Mirch Palak Ki Subzi (Chile-Spiked Bell Peppers)

Despite the "chile-spiked" in the title, these didn't turn out all that hot using a single pepper; even the Kidlet was ok with them. We ended up being a bit short on pepper because one of them had gone bad, so I increased the spinach quantity to compensate, but I do think I'd prefer it with the higher pepper:spinach ratio called for in the original recipe, which is what I've written up here.

I also made it with frozen spinach, which was fine, although I think it might come out better with fresh (or perhaps with kale?).

Mirch Palak Ki Subzi

660 Curries p.544

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 large red bell peppers (1lb total), stemmed, cored, and cut into 1" pieces
• 2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1-2 fresh green Thai chiles, stemmed and finely chopped
• 2 tbsp chickpea flour
• ¼ tsp ground turmeric
• ¾ tsp coarse salt
• ½ lb fresh spinach, rinsed

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add the cumin and cook until they sizzle and turn reddish-brown and fragrant, 10-15s.
3. Add the bell peppers, garlic, and chiles and stir-fry until the peppers blister, ~5 minutes.
4. Add the chickenpea flour and turmeric and stir until the flour is lightly browned, ~1 minute.
5. Deglaze with 2 C water and the salt.
6. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer for 10 minutes.
7. Add the spinach. Return heat to medium-high and cook, uncovered, until spinach is wilted and sauce thickens, ~5 minutes.

Mung Chana nu Dal (Mung Bean and Yellow Split Pea Dal)

This dal was a big hit with everyone. The sweetness from the jaggery comes through really well. And the tomatoes and mustard seeds complement it very nicely.

Mug Chana nu Dal

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. skinned split green lentils (mung beans/moong dal)
• 1/4 c. yellow split peas (chana dal)
• 3 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. ghee¹
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 2 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2-1 tsp. ground cayenne
• 1/2 tsp. ground asafetida
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 425mL diced tomatoes
• 1/4 c. chopped jaggery
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 15 fresh or frozen curry leaves

Directions

1. Rinse the legumes well and drain.
2. Add the water and bring to a boil, uncovered, over medium-high heat.
3. Skim off and discard any foam from the surface of the water, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, partially covered, for ~40 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, melt the ghee over medium-high heat.
5. Add the mustard seeds to the hot ghee, cover, and cook until they've stopped popping (30-60 seconds).
6. Remove from heat and add the cumin seeds, salt, cayenne, asafetida, and turmeric. Stir to combine the spices with the hot ghee.
7. Add the tomatoes, jaggery, cilantro, and curry leaves and return to medium-high heat.
8. Simmer the tomato mixture, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Set aside until legumes are cooked.
9. Once the legumes are done, stir in the sauce and cook over medium heat for nother 5 minutes.
10. Serve with rice and/or flatbreads.

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¹ You can swap out the ghee for oil or vegetable ghee to make this dish vegan. ^Back

Badam Murghi (Almond Chicken)

This marinade works best with regular, relatively thin, yogurt. I only had Greek yogurt on hand, so I ended up having to add a little cream to thin it out. It was still delicious.

Badam Murghi

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. plain yogurt¹
• 1/4 c. slivered almonds
• 6 slices fresh ginger (~4cm by 2cm by 3mm)
• 6-8 cloves garlic
• 2-7 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or finger chilies
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 Tbsp. coriander seeds, ground
• 2 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom seeds from green pods, ground
• 1/2 tsp. whole cloves, ground
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 (1.3-1.6kg) chicken, skinned and jointed
• 1/4 c. canola (or other neutral) oil, divided
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 4 dried bay leaves
• 1/2 c. water
• 140g baby spinach

Directions

1. Combine yogurt, almonds, ginger, garlic, and chilies in a blender and purée.
2. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the cilantro, coriander, cumin, cardamom, cloves, and salt.
3. Add the chicken pieces to the marinade and mix to coat.
4. Cover and chill for 1-24 hours.
5. Heat 2 Tbsp. of oil over medium-high heat.
6. Add the onion and bay leaves and cook for 3-4 minutes.
7. Remove the onion mixture from the pan and set aside.
8. Add the remaining 2 Tbsp. of oil to the pan.
9. Remove the chicken from the marinade and add it to the pan, meat side down. Reserve the remaining marinade.
10. Sear the meat for 3 minutes on each side.
11. Add the marinade to the pan along with the water and the onion mixture and deglaze the pan.
12. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and braise, basting occasionally, until chicken is cooked through (25-40 minutes depending on the size of your chicken).
13. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter.
14. Increase heat to medium-high and boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for ~5 minutes.
15. Stir in the spinach and cook until just wilted (1-2 minutes).
16. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve.

