Eli Cooks » spices

Saag Paneer

Eli — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:00:08 +0000

Saag paneer (or palak paneer) is one of my favorite Indian dishes. Saag paneer is pretty ubiquitous in Indian restaurants, but it can vary widely from one restaurant to the next. What they (almost) all have in common is a base of chopped or pureed greens in a creamy, spice-laden sauce studded with pieces of paneer. There’s considerable variation in what makes the sauce creamy (cream vs butter vs yogurt), what spices are used (anything from “nothing but garlic and ginger” to “garam masala” to “just about every spice in your cabinet”), how much heat it has and even which greens are used (although spinach is by far the most common.)

There’s also the question of whether the dish is saag paneer or palak paneer. As far as I can tell, the difference is that palak paneer is made with only spinach and saag paneer is made with any tender greens. The most common greens for saag paneer are spinach, and a dish made with only spinach could be considered either palak paneer or saag paneer. But saag paneer is also commonly made with mustard greens, fenugreek leaves or a combination of those with spinach and/or other greens.

So, when a recent trip to Devon for dinner ended with a stop at Patel Brothers, I decided to pick up some paneer and give it a try at home. Some lovely chioggia beets from the farmers market lent their greens and dinner was served.

Saag Paneer
Cobbled together from Tyler Florence, Serious Eats and Coconut & Lime, among others.

You can use just about any combination of fresh and frozen greens for this recipe as long as you keep the total amount basically the same. I’d stay away from tougher or very bitter greens like collards, kale or dandelions. The flavor will change a bit if you use different greens, but it will still be saag paneer.
If there aren’t any Indian markets near you that sell paneer, the intarwebs have several recipes. (I haven’t gotten around to trying any yet, since it’s easy for me to just run out and pick some up.)

1 Tbsp whole garam masala
greens from 2 bunches of beets (about 12 oz), stemmed and roughly chopped
1 (8 oz) package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
3 Tbsp butter
1 (14 oz) block paneer, cut into cubes
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 small head green garlic (or 3-4 cloves normal garlic), minced
1″ piece of ginger, minced
1 jalepeno, minced
1 medium spring bulb onion (or small normal onion), minced
1 tsp turmeric
1/3 cup yogurt

Before you do anything else, toast the garam masala: In a dry skillet, heat the whole spices over high heat, shaking frequently, for about a minute. Remove from skillet and allow to cool completely, then grind in a clean coffee grinder.

Blanch the fresh greens in boiling water for about a minute, then drain and set aside.

Melt the butter in a medium skillet and fry the paneer over medium-high heat, browning each cube on 2 or 3 sides. Be sure to turn the cubes gently so you don’t break up the paneer. Remove the paneer from the skillet and set aside.

Add the mustard seeds to the same skillet (with the butter left from the paneer) and fry until they just start to pop, about 1 minute. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and jalepeno and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until translucent and just starting to brown, about 10 minutes.

Add the beet greens, spinach, ground garam masala and turmeric and enough water to moisten everything without having much standing water. (I added about 3/4 cup, but you might need more or less depending how thoroughly you dried your greens. Add it in 1/4 cup increments.) Stir until everything is mixed well. Turn the heat down to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Turn off the heat, stir in the yogurt, then fold in the paneer.

Serve with rice or naan.

Dal (Indian Lentil Stew)

Eli — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:00:44 +0000

Back in culinary school I took an elective in Indian cooking. One of the dishes we made along the way was dal makhani, a stew made of urad dal (also known as Indian black lentils or black gram), kidney beans, ginger, garlic, garam masala, tomato and plenty of butter and cream. (There’s something quite satisfying about being able to unwrap a whole stick of butter and just drop it into a pot of stew.) The recipe was simple, rich and easy to make in bulk. Definitely a keeper.

Starting from that basic recipe, I’ve made variation upon variation over the years until I have more of a guideline than really a recipe at this point. I’ve tried more and less garlic, ginger and spices. Final preference: a lot of garlic, a good bit of ginger and just a bit of garam masala. I’ve tried tomato paste, tomato sauce, pureed canned tomatoes and no tomato at all. I think I have a slight preference for tomato paste, but any of them work, just remember to use more sauce or pureed tomatoes than paste, and you might need to adjust the amount of water a bit too.

