Month: June 2016

You might have noticed it’s been a while since my last post.  Sickness happened, and more time consumingly, packout happened.  The movers were very efficient in packing and boxing our stuff, and I felt awesome about how forward-thinking I was about getting some key kitchen items into our UAB (the air freight which reaches us pretty quickly, and which I’ll want ASAP when we move into our place in the DC area).  It was great until I realized… I barely left enough stuff to use for the two weeks we still had left here.  A lovely colleague brought me a colander, and with that, a large-ish non-stick pot, and a cheap plastic spatula, I managed one evening of pesto pasta with cherry tomatoes and bits of ham and salami.

I learned to make pesto from an enormously foodie friend whom I adore.  She’s the one who turned me on to steamed chicken at Uncle Chong, and she is an amazing cook in her own right.  I still use her pesto and vinaigrette recipes as staples.  The basic pesto recipe is around 2 cups of basil, a quarter cup of flat-leaf parsley, a handful of peeled garlic cloves, at least a half cup of pine nuts (toast them first if you’d like), a good sprinkle of salt, and 2-3 ounces of parmesan (grana padano is fine, too) broken into chunks.  Run all of it through a food processor and pour olive oil in from the top while it’s running until you’ve got a consistency you like.  Obviously adjust by personal taste.  I tend to under-oil so that it’s more versatile– a tighter pesto is easier as a spread on bread, can have cream added for a slightly different sauce, etc.  Also, it freezes well, which is why I had a batch on hand for an easy dinner with minimal kitchen gear.

Another day we used up leftover homemade pizza sauce by smearing it on ciabatta and adding sandwich meats and mozzarella and baking– a bit like french bread pizza, and very yummy!  And the last of the pizza sauce was cooked through with some ground pork for an easy pasta another night.

We’ve also, as you might expect, ordered in a fair bit.  And I realized that I haven’t as yet highlighted some of my Mumbai food favorites.  I’ll feature some here, and include links in case you want to track places down.

Swati Snacks is a must.  It’s a vegetarian street food place where the food is safe to eat.  My personal favorites are the pao bhaji– little buttery rolls served with a mix of vegetables and spices slow cooked til they melt together; pankhi chutney– some sort of flour lightly spread onto banana leaves and steamed, you peel it off into a little roll and dip into coriander chutney, tastes a bit like tamales and is super yummy; and an unexpected favorite– the lassi, which might have a touch of saffron, and is just absurdly good.  http://www.swatisnacks.com/

The Haji Ali Juice Center is another classic.  Now, loads of places have great fresh juices.  My recommendation at this place is absolutely a seasonal fresh fruit with “fresh cream.”  Not sure what they use– a mix of cream and condensed milk, or something else, but it is utterly decadent.  Sitaphal, or custard apple, is one of my all-time favorites, as is the mango.  Both extremely seasonal, so ask them what’s good if you go.  We’ve always driven up for carry out; it’s a bit like Sonic where they come take your order and then bring you stuff to the car.  Gorgeous views while you’re parked and waiting.  http://www.hajialijuicecentre.in/

Across the street-ish inland from there you’ll find Noorani.  Their chicken tikka byriani is absolutely excellent.  However, their kebabs can be hit or miss.

If you want truly stellar kebabs, I direct you to Shalimar.  I think there’s a few in town; we’ve usually had food from the one in Byculla.  If you’re a carnivore, you simply must to go to this place.  Mutton barra, galouti, and shami kebabs, and chicken malai tikka are superb.  http://shalimarmumbai.com/

Next door to it is another classic, Noor Mohammadi.  They’re rightly famous for the Sanju Baba chicken (allegedly the recipe came from Bollywood bad boy Sanjay Dutt), which you should try.  Many love the white byriani; I find it just okay.  The nalli nihari is also a solid choice (a meat dish with little bits of marrow on top).  But the real standout here is their Chicken Hakimi.  It’s a tandoori chicken that gets bathed in a ghee/yogurt sauce which is lighter than it sounds and utterly addictive when sopped up with flatbread.  Not to be missed.  http://www.noormohammadihotel.com/

