Are you one of those people who admires the notion of adding peanut butter to anything and everything? Yeah, so am I. Sometimes, I do like to switch things up and do almond butter or some other type of nut butter (ever tried sunflower seed butter?). Today, though, I want to share an anecdote on how I composed a dish out of nut butter. “What?!” you’re chanting. Peanut butter is a great and easy way to add both protein and comfort to any dish, whether sweet or savory. But in my limited experience, it’s difficult to sell on its own. And to many, it may seem like a basic additive not worth including in an otherwise exotic list of inclusions. Though peanut butter makes itself useful in cooking with many Thai dishes, there is much more that peanut butter can be. The title of this entry is purposeful, because I’ll not only show you an innovative way to present nut butter, but I’m going to show you how to make it. Peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter… sunflower seed butter with pumpkin seeds and oats – you name it. It’s the easiest thing in the world because all you need is a blender and, well, your nut/seed of choice. Throw them in the blender with some salt and blend the hell out of them. You may have to bend over backwards every now and then to keep the nut paste off the edges; give the mixture ten minutes or so and voila. Ten minutes will give you smooth butter, but even chunky/rough butter takes no longer than a couple minutes to blend. All you’re looking for is texture. Nut butter is just nuts. Those few extra ingredients added in most commercial nut butters exist because they’re commercial. You may choose to add salt or (for that matter) anything you want, but nut butter is no secret art. Making it presentable, however, is more so an artistic challenge. My nut butter of choice: cashew and almond blend. I could have paid ten dollars plus for it at the grocery store, or I could blend the nuts myself and save a quantifiable amount of money (hint: I chose the latter). I also did not want a smooth butter for this recipe. Instead, I wanted something closer to a rough dough. Ideally, the nut butter would not be rough, but it would not be too smooth to hold itself up. Thankfully, because I didn’t leave it in the blender too long, the oils didn’t fully emerge (hence the thicker and rougher texture). While I could have left this paste as is for use in sandwiches and wherever else one might use nut butter, my goal today was different. Adding such ingredients as vanilla bean seeds, honey, and almond extract, I prepared the nut butter for a delicious snack to be served. Meet strawberry baby cakes… except that mine got all f’ed up. You’ll find many different recipes depending on where you look, but my version is made straight from the nuts, not their nut flour counterparts. In this way, nut butter plays a role more significant than the annoying best friend. It’s the foundation for this dish – the lead who stands out from an otherwise ordinary cast. What makes it unique is that this standout dish does not rely on foundational elements to support it. It’s the only element, which means that it must support itself. The show must go on! The strawberries were doused in lemon juice in honey – a delectable balance of sweet and sour – giving the baby cakes a sweet edge. I could have just as easily prepared a savory snack from this. By choosing some other topping (like, I don’t know, roasted asparagus or chili peppers stuffed with cream cheese) and omitting the honey, this would have been a hearty snack for lunchtime. You can see how versatile nut butter can be in this area. It’s a remarkable and playful ingredient, often overlooked in lieu of its rather unfortunate abuse for temporary satisfaction. That’s all I have for this entry. A new experience with a familiar ingredient is just as exotic as a new ingredient if you ask me. Think about the fundamental idea of that: it’s not the ingredient that’s new. It’s what you do with it that renews your cooking experience. I’ve used lots of unique ingredients in my day, but there are many that don’t stand out and offer very little on their own. One clear example is canned bamboo shoots – a crunchy inclusion to curries but otherwise boring on their own. Looking at your ingredients from a fresh perspective independent of Western standards will allow you to fully appreciate and realize the creative potential that you possess. Never lose sight of that.