And I’ve tried different beans and lentils. The urad dal and kidney beans from the original recipe need to be soaked overnight before it’s cooked, but most other kinds of lentils don’t require a soak. My first preference is to use several kinds of lentils together to provide a range of textures. I like a mix of red masoor dal (which disintegrate almost completely), normal brown lentils and urad dal. I usually leave out the kidney beans these days, just because it’s great without them and it’s one less ingredient to keep around. And as often as not, I make dal with just normal brown lentils, because I always have them around and they don’t require a soak (meaning no planning ahead.) If you experiment with different kinds of lentils, you may need more or less water and more or less cooking time. Just check how they’re doing periodically and adjust. This recipe isn’t at all fussy.

Quick Dal
This might not be the most authentic dal in the world, but it’s quite good and quick enough for a weeknight dinner. It also scales up beautifully to feed a crowd.
Dal is just as good (if not better) the second day, so be sure to make more than you plan to eat.

Serves 4-6

1 Tbsp butter
6 cloves garlic, minced
about 1″ fresh ginger, minced
1 tsp garam masala or a mix of your favorite spices (optional)
1 1/2 cups brown lentils, rinsed and drained
3 1/2 cups water
1 tsp – 1 Tbsp salt (depending on your tastes)
1 tsp cayenne (optional)
1/2 stick butter (4 Tbsp)
3 oz tomato paste (half a small can)
1/4 cup half and half or cream

In a medium pan, melt the butter, then cook the garlic and ginger over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Add the garam masala and cook an additional minute or so. Add the lentils, water and salt. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cook, covered, until tender, but still with a bit of tooth to them, about 35 minutes. If the water runs low, add a bit more.

Stir in the cayenne, butter and tomato paste. Bring back to a simmer and cook, covered, 10 minutes more.

Turn off the heat and stir in the half and half. Taste and add more salt or cayenne as desired.

Serve the dal over rice or with naan or roti.

Indian-Spiced Black-Eyed Peas

Eli — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:19:20 +0000

This recipe was a fortuitous accident. I soaked some beans with the intention of just cooking them with a ham hock or bacon or salt pork: whatever was in the freezer. After they had soaked overnight, I realized my freezer was entirely pork-free. (I really have no idea how that happened, but I’ll do my best to keep it from happening again.) Anyway, I was left with already soaked beans and nothing to do with them.

I didn’t want to cook just plain beans, so I started flipping through recipe books and blogs trying to find something interesting that didn’t require me to go to the store. I happened across a recipe for a pureed lentil soup with garam masala and coconut milk and thought that was as good a place to start as any. I can’t say I used that recipe for much more than inspiration, but it was the spark I needed.

I used the pre-mixed garam masala from the Spice House and tweaked it a bit with added green and black cardamom, cassia buds and stick cinnamon. Garam masala is one of those things that everyone likes just a bit differently, so don’t be afraid to add more of whichever spices you like best. This blend is a bit heavier on the pepper, but it uses Tellicherry pepper, which gives a nice floral topnote along with the spicy pepper flavor.

Indian-Spiced Black-Eyed Peas
The garam masala I used here has enough pepper to give the dish a bit of heat. If you use a less peppery garam masala, you could add some chilies.
If the final product needs more depth of flavor, add a teaspoon or so of dark brown sugar to give it a little boost. (I added a bit to mine at the end, but not all coconut milk is created equal, so yours might provide enough sweetness on its own.
As is often the case with beans, this is better the second day. If you’re planning to cook it ahead, leave the sweet potatoes just a bit undercooked so they don’t fall apart.

1 lb black-eyed peas, rinsed and soaked overnight
4 Tbsp butter
2 1/2 Tbsp freshly ground garam masala
6 cloves garlic, minced
1″ piece ginger, minced
2 14 oz cans (unsweetened) coconut milk
1 14 oz can water
1 Tbsp salt
1 lb sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/4″ coins

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-high. Add the garam masala and toast for about a minute. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, for another minute. Add the drained beans, coconut milk, water and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 40 minutes. At this point the beans should be somewhat soft, but still just a bit crunchy; they should be almost cooked. Add the sweet potatoes and simmer an additional 15 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are just starting to be tender, but not mushy. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve warm.

Crack Brownies

Eli — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:57:21 +0000

I saw these in Gourmet a few years back. I was looking for something chocolate for my Christmas party that year. They looked a bit fussy, but also very rich: perfect for the holidays. That first time I made them mostly as shown in the magazine: chocolate and mint. A few hours into the party, people started commenting on the brownies. “What’s in these?” “They’re so good.” “I can’t stop eating them.” and eventually “I know if I eat one more of these brownies, I’m going to die, but yet I can’t stop myself from eating it. They’re like crack.” Ever since, they’ve been known as Eli’s Crack Brownies.

