He Cooks, She Cooks

When Michael and I competed in the university Iron Chef competition, the designated ingredient was rice, and we decided to plan an Indian-themed menu. We didn’t make dessert, but I thought garam masala Rice Krispie treats would have been fitting. So later one night when we had Indian food for dinner, I decided to try my idea out.

Garam masala is a common spice blend in Indian cuisine. I read in Meena Pathak’s Indian Cooking for Family and Friends that garam masala usually includes cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, among other spices typically associated with savory dishes, such as cumin, coriander and bay leaves. I used all the spices Pathak called for, but adjusted the levels as I thought would be better for the Rice Krispie treats.

The result was different than anything I’d had before. The flavor is clearly dessert but more complex. Play a game and get people to try to guess what you put in their Rice Krispies!

I recommend buying whole spices and grinding them yourself. They are so much more powerful. I love cinnamon and nutmeg regardless, but you have to try them fresh.

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I love to flip through cookbooks, but lately I’ve been more interested in food theory — books about ingredients, techniques, flavors, etc. Besides not being able to stick to a recipe to save my life, I prefer to learn the concepts behind cooking. It’s like that saying: Give a gal a fish recipe and she’ll eat for a night. Teach her how to cook it and she’ll eat for a lifetime. Or something.

I found an incredibly interesting book in the university library called The Flavor Principle Cookbook. It discusses the flavor principles and cooking techniques of several cultures, and then offers examples of traditional dishes and unique ways of combining ideas from different regions. This seems progressive for 1973.

I loved reading about the flavor principles from each culture, noticing the overlap and slight differences among them. For instance:

• Olive oil + tomato + garlic = Southern Italian
• Olive oil + tomato + saffron = Spanish, Southern French
• Olive oil + tomato + mixed herbs (thyme, basil, oregano) = Mediterranean, Provencal
• Olive oil + tomato + cinnamon and/or lemon = Greece, Balkans, Middle East

You can almost draw a map and follow the cuisine.

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Before I left my parents’ house over spring break, I made sure to copy down a recipe from a great book they had about dips. The recipe, called Dip Into India, was for a curry-cauliflower dip. I wrote down each ingredient and step of the recipe, and then as usual, I changed it as soon as I got in the kitchen.

The main change was the spice. The book calls for curry powder, but I wanted to use individual spices so I could better control the flavors, and so each taste would be more pronounced. I toasted and ground whole cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fenugreek, cardamom and other spices.

My other addition was lemon juice, which I am surprised the recipe didn’t call for in the first place.

I liked the dip a lot. It’s great with pita chips, which were a process to make all from scratch, but at least I didn’t feel ripped off by the prices they charge for tiny bags of pita chips in the grocery store.

The cauliflower dip actually makes a good hot or cold side dish, too. When I was out of chips, I finished it off with a fork. Continue reading »

Back in February, Michael, my friend Gwen and I competed in the university Iron Chef competition, where we had a few days to plan a two course menu involving various rices. We all love Indian food so that’s the route we went. Then we had one hour and two burners to prepare the dishes for four judges with the help of campus chef Jeremy Elmore. We wished we placed better than third, but we were very proud of the food we made and think you’d like it, too. The menu:

• Vegetable and Brown Basmati Fritter with Three Sauces: Curry-Lime Yogurt, Coconut-Mango Chutney and Chili-Garlic Tomato Paste
• Gulf Shrimp in Coconut-Tamarind Curry Sauce with Red Himalayan Rice Pilaf and Cucumber Raita

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We each have something to say about the university Iron Chef competition, but we broke it up into two posts: He Said and She Said.

It’s a day after Battle Rice, and I’m still bummed. I very sincerely feel that we deserved better scores than we received. Overall we came in third place (second in taste). We received no feedback from the judges beyond numbered scores, so it’s hard to tell what they didn’t like. My best guess is that the shrimp curry was too different and spicy for their tastebuds. We knew our menu was risky since the judges were administrators and students, not food experts. But we weren’t going to dumb down the flavors we knew the food should have.

We went with Indian-style dishes because we’re most comfortable with those ingredients and tastes. We wanted to give the judges something different, something that would hit every note on the palate.

The Menu

• Vegetable and Brown Basmati Fritter with Three Sauces: Curry-Lime Yogurt, Coconut-Mango Chutney and Chili-Garlic Tomato Paste
• Gulf Shrimp in Coconut-Tamarind Curry Sauce with Red Himalayan Rice Pilaf and Cucumber Raita

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I love carbs of all kinds, but Indian naan has to be one of my favorites. Last year my mom and I went on a naan baking binge, trying to find the right recipe and technique. There is quite a lot of variation. Some call for yeast, others just use plain yogurt. Some are baked, some cooked in a pan on the stove. My mom and I had lots of good bread, but nothing quite like the naan served in Indian restaurants.

Finally I found something that compared. This is a yeast recipe, and though naan is meant to be baked in a high-heat tandoor oven, I prefer to make it on the stovetop because it’s easier to flip. Ghee is a clarified butter that you can get from some markets or make yourself by simmering butter until all the water evaporates and you can separate the fat from the milk solids. I used simple melted butter, and that was just fine.

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