Ghoulash on a Stormy Night

I am writing this on a Monday morning, rather begrudgingly, I usually do all my writing over the weekend, but this one was super hectic and all I managed to do was a cook a couple of decent meals for the family and finally go to a canteen style restaurant I have been dying to eat at. The weather has been dull and miserable, with an occasional smattering of rain, very annoying. The clouds need to open up and pour or shut their faces and glide by, the piddle like pitter patter is useless and depressing! Though it makes for perfect ‘food craving’ season… the rains make me want soul food as much as winters do. So instead of moping about the grim situation outside, I decided to brighten things inside. Saturday was going to be bright food day; I personally love colours in my food, that’s what attracts me to Pan Asian cuisine, the al dente bits of coloured peppers, the greens, the salmon pink of the meats and the white of spring onions. These days with the opinions on MSG, I really feel like my Asian recipes don’t taste as good, may well be a psychological thing but I cook Asian food much less now.

One given when it comes to soul food is at least one dish of red meat. My family also has a special affinity to tomatoes and they definitely need rice. So I decided to make Shirazi style ‘desi’ Ghoulash. This dish is more like an Iranian chicken curry I once had, tomato base, light chicken and very wholesome. But since I tend to use bacon sometimes and make a curry out it, I like to call is a Ghoulash (apologies to Hungarians, foodies massacre each other’s foods all the time, it’s for the greater good at the end of the day!). I don’t use boneless meats, by principle! Only if it’s a must in recipes do I succumb, I do a lot of my Chinese stir fry’s with smaller cuts of chicken, rather than going boneless. I feel bones add a lot of flavour and natural moisture and fat to the dish. So I make this recipe with meat on the bone, you can try boneless; a lot of people feel it works better. I serve this with potato wedges (from scratch) and herbed rice.

Shirazi Style Desi Ghoulash

½ kg Mutton
2 tbsp oil
2 white onions, minced or pureed
4 large tomatoes cubed
4-6 garlic pods crushed
2-3 tbsp tomato puree
1 bayleaf
2-3 cloves
2-3 tsp crushed pepper
½ tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp cumin powder
Salt
1 cup Water for gravy

Brown the onions and garlic in oil, add the bayleaf and cloves. Fry for a minute or so and add the mutton. Toss it up on high for a minute, turn down the heat, add the cumin and chilli powder and salt, stir and cover. Use a heavy bottomed pan or a pressure cooker, so you can cook the meat for 25-30 minutes on low. After about 15 minutes of cooking, add the tomato cubes and the puree. Stir and keep covered, only stir 2-3 times in the 30 minutes. Top with the pepper powder, add half cup water and pressure cook if you need the meat to flower (I realize how gross that sounds but what I mean is, the meat opens up and softens, doesn’t remain tight and compact!). Check the salt before you serve, if you feel the gravy is too tangy, feel free to add a tsp or two of sugar, its cuts the tang and brings out the pepper.

From Scratch Potato Wedges

4 large potatoes
Oil for deep frying
Masala Mix:
1 tsp. Oregano/Italian seasoning
½ tsp garlic salt or celery salt
½ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp salt.

Cut the potatoes in wedges, deep fry till soft and brown. Toss in the masala mix and serve hot.

Herb Rice:

1 large bowl of cooked white rice
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsbp very fine celery leaf

Heat the butter, throw in the rice, herbs and celery, toss on high heat for 3-4 minutes and serve right away.

So this is the meal we had the other day, it was superfluous if I may say so. The rain was beating hard in the balcony, we almost wished it were lashing on the window, to add to the ‘dak bungalow’ rainy effect that this food had already created. This is one dish I love to combine with a nice spicy rum or a fruity red wine, the pepper and tomato combo is perfect for some with dinner drinking!

