Hi friend!

I’m SO excited to share this recipe with you today! It’s my summer obsession of 2020. Gotta celebrate the small stuff these days especially, am I right?!

This recipe falls into the “marinated salads” category of my cooking formats/diet. (See last week’s email for the full explanation of marinated salads.) Generally with marinated salads, I make a big bowl to last 2-3 days. This one is different in that I always make it fresh, in a single serving, just before I eat it. This is mainly because I prefer my tomatoes at room temperature versus cold (I find them less flavorful when chilled). And because what makes this recipe worth sharing in the first place is the use of the GENIUS - I repeat, GENIUS - Indian cooking technique called tempering. (You may know it as chhonk, tarka, tadka, or many other names.) Tempering is simply cooking spices - usually whole ones - in hot oil or ghee to produce a flavorful topping for (or beginning base of) a dish. Read more here.

I am very much a BEGINNER at cooking Indian food. I do not have any expertise on cooking Indian food, and you should not be looking to me for any! I am, however, very good at making vegetables taste amazing. And it just so happens that this very simple, quick, flavor-bomb-producing Indian cooking technique of tempering is a form of genius I am SO GLAD to have learned about, and been inspired to incorporate into my cooking in new ways. And so, I am sharing this example of my very early learnings today!

I’ve been cooking out of a cookbook I love, the amazing Indian-ish by Priya Krishna. The book is described as “a celebration of one very cool and boundary-breaking mom’s 'Indian-ish' cooking - with accessible and innovative Indian-American recipes." I think it’s great if you are just getting started cooking Indian food, although it is just one of many amazing and diverse Indian cookbooks out there. It happens to be the one I am starting with / one that resonates with me and my cooking style (and I love Priya and her Instagram stories).

The recipe below is a mash-up/inspired by several recipes from Indian-ish. It’s very flexible, so you have a lot of free choice and room to play with substitutions and spice combos. However, I do especially like this specific veggie combination that I wrote up for you - tomato, cucumber, and avocado. Really though, any veggies would work.

Now - if you have never purchased or used whole spices, this is going to be a bit new. Don’t worry, it’s awesome! It's spices, but CRUNCHY! You will love them. If you shop at Whole Foods or the like - those little green boxes of spices are a great place to start so you can try a small quantity. If you have a local spice shop - definitely try to support them and shop there! If you don’t have a local spice shop, you can order online from one I love: Oaktown Spice in Oakland which ships nationally and is where I've been getting all my delicious spices during quarantine.

I have been making this for dinner seriously every night, 5 nights in a row when I have the ingredients. I just can't get enough. I hope you try it and if you do - please tag me on Instagram or write me to tell me what you think!!

Happy tempering!

Love,
Jess


Tempered Spice Summer Salad with Tomato, Cucumber, and Avocado

• inspired by a few different recipes from Indian-ish by Priya Krishna, namely the Kachumber section on pages 107-109, the Green Chile and Cherry Tomato Pickle recipe plus gorgeous photo on pages 64-65, and the Chhonk section pg 32
• takes less than 20 mins
• makes 1 large single-serving bowl (light dinner for 1 person or a side for 2 people) - increase ingredients accordingly!

Ingredients:

• 1 medium cucumber
• about 1 cup / large handful cherry tomatoes (or equivalent larger tomatoes)
• 1 ripe avocado
• handful of fresh cilantro, maybe ~7 sprigs? (or substitute another herb of your choice)
• 1 lime
• olive oil, salt and pepper
• roughly 2-3 Tablespoons TOTAL of at least one, ideally 3-5 or more of the following!
• whole coriander seeds
• whole cumin seeds
• whole peppercorns - pink are my favorite for this!
• whole black mustard seed
• whole fennel seeds
• whole nigella seeds (black onion seeds)
• whole fenugreek seeds
• chili flakes - any kind! (aleppo and urfa are awesome but any would work)

Instructions:

1. Get out a large single-size salad bowl.
2. Chop cucumber into bite-size pieces, add to bowl.
3. Chop cilantro finely, including the stems, add to bowl.
4. Cut avocado in half and remove pit, scoop out bite size pieces (or score and scoop), add to bowl.
5. Cut cherry tomatoes in half, or if using bigger tomatoes, dice on a plate so you can save the juice. Add tomatoes and any juice to the bowl too.
6. Now, it's tempering time! This will take about 3 mins MAX. Add olive oil to a small pan enough cover the bottom of the pan. (I use a 6-inch pan for this.) You’ll adjust the amount of oil depending on how much you’re making. It should be roughly the amount you'd add to a salad. Heat pan/oil on medium-high.
7. Get your spices out! The quantities are flexible here. I like a good amount of seeds so I do a total of roughly 3 tablespoons total (so maybe a tablespoon each of at least 3 kinds) plus some chili flakes. I don’t really measure though, I just add straight to the pan. Depending on which spices you’re using: add the largest spices to the pan first and continue adding each kind, with the smallest spices and/or ground spices added last. I get nervous about burning them, so even though you are technically supposed to have the oil really hot, I start adding my spices a little earlier and let it all sizzle together. Once you've added all the spices, swirl it around. It should be sizzling. Some spices may fly out - that's ok just be careful. Cook until it's very fragrant - just about a minute or two. DO NOT LEAVE UNATTENDED. This takes only 1-2 mins to cook so stay and watch it/swirl it around as needed until it’s done! If you start to smell the faintest burning or bitterness, turn off immediately. If you burn it, it's ruined :(
8. Carefully pour the hot oil + spices over your salad! (Tomatoes/avocado should be on top!) Use a spatula to get all the spices/oil into the bowl.
9. Squeeze half a lime over top. Add salt and pepper.
10. Mix it all together.
11. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more lime, salt/pepper as needed. Eat immediately and enjoy!

Photo before mixing it all together: