Thai Green Curry

From Mindy B.: 

After our first visit to Thailand, I wanted to try to find a recipe that tasted like something I’d had there and loved! This recipe has done the trick for me. The lemongrass and zucchini are the items that are harder to find in India. You can substitute the zucchini for some other vegetable very easily, but you will have to find a place to get lemongrass. The easiest thing to do is to buy some lemongrass at a nursery and grow it in a pot. It grows like a weed, and you’ll always have it on hand.  When I didn’t grow it, I would order one or two stalks from one of those import groceries and make up a double batch of the green curry paste (and freeze the excess). If you have the paste already made, this is a meal that can be ready in 30 minutes or less!!

Thai Green Coconut Curry

3 T. Green Curry Paste (recipe below)
3 c. coconut milk
8 oz. chicken breast
1 green bell pepper
1 zucchini
1 onion
1 c. frozen peas
1 T. olive oil

Saute chopped up veggies and chicken (cut into bite-sized pieces) in olive oil.  Add coconut milk and curry paste, simmer on medium heat for ten minutes.  Remove from heat.  Serve with brown rice.  Makes 4-6 servings.

Thai Green Curry Paste

1 stalk lemongrass, minced
1-2 green chilies, sliced
4 T. minced purple onion
4-5 cloves garlic
1 thumb sized piece of ginger, thinly sliced
1 c. packed chopped fresh cilantro leaves and stems
1/2 t. ground cumin
1//2 t. white pepper
1/2 t. ground coriander
3 T. fish sauce (or soy sauce for vegetarian option)
1 t. shrimp paste (vegetarian sub 1 t. salt)
2 T. lemon juice
1 t. brown sugar
3-4 T. coconut milk (to blend ingredients together)

Place all ingredients in a food processor, chopped, or blender.  Then simply process well to form the fragrant Thai green curry paste.  It is now ready to be used.  You can bottle up any leftovers and keep them in the fridge for up to one week, or freeze.   

Rosemary Chicken

This has become my quick go-to chicken recipe when I want to make a more complicated side dish, like a Sweet Potato Casserole, or Broccoli Rice Casserole.  (To me, a simple side dish is a roasted or sauteed vegetable. I tend to not do a complicated main dish with a complicated side.  Just too lazy, I guess, or maybe everything is just more complicated from scratch!)

Rosemary Chicken
1 whole chicken (this usually just barely feeds the six of us, as the kids grow, we'll need 2!)
2 T. olive oil
1 T. dried rosemary
Salt and Pepper

I normally rinse my chicken off before I get started, get rid of all the bits from butchering.  You know what I'm talking about. : )  Heat the oil in the bottom of a pressure cooker (one large enough for the chicken).  Toss the rosemary into the hot oil, and saute until they smell great!  Add salt and pepper into the oil, then place the chicken, breastside down, into the oil.  Sear the breast side for 1-2 minutes,  then turn a quarter on to the side, sear it, then repeat, searing all four sides of the chicken.  You won't be able to get every part of the skin seared, just get the main parts.  This helps lock in the flavor.

Turn the chicken to be breastside up, back down.  Add about 1 c. of water.  Close the cooker and cook it for 15 minutes or so.  If the chicken was frozen, it takes more like 25 minutes.

You can also add more flavors to this by adding some quartered onions or garlic pieces to the oil before adding the chicken.  Or for a complete meal, add some chopped or wedged potatoes and carrots and more water.  This is also a great started for broth. After you pick the chicken and eat it, leave the water in the cooker from before, throw the bones back in with some onions and fill it up with water and cook it.  Delicious broth for soups, casseroles, and sauces.  

Lamb Stew

One of my husbands most often requested meals. : )  Just in time for fall... The flavor in this is strong and intense. If you like more mild (blander) food, tone down the seasonings and vinegar. 

