Indian dinner

Way back when I just started writing this blog and wasn't sure what to do with it I started to draft some sort of essay on Indian cooking.  Check the archives; it never made it to publication.  Since then I've posted three Indian(ish) recipes, one of which hardly even counts despite having a semi-accurate flavor profile and ingredient list.

Which is all leading up to say: Indian cooking can be tricky.  Forget the ingredients; they're really not that unusual for the most part.  We all know about cumin and ginger and mustard and cinnamon and even some of the less obvious things spices like turmeric, coriander, and even cardamom aren't anything all that special.  In the end dal is just lentils and asafoetida isn't strictly necessary.

And yet it still ends up being somewhat tricky to figure out -- largely because of the process involved.  But rest assured, tricky doesn't mean hard.  Just... tricky.  All the rules about what goes in when and why in French cooking get tossed out the window (note: same is true of most Asian cuisines; it's just that Indian food is also quite different than anything with Sino-Japanese influences).  You end up building your spice profile from the beginning rather than the end, use odd thickening tricks, employ dairy in weird ways... etc, etc, etc.  But once you get the hang of it it's actually pretty hard to screw it up.  At least not too badly.  After trying a few (good) recipes (that actually try to explain themselves) and maybe using some of those boxed spice mixes (and analyzing what's in them and what each ingredient adds) improving becomes relatively simple.

Case in point: new year's eve 2010.  The wife (am I going to get used to saying that sometime?) calls on the way home and requests Indian.  A quick inventory of the kitchen and a run to the store yields:

• Almost 2 lbs of tri tip (thank god for discount meat but note that there's absolutely no reason to use this if you want to be authentic or otherwise cost-conscious; just replace with boneless skinless chicken breasts if you prefer)
• 2 yellow onions
• 3 bell peppers
• 3 jalapenos
• 7 red potatoes
• Chicken broth
• 1 large can diced tomatoes
• 1 can tomato paste
• Olive oil
• Cumin (whole; this is important)
• Coriander (whole; this is important)
• Cardamom pods (always pods; the flavor difference is substantial)
• Ginger (powder is fine but raw grated is always good)
• Cinnamon (ground; sticks are fine)
• Yogurt
• Rice
• Salt/pepper

I also had turmeric and a handful of masala blends laying around but opted against them this time around.

Looks viable... right?

Of course.  We'll start with the rice:

• Make rice

Basically I'd forget to do this until too late if I don't get it in early.  And if it's a little cool by the time you serve it it's no big deal.

Then move on to bigger, better things.  Like building a spice profile and braising a bit.  In a skillet combine:

• Olive oil
• Cumin seeds
• Coriander seeds

Get that HOT.  You want the seeds to be popping and jumping and generally scaring your domestic wildlife.  A little smoke from the oil isn't a bad thing.

In the meantime cube up your meat of choice.  Since mine was beef I felt obligated to conservatively apply salt and pepper.  Brown that in the superheated oil then transfer to a stock pot (along with some of the oil, naturally).

Take the heat down in the skillet, add a touch more oil along with the seeds from a half dozen cardamom pods.  Bring the heat back up a bit until they become pungent and then quickly add onions chunked rather largely and toss until they're just slightly cooked.  Then transfer everything to the stock pot, scraping for all the little bits of goodness left behind from the high heat.

Now you're just stewing.  Add:

• Bell peppers, also chunked
• Jalapenos, I like them ring sliced, seeds and all
• Diced tomatoes with juice
• Chicken broth
• Ginger

Bring to a boil and let that simmer together for a few minutes before adding:

• Potatoes, large chunks
• Cinnamon to taste -- but don't go overboard
• Tomato paste to thicken

Stir well, ensuring that the tomato paste is evenly distributed.  That's the only thickener you're using so make the most of it.  You're likely to want to add a bit of salt somewhere in here as well.

And that's it.  Walk away.  When the potatoes are done you have dinner.

Serve in a bowl with layers of rice, stew, and yogurt.  Garnish with cilantro if you're so inclined.

See?  Simple.  The spices toasted at the beginning are the primary flavor modifiers -- and they had to be whole in order to stand up to the high heat without burning.  The secondary spices are more mellow, present primarily to round out the flavor.  The onions are left nearly raw, imparting a very different flavor than the long sweats and browns you're used to.  The jalapenos add just enough heat to notice without being overpowering.  The potatoes take on the flavor of the broth, oil, and tomatoes.  And it all works wonderfully.

But yes, it does take some getting used to.

Chili con carne take 2

It's that season again.  And when the pantry is relatively empty it's easy enough just to go with what you have.  This worked out fine and basically proves that con carne is just one of those things you can do just about anything to without messing it up too badly.

This time, sweat two smallish white onions in olive oil until nice and tender.

Add in one to 1.5 pounds ground beef (70-30 if you can get it of course; 80-20 works though I wouldn't go much lower than that).  When that's mostly cooked through, throw in (of course) cumin and oregano along with cayenne in relatively equal parts.  Don't worry, the bulk of the heat will come later.

To that, add:

• 1 can black beans, half drained
• 1 can pinto beans, half drained
• 1 can great northern beans, half drained
• 2 cans tomato paste
• 1 can chipotle in adobo, chopped

Mix that together adding water as needed.  Garnish with cilantro (or parsley as that's what I had and it worked fine) and cheese of your choice.

Relatively quick, dead simple, and quite hardy.  Plus, well, hot.  Chipotle in adobo tends to lend itself to that quite well.

