Indian Curried Shrimp

Lemon Grass

Yeah, I know all curry is Indian except when it’s American or Caribbean and the difference is the richness of the spice blends. The Europeans knew what they were doing when the set out to discover a shorter route to India to get spices. I am just surprised that as bad as English and German food is they didn’t get there first.

The biggest difference is that so called Curry powder from the Western Hemisphere has coriander and cumin as the principle ingredients with lesser amounts of garlic and turmeric in the blend whereas the Indian blend of garam masala is built around cumin, black pepper, and coriander and you are expected to add your own garlic and turmeric. In the Caribbean or American version you are expected to add either hot pepper or black pepper respectively.

Now many people would think I am nuts to make a spicy Indian Curry for my Granddaughters, but I was just dying to try Indian Recipes with all the spices I found in the DC area so I could see the real difference between eastern and western curry. I chose three curry recipes from Monica at spicediary.com, curried pinto beans, curried garbanzos and curried king prawn. Then I let my older granddaughter choose the one she wanted to eat. And she chose curried shrimp which is more readily available and cheaper than King Prawns. I also made a back-up dinner in my coffeepot of Chicken and red beans to be served over white rice which is the way I also chose to serve the curried shrimp.

Staging The Spices

I read the recipe carefully and recognized that this was a fast moving recipe using spices I simply wasn’t familiar with so I staged the spices in bowls and scaled it down at the same time. This way I would be sure I wouldn’t make any mistakes while exploring food in unfamiliar territory. I was so excited after making and sampling my first masala (spice blend) that I had a mental meltdown and stopped taking pictures.

The meal came out fantastic. My oldest granddaughter loved it and ate up plenty of shrimp while saving room for some chicken. The youngest ate a couple but as expected preferred the chicken and I ate only the curried shrimp.

Unless you make it yourself from fresh spices, it’s difficult to describe how delicious this meal is and how different it is from what the Western world refers to as curry. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t take pictures of this meal you can go to Monica’s site and check out her original recipe as I altered a couple of ingredient and also scaled it down to being a little more than enough for one big eater.

Curried Shrimp Ingredients

First spice blend

1 small Onion

5 small garlic cloves

2 inches of ginger root peeled

bunch fresh chopped coriander (cilantro) (2 Tablespoons)

Blend all together in food processor or blender, you may have to add a little olive oil.

In my fondue pot at medium heat, add;

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 dried black cardamom crushed

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1 stalk lemon grass cut in 2 inch pieces.

Once the pot starts to sizzle, add the First spice blend which is a paste. After everything was uniform, I added the bowl that had

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Tumeric powder

¼ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon garam masala

I stirred on high for 10 minutes and added a can of diced tomatoes (14.5 ounces)

After 5 minute,I added

½ pound shrimp

After cooking for 10 minutes

2 ounces of water was added and the heat tuned to low and

I tablespoon of sour cream added.

The heat was turned of and the food let sit in a covered pot, while I put out the white rice and chicken on the table and everything was served together.

This sounds like a lot of work but everything moves extremely quickly which is why I pre-measured the spices and put the spice portions in their separate bowls.

I think this was definitely worth the effort and will probably cook this with my daughter when she comes down next week.

A note on the spices:

There is absolutely no substitute for black cardamon, fresh ginger or fresh coriander (cilantro). You could make a simple garam masala or simply use West Indian Curry with a substantial portion of black pepper. You could probably get away with lemon zest instead of lemon grass. However, if the goal is to taste the difference between east and west , than take the time to find the real ingredients. For me Lemon Grass was the easiest as I had just replanted my lemon grass bed in order to rejuvenate it so I had some fresh young sprouts.

Lamb Curry or Curried Lamb?

Curried Lamb or Lamb Currry?

When it comes to curry, the choices and combinations are infinite. Do we serve it with rice or in a shell like roti? Should you use chicken, lamb, shrimp, beef or pork or vegetarian with pinto beans or garbanzos? Should potatoes be included or not? Then there is question of bones in or boneless meat. Do we use difficult to find Indian spices or just use the West Indian spice blends called curry powder.

