Eating Vancouver '09: food insanity, pt.2-the Church of Vij's

We've all had Indian food. Probably fairly decent Indian food. It's one of w and my favorite cuisines. Complex flavors, pungent spices...even the vegetarian dishes are some of the best things I've eaten. Then there's Vij's in Vancouver, BC. I thought I had a pretty good handle on how good sublime sub-continent cooking could be. Turns out I'm not so well informed and I blame our dinner at Vij's for bursting that bubble. We'd read about Vij's and the incredible food rumored to be flowing out of the kitchen. We have the Vij's cookbook. Many of our friends who had been to the 'Couv were salivating as they told us we HAVE to go. So we went. We knew about the "get there at opening or you wait 1-1/2 hours" thing. We didn't and we waited (although a good part of that wait was spent in a very cool nearby wine bar, Bin 942). There are very few dinners worth waiting 90 minutes for, but I would wait for this again in a heartbeat. In fact, going to Vij's alone is almost worth an overnight trip from Portland. Crazy food, absurdly flavorful, awesome service. One thing we noticed as we looked around is that the whole staff is women. Kitchen, floor staff, host. Our server explained that when Vikram Vij opened the restaurant, he put his new wife Meeru in charge of the kitchen. In a confined space where bodies are constanly bumping into noe another, it wouldn't have worked to have men being in contact with women, so an all-woman kitchen staff evolved, and it seems to have carried over to the front. Now I don't know if this is the reason or not (it is according to our server), but the whole restaurant exudes this calm aura. There's no tension in the air, just seamless attention to detail. I've always said if I opened another restaurant I would absolutely hire a female chef. It's a rare male chef who doesn't let his testosterone-driven ego get in the way. This only reaffirms that observation.

Enough of that, it's time to focus on what's important. So here's the Vij's show-and-tell. May I suggest you lean away from your keyboards to keep from drooling all over your keys.....

Our first appetizer, Spicy Ground Cricket Paranta with tomato-onion chutney and celeriac salad. The flour for the flatbread is actually made partially from ground crickets! It was delicious, and the chutney was so flavorful, and they gave us a little bowl of whole fried crickets (pic at top left) which we sprinkled on top. They were delicious, witha salty crunch. Here's a pic of the way to get your insect on (take that Bourdain!):

next up....

This was a pungent, incredibly spiced Jackfruit in a black cardamom and cumin masala. The jackfruit had pineapple-like texture, and the sweet fruit and spiciness were, of course, perfect together.

Our server highly recommended we order this app, BC Spot Prawns (fresh off the boat that morning she said) with spinach and mung sprouts in a coconut and lemon curry. She was correct. The shrimp was so bright and fresh, and a lemon infused curry is obviously something I need to experiment with!

w ordered the Marinated and Grilled Sablefish with grilled zucchini in a mango reduction. Read that again and you'll know all you need to know about how amazingly delicious this was: "grilled fish in mango reduction". Of course when you have a mastery of Indian spices and know just what to add, it helps. A beautifully cooked piece of fish, moist and tender, dredged through the sauce it absolutely pops in your mouth!

My pick was their Wine Marinated Lamb Popsicles (what do you think of that dds? The Greek's don't have a monopoly on lamb "popsicles"!) in a fenugreek cream curry on turmeric spinach potatoes. This was simply stunning (although w said the same thing about her sablefish, and it was). The lamb was a wonderful, juicy medium-rare, the cream curry was silky smooth and defines "understated", yet it filled my mouth with so much flavor. A ridiculous combination that as I look at the picture, I know it is something I MUST have again!

For wine we ordered a bottle of Hugel Sylvaner, a crisp, delicious Alsatian white that was spot on with all the different flavors. w considers, and I can only agree, that this is one of the best meals of any kind we have ever had. Brilliant, stunning cooking in a serene settting. This is why I can only feel blessed to be able to have an experience like this. If Tojo's was food as art, this is food as religion.

Fresh Vegetable Curry; ger ready to riff!

You just know it when something doesn't sound quite right. Examples abound. Giving Chrysler several billion dollars to flush down the toilet? Come on, would you trust anyone who produced the PT Cruiser? Sending Mario Batali AND Gywneth Paltrow to run around annoying the country of Spain? What, did someone in Spain piss off an PBS producer at some point? I could go on. For our purposes though I'll relate it to this recipe. I've had this Food and Wine Magazine article that has had several delicious Indian dishes (here and here for example) filed away for some time, meaning to make this fresh veg curry. But it just didn't seem to have enough kick in its original version. Indian food is all about vivid, complex flavors. The FandW version had maybe two strong flavoring agents.. As w says, any good Indian dish has to have at least, at a minimum, three and hopefully more of the basics: chili pepper, cumin, cayenne, ginger, turmeric, etc. The recipe below, which paired beautifully with a perfect piece of grilled wild sockeye salmon, fills that bill nicely. It is easy, wildly adaptable to various veggie ingredients (I subbed fresh spring asparagus for their suggested green beans), and beats the hell out of some steamed broccoli!

