South Indian Cauliflower with Scallions

The best food in India is cooked at home, often utilizing just a few spices and market fresh ingredients. Ghar ka khana (home-style) cauliflower radiates deep satisfaction yet is very easy to make. It is always the surprise hit when I serve it at parties. Guests are attracted to the vivid green tangle of scallions atop golden brown clusters of cauliflower speckled in dark mustard seeds. The underlying secret is shallots, which add a delicate complexity when slightly caramelized along with the cauliflower. A short steam bath ensures tender florets that brown as the liquid reduces, encrusting them in the spices. In South India, shallots are sometimes called scallions, probably the origin of the name of this dish. I tasted several versions on my travels through Kerala and Tamil Nadu and none used spring onions. Intrigued with the idea of adding them to the already delicious cauliflower, I tried frying slender stalks of scallion (also known as green onions) to add some color and textural contrast and loved the results. This dish can be made ahead and served at room temperature adding to its allure as a party food.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch scallions (about 6), trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
1 1/2 teaspoons black or yellow mustard seeds
1 small dried chile, snipped in half and seeded
4-5 shallots (about 8 ounces), peeled, halved and thinly sliced
1 medium head cauliflower (about 1 1/2 pounds), trimmed, quartered, and cut into 2-inch florets
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt crystals
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder

Garnish

Chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves (about 1 tablespoon)

FRYING THE SCALLIONS (GREEN ONIONS).  Crumple several paper towels and place in a shallow bowl near the stove. Heat the oil in a large wide skillet over high heat and when the oil is hot, add the scallions. Cook, turning once or twice with a slotted spoon until limp but still bright green, about 2 minutes. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.

COOKING THE CAULIFLOWER. Add the mustard seeds and red chile to the hot oil in the same skillet. When the mustard seeds start to crackle, reduce the heat to medium-high and add the shallots. Cook, stirring frequently until starting to turn pale golden brown at the edges, about 2 minutes.  Add the cauliflower, turmeric, salt, and cayenne, stirring to mix well. Stir in 1 cup of hot water, cover and steam the cauliflower until tender-crisp, about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the cover and continue cooking until all the liquid is dried up and the cauliflower starts to brown, stirring and turning from time to time until golden brown all over and crisped in spots, about 15 minutes. Taste and adjust for salt.  Mix in the scallions and transfer to a serving dish. Serve garnished with the coriander (cilantro). Makes 4-6 servings.

Goan Chicken and Potato Rechad

Portugal and India collide in culinary beneficiary in this dish. Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to India in the quest for coveted spices at the turn of the 16th century. The Portuguese introduced chiles, discovered in the Americas by Columbus who thought they were related to black pepper. From the Iberian peninsula chiles quickly spread along the spice trade routes around the world. Goan rechad--short for recheado (meaning stuffed in Portuguese)--is a bright red spice mixture (maslala) based on dried red chiles and spices ground with vinegar and garlic. It is similar to vindaloo, but used to stuff seafood. In Portugal squid tubes are stuffed with a mixture of rice and spicy chourico sausage and cooked in tomato sauce. In Goa a similar sausage called lingiss in Konkani is seasoned with fiery rechad. The spice paste is also used to stuff whole mackerel and pomfret and used as a base for cooking shrimp, mussels or clams. Chicken rechad is the invention of my friend Ayesha D’Mello who is Goan but grew up in Gujarat where her father is a doctor in the port city of Surat. When she moved to Canada to attend university she started cooking but couldn’t find the fish from home and tried sautéing boneless pieces of chicken in the rechad paste. Rechad is not hard to make but requires two grinding steps. Freshly roasted whole spices are ground in an electric spice grinder then blitzed in a blender with vinegar soaked chiles and garlic. The ensuing brick red paste is cooked with the chicken until it reduces down and glazes the morsels of meat. Ayesha serves her chicken rechad with home made French fries but I’ve adapted the recipe to add boiled potatoes and cook them with the chicken—they become melting soft, offering mellow pillows of starch between bites of spiced chicken. You can use breast but it tends to dry out so cut it into larger pieces. I find thigh meat more flavorful, and it stands up better to the muscular spice mixture. 

Ingredients

For the Red Hot Sauce (Rechad Masala)

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
8 small dried red chiles (such as japonés or chile de arbol), snipped and seeded
One 1-inch cinnamon stick, broken into a few pieces
1 generous tablespoon coriander seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds
8 whole black peppercorns
2 whole cloves
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1 generous teaspoon light brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt crystals
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
5 large or 10 small garlic cloves, smashed, skins removed and coarsely chopped

The Chicken and Potatoes

3 to 3 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 8-10 pieces), depending on size
1 pound red-skinned potatoes (about 3 medium ones)
1 tablespoon olive oil

MAKING THE RED SPICE PASTE (RECHAD MASALA). Pour the vinegar into the jar of a blender; add the chiles and leave to soak half an hour. Meanwhile heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Drop in the cinnamon, coriander, cumin, and mustard seeds, peppercorns and cloves. Roast, shaking the pan several times until the spices darken a shade and smell fragrant, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a small electric coffee/spice grinder and add the sugar, salt, turmeric and paprika. Blitz, pulsing on and off several times and stopping at least once to scrape down the sides with a small spoon, until fairly finely powdered, about 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape out into a small dish. Once the chiles have soaked long enough, add the ground spice mixture to the blender with the garlic and blend into a smooth paste, stopping once to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula, about 2 minutes.  Scrape out into a cup. There should be about 1/2 a cup of fairly thick brick red colored paste.

