Hot Chili-Coconut Masala
Hot Chili-Coconut Masala
You like your food spicy? Then this is the masala for you. Dried chilies and toasted coconut provide the main flavour punch, while a myriad other spices provide texture and colour. This is a western Indian-style spice blend, and is not for the faint of tongue. It’s hot, and I say that as someone who likes my food fairly spicy compared to the norm. It’s quite hot. You’ve been warned.
Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken Tikka Masala
Hey look, it’s everyone’s favourite British culinary creation. That’s right, tikka masala keeps showing up in Indian restaurants, but it’s not a traditional Indian-style curry. For one thing, the sauce is made almost entirely of tomatoes. There’s a very good reason tomatoes haven’t appeared in Indian cuisine until more recently: the tomato is native to South America. Since “The Americas” weren’t “discovered” yet, no one else in the world had any access to the tomato until the Spanish brought it back to Europe around 1500 or so, and from there it slowly spread across the globe (the Middle East didn’t start cultivation until around the 18th century). An interesting side note: Italy only began incorporating the tomato into it’s cuisine somewhere around the 16th-18th centuries; the now-ubiquitous tomato sauce is relatively new to Italian cuisine. Stew on that for a while.
So, chicken tikka masala? It is commonly accepted to have been invented in the UK (Glasgow maybe) and if I was picky, I’d say it’s almost fusion, but mostly it’s still a product of Indian culinary techniques and traditions.
Tandoori Masala
This spice blend is exactly what it sounds like – the masala used to season tandoori dishes, including tandoori chicken. Tandoori chicken, for example, is chicken marinated in yogurt and this spice blend (along with garlic and ginger, perhaps). Of course, traditionally, an abundance of chili powder would provide the red colour we’re all familiar with; most tandoori chicken recipes now ask for red food colouring instead of overpowering heat. This masala will not turn your chicken bright red, but it will provide seasoning.
Ingredients:
- 10 tsp cumin seeds
- 4 tsp coriander seeds
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 tsp cloves
- 2 tsp ginger powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp kashmiri chili powder (regular cayenne powder will do, but kashmiri powder will help impart a red colour when used)
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp mace powder (I suppose you can use nutmeg if you don’t have this but, again, mace provides colour as well as flavour)
- 2 tsp coarse salt
North Indian Garam Masala
It’s becoming increasingly apparent to me that prepared spice blends are a fairly crucial ingredient in great food. At least in a bunch of these Indian dishes I’ve been working with lately. In view of that, I’ve added a “Spices” category to the site to collect spice blends, curry powders and masalas, etc.
This is a North Indian / Punjabi-style garam masala. “Garam Masala” itself is often sold as a separate spice blend, but the name is not necessarily specific to one blend. Garam masala translates as “warming blend” or “hot mix” or something along that line. Different regions of India, however, employ different blends under the same general name. This particular masala is meant to compliment North Indian dishes: for example, the roasted chicken and lamb curries that are popular in North American Indian restaurants are often North Indian in origin or inspiration. Not everyone would suggest toasting this spice blend, but since we’re just making a small amount, why not? It makes the apartment smell fantastic. Anyway, this is a pretty good place to start.
Spicy Eggplant
Spicy Eggplant
If you’ve ever ordered spicy eggplant in a Thai restaurant in Toronto, this is pretty much the dish you’re going to get. Fried wedges of Chinese eggplant nestled in a spicy sauce of garlic, Thai chilies, soy and onion and complimented by red pepper and fresh basil leaves.
The key to this recipe is speed. It’s a stir-fry, and it’s not going to be one of those weak Western-style stir-fries where you pile 2 pounds of vegetable chunks into a wok and simmer them in their own juice. No. We’re talking intense heat, and cooking times measured in seconds. The actual cooking time of this recipe, once the eggplant is fried, is under 4 minutes. Accordingly, all the preparations for the recipe need to be done before the heat is turned on. There will be absolutely no time in between steps to chop or measure ingredients. So we’re going to do all of that before we get stir-frying. Not to worry, though, because the rest is dead simple.
WTF is Green Cardamom?
Green Cardamom
Green Cardamom is a whole spice, a pod to be precise, harvested from a shrub in the ginger family. The plant originates in Southern India, and many South Indian dishes feature the spice prominently. The flavour it imparts is sweet and peppery, and the aroma is a methol-infused floral scent. In India, it’s known as the “Queen of Spices”. One of the best things about green cardamom is it’s versatility. It can feature in creamy kormas and kheema/ground meat dishes as well as Indian desserts, scenting Indian rice, Nordic breads and cardamom-infused Middle Eastern coffee.
It’s sold as a package of pods (and in powder form), but occasionally you may come across recipes asking for “cardamom seeds”. These are the seeds inside the pod itself. If you crack open the green shell, there are maybe 20-25 tiny black circular seeds inside. If the pods are fresh, the seeds will be slightly stuck together with resin and a thin membrane. The seeds themselves have a slightly different flavour on their own, something like cloves and pepper and a few other things. The point here is – green cardamom is green cardamom; there’s nothing else like it. Let your nose show you – go smell some at the store before you buy it.
Chapati
Chapati
Bread is one of my top-5 loves in life. I can’t even quite explain it, but there’s something about it. Flaky, soft, fluffy, dense, crusty, sweet, salty – bread can be just about anything you need it to be. It’s the perfect lover. Four lines in, and I’ve already reached my hyperbole quota. Anyway, bread is good but it’s hard to make. Chapati is not.
Chapati has only two required ingredients: water and flour. Most people are going to put a bit of salt in there, though, so now we have three ingredients. No big deal. Oh wait. I’m going to throw a wrinkle in this: atta flour. This is the great thing about Toronto – we have access to authentic ingredients. Some of them are even available quite readily. I don’t think people take advantage of this fact often enough, but then, I came from a small town where getting Indian food was never an option, let alone an idea. Honestly, some Torontonians just don’t realize how good they’ve had it with all the amazing culinary ideas and supplies brought to the city via immigrant communities. Back to the point, though: atta flour. Atta flour is the main flour used for many Indian flatbreads. It’s whole wheat, made from hard wheat, and is high in protein and fibre (lots of bran). So it’s healthy. Better yet, the stone-grinding process used to make it generally imparts a subtle roasted sweetness to the flour, so it’s got a flavour of it’s own. Tasty.
The problem is, where to get it?
Peanut Spinach Shaak
Thanks to Mike and Aimee for the photo.
Peanut Spinach Shaak
There’s a lot of meat on here so far, eh? My vegan friend has already registered his disappointment, and another recently declared vegan status, so the pressure is on. Personally, I have only a theoretical agreement with the vegan lifestyle; my love of dead animal product is too great. But I’ve always found cooking with/for vegan and vegetarians to be an interesting experience. Sort of like painting with your wrong hand.
This is a shaak. I’d love to tell you a good story about what that means, but as near as I can tell, it’s a vegetable dish with little or no sauce. Basically, what you’re going to get is a light-tasting chopped spinach dish. There’s water in the dish – enough to keep it “saucy” but the spinach, nut and spice flavours are laid mostly bare, and allowed to mix relatively simply.
Doesn’t sound good yet? How about this: fresh roasted peanut aroma in your kitchen, mixing with toasted cumin, ending in an earthy spinach dish with a subtle sweetness, peanut crunch, and a refreshing kick from fresh ginger. And just enough spice to make your lips hot. This dish is easy enough to add as a side dish for a larger meal (featuring meat, obviously) or goes great with chapati or roti on it’s own for a light meal.
I really should stop writing these posts before I eat. The stomach is rumbling now.
No More Microwaves 
