Saturday, September 28, 2013

Deb's Night: Homemade Fry Bread Taco Vegan-fest

Salut and Happy Saturday!  As we gather together for this weekend, we find that Deb has hyper-organized her menu and has all the ingredients on the table and ready for us to go.  Yay!  We will be having chips with homemade salsa and guac for an appetizer, vegan tacos inside homemade frybread, and gingerbread for dessert.

SAT FUN QUIZ!
tacos::gingerbread as

1)career advice::crunch
2)Dopey::Bashful
3)Babylon::Zion
4)elephant::nugget

Alex announces he's bought the first season of China Illinois (the Babycakes Show)!  First, though, he makes the huge mistake of asking us to guess what he bought, and then puts up with us trying to guess for five minutes, then listens to us go off on a tangent about how buying a baby over the internet is never a good idea, and that leads to ANOTHER tangent about how bad we are as babysitters.  Alex is mad patient, yo.

What he actually got

Alex is making salsa while Jim makes guac; both of these, it should be noted, are to snack on while we cook the REAL meal.  (At some point we should start rating the snacks.) Deb, meanwhile, is whipping up the veggie chorizo before getting started on the frybread. 

Deb went to a yoga class last night with a pregnant instructor who sang in Irish to the class during their meditation period!  This is Cambridge for you, folks.  In the advanced classes the instructor does all that while weaving a dreamcatcher with her feet.

The team pauses to do a search for apple cider vinegar, which HAS to be in the room because, Deb says, what sort of self-respecting vegan wouldn't have apple cider vinegar? THIS VEGAN RIGHT HERE, is the answer.  We substitute rice vinegar and roll with it.

We're going to make chia eggs tonight!  Sadly, these are not hard-boiled eggs with green sprouts growing out of them, but instead chia seeds ground up to use as an egg substitute.
What everyone pictures when they hear 'chia egg'
Sadly, NOT where chia eggs come from

We ponder regional cuisine; Alex hasn't ever been to a French restaurant that's made him feel "Ohhh yeah! FRENCH FOOD!"  and wonders if the rest of us have.  Alas, no...but we don't really eat at them too often.  (Also, vegetarians.)

Guac has been achieved!!  Salsa too...but then Alex sees our jalapenos and decides to tweak them a wee bit more (read: SPICY)

Jim's on fry bread, and we decide to tag team it so that everyone works on it and gets it done quickly before moving on to all do the dessert.  We're like a locust horde that cooks!

SAT FUN QUIZ!

Locust horde::cooking night as

1) heffalumps::woozles
2) Mass Effect::SimCity
3) Lawrence Welk::Skrillex
4) Miley Cyrus::Sacco & Vanzetti

We contemplate the humble avocado, "a fruit made out of saturated fat".  Guacamole, you so beautiful.

Next hiccup:  the frybread recipe, we note midway through making it and noticing how small it looks, makes a total of four tacos!  Dismay!
Servings: 8

Last week we took supper club off because Deb had to work midnight to four AM doing very special server work at her building.  She says that there was a team of four strangers there (in a room with corpses in the basement!), and every hour one thing would go wrong that made them all panic. So basically it was "Insidious" but with better special effects.

We pause to ponder vegan chorizo, which is basically chickpeas sauteed in oil and spices.  "Maybe as they absorb the liquid they'll turn into leather?"  Deb says hopefully.

What everyone pictures when they think of chorizo

Techno-nerds that we are, we now have to pause for five minutes as we try to open up Deb's Tablet where the gingerbread recipe is stored.  But success!  And now we revise and shift our kitchen counters over to Dessert/Baking Mode, which is much like a Transformer switching from a robot to a jet plane, but with slightly less wokk-wokk-wokk sound effects (sadly).
Not gonna lie, that reference was really just an excuse so I could go look at homemade Transformer costumes on the internet.  And this one wins!!

Deb is sous chefing as Alex calls out the directions, and barely 30 seconds in we go a bit haywire as Deb's version of "three tablespoons of maple syrup" becomes more like "three tablespoons plus a couple glugs because pouring maple syrup is fun".  We do not judge.

We go on to have a brief debate about making the chia egg: grind it and then add water, or  dump the seeds together with the water and then grind?  With a three to one vote, the "not wanting chia seeds on the ceiling" party wins the day.

Deb feels a twinge of nerves about the small size of the meal and begins making a salad.  Hooray?

Jim's flattening the fry bread (or trying to), but the recipe's unclear about how to spread it out big enough that it's useable.  We go to youtube and watch Kathryn Little's technique, partaking of her wisdom.


