Travelling and Cooking: Salad with Green Plantain

We have been travelling a bit, flying over the Atlantic ocean from Madrid, Spain to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. There was a lot of running involved at the airport. At one point there was an employee of the airport shouting all the time at passengers that people with a European passport go to one line and other to another. I wonder for how long she made it. Anyway, it was a wonderful vacation with sun, sea, beach and food.
One day La Romana, Dominican Republic, we went to the mall and there was a cooking show going on with Gabriella Reginato. Well, I have never heard of her before, but hey ... it was about food and we still had a bit of time. The first dish she showed was Sangria without alcohol. There was some rosemary involved in this and it tasted good.
Next up was a salad with green plantain. That was very delicious and we thought we have to try it at home, just to have some other fine dish with plantains. 
Therefore I had to adjust the recipe of Gabriella a bit to fit the ingredients we have available here and to have it written in English.

Ingredients:
1 green plantain, cut into small cubes
1/2 red bell pepper cut into small pieces
1/2 yellow bell pepper cut into small pieces
1 green pepper, cut into small pieces
Some leaves of coriander
2 spring onions, cut into small rings
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 lemon
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
Salt and pepper

Method:
To start with, we are going for the cooking of the plantains. Put them in salted water with the juice of half of the lemon. Bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes. Then let them cool down a bit.

The rest is super easy, for as you have done all the chopping already. Well, don't call me lazy when it comes to writing up things. It's just the way it is. No, not the lazy part, but putting the dish together.
Put the plantains, peppers, spring onions, garlic, coriander in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper, then add the remaining juice of the other half of the lemon. Finally add the olive oil and then you are ready to it, if ... you like it at room temperature. Otherwise you can put the salad into the fridge to let it cool down further.
Anyway, this amount of salad would serve for two people, but of course it is only a side dish.

I hope you try it out. Have a look also at the original version, when we tried it the first time in the Dominican Republic in the mall.

Again, another post comes to an end. It went quickly, just as the vacations. It seems that those always end to fast. Have a luvly time!

Hasta luego!

The Spicy Side of Life - Chicken Rendang and Nasi Minyak

I don’t know whether I am back in business, but I try. Today I had that wonderful feeling again … of hot and spicy food slightly heating me up from the inside.

I had some Chicken Rendang and Nasi Minyak. 

As it was my first step into the direction of Malay cuisine, I had to do some research. Usually I go about by checking Wikipedia and then reading through the different dishes. I found a few other things I would love to try, like for example Murtabak, but that has to wait for a while.

I set my eyes on Nasi Minyak, rice flavoured with ghee and some dry spices and … you will see later. The description said, it is usually eaten with Rendang.

The most traditional way of doing that dish is with buffalo meat. As I don’t have it and I didn’t want to try getting it, I settled for chicken, which is also quite common these days.

So, don’t be afraid of the heat or the colour (you will see later, why it has roughly the same colour), we have means and ways to reduce the heat.

Now, let’s go for the Chicken Rendang first.

Chicken Rendang

Ingredients
1 tbsp. ghee
500 g chicken breast, cut into small chunks
1 tsp. turmeric powder
Salt
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
1 stalk of lemongrass, finely chopped
1 dried chilli, finely chopped (less seeds, less heat)
Some water
400 ml coconut milk
A hand full of fresh coriander

Method
Melt the ghee in a pan. Then fry the chicken pieces together with the turmeric and a bit of salt.

Bash the shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and chilli together in a mortar, adding a bit of water to make a paste – kind of.

Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. In the same pan, fry now the paste you just made.

Now add the coconut milk and the chopped up stalks of the coriander. Bring this to the boil and leave to simmer.

At some point add the chicken back and continue simmering until the sauce thickens.

Just prior to serving, add the coriander leaves and check the seasoning whether you need more salt.

Serve the Chicken Rendang together with the …

Nasi Minyak

Ingredients
A mug of basmati rice
Two mugs of water for steaming the rice
1 tbsp. ghee
A hand full of cashew nuts
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
4 cardamom pods, cracked open
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped (mind the seeds)
1 tsp. turmeric
Another mug of water
A hand full of peas (frozen, if you like)
A hand full of fresh coriander
Salt

Method
Add the mug of rice and the water into a pot and bring to the boil, while the lid is open. Then put on the lid, reduce the heat to a minimum and leave for 20 minutes.

Fork through the rice to loosen it up a bit, if you like and then set the rice aside.

