last night's dinner

holy shit, that chicken dopiaza is fantastic. it's pure sex on rice, baby. a time-consuming recipe, to be sure, and not something you can throw together quickly; prep took over an hour. worth every minute. the depth and complexity of the flavors was amazing. one cooks this dish on the stove for a while, and then puts it in the oven to finish. the recipe contains nine onions -- three small ones are halved and put in just before it goes in the oven; two regular-sized ones are chopped coarsely and browned and put in after it's come out of the ogen, and three regular-sized ones are grated and juiced and the juice added just before it goes in the oven. it's highly spiced, with two tablespoons of pureed ginger and two teaspoons of hot ground chiles as well as some whole dried ones.

and i'm quite certain you could leave the chicken out entirely and still have a fabulous dish; i'll try it sometime.

anyway. i'll post the recipe sometime soon if there's interest, but i need to get to work now.

this is fabulous:

Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists

chicken dopiaza

from "50 Great Curries of India" by Camella Panjabi. an earlier revision of this book is available in hardcover from Amazon. i've transcribed it as written, with a couple of notes.

Chicken Dopiaza
Serves 4

2 1/2 lb. small roasting chicken (i used six boneless skinless chicken thighs)
3 very small onions
6 medium onions
8 small potatoes (optional)
2 teaspoons cayenne or other hot ground red pepper
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup oil
2 plump garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 bay leaves (preferably fresh)
2 tbsp ginger puree
2-in. cinnamon stick
6 whole cardamom pods
1 1/2 tsp. peppercorns
10 cloves
2 whole dried red chilies (Guajillo) *
1/2 tsp. turmeric
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp butter
3/4 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. garam masala powder (ground fresh if possible)
salt to taste

1. Cut the chicken into 8 pieces on the bone. Cut the 3 small onions in half. Chop 2 of the medium onions coarsely. Extract the juice from the remaining 3 onions by grating them and squeezing out the juice through a cheesecloth.
   
2. Peel the potatoes, if using. Mix the cayenne pepper to a paste with a little water. Whisk the yogurt.
   
3. Heat the oil in a heavy pan and fry the chopped onions until light brown. (i actually fried the onions while i was preparing the other ingredients, to save time -- m) Remove and drain on kitchen paper and set aside. In the same oil, fry the garlic, bay leaves, and, after a couple of minutes, add the cinnamon and cardamoms. Then, 2 minutes later, add the peppercorns, cloves, and whole red chilies.
   
4. After 30 seconds, add the ginger puree, chile paste and turmeric and stir continuously. Add the chicken, potatoes, and tomatoes, followed by the butter, yogurt, and sugar. Cook for 10--12 minutes, stirring so that the spices do not stick to the bottom of the pan and add a little water if necessary.
   
5. Now add the onion halves, followed by the onion juice and salt to taste. Stir for 2-3 minutes. Then transfer to a baking dish (i just cooked it in a stainless pan that could go in the oven so i didn't have to use another dish) and cook in the oven, preheated to 325F and cook for 20-25 minutes. When the chicken and potatoes are done, add half the fried onions and sprinkle over the garam masala powder. Sprinkle over the remaining fried onions just before serving.
   

* the author recommends dried Guajillo chilies as a substitute for the Kashmiri chilies one would ordinarily use in this recipe, because they are of a similar size and heat and have an intense red color. i substituted two byadgi chilies (long, wrinkly, intensely red mild indian chilies) and four tinnevelly chilies (smallish and round but quite hot), and got excellent results.)

instant karma

stuff has been piling up around the recycling bins in my building for a couple of weeks; people have been putting stuff in the wrong bins, and the recycling company refuses to pick it up unless it's properly sorted. the previous management would've had the maintenance guys get everything sorted out properly, but this building has recently been sold, and the new owners are not turning out to be as good about keeping this place maintained.

this evening, my neighbors warren and shirley took me out for Burmese food as a thank-you for watching their cats while they were out of town. when we got home, we noticed someone had put a note on the recycling bins, rudely and long-windedly cursing the people who misuse the recycling bins. that's right, someone went to the trouble of going upstairs, typing a note, printing it out, and putting it on the bins. but they left all the garbage where it was.

we decided this was just stupid, so we hauled out the dumpster and picked up all the garbage ourselves, and resorted the bins. in the process, i found a whole box of unused greeting cards... with pictures of kitties on them!