Aloo Gobi

I'll be honest, I don't know what the hell Aloo Gobi's supposed to BE. A vegetable curry, I'm told? Alright. Sure.

Among the Rules of the House there is one that applies to anyone who comes to visit, ever: Bring home the necessary ingredients and I'll cook it for you. It's very simple, and I'm game for anything you come up with.

The sister recently decided she wants to be a vegetarian, and started looking through the vegetarian cookbooks. She wants me to make aloo gobi, I go over The Rule and she goes to the grocery store. So here it go.

1lb potatoes
2 tbsp peanut or corn oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 green chiles, seeded and finely chopped (and if you're me, also de-veined)
1 cauliflower, cut into florets
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp chili powder
salt and pepper
chopped fresh cilantro

In a small bowl, mix ground spices and the chili powder. Set aside.

Cut up potatoes, 1-in cubes. Cook them in boiling water for ~10 minutes.

In the meantime, heat oil in a large skillet; add cumin seeds and cook for ~1 1/2 minutes stirring constantly (they'll start popping and smelling awesome).

Add chiles, cook for about a minute stirring constantly.

Add cauliflower, cook for about 5 minutes Stirring Constantly. Remove from heat while you drain potatoes.

Add potatoes and sprinkle the spices over everything. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Return to heat and cook for another 10+ minutes while stirring frequently until the vegetables are tender.

Garnish with the cilantro.

And because there are days when I am, in fact, Mexican, I added a sprinkle of lime juice before digging in.

Tasty.



(The sister gives her seal of approval)

Mexican coffee

I don't have the proper ingredients for the real thing. I don't even have a clay pot.

In a [preferably CLAY] pot, boil 4 cups of water over medium-high heat. Once it comes to a boil, add--

Orange peel
5 cloves
couple of cinnamon sticks
1/2 cup ground dark roast coffee
4oz piloncillo (raw sugar)

Them's the PROPER ingredients. My sister's made it a habit of always keeping oranges in the fridge, so that worked out fine--I shaved the peel in strips and not with a grater (make sure you avoid the white bits). I only have ground clove, so I did about 7 quick dashes of that. Likewise for the cinnamon, a few good dashes. I don't have my coffee maker anymore and all I have is instant coffee.... yeah, yeah, I know. I now also know that 1/2 cup non-instant coffee does not equal 1/2 cup instant coffee. Wheeee, I'm wired. Also, since it's instant--I added it towards the end and not at the beginning.
Annnnnnnnd I don't have piloncillo. Went with 1/2 cup light brown sugar, instead. This is the reason this entry is tagged under "abomination"--any real Mexican will tell you that there IS no substitute for piloncillo. My sister did, because, as Asian as she is, she is much, MUCH more Mexican than I am.
Simmer for 5 minutes, add a cup of cold water, cover and remove from heat.
Let it rest for 5 minutes. Strain before serving.

A long time to wait to enjoy a cup of coffee, but it's worth it.

The Carnivore Agenda, Spaghetti edition

Make no mistake: When given the chance, time, ingredients and caffeine, I would much rather cook pretty much everything from scratch. It's hard to tell from nearly every entry here, but I am ALL for spending 8 hours in the kitchen working on two or three dishes.

That is not the case, today.

An 8-item grocery list turned into a full cart, and in the interest of coming up with a quick dinner we decided on Spaghetti, the Faking It version.

1 box spaghetti noodles
1 lb ground beef
1 jar spaghetti sauce of your choice*
Roughly chopped spinach
Chopped parsley
Garlic
Grated ginger
Oregano
Chipotle (powder or en adobo)
White pepper
Bay leaves

The most pain-in-the-ass part of making spaghetti is getting that huge pot of water to BOIL ALREADY. Huge pot of water, some sea salt and a few bay leaves thrown in. While that's taking its sweet time, brown the beef and drain all the fat. Lower heat to a simmer, pour spaghetti sauce in (*I like the mushroom or meat ones). Add spinach, a clove of crushed garlic, some ginger, oregano, as much chipotle as you think you can handle (I add just a dash for flavor, not heat), white pepper, a couple of bay leaves. Simmer that until your water FINALLY BOILS, and leave it on there through the 9-11 minutes it'll take the pasta to cook (watch for the splatters). Just before the pasta is done, add the chopped parsley and another clove of crushed garlic into the sauce.
Drain pasta, remove sauce from heat and stuff your face with awesome.

Now, the garlic toast thing really works better with a baguette or something to that effect, but I don't have that kind of foresight when I do groceries. Soften some butter in the microwave (soften, not melt), add salt to taste, crushed garlic (because there just isn't enough garlic in this post already) and whatever herbs rock your boat. Spread over some bread and put it in the oven at 300F for some 10 minutes or so.

If you're worried about the garlic, that's what wine is for. Tomato dishes = red wine.

Unhealthy love for Ginger, brought to you by poor grammar

Powdered ginger has its place (the store's shelves), but nothing compares to the taste and smell of the fresh, grated, Real Thing.

That said, as much as I love the stuff, I just don't go through it quickly enough before it starts going South. And you know what I hate? The actual act of grating it, because my grater is tiny and lame, and more gets stuck in the little holes than what comes out through them.

Alas, not anymore.

I freeze my ginger. Shave the peel off, wrap it in a couple of layers of plastic wrap and a couple of layers of aluminum foil, and freeze those suckers. Then, when I need it, it's like shaving ice, and nothing gets stuck to the grater. In fact, I can even grate it with a butter knife.

This was one of the better epiphanies I've had while Not Spending Time In Barcelona.

And now, a picture of awesome ginger that does NOT belong in the freezer: