Adventures in Indian

When I’m in love or in the mood, I’m probably a better than average cook.  I come from a long line of good cooks, am fairly adventurous, and put a lot of love in the pot.  I also have a playful sense of taste which, while not particularly refined, is generally well received.

I’ve learned to cook fairly authentic dishes for each location or ethnicity that’s interested me.  But I’d never tried to cook Indian food, mostly because I didn’t really understand the flavor palate.  I get Greek, I get Szechuan and Cantonese; I get Thai, I get Mexican.  But I just couldn’t understand the Indian flavor palate.  I enjoy Indian food immensely, but had no idea what it was about it that I liked.

But the folks at my neighborhood Indian restaurant are starting to ask about me when I don’t come in, which is a sure sign that I’m spending too much time and money there.  I know how I am about food and that I go through phases, so I read some recipes, found some Indian groceries, got some spices, and thought I’d take a stab at it.

I’m a big fan of saag, a sort of pureed greens concoction.  I enjoy it with paneer, a homemade cheese; since I’m mostly sticking to this vegan thing, though, I also enjoy it vindaloo, with hot spices, onions and potatoes.  I didn’t find a recipe for a vegan saag paneer (well, I didn’t find the vegan ingredients I thought it needed), and I have a couple of servings of saag vindaloo still in the fridge, so I thought I’d just cook and spice the greens and see how they came out.

Many recipes call for frozen spinach, but I had a couple of pounds of fresh collard greens and kale, so decided to use them.  I thought I was too lazy to cut them into tiny pieces and so decided to food process them.  Shredding two pounds of greens in a food processor is not something I think I want to do again, although I probably will….

So I got the greens all shredded up, got my onions all sweated out, and got my garlic-ginger starter (I want to say roux, but it's not a roux.  It's a garlic-ginger starter paste) -- I got it cooking.  I kicked in the garam masala, the greens, and then the cardamom, cumin, turmeric, coriander, and Indian red chili powder.  I tasted it, and the taste of the spices was overwhelming.  “Shoot,” I thought.  “I’ve just ruined two pounds of greens.  Note to self:  when first using new spices, estimate LESS, not MORE.  You can always ADD spice, you can’t take it away.”  And then I noticed the potatoes I’d roasted while doing laundry.  “Hmm…. Vindaloo has potatoes in it, and potatoes will soak up excess salt; wonder if they’ll soak up these extra spices?”  They didn’t really, plus I’d now committed not just my greens but my roasted veggies as well.  Despite the fact that I’d just thrown food out, resolving to buy less quantity more frequently, and despite the fact that I’ll only be at home for three days this week, I didn’t want to ruin this dish or end up having to toss it.

“Well, I don’t have any yogurt, and even if I did, I don’t want to put yogurt in this dish.  What am I going to do?”  One of the items I didn’t throw out was a tin of “This is not cream cheese” from Trader Joe’s.  It wasn’t cream cheese, it was a vegan substitute that I bought just because it was vegan.  It had been sitting in the refrigerator because I’m not a real big fan of cream cheese.  I only use (the animal-based one) in recipes.  “Hmmm…the recipe calls for a yogurt/milk blend, and some call for a cottage cheese/milk blend. Wonder if I can use this fake cream cheese with some almond milk?”

The answer is a resounding YES!!!!  I blended in a little almond milk with the vegan cream cheese, and made it the consistency of a loose yogurt.  I added it to the saag, tasted a spoonful, and the flavors just POPPED in my mouth!  I was literally grinning at the pot as I stirred the rest in!

There is a bit of a flavor imbalance.  I’m going to have to learn what spices are in this particular garam masala (this was pre-ground; from what I understand, the best is when you grind it yourself, but since I don’t know the flavors well enough, I  didn’t think that was the move).  But I’ll find what spices are in this particular garam masala, try not to duplicate them when I add the individual spices, and see if that balances the flavor a bit more.  But I’m really delighted with my first adventure in Indian cooking, and the possibilities it opens up for more vegan cooking and eating.  I even have a box of ingredients for kheer, which I’ll make with almond milk so it will be close to vegan (I don’t know what’s in the box, but think there might be some milk solids or thickeners, so it won’t be completely vegan).  I was going to make it tonight until saw that it makes 600g of the stuff.  I might make it before I go, though – leave some here and take some with me.

My first adventure in Indian cooking was a success!  I don’t know if I’m at a point where I can talk to Amit’s mother about spices, but if I ever go to his house again, I might pay a bit more attention to her basement spice closet.....