Palao

I wanted to make Massur Palao, which is an Indian dish with rice, ground meat, and massur lentils. Sometimes potatoes can be added. It is similar to Biriyani, which more people have heard of, except Biriyani is made usually with chunks of meat and saffron is added. My grandmother was fantastic at making Massur Palao, and she used to make it every week for my sister. Seriously, it was for my sister, the rest of us were told, "You can't eat any ... well, maybe just a little, but only if she says you can!" My sister was her favorite and my grandmother was an interesting woman. :-)

It was never my favorite dish, but we had some ground beef and suddenly I wanted to make it. But alas, no lentils. So, here you have a Massur Palao-Biriyani hybrid. But I forgot to add potatoes (sad).

Equipment:
Big, heavy bottomed pot (I think mine was like 5 quart size) with lid
Wooden spoon
Knife
Cutting board

Ingredients:
1/2 c oil
2 small onions, chopped
1 large carrot, grated
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 bird's eye chilis (or whatever small hot chilis you have), minced
2 T minced ginger (fresh)
3 T gharam masala
375 g ground beef
3 c raw basmati rice
2 pods black cardamom
2 bay leaves
5 cups water
pinch of saffron
Salt

Method:

First, wash the rice very well, and then leave it in fresh water to soak for 30 minutes.

Warm the oil in the pot. When it's hot (shimmery) add the onion, let it saute until soft, then add the carrot, sautee a couple of minutes. Now, add the chilis, garlic and ginger, let them sautee a couple minutes till nice and fragrant. Push all this stuff to one side, pooling the oil on the other side of the pot. Dump the gharam masala into the oil and make sure it is all touching the oil. Let it fry for a minute, but you don't want it to burn. I have my electric stove on "7" (out of 9) during this process, if that helps. Stir everything together, and add the ground meat, stirring well, making sure that no large lumps form and making sure that no spices are burning. Add some salt. You may need to add a cup of water (deduct it from your 5 cups) to facilitate non-burning.

When meat is reasonably browned (so it is out of the "danger zone" as far as clumping goes) Add the rice and 4 cups of water (3 cups, if you have already added one cup). Salt. Don't stir. You want the meat to stay on the bottom, rice on the top. Once the liquid starts to bubble slightly (NOT a rolling boil), put the lid on and turn the stove as low as it will go. The remaining cup of water should be a warm one. The warmest that comes out of your tap is fine. Put this cup of water in a glass, or your cup measurer, and place the saffron in it. It will start to slowly color the water yellow.

Go do something else for like 10 minutes.

Check to see how the rice is doing. Poke your spoon in along the side of the pot, not disturbing the layers, but enough to check if the liquid is just about all gone. If it isn't, replace the lid and wait a bit longer. If it is, add the saffron water but again, don't stir.

Go do something else for like 10 minutes.

Again, check the rice. If the liquid has all been absorbed, remove the pot from the heat, leaving the lid on, and let it sit that way for you guessed it, 10 minutes. If the liquid HASN'T been absorbed, then let it stay on the heat until that happens, but keep an eye on it. A little moisture is ok, but it should NOT be liquidy.

Now it's done. The top rice should be light and fluffy, the rice that's touching the meat is more moist. Scoop it onto a plate and eat it, adding salt to your taste. You can eat it with yogurt (especially good on the meat part).

Notes and Serving Suggestions: You could add some dried fruit (raisins, sour cherries) when you add the rice, or some chopped herbs of your choice. I think that whole cumin seeds (add them when you fry the gharam masala) would also be good.

About the gharam masala: traditionally, this is not fried. That's because traditionally it contains things like cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon, clove need to be "warmed" (hence the name), but that aren't oil soluble so they don't need to be fried. However, most commercially prepared gharam masala contains cumin and coriander, which DOES need to be fried. My homemade gharam masala also contains cumin and coriander because I'm lazy and so that's two less jars I have to fish around for in the cupboard. The point is, for most people, fry it. But, if you have a gharam masala that doesn't contain cumin and coriander, then: instead of frying 3 T gharam masala, fry 1 T ground cumin, 1 T ground coriander. When you add the liquid, add 1 T gharam masala.

