For the final Can Jam of 2010 – but hopefully, not the last Can Jam ever – Tigress herself picked the key ingredient: Dried Fruit. I knew I wanted to use something a little bit out of the ordinary, and settled on one of my favorites – dried mango. And since I haven’t canned a chutney this year for Can Jam, I thought it was high time that I did. I was inspired by some of the flavors common to Bengal, in northern India. This isn’t a terribly traditional version, but delicious nonetheless!

Bengal-Style Chutney
(yield: 3 pints)

Ingredients:

10 oz. carrots
1-1/2 lbs apples
1 large onion (about 8 oz)
2/3 cup dried mango (chopped into roughly 1/4 – 1/2″ pieces)
4 dried chili peppers, crushed
1 cup raw sugar (turbinado or demerara)
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 Tbs ground ginger
1 Tbs curry powder (I used hot Madras curry powder)
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 Tbs honey
1-2/3 cups cider vinegar

Preparation:

Peel the carrots and slice into thin coins – about 1/8″. Peel and core the apples, then chop roughly into about 1/2″ dice. Peel the onion, cut in half, and slice into very thin half-rounds. Place everything into a large saucepan (at least 4 quart).

Add all of the remaining ingredients, stir well, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and allow to simmer for about 45 – 50 minutes, or until reduced and thickened.

Ladle the hot chutney into hot, sterilized jars – leaving 1/2″ head space, cover with new lids, and tighten rings finger-tight. Process in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes. Check your seals in 24 hours. Any excess can be put into a sealable container and refrigerated.

While you can certainly eat the chutney right away, it’s at its best if allowed to meld for at least a couple of weeks. Try to control yourself.

This Bengal-Style Chutney is sweet, savory, and spicy all at the same time. Don’t wait for an Indian meal – this is a condiment that compliments so many different foods! Try it with chicken, turkey, and I imagine, even pork or a nice tofu steak.

Happy Holidays to all of my fellow Can Jammers!

By the way, have you been following
Share Our Holiday Table is a progressive holiday dinner party consisting of 7 courses over 4 tracks (Gourmet, Family Friendly, Vegetarian, and Gluten Free), with over 50 bloggers participating, to raise money for Share Our Strength during the critical holiday season. I’ll be posting a vegetarian side dish on Monday, December 13th, but here’s what’s been happening so far:

December 9: Soup

Gourmet

• edible cville
• The Runaway Spoon (read the post)
• A Girl, A Market, A Meal (read the post)

Family Friendly

• Ladles and Jellyspoons (read the post)
• Two Dollar Dinners (read the post)
• All About Alton Brown
• Cookie Central’s Great American Bake Sale (read the post)

Vegetarian

• Good Life Eats (read the post)
• Feed Our Families (read the post)

Gluten Free

• Celiac Teen (read the post)
• Celiacs in the House (read the post)
• Gluten Free Life with Jen
• And Love it Too! (read the post)

December 8: Salads

Gourmet

• The Bitten Word (read the post)
• girlichef (read the post)

Family Friendly

• Food For My Family (read the post)

Vegetarian

• Glugle Gluten-Free (read the post)

Gluten Free

• Add a Pinch (read the post)
• Gluten Free Diva (read the post)

December 7: Drinks

Gourmet

• Food Woolf (read the post)
• The Gringo Chapin (read the post)
• Neo-Homesteading (read the post)
• Three Many Cooks (read the post)

Family Friendly

• Fat Wuz Here (read the post)

Vegetarian

• Lexies Kitchen (read the post)
• Simply Sugar and Gluten Free (read the post)

Gluten Free

• Gluten Free Easily (read the post)

December 6: Appetizers

Gourmet

• The Italian Dish (read the post)
• Recipe Girl (read the post)
• Neo-Homesteading (read the post)

Family Friendly

• Family Fresh Cooking (read the post)
• Giving Up on Perfect (read the post)

Vegetarian

• Two Peas and Their Pod (read the post)
• Smith Bites (read the post)

Gluten Free

• La Fuji Mama (read the post)
• Wenderly (read the post)

Please visit these terrific blogs and consider donating to Share Our Strength.

