Gaeng Mussamun

I went to the trouble of making fresh Mussamun curry paste the other day, and so have been sharing the recipe and the paste of this Thai standard with friends while it is still good. I have made this once with beef and once with chicken. Only advice I can offer is: wait 24 hours before eating, the spices really don't manifest in the dish for at least that amount of time.

Mussamun Curry with Beef, Potatoes, and Peanuts

5 cups coconut milk*

2 lbs boneless beef, cut into 2-inch chunks

1 cup coconut cream*

1/3 c Mussamun curry paste

3 TBS fish sauce

2 TBS palm sugar or brown sugar

3 TBS Tamarind Liquid §

12 whole cardamom pods

6 cinnamon sticks

2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks

1 large onion, cut lengthwise into thick wedges

1/2 cup dry-roasted peanuts

About 2 TBS freshly squeezed lime juice

In a large saucepan, bring the coconut milk to a gentle boil over medium heat. Add the beef chunks and simmer until the beef is tender, about 1 hour.

In a small heavy-bottomed skillet over medium hear, bring the coconut cream to a gentle boil. Adjust the hear to maintaim a gentle boil and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. The coconut cream will become fragrant as it thickens. When you see tiny pools of oil glistening on the surface, add the curry paste and stir to dissolve the paste in the coconut cream. Continue cooking for 3 to 4 minutes, until the curry paste has a pleasing aroma.

Scrape the curry paste into the pot with the beef and coconut milk; stir well. Add the fish sauce, sugar, tamarind, cardamom, cinnamon, and potatoes. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the onions and peanuts and simmer until the potatoes are cooked, about 5 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning until you have a pleasing sweet, sour and salty balance. Add a little lime juice to sharpen the taste.

Serve warm.

Note: Substitution of chicken for the beef has an advantage: much less preparation time. To substitute chicken for the beef, use 3 lbs chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized chunks. Omit the initial long simmering in coconut milk called for with beef. Begin by cooking the curry paste in coconut cream over medium heat as directed. Stir in the chicken and cook it in the coconut-curry sauce until coated and browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a large saucepan, add the coconut milk, and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. Continue as directed in the beef recipe.

To prepare the curry in advance, cook it only up to the point where the onions are added. Cool to room temperature, cover, and refrigerate up to 24 hours. To serve, bring the curry back to a gentle boil over medium heat. Add the onion and continue as directed.

*What is the difference between coconut cream and coconut milk? They are the same thing, but the milk is diluted with more water. We buy canned coconut cream with 11-17 grams of fat per serving, and then dilute it for the coconut milk. This recipe calls for 5 cups, so we use 2 1/2 cups coconut cream and 2 1/2 cups water.

§For Tamarind Liquid: Boil 1/2 cup water, and add it to about 1/4 dried tamarind. After 20-30 minutes, press all the brown tamarind liquid you can through a fine sieve, discarding the pulp.

Another Lentils Recipe

Found a simpler Indian lentils recipe. Our neighbors, Adam and Melissa are always looking for foods that their one year old John Harper will eat, and he enjoyed this one. We use it as a side dish for dinner or main dish for lunch, serving it over rice.

Red Lentils Tarka (Masoor Dal)

from Madhur Jaffrey's Quick and Easy Indian Cooking

1 1/2 cup red lentils

1 tsp. dried turmeric

1 1/2 tsp. salt (we use less, start with 1 tsp and add more at the end if needed)

3 Tb. veg. oil or ghee

generous pinch of ground asafetida

1 tsp cumin seeds

1-3 dried hot red chiles

Wash lentils in several changes of water, and drain. Put lentils in heavy saucepan with 5 cups water and turmeric. Stir and bring to a simmer. Cover, such that the lid is slightly ajar, turn the heat to low, and simmer gently for 35-40 minutes or until the lentils are tender, stirring every so often. When tender, stir in the salt, and leave the pot on very low heat while you do the next step.

To make the tarka, put the oil in a small frying pan set over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add asafetida, then the cumin seeds. Let the seeds sizzle for a few seconds, then add the chiles. As soon as the chiles turn dark red, lift the lid of the lentil pot and pour in the contents of the frying pan - both the oil and the spices. Cover the lentil pot immediately to trap the aromas.

