Stir-fried pineapple with ginger (and garlic and lime!)

Here is an unusual savory pineapple side dish. It is just bursting with zip, tang and heat. There is so much going on here that it may outshine the main course, so make sure it is something really able to stand up to it.

The original recipe is in India's 500 Best Recipes, which I have written about before. However, there is no indication as to where it originates (not all of the recipes are from India, despite the book's title). The soy sauce suggests that it a Southeast Asian source might be more likely than an Indian one. Not that it matters when it tastes this good.

You could probably substitute tinned pineapple, but make sure it is not sweetened. Or then again, that might be another interesting variation you could offer as a dessert...


Stir-fried pineapple with ginger

1 pineapple
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1/4 onion, sliced thinly
5 cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into fine matchsticks
2 tbsp light soy sauce
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 fresh red chilli, seeded and sliced finely

1 Trim and peel the pineapple. Cut in quarters lengthwise and cut out the core. Chop into bite-sized pieces.

2 Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan. Stir-fry the garlic and onion over a medium heat for 2-3 min, until golden. Do not let garlic burn or it will become bitter.

3 Add the pineapple. Stir-fry for about 2 min, or until the pineapple pieces start to turn golden on the edges.

4 Add the ginger, soy sauce, lime juice and chilli.

5 Toss the mixture together until well mixed. Cook over a low heat for a further 2 min. Serve the pineapple as an accompaniment to grilled meat or strongly flavoured fish.

Enjoy!

Bombay potatoes

Years back, my dear Friend H made a spicy potato concoction she called Bombay potatoes. Growing up in the UK, such Indian treats were commonplace to her, I guess, but we missed out on them Down Under. Anyway, it turns out that BP are so much part of the culinary fabric in the UK that you can even buy a packet mix at any supermarket!

I can't actually remember the last time I actually used a packet mix, but as you know, I do love to puddle about with spices in the kitchen. I like to think that this recipe is the real deal, but who really knows. It is another from India's 500 Best Recipes.

Talking about spices, when making recipes using quite a few, it is worthwhile measuring them out prior to starting the cooking so you'll then have them at the ready for adding at a moment's notice. Just be careful to keep spices that will be added at different times separate from one another (g).

Your potatoes will still be fabulous if you don't have onion seed (which I have yet to source here in Japan), and you could even skip the asafoetida (that stinky powder that also goes by the name hing). I don't add the dried chillies to keep the heat down, but the will add extra colour, if the heat is not a consideration for you. I chopped the onions finely this time, but this is also nice with the onions sliced thinly instead.

Bombay potatoes

For 4-6 as a side dish

2 onions
2 fresh green chillies
50 g fresh coriander
450 g new potatoes
1 tsp turmeric
60 ml vegetable oil
2 dried red chillies
6-8 curry leaves
1/4 tsp asafoetida
1/2 tsp each of cumin, mustard, onion, fennel and nigella seeds
lemon juice to taste [S: I used the juice of 1 lemon]
salt

1 Chop the onions and chillies finely, and coarsely chop the coriander.

2 Scrub the potatoes under cold running water and cut them into smallish pieces.

3 Boil the potatoes in water with a little salt and 1.5 tsp of the turmeric for 10-15 min or until tender. Drain the potatoes well then fluff them up a bit in the dry pot over a low flame, then set aside.

4 Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the dried chillies and curry leaves until the chillies are nearly burnt.

5 Add the chopped onions, green chillies, fresh coriander and remaining turmeric to the pan, add the asafoetida, cumin, mustard, onion, fennel and nigella seeds. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft.

6 Fold in the potatoes and add a few drops of water. Cook over a low heat for about 10 min, stirring well to ensure the spices are evenly mixed.

7 Add lemon juice to taste, and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Indulging in India 4: Balti chicken in tamarind sauce

Now here's a great recipe that's full of flavour, even if you choose to leave out the chillies, as we must here if we want the Young Man to eat up his dinner like a good young human male (g).

