Bombay Sliders

Can you tell I've been fascinated with east Asian flavors lately? I had difficulty coming up with a name that didn't involve the word "curry!"

I started off with a pound and a half of ground beef. It wasn't terribly lean just your average 80%. I've got a lot to feed!

Add a little salt.

Add some nice green curry paste! You can use my recipe or you can buy a can of it at your local Asian grocery.

Mix it in well! I used my hands. They're so good at mixing heavy things.

Make up some little patties! I was doing this earlier in the afternoon so after I made the patties I let them sit in the refrigerator for awhile. If you were working with something like ground turkey I'd think this step would be absolutely necessary.

Now for a sauce! Get yourself some GOOD plain yogurt. This type has a layer of hardened cream at the top. Mmm! Stir the cream back into the yogurt where it belongs.

We'll need about a cup of it.

Now give it a taste. Its so good I could faint. You can even paint it on your face for an at home acid exfoliation. My skin loves it. I had big plans for this yogurt. A lot of plain yogurts are gelatinous and have no flavor other than sour milkiness. Those yogurts need lots of "help" to form a good sauce. They need grated cucumber, salt, garlic etc. to give them flavor. This stuff, really needs nothing!

I want some mint. At this time of year this is the only mint I have around the house.

A little dried mint in the yogurt is all that's needed. It'll give the yogurt an extra hint of brightness. A little POW.

I'm heating up my griddle! My sliders are too tiny for the grill. They'd fall through! If I had to I guess I could try putting them on skewers.

Throw them on the griddle!

Flip! They're shrinking because I have the heat up a little high. But heck how would the family know to come to dinner if I didn't set the smoke alarms off? They're my own personal dinner bell!

The necessary accompaniments! A little raw purple onion would be delicious too. If your curry paste didn't have enough onion in it. It'd be tasty in the yogurt sauce.

My hubby doesn't like raw onion though . . . It's a flaw . . . I couldn't handle it if he was perfect though. There's only room for one perfect person in this house!

That would be the cat.

We added these to our sandwiches too! They're salty, spicy, rich, and have a texture not unlike a beautiful oil cured olive. It'll wake up your taste buds!

Slip it all in a pita pocket and sing!

This is darn close to the perfect sandwich! The meat is hot, tender, juicy, and full of herbs and garlic. The vegetables are cold and sweet. The sauce is creamy with an acidic bite that compliments the rich ground meat. The mango pickle adds a salty, spicy kick that surprises. The pita contains it all!

If you're not "into" messy sandwiches then slice everything up, including the pita, and make it a salad. Then you can be clean and lady like while you stuff your face with abandon.

Bombay Sliders

for the sliders
1.5 lbs of ground meat
1/2 cup green curry paste
1/2 teaspoon salt

for the sauce
1 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon dried mint

for the sandwich
6 whole pita pockets, sliced in half
tomatoes, sliced
cilantro leaves
cucumber, sliced
mango pickle or other spicy pickle of your choice

Mix ground meat, curry paste, and salt together throughly. Form into pattie and allow to rest in refrigerator. Mix yogurt and mint together and adjust seasoning with salt as necessary. Refridgerate yogurt mixture.  Fry patties in a hot nonstick skillet about 3 minutes per side. Warm pitas and serve!

Fresh Green Curry Paste

Green curry paste.

I have a brand new passion for green curry paste. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I've discovered I can make it? I suspect its because it's green and my kids will eat it. I have been really using it in a lot of different ways lately. If you like Mexican food you'll like this because . . . the ingredients are essentially the same. Except for ginger. I've not found a lot of fresh ginger in Mexican food.

Here's how I make it!

I use a food processor because if your husband buys you expensive machines for Christmas you should use them as much as possible. It's also sort of fun watching stuff fly around the bowl. It's not fun to clean though. Many Indian mamas and grandmothers have been making green curry paste without electricity for generations. So I am comfortable saying you don't have to have one. You could use a knife or a blender or a mortar and pestle.

You'll need garlic! Lots and lots of fresh garlic! It's good for you . . .

and fresh ginger! It's FULL of vitamin C.

and this beautiful jalapeno!

Oh cilantro! So beautiful!

and green onion! Green curry paste gets its color naturally from fresh ingredients. Now if you're working with just a knife it's time to get chopping! Mince up all the vegetables as small as you can. Or you can do it my way!

Turn the machine on and start to dump.

In goes the garlic! It goes first because it really needs the nice empty dry bowl to go into. Otherwise it might just fly around in there not getting chopped.



Next comes our friend ginger

The jalapeno goes in next! I took the seeds out of this one because it was spicy when I tried a little bit of it. It's really good with the seeds and membranes though too.

Now for the green onion! I chopped it up a little to make it easier on the machine.

Now for the juice of one lime!

In it goes! This really helps everything puree.

Scrape down the sides.

Half a teaspoon of salt . . .

Half a teaspoon of ground cumin.

Just a hint of cloves. These are really strong so just a smidge will do.

Now the salt and lime juice start to work on the veggies and break them down.

