Kedgeree

A Victorian era Anglo-Indian colonial breakfast dish (possibly invented in a Scottish regiment?). History is interesting.

Ingredients

• 8-12oz haddock, cod, or similar fillet
• 2 eggs
• 2 bay leaves
• 1c basmati rice
• 2tbsp butter
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp ground mustard
• 2 tbsp madras curry powder
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2c cilantro, chopped
• 2 lemons, juiced
• salt
• plain yogurt

Place the fish in a pan and add a little water - not enough to cover, I think. Add the bay leaves, bring to a boil and cook about 5 minutes. Remove the fish and set to cool, at which time you can flake it apart. I think smoked fish might be a good alternative here (and more flavorful) so if you can get smoked cod, I'd say go for it.

Set up the rice cooking. If you use a rice cooker, do that. I use 1c rice and 1.25c water. If you use a pot, use those ratios, bring to a boil, simmer covered on low for 10 minutes, then set aside covered for 10 minutes. Done.

Meanwhile, set a small saucepan of water to boil. When it's boiling, add the eggs. Boil for 10 minutes, then remove and run under icy cold water to stop the cooking.

OK. Now, in a large-ish saute or similar, add the butter and onions. Cook until softened, then add the garlic and ginger. Cook another minute or two, then add the mustard and curry. Cook another couple minutes, then add the tomato and lemon juice.

When that's done, remove from heat. Add the rice to the onion / tomato mixture, along with the cilantro and the flaked fish, and toss to coat. Peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut into quarters. Top the dish with the hard-boiled eggs, then serve with a little yogurt.

Thoughts: This dish was a little too lemon-y for our taste, and it needed a bit more salt. The fish lost some flavor to the weird boiling process (leave it to the Brits, amirite?) but if we had smoked fish, that might have worked well. I think next time we go with one lemon, smoked fish, and more salt. That would make this a pretty damn good dish.

Disaster Index: 3/10

Lamb Meatball Curry

It was an experiment, anyway.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 egg
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• water
• about 1/4c (?) cream
• salt to taste

Mix the meat, garlic, pepper, garam masala, and egg into a meatball mixture, then form into 1.5" diameter meatballs. Pop them in a 375 degree oven on a cookie sheet covered in foil for about 20-30 minutes, or until they're about done. I think at the end we broiled 'em to get a little char.

Meanwhile, cook the onion in a pan with a little neutral oil. When that's done, toss in the remaining spices (cumin, ginger, turmeric) and cook for a little bit. Then add the tomatoes and the tomato paste. Cook until thickened.

When the meatballs are done, add them to the onion / tomato / spices mixture. Add just enough water so that nothing burns and cook for another 10-20 minutes. When you're getting to the end, let most of the water evaporate off and replace it with some heavy cream. Serve over rice.

Thoughts: The meatballs were really the highlight of this dish. I'm not sure the sauce did too much for it. So I think we're going to have to tweak this idea a little bit. I think in the future I would use crushed tomatoes, or else possibly blend the whole sauce before adding the meatballs. Also might use some madras curry powder? Not sure about that. There was something missing here.

Disaster Index: 4/10

Sweet Curry Powder

We ran out of curry powder the other day. Here is the recipe I used for sweet curry:
Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
  
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
  
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  
• pinch cayenne
  

Directions: mix spices.

Thoughts: Worked pretty well, I guess.

Disaster Index: 1/10.

Moroccan Potato Bean Soup

Ingredients

• 6 cups water
  
• 1 (15 ounce) can Cannolini / Great Northern beans
  
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 2 onions, chopped
  
• About 6 red potatoes, cubed
  
• 3 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder (or vegetable bouillon)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
  
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  
• 1 cup whole milk
  
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
  Chives, whatever else you like.
  

Sautee onions in olive oil until they're a little brown. Set aside. In a large pot, add the water and cannolini beans (we didn't drain them) and simmer for 15 minutes. Add everything except the milk and green onions and bring to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Then add the milk and green onions and remove from heat.

Thoughts: this was pretty great. Claire thinks unreservedly that it was fantastic, but I think it had way too much salt. For the future, we could add some carrots. I discovered that a LITTLE bit of honey cut the saltiness by a lot and made it much more palatable to me. Something to consider.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Chicken Curry with Bamboo Shoots

This is also based off of one of my dad's recipes.

Ingredients

• 1 lb boneless chicken breast
• 1 can sliced bamboo shoots
• 2 tbp red curry paste
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1 cup fresh Thai basil leaves, torn
• 1 tbp fish sauce
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp brown sugar
• 12 kaffir lime leaves
• 3 segments of lemongrass, bruised.
  