Back to the Beef

Back to beef, back to the basics. That’s how it feels for me. I love cutting meat; that creep’s me out sometimes though my intentions are for the simple pleasures of consumption and nothing sinister but I love cutting meat. That’s how I cook. I cut, chop, Julienne, cube, dice, mince everything myself, I hate things out of packets and I despise recipes that go something like 1 can whole tomatoes, 1 pack of frozen pastry and 2 boxes Stroganoff mix… what the F is that? Thankfully I still live in a world where things are more or less done from scratch, I don’t know where to buy frozen pastry and thank God for that lest I get tempted to slacken off! I admit to be a victim of terrible time management, so I have succumbed to garlic pastes and tomato puree but that’s how far it goes, I swear! In my defence, I only use these when I make homey lunch time curries like ‘matar paneer’ and ‘rajma’. That’s the cool part about north Indian home grub, the overwhelming masala-ness pretty much covers everything else in the dish, so go ahead and squeeze in that spoon of tangy, chemical-y ginger paste, no one will know. But when I am really cooking, cooking… then I need everything fresh, juicy, plumpy and the like. I love shopping for produce as much as I love shopping for shoes. I am not averse to fancy shmancy stuff like truffles and caviar, I have bought them to eat them and not experiment with them. Honestly, I should have left the caviar for pro’s to do …I couldn’t have it as is! The truffles however went off well, I have a ‘gucchhi pulao’ recipe that really worked out for me. I need to remember to share that, but before I do I need to get all this beef out-of-the-way.

So, I had cut around 5 steaks from the rump, nice, thick ones. I kept them about an inch thick and a little smaller than a side plate. I didn’t want to use the mallet on it, I wanted to tenderize them with marinade and time and not a beating. Andy wanted a simple recipe, one where he could really taste the meat, so I kept it super simple.

4 beef/lamb steaks, each should weigh around 200-225 grams, so that roughly a kilo of meat

Lots of fresh pods of garlic, like 10-12 of them, thinly sliced. Please master this, it’s excellent to stud meats like steaks and chops with sliver of garlic, they stick on the meat when you sear it and come out amazing.

2 tsp sugar, to caramelize on the steak and give me a nice seared colour, it also brings out the other flavours; I feel.
3-4 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar, I like how the sweet cuts the tang.
3-4 tbsp of very coarse black pepper, if your mill dispenses a fine powder, then beat the peppercorns with a rolling-pin or mallet, do it in a napkin, so it won’t fly everywhere.
1-2 tsp salt, I like using sea salt.

Wash and dry the steaks, pat down with a mallet if you want, I kind of have a knack of how meat cooks vis-a-vis the pans and stove I have, so I don’t flatten them at all. Make the marinade in a bowl, taste it please… check the salt-sweet balance and pour over the steaks. Work the marinade into the meat, do this for like few minutes, you will be thankful when these suckers come out looking professional and tasting heavenly. Refrigerate for a day, do this, please, that’s the key. I use glass containers with covers for meats that need to sit in marinades, I don’t like the idea of the vinegar reacting with the plastic and I certainly don’t think zip lock bags can take the chemical balance of this marinade. Invest in some nice glassware bowls that have air tight lids, they are the best for food storage. Remember to shake this bowl a few times before cooking day arrives. On cooking day, heat a nice big skillet if you have or do my non stick pan ploy… I don’t hold back on fats, those are essential in making food taste good. I don’t like diet foods, I hate light meals (actually once in a while is ok) and I don’t believe in substituting. You want stuff to taste like the picture in your recipe book or like the steakhouse you ate at last; then slather the damn thing with fat, now! I use olive oil for this kind of naked steak, I love the way it burns off the ends, I love the way olive oil heats, you can see golden swirls forming across the surface and you know this is what your food needs. Good old olive loving! Then I pick off all the leftover garlic slivers from the marinade and stuff them into the sizzling steaks, I use tongs for this, I use tongs a lot. I actually use tongs in most places where I would otherwise use a metal/plastic spatula. Get tongs! Here too, cook one side only once; constantly turning the steaks will make them tough and overdone. These are relatively think steaks, so you need a sizzle of around 3-4 minutes per side on low fire. With a day of marination, even a total of 7 minutes on the fire are a bit much but I know very few people who like a medium rare steak, at least in India. Use the tongs to pick up the steaks and place them on plates; again don’t forget to pick up the burnt garlic bits for a final finish.

You can grill these steaks too, just keep a mix of melted butter and olive oil for brushing on when you slap it on the grill and keep some for basting too. Basting is essential for thick red meats, it keeps the steak tender and juicy.

I serve this meal with mashed potatoes, I love infusing the mash with a chiffonade of celery, really nice flavouring. I boil peas and sauté in butter for the kid and any other family member that would like to give health a chance, but husband is done with meat and potatoes …one possible carb add-on, bread. And he likes plain white commercial bread, so too bad if I made Focaccia. Or alternatively, I make a quick pasta salad, white onions, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, bow-tie pasta, dressed with olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper and a pinch of oregano.

So this is what we had the other day and I think we need to take a break from beef. I don’t want to freeze any of the leftover meat, so I am going to marinate the chunks I cut for a coconut pepper curry I learnt from a friend’s cook, back in Manipal, this was like 15 years back but we still love this curry to bits!

