Masala Farm

by Suvir Saran

  In a small bowl stir together the cilantro, ginger, jalapeño, and lime juice and set aside.

  To make the khitcheree: Place the mung dal in a large frying pan over medium heat and toast it until fragrant and lightly golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the dal to a large plate and set aside.

  Place the ghee, cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon, panch phoran, turmeric, and asafetida into the same pan and roast over medium heat until the spices are fragrant, about 2 minutes.

  Add the rice, toasted dal, cauliflower, potato, and carrots and cook until the rice becomes translucent and the cauliflower sweats, 3 to 5 minutes, stirring often. Pour in the 7 cups/1.65 L of water, increase the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Add the peas, bring back to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

  To make the first tempering oil: Heat the ghee and panch phoran in a large frying pan over medium heat until the cumin in the panch phoran begins to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the onion and salt and cook until the onion is browned around the edges and soft, about 10 minutes. If the onion begins to get too dark or sticks to the bottom of the pan, splash the pan with a bit of water and scrape up the browned bits. Stir in the ground coriander and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and the cayenne and cook until the tomatoes are jammy, 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and set aside.

  Once the rice and dal are cooked, remove the lid and use a potato masher to smash the mixture until only a few carrots and peas remain whole (remove the whole or large spices while mashing if you like). Stir in the first tempering oil along with 3 cups/720 ml water. Return to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat.

  To make the second tempering oil: Wipe out the pan from the first tempering oil and heat the ghee for the second tempering oil over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds, cayenne, and asafetida and cook, stirring often, until the cumin begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Immediately stir it into the rice and dal mixture.

  Divide the khitcheree among 6 bowls; top with some of the reserved ginger mixture, a pinch of garam masala, and the fried onions; and serve.

  Tamarind Chicken Wings

  This is my fallback to offer to company whenever I’m at a loss for what to serve. All you need are chicken wings, which I always have in the freezer, and Tamarind Chutney which I always have canned in the pantry. It never fails to please and is a great way of introducing new flavors like tamarind and Garam Masala in a very friendly, recognizable package (chicken wings!). I have yet to find anyone who regards them as anything less than spectacular. Best yet, the sweet-sour chutney negates the need for a dipping sauce—these wings are excellent on their own. If you must have a dip, I like serving Raita (see Farmhouse Basics) on the side made with Greek yogurt for a thicker consistency.

  Serves 6

  2 tbsp honey

  2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

  1 tsp kosher salt, plus extra for serving

  ½ tsp cayenne pepper

  1 tsp Garam Masala (see Farmhouse Basics)

  1 tsp paprika

  ½ tsp ground cumin

  2 lb/910 g chicken wings, halved at the drumette joint

  ¾ cup/175 ml Tamarind Chutney (see Farmhouse Basics)

  Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C/gas 6. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, olive oil, salt, cayenne, garam masala, paprika, and cumin. Scrape the mixture into a 1-gl/3.8-L resealable plastic bag, add the chicken wings, turn them to coat in the marinade, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

  Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a wire cooling rack on top of the baking sheet. Arrange the chicken wings in a single layer on the rack and bake them for 35 minutes.

  Remove the wings from the oven and baste them with the chutney. Continue to roast until the wings are slightly charred around the edges and getting crispy, another 15 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with salt, and set aside to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

  Farm Yarn:

  The Birds of American Masala Farm

  When Charlie and I bought our farm, one of our (many) missions was to populate it with heritage breeds of animals from the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) watch list. The ALBC is committed to conserving rare breeds of livestock and ensuring that animals in the United States remain genetically diverse. Not only do the animals add their beauty and charm to the farm, but whenever we host houseguests, we can introduce them to the animals and help others become aware of these uniquely wondrous and endangered creatures that provide both beauty and delicious sustenance.

  We started out small, ordering 36 chickens to begin with. Now we have more than 120 and, once a year, we add a few more girls of different breeds—we have more than three dozen varieties of heritage breeds to call our own. Everyone told me that I was crazy for bringing so many breeds together in the same area, that the chickens would get stressed and not lay eggs. Did we prove them wrong! We get more eggs than we know what to do with. Yes, we do have to protect the prima donnas like the bouffant-coiffed French Crèvecoeurs, Houdans, and Polish girls from the more aggressive girls (in some ways, I wonder if the pretty girls get picked on because the other chickens are jealous), and we have learned to segregate the baby chicks from the grown chickens, but, besides that, there is generally peace and harmony in the henhouse.

  Our custom-made coop with its skylights, picture windows that frame pastoral vistas, and high ceilings (no stooping necessary when it’s time to clean the coop or collect eggs) is divided in two, with the smaller part used as the nursery where the chicks stay for about three weeks, without any bullying to contend with, before being allowed to socialize through the chicken fence with the bigger birds. This also gives Charlie and me the opportunity to get to know the new girls, gets them used to being handled and petted, and allows us to spoil them a bit.

  Once they are nearly the same size as the more mature girls, they get full access to the coop. We introduce them during the night, because that is when the birds are at their most docile. You see, the minute the sun sets, chickens pretend that the world has ended—they just drop! We open the coop door, bring the younger birds in, and leave them on a perch. In the morning, they all wake up together and think they have lived together their whole lives. It’s a beautiful thing.

  The Chickens of American Masala Farm

  ancona: White-tipped black-feathered birds, once Europe’s primary egglaying breed

  andalusian: Long-legged blue-toned birds

  araucana: South American birds with incredible copper and metallic-green coloring

  belgian d’uccle: Beautifully mottled and friendly birds, often referred to as Mille Fleur

  black australorp: Incredible egg layers with metallic blue-green and black feathers

  brown-spotted buttercup: A small ornamental breed from Sicily

  buckeye: Friendly birds native to Ohio that are excellent mouse hunters

  chantecler: A hardy cold-weather Canadian breed that lays eggs throughout the winter

  cuckoo marans: Gentle French hens known for chocolate-brown eggs

  delaware: Primarily white-feathered birds that were once the most popular broiler breed in the United States

  dominique: Developed from the first pilgrim chickens during the settlement of New England

  dorking: One of the oldest breeds of chickens, believed to have been introduced to England by the Romans

  french crèvecoeurs: Solid black-crested ornamental birds

  houdan: A stunning, speckled, and bearded five-toed and crested chicken related to the Crèvecoeur and Polish breeds.

  jersey giant: The largest pure-breed chickens—hens can weigh up to 10 lb/4.5 kg!

  lakenvelder: A breed that goes back to the Levant and ancient times

  minorca: Stately birds with long, angular bodies

  new hampshire red: Classic red hens that are great egg layers

  orpington: A heavily feathered, hardy English bird

  pened
esenca: Spanish breed famous for its chocolate-brown-shelled eggs

  phoenix: A stunning Japanese chicken whose long tail feathers can exceed 20 ft/6 m in length

  polish: Beautiful breed with large crests of feathers on top of their heads

  rhode island reds: Great egg layers

  sebright: A gorgeous chicken in miniature, with stunning laced plumage

  silver-spangled hamburg: Dalmatian-like speckled birds

  wyandotte: An easygoing bird indigenous to New York state

  Other Birds at the Farm

  Besides our beloved collection of heritage-breed chickens, Charlie and I have amassed flocks of geese, ducks, and even guinea hens.

  Contrary to popular belief, heritage geese are not aggressive or mean. Sure, they’ll hiss at Charlie and me when we approach them, but once we get close, they clam up and let us take their giant eggs without any fight (just one goose egg is equal to about four chicken eggs). We have mushroom-brown-colored American Buffs and white Tufted Romans, both docile, friendly breeds. They have even crossbred to create Tufted Buffs, adorable geese that look like American Buffs except with a pouf on top of their heads. Although the geese are foragers, we supplement their natural diet with grain. And even though they can’t really fly away (they’ll only get knee-high off the ground), treating them twice a day to a snack is our way of keeping them comfortable and letting them know that our farm is their home.

