I love to try new things. In this small town, I usually find myself in the situation of having recipes calling for ingredients I can’t get. Sometimes, though, I find new ingredients that need to be explored. Sometimes they aren’t so exotic, like smoked paprika or smoked salt. Sometimes they seem a little more exotic, but are still comparable to other familiar products, as is the case with pomegranate molasses or wasabi. I recently walked into our newest Indian grocery store, Mirsung, and was excited by the fresh vegetables they had that I’d never used before.

One of them was roughly the shape of a pointy cucumber, slightly ridged, and covered with bumps. Having seen pictures before, I knew this was a bitter gourd (also known as bitter melon or karela). Having seen Lisa’s post on Champaign Taste, I knew I would have to try it out and report back. They are in the same botanical family as gourds, and as such, have some seeds and a little pulp that needs to be removed before cooking them. They are, as the name suggests, bitter, but in a pleasing appetite-inducing kind of way, like a Campari aperitif.

Being an Indian vegetable, I looked a little online, but eventually I knew I wanted to use some recipes from my go-to vegetarian recipe source, The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking. It had a handful of recipes listed under karela in the index under bitter melon. The first one I tried was called “Potato Patties with Crunchy Bitter Melon Chips” or Aloo Karela Tikki. Think crunchy potato blini, studded with fried vegetables. You boil some potatoes and peel them. Then you trim (the ends), clean (the seeds/pulp), and chop the karela. Fry it in some oil until it’s GBD. I tried the karela at this point, and it was good–crunchy, chewy, a flavor similar to properly-fried okra with a little bit of bitterness. The rest of the dough comes together with some salt, cayenne pepper, whole wheat flour, horseradish, coconut, and lime juice. Shape into patties and fry it up. Some people garnish a blini with sour cream and caviar. I spooned on some plain yogurt, and added some chives from our garden.

They were great. The karela was there, but in the background. This dish is more about texture and the balance of some simple flavors instead of showcasing the karela. I was pleased with the result, but wanted a more bitter melon focused dish, so I chose one called “Pan-Fried Whole Bitter Melons with Cashew Stuffing” or Kaju Bhara Karela (from the same book).

In this recipe, the karela were handled as a hardy vegetable. They are cut open, cleaned, sprinkled inside-and-out with salt and a little sugar to draw out some moisture and bitterness, then par-boiled for 10 minutes. Then I stuffed them. The mixture was ground cashews, coconut, brown sugar, turmeric, cayenne pepper, whole fennel, cumin, and coriander, moistened with a little yogurt. The recipe has you tie them up with (cotton) sewing thread, but I didn’t have that so I used my kitchen twine in the classic method (used previously on chicken). I did try just wrapping it around and tying, like they mention in the recipe, but I think my method worked much better.

This was definitely a showcase of the bitter gourd. It had a distinct bitterness that takes some getting used to, but I thought it was great. It was so different from other things I’ve had. The creamy, nutty filling balanced out the bitterness quite well, and adding the suggested squeeze of lime juice brought out more of the flavors of the filling. The recipe says that you should use baby karela, which would probably cut the bitterness somewhat (mine were almost twice the size they call for). I’ll definitely make something like this again, but maybe tweak the filling. The filling as-is would also be great with green bell peppers.

Part of what I like about trying new things is the new experience I have. Whether it’s new flavors or new techniques, whether it works or not, trying something new is exciting. The way new experiences can open my mind to new ideas building and improvising from that point. What new things have you tried? If you want to try one of these new recipes, I strongly recommend buying the book (it’s like 800 pages with a lot of information), but I’ll share if you leave a comment or email me.

We’re at the stunning, non-vegetarian conclusion of the Chickpea, Butternut, and Lamb meal. The lamb in this case is in the form of a kebab. When I was younger, kebab meant cubes of meat threaded onto a skewer between chunks of tomatoes and onions. Those kebabs are good, but I’ve learned that the term kebab opens up to a world of flavorful creations in many forms. This could mean chunks of meat, like the aforementioned cubes on a skewer, but the ground meat possibilities are even more interesting. Sure, you could have ground meat on a skewer, but it could also be baked in a pan, or made into patties and fried. In learning about Indian cuisine, I’ve encountered all 3, and I would be hard-pressed to pick my favorite kebab archetype. Today, we’ll focus on ground meat, heavily seasoned, fried in a pan.

Since we’re dealing with Indian food, and most Indians don’t eat beef, the primary red meat source is going to be lamb (and goat). You could certainly do this recipe with beef or any other ground meat. The recipe I’m using is from “From Curries to Kebabs” by Madhur Jaffrey. This book, as you may guess from its title, has a number of kebab recipes from many parts of the world. I really like the original recipe, which calls for mint, but I had cilantro on hand. That’s the only change from the original recipe.

