homechef

This topic might drop a clue as to why I haven't been doing much posting of late I'd like to make sure my baby doesn't get addicted to Kellogg-MickeyD industrial food, and in order to do that I thought I should start early... by avoiding the Gerber in favor of more interesting international flavors. So - what is fed to infants and toddlers in various parts of India? When is a good time to introduce the baby to various spices? Any old (Indian) wives tales about what to watch out for? For that matter, what do infants and toddlers get fed in other parts of the world?

i was just at a sushi restaurant, and asked about the fishtank of little live crab sitting on the counter. our waitress said they were japanese river crabs. i asked her how they were eaten, and she told us that they were either eaten live, or lightly fried. i asked for 2 fried and 2 live. the live ones came out with a dab of chilli sauce, the fried ones with a ponzu sauce. i asked if i should eat the crab head first or tail first, and the waitress started laughing - but said it didn't matter. i guess that should have made me suspicious, but i went for it. just about everyone in the restaurant seemed to be looking at me. however, that isn't terribly rare for me - and indian person in a sushi bar - and i was eating a live creature, after all, which even if it is a regular even is still quite dramatic. anyway, i ate it, and it wasn't terribly exciting - the shell was quite chalky, and the insides were mostly liquid. i guess i was expecting to taste more of the mustard. we then ate the fried ones, which were quite nice. it was only after i left the restaurant that i started putting things together - the laughing waitress... the staff all craning their necks to take a look at me... the fact that they told me the names of the crabs. i'm still not sure though... so tell me - did i have a delicacy, or was i had?

a lot of the recipes in "rasachandrika" use jaggery - just a little - and coconut, of course. my favorite (and this does use a lot of jaggery) is suranoli, a pancake made from poha, rice and jaggery, with a little dahi. we don't use turmeric, though i have had them with it, and it's not bad... otherwise, the recipe from rasachandrika works pretty well. if i were to recommend one "showcase" recipe that would be it... eaten just warm (not hot, they need to rest a little after cooking) with freshly churned butter. palm jaggery in your coffee, eh? i heard that was one of my great grandfather's favorites. with a little palm oil, i believe, it was responsible for keeping him regular... ;) i envy you them both... the palm jaggery and the coffee, which i'm sure is a phillips fine ground...

Hey I cooked this once! I had some Khameeri roti dough and kheema leftover and wanted to make a quick meal - I flattened out the dough (recipe from Prashad) and sprinkled the kheema on it sparingly. I dribbled a little oil over it, and cooked the whole thing together, pizza style (I usually cook my Naan on a pizza stone anyway, so it wasn't that big an innovation). It turned out a little too crisp to roll, but I cut each roti into quarters and ate them like (somewhat crisp) pizza. It was pretty good. I'd avoid adding cheese to it though... To my mind it would be like adding cheese to a seafood pizza. But now that I think about it, a paneer version of this could be really good.

i last went to charulata about 3 weeks ago. i've been there for lunch and dinner, and actually prefer the weekend lunch, mostly because of the lucchis and the wide variety of veggie fare. my main point is - at least charulata is trying to do something regional and unique. and i'd hope people would take that into account when choosing between it and some tikka masala joint... personally, i took my coworkers there for lunch (all non-indian) and they had a really good time. several told me that it was the best indian food they'd ever eaten. that really ought to give hope to the restauranteurs who want to try something unique in the indian space...

true story - my mom learned to cook as a graduate student from a book called "adventures in indian cooking" by mary atwood. i'd pay a pretty penny for a copy of that book now... she also used vimla patil's perennially sold out "working woman's cookbook". it might be an unfortunate name, and it might be somewhat dated in its particular brand of feminism - but again, simple, effective (and in the context of indian cookbook writing in english a somewhat rare feature) well tested and correct recipes. many handwritten recipes follow - a few in my hand, trying to cajole her into making prawns with the shell in a maharashtrian (alibaug) style - a biryani recipe i made her fax me (again) recently. also more cookbooks - rasachandrika - a variety of the regional food books you mention... my parents seemed to rarely buy these cookbooks at bookstores - rather, the east indian cookbook was picked up at the goan cold storage, others at cultural events. consequently it's well nigh impossible to get other copies... still, all of that began with mary atwood. anyone else even heard of her?

