A GOURMET WEEKEND IN AUCKLAND!

The "cube" is cool ay? You can actually move with your mouse as well. Just point drag and the cube moves where you want. If you want the music off you can click the speaker icon which should be on the lower left side. Way below, I have a slide show with more pictures, subtitles and music of my gourmet weekend.

What can I say about this weekend other than it was gluttinous and I was giddy from all that good food and drink!
I have never lived this large before. It was definitely a delight and not one you'd want your waistline to endure on a daily basis.
There were three cooking demonstrations and NOT cooking "classes".
In the latter one has helpers and a good view of the pan on the stove. In the former -you watch, talk while the demostrator multi-tasks quite a bit - answering questions, tending to the stove and cutting their own ingredients. Noticeable difference.

I told a few of my work mates that I was to experience a cooking demonstration of Lamb Rogan Josh. There are a few Indian workmates who balked at the sound of me learning to make Lamb Rogan Josh. I am Goan and in saying that, I've never really explored Lamb Rogan Josh. I love Indian food and still felt it important to learn the basics from different perspectives of India. My work mates were actually amused that I would go to the trouble of taking a class for Indian food. They wondered why I just don't buy the stuff in a can. Yes, why not? Our society is on the go and cans and fast food are the thing. Cooking fresh ingredients is considered so yesterday. Well, this weekend proved that yesterday can be today and it can be good for you.

Our first day was an instruction by SADHANA NATALI-KAHN.
Her signature dish was Lamb Rogan Josh with rice. Sadhana specializes in freshly ground Indian spices. Her cumin seeds are roasted and then ground. This process releases an intense nutty, peppery flavor. In fact, Cumin's distinctive flavour and strong, warm aroma is due to its essential oil content. Its main constituent is cuminaldehyde (4-isopropylbenzaldehyde).
Sadhana's business is "SPICE WISE" and through this business and cooking classes, she tries to get people to cook fresh using fresh ingredients and spices. The flavors are much more real.


To accompany our Rogan Josh, Sadhana prepared Raita which is a yoghurt and cucumber dip.
The recipe for Raita is very easy with just mixing of ingredients (no cooking):

• 1 cup yoghurt
• 1/2 small cucumber
• 1/2 tsp salt to taste
• 1 tbsp fresh corianer - finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh mint - finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp freshly crushed garlic

In a bowl, mix all the ingredient s except the cucumber. Grate the cucumber, add a little salt to it, and squeeze out any excess juice. Add the cucumber pulp ot the yoghurt mixture and serve.

When traditional Indian food is super hot, it is very good to have a milk-based substance around to calm the heat. Raita is just that. Again fresh roasted spice was used.

Tamarind chutney required a little bit of cooking. Palm sugar is usually purchased cheaply at a local Asian store - or if your not comfortable visiting such shops, then pop into a specialty gourmet grocery like Draeger's in San Mateo, CA or NOSH in Auckland, NZ. They are more than likely to have it...at twice the price. When I saw this tamarind chutney being prepared I felt the extreme urge to add chili. I will not apologize for this. If I were to make this, I would add a teaspoon or two of my harissa chili:

• 2 tbsp tamarind
• 2 tbsp jaggery (palm sugar) or brown sugar
• 2 tbsp white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250ml water
• 12 dates

In a saucepan add all the ingredients and boil. turn heat down to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes or until the mixture is soft. Let the mixture cool down a little before placing a blender remembering to take the seeds out of the tamarind if you have used a tamarind pulp "block".

For appetizers, Sadhana provided us with a bowl of Raita, Tamarind chutney and deep fried Papads. The latter can be microwaved for about 30 seconds, rather than deep fried. Deep frying let's just say is way more delectable. We ate this as she began to cook her Rogan Josh.

Sadhana had prepared all the necessary items for her Rogan Josh.
She used ghee, which is clarified butter. Ghee is also a common ingredient in most Indian cooking. The ghee was heated to high, thereafter whole cardamom pods, cloves and cinnamon were added. These ingredients are sauteed whole because they expectorate more flavor into the oil. The onions , garlic & ginger were subsequently added and sauteed until golden brown. If things stick, add a small bit of water. The next ingredient, yoghurt, took me a little by surprise. Goanese cooking seldom involves yoghurt so I had never really learned how to cook with this. I watched how Sadhana removed the pot from the stove and slowly added the yoghurt to the pan - spoon full after spoonful and stirring each time. This was done to prevent the curdling of the yoghurt. It has proteins and in saying this, protein denatures when exposed to high a heat or acid conditions, it will lump up (curdle) and appear as "bits".

