Welcome to the mezze! (for the document with the shortcut matrix attached, click here)
Mezze is the Lebanese concept of the first course – a series of colorful and tasty dishes that are so good I seldom went back for the “main” course. The dishes are traditionally not put on individual plates, but rather passed back and forth and eaten with pieces of pita. The dishes back and forth and communal feeling are half the fun of the meal! Today, since there are so many dishes, I will go over the basic plan with the group as a whole, and then we can divide the tasks among us and get to work!

Hummus
Hummus is the Arabic word for the garbanzo bean. This dish’s name signifies how basic it is to the culture – it is the method of preparing garbanzo beans. There are many variations available to the inventive cook (some listed in my book) but today we’ll be doing this basic dish, with only a handful of ingredients:

chick peas    tahini        olive oil        lemon juice        salt

The key is to blend the chick peas with as little water as you can get away with and come out with a firm paste. Empty the paste from the blender and add in the other ingredients, a little at a time. When it gets enough cream and astringency from the tahini, switch to olive oil for more lubrication. Add lemon juice at the end to tie things together. Always add some olive oil to the top at the end. Paprika looks nice as well…

Babaganoush
This salad is based on a roasted eggplant (mutabbel). You can roast the eggplants in the coals of a fire, over the barbecue, or in your oven. I think it’s best in the coals, but decided we shouldn’t build a fire amidst all the beautiful foliage here. Fork the eggplants a few times to let out steam and prevent explosion. Roast them at 400 in the oven. Once the eggplants are liquidated inside, you can cut them in half and scrape out the pulp. Wait a few minutes to prevent small burns. Then mix with:

finely chopped onion    a little diced tomato    olive oil        lemon juice    chopped parsley
mashed roasted garlic    salt

Look at it like a piece of art. You want mostly pulp, with bright accents of red, white, and green. Add a little tahini as well to fatten it up. It’s the tahini that fends off any desire for a main course.

Tabbouleh
A quick and easy salad that owes its filling sustenance to the grain. Bulgar wheat is a sort of cracked wheat common in the Mediterranean climes. Along with garbanzo beans, it’s one of the main ingredients in falafel. Tabbouleh has two parts, perfectly timed:

Pour 2 cups of boiling water over 1 cup of bulgar. Cover and let it sit while you cut together:

cucumber (peeled and cored)    tomato            twice as much parsley as mint
a bit of olive oil and lemon juice            salt

Check the bulgar. It should be soft and fluffy by the time you finish chopping. If it is soft and there is still water left, you can drain it. Let it cool a bit and then stir everything together. As alwaysa, a hit of olive oil at the end never hurts.

Mahamra
Hamra means “red” in Arabic. Mahamra, then, is “that awesome red thing over there”. Which is pretty right on, and lucky for us, easy to make if you can find red bell peppers. Cut the red peppers in half, take out the veins and seeds (like last week) and broil them in the oven until the skins turn black. Let them sit in a paper bag to cool and then peel the skins off. Blend with:

a few walnuts, a little tomato, some roasted garlic, some chile peppers if you’re daring, olive oil

You can think of it as a “red-pepper” pesto. If you want to add some extra sweetness, soak some dates in water the night before and add them as well. I love the natural combination of sweetness, spice, and acidity in the pepper, and sometimes will make this without walnuts or anything else.

Tahini
The tahini served in Lebanese restaurants is just a little more than normal tahini (ground up sesame seeds). It is thinned with lemon juice to achieve a creamy consistency and light freshness. Use it to dip pita or vegetables.

some tahini            some lemon juice        some salt

Pita
These ubiquitous little breads are actually really easy to make. Make a simple wheat bread dough, as you would any other day, and roll the once-risen dough into a long staff. Break off pieces to form golf balls of bread. Flatten the golf balls with your hand (into discs) and roll into circles ¼ inch thick. Places the circles on a baking sheet (greased or cornmealed) and let them rise and relax a few minutes before baking. Bake on the highest setting your oven has, on a pizza stone if possible. Let them cook for 10 minutes, flip them, and remove a few minutes later. They should puff up! Eat them as soon as possible. I would recommend making the dough, rolling them out and placing them on trays,  making all the other food, and baking them last, so the first tray is out as you sit down to eat.

