Exploring India and Pakistan

In our third week of Cuisine Across Cultures with Chef Mike Riley, we explored the countries of India and Pakistan. The dishes we made were fairly simple but explosive with flavor and, for lack of a better word, zing. In both India and Pakistan, eating in restaurants is almost non-existent, therefore the cuisine is not refined. Many of the foods and dishes made in both of these countries are very rustic and family style. A typical meal would most commonly include a meat dish, a vegetable dish, rice, pickled items, fruit and a dessert. In the North however, a more Arabic influence is seen through the use of yogurt, grilled and spit roasted meats, cumin seeds, fennel, garlic and many flatbread. In the south, a more Asian influence is seen in the use of curries, coconut and coconut milk, rice, tamarind, cilantro, chili peppers, mustard seeds and ginger. Many of the common ingredients used in India and Pakistan, are familiar to us in the U.S. such as wheat, lamb, legumes and seafood. However there are some food items that may be completely foreign to us such as ghee, which is a very clear clarified butter and is the exclusive cooking fat in India and Pakistan. Another item many of us may not be familiar with is besan which is a chick pea flour made by pulverizing dried chick peas. This type of flour does not contain much gluten and is therefore commonly used for fritters and flatbreads. One item whose name we fully recognize but whose function is very different in their culture than in ours. In India and Pakistan the word curry is not used to describe a specific spice like it is here, curry is a term used for gravy that is served with the food. It’s funny to think about how much we may have changed so many foreign dishes by putting in an American touch. In class this week though, we stuck strictly to Indian style cooking and made some delicious potato and green pea samosas with green chutney and a turnip, potato and greens curry with basmati rice and red beet raita.

The first thing we started working on when we got to class was our wrapper for the samosas. (The recipes for the samosas and the green chutney are below) We combined all the ingredients together into a soft dough and kneaded it until it became smooth, about five minutes. We then wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and allowed it to sit at room temperature for a half an hour to help develop the gluten. We then divided the dough into two small balls and rolled each ball out into 7 inch rounds and cut each round in half. While our dough was resting, we started on the filling. We heated our vegetable oil in a pan and added our cumin seeds, ginger, chile and shallot and cooked them until soft. We then turned our heat up and added our potatoes to allow them to brown slightly while still allowing them to gently. You have to really keep the pan moving during the part of the cooking process. Once the potatoes were soft, (which shouldn’t take too long, all of the ingredients should be of similar size so you have an equal cooking time) we removed the pan from the heat and added our peas and cilantro and then allowed to cool. To assemble the samosas, you take some egg yolks and brush the straight edges of your dough and then fold one of the half rounds, sealing the straight edge to the other straight edge, using a fork to seal the dough on both sides. Hold the dough open end up and stuff with the filling then seal the top closed using more egg yolk and a fork. Once all of your samosas have been made you throw them into a deep fryer set to 350*F until golden brown. You then serve the samosas with the green chutney. These were outrageously good. The entire time we were making these in class, I couldn’t help but laugh remembering The Office episode where Michael goes to Diwali and thinks they served him s’mores but they were samosas. If there are any Office fans reading this, you’ll definitely remember.

The next dish we made was a traditional Indian Curry with this surprisingly amazing yogurt sauce. The curry had a lot happening all at one time. We first had to heat oil in a pan until almost smoking and then add cumin and mustard seeds. We put a lid on the pan and waited for the seeds to start popping. Once that began happening we threw in some onions and ginger and cooking until they began to brown. We then added in some minced green chile, turnip, mustard and curry leaves and added in enough vegetable stock just to cover the ingredients. We then threw in some turmeric and simmered our sauce. (On a side not, be careful with turmeric, it will color your nails yellow and they will stay like that for a week) We simmered our sauce for about 5 minutes and then added in our wedged red potatoes and simmered again until the sauce reduced and the vegetables were tender. We plated our sauce with the basmati rice we had made and the red beet raita. We finished it on the plate with a garnish of cilantro, peeled and seeded diced tomatoes and pepper. To be quite honest, this was not my favorite dish, but I really did enjoy the rice and the raita. A raita is basically a yogurt sauce made up of sugar and other seasonings but with the beat it brought a lot of flavor. We roasted a whole beat until tender and then peeled and chopped it into a medium dice. We whisked together the yogurt, sugar, salt and cumin and placed the mixture into the fridge to cool. Immedietly before serving, we folded the beets into the yogurt gently, leaving streaks of white. We sprinkled it with scallions, cilantro and black sesame seeds on the plate.

This was quite an eye opening week for me because I never thought I was a huge fan of Indian food. Growing up in Dearborn, MI I became a huge fan of Arabic food and you can see some of those influences in the dishes that we made and learned about this week. The flavor profiles are very different from those that we are used to. I never would have thought about making samosa for dinner, but now it’s definitely on the list of what should I have for dinner tonight ideas. Thanks for reading everyone and I hope you have a wonderful week. Let me know if anyone experiments with the samosas or any of the other dishes I’ve shared. Happy cooking!

Samosa: Potatoes and Green Pea

• 1 1/2 Tbs Vegetable Oil
• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1tsp. ginger, minced
• 1/2 Serrano chile, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/2 russet potato, peeled and small diced
• 1/2 sweet potato, peeled and small diced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup green peas
• 1/3 bunch cilantro chopped

Wrapper

• 1/2 cup flour
• pinch black pepper
• pinch tumeric
• 1 tsp ghee
• pinch baking soda
• 2 Tbs warm water
• pinch salt

Green Chutney

• 1 Serrano chile, with seeds, roughly chopped
• 3 shallots, minced
• 1 Tbs. lime juice
• 1 bunch mint leaves
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 1 Tbs fresh ginger, finely minced
• pinch sugar
• 1 Tbs yogurt
• Water to thin out if needed and salt to flavor if needed