[Sca-cooks] OOP - curries

[Patrick Levesque]

>Would you post the original recipe and your adaptation, please?
>
>BTW, your adaptation can't be early period, red peppers are of New World
>origin and are introduced into Asia in the 16th Century.
>
>Bear


Oops, I didn't mean the vegetable, but sechuan pepper (sorry, I had a
translation issue between 'poivre' and 'piment' or 'poivron'). It's a bit
of a stretch, but given the considerable commercial excahnges between China
and India (starting 1st century B.C., introducing the pear and peach in
India, it seems) I decided to add it to the mix.

I had actually forgot that red pepper was also a vegetable (haven't cooked
anything with it in a while!).

The recipe is described by Kautilya (the date is uncertain, between 300 B.C
and 100. A.D., so it's a bit pre-period actually) and calls for:

20 palas of flesh
1 pala of salt
2 dharanas of pungent spices (10 dharanas = 1 pala)

1/2 prastha of curds
1/2 kuduba of oil (unspecified) (roughly 4 to 3 curd to oil ratio)

The mode of preparation is unspecified; it might also be a dressing applied
on meat cooked on a spit.

This entails a 5 to 1 salt to spices ratio, which I roughly followed. I'm
not that experienced yet that I want to cook with curds; I substituted sour
cream (someone also suggested drained cottage cheese). I didn't have a
scale, but I'd say I used 1/2 the quantity of spices suggested, which was
quite acceptable to occidental stomach (especially the stomach of my
pregnant lady, whom I have to consider now while cooking the spicy stuff)

I mixed sour cream and safflower oil until I had a smooth (although not too
liquid) consistency, and added the salt and spices (pepper, pepper, cumin,
turmeric, cardamom). Then I fried the chicken, which I had previously cut
in bit sized pieces. (This I must admit is mostly speculation; I do not
have an exact account of the way this meat was served. However, my goal for
this was to test my spice mix. I have a year to research the actual
presentation). I cooked the fried chicken in the curry, served with white
rice (that, however, is very period).

Tha main obstacles faced where due to a lack of knowledge of Indian
measure. Given that I started out a week and a half ago, I'm not stressing
too much about this yet... I do not know the exact relation between liquid
measures (prastha, kuduba) and weight measures. So my sauce might have been
too diluted. Or not enough. I'm inclined to think the former assumption is
closer to reality. The sechuan pepper and the presentations where two other
guess on my part.

This said, however, the actual taste was quite pleasing. Now, if they have
ginger roots and betel leaves at the grocery store, I might have a few more
anecdotes for you later tonight.

Petru



>
>
>>This said, I've tried my first adaptation of an early period recipe friday
>>
>>I did a moderately hot curry (not quite as much spices and salt as
>>specified in the text) involving black and red pepper, cumin, turmeric and
>>cardamom (which I finally managed to find) mixed with cream and safflower
>>oil; >
>>Petru
>
>
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