Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Parsi-Style Fish Curry

Recipe Source: Panjabi, Camellia.  50 Great Curries of India.  Kyle Cathie Limited, 2007 p. 132

Everyone makes New Year resolutions, right?  No matter who we are or what we do, as the year changes there is a real urge to try to Do Better as we change to a new year.  Whether it is the calendar year, the agricultural year, the school year, the religious calendar - however well we did the previous year we want to improve going forward.  I'm not much different.  Every year it seems like I make the same resolutions.  I'm going to lose weight.  (This may or may not even be possible in my case, but I resolve to do it every year.  It's almost like a reflex.)  I'm going to save money.  I'm going to feed my family healthier meals.  All three of these mean eating less frequently in restaurants.  This is not as easy as it sounds.  Sometimes we get busy and really have little choice but to grab something while we're on the run.  Sometimes I'm just too exhausted, mentally or physically, to even look at the kitchen.  Sometimes when I'm entertaining I just don't want to eat at home the night before, to avoid dirtying the kitchen.  One way to avoid those pitfalls is to have meals ready to eat during the week, so that all I have to do is heat and eat.  Curries are a great style of recipe for that plan.  They tend to reheat very well, and it's easy to make curries in a healthy manner.

This curry is one such dish.  I made it before the New Year, actually, during the hectic holiday season.  It cooks up very quickly, it's very flavorful, it's not terribly fatty and it reheats very nicely.  I made some changes as well you may expect.  The fish I used was tilapia.  You can get tilapia loins very cheaply at Costco, individually flash-frozen and wrapped.  I increased the green chiles since it was just going to be the two of us and we prefer very spicy food.  I used garlic paste, increased the net amount of garlic and added some ginger to boot.  I omitted the mint to accommodate my husband's food allergy and I omitted the cashews in case my daughter wanted to try some - she is not yet allowed to eat tree nuts lest she break out in allergies.  I reduced the oil and omitted the sugar because they weren't necessary, and since I was out of cumin seeds I used ground cumin.  The end result was a very tasty weeknight meal that satisfied both of us.

Parsi-style Fish Curry (serves 2; approx. $4.44/serving)

2 tablespoons lime hiice

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

Kosher salt to taste

2 tilapia loins

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1/2 cup grated coconut

10 green chiles, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons garlic paste

1 tablespoon ginger paste

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground mace

1/4 teaspoon ground fennel seeds

2 bunches cilantro, leaves and stalks please, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Equipment:

• Food processor
• Mini-prep miniature food processor
• Large wok or saute pan
• Non-reactive dish or shallow bowl

1. Mix half the lime juice with the turmeric, a pinch of kosher salt and maybe a little water if it needs it.  Spread over the fish in the non-reactive dish and set aside 20 minutes.
2. Combine the coconut, chiles, onion, garlic, ginger, poppy seeds, cardamom, mace and fennel in the mini-prep.  Grind to a paste, adding a little water if need be.
3. Use the full-size processor to puree the cilantro leaves.
4. Mix the coriander powder with a little bit of water to make a paste.
5. Heat the oil with the cumin in the wok.
6. Add the coriander powder paste.  Cook 10 seconds.
7. Add the coconut paste and saute 7 minutes.
8. Add the remaining lime juice, cilantro puree and 1 1/2 cups water.  Bring to a boil.
9. Add the fish and cook until the fish is cooked through, 7 - 10 minutes over low-medium heat.
10. Serve.

Recipe: Pomegranate Rice

Recipe Source: Padmanabhan, Chandra.  Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India.  Periplus Editions, North Clarendon, 1994 p. 74

It's funny how our own mental impressions of ourselves frequently differ so strongly from those of the people around us.  I had a friend who has always come off as one of the most collected, poised, self-confident people I've ever known.  She would describe herself, and has described herself, as a complete basket case.  I know people who spend a fortune on hair dye, cosmetics and high-end fashions who only wind up looking like Bozo the Clown.  People often criticize my cooking as being too "fancy," too fiddly.  What they mean, or at least what they say they mean when I push further, is that because my recipes sometimes use a lot of ingredients - exotic ones, sometimes, if you don't know where to shop - my recipes seem overly complex.  I don't think most of them are at all complex, of course.  While I try to break out the processes into tiny chunks so that they can be easily followed, at the end of the day most of them only consist of putting a bunch of things in a pot, in one or two additions, and letting things go until they're done.

