So Happy Birthday to Dad

It was last spring in Paris when friends from Britain we knew from Dresden had us over for some curry.  It was okay curry although I think it might have come out of a jar.  So I decided then to try making my own. 

I was at a bit of a loss though because I didn’t really know anything about Indian cuisine, India being a vast land of diverse cultures and all.  Secondly I found it exceptionally difficult to get the “gist” of the many many recipes one readily finds online, something I always try to do when learning a new dish.

Fortunately I was able to find a generic sort of recipe which I took to, although I’ve since lost the link.  So the curry I now make is pretty good, although I wouldn’t presume to claim that I really know anything about Indian food.  Ha-cha-cha-chaaa:

Lightly toast some black mustard seeds in a pan.  Add oil.  When at temperature add chopped onions.  You can add some ginger, garlic, and chillies now, or later if you have a habit of burning them. Actually, ginger is pretty robust against the heat but the other two I tend to burn.

 When the onions go translucent is the time to add curry powder.  Some people swear by grinding the seeds on the day, and they are probably right.  I however have a good powder from the India Laden on Luisenstrasse and I am pretty happy with it.  Brown the pasty mixture just a tad.  Set that stuff aside.

Heat your veggies in a pot, with some stock if you’d like, and add your curry paste.  Which veggies?  I usually put in two different ones.  Some go better with others.  Broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini are faves, spinach, chickpeas, potatoes, bell peppers are no strangers either.  Of course lamb or chicken can work too, but Doc is a vegetarian which makes me guilty by association.

Now you’ll want to add chopped or canned tomatoes, or pureed tomatoes.  Or add plain yogurt instead.

Right about now I often like to add some garam masala to the mix.  It might be overkill, but I love it.

You’ll want to let all that jazz simmer for a while, to thicken it all up a bit.  If it’s still too soupy a little flour can take care of that.

Finally you’ll want to add salt.

Serve with rice — basmati ideally, and/or with yogurt, chapatis.  Those are flat bread.  Did I post a recipe for that?  Also, just between us: if you don’t feel like chapatis you can also do baking powder biscuits.  It’s a  nice, down home touch.

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Mom always said I’m a bread eater.  Julie’s mom says the same thing.  But Julie isn’t a bread eater.

French baguettes are delicious, and I believe also low in fat. For this reason, they are only good for one day.  And for all the above reasons,  we tend to accumulate a lot of half-finished stale bread loaves.

Yes, I know you can order a demi-pain but don’t talk back.  This isn’t about good planning, it’s about making lemonade.  Or rather, croutons.

It’s not hard to find a good crouton recipe, but I find it rather tricky to make good croutons.  Too much oil, too much heat, too little this-or-that, and you’ll just have soggy, burnt, yet stale, chunks of bleh.  In fact, I can’t really describe my process for crouton making, as it seems always to be different each time.  Nichtdestotrotz, here goes anyway.

I prefer baguettes from a good bakery.  The ones from the supermarket will work too.  But even while the ones from the supermarket look pretty good, you’ll notice the texture of  the mie is very homogenous and when dried much like styrofoam.

The loaves are best really good and stale.  Like, several days sitting out stale.

Rubbing a clove of garlic on the outside of the load before cutting it up is easier than afterwards.  And should any of this garlic juice survive the heat of the pan later, you’ll get that nice radishy hotness long for the ride.

Make cubes out of your loaf with a serrated breadknife.  Take your time and saw, not too much pressure.

Cubes that fall on the floor go to the floor god.  What, you wanna get a tapeworm?

I don’t use the oven method.  Too easy to burn em.

Some diced garlic is gently heated with some butter, and this is tossed with the cubes.

The cubes are heated in the same pan on medium heat.  A little more butter is added when  no one is looking.  This takes a while, depending on how much bread you have and how small your pan.

When are they sauteed enough?  Hell if I know.  Some of them get a little brown on one side — the cubes will resist turning over — and some will look exactly the same.

Somewhere along the way everything gets a little salt.

The cubes are stored in an airtight container.  I suspect they are better the second day.  They keep a long time. 

You’ll know if it worked out because you’ll notice serving them with everything.  I mean, everything.  Also, the roof of the mouth tends to suffer a bit.

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Coraline Mystery Box Roundup

Coraline opens in theaters today, so it’s time to do a roundup of all the known Coraline Mystery Boxes. Click through to discover amazing treasures. “The braver you are, the more you’ll see.”

Already quite a few months back, the creators of the film Coraline sent out a slew of mystery boxes to various “blogs”. Each box was unique and contained neat swag for the film. Altogether a very nice, personal touch.

Above is a complete list of said boxes.

This considered, it is rather puzzling that (from what I’ve read) people all about were quite nonplussed by the Coraline “Visual Companion”, the accompanying artbook to the film. By all accounts, it appears to be quite shoddy, put together by yahoos, and otherwise shitty.

Recently I tried out 2pad, an online service that plucks all your webmail attachments and catalogs them for you in a somewhat overseeable manner.

Pretty dandy, is my reaction.  Although it appears you can’t have multiple addresses for a single login ID — you have to register each one separately.  There is also a feature where you can arrange your attachments into albums and have them viewable for a list of invitees.  This is one feature that is certainly not for me.

Good thing you asked, tubby.

Yogurt for Lower Fat Baking

Yogurt not only is a tangy dairy treat but it also serves as a great substitute for high-fat ingredients in baking. Low-fat or fat-free yogurt can be used to reduce or replace shortening, oil, butter or sour cream in baked goods. It cuts the fat and adds a creamy texture and tenderness to your recipes. Plus, it’s packed with protein and calcium.

I personally like to use yogurt in making chipatis, the Indian flatbread made in heaven.  Just some flour and yogurt, a pinch of salt.  You mix and knead it, make balls and roll them flat.  Then you heat them in an ungreased pan for about a minute.  Making them puff up is a bit tricky, but not required. Video

It’s 1 degree and raining.  Underfoot it’s crunchy and frozen.  A cold snap seems on its way.  It’s cold, wet, and disgusting outside.  And there are no shadows to see anywhere.

This is good news.