INDIAN CLAY POTS FOR COOKING RECIPES

I cook 7 days a week. I cook because I love it. I cook because with my writing I work out of my house. There was one brief period when we decided to have an office at a studio. We were working at Warner Bros and they said, "you guys want an office?" so we said, "sure". Well, having an office meant actually having to put pants on that didn't have a drawstring and wear actual shoes to work. We also spent a great deal of time looking out the window of our office and getting passes for friends to come on the lot. As to getting work done? Not so much. We wound up goofing off at work and then having to come home and work at night. In the meantime, I'd developed a nasty late night pork rind habit. We never worked away from our home office again. So even though I'm home most every day, I still like things that make cooking easier. Whether it's a fancy company meal or just family style, a little help is always appreciated. Nothing makes a company dinner or lunch easier than clay. Nothing. I'm not kidding here. Remember all those crock pots from the '70s and the modern electric slow cookers of today? They're just a modern twist on the oldest cooking method of all, clay. Last Sunday we had company for lunch. I cooked the entree slowly in a pomaire clay pot on Saturday afternoon and warmed it gently in the clay while I was preparing Sunday's lunch. The result was flavorful and incredibly tender. It also left me a lot of time to mess around with falooda noddles and such the next day without worrying about the main dish. I was looking for something interesting to cook and I thought why not beef? Beef is not something one associates with Indian cuisine, but like any large country, different things are eaten in different areas depending on the background and beliefs of the people who live there. This dish comes from Bangla and is cooked bhoona style. Another reason to cook beef: I happened to have some nice local grass fed stewing beef and I knew that this cooking style was exactly suited to a meat that is not exactly fatty and might be tough cooked any other way. I cooked this beef with spices slowly for about three hours or so in a clay pot, then transferred it to a Pyrex dish to be stored overnight in the fridge. The next day I checked for any solid, hardened fat that might have risen to the surface. There was none. If there had been, that would be the time to flick it off the dish before re-warming and cooking again. In re-cooking and warming, the dish retains all the flavor of something cooked with the fat, but without the fat which is removed before serving. A little trick that Paula Wolfert taught me. The recipe originally came to me via Mangoes and Curry Leaves, one of my favorite Indian cookbooks. This is my adaptation. It works really well with a simple rice or dal and rice pilaf and a vegetable. I added in some chapattis because I am greedy and must have my chapatti. And a raita with a bit of boondi as this was a company event. I don't break out the boondi for just anybody. So, to sum it all up cooking in clay can be a relaxing way to prepare an otherwise complicated meal. It also tastes amazingly good. If you're looking for clay pots you'll find several links on my website to some of my favorite places. Cooking in clay is one example of cooking as they did in the good old days that makes for a lot less work.

Provided by kathy gori

Total Time 200 minutes

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 180 minutes

Number Of Ingredients 21

• Ingredients

Nutrition Facts : ServingSize 322 g, Calories 489, FatContent 36.27 g, TransFatContent 0.26 g, SaturatedFatContent 11.16 g, CholesterolContent 99 g, SodiumContent 692 g, CarbohydrateContent 11.35 g, FiberContent 2.0 g, SugarContent 5.14 g, ProteinContent 29.62 g