If there is one thing I have come to appreciate about Indian cuisine is the amazing spices and spice combinations that are used and the aromas that now radiate from my spice drawer.
We are going Kebab Krazy at I Heart Cooking Clubs. I've been scarce at IHCC lately but when I saw what this week's theme was I new I could find a kebab recipe I would like.
I love lamb. Lovey doesn't like lamb. When I read this Madhur Jaffrey recipe I thought it would make for great lunches at work this coming week. Since I knew Lovey wouldn't be eating any of these I didn't hold back on the spices called for; primarily the cayenne that I usually have to leave out of recipes because Lovey is not a fan of heat either.
The recipe can be started the night before; in fact I would think it best so the lamb has some real personal time with the marinade; which is what we start with. First order of business is allowing the yogurt to drain in a cloth-lined strainer.
While the yogurt is draining make a paste of the garlic cloves. I mince the cloves very fine and then begin scraping the garlic back and forth with the edge of the knife blade at a slight angle.
These photos aren't very good and it's hard to take photos performing a technique that I use both hands. Anyway, keep scraping back and forth until your garlic looks somewhat like a paste.
Here are all of the ingredients that are whisked together for the marinade. The drained yogurt, grated fresh ginger, cayenne, garam masala, garlic paste and salt.
Since I was making this recipe for myself I halved it (but I did not half the marinade). I purchased a little over one pound of boneless leg of lamb.
Once trimming up the lamb it was cut into one-inch cubes. Although, let it be said there is no way to get every piece all the same size so please don't stress over the size of your pieces of meat. Sorry for that little globulin of blood attached to one of the pieces of meat; that's not very appealing is it?
Whew! Speak of not a very appealing photo! But don't let it fool you. This marinade is so aromatic I can only imagine at this point how it will flavor the lamb. Now, cover your bowl and stick in the refrigerator. Mine marinated for about 24 hours.
About 30 minutes before you plan to broil the kebabs, soak your skewers. The recipe did not mention this but anytime I use bamboo skewers for broiling or grilling I soak them first; for about 30 minutes.
Once you are ready to load up your skewers, lay them out on a towel.
Push meat cubes onto the skewers; I got about 7 cubes per skewer. I ended up with 7 skewers with a little over one pound of meat. The recipe stated that it served 4 to 6 people (using 2-1/2 pounds). The recipe also mentioned using 4 skewers for the cubes of meat. In my opinion, there is no way 2-1/2 pounds of meat would fit on 4 skewers. I used 7 skewers for 1 pound of meat, so determine for yourself if 2-1/2 pounds of meat is really necessary.
Before placing them under the broiler brush both sides of each kebab with melted butter.
Broiling should be at least 5 inches from the heat source. My broiler is very hot (500°F) so I placed my broiler pan a little further away, in the middle of the oven.
Broil for about 7 minutes on each side.
You know, some say that the smell of cookies baking in the oven will serve as an aide when trying to sell your house; I think you should broil a batch of these kebabs.
Punjabi Lamb Kebabs
Adapted from a recipe by Madhur Jaffrey
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
8 ounces whole-milk yogurt (preferably Greek)
6 Tbsp. mustard oil or extra virgin olive oil
1-1/4 tsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 cloves garlic
2-inch piece of fresh ginger root
2 tsp. garam masala (or store bought)
1 pound boneless lamb from the leg
3 Tbsp. butter
Mise en place:
- put yogurt in a cloth-lined strainer or colander and set in sink
- mince garlic and crush to a paste
- peel piece of ginger by scraping with a spoon and grate
- measure out the oil, salt, cayenne and garam masala and place in large bowl
- add yogurt, garlic and ginger to the bowl
- cut lamb into 1 inch pieces
Method:
Whisk all of the marinade ingredients in the bowl. Add the lamb pieces. Cover bowl and refrigerate overnight or 24 hours.
Thirty minutes prior to broiling, soak skewers in water. Remove skewers from water and lace meat cubes on each skewer. Place each skewer on a broiler pan. Melt the butter and brush both side of each skewer with the melted butter.
Preheat your oven to the broiler setting. Place the tray about 5 inches from the source of heat. Broil 5-7 minutes on the first side and another 5-7 minutes on the opposite or until the kebabs are done to your taste.
