eG Foodblog: mongo jones - how to lose friends and annoy people

[hjshorter]

Mung dal, please.

[bleudauvergne]

kali urad! kali urad!

[reesek]

i'm with bleu -

kali urad!!!

[balmagowry]

As johnnyd says, so little knowledge. Which dal is which? If I knew I could vote (relatively) intelligently. It's tough being suddenly faced with an election when you don't know the candidates' platforms.

Re hump-day... one of us counts funny. By my calendar it's tomorrow. Or does Mountain Time affect dates as well as hours?

[gingerly]

What is

-  Edo (Alavi)

- Dosakai???

dosakai is the telugu name for the yellow stripey thing.

[mongo_jones]

As johnnyd says, so little knowledge. Which dal is which? If I knew I could vote (relatively) intelligently. It's tough being suddenly faced with an election when you don't know the candidates' platforms.

Re hump-day... one of us counts funny. By my calendar it's tomorrow. Or does Mountain Time affect dates as well as hours?

there's a picture of moog dal in one of the grocery pictures from yesterday--there's actually three kinds of moog dal in that picture (the peeled, split orange one is the one i'd make). channa dal is often called "yellow split peas" in english, i think. kali urad is the dal used by most indian restaurants to make their dal makhni--my preparation is in the family but different.

and isn't wednesday hump-day? if not, shows you how well my americanization is going. sheee-it! howdy pardner! are you from bag-dad, eye-rack? why don't you speak english? bling-bling! --- i'll get there yet.

Edited June 16, 2004 by mongo_jones (log)

[bleudauvergne]

Balmagowry lost a day. It's alright. This happens to her all the time.

[balmagowry]

Did not! Wednesday may be hump-day for the Normal Work Week, but not for the blog, which doesn't take the weekend off. That's what I meant about tomorrow being hump-day - also why I was mystified when you didn't think you'd have time to do all three dals this week.

Anyway, I'll wing it and cast a vote for channa dal tonight, please. (Is this one of the recipes you gave me when we were discussing pressure cookers? I think so - must look.)

[ms. victoria]

'Indian' food in the Caribbean is very very basic. Tasty, very enjoyable in parts, but very unvarying and limited (unlike what exists on the subcontinent). You have curry, 95% of the time made from a ready-made locally-produced mix, and the same exact recipe is used for every ingredient from conch to goat to duck. You have no more than two or three types of rotis, you have rice aplenty (both Trinidad and Guyana have ideal lands for rice cultivation), you have lots of fiery scotch bonnet (habanero) chilis, and that starts to be the sum of it. There are a couple of cool and unique Indo-Caribbean preparations (the fiery 'doubles' come to mind), but these are far fewer than you'd imagine.

This is not meant to be a put-down of what is an enjoyable, and often extremely tasty sub-genre of Caribbean food and I hope it is not read as such.

This is consistent with my experience in Trinidad. My husband is a Trini of African and European decent. My adventures in eating there consisted of lots and lots of doubles and two different types of roti (a thicker, split one served with tomato choka and a huge thin and shredded one served with channa and potatoes, pumpkin and curried green mangoes). We also ate at Apsara which is (to my knowledge) the only (East) Indian restaurant in Port of Spain. The two meals I had were similar to Indian restaurant food served in the States, though better than many places I have eaten here.

The food that Keifel and I make at home, based on what he knows how to cook and the Naps Girls cookbook (The Joy of Cooking in Trinidad), largely revolves around dhal and creole meat preparations. And yes we eat a lot of rice.

[mongo_jones]

yes, the channa and kali dals carry an extra layer of exotica for the average american as they are cooked in the pressure cooker. i suppose there's no reason they couldn't be slow-cooked as well by more patient folk. and as i think about it i cook moog partly in the pressure cooker as well, since it takes a lot more time to get done on the stove-top in boulder than it did in los angeles.

i was going to mention this apropos the mango chutney, which is still simmering away, when i post the recipe and pics for it: keep in mind when looking at any of the recipes/techniques i talk about in this blog that i am very high (that's altitude, johnnyd)--5100 feet +. thus even if i gave you cooking times, they would be off for most people at sea-level. in any case, cooking isn't an exact science--that's baking.

haven't counted the votes yet, but it looks like channa dal is in the lead.

and the blog may not take the weekend off but i'm guessing most of its readers will--egullet seems to be work-avoidance strategy for many. of course, i hadn't thought all this through when i declared today hump-day for the blog.

[tejon]

Channa dal is often called "yellow split peas" in english, i think.

I've seen it called split peas, though wanted to note for the unfamiliar that they aren't in fact dried peas, bearing a closer resemblance to very small garbanzo or chick peas. Wonderful nutty, full flavor and (attention low carbers) surprisingly low on the glycemic index.

[Pumpkin Lover]

Mongo, Kali Urad!

