Staight Out Of The Garden...Peppers In An Almond Cream Curry...But Wait, It's Vegan!

    
   I grew up a working class city kid. My mom who was no great shakes in the kitchen (never preheated an oven, 'cause...why?) had a regular rotation of meals that centered around making the money stretch to payday. As we got closer and closer, the entrees got weirder and weirder. Waffles made with beer or seven up instead of milk,  the same tired piece of meat making an appearance in its' third outfit of the week, pasta, big bags of loose hot dogs, fish sticks on Friday, Rice and Beans, and of course 89 cent boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese. To this day I cannot eat hot dogs, and it took me years to get around to pasta again. I still have a weakness for Mac and Cheese.

   One vegetable that made regular appearances was The Pepper. The pepper could be chopped up and served with whatever meat was still hanging around,  or it could be stuffed with rice and drenched in tomato sauce. When I got out on my own, I never wanted to see another pepper again, unless it was a poblano and served as chili relleno. Peppers reminded me of things being tight. After a dinner of peppers the next step was "Kathy, get the Iron Box".
  
   The Iron Box meant that after dinner my parents would sit at the kitchen table and place small amounts of money in small white envelopes which had names on them like "doctor" "PG&E" "House". There was even an envelope for paying off my sister's  birth who at that time was 3 years old. They would kid about owing money on us...and perhaps one of us would be repossessed.  The first depiction of a family like mine on TV was Roseanne, and this scene in particular.



So, that's why I hated peppers.
  
   26 years ago when I started cooking Indian food, I was a vegetarian and so was crazy about all sorts of vegetables...except peppers as an entree. The I discovered  the many ways Indian cuisine used peppers, not just for spice and heat, but as the main feature of a dish. I tried cooking some Anaheim chilies and was hooked. The Iron Box was long gone, I was grown up and peppers were delicious when the budget wasn't holding a gun to ones' head.

   When we bought our house in Sonoma, we xeriscaped for the drought, removed the lawn,  built big wooden planter boxes on a drip irrigation system, and started growing vegetables. One of the first things I planted was Anaheim peppers. They can be prepared a variety of ways in Indian cuisine, and this recipe is simple, quick, and makes a great main dish served with spiced Basmati rice. Plus it's vegan, so there's that. Get your Anaheims ready and break out the coconut milk. Peppers are going Uptown!

Anaheim Peppers in Almond Cream Curry

Here's What You Need: 

2 Tbs vegetable oil 
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 shallot finely chopped
1 cinnamon stick
1 Tbs finely chopped fresh ginger
2 Tbs ground almonds
1 Tbs coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp Kashmiri chili
1 lb Anaheim chilies
2 fresh tomatoes
2 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground cardamom


Here's What To Do:

Slit the Anaheim chilies down the middle and remove the seeds.
Rub them with a bit of oil and place them in a microwave-safe bowl.
Microwave them for about 3 minutes, you just want to soften them a bit. ( I do this sometimes with Anaheims and eggplant if I am in a hurry)
Take the softened Anaheims, remove the stems and cut them into slices.

Heat 2 Tbs of vegetable oil in a skillet or kadhai.
When the oil is hot, toss in the onion.
When the onion has started to brown a bit, add in the cinnamon stick, chopped shallot, chopped ginger, ground almonds.

Stir fry this over a medium high heat until the spices and ground almonds begin to darken. This happens pretty fast, about 3 minutes.
Add in the ground coriander, cumin, and Kashmiri chili.

Stir this around for about 15 seconds, then add in the coconut milk.

Bring this to a boil then turn the heat down to low, put a lid on the pan, and let it cook for about 10 minutes.
Check it every now and then to make sure nothing is sticking or burning.
When the mixture has reduced to a thick sauce, pour everything into a bowl and set it aside.
Meanwhile back at the pan.... add another Tbs of vegetable oil and when it's hot toss in the sliced Anaheim chilies.

Turn the heat down and bit and saute them for about 5 minutes.
Cut the tomatoes into 1 inch thick wedges.

When the peppers start to look glazed, toss in the tomatoes.

Stir everything around.

Turn the heat up and saute for another couple of minutes until the tomatoes soften.
Pour the sauce back into the pan.