I'm sharing this recipe at IHCC.
An aromatic spice blend used in many Indian dishes, it's said that there are as many recipes for Garam Masala as there are dishes that it goes in.
It's pot luck week at I Heart Cooking Clubs and I'm taking an easy path by preparing a small batch of this popular spice blend.
This simple recipe is by Madhur Jaffrey. Her recipe makes about 3 Tablespoons, which is a nice small amount to keep on hand. Its name translates literally as "warm spice mix."
I didn't have cardamom seeds on hand so I had to crack the pods I had in the spice drawer. If you can't buy the seeds then buy cardamom pods and shell them yourself. A bit tedious but by fingers smelled great afterwards.
I keep a small coffee grinder dedicated for spices alone.
Garam Masala
A recipe by Madhur Jaffrey
Yields approximately 3 Tbsp.
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp cardamom seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp black cumin seeds (you can use regular cumin seeds if black aren't available)
1 tsp whole cloves
1/3 of a whole nutmeg (you can break a whole nutmeg by placing it on a cloth and bashing it with a meat mallet or rolling pin)
a medium sick of cinnamon, about 2 - 3 inches, broken up into 3/4 pieces.
Method:
Put all the ingredients in a clean coffee grinder or other spice grinder and grind as finely as possible.
Store in a tightly lidded jar, away from heat and sunlight and use as needed.
I'm sharing this recipe at IHCC
Green beans prepared at our house are usually steamed, buttered and sprinkled with lemon juice.
I have never cared for left over green beans. They are hard to revive to their original fresh and snappy selves. Kind of like take out french fries with your hamburger. By the time you get it all home the fries are a pile of limp starch sticks; they're never the same as if you'd stayed and enjoyed your burger and fries at the burger joint.
This year I opted to steam enough green beans for Thanksgiving dinner but instead of left overs the next day I tried a green bean casserole recipe from the November / December 2006 issue of Cook's Illustrated.
In the taste department it's a far cry from the recipe we're all familiar with that we can throw together in our sleep. This one is definitely worth the extra effort. I want to clarify here that I certainly don't turn my nose up at the original green bean casserole; I'll eat the whole pan of it if it's plopped down in front of me.
This recipe makes a dish we so love even better. I will be coming back to this again and again for several reasons.
One, the green beans maintain their bright, verdant color and have the perfect bite to their texture.
Two, the from-scratch mushroom sauce is bursting with fresh mushroom flavor. It can't even be compared to the salty, gelatinous mushroom soup concentrate we are accustomed to.
Three, is the twist to the french fried onion ring topping. With the addition of a little bit of white bread crumbs (I used a couple of leftover Parker House Rolls) and butter to the onion rings made for a more sophisticated topping.
Four, and very important to me, is that Lovey really, really liked these.
It halves nicely which is what I did here. I'm giving you the full recipe below. If you do half it bake it in a 2-quart (or 8-inch x 8-inch square) baking dish. The components of the casserole can be prepared ahead of time.
My recommendation? Go ahead, break from tradition and try this the next time you want to make green bean casserole. You may just start a new tradition in your household.
Green Bean Casserole
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated November-December 2006 issue
Serves 10-12
For the Topping:
Ingredients:
4 slices white sandwich bread
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/4 tsp. table salt
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
3 cups canned fried onions (about 6 ounces)
Method:
Tear each slice of bread into quarters and place in the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter, salt and pepper. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about ten 1-second pulses. (NOTE: You can prepare the topping ahead of time to this point and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator over night. The onions will be added right before baking.) Transfer to a large bowl and toss with onions; set aside.
For the Beans and Sauce
Ingredients:
Table salt
2 pounds green beans
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 pound white button mushrooms
3 medium garlic cloves (about 1 Tbsp.)
Ground black pepper
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1-1.2 cups heavy cream
Mise en place:
- rinse beans, trim ends and cut in half; set aside
- pop stems off mushrooms, wipe mushrooms clean and break into half-inch pieces (you can also dice them to half-inch pieces)
- finely mince the cloves of garlic
- measure out flour
- measure out chicken broth
- measure out heavy cream
- adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 °.
