lentil curry

A curry is properly a soup or stew; this is a bit dry in the end, so it may be more technically a dal rather than a curry.

"In a large pot or wok (sufficient for about eight cups), over medium-high heat, heat about two tablespoons of butter or a mixture of butter and oil. When the butter is all liquid but not frothing, drop in a tablespoon or four teaspoons of cumin seed, maybe a teaspoon of mustard seeds, and a tablespoon of hot Hungarian paprika or cayenne powder. Stir continuously. When the cumin seeds begin to turn grey, add the tomato and allow to heat through, then add chipotle pepper and adobe sauce and lentils. Stir the lentils until the mixture seems to be drying and then sprinkle in a tablespoon or a bit more of curry powder (I used a commercial Madras preparation), toss the mixture, then add water to just cover the lentils, keep the temperature high until the water boils, then reduce to low and simmer until the water is almost all absorbed or the lentils begin to break up (maybe fifteen to twenty minutes)."

This is one of those recipes that foodies and cookery-book fans either love or loathe. Oh, the inexactitude of both measurement and expression! But there is plenty of scope for bold reinterpretation.

Grape Nuts and Shredded Wheat

These are two versatile products whose versatility, in my view, is very little understood. Grape Nuts are similar to a prepared food in the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition. Shredded wheat is something like a noodle preparation from India.

Three Ingredients Cookery

Of late, I have been very interested in a challenge to make foods from only three ingredients. In the strictest interpretation, this should include any oil used in cooking, but I am willing to make some allowances that way. Also, I will not include in the set of three ingredients water if used to boil, simmer, or steam some element, or something like a pickling agent. So, for example, new potatoes, olives, and olive oil in my looser interpretation counts as three ingredients, although the potatoes are first boiled and then fried in oil, and the olives must go through a series of preparations before they are canned... I don't perform those processes, I just open the can and drain and chop, then put the olives in to fry.

Garden Delight Cookery

I love to cook, and I love best using fresh ingredients from a garden near at hand. I prefer for the garden to be free from pesticides (since "organic" now entails all sorts of legalities and "biodynamic" has been appropriated by a single administrative body, I hesitate to use either term). I am strongly influenced by simple, "peasant" styles of cooking, particularly from southern and eastern Asia. I have some interest in the local forms ("Pennsylvania Dutch") of cooking, but that is limited. I am a great fan of William Woys Weaver's books (and of W3 himself: what a great guy!), but I just don't really dig most of the foods and methods here. So, I guess I am a bit of a turncoat. We do have to grow as a foodie community.

Here I intend to discuss not only the end products -- food -- but the philosophy, art, craft, and science of food and food preparation, including gardening, transport, ethical and legal issues relating to food, and anything else that seems to be relevant to food and foodies.

The title for the blog was suggested by the name my daughter gave to a kind of cooked salsa I make when summer squash and tomatoes are readily available. Thanks, Willow.