A Tale of 3 Curries

Drawing on the philosophical discussion of the last post, I thought I'd post a sort of case study, explaining how I go about cooking multi-course meals. I made a trio of Indian recipes last weekend and even surprised myself with how easy the meal was cooking and timing-wise. This particular trio works very well together because, while all three recipes are quick to make, they can also be staggered nicely, so you don't find yourself trying to do 3 things at once.

A Tale of 3 Curries, originally uploaded by CaitKP.

The Ingredients

Spiced Cabbage Salad:

* 4 cups shredded green or Savoy cabbage
* 1/3 cup finely chopped shallots
* 3 green serrano chiles, seeded and minced
* 6 fresh or frozen curry leaves or 1 tablespoon dried curry leaves
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
* 2 tablespoons fresh or frozen grated coconut

Katchhi Village Potato Curry:

* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 2 teaspoons minced garlic or garlic mashed to a paste
* 1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
* 1 cup finely chopped shallots
* 1 cup chopped tomatoes
* 2 green serrano chiles, seeded and chopped
* 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
* 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
* 1 teaspoon round cumin
* 1 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1/4 cup water
* 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Kerala Fish Curry:

* 2 cans (213 g each) of Sockeye salmon or mackerel, drained
* 1/2 an onion or 2 shallots, chopped
* 1 teaspoon minced ginger
* 2 teaspoons minced garlic
* 1 tablespoon of oil
* 2 teaspoons tumeric
* 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
* 1 teaspoon corriander
* 6 to 8 curry leaves
* 4 green serrano chiles
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

The Chopping and Measuring

1. Begin by chopping all the common ingredients (garlic: 4 tsp total, ginger: 1 tsp total, chiles: 9(!) total, shallots/onions: about 2 cups total, potatoes, cabbage). Chop each ingredient and place in a separate bowl.

2. Next, measure out the spices. It's ok to mix all the dry spices for an individual recipe ahead of time, as they will be added at the same time.

3.Other prep work: make sure you have the canned ingredients (fish, tomatoes etc.) on hand to avoid going on cupboard diving expeditions at the last minute.

The Cooking

The potato curry will take the longest to cook, so start it first, followed by the cabbage, then do the fish last, as it cooks in less than 10 minutes.

Potatoes:
1. Heat the 2 tbsp of oil in a wok or wide pot over medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon garlic and cook for a minute, then add the potatoes and 1 cup of shallots/onions. Stir-fry for several minutes, until the shallots have softened, pressing the potato cubes against the surface of the hot pan.

2. Next, add the chopped tomatoes, 3 chopped chiles (you can be approximate here), the pre-measured spices (turmeric, mustard seeds, cumin, coriander), and the remianing 1 teaspoon garlic and stir to blend. Add the water and salt and bring to a boil. Cover tightly and simmer vigorously until the potatoes are just tender, about 20 minutes. Check regularly to make sure there is enough liquid and that nothing is sticking; add a little more water (or canned crushed tomatoes) if necessary.

If you are serving this with Naan from the grocery store ( frozen), this is a good time to start preheating the oven.

Cabbage:
1. While the potatoes are boiling, put the shredded cabbage in a medium heavy pot with the 1/3 cup shallots/onions, approx. 2 chiles, and the cabbage spices (curry leaves, salt, turmeric, and cumin). Place over medium-high heat, cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Give the pot a quick stir, cover again, and lower the heat to medium.

2. Simmer until the cabbage is cooked and tender, about another 10 minutes, depending on your cabbage and how finely it is shredded. Add the lime juice and coconut and stir to mix well. Let cook for a minute or two, uncovered, then cover and remove from the heat.

At this point, the potatoes are probably getting close to done. If so, take them off the heat and cover them, otherwise, they can finish cooking while you cook the fish. You can also stick the Naan (if using) in the oven now.


Fish:
1. In a small to medium pot, heat 1 tbsp oil on medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the rest of the garlic (2 tsp), and the ginger (2 tsp). Turn the heat to low, and cook, stirring constantly for 1 -2 minutes.

