Tomato Onion Curry

Well - it's been a while since anyone has posted!

I am calling today's post a Bengal Style Tomato Onion Curry Sauce.  I wanted to expand our Indian curry selections to some new flavor combinations.  Aside from our old standbys, I wasn't sure what went with what so I decided to start with a recipe.  I used Fish Curry Bengal Style from p. 103 of Mary Atwood's "A Taste of India".  Of course I didn't exactly follow the recipe.  First attempt at curried tilapia made a pretty good dinner.  As usual, the leftovers were better the next day for having sat in the 'fridge overnight.  I decided to make a bigger batch of just the sauce without the fish, put in jars in the 'fridge, and have it available.  So the following is the sauce only.  My plan is to heat some up and add a piece of poached fish; could do the same with chicken or parboiled cauliflower with chickpeas or potatoes and peas, or whatever.

The recipe calls for 3 large tomatoes, chopped.  I used canned tomatoes with green chilies which added the chilies to the recipe and produced some heat.  The recipe also calls for adding yogurt 10 minutes before the end and simmering.  I did this on first trial and found that the yogurt curdles or clarifies so you don't a smooth cream sauce effect.  Yogurt is good with this recipe but I find I just prefer to add it cold at the table. I also thought the recipe as written was a bit anemic so I doubled all of the spices (except the chili powder which I left the same because of adding the green chilies).

Since I was basically following a recipe and wanted to be able to write it up, I actually measured everything:

4 Onions, diced (452 g)
3 14.5 oz. cans Petite Diced Tomatoes, 2 with green chilies, one just plain
4 cloves Garlic, minced (16 g)
1 t. cumin
1 t. brown mustard seeds
1/2 t. ground cinnamon (I used Saigon cin. which is very pungent - just discovered it at Echo Hill)
1/2 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. ground cardamom
1/2 t turmuric
2 t. Paprika (I used sweet Hungarian)
1/4 t. chili powder (10,000 HU)
1 t. salt

Saute the onions and garlic in vegetable oil (recipe recommends mustard oil; I used coconut oil).  Add the canned tomatoes.  In a skillet, cook the powdered spices in oil (again, I used coconut) for 3 - 5 minutes, then add to the onions and tomatoes.  Mix, add salt or to taste, and simmer until onions are cooked.  Cool, transfer to jars.  Yields about 3 pints. 

I expect we'll have this for dinner tomorrow after it has sat for a day.  I will let you know...

Polenta Pizza

OK, I know this is just about identical to my last post minus the eggplant and that each of you is perfectly capable of thinking of this on your own and, in fact, have probably done so.  But for the record, this morning I fired up some roasted corn meal polenta, turned it over on the other side, added warmed up sauce and cheese, covered the pan so the cheese would melt, and served it up with a fried egg.  It was awesome.  Would have worked with a poached egg dropped on top too.

Polenta and Eggplant

The other day, we went up to Echo Hill to get some roasted corn meal.  We have eaten grits a couple of times lately and I have used the extra setup in a pan for slicing and frying at a later meal.  But the grits have a very bland flavor, more just a carrier for maple syrup than anything else.  I had a hankering for some fried corn meal mush with some backbone to it.  Got around to making it yesterday which means today we had roasted corn meal polenta in the 'fridge.  Just so happens, the baby eggplants (one of the few things the deer have left us in the garden this year) are coming in beautifully and I just made some fresh tomato sauce.  So, bread and bake baby eggplant slices the way Mom always used to, slice the roasted corn meal polenta, layer up polenta, baked eggplant, fresh tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese, and bake in the oven at ~375 until everything is hot and cheese is melted.  Served with hot Italian sausage and sauce on a good Kaiser roll.  Yum.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

Every year at about this time I like to make fresh tomato sauce.  This is just tomato sauce made from fresh tomatoes and not cooked down so far that it loses its fresh taste.  I usually include onion, green pepper, garlic, fresh basil, bay leaf, etc., etc., etc.  You know the things that work.  Trouble is, it tends to be watery.  If you cook it down far enough to avoid "tomato chunks in very watery sauce" it soon takes on the regular cooked flavor.  This year, I tried something different.  After the tomato chunks had just cooked enough to soften, I separated most of the liquid from the solids using a colander.  I then cooked the liquid portion, reducing it by about 50% or slightly more.  Recombined the liquid and solids, added a can of tomato paste, and voila:  sauce that was not too watery but with the tomatoes not over cooked.

A couple of years ago I was at a training class about this time of year and sat next to a classmate of Italian extraction.  We were chatting and I described fresh tomato sauce to him.  He told me that the Italians have a name for this.  I have forgotten the name, but the concept is recognized as distinct from marinara, which is a cooked down tomato sauce, as I understand it.

Fried corn fritters

After a day at the beach and a mid-afternoon lunch, I thought we would want, at most a light summer dinner tonight.  I got a hankering for corn fritters and after looking around and reading some reviews came up with the recipe below.  I thought they were great!  Nice fresh corn flavor, light and crispy.

