Though I'm sure turkeys aren't feeling the happiness right about now. It's one of those times when you wonder why you eat meat. Okay, maybe not you, I do. But one needs conflict, I guess. This one's mine, and I'm not judging. So, if you're making turkey, try organic. If you're into tofurkey, congratulations, and have fun. I'm making none of those. This day is mine--meaning, all I'll do is eat.
Last week I had a small Indo-food demo/dinner for Marcie's friends. Very polite people, they said the right things--it's wonderful, it's great, yum. So, despite being suspicious, I'll say they enjoyed the dal, the butter chicken, shrimp, cauliflower, peas pulao and vermicelli pudding. I know, I should learn to say, thank you. I'm working on it, I am!
Anyway, most of you should have these recipes, but email me if you don't.
An interesting thing happened at the Bunker Bash. More than the food, the group was fascinated with the masala box, the anjala potti as the South Indians call it. I have mine filled with North Indian spices:
And I do agree--the colors are fascinating, textures and smells even more so. For a daily cook/chef, it's easy to forget or get used to these interesting ingredients that make up Indian curries. जीरा Jeera, or cumin, is used whole (साबुत), or as powder. I use a lot of haldi (हल्दी), turmeric powder, chili powder, and garam masala (गरम मसाला) and ground coriander seeds or dhaniya (धनिया). In addition, others may have mustard seeds, coriander seeds, with sides of rasam or sambhar powder. Gujaratis use a lot of cumin-coriander powder where both of them are mixed together. My mother used to grind cinnamon, cloves and cardamom (C-cubed) into the Bengali fresh garam masala powder, that I do too these days. Yes, I'm turning into my mother, I admit.
The questions that came with the curiosity about the anjala potti got me thinking--why do we use these spices, and why are they stored in such tiny containers? Scientifically, it does make sense though. In India, with the hot weather, spices can go bad easily, lose their flavor especially if you're storing them next to your stove. So, the bulk spices are kept elsewhere, preferably cold, and for each cooking round, you use this potti (it's not potty, so, grow up). In the olden golden days, turmeric was used (and still is), as an antiseptic, on wounds, and even before baths. I remember we applied fresh turmeric paste on our bodies when we were children, and then scrubbed it off before Saraswati Pujo, and waited impatiently for the priest to finish praying so we could stuff our faces with luchi-begun, fried pooris, and eggplant (recipe to follow in a bit). Ma used to check our palms and behind our ears--if the pale-yellow turmeric stain had seeped in, then we'd taken our shower. If there were remnants of turmeric paste, that meant lunch had to wait till we'd washed that off!
Now, back to my anjala potti--
Turmeric is used in Indian cooking not only for medicinal purposes, but gives a fresh taste to vegetables. When mixed with chilies or chilli powder, it takes on a different tone. Green chilies has the active enzyme capsaicin, which activates receptors in the brain to allow the heart rate to increase, increasing the metabolism rate, which is what you want when you're eating a ton of food. Chilli powder, is usually a shade of red, is dried, and again, used in Indian cooking, for increasing metabolism, fighting inflammation and when mixed with turmeric, is a double-attack on fat (metabolism). Cumin's been considered to be good for digestion, (also anise seeds), and allows for the body's detox mechanism to activate. Coriander, is another nutritional herb/seed, often used for digestion, 'anti-diabetic', and cholesterol-lowering spice in Ayurveda.
I know it's a lot of science and medicine today, but it's fascinating to know that for centuries, Indian cooking has been quite a science and obviously designed to be good for you. If only we learnt to lay off the cream and butter! I'd love to hear what your anjala potti has, and if you have pictures to share, even better.
Next time, maybe I'll talk about fresh herbs that I've incorporated into my food--non-Indian ones too--rosemary, parsley, sage, basil, coriander. There's a reason people have been using them for centuries. We just forgot why.
Thought I'd end with my favorite shrimp dish I like to make. It takes all of 10 minutes to cook (20 mins to marinate). Tandoori shrimp with bellpeppers. I've shared the tandoori paste recipe in an earlier post, so, check that out. For the medium-size shrimp, marinate 50-75 of them in the paste, with 1-2 tbsp oil, chili powder (1 tbsp), salt to taste for about 20 minutes. Cut 2 green bellpeppers longitudinally, and saute them in a cast-iron pan with 1-2 tbsp oil. Plate them, and then saute the shrimp in the leftover oil for 3-5 minutes. Plate and add a dash of lemon juice. Eat with naan or tandoori roti.
Enjoy, and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