  The ducks on our farm are from two breeds that need to be preserved: the striking beetle-shell-green Cayuga and the Buff Duck. We bring them in as babies and provide for them during the first few months so that they will think of us as their pack leader. Feeding them grain gets them used to human contact. This way, if we have visitors who want to lift a goose or duck, we can make that happen without a fuss. They forage around but won’t leave the farm.

  The snappiest birds on the farm are perhaps the most beautiful—the guinea hens. They’re so pretty that guests often wonder if they’re baby peacocks. While we keep them separate from the chickens (they’ve killed one of our roosters), they are an important addition to our flock, as they control the ticks on the property. Since we have Lyme disease–causing deer ticks, we view the guinea hens as a valued addition to our farm. During summertime, they also provide us with delicious eggs just a tad bigger than a quail’s. We have many varieties including Jumbo Pearl, Lavender, Buff Dundotte, Slate, Purple, Coral Blue, and Chocolate.

  Kerala Egg Roast

  Joshua Thomas, the former executive sous chef at my restaurant, Dévi, stayed with us at the farm one New Year’s Eve. It was wonderful ringing in the New Year with a fellow New Yorker, and even better sitting down to the lovely breakfast he made for us on New Year’s Day. Joshua made this egg roast, a dish that has been a Christmas Day tradition in his family since he was a child. The key is lots of onions, thinly sliced and slowly cooked until they melt into one another, becoming sticky sweet and deeply flavorful. The eggs are hard-boiled and then cooked in the onions along with tomato and plenty of spices, creating a dish that instantly transported me to the coastal canals of Kerala in southwest India. Charlie and I have made it dozens of times since then, and it never fails to please. Do take the effort to grind the finishing powder in a mortar and pestle just before serving—you will be amply rewarded.

  Serves 6

  ¼ to 1/3 cup/60 to 80 ml canola or grapeseed oil

  20 fresh or 30 frozen curry leaves (see Farmhouse Basics)

  6 whole cloves

  4 bay leaves

  4 whole green cardamom pods

  2-in/5-cm cinnamon stick

  ½ tsp cumin seeds

  2-in/5-cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced

  4 large red onions, halved and very thinly sliced

  ½ tsp ground turmeric

  1½ tsp kosher salt

  ¼ tsp fennel seeds

  ¼ tsp roughly ground black peppercorns

  12 hard-boiled eggs, peeled

  1 medium tomato, halved, cored, and finely chopped, or cup/80 ml canned or boxed chopped tomatoes (preferably the Pomì brand)

  1 bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped

  Heat the canola oil with the curry leaves, cloves, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon stick, and cumin seeds in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat until the cinnamon begins to unfurl, 2 to 3 minutes, stirring often so the cumin seeds don’t burn. Stir in the ginger and cook until it becomes sticky and fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the onions, turmeric, and salt; reduce the heat to low; and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are deeply browned and caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes. If they start to stick to the bottom of the pot or get too dark, splash the pan with a bit of water and stir up the sticky bits at the bottom of the pot.

  While the onions caramelize, grind the fennel seeds and peppercorns into a fine powder using a mortar and pestle or spice grinder (if using a spice grinder, you may need to double the amount so that the spices get finely ground).

  Add the hard-boiled eggs to the pan with the onions and gently roll them to coat with the onion mixture. Fry the eggs until a light brown skin forms, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir the tomato into the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomato juices have evaporated and the onions look jammy, 4 to 6 minutes. Stir in the cilantro, cook for 1 minute, and then stir in the fennel-peppercorn powder. Serve immediately.

  Veal Chops with Mustard-Herb Sauce

  When it comes to entertaining, Charlie and I are not known for our restraint, and there are a few dishes we have created that get requested time and time again by friends who visit. This is one of those dishes, first served to our dear friends from England. They couldn’t stop talking about it, so we decided to try it out on others and, before we knew it, these simple pan-seared chops with an aromatic mustard sauce became one of our most-requested dinner recipes. It is made extra-special by the beautiful long-bone veal chops from Allen Brothers, a specialty meat purveyor known for its sinfully delicious beef, lamb, and humanely raised Meadow Reserve veal. The meat is so succulent, tender, and melt-in-your-mouth incredible that we try to fuss with it as little as possible. While adding bacon and crème fraîche may seem like gilding the lily, they’ll elicit outrageous groans of pleasure from your tablemates and are well worth the splurge. I serve this with the Farmhouse Crispy-Creamy Potatoes and sometimes a simple roasted vegetable.

