Month: July 2020

Euphorbia persistentifolia:

E. rowlandii:

E. ‘MacGuffin’

Ça ne ressemble à rien que je connaisse:

E. cylindrifolia tuberifera x didieroides:

E. cylindrifolia ssp. tuberosa:

For a long time, I struggled with pie crust. Now it seems kind of a doddle — yes, it takes time, but there’s not that much actual work involved. I’d like to think that it isn’t due to Crisco, but since I started using it, I’ve had really consistent results.

Ingredients (for a single crust):

• 1-1/3 C. flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 C. Crisco, cold (this is important — put it into the fridge for at least an hour)
• 3 – 6 (or more) Tbsp. ice water

Method:

Stir together flour and salt. Add the chilled Crisco, then, using a pastry blender, cut in the shortening until it looks like this (you want some pea-sized bits, which will make the crust flakier):

Starting with 3 Tbsp. ice water, add the water, then add by 2 Tbsp. and stir to combine. You want a fairly pliable, not too dense dough.

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP!: Pat the dough into a short disk or tall pancake, about 3-4″ in diameter, wrap it, then refrigerate it AT LEAST for an hour, or up to overnight.

Unwrap the disk. On a floured surface, with a floured rolling pin roll it out to the size of your pan + 2 inches:

Butter the pan:

Dust the top of the rolled-out dough with flour, then carefully roll it around the rolling pin, and unroll it on the pan:

Use your favorite method to blind-bake it.

This recipe will give you some left-overs. Get creative!

-R

I bought this Atol Shuco kit just as an experiment. It’s a Salvadorean (and Guatemalan?) traditional food. Basically, you cook the corn flour and the powdered alguashte beans separately in water, then stir them together.

I don’t mean to denigrate anyone’s native foods, and perhaps my palate isn’t subtle enough to appreciate it, but this was horrible. Imagine tasteless hot flour soup.

But there was purple corn flour, so an obvious re-purposing was tortillas.

I stirred the two powders together with 1 C. of masa harina to make it up to 3 cups:

Add enough water to make a fairly soft, but not sticky, dough. No matter what you might read on the Internet, DO NOT ADD FAT OR OIL.

Roll the dough into balls. Now you can either pat them flat with your hands, or roll them out with a rolling pin, but I got to use my toy:

Place some plastic wrap on the opened surfaces, then add the ball of dough:

Squish:

Ett viola!

Peel it carefully from the plastic wrap and cook on a pre-heated (preferably non-stick) surface. NO OIL!!!

Cook on medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes, then flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Just like chapattis, they should be cooked through, with maybe a few scorch marks:

From 3 C. flour, you should get about 15 tortillas, depending of course on the size.

As they just come off the griddle, give them a sniff (don’t burn your nose!) The corny aroma is delicious.

I don’t think these are any better than yer basic tortillas, but they are a bit prettier!

Yum!

-R

This is a very simple vegetable curry.  Other than the usual suspects (garlic/ginger/onion/chile) the only flavorings are turmeric and coriander, so that lets the flavor of the vegetables shine.

You can use any assortment of vegetables.  This time I used a mix of squash, green pepper, carrots, eggplant, green beans, potatoes, and cauliflower.

This freezes well, but inevitably the texture of the vegetables will take a hit.

Ingredients:

• 1.  1/2 C. vegetable oil
• 2.  1 tsp. mustard seed
• 3.  2 inches ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 3.  2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 4.  1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 5.  1 green chile, finely chopped
• 6.  1-1/2 tsp. turmeric
• 7.  1 Tbsp. ground coriander
• 8.  2 lbs. mixed vegetables, sliced
• 9.  1 tsp salt
• 10.  1 C. coconut milk
• 11.  2 Tbps. chopped cilantro

Method:

1.  Heat the oil in a saucepan.  Add the mustard seeds and stir until they start to pop.  Add the ginger and garlic and stir for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.

2.  Add the onion and chile and fry until the onion starts to brown.  Stir in the turmeric and coriander and cook for one minute, stirring constantly.

