Thursday, July 3, 2008

Spicy Chocolate Truffles


for Eva

I'm going to shock you. Right now in the middle of your day, be prepared for some shock and awe. My relatives in India do not like chocolate. That's right. I thought it was genetically impossible to dislike chocolate until I discovered this fact sometime in my teens. And I was shocked and awed.

My relatives say chocolate must be an acquired taste and, to be fair, it tastes nothing like traditional Indian desserts. So I concocted this recipe to try and bring them over to the dark side. It has lots of chocolate infused with Indian spices and a little cayenne pepper kick.

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Ingredients
8 oz semi-sweet high-quality chocolate (can be bars or chips)
1 14 oz can light sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp
cardamom

For coating:
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Steps
1. Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil
2. While water is boiling, break up chocolate bars into small pieces. If using chocolate chips, skip this step
3. Once water boils, turn off heat
4. Put chocolate pieces into a stainless steel bowl on top of pot of boiling water
5. Stir chocolate as it melts
6. Add condensed milk, cinnamon and cardamom, and stir until smooth
7. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let mixture cool down at room temperature for as long as possible (preferably overnight)
8. Combine cocoa powder and cayenne pepper in bowl to create coating
9. Using a teaspoon, dig out about 1-inch balls of mixture (use your fingers to shape which will be really messy but super yummy for cleanup afterward)
10. Roll each ball in coating
11. Let balls sit again at room temperature to harden for at least an hour

Makes about 20 truffles

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Turmeric

According to an article in the New York Times, turmeric, a spice heavily used in Indian cooking, is the superstar of spices with anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. Who knew? I guess it's worth it even though my counter is stained and my fingers stay yellow for hours.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Devil May Care Curry

for Lucy

This curry only looks devilish but actually tastes pretty sweet. It's easy to make and very healthy. Eat it true Indian style - with buttered naan with your hands! The bright-red sauce lends itself to much finger licking and sopping up with naan.

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Ingredients
3 Bell peppers (preferably one green and two yellow)
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder and paprika
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
2 Tbsp chopped, fresh coriander

Steps
1. Rinse peppers, cut in long slices and remove seeds
2. Put oil in pan, turn heat to medium-high
3. Fry peppers with lid on for ~15 min (until brownish and blistery)
4. Turn heat to simmer, add all spices and fry for 2 min
5. Add tomato sauce and simmer for 10 min
6. Once in serving pan, garnish with chopped coriander

Serves 4

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Random Thought of the Day

Have you ever noticed that most recipes serve 4, so if you have a third kid you're just screwed?

Monday, May 26, 2008

Cheryl's Famous Chicken Curry

This recipe made my mom famous in our neighborhood. Tot famu. She was the white woman who made the best Indian chicken curry. My sister and I loved it so much that we made a song and serenaded her:
"Hurry hurry chicken curry
Run to the dinner table"

Chicken curry also caused me to shock my Sunday School teacher in the way only a half-Indian, half-American kid could. When I was 5 and in Sunday School around Thanksgiving, our teacher asked us to write a letter to God telling him what we were thankful for. Most kids wrote boring stuff like "Thank you God for my parents" or "Thank you God for my new puppy and sunshine". I wrote in huge letters "THANK YOU GOD FOR CHICKEN CURRY." My teacher didn't even know what chicken curry was but she was pretty sure God was looking for a better answer.

So there you have it. My mother's recipe is an easier adaptation of my Aunt Indu's traditional Indian recipe - my mother's recipe has less ingredients, less chopping but just as much flavor. Enjoy!

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Ingredients
6-8 skinned chicken thighs/legs
2 Tbsp oil
2 medium onions
1 can (14.5-16 oz) diced tomatoes
1 tsp each turmeric, curry powder, American chili powder, garam masala
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, powdered ginger, ground allspice
salt, red pepper and black pepper as desired

Steps
1. Skin chicken
2. Put oil in pot and heat to a medium temperature
3. Fry onions till brown, about 8-10 mins
4. Add turmeric and curry powder then fry for 1 minute
5. Add tomatoes and fry for 5 minutes
6. Add chicken and cook for 30 minutes
7. Now add cinnamon, ginger, chili powder, salt, allspice, red pepper, black pepper and garam masala
8. Turn down heat to a low simmer, cook for another 30 minutes

Serves 4

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

How do you say Patience in Hindi?


