The potato, the mung bean, and the fried cake

 No, this is not a pre-quel to "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes." No tomatoes were harmed in the making of this dish. (One dog did turn himself completely inside out trying to jump onto the stove.)

Dramatis personae: a potato, microwaved in anticipation of Sandy coming for dinner; one cup of mung beans supplied by Whole Foods without yours truly having a clue what to do with them; a bit of onion and a bit of green bell pepper; an egg; a bit of hunger.

Many years ago I was fond of sprouting mung beans between damp paper towels. I got over that.

The mungs cook fairly quickly: about 20 minutes in 3 parts broth to 1 part beans. They do not require soaking. (Heck, I should have put a whole slew of beans out to soak during the hurricane.)

If I had it to do over, I'd call this "fun food part one." (Oh, did I mention the 1/3 cup of sour cream?)

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).

Potato and carrot timbales

I am inordinately pleased when I create something and it moves from my imagination to the dinner plate. This timbale fits the bill today. I must tell you that the photo is courtesy of a free share site called Photobucket. My timbales had some orange layers - carrot julienne. As molds I use old tuna cans, the sort that allow you to remove both ends. On another occasion, and if I were making more than two timbales at a time, I might use a muffin pan. Timbale is French-ish for a drum - hence the shape. The layering, baking and the cheese can result in a marvelous texture and flavor. In this case I brought those qualities to the party. Amazing, ain't I?

Potato/carrot timbales (2 servings)
2 potatoes (3 inch diameter)
1/2 cup fine julienne of carrot
2 tbs butter
gruyere, cheddar or the cheese you like
parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Poke a few slits in the potatoes and microwave them for about 3 minutes. They should be nearly cooked through. Let them cool, then slice thinner than 1/4 inch.

Nuke the carrots for 60-90 seconds until tender but still firm.

Rub butter all over the insides of two ring molds. Layer the timbale thus: potato slices, carrot, bits of butter, gruyere. Repeat, making at least three layers. Press the layers down with the bottom of a jar or drinking glass. Top generously with parmesan cheese.

Corned beef, cabbage and potatoes

A while back (three weeks to be exact) I started curing my own corned beef at home. I finished it yesterday by rinsing the cure off it and simmering it for 3 hours in a low oven. The kinky thing about this is that I did not use brisket; I used two different hunks of chuck. We'll be eating it for dinner tonight (although I've sampled it - and it's superb). The worst thing about this is waiting for it to be ready. Find a recipe for corned beef via Google. It's easy, peasy to do.

I thought about making a traditional boiled dinner, but I'm not a traditional kind of guy. I sauteed cabbage wedges in a bit of oil with ground caraway seed, butter, and salt and pepper.

I wanted to make a potato timbale, but didn't feel I had quite the time I needed. Another day soon. I went with some simple potatoes, initially cooked in the microwave for a few minutes and then saute lightly with butter, salt and pepper.

Bean and potato salad for summertime at your house

In my never-ending quest for dishes to serve in hot weather, this one just shouted out of my imagination the other day. It has one kinky ingredient: canned potatoes. If you've never tried them, it's worth the effort. They are quite inexpensive and have a unique flavor and texture. Of course if the idea of potatoes from a can rubs you the wrong way, buy regular taters (then you need to cook them). As for the beans, I gave up starting with dried beans quite a while ago. The bean snobs of the world (yes, Alton, that's you) will put up their noses at this, but I had other designs on my day than soaking and simmering for ages.

Bean and potato salad
1 15 oz can canneloni beans (or other beans you prefer)
1 15 oz can whole potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1 large stalk celery, diced
12 black olives, pitted and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and minced
salt and pepper to taste
juice of 1/4 lemon
2 Tbs coconut milk
2 Tbs mascarpone cheese

Rinse and drain the beans and the potatoes. Melt the butter in the oil in a saute pan. Saute the potatoes until they brown somewhat. This will take at least 10 minutes over medium high heat.
While the potatoes are cooking: In a large salad bowl, combine the celery, beans, olives, garlic and jalapeno. Sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt and coarse ground black pepper and squeeze the lemon over the salad.
Drain the potatoes on paper toweling and allow to cool. Then toss in with the rest of the salad.
Whisk together the coconut milk, mascarpone, and another pinch of salt and pepper. Just before serving, pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat everything.