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¹ If you use Greek yogurt, you may need to add up to 1/4 c. of milk or cream to thin it out enough to blend. Cream will help stabilize the marinde so that it doesn't curdle when it's cooked. ^Back

Honey-Butter Cornbread (Sourdough)

I really like this cornbread. It's amazing when it's fresh out of the oven. And I appreciate that it's actually got a decent amount of cornmeal in it. And not too much sugar. A bit -- I do like my cornbread to be a little sweet -- but it's not excessive. I don't like when it crosses the line into cake territory. So this is just perfect.

My main gripe with the recipe is that it's given by volume. Which is a huge pain to work with. Especially when you're using starter that's not at 100% hydration. Super annoying! I've done my best to convert the critical measurements to grams for easier measuring.

I think my only other complain is just that it makes too much. I love a good cornbread, but it's not really TF's thing. And the Kidlet can only eat so much. This recipe makes a HUGE amount! I think next time I'd try halving it and baking it in a 9" square pan or something. Other than that though, great success!

Honey-Butter Cornbread

Adapted from Northwest Sourdough

Ingredients

Starter

• 100g (100% hydration) starter¹
• 125g hard (strong/bread/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 242mL water

Batter

• 1 c. buttermilk²
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 c. honey
• 375g cornmeal
• 260g all-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Directions

Starter

1. Combine the 100% hydration starter with the flour and water.
2. Mix well, cover, and let stand at room temperature for 4-8 hours.

Batter

1. Grease a Bundt pan.
2. Add the buttermilk, butter, eggs, and honey to the starter and mix to combine.
3. In a separte bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, salt and sift in the baking powder and baking soda.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and set aside for 1 hour.
6. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
7. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 20 minutes³ then reduce temperature to 160°C (375°F) and continue baking for another 30-40 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes.
9. Turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.

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¹ I used recently fed very active starter for this. That said, I think you'd probably also be fine using discard. You're adding more flour and water to adjust the hydration anyway, so that'll refresh it a bit. Maybe not enough to do a proper sourdough where the starter is the only rising agent, but the starter isn't being used for leavning in this recipe (aside from the acid in it reacting with the baking soda, but the buttermilk is also acidic and the yeast isn't really needed to leaven it at all). So, given that, I think discard would probably be fine, I just haven't tested it that way yet. ^Back
2 I didn't have any buttermilk, so I just soured some whole milk with a bit of vinegar: 1 Tbsp. vinegar + enough milk to make a total volume of 1 c. Let stand for a few minutes while you get everything else ready. ^Back
3 The original recipe called for baking at 400°F for the full 50 minutes, but my cornbread was already looking really dark after 30 minutes, so I turned it down to 325°F for the remaining time and that seemed to work well. I think that I'd be inclined to turn the temperature down a bit earlier next time though, but this may mean it needs slightly longer in the oven overall. Use your judgement. ^Back

I was reasonably happy with this bread. The flavour was good, but the dough was a little too dry. The hydration is relatively low because the olives add quite a bit of moisture. The recipe author warns against amending the dough before the olives go in because it will become dramatically looser once they do. While this is true, I still found the dough very tight. I don't know if this was down to the flour being very dry (after a long, dry winter) or my olives not being as wet as expect or the author preferring drier dough or what. In any case, I've adjusted the recipe here to begin with a slightly higher hydration starter. If you live in a very humid climate or find your dough has a tendency to come out on the looser side, you may want to omit a few Tbsp. of the water.

Rosemary-Olive Sourdough

Slightly adapted from Sourdough.com

Ingredients

Preferment

• 2g (100% hydration) fed/active/ripe starter¹
• 579mL water
• 304g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour

Dough

• 515g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 15g coarse sea salt
• 129g pitted kalamata olives, chopped
• 2g dried rosemary (or 3g fresh)

Directions

Preferment

1. Combine the starter with the water and mix well, being sure to break up the starter as much as possible.
2. Add the flour and mix well to thoroughly wet the flour.
3. Cover and set aside at room temperature for ~24 hours. You may need more or less time depending on the temperature of your room.