It's another from India's 500 Best Recipes, which has an entire section on "Balti" cuisine. What's Balti cuisine? Glad you asked, because that makes at least two of us who didn't know!

A bit of Googling revealed that Balti is not actually Indian, but a made-in-Britain invention of (probably) Pakistani immigrants. The style is not so much based on any one regional cuisine, but more to do with the method: one-pot cooking. Sounds like just the ticket for a weeknight when you don't want a pile of dishes the height of Everest to scale after a hard day at work and in front of the cooker (g). (Yes, there are parts of the first world where electric appliances don't do your dishes for you. Imagine that!)

So, given it's a weeknight, you probably don't want a recipe with a list of ingredients as long as your arm. Rest assured, most of this list is spices, and you will have most of them anyway, if you cook any Indian at all. Most of us will certainly have the first surprising ingredient: tomato sauce. Hmmm. Guess we don't need much more than this to confirm the non-subcontinental origin of this recipe (g).

I used black sesame seeds in this, as they are what I have in the house at the moment. Here in Japan, we can get not only black and white sesame seeds, but black and white sesame paste (tahini) as well. Black sesame seeds have been roasted to darken them, and have a lovely deep fragrant nuttiness that you don't really get with their paler siblings. I thought they were brilliant in this dish, even though they gave it a fairly dark hue when combined with the poppy seeds. As always, you get to choose what you put in yours.

Tamarind is a flavour I absolutely adore. You will want a really nice tart tamarind paste in this one. If yours isn't so sharp, you can always add some lemon juice to bring the "sauce" to your desired level of piquancy.

Talking of tamarind, my dear Iranian friend, M, who is a bit of a magician when it comes to pulling amazing food rabbits out of her hat, produced some tamarind pods to my great delight the last time I visited. They were sent from back home (Iran), where they are all the rage at the moment, apparently, but the box said product of Thailand. I must get me some of those!! (This is the same M that once, when I mentioned a wish to one day try those Iranian "sweet lemons" I had heard so much about, whizzed off to the fridge, and ta-taaaa, miraculously brought back my bidding and the admonishment to maybe wish for something a bit more financially rewarding next time!!)

Finally, although it's not mentioned in the name, coconut is a primary flavour in this dish. With the sesame and poppy seeds, you've got lots of different textures going on in this one, which should be pleasing to many palates.

Oh, and you could just as easily cook this in the oven, browning the chicken in a flameproof casserole before throwing the whole thing into a 200 degree Celsius oven for 20 minutes or so, depending on the size of chicken pieces you are using.

Balti chicken in tamarind sauce

Serves 4-6

60 ml/ 4 tbsp tomato ketchup
15 ml/ 1 tbsp tamarind paste
60 ml/ 4 tbsp
7.5 ml/ 1.5 tsp chilli powder
7.5 ml/ 1.5 tsp salt
15 ml/ 1 tbsp granulated sugar
7.5 ml/1.5 tsp grated fresh root ginger
7.5 ml/ 1.5 tsp crushed garlic
30 ml/ 2 tbsp desiccated coconut
30 ml/ 2 tbsp sesame seeds
5 ml/ 1 tsp poppy seeds
5 ml/ 1 tsp cumin
7.5 ml/ 1.5 tsp ground coriander
2 x 450 g baby chickens, skinned and cut into 6-8 pieces each [S: no "baby chickens here, so I substituted 800 g wing sticks]
75 ml/ 5 tbsp oil [S: you can get away with much less, if you like]
120 ml/ 8 tbsp curry leaves [S: my small packet of dried curry leaves doesn't even contain that much so I just added a 5-fingered pinch]
2.5 ml/1/2 tsp onion seeds [S: I substituted half a small onion, finely sliced. Not the same thing at all, but a worthy addition]
3 large dried red chillies
2.5 ml/ 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds [S: I substituted powder and it was fine; seeds are on my list for the next visit to my favourite spice shop in Ueno]
10-12 cherry tomatoes
45 ml/ 3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
2 fresh green chillies, chopped

1 Put the tomato ketchup, tamarind paste and water into a large mixing bowl and use a fork to blend everything together. Add the chilli powder, salt, sugar, ginger, garlic. coconut, sesame and poppy seeds, cumin and coriander to the mixture. Stir to mix. Add the chicken pieces and stir until they are well coated. Set aside.

