Saturday, March 2, 2013

Keep Calm and Curry On

Well, our wonderful WMM has skedaddled from the clubhouse and headed south to take her bite out of the Big Apple.  Here in Toronto, mornings suddenly seem quiet and far less surprising.  But we have all her shopping, show, museum, statue, and yep, maybe even a snippet of the teenage shenanigans, to look forward to as soon as our hostess with the mostest returns.  Are you as excited as I am?



Meantime, in the stiff upper Britanadian and Maritimer tradition, we’ll do our best to Keep Calm & Carry On.    That long lost, morale-raising WWII propaganda literally hangs over my head every day, so I must comply. 

TODAY’S DYK: The now everywhere KC&CO message was actually the final in a series of three posters, preceded by the published “Freedom Is in Peril.  Defend It With All Your Might” and “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory”?  It was held back from public display for something like a poison gas attack that never happened.  However, I definitely believe in this case they saved the best for last.



One of two New York minutes WMM and I have discovered we share is a Zagat-rated curry house near Times Square.  The other has to do with the famed Waldorf Astoria and a Smalltown Boy who has done very well for himself.  But she gets to keep that surprise to share with you, later.  If you’re getting desperate to get somewhere, click away and play this 1980s’ Bronski Beat train song.


Back already?  Right.  About that curry.  Before I met my DH, my curry quotient was limited to Caribbean stews, not the original Indian versions.  I’d maybe sampled a samosa or two.  Now, we eat curry an average of once a week.  We also live within two blocks of seven Indian restaurants.  (That’s the sign outside of Babur, a place that manages both authentic dishes and date night worthy décor, on T.O.’s trendy Queen West.) 


Depending on what you order, regularly indulging in restaurant Indian, despite all its lentils, spinach, tomatoes and immune boosting seasonings, can blow a healthy eating plan faster than you can say Delhi Express.  Like many other restaurants, sauces can be secretly swimming with clarified butter (known as ghee) and full-fat dairy, before you even get near that crispy pakora batter.  Delicious in small doses.  Yet much of it can be surprisingly easy to simplify and recreate at home for big flavor and only a sliver of the calories.  Yes, even the famous butter chicken.

The other brilliant thing about homemade Indian is once you learn a basic sauce or two you can quickly tailor it to different dietary needs and preferences.  Sure pick chicken, fish or shrimp.  Vegetarian or need a peppy side dish; stir in oven-roasted or steamed veggies.  Live with a vegan who needs protein, toss in that can of chickpeas.  Empty larder, lazy and/or starving?  Pour some of your sauce stash over a baked potato.  Keeping a supply in the freezer is great for the impromptu dinner invite “who (doesn’t) eat what?” dilemma too.




Since batch cooking mostly happens on Sunday afternoons at my house, I’ll be back tomorrow with a couple of really easy, make-ahead sauces and a sprinkling of style.  For anyone who wants to read up, I recommend checking out these Indian cooking gurus:
Mangoes & Curry Leaves by husband & wife team Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid | beautiful armchair travel even if you don’t cook50 Great Curries of India by Camellia Panjabi | the best-selling Indian cookbook of all time, worldwide, from the former marketing director of the Taj Hotels
Anything by the prolific and low-fuss
Madhur Jaffrey | several of this James Beard award-winning author and actress turned New Yorker’s books include helpful step-by-step photosVij’s at Home  by Vikram Vij and Meeru Dhalwala | another husband & wife collab that really is “Relax, Honey”.

 



DISH, PLEASE What “cuisine” do you eat lots of because of your roots, significant other, kids, roommates, neighbours?  Which restaurants, or kinds of places, top your must-eat NYC list?  Do you have any wardrobe items in a favourite “food” colour, like J. Crew’s spicy gold? 

Thanks so much for your help keeping the home fires burning.  Wishing you wonderful weekend.  And, in the words of WMM, do “Stay Safe.”

35 comments:

  1. GetFresh youre so sweet to do wndy's posts.
    I love indian food and even though i havent made curry for a while,i think it will be on my to do list.

    Since you just talked about the waldorf astoria in NYC,i have a little bit of interesting history to share about it. I live in walldorf/germany and a guy from here emigrated to the US,his name is John Jacob Astor.That where the name of the hotel is from:)

    Have a great weekend!