Since then I’ve made them several times, changing the flavors each time. I’ve only repeated a few flavors and I haven’t had a dud yet. Sure I have favorites (and this most recent version is one of them) but they’ve all been good. Course, when you’re starting with an extra rich, fudgy dark chocolate brownie, then layering it with white and dark chocolate ganache, it’s hard to screw up. I’ve always meant to try just making the brownie layer on its own – I think it would be the perfect brownie I always want and never quite get – but I never manage to stop without the ganache.

These brownies really do fall into the “stop everything you’re doing and go make them right now” category. And with Christmas right around the corner, what better time is there? But they should also come with a warning: they’re cut small for a reason. Even at their measly 1″ square size, you really shouldn’t eat more than 2 or 3 at a time. Please don’t cut these into normal 2″ or 3″ brownie size. (Please! Think of the children!)

Crack Brownies (Mexican Chocolate Brownie Squares)
Adapted from Gourmet, December 2005

The original recipe called for a high-quality dark chocolate, but I’m cheap and I’ve always just used regular old Bakers Semi-Sweet with superb results.

For brownie layer
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
10 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp paprika

For white chocolate ganache
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 3″ cinnamon sticks
1 tsp cassia buds (or replace these with another cinnamon stick)
1 small pinch red chili flakes
10 oz white chocolate

For chocolate ganache
3/4 cup heavy cream
10 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
1 tsp almond extract

Make brownie layer:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly butter a 13- by 9-inch baking pan and line with 2 crisscrossed sheets of foil, leaving a 2 inch overhang on all sides. Butter foil.

Melt butter and chocolate with brown sugar in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove from heat. Whisk in eggs and vanilla until combined. Whisk in flour, cocoa, salt, cinnamon and chilies until just combined.

Spread batter evenly in baking pan and bake until set and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs adhering, about 20 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a rack, about 1 1/2 hours.

Make white chocolate ganache:
Bring cream and spices to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour cream through a strainer over the white chocolate in a bowl. Stir until smooth. (If the chocolate doesn’t completely melt, microwave it for 30 seconds. Pour over the brownies and refrigerate until completely set, at least 45 minutes.

Make chocolate ganache:
Bring cream to a simmer. Pour over bittersweet chocolate in a bowl. Stir until smooth. (If the chocolate doesn’t completely melt, microwave it for 30 seconds. Pour over the white chocolate layer on the brownies and refrigerate until completely set, at least 2 hours or overnight.

Lift dessert out of pan using foil overhang. Run a heavy knife under hot water and wipe dry, then trim edges of dessert (1/4 inch off each side). Cut dessert into approximately 1″ squares. (I cut 6 rows by 10 rows.)

Alternative Flavors:
These readily lend themselves to experimentation with different flavors. Start from a basic, un-flavored recipe by removing the spices and almond extract from the brownie and ganache layers, then go from there.

Mint
Add Creme de menthe and mint extract to the white chocolate ganache. (This is the original Gourmet recipe.)

Raspberry
Add seedless raspberry jam to the white chocolate ganache and either Frangelico or Amaretto to the dark chocolate ganache.

Orange
Add finely chopped orange zest and Cointreau/Triple Sec/orange extract to the white chocolate ganache.

Coffee
Add extra strong coffee or espresso to the white chocolate ganache.

Butternut-Pear Soup with Spiced Crème Fraîche

Eli — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:10:19 +0000

As I said a few days ago, I love winter squash. Really, I love fall cooking in general. I love the deep, rich flavors. I love root vegetables. I love anything roasted. Hell, I love that I can turn on the oven without making the house unbearably hot. I love the hearty, comforting foods. I love soup. I love the Maillard reaction. I love that somehow, when the weather gets cooler, I can add more butter and not feel (as) guilty. I love coming in from a crisp day to a house that smells like cooking. This soup is a great example of why I love fall food. Rich, earthy butternut squash, sweet pears and warm spices, all in one steaming hot bowl (with a chill streak of crème fraîche to make you grateful to be sitting in a warm kitchen.)

This soup was a bit of an accident, actually. I’ve been making a similar soup for years with maple and jalapeño in place of the pears and spices. (I’ve been told half-jokingly that I’m not welcome at the family Thanksgiving without it.) I was planning to make that soup again. Then my last CSA box appeared with these dessert pears. I tried one and it was very firm, but also a bit mealy and VERY sweet. I knew they needed to be cooked somehow. I thought the pears and winter squash would complement each other nicely, so figured I might as well make a squash-pear soup. Add a few spices to brighten the flavors and we’re in business. All it needed was some freshly baked bread to call it dinner.

