Long Weekend Reboot: Barley Salad Redux

It's been a while since I've written here. I've been immersed in wrangling my thesis, a process that's had a fair amount of panic and paralysis woven in with the inspiration and moments of clarity. I hope to have finished drafting it by the end of the month - a big project. I am a little over a third of the way through at this point. Thankfully, writing goes quickly when I can settle myself down and actually do it.

Yesterday was a rough day; I'd intended to spend it writing, but had a terrible (and thankfully rare) case of homesickness and general sadness. I've been managing my depression fairly successfully for the last year or so, but every now and then it makes itself known in ways that aren't all that enjoyable. My school-related productivity was shot for the day, and in an effort to feel like I wasn't completely incapable, I threw myself into cleaning my flat and then into cooking something more nourishing than tea and toast. As I was cleaning and cooking, I realized that I was building up my thesis in my head as kind of a be-all-to-end-all project, and that I couldn't really see what life could look like past it. My divorce still is not resolved and I don't know if I need to move back to Alberta to have that happen once school is done, there's a lot of talk in my field about lack of job prospects, my scholarship has ended so finances again become unpredictable... there's a lot to be anxious about. Unfortunately, it was all starting to overwhelm me and prevent me from taking good enough care of myself to actually finish this thesis, which is my first priority, and really, the only thing out of the big stressors that I have much control over. So what to do?

I realized I needed to slow down again, to kind of narrow my focus back to school and self-care until the thesis was defended, and then expand the scope to tackle the bigger, trickier things. As I was cooking, I realized I hadn't written here for quite some time, and that I hadn't been attending to my cooking and eating the way I should in order to feel my best. Additionally, it occurred to me that this blog is a project I can continue past my defence, which gives me one thing that I can use to theoretically transition myself out of school and into whatever comes next. That was reassuring. It's a little thing, but it's still *something*, rather than this feeling of everything dropping into a big, black "Here be Dragons" hole after the end of August. I'll take it.

As a first step in recommitting to this blog and a more disciplined period of self-care, I decided to re-read some of my earlier blog posts. As I was doing that, I ran across this entry for the barley and pomegranate salad I'd made from Plenty. I had everything except for pomegranates on hand, important because I am out of budget for the rest of the month, and decided to play with it a bit. So I did, and it was delicious.

Barley Salad with Orange, Apple, and Herbs
Serves 4

1 cup pearl barley
5-6 medium celery stalks, including leaves, cut into small dice
1/4 cup olive oil (herb or citrus infused oils are awesome here)
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2-3 cloves of garlic, grated on a rasp grater
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
~1/4 cup heaping fresh herbs in whatever combination you like (I used lemon mint, cilantro, and parsley), torn or chopped as desired
2 medium oranges, skin and pith removed, sectioned to remove the inner membrane (reserve the juice)
1 medium sweet apple, like Gala, cored and cut into medium dice


To begin, put the barley in a small saucepan and cover with fresh water. Simmer for 30-35 minutes, or until it is tender, but still a bit firm. You don't want it mushy.

While the barley is cooking, do your other prep work: chop the celery and apple, section the oranges (reserve the juice in a measuring cup) and prep your herbs. I am sure you could do it with fewer bowls than this, but I was in the mood do dishes, too...

To the measuring cup containing the reserved orange juice add the olive oil and cider vinegar, and whisk to combine.

Once the barley is tender, drain well in a colander, and then add to the bowl containing the celery and fruit. Pour over the contents of the measuring cup and stir everything together well before adding the herbs, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine, and then taste for seasoning. Add more salt or pepper if required, or even a bit of cinnamon, if you'd like.

Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold - it's pretty versatile. Be sure to stir again before serving so the dressing isn't all at the bottom of the bowl. If you wanted to, you could add some toasted nuts or seeds to the salad as well.

Then enjoy!

Gougères

I've been happily occupied lately - school, messing around with the sourdough starter, working on some art and building up to a 40-day art project that will happen over Lent. It's been nice, and I've been content living my life in the real world as opposed to the digital one.

