HotHead/ ChiliMonster - Hot Sauces + Spicy Foods

I've finally launched my new cooking multiblog, Curry Elvis Cooks, which is a combination of my 4 older cooking blogs, as well as several new food, drink, and gardening categories. The homepage is not up yet, and the new blog's template will be changing slowly. I hope you'll bear with me.

By the way, I will be maintaining my 4 older cooking blogs for archive purposes only: Curry Elvis Cooks, Cooking For One Or Two, Chili Monster/Hot Head, Vegetarian Fusion.

cheers,

curry elvis

For any readers coming here for hot sauces and spicy food recipes and philosophy, I've decided to reinstate this blog, but as part of my brand new CurryElvis.com website. I'm still putting the site together at the time of this writing, but for technical reasons, I need to post this message before I switch the blog configuration. So the posts at this blog will be repeated over at http://www.curryelvis.com/blogs/chili-monster shortly after this post. Hope you enjoy my new Curry Elvis food and drink site when its fully functional. (If you get a "page not found" message in your web browser, that's simply because I haven't finished setting up the blog/site.)

Thanks,

curry elvis/ elvis parsley

After a couple of weeks of trying to maintain 4 different cooking blogs, I've decided that instead of doing a poor job on all 4 blogs, I'll incorporate most of them into my Curry Elvis Cooks blog. From this point forward, I'll be posting all of my spicy food-related entries over there. It's actually the first step towards a more sophisticated cooking website that I'm working on. Please watch the Curry Elvis Cooks blog for future details.

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://chilimonster.blogspot.com

Technorati : hot food, spicy food

Minced beef curry, the my mother used to make it, is one of my favourite side dishes all year round. The actual flavours and aromas are very similar to a minced beef filling that would be used in tacos and burritos. In fact, when I make this side dish for friends, they actually think I'm making Mexican food. At least until they taste the curry powder. This dish, or variations of it, are actually made all over the world. Here's a version that can be served in a number of ways. Serving suggestions are at the end of the post.

Ingredients

• 1-2 tbsp of cooking oil
• 1 tbsp mild or hot curry powder
• 2 tbsp turmeric - turmeric (haldi) is both a preservative and a colouring agent (yellow).
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 lb ground beef, thawed if necessary. Do not cook from frozen, as it changes the texture of the final product. Feel free to substitute any other minced meat.
• 1 small onion, diced small
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• Crushed red pepper flake
• 1 tsp sambal oelek (hot chili paste). Substitute 1 tbsp sriracha hot sauce if you prefer.
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Preparation

• Heat cooking oil in pan on medium high and swirl around to distribute evenly.
• Immediately add ground beef and onions. Brown the meat for at least 2 minutes.
• Add spices and use a (wooden) spatula to distribute. These will burn very quickly when using a gas stove and impart a bitter taste, so if necessary, reduce heat to medium. Mix to incorporate with the beef.
• Add salt and black pepper, then the wine to deglaze. Stir for a minute or until the wine dissipates, whichever comes first.
• Reduce heat to medium (if not already done) and add water. Let simmer for 2 minutes or until water reduces down to a nearly thick sauce, whichever comes first.
• Sprinkle the cilantro on top, toss, and serve.
• Variations: (1) If you are serving on rice, you can add frozen peas to the curry after browning the meat, when it is no longer pink. (2) Adding potatoes (small-dice) at the same time as the meat as a nice thickness to the sauce of this dish.

Presentation
This is a versatile side dish that can be used in a number of ways: (1) on steamed rice; (2) as a taco filling; (3) as a burrito filling; (4) as a crepe filling; (5) stuffing for Jamaican patties; (6) stuffing for meat empanadas; (7) stuffing for meat samosas. [Recipes for stuffed crepes, Jamaican patties, empanadas, and samosas to come.]

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://chilimonster.blogspot.com

Technorati : curry, fusion cuisine, ground beef, hot food, minced meat, spicy food

Several years ago, while living in the "big city" of Toronto, Canada, I was living a fast-paced life. I would chill out a bit by doing what some people call "standing meditation". I would essentially focus purely on the task at hand, which was usually preparing food and making supper. One evening, while being distracted several times by roommates that didn't understand that I wasn't ignoring them but just doing very focused meditation, I ended up adding a few too many scotch bonnet/habanero peppers and ended up with a mixed-breed East Indian Curry crossed with an Irish Stew and West Indian hot sauces. And after simmering for nearly 2 hours, the stew was so hot my scalp literally itched from a single spoonful. I ended up having to dilute the stew over several days with more water and corn starch to re-thicken, but it was altogether too hot even for the hothead himself.

The recipe I've given you here isn't as hot as my original, which was vegetarian, by the way. (For health reasons, I was trying to make a go of being vegetarian at the time.) This version uses chicken, but feel free to use cubed stewing beef or lamb.

Ingredients: (1) 4-6 cups of water and 2 cups (3 cans) of chicken stock; (2) 2 cloves garlic, finely minced; (3) 2 small onions, cut in 1/8ths; (4) 2 medium potatoes, scrubbed, cut large-dice; (5) 1 large carrot, cleaned, cut into 1 inch lengths; (6) 1 bell pepper, cut into large pieces (about 1 inch square); (7) 1/4 cup diced celeriac or white radish [both optional]; (8) 8-10 large mushrooms, cleaned and halved; (9) 1/2 cup peas; (10) 1/2 lb of breast chicken, stewing beef, or lamb, cut into large pieces; (11) 1 heaping tablespoon of hot curry powder; (12) 1 tablespoons of any West Indian hot sauce - preferably thick and non-vinegary; (13) healthy sprinkle of crushed red pepper flake; (14) small squirt of sriracha hot sauce; (15) 2 tbsp corn starch diluted in 1/2 cup of water.

Preparation: (1) Set water to boil, on high, in a large cookpot. (2) When water is boiling, add the chicken stock and items 2-11. (3) When water is once again boiling, turn heat down to low, add items 12-14, cover partially, and let simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent burning or sticking. (4) Turn heat up to medium and let sit for a minute or two until the pot is bubbling. If the stew is thick enough for you, skip the corn starch. Otherwise add the diluted corn starch mixture to the stew and stir slowly until incorporated. Turn off the heat and move the pot.

Presentation:
Serve in bowls with crusty bread, toasted Greek-style thick pita bread cut in quarters, or a small stack of Latin American tostadas.

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://chilimonster.blogspot.com

Technorati : curry, east indian curry, hot food, irish stew, spicy food, vegetarian, west indian food