Moo's Potato & Eggplant Curry Thingy

Some years back, my seester (with whom the rest of us – being obnoxious siblings – saddled an unflattering and singularly inapt nick-name) was on a tight budget & was heading toward becoming a vegetarian as a result.  We swapped a few ideas for how to salvage ramen noodles, of course, and did a lot of other odds and ends in her kitchen, including giving me the opportunity to discover a few more of my allergies while broadening our culinary horizons.

She's become more fiscally sound, since then, and also become more protein-focused, but I've kept the one recipe from those hard times that actually made me feel that being broke and meatless wasn't quite a fate worse than death.

The first time my seester fixed this for us, it was in her apartment in Philadelphia, on one of those trips to visit I could barely afford to take, and she could barely afford to host me, but… well… she's my seester.  Just sitting around and talking with her is an awesome way to spend a week.  Food is a bonus.

So, there we were, in her tiny kitchen, with her wok and her cutting board on her tiny drop-leaf table from Ikea, going all teamwork-y on this sumptuous feast of curry on rice.  I can still see the steam on her glasses as she checked the taters' tenderness…

Now, it's your turn to steam up your own glasses, or smoke your tastebuds, or whatever.

Moo's Potato & Eggplant Curry Thingy

Ingredients:

5 large potatoes (about 2 1/2 lbs), peeled & cubed about 1/2" to 1"
2 medium eggplants (about 2 lbs total)
plenty of table salt
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp each: ground ginger, turmeric, cumin seeds,
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each: cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and coriander
2 cloves fresh garlic, pressed or crushed
2 1/2 c. water
2/3 c. cooked or fresh peas (if frozen, thaw under hot water until just above room temp)
2 medium sweet bell peppers, cut into 1/2 inch squares
1 c. plain yogurt (I use Greek style)
4-6 cups cooked rice

Directions:

Peel eggplant, slice into 1/2 inch thicknesses.  Salt both sides of each slice, let stand on rack or paper towels about 1/2 hour.  Using fresh paper towels, press out liquids. Cut into cubes.

Peel & cut potatoes.

Melt butter in wok or large frying pan at medium-high heat. Add black mustard seed.  When they have mostly popped, add other spices and garlic. Brown slightly, then add potatoes, mixing thoroughly to cover the potatoes with spice mixture.  Let potatoes brown, then stir in eggplant.

Add water, allow to simmer uncovered 20-25 minutes stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender.

While that is cooking, clean & cut peppers.

Remove wok from heat.

Add peppers and peas, allow to warm up. Add yogurt to taste (you may instead decide to have individuals add this as it is served).  Serve on rice.

Feeds 4-6.

Update, 13 January, 2013: in a fit of cabin fever, I decided to make this no matter what ingredients I had in the house. I lacked cumin seeds and cayenne pepper, so I adjusted to approximately 3/4 tsp, ground cumin, added saffron instead of turmeric, and minced five small serrano peppers (about 2 Tbs) instead of using the cayenne. The bell peppers I had were sweet red peppers, so, again, I made do. It came out very nicely, if I do say so, myself. The red peppers perked up the look tremendously, and the whole dish seemed just a little fresher than the last time I'd fixed it.

Fry Bread, for Indian Tacos or other nefarious purposes

Pop and the Bat have taken a couple of vacations to the Southwest, during which times, they have had occasion to sample some of the local chefs' versions of Navajo Fry Bread and Indian Tacos.  The Bat says that, if you ever get out to see the Grand Canyon, the place to stop is Cameron Trading Post... for more than just their awesome eats, but that's a great place to start.  Their fry bread is, to borrow a description from one of the kids in my neighborhood, "monster HUUUUUGE," and awesomely tasty.  

Having sampled this treat as a main dish and a dessert (I get to eat it when I hit the regional Powwows), I have developed a bit of a taste for it, myself, and decided to give it a go in our kitchen, too.    We had our usual Friday company for supper, last week, and served them a variation on that theme...

