Kalonji (Nigella Seed) Potatoes

In my CSA, I received a pound of Red Norland potatoes, which I found out are small red potatoes with a thin red skin and white flesh. I wanted to make a curry out of them with a spice I've been using a lot called kalonji, which is also sometimes called nigella seed or black caraway seed. It looks like this, kind of like little black pieces of charcoal:



It tastes a lot like onion, but I found it has no relation. The spice originated in Italy and Turkey but spread to African and Southeast Asian cuisine. It goes really well in dishes with potato and dal and also in breads. I learned too that it has a lot of healthful benefits including clearing up respiratory congestion and aiding in digestion so it's a good spice to add into the mix.

This dish is really fast to make if you boil the potatoes ahead of time - it's basically a couple fried spices, the potatoes and some sour cream at the end - sounds good right??

Ingredients

2 tablespoons ghee or oil
1/2 pound of dark red Norland potatoes (or any variety of small red potatoes), boiled and cut into quarters
pinch of asafoetida (hing)
1/2 teaspoon cumin seed
1/4 teaspoon kalonji (nigella) seed
1/4-1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic crushed
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
salt
1 teaspoon sour cream

Method

Boil potatoes, quarter and set aside.

Heat ghee or oil under medium-high heat and throw in hing, cumin seeds and kalonji seeds. When cumin seeds start to brown, turn down the heat to medium and throw in onions. Fry the onions until translucent. Add in turmeric and stir. Throw in garlic and ginger and mix up. Add in potatoes and stir. Cook for about 5 minutes or until tender. Add in salt. When potatoes are almost done, add in 1 teaspoon of sour cream and mix well.

Majjige Huli (Cucumber Yogurt Curry)

I'm so excited to share this recipe from my Aunt Karen, whose son, Pradeep, actually shared a beet recipe on the site a couple weeks back. Her majjige huli (pronounced mudge-a-gay hool-i) recipe is one that she learned from my grandmother in Bangalore and has tweaked over the years. I had a taste of it at Thanksgiving last year and couldn't get enough so I've asked her to share it here.

Majjige huli is a yogurt curry made from cilantro, green chilis, coconut, soaked lentils and spices and it can be made with different vegetables - cucumber, squash, eggplant, etc. This dish is rarely found in restaurants and is eaten mostly in South Indian homes. What I love about it is first of all it's bright green:) and second, I've really never tasted anything like it. It's herby, cooling and really flavorful and goes well as a complement to spicy dishes. I also like that it's a cooked yogurt curry, which is unique.

My Aunt Karen didn't grow up in India so when she married my mother's eldest brother and moved there, she started to collect many of our family recipes by watching our relatives. I admire her because she came to India at a young age and learned to cook and speak the language (which I can't say I can even do). She's also a gifted artist, and among other projects, she makes handmade drawings and cards inspired by Madhubani art, a style of painting from Bihar, India. This is one of her drawings and you can read more about them here:

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© 2011 Karen Vasudev. All rights reserved

I hope you enjoy her awesome recipe! I like to eat it with rice and pickle.

Majjige Huli (Cucumber Yogurt Curry)

courtesy of Karen Vasudev

Ingredients

1-3 green Serrano chilies (to taste based on size and desired “hotness”)

1/2 bunch green coriander leaves washed and cleaned

1/4 cup of a fresh coconut OR 1/3 cup unsweetened desiccated dry coconut

1/4 cup roasted channa dal*

1/8 to 1/4 tsp turmeric

1/2-3/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp black mustard seeds

2 red chilies

2 sprigs curry leaves (optional)

3 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1” wide pieces

1 1/2 cups of plain yogurt** (natural style without gelatin or other additives)

Salt to taste***

1 tsp oil for tempering

*You can use chenna dhal soaked in hot water for 15 mins. if you don’t have roasted channa dal.

**The amount of yogurt can be adjusted to taste based on spiciness.

***Cucumber water has salt in it, so taste before adding more salt

Method

Peel the cucumbers, cut in half lengthwise, remove the seeds, and cut in half again lengthwise. Then cut into 1” wide pieces.