Butternut-Pear Soup with Spiced Crème Fraîche

I used dessert pears for this recipe. They’re small, firm and very sweet pears. I’m sure the recipe would work well with other types of pears, but you’ll probably want to add some brown sugar or honey if you use a less sweet pear.
You could easily substitute onions, or better yet shallots, for the leeks; I just happened to have leeks on hand.

3 whole star anise
6 pods green cardamom
1/4 tsp coriander
1/2 cup crème fraîche (or sour cream)
2 tsp honey
2 Tbsp butter
1 small leek (white and light green parts only), chopped
1 butternut squash (about 3 lbs whole), peeled, seeded and cubed
about 1 1/2 lb pears, peeled, cored and cubed
water
salt to taste

Grind the spices together in a spice/coffee grinder or mortar and pestle. If you have large pieces left, either grind it more or sift it to remove the pieces. You should have about 1 Tbsp total once they’re ground.

Mix together 1 tsp spices, honey and crème fraîche. Refridgerate until the rest of the soup is ready.

Brown the butter in a medium saucepan. (Heat over high until it foams up, then the bubbles subside.) Turn the heat down to medium-low, add the leeks and cook, stirring occasionally, until the leeks are translucent. Add the rest of the spices. (This should be about 2 tsp.) Add the squash and enough water to barely cover the squash. Increase the heat and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the pears and simmer an additional 10-15 min, until the pears and squash are both very tender.*

Puree the soup in batches in a blender. Add salt to taste. (Start with about 1 Tbsp and add from there to your taste.) Depending on how sweet your squash and pears are, you might want to add just a bit of brown sugar at this point; I did not, but I was using very sweet pears.

Serve the soup hot with a dollop of the cold crème fraîche in each bowl.

* This timing assumes pretty firm pears. If you’re using softer pears, wait until later to add them.

Spiced Bread and Butter Onions (with Peppers)

Eli — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:36:47 +0000

I think it’s rather obvious at this point that I’m a big fan of pickles. It’s possible that I like making pickles even more than I like eating them. Possible, but it’s a close call. One of my favorite parts of making pickles is the waiting. You do all the work up front, but you can’t tell how they’ll turn out for weeks. Maybe someone with a bit more experience in pickle-making could taste a pickle that hasn’t been aged and tell immediately what it will be like in a week or a month, but not me. I’m not in a hurry to learn though; that anticipation is great. There’s always some chance that when you crack open the jar, it will turn out to be horrible…and that’s happened to me a few times. But it makes the times it does work that much better.

These pickles were one of the good surprises. They definitely exceeded my expectations. I based them (very loosely) on the bread and butter zucchini from The Joy of Pickling (an excellent resource for pickles of all kinds.) I’d made those previously (by the book the first time) and they turned out wonderfully, but my favorite part was the onions. This time I wanted to focus even more on the onions. I wasn’t quite ready to go for full-on pickled onions with nothing else, so I tossed in a few bell peppers. Honestly, the peppers are good, but completely superfluous.

I also wanted to play up the spices a bit, and thought I might as well mix them up while I was at it. A few months back I was at the Spice House and saw cassia buds. I’d never seen them before and was curious. They let me take one to taste and it was lovely…like cinnamon, but decidedly sweeter and more mellow, with floral top notes. I had no idea what I would do with them, but I had to get some. Well, right on the label it says they’re commonly used in some Asian pickles. Perfect! I thought they would pair well with some bright coriander. And now, a few weeks later, these onions confirm that choice.

Spiced Bread and Butter Onions (with Peppers)
Adapted (wildly) from The Joy of Pickling’s Bread and Butter Zucchini

These pickles have a lot in common with traditional bread and butter pickles, but they have a lot in…uncommon…too. The spices are definitely present, but not overwhelming. The star here is the sweet, tangy onions themselves.

1 lb onions, cut into 1/4″ thick rings
1/2 lb bell peppers, cut into 1/4″ thick rings
1/8 cup salt
2 cups cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 Tbsp mustard seeds
1 Tbsp whole coriander
1 Tbsp cassia buds (you could probably substitute about 1″ cinnamon stick)

Toss the onions and peppers with the salt, then cover with about a tray of ice cubes. Let it sit for about 2 hours. Drain throughly.

Bring all remaining ingredients to a boil in a medium pan. Add the onions and peppers and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Scoop all the onions and peppers into a quart jar and pour in enough of the liquid to cover. (You’ll probably have some leftover liquid, but to me it’s easier to just have some extra than to run low.) You could use a 2 piece cap and process these in boiling water for 5-10 minutes, or you could just use an old pickle jar with a regular lid and eat them all within a month or so.

Let sit in a cool, dark place for 3 weeks, then enjoy.