Now, when most of you fix tacos, you usually use ground meat, upon which you pour a mix of seasons and let it simmer for a few minutes before serving.  We aren't big fans of the flavor of most of those burger-laden varieties, especially when we have a perfectly good half a roast in the refrigerator, having been left over from the night before.   I shaved that up into very thin slices, cut again across the grain, so that I had strips approximately 3 millimeters thick by 1 centimeter wide by 15 centimeters long. I put together a chipotle spiced marinade mix,  the juice of one fresh lime, olive oil and water (proportions are based on the pre-fab marinade mix instructions, but slightly more water)all in a zipper storage bag, and added in the meat, tossing it into the refrigerator for about two hours.  While that steeped in its juices, I finely chopped tomatoes, onions, lettuce (we used romaine), and olives, putting each in its own covered dish in the refrigerator.   I made certain I had refried black beans topped with a sprinkling of shredded cheese (heat before serving), plus a guacamole "ketchup," homemade salsa, and some sour cream (greek-style yogurt with a little lime juice and honey makes a reasonable substitute), all waiting to go on the table. 

Then came time to prep the fry bread.  

Note:  Traditional Navajo fry bread uses powdered milk.  We didn't have any, because nobody much cares for it in our house.  On the other hand, we did have powdered buttermilk, making for an even more decadent version of the classic, while still keeping the calories lower (as if we were worried about this, in a fried food)... we recommend the buttermilk for its sweetness.  We also prefer to cook in lard, but, if you have issues with this, you may substitute Crisco or even cooking oil.  Just know, this will, necessarily, change the flavor.

Fry Bread

Ingredients:2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/4 cup powdered buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup water
about 2 cups shortening (for frying)
extra flour (to keep the dough from sticking to your hands

Directions:Begin to preheat shortening in a deep fryer, large frying pan, or deep wok, aiming for about 350º F.  You need at least one inch depth to your shortening, so you will need to amend the measurement according to which pot or pan you use.

In a medium bowl, sift together dry ingredients.  Pour the water over the mixture all at once, mixing with whisk or fork until it begins to form one large mass.

Make sure your hands are clean, then flour them well.   Using your hands, gently work the dough in the bowl (do not knead, or the bread will become heavy), until it begins to form a slightly sticky ball.  

Divide the ball of dough into eight (8) equal pieces.  With floured hands, shape a piece of dough into a rough approximation of a six-inch diameter disk (don't worry if it's not exactly round.  This is a fun bread, not some uptight wheel of reason).  Poke a small hole in the center, gently place the flattened piece of dough into the hot oil (to avoid spattering).  

Fry until golden-brown (about 3 minutes or slightly more), then flip it to fry the other side.  The bread will be lumpy.  Do not worry about unevenness, as it's a feature, not a bug.  

Place the fry bread on a paper towel to absorb the excess shortening.  Serve hot.  If you have to set aside, place in 200º F oven for up to 1 hour before serving.

Further note: I am told you can save leftovers in the refrigerator overnight, and revitalize them in a 350º oven, 10 minutes or so.  I have never had enough left over to make this experiment possible.

When it comes time to serve the tacos, there is no folding the fry bread (unless you are overly ambitious).  Treat it as an open-faced sandwich, if you will. Pile on your favorite taco ingredients, slice it up with a knife and eat it with a fork.  Or, make a big mess and enjoy, anyway.

If, on the other hand, you don't want to do tacos, this makes a naughty dessert, as well.  You can dust it with powdered sugar or  cinnamon sugar, drizzle it with honey or fruit syrup/jelly/jam, or pile on your favorite berries/peaches/other tender fruits.  If you haven't tried it this way, but you've been to a county fair somewhere in the Midwest, think of this as a much tastier version of funnel cakes, and treat it as such.  Your tongue will love you, and your hips will resent every bite...

Pasties, Bronze Turkeys, and old school spirit

Tonight, I fixed supper again for the old fogeys... mostly because I had nothing better to do, as well as that Mom is still nursing a bruised rib & pulled muscles around it, and that Pop is a health hazard as it applies to food prep.

So, of course, I decided to experiment.  I'm always up for the basic Upper Peninsula variation on Cornish Pasties, & have found a dozen or so recipes in the Bat's collection of regional church cookbooks and such (although, the recipes online always seem to use ground meats, and I'd never heretofore eaten anything but chuck steak chopped into 1/2 centimeter or so cubes, in any of the places I'd been up in the UP).  This past month, though, I'd been wondering if I could create my own, in honor of my alma mater and its long-held rivalry with the nearest neighbor college (not a link to their site... that might be considered disloyal to the Fighting Scots).

Considering that Monmouth's big annual fair is the Prime Beef Festival, and Warren County (of which Monmouth is the county seat) had, a century ago or so, proclaimed itself the Prime Beef Capital of the World, I opted initially for a straight-beef-no-meat-blend approach.  And, taking into consideration Knox College is in the heart of Galesburg, IL, the home of Carl Sandburg, and they have an annual celebration of the man, each year, in Rootabaga Days, the traditional blend of beef, taters, and "beggies" (or, as rutabagas are called in other parts of the world "Swedish turnips", or, more simply, "Swedes") seemed a natural way to go.