Boil in salted water until tender (about 10-15 mins.). Cover for the last 3-4 minutes. Drain but retain about 1 cup of the water and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, in a blender container add the following ingredients in the following order: roasted channa dal, green chilies, coriander leaves, turmeric, cumin seeds, and leaves from 1 sprig of the curry leaves. Now slowly add the cup of cooled cucumber water and blend to a smooth paste - add just enough of the remaining cucumber water as needed to keep the blender blades moving.

Whisk the yogurt to a smooth consistency and add the blended mixture to it. Continue to whisk until well blended. Taste to adjust salt. Add the cooled cucumber pieces and stir to mix.

In hot oil, fry the mustard seeds till they pop (use lid to prevent spattering). Immediately reduce the heat, add curry leaves from the remaining curry leaf sprig and the red chilies. Heat for about 30 seconds. Immediately add to the yogurt mixture and mix well.

This can be served either cold or at room temperature.

Other vegetables that can be used: boiled potatoes; boiled Chinese winter melon (ash gourd); stir fried okra pieces; or stir fried Japanese eggplant.

The Spice Route: David Klopfenstein on Black Pepper

I first met Dave at Food Obstructions where I was blown away by his risotto ball dish - I still think about them! He has a really inventive style of cooking using seasonal ingredients and you can find more about it at Dave's Kitchen. I'm happy to have him on The Spice Route. Get ready to learn a lot you didn't know about black pepper and get a really delicious recipe too!

Name: David Klopfenstein

Where do you live? Brooklyn, NY

What do you love to do? Cook and write about it (on daveskitchen.com).

What’s your spice? Black Pepper

What do you know about it? Black pepper is the fermented and dried berry of a vine officially known as Piper Negrum. It’s native to southern India but is now cultivated widely across tropical regions of the world (Vietnam is currently the world’s leading producer). White pepper comes from the same fruit, but is hulled: it’s the seed of the berry only, whereas the black peppercorn is made from the entire dried fruit. Green peppercorns – the unripe, un-dried berry of the same plant – can often be found either freeze-dried or preserved in brine. Fresh peppercorns, rarely found in the west because they’re very difficult to preserve and transport, are found in Thai and other Asian cuisines.

Black pepper was used in Indian cooking from ancient times, and was highly sought after by Europeans at least since the Roman era. It was so highly prized that it became an extremely important trade commodity and played a significant part in European empire building empires in Asia. It was largely access to black pepper that drove Vasco de Gama, and later Columbus to look for sea routes to India.

What do you like about it? Black pepper is almost an afterthought: always listed at the very bottom of a recipe’s ingredients list, a nearly forgotten mention of “salt and pepper to taste.” But its barely-noticed place in the recipe is really a sign of just how necessary and essential it is. Practically no dish is complete without it.

But black pepper’s role as a supporting player, as the picker-upper and rounder-outer of every dish in the cookbook, shouldn’t let you think that it lacks flavor or depth of its own. It is a berry, after all (well, technically, a “drupe”), and a good-quality black peppercorn has a complex fruitiness of its own. It holds up well as a featured flavor and can take a starring role in dishes like black pepper ice cream or like the black pepper and fresh herb biscuits for which I’ve listed a recipe here.

What else? Like every Midwestern kid, I grew up thinking of pepper as the stuff in the shaker, next to the salt on the kitchen table. It was a real awakening the first time I used freshly ground black pepper instead of the grey sawdust poured from a McCormick’s tin. Such aroma! Real heat! Actual flavor! It opened a small window into a larger universe of food and flavors, much bigger than the convenient, pre-packaged world of the suburban supermarkets I grew up with.

