Category: Big bites

My parents’ garden has a jackfruit tree that generously bears fruits every year. What is surprising is that not just that these are not little excuses for fruits, but the backyard location is in the heart of metropolitan Bhubaneswar.  How lovely is that.

I was visiting during what was pre-season for these majestic fruits; but the tender green fruit can also be used in cooking and I share a simple recipe here.  I trace the source of the staple ingredient from tree to table.

The tender jackfruit is quite cumbersome to skin, chop, and separate the flesh from the inedible strands. We took intrepid Ranjeeta’s help (in picture). She amazed me by turning upavishta konasana — a yoga pose that I struggle with at a well equipped studio back home — into a real life functional pose to tame this recalcitrant fruit, with well-oiled palms.

But not to fear, canned jackfruits are also available in supermarkets in the west. Just remember that the tender green ones are used for cooking while the mature (yellow) ones are ready-to-eat as fruits, often in syrup. Check the label carefully.

Often touted as a meat substitute, the jackfruit texture is indeed meaty. Also low-in-fat nutritious.

Special tools:

Pressure cooker

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chana dal soaked for at least 1 hour
• Whole garam masala: 2 black cardamoms + 2 green cardamoms + 2 cloves + 1 bay leaf
• Spice powder: 1 tsp curry powder + 1 tsp cumin powder + 1/2 tsp turmeric + 1/4 tsp chilli powder
• 2-3 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 250 gms chopped jackfruit
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt to taste

Method.

Heat oil. Add the whole garam masala and saute for a minute.  Add the ginger-garlic paste. Keep stirring to avoid sticking or burning. Add about 2 tbsps water. Continue stirring and adding water a few more times till the paste is cooked (about 5-6 mins). Add the powdered spices and saute for a minute or two. Then add the jackfruit pieces, chana dal, 1 cup water and salt to taste. Pressure cook to tenderize and cook the vegetable- the time depends on your pressure cooker model. It should not take more than 5 minutes under high pressure.

Serve with rice.

Notes, hints, tips:

1. If you are using canned jackfruit, note that it is already cleaned and cooked. But rinse it well. You can just make it in a regular pot (instead of a pressure cooker). In any case, you can always cook in a regular pot, it may just take a little longer.
2. If using a pressure cooker, follow the instructions in your manual. There are too many varieties of pressure cooker in the market to have a generic method that works for all.
3. You can make the ginger-garlic paste in big batches in a food processor, adding little water as necessary. Then freeze the remainder for the next use.
4. You can add potatoes to this as well.
5. The curry powder is here is a specialized mix of the local spice bazaar, much like the Ras el Hanout.

In my last trip to Tokyo, I was exposed to the simplicity of whitebait or the little white fish, which are actually immature anchovies or sardines. Named shirasu in Japan, they make a great topping or an appetizer accompanying sake (which is how I had it). In Liguria (Italy), the same is boiled or fried and dressed with lemon juice and/or oil.  Here I share a classic recipe for the little fish  mahuradi from Tankapani (India). Unlike the whitebait, these are not babies; they just happen to be tiny adults!

Special tools:

Spice grinder

Ingredients

• 1 cup  little fish, cleaned, smeared with little salt + little turmeric powder + 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup oil
• Seasoning: 1 tbsp oil +  1/2 tsp pancha phutana + few curry leaves
• 1 medium potato, peeled and diced into 1/2″ cubes
• Spice mix in a spice grinder:  1 1/2 tbsp black mustard seeds + 1  tsp cumin seeds + pinch turmeric + red chilli powder
• 2-3 pods of garlic very finely minced
• 1 small tomato peeled and diced fine

Method

Deep fry the fish in oil in 2 or 3 batches till lightly brown. It is fine even if they clump together. Drain and keep aside.  Dissolve or mix the spice mix and the minced garlic in 2 cups of water.  Heat oil and add the pancha phutana + curry leaves. Add the diced potatoes. When well coated in oil add the spice mixture. Bring to a slow simmer until potatoes are soft (10-12 minutes). Then add the finely diced tomatoes. When it comes to a boil, add the deep fried fish and turn off the heat.

Serve hot with steamed rice.

Notes, hints, tips:

1. You can use any small fish in this recipe, including whitebait. Needless to mention, there is no need to debone the fish. In fact, for someone as squeamish as me, once I beheaded a thousand (prepping)!
2. How can an Indian classic have cornstarch in its recipe? You got me. That’s my humble contribution.
3. You could shallow fry the fish– but they disintegrate rapidly.  The cornstarch (or whole wheat flour/ata) helps in binding and crisping the fish.
4. Instead of cumin seeds in the mix; you can use the fragrant ras el hanout.
5. You can use a different souring agent than tomato (like ambula)
6. See my pancha phutana mix

 

Fried Mahuradi:

Exiting a Tokyo subway through a department store,  I got besotted with an “MPC” (microwave pressure cooker) prominently displayed.  The microwave is my usual trusty sous-chef and pressure cooking is my way of life: but the twain had never met!  So, I promptly bought the MPC and lugged it all the way back to New York.  Later I noticed that the MPC is made in India- talk of the world being a global village.