And, being as I'm notoriously lazy -- or, rather, I was visualizing somebody mass-producing these things to serve at the athletic events when Monmouth and Knox face off -- I was looking for a few short cuts.  Therefore, I accept that coarsely chopped meat might end up the best option.  I didn't follow that, for tonight's beefy handfuls, though.  I like my cubed beeves.

What it boiled down to was this:  I cheated on one thing.  I bought pie crusts from the refrigerator section of the supermarket.  I even used a house brand.  Don't stand (or sit) there with your mouth agape.  These things are too thick and unwieldy for making good pies, but they hold up quite nicely around a meat pocket.

So, other than that cheat, my beef pasties were pretty traditional.   I didn't make a whole mess of them, but, having two pie crusts in the box, I cut each in half and made four pasties.    And then I made another four -- a variation -- in honor of the trophy our two schools have battled over for, lo, these many years, even after the guy who later became a spy for the Soviets stole the trophy and hid it for more than a decade....  but that's another story.  Suffice to say, the Bronze Turkey inspired me, too.

I really would love to see somebody at the Monmouth College food service put some of these together during game days, at the concessions stand...

What you'd get is this:


Monmouth-Knox Pasties, or Beefy-Beggie pockets (with a Bronze Turkey optional substitution)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (about 3/4 lb) chuck steak, diced (cut into cubes approx. 1 centimeter or less), or coarsely       ground (or chopped) turkey
1/2 cup diced peeled potatoes (about the same size as the meat cubes)
1/4 cup minced (finely chopped) peeled rutabaga
1/4 cup coarsely grated carrot
1/2 cup finely minced sweet onion, divided
1 tsp (or so) butter, cut into small bits
salt and pepper to taste
2 prepared pie crusts, cut in halves
2 Tablespoons milk
1 egg white, lightly beaten, with a little bit of water (less than a teaspoon)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º F.

Mix potatoes, rutabaga, carrot, and 1/3 cup onion in bowl.   Divide into 4 equal parts.

Unroll pie crusts (if they are stiff, pop them in microwave oven for about 10 seconds, until they are soft and pliable) onto cookie sheet. Cut in half.  Brush edges of crust with milk.

Spread 1/4 of vegetable mixture on one end of pie crust half, sprinkle 1/4 of the meat on top of that, top with a few small chunks of butter, salt and pepper.

Fold crust over, making a 90º-angled wedge (a quarter-pie), completely sealing edges (it doesn't have to be pretty, but it ought to be sturdy and leak-proof).  Make a small vent in top of crust.

Brush top of crust with egg mixture, sprinkle with remaining onion (one can substitute sesame seeds, poppy seeds, kosher salt, or leave top plain).  The egg white will make the crust a little more flaky.  If you want a firmer, crustier top, use whole egg, some water, and then sprinkle your choice of topping.

Bake 45 minutes or until top is rich golden brown (yes, bronze-ish). Remove from oven, allow to cool about 5-10 minutes.

Serve hot or cold, with gravy, catsup, mustard, or salsa.

Pizza and tossed salad

I heart radishes!

So, the Bat and I made pizza, last evening. Most of the time, she makes the dough for the crust, and I come swooping in and throw stuff on top of it at the last minute, before it gets made into a meal... we cheated, yesterday, and used store-bought crusts -- one of the recognizable brand name, and two of a relatively unknown name. Both were very good, of course, but not as good as had we followed the "secret family recipe" she adapted from her Chicago-Style Pizza cookbook (she likes the Uno's recipe). Fresh crust always wins that contest. But shortcuts are encouraged, if you have a crowd or if you have time constraints

Since we had company, we had three pizzas. Bat likes putting a ton of mushrooms, olives and cheese, and not much else, on hers. Pop likes a lot of meat, so we pile on the Italian sausage, pepperoni and onions. Me, like a non-red-sauced pizza with loads of vegetables, and, if we have any, a little roasted chicken (I prefer dark meat, but this week, the local market had bone-in, skin-on breasts on sale for $o.98 per lb, and the thigh meat was fully thirty cents more. And these were great honkin' breasts, at that. So, chicken hooters it was.