yes, yes it is good. good catfish (with bones), great mustard potatoes, breadfruit. the special lunch was completely bengali (no chicken tikka masala or lasooni gobi sneaking in). i would recommend it just on the basis of the wide variety of vegetarian options. or alternatively, the goat is pretty good, and in the evenings they claim to actually serve hilsa (heard but not seen - i've only eaten one lunch there so far) when i was in high school i'd flirt with my bengali friends just so i could get their mothers to cook for me. this took me back to the old days... ok, it's not worthy of quite that much deviousness.... but it's unique, they're actually trying to promote a unique regional cuisine, and it even is good, so get out there bay area people! lest we be relegated to spending our lives in "multi-cuisine" misery... -anand

stovetop rice breakthrough! i was inspired by the discussion of the zojirushi to try something different. i usually cook aged basmati rice. my usual method is to wash thoroughly, add water to rice in a ratio of 1.8 to 1, crank heat to maximum possible, bring to boil, add salt, then turn heat down to a gentle simmer for exactly 15 minutes. it's key not to lift the lid at all during the entire cooking and for at least 10 minutes after the rice is done - the water and steam are still working their magic with the rice. then i fluff the rice, mostly to enjoy the basmati fragrance. the breakthrough? let the rice soak in the water for about 15 minutes before switching heat on, then bringing the rice to a boil over medium heat. this adds around 25 minutes to the whole cook time, for a total of 40 minutes, plus 10 minutes of rest after the cooking's done. almost every bag of rice needs to be understood - the differences between brands of the same kind of rice can be quite considerable, and i would definitely expect to experiment a bit with this formula before expecting to get it right for jasmine rice, for example. in my experience average priced jasmine (and younger rice in general) requires less water, so i'd start without the soak and with maybe 1.6 cups of water for every cup of rice. figure out your experiment and go with it - don't try to fix it with a few minutes left on the clock, because therein lies the way of complete disaster. i've used the "lots of water technique" for precooking rice for biryani. it gets rid of a good deal of the starch in rice (in fact the drain off from cooking rice in this method is used for starching clothes - when not flavored, of course) and consequently i can see it working for rice that usually turns out sticky - that stickiness is mostly starch and a little protein that will both be reduced considerably. the technique is ubiquitous in southern india, especially in kerala, and works brilliantly for the rice they have there - enormous, fat grains, often too irregular to polish quite completely, so they end up at the table slightly flecked with red and brown. i wish i'd had the chance to cook that sort of rice here - but it just isn't available. it's just the thing with a little meen curry and erichi veicha... - anand

let me add a plug for my favorite cookbook in this category - Rasachandrika. it's more at the maharashtrian end of konkan food (the recipe names are often marathi rather than konkani, for example - and tend to use fresh rather than roasted coconut) but they are authentic and a good place to start. looking forward to springing that kora chicken on some unsuspecting guests... -anand

Dim Sum in San Francisco - there are the acknowledged biggies - Koi Palace is probably the pinnacle of dim sum here, if you can stand the wait and it gets to you hot. Hong Kong Flower Lounge (Few branches, all on the peninsula, one very near the airport, one in Palo Alto). Yank Sing (Few branches in the city) Harbor Village (Embarcadero) ABC (Milpitas, but there's also one on the peninsula) Mayflower (Milpitas, Great Mall) Joy Luck Place (Cupertino) They all have their specialties, (which vary even among branches of the same restaurant) and please different palates. Even if you don't see something you like, you can always ask... Joy Luck makes a mean Tong Yuen, but they never put it out on carts, for example.

