Ba Shu Chicken

This is a follow up to the Gourmet Kingdom review from a few weeks back.  We tried the Ba Shu chicken and it lived up to the sky high expectations!  Extremely hot, not for the weaker souls.  Salil ate most of it.  I had an eggplant dish to balance things a bit.

Also went to Gourmet Kingdom for lunch with the lab-mates.  The menu is standard chinese lunch menu with Broccoli and Beef, Kung-Pao Chicken and the works.  The lunch entree came with a bowl of soup and a small salad.  The taste was refreshing, unlike the usual oily chinese fare.  Portions were generous and the price was exceptional.  I think my chicken and brocolli was priced at $ 5.75.  Highly recommended, especially if you are a graduate student who is getting tired of the regular chinese take-out.

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Eggplant in garlic sauce

at Gourmet Kingdom.
http://www.thegourmetkingdom.com/

Home-made Shrikhand

Shrikhand is a renowned dessert from Maharashtra.  This is a Marathi person's answer to Gelato.  We followed a recipe from Salil's dad and it worked perfectly for us.  We cant take the credit for this one though.  Being a true scientist, he gave us the "formula" and not a recipe! We had 9 people coming over for lunch and so the scale is much more than we normally have on the blog.  But the Shrikhand will keep well in the fridge for a at least a couple of weeks and will make you come back for more.  Shrikhand can off course be a stand alone dessert  at the end of a meal.  But we like to make shrikhand-puri. 

Puri is a fried bread and I cant believe that wikipedia actually has an entry to describe puri.  They have done a much better job of describing it that I would ever do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puri_(food)
But, I am surprised to see that shrikhand is not mentioned in the accompaniments :(. 

The thing is actually quite easy to make, especially in the US where the yoghurt and sour cream is easily available.  My mom starts from fresh milk, makes her own youghurt/curd.

50 oz plain youghurt ( extremely important to use full fat, cream on top kind) - this is not the place to save some calories.  If you are going through the trouble of making it, might as well enjoy it to the fullest.

50 oz sour cream (again full fat - gives a nice mildly sour punch)

2 cups raw/refined sugar (this makes relatively mildly sweet - most Indians will complian  that its not sweet enough, but I study diabetes for a living!)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground cardomom

1 cup nuts (we used crushed toasted hazelnuts which are not to be found in India.  More common will be pistachio, almonds or cashews or all three)

saffron ( how much saffron is difficult to tell.  If you have the real good one - which may not essentially be the most expensive one, as we found out the hard way - little will go a long way!  Its best to soak it in a TBS or two of warm milk, let it seep through the milk for about half an hour and then add the golden yellow milk to the shrikhand.  We are not looking for much color, but just the fragrance of saffron)

Muslin/ cheese cloth - a clean 100% cotton scarf will work as long as you are okay with it smelling like a baby/ old milk for a long time even after many washes!!

Hang the youghurt and sour cream in the cheese cloth and let it hang overnight, to get rid of the excess moisture.  We did it in two batches given the amount we had.  Once the mixture is hung, get it out in a bowl, add sugar, saffron, cardomom and nuts.  Chill it in the fridge for 6-8 hourse allowing for all the flavors to come together.  

I promised you, its easy to make.

Gourmet kingdom - a pleasant surprise

Gourmet Kingdom in Carrboro. Awesome fish in Schezuan bean sauce!


Gourmet Kingdom in Carrboro - a not particularly attractive looking chinese buffet.  Many locals go past it without giving it a second look.  I went there a long time ago, when it newly opened and was actually pretty good.  The fact that I was new to USA and the novel concept of a bountiful buffet must have also played its part to attract me here.  But as the days went by, the quality of the buffet went downhill and I explored and found many other deserving places in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area.

But now the locals are in for a hot surprise.  Gourmet Kingdom has a new management and they have ditched the buffet.  The place now serves a schezuan cuisine and they seem to be really very good at that.  We went there on a sunday evening and the place was packed.  Many asians, always a good sign if the locals are eating there!

We had the fish in schezuan bean sauce which is one of their signature dish.  Hot is an understatement!!!  I am wary of hot dishes because I always feel that the heat kills all the other flavors.  But this one was good.  The fish was perfectly cooked on a bed of chinese cabbage and topped with this spicy hot chilli-garlic schezuan secret paste.  We got some bok-choy and black mushrooms, turned out a great choice to cool the tongue down which was literally on fire after the fish.  The two plates were served with a generous portion of white rice. 