What’s your favorite vegetarian recipe using it? Black Pepper and Herb Biscuits

Black Pepper and Herb Biscuits by David Klopfenstein

Makes 10 to 12 biscuits

Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ tsp salt
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
¾ cup buttermilk
½ cup chopped fresh herbs, such as fennel, parsley, chives, tarragon, or a mix of several of these
1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper

Method
Preheat oven to 450.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry knife, two table knives or a food processor, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the largest chunks are the size of small peas.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk. Using a fork, gently stir the herbs and pepper into the buttermilk. Continue stirring, until the flour and liquid are evenly combined and a loose, crumbly dough is formed. Pour onto a lightly floured board. Using your hands and a bench knife, gently knead until it holds together as a single ball of dough. Be careful not to over-knead, or knead too vigorously, so that your biscuits won’t be tough.

Pat or roll the dough to a ½ inch thickness. Cut into rounds using a biscuit cutter. Gently pat together and recut scraps until all dough has been used. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 12 to 16 minutes, until tops are browned and bottoms sound hollow when tapped. Serve hot, slathered with butter and honey.

Instant Gooseberry Pickle

This pickle is the Indian kind, which is really a spicy condiment that you eat with hot rice and yogurt, but it's really good on almost anything - sandwiches, noodles, curry, etc. Usually, these kinds of pickles are very labor intensive and take weeks or even months to come out, but I've improvised and come up with an instant (or almost instant) one using gooseberries I got from the CSA. These gooseberries are somewhat juicy and really sour and tart when you bite in.

These are actually a different variety than the ones used in India, which look like this and are a bit bigger and crunchier with a larger seed. It's called amla in the North and nellikkai in the South.

Also, when eating pickle, you only have to eat a little of it at a time because it's quite potent with all of the chilis and spices. Think of it like sriracha or a hot sauce and something you wouldn't eat on it's own but on something. I had my friends Ben and Katie over and they almost ate the whole bottle and I feared for their lives but they were OK the next morning:)

Indian pickles are different from region to region depending on what types of oil, spices and local ingredients are found in the area. Most common is lemon or lime and then there is green mango, garlic, tomato etc. When I was growing up, my family would bring back pickles from India made by our relatives so we always had a fridge stocked with many varieties. One of my favorites is a red chili gooseberry one made by my mother's aunt, Saki, which my mother still brings back with her.

So it's kind of fitting that my first solo attempt at making a pickle was with the gooseberry and I was really happy with how it came out. I thought that it would be around for a at least a week or two but some people gobbled it down and I'm not going to name names:)

Ingredients

1/2 pound American gooseberries (about 35 small to medium in size)

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

2-3 tablespoons peanut or mustard oil*
large pinch asafoetida or hing

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
3/4-1 tablespoon chili powder**
1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon jaggery or brown sugar

*If using mustard oil, heat the oil until it smokes and then set it aside to cool. You can also heat the entire bottle of mustard oil so that you can cook with it immediately for future use. This heating removes the pungency from the oil.

**this may vary depending on the potency of your chili powder

Method

Wash gooseberries and dry completely. Halve them and set aside.

Dry roast fenugreek and cumin seeds. Make sure not to burn the fenugreek because it gets really bitter. Grind in a coffee grinder and set aside. This is what fenugreek seeds look like:

Heat oil under medium heat and add asafoetida (hing) and mustard seeds. When mustard seeds start to pop, turn down the heat to medium-low. Add turmeric and fry for a couple seconds. Throw in the gooseberries and give a stir. Add in the chili powder and stir gently. When the gooseberries are softened but still retaining some of their shape. That should be about 5 minutes. Stir in the roasted spices, salt and sugar. Turn off the heat.

Serve with hot rice and yogurt

When the pickle is completely cool, put into a clean, dry jar. Should last you 2 weeks (if you don't finish it before.)

The Spice Route: Mia Kim on Gochugaru

I'm really excited to introduce Mia Kim, one of my besties from Berkeley to The Spice Route. Mia was my devoted eating partner in crime on the West Coast and I miss her dearly. She is a wealth of information when it comes to Korean cooking and I'm sure you are going to love learning about her spice and recipe. You can find her musings on LA, food and other cool stuff at dubudiaries and read her restaurant reviews on Loopt.

Name: Mia Kim

Where do you live? Downtown Los Angeles, CA

What do you love to do? Traveling, taking pictures, cooking, eating and spending time with my husband, friends and family. I also enjoy chronicling my adventures on my site dubudiaries.

