Gastronomic tours with Swiss Cheese

In India, Mangoes are considered the king of fruit. We had a couple of mango trees in our backyard when I was growing up, but I liked climbing the trees far more than I liked eating the mangoes, mainly because I'm someone who likes my fruit crunchy.

Many years later, at a little bistro in Paris that S & I ended up at quite by accident, we tasted a most excellent Mango Salsa as a side for Duck Confit. We tried to reproduce that salsa and this is what we came up with...

Ingredients

• 1 ripe mango (it needs to be sweet, in the US this is sometimes considered overripe)
• 1 small shallot (optional, skip if you don't like the taste of raw shallots)
• ¼ cup cilantro leaves
• 1 tsp cilantro seeds
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Procedure

1. Roast the cilantro seeds in a pan on medium-low heat until you can smell the aroma
2. Transfer the cilantro seeds to a mortar to cool
3. Dice the mango into a salad mixing bowl (instructions available here)
4. Add chilli flakes to the mango
5. Dice the shallot (instructions here) and add to the mango
6. Chop up the cilantro leaves and add to the mango
7. Now crush the roasted cilantro seeds with the mortar & pestle. You can use the back of a spoon on your cutting board as well, but that's harder. Do NOT turn it to a powder.
8. Add the crushed cilantro seeds to the mango
9. Add lemon juice
10. Toss & serve

This salsa goes well with spicy tacos or a fatty dish like duck confit. Even great on its own. They have a little spice of their own, but are mostly sweet, and the freshness of the cilantro and mango provides a great accent for the rest of your meal.

This is a spice rub I use for veggies that act as the main ingredient in tacos. In particular, chickpeas, cauliflower, beets and other firm veggies that will stand up to a bake. You could probably use it for chicken as well.

Ingredients

• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• ¼ tsp coriander seeds (optional)
• 2 tsp chilli powder
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ tsp onion powder
• ¼ tsp paprika or chilli flakes
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp lime or lemon juice (depends on your taste)
• 1 tbsp olive oil (do NOT use extra virgin olive oil as it has a low smoke point)
• 1 tbsp water

Procedure

1. Roast the cumin and coriander seeds on a pan on low-medium heat until you can smell the oils
2. Transfer to a spice or coffee grinder and grind them to a powder. (You can also use an old fashioned mortar and pestle, but that's more work)
3. Mix all the dry ingredients together
4. Add the lime/lemon juice and olive oil and mix to form a paste
5. Add water to adjust consistency and mix

I use this with canned chickpeas, canned black beans, cauliflower florets, sliced beets, brussels sprouts. Mix them into the spice bowl to coat evenly. Let stand for about 15 minutes, and then roast in the oven at 400℉. Adjust the amount of spice used uniformly based on the quantity of veggies you use.

The veggies are great on tacos with the standard add ons (lettuce, cilantro, sour cream & salsa), and also as a side dish for a larger meal.

Chicken Kori Rotti is a Mangalorean chicken curry dish where the curry is served over a thin, crisp rice rotti (not the regular soft rotis). It's really flavourful, and can be eaten with rice if you don't have the required rotti. I first tried it out at Mangalore Pearl when I lived in Bangalore. If you live in Bangalore and haven't been there, check out my review for Mangalore Pearl. Kori Rotti was my favourite dish there, and I was really excited when I found a packet of the specific rotti we need.

Ingredients

First, the dry ingredients that have to be roasted:

• 1.5 tsp Cumin seeds
• 2.5 tsp Coriander seeds
• 0.5 tsp Fennel seeds
• 0.25 tsp Mustard seeds
• 0.5 tsp Poppy seeds
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 15-25 red chillies (this depends on the spice level and the colour you like, use fewer chillies, and add kashmiri chilli powder if you want to reduce the spice level, but maintain the colour).
• 1 cup shredded coconut (it's okay to use frozen shredded coconut, just make sure it has some moisture and fat).
• A few curry leaves
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 0.5 medium onion thinly sliced (you'll use the other half below)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil (I use peanut oil)

Next, the ingredients for frying:

• 0.25 tsp Mustard seeds
• 0.5 medium onion thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic sliced thin
• A few curry leaves
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• salt to taste
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Last, the ingredients to cook the chicken:

• 1-1.5 Kg (2-3lbs) Boneless Chicken Thighs (Skin is optional, but I used skinless chicken)
• 2 tsp lemon juice (lime juice works as well)
• 1 can (14oz == 1.75 cup) coconut milk

Procedure

First prepare the gravy (you can make this ahead of time as well). All of this is done in the same pot. Do not clean it out in between steps. We will use two holding bowls, one for the coconut, and one for everything else.

