Vij's at Home

"Vij's At Home" is famed Vancouver chef Vikram Vij's 2nd cook book and features an introduction to, by his own admission, a cuisine that is "whimsical, loud and very social".

This is a comprehensive "everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know" kind of book...from the thorough explanation of the numerous Indian spices (some we'd never heard of), to a listing of staples in the Indian kitchen, and even suggested wine pairings!

Appetizers-Including Condiments and Compliments

I made two chutneys out of this cookbook, for as Vij sais "no Indian meal is complete without at least a chutney".   

Apple Chutney(pg 44)
Super easy--with the exception of having to add Tamarind Paste. Chef suggest that you can use use lemon juice instead of Tamarind Paste, but since he printed the recipe for Tamarind Paste on pg 42, how could I resist. This was my first experience with this strange pod fruit. It comes in a package, tightly shaped into a block.

To extract the paste, you cook the block in boiling water and then break apart the pods and separate the fruit from the pulp. Then using a sieve, you mash the pulp through and discard the seeds. Looks like chocolate...but WOW what an amazing tart, sweet, crazy flavour.

Once that's accomplished--you'll have a wack of the stuff...but you only need 2 Tbsp for the Apple Chutney. What to do with the rest? Well-Uncle Vij advises you can freeze the remainder for up to 3 months. Tamarind martini's anyone?

The resulting chutney was sweet, sour, minty and possibly one of the most refreshing condiments I've ever had.

Cilantro Chutney (pg 45)
Again-the recipe starts with a tip-make this in big batches and then freeze. And he tells us it tastes great along side the Apple Chutney...well. That's all the encouragement I needed.
This recipe called for two Indian spices I had never worked with:

1) Kokum is a tropical fruit that looks like a dark plumb. The package I had called it "Wet Kokum". What you see below is the rind of the Kokum fruit, which is semi-dried and used much like Tamarind. It gives a tart and salty taste to a dish. Hmmm wonder if I could have used some of the vat of Tamarind Paste instead of buying a whole bag of Kokum (which, let's be honest here...won't likely see the light of day again. Ever.)










2)  Asafoetida is sold in what looks like a white medicinal bottle. In fact, it wasn't sold with all of the other spices at the local Indian market I went to. The clerk had to go to where the toothpaste and other grooming products were? Might have just been evidence of interesting shelf stocking practice? I was warned that this was a strong, pungent, sulphuric smelly thing...so upon opening it I immediately called my husband over "Here, smell this". Of course he did, and he said it smelled like onions. And he was right. Not so scary after all. I needed all of 1 tsp for this dish...asafoetida martinis anyone?

 
As soon as I tried it-I didn't care how many herbs and spices I had to buy in order to follow this recipe.  Whatever it took to make this amazing chutney--I'd do it again in a heart beat.

Now what to serve with these amazing chutneys?

Black Chickpea Pakoras: AKA the "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" of Indian Apps (pg 124)
He warned me. His exact words were that making these pakoras was to be a "labour of love".
Yep.
Understatement.
Go--make a tea and settle in...this is gonna take a while.
First you get some dried, black chickpeas:

 Then you cook them in a pressure cooker (the Plane part of this equation).

Then you cook them in another pot (the Train).

Then you put them in a food processor (the Automobile)

THEN you add all the other stuff (nothing out of the ordinary here expect maybe for Chickpea flour). I would warn you off the 1 tablespoon of salt required for this recipe however. It made for a very salty pakora. I think you could safely cut the amount of salt in half--especially if you are serving these  little gems with the two chutneys listed above.

And then you deep fry them. Oh yes-did I mention they are deep fried?

Here they are all lined up waiting for their immersion in boiling oil.

 And here they are, in all their crispy, golden, glory.

Spice-Encrusted Lamb Popsicles (pg 185)

 Although not technically an appetizer-who could resist a little lamb chop if served one-ever so dainty, ever so delicious. Although the ones pictured above didn't have a thing to do with dainty. They were GINORMOUS! :)

Nothing too exotic on the ingredient list here-standard cumin, coriander, paprika, tumeric. Perhaps it is the alchemy of Indian food that these few standard flavours, repeated again and again, continue to surprise and delight. These were amazing. Again I served them with the two chutneys, but I preferred the apple chutney with this dish.

Indian-Style Tomato, Onion and Paneer Bruschetta (pg 104)

I must admit to a high degree of skepticism upon reading this title. Really? Bruschetta? In an Indian cookbook? And yet, I felt compelled to try it-primarily for the fact that making my own Paneer was fascinating to me. It was SO easy. Hey look ma! I made my own CHEESE?!! Never thought I'd say that. The directions were exact...once the milk boils for about 20 minutes, it would "rise 3 inches" and once that happened I was to turn the heat off and add lemon juice. Rise 3"??? well it really did.

Once cooled, pressed and chilled, I cut it into small pieces and topped it with the fragrant and delicious tomato, onion and black mustard seed topping. It was really good! I must say that there was no way this could have been eaten out of hand-a knife and fork were required. I suppose I could have let the paneer drain under pressure for a bit longer for a really firm result, but it was still terrific.

Eggplant and Paneer Pate (pg 113)
First Italian, and now French. Oh well, why not!?!

Since I had left over paneer, I searched the book for another use for the cheese and gave this a try. Strangely, I am not a huge fan of the eggplant-but my daughter loves it--and despite the addition of an entire jalapeno pepper in this dish-she has taken it to school for lunch-cold-every day this week. God I love that kid!

My only complaint about this recipe is the roasting of the eggplant. Chef recommend you can do this either on top of your gas stove, or in the oven. Gas stove top method takes roughly 25 minutes, while the oven method takes 45 to 60 minutes. Well, last recipe for testing, you guess which method I picked.

So not only did my stove look a mess, my house and my clothes smelled as if I'd hosted an all night rave. Smokey, Smokey, Smokey-I will never do that again. Here's what the eggplant looked like with skin:

 And without skin (strangely disturbing, eh?)

 And the finished 'pate'-tasty, great with some fresh naan, but compared to the other apps I tested, the least likely to live another day.