Welcome to Me

I am finally doing it, taking the plunge, going all out! I am starting my own cookery blog, its been long enough! I longed to have time to do this and only lately realized that I will never have that privilege. I am a mommy to an almost 5 year old human child and an almost 7 year old doggie child, both are a handful. I work full time, well almost, when you leave home at 8 am, then a day that ends at 4 pm, is as ‘full’ as a day can get. When that day gets over, all I can think of are my babies and my kitchen. The two joys that bring solace and peace to my otherwise hysterical soul. For me a perfect evening is when Andy (the husband) gets home in time, the kids have had play time and finished their workbooks, well at least the human one and I have a fresh, new meal bubbling in the kitchen. To me that’s heaven.

I have read and envied way too many food blogs and sites to stay still any longer. So for me, this is it! This is my Michael Jackson movie, except mine is meaty, garlicky and veers towards desserts more than occasionally. I am secretly (not so much now!!) in love with Jamie Oliver and Anthony Bourdain, though from what I know Tony is capable of pot roasting Jamie anyway! I don’t much care for Gordon Ramsay and I truly believe Nigella Lawson is my chef alter ego …though I don’t look anything like her…sadly! I used to enjoy watching Kylie (Kwong) cook till she started abusing the word ‘beautiful’ which actually happens to be one my favourite adjectives for food …but not anymore. I love all of these guys for something or the other and mainly because they promote good food, good eating and good living, all of which is essential for my personal sanity.

I also believe in moderation, however cliched it may sound. Everyone can eat everything and everyone should eat everything, again in moderation. So please pop that piece of chocolate in your mouth already, you know you’re going to hate yourself for not eating it …. and hate yourself for eating it …its a no win situation…eat up! So the objective of this blog is to promote food, all kinds of it. The other objective is to to get you cooking, its therapeutic, its makes people like you and its a great conversation starter. Believe me, its all I talk about… most of the time!

Last night we had Kerala style Beef Fry. Kerela is a coastal state in India, famous for its tag line “Gods own country”… from the way its landscaped, God certainly took a wee bit of extra interest in this one! Thanks to its coastal location, Kerala enjoys some of the best fish and seafood in India and I personally love their curries and stir fries. Some of the food is very akin to Far Eastern countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and even Thailand. I got this recipe off the internet and modified it to suit my family’s slightly more adventurous palette.

Shirazi Beef Chili

• 1 kg beef tenderloin cut into strips …about an inch long and half an inch thick
• 2 large onions sliced very thin
• Slivers of 6 garlic pods
• 2 inch thick clump of ginger…crushed with a rolling pin
• 6 slit green chillies
• 3 tbsp. Cooking oil

Marinade:

• 1 tsp. garam masala
  1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• 1 tsp. cumin powder
• 1 tbsp. Apple cider vinegar (use wine vinegar if you like, I like it a bit sweetish)

Masala for cooking:

• 1 tsp. garam masala
• 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• 1 tsp. cumin powder
• 1 tsp. Sugar
• 1 tbsp. Honey (try and look for organic fruit honeys, did you know that a beehive on a litchi tree will have litchi flavoured honey!)
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce (try Kikkoman …I love it!)
• 2 large potatoes, thinly sliced
• Salt to taste

Tempering:

•  1 tsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 15 curry leaves
• 4 dry red chillies

Marinate the beef for a couple of hours. Heat the oil and fry the onions, ginger and garlic, till the onions are brown. I personally prefer to crush the garlic with the flat side of my knife rather than chop or use a press, ditto for ginger. Add the marinated beef; keep the flame on high till the juices from the beef cover the contents in the pan. Fry for 2-3 minutes and add the ‘masala’ for cooking, along with the green chillies. Stir, cover and cook on low for about 15 minutes. Make the tempering in a separate pan, heat oil, add the mustard seeds, wait for the crackling, add the red chillies and curry leaves, I like the curry leaves crispy so I tend to slightly overcook the tempering. Now back to the beef, add the soy sauce, honey and potatoes, cook for another 10 minutes on low, covered.  Check the meat for doneness …pop a piece in your mouth! Top this with the tempering before serving, toss it up…and enjoy.

We loved the dish, we had it with ‘dal’ and rice, though my dad would have had it with a garlicky potato mash and some whole wheat bread. I actually like having this with flat noodles and I dribble a little chilli sauce on it …just to give it a twangy finish.