Cooking with Dr. Monkey

Today's episode:
Or Meatball Curry!

I decided it was high time to get in touch with my inner Asian, whose name by the way is Ravi Peshwar Goldstein, and I got out our Indian cookbook:Sparky bought this one a few years back and it's been a godsend after my heart attack. I've found all kinds of good stuff in here to make that is flavorful and way low in fat. Most every recipe I've ever made that's come out of this cookbook has been great. I wanted to cook something new so I chose meatball curry because we already had all the ingredients except for the ground turkey, which I bought later when I was out running errands.I started out by putting one pound of 93/7 ground turkey, and you can use ground beef if you like instead since the recipe calls for it and not turkey, and 2 tsp turmeric, 2 tsp chili powder, 1 1/4 tsp cumin, 1 tsp ground ginger, and 2 tsp salt in a bowl.Next I added one diced medium onion, 4 chopped up cloves of garlic, and one egg to the meat and spices. I mixed it all together and then I rolled out about 12 meatballs. I heated up some canola oil in a non stick frying pan and I put the meatballs in to cook.While the meatballs cooked I made a mint/cucumber yogurt sauce and I peeled and boiled four medium potatoes. When the meatballs had cooked on all sides I took them off the heat and I put in some more oil, about two tablespoons. To the hot oil I added another chopped onion, one third of a chopped up yellow bell pepper, a table spoon of cracked black pepper, and a dash of Spanish paprika. When the onion and pepper had cooked up a bit I put the meatballs back in and let them cook in the onion pepper mixture.

I mashed the potatoes when they got done and I made a small salad to go with our supper as well.When everything was done I served the meatballs over the potatoes and the salad on the side. Mmmmm, it was yummy despite me not putting in the 2 tsp of ground coriander in the meatballs that I was supposed to, I had forgotten we were out. The meatballs were very good and so was the salad but I had put a little too much milk in the mashed potatoes and they were a bit runny. Over all it was a good dinner and I'll be making meatball curry again.

A quick note about Indian food, stop being afraid to eat it if you never tried it before. Many people shy away from it thinking it is going to be too hot for their tastes, and those people are wrong as they can be. Most Indian good is indeed spicy but it's not spicy hot. Spice does not mean heat. Spice is a good thing, it adds flavor, a shit load of flavor if used correctly and if you follow the recipes in this cookbook you can't go wrong. Stop being a wuss when it comes to ethnic foods and try some Indian food sometime you big babies.