Indian Bits and Pieces

[Joanbunting Profile]

I wish Sue and Sakkers hadn't mentioned Southall - scene of an awful teaching practice in the early 1960s - 3 months of hell, well it would have been three months had I not caught something horrible and ended up in hospital!

The school meals though were fabulous as were the children, all 38 of them in my class

[Sakkarin Profile]

Interesting trip to my local specialist Asian foodshop Zebs, who try and stock a bit of everything. Only had a 12 minute parking ticket, so need to go back and have another nose around, as they had lots of weird and wonderful stuff I didn't recognise.

Banana Blossom! Haven't seen these on sale anywhere for years! Last one I bought was from Oriental City long before they closed, so that sets a date on it. Now I will just have to figure out something to do with it.

Curry Leaf Chutney!! After making those lovely two tablespoonsful, this whole jarful is only £1.99 - I hope it tastes as good…

Can of Kung Po Pork!!! I will have to return to my "Kungest Po" story, as it remains unfinished… this can appears to have been actually made in Shanghai. Closer inspection reveals that it is actually made by a company called something like "Shangai Malai", in the Czech Republic and looks like one of those orange sugary versions. I'll save it for a rainy day and let you know.

Achar Gosht Masala Paste I bought a sachet of this the other day, and it is by a long, long way the best ever curry paste I've tried, and reminds me of the taste of the authentic curries that used to be on sale in the Asian Sweetshops of Southall when I was a teenager. This time I got a pack of the "dried" version too, to see if it gives that elusive Southall curryhouse flavour too.



EDIT: What a palava! Found this Youtube vid, had forgotten what PITA it is!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

. Closer inspection reveals that it is actually made by a company called something like "Shangai Malai", in the Czech Republic

I often ponder the vagaries of the global economy - this is one of those times

[Joanbunting Profile]

Me too

The panko crumbs I bought in Chinatown are labelled "Made in the USA!" Of course I wasn't wearing my glasses when I bought them. Could have just got DD to send me some

[Minnesota Maven Profile]

Joan,
Saw your post and thought I'd delve into my upstairs pantry....Yup, My panko is made here in the USA too. Distributed by Kikkoman.

[Mamta1 Profile Website]

The word Achari simply mean 'in the style of an Achar', achar being a Hindi word for 'pickle. It is usually a bit more spicy than your average curry and is generally cooked in mustard oil, the main pickling oil in India. Heat is your personal choice. I have a couple of simple recipes, both for meat/chicken curries and for vegetable bhajies, just to give you a general idea.
Aachari Chicken Curry; http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_dis ... p?id=10159
AAchari Lamb curry; http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_dis ... p?id=13083
Aachari Baingan; http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_dis ... p?id=10359
Aachari Cabbage; http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_dis ... p?id=13426
Aachari cauliflower; http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_dis ... p?id=10358
Basically you can cook any meat or vegetable curry/bhaji in this style. Small new potatoes cooked in this style are especially nice, served with fresh crisp parathas, a favourite of north Indians. I may get around to writing the recipe, if I remember to take a few pictures next time I make them
Ready-made spice mixes are reasonably good, but are rather hot and have other additives. If you prefer restaurant style food to 'home cooking', then curry mixes are fine. I also keep a couple, but use them very, very rarely and sparingly. Also, they generally taste pretty much the same, whatever the title on the box. You can add a couple of teaspoons of these to your own recipe, if you want to spice up things.
Using spice mixes is a bit like making your own cake or bread, rather than use a cake mix or a bread mix, they are fine, but not the same as when you make your own !
Hope this helps

[Renée Profile]

Joan, I saw Panko crumbs in Sainsbury's the other day. The brand is Blue Dragon. I seem to remember that they're made in Thailand or somewhere like that. I'm sure that the first ones that I bought many years ago from Wing Yip were made in Japan.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Blue Dragon are actually based in Wales (hence the Blue Dragon - dragons are popular in both Wales & the East, but seldom blue in either place) - of course most of their range is mported

Their panko ingredients look just like the authentically Japanese ones I bought at the Japan Centre & didn't like

http://www.bluedragon.com/products/ingredients/panko-breadcrumb-mix.aspx

Some brands have more the ingredients list you'd expect for bread and I find them nicer

Still don't like katsu curry though!

Link corrected

[Dena Profile]

That is an amazing video Sakkarin, I am in awe of that chef's knife skills, he seems to be so much better than a lot of chefs I have seen.

