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

Marinated flank steak. Take II

En Español

Although T and I usually travel to celebrate Christmas and New Year with our families, last year we decided to stay. For this reason, and because it was J's first Christmas, my parents-in-law came to spend the holidays with us. This unwittingly turned them into eyewitnesses -and in some cases victims- of my culinary-learning process.

One of the afternoons that I produced food for the troops, I "dared" to cook a vegetarian meal for my father-in-law; I gave him pasta with eggplant. When I asked him for his opinion and if the pasta was missing something, he said "... tomato sauce and meat." The concept of a vegetarian dish is not part of what he considers a full meal. For him, a vegetarian recipe reaches perfection only when an animal protein is added, preferably beef. Having learned my lesson, I decided to cook a recipe that was satisfaction guaranteed. Once again, the marinated flank steak cooked on the grill came to my mind.

I was sure this time the meat was going to be perfect, not undercooked, just perfect. I had all the knowledge and vast experience from the first time I prepared the recipe and, most importantly, I was armed with my thermometer.
What other result could I get? Besides, I followed the instructions to the letter and marinated the steak for two hours. So, good flavor was assured.

My goal was to avoid at all costs giving my guest - i.e. father-in-law - raw meat, so I planned to cook each side for at least 10 minutes. When it came to it, I heated the pan over high heat, poured the oil and when ready, put the meat.

Approximately seven minutes later, and through a lot of smoke, my meat looked suspiciously charred, which suggested that that side did not need anymore cooking. I turned the meat over to cook on the other side. After five minutes, that side was ready but I knew that the inside was raw, as raw as last time. As if this was not enough and to make matters worse, T came in and said: "You know my dad HATES undercooked meat, right? He doesn't eat it even if it's just a little bit pink "... At that moment I really felt mad at my own lack of skills; I was in front of another recipe that would not have good reviews. My solution, not so obvious to me at the time, was to turn down the fire and monitor the inside temperature - a.k.a keep stabbing the meat with the thermometer. Despite my efforts, the inside was not cooking fast enough, while the outside was already becoming inedible. The last straw before I called it a failure was when the smoke activated the fire alarm in the corridor and T went to turn it off with the attitude of someone who is used to doing something that is not expected to change any time soon.

In the end, I took drastic measures. After scraping the black crust from the surface with a serrated knife, I cut the meat to gill the pieces. I cut against the grain as the recipe says to do.

My father-in-law seemed pleased with my production, it seems a little coal is not enough to deter him from eating meat.

How hard can it be to grill a piece of meat, using an appropriate technique to reach 140-150 ˚F inside, and not burn on the surface?
To be continued, answer yet to be found...

Marinated flank steak

En Español

T and I have very different ways of planning events in our home. While it seems to me that involving our friends in my cooking experiments the most natural thing to do, for T using people as "Guinea pigs" and giving them something that is not 100% success guaranteed is unthinkable. It becomes an endless source of anguish and shame for him.
He recites the list of multiple disaster meals that I imposed on unsuspecting guests; unfortunately there is much evidence against my case. He very rarely fails to mention the time I made a lasagna without tomato paste that someone very kindly ate; or the night my friends fell into a lethargic stupor (almost coma) because I gave them an unmanageable burden of carbohydrates and starches, together with hot chocolate; or the time –early in our marrage- when his love for me was tested by my lack of culinary skills and knowledge of biology. I gave him an unidentified item from the ocean, which I didn't thaw well and didn't cook enough in the oven. We ended up eating white, thick, chewy medallions, which gave us a brain freeze every time we bit them because the center was completely frozen.

Despite all these examples to show that cooking is not one of my natural talents, I still think that including people in my culinary adventures is the way to go ... if I wait for my skills to improve, I won’t have guests ever again.

Under the precepts of this philosophy, and T's anguish, we invited H, E and C to dinner. It was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. That night, I prepared marinated Flank steak. I found the original recipe on the web page of Ree Drumon, "The Pioneer Woman". That day I followed the instructions to the letter. The ingredients I used to make the marinara sauce were:
1/2 cup soy sauce,
1/2 cup cooking sherry,
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons sesame oil,
2 tablespoons minced ginger,
3 to 5 cloves garlic, minced and
1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper.