I used a gluten free 1:1 substitution blend, which is mostly rice flour.  I've read some recipes that weren't designed specifically to be gluten free that used rice flour because it's lighter and makes for a crispier crust than wheat flour.  The original version from which this recipe is adapted called for wheat flour.

1 c. flour -  (see note above)
1/4 c. cornmeal
1 t. baking powder
3/4 - 1 t. salt
1/4 - 1/2 t. sugar

~12 oz fresh corn (I cut the kernels off of 4 ears of corn)
~1/4 c chopped basil (optional)
~ 1/3 - 1/2 c chopped scallions (optional)
some grated parmesan or a little havarti would probably also work well, but I didn't try that.

2/3 c. buttermilk (or plain milk would probably work)
1 egg
1 T. shortening, melted

Oil/shortening for frying


Heat about 1/2 - 3/4" of frying oil of your choice in a skillet or whatever you fry things in.  I dumped the corn into some hot water briefly (~2 min, maybe) just to cook them a little as I really dislike under-cooked corn.  From there it's pretty basic - mix up the dries, then stir in the veggies/extras.  (Adding them to the dry ingredients allows for even distribution throughout the batter without the danger of over-mixing once the wets are added).  Whisk together the wet ingredients, then stir into the dries just until combined.  Drop spoonfuls into hot oil, fry until brown, then turn over to get the other side.  I mixed together some sour cream and scallions to serve on top of these, which I thought was pretty good.  Some people leave out the basil and scallions and serve them with honey or syrup.  Whatever floats your boat.  These were slightly sweet, but mostly from the corn, and just really delicious, I thought.  I'll be adding them to our meal list for light summer dinners.  I served them with lightly sauteed zucchini and carrot ribbons with chopped mint and basil and topped with goat cheese.

Dad's Bangin' Baked Beans - Take 1

Needed something to take to a party Memorial Day weekend so I decided to try my hand at baked beans.  I did a trial run early in the week using 1 cup of dried navy beans which turned out OK, then modified the recipe based on that.  I was pretty happy with how the end product turned out so I am posting it.

Ingredients:
5 cups dried navy beans
1 lb bacon, cut to small pieces
2 medium onions, diced
9 cloves garlic or to taste
4 carrots, grated
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
5 t. prepared Dijon mustard - I used Grey Poupon of course
2 t. ground cumin
2 t. garam masala
1 t. dried mustard
1 t. salt, then to taste
1 t. Thai Fish Sauce
3 T. apple cider vinegar
1 cup V8 juice
Ground black pepper to taste

Prepare your dried beans according to your favorite method.  I used the soak-overnight,-then-boil-for-1 1/2-hour method (actually, I over cooked this batch by about 45 min, but no worries).  I tried the soak-for-an-hour-in-boiling-water method for the 1 cup trial batch and wound up never really getting the beans cooked through and soft.  You want to be sure that your bean wind up thoroughly cooked and soft for baked beans, in my opinion.

In your cook pot of choice (I like a cast iron dutch oven) cook the bacon, rendering the fat.  Add the onions, garlic, and carrots and saute until the onion is translucent.  Remove from heat and add the beans, reserving the bean water.

In a separate sauce pan, combine all of the other ingredients, heating gently to fully dissolve the molasses and brown sugar.  Pour this mixture over the beans, adding bean water as needed to fully cover the beans.  Mix thoroughly.  Bake in a 275 deg oven for as long as it takes.  Add bean water as needed to prevent drying out.  I baked mine for about 2 hours.  The key is making sure the beans are fully cooked (mine were already overdone from the boiling step) with plenty of time to soak up the flavor from the sauce.  If you do not overcook your beans it may take 4-5 hours of slow cooking, regularly making up the water volume with bean water (or just water if you run out of bean water).  I actually transferred mine to a disposable aluminum roasting dish to bake them; this works well for taking them to a party or picnic where you don't want to have to chase up your dish afterwards.

Oh, yeah.  Garam masala is actually just "mixed spice" so the composition might vary according to your source.  I get mine at Echo Hill in Dryville.  In this recipe, the key flavor contribution from the garam masala is clove, I think.  If you do not have garam masala you could try to substitute 1/2 t. or so of ground clove.  Thai Fish Sauce is made from anchovies.  If you do not have it, you could substitute 2 or so finely chopped anchovies in the recipe.  This is added for umami, not for fish flavor so don't overdo it!

Also, I didn't do it this time because I was taking this to share with others but I would normally add just a pinch of red pepper, not enough to notice any heat, just enough to add some sparkle and interest.

You don't need gluten to make a decent cookie (peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies)

We recently came across two pretty good gluten-free cookie recipes.  I'll just link to them here with a couple notes:

1) Flourless peanut butter cookies
These are good and peanut-buttery.  Watch the cooking time so they don't dry out.  I use half the sugar, and they're plenty sweet.

2) Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
These are definitely my new favorite cookies.
-You definitely need to really press the batter into the measuring cup, or else the cookies crumble apart after they bake.
-Don't try to make them too thick or the oatmeal will get a little "gluey" before they're cooked all the way.
-I think I made these with 1/2 c of sugar, instead of 3/4 c, because I always cut the sugar.