There are a couple of interesting parts to this recipe, different from many other “meatball” recipes I’ve encountered. First, the meat is mixed with the seasonings and left to mature for up to a day. From my experience in trying to rush things, this appears to accomplish a few goals. The meat breaks down a little, thanks in part to the salt, which gives the kebab a smoother texture, and allows the meat the ability to bind together without much help from, say, an egg. The recipe recommends serving with thinly sliced onions and mint chutney.

Lamb “Galavat” Kebabs (Galavat Kabab)
Meat & Seasonings
1 pound ground lamb
1T finely chopped fresh mint leaves (I used about 2T cilantro)
1 1/2 T peeled, grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 t garam masala
1 t cayenne pepper
1 t salt
1/2 t finely chopped fresh rosemary (optional)

Binding & Frying
Peanut or corn oil for shallow frying
1 medium onion, sliced into fine half-rings
4 t chickpea flour
4 t plain yogurt
2 T kewra (screw pine) water (optional)

1. Put the meat in a bowl.
2. Add all the rest of the seasoning ingredients and mix well.
3. Cover and refrigerate for 3 to 24 hours.
4. Pour oil in a medium pan to a depth of 1/8 inch and heat over medium-high heat.
5. When the oil is hot, put in the onion and fry, stirring, turning the heat down as needed, until the slices are reddish-brown and crisp (they will crisp more as they drain). This will take 10-12 minutes.
6. Remove the slices with a slotted spoon, saving all the oil left behind in the pan, and spread on paper towels to drain.
7. Once the onions have drained and cooled, crumble or chop finely (or put them in a clean coffee grinder) and add to the meat mixture.
8. Toast the chickpea flour in a small heavy-bottomed pan and add to the meat mixture.
9. Add the yogurt to the meat mixture and mix well.
10. Wet your hands (with the kewra water, if using) and form about 20 meatballs, flatten slightly into patties.
11. Strain the oil used from frying the onions and add additional oil to a depth of 1/4 inch.
12. Heat pan over medium-low.
13. When hot, add as many kebabs as will fit in a single layer, fry 2-3 minutes on each side or until reddish-brown.
14. Drain on paper towels.

The kebabs come out crunchy on the surface with a soft, moist interior. They go great with any Indian bread, but we usually serve rice.

My 6-year-old daughter and I were in one of the local natural food stores and we were browsing the produce. She spied the butternut squash, and we saw one that was probably 3.5 feet long, it must have weighed at least 7 pounds. She identified it as a butternut and said she wanted to get one. I was hesitant to grab the monster specimen, but I did grab a large one, over 4 pounds. It came home and sat on the counter for a week or two. With something so large, I needed to do something that used a lot of squash with little effort… like soup!

Butternut squash, like its cousins the acorn, pumpkin, or kabocha, is very easy to handle and cook, and their sweetness is usually understated, allowing them to meld with a variety of other flavors. Aside from another favorite dish I usually make with pumpkin, I always bake my squash. It draws out some of the water content and browns the edges of the fruit. Some people say you can bake them whole in a slow oven (too hot and they’d explode), but I always cut them first. It allows for more surface area to season and get browned in the oven.

Butternut Squash, baked

I cut the stem and blossom ends off, cut them into pieces, scraping out the pulp and seeds. I lay them flesh-up on a sheet pan lined with parchment.

If I’m making a sweet dish, I’ll sprinkle them with brown sugar. If it’s savory, I’ll drizzle them with olive oil and give a heavy sprinkle of salt and freshly ground pepper.

Turn them over, flesh-down (metal conducts heat better than air), and bake at 350 for 1-2 hours, until tender. This will give a light carmelization to the flesh that will complement the flavor of most recipes. You could bake it hotter or longer to bring more carmelization to the party.

Once it’s cooked and tender, let it cool until you can handle it and simply scrape the flesh away from the skins. You could mash this and serve as-is as a simple yet tasty side dish.

We’ll go beyond that, adding some spice, some heat, and a little coconut milk to make a dish that could stand on its own as the star of a meal. I used a recipe that I found a few months ago while looking for other Indian recipes. I made some heavy edits, so if you’re interested in the raw original, please click through to their site.

FXcuisine’s Indian Butternut Squash Soup

3T Butter, ghee, or oil
2T Fresh ginger, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
2-4 cloves garlic, sliced
1-3 green chilies, diced

4# Butternut Squash, baked as above
Pepper
Salt

12-15 fresh curry leaves
1/2 of a 14.5 oz can coconut milk

1. Heat butter or oil over medium heat in a medium pot.
2. Add ginger, onions, garlic, and chilies. Sauté for a few minutes until softened and barely browned.
3. Add the squash, salt, and pepper, and mash to combine. Add water to cover, bring to a simmer, and simmer on low for 10 minutes.
4. At this point, I like to get out my immersion blender and blend it until relatively smooth. You can use a regular blender, or a potato masher. If you want an even smoother texture, strain through a sieve.
5. Return the puree to the pot and add the curry leaves and coconut milk. To fully get the flavor from the curry leaves, I like to simmer the soup for another 10-20 minutes on very low heat.