Here I give a simple recipe (courtesy: my friend from Chittagong, Kamal) using the MPC . A bitter gourd has its namesake taste and can be bought at most  Indian green grocers’. This is also local to Okinawa where it goes by the name “goya”. The Chinese bittermelons are a little milder.  Either can be used here. I am told the bitterness is good for you and so it is no surprise that I now see cartons of bitter gourd juice in Indian supermarkets.

There are many ways to reduce the bitterness of the gourd/melon: salting and draining of its bitter juices,  or masking the bitterness with tamarind and sugar, or crisping through deep-frying, to list a few. But here is a recipe that is utterly simple and yet magically tames the bitterness. And, the taste is wonderful with the lentils mildly flavored by whole spices.

To each his own. My Lebanese friend Pierre said that once a South-East Asian made bitter gourds for him with great love; but he had to spit it out to the great amusement of his children.  This recipe may be perfect for him. On the other hand, I was surprised to learn that my Dad does not like this one,  since it is not bitter enough!!

Special tools:

pressure cooker or microwave pressure cooker

Ingredients

• 3/4 lb bitter gourds or bitter melons, cut into small peices
• 2 medium sized tomatoes cut into small peices
• 3/4 cup chana dal or yellow lentils, soaked in plenty of water for 1 hr and drained
• Seasoning whole spices (SWS): 1/4 tsp each of whole black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, anise seeds +  1 dried chile de arbol
• 1 tbsp avocado oil
• a pinch of turmeric
• salt to taste

Method

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add all the SWS ingredients till the spices sputter and fragrant (less than a  minute or so). Add the gourd pieces and saute for 2 minutes until well coated.

In a pressure cooker add all the ingredients together and 1 cup water. Pressure cook, following your instructions manual, until the gourds are soft.

Serve with hot steaming rice.

Notes, hints, tips:

1.  The SWS can be replaced by 1 tsp of the whole spice mix  pancha phutana.
2. The same recipe can be used for green papaya or kohlrabi, instead of the bitter gourds.
3. A stove-top pressure cooker takes 5 minutes at pressure. A microwave pressure cooker takes longer: it took me 12 minutes.  There are many factors involved in pressure cooking, so you have to experiment with the equipment you have at hand.
4. I have tried this recipe in a regular pan on the stove (not a pressure cooker). I was curious whether the pressure helped in getting rid of the bitterness. But it turns out that it works out perfectly well even without the pressure.   The dal should be well soaked (at least a few hours)  and cook for 15-20 minutes on simmer. This also needs more water. So keep an eye on it.
5. You could add garam masala at the end, if you so wish.  I tend to be a minimalist when it comes to spicing.  I found the flavors satisfying enough that I did not use it.

 

I was urged by my friend for an easy-peasy dish, but healthy,  delectable and surprising. This is my response: Indonesian Tempeh with Vietnamese sauce & garnish, served in the American “steak” style.

Tofu is to curd what tempeh is to cheese. Tempeh is fermented soy and is a superfood,  as professed by health gurus.  One of  health and nutrition results of 2017 was that including hot peppers in the diet is a good thing; so I could not resist the temptation of adding jalapeno peppers to the garnish. I used Vietnamese fish sauce; so strictly speaking it is not vegetarian– although its role in the dish is to provide a depth of savory flavor and those of you familiar with this ingredient have realized that it is not fishy at all. You can omit this, if you are not comfortable with its usage.

You may notice that there is no oil in the recipe:  I adapt this characteristic from southeast Asian techniques, which I find particularly interesting.

Here the tempeh steams in the sauce and turns into glaze, due to the sugar, when done.   Mise en place-ed, the dish is ready in 10 minutes!

Ingredients

Makes 2 portions

• 16 oz tempeh (two packets of 8 oz each)
• S1:  4 tbsps brown sugar + 2 tbsp fish sauce + 2 tbsp soy sauce + dash of Sriracha or red chilli powder + 1 tsp grated fresh ginger + 2 tbsps of lemon juice  + 3-4 tbsp white wine or sake
• S2:  1 green jalapeno thinly sliced + 1 tsp lemon juice + zest of  half a lemon + handful cilantro leaves

Method

Cut the tempeh into 6 small “steak” pieces.  Place all the S1 ingredients in an iron skillet and mix.  Lay the 6 tempeh pieces.  Turn on the heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to gentle simmer and  cover. After 4 minutes,  turn each piece cook for another 4 minutes covered.  If the sauce has dried up, then add some more wine or water.  Be careful not to burn it since  the sauce contains sugar.

Mix the S2 ingredients for garnishing. Serve tempeh warm or cold, topped with garnish.

Notes, hints, tips:

1. You can use a non-stick pan instead of the iron skillet.
2. I have used brown sugar, but you could replace this with palm sugar if you can lay your hands on it.