Goat Sukha

Whenever I order food from a particular Indian restaurant, I always include an appetizer of goat sukka (or sukha). As an aside, this particular restaurant allows its customers to choose between an American level of spice and an Indian level of spice for their dishes. I like a restaurant that not only caters to the local Indian community in this way, but also offers those options to someone like myself, who is not Indian. Given my love for very spicy foods, I always order my dishes from this restaurant at the Indian spicy or Indian very spicy level. 

Being able to choose spice levels in accordance with the Indian palate is important to me, because I want to experience the foods of southern India as one would prepare them for people who live in that region. Chefs and cooks alike across southern Indian states like Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have embraced chiles. In so doing, they create dishes that contrast with those from the north of India. 

A sukka (or sukha) is a dry curry dish that originates from the south of India. The word sukha is Hindi and means "dry." Unlike a typical curry, sukhas are not prepared with a yogurt, tomato, or coconut milk base. Instead, recipes typically call for a combination of chiles and spices that, when prepared, cling to the featuerd protein with a paste-like texture. And, as for that protein, it could be just about anything. The most common versions of sukhas feature mutton or lamb, but one can find many recipes for Mangalore Chicken Sukha or even Chana Sukha (for vegetarians).  

For this recipe, I attempted to recreate the goat sukka dish from one of my favorite restaurants. I had some extra goat meat from another recipe that I prepared (which will also be posted on this blog). I encountered some difficulty finding a goat sukha recipe, which I needed to ensure that I prepared the goat properly. I eventually decided to use a mutton sukha recipe, for which there are many, and incorporated the directions for preparing goat from that other recipe I mentioned above. 

In the end, this dish was good, but it was not the goat sukka that I would order from the restaurant. There are two reasons for this conclusion. First, I am not as good at cooking goat as the Indian cook or chef at that restaurant. (Despite my best efforts, the goat was a little overcooked.) Second, the recipe would probably translate to an Indian mild or Indian medium on spice level. As noted above, my minimum threshold is Indian hot. 

GOAT SUKHA

Recipe adapted from Relish the Bite

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

• 1 pound goat, cubed, bone-in
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• Salt, to taste
• Garlic, 5 cloves minced
• 5 dried chiles (e.g., Kashmiri)
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/4 cup onions, sliced thinly
• Few curry leaves
• 4 green chiles (e.g., jalapeno)
• 1 teaspoon chile powder
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• Salt, to taste
• 2 teaspoons oil
• Lime juice and coriander (cilantro), chopped, for garnish

Directions:

1. Prepare the goat. Place the goat, turmeric and salt in a sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and boil until cooked, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the goat from the water, strain the water through a fine mesh and reserve. 

2. Prepare the base. While the goat is cooking, combine the garlic, dried chiles and fennel seeds in a mortar and pestle. Grind the ingredients, with a dash of salt, until they become a paste.

3. Prepare the curry. In a pan, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the onions, green chiles and curry leaves. Saute until the onions become translucent and the chiles become softer. Add the paste, along with the red chile powder, coriander powder and cumin powder. Saute well. 

4. Finish the dish. Add the goat and stir. Add some of the reserved water and let it cook until the water evaporates. Drizzle some lime juice and garnish with the chopped coriander (cilantro). Serve with rice and naan. 

PEACE.

Kashmiri-Style Raan

Many recipes have a history; and, for this leg of lamb recipe, that history can be traced to the fourth century B.C.E.  Alexander III of Macedon -- known as "Alexander the Great" -- was leading his armies on a path eastward into what was known then as Bactria. The region was well established along the Silk Road in an area that is divided amongst common-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. While history confirms Alexander's conquest of the mountainous region in which Bactria could be found, what comes next is the subject of some dispute.

As one story goes, it was 327 B.C.E. when Alexander the Great had just conquered the Hindu Kush, a mountainous region that could have been the southern part of Bactria. Basking in the victory, Alexander married Roxane, the daughter of Oxyartes. The centerpiece of the wedding feast was known as Sikandari Raan or Alexander Raan. Alexander would go on to appoint Oxyartes to serve as the governor of Bactria.

Another story paints a different picture: Alexander the Great sent his army into the Battle of Hydaspes in 326 B.C.E. The battle took place along the Jhelum River in what would become northeastern Pakistan. By the end of the battle, Alexander's forces had captured the local king, Porus. Alexander asked Porus how he would like to be treated; and, the defeated monarch replied "treat me like a King would treat another King." Alexander the Great released Porus and the two became friends. A feast was held to celebrate the friendship. The centerpiece of that feast was a leg of lamb.

The true story, along with the recipe for that leg of lamb, are lost to history. Nevertheless, the centerpiece of the feast is still known as Sikandari Raan. And, unlike any conqueror or king, this leg of lamb recipe lives on today as the focal point of many celebratory meals. 

I prepared raan for my own little celebration, namely, by birthday. I chose to prepare a Kashmiri-style raan, because I thought that this meal is reflective of Kashmiri cuisine. This cuisine is perhaps the most meat-centric of all the subcontinent cuisines, as Kashmiris eat more meat -- mainly lamb and mutton -- than in any other region of Pakistan or India. This aspect of their diet corresponds to the importance of livestock itself, as there is a long history of nomadic herders raising sheep in the region's valleys. While Kashmiri cuisine may be heavy on the meat, it is much leaner when it comes to the use of spices in recipes.  Commonly used spices include chile powder, ginger powder, saffron, aniseed, and asafetida.  

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Kashmiri cuisine is the distinction between Muslim and Pandit (Hindu). This distinction mostly revolves around the ingredients used to prepare the dishes. On the one hand, Muslim Kashmiris use onion, garlic and tomatoes in their preparations, while the Hindu Pandits do not. Another difference lies with the protein, as Muslims tend to use more lamb and mutton, while the Pandits use goat or chevron more in their dishes. 

This Kashmiri-style raan is clearly inspired by the Muslim preparations, as it incorporates not only lamb, but also onions in the recipe. It also follows the traditional preparation, which incorporates two marinades. The first marinade is a dry rub, which is first applied to the leg of lamb. The second marinade is a wet rub, a combination of Greek yogurt and even more spices). Some recipes combine the two marinades together, but the Kashmiri-style raan recipe that I found retained this two-step approach.

Apart from the time it takes to prepare the lamb, this is a very easy recipe to make. The difficult part is to decide what should accompany the roasted lamb. I prepared a traditional Kashmiri pulao, and I even had an ambitious goal of preparing one or two sambals to go with it. (The sambals did not happen.) One can also just serve some naan and a salad alongside the lamb. 

KASHMIRI-STYLE RAAN

Recipe adapted from from Big Oven

Serves several

Ingredients (for the dry rub):

• 10 green cardamom pods (seeds only)
• 1 star anise
• 2 mace 
• 4 dried bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons fennel seeds
• 2 inch cinnamon stick

Ingredients (for the marinade):

• 1 1/4 white onions, thinly sliced
• 7 garlic cloves mashed or roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Kashmiri chile powder
• 2 inches of ginger, peeled, roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 cup Greek Yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 tablespoon honey

Ingredients (for the lamb):

• 1 leg of lamb (about five pounds)

Ingredients (for the gravy):

• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 inch ginger
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 tablespoon coriander powder
• 12 teaspoon Kashmiri chile powder
• 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
• 3 tablespoons Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons ground almonds
• Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Prepare the lamb and the first marinade. Trim all of the fact from the lamb and, using a sharp knife. Roast the dry rub spices in a dry frying pan over a low heat for about 10 minutes. Shake the pan a few times as they release their aroma. Cool slightly and grind to a fine powder. Rub this spiced powder all of over the leg of lamb, in the cuts as well. Leave to marinate for 40 minutes while you get the second marinade ready. 

2. Prepare the second marinade. Soak the saffron threads in hot water for five minutes. In a large frying pan, add the oil and fry the onions until light brown. Turn off the heat and cool. Set half of the onions aside. Add the remaining half of the onions, garlic, ginger, and 2 tablespoons of Greek yogurt to a blender. Blend into a smooth fine paste. In a large bowl, add the blended paste along with the remaining yogurt, chile powder, and saffron (with water). Season to taste and mix well. Pour this marinade all over the leg of lamb, mixing well to ensure that it is covered well. Drizzle the leg of lamb with honey. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight or two nights. 

3. Roast the lamb. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Roast the lamb in a covered baking dish for 1/2 hour. Reduce the heat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for 25 minutes per pound, around 1.5 hours until the meat is tender. 

4. Prepare the gravy. Blend the garlic and ginger to a smooth paste with a space of water in a grinder or blender. Heat a large frying pan with the oil. Add the paste and fry over a low heat for 2 minutes. Add the spiced powders along with the yogurt and ground almonds. Add any leftover marinade and juices from the baking try to the pan. Fry for 4 minutes. Add 6 tablespoons of water and simmer over a low heat for 12 to 15 minutes. Stir often to make sure that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Add a little more water if required to thin it out slightly. Season to taste and keep warm.

5. Finish the dish. Serve the ran on a platter with the fried onions, shallots, mint and pomegranate, as well as pulao and gravy.

PEACE.

Vindaloo Wings

If one was to look for a dry rub recipe for buffalo wings, they would most likely find a lot of commonality in the recipes. That commonality draws inspiration from Mexico (such as the use of ancho chile powder) or barbecue (with the use of smoked paprika, brown sugar and other ingredients). Those recipes may produce some very tasty wings,  but I want to go down a different path with dry rub wings. 

That is when I got to thinking of creating a dry rub that draws its inspiration from curries. More specifically, curries from India. Even more particularly, a particular curry that is symbolic of Goa. That curry is the fiery vindaloo. 

Typically, vindaloo is a sauce-based curry, with strong vinegar notes and a very spicy kick. There are a lot of recipes for a vindaloo paste, which could work well with buffalo wings. (I have used the paste in the past.) But, I wanted an even simpler preparation: just a spice mix.  

I found a basic spice mix that incorporates many of the spices that find their way into a vindaloo. These spices include chiles (of course), along with cardamom, cumin, coriander, cloves, and cardamom. The one spice that was missing, but which could usually be found in a vindaloo recipe, is turmeric. I could live without the use of the golden spice on this one occasion. 

One last note about this recipe, the chiles used in the spice mix are Kashmiri chiles. Those chiles are not as piquant as the chiles that would typically be used in a vindaloo. Goan dishes are well known for their use of the peri-peri chile, a very spicy chile introduced by Portuguese explorers and colonialists to the subcontinent. Kashmiri chiles have their own kick, which will probably be more appealing to people who do not ordinarily eat very spicy wings. 

VINDALOO DRY RUB WINGS

Spice mix recipe from Ministry of Curry

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 1 pound chicken wings, drumettes and flats
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 20 black peppercorns
• 4 green cardamom seeds
• 4 cloves
• 1 inch cinnamon stick
• 8 dried Kashmiri chiles

Directions:

1.    Prepare the dry rub. Add all the spices to a dry frying pan and lightly toast until aromatic, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer the spices to a plate to cool completely. Grind the spices in a spice grinder to make a fine powder.

2.    Prepare the wings. Add the wings to a bowl and add the apple cider vinegar. Toss the wings in the vinegar until they are coated. Then add the dry rub and toss until all the wings are well coated with the spice mixgture. 

3.    Cook the wings. Heat an oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Lay out the wings on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place the wings in the oven and cook for about 25 minutes or until the wings reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove from the oven, allow the wings to cool for about 5 minutes and then serve immediately. 

ENJOY!

Goan Clam Curry

Some say "Goa is where my heart belongs"; but, for me, the saying needs to be amended to read, "Goa is where my stomach belongs." There is something about the cuisine. Goa may be the smallest state in India, with the fourth smallest population of any Indian state. However, its cuisine punches way above its weight, both figuratively and (due to the abundant use of chiles) literally. It is that punch that appeals so much to my gut.

What drew my attention to this cuisine is perhaps one of the most well known of Goan dishes ... Vindaloo. The fiery curry -- in all of its forms (whether pork, lamb, beef of chicken) -- is one of my favorite dishes. Yet, while Vindaloo may be one of the most popular dishes, there is so much more to Goan cuisine. 

This small Indian state lies along the western coastline of India. Its 103 kilometers of coastline offer not only great beaches (from what I have read), but access to a steady source of seafood. This includes fish such as kingfish, mackerel, sardines and even sharks, as well as shellfish like crabs, prawns, lobsters, squid and mussels.

All of this seafood provides the basis for a range of different dishes. These dishes include, by way of example, Fish Curry (Xitti Kodi), Shark Ambot Tik, Samarachi Kodi, and Crab Xacuti. I would not have come across any of these dishes (at least not yet) if not for the fact that I found a recipe for a Goan clam curry. That recipe got me to look further into Goan cuisine, thereby opening the proverbial book on something that I had overlooked for the longest time. 

Source: Times of India

The summer months are often considered the shellfish months in Goa. The bays of Goa - such as Sancoale and Chicalim - are home to oysters, mussels and clams (known as tisreos) that are harvested by both locals and non-locals alike. The high demand for all of this shellfish has resulted in overfishing and degradation of the habitats. It has threatened the existence of clams in these bays, as more juvenile clams are harvested and their habitat is destroyed by the collection methods. 

The alarm bells have sounded in recent years, which has resulted in some responses to what has become a significant decline in the once abundant shellfish. A modest start involved a local biodiversity board's call for the use of handpicking as the only method to collect clams. This call joins other efforts to regulate the size of harvested clams, quotas on the amount to be harvested, and limiting harvests to locals only. 

All of these efforts are just guidelines, and, they will be effective only as long as people are willing to observe them. This requires people to move beyond the shortsightedness of making money now or enjoying these delicacies in the present, so that they will be around for a long time to come. 

GOAN CLAM CURRY

Recipe adapted from My Heart Beets

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons ghee (or neutral oil)
• 2 large shallots or 4 small ones finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 inch ginger, minced
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Kashmiri chile powder (or more if you want it to be really spicy)
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 2 pounds small clams, littlenecks
• 1 lime wedge, plus more for garnish
• 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, chopped

Directions:

1.  Clean the clams. If necessary, soak in cold water for 20 minutes with a big pinch of salt. Lift each clam out of the bowl and rinse with water. (If you are using farmed clams, you can probably just rinse them.)

2. Sauté the aromatics. Melt the ghee in a Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium heat, then add shallots, garlic, ginger and sauté for 6 to 7 minutes. Add the spices then stir.

3. Cook the clams. Add the coconut milk and bring to a gentle boil. Add clams, cover and cook stirring occasionally until the clams are opened, 6 to 8 minutes. Discard any unopened clams. 

4. Finish the dish. Serve the clams in bowls with the cooking liquid and squeeze lime wedge overtop. Garnish with cilantro. 

ENJOY!

Mirchi Qorma

Modern history defines Kashmir in a broad stroke. That stroke illustrates a land divided amongst three separate powers. There is Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, which is under the control of Pakistan. As that stroke moves east, there is Jammu and Kashmir, along with Ladakh, both of which are controlled by India. The stroke finishes with Aksai Chin and the Trans-Kakoram Tract, which are under the control of China (and, which are administratively part of Xinjiang and/or Tibet). 

Looking back into the past, when one spoke of Kashmir, they were more than likely talking about the Kashmir Valley.  It is a region bookended by the Pir Panjal range to the southwest and the Himalaya Mountains to the northeast. It is also the historic home to the Kashmiri people.  They are the focus of this blog post. 

The Kashmiri people are a Dardic ethnic group, a group of Indo-Aryan peoples who live in northeastern Pakistan, eastern Afghanistan and Kashmir. It is a region that has seen conquerors come and go, including the Mughals, who ruled the region for about 200 years between the 1580s and the 1750s, the Afghanis, who ruled for a few decades; and the Sikhs, who ruled for about twenty years until they were supplanted by the Dogra Regime, who controlled the area until 1947. It was the Dogra Regime that perhaps best underscored the problem: a Hindu monarchy that exploited the masses of Muslim Kashmiri people.  As it was once described: 

The poverty of the Muslim masses is appalling. Dressed in rags and barefoot, a Muslim peasant presents the appearance of a starved beggar.... Most are landless laborers, working as serfs for absentee landlords.

This description is particularly jarring, especially given Kashmiri cuisine.  Dishes primarily feature rice, usually served with a protein, such as lamb or mutton. These include, by way of example, Machwangen Kormeh (meat cooked with spices and chilies, including Kashmiri chiles) and Yakhni (a yogurt-based mutton gravy flavored with bay leaves, cloves and cardamom). Indeed, meat features prominently in these dishes, which is something that naturally appeals to a die-hard carnivore like myself. 

A Wazwan Feast (from Auralcrave)

This dish has its place in Kashimiri cuisine. It is one of about 30 lamb dishes that are part of a 36-dish Kashmiri feast known as the wazwan. (In the Kashmiri language, waz means "cook" or cooking, while wan means "shop.") The feast celebrates the legacy of the 15th century Turko-Mongol conquerer Timur.  The conqueror brought with him 1,700 skilled workers.  Those workers included cooks, who would butcher the lambs for the dishes.  The cooks worked under the supervision of a wouste waze, who is the master chef.  As the dishes are completed, they are brought out to the guests, who sit at tables of four with a traem (a large bronze plate) on the middle of the table. The guests share the dishes as they are placed om the traem until the last dish - gushtaba (meatballs cooked in a spicy gravy - is served. The meatball recipe signifies the end of the feast. 

This recipe for Mirchi Qorma comes from Ahdoo's Hotel, which is located in Srinagar, the capital of Jammu-Kashmir.  A qorma is the Urdic word "to braise." In this case, it is the braising of pieces of lamb in a fiery chile sauce made from Kashmiri chiles.  The dish itself illustrates the influence of the past, as a qorma is a Mughal dish, typically made in the kitchens for the court of the rulers. The cooks first seared the lamb over high heat, typically with ghee, adding liquid to create the gravy or curry in which the meat continues to cook. This recipe basically follows that historical approach. The end product is one of the best curries that I have had in a very long time. 

MIRCHI QORMA

Recipe from Saveur

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 6 dried Kashmiri chiles or pasilla chiles, stemmed
• 2 small red Thai chiles or 1 red jalapeno, stemmed 
• 2 pounds lamb shoulder
• 1 tablespoons black pepper corns
• 4 green cardamom pods
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspooon kala jeera (black cumin seeds
• 10 cloves garlic, mashed into a paste
• 2 Indian (or regular) bay leaves
• 1/4 cup tamarind paste
• 3 tablespoons dried mint
• 1 tablespoon red chile powder, such as cayenne
• Kosher salt, to taste.

Directions:

1.  Cook the lamb.  Heat a six quart saucepan over medium-high heat.  Cook dried chiles until lightly toasted, 1 to 2 minutes.  Transfer to a food processor, add fresh chiles and 1 cup of water.  Puree until smooth and return to pan.  Add lamb, peppercorns, cardamom, cinnamon and 3 cups of water.  Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low, cook, covered, until lamb is very tender, about one hour.  Transfer the lamb mixture to a bowl. 

2.  Finish the dish. Wipe the pan clean; heat oil over medium high.  Cook cumin seeds, garlic and bay leaves until seeds pop, about 1-2 minutes.  Add reserve lamb mixture, the tamarind paste, 1 teaspoon of mint, the chile powder and salt. Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium. Cook until thickened, about 1 hour.  Garnish with remaining mint. 

ENJOY!

Smoked Rack of Pork Peri-Peri

One of my bucket list items as a cook is to prepare a Smoked Rack of Pork Vindaloo, using Vikram Suderam's recipe in his book Rasika: Flavors of India.  (Actually, the bucket list is to recreate a dinner at Rasika but in my house, including dishes such as Palak Chaat, Calamari Balchao and others). When I bought a bone-in pork roast, I thought this might be the opportunity. However, it was not.  The roast was not ideal (the roast was not cut well, which explains why it was so cheap).  I would also have to go to at least two grocery stores, and, I wanted to prepare this meal for family and guests.  Given the current limitations in this time of social distancing, I would have to put off my bucket list item for a future date. 

That doesn't mean that I could not at least use Chef Suderam's recipes as an inspiration.  Chef Suderam uses a very spice chile paste, which he refers to as a peri-peri paste, as the base for his vindaloo (and other dishes).  The basic piri-piri paste recipe in his book produces a cup, which was enough to use by itself as a rub or marinade for this pork roast. 

However, I got to thinking about those chiles. Although a Goan dish, vindaloo can traces its origins to Portuguese explorers and colonizers. Goa was a Portguese colony until 1961. The Portuguese were known for introducing peppers to their colonies, including those in Angola and Mozambique. Once the peppers took root, figuratively and literally, the cultivation spread beyond the borders of both countries. Today, peri-peri chiles are grown and processed in Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Uganda. The reach of the peppers extends as far as Nigeria and Ghana in western sub-Saharan Africa. 

Returning to Rasika, for the moment, Chef Suderam does not use peri-peri peppers for his vindaloo.  Instead, the chef uses Kashmiri chiles to make his peri-peri paste.  Despite the name, these peppers are not grown in Kashmir (or Jammu and Kashmir). Instead, they are principally cultivated in the southwestern Indian state of Karnatka. The Kashmiri chile is relartively mild, clocking in at around 2,000 Scoville units. At this level, the Kashmiri chile is in the company of some well known peppers, such as the passilla, ancho and and poblano peppers. This low level of heat makes the Kashmiri chile particularly popular in cooking, but that popularity is probably more due to the fact that the chile contributes a deep red hue to any curry dish.

It may be just happenstance that Karnatka is just due east of Goa, the Indian state where the famed vindaloo curry calls its home. This geographical relationship provides an explanation for the use of Kashmiri chiles in Chef Suderam's own recipe for vindaloo.  In any event, this recipe put a dent in my Kashmiri chile supply.  Given all of the recipes that I want to make in Rasika, many of which use these chiles, I am going to need to buy some more chiles very soon.  

SMOKED RACK OF PORK PERI-PERI

Peri-Peri Paste from Vikram Suderam, Rasika: Flavors of India, pg. 29

Serves several

Ingredients (for the paste):

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds

1 1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns

8 whole cloves

5 green cardamom pods

1 inch cinnamon stick, crushed

1/4 ounce (about 1 cup of stemed dried Kashmiri chiles, with seeds

5 medium garlic cloves 

1 cup malt vinegar or red wine vinegar

Ingredients (for the pork):

1 six-bone rack of pork

Hickory wood

Directions:

1.  Make the paste.  In a spice grinder, grind the cumin seeds, peppercorns, cloves, cardamom pods and cinnamon into a powder.  Transfer to a small blender.  Add the chiles, garlic and vinegar. Blend for 10 full minutes, shaking the container or scraping it down every now and then.  The paste should be a deep adobe red, smooth and the texture of a thick tomato sauce. 

2.  Prep the pork.  In a large bowl, coat the rack of pork on all sides with the paste.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 12 hours, but preferably 24 hours.

3.  Prepare the smoker.  Bring a smoker to a temperature between 250 degrees and 275 degrees Fahrenheit. Place a drip pan filled with 2 cups of water) under where the pork will sit (if you have a lower rack, or between the coals.  Place the pork on the rack and use a rubber spatula to scrape out any of the marinade left in the bowl and slather it over the top of the pork.

4.  Smoke the Pork.  Smoke the pork roast until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit.  Remove the roast and let it rest, covered with aluminium foil for about 15 to 20 minutes.  At this point, you can either slice off the bones and then slice the roast into relatively thin cutlets or you can leave the bones on and slice thicker cutlets.  

ENJOY!

Indian Style Whole Masala Roast Chicken

Few things intrigue me more, as someone who loves to cook and loves to learn about food, than Indian cuisine.  As someone who loves to dive into the cuisine of a culture or a nation, I am most fascinated by the regionalization of cuisine.  When I first started cooking, I focused on Italy, and I spent a lot of time learning about northern Italian cooking and southern Italian cooking.  Then I started to focus upon the cooking of particular provinces, such as Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Abruzzo.  The focus -- from general to regional -- was fascinating to me.  

In many ways, India is a lot like Italy.  There is northern Indian food and southern Indian food.  But, then there are the regions.  From Punjab to Rajastan to Goa to Kerala (and everywhere in between), there is a wide variety of regional Indian cuisine.  I have made some dishes from some of these regions, like Goa and Kerala, but I have only scratched the surface.  Much more is to come.  

But, for now, a general Indian dish.  I say that because whenever I see a recipe that has a title of _______-style, I know that it is a dish inspired by, but may not actually constitute part of, a country's established cuisine.  That is not necessarily a bad thing, there are very many -style dishes that are very delicious.  (I have made quite a few -style dishes, and, hopefully, they are good).  So, when I saw an Indian Style Whole Masala Roast Chicken recipe, I decided that I had to make it. 

Masalas are spice mixtures.  While one can find masala spice mixtures in stores, the best ones are made at home. Dried whole seeds and pods, lightly toasted, and ground into a fine powder.  Most people don't have the whole seeds, but you can still make your own masala from ground spices, it will just not be as good.  

In any event, the masala for this recipe is very simple. Kashmiri red chile pepper, "pepper powder" and cumin. I wasn't quite sure what "pepper powder" was supposed to be, so I just used more Kashmiri peppers (which you can get from your local Indian food market). This masala was very simple and it worked for this recipe.  In the future, I may try some different masalas to see how they work with a whole roasted chicken. 

INDIAN STYLE WHOLE ROAST MASALA CHICKEN

Recipe from My Food Story

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (about 2 1/4 pounds)

2 1/2 tablespoons Kashmiri red chile powder

1 1/2 tablespoons ginger paste

1 tablespoon garlic paste

1/2 tablespoon pepper powder

1 teaspoon cumin powder

2 tablespoons honey

1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar

4 tablespoons of butter

Salt, to taste

3-4 potatoes, peeled and quartered

3 onions, quartered

3 cloves garlic

Directions:

1.  Prepare the chicken.  Wash the chicken and pat dry.  Mix together the chile powder, ginger, garlic paste, pepper, cumin, honey, vinegar, butter and salt into a smooth paste.  Apply the chile paste all over the chicken, into the crevices and under the skin wherever there are gaps  If you have extra marinade remaining, you can use it to brush the chicken while it cooks. Cover and marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours or overnight.

2.  Roast the chicken.  Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, Use an oven proof baking dish and add potatoes, onions garlic and lemon slices to the bottom.  Bake for 75 to 90 minutes.  Keep brushing the chicken with the fat and gravy from the pan every thirty minutes or so.  After 1 hour, cover the chicken with oil to avoid the breast from drying out.  Once cooked, cover with foil and let it rest for 10 minutes.  

3.  Finish the dish. Serve the chicken with all the veggies at the bottom of the pan.

ENJOY!