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Feb. 17th, 2009 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickJust because I've stopped talking about how great the 660 Curries book is, that does not mean it has ceased to be great. It also does not mean I have stopped cooking from it. I just stopped talking about it because none of ya'll were paying any attention or feeding me any commentary when I talked about food. However of late nobody comments on anything, so I'm going to talk about food because it interests me and to hell with all of you.
Today's effort was p. 397: Red lentils with chilies.
1 cup masoor dal (little orange disks... split, skinned brown lentils)
1 Tbsp ginger paste
1 Tbsp garlic past (there are directions in the book for making these. I eyeballed amounts and ground 'em up in my mortar and pestle set of attractive and upwardly-mobile black granite. It was a fantastic xmas gift, almost as good as the williams-sonoma spoonula thing.)
1/4 teasp turmeric (and that became 1/2 teasp. in my turmeric-loving household. I likes me some yellow food.)
^^^ Put this stuff in a big saucepan with four cups of water. Boil.
Meanwhile... in a nice sized fry pan, heat up
2 Tbsp. canola oil (lard. It's lard at my house. I don't know what a canola is. Lard comes from pigs. I know what pigs are.)
When it's hot, add
1 teasp. cumin seeds (I went heaping here.)
and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds or so. Then add
1 small onion, chopped. (It says red onions. Me no like. I use white. Always.)
6 green chiles cut lengthwise (I used 3, cut into lengthwise quarters and chopped)
3 dried red thai or cayenne chiles (I used four of the "mexican" ones I have in a big old bag of dried red chiles. They look cayenne-ish to me.)
Cook a couple of minutes until onions are soft and starting to brown around edges. Then, add contents of fry pan to contents of sauce pan. Stir. Cook some more. While cooking, add
1 teaspoon coarse kosher or sea salt (Weis brand generic salt with iodine, poured into my hand and eyeballed.)
When done cooking, add
2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro (omitted. grocery did not have pretty cilantro last time I shopped.)
Juice of 1 large lime (Yay limes!)
1 Tbsp. Ghee. (I browned a quarter stick of butter and then dumped it in except for the solids. I did not measure. Probably there was more than 1 Tbsp. involved, there. No, I do not want to talk about this.)
How was it? It would have been better with cilantro but it was still omfg tastylicious. I love this book. The food doesn't suck even when I omit ingredients or twink with the proportions. It's a magic book. Yay book!
I need to put in another order at the Indian Food Ingredients Mail Order Place. I'm out of chana dal, masoor dal, urad dal, and running low on moong dal. I also have no coriander seed (my local grocery only carries the ground stuff). I should make a list and go shopping. I should. Maybe later this week.
I hate that my local grocery makes me buy fresh ginger in lonely one-hunk packets. I do not use fresh ginger in small amounts. The one-hunk packets are *maybe* two meals. Stupid grocery is not serving my needs.
I also hate that my local grocery only carries dried navy beans, dried split peas (green), dried great northern beans, dried brown lentils, and dried "fifteen bean soup mix". This is a totally fucking insufficient selection of leguminous choices available in dried form. STUPID grocery!
Today's effort was p. 397: Red lentils with chilies.
1 cup masoor dal (little orange disks... split, skinned brown lentils)
1 Tbsp ginger paste
1 Tbsp garlic past (there are directions in the book for making these. I eyeballed amounts and ground 'em up in my mortar and pestle set of attractive and upwardly-mobile black granite. It was a fantastic xmas gift, almost as good as the williams-sonoma spoonula thing.)
1/4 teasp turmeric (and that became 1/2 teasp. in my turmeric-loving household. I likes me some yellow food.)
^^^ Put this stuff in a big saucepan with four cups of water. Boil.
Meanwhile... in a nice sized fry pan, heat up
2 Tbsp. canola oil (lard. It's lard at my house. I don't know what a canola is. Lard comes from pigs. I know what pigs are.)
When it's hot, add
1 teasp. cumin seeds (I went heaping here.)
and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds or so. Then add
1 small onion, chopped. (It says red onions. Me no like. I use white. Always.)
6 green chiles cut lengthwise (I used 3, cut into lengthwise quarters and chopped)
3 dried red thai or cayenne chiles (I used four of the "mexican" ones I have in a big old bag of dried red chiles. They look cayenne-ish to me.)
Cook a couple of minutes until onions are soft and starting to brown around edges. Then, add contents of fry pan to contents of sauce pan. Stir. Cook some more. While cooking, add
1 teaspoon coarse kosher or sea salt (Weis brand generic salt with iodine, poured into my hand and eyeballed.)
When done cooking, add
2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro (omitted. grocery did not have pretty cilantro last time I shopped.)
Juice of 1 large lime (Yay limes!)
1 Tbsp. Ghee. (I browned a quarter stick of butter and then dumped it in except for the solids. I did not measure. Probably there was more than 1 Tbsp. involved, there. No, I do not want to talk about this.)
How was it? It would have been better with cilantro but it was still omfg tastylicious. I love this book. The food doesn't suck even when I omit ingredients or twink with the proportions. It's a magic book. Yay book!
I need to put in another order at the Indian Food Ingredients Mail Order Place. I'm out of chana dal, masoor dal, urad dal, and running low on moong dal. I also have no coriander seed (my local grocery only carries the ground stuff). I should make a list and go shopping. I should. Maybe later this week.
I hate that my local grocery makes me buy fresh ginger in lonely one-hunk packets. I do not use fresh ginger in small amounts. The one-hunk packets are *maybe* two meals. Stupid grocery is not serving my needs.
I also hate that my local grocery only carries dried navy beans, dried split peas (green), dried great northern beans, dried brown lentils, and dried "fifteen bean soup mix". This is a totally fucking insufficient selection of leguminous choices available in dried form. STUPID grocery!