Lower the heat and continue to cook for another few minutes....make sure nothing is burning.
If it starts to stick or burn you may add a bit of water to keep things moving.
When the peppers are soft but not too limp add in the cardamom and salt.

Once again, stir. Take the pan off the heat, add in another Tbs of coconut milk to smooth things out and serve over spiced Basmati rice.

Sprinkle a bit of cilantro on top of each plate. I happened to have some fresh, raw, shredded coconut so I scattered a bit of that on top also.

 
   This dish was delicious. Not too hot, creamy without any cream and filling. Alan who has never been a vegetarian loved it. He was totally happy with his peppers and never missed any meat. Obviously this Hyderabad classic is going to be a keeper at our house, especially since we have a bumper crop of Anaheim chilies this year!
Coming up next more Indian treats from the garden follow along on Twitter @kathygori 

Fast Cooking For Hot Days. Indian Spiced Eggplant With Cilantro.

   We're moving into the dog days here in Sonoma. Even though we have our burst of heat waves during the Summer months, as it gets closer to Harvest Season in the vineyards, daytime temperatures start to soar. Evenings here are getting crisp and cool but the time of day when most of the cooking is getting done still can be too hot to handle. So what do the smart ones do when the kitchen is the homes' hot spot and not in a good way? I mean besides going out to eat... we look for things that can be cooked quickly and easily which brings me to eggplant.

   Growing up in an Italian household and spending the last 25 years cooking Indian food, eggplant is not something I associate with speed. My experience with eggplant usually involves smoking, or soaking or some combination of that but an eggplant dish that can be put on the table with a minimum of fuss and bother and no soaking...???? I'm in. Which brings me to this Indian dish with a modern twist aka The Microwave. I'm not a big "Science Oven" user but I have found lately that they can come in handy when speed is of the essence..as long as there's no metal involved.



This handy device makes this dish one of those straight from garden to table  in 30 minutes or less miracles.

Indian Spiced Eggplant With Cilantro

Here's What You Need:
 2 Japanese eggplants (aka lumbae baingan or long eggplant)
2 Tbs vegetable oil (I use coconut oil)
1 tsp cumin seed
1/4 tsp crushed fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 large shallot finely chopped
2 serrano chilies finely chopped
1 Tbs chopped curry leaves (optional if you don't have any)
1 Tbs ground coriander
1 tsp chopped mint
1/4 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp mango powder aka Amchur powder (lemon juice is a substitute)


Here's What to Do:
 I went to the garden an got myself a coupe of Japanese eggplants.

Yes, those are eggplants in my pocket and I am happy to see you! Since we try to be as thrifty as we possibly can with our water use, we were excited when the nice people at Rain Machine sent
us an HD 12 model.

This nifty device works with one's drip irrigation system (a must in California drought country) and  connects with NOAA via WiFi every 6 minutes to deliver the most accurate weather information available. Thus, it saves water by automatically tailoring water flow in real time to weather conditions.

When we bought our house we made it as environmentally efficient as possible, meeting CalGreen standards for energy and water use. We took out all lawns and xeriscaped with drought tolerant plants, We have a drip system for our property and our vegetable growing beds. So when we received this device we were pretty excited. We haven't installed it yet because we still have to set the baseline for our vegetables and fruit but we are pretty stoked to try this thing out as anything we can do to save water, we will. Anyway, I think the eggplants are going to like it!

Meanwhile back to the recipe.  Wash and cut your eggplants on the diagonal, no soaking or salting necessary.

Place the eggplant slices in a microwaveable dish, cover it, and pop them in your science oven for about 4 minutes.

While they're cooking, chop the shallot.

Place the fneugreek seeds in a mortar and coarsely crush them.

Finely chop the serrano chilies.

Get your spices ready.

Meanwhile heat  2 Tbs of oil in a skillet or khadi.

When the oil is hot toss in the shallot, fenugreek, cumin, mustard seeds, and chilies.

The spices, chili, and shallot will sizzle when they hit the hot oil.
Add in the curry leaves if you have them, mint, coriander, salt, and turmeric.

Saute them for about 30 seconds then add in your cooked eggplant.

