Spicy-Hot Foods From the East

It wasn't until George and I came down with colds that I figured it was time to 'blast our bugs' with some hot fragrant spices. I went to one of the local markets that features east-Indian spices and found chilli peppers, fenugreek, tumeric, sumac berry, and fennel packaged up in various blends. I picked up some moong beans, black lentils, and kallonji.(Seeds from 'Love in a Mist' plant.)

All of these come in exotic-looking packages, with unfamiliar words: Paunch Puran from India; Ethiopian Berbere, a spice that is pressed into meats and added to lentil stews; from Phuket, a green curry powder that has coriander leaf, ginger, lemon grass, cardamon, garlic, fennel and peppers. It is mixed with coconut milk, shrimp and vegetables, and makes a spicy broth.

Quatre Blend, from France, has black peppercorns, cloves, nutmeg and ginger, and is added to stews and soups. Garam Masala Powder's ingredients are corn, mung, masoor, moth, potato, rice, sago, raisen, salt, and spices. All these spices provide hot, pungent spices. Perfect, when you have a cold!

This is Moong Dhal, a vegetable soup made from mung beans and assorted chopped vegetables. I always have a bin of cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, onion and garlic, bok choy, peppers and kale ready for stir-fry, so I put these in, adding tomatoes, currants, orange zest, and tiny chopped yellow beets also. I used garam masala powder, salt, and kitchen bouquet for the broth.

Paunch Puran has yellow mustard seeds and fennel, so I added a touch of that. I made only enough for one meal, as the spices tend to loose their effectiveness after several hours. As you study east-Indian cooking you come to understand that some spices must be fried first to get them 'popping', and at other times they are added at the very end of the cooking period. This allows for a burst of aroma which is incredibly refreshing.

Although a good part of east-Indian cooking is vegetarian, I experimented with some of the spices, mixing some with onion, garlic, and fresh large shrimp.

Then, I fried up some onions, and mixed panko bread-crumbs into them. The crumbs were seasoned with honey mustard (like Gullah-Grub Chicken) and fried also.

These Greek butter-beans are incredibly good. I poured them over basmati rice when the meal was served. Basic recipe here:

Greek fassolia gigantes, or butter beans
Chopped tomatoes
Olive oil
Finely sliced onions
Tomato puree
Chopped cloves garlic
Salt and Pepper
Finely chopped pepper
Oregano and Thyme

This is the complete meal, followed by demitasse coffee and puff-pastry for dessert.