Dough

1. Add the salt to the flour and mix to combine.
2. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the preferment.
3. Gradually incorporate the flour, working from the centre outward.
4. Once the flour is mostly incorporated, cover and set aside for 10-20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, prep the olives and the rosemary.
6. Add the olives and rosemary to the dough and finish mixing it.
7. Turn the dough out and knead for 5-10 minutes.
8. After a few minutes of kneading, adjust the hydration as necessary, adding more flour or water as needed. Don't add too much of either at once!
9. Let the dough rest, covered, for another 10-20 minutes, then knead for another few minutes.
10. Cover and set aside at room temperature for an hour or so, then stretch and fold the dough.
11. Repeat the stretching and folding at one-hour intervals until the dough seems light and lively.
12. Divide the dough into two equal portions and round each one. Cover and set aside for 20 minutes.
13. Shape each portion into a loaf and place, seam side up, into a floured banneton.
14. Cover and place in the fridge for 8-12 hours.
15. Preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F), grease a large baking sheet, and sprinkle it with cornmeal.
16. While the oven is preheating, boil some water and remove the dough from the fridge to warm up a little bit.
17. Turn the loaves out onto the prepared pan and slash the tops as desired.
18. Once the oven is preheated, pour a few cups of boiling water into a large pan and place it on the bottom rack of the oven.
19. Place the bread on the middle rack. Try to be quick about opening and closing the oven to keep as much steam inside as possible.
20. Steam the bread until the crust has some good colour on it (10-20 minutes).
21. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) and remove the water pan from the oven.
22. Bake for another 20-30 minutes. Bread is done when it sounds hollow and not wet inside.
23. Turn off oven and let bread rest in warm oven for 5-10 minutes.
24. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.

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¹ The original recipe calls for using your "storage starter". If you bake fairly frequently and your starter doesn't get too lethargic or sour, you don't necessarily need to feed it up before starting this recipe. (It won't hurt anything if you do, but you don't have to. However, if you're like me and tend to go for long stints without using it, it's best to refresh it with a 1:1:1 or 1:2:2 feeding before you being and then use 2g of the refreshed starter in the preferment. ^Back

Kaaju Methi Murghi (Cashew-Fenugreek Chicken)

The last time I went to the butcher's shop, I asked them to break down and skin a chicken for me. I didn't have any immediate plans for it, but I figured I could freeze it and use it for a curry at some point in the future.

I've been on a bit of a Chinese cooking kick lately, but that takes a bit more mental effort for me. Curries are my comfort zone. So I figured this week would be a good time to bust out that chicken and lean into the chicken and potato curries for easy dinner fixes. I especially appreciate that this curry doesn't require a marinade. It means that I can throw it together as a relatively last-minute dinner as long as I have the chicken on hand.

Kaaju Methi Murghi

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. canola (or other neutral) oil, divided
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 1/4 c. raw cashew nuts
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp. whole cloves
• 1/4 tsp. cardamom seeds from green pods
• 2 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies
• 1 (7-8cm) cinnamon stick, crushed/broken
• 1 c. water, divided
• 1 (1.5kg) chicken¹, jointed and skinned
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh or frozen fenugreek leaves

Directions

1. Heat 2 Tbsp. of oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add onion, cashews, cumin, cloves, cardamom, chilies, and cinnamon and stir-fry for ~5 minutes.
3. Transfer stir-fried mixture to blender along with 1/2 c. of water and purée until smooth.
4. Heat remaining 2 Tbsp. of oil over medium heat.
5. Add the chicken pieces in a single layer. Cook, turning every 2-3 minutes, for 7-8 minutes.
6. Add the onion sauce from the blender.
7. Wash out the blender with the remaining water and add it to the pan.
8. Add the salt, turmeric, and fenugreek and stir to coat the chicken in the sauce.
9. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer, stirring and turning occasionally, for ~20 minutes.
10. Serve with rice and/or flatbreads and whatever vegetables you prefer.

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¹ My chicken was very large, so I only used half a chicken for my recipe. This required extending the cooking time by about 20 (because the pieces were larger and took longer to cook through), but didn't necessitate any other changes to the recipe. ^Back

Haam Choy Chow Gai (Chicken with Pickled Mustard Greens)

I always thought I didn't really care for Cantonese cuisine. Give me Sichuan! Give me Hakka! Give me something with chilies and spices and big, bold flavours! My perception of Cantonese cooking has always been that it tends to involve a lot of steaming and very mild, carefully balanced flavours. Nothing should be fried, nothing should be crispy, nothing should be too strongly flavoured. Ideally things should be soft and/or gelatinous. And that just... never really appealed to me. But I've been trying a few more Cantonese dishes lately, and I've actually really enjoyed them!