I took an informal poll on Twitter and Facebook last week, asking which recipe you’d like to see me post about next. The winner was this one: Matar Paneer, or Indian Cheese and Peas. Or Peas and Cheese. Whatever.

During our courtship (Stop laughing! I know it was like all of 6 weeks. When you’re 30 going on 73, you can pack a lot into 6 weeks.), MJ and I wound up eating at several Indian restaurants pretty often. We fell in love with the food, and being what we are, decided that we MUST learn how to cook at least some of it, ourselves. I’ve lost exact count, but we now own close to 70 titles of Indian Cuisine cookbooks, alone.

But back then, we bought 2: Madhur Jaffrey’s A Taste of India and Smita Chandra’s From Bengal to Punjab: The Cuisines of India. We dove in, head-first. Is there any other way? We went to a nearby Indian grocery and stocked up on cumin seed and cardamom pods (both green and black, because we didn’t know which one we’d need). Asafoetida (which stinks to high heaven in the package, but does something magical to the food), turmeric, and mustard seeds, curry leaves – you name it, we got it.

One of the first recipes I made, and still make today, is an adaptation of Smita Chandra’s Kaju Matar Paneer, which is a variation that includes cashews and a creamy tomato sauce. Because, sometimes you feel like a nut. I’ve made a few small modifications of my own, over the years, incorporating some techniques that I’ve learned from subsequent books and the odd class here and there.

Ready for your paneer tutorial?

Paneer

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon (or 2 quarts, whichever sounds less intimidating to you) whole milk
1/2 cup natural plain yogurt (there should only be 1 ingredient on the package: Milk)
2 Tbs. lemon juice

Preparation:

Pour the milk into a large pot (at least 6 quart size), and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. It should look all creamy and foamy, like this:

Add the yogurt and lemon juice, stir, and continue to boil until the milk separates into solids of curd and clear, watery whey. Remove from heat.

Line a fine strainer/colander with 3 layers of cheesecloth and pour the contents of the pot into it. Don’t waste that whey! Put the largest mixing bowl you have under the strainer to catch the liquid. You can use that to cook the rice for this meal, soup, or when cooled, but still warm, use it as the liquid to bake bread.

Rinse the curds briefly with a little cold tap water. This will remove any lemony taste that might have been left behind. Gather up the edges of the cheesecloth so you’ve formed kind of a sack, and carefully, but firmly, twist it tightly to wring as much of the liquid as you can out of it. Be very, very careful – it’s still HOT. Some people tie the edges of the cheesecloth around their sink faucet or twist with the handle of a large wooden cooking spoon to assist with this. If you have them, use waterproof silicone oven mitts.

Press the parcel of soon-to-be cheese into a round, about 3/4″ – 1″ thick.

Still in the strainer (which should be over or in the sink, now), place a flat-bottomed pot, filled with water, on top of the parcel to act as a weight.

Now, walk away and go do something else for about 90 minutes.

When you come back, the cheese parcel should be firm and dry. Unwrap it and put it on a plate. It should look like this:

Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator until you’re ready for it. You can make the paneer up to several days ahead of time.

Kaju Matar Paneer (Indian Cashew Peas & Cheese)

Ingredients:

One recipe paneer (above)
4 Tbs. vegetable oil
1/2 – 3/4 cup cashew pieces (preferably raw, unsalted)
1″ piece fresh ginger, grated finely (or 2 tsp. ginger paste)
2 large cloves garlic, grated finely (or 2 tsp. garlic paste)
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes in purée
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper
1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
6-8 fresh curry leaves (optional)
1-1/2 cups peas (fresh or frozen)
1 tsp. garam masala
1/4 cup cream (your choice)
Fresh coriander leaves, for garnish (optional)

Preparation:

Dice the prepared cheese (paneer) into 1/2″ cubes. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat and fry the cubes of cheese until golden on all sides, stirring gently, occasionally. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon onto a paper towel-lined plate and set aside.

Fry the cashew pieces in the same pan, until golden brown. This won’t take long, so don’t walk away! Remove the cashews from the pan and drain on paper towels. Set aside.