What’s your spice? Gochugaru (Korean Chili Powder)

What do you know about it? Gochugaru is a very common ingredient in many Korean dishes. It can come finely ground, in flakes or in a paste (gochujang). Gochu literally means “chili” and garu means “powder.” Gochugaru differs from hot pepper flakes or cayenne pepper in that it hasa slightly sweet and smoky flavor (one can describe it as a very distant and much spicier cousin to paprika perhaps).

The quality of gochugaru depends on how well the chili peppers were dried in the sun or with heat (sun is said to be better because it generates more spice and keeps the color a vibrant red). Gochugaru can be spicy so one should not be heavy-handed when using it in recipes.

This spice can be found in Korean or Asian markets and should be stored airtight in the refrigerator or freezer so as not to lose flavor.

What do you like about it? First, I really like the way gochugaru looks. What a wonderful, vibrant shade of red. It's very visually striking to me, like turmeric. I wish turmeric and gochugaru could get together and have beautiful little spice babies together.

I also like the unique flavor it lends – it’s different than any other chili I’ve had. The spice is not immediate, in the same way that kimchi is not spicy in a fiery way. It’s more like an afterthought. The spice doesn’t sit on your tongue like western chilis, rather it subtly adds heat and flavor at the back of your throat. To me, it’s the anti-jalapeno because the heat comes later.

What else? I read somewhere that until the 16th century, Korean food didn’t contain any chili at all. Now Korea has the most per capita consumption of chili in the world.

What’s your favorite vegetarian recipe using it? Bok Choy Kimchi. It’s refreshing, healthy, crunchier than regular kimchi, very quick and easy to make and can be eaten immediately (no fermentation period). I add fish sauce for some extra depth, but you can still definitely make it without the fish sauce for a delicious vegetarian option.

Bok Choy Kimchi by Mia Kim

Ingredients
4-5 bok choy, leaves rinsed and separated
1-2 cucumbers, sliced (preferably Persian)
3-4 Korean fresh perilla leaves, sliced (optional)
1/4 cup Korean chives, chopped (optional)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3/4 tablespoon sesame oil
3/4 tablespoon fish sauce (optional)
2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
3/4 teaspoon ginger, grated or finely minced
3/4 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon gochugaru
1 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds
juice of 1 large lemon

Method
Separate and rinse bok choy leaves. Slice lengthwise and across into bite-sized pieces.

Slice cucumber(s). I prefer Persian cucumbers for their crunch, and usually slice them about a 1/2 inch thick at a diagonal. If using perilla leaves, cut into small strips, about an inch or so wide, snipping off the stems. If using Korean chives (can be found at Asian markets and differ dramatically from Western chives; similar to Chinese chives), cut off ends and cut into 2 inch or so pieces. Place all greens in a large bowl that allows adequate space to toss and dress the kimchi.

Finely mince garlic and grate ginger. Add both to greens mixture. Add soy sauce, sesame oil,
lemon juice, honey, sesame seeds and gochugaru. Add fish sauce, if desired.

Gently toss, ensuring that all greens are covered evenly. You can garnish with additional sesame seeds and strips of perilla leaves.

These measurements are not hard and fast at all. You can play around adding more or less of any of the above ingredients, depending on your taste buds. You can also add more gochugaru to make it spicier. I would just continually taste to see that any one flavor is not overwhelming, or that the ratio of liquid to greens does not outweigh it (making it too salty). I usually add one round of all the ingredients, and if I don't find it flavorful enough, repeat with another round of all the ingredients (excluding the greens).

I generally don’t add salt since the soy sauce, lemon juice and fish sauce add enough of a salty flavor. However, one can carefully salt to taste especially if omitting the fish sauce. I would let the kimchi sit for a few minutes before adding more salt however because I find that the dressing gets a little saltier once it sits.

Optional additions to this dish include sliced scallions and/or finely sliced white onion. An alternative dish would be to substitute about 5 Persian cucumbers for the bok choy for a quick and easy version of cucumber kimchi.

Can be served immediately. This recipe serves about 2.