I mixed them together in a container in which I could fit the piece of meat and let it marinate for 3 hours. That piece of meat was uneven, thick in some areas and thin in others - this is a crucial detail to understand the outcome I got cooking this recipe. I borrowed a grill from a friend, warmed it up, and then cooked each side for five minutes. When the meat was ready, I let it stand for 10 minutes, and cut it against the grain. I did everything the recipe called for. That day I also cooked baked potatoes and a salad as side dishes. At that moment, T came into the kitchen, examined the piece of meat and said: "It's a very small piece, we’ll be hungry." I looked at him with my there-is-nothing-to-do face, I asked my guests to pass to the table, and served.

The conversation was so interesting that nobody, except T, complained how raw the meat was ... it was purple! To maintain the flow of the evening and trying to be good hosts, we gave the more cooked pieces to the guests, while we eat, without intending to, an improvised carpaccio. No one talked about the state of the meat, all pretended as if I was the best cook on the planet. I am convinced, though, that everyone was immensely grateful that it was small piece of meat.

Everyone left after much talk and a nice evening, and T and I were left rubbing a sponge against the grill, trying to get off the burned crusts...and starving!

What went wrong? I think the grill pan I borrowed was not appropriate.

Yogurt with bananas

In Spanish
J tried yogurt for the first time this week. Like everything in his diet, choosing the right yogurt for him was not as simple as going to a supermarket and buying a fruit-flavored, sweetened, and ready-to-eat yogurt. The instructions I gave my husband were "buy plain, whole-milk yogurt” and preferably organic -this last part I kept to myself for fear he would give me “the look”.  It is because of things like this that he calls me a "granola girl". Being a working-mom, it would be better if I made more simple decisions about my baby's food and used the available resources that modern life offers ... but no, that’s not me. My motto is: why make it easy if you can make it complicated!

Obviously, J doesn’t always accept my decisions without putting up a fight, after being accustomed to  breast milk, which is very sweet, it seemed that the plain yogurt was not worth the effort of getting the second spoonful. So, I had to produce one of my brightest ideas ... yogurt with bananas.

Ingredients:
2 or 3 tablespoons plain and whole milk yogurt
1 / 2 banana

Instructions,

Puree the banana with a fork, throw in the yogurt and mix together.

This very "sophisticated" recipe has several advantages, it controls the amount of sugar, is very easy to prepare, bananas may be replaced with other fruit, and it’s not only tasty for him, it was delicious also for me. But the best of all is that you can prepare it with just one hand. I have realized since my baby was born that part of a mom’s description is ... creature that doesn’t have a sufficient number of hands.

Chili con Carne

This recipe is as easy and as fast as you want to make it. We originally got it from a magazine, but forgot the original instructions before we finished reading them. Where we are from you eat rice with beans, but other places seem to conceive of bread or crackers as the adequate companion to chili. Here is what you need for the basic recipe and then what we do.

1 lb ground lean beef (96/4 is the best)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 bell pepper

1 medium size onion (or assortment of various onions)

1 (more or less) chile (manzano, roccotto, habanero, you choose) (optional)

1 or 2 garlic cloves

½ lb black or pinto beans (or a can or two if you are a wimp)

Salt, Pepper, Worcester sauce, Soy sauce, vinegar of any type (although balsamic is good because it is sweet), and, most importantly, cumin.

In a large sauté pan brown the ground beef. If you are using really lean beef it will look quite dry, but if your beef has a lot of fat you might want to strain it from the pan. As you are cooking the meat take a large bowl and start mixing in the liquids. We have not set proportion here, but we always start with Worcester sauce (I’ll try to measure next time) then we add a little soy sauce, vinegar, and if we have it some red wine. Once you have about a third of the bowl full stop and add the cumin. Start with only a teaspoon and see if you need more later. You can also add black pepper. Balsamic vinegar is sweet and will give your Chili a nice contrasting taste.

Once the meet is brown, put it in the bowl with the liquid, mix it around and then forget about it for a while.

Dice onion and bell pepper. Some people like them diced small, but we prefer big chunky pieces. Garlic we chop into oblivion. Clean the sauté pan and then put it back on the burner with some canola oil. Once it’s hot, sauté the onions and peppers for a few minutes, then put in the garlic and chili. Two or three more minutes and you can add the tomatoes and beans. We sometimes include frozen or canned corn just for color. Simmer at medium low for ten to twenty minutes and you’re done!