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    1. Ina - I didn;t know that - so cool!

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    2. Ina, I love a good hotel (hi)story, thanks for sharing! Did know he was first Johann Jakob, but no idea there was a Waldorf near Heidelberg. He has a Canadian connection too - fur trading when he first came over.

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  2. I look sick in spicy golds and yellows, but love them on brown eyed sallow skinned honeys. And this is most apposite because tonight is the monthly treat - curry night! Always the same, Ceylonese Korma, Shakuti Korma (both chicken) and " two saffron rices please, in separate bowls"
    For a while they were giving us the rice in a communal bowl - it was almost the end of the marriage, I would dig a line down the middle and we would both squawk if we thought the other one was digging over to the other side.

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    1. Tabs - you are hysterical! My husband and I would do the same thing! Anne< i look sick in spicy golds too but I bet they look grand on you! I learned a lof from this post! Great job! Just finishing my cereal and then off to go get the dogsitter! Portland here I come - which means a visit to Williams SOnoma!

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    2. The new JC is down the hall from the WmSon-- underwhelming, but the staff is nice.

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    3. Lucky you WMM, the few WS here do not carry nearly the range of the American ones. Enjoy your first vacay shop!

      Lane, proper welcome back and when are you off on your next trip?

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    4. Tabs, enjoy every morsel of your real deal curry. Laughing about the night out rice fight.

      I look ghastly pasty in spicy gold (pale/ freckles even with the dark hair), papaya and a few other yum sounding JC colours. But I love to see them on bright stylie bloggers.

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  3. Several years ago a friend of ours, he was Indian, wanted to make us a true authentic Indian meal. I suffered through it until he served garbanzo bean ice cream for dessert. Never have had it again. I love spicey colors but have a tendency to look like I have jaundice in them.

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    1. BB, I have learned to love the food, but I can't do the desserts either, even mango ice cream or gulab jamun. But I am not much of a sweets person. And the people who try to make odd savoury ice cream on those Iron Chef America type shows always lose. Dont mess with...

      Ditto on the "sick" in spicy gold, but I've seen lots of JCers rock it. Fine weekend!

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  4. Thanks for the reads; I know Jaffrey, but not the others. And there will be recipes! Yay!! Our current favorite curry is M Bittman's lentil and potato arrangement with our variations-- no ghee and very healthy.

    I don't suppose I have one ethnic food influence; here we are influenced by the sea and our garden. Six weeks of asparagus soon. All the colors kale comes in could be my wardrobe inspiration.

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    1. Lane, Bittman's How to Cook Everything a must have reference. And I so miss the asparagus festivals of my youth (it's a BIG Dutch thing that they migrated to their bits of the Caribbean as well.)

      The Duguid one in orig. edition is more coffee table book size, but history, trip and cook with lovely photography. Hmm, I might look for a "kale chip" skirt next fall ;-)

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  6. Excellent post GF! I'm so happy you're keeping things going for our Wendy. And I'm thrilled you are going to share a recipe, I do like Indian food but have had no luck making it at home and every single time I've eaten it at a restaurant I have been quite ill. Of course that's only been 3 times but that memory does stick.
    I've only been to NYC once but I think our best meals were at museums! In particular the members dining room at the Met and Cafe Sabarsky (sp?) at the Neue Gallery.
    We love French and Italian food, we are very typical!

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    1. Dani, you make lentils often, so why not start there with a bit of Indian flavour? Lane mentioned a Mark Bittman potato & lentil curry here that's very good and google-able. Have never tried a museum resto in NYC, good tip! India is probably my 4th choice "foreign" food - think you'll like Tuesday's post...

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    2. Dani, did you by any chance drink beer with your Indian meals? If my husband drinks beer with curry he gets very, very sick. It has only happened a few times (over many years; I guess he just forgot or hoped it wouldn't happen again) and his theory is that the yeast reacts with the spices.

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  7. Favorite food color: white! lol How sad. I love bread, popcorn, vanilla ice cream, cake/icing (white!), etc. Worse yet, I am on Week 1 of The Diet so I can't eat much of my favorite white food. I haven't had curry in ages, used to go to an Indian buffet for lunch all the time when I lived in Colorado (of all places for curry, right?!).

