Mulligatawny?

I read a lot of blog posts about mulligatawny this evening. To sum up all of them: Anglo-Indian blah blah “pepper water” blah endless variations yada yada yada SEINFELD. So I’ll pretty much skip all that.

What I do care about is that it’s the most fun soup to say. Mulligatawny. Sounds like an excellent and adorable insult.  

Did you see what Crandolph* did in the break room today? What a mulligatawny.

Or maybe a mulligatawny is, like, a foul, but in cricket or curling or some other sport I don’t understand (read: all of them).

Admittedly, that’s definitely not enough justification for bucking a three-year tradition of having tomato soup on February 1. Allow me to blather on.

Exhibit B: Spelling

This decision happened this morning when I looked up mulligatawny in the dictionary for an undisclosed reason. Guess what. TWO SPELLINGS: mulligatawny/mullagatawny. Lemme tell you, I ain’t buyin’ that second one. Of all the Indian (or Anglo-Indian) restaurants I’ve been to, even the places with the funniest menu typos (unless they really do make “shramps biryani” or “daaal makhani”) spell it m-u-l-l-i-g-a-t-a-w-n-y.  

That dummy of a spelling isn’t even in the Wikipedia entry, and Wikipedia usually has all kinds of cuckoobananapants alternate spellings. Even Google was all, “Girl, I’m not even going to ask whether you meant mulligatawny because that’s clearly what you ARE with that ridiculous spelling. A reeeeal mulligatawny.” So, this here blog post is my way of adding to the lexicological evidence that we, the people, don’t need no second spelling.

Exhibit C: Tandoor India in Montgomery

Tandoor India is located in a sad strip mall, and by sad I mean I’ve seen raccoons in the parking lot dumpsters not one but three times. The only reason to stumble upon it is a trip to the excellent Go Bananas comedy club – best place in town to see national/regional/local comics and/or meet the love of your life.

Nestled just past a string of car dealerships in Montgomery, Ohio, Tandoor offers Northern Indian fare that in my experience ranges between standard and unmemorable. Have I piqued your interest yet? Hold up a sec.

Tandoor India’s mulligatawny changed my life. Now that I’ve had it, I think and talk about it at least once a week. It’s creamy and warming and a little spicy and I don’t even know how to describe it except to say it’s probably my favorite food at a restaurant in this city and the most startlingly good soup I’ve ever had. Worth the trip to Montgomery? Um, uhyeah. 

This soup — it comes in a small diner-cup-o-soup size — it’s the stuff of dreams. A soothing yellow with little dots of black mustard seed, you want to get close to it and let the smell breathe up into your nostrils and start licking it like a cat at a bowl of cream. Or maybe just dunk your whole face in it and then have your big cartoon tongue come out and slurp it up like a dang animal. This soup makes me wanna growl, just thinking about it. 

Maybe one day I’ll make it my mission to try to deconstruct and recreate this megapleasure of a dish, but that will have to wait for a different month. For today, this first day of Soupruary (maybe but no promises), I’ve chosen to go with something that looked like it would get me as far away as possible from my Tandoor love while still being good. As Internet points out, there are endless variations, so I’m going with a variation on Madhur Jaffrey’s very simple recipe rather than turn into the Anne Hathaway of soups. 

(I had a dream this soup would be / so different from this soup I’m ee-eating)

Brought the mulligatawny over to my friend Erin’s beautiful downtown apartment, where Erin supplied the (wine and) cheese and crackers and beet/asparagus salad and Emily brought ever-pleasing crudites. Between the food, the wine and the conversation, we were plenty warm on this evilly cold day in Cincinnati. Now I remember why I liked this month so much. 

Oh, right, I should describe the actual soup itself (Ah, me. I’m such a mulligatawny sometimes).

This was 100% successful in being 0% similar to Tandoor's version. It was also tasty, spicy, hearty, healthy, easy, and a good thing to keep in my mind for JUST COOK SOMETHING moments, since it's basically a pantry-based meal. And it's a meal, for sure. 

AND, we had the best night ever talking about how SOMEONE almost got fired from being a kindergartener.

E+E (shy babes above) had good things to say, but I always get self-conscious when things have spice--I'm the worst judge of that. I'd make it again! But I sooooorta don't want to call it mulligatawny.

*name changed to amuse me.

Super Simple Vegetarian... Mulligatawny?

Adapted from Simple Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey
Probably serves like 4-ish

GET THIS STUFF

2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 t freshly grated ginger
3 cloves of garlic, crushed (in a mortar and pestle or with a garlic press is easiest)
1 t toasted and ground cumin
1 t toasted and ground coriander
½ t turmeric
1 ½ t Madras curry powder 
¼ t cayenne
1 ¾ c chickpeas (I used canned—rinsed—because this was a last minute decision)
1 c red split lentils, rinsed
4 c vegetable stock (I used Kitchen Basics no salt vegetable stock—again, last minute decision)
kosher salt
zest and juice of one lemon
cilantro, finely chopped

DO THIS WITH IT

Heat olive oil in your favorite soup pot over medium heat.
Add ginger and garlic and stir until fragrant (or 15 seconds-ish if you have a cold and can’t smell).
Add cumin, coriander, turmeric, curry powder and cayenne, and stir until fragrant.
Add chickpeas and stir.
Add lentils, stock, and a three-finger pinch of salt, and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 45 minutes.
Remove your pot from heat and stir in lemon juice. Taste for seasoning and add more salt if necessary.
Put it up in yr bowl, garnish with cilantro and a sprinkle of lemon zest, then put it up in yr face.