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If you’ve never heard of curry before, do not be alarmed or ashamed. I was there once, too. Specifically, it was on July 14, 2016, that I cooked my first curry. But what is curry? Well, that depends entirely on what part of the world you are coming from. In Thai cuisine, for example, curry is a sauce-based dish, prepared with complex arrangements of herbs and pastes. Vegetables and some protein base (shrimp or tofu are usually my preferred choices) provide a base for the sauce. In India, curry can be thick and saucy, or it can be dry and more like a stir-fry. In either case, Indian curries are far more spice-based, contrary to Thai curries which rely much on fresh pastes and aromatic herbs. Outside those two cuisines (wherein curry is most popular and well-known), many other Asian cultures feature variations and definitions of curry that fall somewhere in-between spice-based and paste-based. In this post, I’ll share the first time I prepared one such curry, which fell somewhere in-between. You can assume that this curry was not authentic. You’d be accurate. The dish that I prepared was called baingan bharta – an Indian stir-fry curry featuring eggplants as the base. My limited knowledge of Indian cuisine meant that I did not own many of the authentic Indian ingredients that make up traditional dishes, i.e. curry leaves. I didn’t even know that curry leaves existed. This, however, did not stop me from using what I had to prepare a delicious curry, albeit one that had been altered to suit contemporary Western kitchens like mine. I was excited to try something new! Considering especially that my only prior use for eggplant was in a lasagna, curry would certainly be a new application for ingredients that may superficially seem limited. For this, I baked the eggplant tender while taking a short shopping trip for many of the upcoming entries (including this one). Some Western ingredients that are not Indian at all made their way into this dish, because recall that neither my kitchen nor supermarkets (Wal-Mart, Publix) supply ingredients that would be required for authentic Indian dishes. This meant that such herbs as thyme and oregano were added. Curry powder was also a principal spice added, but this powder is not authentic at all. In fact, curry powder as you may be familiar with in supermarkets is a Western invention. It does not reflect any Indian dish or ingredient at all, made up mostly of turmeric and dried onions and garlic. Speaking of which, onions, garlic, and ginger are all very traditional in Indian cuisine, but for the ginger I used a pre-packaged ginger paste which blended better than trying to mince a fresh piece of ginger root (which can be a pain in the ass if you’ve never done it before). Whole cumin seeds are a staple in Indian kitchens (and most international kitchens, for that matter), and they provided the signature flavor of this dish. Somewhat smoky, but very robust, cumin is a powerful spice that can be easily overdone if not controlled. That’s why I used whole seeds instead of the powder – it’s less pungent that way and doesn’t coat the entire dish. By using seeds, I kept the cumin controlled as it melded with the other flavors of the dish. To finish the dish, I diced the eggplant and tossed it into my spice mix, now beautifully aromatic with its complex assortment, and added plain Greek yogurt with tomatoes to create a tomato sauce around my spice mix. Yogurt and coconut milk are the two most common choices for liquefying curry dishes, but at the time I knew not of canned coconut milk. Indeed, the international aisle of most supermarket chains gives you the tools necessary for dishes like this. One such tool, which I picked up impulsively, was canned bamboo shoots. These are common additives to stir-fries and curries not because they add any flavor. Rather, their crunchy texture gives the dish some depth and character. Because these were canned, all I had to do was rinse and toss them in. Finally, I salted the dish and topped it with fresh cilantro – a necessary garnish to balance the deep spicy flavors present in this dinner. I prepared white rice and steamed broccoli to accompany the curry and enjoyed a new experience that highlighted exactly why I’ve come to love cooking. Curry is a lost art – that’s the main takeaway that I took from this dish. It allows you to experiment with ingredients and combinations that you’ve never done before. With its foundation as an ethnic staple, you can probably curry almost anything without worry of failure. Contrary to popular belief (that curry is a complicated dish), curry is very easy to make, requiring only a basic knowledge of what goes in. Even in Western culture, where authentic ingredients may not be readily present, you can imitate the flavors of curry with the right choices. What we’ve established in this post is that curry can be whatever the hell you want it to be. I started with a recipe for what is typically an authentic Indian preparation, but I ended up throwing a myriad of different things into it. Bamboo shoots? Thyme and oregano? Curry powder? You’ll never see these in Indian curries. But alas, what I made here was a one-of-a-kind, bringing India to America in a roundabout way. I would say that the most important thing about making curry is to remain open-minded. At first, especially in a culture where American cuisine is literally shoved in your face, curry can seem exotic and odd, sometimes off-putting (I mean, let’s be honest, would you eat bamboo shoots routinely?). However, when you open your knowledge about what food is and what it can be, acknowledging that the culture you know is just one of many, then you can more readily reap the benefits of a delicious dish like curry. It’s not weird. It’s just different. Embracing its diverse application in this way will not only improve your cooking but will improve your outlook on life all the same. I look forward to sharing more with you as we progress through this second part of my exotic explorations!
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June 2018
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