Getting Acquainted with the Cuisine
When I think of Indian cuisine, I picture a big pot of curried stew, served over fragrant rice, with naan bread and a generous dollop of Major Grey's Mango Chutney. But in perusing my cookbooks for Indian recipes, I discovered a whole new world of dishes I'd never heard of, especially when it came to the vegetables and chutneys. The recurring ingredients appear to be yogurt, mint, corriander, chili peppers, turmeric, cumin, cardamom, mustard seeds, ginger, onion, coconut milk, a clarified butter called 'ghee', and a spice blend called 'garam masala'. My reasearch has really made me keen to experiment, so I'm looking forward to preparing such an exotic meal.
01:28 PM PDT Permalink |

Looking for Recipes
As always, I got out all my cookbooks in search of recipes for this month's Dinner & a Movie project. This time, the ones that looked most promising for Indian food were The Cooking of India from the Time Life Foods of the World series, The Joy of Cooking, and Madhur Jaffrey's Quick and Easy Indian Cooking. Rene gave me that one for Christmas a couple of years ago, but I have yet to try a recipe from it. The Cooking of India has lots of unusual stuff, and believe it or not, The Joy of Cooking has at least a dozen Indian recipes that look quite tasty and interesting. The Joy of Cooking is usually the place I turn to for classic dishes, but this new edition has lots more creative ethnic recipes than the old one. In my search, I found so many choices in the cookbooks I already have that I felt no need whatsoever to go on the Internet for anything except a chutney recipe or two.
12:04 AM PDT Permalink |

My Experience with Indian Cuisine
I still remember the first time I ever tasted curry. It was at the antebellum home of a flamboyantly gay elderly gentleman in Mobile, Alabama, my hometown. And believe it or not, the choice of meat for his curry dish was goat. I've always been fairly adventuresome when it comes to food, although there are things that I patently refuse to eat, namely the brains, heart, tongue, liver, kidneys, tripe or sexual organs of any animal, anything in the insect family, any endangered species, and anything too slimy or stinky. That still leaves lots of room for some interesting choices, like cactus, snails, raw oysters, squid, venison, squirrel, alligator, and yes, even goat. On the buffet table that day, the goat was cooked to perfection, and the sauce was a lovely shade of cellophane yellow, not too mild, but not too spicy either. I was hooked. However, it would still be several years before I attempted a batch of curry in my own kitchen, and you can bet it wasn't goat.

Since then I've made dozens of pots of curry and eaten in lots of Indian restaurants. My favorite so far is Gaylord's at Ghiradelli Square in San Francisco. They make the most heavenly Mulligatawny Soup I've ever tasted, not to mention the rustic naan bread and every kind of tandoori, vindaloo and curry dish imaginable.

When I lived in Tokyo, we used to experiment with lots of homemade curry recipes using a mortar and pestle to grind the spices. We also ate our fair share of Japanese curry mixes, a popular quick-fix meal. I must admit however, that now, when I make curry at home, I use a store bought curry powder and just add lots of it to a big pot of meat and vegetables. I found one that suits my tastes nicely, the only problem is that I no longer remember where I bought it and I'm about to use up the last of it. So it may be time for me to learn how to blend my own.
12:06 AM PDT Permalink |

Welcome to Dinner & a Movie for the Month of August
After all the soy sauce and ginger I've been using for the past three months, I'm good and ready for a change of cuisine. So, for the month of August, I'm heading for India, figuratively speaking, of course. Somehow the summer heat feels just right for a big pot of curry, and all the cool side dishes that go with it. With that in mind, last night I browsed through all my cookbooks for recipes. While I was at it, I decided on this month's film, and came up with Monsoon Wedding. I've seen previews for it on other videos, and have been curious to see it ever since. It's gotten nothing but good reviews and looks like a it's going to be a rich and colorful cinematic experience. I've already ordered a copy of it from Amazon.com, which should arrive in plenty of time for the day I have chosen for Dinner & a Movie. Can't wait!
12:04 AM PDT Permalink |

Next Month's Dinner & a Movie
After cooking Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean foods for my first three Dinner & a Movie projects, I'm ready for a change of flavors. Not that each of those three cuisines doesn't have its own deliciously unique qualities, but I'm in the mood for something that isn't based on soy sauce or nuoc mam as the main flavoring ingredient. So, I'm going to point my palate in a southwesterly direction, to India this time. Curry is a cuisine with which I am well acquainted, and I'm looking forward to experimenting with several new types. And with the proliferation of Bollywood films out there, I'm sure to find something worth watching.
12:13 AM PDT Permalink |

301/302 Dinner & a Movie Recipes and Photos

My Korean 301/302 Dinner & a Movie was a success from start to finish. Here is a link to all the Recipes and Photos.

