Fun Playing with Traditional Family Style Indian Food

It was a mere two days after we returned from Destin that we attended a fabulous dining experience at Doug Katz's wonderful restaurant, fire food & drink. We had missed last year's dinner, when Chef Doug teamed up with local Indian cook Radhika Rajwade to create an authentic family-style meal of Indian cuisine, and we were determined that we would not miss this one! A Rose Wine Cocktail began the repast; sorry, I didn't get a photo of it.


Our Hosts: Chefs Doug Katz and Radhika Rajwade

As Chef Doug introduced his cohort, the servers began pouring a variety of three Indian beers, which would continue to flow throughout the meal.


Hari Chutney - Cilantro & Green Chile


Lal Chutney - Red Chile and Garlic

Our table needed repeated refills of these fiery condiments, as all 7 of us were spice lovers!


Achar - Spicy Indian Pickles.

No cucumber = I love these!


Imli Chutney - Tamarind

This was freshly made and offered a sweet counterpoint to the heat of the other condiments.


Dahi Papdi and Ragda Patty

On the left, a house-made flour crisp is topped with Lentils, Potato and Yogurt. To the right, a mashed potato cake topped with chick pea curry.









Chicken Chaat - Indian Chicken Salad

Delicious!


Tandoori Prawns - Tandor-Roasted Shrimp with Indian Spices

I had warned Chef Doug before the meal that, being just off the plane from Florida, he should not be insulted if I found any of the fish or seafood not palatable. This dish surprised me, because although the shrimp was certainly frozen, there were no chemically tastes or smells. It actually was quite good.


Lahori Fish Fry - Spiced Talapia

I cannot say the same for the talapia - the joys of fresh-from-the-water grouper were too close to my memory banks. Though the preparation was lovely, the fish was, well, Cleveland fish.




Mughlai Karu Murgh - Cashew Chicken Curry

This dish was one of my favorites of the evening. As boring as white meat chicken might be - in this dish, it sang in perfect harmony with nutty, spicy, creamy goodness.


Baingan Bharta - Roasted Eggplant

One of my favorite Indian dishes - not too greasy, not too heavy - perfect!


Blurry, Steamed Basmati Rice


Naan - Clay Oven Bread


Aloo Gobi - Cauliflower and Potato Curry

Another delicious and expertly executed dish.


Makhani Macchi - Butter Fish Curry

Alas and alak - I could not get enthusiastic about the fish - though I again loved the preparation. Oh well - more food was coming out to the table!


Kheema Biryani - Spiced Minced Goat, Rice, Saffron and Crispy Onions

This was also one of my favorites. Who knew that goat meat could taste so good! It really stands up to the spices.


Yoghurt

This dip accompanied the Biryani. The yoghurt tasted homemade!


Saag Gosht - Braised Goat and Spinach

Loved this, too.


Badami Matar Paneer - Pea, Cheese and Almond Curry

This was my favorite dish of the night - I'd never had freshly made paneer before, and it was amazing. I was kind of sad that this was the last savory dish, because I did not have much room left to truly appreciate it! Though another round of naan was served with these courses, I was too full to taste any.


Mango Ice Cream with Nan Khatai (Cardamon-Pistachio Cookie)

I had a tough time eating any dessert - as tasty as it was, I was done.


Gajar Halwa - Warm Carrot, Cardamom and Saffron Pudding

I apologize for the lateness of this post - but by COB the day following this dinner, I came down with a nasty cold that got me way behind on a lot of things, including blogging.

If you learn that Radhika Rajwade is cooking somewhere - make a reservation - because we had tremendous fun playing with her artful, tasty food. And the rest of the staff at fire, together with Chef Katz, made this a great evening of fun and food.

Fun Playing With Goose and a Spicy Curry

I had a terrible cold last week, and Bob found the perfect antidote. Actually, I had pulled the recipe for an Indian Goose Curry off of the internet somewhere a while ago, knowing that we had an amazing, but skinless, Breychak's Egg Farm goose in our freezer. When I saw the recipe - I knew it would be a great way to cook a goose with no skin.

