Indian Recipe Testing II: The Appetizers

So Saturday Art and I got together and tested a couple of the other recipes for the projecto posible, this time featuring a couple of starters. The first was a meatball made from Windy Hill Farm’s ground cabrito, using methods and seasonings from Uttar Pradesh. Think tender baby goat all ground-up with green chiles, garlic, ginger, clove, mace, and garam masala. Sauté those bad boys off, and then simmer them in the amazingly good kofta korma sauce from our cookbook, The Appetizer Atlas. It’s a Moghul treat made with cashews and almonds, onion, garlic, ginger, tomato, turmeric, cayenne, yogurt, stock, garam masala, and fresh mint.

The other dish hails from Tamil Nadu, specifically Mangalore, on the Konkan coast, and was originally designed for smothering big ole crabs (or crab claws). Call it Janggali ke Kofte. It’s basically a crab cake, but one with Southwest Indian sensibilities. The seasonings include coriander, cumin, green cardamom, cinnamon, dried red chiles, turmeric, garlic, lots of curry leaves, coconut milk, and fresh lump crab meat, all just barely held together delicately with a little egg and panko crumbs. We invented a tamarind and toasted curry powder aioli with its fair share of garlic to go with. We both decided that it was the best crab cake we have ever eaten, and we have both eaten and cooked a bazillion crab cakes in our time.



Included are the photos, one with a white background, and one au naturel, against wood. These were some VERY good eats.

Mick Vann ©