Naughty Curry

Gettin' Our GOULASH to Go GiddyUp!

     It was not a dark and stormy night. It was Monday, just Monday, and we at the NC didn't feel like doing a damn thing. We just kind of sat there and talked about nothing. I was OK with that. Really.

          Trobee, on the other hand, eventually felt a ridiculous need to actually accomplish something. "So what should we do?"

          Shrug from me. "Whatever," I mumbled. "I don't think there's any food here anyway. Not even potatoes. See for yourself."

         A challenge. She rifled through the fridge, she poked through the cupboards. She came up with noodles, a cheap-o can of tomato sauce, frozen hamburger, half an onion, some shredded cheese...

          And so.... goulash it was. It had long been a 'someday' project. Guess today was the day.

           Now then. I'm not talking about the traditional Hungarian goulash. (See the Chili & Vanilia blog for a piece of that action -- written by real live Hungarian Zsofi.) I speak of the humble Midwest U.S. version, also generically referred to as 'hotdish'. Pasta hastily mixed up with the simplest of ingredients mentioned above. It is, to me, the unglamorous family dinner dish of Normalness. Something for busy moms to throw together to 'do the job'.

         American-style goulash. It's so very Monday.

         "Actually that just might work out well," I said. I was almost getting a little bit enthusiastic. We were going to jazz up the humdrum goulash, just like the NC catchphrase says (see banner at top of page). It would be just like all those 'old skool' teen movies when a nice dork was transformed to ultimate coolness -- with the help of someone 'in the know'.         

          Trobee took her seat and pulled out the notebook. "So how are we gonna do this?"

         Spicing-ideas bubbled forth. It was, after all, a familiar (though somewhat bland) dish. We knew the taste of it so well; spicing would be easily imagined. This would be fun...and eventually, I confidently believed, fantastically tasty.

RECIPE B-R-E-A-K-D-O-W-N

"Do you think we should add fennel seeds?"

Fennel seeds seemed an obvious addition at first. Pasta with tomato and onion? C'mon.

But then, no. No. Fennel seeds our goulash would not have. The licorice-like spice would stamp it with an Italian-ish identity. Not that Indo-Italian was a bad thing by any means -- it had worked so well in our Masala-Mama Mostaccioli. But it was not for this.

Ajwain. Cumin, of course. Northern Indian spices seemed in order. A lashing of clove. Yes.

"Curry leaves?"

With pasta? Hm...

*     *     *

Celery. Without celery, it would not be goulash. I realized only then that celery is not a common ingredient I see in Indian recipes. Cripes, my mom put it in everything. Spicing it would be interesting.     

"Any whole spices in this?" Trobee asked as she jotted things down

"Hell no. We don't want seeds or leaves floating around here. We're going to powder-ize all the spices."

"Yeah, I agree with that." 

*     *     *   

"This is fantastic," I declared after a few giant bites. "It's great. Warm and bold and wintry." Just how I wanted it.

Quorn could easily substitute for hamburger. (My future version proved this.)And chileheads could easily crank up the heat as they chose (Trobee.) And cheeseheads? Why, they could have a heyday.

Trobee happily agreed. "Damn good!" I wasn't sure if she was talking about the food or her cooking. But I nodded anyway.

The end.

photos by Trina

Shout out to Majamom (Marybeth) for letting us use her cool vintage pic at the top of the post.

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GiddyUp Goulash

2 cups uncooked egg noodles or elbow macaroni
1 lb. hamburger or Quorn pieces
1 small white or yellow onion, chopped
2 tsp garlic paste or minced garlic
1/2 stalk of celery, chopped
1 cup of diced tomatoes
1 (14.5 oz.) can of tomato sauce
1/2 tsp tamarind concentrate, dissolved in 1 Tb water
2 tsp sugar or honey
2 tsp paprika
1/2 cup shredded cheese
2 green onions, the green parts only (for a garnish)

Masala:

2 dried red chilies (optional)
1 Tb cumin seeds
1 Tb coriander seeds
1/4 tsp peppercorns
1-inch cinnamon stick
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/4 tsp ajwain seeds
4 whole cloves
10 curry leaves

1) Cook the pasta until it is almost done. Soft but just a bit firm. Drain. Set aside.
2) Brown the hamburger, if that is what you are using. Drain. Set aside.
3) In a medium skillet, dry roast the masala until the cumin seeds have darkened a few shades. Whizz it to a powder in your coffee grinder. Set aside.
4) Back to the skillet. Heat the oil. Saute the white onions until they are soft and clear. Add the garlic paste and masala, followed by the paprika. When the garlic is light brown, add the celery. Continue to cook until the celery is soft.
5) Now add the diced tomatoes, the tomato sauce, the tamarind water, and sugar or honey.
6) In a big pot, combine all of the ingredients (including the Quorn, if using) and cook until the cheese is melted. Done.

STOP! in the Name Of Coconut

     "I do NOT believe this! I took one look out the window when I woke up this morning, and I'm like, No. I am NOT dealing with this right now," fumed Trobee when she charged into the NC kitchen one morning this week.

          It was that first true morning of the winter season... when us northern cold-climate folk awaken to a world that has been blanketed in white -- a declaration of winter's arrival. This phenomenon, though it takes place each year, shocks some into feelings of anger and dread. We at the NC were in denial.

