Word of the Week: Vinify

Vinify - the act of turning grapes into wine through fermentation. Call me ignorant but I never heard this word before. Is it because this happens in vineyards, like vineyards vinify? 

See also previous Word of the Week:

Dollop

Rotisserie

Bain Marie

Barding and Larding

Tandooreeeeeeee!

I was excited to hear we'd be working on the tandoor today. It's a deep clay urn with burning charcoal at the bottom and can hit a temperature of 500C. We're using a modern tandoor today, it has a gas stove at the bottom! Chef had an effective way to convey that safety was of utmost priority by showing us his tandoor scar. 

The full name of the dish is called Tandoori Murgh Tikka (Tandoor Roasted Marinated Chicken). Tikka means long marinate. Origin of dish is North India. We must have used something like 15 different spices. Garam Masala - an ingredient I see alot in Indian recipes - is a standard base for tikka. It is made up of bay leaves, cinnamon, cardammon and cloves or BCCC as Chef calls it. Another one he said was 3G and he didn't mean telco. 3G is ginger, garlic and green chilli. This means massive mise en place for Indian cuisines. But I like to do mise en place because it makes me feel well prepared.

We used about 15 different spices!

We used a giant skewer that went all the way into the tandoor. 

At a temperature of 500C, it took only a few minutes before we saw the chicken darkening.

Skewers removed when chicken is half-cooked for basting with butter
before we put them back into the tandoor again for a bit of crispy charring.

There should be some black charring on tips of chicken pieces. Great with the mango chutney we blended.

My group also prepared mise en place for Dal Makhani (Lentils stewed with butter and tomato) and Pudina Chutney (Mint and Yoghurt sauce).  Another group prepared Naan (Tandoor bread with plain flour) and Roti (Tandoor bread with whole wheat flour). Recipes available if you seriously intend to try these dishes. Do leave a comment on this post if interested. 

Some things are taught. Some things are caught. You have to watch an Indian knead his dough.

How did he get them so round??! I did one - you can easily tell which one!

I slapped my roti dough onto the wall of the tandoor and it stuck. Some others fell when people become afraid of the heat. Julia Child says, Be fearless!

After just a minute, remove with 2 long skewers.

Authentic Indian roti

This is a big pot of lentil goodness - red kidney beans, black beans with 15 or more different spices. I helped myself to a whole ladle!

I love North Indian food. Incredible India!

Word of the Week: Piping

Just playing with my leftover piping cream. 

It's fun and we should let the kids learn Chinese spelling with this!

Words to feed your soul

This has everything my blog stands for and I like it and just want to share it with you.

Dry cooking on Singapore cuisine

Lesson on dry cooking method continues today with application to local cuisine. Interesting to get a professional chef's perspectives on where to get the best hokkien mee, char kway teow and nasi lemak, and his views on what make these good. Also heard some true horror stories of the things hawkers do to make their food look good, taste good and last longer, strengthening my own resolve to do more home cooking. Mine couldn't come close to the taste but I know what I'm eating and it's all good.

We grilled chicken satay and made sambal belachan grilled stingray, and chef showed us how he makes goreng pisang (fried bananas). Here are some pictures to share with you. Let me know if you're interested in any of these recipes - too much to type out.

Learned to make our own sambal belachan.

 

Is this lime or calamansi? What's the difference?

Served with onions

Using lemongrass stick to grease satay

Some fats needed in satay so it won't dry out.

It was yummy!

Final dish was goreng pisang (fried banana fritters). 

This was delicious too and reminded me of my kindergarten days when I
used to love them. But here's where I heard the most horror stories too of
what hawkers do to keep these pisang crisp.