Great food but the service was slow.  Next time - Ba Shu Chicken!  

Bhindi fry

Bhindi or Okra is a favorite of both Salil and I.  With its tremendous potential to become slimy, okra need to be handled with some love and care.  This is my version of a popular Indian vegetarian okra dish.  Its simple, yet packs some good flavor and great nutrients. 

Before I go into the ingredients, I wast to introduce everyone to Fenugreek seeds.  Known as "methi" in India, this is a green vegetable - a bit bitter and honestly, not my favorite.  The seeds also have the same bitterness but if used in reasonable small quantities, it adds a complexity to the flavors.  Below is the wikipedia link for the geeks - notice that its packaged and sold to many "supplement-loving-healthy-eaters" and it will be nice instead to just incorporate in our diets in some tasty way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenugreek

Now coming to the ingredients:

1 pound okra, cut legthwise into long thin strips
15 fenugreek seeds crushed into a corse powder in a mortar
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon asafoetida or hinga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asafoetida)
2 TBS vegetable/ canola oil
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
1/4 teapsoon sugar
2 TBS fresh lemon juice
salt
coriander leaves for garnishing

In a flat and wide saute pan, heat oil.  Test to see if it is hot enough - drop a cumin seed and the oil is hot if it foams.  To the hot oil, add the cumin, methi powder, hinga and turmeric.  Once the oil foams move things around for about 15 seconds and add the chopped okra.  Saute the okra for about 10 minites stirring occasionally.  By this time, there will be mucousy strings going through the pan.  Add salt, sugar and chilli powder, mix well and cober for about 10 minutes.  The duration of cooking will vary depending the okra.  I personally never use the frozen okra - its too wet for me and the point of bhindi fry is to get a semi-crisy end product. 

Remove the lid and add lemon juice.  The acid gets rid of the slimyness and helps to dry things up a bit. Let the okra sit on slightly high heat to crisp up.  The surface area of the pan and thin-ness of the vegetable will be the key here! Garnish with chopped coriander/cilantro.

Lemon juice and sugra cut through the bitterness of the fenugreek/methi seeds and makes for complex, multiple layers of flavor.

Pistachio gelato with Fig-Ginger-Caramel sauce

8-10 dried figs
2x1 cm piece of ginger
4 oz ginger ale
2 TB brown sugar

Chop up the dried figs into small pieces and mash them a bit (in a mortar).  Finely grate the giner into a paste.  Add them to a sauce pan with sugar and ginger ale.  Bring to a simmer on low-medium heat.  Let it cook the figs have softened and wilted into the dark brown caramelized sugar sauce.

"Ciao-Bella" pistachio gelato topped with the sauce made for a fantastic desert - made our ordinary wednesday night extra-ordinary!

Jambalaya

I was watching Food Network this suday, trying to keep myself occupied while Salil was working and saw this incredible Jambalaya recipe on Ina Garten's show.  I admit that this is the first time I paid complete attention to a cooking show, took notes, bought fresh ingredients and made lunch.

2 links of Andouille sausage, chopped to bite size pieces
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup roasted green peppers (use 1 cup if they are not roasted since roasting concentrates the flavors significantly)
1 finely chopped jalapeno pepper
3 big garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups long grain rice (I used Basmati)
10 big shrimps, peeled and deveined
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped scallions

Heat some olive oil in a deep, heavy bottom pan and saute the sausage on medium high heat.  Once the sausage turns brown on the edges (about 10 minutes) take it out of the pan and set aside.  In the same pan, add a couple teaspoons of olive oil and saute onions and celery untill they are soft.  Add the roasted green peppers and warm them through for a couple of minutes. 

Make a well in the bottom of the bowl by moving the vegetables to a side and add a teasoonful of olive oil.  Add the chopped garlic and jalapeno peppers.  Stir in with the rest of the mixture after 1 minute.