PREPARING THE CHICKEN. Blot the chicken pieces with paper towels. Prick several times on the thick meaty side of each piece with a fork to allow the marinade to penetrate. Cut into 2-inch pieces. Place the chicken pieces in a large non-reactive mixing bowl and add the spice paste (rechad masala), and using a rubber spatula mix well, turning the pieces so the chicken is coated on all sides in the paste. Leave to marinate about an hour at room temperature.

BOILING THE POTATOES. Peel the potatoes and cut into quarters lengthwise. Place the potato wedges in a 2-quart saucepan. Cover with water and add a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until tender enough to easily pierce with the tip of a sharp knife but still al dente, about 9 to 10 minutes. Pour into a colander and rinse under cold water and leave to drain.

COOKING THE CHICKEN AND POTATOES. Heat the oil in a large wide skillet (not nonstick) over high heat. Add the chicken with the spice paste and cook, stirring fairly frequently with a slotted spoon until the flesh changes from glossy pink to milky-white, about 5 to 6 minutes. Add the potatoes, and continue cooking, stirring frequently as the reddish sauce bubbles and begins to thicken, about 3 to 4 more minutes until the oil rises to the surface in small pools. Keep stirring and cook another 3 to 4 minutes until the chicken and potatoes are glazed in the thick sauce and all the liquid has dried up. Transfer to a serving dish and serve garnished with a few sprigs of coriander (cilantro), if you wish. Makes 4-6 servings

Ayesha D'Mello the Indian cooking teacher with bebinca cake

The Southern Peninsula of India

South India is comprised of four states, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The Western Ghats (steps) merge into the Nilgiri, or Blue Mountains and Cardamom Hills near Kerala and continue to the southern tip of the peninsula. At the very tip is Cape Comorin, where Hindus believe bathing in the waters where three oceans meet will wash their sins away. Beyond the Western Ghats a plateau slopes eastward to the broken chain of the Eastern Ghats. The climate is hot and humid except when the cool monsoons blow in, drenching the forests and rice paddies.  Dravidian dynasties competed for supremacy in the south over thousands of years, but no one kingdom ever controlled the whole pendant-shaped tip of the peninsula. The Malabar Coast was strategically important in the lucrative spice trade. Today spices and chiles permeate the cuisine of South India. While each state has their own specialties, similar ingredients are used. Rice is the staple grain and many varieties are grown. Rice, known as sadam in the south is flavored with lemon, tamarind, coconut and yogurt and made into puddings and other sweets. Rice is ground into flour and used to make batter for fritters, steamed cakes, pancakes and noodles. To make string hoppers, cooked rice dough is pushed through the holes of a press, the strands swirled into flat nests and used to sop up curry or sweetened coconut milk. Fish and shellfish come from the sea, rivers and backwater canals. Tropical fruits and vegetables grow in abundance. Tea and coffee are cultivated in the cool hills.  Coconut and date palms sway in the warm breezes. Coconuts, coconut oil, curry leaves, turmeric, mustard seeds, shallots, tamarind, lime juice and smoked kokum called kodampoli or “fish tamarind” are widely used in southern cooking. Two other unusual ingredients are kalpasi, a dried fungus collected from rocks along the beach and vazlapoo, the pale yellow inner buds of banana blossoms. The moss is used in biryanis and the buds are often ground with chickpeas to make fritters. In general, South Indian food is less oily and lighter than in the north where cream and ghee make the food richer and harder to digest. Only in the south are small amounts of split lentils roasted or fried and used as a seasoning, adding a nutty flavor to many dishes. In the south curries are hotter and thinner than in the north, perfect for mixing into the plain foil of rice. Hot, thin rasam (literally “dal water”) and slightly thicker, tangy-hot lentil and vegetable sambar accompany rice at all meals. The duo is also served with paper thin rice and lentil pancakes and spongy steamed rice cakes that resemble flying saucers. Cooling tamarind and other souring agents are used in abundance to help balance the large intake of chiles. Tamarind also preserves the vitamins of vegetables and helps soften the hard water found in many parts of the south. Food is served on banana leaves, which are fed to cows when the meal is over. The size of the leaf and placement of dishes on it differ in each community, and one glance tells a person the status, wealth and origin of a family.  Chewing paan (betel leaf) after meals originated in the south as a digestive.

Goan chicken and okra with fries from Ayesha's class

Ayesha's Kitchen

Six years ago I attended the first cooking class Ayesha D'Mello offered here in Miami, not to learn to cook Indian food but to write about the experience in my weekly column in the Miami Herald called Fork on the Road.  From that article and other media notice, her classes began to fill quickly as word of mouth got around. Now you may have to go on a waiting list. The classes are hands on, fun and a real learning experience. Ayesha is confident, energetic, organized, wise and kind. Her joy for cooking Indian food is as infectious as her mega-watt smile. She is Goan and Goan's are known for their love of life and food and Ayesha is the perfect example of this personality trait.

Ayesha's philosophy: Cook quick, healthy and delicious Indian dishes

She offers scheduled as well as private group cooking classes in her home

Classes range from all about Indian bread, dinner on the spice route and classic Indian cuisine to traditional vegetarian fare and vegan village of India (check the schedule of upcoming classes on the website below)

Gift certificates are available for all occasions including birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, etc and can be personalized

Most classes include 6-8 dishes designed to get a new-to-Indian cook started using readily available ingredients and participants will go home with copies of the featured recipes to make at home

At the end of the class everyone sits down to a full meal that they helped cook from appetizer to dessert

For more information or to schedule a class go to: www.ayeshaskitchen.com

Contact info: 305-254-069/ayeshaskitchen@yahoo.com

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