Melt the ghee in another pan and roast the cashews. Then remove them from the pan.

Toss the cinnamon stick, star anise and the cardamom into the pan and fry them.

After that add the shallot, chilli and the turmeric. Let them all together enjoy some heat.

At this point it’s time for the rice to return. Add them to the pan together with some water.

While you are at heating things up, add the peas as well and finally the chopped up coriander leaves and the cashews.

Serve right away – as I already said – together with the Chicken Rendang. Well, they have both turmeric in it, so it’s not too much contrasting in terms of colour on the plate, but it tastes luvly.

Hähnchen Rendang und Nasi Minyak

Heut ist es mal an der Zeit für malaysische Küche. Das habe ich bis jetzt noch nicht ausprobiert. Also wird es mal Zeit. 

Insgesamt habe ich zwei Chillies verbaut. Es war trotzdem leicht scharf und aufwärmend. Das ist auf jeden Fall gut, wenn es wieder kälter wird – oh nein, der Winter kommt.

Falls man nicht so auf Schärfe steht, wäre es vielleicht angebracht, die Samen der Chillies zu entfernen. Was soll’s immer her mit der Schärfe.

Hähnchen Rendang

Zutaten
1 EL Ghee
500 g Hähnchenbrust, in kleine Stücke geschnitten
1 TL Kurkuma
Salz
2 Schalloten, feingehackt
2 Knoblauchzehen, feingehackt
Daumengroßes Stück Ingwer,feingehackt
1 Stengel Zitronengras, feingehackt
1 getrocknete Chilli, feingehackt
Etwas Wasser
400 ml Kokosmilch
Eine Hand voll frischer Koriander

Zubereitung
Das Ghee in der Pfanne schmelzen. Dann darin die Hähnchenstücke anbraten mit dem Kurkuma und etwas Salz zusammen bis das Fleisch etwas Farbe bekommt – und damit meine ich nicht die Farbe von dem Kurkuma.

Die Schalotten, Knoblauch, Ingwer, Zitronengras und Chilli in einen Mörser geben und dann ordentlich zusammenstampfen. Ein wenig Wasser dabei, so dass eine Paste entsteht – oder so ähnlich.

Das Hähnchenfleisch aus der Pfanne nehmen und statt dessen die Paste hineingeben. Das Fleisch erst mal zur Seite stellen. Die Paste anbraten.

Dann die Kokosmilch und feingehackte Korianderstengel hinzugeben. Das ganze zum Kochen bringen und köcheln lassen.

Irgendwann kommt dann auch das Fleisch zurück in die Pfanne und weiterköcheln lassen bis die Sauce etwas dicker wird.

Kurz vor dem servieren noch die Korianderblätter hinzugeben und kontrollieren, one noch etwas Salz nötig ist.

Das Hähnchen Rendang servieren zusammen mit …

Nasi Minyak

ZutatenEin Becher Basmatireis
Zwei Becher Wasser zum dünsten des Reises
1 EL Ghee
Eine Hand voll Cashewkerne
1 Zimtstange
1 Sternanis
4 Kardamomkapseln, das innere davon
1 Schalotte, feingehackt
1 rote Chilli, feingehackt
1 TL Kurkuma
Noch ein Becher Wasser
Eine Hand voll Erbsen
Eine Hand voll frischer Koriander
Salz

Zubereitung
Den Reis mit dem Wasser in einen Topf geben und zum Kochen bringen. Sobald der Reis schön blubbert, den Deckel drauf und die Hitze reduzieren. Für 20 Minuten vor sich hinköcheln lassen.

Wenn man mag, kann man dann nochmal das ganze kurz mit einer Gabel auflockern. Den Reis zur Seite stellen.

Das Ghee in einer anderen Pfanne schmelzen und die Cashewkerne darin rösten. Dann die Cashewkerne aus der Pfanne entfernen.

Da kommt jetzt die Zimtstange, Sternanis und Kardamon rein. Kurz anbraten.

Es folgt die Schalotte, Chilli und Kurkuma. Die Zutaten ein wenig die Hitze schmecken lassen.

Nun kommt der Reis wieder zurück in die Pfanne mit einem Becher Wasser, so dass uns da nicht anpappt.

Wo jetzt nun schon mal alles erhitzt wird, kann man auch gleich die Erbsen hinzugeben und wenn man dann schon fast fertig zum Essen ist, kommen noch die Cashewkerne und der Koriander mit drunter.