This is not one of those recipes.

This recipe was a pain.  It was long, it was complex, it was filled with weird ingredients, it required a lot of changes and it was frustrating.  There were several times while I was making this dish where I just put my tools down and said, "**** it, I'm just going to serve plain boiled rice."  I didn't though.  I kept going, and I came up with a nutritions and delicious side dish that could easily have been a vegan main dish of its own.  I think it probably would have been more worthwhile had I served it as a main dish, because a side dish really isn't worth this much fussing.  Don't get me wrong.  People loved it.  People who hate lentils loved it.  People who love lentils loved it.  It was just a fussy, PITA dish.

As I mentioned, I made a few changes.  I used brown rice because it has more nutritional value, and I had to increase the cooking liquid to accommodate that.  I used olive oil instead of ghee because that's my cooking fat of choice.  I used mild chiles because my guests were not folks who handle heat well.  I hadn't any yellow split peas so I substituted more lentils.  I felt that my curry leaves had finally outlived their useful lives so I omitted them.  The biggest change, and the reason this is now called Pomegranate Rice instead of Spicy Sambar Rice was the substitution of pomegranate juice for tamarind water.  I had been firmly convinced that I had tamarind concentrate in the refrigerator but as it turns out I was mistaken.  I cast about for something that would add the right amount of sourness to the dish and came up with a bottle of pomegranate juice.  In it went.

Pomegranate Rice (serves 8; approx. $2.14/serving)

8 ounces red split lentils, picked over and rinsed, divided

1 cup brown basmati rice

5 cups water

3 cups pomegranate juice

1/2 cup chopped shallots

1 bell pepper, diced

1 small eggplant, diced

1 potato, finely diced

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

9 tablespoons olive oil, divided

10 red chile peppers, chopped

3 tablespoons coriander seeds

1 cinnamon stick

3 teaspoons poppy seeds, divided

4 cloves

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

3/4 cup dried coconut (unsweetened, obviously) plus 4 tablespoons divided

1 teaspoon asafoetida

a little water

3 teaspoons uncooked rice

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon black gram dal

1 red chile pepper, halved lengthwise

Equipment:

• Medium saucepans
• Frying pan
• Wok
• Mini-prep miniature food processor

1. Combine the lentils, rice and water in the saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer until the water has been mostly absorbed by the rice, about 40 - 45 minutes.
3. In the meantime, combine 1 1/2 teaspoons poppy seeds, 1 tablespoon oil, the chiles, the cloves, coriander seeds, cinnamon stick, fengreek, 3/4 cup coconut, asafoetida and 3 teaspoons uncooked lentils in the frying pan.  Cook 2 - 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Transfer to the food processor with a very little bit of water and process to a paste.
5. Combine 3 tablespoons uncooked lentils, the remaining poppy seeds, the uncooked rice and remaining coconut in another saucepan.  Dry-roast them.
6. Transfer to the food processor and process to a fine powder.
7. Heat the remaining oil in the wok.
8. Add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, black gram dal and chile pepper.
9. When the mustard seeds splutter add the chopped shallots.  Saute 2 - 3 minutes.
10. Add the vegetables.  Saute until partially cooked.
11. Add the pomegranate juice, turmeric and salt to taste.  Cook until the vegetables are tender.
12. Add the paste.  Cook 2 - 3 minutes.
13. Add the undrained rice and lentil mixture.  Simmer over low heat.
14. Add the powder mixture.  Remove from heat.
15. Serve.

Recipe: Cabbage with Lentils

Recipe Source: Wikramsinghe, Priya and Carol Selva Rajah.  The Food of India.  Murdoch Books, Millers Point, 2008 p. 158

So I think I've figured out what the secret of cabbage is.  When cabbage is boiled or overcooked it smells bad.  When cabbage is not overcooked and simply fried or sauteed, it does not need to smell bad.  This is a wonderful thing in my opinion.  It allows me to make more extensive use of a vegetable that is healthy, abundant, easily grown locally and often very, very cheap.  Some authorities, none of whom I can cite here off the top of my head, suggest that some member of the cabbage family should be eaten every day.  (Broccoli is supposed to be the favorite, but I wonder if that's just because it is, well, the favorite.)  It is very possible to adhere to this rule if you can find some cabbage recipes that don't fill the air with stink.

