Every time I mention to layman or friend that I cook quite a bit and have a cooking blog there is always the the exuberant reply, "Oh I love Indian food!" "I love curry" "What is your favorite Indian Restaurant?" All in quick succession like bullets in a shooting rink.
My reply is an anti-climax. I rarely cook Indian or even more rarely curry. And I most definitely don't have favorite Indian restaurant because I keep expecting my mother's puffy gossamer steamed rice cakes (idlis) and her turmeric tinged yellow yogurt (morkuzhabu) and finely diced carrot cooked with cumin, mustard and dhal. Since that is figment of my fertile imagination that this meal will be served to me at a restaurant, I don't have a favorite Indian place to eat.
The friend or layman is dismayed at my abrupt reply much like the end of an existential French movie and very unlike a Bollywood romance at the end of which all loose ends are properly tied up and just in case you ever doubted the happily ever after there is the high energy dance with synchronised pelvic thrusts and bosom shakes to the prove point of all is well that ends well.
Why then this sudden desire to make curry?
Its my new fancy for roasting and grinding that I picked up in Oaxaca. Like a Renaissance painter who borrows himself in his work, and every brush stroke, every colour, the perfect addition to his canvas. Mexican and Indian cooking are alike that way. Bountiful in spices, all roasted and ground and added to a bubbling pot like that next adroit brush of paint to the canvas.
The New York times featured an elegant recipe for curried chicken and carrot raita that caught my attention. And so the evening was a slow, steady and sizzling combination of spices. Very cathartic. The chicken curry was juicy soaking in the coriander, cumin, black pepper, ginger and garlic. The carrot raita a riot of colour with the freshness of mint and cilantro.
In keeping with this rhythm, after along, hard day of skiing I made veggie chili. Cumin and black pepper are roasted and ground and added to a colourful medley of carrots, peppers, potatoes, zucchini, which are all sauteed and slowly added to a bubbling pot of broth and tomatoes. Guajillo and Mulato chillies soaked in hot water and ground into a paste, go in next. Warm, spicy and caressing every corner of your cold wind swept body after a day whizzing down the slopes. Mr Sweet Potato, Mr Cardamom Chai and Ms Banh Xeo all agreed in unison.
Veggie Chili
My reply is an anti-climax. I rarely cook Indian or even more rarely curry. And I most definitely don't have favorite Indian restaurant because I keep expecting my mother's puffy gossamer steamed rice cakes (idlis) and her turmeric tinged yellow yogurt (morkuzhabu) and finely diced carrot cooked with cumin, mustard and dhal. Since that is figment of my fertile imagination that this meal will be served to me at a restaurant, I don't have a favorite Indian place to eat.
The friend or layman is dismayed at my abrupt reply much like the end of an existential French movie and very unlike a Bollywood romance at the end of which all loose ends are properly tied up and just in case you ever doubted the happily ever after there is the high energy dance with synchronised pelvic thrusts and bosom shakes to the prove point of all is well that ends well.
Why then this sudden desire to make curry?
Its my new fancy for roasting and grinding that I picked up in Oaxaca. Like a Renaissance painter who borrows himself in his work, and every brush stroke, every colour, the perfect addition to his canvas. Mexican and Indian cooking are alike that way. Bountiful in spices, all roasted and ground and added to a bubbling pot like that next adroit brush of paint to the canvas.
The New York times featured an elegant recipe for curried chicken and carrot raita that caught my attention. And so the evening was a slow, steady and sizzling combination of spices. Very cathartic. The chicken curry was juicy soaking in the coriander, cumin, black pepper, ginger and garlic. The carrot raita a riot of colour with the freshness of mint and cilantro.
In keeping with this rhythm, after along, hard day of skiing I made veggie chili. Cumin and black pepper are roasted and ground and added to a colourful medley of carrots, peppers, potatoes, zucchini, which are all sauteed and slowly added to a bubbling pot of broth and tomatoes. Guajillo and Mulato chillies soaked in hot water and ground into a paste, go in next. Warm, spicy and caressing every corner of your cold wind swept body after a day whizzing down the slopes. Mr Sweet Potato, Mr Cardamom Chai and Ms Banh Xeo all agreed in unison.
Chicken Curry
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Cumin, coriander, black pepper, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon
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| Roast the above spices |
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| 1 tsp turmeric powder, keep aside |
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| Grind the roast spices |
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| Ginger and garlic |
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| 1-2 tsp ginger and 4-5 cloves of garlic |
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| Grind the ginger and garlic |
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| Chicken thighs |
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| Add the ground spices |
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| Add the turmeric powder |
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| Add the ginger and garlic paste |
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| Marinate for an hour or up to a day |
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| Dice half a red onion |
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| Saute onion in oil |
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| Then add the marinated chicken and saute |
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| Add 2 cups chicken broth |
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| Cover and cook for 20-30 min |
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| When reduced to curry add diced cilantro |
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| Serve with rice and the carrot raita |
Carrot Raita
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| Carrots |
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| Mustard, cumin and a little yellow dhal |
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| Diced garlic |
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| Saute spice and garlic in oil |
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| Add to 3 cups of yogurt |
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| Saute shredded carrots in oil |
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| Add to yogurt with spice |
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| Fresh cilantro |
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| Dice and add to yogurt |
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| Dice and add 3 tsp of mint |
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| Colorful, fresh and tingling with flavor |
Veggie Chili
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| 3 bell peppers, a bunch of carrots, 4 zucchini, 5 tomatoes, and potatoes |
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| Cut and saute carrots and peppers |
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| Then the zucchini |
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| 3 tsp black pepper and 4 tsp cumin |
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| Roast the spices |
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| Grind the spice |
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| Add to sauteed vegetables |
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| Cook some more |
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| Saute potatoes with the same ground spices separately since they take longer to cook |
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| Empty 3 cans of tomatoes and 2-3 cups of broth into larger pot. |
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| Add all the sauteed vegetables to the pot. |
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| Saute the tomatoes |
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| In it goes into the bubbling pot |
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| A bunch of scallions and several cloves of garlic |
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| Saute these too |
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| Add scallions and garlic to pot |
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| 2 Mulato chillies and 2 Guajillo chillies |
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| Soak in warm water |
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| Grind the chillies |
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| Add 5 tsp of chili paste to pot |
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| 2 cans of mixed beans go in last |
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| Cook for 30 min on low flame |
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| Sliced aged Parmesan cheese on top |
yum yum! I want to make curry with you! That carrot raita looks fabulous.
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