This is REALLY UNHEALTHY. It's fat and carb city. 1/4 of the pot, which you can easily eat, believe me, has like 1/2 a day's calories. The whole recipe is 3687 calories.

Palaak Paneer and Looking to the Weekend (Paneer, Pirozhki)

Tonight I made some tasty Palaak Paneer. This is Indian style creamed spinach, with cheese cubes. There were a few minor things I'll do different next time, but overall it was good. Traditionally, saag is greens (of any kind) cooked in cream. Usually mustard greens are used, or a mix of mustard greens and spinach. When just spinach is used, it is palaak. I prefer the version with a mix of mustard greens and spinach, so if you can get mustard greens, use them!

Palaak Paneer

Ingredients:

2 T oil
1 small onion
1 large clove garlic
1 T minced ginger
1 T gharam masala*
1 t tumeric
1 pod black cardamom
1 pod green cardamom
2 whole peppercorns
2 cloves
salt to taste
Squeeze of lemon
1 T cream
About 750 grams frozen, chopped spinach
Paneer cheese cubes-as many as you want

*Gharam masala is a spice mix. Usually, it has spices like cardamom, cinnamon, maybe clove, some black pepper. It's not 100% authentic to put cumin and coriander in, but most store mixes do it. I make my own, and I also put cumin and coriander in, because I happen to like them! I also put in a tiny bit of chili powder, some ground black pepper, some ground cardamom, and some ground fenugreek. You can basically experiment and find a mix you like. It's what I did. Once I found it, I made a big batch and put it in a spice jar.

Method:

Warm the oil in a pot. Chop the onion, mince the garlic and ginger. When the oil is shimmery, add them to the pot. Sautee till soft, but not brown. Push the mix to one side of the pot, and pool the oil in the other side. Fry the gharam masala and the tumeric in the oil for about 30 seconds, then stir everything together. Add the spinach and remaining spices. Allow to cook until spinach has thawed, heated through, and excess water has evaporated. At this point, salt to taste, stir in paneer, allow to warm through. Stir in cream, lemon juice and serve.

Notes: Make sure your ginger is minced! My ginger got frozen (dumb malfunctioning fridge--long story) and thawed. It was really tough to cut (but very easy to peel!), and I ended up with a couple of big lumps of ginger. I think I may add a little more spice next time. Maybe a split dried chili pod. We didn't have paneer. I've *tried* to use cubes of other white cheeses before and it fails. You see, paneer is special. It doesn't melt. That's why it can be cut into cubes and put into curries. We had in the fridge a block of fresh white pressed farmer's cheese from a recent trip to Holland. I thought, "Well, maybe, what the hell," since that's basically what paneer is--pressed farmer's cheese. It wasn't a failure. The cubes got mushier than paneer would've, but not really melty like with previous efforts.

Serving Suggestion: This is best with lemon juice, rice and roti. You can eat with yogurt too (it's important to have something a little acidic with it), but I prefer lots of lemon!

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Speaking of paneer, that brings me to the second half of this post, "Looking to the Weekend." This weekend I want to try something ambitious, cooking wise. I'm going to try to make paneer, which is similar to the Russian cheese tvorog. I also want to try and make something with yeast. I've been making Indian flat breads recently, and baking a little more (brownies, cookies, sharlotka). This is slowly but surely breaking my fear of bread and baked goods (even though I DID burn 3 cookies tonight).

So I want to try something more complicated than flat breads. I want to try ... something with YEAST.

I was thinking of trying to make Russian pirozhki. They look so good! Look at that mushroom filling! I love mushrooms so much. This site has a recipe that seems like it'll do. I've used (with a little tweaking) recipes from that site with favorable results. But I'm going to spend some time searching for THE ONE. I mean, it'll be my first time with yeast. It should be special!

Aloo Paratha and Aloo ka Mattar

So a couple of nights ago I made my first rotis. I was surprised at how incredibly easy it was! I was motivated to make them because I brought a dozen back from the States, and we discovered that my boyfriend really likes them. The thought occurred to me: "He's gonna eat all my rotis. I'm not going to have any left!"

