venturing into the unknown, again.

i know woefully little about indian cuisine; i really do enjoy the food, but the opportunities to eat it are scarce in these parts--there's only one restaurant, and i don't really know anyone here who cooks or eats indian food on a regular basis. even when i was in los angeles, i rarely indulged in it, as there weren't (aren't) many good indian restaurants; it was only when i started visiting the uk and hong kong more that i discovered how exceptional and varied the cuisine could be.

i've toyed with cooking some of the simpler dishes at home, and even purchased a couple of cookbooks, but nothing came of it. i've read through some of my favourite indian food blogs, but am still trying to get my head around all the regional specialties, the wondrous array of spices, and other exotic ingredients.



lately, though, i've been coming across a lot of indian food. at the salcedo market there was a stall selling meat and vegetable-filled samosas, flatbreads like naans, parathas, and pappadoms, and a spicy snack mix called chevro. my blog trawls show that the evil jungle prince has been concocting some tasty treats, roboppy's been carb feasting in the east village, and barbara's been examining an interesting leaf. locally, my friend, ronnie, had offered a tasty three-course dinner menu at her resto, and i read in the paper about a new-to-me indian foods and spice shop on island.

so i went to pomika sales, as mentioned in the article. it turns out that it is across the street from where i work, conveniently located adjacent to the golden motel (half-hourly and hourly rates available), inside meena's jeans for guys and gals (it's a clothing store--get your mind out of the gutter). meena's has been around since the eighties, and it looks like most of the stock as been around since then too. not that there's anything wrong with that--i'm told the eighties are back in fashion. there are also some fabulous cheapie beaded ethnic-y boho clothes, but i'm not sure if there's any traditional stuff (if they did i'd been making a joke about sari-saris and saris that three people would get, and no one would laugh. okay, moving on). anyway, pomika is in the back, in a room that has never seen daylight, where perhaps the saleswomen have lunch during the day, and perhaps the local chapter of the fight club meets at night. it's a bit...dire, with just barely adequate fluorescent tube lights, a hodgepodge of bare, makeshift shelves and an alarmingly large display of outdated products (forty percent off). stock takes up about half the room, there's a small display of indian dvds for rent or for sale, and the saleswomen...are having lunch on the other side of the room. anyway, so what if the room reminds me of the movie "hostel"--the vibe is one of complete disinterest (one point in its favour), it is clean despite appearances (2 points), the inventory is surprisingly good (97 points), and very, very affordable (A+ for effort). i ended up buying a bottle of rosewater, some methi (fenugreek seeds), whole cloves, and a packet of mixed whole spices for garam masala, all for slightly under $5.

although i bought all this stuff, i didn't actually know what i was going to do with it. it took j's post about her homecooked indian meal to spur me into action. unfortunately, one of the main ingredients--paneer--can't be bought on island. damn, skippy. what's a lactose craving island girl to do?



ah, blessed are the homemade cheesemakers, for they will blog. heidi, clotilde, and sam have all made ricotta cheese at home, and since that is what paneer basically is, i tried the same recipe they did, and goshdarnit, it worked. the only difference was that after squeezing out the whey, i kept it in its cloth and i placed it in the fridge overnight, under a weighted plate, to compress and dry out further. in the morning i had a fat slab ready to cube for my spinach dish.



the saag paneer, was excellent (thank you, j!), and much easier to make than i had expected. buoyed by a double success, i looked around the nets to see if i could find another recipe using the cheese. i found that paneer, if kept slightly softer with more liquid in the curds, is often used in desserts, so i set out to make two similar sweets that caught my eye: rasgulla and ras malai. since i'd never made either, i decided to read as many recipes online as i could find, then experiment with the most common directions amongst them.

i again made a batch of cheese, but this time i didn't drain it as well as the previous batch, and instead of refrigerating it immediately, i kept it in the cloth, and kneaded it, to make it into a smooth dough. i shaped this dough into small walnut-sized balls, taking care to keep them as light as possible, then dropped them into simmering water. as soon as they puffed up a bit and floated to the surface, i placed them in a shallow dish. i poured a slightly-reduced simple sugar syrup, flavoured with freshly ground cardamom over them, then put them in the fridge to macerate overnight.



the first dessert was rasgulla: the cold syrup-soaked paneer balls were served as is, with some of the syrup, and a sprinkling of rosewater and chopped pistachios. it was sweet, dense, lightly flowery, lightly nutty.



the second was ras malai: instead of serving the paneer with the macerating syrup, i drenched the balls in cream infused with cardamom and cinnamon, then slightly reduced and cooled, along with a splash of orange flower water. this was fantastically rich, with a surprising bit of heat from the spice coming through the cool cream. although i enjoyed them as these were, it might be interesting to try these warm, with a fine grating of orange zest on top.

i'd never had either dessert before; i found the paneer balls slightly firmer than i prefer, but i'm not actually sure what the texture should be like. jeffrey steingarten once complained that these little balls had the texture of "day old bubblegum" (i assumed pre-chewed, but maybe not)--if that's what they are supposed to be like, these definitely fit the bill. i know that proteins toughen up under heat, so i'm wondering if i cooked them for too long; two subsequent batches (one with the addition of a couple tablespoonfuls of flour as suggested by some recipes, one without), proved that a shorted cooking time helpful, but i still found them a bit...bouncy for my liking. i think i would like these to be a bit spongey, but truthfully, i found the warm, just-made ricotta's texture to be really ideal for something like this.

my reservations and uncertainties have not set me back; if anything, i am now made more curious, and eager to expand my indian palate, both at home and beyond.


pomika sales,
inside meena's,
chalan san antonio, tamuning.
646.2970.