Sauerkraut, sausage and potato casserole

I’ve been mulling over what to do with some Italian sausages (mild) that are in the freezer. Then it hit me – I want mustard, I want horseradish, I want sauerkraut. Normally I would prefer to make my own sauerkraut but I’m impatient just now and simply bought some at Safeway. Normally I would buy sauerkraut in the refrigerated section, either in a bag or a jar.

Turns out I used canned sauerkraut. Kuner’s brand. After tasting it, I decided to rinse it slightly. No reason to leave all the chemicals in. Even though rinsing removes some of the flavor, the addition of caraway and capers helped compensate for that.

So as to make this a one-dish meal, I added some potatoes. There is nothing astounding about my sausage/kraut/potato casserole. It’s just darned good! Peter suggested adding some cheese. I just couldn’t bring my head around to that. In the end, he was perfectly happy with the results. I did agree that he could add a bread crumb streusel, a combination of crumbs,

Sauerkraut with sausages and potatoes
1 14oz. can sauerkraut, drained and lightly rinsed
1 tsp caraway seeds, ground or smashed
8 oz. red potatoes
8 oz. Italian sausages (spicy or mild, your choice)
1 tspn caraway seeds, lightly smashed in a mortar and pestle
2 tbs prepared horseradish, or to taste
2 tbs capers
black pepper to taste
½ cup chicken stock
Streusel: unseasoned breadcrumbs moistened with melted butter, about ½ cup

Cut the potatoes into 2” pieces. Cut the sausages into 2” pieces.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the potatoes and sausages. Simmer 8 minutes. Drain.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Lubricate a medium casserole with cooking spray. Mix the caraway, horseradish, capers and some pepper in a bowl. Put the sauerkraut into it and toss. Put the potatoes and sausage into the casserole. Top with the sauerkraut and add the chicken stock.

Bake until hot and the sausages are cooked through, about 1 hour. You can do this as much as a day ahead. When you’re ready to eat it, top it with the streusel and run it under the broiler for a few minutes to brown and crisp it.

My brand of brandade

This concoction is one of the more astounding things I’ve discovered recently. Given that there is potato involved, we expected something kind of dense. These cakes were like clouds, approaching cotton candy in their airiness. As I understand it, brandade is a combination of salt cod and potato, and can be a dip, a fritter, or, as in my case, a cake (a la crab cake).

I saw brandade cakes (potato with salt cod) being made on Cooking Channel recently. I’d been wondering what to do with the last of the frozen shrimp in the freezer. There wasn’t quite enough to stand alone for dinner, but I make “cakes” with shrimp and catfish from time to time. However, a recent great experience with frozen cod led me to the idea of a sort of brandade with potato, shrimp and cod.

As the TV cook said, I don’t think the exact proportions are terribly important – the cakes just need to hold together. So, below is what I threw together. I use frozen cod because I’ve had so many bad experiences with fresh cod. It seems to get a little stinky awfully quickly and once I’ve gotten that scent in my head it kind of spoils the whole thing for me. Frozen cod isn’t all that great if you treat it like fresh, i.e. sautéing or steaming, but for frying it works and I knew it would work in the brandade. The amounts of potato, shrimp and cod below are pretty arbitrary, but the cakes held together and that was the goal.