But then gougères happened. And Chandra wanted the recipe. So here we meet again. ^_^

These are delicious little cheese puffs - light, airy, non-greasy, with a fantastic flavour that reminds me of a well made Yorkshire pudding. They are hard to resist, trust me. The method was unlike anything else I have tried to date, but it was easy, especially if you have a stand mixer or an electric hand held mixer, although it could be made by hand without too much labour. I'll reference the mixer in the description, as that is what I will be using. Possibly the best thing about these little morsels is that you can whip up the batter, spoon it out onto pans, and then freeze the puffs unbaked - which allows you to pull them from the freezer and bake up a few at a time whenever you like. Which might be safer than having two pans of them fresh from the oven tempting me...

This recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's "Around My French Table"; I amended it a tiny bit by substituting almond milk for the whole milk. I used cheddar cheese because I had it on hand, but this would be lovely with almost any cheese I can think of... although a smoked mozzarella seems like the next one I'd like to try. With browned butter, perhaps... Oh, the possibilities!

Makes 36 small gougères or 30 medium sized ones.

1/2 cup almond milk (if you use the Vanilla stuff, it will smell very vanilla while it's cooking but the flavour will be okay. I'd still go unsweetened plain, if you can. Or use regular milk if possible)
1/2 cup water
8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (5 oz) all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature - this is important!
~6 oz coarsely grated cheese, such as Gruyère or cheddar

Position the racks in your oven to divide it into thirds, and preheat to 425F. Line two sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. A quick note for those with apartment sized ovens - you will want to make sure you have enough pans to bake 2 sheets worth and be able to portion out the rest of the batter immediately (on to additional parchment paper, perhaps?). This recipe will make more than what you can fit on apartment-sized baking sheets, I promise. Also, this recipe goes pretty quickly once it gets started, so have your mixer set up with the paddle attachment in place, your ingredients portioned out, and your cheese-grating prep done beforehand - you will not have the time once you get into the recipe.

In a heavy bottomed, medium sized saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter and salt to a rapid boil over high heat. You want that pot really hopping, but be careful not to burn the butter. Once the mixture is at a rapid boil, dump the flour in all at once, reduce the heat to medium-low and begin to stir everything vigorously with a wooden spoon - the dough will come together in a wet paste very quickly. Continue to stir on heat for another moment or two to dry the dough out a little. The dough should be very smooth.

Scrape the dough into your waiting mixer and let it sit for a moment to cool down. Then blend the eggs into the dough one by one, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next one. Don't worry if the dough starts to look curdled part way through (mine did) - it will come together by time you blend in the final egg. The dough will be thick and glossy and will still be fairly warm by the end of this. Mix in the cheese until well distributed.

Portion the gougères out using ~a tablespoon of batter for each if you want small ones, and up to 2-3 tablespoons worth if you are looking for medium-to-large ones. You'll need ~2 inches worth of space between them on the pans to allow them to puff and crisp properly. Once the gougères are portioned, put them into the oven on the top and bottom racks and reduce the temperature to 375F. Set a timer for 12 minutes. At the 12-minute mark, rotate your pans top to bottom and front to back and then set the timer for an additional 12-15 minutes or so. They bake quickly, so start with the minimum time and watch them carefully. You don't want to over-bake them or they will be dry.

If you plan on freezing the dough, portion it onto sheets as described above and then put your sheets in the freezer until the gougères are solid. Lift them off the baking sheets and pack them airtight to be put in the freezer. To bake them from frozen, do not defrost, just add a moment or two to the baking time. You can also freeze baked puffs by packing them airtight as well and then reheating them in a 350F oven to crisp them up again.

Serve them warm with something lovely to drink (Dorie says white wines or champagnes are her preferred matches), or let them cool to room temperature before serving.

Enjoy!

Bare Cupboard Beef Goulash

I finally forced myself to settle down and start putting an outline for my thesis together last week. I found trying to do that fairly stressful and needed to stop and think about what I was doing and how I was going to do it. One of the thoughts that surfaced was that I should be using what I already have instead of waiting for some nebulous future time when I'd feel completely caught up and prepared, because in all likelihood, that day will never arrive. It turns out to be good advice for the three major areas of my life - school, art, and the kitchen.

