It’s more deli than Delhi, but this week, we bring you curry chicken salad. We all crave it, many of you have asked for it, and Mel cut her culinary teeth at Joan’s on Third, where she clocked hundreds of pounds of curry chicken salad.
The dosa kit is back. This meal in the making comes from Jordan Maseng, a Chez Panisse alum and devoted student of world cuisines. His curiosity has led to extensive traveling, tinkering, and the resulting dosa project is one of our favorites. Dosas are thin pancakes made from fermented rice and lentil batter originally from Southern India. This kit comes with enough batter to make 4 large crepes and plenty of rich masala potatoes and tomato-roasted peanut chutney to fill them with. There are a limited number of dosa kits available, but plenty more Indian fare here…
We’re making chicken tikka masala (organic chicken breast meat in a rich and creamy spiced tomato sauce) and saag paneer (creamed spinach with cubes of fresh cheese.) And our friends at Forage are making us a batch of red lentil soup. These can be reheated in minutes or frozen for another time. Just get yourself some basmati rice whenever you indulge.
There’s also raita and extra tomato-roasted peanut chutney, which are delicious on grilled lamb chops, roast whole organic chicken, or seared branzino filets over rice. The tomato-peanut chutney is great on roasted carrots and cauliflower, both in the produce box, along with sugar snap peas, mint, cilantro, and anything else we can find that works well with Indian foods and flavors.
Yogurt provides a cool layer to this richness, so we are offering our favorite local kefir-style yogurt from Aris Natural Food in Inglewood. This strained yogurt is dense and creamy, –plain yogurt can be layered with other flavors and sweetened to your liking. A spoonful of mango or lemon yogurt can finish a meal on a sweet note.
We’re also stocking up on some of our favorite snacks. Organic, roasted pistachios in the shell with addictive lemon zinger seasoning from Santa Barbara Pistachio Company are one of Sam’s pantry staples. And K&K Ranch’s plumpest golden raisins are great with the pistachios or added to Mel’s curried chicken salad. There are also recipes on the website for saffron rice pudding (delicious garnished with golden raisins) and pickled golden raisins with chili and mustard seeds (terrific on grilled lamb chops.)
For something sweeter still, Proof’s pistachio cookies come ready to bake and enjoy with a cup of tea (maybe Darjeeling) on a wintery afternoon.