Lamb Stew
2 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
1/4 c. flour (corn starch or wheat)
1 pound (1/2 kg) lamb stew meat
1 t. salt
1 box tomato puree
4 c. chicken broth
3 T. apple cider vinegar
3 T. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 c. plus 1 T. of water
2-3 chopped onions
1 c. sliced carrots
3/4 c. chopped turnips
3/4 c. chopped potatoes
1 T. raisins
1 t. cumin seed
1/2 t. pepper
1/2 t. cinnamon powder
1 t. dried parsley

You can use either lamb or mutton meat for this, but it needs to be good cuts of boneless, lean meat.  I don't care for the flavor of mutton, and you can ask butcher to provide you with lamb meat.  Some will have it, some will not.  It will be more expensive than chicken, for sure, but just consider this a special treat.  Even for a half kg, here it's only about $4, which is definitely affordable for a great (RED MEAT!) meal for our whole family. : )

1.  Heat oil in a Dutch oven with the butter.  Place flour in a shallow dish.  Sprinkle lamb pieces with black pepper and salt.  Dredge lamb meat in flour to coat.  Place lamb in the hot oil and melted butter.  Cook 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides.  Remove lamb from pan with a slotted spoon.  

2.  If needed add a bit more olive oil.  Add cumin seed and onions to pan.  Cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.  Add tomato puree and cook for one minute, stirring frequently.  Stir in broth and apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire and water, scraping down to loosen browned bits.   Return meat to the pan, and add ½ t. salt, raisins, and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and cover, cook 1 hour.  

3.  Remove lid and add the vegetables.  Cook on a medium heat for 30-45 minutes. The juice should be reduced and thick.
This serves 6 people (two adults and four kids).  

Appliances for any American kitchen in India

When you first move to a foreign country, the looming task is to fill your home with furniture, appliances, linens, books, beds, mattresses, towels, kitchen utensil and plates. It's overwhelming to make thousands of decisions in a few short days or weeks. Many of us that have gone before you have learned a thing or two along the way (by making mistakes!).  Whenever you're in a hurry to set up a home, it's tempting to make quick decisions, or uninformed decisions.  To help avoid making the same mistakes I did, here's my advice as new families are sorting through the options.

The first thing to know is, you can get more than you might think.  You can buy a dishwasher.  You can buy a clothes dryer.  The dryer is only about $300.  It's highly worth it, especially if you live in a humid climate.  Especially the more kids you have, and even more especially if you are using cloth diapers. :)  If there's something you want, and even if other foreigners in your city say you can't find it, ask stores and google for it anyway.  Maybe they set up their house five years ago and you couldn't find that particular thing then. Things are changing every year in India, and more and more is available. I can think of three things off the top of my head that have come available in the last year that I would never have thought could be found!

Back to the kitchen.

Let's talk about appliances.  The biggest purchase for the kitchen is usually the refrigerator.  My advice: go as big as you possibly can.  I've upgraded twice, because I bought something that looked kind of mid-range in the store we were shopping in.  (Also because our family has grown by two kids since we came!)  Mid-range in the store is TINY by American standards. : )   For we Americans that like to shop once or twice a week, we need a larger refrigerator.  One great place to find larger refrigerators at a better price is at GreenDust.  It's a scratch and dent chain store all over India.  If there's one in your city, you can get a much bigger fridge there for the same price as you'll pay at a retail store for a smaller one.  If you look hard, you can get one with just a few dents around the back side.  We've had several appliances from GreenDust and have been really pleased with it all.

Now for smaller appliances.

There are several different routes to go for ovens.  There are convection ovens (a.k.a. fancy microwave ovens that will bake small cakes and cookies).  There are "normal" gas ranges with four burner tops and an oven underneath that stand on the floor.  And there are counter top ovens, which are called OTG's.  (Oven-Toaster-Grill).