For school, I sat down and started making lists and mind maps in an empty notebook I've hauled around for at least three years. These notes will require further refinement into a format someone other than myself can understand, but I am now the proud notetaker of ten pages and things are starting to sort themselves out into sub-headings. Hooray! I also started transcribing into digital format the copious quantities of handwritten notes I've taken while reading over the last two years... As of today I've transcribed 26,000+ words. This eases my mind a little - I can at least say I know something. Perhaps not all that I want to, but I've carved out a good place to start.

For art, I decided to use a sketchbook that has been sitting on my shelf for an unknown amount of time, its intended project forgotten. It's small and coil bound, in stark opposition to the books I've been using the last few years, but it's here and available now and that is important. I reminded myself that I taught myself to draw with nothing more than scrap paper and random pencils or ballpoint pens - no fancy supplies, no expensive books. Yes, those things are nice, but no, they are not required. I am interested to see how that little book turns out.

And for my kitchen, this has manifested in an assessment of my fridge and pantry. I didn't get a chance to clean out my fridge before I left on a two week trip at the beginning of January, which has resulted in some semi-sentient lifeforms needing to be evicted upon my return. Travelling was also more expensive than I'd planned, so I've needed to be good about cooking and eating things I already have on hand until the end of the month. This isn't a terrible hardship. It just means more soups and pastas and rice dishes - a chance to use up some of the staples so I can refresh them later.

The first substantial dish I made this year was a slow cooker beef goulash. My Aunt gifted me with a lovely beef roast upon my return and I brought it back to the flat and wondered what to do with it. I thought about stew, but I didn't have potatoes or carrots or celery. All I had was a bag of onions. After thinking on it for a while, I decided to put together a goulash. It went something like this:

~6 large onions, halved and cut into ~1/4" thick slices (or more if you want more)
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped roughly
salt and pepper
olive oil as needed
1 cup beef broth (or water), divided into two half cup portions
~3 tablespoons flour
~1 teaspoon caraway seed
~3 tablespoons smoked paprika, divided into three, 1 tablespoon, portions
 A good pinch of salt (~ 1tsp?)
2 1/2 pounds beef chuck, cut into chunks for stew
1 1/2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1-2 tablespoons tomato paste (you can use ketchup for this if you'd rather; reduce the brown sugar by 1/2 tbsp if you do)
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
fresh herbs as a garnish if you'd like

You'll need a 6 to 9 quart slow cooker to make this recipe. Haul it out and set it up as part of your prep.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Select a large roasting pan (I used a 9"x13" Pyrex pan). Pour ~1 tablespoon of oil into the chosen container and spread it around until the bottom is completely coated in a thin layer. Add the sliced onions and garlic to the pan and add any seasonings you think you'd like and stir to distribute. I added some of a roasted garlic and herbs mix I had on hand.

Put the pan into the oven and roast the onions until they are lightly browned and soft, ~45 minutes, stirring once or twice.

While the onions roast, mix the flour, caraway seed, 1 tablespoon of the paprika, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Add the beef cubes and use your hands to toss everything together until the beef is evenly coated in the spice mixture. It probably won't all stick to the meat and that's okay, you'll add the leftover spice mixture to the pan later.

In a large frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat. Once oil is hot, brown the beef cubes in batches, cooking them on all sides. Add a tablespoon of oil to the pan with each batch of meat until all of the meat has been browned. As you cook the meat, dark patches will appear on the frying pan - that's good! It's called fond and it will be turned into a delicious sauce in a bit. You don't want the dark bits to burn though, so make sure you have enough oil in the pan to prevent that from happening as you work through the batches.

Transfer the cooked meat to your slow cooker.

If there is a lot of oil still in your frying pan once the meat has finished cooking, consider wiping it out with a paper towel before proceeding. Add any leftover seasoned flour mixture to the frying pan and cook it, stirring briskly, until it's lightly browned as well, 2-4 minutes. Stir in half a cup of the beef broth, the brown sugar, the tomato paste, vinegar, and another tablespoon of the paprika and stir constantly, working to scrape up all the browned bits of fond from the bottom of the pan.

Bring this liquid to a boil and then pour it into the slow cooker over the meat.

