Potato gratin with bacon

A beautiful potato dish came out of the oven yesterday night, all steamy an bubbly. We took a few bites, then a few more, and we would have eaten the whole dish if it wasn't for this blog. I wanted to take a picture but there wasn't enough light... Now this cold leftover doesn't look half as nice as the dish did yesterday, but hopefully it gives you an idea... The potatoes literally melted in our mouths. Yum!

Serves 2
(prep time: 10 minutes, cooking time: 1 hour)

• 4 big Yukon gold potatoes
• 4 strips bacon
• 1/2 big yellow onion
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and cut in half
  
• 1 tsp butter
• about 1 cup whole milk
• about 4 oz. (100 g) gruyère cheese
• salt, pepper, nutmeg

1. Peel the potatoes, rinse them and slice them. Dice the bacon. Chop the onion. Place all in a large bowl.
2. Sprinkle with salt, freshly ground black pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Toss well.
3. Rub a glass or ceramic oven-safe dish with garlic (here's my dish). (Discard what remains of the garlic clove.)
4. Butter the dish, then throw in the potatoes and gently shake the dish from left to right to arrange the potatoes in an even layer.
5. Pour the milk.
6. Bake for about 45 minutes at 360ºF (180ºC).
7. Take out of the oven momentarily and grate gruyère cheese on top. Return to the oven for another 15 minutes or so, checking from time to time until the cheese forms a nice, golden crust.
8. Eat with a side of escarole salad.

Kathirikkai Sadam (Brinjal Rice)

There are different ways of doing this item. I too used to do it in a laborious way until I tasted a very tasty and easy recipe in Sathya’s house. Sathya my neighbor who may be known to my readers through my blog on sathya aunty’s rasam is good in cooking and provides me with some interesting recipes.
When we are short of much vegetables or time or interest, then this is an excellent choice. The same recipe can be used for capsicum and some other vegetables also. Try out with some more vegetable available in your area. Kopra or dried coconut is best suited for this recipe. Here in India only in Andhra we get this easily. If kopra is not available grated coconut can be used and sauted well.

Ingredients
Cooked rice-2 cups (don’t over cook .cook like you cook for tamarind or lemon rice)
Brinjal -1/4 kg
Tomato-1
Onion-1
Curry leaf –little
Coriander leaf –little
Ingredients for the masal powder
Red chilies -10
Coconut-2 table spoons or kopra
Urudh dhal-2 table spoons
Channa dhal ( kadalai paruppu)-2 table spoons
Dhania (coriander seeds)-1 teaspoon
Cinnamon-a small piece
Clove-2
Fenugreek ( vendayam )-1/2 teaspoon
Procedure to make the powder
In little ghee or oil first roast the chilies and keep apart. Then sauté everything adding one by one in the order in which it is given. No need to fry it till red. Switch off when you feel it is roasted. In a mixie powder it and store it.
Procedure
Keep the kadai in the stove. In a table spoon of oil and ghee mixed, season with a small piece of cinnamon, clove and curry leaf. Add the minced tomato and onion and sauté. Add the brinjal pieces too and sauté in low fire adding salt and turmeric powder. Make sure that brinjal pieces don’t get over cooked. Stay near the stove and sauté. If necessary sprinkle some water. If you close the kadai for a minute, it will get cooked fast. Once you feel that the brinjal pieces are cooked, add the masal powder and mix well. Mean time transfer the rice to a flat bowl. Add little ghee or oil and little salt to the rice and allow it to cool. Once you feel the rice is not very hot add the rice into the kadai or the brinjal into the vessel and mix well in such a way that the rice or brinjal pieces do not get smashed. Garnish with coriander leaves. Heat the rice in a microwave or kadai while serving
You can prepare this powder in lots during weekends and can store .Then making this rice will only be a few minutes job.

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Soup du Jour

I love soup. It's my favorite comfort food in all seasons. And I love making soup as much as I like to eat it. What I find fascinating is that no two soups are ever alike. Mixing vegetables is very much like mixing colors, except that, contrary to paint, the soups' flavor combinations are as interesting and varied as their hues.

