Interesting...
I like the minimal ingredient approach. I've never tried oregano in an Indian recipe but it's worth a go.
Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Sizzling sag aloo
We're disappointed to report that despite our attempts last week to raise the tone of our post-pub neckfiller nosh recipes by the classy use of a soupçon of français, we have not yet attracted a sponsor willing to back our efforts to push the culinary envelope. No matter, because the latest offering for your wobbly dining …
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Sunday 1st February 2015 11:45 GMT Elmer Phud
Re: Aloo is "classic" Indian food? Really?
"When exactly did spuds get to India?"
How about 'any old root veg/tuber sort of thing like wot is handy locally?'
It's not as if yer local Indian/Chinese/Thia/Korean etc etc. place isn't also using local-ish products to substitute for the 'real' item.
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Sunday 1st February 2015 12:46 GMT grumpyoldeyore
Re: Aloo is "classic" Indian food? Really?
"When exactly did spuds get to India?" AFAIK the 17th century, taken there by the Portugese (in Goa) and or the Brits. Certainly my brother-in-law's mother used them in curries when she was there in the civil service before independence. Flames, because she used to make some good hot ones.
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Sunday 1st February 2015 20:06 GMT Nick Ryan
Re: Aloo is "classic" Indian food? Really?
Unlike various other "national" food types such as Chinese, Indian fare has rapidly taken on whatever local or new ingredients as are available. e.g. How many potato based Chinese dishes are there available in a Chinese restaurant, or Cantonese, or Japanese?
The fact that many of the Indian recipes we know of in the UK were created in the UK or Europe is another factor. Now to just educate people that "Jalfrezi" is simply as style of cooking, not an indicator of peppery hotness, similarly "korma" is not necessarily for hot-food-whimps either as they can be made deliciously hot.
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Sunday 1st February 2015 23:32 GMT Robert Helpmann??
Re: Aloo is "classic" Indian food? Really?
Unlike various other "national" food types such as Chinese, Indian fare has rapidly taken on whatever local or new ingredients as are available.
Obviously, you are much more experienced with Indian food than other cuisines. Chinese chefs are famous for making do with whatever ingredients are available wherever they happen to find themselves. Japanese recipes tend to use sweet potatoes rather than white, but sushi and tempura recipes have been adapted to meet the challenge local ingredients have provided all over the world.
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Monday 2nd February 2015 10:26 GMT Jedit
"Chinese chefs are famous for making do with whatever ingredients are available "
I remember the Chinese chippy near my gran's house. Special fried rice had the usual diced pork and chicken and the odd prawn, peas, and an omelette on top. Much as I like a proper Chinese with the intended ingredients, I miss that sometimes.
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Monday 2nd February 2015 18:53 GMT Triggerfish
Re: "Chinese chefs are famous for making do with whatever ingredients are available "
From eating a fair bit of fried rice in SEA, small bits of diced ham/pork, and an egg on top is pretty classic over there as well. I'd say the egg on top is pretty common everywhere in that part of the world as it would have been cheap protein.
A lot of food gets influences from elsewhere. Southern Thai cuisine has a lot more coconut milk (introduced from India) than Northern, Chillies (Portuguese via India). Vietnamese food there's loads of French influences, likewise Laos you can get amazing bread in both countries.
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Wednesday 4th February 2015 10:53 GMT ADC
Re: How many potato based Chinese dishes are there available in a Chinese restaurant?
You'd be surprised.
Here in China, many of the local restaurants covering a range of regional styles (including Hunan, Sichuan and others), have some variation on a dish of sliced potatoes with chili/garlic/onions/ginger/bacon.
Definitely one of the ex-pat favourites :-)
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This post has been deleted by its author
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Sunday 1st February 2015 18:48 GMT emmanuel goldstein
simple tarka daal
also good:
cook yellow dried split peas according to instructions on packet.
while cooking them add chicken/vegetable stock to water.
meanwhile chop plenty garlic and Stephen (fry) until almost burnt.
add the fried garlic to the cooked daal.
for the tarka:
put one tin plum tomatoes in a pan add some crushed garlic then rinse all tomato out of tin with water and add.
simmer the tomatoes/water/garlic mix until reduced then crush with potato masher.
season with salt and pepper then add to cooked daal.
use hand blender to smooth tarka daal.
get stuck in.
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Tuesday 3rd February 2015 17:09 GMT Andus McCoatover
Re: Looks tasty
S'funny. When I was (quite) rich and (relatively) well-known, to make ends meet in our "Yuppie-era-bought" 3 storey house, we had lodgers living on the top floor. At that time, interest rates jovially went to 15% on 'black wednesday' - I digress.
One of the couple was a lovely Indian girl. She showed me that, with exactly the same spices, the order of cooking completely changed the flavour. I would'nt have believed it, but I measured, mixed and cooked the spices as she instructed while she stood next to me.
One (we did poatoes, to test) was deliciously sweet, the other sharp.
A skill I want to learn!
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Monday 2nd February 2015 18:23 GMT Anonymous Coward
OK, I've optimised my Greek style Pork Gyros Pitta to avoid too many pans.
It's intended to go with three of those new-fangled rectangular pitta wraps (most UK supermarket wraps are too thin and weedy). You'll also need a garlic-y dip. Most supermarket tsatziki is too feeble, though onion and garlic is usually good.
You also need one big spud, a tomato, a small onion, and half a supermarket pork loin (about 200g of good lean pork).
Peel the spud and chop into long thin chips. Shallow fry in olive oil until browning a bit. Move to the side of the pan (yep, no need for a chip pan; surprisingly doesn't impair the result).