By now the onions should be finished roasting. You'll want to add them to the slow cooker as well and then give everything a good stir.

Cover the cooker and cook for 3-4 hours on the high setting or 6-8 hours on the low setting. The onions will get very soft and the beef will be fork tender when done. To finish it off, stir in the remaining tablespoon of paprika and any fresh herbs you want to use as a garnish and then serve over wide egg noodles or rice as desired. You can also serve it with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt or sour cream if you'd like.

I enjoy the addition of the caraway seeds to this recipe - they are very well suited to slow cooking and impart a great flavour to the finished dish. I think next time I'd like to add some thin strips of red pepper to the onions to see what that is like. As is, the flavour is bold and complex - certainly seems out of proportion to how few ingredients there are in there! I used a sweet paprika, although you could use a more heavily smoked one if you enjoy that kind of flavour.  This ended up freezing and reheating really well - I didn't put any dairy in mine; if you are going to freeze it, I'd leave any dairy out and add it once you've reheated the meal.

Enjoy!

A New Year

It's been a while...

I've been wonderfully, productively, busy, immersed in school and life in ways that I hadn't been able to until a much needed shift happening in September. I am spending time thinking about whether or not I want to continue this blog, and if so, how. The original project is finished; I didn't get all the way through Plenty, but I got deep into it and through that endeavour, deeply immersed back into my own life and the compiling, experimenting, creating processes that occur in my kitchen and heart. So in the end, goal achieved.

What now, 2014?

I don't want to commit to a lot, because my primary goal for this year is to finish the Master's thesis I've been working on for the last few years. Tentatively, I'd like to have this finished by the summer, as lovely and terrifying as that sounds. But I also don't want to exist only for the academic work I choose to do, so time spent on art and in the kitchen are also required. I think I'd like to write more about food and the process of cooking - something more in the vein of Dana's Weekend Meditation series, in addition to recipes and such. I would also like to focus more on recipes of my own devising, I think. I've been having fun with those lately, and it would be nice to keep a record of them, rather than making them, enjoying them, and never having them again because I can't recall how I ended up with the result (this happens entirely too often). 

I know I promised Patti the recipe for the ciambelle I made over the holidays. So that's one place to start.

I am travelling right now, and will return to my version of normal around mid-January. I'll do my best to have a plan by then. In the meantime, enjoy The Kitchn's selected posts from Dana's Weekend Meditations, and let me know if you find them as delightful as I do.

Here's to a happy and delicious year!

Vegetable Soup for the Wilful Poor

Uh...

Wow.

I just logged in to write a new post and the little infomatic graph thing told me that on October 17th there were 160 views of this blog. That is astonishing. Previous to that, more than ten views per post was a banner day. Not quite sure what I did, but thank you. ^_^

Two things about me: among my many other hobbies, I play D&D. My friend Dave jokes that my alignment is Chaotic Shiny and he just might be right. I am also a Master's student, planning on a Ph.D someday, which makes me joke sometimes about my alignment being Wilful Poor. This month in particular I've had a few unexpected expenses combine with a few I knew were coming and it's left things pretty tight in terms of cash flow as I get to the end of the month. Most students I know are in this position - it kind of comes with the territory.

I wanted to share this soup recipe as it is something I make when things need to stretch a bit because it makes a lot for not much money, is quite filling, and is fairly healthy. The original recipe is vegetarian and from a Cook's Illustrated magazine, but it's quite flexible depending on what you have on hand. You can add meat to it if you'd like - I've tried adding chicken, beef, or lamb cubes to it on separate previous occasions. Usually I add (canned) beans instead though, convenient and trusty cheap protein sources that they are. My favourites in this soup are black beans for the colour contrast, although occasionally kidney beans or chickpeas have been known to make an appearance as well. If you have mushrooms, they can be sliced up and sautéd  for a bit before adding the sliced leeks to them. If you don't have leeks, you can use onions, although if you make that trade, consider spending the time to caramelise your onions quite well, as it will really add to the flavour of the soup. Fresh herbs added at the end really brighten the presentation. I also tend to add roughly a cup each of (frozen) corn kernels and peas to brighten things up in the colour department as well. As a bonus, this soup freezes very well. I like to portion it out in sizes I can take to school for lunch for the convenience of grabbing it out of the freezer and going in the morning.

