indiagirl

Vikram, you're so right about Hyderabad. I think I became a foodie in Hyderabad. If you ever compile a list about places to eat in Hyderabad, the Raan at the Kakatiya hotel would be a good addition. Marinated and slow cooked for days, it even enticed a recovering vegetarian like me.

Vikram. thanks for your insightful posts there. And thalipith and pitla, oh me lord. Matthew, if you feel like experimenting, a touch of ajwain (i think they are called carom seeds in english) in english scones is a really wonderful, aromatic addition.

Another great book for beginners in my opinion, Passionate Meals - Ismail Merchant It has simple recipes with very few ingredients while still distilling the essence of what Indian food is about ...

torakris, i think the posts above cover everything .... to add one - low fat milk does not work. atleast not the stuff you get in the US. not enough fat to form the curds, i think. good luck with your taste test.

i really liked chowki when i was in london - you may want to try that. i think it's in piccadilly circus. details are available if you search for chowki in google. heard good things about mela too (same chef as chowki, more upscale i think) but i've not been there myself.

So, indian style. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a wok. Have prepared the next few ingredients that go into the oil for the tarka. Particularly something fresh, like green chillies or even a dried red chilli will do in a pinch. Heat the oil to smoking point, almost! Add the mustard seeds, they will start popping immediately. Yes. Sizzle. Snap. Turn down the heat. Add the other ingredients (powdered ones) in quick succession. Watch like a hawk. Powders burn fast. Add the chilli/fresh ingredient which will take away a lot of the heat because of it's size/green-ness. I've tried to do the have medium hot oil, toss the seeds in, wait until they pop approach but it just ain't what mama taught me. So I doit with the drama. Try it. You'll see what I mean. jhlurie, the mustard seeds are being used to season the oil they are popped in. Also, the heat, like with many other spices, releases an aroma that is wonderful.

2-3 times a week. At home. Usually a vegetable curry, a dal, rice, store bought chappatis/naans, yoghurt, pickle. Pack a lunch with leftovers. Rarely eat Indian food in restaurants. Maybe once every other month or so I get take out from the neighborhood Udipi take out place. Go out to eat 1-2 times a week.

chapati dough with a touch of ajwain seeds (caraway, i think it is in english) lovely - and i use salt to although i make them too rarely for my own happiness must fix that

Rajasthan - My husband and three friends from Ann Arbor we had taken to India. We rented a Sumo (with a driver, Singh) and drove from Agra to Jaisalmer. Singh took us to a Dhaba on one of our journeys. All of us had sore bones from the Sumo on rickety roads and were much in need of a long, relaxed meal. The dhaba.No name. A little whitewashed brick building. Scrub fields behind it. Gorgeous mustard fields in front of it that infused the air with a pungent aroma. Bright, clear winter afternoon. Charpais. Sleeping truck drivers. Tables covered with thatch umbrellas. And the food. Toor daal with a garlic tarka that we could smell sitting there in the front yard. Saag, of course. The mustard fields made that inevitable. Aloo-gobi. Piping hot tandoori rotis being ferried to us straight off the tandoor, by a man in a lungi and banian who seemed to enjoy that we must have consumed more than twenty amongst the five of us. Sweet, sweet raw onion. Lassis in tall steel glasses. Incomparable.

p2, me too (that rhymed, can i be the resident poet, instead of the resident expert much more comfortable with the former than the latter) suvir, that's a good point about the size of the garlic being significantly larger in the us. my ma-in-law's recipe, as usual, omits quantities! i typically just wing it but did not want to do that in a recipe i was posting. so perhaps 1/2 to 2/3 the specified quantity. funcook, i hope it was still ok enough to make for a good breakfast. apologies! medhu vadas with rasam sounds sooo good. marlene, would it be possible to change the quantity of garlic in that recipe on the archive? make it more likre 10-15? thanks.

No Marlene. I did modify the language and even the ingredients are not verbatim - I thought those were the rules, am I right? also, i have a very similar recipe from my ma-in-law - it just didnt have exact quantities so .... I referred to the book let me know if I'm not .....

P2, a thousand apologies. Total brain ummmm ... blip. Here it is. From Dakshin Lemon Sized piece of tamarind pulp 2 cups hot water 20-25 garlic cloves 2 tsps oil salt, curry leaves Paste - 2 teaspoons oil 4 red chillis 3/4 tsp black peppercorns 2 teaspoons coriander seeds 1 teaspoon bengal gram dal 1 tsp cumin seeds curry leaves Tarka - 2 tsps ghee 1 tsp mustard seeds 2 red chillis Heat oil for paste in a frying pan - add chilli, peppercorns, coriander seeds, dal and saute for a few minutes. Make into a paste with the cumin seeds and curry leaves. Soak the tamarind in the hot water for 15 minutes and strain. Toss the oulpy bits. Place juice in a saucepan, add salt, curry leaves and simmer on low heat until the raw smell of tamarind is gone Saute the peeled garlic in 2 tsps oil until golden. Add to the simmering tamarind juice and boil until flavors are blended. Add water if needed. Pour hot spluttering tarka on top.

Anna N, let's start with fenugreek seeds - brown, vaguely cubical, tiny. I use those in tarkas, add at the end, before adding main ingredient because they burn quite easily. Gorgeous falvor. Sort of pungent and nutty at the same time. Really comes through when used with lentils in a dahl or a dry potato curry Now for the dried leaves. One way I make a curry or dahl. I make a tarka (seasoning the oil, described in various threads here). Then I add onions and when they are nicely caramelized, I add the dried leaves, turn the gas down to a medium and stir until I can smell the fenugreek. Put a splash (literally) of water in and quickly put a lid on. Let it "steam" for a minute or so and then add the potatoes/tomatoes/lentils etc. I've almost never added it in the end - I should try it some time. If I do, I think I'll probably add it with a but of butter and still add a splash of water and let it steam for a few minutes. The fresh green -aah. You can use that in any way you would use a typical green - except perhaps raw. So a quick stir fry, beginning, end, whatever works. Hope that helps. Suvir? Me, resident expert? Yeah right.

Rasam Lemon Sized piece of tamarind pulp 2 c hot water 20 garlic cloves 2 tsp oil salt, curry leaves Paste - 2 tsp oil 4 red chillis 3/4 tsp black peppercorns 2 tsp coriander seeds 1 tsp bengal gram dal 1 tsp cumin seeds curry leaves Tarka - 2 tsp ghee 1 tsp mustard seeds 2 red chillis Heat oil for paste in a frying pan - add chilli, peppercorns, coriander seeds, dal and saute for a few minutes. Make into a paste with the cumin seeds and curry leaves. Soak the tamarind in the hot water for 15 minutes and strain. Toss the oulpy bits. Place juice in a saucepan, add salt, curry leaves and simmer on low heat until the raw smell of tamarind is gone Saute the peeled garlic in 2 tsps oil until golden. Add to the simmering tamarind juice and boil until flavors are blended. Add water if needed. Pour hot spluttering tarka on top. Keywords: Appetizer, Soup, Indian ( RG511 )

torakris, that sounds like you made a quick "paneer makhni", paneer being the name of the fresh indian cheese you made. another indian (amongst other things) spice to add to your repertoire is mace. wonderful, wonderful spice. and then there is ajwain. which i also love. to continue the is-it-a-herb/spice discussion, i think of methi as a green. like kale or arugula. i see it as neither a spice nor a herb. hmmmm.