This recipe is one such dish.  The cabbage is gently sauteed.  It just needs to cook enough to brighten a little; there's no need to cook it to death and if it's falling apart you've done it wrong.  The lentils offer some protein and a little more body to the dish.  All of the spices involved serve not just to add flavor but are known to counter some of the less socially acceptable side effects of eating cabbage (or lentils, come to think of it.)  I did make a few changes to the original.  I omitted the curry leaves because mine were about a thousand years old and had quite lost their aroma.  I omitted the dried chiles as well, substituting some chili powder.  I increased the mustard seeds and the turmeric, but I omitted the asafoetida.  The lentils are a substitution too, come to think of it.  The original called for split peas but red lentils is what I had.  Fortunately using the red lentils allowed me to skip some time-consuming soaking steps.

The result was a success.  I vastly overplanned for the dinner where I served this, but there were no leftovers of this dish.

Cabbage with Lentils (serves 8; approx. $0.28/serving)

4 1/2 ounces red lentils, washed

1 head Savoy cabbage, shredded

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon chile powder

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

Equipment:

• Medium saucepan
• Wok or saute pan

1. Put the lentils in the saucepan with water to cover.
2. Bring to a boil.  Cook until tender and falling apart.  With red lentils this is actually pretty quick, less than fifteen minutes as a general rule.
3. Set the lentils aside.
4. Heat the oil in the wok.
5. Add the mustard and cumin seeds.  Cook until the seeds pop.
6. Add the lentils.  Saute briefly.
7. Add the cabbage with the chile powder and turmeric.  Saute until the cabbage is tender.
8. Serve.

Recipe: Fish Fillets with Harissa Sauce

Recipe Source: Husain, Shehzad and Rafi Fernandez.  Indian.  Anness Publishing, London, 2003 p. 132

I've been trying to make a move away from meat and poultry and toward fish.  It's not that I think that eating meat is morally different from eating fish.  Fish offers nutrients that most land-based meat does not offer.  I make this promise to myself every once in a while - that we're going to eat more fish and become a healthier couple.  The problem is that fish can be very, very expensive.  If you're not careful you can blow half your paycheck on fish.  This often stops my well-intentioned changes in their tracks and after I look at the grocery bill we go right back to meat or vegetarian.  Well, I've found a solution.  Costco sells large sacks of individually flash-frozen fish fillets.  To some extent it does limit creativity - you're kind of stuck with cod, tilapia or salmon.  They do offer other types of fish but they aren't individually wrapped so you have to use them all in one go, which eliminates the advantage of buying in bulk.  On the other hand there are plenty of dishes that can be made with those three types of fish, so you can eat healthier and not break the bank.

This recipe has been altered to include cod fillets, which I had on hand and didn't cost a lot, instead of flounder.  I also eliminated the marinading step just for my own sanity and because I was in a bit of a rush.  Instead I roasted the fish in the oven and went with the sauce.  The sauce itself was also changed.  I increased the ginger paste a little because I like it.  I increased the amount of tomato paste because I didn't want the remainder to sit in my fridge and get gross.  I omitted the sugar because I was always taught that sugar Just Doesn't Go With Tomatoes.  I wasn't sure what kind of "chilli sauce" the original might want.  I decided to go with some harissa that had been in my refrigerator for a while instead.  I had no malt vinegar so I used cider vinegar.  So I guess that my final product bears no resemblance whatsoever to the original.  I'm okay with that, because we both really liked this dish.

Fish Fillets with Chili Sauce (serves 4; approx. $1.40/serving)

3 cod fillets

1 tablespoon ground turmeric

1 tablespoon ginger paste

1 can tomato paste

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon harissa

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 1/4 cups water

Equipment:

• Roasting pan
• Saucepan

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Sprinkle the fish fillets with the turmeric.
3. Roast until cooked, 10 minutes or so.
4. Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients in the saucepan.
5. Bring to a simmer and let cook until thickened, stirring occasionally.
6. Plate the fish on the serving platter.
7. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve.

