Tagged - a recipe

Bob at Eugene Rant has tagged me.

1. You have three days to post an old time recipie that nobody in their health-conscious mind would eat much of these days. The chief perk of being a peasant, working like a beast, and not living long enough die of heart disease anyway, was that you could eat anything you wanted.

2. You may do anything but Perogies. I'm doing those.

3. You must then tag two others.

I usually don't do tags but right now I am still OD'ed on politics and need a good excuse not to get into it.

I don't post recipes because I don't use them. When I cooked in my restaurant obviously I had to have recipes for quality control purposes but, at home, it's "a pinch of this and a dash of that."

The part of South Africa where I was born and raised, Natal-kwaZulu, has a very large population of East Indians (the biggest concentration of Indians outside of India.) They are mostly Hindus but there are a few Muslims. About three-quarters of the Hindus are Tamils from southern India. They were brought to Natal by the British in the 1800s to work on the sugar plantations.

The other quarter are Gujarati Banyas which is the merchant caste. Banyas came over from India on their own initiative (and they have a lot of that) to set up shops to sell Indian stuff to the Tamils. Mahatma Gandhi, who lived in South Africa for 21 years, was a Gujarati Banya. His oldest son remained behind when Gandhi returned to India and there are still descendants of Gandhi in South Africa.

Anyway I grew up eating lots of "curry." "Curry" is an English word most probably derived from the South Indian word Kaikaari. Kaikaari, or its shortened version Kaari, meant vegetables cooked with spices and a dash of coconut. It may have become the catch-all British word for Indian dishes that could be eaten with rice.

Blame the British for what we now call "curry." My parents used to cook what was known as Anglo-Indian curry but fortunately they also enjoyed the fiery hot curries which were served in Tamil restaurants. However I did not taste the haute cuisine of Indian cooking until I ate Gujarati Banya food. Gujaratis do not own or operate restaurants because their religious beliefs say that food must be prepared in blessed kitchens. They are also strict vegetarians. The only way to eat their food is to be invited into their homes.

Garam masala means spicy mixture. Store-bought yellow "curry powder" is mostly turmeric (the spice which is used to make mustard yellow) with some coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper. Every Indian merchant has his own special recipe for garam masala and families jealously guard recipes which have been handed down for generations. Here's a recipe for a simple garam masala - enough to make "curry" for about 6 people.

Turmeric 1 tsp

Paprika 1 tsp

Cumin 1 tsp

Coriander 1 tsp

Ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp

Ground cloves 1/4 tsp

Nutmeg 1/4 tsp

Ground fenugreek 1/4 tsp

Mustard seed 1/2 tsp

Cayenne 1/4 tsp

Ginger 1 tsp

The mustard seeds are first toasted in oil (or preferably ghee - clarified butter) until they start to bubble. Then the rest of the spices are quickly added and gently heated. When they sizzle, add one large onion finely chopped, two teaspoons of finely minced ginger, four teaspoons of finely chopped garlic and as many diced Indian red chilies (or cayenne pepper) as you can handle. (Serrano chilies can also be substituted.) You can double the amount of ginger and garlic if you like really aromatic food as I do.

Now add whatever you intend to curry: meat, fish or vegetables. When they are cooked, add one large chopped tomato, a half a cup of chopped cilantro and a teaspoon of cardamom seeds (or even the whole pods.) Serve with basmati rice (preferably cooked with a few strands of saffron.)













I'm going to tag Cookie at The Cook Shack--Gab & Grub and Gayle at Dragon Lady's Den.