Milk Calendar Mondays: Super-Fast Chicken and Vegetable Curry

Okay...so I'm a little early with this month's Milk Calendar Monday adventure. I suppose I could have waited until next week, or the week after. But while sometimes these recipes are the gustatory equivalent of forcing yourself to clean out a meat-filled freezer that's been accidentally unplugged during the hottest weekend of the year, the subsequent post can be like cup of sweet, steaming hot mint tea that not only masks the taste of the sorry excuse for "adventurous" but it makes your tummy feel good.

And this blog is pretty much about feel-good tummies.

As Elizabeth noted during May's post, June's offering is the Super-fast chicken and vegetable curry. She wasn't the only one afraid to look at the recipe.

I really tried to go into this month's recipe with an open mind and receptive tastebuds. But the truth is My Dear Little Mummy is the best-ever South Indian cook. Period. She makes the very yummiest curries--hot, mild, swathed in gravy, thickened juiced clinging to each and every piece of meat--she has never, ever, ever made a bad curry (spaghetti, muffins, and the occasional soup can be different stories). Yes, I do make my own curries--while not quite as good a Mummy's, my offerings do have their fans.

As expected, the dairy people provided a very, very, simple "curry." You aren't making your own masala, nor are you really layering any flavours. Such exercises take time, and I suppose if one of your objectives is to quickly pull together a meal (and when I say quickly, I do mean a combined prep and cooking time of less than 30 minutes), such tasty things are sacrificed. Also, Indian food carries the unfortunate stigma of being complicated with long ingredients lists. For the novice, uncertain, or lazy amongst us, spying half a dozen spices could be off-putting.

For me, the off-putting parts were *surprise* the half-litre of milk and the cornstarch. I know why the milk is there (the half-cup of yoghurt probably wouldn't be enough to warrant its calendar placement), but, again, I think it's a waste of good milk. I know the cornstarch is there to mimic the effects of long-cooking--to produce a clingy gravy--but the starch combined with the milk made is seem rather nursery-food like to me.

And yes, I went the "adventurous" route (sans coriander leaf--totally forgot to pick some up, and as it wasn't in the main recipe, I didn't feel like nipping out to the shop) and used fresh ginger and chillies. The other changes I made were using hot curry powder, instead of mild (I don't have any mild right now and didn't feel like making some) and toasted almonds instead of peanuts..and I used more nuts than called for.
I served it to a friend (one who is not Indian). He thought it acceptable in a non-curry-like way. To him it was perhaps a soup; it could be a stew. He admitted that if he went to a restaurant and ordered a curry and received what this recipe produced, he'd probably feel misled.

Me...I thought it had as much bearing to curry as Chef Alphadoodlio's canned kiddie-friendly pasgetti does to anything Mama Cream Puff makes for our favourite Cream Puff.

And again, I have no idea what I did wrong, but this recipe made so much I could have easily filled my sink basin with the "curry." In fact, I swear it kept reproducing in my wok...regardless of how much of the stuff I dished out, the quantity never seemed to change. I even checked underneath the wok to see if there was some sort of tube system hooked up to it to automatically refill my vessel with the stuff. Nope...no tube system...just a lot of "curry."

We both agreed that something was missing--it was definitely lacking in something. I began listing the ways I would fix this recipe, and try and keep it within the easy, commonly pantrifed and thoroughly dairied mandate the recipes seem to follow. Get rid of the half-litre of milk and the corn starch (but keep the yoghurt). Tweak the spicing with some black mustard and fenugreek...maybe some others. Add fried onions along with an acid--lemon or lime juice.

But then I realised my version might actually take some effort...which would make it palatable...and perhaps people would like it...which doesn't seem in keeping with several of the recipes I've tried thus far...

Meh.

cheers!
jasmine

Milk Calendar Mondays: Faster-than-Take-Out Chicken and Veggie Chow Mein

Hmmm...this month's Milk Calendar recipe, "Faster-than-Take-Out Chicken and Veggie Chow Mein," seems to have unleashed my not-so inner snarkiness.

Let's start with the title.

Could it be any longer?

Well, yes it could be.

It could be something like "Here's another excuse to use some perfectly good milk in a recipe which would be better off without it, but we can't admit it because this is the Milk Calendar, and we need to encourage people to cook with milk, so stirfries are fast and easy so we'll get people to use milk in their stirfries and cook at home instead of getting a greasy takeaway which actually tastes better but again, we can't admit to that either."

Like most marketing ploys, the title was more spin than fact. It took me longer than the indicated 20 minutes (prep and cooking) to get the meal on a plate. Granted, I'm not the speediest slicer or shrimp peeler and "deveiner," but I don' think I'm *that* slow.

"Wait a minute. Shrimp? I thought that was funny looking chicken." I hear you think (warning: I've gone back to reading your minds).

Yes, you are correct. That is shrimp.

Which brings me to snarkiness fodder number two:

I decided to go with the "adventurous" suggestions of using shrimp instead of chicken, and add hoisin sauce, soy sauce and Chinese cabbage to the wok.

Woo. That's really adventurous, isn't it? I mean, if I were allergic to shrimp or Chinese leaf, I suppose it would be, but I'm not allergic to those things.

The thing is...I don't know anyone who's never made a stir-fry...which is what this really is. I've always treated such edible beasties as kitchen sink suppers: slice up whatever's lying around, toss them into a hot wok with onions, garlic and ginger, stir it about and add spices and sauces before tipping onto some steaming noodles et voila! Stir-fry.

But I guess, technically, this isn't a regular stirfry. It's a chow mein. According to a non-Chinese friend it means slice up whatever's lying around, toss them into a hot wok with onions, garlic and ginger, stir it about and add spices and sauces before tipping onto some steaming noodles et voila! Chow mein.

The recipe itself wasn't too bad, and unless you're feeding a professional hockey player, the recipe provides ample portioning for six...or gargantuan portioning for the recommend four people.

Again, I didn't see the point of the milk in the saucing. I'm convinced it contributed to an odd nursery food-like smell: sort of sickly sweet and reminiscent of the smell emanating from children who are fed far too many processed foods by parents who either don't know how to properly feed their wee ones or are too self-obsessed to spend more than the minimum amount of time in the kitchen, with anything that vaguely resembled food untouched by food scientists and marketers. You know the smell.

So...the verdict? It's not a bad recipe (well, it's not a truly great one--but it's not in the running for the worst). If I were to categorise it, it would fall into the "with a few tweaks it could be more palatable" category. But then, it's a food that doesn't really need a recipe...does it?


cheers!
jasmine

Milk Calendar Mondays: Cinnamon Crunch Raspberry Muffins

For those of you who flipped your Milk Calendar to April and wondered about my adventure with Salmon and Rice Primavera, well, you'll just have to keep on wondering. Or you can do the recipe and assume that whatever you thought of it will be exactly my reaction. I didn't attempt the recipe because of a salmon allergy (how wrong is that?).

So this month's Milk Calendar Monday recipe let me dive into one of the extra eight recipes. I really wonder why they separate these out from the others. I mean, yes, it's always good to give your customers more than they asked for (well, more in a good way... higher prices, unending telephone trees, days of headaches to get a simple thing done are NOT examples of this), but these...um...hidden...recipes always look more interesting and tasty than the monthly spotlights. I'd have been happier if the Easy Jambalaya recipe (yes, I do drone on about that one) was hidden on one the back pages and the recipe I chose instead was on a calendar page.

I must admit, after reading Brilynn's comment about the carrot cake I was more than a little trepedatious about trying the extra recipes. I mean, were these the ones that (in some wise person's mind) weren't good enough to be the monthly pin-up: you know, passively attractive with a good personality? Knowing I had to pick something, I went with the Cinnamon Crunch Raspberry Muffins.

This is a muffin that uses whole wheat flour, which in my mind is a travesty of an inclusion in muffin or cake recipes. I simply don't want those nubbly little bits in my crumb, thank you very much. I want more of a cakey crumb, with texture coming from fruits, nuts or some sort of topping...not from the flour itself.