Recipe: Lahore-style Lamb Curry

Recipe Source: Baljekar, Mridula.  Best-Ever Curry Cookbook.  Anness Publishing, London, 2005 p. 52

So I've been looking at our diet since the summer and I noticed something.  I haven't been cooking as much.  I've been cooking on the weekends for crowds, but it seems like between social commitments, fatigue, illness and other obligations I just haven't been cooking.  I think the problem is that I haven't been preparing things in advance as much as I would like.  I plan meals for the week but then get sidetracked and wind up not making them.  I think that if I can manage to make the food ahead of time I will be less likely to want to order takeout.  This will be good on two fronts.  First: it will be healthier.  Take-out tends to be salty and fatty, and who knows where they're sourcing their ingredients?  Second: it will be cheaper.  It costs a lot less to make decent food at home than it does to buy reasonable food out, and making food ahead of time means I'm less likely to forget to use it.  If we decide to go out anyway we can always freeze the dish.

Of course, that means that I need to make a lot more food that lends itself to advance preparation.  That means things like soups, stews and curries.  This is not a problem.  I love curry.  I love it because you can really extemporize with the ingredients.  You can add things, take them out, change the spicing to suit your tastes.  Take this curry, for example.  The recipe I started with must have looked good because I marked it down and I made it go.  I added some garlic and some fresh chiles because I had them on hand and I like both things.  I increased the quantity of turmeric because I love turmeric, plain and simple.  I ran out of some chile powder, so I combined cayenne pepper with chipotle chile powder.  I used lentils instead of split peas because that's what I had on hand.  I used canned tomatoes because it is not tomato season and buying "fresh" tomatoes off-season is a recipe for anger and misery.

The result was pretty good when I tasted it before storing it for later in the week.  It was even better after sitting in the fridge for a few days.

Lahore-style Lamb Curry (serves 4; approx. $3.86/serving)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 onion, sliced thin

4 garlic cloves, sliced

5 green chiles, sliced

1 pound boneless leg of lamb, cubed

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile powder

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

6 1/4 cups water

2 ounces red lentils

14 ounces diced San Marzano tomatoes

Chopped fresh cilantro to taste

Equipment:

• Medium saucepan
• Large, deep saute pan

1. Combine the lentils with 2 1/2 cups water in the saucepan.  Bring to a boil.
2. Boil 12 - 15 minutes or until the water is evaporated.  The lentils should just fall apart for the most part.
3. Set aside.
4. Heat the oil in the saute pan.
5. Add the onion, bay leaf, cloves and pepper.  Saute until the onion is golden.
6. Add the garlic and the chiles.  Saute about a minute.
7. Add the lamb, turmeric, chile powder, chipotle powder, ground coriander, cinnamon and salt.  Saute 5 minutes, stirring near constantly.
8. Add 3 3/4 cups water to the pan.  Cover with a lid, reduce heat and simmer until the lamb is tender, about 35 - 40 minutes.
9. Add the lentils and tomatoes.  Stir well.
10. Transfer to the serving vessel, garnish with cilantro and serve.

Recipe: Cumin-Flavored Pastries (Nimki)

Recipe Source: Westrip, Joyce. Moghul Cooking. Serif Cookery, London, 2005 p. 38

I've already mentioned the event I catered during the August non-vacation this year. The theme was supposed to be the Silk Road, with cuisines and treats from cultures that were involved with the medieval silk trade. India was certainly part of the silk trade in those days, but I haven't found a good source for medieval Indian recipes. (If you have a good source, could you please pass it along? I'm not kidding.) The event was a cocktail party, meaning that the food needed to be things people could a) eat with their fingers and b) just kind of graze on while socializing and drinking. It also needed to be relatively "neat" food – food that people could eat without fear of dripping on some very expensive and elaborate costumes. I was flipping through the book cited above when I found this recipe, and I immediately said, "A-ha!"