And so, even though I'd always been intimidated in the past at the idea of making my own, I did so.

They came out ok. I decided to use only wheat flour and water, so they were a little brittle and definitely could've used some salt. But they made me brave, by coming out ok and tasting decent. Thus, tonight I felt up to making something a step up: aloo paratha.

This is a roti, basically, with spiced potatoes mixed into the dough before it's cooked. And lucky everyone, today I'll basically be posting 4 recipes: basic spiced potatoes, Aloo ka Mattar, basic roti dough, and Aloo Paratha.

First I made the spiced potatoes.

Spiced Potatoes
(I used 1/2 for the paratha, 1/2 for dinner):

Ingredients:

4 small potatoes
1 t cumin seed
1 t black mustard seed
1 chili
1 t tumeric
1 t cumin ground
1 t coriander ground
salt to taste
1 t chopped ginger
1 clove garlic chopped
1 small onion chopped
2-3 T oil (I used sunflower)
Fresh cilantro (1 handful)

Method:

Cut the potatoes into cubes, peeling if desired. Boil the potatoes till very soft (soft enough to mash). Drain and set aside for the moment. In a pan, heat the oil, and sautee the onions. When they become translucent, add the chili, ginger and garlic. Stir, sautee a little less than a minute. Now push all the stuff in the pan to one side, and let the oil pool on the other side. I like to position the pan such that the oil side is over the flame/heating element and the onions etc. side is cooler. Dump the spices into the pool of hot oil. You should be able to hear them cooking, and smell them becoming fragrant. Cook for about 30 seconds, then stir everything together in the pan. Add in the potatoes and stir well, mashing with a wooden spoon as you do it. Chop the cilantro, and mix it in too. You can now turn off the heat and salt to taste. Reserve a little less than 1/2, about 1/3 for the paratha. The rest you can eat, or you can make more paratha dough and use it all. I used the remaining to make aloo ka mattar (potatoes with peas), recipe to follow. Or you could just eat this by itself! Or use it to stuff samosas ... hm, that sounds like a future post! ;-)

Aloo ka Mattar

Ingredients:

Spiced Potatoes from above (you can use a portion, or all of them. I used about 2/3.)
1/2 a medium sized tomato
1 c frozen green peas
1 T oil (I used sunflower)
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat the oil in a pan. Chop the tomato. When the oil is hot, drop the tomato in it. It will sizzle and make the skin wrinkle. When the tomatoes begin to get soft, add the peas and the potatoes. Stir all together. You may have to add more salt to taste. We ate this with fried eggs, it was tasty.

Just before we ate, I prepared the basic roti dough, so it could rest during dinner:

Basic Roti Dough

Ingredients:

1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c white wheat flour (all purpose flour)
Sprinkling of salt
Drizzling (about 2 t) of vegetable oil
water (no specific amount, depends)

Method:

Put the flours in a bowl with the salt. Mix well. Drizzle the oil uniformly, then begin to pour in water into the center of the mound of flour a little at a time, stirring as you pour it, stirring from the inside out. It will be sticky on your hand at first, stir in more of the flour. If there's not enough water it'll be crumbly. Add water, stirring/mixing the dough with your hand until it's not sticky, but not crumbly. You should have a silky ball of dough. Knead it a bit. The dough should start to spring back when you lightly push it with your finger. Let it sit in the bowl covered with a damp towel for 30 minutes at least. This isn't to make it rise like other breads, but to make sure the flours absorb the water. This is the basic dough! This can probably make about 6-8 rotis. To make them, split the dough into balls of equal size. Roll out with a rolling pin until they're about 8 inches in diameter. I do this one at a time. When I have the first rolled out, I put it on a very hot pan. I just use a large concave non-stick skillet (kinda wok-like, but not as sharply sloped at the sides). The roti will start to puff, which is fine. When brown spots start to appear on the bottom, flip the roti and cook the other side (about a couple of minutes each side). When it was cooking, I usually roll out the next one, so it's ready to go into the pan when the other one comes out. The one that's ready I put on a plate, and smear all over with butter (helps make it tasty and pliable). Continue till done.