1. Roast the cumin, coriander, fennel, mustard and poppy seeds from the first set of ingredients above over medium heat. Don't burn them, take them off the heat once you start to smell their oils come out.
2. Transfer to a holding bowl.
3. Roast the red chillies. This will take a couple of minutes. Transfer to the same holding bowl.
4. Roast the black peppercorns. Transfer to the same holding bowl.
5. Add a little vegetable oil to the pan and heat.
6. Add in crushed garlic and fry for a few seconds.
7. Add half onion and curry leaves and fry until onion is soft.
8. Transfer this mixture to the same holding bowl as above.
9. Roast the coconut until it just starts to turn brown. Transfer this into the second holding bowl.
10. Everything except the coconut should be slightly cooled down by now, if not, wait a few more minutes before proceeding.
11. Add all of the ingredients from the first holding bowl (everything except the coconut) into a blender with a little water, and blend it until it becomes a paste. You should end up with about 2.5 cups of paste.
12. Pour half of this back into the holding bowl, and then add the coconut to the blender. Add a little more water and blend until it also turns into a paste. This will be lighter in colour than the first paste. Transfer back into the second holding bowl.

At this point you should have two gravy bowls. One with all the spices, which should be a dark orange to red coloured paste, and the second that includes the spices and the coconut. This should be a light orange paste. We now have the gravy ready, so we start with the chicken.

1. Heat up 2 tbsp oil in the pot
2. Add the mustard seeds and fry until they start sputtering
3. Add in the sliced garlic and fry for a few seconds
4. Add the curry leaves and fry for a few seconds
5. Add the turmeric and some salt. Mix
6. Add the half sliced onion, and fry until cooked.
7. Add the chicken and fry for a few minutes tossing periodically to cook all sides. Add some salt to taste.
8. Add the lemon juice and mix
9. Cover the pot and cook on medium low for 3-4 minutes
10. Add the first paste from above (the dark one), cover and cook for another 6-7 minutes
11. Add the light paste and the coconut milk, cover and cook until chicken is tender and cooked through (another 5-7 minutes).

Serve over rotti or rice. It also tends to taste better the day after, so I generally eat this for 3 days at a stretch. Enjoy and let me know what you think. Also, if anyone knows where I can find rotti in Boston, please let me know. The one place I did find it in the past has stopped carrying it.

One of my favourite dishes as a child was Junglee Pulao. My uncle used to make it for us every now and then. The way he made it, the rice would be slightly overcooked and soggy, and I liked it that way. I wouldn't tolerate soggy rice in any other dish, but for junglee pulao, it couldn't have been any other way.

Today, waking up all groggy and hungry at lunch time, I started thinking about what to make. First thought about biryani. Then realised that I was way too hungry to wait till it was done. Decided to go the shortcut and try the famous junglee pulao. I used mushrooms and potatoes, but you can also use mutton and other vegetables. Stay away from sweet vegetables though, because they add weirdness to the taste.

Ingredients (serves one):

• 2 tsp jeera powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp haldi powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp salt
• pepper optional, to taste (I didn't include any)
• 250gm curd
• 1 cup rice, washed
• 2 cups water
• 2 cloves
• 2 cardamoms
• 1 packet button mushrooms chopped up
• 2 large potatoes cut into 6 pieces each
• 1.5 tbsp sunflower oil

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a pressure cooker
2. Add the chilli powder, jeera powder, haldi powder and coriander powder
3. At the same time, boil the water in a saucepan and add the salt to it
4. Once the masalas have fried and you can really smell it, add the mushrooms and potatoes
5. Mix it around a bit until the water from the mushrooms comes out and they start cooking in it
6. Add the rice
7. Add boiling water
8. Mix and allow to boil for a bit
9. Add curd and garam masala
10. Close the pressure cooker and leave it on high flame for one whistle and then 2-3 minutes on medium flame.

