Dal makhani and homemade naan

We've been wanting to get better at cooking Indian food for ages. In fact, we want to get better at cooking practically every cuisine I can think of--Thai definitely comes to mind, as does Cambodian, Japanese, and Ethiopian--but Indian is at the top of the list. It's one of the most comforting and homey cuisines ever, it's predominantly vegetarian, and the ingredients are mostly cheap and easy to find in stores. We should clearly be able to make lots of Indian food at home instead of relying on restaurants (awesome as our local Indian food is).

So what's at the top of the list? Dal. Specifically, dal makhani.

Dal is a bean or lentil-based soup that nearly all of India seems to make and eat. It gets a big splash of its flavor from the last-minute addition of a "chonk," or spiced oil. The term "chonk" comes from the sound the oil makes when it hits the dal. Needless to say, if you are a word dork like me, this is super exciting.

I decided to follow this recipe from Manjula's Kitchen--clearly one of the best possible Indian foodblogs out there. Manjula is great! It's like cooking with my grandma, except that neither of my grandmas knew how to cook Indian food (and in one case practically didn't know how to cook at all--so different from the typical grandma image). But we can talk about my grandma's pumpkin chiffon pie and other traditional mid-American cooking some other time. Right now it's time for plenty of pulses.

I did a couple things differently from the recipe. For one thing, I realized midway through chopping up a green bell pepper that "green pepper" actually meant "green chile"; it's a good thing I had a jalapeño in the fridge. I'll probably go for a serrano in the future. Other than that, I used split mung dal instead of whole. I also didn't have any mango powder (for some reason this is not that easy to find in all the Asian grocery stores downtown--who knew?), and I had ground cumin instead of whole seeds. And we don't have a pressure cooker for the moment, so I boiled my dal and kidney beans for a longer time in an ordinary pot. But for the most part, I followed the instructions as closely as possible with what I had on hand. We can experiment later, right? You know--once I have some idea what I'm doing with Indian food.

Dal does not photograph well. It definitely falls into "looks a mess; is delicious" territory. But hey--who cares? It tastes exceptional, and that's the most important criterion.

You can clearly eat dal by itself, with another Indian curry or salad, or with a bunch of rice. I had a quart of yogurt and a bag of flour, so I decided to make naan. If you've never had naan, it's a traditional grilled flatbread with yogurt in the dough. I've been following this very loose recipe for years.

Naan is much easier and more forgiving than you might expect. Just mix up the ingredients, knead them swiftly in the bowl, roll out the dough, and throw each piece in a nonstick pan to cook. I find that white flour makes the most tender, bouncy naan, but you can sub in some wheat flour for part of the white. I wouldn't do all whole wheat unless you have access to some pastry flour.

I divided my dough into two to make fairly large naan, but I think we'll go for three or four smaller naan breads in the future. That way they'll fit into my pan much more easily.

Timing was a minor challenge at the end of cooking, as both the chonk and the naan needed to be on quite high heat and under close scrutiny simultaneously. The chonk was the biggest challenge, since hot oil with quickly cooked spices can obviously present some safety issues. If you're learning how to make either naan or dal for the first time, I'd recommend making them individually, or working with another person.

However! This was not a big issue for us. The naan and dal both turned out perfectly. We ate it all in very short order.

Do you guys have a favorite site for learning to cook a specific cuisine?

A selection of sandwiches

Homemade sourdough (thanks to Veronica) with dijon mustard, parsley, green and red pepper, mushrooms, red onion, and gouda, baked in the toaster oven.

Tempeh marinated in soy sauce, olive oil, barbecue sauce components (molasses, lemon slices, ketchup, dijon, etc), garlic, ginger, and lots of hot sauce and sriracha, then seared and layered with plenty of lettuce, tomato, and red onion on toasted sunflower & flaxseed bread.

Grilled mozzarella and mushrooms with dijon on whole wheat, with a tiny baby clementine.

Yes, I do have three partial loaves of bread at home right now. Why do you ask?

Asparagus and spinach quiche

We definitely had eggs on the brain for spring fertility festival weekend. Not hard-boiled and dyed eggs, though--cracked, beaten, seasoned, mixed with cream, and poured in a tart shell. For extra spring fertility goodness, I stuffed in all the new asparagus and spinach in the crisper. That's right; I made quiche.