What is it about this dish that so piqued my imagination? It's the cumin, of course. Cumin is one of my favorite flavors in the whole world. It's the spice I'm most likely to increase when using a recipe. I don't know why it's my favorite spice these days but it is and I simply cannot get enough of it. It's got a nice, pleasant flavor, warming and enticing. It was clearly perfect cocktail party food. I did have to make a few changes. Since this was an ostensibly medieval event (I couldn't get actual medieval sources for some of the recipes) I couldn't use chili powder. (Chiles existed in period, but not in India.) I also had to tweak my usual garam masala mix. One of the changes I made to that mix involved turmeric – I figured that it would give the finished product a pleasant color, which could be problematic given that a) I was not deep-frying the pastries and b) I was going to have to freeze them and bring them from Boston. I also used olive oil for the ghee to keep costs down and because that's what I keep on hand.

Personally, I was delighted with these little pastries. My husband and child were equally enthusiastic when I did the test run. I will say that these were at their absolute best fresh from the oil, but they survived being frozen and re-heated in the Big Green Egg very well indeed.

Nimki (Makes enough for about 6 people; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground coriander

¼ teaspoon ground turmeric

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup water

Vegetable oil for frying

Equipment:

• Mixing bowl
• Rolling pin
• Pizza cutter
• Large skillet
• Slotted spatula
• Plate
• Paper towels

1. Combine the flour with the spices and salt in the mixing bowl.
2. Add the oil and combine well.
3. Add the flour gradually and mix to form a firm dough.
4. Knead 10 – 15 minutes.
5. Allow to rest, covered, at least 30 minutes.
6. Roll out the dough very thin. Use the pizza cutter to cut out roughly diamond shapes. (Freehand cutting is not my strong suit, but that did not affect the flavor!)
7. Heat the vegetable oil in the skillet.
8. Working in batches, fry up the pastries. Do not overcrowd the pan. As the pastries become brown, evacuate them to a plate covered in paper towels with the slotted spatula to drain off the excess oil.
9. Serve.

Recipe: Fruit and Yogurt Curry

Recipe Source: Alford, Jeffrey and Naomi Duguid. Flatbreads and Flavors. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1995 pp. 135 – 6

I made this for my in-laws for our Father's Day dinner. (Why yes, I am aware that Father's Day was quite some time ago.) I wanted something vaguely healthy that would be a surprise and a delight to them and I think this fit the bill. It had the added benefit of using up things that I already had in my refrigerator, legacies of other recipes. You know how it is – you buy the package of fresh green beans because it is easier and then you have half a package left in your fridge until it turns to sludge. Everyone certainly enjoyed this dish; it even pleased me.

I made a few changes from necessity. I wanted to use mangoes here. I bought mangoes to use here, but a refrigerator malfunction resulted in those mangoes freezing in my refrigerator. Oh was I angry! I had some tomatoes left over from another recipe. Those are fruits, right? I decided to include them. I used olive oil for vegetable oil. I used more onions than called for because onions are super healthy, and I used more ginger and garlic than required. I increased the jalapenos and used red jalapenos for color, but I carefully de-seeded them. Instead of the recommended spice mixture in the original I used a combination of hot chili powder, mace, cumin and coriander. Enjoy.

Fruit and Yogurt Curry (serves 4; approx. $3.56/serving)

1 cup carrots, chopped

1 cup potatoes, chopped

1 cup green beans, trimmed and chopped

1 ½ cups water

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 onions, diced

1 tablespoon garlic paste

1 tablespoon ginger paste

3 medium-sized tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 bunch green seedless grapes

2 red jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced

2 cups Greek yogurt

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon hot chili powder

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon ground coriander

¼ teaspoon ground mace

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Large wok
• Colander
• Large bowl

1. Combine the carrots, potatoes and beans in the saucepan with the water. Bring to a boil.
2. Cover and cook about 8 minutes.
3. Drain into the large bowl. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid and discard the rest. Set the vegetables aside.
4. Heat the oil in the wok.
5. Add the onions and cook until golden brown, stirring constantly.
6. Add the garlic and ginger. Sauté about a minute or until fragrant.
7. Add the fruits and jalapenos. Sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly.
8. Add the reserved cooking liquid. Bring to a boil.
9. Lower the heat and add the vegetables.
10. Stir in the yogurt, salt and spices. Don't allow the yogurt to boil, but cook until the yogurt is heated through.
11. Sprinkle half the cilantro on the bottom of your serving vessel.
12. Pour the curry on top of the coriander, then sprinkle with the remaining cilantro and serve.

