Moist heat cooking on Indian cuisine

Pulao - Basmati rice with 3C (cinnamon, cloves, cardamon), star anise, mint leaves and coriander leaves. I like!

The dishes we learned today are:

1. Pulao or Basmati rice cooked by pulao method (moist/steam)

2. Murgh Methi Masala (Chicken masala with fenugreek leaves)

3. Vendakkai Meen Curry (Fish curry with okra) - This one is very good! Recipe provided here

4. Aloo Gobi (Potato and Cauliflower masala)

This fish dish takes my vote as today's high performer with minimal
effort. I am so going to try this knowing how much my husband loves fish.

Cauliflower and potatoes. OK OK lah! A good side dish.

Top view. Hard to show Indian cuisine through amateur photography!

And now, may I introduce you to my new friend, Fenugreek, whom I met for the first time today. 

Fenugreek seeds. Yes, I hid her in my chef's pocket and brought her home.

Soak in water for a few hours till cloudy, then serve as a drink. Reduces heat in the body and is also commonly administered in India to babies to comfort them and settle them if they cry incessantly. You can also drop some into your masala tea. 

Dal Makhani - Lentils stewed with butter and tomato

This is a big pot of lentil goodness - red kidney beans, black beans with

15 or more different spices. My son asks, Mom, why are there ants in the pot?

I posted more than a week ago on our Tandoori lesson in which we stewed a big pot of lentils. With Indian cuisine, everything is about big pots. I love the one big happy family gathering around food concept. No fine arts about it. Forget any sophisticated plating. Everyone can dig into the big pot altogether.

I'm still thinking about this dish although I haven't had a chance to try it - too many recipes, too little time! I'm going to write the recipe here even though it's so very long. It's a very worthy recipe to me. Worthy of an attempt, worthy of taking the trouble to understand all the ingredients, and worthy of a massive mise en place. In fact, worthy of a trip to Little India! The taste is rewarding, satisfying, inspiring, and as a bonus, it's also highly nutritious. Note: need an overnight soaking of lentils and kidney beans.

Here goes.

Serves 4

Ingredients
90g black gram dal/urad
30g kidney beans/rajmah
15g bengal gram/channa

75g butter/ghee
1 bay leaf
2 cinnamon sticks
4 green cardamon
2 black cardamon (v strong)
4 cloves
75g onions, sliced
20g ginger, julienned
10g garlic, sliced
1 green chilli, slit
2 kashmiri chilli powder (not strong, more for colour)
2tsp fenugreek leaves (v strong)
125ml tomato paste
1 tsp cumin powder
Salt to taste

To finish: 50ml cream and 50g butter

Method:
1. Soak lentils and kidney beans overnight. Boil them separate with enough water till well cooked (kidney beans will take 2 hours)
2. Melt butter in a saucepan, add whole garam masala, saute for a minute
3. Add 3G - ginger, green chilli, garlic, stir over medium heat until the raw flavour goes off
4. Add onions and saute till it caramelizes
5. Add in fenugreek leaves and red chilli powder
6. Saute and add tomato paste, simmer (small bubbles) for 10 min
7. Pour into cooked dal, finish with cream, butter and cumin powder
8. Garnish with coriander leaves and cream drops.

Practise this for upcoming Diwali, and write and tell me about it!

Afternote: I've since tried making this dish - see how mine looks. Also, one of my readers also tried it with some good success. She used fresh tomatoes instead of tomato paste - look at hers.

"101 things I learned in culinary school"

My husband picked this book up from a local bookstore about a year ago.
12 months ago, I had zero interest in cooking, and today, all I can think of is
about ingredients and recipes. How strange life takes its turns.

Interesting, useful and practical tips presented in simple one-pagers.

And the difference between sauteing and stir-fry again is?

I totally believe this now, and I think it applies to canned tomatoes too!

Do you like this? We are more connected in this universe than we think.

Oral and practical exams today on dry heat cooking

My submission for practical exams on golden brown deep-fried dory fillet.
After passing the colour test, my heart stopped for a second as Chef cut
open to check the doneness. It's an immediate fail if the fish is uncooked.

Chef took a bite, pondered, squeezed some lemon juice over it and took
another bite. He asked me to taste it, and went on to ask what I thought.
(Shouldn't he be telling me??) I said, I would pay to eat this.
Honestly, that was what I felt! He smiled and said, You're done
here. Clean up your station and go.

