Paneer is one of the easiest cheeses to make at home, and it’s superbly rewarding because A) there’s almost no waiting and B) if you live, say, in an area that has no good South Asian restaurants, you can make yourself a steaming bowl of saag paneer whenever the urge strikes. And you can make a lot of it, because as we all know Indian food is even better the next morning for breakfast.
This may not have been the most elegant meal ever made, but it was very good to eat, and it illustrates a useful principle of home cooking that can, when applied properly, make homemade food taste more interesting than restaurant food.
This time of year is so bountiful that it can easily become a full-time job just trying to wring every useful calorie out of all the food that’s exploding on our modest plot. I have the pickles under control, but there’s a ton of drying to do and I haven’t even gotten started on the fruit. The upside is that all I have to do is walk out into the garden to get all the inspiration I need for dinner every single evening. And the other regular kitchen activities like baking, curing, and making yogurt provide everything else one could need to round out the meal.
I got some beautiful local raw milk and pastured eggs today to use in a couple of projects, and they unsurprisingly found their way into dinner. It’s been just lovely lately; today was a tad chilly but the sun was warm. I’ve gotten a bunch of stuff planted in the garden, and hooped those beds to keep them from freezing hard on cold nights. I’m having a hard time keeping up with all of the culinary ideas that I keep having, which is a wonderful problem to have, especially in contrast to my mood of a couple weeks ago.
It warmed up a bit, and that made for a November Sunday perfectly suited to getting some chores done. I spent a couple of hours out in the garden dismantling tomato trellises and then cleaning out all of the tender beds; the blasted remnants of cucurbits and nightshades all got raked into the compost along with lawn trimmings, the kitchen pile, ashes from the grill, and some leaves.
Wanting something vegetable-based, and given what was in the fridge, I turned as so often before to Indian ideas. Vegetarian food is so often much more interesting with South or East Asian techniques (although dear Italy still offers pretty stiff competition.) Thus was born another tofu curry, with a little milk and half a baked sweet potato to thicken it, as well as carrot, leek, onion, and our own frozen peas. I turned some lavash…
Have you ever wondered why your homemade Indian food never quite achieves the rich, satisfying depth that even the cheapest restaurant delivers all the time? There are two reasons. The first is that if they’re any good, they grind their own spices fresh every day. The second is butter. Clarified, yes, but butter. And cream. In copious quantities. I discovered this shocking- SHOCKING- fact the other night when I absently glugged the last of some…
Again seeking efficiency, and short on time for dinner, I repurposed the chicken and soup from last night into a nice curry. Japanese yam and zucchini simmered in coconut milk, the soup, the pesto gravy, vindaloo paste, spices, and lemon juice. I added the chicken at the end to warm it through. We had pappadums and mango chutney for an appetizer since Milo was “very very hungry.” I had a 2006 Sancerre by Franck Millet…
One of the many pleasures of a garden is that it tells you what to eat; on any given day something is à point and must be picked immediately for best flavor. Yesterday, the thinned kale became a nutritious garnish in place of herbs. Today, it was mustard greens and sorrel that needed beating back. Combined with chick peas I put out to soak and some salmon that Christine bought it all became a pretty…
Chris and Sirkka had a long day coming back from his gig at the Montreal jazz festival, so I offered to make them dinner to make things easier. Christine is in the city for a couple of days, so I wasn’t able to shop, and thus made do with the garden, fridge, and pantry. Poppadums kept the kids happy while I made more summer rolls (from now on just assume I make them every time…