Zeit zum Essen. Wie ich schon erwähnte – ja, das habe ich schon gesagt – Nasi Minyak und Hähnchen Rendang zusammen servieren und Spass dabei haben. Lecker!

Let's wrap again - Mushroom & Courgette Wraps

Come on, let's do a kettle wrapping. The good thing, there is not just one way to do it and you don't always have to use wheat tortillas to do so, although you can, of course. Well, you don't even have to use chicken or any other kind of meat. With that spirit, let's wrap again and do it the veggie way ...

Fine, you don't have to use cheese in it, but I simply can't do it any other way ... or ... rather don't see any point in leaving out cheese for me.
So, no matter how you like to have your wraps, here I tell you what I did this time ...

Ingredients:
A bit of oil
250 g mushrooms, cut into smaller pieces
1 medium courgette, cut into cube-like objects
1 red chilli, finely chopped (deseeded or not)
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp. tomato puree
Salt and pepper
Some fresh coriander
Some feta cheese or similar
Some lettuce or wheat tortillas

Method:
Heat up a pan with some oil in it. Then add the chopped garlic. Do you smell the loveliness of the garlic in your kitchen? Good, add the courgette and mushrooms. Give it all some heat. While you are at it, toss in the chilli.
Once the courgette starts to soften, add the tomato puree and if you have the feeling you need to, because things look to dry, add some more oil.

Adjust the taste with a bit of salt and pepper. When the things are finished in the pan, you can assemble the wraps or wait a few moments to let the mushrooms and courgette cool down a little bit.
So, place a bit of the mixture on a large piece of lettuce, that will hold. Add a few cubes of feta and a some chopped coriander leaves.
Of course, you can place the plate also the other way around like this ...

Fine, you can even use some wheat tortillas and wrap things that way ...

Enjoy your wrapping. Now I have to continue to do some preparations for a little party I am having tomorrow ...

Wheat Tortillas with Mango Salsa

Sometimes I think I need more of a certain kind of food in my life. Ha, you say, when you look at my blog, there is a lot of variation. Fine! At times, though I wish I could have certain things more often. Maybe something like that ...

That was the dish for Mexico I totally forgot to blog for the World Cup. No worries. Yes, at times I wish I could have a bit more Mexican food in my life.
Well then, what do you have to do for these little wheat tortillas with Mango salsa?
Obviously you need to make your own  wheat tortillas.
For that I usually take normal wheat flour, add a pinch of salt and then as much cream as is necessary to make the dough come together. However, it will never be more than 200 ml of cream. Then I never used more than 500 g of flour.
Let the dough rest a bit, then separate the dough into individual portions, roll out little tortillas and dry-fry them.
Make your Mango Salsa with half a cucumber, a hand full of cherry tomatoes, a bunch of fresh coriander, one ripe mango, the juice of one lime, one red chilli, a small red onion and a bit of salt.
It's best to cut the cucumbers in half lengthwise first. Then remove the softer more watery inside with a small spoon. Cut the remaining part into small cubes.
Remove the seeds of the tomatoes and cut into small bits. Finely chop the onion, chilli and coriander. Cut the mango into small pieces as well.
Mix all the ingredients together. Maybe a drop of olive oil will do no harm.
Put a spoonful of the salsa on each ready fried wheat tortilla and enjoy ...

Mexican Guacamole and Beef Wraps

You can not avoid it, whether you like it or not. At the moment it's football, on television, radio, in conversations and ... yes ... and food blogs, too. No worries, though, I will focus on the food here. 
Today we are concentrating on Mexico, although it would have been interesting to have some Dutch, Spanish or Cameroonian food. As you know, or maybe not, Mexican is one of my favourite cuisines and it ignited (not just because of the chillies) my interest for cooking in the first place.
Therefore, it's the only right thing to give you some Mexican food today and ... Guacamole and Beef Wraps it will be.

I show them unwrapped to you, so you get a better picture ... or was it just the fact I couldn't stand it any longer to wait to eat the food.

