Yogurt

These crackers combine the sweet flavor of onions in the dough with the taste of Old Bay, the ubiquitous seafood seasoning. The crackers are a great recipe for children because the dough is flavorful and easy to work with, and kids can have fun at the end breaking the large pieces into bite-size bits. They go well with cheese, seafood dips and salads, steak tartare, hummus, baba ghanoush, and of course, good butter.

Beets and beet soup are as old as the Talmud, in which the dish is mentioned. Borscht, brought to France most recently by Russian immigrants before World War I, is still very popular served either hot or cold, depending on the season. Although there is a meat version, made with veal bones and thickened with eggs and vinegar, I prefer this lighter, dairy beet soup. The French use a bit more vinegar and less sugar than in American recipes, proportions that allow the beet flavor really to shine through. The soup is traditionally topped with dill or chervil, but I use whatever is growing seasonally in my garden, often fresh mint. The combination of the bright-pink beets, the sour cream or yogurt, and the green herbs makes a stunning dish.

On a late-june evening, I entered a courtyard in the Fifth Arrondissement, right near the picturesque Rue Mouffetard, one of my favorite streets in Paris when I was a student there so many years ago. Beyond the courtyard, I found myself in a large garden in front of an apartment building. After climbing two flights of stairs, I arrived at the home of Irving Petlin, an American artist, and his beautiful wife, Sarah. The two expats have lived here on and off since 1959. Sarah frequents the local markets, going to the Place Monge for her onions and garlic, making sure she visits her potato man from North Africa. Having chosen peonies for the table, she arranged them in a vase next to a big bowl of ripe cherries, making her table, with the Panthéon in the background, as beautiful as a perfectly orchestrated still life. At the meal, I especially liked the soup, which calls for lettuce leaves—a good way, I thought, of using up the tougher outer leaves that most of us discard, but which still have a lot of flavor. The French have a long tradition of herb- and- salad soup, something Americans should be increasingly interested in, given all the new wonderful greens we’re growing in our backyards and finding at farmers’ markets. I often replace the zucchini with eggplant and substitute other herbs that are available in my summer garden. This soup is also delicious served warm in the winter.

This is made in the same way as in the last recipe, only it has a layer of sliced bananas at the top.

This sweet cream, which tastes a bit like crème fraîche, only with a more flowing, creamy texture, is a simple Gujarati dessert, so cooling during Gujarat’s hot summer days. In May and June, when mangoes are in season, thick mango puree is folded in. A teaspoon of saffron threads, roasted and soaked in milk, may be added at the same time as the sugar (see method on page 289) or dried fruit (golden raisins, soaked in boiling water for an hour and squeezed), nuts (chopped pistachios or almonds), fresh fruit (chopped mangoes, bananas, berries), and fruit purees.

This dense, intense yogurt custard is a specialty of Bengal, where it is called bhapa doi—steamed custard. Bengalis have quite a sweet tooth, and this is one of the hundreds of sweet things they buy from the market, all set in terra-cotta pots, to have at the end of their meals. Here is a quick, easy version that I learned from a Bengali friend. It can be eaten by itself or with fruit. You may double the recipe, using a 4-cup dish. The cooking time should be the same.

I like to refrigerate this lassi, covered, with all the seasonings in it, for a couple of hours. Then I strain and serve it. It is particularly good at the very start of a meal, served in tiny glasses to whet the appetite. (You may also strain and serve it as soon as it is made, with a couple of ice cubes. The flavors will be mellower.) You can easily double or triple the recipe.

This is best made when good fresh mangoes are in season. When they are not, very good-quality canned pulp from India’s excellent Alphonso mangoes may be used instead. Most Indian grocers sell this.

Here is an easy everyday yogurt relish. I like to use a good whole-milk yogurt here, but if you prefer a low-fat variety it would work well too. My cherry tomatoes were on the larger side so I cut each into eight portions. Use more if they are smaller and just quarter them. Serve with most Indian meals or eat by itself as a snack.

This is a typical Gujarati dish: slightly sweet, slightly salty, slightly hot, and dotted with mustard seeds. I just love it. In India it would be served with a meal, but if you are in the habit of having a yogurt for lunch, try this very nutritious version.

Something between a relish and a curry, this may be served with most Indian meals.

This is a simple and delicious relish to serve at Indian meals.

Any soft green, such as chard leaves, may be substituted for the spinach here.

Yogurt relishes are eaten with meals throughout India. They are nearly always savory, though in western states like Gujarat a little sugar is added as well as the salt to give a sweet-sour-salty flavor.

This yogurt relish comes from the Tamil communities of Sri Lanka and is called Curd Sambol. It may be served with most South Asian meals. It may also be eaten at lunch as a salad.

There are hundreds of versions of this salad-like dish that are eaten throughout South India and parts of western India as well. At its base is rice, the local starch and staple. (Think of the bread soups of Italy and the bread salads of the Middle East.) The rice is cooked so it is quite soft. Then yogurt, and sometimes a little milk as well, is added as well as any fruit (apple, grapes, pomegranate), raw vegetables (diced tomatoes, cucumbers), or lightly blanched vegetables (green beans, zucchini, peas) that one likes. The final step is what makes the salad completely Indian. A tiny amount of oil is heated and spices such as mustard seeds, curry leaves, and red chilies are thrown into it. Then the seasoned oil is poured over the rice salad to give it its pungency and reason for being. This cooling, soothing dish, somewhat like a risotto, makes a wonderful lunch. It is best served at room temperature, without being refrigerated. Other salads may be added to the meal.

Eating a karhi is really a way of eating heated yogurt. Because yogurt would curdle into unappetizing blobs if it were to be just heated up, it is stabilized with a flour first. In India, where there are many vegetarians who know that a bean, a grain, and a milk product can make for a balanced meal, it is chickpea flour that is used. Known variously as garbanzo flour, gram flour, chickpea flour, farine de pois chiches, and besan, it is very nutritious as well as full of a nutty flavor. Karhis are cooked over much of India with many interesting regional variations. This yogurt sauce, spicily seasoned and quite scrumptious, is either poured over rice or put into individual bowls and eaten with whole-grain flatbreads. Meats and vegetables are often served on the side.

Known as a vegetable kurma in the Tamil Nadu region, there are hundreds of versions of this dish throughout southeastern India. Its basic premise is very simple: you parboil diced vegetables—two vegetables or ten, whatever is in season—drain them, and then dress them with a coconut-yogurt mixture seasoned with spices such as mustard seeds and whole dried chilies. All vegetables are fair game—eggplants, zucchini, squashes, peas, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, pumpkins.… The motto of this dish seems to be “What have you got? I can use it.” It is also quite delicious. Grated fresh coconut is now sold in a frozen form at most South and Southeast Asian stores. If you wish to use unsweetened, desiccated coconut instead, soak 2 1/2 tablespoons in warm water to barely cover, let that sit for an hour, and then proceed with the recipe. In the South it is generally eaten at room temperature—balmy—with rice and legumes, but I often serve it in the summer, when my garden is at its most productive, as a salad/ vegetable dish that accompanies Indian or Western meats.

This is a Delhi/Uttar Pradesh–style dish. I like to use very small, waxy potatoes, each cut in half. If they are larger, you will just have to dice them. The potatoes hold together best if you boil them whole and let them cool at room temperature before you peel and cut them. We generally serve this curry with Indian flatbreads or with the puffed-up pooris. Pickles and chutneys are served alongside. This combination is very popular in North India for breakfast. Sips of hot milky tea ease the spicy potatoes down nicely.