Cookin' For Da Band

Melissa, our talented bassist, has been cooking dinner every Thursday prior to the our descent into the basement where we commit various crimes against David Bowie, U2, The Rainmakers and Shinedown, among others. With a bunch more of these Thursday evening sessions, we might one day aspire to the status of mediocre cover band. And from there, it's possible to imagine a decent cover band, and even to working on some original material.



We suck less than we did a few weeks ago, though, and we're having fun.



But I felt like Melissa shouldn't have to cook dinner every week. She shrugs it off, that she'd have to feed her kids anyway, but since I'm on 32 hour weeks I took today as my lay-off day and cooked dinner to take to band practice. I went with the easy choice, the Goan-style Shrimp Curry I learned a few months back. Obvious because I took the tofu variation on this dish to a party at Melissa & Jamie's and it was, I'm told, 'a hit.'



I found raw peeled & deveined shrimp at Wal-Mart for cheap, too (not as cheap as tofu, but damn cheap for shrimp). This dish works with tofu, is better with tempeh but is the bomb with shrimp.

The double recipe:

Goan-Style Shrimp Curry 2x
for the marinade:
4 tablespoons lemon juice (the juice of one medium lemon)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
28 oz raw peeled & deveined shrimp
Combine the marinade ingredients with shrimp and toss to coat; set aside while you cook the rest.



for the sauce
1/2 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons dried fenugreek
50-ish fresh curry leaves (I tired of counting, there may have been 60 or more)
10 dried red chillies
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
2 3" pieces of fresh ginger, peeled & minced
1 large red onion minced
10 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
4 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 28 oz. cans petite diced tomatoes, partly drained
1 tablespoon Sambar Masala
2 14 oz. cans unsweetened coconut milk
1 bunch chopped fresh cilantro
Heat the oil in wok set to 400ºF, add fenugreek, curry leaves and peppers 1 to 2 minutes; add the black pepper and cook for 1 minute more. Add the ginger, onion and salt, stirring often as it cooks another 8 minutes (until the onion is translucent and turning brown. Add the coriander, garlic, turmeric and cook another minute before adding the tomatoes. Simmer 5 minutes then stir in the Sambar and coconut milk. When this starts to simmer, add the shrimp with residual marinade and simmer 2 minutes longer. Stir in cilantro and serve over steamed brown basmati and/or purple sticky rice with alfalfa sprouts to garnish.



I made both purple sticky and brown basmati rice to go with this. Originally, a big batch of purple sticky, but it wasn't done with the brown basmati was, so I left it to steam a few more minutes then forgot, went and mowed the lawn. Came back in the house wondering what that fucked up smell was: it was scorched purple sticky rice. I thought maybe just the bottom scorched, like I could rescue the top part of the batch, but a quick taste told me the whole batch tasted like coffee grounds. Damn.

So I made the other cup of purple sticky I had on hand while I did the curry itself.

For dessert, I made a lemon meringue pie, my first.




Lemon Meringue Pie
1 can Lemon-Creme pie filling
1 frozen deep-dish pie crust
4 egg whites (1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon double-strength Mexican vanilla extract
Put the pie filling in the crust and heat in 350ºF oven for 15 minutes while you make the meringue. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until it's foamy, then add sugar gradually until things are stiff and fluffy. Put on hot pie filling, bake the whole thing another 15 minutes, cool on rack.



The pie pieces didn't stay in shape when we cut the pie: I should have made the pie earlier and refrigerated it a bit to firm things up. I might have gotten the meringue stiffer with more beating but my cheap POS beater from Wal-Mart (I think I paid $8 a couple years ago) broke and I had to fish a few pieces of plastic out of the meringue and roll with it.



Meaning now is the perfect time for me to buy that Kitchen-Aid I've been wanting. Oh, wait, I can't afford that.



Since I don't have that Kitchen-Aid, the idea of trying to make my own naan to go with this on the same afternoon I baked a pie, well... I bought a pack of Naan at my herb dealer (Ambica Foods where I get my curry leaves).



How did it all turn out? Well, I got many compliments, probably more than the number of people eating could account for. And not to brag, but I ate way too much and it wasn't because the food was lame.

Practice went... Well, an audience showed up, some family. One of whom is about to get his ass drafted because he can play the piano part for a Journey song. And somehow, in front of them, we forgot some things we actually had down last week. Go figure.



Melissa couldn't resist, by the way: she cooked a spinach & cheese Indian dish she made last week and a beet/yogurt salad to go with. Both of which were excellent additions. I guess I'm not the only member of the band who enjoys cooking. Too bad 'Joy of Cooking' is taken as a band name already...