Ingredients:
One ripe avocado
Juice of two limes
3-5 red chillies, finely chopped
3-5 cocktail tomatoes, quartered
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
One small onion, finely chopped
Salt, pepper
Beef steaks
Olive oil
Wheat tortillas
Cheddar cheese
Fresh coriander, chopped up

Method:
First of all marinate the beef for at  least half an hour. Oh, yes, of course, with the following, the juice of one lime, a splash of olive oil, 1-2 garlic cloves, 2-3 red chillies, salt and pepper.
Then go for the guacamole. Spoon out the flesh from your avocado and mix it together with the remaining lime juice, chillies and garlic and while we are at it, the tomatoes and onion. Season according to your taste with salt and pepper.
Now, after the beef has marinated enough, cook the meat with some more olive oil in a pan. Leave to rest afterwards and cut into pieces.
If you haven't made fresh wheat tortillas for yourself, you need to heat them up a bit now. Spread some of the guacamole on each tortilla and add a few pieces of beef. Grate over some cheddar cheese and be generous with some fresh coriander.

Ready to eat. Fold it once and eat quickly or bother to wrap things up properly and eat. Don't forget to enjoy it. If it's too hot, you are too weak or you simply need to use less chillies.

Here we go again with Bloggers Around the World: World Cup 2014 Brazil.

Additionally I will send this post over to Karen's (Lavender and Lovage) Cooking with Herbs, which is hosted this month on Lancashire food.

Beef and Fennel Tagine without a Tagine

I think I haven't got any more space left in my kitchen to put things. Well, maybe a few small things could fit in somewhere. However, if I wanted to have any possible special cooking gear, I would be in real trouble. After all my raclette grill and my wok are already in the cellar. Ah, my barbie is there as well, of course. Yes, a bamboo steamer basket would be lovely or something that could be used more regularly, a food processor, a slow cooker, a pressure cooker, or a pasta machine or a quiche tin. Wait, I definitely have to work on the last one tomorrow.
But something else, a tagine. That would look lovely and it would be another good experience to cook with. Nevertheless, I haven't got one. Still I wanted to cook a Beef and Fennel Tagine. Let's see whether we can cook a Beef and Fennel Tagine without a Tagine ...

Hot Fusion - Hot Chilli Puff Pastry Tarte

Cold fusion: Hypothetical type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near room temperature. Usually you need millions of degrees for a fusion of nuclear kind of reaction. This is a controversial subject. The whole concept appears to defy the laws of physics. Some scientists believe cold fusion to be a real phenomenon and that it will be at one point in the future, however far far away, the basis for an abundant, cheap source of energy. Others say that cold fusion is impossible.

Well then, it's quite good, we are not dealing with cold fusion today, but with hot fusion. How do we come to this point?
As it happens to be I'm busy trying to grow my own chillies on the windowsill.

Having them is one part, but actually it's not for the sake of growing, but cooking. I need to do something with them. These are (were) my only two habanero chillies. Those are considered to be quite hot ... and so something else should be, too ... Yes, I'm referring to the weather. Some days it might work out.
Ahem ... what to do now with the habanero chilli? I just took the yellow one. The green one still needs some time. Fine, I could do a chilli, a real hot one ...

The heat is on! Have some Moroccan Chicken Kebabs!

Finally we have about 4000 °C outside. Great, that's what we always wanted. At least that is what we dreamt about when we still had -40 °C in March. Must have been somewhat like that. Anyway, now we have perfect weather for some Moroccan food. Therefore it is not coincidence we are having Morocco as the current theme for Bloggers Around the World. Very clever and smart of me, don't you agree? At least I'm still in control and am smarter than my phone and my television. However, that of course is of no particular interest at the moment ... as usual.
After all this still tries to be a food blog and not a wisecrack blog ... I suppose. Then it's food we are going to talk about and Moroccan Chicken Kebabs in particular.

Clueless ... Bánh Mì? ... Asian Baguette with Omelette

I have no clue ... therefore I must be clueless so to speak. One of my teachers once said: "You can be stupid, you only need to find a way." Easier said than done, though ... if you are clueless. I would need some kind of a plan. Should I not manage, things will simply keep flowing in uncertain ways. Do you have a clue what I am talking about?
How, if I'm already clueless. Anyway, I found some photos on my computer. I took them a few weeks ago. Now I need to figure out what they were for or how I did things in order to present you something worthwhile.
Here we are then ...

Now that you could call Bánh Mì, a Vietnamese sandwich or baguette. Right away, I have to be honest that I never had a real Bánh Mì so I have no clue what it is supposed to be like. When I was in London, I went to City Càphê to had a try.
Unfortunately, I came to late and they had ran out on Bánh Mì. I had to eat something differently and still went on without any practical knowledge about Bánh Mì. Then I had no further chances to have a try.
If you start digging for information you will find out that Báhn Mì, the Vietnamese baguette was influenced by the French colonial time.
Well ... "You can be stupid, you only need to find a way."
I had rice the day before or even the day before that day. There were leftovers. So here comes the stupid idea ...
Why not have rice in the dough of the bread.