• 500 g good quality lamb pieces
• 3 green cardamon pods
• 3 cloves
• 2 cinnamon stickes
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ginger paste
• 2 tsp garlic paste
• 1 large onion - finely diced
• 2 tbsp natural unsweetened yoghurt
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp garam masala

In a saucepan, heat oil or ghee over medium heat . Onions were browning in vegetable oil then after 3 minutes ginger and garlic were added along with the cumin seeds, cassia, cloves and cardamom and curry leaves. These ingredients are put in whole because they expectorate their flavor as they are fried. The room smelled wonderful! and prepared it in her pot. Sandhana's chili was red chili powder and it wasn't too spicy. Since there were more caucasians in our group of 8, she went light on the chili. It may be wise to add a 1/4 cup of hot water to stop spices from sticking and burning. Remove the pan from the stove and gradually inroduce the yoghurt o the pan, stirring as you place each spoonful in. Follow this with tomato paste. A wondrful orange color should develop. You can now put in the diced lamb and stir until all the meat is coated in the sauce. Add salt, garam masala and 1/2 the fresh coriander leaves and reduce the temperature to a simmer. Cook on a slow heat for a 1 hour or until the lamb is tender. When cooked, garnish the dish with the rest of the fresh coriander.

Then there was Sabzi Pilau (Rice with spices & vegetables). This was a lovely accompaniement to our Lamb RJ. You can certainly eat pulao or plain white rice with this as well. Basmati is the preferred type of rice grain to cook.

Next on the cooking demonstration was Dr. Hanna Frederic. She is a food chemist or biochemist. Steve and I met her at Nosh. She has a wonderful Hungarian presence about her. She is more known for her hand made chocolates which she sells at NOSH.
The chocolate company is M'amor . Today, Hanna was going to show us how to prepare Hungarian Goulash. Each Hungarian woman has he own way of making it and they do not like to give up their secret ingredient. Not Hanna; throughout this cooking demonstration, she was animated and detailed. On observation, Goulash seemed very simple - almost like a stew. The Hungarian paprika was the key she said - it had to be sweet Hungarian paprika and there is a choice to use "hot Hungarian paprika". The funny thing though was that the "hot paprika" was not hot enough so Hanna substituted good old Asian chili garlic sauce. Another thing I turned my nose at was the fact that "Vegeta" was used in this. I felt I was being cheated. Why does this thing make everything taste good? The Goulash recipe also involved garlic and onions which traditionally makes anything tasty. These get sauteed first then all the rest of the ingredients put in later. Similar to the Lamb Rogan Josh process:
Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 TBSP salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds
• 600g beef shoulder, fat trimmed, cut into 2 cm cubes
• 1 tsp ground caraway seeds
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika
• 1 carrot, peeled, chopped
• 1 parsnip, peeled, chopped
• 1-2 green capsicums, sliced
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• 1 tsp Vegeta
• 1 tsp “Piros Arany” cream
• 2 tsp Chinese garlic chilli pepper
• 500g potatoes, peeled, diced
• water
• 1 cup Hungarian pinched noodles (“Csipetke”) see recipe below

Preparation Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onion and salt and sauté until onion begins to soften, about 8 minutes. Add beef and sauté on high until meat is brown on all sides, about 10 minutes, stirring time to time. Turn heat to medium, add caraway seeds, garlic, paprika, carrots, capsicums, parsnips and sauté stirring for 2-3 minutes. Add as much water as covers the stew. Add tomatoes, Vegeta, Piros Arany, chilli pepper. Bring to boil, scraping up browned bits at bottom of pot. Reduce heat to low; simmer until meat is just tender, about 40 minutes. Add 1/3 more cold water and stir potato into the stew. Simmer until potatoes and meat are tender, about 20 minutes. Add Csipetke noodles, and simmer the soup for 5 minutes more. Season soup to taste with salt and more hot pepper. Ladle soup into 6 bowls. Serve them very hot. Soup can be refrigerated, even freeze.

Piros Arany is a paprika type paste. If you really must know how it tastes - here is a wonderful youtube demo of some kid tasting it:


Csipetke is a tiny boiled Hungarian pasta. It consists of white flour, 1 egg salt. It becomes a hard dough. Roll it out and pinch out small pieces. Almost like bugar-like pieces. Sorry, this term is used because Hanna's sons were employed to help her make this one day and that was their term for it. Anyway - once these pieces are made they get tossed into the Goulash.
Voila:

The remaining demonstration was chocolate making which had no ingredients but the quality in the making of this was exceptional. My camera's batteries died and I was at a loss. For now, enjoy!