Patience, my dear readers! I hear you knocking down my door for the next recipe, but you can't rush the creative process. The artiste needs some time for thoughts and ingredients to simmer. Considering I didn't even really cook until last year, you all are lucky you got 4 recipes out of me already. Don't fret - I am busy in my kitchen perfecting recipes just for you. This week I tried out a new steak recipe with an Indian spice rub, mangoes and blue cheese. While it was quite tasty it was not excellent enough to post. I will not put a recipe up here unless it is certified deelish, by me. So the quest for the perfect Indian style steak recipe continues...in the meantime you might get some poems about ketchup and other condiments out of me. You know, just for kicks.

P.S. My dog Tyrus (pictured above) would like to counter the above statement that the steak recipe was not excellent. Some of it landed in his bowl which automatically qualifies it as excellent.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Keema Sloppy Joes


"Keema" means minced meat in Hindi and usually refers to a fabulous dish of minced lamb with peas. The dish is traditionally served with a side of rice. In our fusion version we've chucked the rice and instead serve the minced lamb on a hamburger bun, just like an American sloppy joe. Instead of ketchup we top the dish off with coriander chutney. Mmmm, mmm.

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Ingredients
1 lb. ground lamb
1 cup uncooked peas, fresh or frozen
1 cup diced tomatoes
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
1
Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1
tsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp olive or canola oil
1 Tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp each ground coriander, cinnamon, ground cumin, black pepper, red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp sugar
Coriander chutney
4 hamburger buns

Steps
1. Fry onion, ginger and garlic in the oil until mixture starts to brown
2. Stir in curry powder, turmeric, cinnamon, coriander and cumin
3. Add meat and cook until it loses all pink color (~5-10 mins)
4. Pour the fat out of the pan
5. Add tomatoes, lime juice, sugar, black pepper and red pepper flakes
6. Cover and simmer for 30 mins
7. Add peas and cook for 5-10 mins until peas are done
8. Separate finished keema equally onto 4 hamburger buns
9. Spread coriander chutney on top and serve

Serves 4

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Ball Raita



You know when you take a bite of Indian food and your mouth explodes in flames? So you frantically down a glass of water which only makes it worse (and then you really have to pee)? So then you try putting a napkin on your tongue to squash the pain but just end up looking like an idiot? You're crying, your nose is running, your face is beet red, and even worse the waiters are gossiping about you back in the kitchen. "Hey Babu, did you see that Pagal try to eat the napkin? Didn't we serve him enough food? So fat these Americans."

The solution, you silly Americans, is called Raita. It's a yogurt-based sauce that you must always have on hand when eating Indian food. It is your savior, your personal firefighting squad. One spoonful and you can go back to your dinner conversation without the usual hysterics. That's the Indian secret.

Raita has different versions depending on the ingredients added beyond yogurt. This version is our favorite. My mother never knew the Hindi name so we literally call it "Ball Raita" because it has balls in it. Have some balls and make it yourself.

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Ingredients
2 cups of plain, non-fat yogurt
Either 1 cup of Kix cereal or 1 cup of spicy boondi (from Indian grocery)
1 tsp of ground cumin seeds
1/4 tsp of black salt


Steps
1. Thin yogurt with water until it is slightly creamy
2. Add hot peppers. Turn down stove to medium
3. Stir in cumin seeds and black salt
4. Add Kix or boondi
5. Place in fridge to cool until ready to serve
6. Keep in middle of table during meal for easy access in emergencies

Serves 4

Indian Eggs

As a kid Saturday mornings meant watching Looney Tunes cartoons while eating Indian Eggs smothered in ketchup. My mother invented this recipe when my father asked for some "spice" in the morning. Good job, Dad.