Copper Chimney is a popular high-end Indian chain, and is reliably yummy.  Good mutton burrah and murgh malai kebabs, and quite a good butter chicken.  Their runaway hit, however, is the extremely rich, comforting chelo kebab.  It’s like a savory rice pudding cooked with butter and cream, studded with bits of white chicken tikka.  https://www.copperchimney.in/

Significantly cheaper and equally reliable is Jaffer Bhai’s.  Their “snacks” menu of fried items is tasty– particularly the cream tikka and mutton samosas, kebabs and rice dishes are good, the reshmi paratha is fantastic (a sort of buttery griddled roomali rotie, I highly recommend), and if you catch the weekly special, the kichda is quite good.  http://jbdd.co.in/

One of our all-time Mumbai favorites has been Mahesh Lunch Home.  They have 3 locations in the city, each with different menus and each fantastically delicious.  If you wind up at the Juhu one, have the Pomfret Lajabaab.  We usually go to the one in South Mumbai, and I will tell you the absolute perfect combo of items.  Look, you can disregard my advice and do your own thing– you’re unlikely to go wrong at this place because it’s all super tasty.  But if you want a sublimely satisfying meal, I recommend that you ask for:  Prawns Koliwada, Pomfret Bhuna Hua Tikka, a large-ish crab de-shelled and cooked with Butter-Pepper-Garlic, and a Seafood Pondicherry Curry with a side of Neer Dosa and maybe a couple of Appam.  Large group?  Add an Istew with fish or seafood of choice, and a prawn byriani if you’d like.  http://www.maheshlunchhome.com/  Others swear by similar coastal seafood restaurant Trishna, which is also excellent, though we prefer Mahesh by a very small margin.  A similar order would be great, and if there, make sure to order the Fire Grilled Squid.  http://trishna.co.in/

Britannia should also be obligatory on your food itinerary.  Have chicken or mutton cutlets, mutton sali boti with roti, and any of the berry pullaos.  Save room for caramel custard.  If you have a bigger group, spring for some mutton dhansak, as well.  There’s a reason this place has been featured in media, travel blogs, and the like.  It’s an institution in Mumbai, and for good reason.  It’s only open for lunch, no air conditioning.  The adorably ancient proprietor will regale you with laminated photos of himself with British royals, and also profess his love for Hilary Clinton and show you letters.  Admire him, and have a delicious meal.  https://www.zomato.com/mumbai/britannia-company-restaurant-fort

So, these are the places I’d recommend if you’re in Mumbai for a short visit and want to try the greats.  We certainly have other places we really like, but more as “regulars” and particularly for when we want to go out for non-Indian food.  Perhaps that might be another post.

We fly out in the wee hours of Friday, July 1, and for the next month or so, I’m pretty unlikely to be cooking.  Perhaps I’ll include restaurant or other food recommendations, or maybe post some previous adventures in cooking that I hadn’t gotten around to sharing.

My quest for perfect homemade pizza continues, and I am making steady inroads.  Again after much reading of recipes, I settled on a cup of warm water with 3 little envelopes of active dry yeast.  Let it hang out.  In the stand mixer with dough hook, 3 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, 1 1/2 tbsps of maple syrup, and 1/3 cup of olive oil.  When yeasty water was frothy, added that, and ran the mixer on med-low until it formed a ball.  Covered the stand mixer bowl with cling wrap and then let rise for an hour.  At that point I divided dough into two, coated in a bit of olive oil, and put one ball in the fridge and one in the freezer (both in ziploc bags).

