Okanagancook

Nice BD, that's going on my spread sheet!

I love, love Mulligatawny Soup. I used to be able to buy the soup paste made by Bolts I believe but have not seen that brand anywhere in years. This is the combo of spices I am currently using which is pretty nice but not the same as the Bolts. Does anyone have a recipe for the soup paste? 1 teaspoon turmeric 2 1/2 teaspoons madras curry powder 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, ground 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, ground 8 whole cloves, ground 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, ground 15 whole black peppercorns, ground 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, ground 200 grams onions, chopped finely 20 grams ginger root, chopped finely 15 grams garlic, minced 4 cups stock, chicken or lamb 1/2 cup tomato sauce lemon juice to taste salt to taste coriander leaves chopped as garnish, optional rice or lentils about 1/4 cup optional lamb or chicken pieces, browned optional Directions: The paste Combine the turmeric, curry powder, coriander, cumin, cloves, nutmeg, black pepper and cayenne. Toast in a dry pan until fragrant. Set aside. Saute the onions and ginger in 1 tablespoon ghee or oil on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute another 2 minutes. Add tomato sauce and saute 2 minutes. Add stock and simmer until onions are done, about 20 minutes. Add lemon and salt to taste. To serve put a thin slice of lemon in the bottom of each bowl and add the soup. Garnish with coriander, optional.

How about some tortillas, corn or flour to go with the soup?

Hubbard squash are enormous alright. I have a funny story about a friend of mine who is new to this part of Canada which is growing zone 7a (she is from growing zone 3b). She planted TWO hubbard squash plants in her garden first year she was here. Well, she had like 10 of them and they were big. Well all got one and she still was eating hubbard squash in March, ha, ha. So, the next year I asked her if she planted any hubbard squash and she replied with an emphatic 'NO'. Later in the season I bought the biggest, baddest hubbard squash I could find and hid it in her garden while she was away. Ha, ha.

I made this the other day, sorry no picture: Pork Curry with Butternut Squash Serving Size: 4 Ingredients: 1 tablespoon oil 1.5 tablespoons Red Curry Paste 500 grams Lean pork, cut into thick strips or chunks 1 cup Coconut Milk 1/2 cup water 350 grams Butternut squash or other winter squash 6 whole Kaffir Lime Leaves, quartered 1/4 cup Cocunut Cream 1 tablespoon Fish Sauce 1 teaspoon Brown Sugar 2 whole Red chillies, thinly sliced Directions: Heat the oil in a wok or heavy based pan; add the curry paste and stir for one minute. Add the pork and stir fry over modernly high heat until golden brown. Add the coconut milk, water, squash and lime leaves, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the pork is tender. Add the coconut cream, fish sauce and sugar to the work and stir to combine. Scatter the child over the top. Garnish with sprigs of Thai basil if you like and serve with steamed rice.

I believe that all foods can have a place in one's diet. Moderation and variety.

In his definition of bhunoa he does not specify how much water or yogurt. I guess I should have included the whole method for the recipe which illustrates the liquid additions. I was just trying to show the use of the word "bhunno". The boiled onion paste quantity is 2/3 cup which would contain some moisture which would add in the bhunoa process (the paste is made by frying onions with some water until they are cooked and most of the water is evaporated then it is blended....it would still need to be quite moist in order to blend it, I would think.). The rest of the recipe states: After the water and pastes are added then chopped ginger and green chillies are added and stirred for 30 seconds. Then red chillies and coriander powder are added and stirred for 30 seconds. Then 1 1/2 cups of yoghurt and salt are added along with 3/4 c water. It is brought to a boil and simmered until the fat leaves the masala (the second bhunoa in the recipe as he described in this definition). After that fresh coriander is added along with 1 1/3 lb of mushrooms and simmered for 2 minutes then cashew nut paste is stirred in and brought to a boil before serving. Looking at a few of the other recipes they usually have you add to spices either onion paste or garlic paste and 4 to 6 tablespoons of water to bhunno or just onions with the spices which would provide the moisture to help prevent burning. The onion pastes are onions blended with water then reduced until most of the liquid has evaporated or onions fried then blended with some yoghurt to make a paste. Quite often the second bhunoa involves tomatoes, nut pastes, yoghurt. Hope that answers your questions, if not ask again. cheers

I had another thought, I wonder if home cured bacon and other home cured sausage have less curing agent per gram weight than the commercial stuff. ???

Found this article with a bit more interpretation: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/cancer-red-meat-processed-1.3288601

Hummm, another reason not to die of embarrassment and get your regular colorectal cancer screening/testing done.

typo: "Heat ghee in a handi, add whole garam masala and salute over medium heat until it begins to crackle." Should be ...."and saute over medium heat...."