Brandade of potato, cod, and shrimp with onion and pepper strips

½ onion, cut into strips
½ red or green bell pepper, cut into strips
¼ tsp smoked paprika
8 oz. russet potato
¼ cup heavy cream
3 tbsp butter, divided
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp white vinegar
2 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly smashed
6 oz. frozen shrimp (31-40’s), thawed and peeled
7 oz. frozen cod, thawed, rinsed and dried
salt and pepper to taste
½ tsp paprika
bread crumbs – Panko is great; homemade is better; Italian seasoned is bad
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp unsalted butter
lemon wedges for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put the onion and bell pepper strips on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Bake for 20 minutes. Set aside.

Slice the potatoes into 1/2” slices. Put the potatoes into a pot with 4 cups water. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Remove to a sieve with a slotted spoon, reserving the cooking water, mash with ¼ cup heavy cream and 1 tbsp butter and set aside.

Make a court bouillon: To the potato water add 1 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp white vinegar and the 2 garlic cloves. Bring back to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer covered for 15 minutes.

While the court bouillon heats, cut the cod into 2” pieces. (If using larger shrimp, cut them in half) After simmering the court bouillon, add the cod and shrimp to it and remove the pan from the heat. After 2 minutes, remove the shrimp and put them in a food processor. After 5 minutes, remove the cod and add to food processor. Save ½ cup of the court bouillon and discard the rest. Add the garlic to the food processor too if you wish. I did.

Pulse until roughly chopped and combined. Don’t puree it. Transfer fish to the bowl with the potatoes, add some salt and pepper, and mix together with your hands (wet them with cold water first). Form into cakes. These amounts of ingredients made 7 cakes. If needed, add a bit of the reserved court bouillon. The cakes should hold together well if you handle them with care. Sprinkle them on both sides with a bit of salt, pepper and paprika. Dredge in breadcrumbs.

Heat a large skillet over medium high (6 on my 1-10 dial). Add the cakes and sauté until golden brown, turning once – about 3 minutes per side. Be very careful when turning them and they won’t break.
While the cakes sauté, microwave the pepper and onion strips to re-warm them. Serve the cakes over a pile of these strips. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the cakes and serve.

Potato risotto

“Chuck’s Day Off,” hosted by Chuck Hughes, is an excellent show on the new (also excellent) Cooking Channel. He’s a restaurant chef, a no-nonsense cook, and doesn’t bore me with stories of his childhood. (And he doesn’t say YUMMO.) This recipe is inspired by him, modified by me, and a nice new thing to try.One curious thing: he said the stock didn’t need to be simmering the way you would want it with a traditional risotto. Ok, I’ll buy that, although I think I’ll still heat the stock so as not to interrupt the cooking with temperature drops.

A word about the sausages. The recipe below is the way I found it on the web. Needless to say I didn't make 10 lbs. of sausage. I had exactly 1.6 lbs. of lamb shoulder. I took my calculator and multiplied each ingredient by .16 to arrive at the proportions I needed. I didn't stuff it into casings; I wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap, put it in vacuum-sealed bags.

Potato and leek risotto

1 lb. Yukon gold potatoes, ½” cubes

1 tbsp olive oil

1 leek (white and light green parts), rinsed well and chopped

4-5 oz. mushrooms (whatever kind you prefer)

4 cups chicken stock

¾ cup grated parmesan cheese

1 cup mustard greens, julienned

additional baby greens as available (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Salt it well and blanch the potatoes for 5 minutes.In the meantime, cut up the mushrooms.Heat the oil in a sauté pan until shimmering. Add the mushrooms and leeks, a bit of salt and pepper, and sauté until softened but not colored.Drain the potatoes and add them to the pan. Toss to coat with the oil. Add stock in ½ - ¾ cup increments. Simmer, stirring often, in the same fashion as you would with a regular risotto. When the potatoes are nearly done (softened but still al dente), add a bit more salt and pepper and taste, then add the greens. Let them wilt for just a couple of minutes.Add cheese, taste, and adjust seasoning as necessary. Serve in heated wide bowls, garnished with the scallion.


