Hello everyone, today I feel a little sad not only because its Monday and that always make me want to weep profusely but also because it is the last week I will be living in my current north London abode with my lovely flatmates – next week am moving West with the pretty people and with an equally nice flatmate but am extremely sad none the less – it’s the end of an era!! To mark the end of over 18 month’s happy inhabitation yesterday I held my last Salisbury Walk dinner party (insert sad face here). Originally I was faced with the sticky task of catering for a vegetarian, someone who was allergic to fish and someone who doesn’t eat tomatoes, so a curry seemed like the only way forward. Luckily most of these picky arseholes dropped out but my inspiration remained. In total the dinner party consisted of: me, Jason, Chris, Nat, Emily, Sam and Diccon. And a very jolly band it was too.
Now, the fact that I have to pack up everything I own, cart it across London and lug it up 4 flights of 
stairs in less than a week should have somewhat dampened my spice buying enthusiasm but no, with many extra ingredients purchased I now have even more crap to carry around with me. Some of the less economical of you may say what’s the point? Dump them and buy more when you get there, but have done that now on so many occasions must have wasted about £50 worth of spices minimum over the last 7 years and not doing it again. Waste not want not etc.
So, I love making curries and don’t make them enough. They always reminds me of home as it’s something my dad always made traditionally and also for the last decade or so we have always had one as a family on Christmas eve. That is usually a much more bountiful feast than the one I cooked last night, the centre piece being a big old Rahn (yum yum yum) with various side dishes. I wanted to make my meal meat free but I did take one of the classic dishes we always serve with this which is The Lake Palace Hotels Aubergines in the Pickling style from the bible that is Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery. I have my dads old version of this, vintage 70s brown encrusted and the aubergine page is barely visible from so many years of being dripped on. It smells a bit too but its authentic damn it and no curry would be complete without a dish from this cook book, as far as I am concerned anyway. Here is a brief description of this dish, which I have adapted slightly to make less greasy:
Cut 800g aubergines into quarters then chunks – not to thin, about 2 centimetres thick. Lay them on a rack or tray or something and oven-roast them until they have gone all brown. In the meantime fry a teaspoon of cumin seeds with about 2 teaspoons of fennel seeds in oil and stir for a few seconds. Then add a tin of chopped tomatoes and 6 or so cloves of garlic blended (separately) with a big hunk of root ginger, coriander seeds (ground) and turmeric, and some other stuff possibly that I can’t be bothered to look up right now. Stir this up and reduce to a thick paste then add the aubergine and heat through. Its bloody fucking delicious and the nicest thing that can be done with aubergines in my humble opinion, and believe me I love the aubergine, I especially love the name. Here is a link to the full recipe:
http://www.nibblous.com/recipe/183
A while ago I did buy another Indian cook book which had a recommendation from Nigel Slater on the front, who I increasingly hate, called 50 Great Curries of India. However, it’s total bullshit in comparison to Madhur Jaffrey and have never once actually cooked anything from it, although I do enjoy reading it. It has quite a few essays at the front on such subjects as ‘Culinary India, ‘the History of Indian cuisine, ‘the Philosophy of Indian Cuisine, ‘What is a curry’, ‘Planning an Indian meal’ and much more including detailed analysis of flavour, layering of flavour and extensive reference sections for all types of spices and other ingredients. In short it’s pretty extensive reading for the arm chair cook, as I most definitely am. From this book I may not have been able to cook any actual food but I definitely understand the culture of eating and cooking more in India because of it, so it is definitely very helpful for this blog. For one thing when making an Indian meal we are apparently diving into the cultural heritage of Ayuveda. This is basically the Indian tradition of medical and emotional well being – or whatever- and is based around the balancing of different humours (7 types) in the body (yes GCSE history of medicine here we come) different personality types and different flavours of food, or stimuli. There is a hell of a lot more to it than that obviously but principally Ayurvedic tradition dictates that all illnesses; mental or physical, should first be treated with food before drugs of some kind are tried. Food tastes can be divided into sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent and basically all meals have to combine these in different degrees depending on the personality of the eater, the seasons and their bodies. It’s also just a good idea to try and combine those different tastes to achieve proper balance, in taste and life. I didn’t achieve this totally last night but make a pretty good stab at it with my chosen menu.
Another important part of the Ayurvedic cooking tradition is the way the food is prepared and consumed. It should be prepared with love, which is why even in the richest Indian households the wives will usually cook for their families, even if the domestic help prepares the ingredients first. Similarly the food should be consumed in quietude and peace unlike western traditions of being as raucous and chatty as possible during meals. I particularly like the idea of food being prepared with love, mainly because it reminds me of the genius Sarah Michelle Gellar movie ‘Simply Irresistible’ which for some reason I have seen at least twice. This straight to DVD triumph centres around the main character, AKA SMG, who inherits a restaurant off a dead relative. For some reason, I forget why or how, she makes friends with a magical crab (yes really) who manages to make all her food taste the way she feels when she is cooking it, so if she is sad anyone eating her food feels sad, etc. It’s bloody great, and clearly inspired by Ayuerverdic principles.