So what I'm about to say is my opinion based on my experience. : )  I chose the OTG for a lot of reasons. It has a more predictable and flexible path to baking anything and everything.  The OTGs are electric and behave very similarly to the ovens I was used to in America. I didn't have to re-learn anything.  Now, you can get 40, 52, and 60 litre capacity OTGs from Morphy Richards.  I have the 52, and I can get two pans of pizza, two trays of cookies, two loaves of bread baking at the same time.  I believe that the counter top ovens are just as big (if not bigger!) than the full range ovens.  And I KNOW they are far cheaper!  The temperature seems easier to control (and keep at a low level for warming, etc.) in an OTG than in a gas oven.  Also, OTGs are more flexible in that not every apartment will have a space for a range.  The reality is, whatever house you move into your first year will most likely not be the only house you live in on this side of the world. : ) The one biggest advantage I see to the gas full ranges is that they can keep baking when the power is out.  If power is a big issue where you are, that may be a heavier factor for you.

My Morphy Richards OTG

We chose to get a simple microwave for heating up leftovers in addition to the OTG.  This is probably not necessary, but it sure was nice when I was heating up baby food! :) 

Speaking of baby food, I think another appliance that is really useful is pictured below:

These are known as food processors here.  I use this just about everyday.  It comes with all kinds of attachments.  In the polycarbonate bowl on the right, there is a chopper blade attachment (like a traditional food processor in the states), a dough kneader (which works great for a single loaf of bread, cake or cookie dough, pizza dough, etc.) a vegetable shredder (great for cabbage, carrots, cheese), a lemon juicer, an egg beater, a centrifugal juicer, and a french fry slicer.  On the left portion, the jar pictured is great for grinding nuts (making peanut butter!), coffee, chicken, or making sauces from tomatoes.  There's also a smaller jar that's a "chutney" jar that is great for pureeing onions, cilantro, making pesto, etc.  Did I say that I use this almost everyday? :)  There's also a blender to put on the left side.  I had a Bajaj brand my first five years, and it was great. Very similar to this, but after five years the motor went out. I've had this Lumix now for almost three years, and I think it's more powerful than the Bajaj.  It has been fantastic!  You can't beat the price of these, they typically are between Rs. 5,000-6000.  

There you have it!  The most important appliances for an American kitchen in India!  Feel free to comment with questions, and especially differing opinions for a balance perspective! 

Baked Applesauce

I apologize for being so absent from this blog the past four months. I have been going through a difficult season with my health.  In July, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and thyroid disfunction.  They are both connected, and in order to heal both, doctors recommended that I avoid eating wheat and gluten, anything processed or refined, all sugar, and as much dairy as possible.  There were other recommendations, but those are the big ones.  It's been a challenging, depressing time for me!  I obviously love food, and always pitied people who had to eat like that.  And now I'm one of those pitiable people! :)  I am feeling better now and usually function well throughout the day.  I'm also on medication to control my thyroid function.

The bad news is, I haven't had too much success with all my experiments of replacing foods I love.  I've tried cauliflower crust pizza.  Will not do that again. I'd just rather not eat pizza. : ) It's taken me some time to figure out how to cook... whether we all eat like this crazy diet I'm on, or if I cook normally for everyone else and make something separate for me once or twice a week and eat it over and over.  It's been a challenge, and taken every spare ounce of concentration I've had.

This week, since we're getting into Autumn, we began to start cooking like it.  One thing I can eat is applesauce. : )  I have tried all kinds of different methods for making applesauce, but this is by far my favorite! So rich, smooth, and delicious!

Baked Applesauce
2 kg apples, halved and cored
2-4 T. butter
6 T. brown sugar (Indian brown sugar works great!
2-4 t. cinnamon

First, cut each apple in half and remove the core.  Preheat the oven to about 175 celsius.  Melt the butter in the bottom of a 9x13 or other large baking dish.  Sprinkle the brown sugar  and cinnamon over the melted butter and place the apples, cut side down on top.  The skin should still be on them, so they look like red domes in the pan.

Bake then until the skin is wrinkly and they are really soft.

After they've cooled, with a spoon, scoop out the apple flesh from the skin.  Scrape it really good to remove as much as you can.  Put the flesh into a mixee/mixer.  Then, scrape all the juice left on the bottom of the pan into the mixer.  Blend until it's the right consistency. You may want to add more cinnamon!

I absolutely love this applesauce. And my kids do too... I can't stop eating it! It should last in the fridge for up to 5 days, but it's hardly ever there the day after I make it! :)