You'll actually end up with a puree! If you are mincing this by hand the salt and vinegar will work on the vegetables too. This stuff is so versatile. You can use it as a dipping sauce. You can put it and coconut milk in a crock pot with meat and have dinner. Imagine it in chicken soup! Add it to hamburgers! I made a sort of Indian meatball sub/gyro sandwich with it the other day and almost swooned!

Oh fresh green curry paste, how I love thee!
Let me count the ways!

A brilliant green to all who witness,
You are cilantrolicious,
Full of cuminy richness,
Bright bursts of lime juice so so citrus,
Then the throb of jalapeno hits us.
You really wouldn't want to miss this!

Fresh Green Curry Paste

5 cloves garlic
5-6 slices of fresh ginger
1/2 cup cilantro, leaves and tender stems loosely packed
3-4 green onions, rough chopped
1 whole jalapeno
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
pinch of cloves
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Mince all vegetables finely or puree in food processor or blender.

Simple Curried Chicken Breast

Do you love chicken breast? I sort of do. I love that you can give it tons of flavor! I don't like it overcooked though and I don't like it undercooked either!

They've had the bone-in, skin on chicken breast on sale a lot lately and it makes my husband think I'm feeding him light and healthy things so it's a win-win situation.

Here they are! Now I like to soak mine in a brine first. A quart of water with 1/4 cup of table salt dissolved in it is fine. An hour or hour and a half will thoroughly saturate your chicken and make it take the heat better.  You don't HAVE to do this though its not like we have fatty thighs that we're trying to cook in the same heat at the same time. I think it gives it a flavor boost and I can cook it extra long without it drying out. If you do choose to brine it rinse it off before you do anything else.

I went digging in the fridge looking for some plain yogurt but had none. But I found this rich flavorful acidic dairy product! It'll do! Chicken and dairy are meant for each other.

I poured some in a cereal bowl.

Now be warned! Sweet curry powder isn't actually sweet. It's just not spicy you see. Well it's actually full of lovely rich deeply flavored bitter spices but they're not of the cayenne variety. Or at least there's very little of it. See it's like the last ingredient in this spice mix. Tones makes my favorite "sweet" curry powder. I had this in the cabinet though.

Dump some in.

I'm OUT of garlic powder! What is wrong with me? So I had these little pre-peeled cloves in the fridge. I went ahead and minced them up and put them in. You've got to have garlic in your curried chicken! It's more important than the curry powder practically! Heck leave the curry powder out if you want.

If you didn't brine your chicken you're going to want to add some salt.

Since, I usually use a higher fat dairy product in my coating I decided to throw a tablespoon of olive oil in. I had plans to leave my chicken sitting in this stuff during soccer practice so I didn't want things to get dry.

Coat your chicken with the sauce/marinade/rub I don't know what to call it! I even picked them up and did the bottoms. You can see I put these on a rack.

The nice thing about bone-in chicken breast is that it really has its own rack that holds it up off the pan.

Now throw them in the fridge until guitar lessons and soccer practice are over.

Sorry about the photograph quality. It's the kids. They came home. They've been compared to the Mongol Horde. Yes, it was their grandmother that made this comparison. Needless to say, it's a little frightening and can make anybody jumpy.
Bake them in a 400 deg F oven for 30-40 minutes. This is homework time! Or bath time or whatever else you have going on. Check your chicken after 20 minutes. If its getting too brown or if you have smoke turn the heat down to 350. (Not all ovens or chicken breasts are created equal!)

Mmmmm! I love curry. The turmeric, garlic, ginger, cumin, fennel, cloves, paprika, all mingle together in harmony. Did you know that turmeric is one of the latest health crazes? Its supposed to do good things to all your parts. I'm fond of what it does to chicken parts!

Now back when I had babies we'd peel off the curried part and chop up the chicken in the middle for them.

These are great on the grill but I'd highly recommend doing the brine in that case!

Curried Chicken Breast

3-4 bone-in, skin on, chicken breasts
1/2 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
2 Tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder or 1 Tbsp freshly minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil

Mix buttermilk, curry, garlic, salt and oil together. Heat oven to 400 deg F. Brush marinade on chicken and bake for 30-40 minutes.

***If you wish to brine the chicken-->Mix 1/4 cup table salt with one quart of water and soak chicken in solution for 60-90 minutes.

Red Coconut Curry

Somebody asked for a quick and easy recipe and I was stumped. I didn't know where to begin! Then I thought let's go with some Asian condiments. They're deeply complex and a little goes a LONG way!

This is a six ingredient meal!

Aren't you excited?

I am!

Wait, it's seven if you count the salt. You can't leave out the salt!

This is a seven ingredient meal!

I'm still excited!

Wait, heck, it's nine if you count the "garnish." I'm very partial to garnish.

I'm not quite as excited as I was.
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First you'll need some meat!

I chose some pork loin because it was sitting in my freezer being lonely.  Here's the deal, I made this with pork and the pork is wonderful in the crock pot version of this meal. You are about to see the pan cooked version. The pan cooked version would work better with chicken or turkey breast. If tenderness if important to you, use poultry!

My pork looks a little stiff don't you think? It's slightly frozen you see. I gave it a really quick run in the microwave and then started to cut on it. Meat is so much easier to cut when it's frozen. You can trim the fat off at this point if that's important to you.