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    1. Oh no Lane, the basics are brilliant. I love fluffy 7-minute white frosting, homestyle or sourdough white bread, mashed potatoes; although am also on a "clean" eat at the moment. The one place I don't do much white - the wardrobe, too much of a klutz. Funny how Indian and Chinese food have truly circled the globe isn't it. CO is a state I want to explore more.

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    2. Oh and I meant CATE, clearly can't handle my four-letter words, sheesh.

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    3. Sheesh is not a four letter word :) How could I forget potatoes. And rice. I don't do much white in the wardrobe either.

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  8. What a lovely guest post. I am not a curry fan, and like Dani, prefer French and Italian cuisine. I am a green girl- lettuce, pears artichokes, asparagus, green tea. Very dark green is my favorite clothing color, and the one that got away from me this year was the Garland Tippi cardigan.

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    1. KnitYarns I think I remember Ina posting about that run-away Tippi beginning of winter, good shade. A few seasons ago JC had a dark pine colour I have a couple of wear-often pieces in.

      Little something Italian coming on Tuesday...

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  9. I used to make a lot of curry (years ago) for company dinners, but somehow gave it up. I love saffron in basmati rice, and do still make that. Love that spicy curry color, but I think it's the hardest color for anyone to wear.

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    1. Kathy, rice cooked with saffron, tumeric or curry is such a sunny golden dish. I feel the same about crop of citrus yellow and orange fun spring trench coats that seem to be popping up around here. Enticing to look at but harder to wear.

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  10. Great post, GF! Bombay Bhel is my favourite Indian restaurant but it is a treat to go as it is out in Mississauga. We have an excellent Indian takeout place near our house, but sadly, they always go on vacation from January to March - back to India!

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    1. Louise, an Oakville friend of mine favours a place by the same name, so I am assuming it's a small chain. We are spoiled for pretty authentic choices in the GTA. And how lovely to take a three-month, homecoming break. Guess it will be a curry arriving at your house NEXT month then ;-)

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  12. Get Fresh - what a treat that you've started right away! I'm looking forward to your week of posts, especially the curry sauces, which you talked about a while ago in comments.
    Is Babur along the street from the Four Seasons Centre? I think we ate there once before a performance.
    We don't really stick to one particular cuisine, although we do eat a lot of pasta (husband lived in Italy as a child, and my best friend at school was Italian, so I guess those are the influences). Growing up in Britain I only had Indian or Chinese as takeaway, not home-cooked. Now we do curries and stir fries, but I wouldn't say they are authentic. We came across Thai curries when we lived in England - my husband was on an army course and one of his fellow students has a Thai wife. We often do Thai chicken curry at home now.
    I hope you have lots of fun filling in for Wendy!

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    1. Yes, Patricia, it's a couple of blocks along on same side as Opera, dainty chandeliers, nice reclaimed wood, brick walls, pretty unusual decor for an "Indian". What an excellent story about you and your DH! My curries are mostly quick and cookbook basic vs. full monte. The DH here will occasionally do biriyani or go all 20 spices, mortar and pestle paste, but only for a treat/ project. I feel honoured by WMM's invite, she's such fun. Will do my best to do my bit.

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  14. Welcome GetFresh and aren't you lucky to have so many restaurants within walking distance. Our favourite is Vij's in Vancouver. They don't take reservations but on you'll have a cocktail while waiting and just chill. The lamb popsicles ate a highlight. We go back to the hotel pop a anti-acid pill and sleeppropped up on a pillow. So worth it.

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    1. Marsha, IMO you have one of best of bunch in this country (see book reco)! Absolutely worth waiting in bar, Van. rain for. Smiled at your aftermath description, the sacrifices we make as we get older ;-)

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  15. Love this post, food! I don't get a chance to eat much Indian food but my family loves Malaysian and Thai. Love roti and anything with green curry/coconut sauce. My favorite though is Italian and Japanese. In NYC it's Del Posto and Nobu which are both bad for my wallet and my waistline. Thank you for the book recommendations. I've been meaning to go more vegetarian and the flavorful spices will make the transition easier.

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    1. Hi Marie, growing up I loved eating roti, especially if it had potatoes and cumin stuffed in it. Been to Del Posto, but still curious about ultimate Japanese at Nobu. Have you read about Meat-Free Mondays campaign started by Paul McCartney, his daughters Stella, Mary and others? Very best on your "more veggie" quest.

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