2. Next, add the spices for the fish (tumeric, cumin, corriander, curry leaves) and the remaining serrano chiles (about 4 chiles worth). Stir until mixture is fragrant (2 min or so).

3. Add the fish, turn the heat up to medium, and cook, stirring for at most 2-3 minutes, until fish is heated through and coated with the spice mixture. (I told you it was quick!)

Pull the Naan out of the oven. The potatoes should be done now as well. If they have burnt a little and stuck to the bottom of the pot, leave them to sit off the heat covered for a minute (the steam will unstick them).


Congratulations. You now have a 3 course Indian meal, complete with a side of Naan, ready to serve, and you've timed it perfectly. Nothing is overcooked, and everything is still warm. Enjoy!

PS Clean up for this really isn't that scary either: if you've done it right, you should have a bunch of bowls and measuring cups (which can go in the dishwasher), and a few pots.

Serving: Serves about 4 healthy appetites (or 2 + lunches for the upcoming week).

Culinary Abstraction: The Story

I would like to begin this post with an apology: first for not having written for a few weeks (I was in France...I'll elaborate in a later post) and second for the nerdliness of this post (well, the name of this blog is Cooking in *Code*). Anyways...moving on.

I got the idea for this post from a discussion I was having earlier today in which I was vehemently disagreeing with the (somewhat preposterous) claim that a good way to improve one's coding skills is to read books about writing code. In the process of ranting about how absurd this claim was I found an interesting connection between cooking and coding.

The term "abstraction" is commonly used by programmers. It means that instead of diving in and trying to write the whole program in one fell swoop, you break it down into little pieces, write and test each of these and once you have all the little pieces you need, and are (somewhat) certain that they work correctly, you assemble them into the bigger program you were initially trying to write. I rely on abstraction a lot to keep things from getting (too) complicated when I write code but what I realized this morning is that I also abstract my cooking.

In fact, I think culinary abstraction is a brilliant way to go if you (like me) tend to encounter timing and coordination issues when cooking multiple dishes at once. Here's why: have you ever (bear with me here) watched Martha Stewart cooking some five-course meal and thought "well, yeah, its easy when everything is pre-chopped and pre-measured and layed out in nice little pastel-coloured ceramic bowls". Well guess what, that's culinary abstraction: get all the little things figured out first, then, all you have to do is assemble the pieces.

One could argue (lacking a staff of 20 like Martha has), that it doesn't make a difference if you chop everything now, or just do it as you go, however, I will once again return to the code analogies to explain the difference.

The "holy grail" of code-writing is reusability: If you can write one piece of code, and use it for several tasks (rather than writing new code each time) you not only save yourself the time it takes to write the code but also to maintain and debug it.

Cut to the kitchen. Two nights ago, on my own, I made a three-course Indian meal (recipes to come in a later post). Sounds like a lot of work, but in fact, it didn't take me more than an hour and a half to make. What I did was this: First I figured out the quantities of garlic, serrano chiles, ginger, onions etc. that were needed for each recipe and chopped them all (if you're very Martha, and have a major surplus of bowls, you could divide each ingredient up into portions for each recipe...but I just left each one in a bowl and scooped out the appropriate amount as needed). Next, I measured spices. These I did do by recipe, putting all the spices for the fish curry in one bowl, the potato curry in another, and the cabbage in a third. Finally I prepared "recipe-specific" ingredient (cabbage, potatoes, fish).

At this point, everything is ready to be added to the pot, and its just a matter of timing, which, when you're not distracted by last minute chopping/washing/mixing/measuring etc., is quite simple to manage.

The point here is that if you chop/wash/measure all the ingredients first, you know you have exactly what you need, so you're free to focus on the actual *cooking* part, and, like coding, not only do you save yourself the pain of last minute surprises ("Crap, we don't actually have any onions.."), you also save yourself having to wash the cutting board multiple times.

The point here is that a good part of cooking, like coding, is just getting your thoughts in order. And when you approach a new project in either domain, the best thing you can possibly do is fight the urge to dive headlong into it immediately and instead take some time to get organized (it will likely save you time in the long run).