Recipe: Sweet Potato Poriyal

Recipe Source: Padmanabhan, Chandra. Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India. Periplus Editions, North Clarendon, 2007 p. 34

Anyone reading this who knows me at all well will be thinking: wait, sweet potatoes? Fearless hates sweet potatoes. It's true, I do detest sweet potatoes as well as carrots and any other vegetable that tends to be sweet, such as winter squash. I decided to make this as a side dish over Memorial Day weekend. We were planning to host some friends of ours. The wife is very, very pregnant and she loves sweet potatoes. I wanted to give her this dish because I figured she'd enjoy it. Of course, once I planned my menu and did all the shopping and half the cooking some other friends decided to come along that night too. Those friends don't care for Indian food (I love them anyway) and so this dish was right out. Fortunately some other friends came over the night before and I was able to push this on them.

I was actually remarkably okay with this dish, which is surprising considering the fact that it contained sweet potatoes. I think that the seasonings kind of mitigated any excessive sweetness. My guests liked it too. I made a few changes, as usual. There was the sweet potato for yam substitution, which was actually suggested if one could not acquire proper yams (as was the case with me.) I reduced the number of chilies because one of my guests couldn't tolerate very spicy food. I also omitted the curry powder and used instead a combination of spices that I prefer, mostly because I don't have ready-made curry powder on hand. I also cooked this in a regular saucepan because I do not own a pressure cooker.

Sweet Potato Poriyal (serves 4; approx. cost per serving not available.)

1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and finely chopped

Kosher salt to taste

½ teaspoon ground turmeric, or more to taste

1 jalapeno chili slit sideways

2 ½ tablespoons flaked coconut (unsweetened, please!)

½ teaspoon mild chili powder

1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground coriander

¼ teaspoon ground mace

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon urad dal, rinsed

1 teaspoon yellow split peas, rinsed

1 red chili, halved lengthwise

½ teaspoon asafetida powder

5 curry leaves

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Colander

1. Combine the turmeric, salt and sweet potatoes in a pot with some water. Bring to a boil, then cover and cook until tender. Drain and set aside.
2. Clean out the pot.
3. Heat the oil in the saucepan.
4. Add the mustard seeds, dals, red chili, asafetida and curry leaves.
5. When the mustard seeds splutter, add the slit green chili and the sweet potatoes. Mix well.
6. Add the coconut and spices.
7. Mix thoroughly and heat through. Serve.

Recipe: Lamb with Cumin-Scented Potatoes

Recipe Source: Panjabi, Camellia. 50 Great Curries of India. Kyle Books, 2004 p. 80

Recently my husband went to an event in upstate New York with some friends, leaving me at home with the baby. (Before you think that this was unspeakably rude of him, allow me to point out that I have told him repeatedly that I would much prefer a trip to the dentist than a repeat visit to this event. And I have refused to see a dentist since I was eighteen.) He was going to be working out very hard all day, and I knew that he would have a massive appetite when he got back. That appetite would probably be craving salt, since he would have sweated a great deal. Since I was going to have no idea when he came home, the meal needed to be something that could be reheated quickly and easily. This lamb dish sprang to mind.

I made a few changes. I used about half a pound of creamer potatoes instead of four regular potatoes. Okay, I actually used a full pound, but I ate the first bunch of potatoes out of hand. Look, it combined cumin, salt and potatoes – three of my favorite things! I couldn't resist. I increased the amounts of both garlic and ginger. I didn't have any ready-made garam masala so I mixed up a bunch of my favorite spices and went with it. I added some habaneros because at this time of year my allergies can be brutal. I increased the onions and used canned tomatoes for convenience. This increased the tomato proportion but that's okay; more lycopene is in everyone's best interests.

