Hot milk with honey and spices

In Silicon Valley, Cafe Borrone is one of those trendy coffee shops frequented by the European crowd and hip young professionals.  Always up to trying something new, I passed on the numerous espresso drinks and instead ordered their honey steamed milk.  Impressed, I set about to make my own version.

This cozy drink is simply warm milk made special with honey, nutmeg, and allspice.  For best flavor, nutmeg should always be grated immediately before use.


Hot milk with honey and spices  (serves one)

1 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon honey
generous pinch freshly grated nutmeg
generous pinch ground allspice

1)  Mix milk, honey, and spices in a small saucepan.
2)  Heat over medium heat until heated to desired temperature, stirring constantly.

Mango lassi

Mango lassi is, of course, as Indian as fortune cookies are Chinese.  But I love it none-the-less.  Mango lassis are also very personal.  Some people like them thin, milky, and sweet.  Others like them thick, with deep mango flavor.  Use this recipe as a launching pad for your own tastes.

Results will also differ dramatically based on the type of mango you're using.  Tommy Atkins mangoes (the red kind found in most grocery stores) will produce inferior lassi.  The rich and creamy ataulfo mango (the yellow kidney bean-shaped mango found in some American and Chinese grocery stores, also called champagne mangoes) would work better.  But often the best option is canned mango puree (preferably alphonso) found in most Indian grocery stores.





Mango lassi    (serves 2)

1 cup plain yogurt

1 1/4 cup chopped ripe mango or canned mango puree

3 tablespoons sugar or to taste (start with 1 tablespoon if canned mangoes were sweetened)

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom seeds or sweet garam masala (optional)

milk to taste

8 crushed ice cubes (optional)

1. Combine yogurt, mango, sugar, and spice in food processor or blender.  Blend. 
2. Adjust sugar and spice to taste.  Add milk (or ice, if using blender) to desired consistency.

Cauliflower and potatoes with ponch phoron

This is a dry, North Indian style vegetable curry is adapted from a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking book.  There, she used 3 of the 5 spices in the ponch phoron mix, so I just decided to use the whole mix since I get packets of it each time my husband's relatives come back from India.  The recipe has a simple enough concept:  fry the whole spices in oil, add vegetables, sprinkle on ground spices, brown vegetables lightly, then add just enough water to steam the vegetables to completion.

Cauliflower and potatoes with ponch phoron

2 pounds cauliflower (1 small head)

2 medium boiling potatoes (about ¾ pound)

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 teaspoons ponch phoron (or more)

2 whole dried hot red peppers

¾ teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon garam masala

1. Remove leaves from cauliflower.  Break head into 2 inch long, 1/2 inch wide flowerets.  Soak in cold water for half an hour.
2. Dice potatoes into ½ inch dice.  Soak in same bowl as cauliflower.
3. Drain cauliflower and potatoes.  Dry in dish towel.  (The drier the better, so that vegetables brown, not just steam.)
4. Heat oil in a large 12 inch skillet over high heat.  When oil is smoking, scatter in the panch phoron and dried red peppers.  Stir briefly and add cauliflower and potatoes.  Stir and adjust heat to medium.  Sprinkle the turmeric, coriander, salt, and pepper over the vegetables and sauté for 8-10 minutes or until vegetables brown in spots (turn heat up if necessary).
5. Add ¼ cup water and quickly cover the pan.  Turn heat to very low and steam vegetables until tender, about 7-10 minutes.  Sprinkle with the garam masala, stir, and serve.

Salmon with ripe mango chutney

This is another one of my fusion dishes:  a fresh mango and citrus chutney/salsa with salmon that was cooked and glazed with the chutney juices (pictured with store-bought Indian flatbread and a bitter green salad with sweet honey-mustard dressing).

This is a healthy dish that plays the sweet and sour notes of mango and citrus against the slightly bitter and savory notes in the ponch phoron.  I chose to use salmon because it takes well to carmelized flavors and can hold it's own with other assertive ingredients, but really any firm fish will work.  The chutney/salsa will steal the show anyway!

I feel this recipe really showcases ponch phoron, the Bengali whole five spice blend.  The spices are lightly fried before adding the fruit.  At this point the spices will still be hard and a bit bitter, but the flavor and texture will soften alongside the fruit as the fish is cooking.  I enjoy the contrasts, but if this really doesn't appeal to you, you can drain the juices off the uncooked salsa and add only the juices to the pan after frying the spices.  Use this to cook the fish in.  The extra cooking time for the spices will ensure they meld into the dish fully.

Salmon with ripe mango chutney  (2 servings)

1 large ripe mango or two small, ½ inch dice (about 1 to 1 1/2 cups)

1 large orange

2 limes

extra lime juice (optional)

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon thinly julienned ginger

1 tablespoon ponch phoron

few pinches of mango powder (optional)

2 large fillets (two servings) salmon, skin removed

1. Cut the sections from the orange and limes and put in a medium bowl with the diced mango.  Squeeze out any remaining juice into the bowl as well.  Add sugar, salt, and extra lime juice to taste.
2. In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat until hot.  Saute ginger and panch phoran briefly until spices color slightly.  Quickly add fruit and take off the heat.
3. Add a few pinches mango powder and adjust seasonings again.
4. Remove fruit from skillet, reserving as much liquid in pan as possible.  Over medium heat, reduce juices to about half a cup.
5. Add fish fillets to skillet and cook until done, turning fillets occasionally to glaze with the chutney juices and form a nice carmalized coating.  Serve with chutney on the side.