Now I pretty much make curry from either chicken or lamb and include garbanzos and potatoes. My normal spice blend is West Indian Chief’s brand which I find superior to big name American Spice blends and with chicken I will do ether bones or boneless but with lamb I leave the bones out. The only problem I have left is to decide whether to call it Lamb Curry or Curried Lamb.

Clean the Lamb

The only major precautions I make are to keep my curry in the refrigerator so it stays as fresh as possible and to try to cut the fat from the meat. I saved all the bones with meat on it separately so I can make Lamb Buco.

Lamb Curry or Curried Lamb

Ingredients:

1 potato cubed and blanched

½ stick butter

1 clove garlic minced

½ onion chunked

1 thin slice scotch bonnet pepper

6 oz lamb cooked or leftover

1 Tablespoon Curry Powder

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon thyme

2 oz rum.

1 can garbanzo beans with liquid.

Gather the Ingredients

The potatoes were blanched and all the ingredients gathered together. Everything was added to the pot except the can of beans and was sauteed covered with occasional stirring until the onion was glazed and the lamb was browned. The can of garbanzo beans and the liquid was then added to the pot. The aluminum foil was removed and cooked uncovered.

I am sensitive to the flavors in curry and a bad blend makes for a bad meal. I intent to try some real Indian Style Curry with Indian spices so I an pick out the flavor which offends me – if any and eliminate it. Meanwhile I’ll stick with the brand that I know I enjoy.

BTW Google says it’s Curried Lamb about 4 to 3 over Lamb Curry.

Vegetarian Carrot Soup or Potage Crecey

Potage Crecey - Purred Carrot Soup

Potage Crecey is one of those old fashioned soups that I first started cooking when 30 years ago or the first time I was chronically unemployed in the Virgin Islands. The recipe is from the Larousse Gastronomique and I would not recommend the new edition because it is a $75 dumbed down version of the hurricane damaged copy I still use.

This is one of those messy old fashioned soups that was pureed using a sieve, then I used my food processor and now that I discovered my blender does an easier to cleanup version with a slightly different texture, I may make it more often.

I made this soup twice this year, once with my mini food processor which made a mess of my kitchen and once using my blender. The big difference, in addition to texture, is the quantity you can make. A professional chef could use a food processor to make soup for hundreds whereas the blender is superior in ease of use when making meals for one. I actually prefer the texture of a totally pureed soup so I am lucky to be able to make my soup for one or two.

Vegetarian Carrot Soup or Potage Crecey

Ingredients

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons Butter

1 Onion diced

1 clove garlic minced

2 stalks celery

1 thin slice scotch bonnet hot pepper or equivalent (optional)

4 carrots either food processed or coined.

1 Tablespoon Fresh Parsley (½ dried)

½ teaspoon thyme

½ teaspoon rosemary

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon brown sugar

2 oz sherry

1 can vegetable broth 14.5 oz

Prepare everything on the list up to the carrots and put into the coffeepot and start to saute.(remove the slice of hot pepper before the carrots are added.)

Shredding the Carrots

If using the food processor, shred the carrots and add to the pot or else coin the carrots and add to the pot. Add all the rest of the spices and sherry and continue to simmer for ½ hour stirring occasionally.

Simmering the Carrots and Onions

Add the broth and let cook all day.

All in the Pot and Cooking

If you used the food processor to shred the carrots you are done. This is show below served with grilled tomato and cheese sandwiches.

Carrot Soup with Grilled Cheese and Tomato

If you coined the carrots, pore the pot into the blender, liquify and serve. Either way I love my carrot soup, the blender is just easier to clean and not as messy.

Italian Flag Salad

Italian Flag Salad

I like playing with my food so made this salad with ingredients traditionally used in Italy and made it in the style of the Italian Flag. I made a Polish flag salad which had balanced flavors of a cottage cheese salad with pickled beets which was pleasant. While this might be another clever idea for a salad, it is defiantly not for wimps.