I got my filling inspiration from this crustless quiche from Dana's Food For Thought. I knew I'd have to use a crust, though, since my tin has a removable bottom. Clearly, we couldn't have raw custard running all over the oven, so I looked around and came up with this quick quiche crust recipe.

I thrifted our tart tin a couple months ago, but for some reason we hadn't used it until now. In all seriousness, I have kind of a kitchenware thrifting obsession, which does not fit in very well at all with our otherwise minimal aesthetic. (Ok, there are also a million books, but still.) I try to stay realistic and only buy what we actually need. But this was a real excellent French tart tin with the matching bottom actually still in it! Super exciting. Tarts! Pastries! Quiche!

Our tin isn't a standard size--the diameter is about 8 inches--but that didn't affect the finished product much at all. I just poured my extra eggs and vegetables into a highly buttered muffin tin and baked a couple of tiny extra quiches to freeze.

Asparagus and spinach quiche

piecrust of your choice (to fit standard tin or pie pan)
4 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
parmesan cheese
salt, pepper
fresh parsley
2/3 bunch of asparagus
olive oil/butter
a shallot
2 cloves garlic
a little red onion
a couple big handfuls of fresh spinach

Start by making your crust, so it's all ready for your filling later. I followed the aforementioned crust recipe just about to the letter, including not blind baking it in advance. This was the only problem with our finished product--underdone crust in the middle. You can avoid this pretty easily. Just whip up your crust recipe of choice, press it into your tart tin or pie pan, prick it all over with a fork, maybe weight it down with a handful of dried beans, and bake it for about five to eight minutes at 400F/200C. You can let this bake while you prep the vegetables and eggs, and set it aside (removing the pie weights) until you're ready to use it. This way your crust will cook through and your oven will be all preheated for the actual quiche baking later.

For the egg mixture, crack four eggs into a mixing bowl and beat them with a fork. When they're relatively smooth and amalgamated, add in half a cup of cream, a cloud of grated parmesan, salt and pepper to taste, and a handful of chopped parsley, and mix again. You can use other dairy besides heavy cream if you prefer; I just happened to have some lying around and needed to use it up. However, it's worth noting that a higher fat content will produce a more custardy and less just eggy quiche filling.

Set the egg mixture aside while you prep the vegetables. I used one wide saute pan to do two separate veg preps. First, fill your pan with about an inch of water and put it on high heat. While you're waiting, wash and trim your asparagus. When the water boils, add the asparagus to the pan and blanch for about a minute and a half to two minutes. Then immediately take out the asparagus, shock it in cold water to stop the cooking, and set it aside.

Dump the water out of your pan, put it back on medium heat, and add a little butter or olive oil. Add a finely chopped shallot, a couple cloves of garlic, and maybe some red onion if you have it lying around. (I'd been trying to use up half a red onion for days, so I just threw it in.) Let these soften together while you wash, destem, and chop up your spinach. Then add the spinach to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until it's entirely wilted. This should take maybe two minutes.

All your quiche components are ready--now it's time to combine and bake. Start by spreading your spinach and onion mixture into the crust. Pour your eggs over it, making sure to distribute evenly. Fill to just below the top of the crust, leaving maybe 1/4 inch of clearance so you won't have to worry about overflow later. Then take your asparagus spears and arrange them across the top of the quiche. If you want to make a pattern or whatever, go nuts; I just tried to pack mine in densely for plenty of asparagus goodness. Finish with a thin layer of grated cheese. If you have leftover vegetables and egg, go ahead and make some little extra quiches in a muffin tin or what have you.

Put your quiche on a cookie sheet and bake at 400F/200C for about 25 to 30 minutes, rotating halfway through cooking if necessary. Little quiches will take less time, so keep an eye on them.

When your quiche puffs up and turns an even golden brown on top, take it out and check it for doneness. You can just do the standard cake trick and test the center with a toothpick; if the toothpick comes out clean, your quiche is done. Another way to check is to give the tin a quick shake and see if it jiggles liquidly or just stays still and set. Both methods work pretty well for me.

Let your quiche cool for five minutes or so before you take it out of the tin (assuming you have a tin that allows this) and slice it.

I find that quiche more or less stands alone, but it's always good with a big green salad and a glass of white wine. If you're doing quiche for breakfast, you can always have lots of coffee or tea with it. Or you can have some cut fruit: strawberries, melon, or mango would be my top choices.

