Recently, I had a few dishes whose ingredients remain a mystery to me. It all started with my husband declaring that he would cook a Mother’s Day lunch for me. So I took a big cuppa of coffee and curled up on the sofa and read a book – my idea of relaxation 😀
Next half an hour, I didn’t hear much from the kitchen. I ventured to check. All I saw was a big bowl of fish marinated in some kind of sauce. So grilled fish was the menu. I was touched – he knows I love fish, and though it’s not really his favorite food, he still decided to make some just for me.
This is what appeared on the dining table that afternoon:
Looks gorgeous no? It tasted even better. It was one of the BEST grilled fish I have ever eaten, no kidding. It’s been a month since Mother’s Day. And he has not divulged the recipe. Sigh!!!! I have no clue what went into it. I am guessing lots of garlic and possibly wine, but that’s where I draw a blank. On second thoughts, it probably is a good thing that he is not giving me the recipe…that way only he will make it every time I feel like having it. Only if he can remember the recipe that is.
And then, a dear friend of mine, make it a brother, someone who has been a lifeline to me in all things blogging and in all other ways that counts, Bhaskar, who also has a personal blog where he posts all sorts of beautiful thoughts called Random Thoughts, sent me a mysterious packet of spices all the way from Israel, and told me that they use this for making Chicken biriyani. Chicken Biriyani in Israel? Wow!! World is small indeed.
The biriyani turned out to be super-duper delicious.
But again, no way to know what went into the spice mix. The taste is familiar, yet there is a distinctive difference is very hard to put a finger on. So I sent him back on an errand to find out what went in the Biriyani. This is the email he sent me:
I got about the masalas. They are all home made ones. The Biryani one is a spice here they call Baharat and mixed with few more herbs.
And the one you said called Hawaj is again a mixture of herbs and spices. Usko yeh log soups mein use karte hai. Aur jo maine aapko dusra bheja hai, that’s called Zaatar. (They use it in soups here and the other one that I told you about is called Zaatar). Its made differently with different flavours. Aapka waala hai Shum flavour, yaani garlic.(The one that I sent you has is Shum flavour which is garlic). BTW keep that in cold place, that’s what the shopkeeper said. they use it to eat different breads. Bas butter lagaya and sprinkle that to eat with some soup. (Just add butter and sprinkle to eat with some soup).
And guess what they call ginger powder spice? Zingavil. =)) Learned this new name today.
So my head is still spinning trying to get the names straight. However, what I do know is that I ADORE this spice mix, and if someone has any idea what goes into a spice mix made in Israel for Biriyani, please let me know. Meanwhile, I made a few additions to this as well – like pan fry the chicken with cinnamon and cardamom, fry chopped onions with the spice mix along with rice, and then layer it in the pot with thin sliced potato wedges at the bottom. Yummmmmm!
So finally, I wanted to make something new, but whose ingredients were not mysterious to me. As I browsed through Whole Foods, inspiration struck me. Out came my phone, and I turned to a blog that I can trust blindly to give me a recipe as authentic as a new-born babe. I wanted to make ‘Thai Green Curry’ based on a recipe by Not Quite Nigella. Lorraine’s blog post are a work of art. You might want to hang out at Lorraine’s NQN just for her humour alone, but her recipes are bang on target, every time.
My pot of green curry might not look as glamorous as Lorraine’s, but it was one of the best green curry that I have ever tasted. And this is after I subtracted a couple of ingredients due to their unavailability. Try it, it’s delicious.
- 2 Fresh shrimps ground to a paste
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 2 tbsp lemongrass rings from a store bought jar
- 2 pinch dry ginger powder
- 10 Thai basil leaves
- 2 x coriander roots*
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
- 10 dry Kaffir lime leaves
- 10 long green chillies
- 8 garlic cloves
- 3 shallots, peeled
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1.5 tablespoons of Thai green curry paste
- 400ml tin of coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1.5 tablespoons palm or white sugar
- 500g chicken thighs, cut into small bite sized pieces
- 150g snow peas
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 1 cup button mushrooms
- 1 large red chilli
- Steamed jasmine rice to serve
- Dry roast cumin and coriander seeds till fragrant and using a mortar pestle or a mini grinder, grind them to a fine powder. Make sure you don't burn these.
- Using a mortar-pestle (or a grinder again), pound rest of the dry ingredients, except for shallots.
- Transfer to a mixer grinder, and pulse with shallots, fish oil and fish sauce.
- Once the paste is smooth, put it in an airtight container and store in refrigerator.
- Heat a wok or pan on medium heat. Add the curry paste and cook until fragrant. Add the the tin of coconut milk and stir and heat.
- Season with fish sauce and sugar and then add the chicken and simmer for about five minutes. Add the snow peas and asparagus and simmer for another few minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Slice the chilli thinly and add to the curry and serve.
Going back to my Mother’s Day feast, my boys painstakingly created a drink just for me that took a good part of the afternoon and the entire evening.
No prizes for guessing – it’s an Oreo ice cream shake drizzled with chocolate. Yummmm.
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