We were divided into 2 groups, the first group of 8 went into the kitchen for practical while the second group of 7 was sent to the classroom for an oral exam on the theory of dry heat cooking. I was in the first group. We were given an hour to produce a golden brown deep-fried dory fillet. We had a chance to practise this last week - see earlier post. This I think is the equivalent of giving an intern 3 luxurious hours to research on a piece of work to produce a good press release. I decided to take my time and not rush since any mistakes would be costly and any damaged ingredients are not replaceable.

Chef is expecting to see a few things from us at every stage and I have this mental checklist in my head as I go along:

1. How we flour, eggwash and bread the fillet. Tap off excess flour so you don't get a heavy batter. Flour it enough to absorb moisture from fish so there is no water and no splatter when you dip it into the oil. Flouring correctly also gives you a nice crisp texture when you bite into it. In the photo above, Chef checks for thickness of my flouring. Can't really tell what he thinks of it!

2. Colour - golden brown is a sign of good heat control. The oil temperature should be between 175-190C. You can use a thermometer to be sure but I have also been taught to observe movements in the oil and small bubbles (or lazy bubbles as Chef calls it). One way to test if the oil is ready is to throw a few bits of bread crumbs in there. If it sizzles, it's ready. If it just floats there like nothing is happening, the oil is not ready. If you see smoke, the oil is too hot and you should reduce the heat and wait a while before putting in the fish. To reduce heat, you can add oil, or remove pot from fire or turn off fire. Then start the process again, looking for lazy bubbles. If the oil is too hot, you will get dark brown fillet immediately while the inside is still not cooked.

Having this knowledge has helped me overcome my fear of working on open fire with so much oil, and gives me a better sense of control. I'm a woman, I always need my sense of control! I also have a better appreciation and higher acceptance level of deep-fried now. If done properly, they are not soggy and greasy and disgusting!

So, overall, I'm delighted that I'm really learning. With each session, I gain more confidence in the kitchen and I'm happy I've made peace with an old enemy called deep-fry. The ultimate beneficiaries of this new skill, I suspect, are the kids. They can now have home-made KFC without me nagging at the ill-effects.

Now for the oral exams, here are some of the questions I can recall on dry heat cooking methods. Can you answer them?

1. What is the purpose of pre-heating an oven?

2. Name 3 types of heat transfers.

3. What is the purpose of basting?

4. What is the purpose of flouring?

5. What is smoking point?

6. Why is it you should not carve meat that's just out of the oven?

7. Why should you deep-fry food in small batches rather than all at once?

Steamed Chicken Leg Chinese-style

Steamed chicken leg Chinese-style. I found it hard to assemble the chicken pieces. This was my presentation to Chef.  Personally, I found it messy and untidy but he said he was fine with it.

Lessons on moist heat cooking methods applied to steamed chicken legs, done Chinese-style. The chicken is first boiled, and steamed, then seasoned, chilled, assembled and served as a cold dish. This is the first time I've learned to debone a chicken. It's a mindset block I have that such a task is reserved for the butcher or the advanced cook. Eli, my partner, says, Just do it. So I did. Clumsily but it did come off. Phew. Feels like I just did a triple sommersault. To continue to have these virgin experiences at my age is a wonder in itself.

This is how the whole thing came together. 

Slice thinly young ginger and arrange neatly across serving plate.
Cut spring onions to 2cm length and arrange on top of ginger.

Top view

Add water to a pot and bring to boil. Put in chicken thigh. Boil for 5 min
then place it on top of ginger and spring onion.

Loosely cling-wrap and steam for half an hour. Remove from steamer and chill for 15 minutes.

We had to label our own plate for identification. Of all places, I chose to unveil Extra Virgin Chef in a steam oven! Eli drew a Jewish Star of David on his. 

Take chicken out of chiller and remove bone, then flatten chicken and cut into 2cm wide pieces. You will see a gelatin around the chicken. This is concentrated flavour and you should scoop some of it onto the plate. I would have normally thrown this away!

Next, prepare simple seasoning of 1 Tbsp light soy sauce and 1 Tbsp sesame oil and add any remaining gelatin for further flavour. Taste seasoning before drizzling over chicken leg. Garnish serving plate with tomato and lettuce, and serve.

Some classmates complained this is way too tedious for just a mere piece of chicken leg but I think the little steps here and there result in subtle differences in flavour and enhance the overall feel and taste for this Chinese dish.

This will be one of the dishes in our next practical exams on moist heat cooking. Looks like there's some homework to be done.

Click here to see how I fared in my practical exams on this dish.