Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Jardaloo ma murghi and Lotteria's ramen burger


Jardaloo ma murghi

I tried to find the origin of jardaloo ma murghi and for once the ever reliable Wiki does not have an entry. Based on what I read from a few sites, I guess this is a Persian dish but available in India, or an Indian dish with Persian origins. Adding curry to dried apricots sounds like fusion. 

Curried apricots sounds unappealing but the dish is really delicious. Apricots add slight sweetness, its not overly sweet. The recipe is available here.

Today's Favourite Photo
Lotteria's Ramen Burger, a carb fest. Call me boring but I don’t find this burger appealing



Today’s Favourite Blog
Source: BBC
It seems like the insect eating idea may start to fly sooner than expected. Now the UN is pushing for it, saying that eating more insects could help boost nutrition and reduce pollution. 100 grams of beef contains 27.4 grams of protein and 3.5mg of iron. The caterpillar, even though a much slower animal, is miles ahead with 28.2 grams of protein and 35.5 mg of iron. When compared with beef, grasshoppers and dung beetle have less protein but much more iron. Grasshoppers and dung beetle also contain calcium, which is not present in caterpillars and beef. So if you have calcium deficiency and don't want to drink large volumes of milk, eat grasshoppers and beetle.

A UN report notes that "insects are everywhere and they reproduce quickly, and they have high growth and feed conversion rates and a low environmental footprint." As an example, crickets need 12 times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein.

The whole BBC article (and I presume the UN report) focuses on technical details such as nutritional profile and feed conversion rates, and makes very little reference to taste. That surprises me, I think taste is important, especially if someone wants to promote a new ingredient. I’ve heard grasshoppers being compared with fries, crunchy and delicious. It sounds more appealing than saying 100 grams of grasshoppers contain 20.6 grams of protein.

Insects are probably less popular because people consider it yuck. Consider that in some parts of New England, it was forbidden by law to serve lobster to prison inmates more than once a week. And before the 19th century lobsters were consumer by widows, orphans, and servants ate lobster.

So this summer, instead of going fishing, go insecting, or do both.

6 comments:

  1. I have never heard of jardaloo. It does look delicious and intriguing, but as you say not very Indian because of the apricots. I think sweet and savoury mixture of flavours doesn't exist in main Indian dishes (at least I have never seen it). It reminds me of Moroccan food a bit. They use often sweet dried fruits in meat dishes. I'm checking the recipe!
    I don't like the look of this hamburger either.
    Yes, insects are our future. I have nothing against as long as they taste good. I do know some people from European countries where seafood is not popular who are disgusted by shrimp, prawn etc. because they look like insects for them. Did you know that truffle was once considered as poor people food and much less expensive than potatoes??? Pity we cannot travel in time...

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    1. It was the first time that I heard of it also. Never seen it in any restaurant either. Some parts of India (like Gujerat) include a sweet element in their mains but it might be difficult to find restaurants that sell such foods, unless you go to places in London, or Gujerat:)
      I didn't realise truffles were for poor people. How times change. Maybe after a few decades we will be having a conversation about how in the past pork leg, chicken thigh, liver, black pudding etc were cheap cuts.

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  2. What the!!! Thats a wierd looking burger, it doesnt even look like a food at all. Very interesting find :)

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  3. Wow that Jardaloo ma murghi looks interesting. Could be persan. They use whole dried lemon, why not apricot. I know in theory the insects are good but yuck! Oh and those poor New England prisoners, only 1 lobster!

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