Slice off the tomato top and bottom and slice the rest thinly and set aside for garnish.
Slice the onion and pick out a few outer rings, about 1/3, cut them in half, and set aside for garnish. Chop the rest finely and fry with a little salt and garlic.
Slice the pork loin thinly, like you're doing sushimi. You can use the same knife as before. Add to the pan.
Add a couple of teaspoons of dried oregano, one and a half of parsley (or one, then a half of dill if you have it), one of paprika (regular/sweet, not smoked) and a third of a one of cayenne pepper (by all means meddle with these ratios - just don't skimp). Season with salt and black pepper. Stir around a lot.
With the meat cooked through, fold in the 'chips' to the mix.
To serve, lay out the pitta, long edge to the top. Add a desert-spoon sized dollop of dip and spread around the general middle area. Add some of those raw onion curls and slices of tomato, then a third of the meat and chips, in a vertically-oriented heap half-way across. Wrap up and eat.
Just beware of the odd drip from the bottom as the oil and dip mix and get too close to one end.
(In an authentic one, the meat is marinated for much longer, the chips are done separately, and there's some weird trick of twisting a circular pitta into a cone with the aid of a half-open paper bag. I have yet to master this final skill. Note the icon represents a pint of cold Mythos, recently imported by Morrisons).
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Monday 2nd February 2015 18:40 GMT Triggerfish
Carnitas
Since you are doing a couple of prepared post pub neckfillers.
Can I suggest the porky goodness of Carnitas.
Takes a good few hours precooking (although you don't have to do much prep). But freezes well, should stay OK in the Fridge for a few days as well because its quite fatty.
Sorry no real measurements I sort of chuck stuff in, still finding the best balance.
Couple of pounds of pork shoulder.
2 oranges.
1 largish onion
Chillies (up to you how many - but two or three is only very mild)
Couple teaspoons of oregano
Bay leaves.
Half a bulb of garlic
3 or 4 teaspoons of cumin seeds (halve it if ground)
Good splash of cider/ wine vinegar.
3-4 teaspoons sea salt
Decent sized casserole pot
Oil.
Method
1. Remove skin from pork (make pork scratchings).*
2. Chop the pork into about 2 inch cubes put it in the casserole port, salt it and leave it for half hour or so.
3. At this point its just big chunks of stuff to go in the pot with the pork. Don't worry about chopping it its going to be removed.
Quarter the onion chuck it in,
Put the garlic in I never really bother chopping it, I usually just cut the woody end off.
Quarter the oranges squeeze the juice in, chuck the remainder of the oranges in skin and all.
Chillies, bay leaves , vinegar, cumin etc all in.
4. Push it all down tight into the casserole dish, cover it with half a cup or so of oil so that it doesnt dry out, then cover the pot.
5. Put it in a preheated oven - about 230, after a hour drop the temp to about 210 and let it cook for another couple of hours. You want it high, if its lower (min 180) it will take a good few hours longer for the meat to properly break down
6. Once its cooked (the pork should shred) drain the liquid off and remove the bits of onion, oranges etc.
7. You want the fat to separate out from the liquid and there will be a lot of fat so remove it (you can freeze it and save it for the next one to use instead of oil).
8. Shred the pork toast it to crisp it up a bit, pour the liquid now the fats removed back into the meat and stir it in.
I usually freeze it, and then just heat it in the microwave goes well in a pita with some salad, a chilli sauce like Sricha works well as a condiment.
*Although I am wondering what it would be like adding to the dish on the top as its basically a comfit being cooked here.
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Tuesday 3rd February 2015 21:31 GMT La Barbe D'Action
Good but needs more flavour
I made this tonight. For a quick thrown-together dinner on a Tuesday night, it wasn't bad at all. I had a couple of sausages that needed using up, so I chucked them in too (sliced diagonally). I thought it was maybe a bit lacking in oomph - it could have done with more spices, I think, so I'll definitely add more when I next make it. (I was vegetarian for almost 20 years so I've had many a saag aloo in my time.)
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Wednesday 4th February 2015 01:31 GMT A Ghost
I make a pretty good curry. Not great, but not bad.
I like to make vegetarian chilis too. Well it's all veggie for me, pretty much. I eat fish now and again.
Got a mate from Glasgow that loves to make Kipper Curry. It's not as bad as it sounds.
As for firing up the chip pan, did you see that program about Lemmy living in LA and he would do exactly that after a night out? Can't get chips in LA apparently at that time of the morning. Nothing else, just home made chips. Rock star behaviour indeed.
I used to know Peter Singh the rocking Sikh, god rest his soul. He could cook a mean curry too. Now there's name dropping for you. Impressed? You should be.
I just realised I have all the ingredients to make this except the spinach. But I do have a savoy cabbage, or half of one, thereabouts, somewhere in the deeper recesses of my fridge, in my dangerous kitchen.
Wonder if it's worth giving it a go...
Here's Peter with The Clash:
http://babylonwales.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/peter-singh-and-clash.html
Which is nice.
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Thursday 5th February 2015 01:26 GMT A Ghost
I tried to make my own gnocchi once.
Never again.
Kitchen was a fucking h-bomb for about three days till I could mop up.
Really, it's not worth it.
Gnocchi is the work of the devil. Only very clever italian mamas that have had the recipe passed down from seven generations can do this. The one you get in the Guardian, or worse, the BBC - Devil Spawn.
I can not stress this enough. Do not make Gnocchi. It's like drugs Mmkay? Just not worth it.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
