Sunday, October 20, 2013

Ah Potatoes! Indian Cuisine Takes Them To A New Level

I love potatoes. I can’t think of a way potatoes could be cooked that I wouldn’t like. Fried potatoes, especially in the morning are a favorite. I thought I’d had fried potatoes just about every way possible until I was browsing a favorite Indian market and discovered a small packet of Potato Sagu. It was a spice mixture for a fried potato dish. My love of potatoes and my enjoyment making Indian dishes came together on this one.
The next morning, a gray Sunday, I peeled and set three medium Russet potatoes on to boil. It called for 250g (which a Google search revealed was about 8 ½ oz. or two small potatoes. I decided that three medium would, for me, take the spices and ingredients quite nicely and I was right, besides, I wanted more potatoes.  While they simmered, I chopped 1 med. onion and 1/3 of a jalapeno (without seeds). In a small dish I placed a teaspoon of crushed garlic (I keep a jar in the fridge).

The unusual element in this recipe was 1 tsp. Bengalgram Dahl. A discussion with a young fellow shopping the store informed me that it was dried chickpea. For the recipe it would be ground to a powder. Not having dried chickpeas, but having some Masoor Dahl (split orange lentils) on hand, I put some in my Krups coffee grinder dedicated to spices. (Don’t put aside this delicious dish for the lack of a teaspoon of something. If you have lentils or dried peas of any kind (dahl) grind enough for the recipe. Even though purists might cringe, I believe that for this element, because so little is used, flour, esp. whole wheat flour, could be substituted. Also, as Indian dishes often include such a variety of spices and textures, if  you leave this out, it wouldn’t be missed.)

I put the 3 teaspoons of the Sagu Masala called for into a small dish (3 to 4 are called for and for a first time with Indian dishes I tend to go with less.) The ingredients in the Saga Masala (spice mixture) are: Sugar, Coriander powder, Red chili powder, Turmeric powder and Asafoetida (a white powder offering flavor reminiscent of leeks that available in Indian markets made from a perennial herb grown in Afghanistan and processed in India).

I set out mustard, lemon juice and put a few tablespoons of water in a dish.

This is how I’ve learned to enjoy making Indian dishes. I set out the ingredients ready to be added then things go together very easily and at the right time.

Draining the potatoes, I mashed them with a hand mixer right in the kettle, adding some butter (not called for).

With my large electric frying pan on med high, I added about a Tablespoon of cooking oil. When hot I added a teaspoon of mustard and the ground dahl stirring it together as it began to fry. Very quickly, I added the onion, garlic and jalapeno stirring the mustard, dahl throughout. I fried the mixture until golden brown and the onions were soft. To this I added the Sagu spice mixture fully stirring it in. It called for lemon juice and salt to taste. With no experience, I added about 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and about 6 shakes of the salt shaker. Finally, the potatoes. I folded the mashed potatoes into the onion, ginger, garlic, spice mixture and began to fry it. Ah, the aroma. It called for water "to bring it to the right consistency". Not knowing the “right consistency”, I began adding a little and watching the texture of the mixture. I ended up adding a couple tablespoons water. (Next time I'll save some of the potato water for this).

If you eat this right away, it will have more, spicy heat. As it sits awhile, the “heat” mellows but there is a nice tang. If you like heat, add more of the pepper than I did.

I put some in a dish, topped it with a bit of butter for richness and it was one of the best potato dishes I have ever tasted. It had personality; it had dimension. Wow is all I could say. What a treat. My husband suggested that it would be a great basis for a hash. I happened to have a piece of left over roast in the refrigerator so chopped it up and incorporated it into the potatoes. I'll have a hard time making a hash the old salt and pepper way again.

These potatoes would make a perfect side dish for an Indian or any other meal where potatoes would be a good addition. I could see making them ahead and serving them for breakfast.

If you are used to American fried potatoes made with salt and pepper, maybe some chopped onion, and are concerned about the “taste” of all those spices and the ginger, you will be amazed. They blend; none of them are overt or intrusive. They create an overall pleasant complexity of taste. If you don’t like hot spice tang, leave out the pepper.

If you love potatoes like I do, though, I challenge you to extend your potato repertoire into an Indian Potato Sagu.
(No, you don't have to locate an Indian market (though you might love the adventure). Amazon.com has the Potato Sagu I used: Potato Sagu on Amazon)

Friday, October 11, 2013

Thanks, Mom, For Your Festive Spirit

 
Hey Mom, the holidays are coming and I wish you were here. You loved holiday festivities, holiday decorating, holiday gift giving, holiday cooking...really, holiday anything. And, you didn't limit your enthusiasm for the "big" holidays. You'd be pleased to learn that Americans have embraced Halloween. It's second only to Christmas in the money spent these days. Remember the black cat costume Donna made for me.She stuffed the tail with Kapoc that wafted all over the house. I'm amazed and impressed you felt comfortable letting me take off in the dark of night to wander the neighborhood with my friends for Trick or Treating. I'm glad it was a less frightening world back then, and I"m glad you had confidence in me. 
 
Not having children, you'd be sad to find that I've been hardly aware of the holidays. I think you'd have been sad I didn't have children, too, though you would have never told me. I have intentions of doing some decorating but have rarely gotten around to it. This weekend, though, I'm going to buy a large pumpkin and set it on the steps. No, I won't carve it. I know, that confounds you. If I remember there were no pumpkins adorning our house that hadn't been carved with triangle eyes and noses and a smile with missing teeth. Just like you felt that pictures needed to have people in them to be worth taking, you couldn't see a pumpkin without needing to give it a face.
 
I want you to know, Mom, that I have a friend who embraces and enjoys holidays in ways that remind me of you. She has boxes of holiday decorations like you did. She enjoys adorning her home with special holiday reminders of the past, like tree ornaments celebrating earlier years in her children's lives. She just began decorating for fall, the Halloween/Thanksgiving part of the year. The picture of her unusual wire and beaded pumpkin shape with votives surrounded by turkey's was creative, beautiful and something that would have lit up your eyes and convinced you that here was a person 'after your own heart'. You would have enjoyed her, Mom, and she would have appreciated you and understood your love of holidays.
 
I remember the year that the BIG Christmas gift to the whole family, plus Grandma and LD, was tickets and hotel accommodations to see the Ice Capades in Spokane. Wow, I remember staying in a hotel room for the first time in my life, how exciting and exotic it felt. I think I remember that treat more than the actual Ice Capades.
 
I loved the lights that always adorned our house at Christmas. I remember the year you bought a stuffable life sized plastic Santa from that little catalogue filled with odd and sundry things. Stuffed with newspaper, you sat him out on the bench in our yard. Then, as the story goes, Daddy came up with the idea of putting Santa's feet in a bucket with some dry ice. The Christmas-inspired humor made the neighbors laugh and won you third place in the town's home decorating contest. That began a tradition that, every  year had the whole town driving past our house on the tour of decorated homes as you vied for top prize and won it a couple of times. I can still see the picture from the newspaper of you and Daddy holding up your first place trophy. You took holiday decorating more serious than most. 
 
Be it Valentines Day, Fourth of July, or Halloween, our house did not go unadorned. Easter Baskets, well planned pranks on April Fool's Day, you loved it all. In honor of, and as an inspiration from you, when Donna's boys graduated college, as a present, I sent them each a large box filled with some beautiful holiday decorations and dishes to help them start their own holiday traditions as they began their adult lives.
 
As the holiday season approaches I think of you often, Mom, and that is good. How our lives have an impact on those left behind is through memory. Though I wish we could have built more memories together as adults, I treasure my memories of you, your kind heart and your festive spirit.