So I cubed it up into 1 inch pieces, seasoned it with salt and threw it in a Ziploc bag to finish thawing in a sink full of cold water.

I just can't help myself with the whole thawing in cold water thing. All of my formative cooking years were before the microwave became available to the middle class!

Now I've peeled some fresh ginger root and I have some fresh garlic all peeled too! Do you see it up there in the upper left hand corner? The garlic closeup didn't work out.

Now chop up your ginger and garlic together at the same time! You can use the pre-minced stuff, you just get a brighter stronger flavor from fresh.  Heck you could even use the dried powdered versions of these. If you were desperate . . . you know . . . cooking in a strange kitchen . . . making curry while camping . . . there are all sorts of emergency conditions when you could substitute them.

Good enough!

Now just enough vegetable oil in your pan to see the heat! I know my pan is ready when the oil gets shimmery. I don't have a picture of shimmery but you'll know it when you see it! If you get smoke you're past shimmery!

Throw the garlic and ginger in! If you're using powdered just skip this step. Powdered ginger and garlic do not benefit from hot oil. They'll just get brown and bitter!

Stir it around until you think you've walked into a Chinese restaurant. Your house is going to smell like this the next 24 hours. I think that's a good thing! Perspective, its all about perspective! This only takes 30 seconds or so.

Now for some coconut milk! I use the full on non-light version. I have this deep personal suspicion that it prevents wrinkles. Have you ever looked at those Asian women? No wrinkles!

Now if you see something labeled "cream of coconut" head the other way. It's a sweetened syrupy concoction suited for desserts and pina coladas!

Pour it in.

Grab some red curry paste! Now my Hy-Vee has recently started to hide this in the organic section and I don't know why. It's not organic! Us non-hippies enjoy curry! What the heck? What if you have no curry paste available to you? Substitute a couple a tablespoons of curry powder instead. Call it Yellow Coconut Curry and it'll be between you and me!

My coconut milk has actually started to boil while I open my curry paste. Put a big dollop in. I used about 2 tablespoons for this recipe. It's a good start. I personally could use the whole dang 1/2 cup container but others say it's too hot for the children . . .

We interrupt this recipe for a small story. My daughter first tried curry when she was 18 months old. It was entirely too hot for her but she insisted in the way only toddlers do that she wanted it. It was so hot she cried at the first bite. Then she howled when I took it away. She insisted on eating every bite of a curry that was HOT! 

Now if I could only get her to eat spaghetti sauce . . .

Back to the recipe! You just put the curry paste in.

There it is. Sitting like a lump!

I'm squishing it with the spatula! You thought spatulas were just for pancakes didn't you!

Oh look it's all mixed in now! You can see the little bits of garlic and ginger sticking to the spatula. Mmmm, I love naturally orange food!

Throw in your meat!

Mmmmm, meat!

Stir it around until it's cooked. I just checked it with a knife. My pork took over 10 minutes to cook! I had some pretty big pieces you see. The quicker you want your dinner the tinier you should cut your meat!

Oh look! Our friend cilantro is here! Let's chop up some of it's leaves and tender stems!

Oh! Our buddy, scallion! Let's take off its roots and slice 'er up!

I turned off the heat and added scallion and cilantro. Now I mixed them in because they make it taste so good but feel free to just use them as a garnish. They make everything pretty!

Oh it smells so exotic! The curry paste has all sorts of yummy bitter and sour flavors in it! You salt the meat to your taste of course. The coconut milk adds the tiniest bit of sweetness. I would choose to add more sweetness to this with a side dish. Some lovely sweet green peas, rich orange carrots, crisp delicious cucumbers or even a really good iceberg lettuce salad!

Naan or steamed basmati rice would finish this out perfectly!

Oh and you've got to have beer with curry! It's a must. Anyone you want will do but if you want to feel authentic go with your favorite IPA. IPA does stand for Indian Pale Ale. They're meant to cut the heavy, spicy, sweet richness of a classic curry.

Red Coconut Curry

2 lbs meat, diced 

1 14 oz can coconut milk

2 Tablespoons red curry paste

1/4 cup minced ginger root (2 Tbsp of pre-packaged paste or 1 tsp powdered)

1/4 cup minced garlic cloves (same for pre-packaged minced, or 1 tsp powdered)

1 tsp vegetable oil

salt

garnish

1/2 cup minced cilantro

1/2 cup sliced scallions

Stove Top version: recommended meats-->chicken breast, turkey breast, fish or shrimp

Season meat with salt. Heat oil in pan over medium high heat until shimmer. Add garlic and ginger. Stir until fragrant. Add coconut milk and curry paste. Bring to a boil. Stir until well mixed. Add meat and cook until done to your liking. Garnish with cilantro and scallions. Serve.

Crock Pot version: recommended meats--> pork loin, chuck roast

Dice meat into 1-2 inch pieces. Season with salt. Add meat to crock pot. Mix ginger, garlic, coconut milk, and curry paste together and pour over meat. Stir. Cook all day over low heat. Garnish with cilantro and scallions. Serve.