Note: I have also added minced or pressed garlic to this recipe, adding it to the oil after the chiles, pouring the contents into the frying pan just after the garlic turns from white to tan. Be careful, garlic will turn to brown or black quickly if left in hot oil very long.

Nadja's Lentils

Another recipe from our meal the other day, thanks to Nadja Cech for her kitchen acumen. Overcook these if you want them to smell like marijuana. I want to have this recipe handy for myself, thus I have posted it here.

2 cups red lentils
~5 cups water, vegetable broth, or chicken broth
1 piece of ginger (~1" x 1") peeled
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and whole
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 Tbsp of chopped cilantro
1/4 tsp cayenne powder (optional, I did not use it at the beach)
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
3 Tbsp lemon juice (or to taste)
1 tsp whole cumin (optional)
3 Tbsp ghee or high heat cooking oil (optional)

Rinse the lentils, bring to a boil and skim the scum off the top. Add the cilantro, turmeric, ginger (whole), garlic (whole) and cayenne. Cook for ~1 hr or until the lentils are soft. Add the lemon juice and garlic. If you are using the cumin (which I did not when we were at the coast), heat the ghee or oil for a few minutes, then add the cumin and toast it quickly for a minute or two. Drizzle the ghee or oil/cumin mixture over the lentils just before serving.

Green beans with onion paste

An Indian recipe we enjoyed while on vacation at the Outer Banks. Nadja Cech and Sarah Dorsey were the cooks, and they deserve as much credit as the recipe. As I head Nadja say, "When green beans become a main course, now that's special!"...something like that. Not an easy recipe, but worth it, and Sylvia loved it, so it will be worth it for us to have around as leftovers.

1 1/2 lbs fresh green beans

1 medium sized onion, peeled and coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 inch piece of fresh ginger, coarsely chopped

1 medium sized canned tomato, coarsely chopped

1/2 tsp turmeric

10 TBS vegetable oil

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds

1/2 tsp whole black mustard seeds

1 or 2 whole dried red peppers (optional), or 1/2 hot fresh green chili, sliced in half (optional) or 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

2 tsp lemon juice

GARNISH

1 TBS finely chopped cilantro

Wash the beans. Trim the ends. Slice them into fine rounds about 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch thick. (This takes a while, so it is best to sit down somewhere with a chopping board and sharp knife and do about 8 beans at a time.)

Put the onion, garlic, ginger, tomato and turmeric in a blender and blend into a smooth paste.

Put 6 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in an 8-inch skillet or heavy-bottomed pan, and heat it on medium. Pour in mixture from blender and fry for about 5 minutes, stirring all the time, adding a teaspoon of warm water if and when it starts to stick to the bottom. Now put in the coriander and cumin and continue frying another 5 minutes, again adding a teaspoon of warm water if necessary to prevent sticking.

In a 10-inch skillet, heat the remaining tablespoons of oil over a medium flame. When very hot, put in the whole cumin and mustard seeds. After 10 seconds, add the whole red peppers if you are using them. Stir once, and as the peppers darken and the mustard seeds begin to pop, put in the sliced green beans and the sliced green chili if you are using it. Now scrape up all the mixture from the first skillet and add it to the beans. Fry the beans on medium flame for 5 minutes, stirring all the time. Turn heat to low, add the salt and lemon juice, and let the beans cook covered, stirring now and then, until they are tender (about 35 minutes). If you are using cayenne pepper, stir in 5 minutes before the end of cooking time. If the beans stick to the skillet, add 1 tablespoon of water, stir and keep cooking.

These beans can be cooked in advance and reheated over a low flame. Serve them in a warm dish, and if you like sprinkle finely chopped Chinese parsley over them.

Cook's Tips: Fry the mixture from the blender in a deep heavy pot to keep splatter down. Make sure you fry the mixture well, it's essential to the overall flavor of the dish. I think it needed a bit more lemon. I also used a lot more cilantro than called for. It's a fabulous blast of flavor in the dish. I think the dish needed to cook longer than 35 minutes, I'd suggest you allow 45 minutes.