3.  Add the vegetables and stir to coat.  Stir in the salt and coconut milk.

4.  Cover the pan and simmer for 30 minutes, adding water as needed, until the vegetables are cooked to the desired tenderness.

5.  Sprinkle with the chopped cilantro and enjoy!

This is a great tomato recipe.  See Ingredient 1a if you’re using the usual tasteless supermarket tomatoes. (Or you can make it with canned whole tomatoes, which generally have a much better flavor).

Ingredients:

1.  1-1/2 lbs. tomatoes

1a.  1 Tbsp. tomato paste, if you use the usual tasteless supermarket tomatoes (like I did).  This will make all the difference in the finished recipe.

2.  2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

3.  2 medium onions, chopped

4.  2 green chiles, chopped

5.  1″ ginger, chopped

5.  1 tsp. salt

6.  1 tsp sugar

7.  5 Tbsps. yogurt

8.  1 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

Method:

1.  Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water until their skins start to burst, then cool in cold running water.

2.  Remove the skins and chop.

3.  Heat the oil in a saucepan.  When it is hot, add the onions, chiles and ginger and fry, stirring frequently, until the onions begin to brown.  Stir in the salt, sugar, yogurt and tomatoes, and tomato paste if used.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.

4.  Transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle over the cilantro.  Enjoy!

-R

Lots of ingredients, but delicious!

Ingredients:

1.  2 lb. chuck or other stewing beef, cubed

2.  1/2 C. atta or other flour

3.  1 Tbsp. dried red chiles, crumbled

4.  1 Tbsp. fennel seeds

5.  10 (TEN!) garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

6.  1-1/2 inch ginger, peeled and chopped

7.  2 Tbsps. ground coriander

8.  1 tsp. ground cumin

9.  1 Tbsp. ground cloves

10.  1 tsp. ground fenugreek

11.  3 Tbsps. white wine vinegar

12.  4 Tbsps. ghee or butter

13.  2 medium onions, chopped

14.  2-1/2 C. beef stock

Method:

1.  Dredge the cubes of beef in the flour.

2.  Combine the chiles, fennel seed, garlic and and ginger, and blend to a smooth puree.  Transfer the puree to a bowl and stir in the coriander, cumin, cloves, cinnamon and fenugreek until well blended.  Stir in the vinegar to form a paste.

3.  Heat the ghee or butter in a saucepan.  Add the spice paste and cook, stirring constantly, for four minutes.  Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are soft.

4.  Add the beef and stir until it’s no longer red.  Pour over the beef stock, bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 2 hours or until the beef is tender.  Note that as the beef breaks down, the sauce will thicken and start to stick and possibly burn, so stir about every 15 minutes during the the first hour and every 10 minutes thereafter.

5.  Enjoy!

I love miso, although to be honest don’t know many uses for it. Of course there’s miso soup, a staple in many a sushi adventure and indeed in my kitchen; I use it in salad dressings; and somewhere have a recipe for Miso-Roasted Pork, which is delicious.

There are two varieties of miso that are easy to find: aka (white) miso and shiro (red) miso, both of which are (very) thick pastes, usually in small plastic tubs, in the freezer section of your favorite Asian market. One nice thing about miso is that it will keep indefinitely (literally for years) in the freezer, with little degradation in its flavor.

Miso is another Asian ingredient based on the fungus/mold Aspergillum oryzae, also a key component of things like sake and soy sauce. Making miso is pretty easy: first you grow the mold on rice/grain/soybeans; then dry and optionally grind them and mix with cooked, mashed soybeans and lots of salt; then keep it weighted while the fermentation happens. It’s the last part that’s the most difficult, because you have to wait many months, or a year or more.

The aforementioned misos both use rice as a substrate for the mold, and are ground to a smooth paste. Unsurprisingly, there’s a much wider variety of misos available in Japan, such as soybean-only and chunky grain-based versions.

It’s worth noting that although the supermarket versions are true to their names, i.e. “white” miso is indeed whitish, and “red” miso is darker and reddish, the names are more indicative of style than color. Basically, “white” misos are made with less salt and fermented for a shorter time, maybe three to six months, so they have more “delicate” flavor (insofar as any miso could be considered to have a “delicate” taste.)