Moroccan Lamb Sausage
10-lbs ground lamb
3-cups minced onion
3-cups finely chopped fresh parsley
2-cups ice water
3-tbsp salt
2-tbsp cayenne
1-tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1-tbsp dried oregano
1-tbsp dried coriander
1-tbsp dried marjoram
1-tsp cumin

Combine all ingredients, mix well. Form into 8 5” logs. Wrap in plastic and vacuum-seal them in bags. Boil 10 minutes and then brown in butter in a skillet.

Jen's grilled potatoes

We’ve seen Jen’s grilled potatoes (jensfoodjourney.blogspot.com) on a number of her plates. She was kind enough to describe to me how she makes them. Oddly enough mine don’t look anything like hers. Some of the difference must be that she uses her gas grill and mine were done on the stovetop. But I’m here to tell you they are magnificent. Peter and I have added them to our “keeper” list. I made this with just one large russet potato, which was plenty for the two of us for dinner last night.

Instead of adding salt and pepper I just used a grill seasoning (the first ingredient of which is salt). This is extremely easy and is a wonderful variation on a potato “side.”

Another wrinkle is altitude. Jen advised some vigilance during blanching so as not to get the potatoes to the point where they might start to break up. In Denver water boils at about 203 degrees. A full five minutes seemed just right. Thanks, Jen.

By the way, the protein on the plate was a magificent piece of pork milanesa.

Jen’s grilled potatoes
1 large russet potato, skin on
olive oil
grill seasoning

Slice the potato into ¼” circles.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt to the water and blanch the potatoes for 5 minutes. Remove and dry on paper towels.

Heat a stovetop grill over high heat. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, brush them with olive oil and sprinkle with grill seasoning or salt and pepper (both sides of course).

Cook on the grill until tender and browned – mine took somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes.

A Soup

I blogged the other day about the lupin beans I found in a middle-eastern market. In planning our meals for the week (actually we only do it a day or two ahead) we decided we wanted to use some of the beans in a dinner soup.

Sometimes our soups are based on cleaning out leftovers from the fridge. In this case, not. I had to go do my hausfrau thing this morning at Sunflower Market to acquire the stuff we needed to make this a one-dish meal.

A Soup
2 medium red potatoes, ½” dice (don’t peel them)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter

3 bratwurst, casing removed, chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 bunch kale, stems removed and roughly chopped

4 cups chicken broth

1 - 2 cups potato cooking water
1 cup beans (any kind…from a can)
pinch each of dried oregano, thyme and tarragon
salt and pepper to taste
lemon juice

grated carrot (optional)
more olive oil (optional)
croutons (optional)

In a medium pot, cover the potatoes with cold water. Put on the stove over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat to an energetic simmer and cook until the potatoes and al dente, about 8 minutes.

Use a spider and remove the potatoes to a colander, rinse with cold water, drain, and set aside. Reserve the potato water.

Add 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter to a soup pot. When the butter has melted and the foam has subsided, add the onion, garlic, tomato and sausage. Cook until sausage is done throughout, about 10 minutes.

Add broth to the pot along with the kale. Ladle in some of the potato water if it seems needed. The extra water can also mitigate any excessive saltiness which might come from the sausage. Bring to a simmer. Bring to a simmer. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve with a splash of lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil, grated carrot, and croutons if you wish.

Oil-poached shrimp, potato, green bean salad

For many years we’ve had a recipe for tuna poached in olive oil (tonno ventresca). Peter prepared it once, so long ago we have no idea when it was. You can buy ventresca tuna in cans at specialty shops. It’s an excellent product. I thought it might be interesting to do it from scratch.

Marcella Hazan, perhaps the doyen of Italian cooking, is so fussy about everything being from scratch that I used to say her ventresca tuna recipe should begin, “First, rent a fishing boat.” I took the easier path of getting ¾ lb. of nice fresh tuna from my local monger. It had some of what I think is called the bloodline, that dark stuff, on the side of it. Monger Bruce told me it was edible although somewhat strong tasting. I chose to cut it off.