Wash 2 cups of Basmati rice, remove excess water and add it to the pot.  Warm the chicken stock in a separate sauce pan and add 3 cups of stock to the rice.  Cover and let it simmer for 15 minutes.  Add the sausage and the rest of the stock depending on the consistency and the level of done-ness of the rice.  In my hands, the ratio of rice to liquids at 1:2 works best.  Season with salt and pepper and simmer for another 10 minutes untill the rice is tender.  At this stage, turn the heat off and add the shrimp, cilantro and scallions to the pot.  Bury the shrimp delicately under a layer of hot rice and cover.  The shrimp will steam and turn curvey and pink in about 12 minutes.  Garnish with some scallions and jalapenos!

I loved the results..the cooking time for shrimp turned out to be perfect.  This was my first attempt at the Jambalaya and I can see it becoming my go-to comfort food fairly quickly.

Overconfident cook!

This is a follow-up to yesterday's post "Stuffed Banana Peppers - Italian Style".  Now that I have become quite the over-confident cook, I posted the recipe here while the peppers were in the oven without quite waiting for the final outcome.  (Notice the picture in the original post is raw stuffed peppers waiting for the oven to heat up.)  Here is the little story of the aftermath.  Needless to say, Salil teased me to no end calling them "Pooping Peppers" and even made my failure public via facebook.  But, I am an honest cook and for the scores of friends and family who follow our blog and depend on us for the next big idea., I had to come out clean ;).

After spending so much time to carefully pipe the filling in the peppers through the small hole on the top, we baked them.  The stuffing swelled and out it came through the same little hole.

Well, I saw the recipe on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and decided  to make my own version.  After stuffing, they battered the peppers and deep fried them.  I guess the batter and an appropriate oil temperture held the stuffing inside.

I needed to skip the frying part and decided to bake them instead and found these delicate little stuffable peppers.  Lesson learnt - slit them lengthwise and stuff.  Apart from the accident, the whole thing was quite yummy :).

Thats what I love about failed experiments in the kitchen over failed experiments at my lab bench.....I can still eat them!!

Turkey Chilli

Its a 105F outside and I decided to make a bowl of chilli.  Have a bad bout of cold and desperately need some comfort food.  If it gets too hot, may be I will go get an ice cream to balace it all!

1/2 pound ground white turkey
3 large cloves of garlic
2 serrano peppers
1 medium onion
4 medium tomatoes
kernels from 1 fresh corn
1 8oz can of black beans
1/2 bottle dark beer
2 cups vegetable/ chicken stock
1 cup 2% milk
1/2 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika
shredded cheese
olive oil
Salt

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a deep pan and add ground turkey to it.  Break up the meat stirring constantly untill it becomes opaque white and turns slightly brown at the edges.  Add finely chopped garlic and serrano peppers.  I de-seeded one of twon peppers to control the heat.  Saute for 2 minutes and add finely chopped onion.  Saute on medium low heat for 15 minutes till the onions become translucent and then become pinkish-brown. 
Meanwhile, quarter the tomatoes, sprinkle salt, peppers and olive oil and slow roast them in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.  It will concentrate the tomato flavor without drying them out completely.  I used fresh tomato from the farmers market but canned crushed tomatoes will also work. Once the onions start to turn brown, add the chopped roasted tomatoes and cook for about 10 minutes till the tomatoes cook completely.
Add corn, black beans and beer and let it come to a boil for another 10 minutes.  Now, add stock and milk and let it come to a final bubble.
For a thicker chilli, add a small can of tomato sauce with the chopped tomatoes.  I prefer a subtle tomato flavor but this recipe makes a rather soupy chilli.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Banana Peppers - Italian style

For 2 portions

4 small banana peppers (choose small, straight for ease of filling)
2 tablespoons ricota cheese
2 teaspoons pesto (I used home made frozen pesto, store bought will do)
Zest of one lemon
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 cup ground roasted cashewnuts (or whichever nut you like)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 finely chopped de-seeded serrano peppe
olive oil to make a tooth past consistency stuffing

Cut the top off from the pepper and patiently de-seed it through the small opening at the top.  Mix in the rest of the ingredients to make the stuffing.  Using a piping bag (small plastic bag with a corner cut), fill the peppers with the stuffing.  It takes some patience to push it all the way to the end.  I used the blunt end of a skewer to push the stuffing deeper.

Brush some oil and bake in an oven at 350C for 10-15 minutes.