Aloo Paratha

Ingredients:

Spiced Potatoes from above
Basic Roti Dough from above
extra flour, about 1/2 to 1 c

Method:

Take your big ball of roti dough, roll it out into a big circle. Sprinkle a bit of flour, add the potatoes in the center, sprinkle a bit more flour, then fold the dough over the potatoes, closing the ball up well. Now roll the whole thing out again, as before, this will well distribute the potatoes. They are wet, though, and will make the dough a bit more sticky, so add flour to it as needed, to make it silky, not sticky, in texture again. Roll it into a ball. Now you have a ball of dough with potatoes well mixed in. Separate into 8 equally sized balls. Heat a pan, as described above for rotis. Roll out one ball at a time, you will need to dust the board and the ball itself with flour, likely. Roll till 6-8 inches in diameter, place in the hot pan, and cook both sides as directed above. Transfer to plate when finished and spread each side with butter.

Serving Suggestion and Notes: The parathas came out really well. I like the mix of whole wheat and white flours. You may use more white flour, or all white flour if you like for rotis, but parathas really benefit from the whole wheat. I think it's good, because they're traditionally a travel food, so they should provide tons of nutrients! You can eat them with some yogurt, or a raita, or by themselves. Rotis are better for curries and dhals because they're plain and don't distract from the flavor of the dish. Adding some fat (oil) to the roti dough makes them pliable, I find. I like my breads not very salty, but my boyfriend wants me to add more salt next time. To each their own, I guess. Rotis are also delicious with butter and sugar, or dipped in mango puree that's been mixed with some whole milk. That is a great breakfast! (So is roti crisped up a bit in the toaster or a skillet, served with eggs!)

Beet Raita (Shakunder ka Raita)

This is a tasty yogurt salad that's a nice twist on the classic cucumber raita. If fresh cucumber and beet isn't available in the winter time, skip the cucumber and use canned beets.

Shakunder ka Raita

Ingredients:

1/2 English cucmber
1 small onion
2 small beets
1/2 c plain yogurt
small bunch fresh cilantro
1/2 t ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

If using fresh beets, boil them until tender, and then rinse under cool water, peeling the skins off. Allow them to cool completely. Cut them into circles and then cut the circles into half. If using canned beets, drain them well, and (they usually come already in circles) cut into half moons. Cut the cucumber into half moons (slice into rounds and cut into half). Slice onion into thin semi-rings. I think it's nice texture-wise if everything is kind of the same shape. Whisk together the yogurt, the cumin and the fresh cilantro (chopped). Stir in the vegetables, and then salt and pepper to taste. The beet will turn the raita a lovely pink color.

Serving Suggestion and Notes: This salad (like all raitas) for me is especially good in the summer time with kabobs straight of the grill. But since the yogurt is so cooling and soothing, this is a perfect side dish for any spicy curry, or biryani, or even for something non-Indian, like plain grilled meats (or baked meats, or pan fried). If you want the raita to be spicier, then you can add a chopped serrano chili.

Cheap but Good: Chana

This is a very easy Indian recipe. It's perfect for winter: warming, cheap, good the next day, hearty. It's nice and spicy too!

Chana

Ingredients:

1 large can garbanzo beans
2 small onions or 1 large one
1 t cayenne pepper
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
2-4 T oil
about 5 cups of water
salt to taste

Method:

Open your garbanzo beans, and drain them and rinse them well. Set aside. Sautee chopped onion in about 2 T of the oil. Let them get really nice and brown (but not burned). If you don't let them caramelize, this will have almost no flavor. So be patient. When they're ready, push them to one side of your pot. Pool the oil on the other side by tilting the pot a little. You may need to add a bit more oil if the onions have soaked almost all of it up. Ok, put the pot back on the burner now, and dump your spices into the oil pool (not on the onions). Let them fry for about 30 seconds, and then stir everything in the pot together. Dump the beans into the pot, and stir them well. Let that cook for about a minute, then add the water. Allow it to come to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. It can cook longer if you want, but should cook at least 30 minutes for nice soft beans. Add salt to taste. You can also add a bay leaf when you add the water.