Reduce the heat under the pan to medium. Add the cumin seeds to the pan. When it darkens (just a few seconds), add the ginger and garlic. Stir, cook for about a minute, reduce the heat to low and add the crushed tomatoes, salt, ground red pepper, turmeric, fried cashew pieces, cheese cubes and peas. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Mix in the garam masala and the cream. Remove from the heat and serve over cooked basmati rice or with an Indian flatbread, such as naan or parathas. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves, if desired.

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Project Vegan Yum Yum continues!

This week’s recipe assigned to us by Elle from Lauren Ulm’s blog-turned-book of the same name, is “Aloo Matar” (Which I’m pretty sure means “dead potato”. Oh no, wait. That’s Spanish. Never mind.)

Aloo means Potato and Matar means Peas. This is a vegan turn on an already vegetarian Indian dish of potatoes and peas in a spicy tomato-based sauce, properly called “Aloo Muttar”. But that’s how she spelled it, so…

What’s really vegan about this recipe, is that there is no ghee (Indian clarified butter), and no yogurt. In order to create that creamy consistency, Lauren has you run cashews through a food processor and blend in water. A stick blender with a mini-chopper attachment will make short work of the operation (a couple of good ones are in the “In My Kitchen” section of my Amazon store, there in my sidebar. Plug.). While the consistency is by no means as thick as yogurt, the effect in the finished dish is pretty authentic. I noticed that she uses this little trick in several different recipes, but this is the first opportunity I’ve had to try it. I was initially skeptical, but I have to admit that it works!

Unless you cook Indian food on a regular basis and already have an extensive pantry of Indian spices, you’ll need to go shopping. Don’t expect to find asafoetida or fenugreek leaves on the shelves at your local megamart. But that shouldn’t discourage you! After all, the internet is a marvelous thing, no?

Other things I did differently:

I didn’t feel like going shopping and didn’t have any fresh hot peppers in the house, so I used one whole dried Indian pepper. I didn’t process the diced tomatoes – seemed like a waste of energy. The tomatoes break down and the sauce cooks just as beautifully without it.

My husband had recently boiled a bunch of new red potatoes that he was afraid might go bad soon, so I used those, with the skin on, and just quartered them. I probably used twice as many as the recipe calls for, and that’s a good thing. As much as I like spice, there’s a lot going on here, and the additional potatoes helps smooth that out a bit.

I served this over rice and it was delicious! And don’t jump all over me for not using basmati. This was already cooked and in the fridge, just waiting to be refreshed and used. I’m all about the easy, people. The leftovers also keep really well. A few minutes in the microwave and it was just as good as the night I made it. The second time, I served it with purchased whole wheat naan and it was equally tasty.

The fussiest thing about this recipe? All the spice batches. But frankly, a lot of Indian cooking is like that – six gazillion spices separated into batches that go into the dish at different times. But if you organize them ahead in small prep dishes, it makes the process go much smoother. So don’t use that as an excuse!

Verdict: I will absolutely make this again. It’s a keeper.

Want to cook along with us? Get yourself a copy of Vegan Yum Yum (in the “In My Library” section of my Amazon store, too. Yeah, I know. Another shameless plug.) and then click on the Project Vegan Yum Yum banner, below.

I haven’t been grocery shopping since we got back from vacation, and the only protein on hand in my freezer was a package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Hmmph. But, do you know when it’s really fun to cook? When you stop thinking about that room as the kitchen, and start thinking of it as a playground.

It’s no secret that we love Indian food – so much so, that I like to infuse some Indian flavors into my everyday cooking from time to time, too. Don’t be afraid! Indian cuisine doesn’t have to be searingly hot, is generally very healthy, and it’s incredibly flavorful. It’s really easy to do, if you keep a few basic spice mixtures in the pantry and play.

This is a one-pan dish that’s done in under an hour and is both low-fat and big on flavor – without the heat many people associate with Indian food.