  Serves 4

  Four 8-oz/225-g veal chops

  Kosher salt

  Freshly ground black pepper

  1 tbsp canola or grapeseed oil

  8 strips bacon, sliced crosswise into ¼-in/6-mm pieces

  24 pearl onions, peeled, or 2 large red onions, coarsely chopped

  ½ tsp finely minced fresh rosemary

  ½ tsp finely minced fresh thyme

  ¼ tsp finely minced fresh lemon verbena (optional)

  1 tbsp all-purpose flour

  ¾ cup/175 ml rich white wine (like an un-oaky Chardonnay)

  ¾ cup/175 ml room-temperature veal or beef stock, plus cup/80 ml if necessary

  1/3 cup/80 ml crème fraîche, store-bought or homemade (see recipe), or cup/80 ml heavy cream

  2 tbsp Dijon mustard

  1 tbsp finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

  Season both sides of the chops liberally with salt and pepper and set aside.

  Heat the canola oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the bacon and fry until lightly browned, stirring occasionally, 3 to 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a small bowl and set aside.

  Add the onions to the frying pan and cook, stirring often, until they’re evenly browned on all sides, 7 to 10 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer them to a medium bowl and set aside.

  Increase the heat to medium-high, place the chops in the frying pan, and cook without moving until they’re nicely seared and brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Use a spatula to flip the chops and sear the other side, 2 to 3 minutes longer. Transfer the chops to a large plate and set aside.

  Stir the rosemary,
thyme, lemon verbena (if using), and ¼ tsp pepper into the drippings in the pan and cook until they become fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. While stirring constantly, stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute before whisking in the wine, making sure to completely incorporate it into the flour mixture before pouring in the stock. Bring to a boil and then return the bacon and chops to the pan, making sure the chops are resting flat on the bottom of the frying pan. Return the onions to the frying pan, cover, reduce the heat to low, and cook until the chops are just slightly underdone (they’ll be soft in the center), about 25 minutes. Uncover the frying pan, turn the chops over, re-cover, and cook until the chops are cooked to your liking, 5 to 8 minutes for medium-rare or 8 to 10 minutes for medium. (At this point, if the sauce seems jammy rather than saucy, add up to 1/3 cup/80 ml more stock.)

  Transfer the chops to individual plates or a serving platter and stir the crème fraîche into the sauce. Bring to a simmer, then stir in the mustard and parsley. Turn off the heat immediately (if allowed to simmer, the sauce will become bitter). Adjust the sauce with salt and pepper if needed, spoon it over the chops, and serve.

  Masala Chateaubriand

  For holidays and special gatherings, few cuts can surpass a chateaubriand beef tenderloin. Without any bones to navigate, it’s easy to carve at the table, and its tenderness and juicy qualities make it a crowd favorite. Nothing proves that fact more than praise from your guests. One Christmas Eve at the farm, our caretaker, Mark Durrin, and his fifteen-year-old son, Austin, joined us at the table. After Austin’s third helping of the chateaubriand, he said that if this was the quality of the meat we always served at our table, he’d be happy to join us for a meal anytime. If a young adult can be so effusive about quality, that’s all the encouragement I need to justify the expense and the splurge. Since the meat is so lovely, I keep the preparation simple—just some spices and herbs—that’s it. One guest said that the simplicity and ease alone justify the cost of the roast, while another contended that eating a quality steak at home far surpasses any pricey steakhouse experience. When the steak is servced alongside our Farmhouse Crispy-Creamy Potatoes, Simple Marinated Peppers, cranberry relish, coleslaw, and cornbread, I’d have to agree. Wagyu beef tenderloin (the beautifully marbled beef that made Kobe, Japan, famous) from Allen Brothers is a total splurge, but well worth it, especially when you’re gathered with special friends and family during the holidays. It’s easy to cook more than one roast for more guests, too.