Our recipe gave very explicit instructions for how to do this: put the tuna in a pan, cover it with oil, add a garlic clove or two, and bring the oil up to a temperature where it bubbles ever so slightly. After ten minutes remove the pan from the heat and add a couple more things. Then marinate the tuna overnight before constructing the tuna salad.

I didn’t want to have leftovers, and made basically a half recipe. It was the perfect amount for our lunch on Sunday. In order to reuse the oil, I prepared enough potatoes and green beans to make up another lunch, this time using shrimp.

I couldn’t find very good directions for poaching shrimp in oil, so I had to kind of make this up. To be honest, I liked the shrimp salad result better than the tuna. For the tuna, a red wine and oil dressing was called for. It tasted very good, but I replaced the vinegar with lemon juice for the shrimp.

The basics of the recipe are from that one we found in one of our recipe binders (we have more than 650 pages of them). I did some tweaking and consider this to fit in with the intention of my postings: invention. This is well worth trying.

This picture "resembles" my shrimp salad, but I confess to having borrowed it from FoodNetwork. It's fun to have a picture.

Oil-poached shrimp salad
12 oz. shrimp, peeled and deveined
8 oz. green beans
8 small potatoes (1-2” diameter)
olive oil
dried thyme
2 garlic cloves, cut in half
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
1 bay leaf
zest of 1 lemon
¼ cup chopped parsley
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper

Put the shrimp in a saucepan and just barely cover with oil. Add the garlic. Bring the oil’s temperature up over medium-low heat. If it starts to bubble, turn the heat down. Carefully watch the progress of the shrimp turning pink, tossing them frequently with a fork. At the first sign they are close to being cooked through (about 5-6 minutes), remove the pan from the heat.

Add the lemon zest, thyme and bay leaf to the oil. After 5 minutes remove the shrimp, let cool completely, and refrigerate overnight.

Allow the oil to cool completely, then refrigerate it overnight also.

Place the potatoes in another pot and cover with cold water. Bring the water to a boil, add a generous amount of salt, and simmer them until fork tender, 20 minutes or so. It will help to cut in half any disproportionately large ones.

While the potatoes cook, trim and wash the green beans. When the potatoes are cooked, remove them to a colander and bring the water back to a full boil. Add a bit more salt and blanch the beans to your preferred crunchiness. For me it was about 9 minutes as the beans were fairly mature.

Drain the beans and rinse them for a minute with cold water, using your sink sprayer attachment. When the beans and potatoes are cool, refrigerate them along with the shrimp and the oil.

Now you could construct and eat this salad the same day you poach the shrimp. It probably would be pretty much as good. But I had the time and did it a day ahead.

To construct the salad:*
Cut the potatoes into ½” pieces. Cut the green beans into ½” pieces. Put them both in a large bowl. Cut the shrimp into similar sized pieces and add to the bowl. Add the parsley and toss to mix.

For the dressing:
Put the lemon juice into a bowl in which you can whisk the ingredients. Add salt and pepper and more dried thyme. If the poaching oil has solidified (as it almost certainly will have), warm it over low heat. Add some of the oil to the dressing bowl. How much? No more than an amount equel in volume to the lemon juice. Whisk the mix together until the oil emulifies, ½ - 1 minute. Taste. If it is too lemony, add a bit more oil. At this point your taste buds must be your guide. Add salt and pepper as necessary.

Pour the dressing over the shrimp, potato, green bean mix and toss to coat. Sprinkle with a little more salt and pepper. Serve and enjoy.

*We were eating our salad on a very chilly day and wanted it to be at least warm. That was accomplished easily by combining the beans and potatoes and microwaving them for 90 seconds. Then, when tossed with the shrimp and dressed the salad was nice and warm.



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.

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.