Ingredients:
350 g strong baking flour
100 g cooked rice
1,5 tsp salt
4,5 tsp yeast
200 - 300 ml lukewarm water

Method (if ... that is a big IF you want to call it so in this clueless case):
The flour goes into a large bowl.
Our attention moves right away to the cooked rice. It was in the fridge before that a day or two. Ah ... toss it  into the blender with a bit of water and then ... go. Try to blend it as good as it gets.
Add the salt and yeast to the flour.
Our attention moves back to the rice. It has to join the flour as well. Additionally we add as much water as it needs to do the job. Use your fine hands to knead the dough and form it into a ball. Let it rest for ten minutes and then knead it for 15 minutes, knowing you save the money for going to the gym, too.
Let the dough rise for 45 minutes. Then separate the dough into four party and form some flat longish objects, which will be left alone and covered with a wet towel for 20 minutes.
Now fold the four objects together to make them look more roundish. Maybe you can extend them lengthwise a bit, too.
Place them back to rest for another 35 minutes in a way where the folding edge is at the bottom side ... just use your imagination.
Transfer the baguettes to a baking tray. Slash them at the top a few times with a sharp knife and bake them for 20 minutes at 230 °C. At the beginning spray the oven with a bit of water for the crust.

In my humble opinion, the baguettes looked and tasted nice afterwards.
The rice didn't do any harm. But did it do any good? Well, I can say they tasted a bit different from the ones without rice. I was satisfied, although still clueless.
Now we still need something to fill the baguette.
A simple omelette will do. For that we just use three eggs, a bit of salt, one or two finely chopped red chillies and a hand full of coriander. After all we don't want to complicate things. Therefore mix the egg with the salt and the chilli and do your omelette in the pan as you are accustomed to do, if you are.
Obviously you have to cut the baguette open, fill it with the omelette and add the coriander to give it the final touch.
And then?
I reckon, you have to eat it. 
Taste?
I liked it. I might be clueless, but I still know what I like taste wise. Apart from that I know something else. Once more, I managed my leftovers not go to wate. With that in mind I like to add this post to Credit Crunch Munch by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours & Camilla from Fab Food 4 All. The trick, though, this time it is hosted by the wonderful Anneli from délicieux. Go, have a look and start having fun with some lovely entries there.

That's it! I'm through, done and at my wits' end. There is nothing much left to say.
Now I need to continue looking for a plan in order to get back on what track I'm supposed to be ...

Christine & Christian - Episode 7: From Chicken Cutlets to Pancake

It can be very enjoyable to put together some lovely, well tasting dishes. However, it is even better to share with others. While doing so online, there is nothing better than sharing a good meal with family or friends. It can even be fun cooking together.
So far 22 days have pasted since cooking from Tasting India. Up to this day, I managed 25 recipes. Recently I enjoyed some Bengali-style mashed potatoes and the day after that even something for breakfast: Breakfast Potato Parathas. I didn't manage to take some nice photos from that. The breakfast was really nice ... a simple dough with wholewheat flour and water and then stuffed with mashed potatoes mixed with coriander and chilli.
But let us now go on with cooking and eating with friends ...
That's really more enjoyable than eating alone all the time. The cooking together part is also a great thing. A side effect of it is, you manage greater variety with less work.

It's good to prepare some naan breads to go with the meal. You can learn also a lot and you get encouragement to do things better. If you eat alone, it's easier to like everything you cook.

That's a way, how ready naan breads can look like. Maybe it's good to have a mint raita with it, too.

That one was really fresh, although it included a green chilli. But what about the main course? There was a vegetable dish with potatoes and chickpeas.

Lovely tasting that was. Then we got something meaty as well: Chicken Cutlets. That recipe was from Tasting India.
The pieces of chicken breast were to be marinated in yogurt mixed with spices and ... how dangerously ... with 40 g of chopped up green chillies. Do you have any idea on how many chillies these are?
Roughly around 20 small green chillies that would have been. Argh! I decided to go for 4 chillies instead.
After the marinating of the chicken pieces they  went into a batter, which had 4 eggs in it. Then the job was to fry the pieces.

Already with 4 chillies it was quite hot. Still, it tasted good. Fine, I didn't manage to get the presentation on the photo right ... again ... but ... no worries.
It was only a chance, that there was still some yogurt of the marinade and some batter left afterwards. I just mixed both together and thought ...