About an hour before ready to make pizza, took the fridge dough out and let it come to room temp for half an hour or so.  Then, added a couple tbsps of olive oil to my biggest cast iron pan, and put my dough in and patted it out to near the edges.  Set the oven to 170F and when it came up to temp, turned it off.  Covered dough pan in cling wrap and put in the oven for 30 mins to proof.

For this one, I went a little different on toppings.  Remember the weird gyro loaf I made?  It had been in my freezer.  I let it defrost in the fridge and cut it into thin slices.  I took one package of frozen spinach and let defrost, and drained very well, including squishing out excess water using a paper towel.  Sliced red onions and black olives.  Thin slices of haloumi.  And what about the base?  There, my friends, I had a genius idea.  About equal sized dollops of goat cheese, ricotta, and mascarpone, and, on the wise counsel of a foodie buddy, with red chili flakes and dried oregano whipped through it.

Once the dough proofed, I put the pan on the stove and added the base and toppings.  Then I turned the stove to med-high and let the bottom cook a bit, and turned the oven up to 550F.  Pizza went in for 15 mins, and came out looking like this:

The gyro meat and hallomi crisped up beautifully, and the crust was close to a Pizza Hut pan pizza texture.  The white base was gorgeous– creamy and a bit zingy, and a perfect counterpoint to the salty toppings.

You could easily leave off the meat for a delicious veggie version that I think would be a real hit.

Now, for the second batch of dough, I took it out of the freezer and let it hang at room temp all day.   Then I proofed it in the pan same as the first time, and carried on.  For sauce, I again did boxed tomato puree, a little can of anchovies including their oil, dried basil, dried oregano, shredded parm (please use the real stuff, not the canned sawdust), garlic cloves, sugar,  chili flakes, and cayenne.  Use a stick blender, taste, and adjust seasonings as needed.  Let me say that some variant on this will always be my go-to pizza/marinara-style dipping sauce, because it is splendid.  Toppings were bits of cooked sweet Italian sausage and mushroom with a mix of mozzarella and cheddar, with some parm shredded on once it came out, and oh how quickly we gobbled it up!

Now look, I get that if you’re in a place where pizza is pretty much the easiest, most reliable food to have delivered, it doesn’t make sense to invest this much time and energy in making it, so it might not be your sportsball watching go-to to make at home.  So let me hook you up with additional options.

First among these is buffalo chicken dip.  If you have a stovetop smoker (and I’ve told you before that you should!), smoke some boneless chicken of your choice for half an hour or so.  If you want to season it (I like packaged taco or fajita seasoning mix for this purpose) , do, but it’s not strictly necessary.  Or feel free to shred a store-bought rotisserie chicken or use any leftover cooked chicken you’ve got .  Put it in an oven-safe casserole dish and pour in a small bottle of Frank’s or similar hot sauce, a small bottle of ranch dressing (if you like blue cheese, go on with your bad self and use that), and a small package of cream cheese.  Using a fork, roughly mix the stuff together.  Cover in a layer of shredded cheddar, and pop in the oven at 375F for 30 minutes or so, until the cheesy top is melty and bubbly.  Serve with bread, tortilla chips, carrot/celery sticks, or whatever else you like.  It’s a crowd pleaser.

If, however, you want real wings and not just dip, let me tell you the secret.  Well, it’s not a secret, really, apparently Cook’s Illustrated started the trend, and there’s loads of knockoff recipes.  Take 2 dozen chicken wings and put them in a ziploc bag.  Add a tbsp of baking powder (please make sure it’s powder, NOT baking soda) and a 1/2 tsp of salt, and shake it about.  Now lay the wings skin side up on a baking rack set over a foil-covered pan.  Put in the lower rack of the oven at 250F for 30 minutes.  Then move the chicken to the higher rack and set oven to 450F, and cook an additional 35-50 mins depending on size of your wings.  This will provide you crispy, juicy wings without the oil splatters and mess of deep frying, and you can do many more at once depending on your oven size.  My saucing recommendations:

For traditional wing sauce, I use a 3oz bottle of hot sauce, a 1/2 stick of butter, 3 cloves of garlic grated on the microplane, a couple of splashes of vinegar, some powdered cayenne, and some Tobasco, all according to taste.  Just sauce the wings when they’re hot out of the oven.