2 Heat the oil in a karahi, wok, or deep pan. Add the curry leaves, onion seeds, dried red chillies, and fenugreek seeds and fry for about 1 minute.

3 Lower the heat to medium and add 2 or 3 chicken pieces at a time, with their sauce, mixing as you go. When all the pieces have been added, stir well using a slotted spoon.

4 Simmer gently for about 12-15 minutes, or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Finally, add the tomatoes, fresh coriander and green chillies, and serve from the pan.

Enjoy!

Indulging in India 2: Surprising pilau

Rice is interesting stuff. It's the daily "bread" of far more people around the world than any mere loaf, but we have such a dearth of rice words for the stuff in English.

I mean, here in Japan, you have o-kome (uncooked rice), gohan (plain steamed rice), takikomi-gohan (rice steamed with other tasty tidbits), chahan (fried rice, from the Chinese chaofan), doria (a Japanese rice-gratin) and even raisu (rice), for when you eat it not from a ricebowl but from a plate with a "foreign" meal! The Chinese have a similarly large repertoire of rice words, mostly based on the character fan, for rice/meal (han in Japanese). Then the Iranians have berenj (uncooked rice/rice in general), chelo (steamed rice, either plain or with spices) and polo (rice dishes with meat and vegetable fillings). The Turks have pilav, the Italians risotto, and on and on.

Yet in English, we are only have the one paltry word: Rice.

And so to this pilau, a relative of both polo and pilav, and like which is usually made with basmati or other long-grain rice. But with rice so expensive in Japan--the cheap stuff will set you back around US$18 for a 5 kg bag--we (meaning I) don't go in for keeping different rices for different dishes. Sure, it might produce more authentic results, but the cost-benefit ratio is not right for me. Anyway, I actually think I might prefer the standard short-grain Japonica rice.

Either way, this easy pilau certainly pulls its weight when it comes to the effort-flavour ratio. It is from the interesting title, India's Best 500 Recipes. Interesting because it contains not just obviously Indian recipes, but dishes from Thailand, and even recipes reprinted from a Caribbean cookbook that I own! Not that I'm complaining. I've had lots of luck with the recipes I've tried so far. And this is another winner.

So, what's the surprise, then? Well, when I put the lid on my pot it was definitely a mustard-yellow rice dish I was making, but when I opened it up again, it had morphed into the lovely grass-green you see above. I had to do a double-take as there is nothing remotely green in the ingredients. My best guess is that the black sesame seeds that I substituted for regular ones leached some color that, when mixed with the turmeric, turned the pilau green. Actually I rather like it, and will keep this up my sleeve in case I am ever invited to a St Patrick's party (g).

Indian Pilau Rice

Serves 4

225 g basmati rice
15 ml oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds [black, if you want a pilau to make and Irishman happy]
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
salt [S: you may not need extra salt if using stock cubes or powder]
2 whole cloves
4 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
5 black peppercorns
450 ml chicken stock
fresh coriander (cilantro), to garnish

1 Wash the rice well and leave to soak for 30 minutes. Heat the oil in a heavy pan, add the onion and garlic and fry gently for 5-6 minutes until softened.

2 Stir in the fennel and sesame seeds, the turmeric, cumin, salt, cloves, cardamom pods and peppercorns and fry for about a minute. Drain the rice well, add to the pan and stir-fry for a further 3 minutes.

3 Pour on the chicken stock. Bring to the boil, then cover. Reduce the neat to very low and simmer gently for 20 minutes, without removing the lid, until all the liquid has been absorbed.

4 Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 2-3 minutes. Fluff up the rice with a fork, garnish with coriander and transfer to a warmed dish to serve.

Enjoy!