Topic: Good Eats -March 29th - The Curious Case of Curry

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For those of you in the USA, Monday March 29th there will be an episode of Good Eats (on the Food Network, with Alton Brown) with the title "The Curious Case of Curry".

I seriously doubt that it will will reference BIR in any way what-so-ever, but it might be interesting (his explanation of the science behind the cooking is almost always insightful).

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I transcribed much of what Alton Brown said, on this episode. 

I don't know if his program (Good eats http://www.foodnetwork.com/good-eats/index.html) is seen anywhere other than on the Food Channel, here in the US. It's the only food program I watch religiously, as it's pretty much the only one that I learn anything from (since he focusses on the science behind food preparation).

In this episode he explains how (if you do not have a tandoor) you can build your own, using a large terra cota plant pot, with the bottom cut off, and how to get it up to over 800 degrees fahrenheit, using  a barbecue and 5 pounds of charcoal.

Here's the transcript:


"Garam Masala
Before grinding spices that are destined for a masala you always want to toast them first. Heat activates the essential oils inside spices rendering them more volatiles, and therefore more effective.

Even heat is the key, so I always reach for an 8-inch cast iron skillet. This goes over medium-high heat. Now the garam masala mixture could not be simpler.
To the medium high cast iron skillet, add:

 
2 tbsp cardamom seeds
2 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp black pepper corns (preferably tellicherry)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp brown mustard seeds
20 cloves
1 stick cinnamon (about 2? inches, broken in half)
1 arbol chili, crumbled (end and seeds removed)


Cook for 3-4 minutes (or until the entire kitchen smells like an Indian restaurant) and then cool for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, grate 1 tsp fresh nutmeg
When the spices are cool, move them into your coffee grinder. Processes for about a minute or until you have a fine powder.  Then, add the nutmeg. Process again, just to combine.

Prepare the lamb tikka marinade
Take a 1-gallon Ziploc bag, inside a container that can hold it
Add 1 tbsp garam masala, ? toasted and ground cumin seed, ? toasted & ground cumin seed, 1 tsp kosher salt and ? tsp fresh ground black pepper.  Shake to combine.
Add 1 1/2 lbs lamb leg, cubed (from the sirloin end).
Seal the back and given it a shake.
Open the bag and add 1 cup plain, whole milk yogurt (do not use low fat).
Seal, and mix together.
Squeeze out the air and refrigerate for a minim of 30-minutes to a couple of hours.

Prepare the tandoor
It?s important to remember that yogurt is the number one dairy food of India. It is particularly prevalent in the cuisines of the southern states, where is appears in pretty much every meal. Often in the form of a thick paste which serves as a marinade, then an insulator during cooking and finally as part of the sauce, which is exactly what we are up to here today. Although the final flavor of this tikka will in deed come from this spa treatment, as it is, we must not discount the impact of the cooking device most associated with tikkas in their homeland, namely?

Tandoor basically means ?oven.? And ?tandoori? refers to foods that are cooked in a tandoor. Although its exact cultural origins are a little shaky, this vertical earthen oven rose to prominence in modern day Punjab, possibly by way of the Middle East and northern Africa, where similar ovens were used to bake bread for the workers toiling on the pyramids.
The device itself is cunningly simple. Air enters the bottom of the oven and feeds the open charcoal fire, which in turn loads the ceramic material with an excess of 800?F worth of heat. The tapered top creates what engineers refer to as a venturi focusing the convective heat. In essence the tandoor is great big clay jet engine for cooking food.
Flat breads are typically just slapped onto the sides of the interior walls, to bake.  But meats go on large skewers and just about anything can go into a tandoor. Now, the high heat (especially when it mingles with the yogurt based marinade creates a very, very distinct flavor that is regrettably difficult to replicate in the home environment.

'Tandoor' comes from the Persian word tannur, which derives from the Babylonian word tinuru,
 based on the Semitic word nar, meaning fire.

Well, since we don?t have a tandoor we?ll have to go with the highest heat that we can possibly manage in the residential environment - a barbecue grill on high.

If you have a large terra cotta pot that was unglazed and free of cracks or blemishes (such as a large plant pot) you could grab yourself a ruler and a pencil and make a line, about 1-inch down and use an angle grinder with a masonry blade. Of course, we would not want this thing to crack when it goes on the heat, so we soak it in plain old water for 8 to 12 hours.  Then, remove it and allow it to dry for one hour.

Sprits a newspaper with vegetable oil and place it in your barbecue. Then add one pound (exactly) of all natural chunk charcoal to your barbecue. Light the newspaper (the vegetable oil will help the paper burn longer) and you will have nice, hot coals.
Place the terra cotta pot over the barbecue grill and let it sit and slowly warm, for 10-minutes.

In the meantime, heat a 12-inch skillet over medium high heat.
Add ? cup of vegetable oil and allow it to heat, almost until it smokes.
Add 1 large chopped onion along with 1 tsp kosher salt and to let the onions really brown, until they are almost chocolate looking around the edges (about 12-minutes).

In the meantime, add another pound of charcoal to the tandoor and leave for another 10-minutes.

Prepare the ginger and chilies
Add 1 tbsp fresh chopped ginger.
Add one Serrano chili (removing the end, seeds and pith ? which have a lot of heat, but not much flavor). Slice into juliennes and cross cut into a 'brunoise'.
Reduce the heat to medium low
Add the ginger and chilies, plus 4 cloves minced garlic.
Stir, and cook for 7-minutes, or until brown.

In the mean time, add another pound of charcoal to the barbecue grill and leave for another 10-minutes.

Stir in another tablespoon of garam masala. By adding some of this to the sauce (which is going to cook at a relatively low temperature) and to the meat (which is going to cook at a very high temperature) you will bring out all the dimensions that the masala has to offer (it?s a very Indian cuisine thing to do).
Add 28 oz of canned diced tomatoes.  Cook this down, until it thickens (about 20-minutes), during which you can skewer the meat.

But first, add another 1 pound of charcoal to the barbecue grill

Use 3/16 inch wide, 27-inch long, nickel plated steel skewers
Before skewering up, grab some rigatoni pasta.
Empty the marinated lamb (and all the marinade) onto a pan.
We want maximum meat-skewer contact, so each time you grab a piece of meat try to go through the longest portion. Next, add a spacer ? the rigatoni pasta (which will prevent the meat from getting all squished up, and it will cook more evenly (it?s not absolutely essential). You should get 6-7 pieces of meat onto each skewer.

Take the temperature of your tandoor (which should be over 800 degrees Fahrenheit)

Put the meat skewers into the tandoor. The venturi, created at the top of the tandoor, which make sure that the meat near the skewer handles will cook properly. Keep moving the skewers, every minute or so, until you have good doneness (about 2 ? minutes, with an 835 degree tandoor). The bottom pieces will be a little bit charred, but this will add to the overall flavor.
Remove the meat from the skewers and place in the pan with the onions, spices and tomatoes.
Place the pan on top of the tandoor.
Add a little extra kosher salt (to correct for seasoning).
Add 1-cup of coconut milk and just stir in.

Stack up 9 or 10 leaves of mint (or cilantro), roll into a tube and then slice, very thinly into ribbons (chiffonade).

Serve with rice


Alternatively, you can use chicken (boned thighs work especially well with this method)."