But it was Bob who turned our naked bird and some fabulous herbs and spices (and, amazingly, no coconut milk or yogurt) into a fragrant, strengthening elixer.


Our Bird

No skin, because of Kathy's de-feathering snafu. No worries!


The Curry Simmers

The cauliflower was my idea, and it was a perfect addition. Unexpectedly, the goose took many more hours to become truly tender than the recipe suggested. But once it became tender- the taste was simply amazing - and not a bit gamy.





This is how it looked the second night, after the curry had cooled and thickened, and then was re-heated and served over Jasmine Rice.



We have just signed up for Kathy Breychak's 2009 CSA, and are looking forward to enjoying more of her delicious meat this summer. For now, we are down to one eating chicken and one soup chicken. And Passover is coming up, so I think I'll find a use for that soup chicken!

Fun Playing With Singapore Noodles

Inspired by a recent post by fellow Cleveland food blogger Maybelle's Mom, I made Singapore Noodles for dinner Saturday night. I was overly generous in scaling my ingredients, so I also made it for breakfast this morning. Savory fried noodles are common breakfast food throughout Asia.

Singapore Noodles, called by this name in every corner of the world except Singapore (according to cookbook authors Anya von Bremzen and John Welchman), are named for the use of curry in the dish (Singapore is known as "Star Country" - though the connection with the curry is unclear, according to the late, great Barbara Tropp). After reading Maybelle's Mom's post earlier this week, I just started craving the dish. Then, I stopped at Heather's Heat & Flavor to replenish a number of spices, and resupplied our curry powder jar. While most good cooking authorities will tell you to make your own curry powder, the product at Heather's is as good as mine - which is why I no longer make it myself!



We had a bit of sauteed Kielbasa left over from the previous night's dinner, which had come from Mazullo's Market in Aurora. And, despising all forms of processed shrimp, I took a chance on some frozen bay scallops from Giant Eagle in Solon, after the fish counter lady, of her own initiative, showed me the box they came in that said "dry" (she had no idea what "dip" or "wet pack" or "dry pack" meant; it was my question about this that prompted her to offer to fetch the box - thank you!). And I have to say - they weren't the best scallops I ever ate, but they didn't smell or taste of chemicals, either.


Bay Scallops Tossed With Cornstarch and Crisped



I had picked up a red pepper, freshly packed mung bean sprouts, and surprisingly crisp snow peas at Heinen's, which had been my first Saturday shopping stop. [And - here's a "Not Fun" to you, Heinen's - the fish filet I almost purchased smelled horribly of chemistry, so I gave it back.] The scallions were better at Giant Eagle. I also chopped up half a roasted Garden acorn squash from Friday night's dinner, and gave that a saute in some rendered pork fat. Yes - the flavor did improve. I also chopped some carrot from the fridge, and onions and garlic, and two yellow hot peppers from our garden/freezer.

Once I organized my mise, I realized that I had enough food for two full woks. To avoid overloading the wok (and our stomachs) - I decided to split things in half, and make the second half for breakfast today. I decided this once all the veggies (except bean sprouts) were in the wok, Bogarting the space:



This was the second, Sunday morning breakfast mise:



The tub at 10 o'clock is the rendered pork fat. At 9 o'clock is some chopped banana, which I decided to add this morning because the banana wanted to be eaten, and I thought another sweet note would be a nice counterpoint for breakfast. The sauce is a combination of dark and light soy sauce, prepared curry paste, sesame oil, chicken stock, sherry, and a little sugar. The small plastic cup to the left of the bowl of noodles contains curry powder, tumeric and cayenne pepper.




Soaked Rice Noodles


Bean Sprouts


Friday Night's Finished Dish, With A Wedge of Lime


Saturday's Breakfast


Fun!

Even though I'm normally not a big fan of savories for breakfast - for Curried Noodles, I'll make an exception!