I have the book Prashad: Cooking with Indian Masters by J. Inder Singh Kalra. He also taps into the expertise of many of India's well known chefs. It is a fabulous book with quite involved recipes. There is no index just a listing of recipes in their Indian names so difficult to find stuff but I am working on indexing it for myself. I hope I am not breaking any posting rules regarding copy right, here goes: In the Preface he states: "It is unfortunate that the excessive use of desi ghee or vegetable fat and masala by a handful of half-baked Chefs made ours an unsaleable food. It was 'rich'--read that as 'fatty- and 'spicy'- to be read 'chilli hot'. Our food is 'rich' but not 'fatty'. It is true that we sometimes cook in excess fat, but the amazing thing about our cuisine is that the cooking is deemed complete when the fat leaves the sides (of the utensil in which the food is being cooked) or comes to the surface. In other words, the ingredient 'expels' all fat when fully cooked. The excess fat merely eases the cooking process and is supposed to be drained off before service. In fact, the drained fat or 'rogan' can be re-used and inevitably makes a better fat medium because of the flavour and aroma of spices it has acquired during the cooking of the first delicacy." In the Culinary Terms section of the book he states: "The heart and soul of India's culinary art is to be able to combine the two with the nitty-gritty of Indian cooking: "dum, bhunao, talna, baghar, dhuanaar and bhunnana". Each one of these 'methods' or a combination of two or three or even all may be necessary to prepare a delicacy." He goes on to describe each one of these methods in detail. Here is what he says about "Bhunao" "Bhunao is a combination of light stewing, sautéing and stir frying. It is the process of cooking over medium to high heat, adding small quantities of liquid - water or yoghurt - to prevent the ingredients from sticking, which also makes it necessary to stir constantly. Almost every recipe needs bhunao at some stage, very often at more than one stage. At the outset it may be the spices and/or ingredients like onions, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, etc., which require bhunao. The process would not only extract the flavour of each of the spices and/or ingredients, but also ensure that they do not get burnt or remain raw. In fact, the masala must be fully cooked. Subsequently, the main ingredient may also require bhunao. This ensures that the initial cooking is done in the ingredients' own juices. The process is complete only when the fat leaves the masala or the sides. Bhunao is not a complete process in itself but a part of the process that helps to prepare a dish. It usually requires the addition of substantial quantities of liquid to complete the cooking process." In his recipes when he wants you to use this method he uses the term "bhunno" for example here is an excerpt from a recipe: "Heat ghee in a handi, add whole garam masala and salute over medium heat until it begins to crackle. Add boiled onion paste, bhunno for 2 minutes, add the ginger and garlic pastes dissolved in 1/4 cup of water then stir for a minutes......."

I have a few bookshelves for my magazines and books Magazines: Fine Cooking; Bon Appetite, Food and Wine; This is the entire bookshelf we had built in a few years ago: And these are the three sections: A couple more built ins:

Oops, duh, that thread on Bhunooing was start by you! Sheesh, need another cup of coffee this morning.

Welcome Phil. I too love Indian food and am living in a place where one has to make one's own 'culturally diversified' food. When asked where's a good place to eat Chinese food, my reply is "my place", ha, ha Same goes for Indian food. Check out the Indian cooking thread over in the Regional Cuisine Forums. We recently had a discussion about bhunooing which you will find very interesting and there is a link in there to another discussion about frying Indian spices: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/152184-bhunooing/ Jump into the conversation!

Made the meat with lentils on page 84. The picture is what drew me in. Quite an involved recipe but well worth the effort. This is the classic method of cooking the spices in onions and tomato, simmering the ingredients and then adding whole spices before serving.

A warm welcome Richard. I'm sure we would all love to see what you are cooking up with ingredients procured from your local merchants!

I checked the recipes that come with the oven and some of them have up to a 2 hour cooking time. I would be nervous doing a longer cook and I think one would have to refill the water reservoir and empty the drip tray.

Shelby, you were reading my mind which had cabbage rolls dancing on the plate! Your's look delicious. I have no venison save for two tenderloins which I was gifted but I think them too special for cabbage rolls.

You can change functions but needs to done manually. No big deal. It is a learning curve with the bake-steam function.

Blue_dolphin. Great job. I move mine around all the time except for toast. Chef end. I hate turnips but perhaps some baby ones like yours might be goo. I am going to try baked okra soon.

I tried the egg broken into a small ramikin in Steam at 150 for 1 hr 15 minutes. The white was still quite runny so I changed the temp to 200 degrees for another 10 minutes. The white was still not set. Ate it anyway. The yolk was not runny but more like a gel. Not hard like a hard boiled egg. Kind of strange. Will have to try again. I am wanting a poached egg like egg.

We are having a wake over at a friends' place who got us interested in Paul's cuisine. They have a copy of his menu framed just outside their kitchen! We will all cook together and rejoice in his work.

Thanks Norm. That Korean chilli is hot.

Norm, what is the Asian looking jar?