My first attempt at a curry.

Contrary to what one would assume by my lack of posting on this blog, I have been cooking from time to time. I tend to forget about this blog with all the distractions that life has to offer a man such as myself. But I digress.

Here is the recipe for a lamb curry I made a few weeks ago. I didn't take any pictures, so you'll have to take my word that it turned out excellent. I swiped the recipe from the best food sub-forum I have found on the interwebs. Recipe courtesy of Gorilla Overlord. Thanks, GO.

I had a blast ordering spices for this recipe, and heartily recommend Penzey's Spices for all your spice needs. So, I present to you:

Lamb Karahi Curry

250g (9oz) Ghee/Clarified Butter
3 tablespoons Fresh Coriander (chopped)
65g (2 1/2oz) Garlic
1 tablespoon Ground Turmeric
1 tablespoon Red Chilli Powder
350g (12oz) Fresh Spinach washed with large stalks removed
1 tablespoon Ground Cumin
4 medium sized Green Chillies with stalks removed
1 tablespoon Paprika
1⁄2 tablespoon Garam Masala
550g (1 1/4lb) Onions Chopped
1 x 400g (140z) Can Chopped Toms
50g (2oz) Fresh Ginger, peeled and chopped
1/2 tablespoon Salt
2lb Boneless leg or shoulder of Lamb (11⁄2 in) cubes
1 tablespoon Ground Coriander
120ml (4fl oz) water
A pinch of ground cumin and freshly ground Blek pepper to serve


When I make this, I use shoulder. It is better for braising, as it stays less dry.

Heat the ghee in a large, heavy based pan. Add the onions and cook over a medium heat, stirring now and then, for 20 minutes until they are soft and a light brown

Put the tomatoes, water, ginger and garlic into a liquidizer and blend until smooth. Remove the fried onions with a slotted spoon, leavnig the delicious fat in the pan, add them to the paste and blend briefly until smooth. You could almost eat it at this point, but let's push on forward.

Return the puree to the ghee left in the pan and add the lamb and salt. Simmer for 30 minutes, by which time the sauce will be well reduced. Stir in the turmeric, chilli powder, cumin, paprika and ground coriander and continue to cook for until the lamb is tender, adding a little water now and then if the sauce starts to stick. This will take probably 90 minutes total cooking time, but always check the lamb regularly.

Meanwhile, put 175g (6oz) of the spinach leaves into a large pan and cook until it has wilted down into the bottom of the pan. Cook for 1 minute, then transfer to the rinsed out liquidizer and blend to a smooth puree. Set aside. Rinse out the liquidiser again and add the green chillies and 2-3 tablespoons of water and blend until smooth. Set aside.

When the lamb is cooked, there should be a layer of ghee floating on the top of the curry. Leave that shit alone - it's pretty and tastes like highly spiced fat, which it is, which is good. Then stir in the spinach puree and the remaining spinach leaves and cook for 2 minutes.

Now taste the curry and add as much green chilli puree as you wish, according to how hot you like your curries. Simmer for 2 minutes more.

Stir in the fresh coriander and Garam Masala. Transfer the curry to a serving dish and sprinkle with a little more ground cumin and some freshly ground Blek pepper just before you take it to the table.

There you go. That's the best single curry I've ever eaten anywhere, except for a few I've had at swanky Indian joints. It also makes a shitload, so you can eat it for a week. Enjoy.

Venison

This is a venison crown roast. It is very yummy.

A New Direction

I'm going to take this blog in a new direction. This thing was pretty much a rudderless ship anyway, so here goes.

Cooking. Cooking has been upgraded from passion to obsession recently. I will start posting about meals prepared, dishes I like/dislike, cooking techniques, equipment, recipes, etc.

Saturday, December 30th, 2006.

Christmas dinner with my wife's family. I took over cooking from my mother-in-law. She was much relieved by this offer. Menu:

Appetizers consisted of fresh baked bread using a poolish starter with honey butter, garlic butter, and herb butter (fresh chopped thyme and basil). I made classic bruschetta (Roma tomatoes with shredded basil) served on sliced bread drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and browned in a 450F oven.

The main course consisted of the following: 16 rib crown roast of pork with cider/shallot gravy, wild rice risotto with shiitake mushrooms, glazed carrots, roasted green beans with red onions and walnuts.

What went right: the risotto was great. Wild rice is much easier to work with than arborio, and in my opinion more flavorful. The bread was good and the butter worked out great. The crown roast finished in the required time and was juicy and tasty. The gravy was unique, delicate, and delicious.