Recipe:

Green Section:

sliced Romaine and Iceberg lettuce.

White section:

1 cup cottage cheese with 1 small diced onion and celery stalk

Three marinated artichoke hearts on top of the salad

crumbled Gorgonzola sprinkled on top

Red Section

Tuna Salad

3 oz tuna fish

½ teaspoon horseradish

½ teaspoon crushed garlic

½ Tablespoon soy sauce

Mix all ingredients until well blended

Overlay with red pimento

I loved the flavor of this bold tuna salad so I expect you will see more of that as a protein source with vegetarian soups for dinner. I served the red and green parts of the salad with marinated artichoke hearts and black olives to some of our family friends at my daughter’s house and was worried about overdoing it with bold flavors. Everybody loved it and several asked for recipes.

My daughter and I cook bold for ourselves, our families and our friends and they keep coming back for more so I guess we are doing OK.

Tes’ Beef Noodle Soup

Enjoying Tes' Beef Noodle Soup

One of the joys of having a cooking a blog is interacting with cooks from all over the world and one of my favorites is Tes from Thailand because I have been able to get all the ingredients and try try her recipes. And I can’t wait to find my Indian spices so I can try some of Monica’s recipes.

My first shot at Thai was with Dagny in a hotel room where we did a stir dry chicken in my coffeepot which was quite good. My next shot was a chicken and ginger stir fry which was fantastic so when Dagny asked if I had any recipes that highlighted Chines five spice blend, I immediately thought of Tes’ Beef Noodle Soup. Seems Dagny had purchased some five spice blend and tasted it raw and wasn’t positive she would like an entire meal flavored with anise. Since anise is the strongest flavor in the five spice blend, the soup would be a good test of her family acceptance.

Now the funny thing was, we had all the ingredients for the soup except for rice sticks which I can only describe in the hands of a man who never tasted Thai food before a few years ago as good to eat but very weird to cook. Seems these noodles are to be deep fat fried for about 3 minutes at very high temperature. I couldn’t believe I would have to waste three cups of cooking oil to make noodles so I just put a couple of noodles in the bottom of an oiled pan and threw them in. In about seconds the ones that touched the oil uniformly expanded like popcorn and were light and delicious. The portion that didn’t touch the oil had the taste and texture of cat gut from an old tennis racket and was pretty much inedible. Since my daughter is not set up to deep fat fry, Dagny suggested we use angle hair pasta which she knew I had cooked and could be added to the coffeepot and cooked thoroughly in about 6 minutes.

We ended up using the coffeepot because, believe it or not, there was no other reasonable way to make a moderate quantity of this soup. Seems, Dagny had Kenpo martial arts training at 10am at one dojo and her kids and husband had to be at another dojo at 11 am. I was not staying home to watch a hot pot when I could go to Starbucks at 10 am and get a good cup of regular old fashioned coffee.Dagny had to leave for a baby shower at 12 and the kids would be home and ready to eat at 1 pm. I make many soups so adapting this to my coffeepot and using angle hair pasta was not tough for me.

Tes’ Beef Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1/2 onion chopped to medium pieces

2 cloves garlic minced

1 ½ stalks celery rough sliced

6-8 oz of leftover porterhouse steak (200 grams)

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 ½ heaping teaspoon Chinese five spice powder

4 cups water 8 oz.

Chopping the Onion

Mis Ana loves to use a sharp knife and will help cook all day long if you let her use a sharp knife. Chopping the onion and celery is now routine and she has not cut herself, yet.

Chopping the Celery

The oil was added to the coffeepot along with the chopped onion, celery and garlic and sautéed while I chunked the meat into half inch pieces and added it to the pot. All the rest of the ingredients were added with about half the water. The pot was covered with foil and we left for coffee and the dojo.

Cooking the Soup

Dagny was in a hurry to leave for her baby shower so I rushed to finish the soup so she could try it. I added the other two cups of water to the coffeemaker and let it perk into the concentrated soup. A ½ inch circle of Angle hair past was broken in half and added to the pot. After six minutes, Dagny got her bowl and loved it and she decided she would never run from 5 spice again.