... why not have it as an Indian pancake to start the meal with. Well, it could have made two or three thinner ones as well, but this way, it was fine, too.
Altogether, the meal made at least four people happy instead of just one person for more than one time ... and still there were leftovers.
Do you also like to make people happy by cooking for them even if it's not your family?

Cheesy Meatballs with 'disgusting' all-in Chili Sauce

Disgusting! Since I was disposed to this word spoken by a friend of mine in his typical Yorkshire accent at various occasions I came to use it too often as well. Yes, I know, that is disgusting!
While I don't want to classify the following cheesy meatballs as disgusting, you have to judge for yourself as regards the chili sauce.

The meatballs themselves are based on a recipe by Jamie Oliver: Mountain Meatballs. I simply adjusted at to my personal amounts and availability. 
The chili sauce contains a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I will roughly state the ingredients, but the real content has to remain shrouded in mystery.

Ingredients Meatballs:
1 red onion, finely diced
300 g minced meat
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp dried oregano
A few bashed cumin seeds
1 tsp bashed up coriander seeds
1 handful of breadcrumbs
1 egg
Salt and pepper
50 g grated cheese

Ingredients Chili Sauce:
1 onion, finely chopped
5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Tomato puree
Honey mustard BBQ sauce
Water
Curry ketchup
Sweet chili sauce 
Coffee liquor

Method:
Heat up some olive oil on medium heat and then soften the red onion dice in it. 10 minutes will do. Remove the onion pieces from the pan and put away to cool down.
Then start the sauce and do the same with the stated onion as you did with the other onion. Hm ... sounds strange to me ... ah ... forget it ... no worries ... just do it. Then add the garlic.
Meanwhile you can also start heating up your oven to ... eh ... let's say 250 °C.
Now add all your other ingredients for the sauce to the pan, bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer.
Back to the meatballs ... mix all the other ingredients apart from the grated cheese together and form ... eh ... 4 large meatballs out of it. Get a quarter of the grated cheese ... wait ... that's about 12,5 g and press it into each meatball and close with meat around it so the cheese is more or less in the center of the meatball.
Throw your meatballs into an oven-proof dish and transfer ... no throwing here ... to the oven for 25 minutes.
In the meantime the sauce is disgustingly bubbling away. It gets more and more sticky ...
The 25 minutes are over. Remove the meatballs ... don't burn yourself ... and pour the disgusting sauce over the meatballs and ... shove the dish back to the oven for 15 more minutes.
After that you still can decide whether to eat it or not. Well, surprisingly the sauce didn't taste disgusting as to be expected or announced. It rather tasted interesting.
Oh, I know what people mean, when they say interesting. It's the polite way of saying disgusting. But, really, it didn't taste like that. Frankly, it was rather good. It simply was a sticky mix of sweet and hot and ... there is only one way of finding out ...

Randomly Indian: Dhal and Saraswat Machchi Kadhi

A few days ago I decided to give Cooking Around the World a new design. Basically I changed the background colour and the welcoming banner for the blog. I hope you like it! When you look at the picture there are foods and places. One of these places I can see every day, if I want to. Have a guess which one that is! However, there are other places there, I'd rather like to see more often.
Additionally I adjusted my Facebook page as well. It has to reflect the blog. 
While I was at all this I decided to change my profile picture. You can only see it partly, but I'm wearing an Indian kurta. It looks like this ...

I just wanted to mention those things. Keep it in mind as you read on. Strangely, things fit all together once more.
Have you ever thought about doing a themed dinner party? You dress up for it, maybe do some decoration, put on music and it all fits to the food you are going to have. How would you like that?
What about doing it alone ... a one person themed dinner party?
Let me tell about it ...
There is a certain person that is running this blog called Belleau Kitchen. As he is doing this random recipes challenge every month I cannot resist, but take part in it. Quite often you end up with cooking food you wouldn't have otherwise. 

 

This time we have the theme 'cuttings, memories and clippings'. That means I have to go and search my shelves for those hidden cuttings and clippings to find some recipes. I don't have as many cuttings and clippings as others and they are also not so well organized.
Anyway I got myself a small pile and rolled the dice of random. I ended up with number 3 - therefore I went for the third sheet of paper.
It was a clipping from a health journal of a health insurance company and ... strange enough ... it featured some Indian dishes. Did I say some? Yes, five to be exactly. Taking the number three further I decided for the third dish and it was ... dhal.
Well, that would be something to have as a side dish. Due to this fact I randomly decided to do the fish curry mentioned on that clipping as well. That is called 'Saraswat Machchi Kadhi'. I tried my Hindi dictionary on that, but gave up quickly. Then I asked the Internet and it called it Goa style fish curry. I even found the same picture of it as was used in this health magazine article.
I made sure I had all the needed ingredients and then, went for it ...

