My introduction to Chicken Tikka came in the form of bar food. As a regular business traveler to India, I spent a little time in the pubs of Bangalore.  Food always took the form of "snacks", which inevitably included Chicken Tikka.  On one particular night out with locals, someone at the table complained "this chicken is not hot enough.  I'm from Hyderabad…"  I quickly learned that Hyderabad and Andhra are synonymous with shockingly spicy food. 

There was (and probably still is) a restaurant/bar in Bangalore named Cosmo Village.  Cab drivers always had a fun time trying to find it.  It had multiple levels and a fantastic open air rooftop deck.  Any trip to Bangalore included a night at Cosmo Village.  On random nights they had a guy cooking chicken tikka skewers on a small bbq.  It made for a great evening - keep the big bottles of Kingfisher and skewers of Chicken Tikka coming until the inevitable jet lag catches up with you.

Coming home from India, I set out to learn how to make Chicken Tikka like the guy at Cosmo Village.  I made countless valiant efforts using the traditional Indian recipes, which are entirely yoghurt based.  It was a complete surprise to finally find the correct recipe in an excellent book on BBQ. I cook these on a small charcoal grill with hardwood lump charcoal.  Chicken Tikka is also a key ingredient in my favorite India street food - the Chicken Egg Roll.

Chicken Tikka Marinade:   1 Tbsp coriander seeds 2 tsp whole black pepper 1 tsp cumin seeds 6 clove garlic 2 inches ginger 3 Tbsp vegetable oil 1/4 cup water juice from 1 lemon 1 tsp Reshampatti or similar hot red chili (or cayenne) 1 tsp paprika 1 1/2 tsp salt 2 lbs boneless chicken   Directions   In a preheated cast iron pan, toast the coriander, black pepper and cumin until they are cooked but not burned.  Usually no more than a couple minutes.  Immediately grind in a spice grinder. Blend the toasted spices and the rest of the marinade into a puree. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Marinate chicken for at least 2 hours If using bamboo, soak the skewers for 30 minutes.  Thread the chicken onto the skewers. Grill the skewers.  After the second turn, coat the skewers in ghee or butter.

recipe adapted from:

photo by scmikeburton

When the weather starts to turn warm in the south, it's time for Crawfish.  By the time the heat of summer starts killing the grass, the crawfish will be long gone. That means that every year in Texas and Louisiana (and I'm sure elsewhere) crawfish boils appear.  Some are huge social events put on in small towns by the Elks or Optimists.  One of my favorites is in the back of a bar.  And every year, sometimes with not enough planning, I have a backyard boil.

Our boil is a simple affair - a batch of hungry friends, a large tub of ice and beer and a couple bags of live crawfish.  In Austin you order them mid-week and they come in on a refrigerated truck in time for the weekend.

Set up is easy - its outside.  Situated well away from tables covered in newspaper, definitely in the shade, you keep the crawfish and the boil.  Crawfish boils can a messy affair with a large amount of garbage.  The boil  should last all afternoon.  Anyone getting restless should visit the beer tub. In fact, everyone should visit the beer tub - this is not something to be rushed.

The equipment should explain why the boil doesn't get near the tables - I use a propane burner, an 8-10 gallon pot and for the first time this year, a strainer.  The ingredients may seem a little strange if you've never been invited to a boil, but they work.  Be careful with the spices, but you can change out everything else at will.

Crawfish Boil

3 lbs Jalapeno sausage, cut into bite size pieces

10 cobs of corn, cut in halves or thirds

5 lbs of new potatoes

2 lbs of salt

6 lemons

4 heads of garlic

6 crab boil bags

2 crab boils -powder

Lots of cayenne (Iuse an entire jar)

70 lbs of live crawfish

The night before the boil, divide the sausage, corn, potatoes and whatever else you've added, into8-10 portions.  Either bag or bowl them.  You're going to put one portion in each pot.

The day of the boil, fill the pot 2/3 with water.  Add 3 boil bags, 1 powder boil, 6 lemon halves, 2 garlic heads and 1 lb of salt.  The cayenne is up to you, I suggest you start slow. The salt is key - a whole pound.

Fill a tub or cooler with crawfish and rinse like crazy.

Each of the boils works the same way -

1. Bring the boil, well, to a boil.


2. Put a portion of extras in the strainer.


3. Pull the live crawfish out of the cooler and into the strainer.  Only use the live ones.  This is where you will appreciate a good source of crawfish.


4. Submerge the strainer in the boil.  Boil for 10 minutes.


5. Turn off the heat.  Let the whole thing sit for 15 minutes.


6. Pull the strainer and give it all to your guests.

After 4-5 boils start throwing in more of the boils and seasonings.  Plan on adding water throughout the day.  The goal is to be left with nothing, so try to use everything up.

  photo by steveyb

On a trip to a call center in Buenos Aires I discovered my standard street food - the empanada.  Every day I insisted that lunch start with yet another trip to the empanada stand downstairs.  At a place that resembled a sparse McDonalds, I could get a variety of mostly meat pies, all made with a crispy crust and not terribly spicy filling.  On return I started making them myself and found out how entirely flexible they are.  Such a fantastic concept - not as much of a caloric investment as a meat pie and not as much of a time investment as a samosa.  In the years that have passed since my decision to pursue empanadas I have made them with too many different fillings to remember.

The first and most important decision with empanadas is the filling.  There are many choices and not many bad ones.  The decision that is going to impact how much time it takes to make your empanadas is whether you want to use frozen pre-made shells or your own dough.  There are some good examples in the Samosas post or you could use the one below.  There is an example of this recipe all the way back to the Joy of Cooking.

