(no subject)

[which_chick]

While grandma (Oddly, not the one named Charlotte) uniformly enjoys everything I make, it turns out that there are levels of enjoyment. It's just that there's kind of a grade-inflation economy going on. Things that she says are Some [dish] are really just passable. Things that she kind of likes are Terrific. Things that she makes a special effort to call and report as Radiant, those she would like to have again. And the things that are reported as Humble, why those are the things that she wants me to splain to Heather how to make so that she doesn't have to wait around for me to make 'em again.



I cribbed the recipe liberally from the new Joy of Cooking, the 1997-ish one. It's supposed to be the Chicken Curry on page 600, but since I didn't have any chicken, well, hell. Things went downhill from there.

Ingredients.

About six linear inches of boneless pork loin, measured along the longitudinal axis. I don't know how much that is, but I'd guess between 2.5 and 3 lbs. Cut into nice, eating-size cubes of uniform size.
Two tablespoons of very finely minced fresh ginger
five cloves fresh garlic
1.5 Tbsp. butter
1 big white onion, halved and sliced thinly across the grain so's to make stringy semicircular pieces.
2 big jalapeno peppers, cut in half and de-seeded and de-membraned. Just use the green parts. (If you want more heat, use the membrane, too.)
1 pretty heaping teaspoon turmeric
2 slightly-rounded teaspoons garam masala (the kind from Penzey's)
heaping half-cup measure of nonfat plain yogurt
handful cilantro, chopped (I like cilantro. Probably this is about a quarter cup.)
Salt to taste. Start with half a teaspoon. The book says 3/4 but I found that a bit much and thus did my simmering with a halved raw potato in the stuff to draw out the excess salt. (Worked surprisingly well, I should add.)

Structions:

Melt knob of butter in big pan. Add onions. Cook onions at a medium-ish heat until wilty and soft and as close to browning as you have patience for. Add turmeric and garam masala and stir/cook for a minute or so until fragrant. Add ginger, garlic, and hunks of pork. Cook, stirring, until pork hunks don't look pinkly raw anymore. This takes a couple of minutes. Add yogurt. Cook, stirring. If it looks horribly dry, you can add a little water (like half a cup) but usually this isn't necessary, particularly if you thawed your pork and added the thawing juice on the grounds that it probably contained food/flavor value. When you're bored with that (usually a couple of minutes), turn the heat down to a slower bubble and add the cilantro and sliced jalapenos. Cook, stirring occasionally, and add salt the next time you're bored. Cook at the slow bubble until the meat is done all the way through and the jalapenos do not crunch anymore.

Serve over white rice.

Comments

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

The high levels of salt are on purpose. Whenever my Indian friends cook for me, it always just about kills me with saltitude. They all love the stuff. I have a theory that it's due to them needing to replace the salt lost through sweat when they're back home in Bombay (/Mumbai), which is somewhat less than necessary in The Great White North here.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

The theory sounds plausible... but I'd rather cut the salt at the expense of authenticity because my hands swell up and my fingers look like Lil' Smokies if I eat too much salt. (Getting old, I guess.)