an arsenal of spices

Some people in the US stock an arsenal of ammunition for their large gun collections.  Since we neither own guns or ammunition, we have plenty of room for an excessive amount of spices.

Shocked at the prices of organic spices ($54/lb for organic premium cardamom pods????) we try to "save" by buying bulk.  We do go through them fairly fast, or so it seems at the prices we pay.  To grind, we use either our granite grinding stone, Sumeet Asian kitchen machine, small coffee ginder, or Vitamix, depending on the application.  


The large granite mortar & pestle I bought at a department store in a totally random find.  They only had two and I should have bought them both.  The quality is excellent and it's a good size.  We wet and dry grind in it.

The Vitamix and Sumeet will both wet grind spices, but you have to put enough in the Vitamix for it to work right - otherwise the tornado inside swirls everything towards the sky inside the tall container.  The Sumeet was specifically designed to handle wet grinding of spices (at least the attachment I am talking about here).  I need a Sumeet shape with a Vitamix blade, base and power.

Tonight we made Palak Paneer from Yamuna Devi's Lord Krishna's Cuisine.  It calls for wet grinding the spices along with water or whey, and fresh ginger and chili.  We omitted the chili for Arundhati's sake, and because it was such a small quantity Debashis ground it up in the mortar & pestle.  It was pretty easy to make because we had everything we needed on hand - right from our arsenal.  Debashis served that with coconut rice and it made us wonder why have we been missing out on coconut rice all these years?

A friend today said he put curry powder on his dinner and liked it, and my first thought was......what kind of curry powder?  We generally grind all of our own.  If you have a favorite blend, let me know!

Fresh Grape Leaves, Dolmades & Seductions of Rice

Fresh grape leaves in the yard this time of year made us think of the delicious fried grape leaves stuffed with goat cheese.  That led us to dolmades......and we compared a few recipes from various cookbooks.  Seductions of Rice won out, and the dolmades were so delicious we ate every one of them, including the grape leaves at the bottom of the pan.  We decided in the future we might even just line the pan, throw in the rice mixture, more leaves, and just have that for dinner.

Debashis made a white bean dip, and served that with rice crackers and endive spears:

White Bean Dip
Smashed peeled garlic cloves and rosemary sauteed in olive oil.  Once things were crispy and fragrant, he removed the rosemary and kept it aside. 

In the mini prep he added the olive oil & garlic, drained canned beans (rinse as you prefer), salt to taste, and some kalamata olives (4-5), and coarsely blended.  Into a bowl it went, with the rosemary added back in.  He adjusted for salt and pepper, fresh squeezed lemon & a little lemon zest. 

Roasted Potatoes
Boiled small red potatoes were transformed in a skillet with olive oil, garlic, rosemary and salt into delicious, crispy roasted bites.

Easy Salad
The last addition was an easy salad of herbed lettuce mix, cucumbers, early heirloom tomatoes and avocado.  This was served on a platter with olive oil and balsamic glaze drizzled on top.  Easy, and tasty.

Every Day Bengali Khitchri (a.k.a. Kitchari)

When we need a fast, nutritious dinner that tastes good when we are all sick or exhausted, we make this in our pressure cooker.  It's basically just an east-indian risotto.  All spices whole unless noted.  Easy on the turmeric until you get the hang of it, most people over do it and it gets bitter, yuck!  Sub coconut oil or canola to make this vegan.  We have a stainless steel pressure cooker (actually 2) and we use them a bunch.  I blew the pressure gasket off one but Debashis fixed it.   We are eating this tonight with sauteed kale in olive oil & garlic.

We have been trying to find a good US or North American source for organic dals, specifically mung dal and yellow pigeon peas.  Our local COOP sells organic mung dal from.... China?  Let me know if you have a good source.

Serve this with: samosas and/or papads, indian pickle, and a quick salad of lime, cucumber, salt, jalapeno or some other fresh chili, cilantro, tomatoes, sliced red onions.


easy bengali khitchri
1/4 c mung dal - yellow, hulled, split mung dal
1/4 c rice (any aromatic kind), tonight I'm using white basmati
 wash carefully & drain

sautee in pressure cooker:
ghee
cumin
nigella
red chili
ground coriander
ginger, fresh, peeled, minced

add tomato to melt

veggies as you prefer, we use:
carrots, peeled & chopped (1 tonight)
potatoes, peeled & quartered (tonight I'm using small red)
peas (shelled or frozen) - small handful tonight
spinach (handful)
cauliflower (in proportion to the carrots)

add the:
rice & dal
turmeric (not too much at all)
salt

Optional: nuts or raisins.  Arundhati loves raisins and Debashis loves cashews, so in they go for us.

add 3-4 parts water (so for this one I'll add 2 c.)

Cover pressure cooker, on medium heat bring to pressure, maintain pressure for 3-5 mins then turn the heat off, and let the pressure drop.  Open & serve in shallow pasta bowls. 

Kitchen Garden 2013

The weather is bizarre.  It's May 5, we have winds and nights dipping low.  The fruit trees yet again have been through some trauma so it will most likely be a bad local fruit year.  There is a reason people historically built courtyards in these high desert climates - it protected the trees from harsh late cold snaps and high winds.

Luckily, our procrastination will pay off as we have not put most of our plants in the garden yet, so nothing much to freeze.  That reminds me I'm on the hook to start some broccoli, tomato & eggplant seedlings for my parents who are in Ireland.

We have planted wildflowers, giant & dwarf sunflowers, some marigolds,  and other misc. cut flower seeds.  Debashis planted peas, and they seem to be up.  The strawberries are already ready - the mara du bois and alpine strawberries.

To plant:

• Herbs - thai & italian basils, Shiso, thyme, chives, oregano
• eggplants - 16 varieties!
• chilies - lots.  Bhut jalokia - geez, $1 a seed, or something crazy
• cucumbers
• Greens, greens, greens!
• tomatoes - yellow, green, striped, grape, cherry, etc.
• carrots
• okra
• beans
• melons
• etc.

I have ornamental corn, goblin gourds, giant pumpkin I want to plant for a fall display in the front.  I don't know it it will happen, but sounds good.

Curry Pizza

The giant batch of paneer left us with enough for a second meal.  We have pizza dough on hand too so plan on making Curry Pizza some night this week:

Curry Pizza:

• Pizza Dough
• Curry Sauce
• Paneer
• Sauteed onions

Optional:

• boiled red potatoes (sliced or diced).

NOT FRESH AND NOT HEALTHY:

• If you want to be really sneaky use Tater Tots.  Our neighbors did this pizza on the grill subbing curry cauliflower for the paneer and it was divine.