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Fresh Vegetable Curry
adapted from Food and Wine Magazine

ingredients:
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons finely julienned fresh ginger (from a 2-inch piece)
1 jalapeño, seeded and cut into thin strips
2 bay leaves
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 small tomatoes, coarsely chopped
One 14-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup water
Kosher salt
3 carrots, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 pound butternut squash (neck only), peeled and cut into 1-by-1/2-inch pieces (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 to 1 pound fresh asaparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
Basmati rice, for serving


method:
1. In a large, deep skillet, heat the oil. Add the onion, ginger, jalapeño and bay leaves and cook over moderate heat until softened, 5 minutes. Add the garlic and turmeric and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and mash lightly until just beginning to soften, 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk and water; season with salt. Bring to a boil.

2. Add the carrots, cover and simmer over low heat until crisp-tender, about 12 minutes. Add the squash and beans, cover and simmer until tender, 15 minutes. Discard the bay leaves. Serve with basmati rice.

"Efficient" Indian Cooking: Lamb Rogan Josh

Now this is one of those names that I just don't get, and I'm sure...or not... it has some meaning to some Brit named Josh Rogan, but I'm too lazy to google it right now, so if anyone can (or cares to) enlighten, please do. In any event, this is a recipe I got out of Food and Wine Magazine, and it's another example of how to get max complexity and flavor out of something that requires very little effort. I've read several other recipes for this classic dish online, and most call for much more toasting of spices and melding and mixing and other culinary gymnastics that if I can bypass, I will. I'm not lazy, just efficient! Also this was an article called Easy Indian that took complex Indian dishes and remade them for laz....er, efficient cooks like myself. And I have to say that this is an absolutely fantastic version...even though I've never had it before, but I can't imagine that it could get much better than this. Although I changed their browning instructions in the recipe below from what they called for because their advice to brown the pieces for "10-12 minutes" was, well, fucked up. I judge a lot of dishes I make by asking if they're "restaurant worthy", meaning would I be happy if I was served this out someplace. This one answers that with an emphatic "Hell yes!" with its rich, creamy, spicy sauce, slightly sweet onion, and tender lamb chunks. And enxt time I won't forget to pick up the IPA on the way home!
Okay, I just looked it up on the ever (ahem) "reliable" wikipedia. They said: "Rogan josh is an aromatic curry dish popular in India. Rogan means clarified butter in Persian, while Josh means hot or passionate. Rogan Josh thus means meat cooked in clarified butter at intense heat. Rogan Josh was brought to India by the Moghuls. The unrelenting heat of the Indian plains took the Moghuls frequently to Kashmir, which is where the first Indian adoption of Rogan Josh occurred."
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Lamb Rogan Josh
Recipe by Vikram Sunderam

from F&W: “Chef Way Vikram Sunderam relies on plenty of spices, like cardamom, cloves and cumin, to flavor this succulent lamb stew (the name translates roughly into “red lamb”).
Easy Way: Use Madras curry powder, a spice blend, in place of the individual spices.”

active time: 35 min
total time: 1 hr 45 min
servings: 4 to 6

ingredients:
1/4 cup canola oil
2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, cut into 1-inch pieces
Kosher salt
2 onions, thinly sliced (3 cups)
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Madras curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
One 14-ounce can tomato puree
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
2 cups water
1 teaspoon garam masala
Cilantro leaves, for garnish
Basmati rice and warm naan, for serving

method:
1. In a large, enameled cast-iron casserole, heat the oil. Season the lamb with salt and cook (in batches if necessary to avoid crowding the lamb, because you know lambs hate crowds-bb) over high heat, stirring occasionally, until the lamb is browned, about 5 minutes per batch; using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate.

2. Add the onions to the casserole and cook over moderate heat until lightly browned, 4 minutes. Add the ginger, garlic, curry, turmeric, cayenne and bay leaves and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomato, yogurt and water; bring to a boil. Season with salt.

3. Return the lamb and any juices to the casserole. Cover partially and simmer over low heat until the lamb is very tender, 1 hour. Stir in the garam masala; cook for 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaves. Garnish with cilantro. Serve with rice and naan.
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one year ago today @ E.D.T: Hog Island is Oyster Heaven!

God bless leftovers!

Goan Shrimp Curry, aka Sunday morning brunch at our house! Luckily w's friends weren't so hungry that they finished every bite when she took it over to her friend's girl's dinner. Which made for us a perfect, flavor packed start to our day. Click on the link above and try this one at home. Just so you know, it works really at well at dinner, too!
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one year ago today @ E.D.T.: Food scientist Harold McGee explains that least understood cooking ingredient, heat!