The results were nothing short of spectacular. I loved this. My husband loved this. We both loved it hot. He loved it cold. I don't know what it tasted like cold because he ate it all. You can rinse the salt off the potatoes before adding them if you wish; I left it on for the reasons described above but not everyone needs so much salt!

Lamb with Cumin-Scented Potatoes (serves 4; approx. $5.31/serving)

½ pound creamer potatoes (mine were different colors, which was fun for me), halved

Kosher salt and plenty of it

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

¼ teaspoon ground mace

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

1 tablespoon chili powder

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 onions, sliced thin

2 habanero chilies, sliced thin

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon ginger paste

1 tablespoon garlic paste

1 ½ pounds stewing lamb

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

14 ounces canned diced tomatoes, with their juices

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Slotted spoon

1. Rub the potatoes with the salt and set aside at least 15 minutes.
2. Combine the coriander, cumin, turmeric, mace, cardamom and chili powder with 2 teaspoons water. Mix to make a paste.
3. Heat the oil in the saucepan.
4. Add the cumin seeds.
5. When the cumin seeds begin to splutter, add the potatoes and fry until golden and crispy.
6. Remove the potatoes from the oil with the slotted spoon and set aside.
7. Add the onions and habaneros. Cook until the onions are medium-brown.
8. Add the bay leaves and the spice paste. Cook until the onions are deep brown.
9. Add the ginger, garlic and 2 tablespoons of water. Sauté 30 seconds.
10. Add the lamb and cook 5 – 7 minutes.
11. Add the tomatoes and cook until the liquid evaporates.
12. Add 3 ½ cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and cook 35 minutes.
13. Add the potatoes back to the mixture. Cook another 10 minutes or so.
14. Serve.

Recipe: Swordfish with Spinach and Tomatoes

Recipe Source: Baljekar, Mridula. Best-Ever Curry Cookbook. Anness Publishing, London, 2005 p. 81

I love curries. If your plan is to make food ahead of time and serve it as needed, nothing works quite as well as a good curry. For the most part they freeze well, they reheat well and it's easy to pack them full of vegetables if that's how your tastes run. I tend to make a whole lot of curries. This one I made when my husband was travelling. It made four days' worth of food for me that I could just re-heat and go, important since I had a lot of work to do for a very busy weekend last month. Unfortunately, I was not in love with this dish. I decided to add some spinach to it, to give the dish a higher vegetable content and more substance. The spinach flavor was really overpowering and after a couple of days just really, really turned me off.

I made a few changes. I changed the proportion of spices around. I omitted the sugar. I used whole wheat flour because, well, it was open and on the counter. I reduced the oil, increased the tomatoes, and I used swordfish instead of tuna because that was what was available that week. I already mentioned that I made this with a bag of frozen spinach, which probably won't be a problem for you if you don't eat it twice a day every day. And I served it with my Light Whole Wheat bread, which also made a great food delivery system. It held up great. I just put the curry on top of the bread and ate it. Not traditional I suppose, but neither am I so that's okay.

Swordfish with Spinach and Tomatoes (serves 4; approx. $4.27/serving)

1 pound swordfish, cut into pieces

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons ground turmeric

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup whole wheat flour

Black pepper to taste

1 onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons ginger paste

2 tablespoons garlic paste

2 Serrano chilies, finely chopped

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes, with juices

1 ¼ cups water

1 pound frozen chopped spinach, thawed

Equipment:

• Glass bowl
• Sauté pan
• Cooking spray
• Wok

1. Put the fish pieces in the glass bowl.
2. Add the lemon juice, half the salt and half the turmeric. Toss to coat and set aside 15 minutes.
3. Dredge the fish in the flour.
4. Lube up the sauté pan with cooking spray. Heat over medium flame.
5. Brown the fish in the sauté pan. Set aside.
6. Heat the oil in the wok over high heat.
7. Add the onion, ginger, garlic and chilies. Reduce heat to about medium and cook until the onions are just beginning to color.
8. Add the ground spices and salt. Sauté until fragrant.
9. Add the tomatoes. Sauté until the tomatoes are very soft and the oil starts to separate from the spice.
10. Add the water to the pan and bring to a boil.
11. Add the fish and spinach. Simmer, uncovered, 5 – 6 minutes.
12. Serve.