Anyway, my food was definitely cooked with love and quite a lot of intoxication, so that’s good. I also tried very hard to balance everything. For example there was lots of cumin which is ‘cooling’ and good for the digestion – actually pretty much ALL the spices are said to be good for the digestion but have to say my digestion didn’t feel too bloody good first thing this morning. It was very spicy in parts i.e. warming and also there was lots of lime which are sour, and tomatoes which are also considered sour (and surprisingly only introduced to the continent by the Portuguese in the 16th century) Rice and ghee are considered sweet along with the chutney and onions and garlic etc are classed to be pungent. Traditional Indian meals will rarely contain meat, and if they do (only really in the most affluent houses) it will be a very small amount. They will almost always have a dal/lentil dish, which is the traditional dish of India, rice or breads and a vegetable dish of some kind.
For my dal I made chana dal or small yellow split peas. This was a very easy recipe where I boiled a big pan of water with the yellow split peas, added turmeric, salt and ginger then covered and simmered for about an hour until it was like baby food. Then I heated oil in a frying pan and added cumin seeds and then chopped garlic until browned and poured the lot in with the curry – I also added a small handful of whole dried red chillies which I fried for a second or two first. It was gooood. I added a lot of extra water to make it soupy as this dish is traditionally served with breads to dip in. Surprisingly a large proportion of India wouldn’t serve rice with their curries it being quite expensive but I served basmati rice with cardamom pods, because I like it!!
For my third and final dish I wanted to use up a big bag of dried chickpeas I had in the cupboard so for the first time ever I managed to actually soak them for 24 hours before hand so they were ready to cook for another hour and a half til tender, then I could actually get round to currying the bastards!! Again from Madhur Jaffreys book I made Sour Chickpeas, or Khatte Chloe. According to old Madhur this is one of India’s tastiest snack foods, regularly served from street vendors so one to avoid if you don’t want to die of salmonella poisoning. Anyway this is generally eaten as a snack in India but fuck it here it’s a main ok???? After boiling the chickpeas forever, literally, cook a large amount of finely chopped onions in oil until slightly browned then add a small tin of tomatoes, cook down a bit, then add a tablespoon of ground coriander, a tablespoon of ground cumin and half a teaspoon of turmeric. Then add the chickpeas and some water and 2 teaspoons of gareme masala and a quarter of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Then after cooking it for 20 mins or so add a small handful of chopped uncooked onion, a tablespoon of finely chopped ginger and a few chopped up chillies. Serve hot or warm with breads or rice.
Anyway, impressively it was all eaten and we then tucked into a bountiful selection of chocolate and chocolate biscuits kindly supplied by Nat and Emily which was perfect for balancing the delicate flavours blah blah blah and also made me feel very very sick. I have had many happy dinner parties, and happy times in general in good old Salisbury Walk and will miss it greatly. Never have I felt such sadness at leaving a house and although am very excited about my next place I will always think of my Archway days with bucket loads of fondness. Boo Hoo. Next week bitches, when I will be a West London girl once again.
stairs in less than a week should have somewhat dampened my spice buying enthusiasm but no, with many extra ingredients purchased I now have even more crap to carry around with me. Some of the less economical of you may say what’s the point? Dump them and buy more when you get there, but have done that now on so many occasions must have wasted about £50 worth of spices minimum over the last 7 years and not doing it again. Waste not want not etc.So, I love making curries and don’t make them enough. They always reminds me of home as it’s something my dad always made traditionally and also for the last decade or so we have always had one as a family on Christmas eve. That is usually a much more bountiful feast than the one I cooked last night, the centre piece being a big old Rahn (yum yum yum) with various side dishes. I wanted to make my meal meat free but I did take one of the classic dishes we always serve with this which is The Lake Palace Hotels Aubergines in the Pickling style from the bible that is Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery. I have my dads old version of this, vintage 70s brown encrusted and the aubergine page is barely visible from so many years of being dripped on. It smells a bit too but its authentic damn it and no curry would be complete without a dish from this cook book, as far as I am concerned anyway. Here is a brief description of this dish, which I have adapted slightly to make less greasy:
Cut 800g aubergines into quarters then chunks – not to thin, about 2 centimetres thick. Lay them on a rack or tray or something and oven-roast them until they have gone all brown. In the meantime fry a teaspoon of cumin seeds with about 2 teaspoons of fennel seeds in oil and stir for a few seconds. Then add a tin of chopped tomatoes and 6 or so cloves of garlic blended (separately) with a big hunk of root ginger, coriander seeds (ground) and turmeric, and some other stuff possibly that I can’t be bothered to look up right now. Stir this up and reduce to a thick paste then add the aubergine and heat through. Its bloody fucking delicious and the nicest thing that can be done with aubergines in my humble opinion, and believe me I love the aubergine, I especially love the name. Here is a link to the full recipe:
http://www.nibblous.com/recipe/183
A while ago I did buy another Indian cook book which had a recommendation from Nigel Slater on the front, who I increasingly hate, called 50 Great Curries of India. However, it’s total bullshit in comparison to Madhur Jaffrey and have never once actually cooked anything from it, although I do enjoy reading it. It has quite a few essays at the front on such subjects as ‘Culinary India, ‘the History of Indian cuisine, ‘the Philosophy of Indian Cuisine, ‘What is a curry’, ‘Planning an Indian meal’ and much more including detailed analysis of flavour, layering of flavour and extensive reference sections for all types of spices and other ingredients. In short it’s pretty extensive reading for the arm chair cook, as I most definitely am. From this book I may not have been able to cook any actual food but I definitely understand the culture of eating and cooking more in India because of it, so it is definitely very helpful for this blog. For one thing when making an Indian meal we are apparently diving into the cultural heritage of Ayuveda. This is basically the Indian tradition of medical and emotional well being – or whatever- and is based around the balancing of different humours (7 types) in the body (yes GCSE history of medicine here we come) different personality types and different flavours of food, or stimuli. There is a hell of a lot more to it than that obviously but principally Ayurvedic tradition dictates that all illnesses; mental or physical, should first be treated with food before drugs of some kind are tried. Food tastes can be divided into sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent and basically all meals have to combine these in different degrees depending on the personality of the eater, the seasons and their bodies. It’s also just a good idea to try and combine those different tastes to achieve proper balance, in taste and life. I didn’t achieve this totally last night but make a pretty good stab at it with my chosen menu.