Labneh
Labneh is a simple and delicious cheese often eaten for breakfast with pita and olive oil. It’s very simple to make and takes only the most valuable commodities you have: time and attention. Take a quart of milk from the local dairy and heat it almost to a boil. The milk will begin to foam and want to rise. Be aware and do not let it boil over. Once then milk has foamed you can cut the heat and even move it to the bowl you want to have the yogurt in. As the milk cools you can clean the boiling pot and the rest of the kitchen. If you don’t stir frequently while the milk is heating, there will be a thin crust of milk protein stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Once the yogurt is cool enough to touch comfortably, but still slightly warm (between 90 and 120 degrees) add a couple of teaspoons of yogurt culture. Ideally this should be last week’s yogurt. In the beginning you’ll have to get some from the neighbor or (god forbid!) the store. The yogurt culture should be at room temperature. You can have it next to the stove as the milk is heating. Now, after you’ve stirred in the culture, we need to keep the milk-becoming-yogurt at the same temperature for the next 4-8 hours. I use the closet where we have the water heater, but any warm place will work. You can build a rack above the woodstove. Or the oven with the pilot light on. Or a bath of warm water. Whatever works, but it will take some attention and maybe even swaddling as we head further into fall.

Once you have yogurt, you’re halfway there. And you’ve only done 10-15 minutes of work. Most of the actually kudos go to the microorganisms. A common theme. Now you can rig a contraption to strain out the whey from the yogurt (taste it first! with blackberries and honey!). I use a clean t-shirt as a cheesecloth, tie up the yogurt, and hang it from a hook over the sink, or from a stick over a bucket. After a few hours, most of the liquid will have drained out and you will have a creamy fresh yogurt cheese. If you heat the milk in the morning, you could have yogurt by the evening and labneh for tomorrow’s breakfast…

Serve with chopped herbs, olives, olive oil, or anything else you like…

SEPTEMBER 23RD, 2008

Last week, one of our dedicated students came to class with a write-up of an extra-credit cooking project she did for a dinner party at her home. She brought in a bowl of the soup and we all agreed it was delightful…

To make a large pot;

4cups cooked pumpkin
2 cans coconut milk
2-3 cans chicken broth
1 large chopped sweet onion
1 large tablespoon minced garlic
1-2 tablespoons or more minced jalapeño pepper
1-2 sticks cinnamon
4-5 black peppercorns
4-5 whole cloves
fresh ginger.
equal parts fresh basil and mint
lemon/lime juice and peel
salt, to taste
water as needed

Cook onion,garlic jalapeño peppers, cinnamon, peppercorns, cloves and ginger in a little olive oil on fairly high heat until well browned.  Stirring to keep from burning and adjusting the heat as necessary.  Takes awhile.  The onions should be brown and the spices fragrant. If it doesn’t smell like there is enough of any one ingredient, now is the time to add more. When finished browning place all in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.  No large bits of spices.  Taste and adjust for spices.  I  had to add more dry ground cinnamon.  adjust until you like the flavor. Set aside.

In a large soup pot mix pumpkin, coconut milk and one can chicken stock.  Add pureed mixture and mix well.  Taste, Add salt , chopped basil, mint, peel and juice as needed..  The soup will be too thick at this point so add water until it is thinned down somewhat..  Refrigerate overnight or up to several days.  To serve, remove from refrig and check thickness, add water or chicken stock as needed.  Taste and make final adjustments..

Soup garnishes;

mix equal parts sour cream and whipped cream with enough lemon or lime juice for a tangy taste.
Pumpkin seeds

To serve; ladle into small bowls and top with sour cream mix and pumpkin seeds.

