Couple recipes folks might enjoy

[hrothgar]

So, I do a lot of cooking

 

Here's a couple recipes that I made for XMas dinner which were extremely well received:

(Plus they are vegetarian and gluten free)

 

The idli sambar is (pretty much) precisely what is shown here. Only changes are

 

1. Used ghee rather than oil for the tadka

2. Threw in some curry leaves

3. Substituted lime juice for lemon juice

 

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/steamed-rice-and-bean-dumplings-in-spicy-lentil-and-radish-sauce-230901

 

Also made what is known as "fish fragrant eggplant"

 

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/04/fish-fragrant-eggplant-recipe-fuchsia-dunlop.html

[DozyDom]

Got Fuchsia Dunlop's The Food of Sichuan for Christmas - absolutely amazing author, and I'd already hooked my eye onto the fish-fragrant aubergine. Looks like we've got some similar tastes!

[hrothgar]

Got Fuchsia Dunlop's The Food of Sichuan for Christmas - absolutely amazing author, and I'd already hooked my eye onto the fish-fragrant aubergine. Looks like we've got some similar tastes!

 

I have both Food of Sichuan (and the earlier version of this titled "Land of Plenty")

Both are absolutely first rate

 

I pretty much made the recipe from Food of Sichuan with a couple minor changes

(Like Fuschia, I was able to study at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine. Unlike her, I only got to spend a week there...)

 

When we made the dish

 

1. We used our cleavers to make a bunch of diamonds across the eggplant skin. (Do a series of cuts 3/4 of the way through the skin about a 3/8th of an inch apart, then doa second set going the opposite direction). This does three things: It opens up the eggplant and lets the inside get cooked much quicker. It allows the sauce to penetrate and stick better. It makes the eggplant look like a fish, or at least like it has sales)

 

2. I fermented a bunch of red bell peppers with thai chilis and habaneros. I diced some of this up and threw it in as well. This came much closer to the kick of the dish that I had in Chengdu

 

FWIW, the dish is very easy to make. Two pieces of advice

 

First: If you're cooking Sichuan food, you must have everything measured out in advance and sitting next to the wok so you can add it quickly. I recommend buying a large number of small bowls of some kind (some around 1/4 cup, others about 1/2 cup. I use stainless steel bowls that get sold to restaurants for ketchup and the like. They're cheap, store well, and clean easily)

 

Second: Other than burnin stuff, the only way to really screw this dish up is when you are adding the potato starch. Make sure to add a little bit at a time, whisk it really well, then add a bit more. If you dump it all in at once, the sauce won't come together and the oil will remain separate. (The reason that you are thickening the sauce is to make it glutenous and you want all that lovely lovely oil where all the flavour is to stick to the eggplant rather than pooling in the bowl)

 

(FWIW, I think that the picture in Fuschia's book is wrong... The sauce is broken and chef would have rejected it)

 

Here's a couple pictures

Good luck!

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EMz3aDfW4AcNKkp?format=jpg&name=medium

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EM0oiPoWwAAwvQx?format=jpg&name=medium

 

(and yes, I know that the knife work on the scallions was for *****)

[FelicityR]

I'm not averse to trying new recipes and the idlee sambaar looks quite straightforward to make. Thanks for sharing, Hrothgar. It's always good to create an authentic dish from scratch, rather than to buy the supermarket brand. Not that I've ever seen idlee sambaar on the shelves.

[y66]

Will give those recipes a try.

 

We eat a fair amount of lentils, beans and eggplant in my house.

 

I have an older cookbook of Ms. Dunlop's which includes a recipe for Mapo doufu 馬婆豆腐 which I could happily eat once a week with or without ground pork or beef.

 

I had fried eggplant with tamarind sauce + fried shallots + salad greens + mint + poached eggs for breakfast at a restaurant in Oregon a couple days ago. Whoa. Will have to figure out how to make that.

[Cyberyeti]

Our local Keralan restaurant does vada rather than iddly in the sambar and it's my regular starter there

[pilowsky]

Well, at the moment I live on crispy bacon and chopped fried onion with capsicum and yoghurt drinks (if the bacon is nearly black it's probably kosher).

Plus handmade Tzatziki:

1. Wash, don't peel and then rapidly grate 2 large cucumbers through a fine grater (does anyone know the Pinocchio joke) into a big colander over a large bowl and then squeeze the living **** out of the ball of grated Cue bits until the ball of Bits is as dry as you can get it. Pour the juice away - or drink it - not my problem.

2. Put the ball of Cue bits into the bowl and wash the grater and colander

3. Slice two juicy lemons in half and using your hands as filters squeeze each half over the Cue bits getting rid of the seeds and scraping in as much lemon flesh as possible.

4. Crush in about 3-4 cloves of garlic - depends on how many 'Vampyr' 's you want to ward off.

5. Crush in salt to taste (you can add more later but you can't take it back - just like a finesse).

6. Toss in the yoghurt (keep the container you'll need that to store the finished product).

7. Gently stir with a fork and add a good lug of good extra virgin olive oil.

Serve up.

I find that with a spray of balsamic vinegar it's unbeatable.

My poodles seem to like it. They take me for a one hour walk every morning and don't let me watch any TV.

1 large tub Greek yoghurt = about 1kg in Australia.

Enjoy - takes less than 30min. 5 Minutes if Jamie Oliver. Lasts about 5 Days in the Fridge. Never makes it that long.

[Cyberyeti]

Will be making some aubergine dip later, will report back

[pilowsky]

Excellent, will that be the original one, or a modified Aubergine dip using 2♣ of garlic?

[Cyberyeti]

Excellent, will that be the original one, or a modified Aubergine dip using 2♣ of garlic?

 

Well it turned into a (maybe rescuable) disaster. Aubergines in the oven, garlic pressed, spices/tahini etc mixed about to put it all in the blender which turned out to be dead as a dodo too late on a Sunday to get another here, not really mashable with a fork and I don't have anything better. Is all in the fridge, will be shopping tomorrow and seeing if it's OK.

[pilowsky]

Very bad luck 😟I guess at least with tzatziki there are no ovens or blenders involved. Plus you don't have Gordon Ramsay types telling you not to underuse the salt...