Shef's Kitchen

Eating Global. Staying Seasonal. Keeping Healthy.

Cumin, Roasted Please.

There is no such thing as a small bottle of cumin powder or even a tin of it in the masala dabba (aka masala box) in my mom's kitchen drawer. Surprised? She is Indian after all. She's a Gujarati Indian and many of the Gujarati Indians that I knew growing up use dhaana-jiru, a blend of varying ratios of ground coriander and ground cumin.  A larger jar of this staple spice, whose fragrance escapes quickly upon opening, sits in the pantry next to all the other jars of spices.  Smaller tins are kept near the stove in the masala dabba for easy access.  Whole cumin seeds also ... read more

Theplaa (Metthi Parathas)

I always grew up knowing these flatbreads as theplaa, though some do call them methi parathas. I put 2 “a”s in them because that’s how you pronounce them: THHEP-LAA.  It’s one of those Gujarati words which when you mention to your other Indian teenage friends, or others that you meet for the first time, you get ridiculed for being “Guju”.  It’s just one of those words that make you sound as if you are not in fact an ABCD (American-Born Confused Desi) even though you’re clearly American and Confused and Desi (Indian).  I’m still an ABCD, well into my thirties. I’m sure I’ll never have it ... read more

Iron Chef Competition: The Saucy Patels’ Recipe

Here's a quickly written recipe for the dish our group created from the Iron Chef Cooking Competition from what I remember (note that the measurements in this recipe are just an estimate, since we did absolutely no measuring of anything at all): Iron Chef Competition: The Saucy Patels’ Recipe For the rice:3 cups cooked basmati rice2-3 tablespoons butter or ghee1/2 cup golden raisins or sultanas1 onion (finely chopped)2 teaspoons crushed saffron mixed into 1/2 cup warm milkFor the crunchy layer:2-3 tablespoons butter or ghee1 cup whole cashews (salted or unsalted)For the ... read more

Iron Chef Competition: A Recipe Worth Re-creating

Last weekend I was invited to participate in an Iron Chef cooking competition.  It was a beautifully planned and detailed event and was executed flawlessly, much like the actual TV show, which the host and hostess of the party watch regularly.  (I've actually never seen one complete Iron Chef show, believe it or not!  Or Top Chef!  What a shameless Shef I am ;) The splendid kitchen was large enough to accommodate many cooks, a dream kitchen for many including myself!  Signs posting the rules were framed, namecards were designed for the teams, and the secret ingredient was draped under a ... read more

Spices Within Your Reach: Masala Box or Masala Dabba

Usually holding about 7 spices or spice blends (masala), the masala dabba is buried in every Indian cook's drawer space near the stovetop.  It is a plate-sized stainless steel lidded container with a circle of small tins adjacently seated, surrounding one tin in the middle, much like members of a circular audience watching a central stage.  Not kept airtight as you would suspect spices should be, the dabba is a place to store a few week's worth spices nearby, therefore avoiding having to do any kind of mise en place prepping for the cooking process. Why mise when masala's right ... read more

Indian-American Tea Sandwiches

"Curried Chicken Salad" always comes to mind and is often an entry under tea sandwiches in modern cookbooks. Many make curried chicken salad sandwiches. People are always looking for something new, a twist on a tradition, a slight variation to the norm. So, inspired by an issue last October (yes last Fall!) in the Food and Life section in the Austin-American Statesman, I gathered a few ideas for tea sandwiches, some with an Indian flair. These sandwiches are great in lunchboxes by the way. Kids love the crustless. And tea sandwiches are crustless little wonders that please even adults' ... read more

Paneer Korma

As promised, here's a recipe for a homestyle paneer korma. This won't be like what you find in typical Indian restaurants.  The cloying sweet kormas in Indian restaurants are rich and heavy, perfect for a luxurious meal when dining out especially if you’re ready to sleep off the meal later.  But to cook it at home, most would prefer a lighter and less sweet curry.  Kormas usually have a bit of sugar added into the recipe, but I've left it out in this version. This version, modified from a Nita Mehta recipe by way of method and measurements, comes from her book Mughlai Khanna. It is not a ... read more

French Fridays with Dorie: Paris Mushroom Soup

This soup (part of the online cooking club French Fridays with Dorie) has got to be one of the easiest dishes I've made in a few weeks. Saute onions and garlic, add white button mushrooms, really good wine, puree. And there you have it. Well, there's a bit more to it than that, and it includes a funny story. I go out in the VERY dark front yard. On the curbside is our vastly growing rosemary bush, which I have snipped from many a time.  I go out barefoot, in the cold, needing my rosemary desperately since the herbs had to be added ASAP, and because this is how I cook!  Iff I leave the cooking ... read more

Testing a Recipe

I'm always testing recipes. They're usually my own recipes that I've transcribed from jotting down notes collected from years of observing older Indian women cooking, in India and here.  From my mom to mother-in-law to other people's mothers and great-aunts and even many hired cooks (maharaja is the term in India, but we call it personal chef here), I've learned a lot. A LOT.  But when I try something new that I didn't grow up cooking, it needs work. A LOT of work.  Paneer korma is one of those dishes. It's of Punjabi origin, and I surprisingly have no family living in any area of Punjab (and ... read more

Baking in Texas

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Do you really want to do that in July in Texas? I'd much rather save my baking for Fall and Winter and that's what gets us Texans so excited about the cold!  We get to don our coats and boots and oven mitts. Ok, not in that order. So in my kitchen, every November and December, the oven is on a lot. Butter is used by the boxes and sugar is measured out in cups.  So far, I've baked less than I would have liked. I really have an obsession. Every December around holiday season, I convince myself to go to pastry school.  And then the wintry feeling goes away as ... read more

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Welcome to a new world of food! I'm Shef and this site showcases the diversity of ingredients worldwide, making them approachable, and using them in familiar recipes.


I aim to do this using seasonal produce and sustainably-raised animal sources to accommodate our family's varied diets. But most importantly, I strive for nutrient-dense well-balanced meals (with room for sugar) so I can be a centenarian one day! more please

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