I think it would also be good hot.  Then I’d probably use croutons for a garnish instead of the cream.

The news is in: We have traded a secure financial future for a warm and sunny October.

The vegetables don’t seem to be troubled at all, and I’ll doubt we’ll hear much of any complaints from the flatbreads this week.

Just writing to announce new classes have been posted on the website, and recipes from last week’s Lebanese feast and this weeks world-stuffed-flatbread-tour should be available (enshallah!) tomorrow on the website. We will be making Papusas (El Salvador), Aloo Parotha (India), and Empanadas (Argentina) tonight.

There is still one spot available, so if you know a hungry child with a free afternoon, here or she can sign up by emailing me. And, as the newspaper buzz has faded to a dull roar in the background, classes are no longer filling up immediately! Which is a blessing for those — who like myself — like not to plan so far in advance. So please let your friends know we still have many classes left, and sign up by sending me an email or a phone call at

360 683 5398

The updated class list is here:

http://www.mangolandia.org/mangoland-cooks-upcoming-classes

And recent recipes from the farmshare box are here:

http://www.mangolandia.org/archives/category/vegetative-uncertainty

To all a good morning,

Ankur-bhai

After three classes of the new “Mangoland Cooks” enterprise, it’s time for a quarterly performance review.

The classes seem to be getting better and better. That is, everybody is having more and more fun. It’s of note that the last class (on Lebanese food, recipes to be posted as soon as I get back to Sequim on Friday) was categorically The Most Fun Ever, and there was nary a beer to be seen.

So the pundits were off, and the hummus was — intoxicatingly — on. We were drowning in roasted red peppers and the pitas were almost jumping off the stone. Add in the scent of the flowers, the beginning of fall, and the flowering cardun…

Next week we’re looking at a full class for the “Stuffed Flatbreads of the World” class, which will surely include Salvadoran Pupasas and Argentine Empanadas. The Indian delegation is still debating which it will enter — samosas, stuffed parotha, or something even more devious…

But the bigs news, besides the onset of delicata squash in local markets, is the annoucement of some October classes. It looks like

October 7th: Return to Mythic India

with Indian specialities and guest chef Bharti Desai (my mother)

October 14th: Fall Carnaval

featuring brazilian specialities, including some recipes detailed in the last chapter of cooking com bigode

October 21st: BYOF: Bring Your Own Fritter

We’ll be preparing batters and tempuras from various deep-fried traditions, and all participants are welcome to bring their own vegetables (or otherwise) to be deep-fried. Indian speciality samosas and buggia will definitely make an appearance, as well.

Other upcoming events you may want to help with — now that you’ve got the new new cooking vibe — are

a) helping out with Farmday at Nash’s (down where you get your vegetables). That’s October 4th and you could email Kia and let her know you want to help with the cookin’

b) helping me prepare the benefit dinner for Mujeres de Maiz’ annual fundraiser at the end of October. write me and we can discuss.

As always, bring a sharp knife and wit, a dull apron and cutting board, and a global party attitude to the next class. And don’t forget that with limited availability, it pays to sign up now more than later.

Together we Stew,

Ankur-bhai

Inspired by the work of international artist Sonia de Otto, we had our first two classes of Mangolandia’s “Mangoland Cooks at the Cutting Garden” in India and Mexico. First dosa and then mole. Both classes went excellently and I have high hopes all our alumni will pass the requisite standardized tests. The michilada’s went over especially well…

Recipes are available on-line for both the South Indian and the Oaxacan Mole classes, for those of you who couldn’t come or lost your precious classroom materials. Homework was written on the board in chile powder, but for those of who you couldn’t read it: please make at least one Indian or Mexican dish for at least one person you love in the next week, and send in a photo. Photos may be posted on the website. Tomorrow never knows.

Next week’s class (September 23rd, 4-7) is on Lebanese mezze, including hummus, babaganoush (eggplant), mahamra (roasted peppers), and labneh (yogurt cheese). There’s only three spots left. Don’t miss it! Sign up by sending me an email or calling 360 . 683 . 5398 and talking to the patron saint of Mangolandia, my mother.

Hoping the late summer sunshine is treating everyone well.

One Love / Many recipes,

Ankurbhai

[ for the matrix, see the complete notes in pdf form ]

[ note: we diverged from these recipes in notable areas, including using herbes de provence in the mole and zucchini in the filling ]

What is the language of a smile?

Mole
Mole is intense. It’s as close as non-Indian food gets to the intensity, strength, and diversity of an Indian curry. Mole is dish typical to Mexico’s indigenious populations, made over the course of days for huge feasts and celebration. To eat mole is a celebration.

There as many different kinds of mole as shadows in the moonlight. Each is based on a different combination of chiles. Mostly dry. Some fresh. Some don’t have chiles at all. This particular base I learned from a grandmother in the market by Puerto Angel, Oaxaca. It produces a dark red mole, fat with sesame seeds and almonds. I generally do diffeent variations with the fruit and herb components each time, but keep the same chiles the abuela used: guajillo, ancho, and pasilla.

12 oz of dried chile
1 heaping tablespoon each of marjoram, thyme, and oregano
1 big onion and 1 head of garlic
¼ cup each of almonds, sesame seeds, and raisins
1 banana (and maybe some cinnamon) and 2 good squares of dark chocolate

To prepare the chiles, assemble the whole family. It’s fun. Everyone can sit in a circle, at the table or on the floor, with newspaper spread out around them. Brush the chiles off with paper to clean them. Break them open (with a knife if necessary) and separate out the parts. You should have separate piles for

a) each kind of chile, b) the seeds of the guajillo chile, c) the seeds of the other chiles, d) the veins of all the chiles, and e) the bad chiles

Note that some of the chiles will have bugs or moths. It happens. Drying and storing chiles take time, in some forgotten land far away. The bugs don’t mean the chile is bad, just that it must be wiped clean. We don’t want to get the chiles wet because they won’t fry well.

Once you have cleaned off all the chiles, put them aside and shell all the chocolate beans, if you are using whole beans. If not, just unwrap your chocolate. Have all your ingredients at the ready. We are going to fry most of the ingredients for the mole, then combine them in a large pot or food processor.

To dry roast: Guajillo seeds

To fry: Chiles, Nuts, Fruits, Alliums, Herb

To boil:  Stock, chocolate
Blend everything together and thin with stock. Add salt. Balance the flavors. We want strong presence of chiles, and accents of everything else. A slight sweetness will be necessary, but not the focus. The fats should be strongly represented, through the nuts and oil.

Let the mole simmer, adding stock to keep it loose. Now we want to make the enchiladas. Heat the tortillas on a skillet, a few at a time. When they are warm, we will dip them in the mole, fill them with the relleno, roll them into an enchilada, and lay them on the baking tray. After filling a try we can top it with cotija and bake it for a few minutes to melt the cheese. After the tray comes out of the oven, we will top with slices of red onion and sesame seeds.

Beans (frijoles de la olla)
Beans are huge in Mexico. Hugely popular. Today we’ll make one dish, the standard pot of beans. Next time we can work with the leftovers to make refried beans and other treats.

Soak the beans – one cup dried is good for about 4 people, cooked. Keep changing the water, two or three times, over the course of the soaking. Then pressure cook the beans with some epazote and garlic, to get some flavor in and some gas out.

After the beans have been cooked to tender, we can put them back on the stove to simmer. If we want to add spices or sautéed onions, we can. It’s up to how simple or how complicated you want to be. I’ll often chop an onion and sauté it on medium heat, then add the cook beans to that (new) pan to cook together and flavor. It keeps the pressure cooker from ever touching oil (easier to clean), and takes advantage of the seasoning in the onion pan.

Arroz
One of the simplest and best ways to make Mexican rice starts with toasting the rice in a skillet. Use a wide skillet and toast the rice over high heat in a tablespoon of oil, stirring frequently to prevent The Burn. When the rice darkens a bit and lets off a nutty aroma, I add chopped onions and tomatos. The fire is still high and when the water leaves the vegetables, it’s time to really start the cooking. At that point one can add spices, but if we’re eating it with the mole, it’ll be nice to have some mildness to the rice. Just add water – more than twice as much as rice for the brown rice we’re using – and stir.

When the water starts to boil, lower the heat and cover. Check it after half and hour and every ten minutes thereafter. Brown rice takes time. When the rice is cooked, there should be a little moisture still left in the pan. Keep it covered and turn off the heat – the humid climate will keep everything tender until serving time.
If, by chance, there is too much water and the rice is done, simple strain out the water. Don’t worry about “wet” rice; by the time you serve, the hot grain will have absorbed all excess liquid.

Michiladas
The michilada is a delightful and fancy way of taking cheap light Mexican beer to the level of the gourmet experience. A worthy pre-mole libation. It’s cold, salty, spicy, and fun.
In a glass rimmed with salt go the juice of half a lemon and 3 strong shakes of chile sauce. Stir the cocktail together before adding the beer; let the imbiber stir in the beer herself…

Relleno (the filling)
Again, since the mole will be so amazing, it’s good not to compete. We’ll keep it stout and simple by steaming some greens and tossing them with some fresh Mexican cheese.
Roughly chop 1 bunch of swiss chard. If you don’t have swiss chard, you can use spinach. Later, in December, seek out Russian kale. It’s amazing. Steam the greens until soft but still dark and vibrant in color. Watch over the steamer and don’t let it go too long. Let the greens cool and drain, then chop them again so they fit kindly on a forkful.
Get some queso Oaxaca or other Mexican stringy cheese. Slice or grate it into manageable pieces and toss together with the greens. Often, Mexican cheeses are heavily salted, so taste before adding any more salt.

SEPTEMBER 9TH, 2008

[ for the Matrix cheatsheet, please see the attached pdf file...]

[ purists beware: these are simplified notes intended for perusal in a class, as supporting material. they are not "correct" or "complete" ]

Dosa
Start 36 hours ahead of time. To make the batter, soak together:
1 part urad dal (split urad beans, they will be white in color)
3 parts short grain rice
a couple of teaspoons of fenugreek seeds

Change the water three times over the course of the soaking. Anywhere from 4-12 hours. Then drain the mixture and blend, adding water slowly until the blender works. Blend well, at least 20-30 seconds per batch, until the batter is creamy and fine. It won’t be perfect, but neither should it be course.

The next step takes time and faith. Fermentation. It happens quickly and easily in India, and requires more intention and perseverance here. Yet, it can be done. Cover the bowlful of batter and let it ferment in a warm place. Maybe that’s the shelf in your water-heater-closet. Maybe it’s your oven, preheated to 100 and then turned off. Maybe, in the hottest days of summer, it’s on the deck. Give it time. After a day or so, it should have doubled (!) in volume and smell sour. Let it rise until it smells sour.

When the batter is ready you can make your dosas, idlis, or uttapams following the techniques described.

Sambar
Sambar is the full-bodied south Indian soup had on a daily basis in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnatka. Maybe Andhra Pradesh too, but I’ve never been there and it’s hard to trust what you read these days. It’s basically a combination of three elements: cooked lentils, vegetables, and a really incredible spice paste.

The spice paste is what’s key about the sambar and it differs from house to house, microclimate to hillside, income bracket to personal disposition. Ours will be unique, yet share certain inalienable characteristics all sambar spice mixtures share.

To cook the lentils, soak them for a hours (up to a day), changing the water a few times, then cook them in over twice as much water as lentils. When the pot boils, turn down and let simmer until tender. Keep cooking past tender to mush. Indians love the mush.

To cook the vegetables, cut what you have – generally harder specimens of the vegetable kindgdom – pieces as long as your pinky and thick as your thumb. It’s one of the few Indian dishes that doesn’t require horrendously detailed chopping. Give thanks. Generally they use bottle gourd, eggplant, beetroot, carrot, and moringa (a stringy tree-vegetable with strong medicinal properties). Here it’s more appropriate to use zucchini, carrots, beets, kohlrabi, potato, etc. Also, try cucumber. It’s good – but don’t cook it as long as its friends.

Now, we want to roast some spices: predominantly coriander, with added chile pepper, turmeric, cardamom, clove, ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, bay leaves, curry leaves, and coconut. We can roast them in an oiled pan on medium heat until they change color and let off their deep and pleasing aroma. After that, to the mortar and pestle, as you know.

We want, next, to fry some onions on typically Indian high heat (think of the Deccan plateau in sweltering summer), add garlic and chiles (if we need them), and then our spice mixture. Open the windows and cleanse the house of evil spirits. Now we can add our vegetables and lentils, already cooked, and mix together to infuse.

Lastly, sambar is known for having an accent of tamarind to a special kind of sourness at the end. As much I want to keep things local while tasting global, imported tamarind is a must. The same goes for oil: coconut oil is best if you want that loving flavor.

Uppedi
Uppedi is a wonderful technique for giving a Keralan vibration to any vegetable you want. It’s typically done with beans (pyar) and the beans must be chopped quite small.

Make a spice paste by grinding or mortar-ing together:
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 green chiles (medium hot)
1 centimeter of ginger
a little turmeric

Fry the spice paste in coconut oil. When brown, add dried coconut that has been soaked and drained. When that loses its water and begins to waft aromatically, add the already steamed or stir-fired beans. Cook only briefly, salt and serve. Gracious mothers drizzle more coconut oil over the top.

Payasam
I came to know payasam as the south Indian version of “kheer”, the delicious rice pudding I grew up with. South Indians are good at combinatorics and math in general, and there are a dizzying number of payasam variations. They will use either rice or mung beans for the base, either milk or coconut milk for the fat, either sugar or jaggery for the sweet, and either cardamom or cumin for the spice. We will use:

1 cup mung beans
1 cup jaggery and 1 cup of water
3-4 cups of milk
a bit of crushed cardamom
a bit of cumin
raisins in coconut oil

We soak cook the mung beans as we did the chana dal for the sambar (above). Afterwards we can work our love into the food by stirring and mashing it into a textured puree. Meanwhile, we can boil together the jaggery and water to make a thick syrup. We will strain out any impurities in the syrup, and combine the milk, syrup, beans, and spices.

While the pudding melds and thickens, fry the raisins in coconut oil, over medium-high heat, until they balloon. The balloon is critical. Top the pudding with raisins and serve. Sing “happy birthday” if you can.

Chutney
The most famous dish in my memory of south India is coconut chutney. I probably made it everyday for breakfast, going out back behind the Monsoon Hotel to crack the coconut, and borrowing chechi’s “mixie” (read: robot) every morning to blend it. Since we don’t have coconuts native to this clime, and since we do have so many other wonderful treats, I thought we could try the same spice pattern with a different material.

Heat and fry:
2 tsp of coconut oil
2 dried red chiles
A few curry leaves
1 tsp of mustard seeds

Work the measurements so the oil covers the mustard seeds, or they will pop and escape the pan. Use a small frypan, perhaps tilted, if you can.

Stir the mixture into whatever you want to curry – shredded coconut, fennel, carrot, beetroot. Whatever strikes your fancy. Add salt. Taste. Determine whether it needs more fat (coconut oil), spice (mustard and chile), or vegetable. Adjust. Taste. Salt? Eat with dosa and everything else.

Mangolandia and The Cutting Garden present

Mangoland Cooks!

Mangoland Cooks! is a series of culinary experiences, focused around a participatory class model. You will learn traditional recipes from the indicated cuisine, prepared using premium, fresh, local, organic ingredients. You will find yourself immersed in the sounds, languages, and attitudes of the culture in question. You will meet interesting people and have the opportunity to cook your own homework. Welcome!

