If you have to use the thick-skinned American-type cucumbers, see the suggestion on this page.
YIELD: About 3 cups
3 small Persian-type cucumbers or 1 English hothouse cucumber
1 small ripe tomato (optional)
2 cups drained plain yogurt (a thick, creamy kind)
½ to 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, briefly toasted and ground with mortar and pestle
¼ to ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ to ¾ teaspoon salt
1 small green chile pepper, seeded and minced (optional)
A handful of fresh mint or cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped (leave a few whole for garnish)
A dash of cayenne pepper or hot paprika
Either cut the cucumbers into very fine dice or shred them on the coarse side of a box grater. Squeeze out any excess moisture. Peel and seed the optional tomato and chop very fine.
Put the yogurt in a small bowl and whisk smooth. Mix in the cucumber, tomato, cumin, black pepper, salt, optional minced chile pepper, and chopped mint or cilantro. Serve garnished with a dusting of cayenne or paprika and a few whole mint or cilantro leaves.
Some people make this hours ahead and let it sit to marry the flavors. I like to serve it freshly mixed.
VARIATION: For Cucumber Pachadi, follow the directions for raita but use cilantro leaves and 1 or 2 small green chiles. Heat a little ghee or vegetable oil (1 tablespoon or less) in a small skillet and toss in ⅛ teaspoon Indian brown mustard seeds and a few curry leaves. (You can also add a pinch of ground asafetida; 1 teaspoon each whole urad dal, also called “black gram”; and channa dal, Indian split chickpeas; and/or a small dried red chile.) When the mustard seeds begin to pop, pour the contents of the skillet over the yogurt-cucumber mixture and stir to combine.
OTHER SUGGESTIONS: Raitas and pachadis can be made with any vegetable that takes your fancy, crisp and raw (let’s say, sliced or grated radishes) or cooked (sautéed diced eggplant, chopped spinach). There are onion raitas, mint raitas, sweet-potato raitas, mixed raw vegetable raitas.…
BANANA RAITA
A favorite among the many Indian fruit raitas. It is served in the same way as the preceding cucumber version, but in my opinion goes best with Indian rice-based dishes. Banana raitas can be sweet and mild, or—like this one—distinctly punchy. Tone down the chile if you like, but please do not use any sort of low-fat or nonfat yogurt.
YIELD: About 4 cups
3 medium-sized ripe bananas
Juice of half a lemon
2 cups well-drained plain yogurt, preferably a very creamy kind
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 long green chiles, seeded and chopped (not too fine)
A large handful of cilantro, minced
½ teaspoon ground cumin, or to taste
Cut the peeled bananas lengthwise into quarters and crosswise into thin slices. Put them in a bowl, season with lemon juice, and toss to coat well.
Beat the yogurt and salt very smooth with a wooden spoon. Add the bananas and all other ingredients, reserving a little of the cilantro for garnish. Give it all a good stir and let stand for at least half an hour at room temperature to marry the flavors; serve garnished with the extra cilantro. It does not keep, so plan to serve it within an hour or two at most.
WALNUT-YOGURT CHUTNEY
Why walnuts should frequently be combined with yogurt in some of the oldest Eurasian cuisines is no mystery. Dairy animals and yogurt-making historically flourished in many of the Old World regions where walnut trees grew—Greece, the Caucasus, the Vale of Kashmir. (For another example, see Tarator.) There are many variations on the theme—coarse-textured and minimalist, bound with bread or pot cheese, enriched with stock, a little vinegary, a little sweet. This versatile Kashmiri condiment is only one possibility among many. It is traditionally made with the local medium-hot chile peppers, which can be used green but more often are dried when ripe and pulverized to make a seasoning somewhat like ground dried New Mexico chiles. Hot Hungarian paprika (or a mixture of sweet and hot) will do. Experiment with any kind of hot, mild, fresh, or dried chile you like. The proportions can be elastic; for a looser-textured sauce, increase the yogurt to 1 cup.
It is worth looking for young, sweet walnuts; the skins don’t have the harsh tannic bite of older ones. Stores catering to immigrants from Turkey or the Caucasus often have excellent walnuts.