Fortunately, her husband Carson also loved it as did Cayla my oldest granddaughter. Only Miss Ana, my apprentice cook found the taste of the szechuan pepper too spicy. Of course Cayla uses hot sauce on everything and Ana runs from spicy foods. Well Tes Beef Noodle Soup was a hit even if we did use angle hair pasta instead of rice sticks.

I Do Have a Stove Which is Why I Need My Coffeepot.

Stove Top Cooking

Old habits are hard to break. Of course I have a stove as a matter of fact 2 but when cooking on a stove top, the meal is usually started when I am hungry and after a owning a few restaurants and family gatherings, I have a collection of super-size pots and darn few small ones. But my lack of will power occasionally forces me to use a stove because there are meals that will not work in either the coffeepot or fondue pot.

Regular readers know that whenever I get a craving I indulge it just like a normal human being. I am not on a prohibitively strict diet with dos and do nots. What I am trying to accomplish is a lifestyle change where I live and get healthy eating portioned controlled meals but occasionally bad habits rule the day.

I had a craving for ravioli so I purchased some frozen ones in a 24 ounce bag for about $8 which I thought was outrageous and I had some leftover homemade sauce in the refrigerator. All day long I dreamed about the meal so I reheated the sauce and divided the bag in thirds without thinking. Of course the meal fit on the 11 inch plates and I ate all that I had cooked without thinking that 8 ounces of pasta is like eating half a loaf of bread. When I checked the bag, it said it serves 5 so without thinking I had eaten almost two portions.

And their in lies the problem with me cooking on the stove top when I am hungry. I simply cook and eat too much so I get fat. While one day’s indulgence may foretell the end of a diet, it doesn’t destroy a lifestyle change because good habits are also hard to break. The next few days I was back to coffeepot cooking to reinforce my portion controlled meals.

Ravioli and Sauce

There really is no recipe except reheat the sauce, boil salted water and cook the frozen ravioli for as long as it says. Serve with the heated sauce. I had a women last night tell me she can’t cook and that her boyfriend cooks every meal. She’s lucky because I think I told her there is a huge difference between”can’t cook” and “wont cook” but since she was attractive, young and alone, I did offer to cook a meal for her and she accepted. Too bad, I will be occupied with family for the next month.

Another Simply Beautiful Salad

Simply Beautiful Salad

Most people never learn that a salad can be a lot more than shredded lettuce, pink hothouse tomato slices and wilted limp cucumber slices. Italians and Greeks seem to have gotten the message and serve the most creative and unnamed combinations as Greek Salad or Antipasto. My wife was from the Italian school by heritage and so creative salads were always present.

In season, I prefer the richness of fresh Tomatoes to the bland flavor of Roasted Red Peppers from a jar but the peppers are preferred to hothouse tomatoes. With tomatoes on hand, I prefer fresh mozzarella for the subtle flavor that balances tomatoes. With the bland roasted red bell peppers, I prefer a Cottage Cheese and Gorgonzola topping.

Cheese and Gorgonzola Recipe:

1 cup cottage cheese

1 diced small onion

1 diced stick of celery

2 oz Gorgonzola crumbs

Mix everything together. Slice Romain lettuce across the stem in ½ inch slices and spread around the plate. Place pimento slices on top and then scoop as much of the cottage cheese as you would like on the plate. Another unusual, flavorful and beautiful combination.

Puerto Rican Rice and Pigeon Peas (Arroz con Gandules)

Fondue Pot Pigeon Peas and Rice

For those who know little about St. Croix, our foods reflect our diverse cultural background. About 40% of the population speaks Spanish so you would expect Spanish influences in our foods. Then another 40% is descendant from eastern Caribbean heritage and as you would expect, it has influenced our meals from roasted corn to stewed goat and the rich flavors of Asian Indian cooking transported from Trinidad. Without even consciously thinking about it, our local restaurants offer a Crucian Fusion Menu with almost every cultural reflected in their menus.