In conclusion, yay quiche! We're definitely going to be eating a lot more of this in the near future, spring fertility festival nonwithstanding.

Rice cakes with mixed vegetable cream cheese: the anti-bagel

Does anyone else ever have cravings for rice cakes? No? Just me?

Lately we've had a couple weeks in which we were fussy and tired and hungry and didn't want anything at our house, so we went out. We ordered takeout. We went out again. And of course when you do this for more than one or two meals per week you are going to start to feel just awful. I certainly did. So we called an unofficial moratorium on going out to eat and started making an effort to cook and eat more at home. Good so far.

Today I wanted to go to the bagel shop. But why go to the bagel shop when you have half a block of cream cheese, all the vegetables you can eat, and a package of long thin crackery rice cakes at home?

No, rice cakes are not really anything like bagels. They do provide a nice crispy poppy salty base on which to pile a massive amount of cream cheese and vegetables, though.

I chopped up chard, parsley, red onion, red bell pepper, and mushrooms. I mixed them with a whack of cream cheese and a spoonful of yogurt to thin everything down just a touch. Salt; pepper. I spread my homemade schmear onto my rice cakes, threw a little bit of extra parsley and pepper on top, grabbed a banana and a glass of water, and sat down for lunch.

I feel much better.

Creamy radish greens soup

No one seems to know it, but radish greens are definitely edible. I let some radishes bolt over the winter, mostly so I could see if they'd actually produce seeds early enough to let me pull the plants and still give something else enough time to grow in their spot. They're finally starting to develop some buds--but in the meantime, they've also produced a massive amount of radish greens. Might as well eat them, right?

Like dandelions and escarole, radish greens get more bitter as they grow. This means that if you have monster radish greens--I certainly do--it's important to address that bitterness, so you don't end up with an inedible finished product.

I decided to try combining my radish greens with chard and spinach in a soup. I used bean broth (and a few stray cooked beans) to give the soup some depth, and brightened it up with some lemon juice and zest. Dairy is clearly a good addition, adding creaminess while balancing out the bitter bite of the greens.

The finished soup was fairly thin--almost thin enough to pour into a glass and drink off. It's possible to cook off some of the moisture to thicken the soup, but I wouldn't try this with greens; extended boiling will turn them a sludgy olive color. If you want a thicker soup, you could add some cooked white beans along with your broth, cook a diced potato in the broth before you add the greens, or just stir in a couple spoonfuls of cornstarch slurry at the end.

Since I was just making soup for me, this recipe makes one large or two small servings.

Creamy radish greens soup

olive oil or butter
shallot
garlic
bean or vegetable broth
roughly equal amounts of radish greens, chard, and spinach
salt, pepper
plain yogurt or other creamy device of your choice
lemon juice & zest

Soften a chopped shallot and a couple cloves of crushed and minced garlic in olive oil. When they're just beginning to turn golden, add about a cup of bean or vegetable broth. I used frozen bean broth, as usual, so I had to give it an extra few minutes to defrost in the pan. In any case, bring your broth to a boil.

While you're waiting, wash, destem, and roughly chop your greens. I used about six or seven large radish leaves, one huge chard leaf (minus its stem), and two small spinach plants. When the broth is boiling, add your radish greens and chard to the pot. Season with a little salt and pepper, stir it up, and let cook for three to four minutes, or until the greens have just wilted. Add the spinach, stir again, and cook for another minute or two.

When all the greens are wilted, take your pan off the heat. Give your soup a minute to cool down before pureeing it with an immersion blender. Then add a little drizzle of olive oil and a big spoonful of plain yogurt (or crumbled goat cheese, cream cheese, actual cream--whatever you want to use) and puree again.

The immersion blender isn't going to get your soup perfectly smooth, but that's ok. I found that it created a nice suspension of tiny green flecks in a opaque green broth. If you want a smoother soup, process your soup in an actual blender.

Once your soup is pureed, add a big squeeze of fresh lemon juice and do a final taste check. Add a little more salt or pepper if you need to. Then ladle your soup into a bowl, top with some extra yogurt, pepper, and finely chopped lemon zest, and have at it.

I'd definitely eat this with a bunch of flatbread or garlicky pita chips baked in the toaster oven. This time I just made some rye toast, which was also a good plan. It definitely made a great scraper for the bits of greens stuck to the side of the bowl.