08:07 PM PDT Permalink |

Film Review: 301/302

Both the dinner and the movie were delicious! Here is a link to my review of Cheol-su Park's 1995 film 301/302.

11:06 AM PDT Permalink |

A Tally of the Cost of Dinner (in U.S.$)
The cost of the ingredients for my 301/302 Korean dinner are listed below. Keep in mind that the prices are based on buying everything new rather than using ingredients that I already had in my pantry. Of course there were lots of things left over for future meals, so the actual cost of the dinner based on the quantities of the ingredients used to make the dishes will be much lower than the grand total of stocking a pantry from scratch for preparing Korean cuisine.

Specialty Ingredients:

Chili Paste - 1.69
Panko bread crumbs - 2.99
Fish sauce - 3.49
Sesame oil - 1.99
Rice wine vinegar - 2.29
Mirin - 3.79
Sake - 6.99
Beer - 7.99
Soy sauce - 2.99
Turmeric - 3.99

Fresh Ingredients:

Large Prawns - 3.49
Beef sirloin - 4.72
Pork loin chops - 4.29
Chicken breasts - 1.99
Cucumbers - 1.98
Scallions - .69
Carrots - .52
Bell pepper -.62
Zucchini - .39
Mushrooms - 1.39
Ginger root - 1.23
Daikon radish - .55
Garlic - .64
Sesame Seeds - .99
Pear - .59
Lettuce & Baby Greens - 4.28
Napa cabbage - 1.01
Mint - 1.39
Bok choy - 1.14

Basics:

Flour - 1.89
Eggs - 1.79
Oil -.2.49
Sugar - 1.19
Brown sugar - 1.99

Total: $79.45
01:01 AM PDT Permalink |

My 301/302 Dinner & a Movie: How Everything Turned Out
Our 301/302 Korean Dinner & a Movie was just terrific. Serving everything all at once was both a challenge and a pleasure. It's tricky getting all the hot dishes to come off the stove simultaneously, but getting to sit down and enjoy the meal without having to make multiple trips to the kitchen for consecutive courses is so much more relaxed.

The kimchi and pickles were a very interesting flavor complement, the deep fried shrimp with chili mayonnaise stole the show (by far, the tastiest item on the menu), the vegetable pancake was a really nice alternative to the simple stir fry common to so many Asian meals, and grilling the beef, chicken, shrimp and pork at the table was definitely a wise decision. My little electric grill was just the right size for a serving of each of the meat items. I made a plain and a spicy version of each one, and alternated them throughout the meal while we enjoyed the accompanying dishes. For dessert, I sliced up three fresh peaches that one of my local clients gave me and marinated them in rice wine with a tablespoon of sugar. The result was delightful. The peaches absorbed the flavor of the spirits, and the rice wine was infused with the essence of the fruit. Yum! I couldn't find any Korean beer or wine, so we had to settle for Chinese Tsingtao beer, which was the perfect beverage to go with the meal. Everything was simply delicious.

And as a bonus, PBS aired the original version of The Manchurian Candidate. What a timely coincidence for our Korean themed meal. I'd been curious to finally see it, especially since a remake is coming out soon. I also find it too distracting to watch a subtitled film while eating an elaborate meal, so I didn't want to start our evening's feature film until after we had finished dinner. When The Manchurian Candidate was over, as planned, we watched 301/302, a Korean film about two young women who live next door to each other. The 1995 film, directed by Cheol-su Park, stars Eun-jin Bang as a lusty and sensual cook who lives in apartment 301, and Sin-Hye Hwang as a sexually repressed anorexic writer who lives in apartment 302. When the cook tries to entice the writer to enjoy a gourmet meal, her refusal sparks a feud that sends both women spiraling into memories of their tormented pasts. Never having seen the film, it was somewhat of a gamble, but one that paid off in spades. It's not going to be easy writing a review of it without divulging it's many surprises.

The one thing I did not do during the cooking process was to keep up with washing the dishes throughout the meal preparation. So...unfortunately when the meal was over, my kitchen looked like a typhoon had swept through it. Even though I was exhausted from a long day on my feet, I tidied up a little and put away the leftovers before heading off to bed, leaving the dishes for the next morning. But now that it's done, even though it required such great effort, my 301/302 Korean Dinner & a Movie was a relaxed evening of food, film and fun from beginning to end.
12:02 AM PDT Permalink |

Preparing the Kitchen, Assembling Cooking Utensils, and Prepping Dishes Ahead
It's the eve of my 301/302 Korean Dinner & a Movie, and I spent most of the evening cleaning and organizing my kitchen, setting the table and preparing certain elements of the dinner ahead of time. I made sweet & sour daikon pickles, spicy kimchi, and two grill marinades, one with chili garlic paste, and the other with soy, ginger, and sake. I also trimmed and sliced all the meats for the mixed grill and put them in separate containers to marinate overnight. So, with the exception of the fresh vegetables for the salad and side dishes, I feel very well prepared for tomorrow's Korean extravaganza. And since I've done so much prep work ahead, I think the cooking process will go much more smoothly and efficiently than before, and hopefully we can sit down to dinner at a more timely hour than last time.
02:21 AM PDT Permalink |

Shopping for Fresh Ingredients
Today I went shopping for all my fresh ingredients. I called around ahead of time and found the only grocery store in town that carries commercially prepared kimchi. I want to make up a fresh batch myself, and serve the packaged version next to it for comparison. I also bough an array of fresh vegetables: daikon radish, napa cabbage, bok choy, carrots, baby greens, fresh mint, garlic, red onion, scallions, zucchini, and mushrooms. For the mixed grill meats, I chose boneless pork loin chops, a sirloin strip steak, chicken breasts, and prawns. At the last minute, I opted against lamb chops, because they just didn't seem appropriate for Korean food...and they were $10 per pound, with the bone. I think we'll all be happy with the meats I've chosen. I didn't like the look of any of the fresh fruits, so I didn't buy any. I'll have to shop for that tomorrow. And besides, I still have to buy beverages to go with the dinner. When I went to check out, the clerk commented that I must be making something really exotic, so I told her all about my Korean Dinner & a Movie project.
01:22 AM PDT Permalink |

Experimenting with the Camera
My son Will got out the digital camera today and experimented with a few close-up shots of various food items. He took photos of a dish of tiny sembei crackers, a jalapeno pepper, half a cantaloupe, and a tub of pickled ginger, with very good results. The details were quite clear, and the resolution appears good enough for print production. I now feel confident that he will be able to take beautiful photographs of my 301/302 Korean dinner later this week.
12:23 AM PDT Permalink |

Planning the Prep and Timing of the Meal
For the first two Dinner & a Movie projects, my preparation time has run way over schedule and we've ended up sitting down to the main course much later than I had originally intended. So this time, since the ingredients and cooking techniques are so simple, I'm going to do as much of the preparation ahead of time as possible, and I'm hoping that I will be able to prepare the meat and seafood for the main course at the table on a small electric grill while we enjoy the soup and salad. The fried rice calls for leftover jasmine rice that was cooked the day before, and the vegetable medey can be par-steamed so that I can bring them up to serving temperature in a couple of minutes without overcooking. And I will probably concoct some kind of complementary marinade for the fresh fruit so that I can leave it basking in its juices until serving time.
12:07 PM PDT Permalink |

Reviewing the Recipes
Since I'm still a neophyte when it comes to Korean cuisine, I reviewed my recipes one more time just to be sure of all the ingredients and the timing of preparing the dishes. I'm going to shop a day or two early and make the kimchi ahead of time, using one of the quick-and-easy recipes. I will probably buy a jar of commerically prepared kimchi (if I can find one) just for comparison. And since I'm so new at making these dishes, I've kept the menu simple: a pan fried shrimp appetizer with a couple of tangy condiments, an iced cucumber soup, a simple green salad, and a mixed grill entree served with fried rice and a medley of fresh vegetables. Once the dinner has settled, I'll serve a fresh fruit dessert during an intermission of the film.
12:05 AM PDT Permalink |

Beverages to Go With My Korean Dinner
Korea produces several types of spirits, including yakju, a liquor fermented from rice; soju, a clear, strong distilled liquor made from sweet potatoes; takju, a thick, unfiltered liquor fermented from grain; a variety of fruit wines made from plums, cherries, and pomegranates, and certain types of medicinal spirits distilled from herbs, seeds and roots such as ginseng.

Drinking etiquette in Korea requires pouring beverages for each other. Younger people pour for their elders, and those with lower rank pour for their superiors. When pouring, the right sleeve should be held in place with the left hand, and glasses should never be allowed to run dry.

A popular Korean hangover cure called baejangguk is a broth made from beef bone and marrow, cabbage leaves and clotted ox blood. Baejangguk is often served by pubs in the early hours of the business day.
12:03 AM PDT Permalink |