First of all I put on my Indian cooking kurta. Well, I simply declare it that one from now on. By the way, it is not the one shown in the picture above. I have a few more other ones. Why do I have so many Indian clothing to wear? Go ahead and ask me, if you like to know!
Then I put on some music from the soundtrack of a famous Indian movie ... as far as I know.
Now our Indian themed cooking party can start.
Good thing I still had some urid lentils on stock. They went into a pot covered with one centimetre of water.
Meanwhile I prepared the marinate for the fish. I squeezed one lime and mixed the juice with some freshly grated ginger, mustard powder, sesame seeds and coriander seeds. The white fish fillet was cut into small bite sized pieces and went marinating.
Before I continued with the dhal, I brought some basmati rice on the way.
Back to the dhal. I freshly picked a green chili from one of my bushes on the windowsill, cut it in half and tossed it in with the lentils. If I were to change the recipe, I would cut it into small rings and add it to the lentils. Anyway, one bay leaf, a chopped onion and two chopped cloves of garlic went in, too. Here also some grating of ginger is necessary. Some curry powder rounds it up. Now heat it up on medium heat and let it go for 20 minutes, checking every now and then and working through with a spoon.
The fish has nearly enough marinating. However, there is still some chopping of an onion to do. That one made me cry slightly. Then half four tomatoes, spoon out the seeds and then cut the tomatoes into small pieces. Now take the fish, pat it dry and fry it for 5 minutes in sesame oil at a medium heat.
Don't forget to give some attention to the rice when it's ready and to the dhal. After the 20 minutes you have to turn off the heat of the dhal.
Take out the fish from the pan and put aside. Now fry the onions in the pan.
If I hadn't already enough work with cooking I suddenly decided it would be a brilliant idea to have a cucumber raita with it all, as well. So I took some of the chopped onions and put the together with some halved slices of cucumber, cumin, salt, yogurt and water and mixed it all up.
Add some curry powder to the onions in the pan. Then add the remaining fish marinade and some 250 ml of coconut milk to the pan and bring to the boil.
What about some naan breads. Yes, that would have been lovely, but I'm not that crazy today and make some on my own. No, I even didn't buy any ready made ones to just warm up. Sadly!
Remove the green chili and the bay leaf from the dhal and heat the dhal up again, if necessary. We are almost there.
Let the tomatoes meet their destiny by adding them to the boiling coconut milk mixture. I guess the fish can go for some swimming, too. Go for it! Warm it up again.
If I'm right now, all the food is ready. You just need to plate and bowl it up and decorate everything with some fresh coriander. I already know that the remaining coriander will not survive too long in my kitchen. I should use it up in the coming days.
Here we are with the food ...

Sitting alone at the table and tasting the fish curry, memories spring to my mind. The food wasn't dangerously spicy. I still remember the fish curries of my Tamil friends and Tamil food in general. They always used to say they have to adjust the spices to the European palate. However, the first time I tasted a dish, I had the feeling it wasn't adjusted sufficiently.
Having this fish curry in front of me, I wished it would be going at least a bit in that direction. Don't get me wrong, it still tasted delicious. It was only thinking. While doing this I thought ... well, I'm sitting here all by myself eating this lovely food ... and then ... I put away the fork and went on eating as we used to do it with the best tools ever, my fingers.
Once more, I managed to end up with something lovely, doing random recipes ... and that's not cheating. After all, why should I keep any clippings with rubbish recipes.
Moreover, I ended up with fish again. This wasn't the first time either.
So far about random recipes this time. Time and again, I thought about cooking through one cookbook. After all, I nearly baked myself already through a book about French bread.
Now I have a few books in mind I seriously want to choose one from and go completely through it and report about it here on my blog. One of the books on that list is 'Tasting India' from Christine Manfield (Christian and Christine?). That post now made me hungry for that book. However, things haven't been decided in the final and I won't start before April.
In the meantime I still have a voting going on my Facebook page. If you don't mind, please head over there one time and give your vote. That would be very much appreciated. You can also suggest other books to make it more interesting.
You see, once more, it came all together ... strangely ... as last time. India was on my mind and suddenly it's all India!
Any thoughts? Just leave a lovely comment!