Personally, I don't think it's the spice as much as the cream and fat. I agree with the posters who suggest going with seasonal vegetables - tomatoes are in season, squash, lots of fresh herbs/greens. At least that holds true for me personally. How might this translate into a restaurant? Perhaps a bhel-puri bar for the summer months? I guess this post is rather late to the thread - the summer's waning now. So what did you try? How did it turn out?

Add some "ajwain" (substitute dried fennel in a pinch) to the paneer marinade for a slightly different punch. Or a mixture of mint and cilantro to make it green. Voila... 3 different types of paneer kababs. (Ajwain tip from Prashad) If you have a grill going and you can do something a little ellaborate, you could try an eggplant bharta. Oil the outside of a globe eggplant, and grill it on low direct heat so that the skin completely chars, but slowly so the inside gets completely cooked. Brush off the skin, and mash the (now) soft eggplant to a pulp. Stir in some chopped onions and salt. Drop a dollop of yoghurt on top, and sprinkle with the barest touch of chilli powder. Most bhartas (in restaurants, for example) have a bunch of spice added to it... the idea here is to showcase the perfect delicate flavor that eggplants get when grilled over coals.

not parsi (i wish... just for the dhansak)

I like to make a kheema cutlet, and kheema served with a plain egg or onion omelet (cooked in ghee rather than butter) is a decadence from my childhood. Kheema cutlet - Fry a chopped onion, then add spices and 1 lb of kheema and cook till just done. Mix in about 1/2 pound of mashed potato (I use a ricer). Make lemon sized balls, coat with egg and semolina (either rava or the more common wheat semolina in the US) or cornmeal and pan fry for a few minutes to get a nice crisp crust. I vary the spices - last night I used garlic, cinnamon, cayenne, turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger, sage, thyme, and mixed in some chopped raisins. Kheema and omelet - Use a dry kheema recipe, preferably with green chillies and cilantro among the spices. Make a thin omelet in copious amounts of ghee, and serve the two together with thick toast, preferably made on a grill (like a bruschetta). To eat, pile omelet on the toast and kheema on the omelet. Best if eaten on a cold morning at a hillstation outside of Mumbai...

I can't imagine how I'd make a vindaloo with potatoes in it - cooking the pork is usually an hours long process, and that would kill the potatoes. Now a quicker dish, like goan sausage, I love with potatoes. If only I could find a place that sold goan sausage in the bay area. Now if only I could figure out how to make Pau to go with it... Please post a recipe or PM me if you have *anything* close to a Pau recipe.

The Onam festival should be sometime around now, and if you're lucky enough to be there at the time, try to get yourself invited to an Onam feast. It's well worth it... I don't remember the names of any of the dishes that they served, but I do remember being bitterly disappointed if by some chance we didn't celebrate it.

Saravana Bhavan has opened a branch near Castro street in Mountain View. Spectacularly good Udupi food, at reasonable prices. The only thing that might make it more authentic would be making you eat it standing up at counters... Pakwan has really good biryani, and that's what sold me on the place - unfortunately they have it only on Saturdays... They have a good tandoor (kababs and nan) and passable curries. There should be a separate thread for this, but what's your favorite place to buy Indian desserts in the Bay Area? I like the Ras Malai at Rajjot, (El Camino and Wolfe) but I'd love to hear recommendations...

The Pakwan biryani (used to be the Saturday night special) is for real, unlike the pulaos or (worse) curry fried rice that most Indian restaurants try to pass off as the real thing. Their nans and kababs are pretty good, their curries acceptable, but not special. It's as close to the real thing as I've found in the bay area. The fact is, that in order to be a good kabab shop, you have to pretty much focus on the tandoor. A good biryani shop has basically 3 pots (chicken, mutton and some sort of vegetable biryani) and when they've sold out of biryani, they close up for the day. You just can't get the volume to survive like that in the US... Till then, getting this sort of Indian food is like buying a pizza at an Italian restaurant that serves osso bucco and risotto milanese as well. The only place that I know of that has the volume and business model to be able to replicate exactly the quality they have at their Indian branches is Saravana Bhavan. And that would be my vote for best Indian food in the Bay Area.