Remember the yummy ginger/garlic/green onion dipping sauce I made for steamed chicken?  That is utterly glorious on these crispity wings!

And, if you want another sort of Asian wing sauce, a delicious, addictive, sticky-savory, “what IS that deliciousness” sauce, then start with a sesame paste.  You could use tahini if it’s on hand.  I didn’t have any, so I toasted a 1/2 cup of sesame seeds in a dry pan, then put in my food processor with 1 tbsp of sunflower oil.  So, now you’ve got toasty sesame paste.  Add an equal amount of miso paste.  Add rice wine vinegar, soy, fish sauce, ginger paste (or fresh grated), brown sugar, and Sriracha.  If you want to add a few squirts of wasabi paste, that’s good, too.  To use with the wings, once they’ve done cooking at 250F, coat them in the sauce before returning to the oven at 450F.

Now, for other chicken parts, just use the Asian sauce as a marinade and then bake at 375F for 40-50 minutes, and feel free to use the cooked sauce to toss with rice noodles or coat roasted veg.

Another game day food you might want to make is Muffuletta.  I jumped off from here:  http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/emerils-muffuletta.  Basically a mix of different types of olives, pickled veg, olive oil, vinegar, and Italian seasonings, blitzed in the food processor and left to hang out for at least a day to really meld the flavors.  Slather it on bread and add loads of Italian cold cuts and a couple of cheeses.

Happy eating, and hope your team wins the uh, whatever your championship thing is called!

I grew up in Fremont, CA, where there were numerous Asian immigrant communities. Finding authentic food was easy, and there was a lot of deliciousness.  I particularly remember a low-key joint near my high school called “Uncle Chong.”  I think a friend recommended it (she’s Vietnamese-American but her very foodie family kept tabs on all the great eats).  And, she directed me to try the “steamed chicken.”  It sounded dull, but it was actually a gorgeous dish, perfect in its simplicity.  For some reason it has been on my mind, so I did a little research online and the technique sounded relatively simple.

So, a couple of days ago, I took 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and dropped them in a ziploc bag with a couple of splashes of light and dark soy, a bigger splash of rice wine vinegar, and chunks of galangal (I had bought a “Thai ingredients” raw pack which groceries here bundle to use the lemongrass and such for my soup the other day, so had it on hand).  The next day I added slivers of ginger as well (procured after a grocery stop– you’d be fine to use just ginger, I think).  I turned it a couple of times in the fridge to make sure it was well-coated.

Today I put an inch or so of water in the bottom of a metal pan, and added the steamer insert just above.  I let it come to a boil, added in the chicken pieces with the chunks of ginger and galangal on them, and covered with a close-fitting lid.  I turned the heat way down to let it simmer/steam, and set the timer for 40 minutes.

I used my handy Alaskan oulu to chop up about a 2 inch knob of ginger, 5 garlic cloves, and 6 stalks of green onion, and sliced in a couple of chilies.  I dumped that, with a couple of tablespoons of oil, in a saute pan on med-low heat.  I let it cook for about 15 minutes or so; you want to draw out the flavors of the aromatics but not brown them.  I added some light and dark soy, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, sugar, and sesame oil to a bowl, and then dumped in the aromatics with all the oil they’d cooked in.

When the chicken was done, I let it cool.  I then removed the skin and bone, shredded, and poured a few spoons full of the sauce over it.  It was SUPERB.  It wasn’t the same texture that I remembered from Uncle Chong– not sure if the salt penetration from the soy perhaps changed it, but it was absolutely full of delicious flavor, and the sauce was divine.  I’ve got some left and might use it with super crispy oven-baked chicken wings later in the week.  Not to worry, we’ll talk about how the super crispiness happens when I make it.