Bengali red lentils

Since my husband is Bengali, I decided to start by showcasing ponch phoron, the Bengali whole five spice mix. (North Indians also use the blend to make pickles.)  The spice mix can easily be found in Indian grocery stores or online.  I'm starting with three tasty recipes (two authentic Indian and one fusion) to make the purchase worth your while.  Like many whole spice blends, ponch phoron is added to hot oil at the beginning of cooking to create the first layer of flavors for a dish.

This is my husband's authentic Bengali red lentil dish.  Bengalis will usually add plenty of water to the dal (lentils) to make it soupy and serve it over rice.  My husband and I keep it pretty thick and eat it with store-bought Indian flatbreads.  Or eat it Western-style, as a soup!

If you don't have a pressure cooker, simply simmer lentils until soft and mushy, about 1.5 hours.  (You may need to add extra water.)

Bengali red lentils (masoor dal)  (serves 4-5)

1 cup split and skinned masoor dal (salmon/pink skinned lentils, found in Indian grocery stores)

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tomato, cut into wedges

1 tablespoon oil

1/2 onion, sliced into half rings

1 minced green chili

1 minced garlic clove

1/2 tablespoon ponch phoron

1/2 teaspoon sambar masala (optional)

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon garam masala

¼ cup chopped cilantro (optional)

1. Wash the lentils and put in pressure cooker.  Cover with water until it generously covers hand placed over the lentils.  Add turmeric, salt, and tomatoes.  Put lid on pressure cooker and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes (start timing when steam/pressure has built up).
2. Half-way through cooking, heat oil in a medium skillet.  Saute sliced onion for a few minutes until not raw but not limp, about 2 minutes.
3. Add minced chili and garlic.  Cook one minute.
4. Add ponch phoron.  Cook one minute, then add sambar masala, ground cumin, garam masala, and cilantro.  Fry lightly.
5. Release steam from pressure cooker and adjust salt and water to taste.  Add onion mixture and simmer on low for 2 minutes to combine the flavors.

Indian-style coffee

I think I'll start with a simple recipe that I devised myself:  Indian-style coffee.

In actuality, I'm not even sure that Indians add spices to their coffee.  Why, then, would I claim this is Indian-style, and why would I have the audacity to claim to know anything about Indian tastes?  

My husband is Bengali and I've picked up bits and pieces of Indian culture and eating habits.  When my husband's parents visited, they would have their coffee (with milk and sugar) for breakfast and their tea (with milk and sugar) in the afternoon.  I was actually surprised that they didn't add spices to their tea, beings I had been making chai tea for years.  I was also surprised that they wanted to find "high-quality" instant coffee to bring back to India and give as gifts.  

That said, what I love about Indian cooking is the spices, and I wanted to bring some of that goodness to my coffee.  Looking at the many chai recipes in my Indian cookbooks, I noticed that some recipes added fennel.  I'm not a big fan of fennel and licorice flavors, so I never add it to my chai.  But I thought the menthol-like notes from fennel and green cardamom would do wonders for coffee.  And it does!

Here's my recipe, which has become our family's weekend morning coffee.  When I'm lazy I'll use Bru, an Indian instant coffee with roasted chicory.  We get it from our local Indian grocery store.  However, I'm currently experimenting with using freshly-ground coffee beans brewed semi-Turkish style.  This will probably be more appealing to the coffee snobs among you (you know who you are!)  I'm waiting to get my hands on some Peet's Arabian Mocha-Java.....

Indian-style coffee  (makes about three cups)

1 1/2 cups water

3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds

seeds from 5 green cardamom pods

4 1/2 teaspoons Bru

5 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

1. In a small saucepan, start warming water over medium heat.  
2. Meanwhile, grind together fennel and cardamom seeds in an electric coffee grinder until semi-coarse (not powdered).  Add to water.  Add coffee and sugar, stir well, and heat for about 5 minutes or until simmering.  
3. Add milk and bring back up to desired temperature.  Strain before serving.

For semi-Turkish style using whole beans, grind the beans as fine as possible in the electric coffee grinder (coffee will cake to sides of grinder).  Use this instead of the Bru.  Before adding milk, let coffee simmer at least 2 minutes to let coffee brew.  After adding milk, stir only once (this allows some of the fine grinds to settle out of the coffee).  I call this semi-Turkish coffee because authentically the coffee should be brewed in an ibrik and treated in a special way to get a nice froth.  But the technique I'm giving will still produce a flavorful, strong coffee.  Beware, however, that even after straining there will be lots of fine coffee grinds on the bottom of your cup.  Just part of the experience!  (Some Turks use the grinds on the bottom of the cup to tell fortunes.)

The first post

This is a blog of my culinary adventures, exploring the world in my own kitchen.  I love Indian, Cajun, Ethiopian, Korean, Chinese, and Thai food but also dabble in Russian, French, Italian, and Persian.  And I'm always up for trying others...  I love the alchemy of combining spices (not necessarily heat, but that definitely has its place as well!)  If you do too, then join me!