American Chicken Curry Masala

4 Tbs. olive oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 medium onion, cut in half and sliced crosswise into thin half circles
1 medium green bell pepper, sliced thinly
1 medium red bell pepper, sliced thinly
2 large cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 cup brown basmati rice
1 Tbs. Meat Curry Masala Powder (see Notes)
Salt to taste
1 cup broccoli florets
1 cup cauliflower florets
1/2 cup baby carrots
1 quart (4 cups) chicken broth

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat, and lay in the chicken breasts, top side down. Brown for 5 minutes. While browning, sprinkle the raw side of each piece with a pinch of salt and half of the meat curry masala powder. Turn the chicken and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the onions, garlic and bell peppers, stir, and saute until the onions and peppers soften, approximately 5-6 minutes, then the rice and remaining masala powder, and stir. Now add the broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Notes:

Meat Curry Masala Powder is a blend of Coriander, Cumin, Chili, Turmeric, Black Pepper, Cloves, Fenugreek Leaves, Salt, Nutmeg, Dry Ginger, Cardamom Seeds, Cinnamon, Bay Leaf, Ground Lentil, Fennel, Caraway, Mustard, Garlic Flakes, Onion Flakes, Mace, Green Cardamom, and Asafoetida. It is commercially available in any Indian/East Asian market or online.

I’m not sure how this happened, but we just had possibly the worst Indian meal we have ever eaten in a restaurant. The place is called Heelsha and it is located in North Miami Beach. Let me start over:

MJ and I had to be in NMB Thursday evening, and since we were in the neighborhood, we thought we’d finally try Heelsha. We’d heard so many wonderful things about it. Heelsha is owned and run by a husband and wife from Bangladesh, and indeed the restaurant is named after what could be called the national fish of Bangladesh. We’d read all the rave reviews on the web and in print. And while we never had the pleasure of eating at this couple’s previous restaurant, they were at the South Beach Food & Wine Festival a couple of years ago, and we thought their food was awesome. We were psyched!

Omen of things to come: The papadums arrived at the table stone-cold and undercooked. How can I describe it? Have you ever cooked a pappadum in the microwave? You know you have. You didn’t want to dirty a pan with cooking oil and you just wanted a couple, and anyway you avoid some fat by just sticking one on a paper plate and tossing it in the microwave. Right? You remember what it looked like: pale and kind of bumpy and a couple of hard raw spots on one side. Okay, it happens sometimes at home. But at a restaurant? A good restaurant? Not an auspicious beginning.

Then came the vegetable samosas – promisingly crispy on the outside. And then – thick, doughy, and bland. Followed by the potato-stuffed puri. A puri (sometimes “poori”), for the uninitiated, is a light, crispy, balloon of a bread. It is the lightest and most tender of all the Indian breads. I’ve seen sturdier breads stuffed – parathas, for example. And that works. So let’s stop and contemplate the wisdom of stuffing a puri for just a moment. What arrived at the table was a thick, leaden, greasy slab, any puff having been sliced open and spread with a thin layer of somewhat seasoned mashed potato and then smashed back together. MJ thought it tasted like a knish. I think that’s insulting the venerable knish.

Of course, it doesn’t end there. Next up was the saag paneer (spinach with fresh cheese) and the pumpkin vhuna, which is supposed to be roasted pumpkin sauteed with onion and green pepper. Here’s the weird part: aside from the fact that the pumpkin was cloyingly sweet and the spinach tasted like tea, both dishes appeared to be identically seasoned. And not in a good way, either. There were only a few actual chunks of pumpkin, so both dishes had nearly the identical texture, too. And even after the post-mortem (we took the leftovers home – not to eat – but to dissect them in good light), I still couldn’t tell what dry, woody stuff it was we kept biting into that was getting stuck in our teeth. Bits of dry coriander (cilantro) stems? Green (chili?) pepper seeds? It was nasty.

Needless to say, dessert and chai did not follow.

I really can’t explain it. Has Heelsha gone downhill since it won its “Best Indian Food In Miami” award from Miami New Times last year? Were they having a bad night? Was the third-string team doing the cooking? Maybe they just don’t like vegetarians? (I’m not vegetarian – I just play one on TV). I don’t think we’ll be back. It’s a long way to go for what could be another disappointment.

So, if you’re in the Miami, Florida area and looking for good Indian food, there are a number of very good choices. I’m just not sure that this is one of them.
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