The curry leaves are not really edible, nor do they blend well. You could pick them out before serving, or count on guests to handle them. I garnished mine with a sliver of jalapeño.

This is a really great example of how a real curried soup should taste. It has deep flavors from the aromatics, and the curry leaves give it a very special flavor. The sweetness of the squash mellows the heat of the chilies. Your typical, yellow, turmeric-laden, grocery store curry powder can’t replicate this.

Curry leaves can be very hard to find. Locally, I’ve found them at Am-Ko, but I’m sure you could find them online. They are not a part of curry powder, which is simply a blend of dry spices, they are an herb to themselves. Their aroma and flavor is hard to describe, and they don’t normally keep long. I’ve found that they stay usable if you freeze them in a zip-top bag. Find them fresh, locally if you can, and try them in all sorts of dishes.

I love Indian food. I can’t get enough of it. One of my favorite things about Indian cuisine is that a lot of it was borne out of poor circumstances. Many dishes evolved in times where there wasn’t refrigeration, thus strong flavors were used to trick the senses. Likewise, a lot of the cuisine is very inexpensive to produce. I love the bold flavors, the colors, the aromas. It may take some time and some work. You may have to go out to stores you haven’t been in before to pick up spices you’ve never used. If your impression of curry relies on a pale yellow curry powder from the supermarket, you’re probably missing out on a world of flavors.

When cooking for my family, I try to be conscious of choosing healthy options and a wide range of foods. These days, for health and cost reasons, I’m trying to incorporate more vegetarian items into our menu. One popular staple in the house is the chickpea, also known as a garbanzo bean. Of all the lentils and beans available, I think they are one of the “meatiest.” They are available dried and canned, but I find the canned tend to have an off, metallic flavor and tend to break down too easily. Dried chickpeas are great (and much cheaper), but they do take a LONG time to cook. My method is as follows:

For 1c dried chickpeas (yields a little over 2c cooked)

1. Rinse the dried legumes with plenty of cool water, checking for rocks.
2. Put into a bowl and soak them overnight, at least 8 hours, no more than 24.
3. Drain and rinse with cool water.
4. Put in a crock pot, cover with 1.5 inches of water, and cook on low for 8-12 hours.
5. Drain and use in any recipe as you would canned chickpeas, or store in the refrigerator, covered in the cooking liquid, for up to a week.

Chickpeas cooked this way are tender, but firm. At this point, they can be fried, mashed, or cooked in a sauce for another few hours, which is what I’m usually doing anyway. If you want meltingly-soft chickpeas, you can cook them longer, or cook them on the high temperature of your crock pot.

The chickpeas I made tonight are from a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey’s book, From Curries to Kebabs: Recipes from the Indian Spice Trail titled “Easy Chickpea Curry”. Since it’s such a flavorful dish, canned chickpeas would be fine, but I really prefer the texture of home-cooked. The “easy” in this recipe comes from a long list of ingredients that just get blended together, no need to carefully chop onions, garlic, ginger, etc. Here’s an abbreviated, annotated version of that recipe:

Easy Chickpea Curry
by Madhur Jaffrey
(serves 4 to 6)

2c drained chickpeas

Curry Paste
2 smallish tomatoes (about 8 ounces), chopped (I used a half-can of diced tomatoes)
2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 to 6 fresh hot green chilies, chopped
1c cilantro tops, chopped (save some for garnish later)
1T ground coriander
2t ground cumin
1/2t ground turmeric
1/2t cayenne pepper
1 1/4t salt

3T oil
1 medium stick of cinnamon
5 whole cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
1c finely chopped onion
2 medium potatoes (about 9 ounces), peeled and cut into 3/4-inch dice

Put all the Curry Paste ingredients (from the tomatoes to the salt) in a blender with 5-6T water and blend until smooth.

1. Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a wide, lidded, medium pan. When hot, put in the cinnamon, cardamom, and bay leaves.
2. When they start to color, in about 10 seconds, add the onion and potatoes.
3. Stir and fry for about 6 minutes, or until the onion is lightly browned.
4. Add the curry paste and stir for a minute (deglaze the pan, scraping any stuck bits).
5. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 6-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Add 1c of water and the chickpeas
7. Stir and bring to a simmer, cover and cook 20 minutes for canned chickpeas, up to an hour for homemade.

I like to serve this with rice, garnished with a little finely chopped fresh cilantro.

You’ll see the other components of tonight’s meal over the next few posts. If you try the recipes I write about here, let me know how they turn out. If you have any questions about any of the ingredients or techniques I use, leave a comment and I’ll make sure to respond.