Bagged! Reflections on Indian Food
Sometimes we simply don’t feel like cooking yet still crave something fast and tasty: something more complex than frozen pizza and on the table in half the time it would take to order and get delivery from a local ethnic restaurant. You get the mission: flavour, minimal prep/cooking, fast.
That situation arose this week after a long day in Toronto. I was glad I had a couple of fresh Sobeys “Blue Goose” (Certified Humane®) chicken breasts in the fridge, and usually have a variety of jarred or packaged sauces on hand for just such an eventuality.
I had recently picked up an Olivieri Butter Chicken “Fresh Sauce,” which, according to the packaging is “made with a blend of authentic Indian spices, tomatoes and cream… with no artificial preservatives, colours or flavours.” I also had two packages of vegetable curry in the freezer.
The latter were from superstar chef and cookbook author Vikram Vij and obtained from Goodness Me, one
of the outlets cross-Canada carrying his line of 15 frozen entrees. (Vij’s regularly updates the “Where to Buy” section of their website.) I had a package the coconut and ginger green beans and Punjabi daal, both of which cost $6.99 and include only ingredients I recognize. For example the latter contained “Water, Urad lentils, kidney bean, onion, garlic, tomato, jalapeno pepper, ginger, canola oil, salt, cumin, coriander, turmeric, black cardamom, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg.” Good stuff!
Only the vegetable curries are currently available in Ontario. Allison Hepworth, Sales & Marketing Manager at Vij’s, told me they are going through a taxing federal certification of their new production facility in Surrey BC. Once through the red tape, this will allow them to move their meat products out of province. Sadly, that may take a year or more…
While I’ve not had the pleasure of visiting Vij’s namesake Vancouver restaurant or his other outlets, I did recently get to sample his food at an “Indian Feast” held at Niagara College’s Benchmark restaurant. The five courses were complex with individual flavours revealing themselves as we ate. A wondrous thick soup of local vegetables and mustard was a standout for me, hearty and warming on several levels.
The true revelation was the Chef himself. He’s irreverent (even though he is a certified sommelier, he was riffing on the pretensions of matching wines and beers with curries), and wildly funny. At one stage he was loudly encouraging an elegant lady diner to pick up the, admittedly messy, coconut curry masala spot prawns with her fingers by telling her "You don't make love with a knife and fork!"
He is equally passionate about his food (“My cooking is who I am on a plate” he said), and also Canada as a country. He’s proud of what he and his family have accomplished and I was astonished to learn he has gone from a one-man shop to an enterprise employing 80 Punjabi-origin women just to grind and roast his spices. (He generously dedicated the evening to them, and you could tell he did so with pride and true gratitude.)
I was fascinated by his explanation of the importance of the order in which ingredients were to be added when preparing an Indian dish. “Whole spices first, then ground. Salt last… the pot is your palette & spices your colours. You don't add them all at once," he said in response to my question about how to layer spices. He also explained that he varied the salt levels for each course based on what he was serving, ensuring that the diner’s palate was not overloaded early on in the proceedings.
With the Hindu festival of Diwali upon us in November you might be inspired by taking an Indian food cooking class. I’ve had the pleasure of cooking a couple of times each with both Agnelo Gomes, owner of Kitchen Impressions a neat and well-stocked kitchen store located in Waterdown, and Geeta Maini, Burlington-based owner of “An Affair with Indian Cooking.” I can recommend both as terrific teachers.
Though he no longer holds classes at his store, the soft-spoken, knowledgeable and gentle Gomes will still come to your house to help you learn to produce standards like butter chicken, but also delicious and spicy Goan dishes which are often coconut-based and frequently feature seafood.
Maini is the author of a delightful and personal cookbook, and her Tamarind and Coriander Shrimp is one of my favourite things to cook (and eat)! She has an outgoing personality and certainly knows her bhajis from her biryanis. She holds classes in her home but will also travel to yours, or your business for corporate team-building events.
The base of her cooking is Northern Indian, but “having been raised in Kenya it was influenced by people from all regions of the country,” she told me. Because of popular demand Geeta (aka the Masala Queen) has developed a line of spices and gift packages for those who take her classes. I have her family recipe-based Chai and Tandoori Masalas in my spice rack and, free of food additives and colorings, they live up to their promise.
Back at home I quickly cut up and sautéed the chicken, added the butter chicken sauce, and gently boiled the two bagged veggie curries. Dinner was on the table in twenty minutes. Though it was tasty and hearty, the flavours and spice layers were not anywhere near as bright and defined as “made from scratch.” Frankly the presentation could also have been much-improved with a sprinkle of fresh coriander, a couple of pieces of store-bought naan and a bit of home-made raita.
But all-in-all it did the trick and was quick. I suppose I could say even though I was bagged, I had it in the bag.
Note: As always, I will continue to disclose any freebies received. In this instance all the products referred to above were purchased as part of my regular shopping, and I paid for my meal at Benchmark.
Sometimes we simply don’t feel like cooking yet still crave something fast and tasty: something more complex than frozen pizza and on the table in half the time it would take to order and get delivery from a local ethnic restaurant. You get the mission: flavour, minimal prep/cooking, fast.
That situation arose this week after a long day in Toronto. I was glad I had a couple of fresh Sobeys “Blue Goose” (Certified Humane®) chicken breasts in the fridge, and usually have a variety of jarred or packaged sauces on hand for just such an eventuality.
I had recently picked up an Olivieri Butter Chicken “Fresh Sauce,” which, according to the packaging is “made with a blend of authentic Indian spices, tomatoes and cream… with no artificial preservatives, colours or flavours.” I also had two packages of vegetable curry in the freezer.
The latter were from superstar chef and cookbook author Vikram Vij and obtained from Goodness Me, one
of the outlets cross-Canada carrying his line of 15 frozen entrees. (Vij’s regularly updates the “Where to Buy” section of their website.) I had a package the coconut and ginger green beans and Punjabi daal, both of which cost $6.99 and include only ingredients I recognize. For example the latter contained “Water, Urad lentils, kidney bean, onion, garlic, tomato, jalapeno pepper, ginger, canola oil, salt, cumin, coriander, turmeric, black cardamom, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg.” Good stuff!
Only the vegetable curries are currently available in Ontario. Allison Hepworth, Sales & Marketing Manager at Vij’s, told me they are going through a taxing federal certification of their new production facility in Surrey BC. Once through the red tape, this will allow them to move their meat products out of province. Sadly, that may take a year or more…
While I’ve not had the pleasure of visiting Vij’s namesake Vancouver restaurant or his other outlets, I did recently get to sample his food at an “Indian Feast” held at Niagara College’s Benchmark restaurant. The five courses were complex with individual flavours revealing themselves as we ate. A wondrous thick soup of local vegetables and mustard was a standout for me, hearty and warming on several levels.
The true revelation was the Chef himself. He’s irreverent (even though he is a certified sommelier, he was riffing on the pretensions of matching wines and beers with curries), and wildly funny. At one stage he was loudly encouraging an elegant lady diner to pick up the, admittedly messy, coconut curry masala spot prawns with her fingers by telling her "You don't make love with a knife and fork!"
He is equally passionate about his food (“My cooking is who I am on a plate” he said), and also Canada as a country. He’s proud of what he and his family have accomplished and I was astonished to learn he has gone from a one-man shop to an enterprise employing 80 Punjabi-origin women just to grind and roast his spices. (He generously dedicated the evening to them, and you could tell he did so with pride and true gratitude.)
I was fascinated by his explanation of the importance of the order in which ingredients were to be added when preparing an Indian dish. “Whole spices first, then ground. Salt last… the pot is your palette & spices your colours. You don't add them all at once," he said in response to my question about how to layer spices. He also explained that he varied the salt levels for each course based on what he was serving, ensuring that the diner’s palate was not overloaded early on in the proceedings.
With the Hindu festival of Diwali upon us in November you might be inspired by taking an Indian food cooking class. I’ve had the pleasure of cooking a couple of times each with both Agnelo Gomes, owner of Kitchen Impressions a neat and well-stocked kitchen store located in Waterdown, and Geeta Maini, Burlington-based owner of “An Affair with Indian Cooking.” I can recommend both as terrific teachers.
Though he no longer holds classes at his store, the soft-spoken, knowledgeable and gentle Gomes will still come to your house to help you learn to produce standards like butter chicken, but also delicious and spicy Goan dishes which are often coconut-based and frequently feature seafood.
Maini is the author of a delightful and personal cookbook, and her Tamarind and Coriander Shrimp is one of my favourite things to cook (and eat)! She has an outgoing personality and certainly knows her bhajis from her biryanis. She holds classes in her home but will also travel to yours, or your business for corporate team-building events.
The base of her cooking is Northern Indian, but “having been raised in Kenya it was influenced by people from all regions of the country,” she told me. Because of popular demand Geeta (aka the Masala Queen) has developed a line of spices and gift packages for those who take her classes. I have her family recipe-based Chai and Tandoori Masalas in my spice rack and, free of food additives and colorings, they live up to their promise.
Back at home I quickly cut up and sautéed the chicken, added the butter chicken sauce, and gently boiled the two bagged veggie curries. Dinner was on the table in twenty minutes. Though it was tasty and hearty, the flavours and spice layers were not anywhere near as bright and defined as “made from scratch.” Frankly the presentation could also have been much-improved with a sprinkle of fresh coriander, a couple of pieces of store-bought naan and a bit of home-made raita.
But all-in-all it did the trick and was quick. I suppose I could say even though I was bagged, I had it in the bag.
Note: As always, I will continue to disclose any freebies received. In this instance all the products referred to above were purchased as part of my regular shopping, and I paid for my meal at Benchmark.
To see more pictures, click here.
Alex (Alex can be reached at fft@thehamiltonian.info ) or on twitter @AlexBielak
Food for Thought logo, designed and kindly donated by Ninka Bielak. Ninka can be reached at ninka.bielak@gmail.com.
Food for Thought logo, designed and kindly donated by Ninka Bielak. Ninka can be reached at ninka.bielak@gmail.com.
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