[mongo_jones]

the mango chutney is done. illustrated recipe follows--the things i do for you people. this, as i have said, is a classic bengali "dessert", though as bong over on the india forum will tell you technically it isn't a dessert. as i discovered in the grocery store yesterday, gujaratis apparently make something quite similar. this may or may not be an acquired taste--i can't imagine anyone human not liking this though. and, as long as you have access to unripe mangos, it is extremely easy to make. so no one with access has any excuse for not trying to make this once.

here we go:

step 1: get your mangos

step 2: if you like you can peel them (i usually don't--did this time because the peels had a lot of gunk on them--yes, that's a cooking term), but either way you should stone and slice them up into neat little slices

not a step, but in the interests of full-disclosure, and in case there's anyone reading this who thinks you have to be a whiz with knife work to cook any of this, here's a picture of the bits that aren't quite so neat slices--they all go in though

step 3: heat oil till pretty hot (mustard oil is preferable but if you don't have access to genuine bengali mustard oil--that's all of us in the u.s of fuck-with-mongo's-food-desires--use any old oil) and drop in 3/4 tspn of black mustard seeds. put a splatter-shield on immediately. mustard seeds explode like popcorn when heated and in this case are covered with very hot oil. this is the only step in this recipe where you have to be careful: you must not burn the mustard seeds, you just want them to pop--very little else will go into this dish and if the seeds burn you'll taste them over everything--not to worry though, you'll know when the seeds pop; tip: don't wait for all the popping to subside

step 4: once the mustards have done their popping act, dump in the mango slices and turn to coat.

step 5: add a big pinch of salt and about 3/4 tspn turmeric, reduce heat to medium

step 6: saute "for a while" till they look kinda like this

step 7: add approx 3 1/2 cups water--or more if you like, you can always cook it down later--and mix; raise heat to medium-high and boil for a bit

step 8: no pic for this since it doesn't look like anything--add 1/2 cup sugar. now keep in mind that how much sugar you want to add depends on a number of things: a. how tart the mangos were to begin with; b. the sweetness of your sweet tooth; c. how sweet/tart you want the end result to be; d. how much water you added and how thin/thick you're going to make the end result. my mother, who is crazy, says you should add a cup of sugar to a chutney made from 3 mangos and 2 cups of water--do this only if you have the sourest mangos on earth and/or you need to feed someone with severe insulin shock. with practice/taste you'll figure out how much sugar is right for you. i suppose you could also sweeten it with honey (and as i think about it, i'll try that next time). you could also get creative and add raisins and whatnot but just thinking about doing anything quite so daring makes my ass (which has had so little mention today) blush.

step 9: reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered for a long, long time. keep tasting every 10 minutes to see how the sweetness/tartness is doing; you want the mangos to give up their sour essence and you want the sweetness of the sugar to saturate them. once you have the syrup where you want it it is just a matter of cooking till the mangos are cooked and are at the texture you want it. i like them to hold their shape but make no resistance to my teeth (that sounds creepy). here's what my chutney today looks like--i hold a piece aloft in the hope that it communicates texture

step 10: this part is what we fancy cooks like to call "optional". the chutney is great as is at this point. in fact the first time you make it you should not do anything else to it. develop the baseline flavor you like. then, the next time you make it try the following: take a tspn of panch-phoron mix or mustard seeds and grind them fine in a coffee-grinder. add the powder to the chutney and mix. what you see before you here is ground mustard seeds. i love the mustard buzz floating over the sweet-tang of the chutney.

i suppose you could eat this warm--but it is best chilled; if you can't wait that long, at least let it come to room temperature.

enjoy!

Edited June 16, 2004 by mongo_jones (log)

[afoodnut]

since it takes a lot more time to get done on the stove-top in boulder than it did in los angeles. ...l

keep in mind when looking at any of the recipes/techniques i talk about in this blog that i am very high (that's altitude, johnnyd)--5100 feet +. thus even if i gave you cooking times, they would be off for most people at sea-level.

excuses, excuses. You're higher than you think. It's not the attitude, it's the altitude; or is it the other way around? Boulder's at about 5400 ft. above sea level. And everything takes longer than you think.

How do you pronounce channa dal? Is the "ch" sound pronounced like in Christmas, or like in church, or like in Channukah, not that its likely it would ever be pronounced in conjunction with any of the above?

[mongo_jones]

since it takes a lot more time to get done on the stove-top in boulder than it did in los angeles. ...l

keep in mind when looking at any of the recipes/techniques i talk about in this blog that i am very high (that's altitude, johnnyd)--5100 feet +. thus even if i gave you cooking times, they would be off for most people at sea-level.

excuses, excuses. You're higher than you think. It's not the attitude, it's the altitude; or is it the other way around? Boulder's at about 5400 ft. above sea level. And everything takes longer than you think.

How do you pronounce channa dal? Is the "ch" sound pronounced like in Christmas, or like in church, or like in Channukah, not that its likely it would ever be pronounced in conjunction with any of the above?

ch as in church, cha-cha and chinchilla (though not all the same time)

[mongo_jones]

so dinner tonight:

channa dal

yellow-croaker: spicy-roast a la mongo jones

fried okra

people, i'm losing energy and enthu here--will i be forgiven if i only post pictures of final products tonight?