Farmhouse Barley Vegetable Soup 
(in the style of Cook's Illustrated, kind of)

1/8 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
8 sprigs fresh parsley, plus 3 tablespoons chopped and reserved
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1-2 bay leaves
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 lbs leeks, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces and washed thoroughly (white and light green parts only)
2 carrots, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
2 celery ribs, cut into bite sized pieces
1/3 cup dry white wine (or apple juice or apple cider if you don't have wine)
2 tsp soy sauce
salt and pepper
6 cups water
4 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 cup pearl barley (or more if you prefer; you'll need to add more stock at the end to compensate for what the extra barley soaks up)
1-3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed (or diced finely, your call)
1 1/2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I use the yellow skinned baby potatoes and cut them in half)
1 1/2 cups chopped green cabbage
1 tsp lemon juice

Prep: The original recipe says to grind the dried mushrooms in a spice grinder and add 2 tsps of the resulting powder to the soup, but that seems a bit fussy to me, so I just put the dehydrated mushrooms into the mix and then pull them out at the end of cooking if I remember. You can tie the herbs together with kitchen twine for easy removal from the pot; alternately, you could just throw everything into the pot and remember to fish out the sticks later.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. If adding mushrooms to the soup, add them first and cook them until they release their juices and start to darken. Add the sliced leeks, carrots, celery, wine, soy sauce and up to 2 tsp salt and stir everything together. Cook for for ~10 minutes, until celery has softened and the liquid has mostly evaporated, stirring periodically.

Add the water, broth, pearl barley, garlic, dried mushrooms (or powder if you made it), and the fresh herbs. Increase the heat to high and bring everything to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low, partially cover the pot with a lid, and leave to simmer for ~25 minutes.

Next, add the potatoes and the cabbage and let the pot return to a simmer partially covered; cook everything until the barley, cabbage, and potatoes are tender, a further 18-20 minutes.

If adding beans, corn, or peas, add them during the last 5-10 minutes of cooking so that they come up to temperature with the rest of the soup.

When cooking is complete, remove the mushroom bits and herb stems if required and then add the chopped parsley and lemon juice and stir to distribute within the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then ladle into bowls and enjoy. Or portion into containers for freezing and let come to room temperature before putting into the freezer.

I really enjoy this soup with a biscuit. You could probably even make dumplings on top of the soup while it's in the final cooking stages if you wanted to... I might have to try that next time. I'm also tempted to try subbing out the Yukon Gold potatoes for cubed sweet potato and seeing how that goes. In terms of yield, the tall containers on the far left hold 3 cups each, the next two over hold 2 cups each, the next three to the right hold roughly a cup each, and the final container is much deeper than it appears and likely is holding four cups of soup. So yes, ~20 cups of delicious soup in fairly short order. Win.

Savoy Cabbage and Parmesan Rind Soup

I fell in love with adding Parmesan rinds to soup the Thanksgiving that my friend Orion made his minestrone for our group feast. It was a diversity of beans, slow-cooked all day until they were creamy with Parmesan rinds in the broth slowly breaking down as the day progressed. As a soup, it was almost thick enough to stand a spoon up in. As a memory, it is vivid. I asked him how he'd come up with that idea and he kind of shrugged and said something like "We're Italian, it's just what we do." It seemed so obvious to him, but to me it was a stroke of genius.

When I saw that Yotam had a soup calling for Parmesan rinds, I actually despaired a little at first. I'm on a fairly limited budget and cheese is an expensive luxury. I was lamenting this to my Aunt one night - who dug around in her freezer and came out with a bag of rinds she had been saving for some future use. Score!

The soup comes together pretty quickly, although I found I needed to play with it a bit to get the flavour I wanted. It was a little bland right off the start, so I added a bit more cheese and a bit of truffle salt - and then I realized I hadn't added the shredded, sautéed cabbage and chile mixture. Bingo. I'd make that garnish again just as a side - it was delicious. And it added a lot to the soup. Definitely plan on making it if you are going to put the soup together. It doesn't take much extra time and the results are very worthwhile.

