Roghan Josh

This is, to date, the meat-based Indian dish that we enjoy the most cooking at home. Add basmati rice and a tomato and cucumber raita, and this will satisfy our cravings for spicy food. Not just any roghan josh, but this particular recipe that came with a Wine Spectator email. I always go back to their webpage for the recipe, and I follow it to the letter simply because it works. Now, imagine that they remove the recipe from their website? What willl we do? To prevent such a catastrophe, I'll cut and paste it here --- just in case. Before that, here's a picture of the resulting meal last time we cooked it:

Roghan Josh
A hearty, exotic lamb dish that works well with Malbec
From Wine Spectator magazine

The following recipe is an adaptation from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking (Barron).

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 pounds lamb shoulder or other lamb stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 8 cloves garlic
• 2 1-inch pieces fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 11/2 to 2 cups water
• 10 whole cardamom pods
• 10 peppercorns
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 1-inch cinnamon stick
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 4 teaspoons sweet, or mild, paprika mixed with 1/4 to 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• Salt to taste
• 6 tablespoons plain yogurt
• 1/4 teaspoon garam masala
• Freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven, or similar heavy-bottomed pot, set over medium-high heat. Brown the meat, working in batches to avoid crowding the pan. Transfer the cooked meat to a plate.

2. Meanwhile, puree the garlic and ginger with 1/4 cup water in a blender or food processor until smooth. Reserve.

3. Add the cardamom, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon stick to the pot used to cook the meat. Cook, stirring, just until the bay leaf turns color and the cloves swell, about 1 minute. Transfer the spices to a small bowl.

4. Add the onions to the pot, and cook until golden and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the ginger-garlic paste, and stir, 30 seconds. Add the paprika mixture, cumin and coriander. Season with salt. Cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Return the meat and its juices to the pot. Cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Add 3 tablespoons of the yogurt, stirring until combined. Repeat with the remaining 3 tablespoons yogurt. Let mixture cook 3 to 4 minutes more.

5. Add 1 1/4 cups water, and bring the mixture to a boil, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Reduce heat to low. Wrap and tie the reserved spices up in cheesecloth, and add to the pot. Cover the pot, and simmer the mixture, stirring occasionally, until the meat is tender, about 1 hour. (Alternatively, bake in a 350° F oven the same length of time.)

6. When the meat is tender, uncover the pot, and cook until the sauce has thickened slightly. Skim off any fat from the top. Add the garam masala, and season with salt and pepper.

Serves 4.

Cancer pagurus

Cancer pagurus is the scientific name of one these fellows:

Well, to be honest, that's how they look like once they have been cooked, and this is how you should go about it: grab a large pot and fill it halfway with water, adding enough salt so that it tastes like sea water. This means a lot of salt. The pot should be large enough to hold the crabs, and I do not recommend cooking more that two medium-sized crabs at a time. Bring the water to a boil with an onion studded with a few cloves, and add also a glass of white wine. Once it's boiling, put the live crabs inside. There's no other way, sorry. As soon as the water comes back to a boil, time 20 minutes. Skim the water now and then. After the 20 minutes, turn off the heat and remove the crabs from the pot, run them under cold water, and let them cool. Once they are cold enough, put them in the fridge for half an hour or so. That's when you start disassembling them: remove that belly bit that is missing in this picture:

After that, remove the legs with a swift circular motion. This is what you want to obtain:

Then, you must separate the carapace from what's left of the crab. It's not easy to explain how to do this, fiddle around a bit and you'll get it. Once you've done it, there are a few things you should throw away, others you must keep. The juices are precious, do all this above a plate that catches the juices. Anything that looks edible is edible, that's my best explanation. In particular, the innards are the best part. Collect all these bits in a bowl, breaking them into bite-sized morsels. Add the collected juices, one finely chopped hard-boiled egg, some mustard, a splash of whiskey, maybe some mayo. You want to create a yummy paste that you'll spread over crusty bread. Some people like to put this paste back into the carapace, once it's scrubbed and clean. I prefer to serve in a bowl. Chill everything, and serve the legs and the paste with a dry white wine. It may not look perfect, but I can assure you it tasted divinely!

Summer holidays

If we had to illustrate our summer holidays in Madrid through food, this would be our choice:


(Ensalada de pimientos-melva, Taberna Almendro 13, La Latina, Madrid.)

Quinoa

This is our new discovery, a pseudo-cereal that goes by the name of quinoa. The Incas referred to it as 'the mother of all grains', and it was a very important source of nourishment for many centuries. For some reason, pleople have rediscovered it recently, and its nutricional qualities have been touted especially by vegetarians.

Gastronomically speaking, its flavour is delicate yet nutty. The texture is very particular - perhaps a bit chewy. It does fill you up, but you do not feel bloated. I guess it's hard to describe, we can only say it's totally worth to try it at least once.

The web is full of "quinoa and black bean salad" recipes, so what we did for our first meal featuring quinoa was to read a few of those for inspiration. What we have actually done:

- 1 cup of quinoa, thoroughly washed in cold water and rinsed
- 2 cups of water
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 cup each of canned black beans and corn, washed and rinsed
- 1 tsp of ground cumin
- 1 tsp of cayene pepper
- 3 tbsp of chopped coriander
- juice of one lime
- olive oil and salt

Sautee the onion and garlic in a sauce pan that has a tight fitting lid with a splash of olive oil. When the onion is soft, add the cumin and pepper. Fry for a few seconds, until fragant. Add the quinoa, mix well. Add the water, season with salt, and bring to a boil. Close the lid, turn the heat to low, and cook for 15 minutes. The liquid should all be absorbed by then. Turn off the heat. Stir in the beans and corn, and wait a few minutes until they are heated through.

In a large bowl, mix a few tbsp of olive oil with the lime juice to make a sort of vinagrette. Mix in the quinoa mixture, stir in the coriander, and check for salt and olive oil. We had it warm with wilted spinash that was briefly sauteed in garlicky olive oil, but it's supposedly very good chilled.

Here's a nice picture of the final result: