by Suvir Saran
Makes 16 turnovers
FOR THE FILLING
2 lb/910 g red potatoes (about 6)
½ cup/8 g finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
3 tbsp canola or grapeseed oil
2 dried red chiles, coarsely ground in a mortar and pestle
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1/8 tsp asafetida (see Farmhouse Basics)
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp ground amchur (green mango powder)
1½ tsp kosher salt
¾ cup/100 g frozen peas
FOR THE TURNOVERS
1 large egg
1 tbsp water
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Pinch of kosher salt
All-purpose flour for rolling pastry
2 packages frozen puff pastry, thawed
Green Chutney and/or Tamarind Chutney for serving
To make the filling: Place the potatoes in a large pot, cover with 2 in/5 cm of water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until a paring knife easily slips into the center of the longest potato, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain the potatoes and, once they’re cool enough to handle, peel them, break them apart into crumbly pieces, and place in a large bowl. Stir in the cilantro and set aside.
Heat the canola oil with the ground red chiles, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and asafetida in a large frying pan or wok over medium-high heat until the cumin is fragrant and golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the cayenne and then scrape in the potato mixture along with the amchur and salt. Stir in the peas and cook just until the potatoes and peas are warmed through, 3 to 4 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom of the frying pan often to work in any browned bits. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and set aside to cool completely.
To make the turnovers: Heat the oven to 400°F/200°C/gas 6. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, water, cayenne, and salt, and set aside. Dust your worksurface with flour and place one sheet of puff pastry on top (if it came folded in thirds, keep it folded). Roll the folded pastry sheet to an approximate 8-by-13-in/20-by-33-cm rectangle. Starting 1 in/2.5 cm from the left edge, place 2 tbsp of the filling in the center of the pastry. Repeat three times, working your way across the pastry, leaving about 1½ in/4 cm between mounds and ending about 1 in/2.5 cm from the right edge.
Using a pastry brush, lightly paint the long edge of the pastry closest to you with the seasoned egg wash. Paint the left and right edges up to the midpoint of the pastry, and then paint between each of the mounds up to the middle of the pastry. Fold the top half of the pastry down over the bottom half, press the edges together to seal, and press the dough together in between each of the mounds. Trim the edges and cut between each mound so you have four turnovers. Press the tines of an upturned fork around the turnovers’ edges to crimp. Brush with the egg wash and place on a baking sheet. Proceed with the remaining pastry and filling, making a dozen more turnovers. (The turnovers can be frozen on a baking sheet until they are hard, about 1 hour, and then transferred to a large resealable plastic bag and kept frozen for up to 3 months. Let the turnovers thaw before baking.) Bake the turnovers until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes, rotating midway through cooking. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature with some chutney on the side.
Country Rabbit Terrine with Pistachios and Pernod
Sally Longo is one of our dearest North Country friends, and it is by her side that we’ve cooked so much amazing food at our farmhouse, including this rabbit terrine and the Rustic Rabbit Pâté with Juniper Berries, both elegant, inspired, and perfect for entertaining. The pistachios, fennel, and anise-y Pernod liqueur work pure magic in this terrine. Its refined and cosmopolitan flavor will have your guests wondering if you made this yourself or mail-ordered it from some fancy restaurant. If you’re squeamish about removing the meat from the bone (in our house, that’s Sally’s job), ask your butcher to do it for you.
Makes one 5-by-9-in/12-by-23-cm terrine
6 thin-cut fatty bacon slices
One 2½-lb/1.2-kg rabbit, liver reserved (save the heart and kidneys to make the Rustic Rabbit Pâté with Juniper Berries)
3 shallots, finely chopped
1 tbsp Herbes de Hebron or herbes de Provence
1 large egg
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp Pernod liqueur
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 fennel bulb, thinly shaved using a mandolin or vegetable peeler, feathery fronds reserved
1 lb/455 g mild pork sausage, squeezed out from its casing
2 cups/230 g toasted pistachios roughly chopped
Crackers or crusty bread for serving
Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/gas 4. Place a 5-by-9-in/12-by-23-cm loaf pan on the worksurface and place the bacon slices widthwise across the pan, slightly overlapping, so that the bacon covers the bottom and sides of the pan.
Set the rabbit on a cutting board and use a boning knife to slice away the meat from the bone, and then the sinew from the meat. Chop the meat into small cubes and then finely chop the liver.
Place the shallots and the Herbes de Hebron in a food processor and pulse together until the shallots are finely chopped. Add the liver, pulse to combine, and then add the rabbit meat and pulse until finely chopped with no pieces larger than ¼ in/6 mm, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.
In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, olive oil, Pernod, salt, and pepper. Add the fennel and the sausage and mix with your hands until the mixture is smooth. Use a rubber spatula to scrap the rabbit mixture into the egg mixture. Stir together and then fold in the pistachios, mixing well to combine.
Scrape the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and press and smooth out the top. Fold any bacon ends that hang out of the pan up and over the top of the terrine. Cover the top with a sheet of aluminum foil, crimping it around the edges to seal, and bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the terrine reads 160°F/70°C, about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Remove the terrine from the oven and set it on a cutting board. Loosen the foil slightly and then place a second same-size loaf pan on top of the foil. Place three cans of beans (or cans of tomatoes) in the loaf pan to weigh it down and set it aside for 2 to 3 hours to cool and compress. Remove the cans and loaf pan, and cover the terrine with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the terrine for at least 2 days or up to 1 week to allow the flavors to come together.
Before serving, place the loaf pan over a burner set to medium-high heat (to loosen the fat in the bottom of the pan). Run a paring knife around the edges of the terrine to loosen it from the pan and then invert it onto a serving platter. Garnish with the reserved fennel fronds and let the terrine sit out at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving with crackers or crusty bread.
Rustic Rabbit Pâté with Juniper Berries
Along with the Country Rabbit Terrine with Pistachios and Pernod, this pâté often finds its way onto our holiday table. It’s simultaneously beautiful, chic, and country—not just because pâté is so effortlessly elegant, but because it makes good use of leftover offal from the rabbit used to make the terrine. Don’t be afraid of using ingredients like the heart, kidneys, and liver. Putting a whole animal to good use in the kitchen is smart and savvy, yielding absolutely delicious dishes that you can feel respectable serving. It’s satisfying to know that when I make these two party-pleasing appetizers, I’m not wasting a single speck of the rabbit. In fact, you can even use the bones for stock (see Herbed Pheasant Breasts with Spiced Pomegranate Reduction, and Rabbit Stew with Porcini and Picholines).
Serves 10 to 12
1 tsp juniper berries
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp freshly ground green peppercorns
8 tbsp/115 g unsalted butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
2 rabbit livers
2 sets rabbit kidneys (4 total)
1 tbsp gin
1 baguette, thinly sliced and toasted, for serving
Using a mortar and pestle, grind together the juniper berries, salt, and peppercorns and set aside.
Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Once melted, add the shallots, garlic, and thyme and cook just until the shallots are golden and becoming brown around the edges, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the hearts, livers, and kidneys and cook, stirring occasionally, until the livers are still slightly pink on the inside, 10 to 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and scrape the mixture into a food processor. Pour in the gin, add the juniper mixture, and pulse until mostly smooth but not pasty.
Use a rubber spatula to scrape the mixture into a 12-oz/355-ml ramekin. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 days or up to 1 week. Let the pâté sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving with baguette slices.
New Year’s Black-Eyed Pea Curry
Throughout the Southern states of America, black-eyed peas are served for good luck on New Year’s Day. They’re excellent with stir-fried cabbage—also considered a good-luck food, since it supposedly represents folded currency—and rice, of course (in the South, this dish would be called Hoppin’ John). In India, my family’s recipe for rongee, Hindi for “black-eyed peas,” is just as tasty. I often make it for our grand New Year’s Eve celebration, happily knowing that the dish will probably be outshined by its fancier table competition, like crown roast of pork, Masala Chateaubriand, or a biryani rice dish. We pull out the good china and the sparkling stemware, load the wine cabinet with bubbly, and trim the house with glittering baubles, like three-foot-tall glass hurricanes filled with beautiful colored glass and twinkling holiday lights strung around the mantel and into antique bird cages. Our holiday tree (purchased from a nearby farm) is lavished with ornaments collected from around the world. It is a night we look forward to with great anticipation all year long, and any leftovers make New Year’s Day that much tastier!
Serves 6
¼ cup/60 ml canola or grapeseed oil
8 whole green cardamom pods
6 whole cloves
3 whole dried red chiles
2 bay leaves
1-in/2.5-cm cinnamon stick
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp whole cumin seeds
1½-in/4-cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 large red onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp kosher salt, plus extra if needed
3 medium tomatoes, quartered
2 garlic cloves, finely minced or pressed through a garlic press
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ cup/60 ml plain yogurt
Three 15 ½-oz/445-g cans black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
½ tsp Garam Masala (See Farmhouse Basics)
1 cup/240 ml water
Heat the canola oil with the cardamom, cloves, chiles, bay leaves, cinnamon, pepper, and cumin seeds in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat until the spices are fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the ginger and cook until it becomes fragrant and sticky, about 1 minute. Add the onion and salt and cook, stirring often, until the onion turns deeply browned and sticky, 15 to 20 minutes. If the onion begins to stick to the bottom of the pot or begins to burn, reduce the heat to medium and splash the pan with a bit of water, scraping up the browned bits and stirring them into the onion.
While the onion browns, place the tomatoes in a blender or food processor and purée until they are completely smooth. Set aside.
Stir the garlic into the onion mixture and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add the coriander, ground cumin, and turmeric and cook until they begin to smell toasty, about 30 seconds. Stir in the cayenne and 2 tbsp of the yogurt. Cook until heated through, about 1 minute, and then add the remaining yogurt. Continue to stir and cook the yogurt and spices until the contents of the pot are thick and sticky and the liquid from the yogurt has evaporated, about 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato purée and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until a film of oil pools on the surface of the sauce, 6 to 8 minutes.