Once all steam has escaped (you may need to let some of it out if you're ready to eat), open the cooker and serve.

Other variations include using mutton instead of mushrooms. In that case, you need to fry the mutton for a little longer before you add the potatoes, and leave the pressure on for 2 whistles, You may also want to fry onions and tomatoes and ginger-garlic paste with the meat/mushrooms. Experiment with different combinations for different flavours.

You can get interesting flavours by adding various kinds of nuts. My favourite would be pine seed, slightly roasted.

If you want it more spicy, add pepper.

Try it and let me know how you like it.

This has been a long time coming. It's one of those dishes that one doesn't find in recipe books. It just happens when you're on a restricted diet, but still crave for good food.

I started with the basics for mutton biryani, but used soya nuggets instead of meat. The result was very tasty.

Ingredients:

• Basmati Rice
• Soya Nuggets

How much of the above you need depends on how many people you're going to serve. The rest of my recipe will assume 3 cups of rice and 400gm soya nuggets.

• 2 tsp chilli powder
• 2 tsp jeera (cumin) powder
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 5 tsp coriander powder
• 4 ripe tomatoes diced
• 1 or 2 onions cut into small pieces
• 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste (make your own for best effect)
• 2 chopped up green chillies (optional, use if you want it spicy)
• 1/2 cup of curd
• 1 bunch coriander leaves, chopped up
• 1 bunch mint leaves, chopped up
• 3 cardamom pods
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• some raisins
• some almonds
• salt to taste

Procedure:

Now, you can do four things in parallel, but make sure that you're done with the nuggets and rice before you actually need each of these.

1. Cook the rice till it's about three quarter ready. Cook it with the cinnamon and cardamom, some salt, and a sprinkling of mint, but no oil.
2. Prepare the nuggets for cooking. This involves boiling them for 10 minutes, then squeezing out, rinsing in cold water and squeezing out again.
3. boil the almonds to remove the skins and cut into slices.
4. Start cooking the masalas. This is the elaborate step.

1. Heat a pan till it is of suitable temperature for oil (ie, fling a drop of water at it and it should sizzle off immediately)
2. pour the oil in, and heat it for a couple of seconds.
3. Add the onions, and fry till light brown
4. Add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for 2 minutes
5. Add in the chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and jeera powder and chillies. fry for about 30 seconds, and add in the salt.
6. Add the diced tomatoes, and stir fry the whole thing for 3 minutes

I hope your soya nuggets are ready at this point, because you need them now.

7. Add in the soya nuggets and mix well. It will start to get really dry, but don't panic. Let it simmer for a minute or so.
8. Add in the curd, garam masala, chopped up coriander and chopped up mint (you may want to save a little mint and coriander for the raita).
9. Mix well. The curd should make the whole thing watery again.

Ok, the biryani curry is ready, and I hope your rice is too, because this is where you need it.

10. Take a baking dish, or a large vessel that can be sealed.
11. Put a layer of rice at the bottom, then a layer of soya nuggets, then another layer of rice.

You can carry on like this as long as you have enough matter to layer, just make sure the top most layer is rice and sufficiently thick. I've found that adding a layer of boiled potatoes (with or without their jackets) also helps. You can deep fry the potatoes if you like it better that way, but do it in really really hot oil.

12. Add the raisins and almonds on the top (you may want to stir fry them first, but I like to stay off frying as much as possible).
13. seal the dish and pop it into the oven at a very high temperature (I used 250°) for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Now, I used a handi, and I sealed it with wheat dough. You know that it's done when your dough starts to burn. You can also eat the dough later. Kids love it :)

Break open the seal and smell your biryani.

Now for the raita. I normally make a simple tomato-cucumber raita with curd and salt. This time I decided to experiment a bit, and added a sprinkling of mint and coriander. The result was amazing, and my raita was a hit with all those who tried it. Just mix everything together in a bowl, and refrigerate.

Serve the biryani hot and raita cold.