Years ago one very successful local restaurant (Oscars) offered Curry, pasta and meatballs, steak and baked potato, Arroz con Gandukes, Rice and Red Beans, Stewed Goat, Conch in butter sauce and more. Jimmy Carter visiting at Christmas village was so impressed with the local sweet potato stuffing, he asked for the recipe to take home with him. It is tough for a natural Fat Savage to not want to partake of all of the culinary offerings and learn to make them.

Arroz con Gandules is traditionally served as a side dish, but since the recipe included 4 oz of ham, I used it as the main course. I made it twice this year four months apart, but if I were a true Islander the frequency would be closer to every four days. Perhaps this is so popular because a can of pigeon peas and 50 cents worth of rice will feed eight people and it is fine when reheated or microwaved. The first time I tried it was in my coffeepot, but the more traditional and easier method is in my fondue pot which is essentially an electric skillet. So I will describe that First.

Puerto Rican Rice and Pigeon Peas (Arroz con Gandules)

Recipe:

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

4 ox ham (cut from picnic steak)

1 small onion chopped

¼ cup green bell pepper chopped (1 very small)

2 cloves garlic minced

4 oz of Goya Tomato sauce

½ can Goya Pigeon Peas undrained.

1 slice 1/16 inch scotch bonnet or other hot pepper

1 packet Sazon Goya con Culantro y Achiote

1 ½ cup water

1 cup rice

The Goya label says you will make 8 portions with a full can and I believe it because even cutting the recipe in half, I had more than enough for 3 meals with no other food on the plate. The biggest challenge other than making good rice was splitting the can of pigeon peas in half and splitting the water that came with the peas in half. I froze the extra peas and water with the other half can of tomato sauce because I hate to feel obligated to plan meals around leftovers and if it doesn’t survive freezing, I will simply through it out. The two extra cooked portions were also frozen and I know from experience that frozen rice is just fine.

The fondue pot process was just as it said on the can. Turn the heat on to 250 (medium) and add the ham, onions and peppers and cook about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Add everything else and bring to a boil. Stir in the rice, reduce the heat to just the boiling point, cover the pot and walk away and have faith you can’t do any better.

If there is too little heat, the rice won’t cook as fast but 20 minutes is usually enough on even exceptionally low heat. If it is too hot, the rice will stick to the pan which is not a big problem as you gently remove the Pigeon Peas and Rice from the pot leaving behind any burnt rice sticking to the bottom of the pot.

The hardest thing for a novice cook is to leave it alone for 20 minutes. If you open the lid and stir the pot to check and see if it’s too hot, you will turn the rice into a pasty mess that is definitely not Caribbean Style.

Coffeepot Pigeon Peas and Rice

Now if making good rice in a stove top pot is tough it is almost impossible to do in a coffeepot and even worse in a Crockpot so don’t even try. The work around is to leave the water out of the recipe above and use microwave rice or buy cooked rice from a Chinese restaurant and then mix it in and serve your pigeon peas and rice right away. I ran one test where I left out the water and added an ounce of Cruzan Dark Rum to the pot and poured the microwave rice on top of the mixture of Peas and spices and ham and covered the pot with foil. About 45 minutes later, the rice was done so I stirred everything up and ate the delicious Arroz con Gandules.

Near Perfect Pea Soup

Creamy Pea Soup

When it comes to comfort foods, noting beats pea soup on a rainy day. Our mothers both made it and made it about the same. The both strived for a rich creamy texture and built the soup around an old ham bone which contributed to the richness. Of course Dolores’ Mother added more meat and Carrots whereas my mom cooking for six instead of three, used less meat and included dumplings to add some substance to the soup. Dolores hated dumplings so I learned to leave them out and include carrots.

Now forget about dumplings in a coffeepot, they are hard enough to do on a stove top where you can turn up the heat but I suppose one day, I will give it a try just to see if it can be done. But for now I just wanted to see how close I could come to our mothers pea soup in terms of texture and flavor and yes, this soup started life as a vegan meal before I kicked it up a notch by adding Turkey Ham to get the flavor I am used to.