I really liked this mustard green dish. Even if it was a bit too salty. That's what I get for not reading the full recipe preamble. They did mention that you should rinse and taste the pickled mustard greens if you were using store-bought rather than making your own:

"If you use store-bought haam choy, you will want to give it a good rinse and also taste it because it is much saltier than homemade."

I missed that memo though and just dumped them straight into the wok. Whoops!

It was still tasty even with that small glitch. But it definitely would've been even better without the overpowering saltiness.

I ended up using an adorable vegetarian chicken as the "meat" component of this recipe. Feel free to use actual chicken if you have it (or tofu or seitan). I had vegetarian chicken, so that's what I used.

The author also notes that this dish is often made with bone-in chicken that has been chopped into bite-sized pieces. The bones add extra flavour and richness, but some people may not enjoy having to eat around the bones. The recipe is written for boneless chicken, but feel free to experiment with bone-in if you have a whole bird and a cleaver!

I had a bit of trouble finding the Chinese/Hanzi/汉字 name for this dish. The original recipe only gave the transliteration of the Cantonese name + the English name. Luckily I was able to able to ask for some help with that on a language-learners' Discord server. So, based on that, it looks like the dish is called 咸菜炒鸡.
Hanzi/汉字: 咸菜炒鸡
Pinyin/拼音: xiáncài chǎo jī
Transliteration of Cantonese: haam choy chow gai
English/英文: fried chicken with pickled vegetables/mustard greens

Haam Choy Chow Gai

From Woks of Life

Ingredients

Chicken

• 450g boneless skinless chicken thighs and/or breasts, cut into 3cm pieces
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1 tsp. oil
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Everything Else

• 1/2 c. chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1 tsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 2 tsp. water
• 3 Tbsp. oil, divided
• 2 slices ginger (~8g total), smashed w/ cleaver
• 225g pickled mustard greens, cut into 1cm by 2cm pieces), rinsed if using store-bought
• 3 cloves garlic (~20g total), smashed w/ cleaver
• 1 green onion, cut into 3cm pieces, smashed w/ cleaver, green and white parts separated
• 1-3 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies
• 2 tsp. 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine)

Directions

1. Combine chicken, water, soy sauce, oyster sauce, oil, and white pepper. Mix well, cover, and set aside for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine the chicken stock, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and white pepper and set aside.
3. Combine the cornstarch (for the "everything else") with the water to make a slurry and set aside.
4. After 30 minutes, add the cornstarch to the chicken and mix well.
5. Heat wok over medium-high heat.
6. Drizzle in 2 Tbsp. of the oil and swirl to coat.
7. Add the ginger and stir-fry for 15-30 seconds.
8. Add the pickled mustard greens and stir-fry for a minute or so.
9. Add the garlic, white parts of the green onion, and chilies and stir-fry for 30-60 seconds.
10. Move the contents of the wok over to the sides to create a clear spot in the middle.
11. Turn the heat up to the highest setting and add the remaining 1 Tbsp. of oil to the clear spot in the centre.
12. Add the chicken in a single layer and sear for 1 minute on each side.
13. Toss everything together so it doesn't burn.
14. Drizzle the 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine) down the sides of the wok and stir-fry for another 10-15 seconds.
15. Add the sauce, push everything into the centre of the wok, and reduce heat to low.
16. Cover and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
17. After a few minutes, sauce should be significantly reduced. Add more liquid or more cooking time (uncovered) as needed to achieve the desired consistency.
18. Increase heat to medium and add the green parts of the green onion.
19. Stir the cornstarch slurry to make sure it hasn't settled and add it as well.
20. Cook for another 30-60 seconds.
21. Served with rice.

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Variations

Vegetarian Version

I believe this should be vegan too as long as you can be a bit careful about the pre-made components and sugar. Double check your soy sauce, "oyster" sauce, pickled mustard greens, and sugar to make sure they're vegan and you should be good to go!

Ingredients

Protein

• 450g extra-delicious tofu, seitan, or vegetarian chicken, cut into 2cm pieces
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. vegetarian oyster sauce
• 1 tsp. oil
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Everything Else

• 1/2 c. vegetable stock
• 1 Tbsp. vegetarian oyster sauce
• 1 tsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 2 tsp. water
• 3 Tbsp. oil, divided
• 2 slices ginger (~8g total), smashed w/ cleaver
• 225g pickled mustard greens, cut into 1cm by 2cm pieces), rinsed if using store-bought
• 3 cloves garlic (~20g total), smashed w/ cleaver
• 1 green onion, cut into 3cm pieces, smashed w/ cleaver, green and white parts separated
• 1-3 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies
• 2 tsp. 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine)