Spicing Up somerville kitchen

somerville kitchen went exclusively Lebanese for a month now. Time to bring back more exotic spices.

And what's a better way to do it than with one of my favourite cookbooks - Rice, Spice and all Things Nice by Reza Mahammad.

I have enjoyed it before (read the story at Indian Cooking Extravaganza). So tonight's menu included:

Galouti Kebabs (page 30)
Aloo Panchporan (page 111)
Cucumber and beansprout salad (page 128)

The kebabs were the most interesting dish to cook. 

You start with making a paste that you spread over the flattened minced lamb and marinate that way for few hours.

The paste includes cloves, cardamom, mace, cumin, cinnamon, star anise, ginger, garlic, onions mint leaves, and coriander.

It also includes fresh pineapple juice (yes, there is a reason for that pineapple in the picture beyond artistic photography) and few strands of saffron. Just imagine the flavour of the meat now.

 

The potatoes were spiced up with cumin and turmeric, nothing blogworthy.

But the salad sure had interesting spices - all you see in this picture went into the salad dressing. And it tasted as nice as it looked.

It was a mini Indian cooking extravaganza this time, but I have a feeling I'd be back to this book sometime soon.