Tri-tip burritos

For some reason summer for me means tri-tip.  And tri-tip is good.  And very occasionally on sale enough to justify.

After experiencing several experiments on a small smoker (thank you very much Mr. McCormack; all was quite welcome) I decided to give it a shot on my own.  Which naturally meant not traditional smoked beef; that would be too mundane.  Even if I did have a smoker.

Solution: slow-cooked, heavily marinated beef with green chile in a tortilla.  How could that go wrong?  (In this case, it actually didn't.)

Marinade/sauce

In a food processor, combine:

• Garlic
• Cumin
• Oregano
• Ancho (for smokey flavor so not too much; this isn't your heat source)
• 1/4 package of hot chile powder (hot molido, in this case; this is your heat source)
• 50-50 white vinegar and water until there's a thin paste (it's easy enough to modulate the amount of vinegar down a bit, but you do need a decent amount to tenderize the beef)

Cover your tri-tip with this stuff, pour the rest in a baking pan with the meat in it, cover and chill.  Probably best overnight, and probably better if you pierce the meat several times.

Green sauce

The next day, or whenever you're nearly ready to start actually cooking the meat, start up your green sauce.

In a sauce pan, sweat in olive oil:

• 1 medium onion, 1/4 inch dice or so
• Garlic, minced
• Some whole cumin

In the meantime, thaw 1 container green chile (yeah, i used Bueno extra hot for this as well; I could live on that stuff).

When the onions are basically transparent, add:

• 1 yellow or orange pepper (red will do; going for sweet here) in smallish chunks

Sweat that down a bit, then add the green chile (likely still partially frozen), some water, and turn the heat up.  Let it come to a boil.

Thicken as desired with cold water/flour until reasonably thick -- you want it to drop, not run if that makes sense.

In the meantime, start on the meat.

Meat

Bring an oven to 450 or so.  Bring meat back to room temp on the counter; probably start this just before you start on the green sauce.

To do this properly, heat up your cast iron and Maillard that thing on all sides.

Then throw the meat in a baking pan, uncovered, for 20 minutes or so (100 F?) and toss it in the hot oven.

Take it out, remove from pan and set the nice pasty bits aside, wrap in foil and return to the oven until it reaches 125 - 130.

Remove, let sit for 10 - 15 minutes in the foil, then slice thin against the grain.  Return slices to the now likely cool sauce with any retained juices.  Toss around to coat a bit.

Final product

Heat tortillas.  Place meat in tortillas.  Smother in sauce.  Try to close and eat without making a ridiculous mess.  Chopped fresh cilantro would be awesome here as well.  Consider avocado and black olive as well.  Maybe even some lettuce of some flavor.

Serve with black beans perhaps?  Pico de gallo wouldn't hurt either.

Basic beef stir fry

(Part 3 (1 is here; 2 is here) of what I've taken as a challenge from my cousin.)

Since I can't sleep, I might as well write, right?

I'm assuming that I got my taste for noodles with stir fry from my mother who got it from Taiwan.  Most parts of China and southeast Asia would insist on rice instead.  So we'll go with rice this time.

First, get your rice started.  Do it as you will.  I'm not violently opposed to rice cookers even.  But a stove top Basmati really is better.

Basic ingredients:

• Beef, sliced thin.  Preferably a cut without too much gristle.
• Bell peppers, sliced as you like, but I also like to do long and thing for this
• Water chestnuts, lightly chopped
• Bok choy, chopped
• Ginger, garlic, the usual

Also have on hand and ready:

• Rice wine vinegar
• Soy sauce, and please use some type without MSG and with salt
• Sugar
• Corn starch
• Water

Heat your wok.  Add oil -- preferably peanut at this stage.  Maillard the beef; it shouldn't take long.  White sesame seeds are optional at this point but oh so tasty.  Remove and set aside.

Wipe the wok with a paper towel once it's cool enough to do so.

Add about a 50/50 blend of sesame oil and, if you can find it, Mongolian hot oil.  Vegetable time, but only go about half way through the cooking process.  Usual order; start with garlic, add ginger, add peppers, add water chestnuts.  Then bring the heat way down.

And this is where we develop the sauce.  It's pretty much to taste, but the listed ingredients will give you an idea of where to start.  Both the sugar and the corn starch will thicken, and the water is obviously there to make sure it isn't too thick.

When you're happy with the sauce, turn the heat back up a bit, add the beef, and toss in the chopped bok choy.  If you've timed it right, the rice should be about done as well.

And that's a meal.

Chili con carne

I have an issue with chili. I don't mind the stuff, but I tend to get aggressive and insist that "real" chili is green. And has hominy. And is actually called pozole.

But that doesn't stop me from occasionally doing a true con carne. Because, really, it can be good.

In a dutch oven, brown 1.5 pounds of ground beef with generous amounts of cumin, oregano, and sage. Remove the beef, retaining the fat.

In the fat, sweat 2.5 medium onions -- chopped to half inch or so bits
-- and 8 serrano peppers all chopped up, seeds and all. Browning the onions a bit isn't a bad thing either.

Add the meat back in along with:

* 1 can tomato sauce
* 1 can tomato paste
* 1 quart beef broth
* 3 generous spoonfuls pace picante
* 3 cans small red beans
* a bunch of salt

Simmer for about 45 minutes. 1.5 hours wouldn't hurt.

Ten minutes prior to serving, add two hunked up bell peppers if desired.

Serve with shredded cheddar cheese.