YIELD: About 1 cup
1 cup walnut meats
1 tablespoon (or to taste) ground dried New Mexico chile, or 1 ½ teaspoons each Hungarian sweet and hot paprika
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
A large pinch of garam masala, or a pinch each of ground cumin and cinnamon
½ cup thick, creamy plain yogurt
Grind the walnuts in a food processor, stopping just when the pulverized bits start coming together in a paste. Scrape out into a small bowl; add the ground chile, salt, garam masala, and yogurt and stir to combine thoroughly. Serve at room temperature as a condiment for meats and vegetables, or a dip with crudités and any Indian bread.
LAMB KÖFTE IN YOGURT SAUCE
Among the many ways of cooking lamb meatballs in the Diverse Sources Belt, baking them in a custardlike yogurt sauce is one of the most delicious. For this Turkish version, be sure to use a good rich yogurt. I like the meatballs quite tart (from lemon juice and sumac) and a bit hot (from Turkish red pepper and paprika), with a strong jolt of cumin. Any of these can be cut back to gentler proportions.
YIELD: 8 meatballs
2 cups creamy whole-milk plain yogurt
3 to 4 thick slices of a small day-old roll or baguette, crusts trimmed
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
4 eggs
1 pound ground lamb
½ to 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or other Turkish ground red pepper
¼ teaspoon Turkish paprika
¾ teaspoon ground sumac
2 to 3 teaspoons ground cumin
1 to 3 teaspoons lemon juice
¼ cup minced parsley
1 teaspoon salt
Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
⅓ to ½ cup olive oil
Set the yogurt to drain briefly in a cheesecloth-lined colander; soak the bread in a little warm water until well softened. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Grate the onion on the coarse side of a box grater, and mince the garlic very fine. Thoroughly beat one of the eggs. Wring the water out of the bread. Place the onion, garlic, egg, and bread in a large mixing bowl with the ground meat. Add the Aleppo pepper, paprika, sumac, cumin, lemon juice, parsley, salt, and pepper. Mix everything very thoroughly with your hands and shape into 8 oval meatballs.
Heat the oil to rippling in a heavy medium skillet. Working in two batches, brown the meatballs well on both sides. As they are done, remove them to a shallow 2-quart baking dish like an 8-inch Pyrex pan.
Beat the remaining 3 eggs and stir in the partially drained yogurt. Pour this mixture over the meatballs and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve at once.
ÇILBIR
(TURKISH POACHED EGGS IN YOGURT SAUCE)
All the yogurt homelands possess some simple dish based on the unbeatable combination of yogurt and eggs. Any egg-loving cook should be able to come up with marvelous ways of pairing the two. This Turkish example, which is always glorified with paprika-reddened butter, may start your imagination going.
YIELD: 4 servings
A double recipe of Yogurt-Garlic Sauce
1 tablespoon distilled or cider vinegar
8 eggs, the freshest possible
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
¼ cup butter, preferably unsalted
1 tablespoon (or to taste) mild or hot Turkish paprika, Maraş pepper, or Aleppo pepper
Preheat the oven to the lowest setting. Divide the yogurt sauce among four ramekins of about 1½- to 2-cup capacity, and set in the oven to barely warm.
Fill a shallow saucepan about 1½ to 2 i
nches deep with water, add the vinegar, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a bare simmer. Poach the eggs, two or three at a time, by breaking them into a saucer and slipping them into the simmering water; let cook about 3 minutes or just until set. Carefully lift out the eggs with a slotted spoon, letting them drain briefly, and put them into the warmed ramekins (two eggs to each). Season with salt and pepper.
Gently melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the paprika or crushed red pepper. Tilt the pan to let the solids settle to the bottom, drizzle a little of the clear red-orange butter over each portion, and serve at once.
VARIATIONS: Instead of making the garlic sauce, mix creamy plain yogurt with a little finely crumbled feta cheese and dried Turkish mint. The dish is also very good with eggs fried sunny-side up rather than poached.
“CURD RICE”
To English-speakers in India, “curd” is the local equivalent of yogurt. The popular southern dish “curd rice” is a sort of rice salad using plain cooked rice, some diced cucumber with or without other fresh seasonings, and a tarka (special enrichment) of dried spices briefly sizzled in hot ghee or oil, the whole thing being bound with a yogurt-milk dressing. Now that so many of us have access to Indian dals and spices, it deserves to be discovered by non-Indian cooks. I find curd rice endlessly useful as a lively room-temperature side dish that can be made hours ahead. And it wouldn’t take much (some more diced or slivered vegetables, cooked chickpeas, leftover chicken or meat) to turn it into a main dish, vegetarian or otherwise.
This is one time that you aren’t aiming for fluffy, dry rice with every grain beautifully distinct. Nor should you spring for basmati rice; any plain, nonconverted long-grain rice will do. You don’t want it wet when cooked, but it should be just very slightly soggy.
There is nothing tricky about curd rice, but remember to let the yogurt drain well in advance. The two kinds of dal used in the aromatic tarka are not absolutely necessary, but their crunchy nuttiness is a big plus.
If you have to make do with thick-skinned American cucumbers, see the suggestion on this page.
YIELD: About 6 servings (5 to 6 cups)
1 cup long-grain rice
2 cups drained plain yogurt, preferably a creamy whole-milk kind
About ⅓ to ½ cup whole milk
1 scant tablespoon whole (not split) urad dal (also called black gram)
1 scant tablespoon channa dal (Indian split chickpeas)
1 teaspoon Indian brown mustard seeds
1 small dried hot red pepper, seeded
6 to 8 fresh curry leaves
A pinch of asafetida
About 1 tablespoon ghee, mustard oil, or vegetable oil for frying the spices
3 to 4 small Persian-type cucumbers or 1 English hothouse cucumber
2 small serrano chiles or other small hot green peppers
A 1-inch chunk of peeled fresh ginger
A large handful of cilantro leaves, plus more for garnish if desired
About 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
Put the rice in a small bowl, and cover with cold water. Rinse it in several changes of water until the water runs clear. Let soak half an hour, and pour into a sieve to drain briefly.
Meanwhile, beat the yogurt as smooth as possible with a whisk or wooden spoon. Beat in enough milk to give it the consistency of a thick but not pasty dressing.
Prepare the ingredients for the tarka: Rinse the urad dal and channa dal under cold running water to remove any grit or dust, blot dry with paper towels, and put them in a small bowl. Put the mustard seeds, dried red pepper, curry leaves, and asafetida in another bowl and have the ghee or oil ready for frying.
Cook the drained rice by any preferred method. (I spread it in a wide, shallow lidded saucepan, cover with about 1½ cups boiling water, add 1 teaspoon salt, bring to a boil, and cook tightly covered over very low heat for about 16 to 18 minutes, or until the water is barely absorbed and the rice is tender but still a little moist.)
While the rice cooks, dice the cucumber very fine. Seed the green chiles and mince them together with the ginger and cilantro.
Turn out the hot rice into a large mixing bowl and mash it for a few seconds with a potato masher, leaving the grains mostly whole.
Heat the ghee or oil very hot in a small heavy skillet. Add the urad dal and channa dal and fry, stirring, for about 15 to 20 seconds (don’t let them scorch, but they should get slightly crisp). Add the mustard seeds, dried pepper, curry leaves, and asafetida, stirring briskly. When the mustard seeds start to pop, empty the entire contents of the pan over the hot rice. Add the cucumbers, minced chiles, ginger, and cilantro, and 1 teaspoon salt; toss to mix thoroughly. Lastly, add the yogurt-milk mixture and toss well. Taste for seasoning and serve warm or at room temperature, garnished with extra cilantro if you like.
CHICKEN SALAD À LA TANDOOR
À la tandoor” may be a misnomer for something that never gets anywhere near an Indian tandoor oven or any American substitute, but fans of the real thing will get the idea: cold chicken in a dressing based on yogurt and the usual elements of a tandoori chicken marinade. In lieu of the red dye that is usual in tandoori dishes, I use some Hungarian sweet paprika. Naturally this doesn’t have the same intensity as the tandoor-seared original. But it’s a good dish in its own way and, unlike genuine tandoori chicken, can be made ahead as the centerpiece of a cold lunch or dinner.