We ended up having the chicken along with the leftover Thai soup with the rice, baby corn, and mushrooms in it, so it felt like a complete meal.  I’d thought to make bacon-garlic cauliflower “rice,” but just did not feel up to more time in the kitchen.

If you want a super yummy low-carb meal, you can do as follows for your side dish:  cook up lardons in a wok and set aside, and pour off the grease. Use a bit of grease to saute mushrooms, set aside. Two chopped small onions and a whole lot of garlic cloves, chopped, and cook it up in a bit of the grease. Then take a big cauliflower, break it into pieces, and run it through the shredder attachment of your food processor. Add the it to the onion/garlic in the wok, stir fry on medium-high for two minutes, turn down to medium, and cover and let cook for 5 minutes. Add back in the mushrooms and lardons. Add a little soy, vinegar, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and terriyaki sauce (or your preferred mix of stuff– if you’ve made enough of the dipping sauce for the chicken, feel free to use that!). Scramble some eggs and stir them in. Would be good to garnish with some green onions, too.

While I am still not feeling 100% and my ear stuffiness and nose runniness continue to bedevil me, I’m glad we got to enjoy some noms.  Apologies for the lack of photos in this post.  I’ll up my game when I feel more the thing.

I have an ear infection.  For the past 6 days, I’ve had congestion and ear stuffiness, felt awful, and been taking a cocktail of medicines (with a doc’s consult).  It did not get better, and today I finally started antibiotics.  I hope to bounce back, but it has been a rough week.

Since I was under the weather, a couple of days ago I decided I needed to do an easy thing to make a strong base for healing foods:  crock pot stock.  I ferret away carcasses of roast chicken, wingtips, backbones from when I’ve spatchcocked, the offal bits like liver and gizzard, extra chicken pieces I’m not cooking– all go into one or a few ziploc bags which I add to over time.  On stock day, they all get dumped in the crockpot, frozen.  In go roughly chopped carrots, celery with some leaves on, onion (I had no fresh ones on hand so used a half jar of brown onion paste), a couple of bay leaves, and a little bunch of whole peppercorns.  Leave it on low for 8-12 hours (overnight is good).  Strain it and you get the most delicious, unctuous stock– it gets pretty gelatinous when chilled.  I think the hipsters call this “bone broth.”  It’s delicious in a mug with salt and pepper when you need a lot of liquids.  It’s also exceptional for any sort of soup you might want to make– a couple of options in a moment.

The other thing I do when I make this stock is meticulously pick all of the super soft meat from the bones for our puppy bear, Tiffin.  Yes, even my dog is named after a food/meal.  He loves boiled chicken beyond all reason, so it’s a great bonus that this awesome stock yields several meals for him.

Now, what kind of soup can you make from this stock?  Well you could, as I did tonight, riff on http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-chicken-in-coconut-milk-with-lemongrass-recipes-from-the-kitchn-81026.  I took chicken thighs with skin and bone, and seared them off in a pan (no need to use quite so much butter/oil, though even with significantly less than in that recipe, I dumped some out.)  I had some leftover coconut cream (from the glaze for the mango rolls!) and put that in, and about an equal amount of the good stock.  The juice of 1 1/2 small local limes, a big handful of torn kaffir lime leaves, one long lemongrass stalk cut into chunks, a big handful of cilantro stems, a few chilies left whole (chop if you want more heat than just the flavor), and a bunch of peeled garlic cloves.  A couple of splashes of light and dark soy, and some fish sauce.  In the oven at 375F for 45 minutes, then added fresh baby corn and mushrooms and back in for another 30.  It’s a bit fussy to then strain the broth, take the skin off the meat and chop it up, and fish out only the baby corn and mushrooms rather than catching the aromatics, but it’s well worth it.  If you’re more organized in the kitchen than I am, feel free to put your aromatics in a little cheesecloth bundle and tie off, and leave it in as a sort of Asian bouquet garni.   I had enough liquid that it was more soup than stew, and added some rice to each of our bowls, as well as a hit of Sriracha.  No photo, because it was yum and got nommed up quickly.  I’ve done it before and added rice noodles, such as pad thai noodles, which also tastes great.  You get almost a tom kha flavor.  It might not be entirely authentic, but it is super, super delicious, and is fantastic when you’re sick and can’t get ahold of a big bowl of pho.

