Spiritedness Defined - Recipe: Vegetable Korma

A little heartbeat by my side, Cooper, and his sidekick, Count Grappa

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight, what counts is the size of the fight in the dog.- Mark Twain

One of the standard questions that I ask people when I first meet them is whether they like dogs. And then I wait, sort of breathless, for the answer, because quite honestly, I'm never prepared for a "no". Growing up, we always had dogs. Big, small, mutts, pedigrees - barks and yelps were all part of the cacophony of sounds that made family life rich, chaotic and beautiful. One of the best decisions that I have made since coming to Singapore was finding Cooper. Because the breeder had considered him special, he kept him hidden in the back. After he screened me and saw that I was a genuine dog lover, he said, "I have someone very special for you." I picked up the little fuzzy ball of fur and cradled him in my arms, and in less than half an hour, he was in my car and on the way home. I soon discovered that despite his diminutive stature, Cooper was perhaps the most rambunctious puppy I had ever encountered. He quickly developed an affinity for biting my fingers and toes, which I slowly and painstakingly weaned him off. Alas, he seems to have decided for himself that he's not about to extend the same courtesy to anyone else, at least for the time being! To elaborate further, this is a dog that will sneakily fish my underwear out of the laundry basket and hide it under the coffee table, bound up to anyone and any dog without fear or favour, trample all over the flower beds, and squeak at the top of his voice for eight hours straight if he thinks you will cave in to his demands. This is the dog that I watch, every morning during our walks (and who are we kidding, Cooper walks me, not the other way around), tear down the patch of grass lining the swimming pool because he genuinely believes that he can catch the birds. He has not only dismembered B's spectacles, broken my brother’s earphones, but has chewed through my cell phone and computer chargers, my printer cable, and just about every book that I am reading. In short, Cooper is spiritedness defined, and he has found his way resolutely and squarely into my heart.

I sent him for sterilisation yesterday, and was extremely distressed when I brought him home and saw that he was shivering from the pain. He did not move from his position on the couch for several hours, and refused everything but a little milk, even though he hadn't eaten or drank for over 20 hours. Later, I covered him with towels and had a sleepless night listening to him whimper by my side. A part of me was worried that the surgery would change him forever. But this morning, he was finally up and after a meal he was more or less back to normal. In fact he has already figured out how to dislodge his Elizabethean collar (what a fancy name for a funnel, eh?) on his own and by this afternoon, was able to play fetch with his favourite toy, Count Grappa. The resilience of this 1.8 kg package of canine spirit melts my heart, and it was something that I really needed as I was having one of those days today where I just felt like giving up.

Cooper also happens to love sitting by my feet while I prepare food, waiting for bits of carrots, a stray cherry tomato or cucumber to fall from the kitchen station and become his pre-dinner snack. Below I am posting a recipe for Vegetable Korma, which has many of his favourite treats inside. It is a mild, rich curry dish with a nutty flavour that pairs well with rotis such as naan. 

Clockwise from 12 o'clock: Cashew nuts, curry leaves, toasted desiccated coconut, black cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and almonds

Base paste A:
2 tbsp desiccated coconut
4 cloves garlic
1 2 inch piece old ginger, peeled and chopped roughly

1/2 cup water

In a skillet toast desiccated coconut until golden brown. Grind into a paste together with the garlic, ginger and water in a blender.

Base paste B:
8 blanched almonds
10 cashew nuts
1/4 cup water

Grind cashews and almonds together to make a paste.

Ingredients:
2 medium sized onions, sliced
1 large carrot, cubed
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 small slender purple eggplant, cubed
150 g cauliflower, cut into florets
1/4 cup frozen green peas, thawed
2 tomatoes, cubed
3 fresh green chillies, split in half, seeds removed
10 roasted cashew nuts
1 tbsp sultanas
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups thin santan (coconut milk)
2 tbsp korma powder or to taste
Salt and white pepper to taste
Coriander leaves to garnish

Aromatics:
4 stalks curry leaves
1 cinnamon stick
5 cloves
3 black cardamoms (substitute 4 green cardamoms if unavailable)

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet or wok. Add oil. Fry curry leaves and the rest of the aromatic spices until fragrant. Add onions, and fry until wilted and slightly golden brown. Add carrots and potatoes and korma powder. Mix well. Fry until the korma powder releases its fragrance before adding base pastes.  Add half of the coconut milk. Lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes  Add the rest of the coconut milk, as well as the eggplant, cauliflower, and chillies. Simmer for another 15 minutes or so until gravy is thick and vegetables are fork tender. Remove lid and add peas and tomatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer for an additional 3-5 minutes. Prick potatoes and carrots to make sure they are cooked.  Add roasted cashew nuts and sultanas and mix well. Adjust seasoning and garnish with coriander leaves.

Recipe: Pork Vindaloo

Me and me mum and me dad and me gran and a bucket of Vindaloo

I was at a dinner party recently where we were arguing about the origins of Vindaloo. My two friends from India vehemently insisted that the dish is not in fact Indian at all; rather, it was brought by the Portuguese to Goa and other colonial outposts. (See wiki entry here) Certainly, it is served in most Indian restaurants these days and it's couched as a Goan curry. Interestingly, in Malaysia, Vindaloo is more frequently thought to be a Eurasian dish rather than an Indian dish. As a result, it is very popular in Malacca, where Malaysia's last Portuguese enclave exists. It is usually made with pork (although lamb and beef are used as well) and it is very spicy, slightly sour and garlicky. It pairs best with a bowl of hot, fluffy rice.