(edit to say: my brain is so dulled by the weather i just screwed this post from earlier today up completely--i meant to only grab the section above to quote in a new message and instead deleted the rest of it and posted the new message here--and now i can't even remember what the rest of this message originally said!)

Edited June 17, 2004 by mongo_jones (log)

[balmagowry]

If you think Boulder is moist, better be glad you don't live by the shores of Babylon, where the prevailing breeze blows in right off the ocean and everything including us is DAMP. (The more because of our prolonged rainy season, these past couple of months; this is a Good Thing, by and large, but my auxiliary cellar pump, the one wot feeds the sump pump, has burned out, so the cellar is kinda swampy right now....)

Not sure how readily I can procure the requisite mangoes, but I certainly intend to try - that looks too good to miss. Thank you for beautifully detailed presentation. One question: what kind of sugar do you generally use?

[mongo_jones]

Not sure how readily I can procure the requisite mangoes, but I certainly intend to try - that looks too good to miss. Thank you for beautifully detailed presentation. One question: what kind of sugar do you generally use?

notes on the mango chutney (mangoes should be available in indian, jamaican, hispanic stores):

i usually use refined white sugar, but that's just because i'm a classy kind of guy. use any kind of sugar you want. raw cane sugar might come closest to the origins of this chutney (or so i surmise).

in pic 1 the mangos probably look much bigger than they actually were. see the later pics--the slices are longitudinal and give a more accurate indication of size.

the final syrup is closer to the color in step 7 than in step 9--blame the camera, the failing light and the genius who put himself between the light source and the camera.

[reesek]

mongo,

last night's fish curry looks wonderful. i have or can easily get all ingredients except cambodge/black kokum. at least i think they're hard to get. what are they? is there a subsitution if i can't find it/them.

[tejon]

Hmmmm.....have to go hunting at our local produce store for green mangos.

Which do you prefer with this, panch-phoron or mustard seeds?

(adding in a quick recipe for anyone unfamiliar with panch-phoron)

[mongo_jones]

mongo,

last night's fish curry looks wonderful. i have or can easily get all ingredients except cambodge/black kokum. at least i think they're hard to get. what are they? is there a subsitution if i can't find it/them.

the kokum (which may be available in your local indian grocery--though mine in l.a never had it; or did i never need to look?) is itself a substitution for what the recipe calls for: cambodge. see discussion here. kokum and cambodge are close relatives--flowers/petals of some tree or the other. i believe vijayan suggests a judicious use of tamarind if neither are available. basically cambodge/kokum functions here as a souring agent. keep in mind that both are far more subtle (and with a bottom note of musky sweetness) than tamarind. use very little tamarind (infused in water) if you use it.

[mongo_jones]

Which do you prefer with this, panch-phoron or mustard seeds?

apples and oranges. mustard gives it a bite; panch-phoron a muskier flavor; you could even go half and half. try 'em each way if you like it enough to make it again. or here's a crazy thought: make some chutney--divide into 3 lots; leave one as is; add mustard to one and panch-phoron to the other. taste-test blind and see which you like best.

[mongo_jones]

Mr. Jones, perhaps this is a stupid question, but why do you add the garam masala towards the end of cooking and not with the other spices? 

yes, this is an extremly stupid question! jesus christ! what were you thinking?

i mean, i don't really know--because my mother does, i guess. this is the received wisdom of most north-indian home cooking. there have been pitched battles (well, passionate debate anyway) on this subject in the india forum. on the one side are the redoubtable suvir saran and bbhasin (chefs with traditional training), on the other the equally redoubtable vikram and episure (iconoclasts and alchemists). rather than choose a side i'll just link to that older discussion (which started out talking about the other great white whale of indian cooking technique: "oil separation"):here

now i must go do some non-food related work.

while i'm gone would anyone care to take a stab at this question from late last night?

is there actually good and even innovative food at restaurants in america's midsize metros that no one outside them knows about because everyone's obsessed about new york, san francisco, los angeles, d.c and chicago? are restaurants in these places merely stepping-stones for young chefs looking to move to the big-time or elephants' graveyards for those who couldn't hack it there? (yes, there will be an elephant reference each day of the blog.) should chefs in these towns stop worrying about what the big city boys might say if they ever deigned to look at them and instead develop interesting local cuisines from local traditions and ingredients? did i just ask a question that answered itself? and again? and again? and so on.

or if that's too much:

just what is the appeal of earl grey tea?

[JennyUptown]

i've only been to one indian restaurant in dc--it was an overpriced fancypants place near the white house. don't recall the name--make of that what you will. but you don't need my help with dc indian--you have monica. and chef balraj bhasin's (egullet's bbhasin) restaurant, bombay curry company, is within reach, i think--somewhere in virginia.

Sorry - I wasn't clear. I am familiar with DC's offerings (and Monica's recent roundup in Washingtonian put it all in one convenient document for us DC types); I was just curious to hear what YOU thought of DC's Indian scene.

[mongo_jones]

ah--i've only been to dc once. but i'm glad to denounce or endorse any aspect of it. whatever will make people happy. all i want to do is make people happy.