Thursday, May 17, 2018

Homemade eggplant masala

An exciting thing has happened. Ever since I started a new job, became a grown-up, and bought a grown-up Instant Pot, I'm cooking Indian food from scratch almost every week.

For those who don't know about it: the Instant Pot is a glorified pressure cooker that has taken on a cult following in many culinary corners, especially among Indian home cooks. It has been described as a liberating gadget that allows busy working moms to pull together family meals in no time. (Probably some busy working dads are involved, too.) For those who cook meat, I can imagine the IP makes laborious recipes newly accessible. For vegetarians like me, it's a tool for cooking dry beans with virtually no soaking, steaming beets, creating flavorful veggie broths, chili, dal, rice pudding and who knows what else. I've become a bit obsessed.

The key is to join a Facebook group like this one. Inspiration galore:


Last night my music trio played a mini-concert for their families and I made an Indian feast to celebrate. On the plate were Punjabi-style dishes and one item from Kerala, all vegan, all gluten free, healthy and delish:
  • Eggplant masala, the featured dish of this post
  • Dal makhani 
  • Erissery, or pumpkin and bean curry
  • Carrot salad, yogurt, chutneys, the works
A trio of delicious curries.

Bringing together two of my favorite things: music and stuffing my face.

The eggplant masala might not be a real dish (?) but who's counting. I first made a big batch of onion masala sauce from this awesome blog—note that this sauce can be made ahead and frozen in small batches to whip out on a weeknight. Then I halved and roasted these little eggplants in the oven, mixed it all together, dumped in some frozen peas and voilà.



I made the sauce already the night before. Easy peasy.

The other two dishes turned out great too, but I might not make South Indian food that often due to the challenge of procuring good fresh coconut. IN HAWAI'I. What?? I'm as baffled as you are. I hacked open a coconut in my parking lot only to find it was putrid inside, returned it to the store, and the manager opened every last one to find me a replacement, and even the freshest of them still smelled slightly of soap. Shouldn't this be the single easiest thing to procure on a tropical island?

It makes a good backdrop to the eggplant, though.

The dal recipe can be found here. For the Erissery, provided by a home cook without a blog, you'll have to join that Facebook group. I like having both North and South Indian flavors on the same plate. Punjabi dishes have that warming comfort-food quality, with coriander and garam-masala and tomato and onion, while the South Indian flavors are more pungent and aromatic, coconut and yogurt and curry leaves and mustard seed. Maybe a next step in my Instant Pot training is to hone in on a single region instead of a smorgasbord.

And if you're hankering for carrot salad:
Peel and shred a bag of carrots. Add olive oil, lime juice, about 20 crushed coriander seeds, 2 sliced scallions, salt to taste, and chopped cilantro.

Meanwhile, I shouldn't get too cocky about my Indian cooking skills. I'm a haole with a lot of room for growth. But the flautist did just e-mail me, "thanks for one of the best meals I've had in a while. Really tasty!!"

Let's relay the thanks to its proper recipient: Indian home cooks on social media.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Creamy Comfort Soup: Lemongrass, Turmeric, Ginger, need I continue

Today was another one of those days when I roamed around the pantry, improvised a dish, and felt exceptionally pleased with myself. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

With assorted ingredients I already had, I made a lemongrass curry soup with homegrown baby eggplants.



It turned out even better than I expected. Here's how to make it; as always, feel free to substitute ingredients at will, depending on what you have around:

Ingredients
2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, tough leaves and outer hull removed, tender part sliced thin
1-2 tsp turmeric powder
4 kefir lime leaves
2 bay leaves
ground black pepper
1/2 sweet onion, slivered
1/2 block firm tofu, cubed
a handful of baby eggplants or any eggplants you have, cut in 1-inch pieces
red bell pepper (here: dehydrated, because it's what I had lying around)
1 can coconut milk
1 tbsp coconut oil
Better than Bouillon-brand mushroom base, to taste (~1 tbsp)
noodles (rice or wheat; pictured here are local saimin noodles)

Optional: Thai basil if you have some. My basil bolted and it's practically a tree now.

Method

Sauté onions, [bell pepper if using], ginger, and leaves in coconut oil until slightly browned. Add garlic and eggplants and sauté for a minute more, then add a good amount of water (a little over half the amount of broth you want at the end, or ~4 cups); add tofu, turmeric, black pepper, and broth paste.


Cover and let boil until eggplants are softened, ~5 minutes. Add noodles OR cook noodles separately in boiling water and hold aside for serving.

Technically you shouldn't boil saimin (wheat) noodles directly in the broth, since it makes them gummy. But I was hungry so I did it anyway. Do it the right way in polite company.
After the noodles were done.

Once the noodles are cooked, add the can of coconut milk. Add extra broth paste or salt if needed. Otherwise, serve up and enjoy.


Glistening with yumminess.