Curry eggplant with potatoes

En Español

T panics with the idea of having to eat something that has been in the fridge for more than three days. In his defense, I must say that is understandable. His mom, my beloved mother-in-law, believes that all foods are natural sources of penicillin from the fungi they grow. She does not see any downside to eating a dose of "antibiotics" produced by some product of her refrigerator. So, in order to contribute to my husband’s sanity, I decided it was time to cook the eggplants I bought a couple of visits-to-the-grocery- store ago. I didn’t want T to have to face his childhood fears with a not-so –fresh eggplant.

I found this recipe in the book "How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman. I have prepared it a couple of times. From the first time I cooked it, it’s been delicious, which makes me feel happy, competent, intelligent; an expert ... finally a recipe I cannot screw up! This time was no exception. T loved it, but to my surprise, when he tasted it he said it was very hot. Very hot for a character who pickles Peruvian chilies in garlic! I guess it was spicy.


The ingredients I used were:

2 medium eggplants,
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds,
½ teaspoon dried ground chili (cayenne),
½ tsp turmeric (turmeric)
2 tablespoons parsley, crushed seeds (coriander)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons sliced garlic,
4 tablespoons butter
1 can diced tomatoes,
1 cup water
6 potatoes cut into small cubes, and pepper.

The original recipe calls for 3 large tomatoes, cored, peeled, seeded and chopped, plus oil, canola or neutral. I didn’t have these, so I used olive oil and a can of diced tomatoes.

What I did:

The first thing I did was to peel two medium eggplants, cut them into slices and salt them to remove the excess moisture and the bitter liquid. When they were ready, I washed and cut them into cubes.

One thing I learned preparing this dish is that curry is not a spice in itself but a mixture of several spices. For this recipe I mixed 1 / 2 teaspoon cayenne, 1 / 2 teaspoon turmeric, 2 teaspoons of crushed coriander and 1 tablespoon of cumin.

I also got 1 tablespoon mustard seeds ready.

Once I had all the ingredients ready, I took 1 tablespoon of olive oil in large saucepan (5.5 qt/5.2 lt) and mustard seeds, and cooked them over medium heat until the seeds began to pop.

When the seeds were ready, I threw in the spice mixture, 1 tablespoon chopped ginger, 2 tablespoons sliced garlic and a good chunk of butter - about 4 tablespoons, stirring occasionally, until the ginger and garlic were soft and formed a paste, around 5 minutes.

Then I added the eggplants, potatoes, salt and pepper and mixed all ingredients for the seasoning paste to cover the potatoes and eggplant in an even way. Finally, I added the tomatoes and the cup of water to the saucepan. I reduced the heat to medium low, covered the pan and let it cook for half an hour, stirring occasionally. Then, I removed the lid so the excess liquid evaporated, let it cook for another 15 minutes, and made sure the eggplant and potatoes were soft ... and voila! I served it to T.

To my regret, this photo does not do any justice to my great work putting together the ingredients; it’s not a good photo, but it was the best. Besides cooking now I have to learn to take pictures!

What is curry?

 En Español
After cooking curry eggplant with potatoes, I was intrigued and started to look for a simple description and some history of this mix of spices. To my surprise, I learned that there are two different things called "curry". For Indians, curry is a sauce used to accompany rice and was originally called kari - word of which it is believed the word curry is derived. On the other hand, curry powder is a blend of spices and is from British origin. Most recipes for curry powder include coriander, turmeric, fenugreek, and cumin. In addition they can have other ingredients like mustard seeds, ginger and garlic. In India, the combination of spices is called garam masala and does not follow only one specific recipe, it depends on the region and family traditions.

Flank Steak - What I have learned

En Español

My first philosophical conclusion related to cooking is that it’s not enough to follow the instructions on the recipes and have all the ingredients. The recipes that are in books or on the Internet are for people who already know how to cook, not for people who are learning to cook. I have prepared many recipes, many, and they rarely turn out as I imagine when I choose them. People who design the recipes assume their readers have a basic knowledge of the behavior and the changes foods undergo when they are mixed and exposed to heat. Analyzing the evidence, I DO NOT have this basic knowledge, nor have I taken the time to scrutinize, step by step, each recipe to figure out why I get the results I get ... Lousy! Despite my many failures, I have not given up on learning to cook because I want to belong to the group of people who possess the secrets and culinary wisdom and that make any dish a smooth production.

After carefully assessing my disastrous experiences with flank steak on the grill and researching the rationale behind each step of the recipe, I realize that I made many mistakes. For example, the meat was charred on the outside and not cooked on the inside because the choice of tools and the temperature of the meat before cooking were wrong.

The grill that I used was made of aluminum, very thin and light. According to Alton Brown, author of the book "I'm just here for the food. Food + Heat = Cooking ", it’s better to have a surface that conducts heat evenly and that is sufficiently thick in order to maintain the thermal energy. Aluminum, although a good energy conductor, is very thin and light so it does not keep the heat after placing a piece of cold meat. Also, because it’s so thin, it heats up very quickly. Thus I spent tedious hours truing to clean the burnt marinade off the damn thing. A better alternative is to use an iron grill, which keeps and conducts heat evenly because it’s so dense.

Meat should be at room temperature before cooking ... I had no idea of this! As I found in cookthink.com, it is important to let refrigerated meat get to room temperature before cooking, about 30 minutes. Otherwise you run the risk that the outside dries out or, worse, it burns while the inside does not get cooked. A trick mentioned in cookthink.com, is that if you cannot let the meat come to room temperature, cook over low to prevent burning.

I found all of this in reference the cooking process, but what do I need to do once it’s cooked? LET IT REST! The objective is to let the juices, which are concentrated in the center by the heat, redistribute throughout the piece of meat, making it tender. Another good thing about letting it rest is that the juices don’t end up all over your plate, but remain where they should be.

To learn more about the two main characters of this recipe, the flank steak and the marinade, I looked and this was what I found:

The flank steak is one of the best cuts to marinade. In other words, a cut of meat that takes a lot of flavors that is in the sauce.
Traditionally it was thought that the acid component of the marinade served to soften the meat but according to Alton Brown, on his book "I'm just here for the food. Food + Heat = Cooking " this effect only occurs at the surface and not inside the meat. It is a myth!

A marinade for usually consists of:
(from cookthink.com)

• Acid: Vinegar, Wine, Yogurt, Juice citrus
• Oil: Vegetable oil
• Elements aromatics: onion, garlic, ginger
• Salt: Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, miso:
• Herbs / spices: Rosemary, oregano, cumin, cinnamon
• Sweet pepper / spicy crushed red pepper, hot sauce, pepper, chopped