made 

the stuffing a day early and left the stuffing and frying to the day of the dinner.  The delicious sour flavor of the outer crust comes from using yogurt.  I think I'm a sucker for anything sour.We used a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

The evening turned out well, perhaps mostly because Chris hadn't slept in 48 hours.  We managed to feed him enough food to finally knock him out though.

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