Two meals, four dishes and a haircut
For some unknown reason I have been the victim of emotional hallucinations for the past few weeks, rendering me unable and unwilling to believe that posting about cooking is worth it and that anyone cares to read about my kitchen exploits. So, this is a big old post with lots of stuff.
So this dinner all started with pickles. I've been a little obsessed with pickled food lately. Madher has but a few recipes for pickles and one of them is for pickled cauliflower. I was having one of the above mentioned emotional hallucinations and Geoff was trying to calm me down as we walked through Union Square. "What's going to make you happy, boo?" He asked gently. "Cauliflower." I said, pointing to a table farmer's market stand we were walking past. Geoff dutifully purchased and carried with us all night the enormous muddy bloom.
When I got home (and became emotionally stable enough to cook) I decided I didn't want to wait around for pickles to... well, pickle. This recipe for cauliflower with potatoes Madher bills as Indian Comfort Food. That sounded perfect.
I boiled, chilled and peeled my potatoes, washed and floretted my cauliflower, but then I got to the other main vegetable ingredient: two finely minced green chillies. Now, I have had a taste for spicy lately, but I was concerned that two jalapenos were not exactly the kind of comfort I had in mind. My vision was a more buttery and starchy one. But I decided to have faith as this recipe still called for a significant amount of frying.
I also made some chicken legs (though the recipe called for just thighs) cooked in a tomato sauce. I have to say, the best thing about cooking chicken Indian-style is that they always pull off the skin. I have chicken skin. Especially if it's flabby.
Riddle me this: If I spend a whole bunch of time browning chicken with the skin on so that it's nice and crisp, and then the recipe calls for putting a lid on the pan of chicken to finish cooking it through (effectively turning my pan into a steamer), why in gods great ass did I take the time to crisp the skin? Is is just for color? Because if so I'm just gonna rub that shit down with paprika and call it a day.
The chicken turned out fine, but the star of the meal was the cauliflower. This was some spectacular comfort food. Not that spicy at all. In fact, I made this dish again to use up another third of the ginormous head of cheer-me-up cauliflower that Geoff bought me. Never did get around to making those pickles...
My girlfriend Maia has been staying with us until she moves into her new place on Sept 1. Maia is a vegetarian, so I've been trying to cook stuff that we all can eat. Obviously, Indian food lends itself nicely to the task. The veggie dish was very similar to most meat dishes in the make of a paste, frying the paste, cooking stuff in the paste and then adding liquid to simmer.
We improvised a bit with the veggies. We added yellow squash and zucchini and left out a mysterious item listed only as Kolja. I was a bit wary of the WHOLE TABLESPOON of cayenne pepper the recipe called for. Normally this spice is added in 1/8th of a teaspoon increments. Maia and I decided to employ a container of greek yogurt from the fridge as back up. But in the end the dish was just hot enough to make you grateful for rice, but not so bad you were mopping your brow. And the yogurt (not pictured) was a very nice condiment.
The rice was a pretty simple recipe that involved boiling the rice briefly and then putting it in a dish with a bunch of pats of butter on top, putting a lid on the dish and popping the whole thing in the oven to finish cooking. The rice was awesome, and very fluffy.
And yes, I did cut my hair. I think it's pretty cute.
And yes, I do have a poster of a small child hanging in my office.
So this dinner all started with pickles. I've been a little obsessed with pickled food lately. Madher has but a few recipes for pickles and one of them is for pickled cauliflower. I was having one of the above mentioned emotional hallucinations and Geoff was trying to calm me down as we walked through Union Square. "What's going to make you happy, boo?" He asked gently. "Cauliflower." I said, pointing to a table farmer's market stand we were walking past. Geoff dutifully purchased and carried with us all night the enormous muddy bloom.
When I got home (and became emotionally stable enough to cook) I decided I didn't want to wait around for pickles to... well, pickle. This recipe for cauliflower with potatoes Madher bills as Indian Comfort Food. That sounded perfect.
I boiled, chilled and peeled my potatoes, washed and floretted my cauliflower, but then I got to the other main vegetable ingredient: two finely minced green chillies. Now, I have had a taste for spicy lately, but I was concerned that two jalapenos were not exactly the kind of comfort I had in mind. My vision was a more buttery and starchy one. But I decided to have faith as this recipe still called for a significant amount of frying.
I also made some chicken legs (though the recipe called for just thighs) cooked in a tomato sauce. I have to say, the best thing about cooking chicken Indian-style is that they always pull off the skin. I have chicken skin. Especially if it's flabby.
Riddle me this: If I spend a whole bunch of time browning chicken with the skin on so that it's nice and crisp, and then the recipe calls for putting a lid on the pan of chicken to finish cooking it through (effectively turning my pan into a steamer), why in gods great ass did I take the time to crisp the skin? Is is just for color? Because if so I'm just gonna rub that shit down with paprika and call it a day.
The chicken turned out fine, but the star of the meal was the cauliflower. This was some spectacular comfort food. Not that spicy at all. In fact, I made this dish again to use up another third of the ginormous head of cheer-me-up cauliflower that Geoff bought me. Never did get around to making those pickles...
My girlfriend Maia has been staying with us until she moves into her new place on Sept 1. Maia is a vegetarian, so I've been trying to cook stuff that we all can eat. Obviously, Indian food lends itself nicely to the task. The veggie dish was very similar to most meat dishes in the make of a paste, frying the paste, cooking stuff in the paste and then adding liquid to simmer.
We improvised a bit with the veggies. We added yellow squash and zucchini and left out a mysterious item listed only as Kolja. I was a bit wary of the WHOLE TABLESPOON of cayenne pepper the recipe called for. Normally this spice is added in 1/8th of a teaspoon increments. Maia and I decided to employ a container of greek yogurt from the fridge as back up. But in the end the dish was just hot enough to make you grateful for rice, but not so bad you were mopping your brow. And the yogurt (not pictured) was a very nice condiment.
The rice was a pretty simple recipe that involved boiling the rice briefly and then putting it in a dish with a bunch of pats of butter on top, putting a lid on the dish and popping the whole thing in the oven to finish cooking. The rice was awesome, and very fluffy.
And yes, I did cut my hair. I think it's pretty cute.
And yes, I do have a poster of a small child hanging in my office.