Braised Chicken Curry w/ Yams... a.k.a. Bloggers helping Bloggers

What did you expect me to do, come up with my own idea? What do you think they invented the internet for? That's right, so we don't have to think! That was my situation the other day. Stuck at work with no time to think with chicken thighs about to go over the edge in the fridge at home that needed to be cooked right now before they became their own biological weapons of mass distress. I also was feeling somewhat curryish, so threw Sergei and Larry the search terms "braised chicken thighs curry" and up popped this awesome recipe from the great blogsite Sunday Nite Dinner (this photo also came from their site, because my photos, well, sucked. So thanks in advance SNiD!). The SNiD site documents the eating adventures of a group of friends who take turns satisfying their culinary curiosities. They certainly took care of w and my appetites, and this was an easy recipe, based on one by ex-Food TV chef Ming Tsai, that totally over-delivered for the effort expended (even though I forgot to add the peas at the end...eh, no big deal). I only made one change, besides forgetting the peas, which was using bone-in chicken thighs (rather than the called for boneless) which I always find give more flavor. The only bad part of the whole meal was that I would even consider pulling out the braising pot in June, but with our endless, rainy, cold, winter-like, thoughts-of-suicide inducing weather, I may be braising 'til #^&*%#@ July!!!
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Braised Chicken Curry with Yams
Adapted from Blue Ginger: East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai

ingredients:
2-1/2 pounds skinless, bone-in chicken thighs, fat trimmed
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely chopped
3 tablespoons hot Indian curry powder
2 curry leaves or bay leaves
3-4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
3 large yams, peeled and chopped into 3/4 inch cubes
2 cups frozen petite peas

method:
1) Sprinkle salt and pepper on the chicken. Heat oil in large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. When the oil shimmers, add the chicken pieces and brown them well on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Don't skimp on this step; not only does it add color and flavor, it renders fat.

2) Remove the chicken and pour off excess fat, leaving enough to coat the pot. Add onions, garlic and ginger and sauté until soft, about 6-8 minutes. Stir in curry powder and cook until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Add 3 cups chicken stock and bay leaves. Scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen any browned bits.

3) Add chicken thighs and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently until chicken is tender and pulls apart easily, about 30 minutes. Correct the seasonings to taste. Add yams and additional stock if necessary to just cover yams; cook through, about 20-30 minutes depending on their size. Add peas and heat through, about 1-2 minutes. Serve over jasmine or basmati rice.

Makes 6 servings

Get your "om" on with Goan Shrimp Curry

I regularly get my zen on in the kitchen, and at the culinary ashram that is the kitchen at 1309 here in PDX we definitely were experiencing feelings of inner peace and happy fulfillment after consuming this knock out Indian curry I gleaned from Elaine Louie's "One Pot" column that runs in the NYT Wednesday dining section. This is the second of her dishes we've tried (the other being the amazing Burmese Panthay Noodles), and besides being fast and simple to prepare they have both been incredibly palate pleasing and complex, with that broad panoply of flavors that you get with so many ethnic cuisines. Last night's curry was awesome, the ginger, garlic, onion, and spices creating aromatic magic. It is just-right-spicy, with the rich tomatoey/coconut milk flavor that matched perfectly with the tender prawns. Plated with a side of rice and we had everything we needed to get our "om" going. My tummy was going "namaste" with every bite!
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Goan-Style Shrimp Curry
Adapted from Suvir Saran and Hemant Mathur, Devi

Time: 25 minutes

ingredients:
1 1/3pounds large shrimp (16-20 per pound), peeled and deveined
Kosher salt
Ground black pepper
1/8teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4cup canola oil
4 dried red chilies
1 3-inch piece ginger, peeled and minced
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
3 cups canned chopped tomatoes, with juice
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro.

method:
1. Place shrimp in a gallon-size resealable plastic bag, and add 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper and cayenne. Mix well and refrigerate.

Chilis, onion, and ginger creating aromatic magic!



2. In a deep skillet or sauté pan over medium-high heat, combine oil and chilies and stir 1 to 2 minutes. Add 1/4 teaspoon black pepper and cook for 1 minute longer. Add ginger, onion, 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt and sauté until onion is soft and translucent, 5 to 8 minutes. Add garlic, ground coriander and turmeric and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.

3. Reduce heat to medium-low and add tomatoes. Stir, scraping sides and bottom of pot, for 1 minute. Increase heat to medium-high and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring often.

The skillet of steaming curry deliciousness just before stirring in the cilantro.


4. Stir in curry powder and cook for 1 minute. Add coconut milk, bring to a boil, and add shrimp. Bring to a simmer and cook until shrimp are opaque, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in cilantro. If desired, serve with rice.

Yield: 3 to 4 servings.
Cooks note: in her article, Louie mentions how Suvi Saran, who created the dish "sometimes poaches scallops and salmon in the sauce, or blends it with potatoes, cauliflower and green beans." In other words, feel free to riff off the basic sauce.