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Indian Cooking Toolbox

Started by Ixxie, September 01, 2013, 07:40:28 PM

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Ixxie

Indian Rice:

Soak basmati rice in water for 20m then dry it off. Fry up an onion in a pot on a medium flame, after a minute or two add 0.5-1 teaspoon of cumin, 1-2 sticks of Cinnamon and 8-10 green cardamom seeds . Keep stirring for 2-3 more minutes making sure the cumin doesn't burn. Add the rice and fry it up for 2-3 minutes and add water and salt. Now because of the soak you only need about 1.5 cups of water per cup of rice. I usually add 1 cup of water initially, and add more if needed - tasting the rice as I go.

When the rice is ready - you can eat it. OR you can put the lid on the pot and roast it in the oven at 80-100 degrees C. In principle, I understand you can roast it for hours and it will get crispier and crispier. Last time I did it on 100 degrees for 1-2 hours and it was awesome. I still wanna experiment with the temperatures and times and see how to get it better.
"In Shadow - we find the Light - Safely Sealed in Darkest Night, so make Sure Ya'll Keep it Tight. Wizards Only - Fools!"

Ixxie

a Curry Base:

chop 5-10 large onions, 5-10 cloves of garlic, a similar quantity of fresh ginger. Fry it on medium or low flame until the onions are nice and glazed, then add lots of curry powder or paste, maybe some gara masala and freshly chopped chilli.

After this is good and soft you can add coconut milk / tomato sauce to kick of a curry, or add lentils and turn it into a Dall.
"In Shadow - we find the Light - Safely Sealed in Darkest Night, so make Sure Ya'll Keep it Tight. Wizards Only - Fools!"

Ixxie

a vegetarian curry, to give an example of the type of curry I typically make, in this case using Chestnut Mushrooms, Chickpeas, Courgette, Tofu, Bell Peppers

Start soaking the rice in water as described in the indian rice recipe above. Make the above listed curry base with two cans of coconut milk, letting it simmer and optionally add 2-3 peeled tomatoes (stick them in a bowl of boiling water for a couple of minutes and fish them out with a fork for convenient pealing). While this stews, dry up a relatively firm tofu chopped in sugar-cube sized blocks in a high flame until it gets nice and crispy. I usually throw in some sliced garlic, salt and pepper maybe cumin and freshly chopped chili about half way through the frying - sesame or pumpkin seed oil are probably also a nice additions. Marinading the tofu is probably also a nice idea but I have no idea what kind of marinade I would use. Once nice and crispy, add the tofu to the curry and let it cook for a while.

Add chestnut mushroom cut in quarters with a about a third or half a nut-meg and some black pepper ground. Now - the rest of vegetables in this particular curry are generally quite fast cooking, so it might be a good idea to let the sauce thicken and take on a medium or low flame simmer for 10 or 20 minutes. By now the rice has probably soaked its 20 minutes and you have strained the water out, so you can take the time to prepare the rice as described above. I have never tried it - but I think this curry would benefit from maybe 3-5 boiled eggs cut in half and added at this point (although they might better be added in the end). You can grind a spice mix now to focus the taste of the curry and add it - maybe some smoked paprika, a couple of Annis star seeds and a pinch of Saffron. I would usually need to add more curry powders, salt and pepper at this point as well, to taste.

Don't forget the rice - at sometime it should be ready the pot should be put in the over to get it crispy. Add a small broccoli in medium sized pieces to the curry, with perhaps a dash of nut-meg. While this cooks, chop a courgette lengthwise in half and then diagonally to produce elongated slices. Precook them in a separate pan in the juice of half or a whole lemon, adding freshly ground coriander seeds. This is to get the flavors in - so when you feel that has been achieved, add it to the curry (it should not be over cooked - it will keep cooking in the curry). After stirring this in, add 3-500g of chickpeas (I used canned ones - too lazy to pre-soakem), with some pepper and maybe a dash of freshly ground cumin. After this as cooked for a bit but before these veggies get too soft - add one or two bell peppers cut in long strips. These are added last to ensure nice crunchy bite. You can now turn of the heat and let the sauce take.

When your rice is sufficiently crispy or your people sufficiently hungry - the curry can be reheated and served on the rice with fresh coriander leaf to finish it off. The side dish in the next post would make a perfect complement to this curry.

"In Shadow - we find the Light - Safely Sealed in Darkest Night, so make Sure Ya'll Keep it Tight. Wizards Only - Fools!"

Ixxie

This recipe calls for equal parts red onion and eggplant, and a jar of mango chutney.

Slice the eggplant and make a Salting tower to drain the bitter liquid; add salt on a plat, then a slice of eggplant, then a layer of salt, then another slice, etc. After 15-20 minutes the liquid should be released and you can wash them off. Once done, slice the slices into strips.

Cut the red onions into half-rings, roast them on a medium flame adding sweet paprika generously until its nice and sweet. Add the eggplant and fry until its quite tender. Finally - add copious amounts of Mango Chutney and stirring until sweet awesome gooeyness is ready. Adding dry ground chilly optional.

This makes for a nice sweet side dish to a curry.
"In Shadow - we find the Light - Safely Sealed in Darkest Night, so make Sure Ya'll Keep it Tight. Wizards Only - Fools!"

Pergamos

ok, I wasn't sure about you with the ayahuasca church stuff and the OOBE stuff, but I officially like you now.  Please share more Indian cooking wisdom.

Bu🤠ns

Quote from: Pergamos on September 03, 2013, 08:05:04 AM
ok, I wasn't sure about you with the ayahuasca church stuff and the OOBE stuff, but I officially like you now.  Please share more Indian cooking wisdom.

He's good people.  Kinda cerebral and I have to break out my dictionary to follow him sometimes but he's cool...I'll vouch for him--not that he needs a voucher, of course.

Ixxie

Quote from: Bu☆ns on September 03, 2013, 05:33:08 PM
Quote from: Pergamos on September 03, 2013, 08:05:04 AM
ok, I wasn't sure about you with the ayahuasca church stuff and the OOBE stuff, but I officially like you now.  Please share more Indian cooking wisdom.

He's good people.  Kinda cerebral and I have to break out my dictionary to follow him sometimes but he's cool...I'll vouch for him--not that he needs a voucher, of course.

Why thank you! We appreciate that verily much. I know I tend to wander into discussions about questionable and/or overly complex topics, but occasionally I muster the will to unwind that bear-trap on ma balls and get twisted into some spaggery.

I don't have that much else specific on the Indian front. Basically I got the main tricks from some British guy (an asshole, but a good cook) around 6-7 years ago, and have been working on the spice balances ever since. Of course its different every single time you make it - but that's the fun part. Every time you meet with new or old friends, contingency of ingredients and skills produces a new creation.

I have a friend who more frequently does a tomato-based curry, and uses safran for the rice. I don't know how to pull off that direction. I posted this here because I was hoping to learn more Indian cooking tricks myself xD but I do have a bunch of other recipes up my sleeves, so I will post some in the coming weeks (maybe a chilli or a couple strudel recipes).
"In Shadow - we find the Light - Safely Sealed in Darkest Night, so make Sure Ya'll Keep it Tight. Wizards Only - Fools!"

Pergamos

I've done saffron rice, the trick is to use only a tiny bit of saffron, and put it in at the beginning so it suffuses the rice as you steam it.