If I am in a rush or feeling lazy, I keep some frozen shells on hand from La Salteña.  I get them from my local Mediterranean deli/bakery.  They are made in Argentina and work perfectly.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.


2. Roll out a disc (or if going the lazy route, peel off a finished shell)


3. Put some water around the lip of the empanada, then add a scoop of filling to the middle of the shell.


4. Pull the dough over the filling and crimp the edge to close.  I use an empanada cutter, but I have seen some interesting empanada presses on Amazon.


5. Stretch a sheet of parchment paper onto a baking sheet and place the empanadas in rows.  You can use a lightly greased baking sheet if you like.


6. Cook the empanadas on the center rack for 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and brush with some olive oil.


7. Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake until the empanadas are golden brown, usually about 15 minutes.  Make sure that the dough is finished and not clear.  If you are making your own dough (below), I give the empanadas a second brushing with oil 5 minutes before they are done.

Empanada Dough recipe

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 stick butter, room temperature

1 large egg

1/3 cup cold water

1 Tbsp distilled white vinegar

Directions

1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.


2. Add the butter to the flour a small chunk at a time, smashing the butter into the flour.


3. Beat the egg with the water and vinegar. 


4. Add to the dough.  Stir until everything is mixed.


5. Take the dough and turn it a couple times to mix everything.


6. Cool in a refrigerator until ready.

photo by food_in_mouth

Samosas are great small bites that are an easy addition to any menu.  The dough and process for making them are very similar to empanadas.  I use them interchangeably and generally make samosas vegetarian and make empanadas savory. 

These are simple to make but take a little time.  Its much easier if the filling is pre-made and chilled.

I far prefer the baked version, but the fried version is more common.  The way I make baked samosas, they are tasty without being dry, so I stick with baked.

There are plenty of good recipes for the dough, but Emeril really nailed a few recipes:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/spinach-and-cheese-empanadas-recipe/index.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/empanada-dough-recipe/index.html

If I am in a rush or feeling lazy, I keep some frozen shells on hand from La Salteña.  I get them from my local Mediterranean deli/bakery.  They are made in Argentina and work perfectly.

I posted the dough recipe I use in my post on Making Empanadas. 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.


2. Roll out a disc (or if going the lazy route, peel off a finished shell)


3. Cut the disk in half.  Put a little water on the flat edge, on both sides.


4. Pull the flat edge together to form a little cone.  Press the edges together, since they need to stick during the baking.


5. Fill the cone up in two scoops.  I always use two scoops to make sure I am getting the filling down in the cone.  Pat the filling down a bit.


6. Put some water around the lip of the samosa, then pinch it together closed.  You can finish it like an empanada if you want to get fancy.


7. Stretch a sheet of parchment paper onto a baking sheet and place the samosas in rows.  You can use a lightly greased baking sheet if you like.


8. Cook the samosas on the center rack for 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and brush with some olive oil.


9. Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake until the samosas are golden brown, usually about 15 minutes.  Make sure that the dough is finished and not clear.

When I started this blog it was really my intention to rotate around the world's recipes rather than concentrate on the US.  After all, most of the world's great street food is in Asia.  If pressed I could concentrate on Mumbai or Singapore alone and never get bored.

Thing is, Austin is seeing a strange surge in the popularity of trailer food.  Its hard to really understand where this is coming from.  Around the corner, a car "repair and sales" lot transformed into a collection of trailers and some nice shaded benches.  Four blocks from the "Trailer Park", a church has allowed another cluster of trailers to form in an unused parking lot.  Today there are 7 different trailers in the church parking lot:

• The Mighty Cone - a strange attempt by a fantastic restaurant to make faux tacos?


• Rappolo's pizza - terrible pizza, displayed at an angle!


• Armadillo coffee - standard coffee offerings.


• Vaquero Cocina - this one is new.  Seems to concentrate on smoked sides.  Things would be grand if this turns out to be good.


• Crepes & Paninis -  pressed sandwiches and crepes.  Not as popular as the crepe trailer about a mile away.


• Cornucopia - flavored popcorn.


• Hey Cupcake - this was the first trailer.  Very cool idea - cupcakes and ice cream.

Seems like a good idea to touch on some of the better offerings before the inevitable clampdown from the folks at City Hall.  I sincerely hope they start with Rappolo's.  The only way to make the crap pizza experience worse is to add plasma TV's blaring truly awful music videos.

 Cornucopia delivers the obvious and provides an alternative to kettle corn trailers, a regular at street fairs.  Kettle corn is an addictive substance that draws huge crowds when out in the open.  It comes in large bags that are normally inhaled while avoiding face painting.  The downside of making kettle corn at home is the potential to light your kitchen on fire.  The corn is made in a huge pot over a serious gas flame.  While I have never seen it, it can't be  hard to ignite the oil.

This is a simple alternative that I make on a regular basis.  Eventually I want to spend the time to understand a safe way to make kettle corn at home.

Fireman's Kettle Corn

• 1/3 cup organic coconut oil


• 1 cup popcorn


• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter


• 2 tsp sugar


• 2 tsp salt

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.


2. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Throw a couple kernels of popcorn in the oil.


3. When the kernels pop, throw the rest of the popcorn in the pot, cover, and shake around a bit.


4. When the kernels stop popping, remove from heat and pour the popcorn into a paper bag.


5. Melt the butter and whisk in the sugar and salt.


6. Pour the butter mixture over the popcorn in thirds, shaking the bag each time.


7. Put the popcorn into a casserole dish and heat in the oven for 10 minutes.