Your instructor, Ankur Shah, is a Sequim native of Indian origin. He retired from the hi-tech industry at the age of 23 to study and teach across the world. Ankur has lived on four continents, written two books,
and fallen in love too many times to count.

All classes will be held in the farmhouse kitchen amidst the beautiful garden environs of The Cutting Garden, 303 Dahlia Lama Lane, in Sequim. Classes are from 4-7pm on Tuesdays, and include dinner and
appropriate refreshments. Tuition for each class is $50 per person student or $80 per pair.

Discounts available for committed students.

Please come prepared for your gourmet culinary pilgrimage with a sense of humor, adventure, and a sharp knife. In the event of leftovers, you might be wise to bring a container.
Reservations are a must. Call Ankur at 360 . 683 . 5398 or email:

ankurbhai at mangolandia dot org

We’re all very excited!

Click here for Individual Class Descriptions

For more informations, try the Frequently Asked Questions

Good afternoon and welcome.

It has been declared both meet and proper to create a bit of a web presence for this fall’s cooking classes, and if you’re reading this on the Internets or in your mailbox, it means you have expressed some interest in joining. There should be a link at the bottom to unsubscribe if you are not interested in getting these sorts of emails in the future. If that doesn’t work, please let me know personally by sending an email to

ankurbhai@mangolandia.org

expressing your categorical displeasure. For the remainder of the fall season, I expect to be sending out two messages per week, one giving a heady foretaste of the upcoming week’s class (with a crass marketing intention) and the other recapping the previous week’s class and providing recipes to those who were unable — due to time, space, or other obstructive factors — to attend.

Those are the expectations. There will also be — enshallah — a website providing upcoming menus for the fall’s classes, as well as answering frequently asked questions. I entreaty you to bear with me in this process with the digital world, a river whose frigid waters I am toeing into after many years baking in the hot sun of naked earth.

Try http://www.mangolandia.org

Well, to start with then –

**

Tomorrow’s class, the first official instance of “Mangoland Cooks!” (don’t forget the exclamation point), will feature some culinary delights from southern India. I had toyed around with various dishes and combinations and have settled, finally, on the field of possibility centered around the DOSA.

Dosa, generally speaking, is a think savory pancake made from a heretofore secret combination of rice and lentil flours. All that is hidden, as the man says, shall be revealed tomorrow. Of course. There are dosa of different thicknesses and textures depending on the province you travel through, as well as a thicker, richer, version called Uttapam.

In addition to the secrets of Dosa and Uttapam, we will assemble the traditional South India lentil soup: Sambar, which features more spices than you have fingers to count and a wide selection of seasonal vegetables.

We will be enjoying a few different chutneys along the way, based on the seasoning model employed in the typical coconut chutney of the region.

And finally, for real satisfaction, we will be making a type of “Payasum”, a dessert dish based on whole green gram (also known as “mung beans”), raw jaggery sugar, and raisins.

**

At each class, participants will find detailed recipes for all the dishes, and will also have the opportunity to purchase exotic ingredients they might otherwise not encounter. Copies of my cookbook will also be offered, given I can remember to bring them!

I’ll be sending out an email on Thursday regarding details on future classes, but so far this much is clear:

September 16: A meal centered around a red mole from southern Oaxaca, employing three differents of chiles.
September 23: A selection of Lebanese mezze (appetizing appetizers)
September 30: Salvador “papusas”, Argentine “empanadas”, Indian “samosas”, and stuffed flatbreads “in general”

For all of you who registered for tomorrow’s class, I look forward to seeing you soon! For everyone else, please register on the sooner side to ensure you get a spot — the demand for classes has far surpassed any expectations I might have entertained!

You can call 360 683 5398 or email ankurbhai@mangolandia.org

Peace,
Love,
and
Coconut Milk –

ankurbhai