Serving Suggestion and Notes: This is perfect with a loaf of French bread ... soft on the inside, crusty on the outside. And soup + bread makes for a pretty darn cheap meal. To make the soup more or less spicy, you can change the amount of spices in it. The important thing is the ratio: 1 part cayenne pepper to 3 parts chili powder and 3 parts cumin (ground).

Mattar Palao: Rice with Peas

This is a very basic Indian recipe that you can serve on it's own or with curry or dhal.

Mattar Palao

Ingredients:

1.5 cup basmati rice
3 cups water
1/4 t salt
1/2 t cumin seeds
2 whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 whole cloves
optional: 1 cardamom pod
1/2 c frozen peas
1 T oil

Method:

Wash the rice very thoroughly, until the water runs clear when you rinse it. Set it aside. Warm the oil on medium/high heat in a saucepan that you'll use to cook the rice. When it shimmers, fry the cumin seeds, but keep aside the clove, peppercorns, and if you're using it, the cardamom. Fry the cumin for about 30 seconds, you'll be able to smell them cooking and they may pop. Put the rice, water, salt and bay leaf and other spices into the pot. Set the heat to high, and let the water come to a boil. Once it boils, set the heat down a little so it's still boiling, but very gently. When almost all of the water has evaporated/absorbed, and small "holes" may appear in the pot of rice, stir in the peas, turn off the stove, and cover the pot for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes has passed, you should open the pot up and stir/fluff the rice with a fork. If the rice is still too wet, turn the heat back on to a low setting, stirring everything till it's not too wet anymore. Probably it'll be just right, though.

Serving Suggestion and Notes: This recipe can easily be expanded/scaled down. For basmati rice, the important ratio is 1 part rice to 2 parts water. You can add more spices to your taste or as needed. For a complete (and inexpensive) meal, I like to scramble some eggs and combine them with the cooked rice, especially the next day. You could also add cashews or some other nut. It's also good garnished with chopped cilantro and/or a squeeze of lemon. Serving this with plain dhal (recipe posted earlier, just leave out eggplant) makes it a bit more complete.

Eggplant Dhal

Dhal is a staple food in India. It is made with many kinds of lentils. I usually use red dhal, because it cooks quickly and doesn't need soaking, or chana dhal (garbanzo beans), because I can buy it canned and I like them. This recipe uses red lentils (dhal). The original recipe, my Mom's, is an adaptation from the book A Spicy Touch. Both those use yellow lentils.

Rozmin's Red Dhal With Eggplant

Ingredients:

1 tsp. fresh ginger
1 tsp. fresh garlic
2 Tbsp oil

½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
2 – 4 whole cloves
1 – 2 whole hot peppers, split in half
1 small tomato, chopped
¾ tsp. cumin powder
¾ tsp. tumeric
¾ tsp crushed red pepper

about 500 g red lentils
water
1 eggplant

1 Tbsp. cilantro leaves
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
salt to taste

Method:

Sautee garlic and ginger in the oil. Cut the eggplant into cubes (you can leave the skin on). When the ginger and garlic is soft, push them to the side of the pot and let the oil pool on the opposite side. Fry the spices in the oil for about 30 seconds. Set heat to a low simmer. Mix the contents of the pot together, adding the tomato. Let cook for about 30 seconds. Add the eggplant and stir well, coating all the eggplant with the mixture. Add the lentils and immeadiately add water to cover everything (probably about 4 or 5 cups). Keep an eye on the dhal, stirring from time to time, and adding 1-2 cups of water when it becomes too thick to stir; this means all the moisture has been absorbed into the lentils and it'll burn if you don't add more. You can cover it if you want to lose less moisture to evaporation. Make sure the heat is on low so the bottom doesn't burn. It's ready when the lentils and eggplant are completely soft; when red lentils are cooked they turn mushy and yellow. Salt it to taste.

Serving Suggestion: Serve garnished with lemon juice and cilantro. It's also very tasty with plain yogurt.