While we're watching this, there's a minor spice mishap with the gingerbread--it called for 1/8th tablespoon of cloves, and 1/2 tablespoon went in.  It could be worse.  The chia egg goes in, looking pretty foul.  (Egg! Fowl!  Wokka-wokka!)  Alex is concerned that it'll wind up overwhelmingly spicy; we ponder tossing in a tablespoon o'cocoa just to mute the spices a bit.  And to give me a chance to say "o'cocoa" repeatedly, because it's so damn fun.

Knowing I'm the least nut-friendly eater here, Alex asks if I'd prefer big chunks of walnuts or tiny little bitty ground up bits.  I go with the fine walnut powder.

The oil's on and making sinister "hot! hot! I'll burn your skin off!" noises over in the frying pan.  The oven's heating up for the gingerbread.  And the Boston mayoral race is...no, still no heat at all.  Jim's concerned about the oil's heat and keeping a close eye on the thermometer.  The gingerbread's gone in the oven, and Deb & Alex are moving on to making the frosting.

SAT Fun Quiz! 

 Boston Mayoral Race::excitement as

1) sad clown::trombone
2) dog vomit::new suit
3) zombie bite::longterm plans of a happy future
4) cliff::your hope of catching that roadrunner

We turn the fan up high to keep the frying from triggering our hyper-sensitive smoke alarm.  I'm sitting right next to it.  Suddenly I'm deaf.  Not just me:  Alex and Deb have to consult the recipe twice to see if the frosting recipe gets a tablespoon or a teaspoon of pumpkin spice mix.  Or pemmican fly tricks.  ITS VERY HARD TO HEAR.

Each piece of flatbread takes 6-8 minutes to fry, we note, partly because the oil takes so long to heat up.  THIS IS SLOWING OUR PRODUCTION DOWN UNACCEPTABLY.  We ponder ways to fix this, or at least keep the early pieces of bread warm while we wait for the last ones.  Toaster oven?

Deb steps in to replace the plastic spatula we've been using for a metal one.  Yay!   We try toaster ovenning a piece of fry bread, and it turns hard and crunchy, more like funnel cake than a soft taco.  Less yay?  We're trying other burners to see if they heat up faster.  And the back one seem successful!

The salad is five by five, looking like a charming blend of lettuce and cucumbers.

What everyone pictures when they think of a salad.....I mean, yes, that's actually the case here for a change


GRADING!

FLATBREAD TACOS WITH VEGAN "CHORIZO"


JIM:  A!  I thought the chickpeas by themselves were too bitter and peppery, but when you combine them with everything else they're delicious.
DEB: A!  It was much more interesting than your average taco.  There's a lot we could improve but very satisfying.
BRIAN:  B!  The frybread was okay for our first time, the chickpeas were zippy, and the corn salsa was tasty.  Trying to bite into it caused little explosions of corn and chickpeas all over my plate.
ALEX:  A-.  The frybread tasted like a tortilla chip that's in one of those tortilla bowls that they put the salad in.  And the filling tasted like the filling that's in one of those bowls, but a really good version of them.

WALNUT GINGERBREAD WITH SPICY FROSTING


DEB:  A.  I think I loved it except for the nuts, which should not be in a cake.  And now we know.  It was cooked perfectly, though.
JIM:  I give it an A!  I was surprised by how good this frosting was, especially for being vegan.  I will say that if Alex had put in all the spice that the recipe called for, it would have been too much.
ALEX:  A-.  I think the cake has a wonderful texture, I think the frosting has a surprisingly good texture.  Spice thing was...okay...spice is not my favorite type of dessert.  The pumpkin in the cake gave it a nice moistness.    
BRIAN: C+.  The veganness made it a little dry to me, and the big marble-sized chunks of walnut were not my friend.


Saturday, September 7, 2013

Jim's Night - Saag, Paneer, Rice, Joy


Greetings, internet!  Alex here, bringing you Jim's inspirational Indian food.  We recently had a home cooked Indian meal, made by an actual Bengali Mama, and Jim wishes to recreate it.  Tonight's menu features...

Peach Lassi
Saag Paneer
Vegetable Chop
Tofu Tikka Masala
Rice Pudding

So delightful!  Deb just dropped this little nugget, which is really representative of the perception altering properties of supper club...

"Remember when we made Thai food and it was better than any Thai food we've ever had before?"