Luckily for me (and the calendar and anyone reading this) I can carve off that part of my brain that would normally taint my final opinion, stick it into the freezer and just evaluate something on its merits as-is.

Which is a good thing for this recipe.

I liked this muffin. I liked the crumb, really liked the lemony-raspberry flavour and thought the crunchy topping's texture was pretty bang-on. The only thing I didn't really care for was the lemon juice in the crunchy topping--there's more than enough lemon in the cake so there's no need to use it on top. I think I know why it's mixed with the oats and sugar, but I'd rather use water (okay, I'd rather use butter, but this is supposed to be "healthier" than that).

Why did I like this, even thought I don't like wheatie nubblies in my cakes? I think it's because the oats disguised the nubblies and texturally tricked my tongue into liking the muffin. Hey, that's perfectly okay...I'm one for feeding people unfavourite food and then rejoicing when they tell me they like it before they find out it was aubergine or it contained fish sauce (I don't let them rescind their yums when they find out it's a food they don't like).

So, in my humble opinion, we've got a good recipe with this one. So much so that I'm seriously considering changing some of my favourite muffin recipes to include whole wheat and the crunchy topping....

cheers!
jasmine

Milk Calendar Mondays: One-Pot Tomato Parmesan Rotini

Workasaurus has been wreaking havoc overtime, travelling up and down the 401, visiting Ivonne and me, crashing on our chesterfields and begging rides to and from our offices.

I don't know about our Dear Little Puff of Cream , but whenever the Worky shows up over here, it seems as if its rather presumptuous cousin, Deadlineadactyl also arrives in tow, shrieking out calendaric countdowns, sometimes skipping a date or three. Yeah, they are both favourites right now, and the prime reasons for me neglecting all my bloggy friends.

To say the least, right now bulk cooking and reheating home-made frozen goodies is how I'm keeping myself going...well, that and lots of coffee...lots of Tim Horton coffee (and before the Canadians ask, I've only one ONE coffee out of about 20-30 cups...meh).

Anyway, this weekend I decided to venture into the March Milk Calendar recipe for One-Pot Tomato Parmesan Rotini. Given how...um...not good the February travesty was, I was apprehensive as to whether I could stomach this one.

It's easy and quick (I made up about five-ish servings in about 30 minutes). Yes, I'd like it to be zippier--substitute the parm with asiago, perhaps tinned tomatoes with roasted tomatoes as well, but on the whole, this milk-cooked pasta with chunks of broccoli isn't too bad--better than cafeteria food. I think if I make it again, I'd really want to put in some good chunks of bacon...pretty much everything is improved with bacon.


cheers!
jasmine

Milk Calendar Mondays: Easy Jambalaya

Elizabeth of Blog From Our Kitchen noted in January's MCM post

"...I must say that I do get a kick out of looking at the "for the adventurous" section at the bottom of the recipe. I'm amazed at what is sometimes considered to be 'adventurous.'"

Sometimes recipe writers try too hard. Sure, their intentions may be innocuous--helpful, even--but every once in a while even the best-laid plans of mince and mandoline may be best left in that dark place where recipes never are never committed to paper (or pixels).

I fully understand many Canadians do not live in urban centres and may not have easy access to the same ingredients as those who live in larger cities. Heck, I live in one of our larger cities and I have trouble reliably finding chipotles in adobo sauce in our mainstream grocers. I also know that because not everyone was raised with Asian, Central American or even Mediterranean foods (among others), balancing culinary timidity with an honest curiosity of different flavours can be daunting.

Call them tamed, simplified or brutishly dumbed down, creating a non-offensive and easy version of a famed, complex and flavourful dish isn't an easy job. Add to that a pre-requisite ingredient normally absent in many other versions, and you risk a final product that's, at best, lacking. Yes, you could help someone out of their comfort zone and give them the courage to try different flavours, cuisines and cooking techniques, but sometimes you could simply be passing on misinformation.