Merguez and the Pasta Salad of Doom

नमस्ते (speak: na-mas-té) - just for starters and saying hello.

Well, it is not Sanskrit, but if I'm right (might be the case) the script is the same. Anyway, does it matter at this point? Maybe! Who knows?

As the second Indiana Jones movie was set mostly in India and at one point Indy read a few passages Sanskrit. However, my Sanskrit is not quite so good, and most of my Hindi as faded into dust.

Still, we are getting closer to were we want.

After two weeks of adventure (mostly) outside it's time to ... RETURN TO THE KITCHEN!!! (By the way, did you recognize that my last few posts were written before my holiday?)

However, before we go on whipping things up in the kitchen, I like to share a few scenes from the weeks past.

My first day was like pouring down rain - like from buckets - and wind blowing, but stupid me had to be outside and walking ... I don't know like 20 miles or so.

After that, though, the rain was gone and the sun was out for the remaining days. Was that good? Hm, the blushing colour has gone now and is being replaced by some healthier looking tone.

Looking back!

Do you know this place?

Made it up here!

Yes, had to get up there, too

At times it really was an up and down (like life itself), but always it goes forward.

Not only that, there were 'wild' animals as well.

Had to use all my cattle drover skills, but finally I got past.

Is it size that matters? When looking at the next picture, take into consideration I didn't use the zoom on my camera.

Can you guess what this little fellow did?

Yet again, there are other dangers.

Whatsoever all this is now in the past and has, of course, nothing to do with what I want to write about next. But wait ... I mentioned adventures.

So we are coming back to our intricately woven thread and whip up a pasta salad. Let's get my gear ready and put things into action. On top of it, if we are fast enough, it will make a WARM pasta salad.

Yes, this bowl looks quite empty. In fact ... it is. That is to be changed. 

There happened to be some Merguez sausages (I told you once ...) in the fridge. Get the meat out of it (I used two sausages) and fry some nice small meat balls in a splash of lovely olive oil.

That's not quite enough. What else do we have on stock. Oh, yes, of course, ther are the courgettes on the kitchen counter. One of them will suffice, although they of the rather smaller kind. After all this should be for just one person ... or maybe two.

Slices ... and fried!

As you see (or not?) there were still some other things to be found. A jar with black olives was hiding somewhere in the depths of the fridge, too. However, no matter how hard it tried, I found it anyway and a small handfull of black olives (no, I didn't asked a child to help me, but simply didn't fill my large hand completely) went in as well.

What's in the freezer section of the fridge (no I haven't stocked up the real freezer again after the sudden demise of it's content)? Well, there is a small bag with (obviously) frozen herbs. What can it be?

Ponder ... ponder ... ponder ... yes, coriander. Fine, I take it and chop it as good as possible. If you dare to replicate this later, you can of course use fresh coriander and add it later.

Satisfied? No, we need more. Ah ... how lovely (really?) my chillie plants have really ... done a lot of work. So I add one finely chopped chilli as well, not bothering about removing the seeds (could this be the above mentioned doom?).

Knucklehead, if you are not doing something about the pasta, we will not even have a pasta salad.

Oh, yes! There must be some pasta up here. Some fusilli would be nice or tagliatelle or ... eh ... even some farfalle.

OK, let's use bucatini (no, not bugattini, although a ride in a Bugatti Veyron would be nice now). Have the package (250 g) will do. After all the other half was already used at another time.

Cooked according to package instruction (good I still had the package). Otherwise you might be just clever enough to know the appropiate time for having the pasta al dente.

Did I forget something? You know, "I'm making this up as I go."

All this could be quite dry. So we are having some extra vergine olive oil and balsamic vinegar on it. I even have this mango balsamic vinegar here. That will give the whole thing a slight fruity kind of twist.

If you care (I cared) season with salt an pepper. Hopefully you manage to mix it trough well. This mixing thing, though, would have worked more advantageaously with arranging the ingredients in reverse order (I guess).

At this point, we should have it all ready to eat (if I wouldn't been taking photos, it would have been a warmer pasta salad). Then why not do it and eat.

I, though, would fancy pudding. Maybe some blackforest gateaux thingy or tiramisu or even some brownies. But once more luck was not on my side. Neither of the aforementioned was at hand nor at reach nor was there any way of getting a decent dessert to satisfy my palate. Sady, then, I went without.