Cook with the spices, mixing everything well for about 2 minutes, then place a lid on things, turn down the heat and cook for another 5 minutes or so until the eggplant is tender.

Snip yourself some cilantro.

Chop it up and sprinkle it over the dish.

Mix in the mango powder or lemon juice and serve it up.

This is pretty dang easy. Like 20 minutes easy!!! It's also spicy and delicious. I like to serve this stuff in my earthenware casuelas from Spain. I get these locally from Salsa Trading Company  

They have a whole kingdom of clay over there! So if you're in Sonoma you're likely going to find me in there at some point in the day fondling pots.

    I really like this thing of growing my own vegetables, two steps out the back door and I've got lunch or dinner. I did go a little overboard on the eggplants this year and don't even mention the army of butternut squash as big as my head. The one thing I planted that didn't take was okra, Alan's thanking his lucky stars it never grew...but there's always next year!!!!!   Coming up next, more harvest vegetables for the Fall season. Follow along on Twitter@kathygori

Clean Out The Fridge Curry

Usually I like to buy my vegetables at the Farmers Market and since I cook a big lunch nearly every day (it's our main meal) I work my way through what I've got until the next farmers market a few days later. Once in a while however one thing or another happens and I get behind on my vegetables and therefore have got some extras that are begging to be used. This happened last week when I couldn't bring myself to dispose of perfectly good vegetables and I also couldn't bring myself to buy new ones, but I knew I'd need to.
My solution, a clean out the fridge vegetable stew.
Normally I'm suspicious of pull out the stops, empty the fridge/cupboard cooking, maybe because I remember those sorts of "specials" on the family table as a kid. You know, waffles made with 7 UP ,or strange things done with hot dogs and dried soup mix??? Usually they sucked to put it poetically. But there I was last week, with not enough of any one thing to make a single dish and too much of a bunch of stuff. What to do?? Here's what I did.
I had a bag of Punjabi Badi (sometimes spelled wadi) in my cupboard. I usually do. These dried nuggets of spicy dried dal function as a sort of Indian style crouton..but not exactly. Badi/Wadi are pretty easy to make, dal and spices set out to rise in a batter and then sun dry. Chip away at them, turn them into nuggety dumplings and store for whenever you want some extra crunch and bite. It's even easier to buy them if you have access to a good brick and mortar or online Indian grocery.
So I've got my bag of badi, a few green serrano chilies, a rapidly aging eggplant, a couple of small yellow crook necked squash, and handful of multicolored tiny heirloom potatoes, (red, purple and white) a tomato or two and some peas, and half a can of coconut milk left over from yesterdays lunch.
First
1.) cut a small eggplant up into 1 inch chunks and steam it until it was tender. (about 15 minutes)
2.) malleted Punjabi Badi pieces until you have about 1/2 cup
3.) In a deep skillet, (I used my Karhai) heat 2 Tbs of oil and 2 Tbs of unsalted butter
4.) When the oil/butter is hot toss in your crumbled Badi and stir fry them till they turn a bit dark
5.) Then add about 3 small yellow squash, zucchini whatever you might have on hand
6.) A few very small fingerling potatoes cut into thin slices
7.) two whole green serrano chilis
8.) 1 one inch piece of cinnamon stick
Stir it all around till the potato pieces start to turn color and the squash starts to soften a bit then
9.) add in your steamed eggplant and
10.) Some chopped tomato
11.) 2 Tbs of chopped fresh mint
12.) 2 Tbs of chopped fresh cilantro
13.) 1/2 cup of coconut milk


Stir then cover and reduce heat. Simmer till all the vegetables are cooked through and the coconut milk is absorbed into a thick sauce. about 20 minutes.
Finally add in
14.) 1 tsp of salt, sprinkle with a bit more chopped cilantro and serve.
I served this as a vegetable side dish for lunch on Friday but truth be told it could easily have been an entree with some rice and chapatti. The badi had semi-dissolved and mingled with the coconut milk to make a spicy gravy. We actually had enough left over to give some take away to a friend. What I learned from this is that coconut milk is a great substitute for milk or 1/2 and half which the dish originally called for and once again, vegetables are the character actors of the kitchen and almost any of them can fit into almost any production. It all depends on what's available.