As usual, the recipe is as outlined in the book, and the written description includes any of my own alterations and observations.

Savoy Cabbage and Parmesan Rind Soup
(p. 104, Plenty)

Serves 4

6 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tsp caraway seeds, plus extra to garnish
1 medium savoy cabbage
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
5 cups vegetable stock
3 oz Parmesan rinds, plus about 1/3 cup grated Parmesan (optional)
course sea salt
1/2 mild fresh red chile, seeded and thinly sliced

To begin, heat 4 tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and add the sliced onion. Saute until the onions start to get soft without starting to turn golden, roughly 5 minutes. Add the garlic (I grated mine on the rasp grater) and caraway seeds and allow everything to cook for another 2 minutes.

Remove four outer leaves from the cabbage. Shred them finely and set them aside for later - they will become the garnish. You can shred more than the four leaves if you'd like - I think next time I'd double it. Shred the remaining cabbage roughly and add it to the onions in the pan. Stir to combine. Add the diced potato (smaller dice cooks faster) and continue to fry everything for another 2-3 minutes, stirring actively.

Add enough of the stock to barely cover the vegetables in the pan and bring everything to a boil. Add the Parmesan rinds, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for ~10 minutes, or until the potato is tender when pierced with a fork. Remove and discard the Parmesan rind at this point (or remove it, grate/dice it finely and add it back to the soup later... I did.). Add the grated Parmesan, if using. Stir to incorporate. Taste the soup and add salt to taste. I also added some white pepper at this stage.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow everything to cool down for a few minutes - you don't want to risk getting burned while you are pureeing the soup. If you have an immersion blender, use it to blend the soup right in the pot until you get a smooth consistency. If you don't have an immersion blender, a regular blender will work, it will just take a few more batches. I used my food processor and it did a good job of getting everything silky, so that is another potential option. If you feel the soup is too thick after blending it, feel free to add more of the stock until you reach a consistency you like. If you add additional stock, you may need to add more salt and pepper, in which case, add and taste again until you get a balance you like.

Heat up the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a a frying pan and saute the shredded cabbage you'd set aside earlier with the sliced chile and some salt (the course salt here is wonderful, as is truffle salt - go with it if you've got it). Ideally, the cabbage will just start to soften but still appear bright green when you take it off heat.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls. Garnish with the shredded cabbage and some caraway seeds, and possibly more Parmesan if you are feeling so inclined. Enjoy!

The soup didn't wow me as much as other recipes from Plenty have - but the shredded, pan-fried cabbage was unexpectedly delicious. I'd make it again on its own. The soup held well and reheated decently the next day. I opted to dice the Parmesan rind into tiny chunks and add it back to the soup rather than discard it and I feel that was a good life choice.

Two-Potato Vindaloo

I wrote this recipe up originally in early September. My apologies for the delay in posting - life got a bit hinky for a while, but thankfully is now settling out.

.....

This is the 41st recipe I have made from Plenty. I am four recipes away from being done the chapter on Roots, three away from being done the chapter on Tomatoes, two away from completing the chapter on Peppers, and four away from being done the chapter on Zucchini and Other Squashes. Noting this kind of surprises me - I anticipated ripping through the chapter on Grains far more than I have, ditto for the chapter called Funny Onions. It's interesting to see how this project has gone for having so little structure to it when it was started. I am not certain I'll complete all 128 recipes in the book before the end of the year, but to be roughly a third through is pretty good. Farther than I thought I'd make it, to be honest.

