;tldr

Using information from the book Salt, Fat, Acid and Heat I entered into an AI-conversation with Kimi.com to guide me through improving an existing recipe. The total cost to make this meal which serves 4-6 people is about R150. The prep time is about 30 minutes. The result is 8/10.

Ingredients

It’s important to use high quality fresh ingredients. I use Taj Mahal-brand spices wherever I can. I use course rock salt (Himalayan Pink salt) or course sea salt. The kind of salt you use makes a big difference. Do not spoil the taste of the food using iodated salt; or preserved lemon juice. Use a pot with a heavy base. I use Amina’s Wonder Spices. For a fat, you can probably substitute coconut milk with dairy cream (but this forces the dish to be refridgerated). The purpose of the coconut milk is to be a fat that absorbs the flavours and coats the tongue, making the taste last longer.

1 large onion
1 tsp cumin seeds
oil to fry the onion

1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp Kashimiri chilli powder
3 tsp course rock salt
1 tsp Packco masala
1 tsp gharam masala

3 tsp crushed garlic+ginger
1/2 tsp crushed green chillies (for bite)

1 can of diced tomatoes
2 cans of chickpeas
1 large sweet potato
1 can of coconut milk
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

4 cups of baby spinache
some fresh coriander (optional)
1/2 fresh lemon

Method

Mise en place

  • Since you will be moving fast from one step to the next, it’s best to configure your ingredients upfront.
  • Put all the dry spices into a plate.
  • Keep the cumin seeds seperately.
  • Shred the baby spinach. It’s important to use baby spinach since there is less of a chance of it turning bitter due to spinach’s short cooking time. If you overcook spinach it will make the dish bitter.
  • Cut the sweet potato into half-inch cubes. It’s important for them to be roughly identical in size to ensure uniform cooking.

Prepare base

  • Chop the onion finely.
  • Add the oil to the pot to cover its base and a bit more, turn up heat.
  • When the oil is heated add the 1 tsp of cumin seeds.
  • After 30 seconds or the edges of the cumin seeds start bubbling as they they fry, stir oil to flavour the oil with the cumin seeds.
  • Add the chopped onions, and stir, coating the onions with the flavoured oil.
  • Let the onions fry for about a minute or until they ‘start’ to turn a caramel colour but be careful not to burn it.
  • Add the spices in the plate. Fry (or bloom) the spices lightly to release their flavour.
  • Add the salt. Stir for a bit to spread the salt through the ingredients, it’s not important to dissolve all of the salt at this point. And you can always add more later. The salt will eventually dissolve but it’s important to add it early on.
  • Add the ginger and garlic mixes as well as the green chillie.
  • Fry for 20-30 seconds.
  • Add a few table-spoons of water if the paste gets dry but it’s important to fry it a bit.

Main cooking

  • Add the canned tomatoes and coconut milk. Stir until mixed.
  • Add the (drained) chickpeas.
  • Add the cubed sweet potato.
  • When this mixture comes to a boil turn the heat down to a simmer.
  • Add the bicarbonate of soda, and stir. It will bubble as do you do this.
  • Let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. Occassionaly stir so as not to burn the bottom of the pot.
    • If you want a thicker dish, crush some cooked chickpea/sweet potato. The starches will thicken the dish.

Prepare for completion

  • Using a fork check that the sweet potato is soft. Once the sweet potato is soft, turn off the heat. The chickpeas will also be soft at this point.
  • The final steps will use latent heat to cook the dish to completion.

Complete the dish

  • Add the baby spinach, stir in.
  • You can add some fresh coriander but its taste might be drowned out by everything else going on.
  • Taste. You only have two options here. More salt (gradually) or an acid. You can brighten the flavour by adding a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice. White vinegar or some tamarind will also do the trick. Salt will bring out the flavours but it’s best to add a pinch at a time.
  • Let it rest.

Serve

  • Best served with cumin rice or skillet/oven fried naan or roti.
  • It also works best with a sambal of onion, tomato, vinegar and sugar.

Not taste nice?

  • You might not be hungry enough or burned something.
  • Maybe you can’t process coriander if it was added.
  • Maybe you used iodated table salt, or too much salt.
  • Maybe you used fresh tomatoes or worse salad tomatoes. Fresh tomatoes are not tomatoey enough, but tomato paste is too heavy.
  • You are rop.
  • Maybe you used preserved lemon juice (sodium metabisulphate tastes awful).

Improvements

  • The brighter the contrast between the orange curry and the green spinach the better the expectation that it will taste good.