Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Himalayan Potato Curry (Shogok Goptse)

Recipe Source: Cramer, Marc.  Imperial Mongolian Cooking.  Hippocrene Books, New York, 2003 p. 168

I served this as a side dish one recent Sunday.  It was substantial enough that I could have served it as a main dish, and that's a good thing because I wasn't at all fond of the main dish.  I'm always fond of potatoes, though, so this really worked out well for me!  It's very mildly flavored and very filling. 

Himalayan Potato Curry (serves 4; approx. $2.19/serving)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek

6 garlic cloves, crushed

2 onions, finely chipped

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup mushroom soy sauce

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 tablespoon cumin

2 pounds potatoes, thinly sliced

1 cup water

1 bell pepper, thinly sliced

10 ounces finely sliced mushrooms

6 scallions, chopped

Equipment:

• Large heavy saucepan with a lid

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the fenugreek seeds and cook until they splutter.
3. Add the garlic and onions.  Cook, stirring, until golden.
4. Add the tomatoes, soy sauce, ginger, turmeric and cumin.  Cover, reduce heat and cook 5 minutes.
5. Add the potatoes and water.  Cook 15 minutes, covered.
6. Add the bell pepper and the mushrooms.  Cook 5 minutes then remove from heat. 
7. Add the scallions and serve. 

Recipe: Beef and Noodle Soup

  Recipe Source: Cramer, Marc.  Imperial Mongolian Cooking.  Hippocrene Books, New York, 2001 p. 34. 

Winter is a time for soup, but soup doesn't have to be heavy.  This soup, which serves ten if served as the Soup Course, is actually amazingly light.  It is also very yellow - so yellow that I should have submitted it to the Food in Colors event!  Apparently it is often served as a breakfast in Mongolia, at least according to Mr. Cramer.  In Mongolia (again, according to the author) this would be made with lamb, which I would have preferred.  In Tibet, it would be made with yak meat, which I have yet to find for sale in the metropolitan Boston area. 

I made a few changes to the recipe.  I used olive oil instead of "vegetable oil."  I increased the amount of garlic.  I added some minced ginger to the powdered ginger called for in the recipe.  I increased both the cumin and turmeric.  I didn't have egg noodles on hand, so I substituted rice noodles, which I sauteed in hot pepper sesame oil.  Finally, rather than thinly slicing the tomatoes, I used small tomatoes that I chopped into halves or quarters. 

I genuinely liked this soup.  I didn't like the texture of the meat.  I think that the meat would be better sliced as thinly as possible and added later in the recipe.  I suppose that would make it more like a pho, but I like pho.  I think it would also be just fine without the meat, and in fact froze the leftovers in just such a fashion. 

Beef and Noodle Soup (serves 10; approx. $1.35/serving)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

6 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 pound lean beef stewing meat

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

7 cups water

1 small package rice noodles

1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced

1 onion, thinly sliced

1/3 package of Campari tomatoes, quartered.

1 tablespoon hot pepper sesame oil

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Bowl
• Strainer
• Wok

1. Heat the olive oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the fenugreek seeds.  Stir until they turn brown.
3. Add the garlic and ginger.  Saute until just fragrant.
4. Add the meat, cumin and turmeric.  Saute until the meat is browned.
5. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes.
6. Add the water, cover and cook another 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, reconstitute the noodles in the bowl with hot water.
8. Drain the noodles. 
9. Heat the sesame oil in the wok. 
10. Add the noodles and saute 2 - 3 minutes.
11. Add the onions, scallions and tomatoes to the serving vessel.
12. Add the noodles.
13. Add the broth with meat to the serving vessel and serve. 

Recipe: Steak in Sauce

Recipe Source: Cramer, Marc.  Imperial Mongolian Cooking.  Hippocrene Books, New York, 2003 p. 121.

 

The original recipe for this dish comes from a book called Imperial Mongolian Cooking and gives a Tibetan provenance for this recipe.  I don't know enough to judge whether this is an authentic Tibetan dish and I'm pretty sure that Genghis Khan's cooks did not make use of tomatoes.  Frankly, that's okay by me.  I would like this dish plenty if I found it in a mainstream cooking magazine, regardless of its origins.  It's kind of unusual for us to serve steak with a sauce, because we both really like to let the meat speak for itself, but in this case we felt that the sauce justified its own existence.  In addition, it allowed me to add some more vegetables to the plate, and you know how I love to do that. 

 

I made more than a few changes to this recipe, so if it ever was authentically Tibetan to begin with it probably isn't now.  First, the original called for the steak to be cut up into strips before cooking.  My husband was reluctant to put strips on the grill, and we both feel that it's easier to keep the meat juicy if you don't cut it up before cooking.  I used a whole 14 oz can of tomatoes, because they're so darned good for you and because I didn't want the leftovers migrating to the back of the fridge and creating their own little colonies.  I used more garlic because that's just what I do, and I used 1/4 bunch instead of 1/4 cup of cilantro. 

 

Steak in Sauce (serves 4; approx. $3.29/serving)

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes

3 - 4 dried red chilies, crushed

4 cloves garlic

1 shallot, coarsely chopped

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon grated ginger

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped

2 beef steaks

3 - 4 scallions for garnish

Equipment:

• Grill or barbeque
• Saucepan or wok
• Blender

1. Put the first 6 ingredients into your blender and puree. 
2. Warm the oil in your saucepan.
3. Add the cilantro.
4. Add the contents of the blender and cook 2 minutes.  Keep the sauce warm while you prepare the steak.
5. Heat your grill to medium-high.
6. Grill the steaks to your desired level of doneness - you don't want to know how rare I like mine!
7. Serve, topped with the sauce. 

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