I have been a complete failure with growing the mold on rice, but successful with grains and beans. Barley is traditional, but I didn’t have any at the time, so my first miso adventure was with its cousin rye.

Later on I made some with barley and beans, and may have gotten a bit carried away (but they will last for years):

I ran out of appropriate containers, so ended up using some sturdy bags, with plastic bags of pebbles as weights. Here is my first reveal, a chunky rye white miso:

Hmmm, doesn’t look much like the supermarket version. Maybe after a bit of blending?

Ah, that’s better.

But, you ask, how did it taste?

Surprisingly good. Not quite like the supermarket version of white miso, maybe a bit mellower and with a sweeter (despite the salt) flavor.

But the proof is in the pudding. I made a miso dressing for cucumbers:

And the gold standard, miso soup. I didn’t have tofu, so I used some parboiled carrots:

This was very good (with a hit of sansho), and if I hadn’t known better, probably wouldn’t have known that it wasn’t commercial miso. This batch of miso has gone in the fridge, whereas the rest will continue to ferment in my basement, so I’m looking forward to (in a few months) trying out the next one.

Yum!

-R

Issue No 1, November 1, 1981

Side One:

Side Two:

Enjoy!

-R

(repost from 2015)

I used to feel sorry for my Indian colleagues, especially the vegetarians.  Each day for lunch they would eat a bowl of what looked like mush.

“Poor creatures,” I said to myself.  “All they can eat is lentils.”

Then I tried a few Indian “lentil” recipes, and they were delicious.  That opened up a whole new avenue and aspect of Indian cooking that I didn’t know about, and continues to fascinate.

First I learned that dhal (or dal) isn’t just lentils.  It’s the Hindi word for legumes/pulses, so that includes lentils, peas, and beans.

I’m going to jump in to the six most popular forms of dhal, with some pre-notes, some inter-notes and lots of post-notes.

The Six Most Popular Types of Dhal

A note about names:  some types of dhal have different names, presumably because of which part of India you’re from.  The Internet isn’t especially helpful in this respect, so I’ve included alternative names, but not minor spelling variations, e.g. “kabli channa” = “kabuli chana.”

Most dhal are used in their hulled/husked and split form, but some are used whole.  These pics are all about the split varieties, with the exception of sabat urad dhal.

Clockwise from top, the first two are lentils:

1) Yellow lentils, toor/toovar dhal.

2) Pink lentils, masar/masoor dhal.  Pink lentils unfortunately when cooked lose their lovely pink/salmon color and turn yellow.  They are interchangeable with yellow lentils in cooking.

The next two are beans:

3) Mung beans, moong dhal.  Unsplit and sprouted, they are mung beans commonly used in Chinese food.

4) Sabat urad/maan/kali dhal. In their husked and split version, they’re known as urad dhal. In their whole form, they’re know as “special” dhal. Recipe will follow.

Again from top and clockwise, two of these (top and left) are peas.

5) Chana dhal.  These look remarkably similar to split yellow peas, but aren’t.  I don’t think I could tell the difference (and they cook the same), but others could.

5a)  Your basic supermaket green lentils, an unhulled and unsplit version of what?  I don’t know, so I don’t use them in Indian cooking.

6) (cooked) Kabuli channa/aka chickpeas or garbanzos.

Post-notes:

1)  This post has been a bit dry, no pun intended.  I can only encourage you to explore the wonderful world of dhal, maybe starting with the Masala Dhal recipe, one of my faves, that I posted previously.

2) There are three basic ways to cook dhal:  cook them until they turn to mush and/or puree them, then at the last minute stir in tadka (spiced ghee, butter or oil); soak them, then cook them so the individual grains remain separate and whole; or as part of a stew with other vegetables or chicken/meat/fish.

3) Of course you can mix it up, vary the spices, and I often add vegetables like cauliflower florets or chopped summer squash.

3) Don’t try to cook any sort of dhal quickly.  If you use a high boil, you’ll end up with a mixture of mushy outsides and undercooked and grainy insides, which is unpleasant.  This applies especially to the larger types like kabli channa, but works well for all.

Cheers,

-R