The stock is immensely flexible.  You could also go “Italian” with:  http://www.food.com/recipe/olive-garden-zuppa-toscana-9782 .  Last time I made it I think I skipped the bacon entirely and used homemade stock, and it. Was. Sublime.  The photo doesn’t even do it justice.

The kale gets tender, the sausage is juicy, the soup itself is liquid gold.  SO delicious!  A friend gave me a pro tip– if you plan to freeze some, leave out the cream and just add that when you defrost/reheat.  Worked a treat.

And one other soup recommendation, this one pulled from: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/06/06/roasted_zucchini_soup_recipe_with_tons_of_garlic_and_boursin_cheese_the_best_thing_to_do_with_abundant_zucchini.html.  Basically roast off zucchini, onions, and garlic, add the stock, add some boursin cheese, and use a stick blender or food processor.  I like to add dried mint– it works wonderfully.

You could also, as I do, boil up frozen broccoli in the stock, dump in shredded cheddar (shred your own and toss through with a bit of cornstarch to draw out the moisture and keep your cheese from splitting into oily grossness in the hot liquid!  Also useful for when you make mac and cheese, btw), and puree with implement of choice for yummy broccoli cheese soup.

This stock will be your BFF for making gravy, for pan sauce for simple roast chicken dishes– the uses are many.   Are you absurdly parsimonious and don’t have a dog?  You can still shred all the super soft chicken, and add seasonings, egg, and breadcrumbs, and fry up some croquettes, which you can then munch as a side with your mug of stock.

Yes, I know the weather’s heating up and the time for soup is past.  But summertime colds and other such ailments strike.  Plus up your couscous salad game by cooking the grain in stock.  I’ve had to bookmark the site which gives me the right ration– 1 1/2 cups of couscous to 2 3/4 of stock.  I boil it first, turn off the heat, drop in the grain, quick stir, cover, and don’t touch.  Then I chop up feta, chunks of red bell pepper and cucumber, and fresh mint and parsley.  By that time the couscous is ready– fluff with a fork and add in your other stuff, plus lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oi.  Great with kebabs or sausages.

Stock instead of water makes polenta better– stock plus a ton of shredded cheese, ideally gruyere.  I had an Italian tell me, “Normally I don’t like polenta because I find it bland, but yours is very good.”

So, next time you have leftover raw chicken bits, get a freezer bag going.  If you want to be fancy, the madman chef Heston Blumenthal suggests using chicken wings, tossing them in milk powder, and roasting off.  This increases the Maillard reaction and gives you a really brown chicken base, which makes your chicken stock extra “chicken-y.”  He also uses garlic in his stock.  I don’t mind this but my husband prefers it without, so you do you.  But do make stock in your slow cooker if you’ve got one, because it will be delicious and will make everything you cook with it taste much better.   Now, one note, this stock will be intensely flavorful, but it won’t reduce.  If you want to concentrate it further, feel free to put it on the stovetop and cook it down as much as you’d like.  However, I don’t really see the need for that, since, as I said, it’s already extremely flavorful as-is.

Freeze it in gallon ziploc bags, or, if you want to be measured, in ice cube trays for 1 oz portions you can measure out for sauces and such.  Also, if you need to produce consomme or super clear stock for some reason, freeze stock, and let thaw over a strainer lined with cheesecloth into a bowl.  You’ll wind up with the clear broth you need without having to jump through the hoops you otherwise might.