Fun At Ethnic Markets

Let's face it, America doesn't have much (if any) culture that hasn't been “borrowed” from somewhere else (even hot dogs and hamburgers came from Europe). But, living in America, we can expose ourselves to foods from dozens, even hundreds of other cultures – English, German, Spanish, Italian, Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Russian, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Lebanon, and Poland, just to name a few.

Wake up your tastebuds!! Visit an ethnic market near you and explore the foods and spices of another culture. So what if you can't read the labels! Look at the pictures on the cans and boxes, and if something looks interesting ask another store patron what it is. Usually folks are glad to share their national cuisine with other interested cooks.

Not all Latin or Indian or Asian dishes are “rip yer face off” hot. When you are the cook (instead of the diner at an ethnic restaurant, you can control the amount of heat that a dish has.

My latest ethnic market trip was to a little Indian market not too far from Lady Sally's. I've been to other Indian markets, of course, and attended India Fest in several cities, so I have a passing familiarity with the intricacies of “curry” and other dishes. We eat Indian fairly frequently from the Happy Healthiness Cafe, a great Indian fast food takeaway place here in Fort Myers.

Sally and I were having dinner guests who are vegetarians, and I had decided to make a Navratan Vegetable Korma. Navratan means “Nine Gems” and the dish has 9 major ingredients including paneer soft cheese and/or nuts. But since our guests don't “do” cheese I decide to use just almonds.

I stopped at the Indian market to see what they had vegetable curry spice blends. Sure, I could have gone to my spice cubboard and come up with something vaguely “Indian” flavored; but I wanted something special for our guests. In this one little store there are hundreds of different packets of spices, each good for preparing one or two meals, for specific applications – chicken, beef, vegetables etc. I chose the Shantm brand Spice For Vegetable Curry. With ingredients lists in four languages (including English) I was able to determine that this blend of spices would be tasty with the Nine Gems.

Navratan “Nine Gem” Korma

Nine major ingredients and Indian spices combine to make a delectable vegetarian dinner that isn't overly spicy. Serve it with spiced dal and jasmine rice. The nine “gems” can, and do, vary from cook to cook, household to household. Be creative!  Here's a combination we find very tasty:

8 oz Broccoli florettes

8 oz Cauliflower florettes

2 Red Bell Peppers, chopped large

3 Roma Tomatoes, chopped large

6 oz Baby Carrots

1 large Sweet Onion, chopped large

½ – ¾ cup Golden Raisins

2 Granny Smith Apples, chopped large

½ – ¾ cup whole Almonds

3 large cloves Garlic, sliced

½ tsp Black Cardamon seed

1 cup Almond Milk

½ packet Vegetable Curry spice blend

Start by putting the onions in a large (4-5 qt) pot on medium heat (350F), with a splash of oil. Add the cardamon, nuts and garlic. While you cut up other things let the onion mixture cook until the onion starts to turn translucent.

Add the other vegetables in turn, layering a bit of the spice blend between additions; and finish with the broccoli and cauliflower. Pour the soy milk and a couple cups of water over all. Cover and bring to a hard boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the veggies are tender-- 20-30 minutes. You want “some” gravy, but this is not a “curry soup” so you don't want things swimming in liquid.

Arhar Dal

Lentils are nutritious, but not often used by Western cooks, probably because they are pretty bland unless you “kick them up a notch” as Emeril used to say. Arhar Dal Masala can add a whole new world of flavor to your next (or maybe first) batch of lentils. In Hindi, “dal” means 'lentils', and “masala” means 'spice blend'. “Arhar” translates as 'pigeon peas'. Arhar Dal masala works as well with ordinary green/brown lentils as it does with pigeon peas. I like my pigeon peas Bajan style as we talked about previously.

Add ½ cup of dry green/brown lentils to 1½ cups of water and 1 Tbsp of Arhar Dal masala. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer 10-15 minutes until the lentils are tender but not mushy. Drain and serve like any other vegetable. Want more spice? Add some after the cooking and stir to combine.

Cumin Rice

Add a tablespoon of cracked cumin seeds (not powder) to your pot of jasmine rice as it cooks, for a special rice treat.

Mango-Banana Smoothie

For this 'out of season' dessert, I used frozen mango harvested from Lady Sally's tree last year. Fresh mango is even better!  Rather than my usual yogurt addition, for our vegetarian guests I used Almond Milk.

1 quart Mango pulp and juice

2 Bananas

1 cup Almond Milk

fresh grated Nutmeg to taste

Put everything in a blender and pulse to combine and puree. Pour into elegant glasses and dust the tops with additional nutmeg. A mint leaf or two for garnish also looks pretty here.  Freeze this stuff, and you have what in Hindi is called Kulfi.