I also had to chop an onion, a couple of sweet bell peppers, and a few other items, so, as I was already doing the work, I opted to make a tossed salad to accompany the 'za. Why waste a perfectly good half-pepper, if it won't fit on the bread? Also, we'd been to Aldi the other day, & found a box of "artisan lettuces"... a couple of butter varieties and some other spiky variants of the mizuna family. It clearly meant must use. There's nothing like a big bowl of cool greens to go with a platter of garlic-laden goodies! Naturally, I dragged out a few other vegetables to go into the bowl: celery, radish, coarse-grated carrot, cauliflower (broken apart into slightly-smaller than bite-sized chunks), bell pepper, finely chopped scallions, and chunks of fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes. I was only sorry I had no avocado in the house!

But then, maybe that would have been too much... it doesn't even need dressing, this way.

As it was, the pizza was filling and kept everybody happy -- my own pizza was a hit with Pop and the guests (not enough left over for breakfast, darn it!).

So, here's what I did for mine:

Pesto Pizza

Ingredients:

one of your choice of 12-inch (or so) crust (I prefer extra thin & crispy, but since we were cheating & using store bought, & the Bat took that one for hers, mine this time was on a "regular" crust)

Extra virgin olive oil to brush crust

8 oz. sliced fresh mushrooms, quick-stir-fried in butter

1/3 cup pesto sauce (your favorite. I usually decide which one to use the moment I'm beginning assembly)

2/3 cup ricotta cheese, crumbled

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup frozen spinach, thawed

1/3 sliced sweet bell pepper

1/3 cup or so sliced sweet onion

1 medium tomato, sliced thinly

1/2 cup chopped chicken, cooked

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425º F.

In a hot frying pan or wok, drop a tablespoon or so of butter, and, when melted (before the butter starts to smoke), stir in mushroom slices. Cook until golden but not crisped. Set aside.

Precook (or open package of) your favorite pizza crust. Brush generously with olive oil, even (especially!) the edges. Spread pesto over the surface. Crumble ricotta cheese (yes, it's soft, so you can spread it with a spatula, but it will mix in with the pesto sauce, then, so be prepared for that, if you do).

In a strainer (or with your bare hands, if you're feeling macho), press as much of the liquid as you can from the thawed spinach. Spread thinly over surface of pizza. Cover with mozzarella cheese. Arrange the rest of the toppings to satisfy your sense of esthetics.

Bake in hot oven 10 minutes, or until cheese bubbles and begins to brown.

Allow to cool only a minute or two before serving.

Fish Cake Muffins

This being the first Friday in Lent, some of my compadres worry over my immortal soul (such as it is), so I thought I'd move in a friendly direction, tonight. I was planning to fix a single recipe for the Bat, the Geezer, and a couple of our extended family-ish regulars, but events conspired to set me up with a full house, so I improvised a bit or two.

First, some of us are allergic to shellfish and crabs, and still crave crab cakes. In the good old days, before anaphylaxis became a recognized and feared word in our house, the discovery of those precious jewels of salt water chefs was a source of its own near-religious experience. Now, somebody has decided that taking such a risk is a really bad idea. I won't name names, but... well... pass the Benadryl, willya? I'm going in! almost.

Also, rather than spatter the kitchen with a lot of grease from frying them up, I tried a suggestion I stumbled across in a magazine, and baked them in a well-greased muffin pan. It meant less fat, better for the heart, or so they say. They wound up pretty tasty, & folks went back for seconds (& one went back for thirds)

No crab, though. Dagnabbit.

Not that we missed it that much.

Fish Cake Muffins

Ingredients:

2 lbs. mild white fish, shredded or finely flaked

4 c. fresh whole wheat bread crumbs

1 medium-large red bell pepper, seeds removed and minced

8 scallions, finely sliced

4 large eggs, beaten

2 medium or large egg whites, lightly beaten

1 1/2 tsp. Tabasco or other good hot sauce

1 1/2 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning*

1 tsp ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450ºF.

Heavily grease non-stick muffin pans.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients (I generally find mixing by clean, bare hand is best -- it's not too different from making meat loaf, in that regard). Scoop out in equal portions to fill 24 muffin cups. Place in middle rack of oven, bake 20 - 25 minutes, or until golden-browned.

Serve hot.

It does nicely with a zesty tartar sauce or seafood cocktail sauce, or sprinkled with a little fresh lemon juice and garnished with lemon wedges.

* 1 1/4 tsp of celery salt & 1/4 tsp paprika may be used as reasonable facsimile of Old Bay Seasoning, if you're desperate. ;-)