- fill a large bowl with ice water
- line a baking sheet with paper towels
Method:
Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large Dutch oven. Add 2 Tbsp. salt and beans. Cook beans until bright green and crisp-tender, about 6 minutes. Drain beans in colander and plunge immediately into ice water to stop cooking. Spread beans on paper-towel-lined baking sheet to drain.
Add butter to now-empty Dutch oven and melt over medium-high heat until foaming subsides. Add mushrooms, garlic, 3/4 tsp. salt, and 1/8 tsp. pepper; cook until mushrooms release moisture and liquid evaporates, about 6 minutes. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in broth and bring to simmer, stirring constantly. Add cream, reduce heat to medium, and simmer until sauce is thickened and reduced to 3-1/2 cups, about 12 minutes.(if you are halving this recipe this cooking time will be reduced to about 6 minutes to 1-3/4 cups). Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add green beans to sauce and stir until evenly coated. Arrange in even layer in a 3-quart (or 13 by 9-inch) baking dish. (If preparing ahead, cover dish with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator for up to 24 hours - then remove plastic wrap, heat casserole in a 425° oven for 10 minutes then add the topping and bake as directed). If not, sprinkle with topping and bake until top is golden brown and sauce is bubbling around edges, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately.
It has taken me several weeks to get off high center about I Heart Cooking Clubs' selection for chef and cookbook author being highlighted for the next 6 months. Quite frankly I am not a big fan of Indian cuisine. Chalk that up to eating a lot of really bad Indian food in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Some has been disgusting and other, though it may taste OK, has been extremely visually unappealing.
But....if I really want to learn something about Indian cooking Madhur Jaffrey is the one person I would want to learn from; like gravitating to Marcella Hazan for Italian, Rick Bayless for Mexican or Julia Child for French.
So, off the couch I come to cook outside my normal realm of comfort. This week's theme is yogurt and I selected a fish dish baked in a yogurt sauce; a recipe from Indian Cooking.
Everything was easily combined in a baking dish, covered and baked.
sliced onions
fish - I used cod instead of the suggested haddock. Halibut was another suggestion that would work here.
Topped off with a yogurt sauce flavored with ginger, cumin and coriander. The sauce was a little bland but only due to the fact that I left out the cayenne and garam masala (which is a blend of cardamom seeds, cinnamon stick, cumin seeds, cloves, peppercorns and nutmeg).
The fish turned out delightfully light and healthy. We served it with brown rice and sliced tomatoes. The recipe halved well and surprised me as being the first Indian food that I actually liked. Lovey was too! But I didn't tell him what I was making him until he ate it.
Let's go see what they have for us to do next week (now that I have my feet wet).
Cod Baked in a Yogurt Sauce or Dahi wali macchi
Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking (as Haddock Baked in a Yogurt Sauce)
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
2 medium onion, peeled
2 pounds (900 g) 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick fresh cod fillets (or haddock or halibut)
2 cups (450 ml) plain yogurt
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 tsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/2 to 3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp peeled, finely grated fresh ginger
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
3 Tbsp unsalted cold butter, cut into pieces
Mise en place:
- rinse and dry fish fillets; cut the fillets into 3 inch (7.5 cm) pieces and set aside to dry
- slice onions 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick slices and line a large baking dish with them.
- place the dried, cut fillets onto the onions in a single layer
- pour yogurt into small mixing bowl
- squeeze lemon juice and grate the ginger and add to yogurt
- measure out the spices and add to yogurt
- measure vegetable oil and add to yogurt mixture
- cut cold butter in small pieces and hold in the refrigerator until ready to use
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350°F /190°C
With a whisk mix the yogurt mixture and pour over the fish, making sure some of the sauce goes under the pieces of fish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the upper third of the oven for 30 minutes or until the fish is just done.
Remove fish to a plate and keep covered in warm oven. Meanwhile, pour all of the liquids from the baking dish into a small saucepan. It will seem very thin and separated. Bring the sauce to a boil and boil rapidly until there is about 1-1/2 cups (350 ml) of the sauce left, about 5 minutes Take the saucepan off the heat. Put in the cold butter and beat in with a fork or small whisk. As soon as it has melted, pour the sauce over the fish and serve.
NOTE: you may also serve the dish cold, after it has been refrigerated overnight, with a green salad.
I'm sharing this post at IHCC - go on over and see if there's anything you like