Stir the black-eyed peas, garam masala, and water into the tomato mixture. Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until a bubble or two breaks at the surface, 5 to 7 minutes. Season with salt and serve hot.
Farm Yarn:
The Three Faces of Curry
Students, friends, and associates often ask me what the biggest misconception is when it comes to Indian food. Is it that it’s rife with heat from chiles (actually no, there are entire regions of India where chiles are hardly ever used), or loaded with fat from frying (most Indian food is quite healthful, based on legumes, vegetables, and very little meat)? My answer is always this: curry.
There are three ways to define “curry” in India. The first is as a way of categorizing a type of dish that is saucy, like gosht korma (lamb curry) or methi murgh (chicken curry), though there isn’t one dish that is “curry”—curry is rather a genre of dishes. “Curry” also refers to small deep-green leaves that look like a cross between California bay leaves and lemon verbena but taste like neither. In fact, the bright, tangy, citrusy taste of curry leaves is a flavor not easily replaced by another herb or spice.
The third way of classifying curry is the kind most known but ironically the least used by Indians—as a powder. Curry powder is a premixed blend of spices often heavy in fenugreek (for that “curry” taste) and turmeric (for that “curry” color). In India, the closest thing to curry powder is sambhaar powder (see Farmhouse Basics) in the south and garam masala in the north, which many households make or have made fresh every few days following a time-honored top-secret recipe unique to their family.
I love having people over who say point-blank that they are not big fans of Indian food. Usually it is because they have a dislike of curry powder—funny, isn’t it, that most Indians would wholeheartedly agree with them! So I’ll whip up some beautiful food, using the freshest vegetables, spices, and herbs, and without any trace of curry powder. Not only do they change their tune and sing the praise of the dish, but they often ask for the recipe!
Birbal Kee Khitcheree
When craving comfort food, I most often dream of khitcheree. The vegetarian one-pot meal of lentils, rice, and vegetables is transported to another dimension via multiple layers of spices—every bite is a new discovery of tastes and textures. The dish includes Panch Phoran, a spice blend of whole cumin, fennel, and the wonderfully exotic, nutty flavor of nigella seeds that are gently fried in ghee or clarified butter with coriander and tomatoes, and then a second boost of spice from a ghee-bloomed blend of more cumin, some cayenne, and oniony asafetida. It is such an incredible dish that there is even a legend behind it: Hundreds of years ago in mid-fourteenth-century India, Birbal, a court official of Emperor Akbar, made a khitcheree that was so enchanting the emperor decided to make Birbal a Raja king! At our house, we like to say that if it’s good enough for Akbar and Birbal, it’s good enough for you. This dish is so lovely that I often serve it with nothing else except for some Raita (see Farmhouse Basics) and perhaps crispy papadum on the side. Make the recipe a few times and then begin to play with the flavors and simplify it as you like. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Serves 6
FOR THE TOPPING
6 to 8 cups/1.4 to 1.9 L peanut oil
1 large red onion, halved and thinly sliced
¼ cup/10 g finely chopped fresh cilantro
2-in/5-cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced into very thin matchsticks
1 jalapeño, finely minced (remove the seeds for less heat)
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
FOR THE KHITCHEREE
1 cup/190 g split and hulled mung dal
2 tbsp ghee or c
larified butter (see Farmhouse Basics)
10 whole green cardamom pods
8 whole cloves
3 bay leaves
2-in/5-cm cinnamon stick
1 tsp Panch Phoran (see Farmhouse Basics)
¾ tsp ground turmeric
1/8 tsp asafetida (see Farmhouse Basics)
1 cup/185 g basmati rice
½ medium head cauliflower, divided into very small florets
1 medium red potato, cut into ½-in/12-mm pieces
4 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped
7 cups/1.65 L water
10-oz/280-g bag frozen peas
FOR THE FIRST TEMPERING OIL
2 tbsp ghee or clarified butter (see Farmhouse Basics)
½ tsp Panch Phoran (see Farmhouse Basics)
½ large red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1½ tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp ground coriander
2 large tomatoes, finely diced
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
3 cups/750 ml water
FOR THE SECOND TEMPERING OIL
2 tbsp ghee or clarified butter (see Farmhouse Basics)
½ tsp cumin seeds
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
Pinch of asafetida (see Farmhouse Basics)
½ tsp Garam Masala (See Farmhouse Basics)
To make the topping: Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot (use enough oil to fill the saucepan to a 2-in/5-cm depth) over medium-high heat until it reaches 350°F/180°C on an instant-read thermometer. Add the onion and fry until crisp and browned, about 2 minutes, turning the onion occasionally. Use a slotted spoon or frying spider to transfer the onion to a paper towel–lined plate and set aside. (The oil can be saved for another use, but first let it cool, then strain it through a fine-mesh sieve into an airtight container.)