Wash the chicken and cut it into whatever size you want. If the bamboo shoots aren't already sliced, slice them. Usually they come sliced though, so it shouldn't be a problem.
Pour 1 cup of the coconut milk into a pan. The recipe says "wok", so use a wok if you have one. We don't, so we just used a saucepan-type-thing. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly. Add the chili paste. Cook until the coconut milk is reddish. Add the lemongrass.
Add the chicken and saute until the chicken turns white. I don't know how you'll be able to tell, since it's sitting in red sauce. Just do your best. Don't eat raw chicken.
Add the rest of the coconut milk, the bamboo shoots, fish sauce, salt, brown sugar, and lime leaves. Bring to a boil again. Then add the torn basil. Turn off the heat.
Eat.
Steam some rice with this and eat it.

Thoughts: This was totally killer. I could have used another tbp of fish oil, but Dan doesn't really like it all that much. He actually doesn't want to put any fish sauce in it. So we'll have to think about that. Next time Dan also thinks we should steam the rice in a rice basket rather than like, cooking it on the stove top. Jasmine rice would be better too. We just used plain long-grain rice. I would eat this all the time. And it took like, no time at all.

Disaster Index: 1/10

potato carrot curry and rice

Ingredients

• 2 russet potatoes, chopped
  
• 2 sweet potatoes, chopped
  
• 3/4 cup carrots, cut into rounds
• 1 white onion, chopped finely
• 1/2 green apple, chopped finely
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 tbs butter/margarine
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• salt and pepper
• 3 tsp red curry paste
• 1 tbs sweet curry (or a mixture of cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, turmeric, clove, coriander, fenugreek, ginger, numeg, fennel, white pepper, black pepper, red pepper)
  
• vegetable oil
• garlic chili sauce
• any other hot sauce you want
• 1/2 cup raisins

Sautee onions with veg. oil until brown/translucent.
Add some sweet curry. Stir.
Add all the chopped potatoes, carrots, and apple.
Add 1 tbs of red curry paste.
Add milk, butter, and water. Stir and cover. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 5-10 minutes.
Add the remainder of seasonings and sauces, plus brown sugar.
Add more seasonings if desired.
Add all raisins.
Season with salt and pepper.

To make sticky rice:
Rinse rice and soak for several hours (preferably over-night (we did not do this)).
Line steaming basket with cheesecloth, coffee filter, or thick paper towel. Drain rice and add to basket. Place basket in a pan filled with 2-3 inches of water. Turn to high heat and steam for 20-25 minutes. Serve

Thoughts: Delicious, I think. Dan doesn't think it looks like curry. If you want something more curry-ish, cook it less long. We cooked it such that the sweet potatoes got quite mushy. I personally enjoyed it, but I'm not too familiar with what curry should look like. This would probably be better with coconut milk, but it was delicious as it was. Dan is going to try mixing some curry with plain yoghurt. He'll report back.
We didn't follow traditional procedure for making sticky rice. We soaked it for about 15 minutes instead of several hours. As a consequence, it took forever to steam the rice, and even after 30 minutes, the rice was still crunchy. Dan decided to take it out of the steamer and cook it in a little bit of boiling water. After 4-5 minutes the rice became moister and sticky. So we worked that out.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Chicken Coconut Curry Noodle Soup

This is adapted from a couple recipes. When we make it, it's sort of "until it tastes good," so this is really just a general guide to how to make it:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chicken broth
  
• 2 (14-ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk
  
• 1/2 tablespoon (sweet) curry powder plus or minus a tablespoon to taste
  
• Sriracha to taste
  
• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
  
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (say 1 squeeze of half a lime)
  
• 1/2 cup chopped green onion
  
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (to taste, we prefer more toward 1/2)
  
• 2 packages ramen noodles (just the noodles! Not the flavor packets!)
  
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  
• Fish Sauce to taste (we go about 1/2tsp, or you can substitute with mushroom sauce or just leave this out entirely)
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Bring the broth, coconut milk, and curry powder to a simmer in a soup pot. Add chicken and simmer until it's just barely cooked through, about four minutes. Add the ramen noodles and cook until they're tender (about another minute). You may need to add a little more water at this point. You decide. Now, take it off the heat and add everything else (lime juice, green onion, brown sugar, fish sauce, salt, pepper, and sriracha or other hot sauce, and cilantro). Taste it. Adjust seasoning as you desire. We usually use a lot of curry powder.

Thoughts: This is very good, and hard to mess up. Problem is that it's kind of annoying to cook with meat sometimes. There's a lot of room in this recipe for adjustment to your own taste, as well. Don't be afraid of over-seasoning (except maybe with the salt) - you can always add more stock or water.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - good, hard to mess up.