Am I being a food snob? I don't think so.

Sigh...

Entitled "Easy Jambalaya" I was torn between two reactions: the lazy-I-want-it-now part of me was excited at the prospect of a jambalaya that didn't take hours to make...combined with...oh gawd, what did they leave out to make it appealing to the masses. Yes, it's easy and designed so anyone with access with the most basic kitchen can make this. But it's also boring and unsatisfying.

I made one substitution -- thought the can of crushed tomatoes was a can of stewed tomatoes...and then when I realised I had the correct quantity of tomato sauce, I used that instead of opening up a new tin...if anything, my substitution added more flavour to the dish.

As written, its flavours are dull and lifeless. There's no depth of flavour attained from browned chicken, quantities of smoked or andouille sausage. I'm used to sautéeing onions, peppers and celery until they've released their basic goodness. I'm also used to garlic and bay leaves. Yup...no garlic in this recipe--sacrificed in the name of the hoi polloi? Probably. Don't know why the versatile bay leaf was omitted.

I tasted it after it was "done." It wasn't. I had to doctor it--heavily to bring it to the barely passable zone. If I had some garlic powder I'd have tipped some in, but I did add some chicken stock, along with a plethora of spices and a good dollop of hot sauce. And that's why my photo looks so much different than what's in the calendar.

A friend was over to try it. As we ate we tried to figure out why it wasn't working for us. We both agreed that the milk should have been left out and a rich chicken stock would have been better. I prefer my jambalaya with sausage, chicken and shrimp. He wasn't specific with the type of meat, just the quantity...it needed a lot more meat--and I'm in full agreement. We both thought it needed garlic and more seasoning.

The "adventurous" recommendation of adding shrimp would not help this dish in the slightest.

cheers!
jasmine

Milk Calendar Mondays: Roast Beef Dinner Salad

Found tucked amidst sales flyers and the colour comics, November's new Milk Calendar's arrival is a an anticipated bit of Canadiana, linking together potentially millions of families across the country. Think I'm kidding? More than 2 million were distributed in Saturday newspapers.

I remember being little, leafing through its pages from --the full-colour pictures represented "Canadian" food for me--not what I got a lot of as a youngster. My Dear Little Mummy (okay, she was My Dear Big Mummy then) rarely cooked from it. Apart from the occasional muffin or cake, the recipes went largely untried in our household.

So there it dangled on a bare nail, part art, part time keeper and reminder of bills to be paid and those already paid. Each month had a different meal or treat--everything from milkshakes and smoothies to pastas and, of course cakes and other sweets. Each beautifully photographed to entice the home cook to cook with milk and its kindred foods. At the end of the year, the calendar came down and was stored in the basement, with the other calendars.

Ashamedly, I continued Mummy's tradition of not cooking from it. Yes, I looked forward to receiving the calendar, flipping through the pages and salivating at some of the photos and recipes, but it never really crossed my mind to try the recipes. Inexplicable, really, given I'm pretty much willing to try any kitchen treat at least once.

When this year's calendar arrived, I decided to change that. Not because this year's recipes seem better than last (they don't), or because I've recently developed a hankering for dairy (that's been an ongoing craving ever since I was little, much to Mum's chagrin). I don't know what it was, but I decided this year the calendar to use as more than a record keeper of my household goings ons. So once a month...probably on a Monday, I'll post that month's recipe.

January's recipe for Roast Beef Dinner Salad is quick, satisfying, and different from the usual leftover meal. It's ludicrously simple: lettuce leaves strewn with waves of roast beef, crumbles of tangy old cheddar, juicy little tomatoes, crunchy croutons and fingers of cooked green beans, dressed in a creamy horseradish and thyme vinaigrette.

I'll probably come back to this, but change it up a bit--add sauteed mushrooms and onions and switch the horseradish and cheddar for blue cheese.

Simple, delicious and easily adaptable, this is definitely worth a try.

cheers!
jasmine

"2008 Milk Calendar"