I'm starting a little series, called "soup du jour", where I'll tell you what vegetables went in my soup that day. I hope this will give you some ideas. The process is almost always the same: I sauté some onions (and sometimes leeks) in butter; add whatever other vegetables I happen to have handy; cover with water; add salt, pepper, bay leaves and thyme; and simmer for about 30 minutes (or cook in a pressure cooker, like this one, for about 10 minutes). I usually mix blend my soups (that's how my kids like them best), but some soups are excellent when left chunky. Don't forget to remove the bay leaf and thyme before mixing blending.

Today's soup:

• 1 tsp butter
  
• 1/2 large yellow onion
• 1 bunch celery (stalks and leaves)
• 3 large carrots
• 3 Yukon gold potatoes
• 1 bay leaf, 2 sprigs thyme
• salt, freshly ground black pepper

The Intangible Cultural Heritage

Interesting news from the U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today. 46 elements were inscribed today on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Among them:

France - The gastronomic meal of the French - The gastronomic meal of the French is a customary social practice for celebrating important moments in the lives of individuals and groups, such as births, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, achievements and reunions. It is a festive meal bringing people together for an occasion to enjoy the art of good eating and drinking. The gastronomic meal emphasizes togetherness, the pleasure of taste, and the balance between human beings and the products of nature. Important elements include the careful selection of dishes from a constantly growing repertoire of recipes; the purchase of good, preferably local products whose flavours go well together; the pairing of food with wine; the setting of a beautiful table; and specific actions during consumption, such as smelling and tasting items at the table. The gastronomic meal should respect a fixed structure, commencing with an apéritif (drinks before the meal) and ending with liqueurs, containing in between at least four successive courses, namely a starter, fish and/or meat with vegetables, cheese and dessert. Individuals called gastronomes who possess deep knowledge of the tradition and preserve its memory watch over the living practice of the rites, thus contributing to their oral and/or written transmission, in particular to younger generations. The gastronomic meal draws circles of family and friends closer together and, more generally, strengthens social ties.

Chettinad Kozhi Pattani Masala ( Chettinad Chicken And Green Peas Masala)

Now days Chicken has become a major item under the non veg category cooked at home. Many of us are on the look out for some different recipe. Children also get bored by the same kind of dish prepared. I too try to find out different recipes to cook chicken. I blog the recipe which impress me. This preparation is a light alteration to one fish masala item shown in a Malayalam channel .I am not sure, but I remember it to be Kairali TV
This recipe though little time consuming tastes very different from the usual ones we prepare. Green peas always tastes good with chicken. This gravy goes well with both rice and Tiffin items.

Ingredients
Chicken boneless – 500 gms
Green peas – 100 gms
Chopped onion -2
Chopped tomato-2
Green chilli-2
Coconut milk -1 cup (1/2 coconut grated and squeezed) or (4 tablespoons tinned coconut milk mixed in ½ cup water)
Coriander leaves –A bunch

Masala Items
Ginger paste-1 teaspoon
Garlic paste-1 teaspoon
Garam masala -1 teaspoon
Chili powder -1 table spoon
Coriander powder- 2 tablespoon
Cumin powder-1 teaspoon
Pepper powder-1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder-1 teaspoon

For Marinating
Corn flour -1 tablespoon
Egg white -1 egg
Turmeric powder-1 teaspoon
Pepper powder -1 teaspoon
Salt -1 teaspoon
Method
Cut the chicken pieces into small ones. Mix the items given for marinating in egg white and marinate the chicken pieces for 30 minutes. Meantime keep the other items for the gravy ready. After 30 minutes in 3 to 4 tablespoons of oil fry the chicken pieces that are marinated. No need to deep fry. Fry for 5 minutes in medium fire. Fry all the pieces and keep aside.

For the gravy, keep a kadai in the stove.
In the oil used for frying the chicken , pour 2 table spoons and season the gravy with 3 pieces of cinnamon, 2 cardamom and 2 pieces of bay leaf.
Add the chopped onion and green chilies in the oil and fry till they get golden brown.
Now add turmeric powder and then pepper powder. Sauté for a minute.
Add garlic paste and then ginger paste and sauté.
Add the tomatoes and sauté till they get smashed.
Add chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder, pepper powder, turmeric powder all one by one keeping the fire in medium.
Now add the green peas also into the kadai and mix well.
Add ½ cup water and the salt needed and cook for 5 minutes so that the peas can get cooked.
Pour the coconut milk into the kadai and when the mixture boils add the fried chicken pieces.
If you feel that the consistency is very thick then little bit more of coconut milk or water can be added.
Check for the taste and if anything is missing, it can be added.
If you find the gravy too hot, a tablespoon of tomato sauce can be added. It depends on ones taste. In our house we all like the tomato sauce taste. So I added a table spoon of it.
Finally add the chopped fresh coriander leaves.