The proportions of spices given here are only a suggestion; improvise as you like. Use only a creamy, fresh-tasting yogurt. It’s worth lavishing a newly made batch of your own on the dish, which will taste very dreary if made with thin, sour supermarket yogurt.
YIELD: About 4 servings
A 4-pound chicken, skin removed, cut into 6 to 8 pieces
2 large garlic cloves
A 2-inch chunk of peeled fresh ginger
3 tablespoons any bland vegetable oil
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
A large pinch of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice
1 to 1¼ cups very fresh, creamy plain yogurt, briefly drained before measuring
½ to ¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 medium onion
2 to 3 teaspoons Hungarian sweet paprika
Cilantro leaves for garnish (optional)
Poach the chicken until tender (about 20 to 25 minutes for breast meat, 35 for legs, thighs, and wings) in about 4 cups water. While it is cooking, mince the garlic and ginger together until they are almost a paste. Heat the oil until almost smoking in a small heavy skillet, add the garlic-ginger mixture, and let it sizzle (but not scorch) for 30 to 60 seconds. Stir in the cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, and cayenne; let cook until the fragrance of the spices is a little deepened.
When the chicken is done, remove the pieces to a platter. (Save the cooking stock for another purpose.) As soon as it is cool enough to handle, pull the meat from the bones and cut it into neat (or not too messy) pieces. Place the meat in a bowl and toss with the lime juice. Quickly add the garlic-ginger-spice mixture, then the yogurt. Toss to combine well and add salt to taste, a little at a time. (Remember that some seasonings will be muted as it chills.) Slice the onion into paper-thin half-moons and add along with most of the paprika. Toss again, arrange in a serving dish, and sprinkle with the remaining paprika. Garnish with a little fresh cilantro if desired, and chill thoroughly before serving.
ZUCCHINI-YOGURT SALAD WITH FRESH DILL
Yogurt lends agreeable depth and verve to a vegetable that can be pretty one-dimensional. I usually prefer this without the garlic, but both versions are good. A combination of green and golden zucchini makes an especially attractive dish.
YIELD: About 6 servings
4 medium-small zucchini or similar tender summer squash (about 1 ½ pounds)
2 teaspoons salt
10 to 12 scallio
ns, cleaned and trimmed
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup well-drained mild, creamy plain yogurt or Yogurt-Garlic Sauce
Freshly ground black or white pepper
Plenty of fresh dill, snipped
Trim the ends of the zucchini and grate them on the coarse side of a box grater. Put the grated squash in a colander set over a bowl; add the salt and mix well with your hands. Let stand for 20 minutes to drain off some of the moisture.
Meanwhile, cut off the scallion tops where the green begins. Slice the white part into rounds and set aside; chop the tenderer part of the greens and reserve separately.
Firmly wring out as much liquid as you can from the salted zucchini. Heat the oil to rippling in a large lidded skillet over pretty brisk heat, add the scallion whites, and sauté for a few minutes until translucent. Add the drained zucchini and cook, stirring and tossing to coat them well with the oil, for 3 to 5 minutes. Adjust the heat to medium-low. Add the reserved scallion greens, cover the pan, and cook for about 5 minutes or until the squash is slightly wilted. (Check occasionally for scorching.)
Remove the pan from the heat and let cool slightly, uncovered. (Too much heat will curdle the yogurt, though it won’t harm the flavor.) Add the yogurt, pepper, and most of the dill. Toss to combine everything well and serve warm or at room temperature, garnished with the remaining dill.
SHRIKHAND
(SAFFRON-SCENTED YOGURT DESSERT)
Gujarati shrikhand is one of the world’s simplest and most exquisite desserts. There is nothing to it but well-drained yogurt—the creamier the better—sweetened to your preference and gilded with a little saffron. It can be lightly spiced and garnished, but the satiny and voluptuous character comes only from yogurt and sugar (I use confectioners’ sugar). It’s worth making a batch of fresh yogurt just for this purpose; otherwise, look for the creamiest possible whole-milk yogurt.
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