Not for the Faint of Heart

About two weeks ago, Steve and I made something called "Really Spicy Tofu and Peas in Coconut Milk" from the, of course, Mark Bittman cookbook. I've given this entry its title not only because of the spiciness of the dish, but because we made our own coconut milk, which was a dangerous endeavor itself.

Ingredients
3 large onions, quartered
One 28- or 35-oz. can tomatoes with their liquid
2 T neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 T garam masala or curry powder
1 1/2 - 2 lbs. firm to extra firm tofu, cut into cubes
1 1/2 c peas
1 1/2 c coconut milk
chopped fresh cilantro leaves for garnish
~5 cloves of garlic
1-3 dried chiles

Put the onions, tomatoes, garlic, and chiles into your food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

The more chiles you add, the spicier it will be, so be careful. We actually kept ours pretty tame, only adding two chiles. I think next time we'll add more.

Put the oil in a deep skillet or saucepan. When hot, add the tomato mixture, salt and pepper and spices. Cook until it becomes thick and sauce-like, about 10 minutes. Add the tofu and peas, cook for five minutes. Then comes the time to add the coconut milk. We made our own, which can be accomplished by blending about 2 cups of boiling water with shredded, dried, unsweetened coconut (we had some laying around so we thought we'd use it instead of buying the milk). But be careful! We're not sure what happened, but we think it may have been the very hot water - when we turned the blender on, a very powerful force made the top blow off (even though I was holding it down) and we had coconut shreds all over the kitchen.

After you wait for the water to cool down and you can blend it enough, you strain out the shreds and you have your coconut milk.

So after you add the coconut milk to the pan, you bring it to a boil, adjust seasoning, and serve. Voila! It was very yummy, reminiscent of some sort of Indian dish. We definitely recommend the recipe, but suggest that you just buy your coconut milk instead of trying to make it.

Varada's Palak Paneer

This is a delicious recipe from my good friend Varada. She makes lots of wonderful dishes with paneer, and this is one of my favorites.

Ingredients
1 package paneer* (about 200 grams)
2 bunches of palak, i.e. spinach (I just used 2 bags of spinach)
1 onion (I only had green onions and they worked well)
1 tsp ginger garlic paste (I used a tsp of both ginger powder and garlic paste as a substitute)
2 med-lg tomatoes
1/2 c milk
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp garam masala*
a few tablespoons of oil
salt to taste
a little lemon juice is also good to add to taste
*likely only available at an Indian grocery store
Oh, and you'll want some rice too. I served my palak paneer over jasmine rice and it was perfect!

Directions
Go ahead and start your rice first so it's ready when you finish the palak paneer.

1. Pick, wash and boil palak leaves in minimum water for about 8 minutes. (I used one of my larger pots and filled it will a few inches of water. Two bags of palak does sound like a lot but it cooks down quite quickly. Also, don't worry about putting too much water into the pot, you can always drain the palak in a colander and squeeze out any excees water with a spoon, see photo below.)

2. Grind boiled palak coarsely. (I used my food processor but a blender should work well too.)

3. Cut the paneer into cubes and deep fry until golden brown. (I heard about a different trick for cooking paneer that I prefer and always use when I make paneer now. Simply bring a pot of water to a boil, turn off heat, add paneer cubes, let sit for about 15 minutes, and drain. The paneer turns out soft and slightly chewy without all of the grease and mess of deep frying!)


4. Chop onion. Puree the tomatoes. (Again, I used a food processor for the tomatoes but a blender will work too.)

5. Add oil to a large saucepan and heat. Add the chopped onions.

6. When the onion has cooked some, add the ginger garlic paste and chili powder.

7. Next add the tomato puree and cook until oil leaves the pan.

8. Now add the garam masala powder and palak.
Mix well.

9. Add milk and let cook until it is of thick consistency.

10. Add salt to taste and perhaps a bit of lemon juice if you like. I played around with the spices a bit, adding more chili, garam masala, and garlic to taste. Add paneer just before serving and enjoy!