What to substitute for bouillon cube

Being away from my source of bouillon cube has been a curse for many years. I had to wait for my next trip to France to buy some, or I had to add the little package to my wish list when my parents visited. This was one of the last items I decided I could only get there. (As a new immigrant I used to load my luggage with all sorts of things, but little by little I found my way around my local store's aisles and discovered substitutes for all these goodies.)

A box would last me nearly a year, so I always had supplies for the few recipes in which bouillon cubes seemed irreplaceable, like this beef and carrot stew. I would use them very sparingly. But one day... months away from any trip to/from my bouillon cube paradise, I used the last cube in the box. Oh, horror! What was I going to do!!! The safety net was gone.

Rather than despair, I read the list of ingredients on the side of the box, in hopes that I would be able to come up with an equivalent mix of spices. Here's what I read:

Maggi's Kub Or ingredients:

• salt, flavor enhancers, hydrogenated palm oil, natural flavors (wheat, soy), sugar, onion, glucose syrup, citric acid, garlic, coriander seeds; pepper, cloves, celery, and bay leaf extracts, preservatives.

I started realizing that there really wasn't any need to wait for a trip half way around the world to flavor my stews and soups! Half of the ingredients didn't need to be part of any recipe (flavor enhancers? Palm oil? Preservatives?). The other half (the actual spices) was widely available in California. So here is what I tried in my next beef and carrot stew, plus a few other meat or vegetable-only dishes.

Replacement for 1 bouillon cube:

• 1 tbsp olive oil or butter
• 1/2 fresh yellow onion, chopped
• 2 fresh garlic cloves, peeled, halved, stem removed
• 2 fresh or dried bay leaves
• 3 sprigs fresh or dried thyme
• 1 tsp whole coriander seeds, crushed
• 1 tsp whole celery seeds, crushed
• 2 whole cloves
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

It turned out beautifully every time. I didn't need to rely on scarce supplies anymore, and my dishes had become 100% natural.

And this is how the curse became a blessing :-)

PS: I sill love Kub Ors and recommend them if you can find them!

Aattu Ratham Poriyal (lamb blood curry)

The sight of the goat blood in the meat shop kept like a pudding in bowls used to frighten me. I never imagined making a curry out of it. But during my last visit to chettinad, my periamma whom I have already mentioned to be great cook asked me to try this and blog the recipe. She told me the recipe also. She told me that the curry will not have any smell. This Sunday the lady who comes once or twice a month from the nearby village and helps me in cleaning the house, fish tank, car etc came. I asked her about the goat blood. She said that they people buy and cook it. So I took her to the shop to buy it. There were some 6 or 7 bowls of jelly like red thing in front itself. I asked for one .The man in the shop asked me is it enough? I asked the cost .He told 15 Rs. I was surprised and got one bowl more. The lady who came with me told that they would have added salt in the bowl and should be careful while adding salt to the curry. As per the recipe my periamma gave, I first washed the thing nicely. In a kadai in 4 cups of water boiled the blood till they turned like liver. Allowed it to cool and then cut into small pieces. I prepared it as per the recipe. I never told my daughter what it was. While eating she told me ‘amma the liver is very soft today' The curry did not have any non veg smell and was good.

Ingredients
Goat or lamb blood -2 bowls
Small onion minced -30 or big onion minced -1 or 2
Garlic chopped –little
Curry leaf –little
Grated coconut -2 table spoons
Green chili -8 minced
Procedure
Wash and cook the blood in a kadai in 4 cups of water till it turns like liver. Allow it to cool. Then cut them into small pieces .

In a kadai in one teaspoon of oil season the curry with a teaspoon of fennel seed and little curry leaf. Sauté the minced onion and garlic and chilies for 5 minutes. Now add the cut pieces too and mix well. Check for the salt taste and add the salt needed and cook for 5 to 6 minutes without adding water .There will be little water in the boiled pieces. Finally add the grated coconut and mix well. The fry goes well with both sambar and curd rice.
I have not browsed the medicinal value of this goat blood. If my readers can find time to do so please send it to me .I will add on to the blog.