Recipe:

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Chopped onion

2 cloves minced garlic

2 stalks diced celery

1 bay leaf

1 thin slice scotch bonnet hot pepper

½ teaspoon Thyme

½ teaspoon Rosemary

1 Tablespoon Parsley

Separate the can of peas add the liquid to the pot and mash the peas with a potato masher.

1 can 14.5 oz Vegetable broth. Or if adding turkey ham, use chicken broth.

4 oz Turkey Ham

Now as the ingredient list shows, there is no major change in the ingredients from the vegetarian pea soup other than the Turkey Ham, the biggest change was in the processing and the Peas. Other than my old standby Cruzan Rum, I rarely go out of my way to buy a specific brand of almost any product although I do read the labels and as I said last time avoid anything with sugar added. I usually buy the generic brand because I never see much of a difference.

Libby's Naturals Sweet Peas

This time I stumbled upon a can of “Libby’s Naturals” Sweet Peas that are just peas and water with nothing else added to enhance flavor or improve the color over what God provided.
The other major change was that when I separated the peas and water, I held back the water because it really doesn’t have that much flavor and put the peas in a blender with the broth and liquified the peas. The soup had perfect consistency in line with our family traditions but if you like it thinner, you can add some back to the pot about an hour or so before you want to serve it.

I tested the soup about 2 hours before I wanted to eat it and it was great. However, at this point I succumbed to the call of the turkey ham screaming from my refrigerator to make the soup perfect. I added about 4 ounces of turkey ham and let it cook for 2 more hours.

The end result was fantastic, but I’m not sure it was perfect. Maybe that’s the purest in me coming out and I believe it cant be perfect unless it’s made from dry beans and you suffer over the pot for a day hoping that the beans will completely break down into the rich creamy texture desired by dinnertime.

As described above, the vegetarian meal has about about 300 calories and the turkey ham only adds about 150 more with about 40 fat calories. Since I’m not a purest about any food fads and eat most anything, I don’t think the 40 fat calories will do more damage than the bottle of wine I consumed with the meal.

Vegetarian Pea Soup

Vegetarian Pea Soup

Making split pea soup from dried peas is an art form that simply cant be rushed and is different every time, Fortunately, once you have done it correctly it can be refrigerated and even frozen and come out perfect when reheated. The issue is the peas do not become hydrated in the same cooking time and you have two choices: Turn it off and reheat it a second day when it is always perfect or eat the inferior not as smooth but still very good tasting product. I have done both depending on how hungry I am and what’s in the refrigerator.

Obviously for a meal this touchy, you can’t make it in a coffeepot or a slow cooker and do it right. I was curious if you could make a reasonable substitute using canned sweet peas and step number one is read the label and try to find a product made from peas and water alone although salt would not be too bad. Absolutely avoid anything with sugar added because it is not the right taste.

I made this as a vegetarian soup for a few reasons; I don’t mind mental collapse from protein deficiency a couple of days a week, I was looking for the texture of the end result more than the absolute flavor and I would hate to waste good ham or even smoked turkey necks on bad soup.

When you see the richness of the ingredients you’ll recognize that the soup was pretty good with two caveats. It lacked the traditional flavor of the ham and it was not as creamy as I would like my split pea soup to be but it was still alright.

Recipe:

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Chopped onion

2 cloves minced garlic

2 stalks diced celery

1 bay leaf

1 thin slice scotch bonnet hot pepper

½ teaspoon Thyme

½ teaspoon Rosemary

1 Tablespoon Parsley

Separate the can of peas add the liquid to the pot and mash the peas with a potato masher.

1 can 14.5 oz Vegetable broth.

All the Aromatics in the Pot

The method is straight forward. Add everything except the can of peas and the broth to the coffeepot and let simmer while you shower shave and get ready for the day.

Seperate and Mash the Peas

Open the can of peas and separate and save the liquid. Mash the peas into a paste, add the mashed peas, water from the peas and broth to the pot.

All in the Pot

Let simmer all day and when you return enjoy your soup.