Lamb curry

I had not made a curry (until today) in years. My inspiration came from having about a pound of leftover leg of lamb from Sunday's dinner. The only thing I needed to buy was a can of coconut milk. If you need a recipe for this just do what I did - go to Google. I jotted down the names of the ingredients but nothing else. When I measure it's by pinches of my fingers or little mounds in my palm. As aside: my step-father had one redeeming feature, he had been a cook in the army during WWII and made pie dough by measuring flour in his hands, pinching off pieces of butter from a slightly softened brick of it, and adding whatever he needed by feel. Those pie doughs were good, good, good. It takes some time and some courage to build yourself up to the point where you throw things together with panache (I always keep a jar of panache in my fridge lol). I could have served this over rice, but I had a great big baking potato I cooked in the microwave. It became a one-dish meal (well, one dish plus the salad we had on the side).

Shrimp with curry and coconut milk

A little bit ago I posted one of my "soup storm" inspirations. This morning I didn't even remember having done that. Instead, my 5-watt brain was fixated on doing shrimp in coconut milk to be served with lime rice. So I started from scratch.

The shrimp were the easy part. I got a really good deal on a pound of 21-30's earlier this week. Frozen, but who cares, they thaw very quickly. It was the base in which the shrimp would be cooked that needed my undivided attention. One of the things I love about cooking is how you can change, add, or subtract something while in mid-stream (so to speak). Just don't change horses while you're there. LOL

Shrimp with curry and coconut milk (2 servings)
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs butter
2 scallions, finely chopped (white and green parts)
1/2 medium jalapeno, seeded
pinch red pepper flakes
1/2 cup white mushrooms, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 tsp curry powder, or to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 15 oz can coconut milk
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and de-veined

Melt the butter in the olive oil and add the scallions, jalapeno, red pepper flakes, mushrooms, curry powder and salt and pepper. Saute for 6-8 minutes until the mushrooms are cooked through. Add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Add the shrimp and bring back to a simmer. Cover the pan and remove it from the heat. Let it stand 4 minutes and then serve the shrimp over rice with as much of the cooking liquid as you wish.

Curried turkey legs and wings

Having had the vindaloo shrimp on Monday, I wasn’t sure I wanted another Indian-spiced dish on Wednesday. We had garam masala, which has a lot of the same ingredients as the vindaloo. What to do? Peter wanted to use yet another Indian mix, chat, which goes really well with potatoes.

I looked in my “Food Lover’s Companion.” In the back is a list of suggested spices and flavorings for various foods. Curry and mustard were included under the chicken or turkey category. Oh, I didn’t mention that the whole deal here is to prepare the legs and wings from that honking big turkey we got last week.

So, here’s what I did. Made a paste using mustard, oil, Thai curry sauce and water. I had to adjust it so the hot curry paste wouldn’t totally dominate.

Curried turkey legs and wings
2 turkey legs, brined for 2-3 hours
2 turkey wings, also brined, tips removed
Spice paste*
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
black pepper
chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Use a sharp knife to remove the sheath that runs up one side of the legs. Run your fingers along the various muscle components of the legs to open up spaces where you can rub in the curry paste. Make a few slits through the skin of the wings, again so the paste can get inside. Cut a slit into the meaty part on each side of the legs.

Rub the curry paste all over and into the turkey pieces. Pull the skin of the legs up (you’ll have had to pull it down to rub in the paste). Place the legs and wings on a wire rack over a baking pan. Add chicken stock to the pan and cover tightly with foil. Bake 1 1/4 to 1 ½ hrs. This can be done ahead of time. Then the turkey can be reheated.

*spice paste: mix 2 parts curry sauce (mine is from Hong Kong) with 1 part grainy mustard, 1 part olive oil, and 1 part water; stir to combine. Since you probably don’t have exactly the curry sauce I have, futz around with curry powder and the other ingredients until you get something you like.

Double Indian Dish

We are fans of “America’s Test Kitchen,” a PBS show produced by “Cooks Illustrated” magazine. Even though the two chief “testers” are women who talk in upspeak (one of them distinctly more than the other), what they teach us has led to some good meals here in chez Stephen and Peter.

We watched an episode the other day in which two Indian curry dishes were prepared. They made us hungry and we decided to try their ideas yesterday. What we did was to combine the two recipes into a one-dish meal. One was a vegetable curry and the other was chicken tikka masala, which made use of garam masala, a spice mixture we’ve had in the pantry for quite some time and rarely have used.

My result was terrific thanks to the test kitchen basic recipe and my own creativity. After the fact, my challenge here will be to remember all the adjustments I made on the fly.

The tikka did not call for curry, but the vegetable dish did – so I used it. I discovered a new way to dice onions. I used a mandoline with the julienne blade attached. Slice the onion in half, leaving the stem end intact. Peel the skin off and, using the mandoline, slice the onion. You can get a very fine dice this way in a hurry.

The main thing the test kitchen crew did was cook the chicken separately from the sauce, a diversion from the traditional cooking method. The aim was to keep the chicken moist. It worked wonderfully well. In most traditional Indian recipes a little extra garam masala is added at the end of cooking, just before serving. On test kitchen the chef said it gave the dish a slightly "harsh" taste. Having added garam masala at the end of preparing pureed eggplant last week, I disagreed and did add a bit more must before serving.

Peter made a yogurt sauce to garnish this. Using a hand-held immersion blender, he mixed together yogurt with mint leaves and cilantro. The only down side was that the amount of moisture in the mint and cilantro rendered the yogurt quite loose. It still tasted really good on the dish.

Even more good news - there was enough for last night's dinner and today's lunch.

Chicken Tikka Masala with curried vegetables
2 chicken breast halves, skinned and boneless
¼ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp ground coriander
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed
1 tbsp ginger, grated or minced
1 medium red potato, in a ½” dice
1+ cup small cauliflower flowerettes

Masala sauce:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
½ medium onion, diced fine
1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed
1 tsp grated ginger
1 fresh Serrano chile, minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp garam masala
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, with their juice
1 tsp sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/8 chopped cilantro leaves

Combine cumin, coriander, cayenne, and salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with the spice mixture. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 3 hours. In another bowl, whisk together yogurt, oil, garlic, and ginger; set aside.

Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a large saute pan or Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until softened and slightly colored. Add garlic, ginger, chile, tomato paste, curry, and garam masala; cook, stirring frequently until fragrant – 1-2 minutes. Clear a space in the middle of the pan and add another tbsp oil. Drop the potato and cauliflower in and stir the whole mixture thoroughly together.

Add tomatoes, sugar, and salt; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are tender – about 20 minutes, maybe more. Stir in cream, remove pan from heat, and cover to keep warm.

While the sauce simmers, preheat the broiler with the rack in the top position. Thoroughly coat the chicken pieces in the yogurt mixture and arrange on a wire rack set over a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet or broiler pan. Broil chicken until the thickest part registers 155° on an instant-read thermometer. The outside should color in places slightly. Flip the chicken once half way through cooking. Total time will be 12-14 minutes.

Let the chicken rest 5 minutes, then cut into 1 inch chunks and stir into the sauce over medium heat. When hot, but not simmering, stir in cilantro and serve over basmati rice, white or brown.

For a free excerpt of my book, “A Year of Food,” in which I opine, report, cook, muse and philosophize about everything that passed my lips for an entire year, write to me at: scrout1944@msn.com.