          I didn't say what I actually thought as I peeked out the window, that the lawn seems to have been covered in coconut powder. It's better P.R. for coconut to be associated with palm trees, sunshine, and even that Tom Hanks movie....

          Coconut, I have found, is another one of those things that people might SAY they don't want, and yet... yet...

          Well, take Ruthie, for example. She always says she's not cuckoo for coconut, yet I always remind her that she loves every dish we make that involves coconut.

          Maybe the matter of coconut-acceptance has got something to do with context-- the Western (non-Asian) world tends to confine coconut useage to sweets and maybe the occasional pina colada. And aside from the recent trend of crusting fried shrimp on restaurant menus, coconut is unthinkable outside of the sugar cube on the American flavor-imagination.

           Maybe it's a texture thing. The tongue-feel of the commonly-used dried coconut shreds

         For this post, we at the NC wanted a recipe that would allow you, Our People, to fully savor and 'learn' the lovelight of coconut. Let it shine upon you, on you, in you. Let it shimmy center-stage in the spotlight just this once.

          Come this way...

RECIPE B-R-E-A-K-D-O-W-N   

          We at the NC use coconut powder that we buy from an online Indian store. It's handy stuff, and it's easy to measure out. Once upon a time, when Trina and I suddenly ran out and we needed the stuff pronto, we opted to buy the dried sweetened shreds at the supermarket, (even though we have read time and time again using the sweetened kind is, like, totally uncool), and we whizzed it to a powder in our coffee grinder. You know what? This works fine.

          As you may know, the general rule for us at the  NC is to use food ingredients that we can get at our local supermarket. We figure, hell--if we can buy it at our grocery store, it's common enough to appear in an NC recipe. (We leave the hard-to-find stuff for the spices.)

          However...I wanted to experience once and for all the sublime superiority of fresh coconut shreds. At the NC, curiousity overrides all rules. So we went to our town's (Vietnamese-centric) Asian grocer. Discovered frozen shreds (not fresh, I know, but recipe authors claim to find them acceptable). Used them in our latest rice recipe (scooped from Bhooma Patterson's online South Indian collection), which we have been over the moon about. Our question (and motivation): Could this Coconut Rice recipe get possibly more gorgeous by using fresh (or frozen) coconut? From all that I have read about the insistence of using fresh vs. dried, we were looking forward to an amazing amplified experience. We expected the flavor of the fresh coconut to be stunning. Maybe like comparing garlic powder to garlic cloves. The possibilities! Maya Kaimal, watch out!

          Not so. The flavor turned out to be much less. I will say that again: The resulting flavor of the Coconut Rice using fresh vs. our usual coconut powder was much less. Shocking, I know, yet Trina and Trobee both arrived at the same conclusion

           There's more. We at the NC declare that we even slightly prefer the sweetened variety. At least, the kind that we buy. Point is, in the case of coconut at least, don't necessarily don't believe what you are told is the 'best way'. Commit to your reality, not a 'correct' idea. Taste. Experiment. Do as you like.

*     *     *

          Now I'm going to bring up coconut oil. TRULY a  worthwhile topic. Read on.

         People who grew up outside of Asia (and without Asian parents) will likely be unfamiliar with it. And it's gotten a bad rep health wise, especially because it gets semi-solid at room temperature. At least, that's why I didn't use it for so long. I have no need to crave yet another thing that is bad for me.

       When I at last tapped in to the truth about coconut oil, (mystically delicious AND healthy) I thought I'd try it. I had commonly seen it listed (meanwhile automatically ignoring it) in so many South Indian recipes... and if a recipe insisted upon it, I ignored the entire recipe. Moved on. Sorry, Kerala.

          Yes. Yes. The truth comes out. It's not only Ruthie that was slow to give coconut proper credit. I confess... well I will never do so again. Never. Ever.

Shout out to Nathan Guerra for the top-of-the-post pic, 'Strange Signs'

...and m.a.r.c. for his pic, 'Caution'

photos by Trina and Trobee

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Coconut Rice

Here is the deal. The focus at Naughty Curry is the spicing. But let me tell you-- if you use coconut oil in this little jewel of a recipe, prepare to be blown away. The flavor will be transcendant.

• 1 cup rice
• 1 tsp oil, then 2 tsp later (try using coconut oil if you can)
• 3/4 cup coconut powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 10 jalapeno rings, minced (Trina leaves these out, Trobee adds many more)
• 3 Tb cashews and/or peanuts

Masala:

• 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 tsp urad dal
• 1 tsp raw chickpeas/chana dal/dalia
• 1/4 tsp asafetida
• 2 dried red chilies
• 5 curry leaves

1. Cook the rice and set it aside to wait for coming attractions.
2. In a small skillet, heat the oil until it is sizzle-hot. Add the coconut and cook until it is light brown. Pour this over the rice and stir it in.
3. Back to the skillet. Heat 2 tsp oil until it is sizzle-hot. Add the masala and jalapeno rings, and cook until the black mustard seeds have popped. Immediately empty the pan's contents onto the rice and mix well.
4. Finally, dry-roast the nuts until they turn a few shades darker. Add them to the mixture. Done