Hungry and optimistic, the wild Deb recalls all of our successes while omitting our disasters.  Anyway, faced with this optimism, I have no choice but to feed her Indian snacks!  In this case...

Mint Potato Sticks

Masala Plantain Chips

The beast is getting sated.  Very...slowly.

Anyway, internet, this week heralds the beginning of the football season, and also, because it is the future, the highlights get automatically turned into animated GIF files.  Yessss.



Let me share this one with you.  This gentleman, #12, Jacoby Jones, is about to return a punt.  He is waving his arms, which means in NFLSL (NFL Sign Language): "I am going to catch this ball, and I promise not to run.  Do not touch me."  Then, Brynden Trawick, a member of the same team, barrels into him.  This is the most spectacular fail ever!!!  And now, an animated GIF, just for you!  Enjoy!

Anyway, I'm going to try this neat game where I write all the fluff outside of the cooking process.

Sara and Janet arrived, and brought treats for us!  And Sara bought a ring for herself, which is made by the Amish to apparently signify the harvest?  When asked to look up whether the Amish have pagan harvest rings, I googled "Amish Ring", only to learn about drug rings.  Awesome.

Sweeeeeeeet.

Anyway, I'm on a very rare lull in the photography, so hey, blogging!


So, right, this guy.  He chops people's beards off when they denounce his authority.  Now that, is an Amish Ring(leader).  Watch yourself, Amish delinquents.

Rice Pudding

Ahh, rice pudding.  Jim began this earlier with cooking some Jasmine Rice.  It has a lovely aroma, and especially so when it's getting prepared by Deb.

Deb brings milk and rice to a boil.

Deb, after I wrote that sentence, immediately said "when did you take that picture?" to figure out how long she's been bringing to a boil.  Awesome.

Then, well, I missed a few steps, but it involved adding cream, coconut milk and spices.

It's cooked and delicious!
Then, transfer it to ramekins, and cover it with saran wrap to chill, otherwise, you'll get a skin.

Also, tape.

Tofu Tikka Masala

Brian is on the tofu tikka masala, which means - make the masala part!  Right now he's assembling the spices laid out in this recipe.

A blur of grating ginger.

Then, you sautee some onions in ghee.  Or, if you don't have ghee (dammit!) you can just do it in vegetable oil.

Onions in ghee
Brian went ahead and added in his pile of spices, and then added in tomatoes.  And how do you add tomatoes?  You squeeze.  Each.  One.  By.  Hand.  And cover yourself in tomato goo.  Yessss.

Awesome.
After it's come to a boil, you can add cilantro and cream.


Anyway, that tofu?  Remember, for the Tofu Tikka Masala?  It's marinating!


For chicken, you marinate in a yogurt spice mixture.  We started with soy sauce and garlic to give it some flavor, and now we're going to marinate it in the yogurt!

Marinated tofu in spiced yogurt
We're going to broil it!
It got broiled!

And then add them to the sauce!
Also, you'll have lots of delicious yogurt sauce afterwards, which you can turn into a dip!

With cilantro garnish

Vegetable Chop

So a chop, in case you're not Bengali, is a vegetable patty that's coated in egg and then deep fried.  Our surrogate Bengali mama microwaved the veggies, but Jim roasted them.  Then, he started to mush them up by hand.

Literally, by hand.

To this, you need to add cooked onions, which you make on the stove with spices.

Featuring harvest ring.
Then, you sautee them!


You can add spices, too!  And cook until they're brown.  Jim added some chili powder, garam masala, cumin...


Once they're brown, you can add them to the other veggies - and don't forget your carrots, which  may have been left in the microwave!


Then, mush them all up in to balls!



And then, you do egg yolks and bread crumbs.  It takes some panache, which we...well.  Yeah.



And then, once you've made a million of them, you fry them!



Apparently, you can deep fry them, but we're just shallow frying them.  Make sure to drain them on paper towels when you're done!
Then, they're done!

Saag Paneer

How do you make Saag Paneer?  You start with spinach!  We have frozen.  It almost got boiled, but we saved it!  Hooray!




And...you use paneer!

Fresh from the Indian market.

And then...fry it!

Deb, fryer and stirrer!
It gets nice and brown!
Once it's fried, you can chop it up.
Chopped, fried paneer.
Once the paneer is ready and the spinach is thawed, you chop onions and fry them, too.  Add in spices, and tomatoes.

Tomatoes, do your thing!
Once tomatoes cook, add cream.
And finally, the paneer!



