HUNGRY GERALD

Yes, HG/BSK can and do prepare excellent Indian food at home. HG refers to Indian food, not Native American food. Despite being surrounded by Native American pueblos, the only Native American food HG has tasted is Fry Bread. Not healthy and not tasty. BSK bases home style Indian cooking on the very good recipes from the cookbooks authored by Vikram Vij and his wife, Meeru Dhalwala. They have a number of super Indian fusion restaurants in Vancouver, B.C. and suburbs. HG/BSK delighted in the restaurants during HG/BSK’s long residence in Vancouver. The special spices needed for Indian cooking can be found at Talin, the international food store in Santa Fe. BSK gets the vegetables for Asian cooking at Whole Foods. Happily, Whole Foods also carries very good frozen Naan, the delectable Indian bread. Last night, BSK prepared a vegetarian Indian dinner (BSK gives the cookbook recipes a special, creative tweak). The dishes were Cauliflower “steaks” in a spicy, but not tongue numbing, curry; Eggplant and green onions in a tomato based curry spiced with turmeric, Mexican chile powder and cayenne. BSK gilded the Naan with olive oil and baked slices in the oven. HG surprised BSK with a bowl of Madras Lentils and a bowl of Paneer Makhani (Paneer cheese in a creamy sauce). No, HG did not cook these treats. Just popped some packages of Tasty Bite Indian Cuisine in boiling water and let them heat for seven minutes. Totally delicious. Totally healthy. Totally natural. No preservatives, MSG, chemicals, coloring. And the Tasty Bite company pledges that 80% of the energy used to make their dishes comes from renewable sources. The Tasty Bite packages HG bought at a local supermarket cost $3.79 each. A package of the lentils and the paneer would make a tasty quick dinner for two accompanied by a bowl of yogurt and sliced radishes plus rice (or Naan).

HG prepared the ultimate comfort food — congee — upon the arrival in New Mexico of Beautiful Granddaughter Sofia. A note to the uninitiated: Congee — also known as “jook” — is Chinese rice porridge, a warming hug of a dish. HG and BSK were converted to congee during their long residence in Vancouver. A few hundred yards from their loft was Congee Noodle House where scores of Asians ate — you guessed it — congee and noodles. Some of the Asian customers added black “hundred year” eggs to their congee. Others accompanied it with fried Chinese crullers. HG and BSK usually added chopped oysters, scallops, prawns or mushrooms to their steaming bowls. When making congee at home, HG uses Ottogi Vegetable Rice Porridge Mix (available online from Hmart). Very savory, much simpler and less time consuming than making congee from scratch. For the Welcome Dinner, HG gave the recipe a twist: In place of plain water, HG substituted good chicken broth (HG likes Trader Joe’s Free Range broth) and shitake infused water (the dried shitakes were sourced from Sante Fe’s Talin International Food Market). Chopped mushrooms were added to the congee and –a few minutes before serving — a pound of shucked oysters and their juices were plunked into the pot. The servings got a topping of chopped scallions. A happy and soothing feast.