Another important part of the Ayurvedic cooking tradition is the way the food is prepared and consumed. It should be prepared with love, which is why even in the richest Indian households the wives will usually cook for their families, even if the domestic help prepares the ingredients first. Similarly the food should be consumed in quietude and peace unlike western traditions of being as raucous and chatty as possible during meals. I particularly like the idea of food being prepared with love, mainly because it reminds me of the genius Sarah Michelle Gellar movie ‘Simply Irresistible’ which for some reason I have seen at least twice. This straight to DVD triumph centres around the main character, AKA SMG, who inherits a restaurant off a dead relative. For some reason, I forget why or how, she makes friends with a magical crab (yes really) who manages to make all her food taste the way she feels when she is cooking it, so if she is sad anyone eating her food feels sad, etc. It’s bloody great, and clearly inspired by Ayuerverdic principles.
Anyway, my food was definitely cooked with love and quite a lot of intoxication, so that’s good. I also tried very hard to balance everything. For example there was lots of cumin which is ‘cooling’ and good for the digestion – actually pretty much ALL the spices are said to be good for the digestion but have to say my digestion didn’t feel too bloody good first thing this morning. It was very spicy in parts i.e. warming and also there was lots of lime which are sour, and tomatoes which are also considered sour (and surprisingly only introduced to the continent by the Portuguese in the 16th century) Rice and ghee are considered sweet along with the chutney and onions and garlic etc are classed to be pungent. Traditional Indian meals will rarely contain meat, and if they do (only really in the most affluent houses) it will be a very small amount. They will almost always have a dal/lentil dish, which is the traditional dish of India, rice or breads and a vegetable dish of some kind.
For my dal I made chana dal or small yellow split peas. This was a very easy recipe where I boiled a big pan of water with the yellow split peas, added turmeric, salt and ginger then covered and simmered for about an hour until it was like baby food. Then I heated oil in a frying pan and added cumin seeds and then chopped garlic until browned and poured the lot in with the curry – I also added a small handful of whole dried red chillies which I fried for a second or two first. It was gooood. I added a lot of extra water to make it soupy as this dish is traditionally served with breads to dip in. Surprisingly a large proportion of India wouldn’t serve rice with their curries it being quite expensive but I served basmati rice with cardamom pods, because I like it!!
For my third and final dish I wanted to use up a big bag of dried chickpeas I had in the cupboard so for the first time ever I managed to actually soak them for 24 hours before hand so they were ready to cook for another hour and a half til tender, then I could actually get round to currying the bastards!! Again from Madhur Jaffreys book I made Sour Chickpeas, or Khatte Chloe. According to old Madhur this is one of India’s tastiest snack foods, regularly served from street vendors so one to avoid if you don’t want to die of salmonella poisoning. Anyway this is generally eaten as a snack in India but fuck it here it’s a main ok???? After boiling the chickpeas forever, literally, cook a large amount of finely chopped onions in oil until slightly browned then add a small tin of tomatoes, cook down a bit, then add a tablespoon of ground coriander, a tablespoon of ground cumin and half a teaspoon of turmeric. Then add the chickpeas and some water and 2 teaspoons of gareme masala and a quarter of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Then after cooking it for 20 mins or so add a small handful of chopped uncooked onion, a tablespoon of finely chopped ginger and a few chopped up chillies. Serve hot or warm with breads or rice.
Anyway, impressively it was all eaten and we then tucked into a bountiful selection of chocolate and chocolate biscuits kindly supplied by Nat and Emily which was perfect for balancing the delicate flavours blah blah blah and also made me feel very very sick. I have had many happy dinner parties, and happy times in general in good old Salisbury Walk and will miss it greatly. Never have I felt such sadness at leaving a house and although am very excited about my next place I will always think of my Archway days with bucket loads of fondness. Boo Hoo. Next week bitches, when I will be a West London girl once again.