What went wrong: Crown Roast First off, the butcher screwed me on the crown roast. I asked for the bottom portion of loin, and he talked me into the middle. This led to the chops being far too large for individual servings. Also, the bastards forgot to french the ribs, cut the chine, or notch the ribs for easier cutting. With the size of the roast, I think the stand time could be increased to 20 mins. Carrots The glaze was not as thin as I would have liked, most likely due to excess broth/not enough sugar. The flavor was good, however. Green Beans could have roasted longer, they did not wrinkle as much as anticipated. I'll blame the oven this time. Possibly because the amount was triple the normal recipe? Hmm.

Bootylicious assman.

It's been a while between posts. This should make up for lost time.

April Showers......

...bring rivers up to flood stage. Jake (Seayak) and I (Sirocco) made our annual trip through the flooded valley of the mighty Willow River near New Richmond, WI on April 3rd. His other bro-in-law made the trip as well, his first time in a touring kayak (my 14.5 carolina). The weather was warm (50ish) but the 40 mph gusts made it seem a little cooler.

The river wasn't as high as last year, but still flooded the river bottoms quite nicely. At some points the river, which is usually about 20-30 yards wide was over 300 yards wide. The current was very strong, especially when debris and brush blocked the way.

Chad managed to dump his boat just before we entered some decent whitewater, but was able to drag his boat to the side and empty quickly. He did a great job, and didn't seem to impressed with us, at least at that point. He found out later in the week how difficult it is to paddle a 17' kayak in whitewater, but that's a tale for Jake to tell. We all made it through the raging tempest (3-4 ft waves)unscathed, but dripping water from our helmets. The water was COLD! And as usual, the trip ended too soon. I sure like that little river.

Next week: The Apple River and Little Falls, I hope.

Full weekend.

This was quite a weekend, for me at least.
Friday night was spent bowling and drinking with my good friend Cory. We ended up bowling 5 games and drinking far too many beers. I've been bowling at regular intervals lately, but Cory hasn't bowled in years. Needless to say, he had the high score of the night, a 181. Not too shabby.
Saturday morning was spent trying to be tough and not show my wife I was completely hung over. The smells of frying bacon and fresh ground coffee proved to be impossible to sleep through, so up and at 'em at 8:00 a.m. (that is still sleeping in with two kids.) We loaded up the chitlins and headed for the nearest All-Clad dealer in the area in search of new kitchen ware. We had been setting aside money for this for a while so this was exciting enough to put the hangover on the back burner. After hemming and hawing over adding a 10" fry pan to the set, we settled on the All-Clad MC2 7 piece set. Jess bought the kids a cookie in the coffee shop next door, and we headed home to try out the new pans. After lunch (green eggs and ham) I took a leisurely 3 hour nap. Hangover cured.
I made a great dinner using the new cookware, but that will have to be a separate post.
Sunday brought sunshine and a vino induced hangover for Jess. Did I mention I made a great dinner the night before? Good food has a way of making you drink too much good wine. Anyway, we loaded up the kids, the kayak, and my guitar and headed to Jess's sister's house. Jake and I had a river float planned, and after the float we were to watch the 5 kids while Jess and her sister relaxed and drank coffee and spoke glowingly of their adoring husbands.
The float was a blast! We put in on the Apple River on the Church St. Bridge. The weather was nice: 37 degrees with sunshine, and almost zero wind at water level. We dressed accordingly and were extremely comfortable. Nice stretch of river with high banks, a few riffles, and hundreds of geese. We actually saw a snowmobile while kayaking, a first for both of us. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed being back on the water after 3 months. We even managed to play in some fast water at the takeout.
After that, back to reality and dealing with cooking dinner for 5 kids and 2 ravenous kayakers.
It was the best weekend of the year, so far.....

Monday morning white-out.

March, someone once said, is the cruelest month. Or was that April? Hmmmmm. Either way, March has given us the extremes in weather that seems to be the norm these days. Yesterday it was nearly 50 degrees and sunny. We are currently in the middle of a snow storm that will apparently dump over 10 inches on us today. March snow is usually wet and sticky, so clean-up is always a bit of a drag. I fired up the snowblower this morning and cleared the driveway, but you can hardly tell with the way this storm is dumping the white stuff.
I'm on a holding pattern for my commute into work today. We lost power to our building , but the generator is holding up so far.
Just another day in Northwest WI.