I'm excited to be back at school again. September has always seemed far more like New Year's than January first for me, and the entire month flew by so much faster than I anticipated. It's taking a bit of getting used to being back in my office as I spent much of the summer and previous semester working from home, but I keep outfitting my desk with more tea and comfortable scarves, nesting and getting cozy. I made the decision to tweak my medication and as a result my ability to focus is much improved, so I'll be at my desk until this thesis is finished. It occurs to me that it's easier to focus at school because it lacks a kitchen to tempt me away from my books. ^_^

Part of being back at school is renegotiating my cooking schedule. I now need lunches that are ready to go in the morning, and I might not have the desire or patience to cook when I get home. I also have stored up a lot of different pantry items that I enjoy that have nothing to do with the Plenty project, so I am needing to balance cooking fun and random things with still working my way through this cookbook. I'm sure I'll manage. My office is hosting a potluck for our department once a month, so that will be a good time to share some of the things I've been making. My friend Jenn is heading back to her home country of Australia mid-November as well - she's been my constant tasting companion since I started this project back in January. I'm hoping to feed her all of the rest of the good things before she goes. I might have to get her a copy of Plenty as a going away gift - we've certainly spent a lot of evenings sharing food from this book. Good memories.

I've been looking forward to making this recipe for a while now, as it contains two spices I ended up special ordering. Curry leaves smell incredible and add an interesting visual element to this meal. They don't taste strongly of curry but are unique to themselves, and unfortunately, I can't think of a great substitute for them if you can't track them down. I don't recommend eating them as they are a bit tough in texture. The fenugreek has a smell I can't quite describe, other than it's sort of sweet and nutty and lovely. I might play around with it in some naan or dinner buns at some point. The fenugreek is called for in such a small quantity that omitting it from the dish won't really change it too much, so if you can't find it, don't let its lack hold you back from making the vindaloo. Hopefully you manage to track some down, though. I think it's worth seeking out. Regardless, your kitchen will be *very* aromatic while and after you are preparing this dish. Promise.

Two-Potato Vindaloo
(p. 18, Plenty)

Serves 4

8 cardamom pods
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp vegetable oil
12 shallots (~10 oz in total), peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp brown mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
25 curry leaves
2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1 fresh red chile, finely chopped
3 ripe tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 3/4 cups water
1 tbsp sugar
salt
2 1/2 cups peeled, waxy potatoes, cut into 1-inch dice
2 1/2 cups peeled sweet potatoes, cut into 1-inch dice
2 small red bell peppers, cut into 1-inch dice
mint or cilantro to serve
yogurt or sour cream to serve

To start: Prep your shallots, vegetables, and spices. I chose to grate my ginger on a rasp grater and I think I'd do that again - it helped it to really melt into the sauce.

I ended up blending spices that were pre-ground, but if you want to follow Yotam's method for roasting and grinding your own, it goes like this:

"Dry-roast the cardamom pods and cumin and coriander seeds in a small frying pan over medium heat until they begin to pop. Transfer to a mortar and pestle and add the cloves. Work to a fine powder, removing and discarding the cardamom pods once the seeds are released. Add the turmeric, paprika and cinnamon and set aside." (p.18)

Heat the oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot. Once the oil is hot, add the shallots, mustard and fenugreek seeds and saute on medium low for roughly 8 minutes, or until the shallots start to turn golden.

Add the spice mix, curry leaves, ginger, and diced chile to the shallots and continue to saute together for another 3 minutes. Everything will start to smell really fantastic right about now.

Add the tomatoes, vinegar, water, sugar and some salt and stir until everything is well combined.

Bring this mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to medium, cover, and let simmer for ~20 minutes.

Once the base has simmered, add the waxy potatoes and the diced bell peppers and let simmer, covered, for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Finally, add the sweet potatoes to the pot.

It's important at this stage to make sure that the vegetables are submerged in the sauce in order for them to cook properly - if you don't have enough sauce, add a bit more water to make up the difference. Cover the pot again and continue to cook for ~40 minutes, or until both types of potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork.

Once the potatoes are tender, remove the lid from the pot and allow everything to simmer for ~10 minutes to reduce the sauce a bit. Serve hot, over rice, couscous, or quinoa, and garnish with the fresh herbs.

This recipe makes a very generous amount and is *very* fragrant. It holds well in the fridge and might even have been slightly better the next day. I found that I preferred to add a bit of yogurt or coconut milk to the sauce to soften it a bit, but I am far more accustomed to coconut milk-based curries than water and cider based ones, so that might just be personal preference. The fresh herbs really helped the flavours to pop, as did a tiny squirt of lime juice. I think I'd add chickpeas to it next time... they seem like they'd be a good fit.

Enjoy!