What are you going to do with your banana flower? I don't think I have ever eaten one, or if I have I didn't know what it was. I don't know how I thought bananas grew but I hadn't put two and two together and realised they they were in the womb like flower.

[Mamta1 Profile Website]

Banana flowers are quite popular in Bengal and southern India, where bananas grow abundantly. My dad liked to have a few varieties of banana plants in his garden, which travelled with him wherever he moved with his job. So there were always plenty of banana flowers and green bananas available. When we were kids, my mum used to make a raita from flowers, as well as some stir-fry type of bhajis. Even the central core of the stem (leaves actually) was also a delicacy and cooked on its own or with fish by Bengali families. I remember that it was quite fiddly to clean/pick the edible flowers. This site may be of some help. This one even tells you how to clean them;http://chakali.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/banana-flower-recipe-sabzi.html
have you used it up yet Sakkarin?

[MagicMarmite Profile]

I made the vindaloo from the first page last night, but using mushrooms instead of chicken.
We really enjoyed it

2012-10-23_1351015127.jpg (87.82 KiB) Viewed 8046 times

[peasoupdragon Profile]

Hello just popped in to say am enjoying this thread.

Always partial to spicy food

I must say that Mamta's Lamb Achari is a favourite in my house - and usually gets eaten straight out the slow cooker on naan bread

[Sakkarin Profile]

Good to see you having a go at the recipe I linked to, MagicM!

Thanks for those comments on Achar, Mamta, I'll have a good read of your recipes later. The paste pack just says "vegetable oil", but it did seem to have the taste that the achari chicken tikka I made the other day had, so maybe that mustard oil is one of the elusive ingredients that make me love it, although I think the nigella is (are?) part of the appeal too. In the meantime I made another batch last night using the powdered masala mix - not quite as good as the paste version, but still very tasty.

Haven't made up my mind what to do with the Banana Blossom yet, last time I had one I think I made a Vietnamese salad, but the only Vietnamese recipe I can find in my bookshelf is in Andrea Nguyen's book, and I don't think the book was even written back when I last had a banana blossom! Maybe it was a Thai recipe, in which case I can't be bothered to look, too many Thai books. As it's an Indian food thread, I should probably do something Indianish with it - I spotted some recipes; for banana blossom patties, curry and soup - I 'm not eager to make banana blossom soup though

One of my clients back when I was doing design/website work was Blue Dragon's PR company. I did a couple of projects for them including a Blue Dragon competition website (back in 2005). Nothing to do with that link, in my view their coconut milk is one of the best on the market, although I won't buy it as it is too expensive.

Incidentally, anyone thinking of buying the gulab jamun on sale at Tesco on special offer at the moment for £2.50, don't bother, they are truly nasty. They are rock hard, so the sugar hasn't really soaked into them, and looking at the ingredient list it is not suirprising as they don't appear to contain any raising iongredient. The gulab jamun I made the other day may have been ugly, but they tasted great.

[Sakkarin Profile]

P.S. That Curry Leaf Chutney I bought was not very pleasant, quite bitter. Not a patch on the freshly made stuff. Binned

[Mamta1 Profile Website]

That Curry Leaf Chutney I bought was not very pleasant, quite bitter. Not a patch on the freshly made stuff. Binned

I don't know how some of the stuff actually gets up on market shelves! Someone must be tasting it before bottling it surely? There should be some sort of tasting panel, or something, people shouldn't be allowed to sell any old muck. It is such a waste of people's hard earned cash

[Sakkarin Profile]

It might just be that my tastebuds aren't attuned to the very bitter lemony taste of the commercial one, Mamta - I know that I don't like the lime pickles in jars either, same acrid bitterness, only more so.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Those achar recipes look wonderful, Mamta. The only one I've ever made is one with potatoes, the recipe culled from a wonderful Indian recipe book from 1988!
Since Mango Pickle is always available here ( because I make about 30 kgs per year ), I'll have to give it a go!

[Dena Profile]

I was going through my emails and found this that I thought my be of interest on here

http://www.lovefood.com/guide/chefs/179 ... ur-jaffrey

[Sakkarin Profile]

I've made several Achari Chicken recipes now! Will report later, here's one of Mamta's, this one using the lamb recipe but substituting chicken...



...and some Fruit Chaat using her Chaat Masala recipe (pineapple, mango, banana and grapes)...

[kavey Profile Website]

Did you like the fruit chaat?
It's said to be an acquired taste but we included it in one of our Mamta's Kitchen cookery classes and a couple of attendees were keen, but one didn't like it as much...
I absolutely adore it.
And what did you think of the achari recipe?