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Ingredients
2 eggs but only one yolk
A little milk
1/2 of a small onion, chopped
1/2 little green hot pepper, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh, chopped coriander (cilantro)
Olive oil for pan
1/8 tsp of: ground coriander, ground cumin, curry powder, chili powder
Heinz Ketchup

Steps
1. Fry onions in oil until brown
2. Add hot peppers. Turn down stove to medium.
3. Add spices and stir
4. Add coriander
5. Whip up eggs with milk in a small bowl
6. Add whipped eggs to pan. Turn heat up to medium-high
7. After egg browns slightly, flip over and squish. Eggs are done when slightly browned on both sides
8. Eat with lots of ketchup while watching Speedy Gonzalez run around
9. Hope you never grow up

Serves 1

Hit Me with your Best Chaat



Let's start with an easy treat. Chaat roughly translates into "snack" and usually refers to a mixture of various ingredients on a small plate. The ingredients vary from region to region but often feature crispy chips, chutneys and yogurt. Chaat is a treasured treat throughout India where it is sold in small chaathouses or from street vendors. The popularity of chaat has crossed oceans - numerous chaathouses have recently sprung up around the Bay Area and in NY and they can barely keep up with demand.

My family's perfected (read: easiest and therefore most American) chaat recipe is below. This type of chaat hails from Northern India and is referred to as Papri Chaat. We love it so much we eat is as a meal.

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Ingredients

6 medium-sized red potatoes
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 can drained chickpeas
4 Tbsp chopped onions
4 Tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1 tsp ground cumin seeds, preferably roasted
Plain, non-fat yogurt
Juice from one lemon
Hot chili peppers cut-up, if desired
Salt and pepper to taste

Items needed from Indian grocery store:
1 Tbsp Chaat Masala
Tamarind and coriander chutney
Papadi brand chickpea flour chips (could also just use Stacy's Simply Naked Pita Chips from any grocery)

Steps
1. Mix the chat masala and 1/3 cup cold water in a small bowl
2. Completely submerge potatoes (with skin) in water. Boil (will take approx. 20-30 mins). Drain and peel.

3. Cut potatoes into small cubes. Place in glass bowl. While still warm, pour masala and water mixture over them. Mix potatoes gently and set aside for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the chopped tomatoes, onions, coriander, ground cumin, and lemon juice to the potato mixture. Stir and refrigerate until ready to eat.
5. Thin yogurt with water in a separate bowl until it has a slightly runny consistency. Refrigerate.

6. When ready to eat, assemble one plate per person in the following way: layer plate with chips, then add potato mixture, chickpeas, thinned yogurt, onions, hot peppers, salt, pepper and chutneys (if chutneys seem too thick, thin with water first).
7. Stir and serve!

Serves 4 if you are oinkers like us. Otherwise serves more

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Welcome to Citizen Chutney!



नमस्ते and Hello!

The purpose of this blog is to provide Indian-American fusion recipes - steak with a spicy kick, chaat made with American chips, keema Sloppy Joes...

My father is Indian. My mother was born in America to Maltese immigrants. When they first got married, my young mother spent a good deal of time with my aunts in northern India where they taught her their cooking secrets. Back in the US she applied her knowledge daily, hovering over a pot of bubbling brown chicken, magically creating batches of fluorescent potatoes, whipping up fresh yogurt overnight, and calling us all for chai at 4pm.

Our very non-Indian neighbors would marvel at the weird food we ate. My childhood friends had many questions. "Why are the potatoes glowing? What are those ball things in my yogurt? Why does your house always smell like onions? Why is your old uncle eating with his hands?!?" So my quest to educate Americans about Indian cuisine started early. At first I was embarrassed that the food we ate was different. On more than one occasion I asked my mother, exasperated, why we couldn't just eat pizza and hot dogs like normal people. As I matured, however, I realized how lucky we were to eat such healthy, tasty food every day - Indian food includes many vegetables and when cooked at home can be made with hardly any fat. My mother never forgot her American side, however, and altered dishes (and dish names!) when appropriate. For example, where was she going to find Papri Chips for chaat at the grocery store in Michigan? Better just use Mr. Phipps Tater Crisps instead. What is the name for that specific raita with the balls of dough? Who knows, let's just call it Ball Raita. Attuned to the American way of staying health-conscious, she significantly cut out fat and salt from the traditional recipes. In this way she slowly invented her very own Indian-American cuisine.

Inspired by the sheer deliciousness of these childhood meals, I want to carry on her mixed legacy. On this blog I will include recipes for her past creations as well as new ideas for American food with Indian flair. Look what can happen when you combine a US Citizen with an Indian man who loves chutney...