Pantry Workout- Aloo Gobi from Marc @NoRecipes
March 9, 2010 / By Greg Henry
This is the thing about the great big wonderful world of blogs– are you listening? Blogs can open you up to awhole great big wonderful world!
Yesterday Iwas over at No Recipes. He posted adelicious and very Marc looking Aloo Gobi, which is an Indian dish of spiced cauliflower with potatoes. Something about it hit me just the right way. So Idecided right then that Iwould make it for lunch– immediately.
This is not the type of thing Iusually cook. In fact this is the kind of thing Iusually reserve for restaurants. It’s not that Ican’t cook food like this. Ijust proved (at least to myself) that Ican. But for some reason Ijust don’t but Iguess that is aquestion between my pantry andme.
Speaking of my pantry, my pantry gets alot of the credit for the success of today. Ikeep my pantry in tip-top shape. You never know when it’s going to get astrong work out from adifficult challenger. This Indian spiced dish is aperfect example of the kind of preparedness Iam talking about because Iwas able to read Marc’s post and look at his pictures and start right in on cooking my version with in afew moments. So Iam pretty proud of thatfact.
I reproduced Marc’s recipe here for you word for word. So the “recipe†part is fully creditable to No Recipes– there is an irony there that Iam sure Marc has to deal with all the time. So I’ll just note the irony and moveon.
Because in true No Recipes fashion Iused this recipe as aroad map in making the Aloo Gobi you see in the pictures here today. I’ll let you in on alittle secret, the strength of my pantry does not lie in the fact that Ihave every single thing Icould EVER need tucked away inside. Would were it so. Instead Ihave enough things from enough broad categories to make this dish with the ingredients that Ihad on hand. So it’s true Ihad to make afew substitutions and altered afew things to the way Icook.
I used less pungent yellow mustard seeds in place of Marc’s very authentic black mustard seeds. To make up for the lack of pungency Iadded afew caraway seeds. Good caraway seeds from South America, which may be different than the variety you are usedto.
As Isaid Idon’t cook Indian very often, so Idid not have any garam masala– but abit of extra cumin in the form of powder, some excellent smoked paprika and atouch of cinnamon made up for thatfact.
Also, Icanâ’ add fragrant spices to apan of hot oil with out balancing all the spice with alittle sweet. Ijust can’t. Marc suggested honey. But Iused abig scoop of left over, very caramelized onions instead.
I think Marc would be ok with these changes. After all, Ibecome acquainted with his excellent blog when Iheard him interviewed on NPR. Iliked his whole No Recipes approach. Because despite the fact that Ihave ablog and Iam passing out recipes on an almost daily basis (many of them original) mostly Icook by the seat of my pants and then make it all sound well planned and intellectually well developed!
Shhh, don’t tellanyone.
Aloo Gobi serves 4CLICK here for aprintable recipe
2 T vegetable oil- 1 t black mustard seeds
- 1 t whole cuminseeds
- 1/2 t wholecloves
- 1 T grated garlic (about 3cloves)
- 1 T grated ginger (about 1″knob)
- 2 medium onions minced
- 1 chili minced (i used ahabanero but if that’s too spicy you can use aserano chili)
- 2 t garammasala
- 1/2 tumeric
- 2 t kosher salt
- 2 t honey (or vegansugar)
- 1/2 c water
- 3 yukon gold potatoes cut into 1/2″ cubes
- 1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets
- 2 T lemonjuice
- 1/2 c greenpeas
- cilantro hand torn (for garnish)
2 T vegetable oilHeat heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat until very hot and add the oil. Add the mustard seeds, cumin and cloves and stir until the spices begin to crackle. Add the ginger and garlic and fry until fragrant then add the onion. Fry this mixture until the onions are soft and just starting to turn brown, then add the chili, garam masala, turmeric, salt, honey, water and potatoes.
Cover and simmer over medium low heat for 10 minutes, add the cauliflower and cook until everything is tender, another 30–40 minutes. Add the lemon juice and peas at the very end and serve the Aloo Gobi garnished with cilantro alongside some basmati rice andraita.
SERIOUS FUNFOOD
Greg Henry
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