Ingredients:
500 g pork from the shoulder, cut into 1 inch cubes

4 tbsp of vegetable oil
2 stalks curry leaves
1 cup water
1 large red onion, sliced
1 teaspoon salt or to taste

Spices (grind together in spice grinder or mortar and pestle):
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
3 teaspoons black peppercorn
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamoms

3 tbsps chilly powder (the redder the better)
1/4 cup white vinegar

To be blended together:
3 onions, sliced and fried
6 cloves garlic
1 2 inch ginger root

Clean pork and drain well. In a bowl, mix together ground spices, chilly powder, vinegar and the mixture of blended onions, garlic and ginger to make a paste.

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet. When hot, add paste and fry till oil rises to the surface, about 7-10 minutes. Add pork and fry well over high heat for about 8-10 minutes. Add curry leaves and water. Mix well.

Cover, lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes or until pork is very tender. Lift lid and stir occasionally to prevent mixture from sticking and burning to the bottom of the pan.

Remove lid, add red onion and salt. Simmer until the gravy thickens. Serve hot.

p.s. For all you England footie fans, check out the Fat Les song titled, "Vindaloo" on you tube, although shouldn't it be a pot of Vindaloo?

Recipe: Baingan Bharta (North Indian Eggplant Curry)

Indian cuisine can certainly lay claim over having some of the best vegetarian dishes on earth, I swear. It's rather ironic that I only truly learned to appreciate Northern Indian food for the first time when I was in the US rather than in Asia as most of the Indian food we find in Southeast Asia hails from the South. Baingan Bharta (I've been told it translates from Hindhi as "Eggplant puree")  is one of my favourite dishes to have with naan. It is rich and hearty and stands up well as a dish on its own as well as paired with other meat or vegetable dishes.  

Serves 4-6 as part of a multicourse meal


Ingredients:
For the eggplant:
Olive oil to drizzle
2 slender, long eggplants


For the sauce:
2 ripe, medium-sized tomatoes, chopped
1 hot green chilly, chopped
1 inch ginger root, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small brown onion, chopped
1/2 red capsicum, chopped
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 sprig curry leaf
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2  teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2  teaspoon cayenne or red chilly powder
1/4 teaspoon garam masala (A blend of Indian spices, available at most good supermarkets)
Chopped coriander to garnish
1 teaspoon sat adjust to taste and freshly cracked black pepper

Roasting the eggplant lends it a smoky flavour which is essential to getting this otherwise simple dish right.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Place whole eggplant on a cookie tray and prick all over with a fork. Drizzle a lug of olive oil over eggplant and rub lightly into skin. Roast for about 35-45 minutes, turning every 10-15 minutes until skin is wrinkled and lightly browned and eggplant is tender. In the meantime, blend tomatoes, ginger, garlic and green chilly until pureed.  When eggplant is done, remove from heat and cool.

Cut stems and peel off skin from eggplant and cut into chunks. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add cumin seeds, and stir around until they start to plump up. Add onion and curry leaves, and stir for about 5 minutes until onions are wilted. Add coriander, turmeric and cayenne/chilly powder, and fry for about 1 minute until fragrant. Add tomato mixture from blender, chopped capsicum and simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes. Add eggplant and garam masala and stir well. Add salt and black pepper to taste. If mixture is too dry, add about 1/4 cup of water. Simmer, covered, over low heat for another 10 minutes. By this point, the eggplant should be well incorporated into the sauce, and there should be very little liquid left. (If there is too much liquid, crank heat up to medium for about 5 minutes).

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Spicy Sunday - Recipe: Potato Masala

From left to right: Mustard seeds, cinnamon stick, cardamom and black peppercorns

I love Sundays. It's usually the one day of the week I get to spend as much time in the kitchen as I want. And what better way to do that than to spend it whipping up some Indian dishes. I am partial to spicy food, and among the many Indian spices I particularly love the fragrance of cardamom. Though you can get many of these things prepackaged these days, I still take the time to grind my spices fresh, thus I usually need twice or three times the amount of time than would be the case if I were to cook the equivalent Chinese dish. I guess I'm quite old-fashioned in that sense.

My brother only eats five types of vegetables, I kid you not - broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, french beans and potatoes. Thus, it sort of stretches my creativity in creating different dishes with all or some of the five types of veggies in any given week!

Here's a simple recipe for Potato Masala which is really one of the most basic Indian vegetable dishes. It is usually served as part of a tiffin meal but it is sometimes used as a filling for dosas or samosas.

Potato Masala

Ingredients:

5 potatoes, halved (I used Russet)

4 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon mustard seesd

1 dessertspoon urad dhall

2 stalks curry leaves

2 onions, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 green chillies, minced

1 tomato, minced

5-7 cashew nuts, chopped fine

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 -3/4 teaspoon turmeric

3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed

Coriander leaves to garnish (optional)

Peel potatoes and dice into 1 inch cubes. Set in large pot of cold water with a pinch of salt on medium-low heat. You want to maintain the water so that it is barely below boiling. Cook until soft (about 15-20 minutes). Drain well. If you like, mash the potatoes. (I kept most of them in cubes but mashed a few for texture)

Heat oil in large skillet. Add curry leaves, mustard seeds and urad dhall. The mustard seeds will splutter. Then add onions, garlic, chillies and tomatoes and fry till wilted and soft. Add cashew nuts and potatoes. Stir around for three minutes and then pour in water. Add salt and turmeric powder. Add your peas and mix well. Simmer until gravy thickens.

Season to taste. Serve garnished with coriander leaves if desired.