We kind of forgot to blend the saag mixture, which isn't terrible, but isn't really Jim's preference.  Also, the tasting committee decided that we need more cream, so, hey, more cream it is.  Also, lemon juice is added.  We had a little discussion about whether that means that curdling will happen - apparently, super high fat dairy (like heavy cream) makes it way harder to curdle.  Here's way more information on that then you wanted.

Peach Lassi

Well, I don't know if peaches are authentically Indian, but they are authentically New England delicious, so we are using them in a lassi!

Step one of lassi adventure, measure yogurt.

We have fresh peaches, which Janet is going to chop up and maybe precook?  We will see.


Janet is also going totally rogue, and now adding extra cardamom to the lassi.  I'm...uh...not enthusiastic about cardamom.  But, hey, not my night.

Cooking peaches to sweeten
Unfortunately, these peaches need to be cool before blended into the yogurt.  Does Janet have a plan?  I don't know, but the peaches are getting mushy!  Well, add some sugar, and then blend it!


Janet says it...uh...tastes like a smoothie.  Since the yogurt isn't tart enough.  We shall see!  After this happened, Janet also added some greek yogurt and some salt.  Tart enough?  I SAID WE'LL SEE OH MY GOD WAIT.





Grades

Chops
Bri - A- without the sauce, A with the sauce.  Tasty?  It kind of fell apart...
Jim - A-.  The sauce was delicious.
Sara - B.  But like Brian, better with the sauce.  Something in the spices I didn't like.
Janet - B+ without the sauce, A with the sauce.  It fell apart, and I was like, ok cool!
Deb - B.  It didn't really have a strong flavor at all.  It was kind of fried vegetables.
Alex - B.  Exactly the same as Deb.

Saag Paneer
Bri - B.  The cheese never really...it felt separate from the spinach.  It didn't melt and mingle.  And the spices were...I was surprised by heat!
Jim - C.  I thought it was too spicy!  I don't know if I put way too much spinach in or what, but it just wasn't what I wanted.
Sara - B.  Puree!  More salt.
Janet - B-.  It needed way more salt, which was easily fixable.  It wasn't like saag paneer, but I thought it was quite, quite tasty.  I liked the spicy!  I liked the creamy.
Deb - B.  It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't as good as restaurant food.  The spices weren't quite right.
Alex - B.  I liked the spicy, I think the puree would have helped a lot.  I also wonder if enough cumin went in?

*Note: Jim forgot the fenugreek altogether.

Tofu Tikka Masala
Bri - A.  I...I mean...it has to do a little with me cooking it.  The rice wasn't as fluffy as it can be, but it was awesome.
Jim - A.  Solid A.  I thought it was really good.
Sara - A+++.  I loved everything about it, especially how good it was.
Janet - A+.  So good, so good. It's like...no, that shit was just really good.  I think the rice is a separate not county thing.  And I can't taste the soy sauce.
Deb  - A.  It was a standout.  It really went well with everything!
Alex - A-.  In my world, I imagined the chicken part, which the tofu definitely did not replace.  Still, delicious.

Peach Lassi
Bri - A-.  It was tasty, I personally had trouble with it because it all wanted to be soaked up by my mustache.
Jim - A.  I thought it was nice and bright and tasty.  I thought I never liked lassis, but maybe I don't like salty and mango.
Sara - B-.  Meh.  I wanted it to be more sour.  Additionally, more smooth.
Janet - C+.  It was a tasty smoothie, but not remotely a lassi.  I thought it was too thin.  Maybe there's no such thing as a peach lassi, but we didn't have the right kind of yogurt.  You can also just buy a thing called "lassi" in a bottle.
Deb  - C+.  It was a good smothie, but not really a lassi.  I'm also really full.
Alex - B+.  It was a good smothie, but not really a lassi.

Rice Pudding
Bri - C+.  It was heavy on the rice, low on the pudding for me.  Moist rice in a bowl...?  But tasty, for what that is?
Jim - A.  I like that it wasn't super sweet!  I thought the bursts of golden raisins in my mouth were just...nice!  Delightful!
Sara - A.  Light, delicious!  I enjoyed raisins?!
Janet - A-.  I thought it was remarkably similar to the rice pudding from a restaurant, which is pretty much the only rice pudding I've ever had.  I was sad it lacked nuts.  A little more spices would have been good...really, mostly just right on.  Perfectly sweet.
Deb  - C.  Edible but I wouldn't want to eat it again ever...I think it needed more spice, and the creamy texture was not there.
Alex - B.  I think maybe I don't like cold rice pudding that much.  I also apparently want my desserts to be crazy sweet.