Not the best Indian recipe ever, but it was probably my corn’s fault. That or my tomatoes. This could be a very acidic dish or a very sweet one, so it’s worth another shot in corn season. I’d also really appreciate someone else trying it and letting me know how it goes. I love a recipe that tells you to make it as hot as you can stand. That’s what Madhur Jaffrey says to do here. Hurray.
oil
black mustard seeds
cumin seeds
garlic clove, diced
Some potato(es), boiled and cut into small cubes
1 or 2 diced tomatoes
fresh cilantro, diced
fresh mint, diced
1 hot green chili (I used a red one. Maybe that’s why it wasn’t as great as it should have been?)
2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (make this recipe with frozen for convenience and fresh if you’ve got some spare time on your hands…)
3 oz coconut milk (I used almond milk so it wasn’t as thick and creamy. Maybe also why it wasn’t so great. Use a shot glass to get the 3 oz. I’m a Newfoundlander and so I had a 3 oz shot glass hanging around…if you’re not lucky enough to be from Newfoundland you will have to add a few shots together. Don’t worry, it’s just coconut milk…not coconut rum)
1/2 tsp salt
large pinch of cayenne
1 tbsp lemon juice (this felt like too much)
fresh ground pepper
2 tsp roasted and then ground cumin seeds (stick them in a frying pan over medium heat until they start to have an aroma, then remove from heat to an electric coffee grinder or mortar and pestle, and grind. Optionally put them in a paper or plastic bag, close the opening of the bag, and smash with something large…)
So first you want to boil the potato. You need to peel them afterward but you don’t need to do it in advance. If you boil them until they’re soft (this depends on how big they are) and then rinse them in cold water their skins tend to peel more easily, I’ve found. If you peel in advance I think you lose some nutrients. You can also chop them in quarters to boil them faster, but then it’s harder to peel and you lose nutrients. Not much harder, though. So it’s your choice.
While they’re boiling chop everything else and have it and all the spices measured and ready to go. This recipe goes fast.
All that are left to chop are the boiled, drained and skinned and potatoes, so do that and then heat a good few tbsp of oil in a large skillet on medium-high (Normally I would never use this much but you need it all to give the potatoes a nice crispy exterior. If you don’t mind mushy potatoes don’t use so much oil, but it really makes a difference). When hot, put in the mustard seeds and a big pinch of un-roasted cumin seeds. When the mustard seeds start to pop put in the garlic and potatoes. Stir for a few minutes and then add the tomato (or tomatoes, if they’re small), cilantro, mint and green chili (You can use a fair bit of each fresh spice. A good handful of fresh leaves of each). Two minutes later add the corn.
Stir until the herbs are mixed through the corn and then add the coconut milk (or almond milk. To make the almond milk thicker like coconut milk you could also put 6 oz of it in a saucepan over medium-high heat and let some of the water evaporate out of it until you have only 3 oz left. This just concentrates the flavour. Voila, evaporated milk. You can also just use water instead of coconut milk or almond milk, but again, not the same. Like the difference between sorbet and ice cream, it’s a big one. Not necessarily bad, and sometimes you want sorbet and sometimes you want ice cream, but it’s your choice and there’ll probably be more flavour overall with the coconut milk). Also add the salt, cayenne and lemon juice now. I didn’t know it was okay to add lemon juice this early in a recipe since it’s so pungent and I think it’s loses its pungency if you cook it for so long, but maybe that’s the intention here??
Bring the skillet to a simmer. This should just take a few seconds, but turn up the heat if it doesn’t happen soon. Then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the skillet, and let it simmer for 3 minutes. Don’t overcook the corn. You just want to heat it through. If the corn is really fresh it probably only needs about 2 minutes max.
While this is cooking put the 2 remaining teaspoons of cumin seeds in a small frying pan over medium-high heat (don’t use any oil) and cook them until they’re fragrant and slightly browned, just a few minutes. Then grind them. If you don’t have a convenient grinding device like a coffee grinder, make sure you don’t save this step until this late in the dinner game. Your corn will over-cook while you’re fussing with a plastic bag and mallet of some kind.
Now uncover the skillet, grind some black pepper over top along with the roasted and ground cumin seeds. Stir. Serve. Voila side dish.
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