rajsuman

I'd be interested in seeing some desserts with tamarind! I love the way it makes my copper and brass vessels shine. Suman

Thanks for the Bhindi recipe Bhelpuri (I salivate every time I read your screen name). I'd borrowed Merchant's 'Passionate Meals' from the library a long time ago and liked it a lot. I still make his 'Chana Dal with Squash', 'Lemon Masoor Dal' and courgette (zuchini) with garlic butter. I wish I could be one of those people (like Merchant) who invite about a couple of dozens of people home and begin cooking just as the guests arrive. Unless it's something I make very often, I can't talk and cook at the same time. I need to concentrate on the cooking or else .....it's takeaway time! Suman

Sorry about the multiple posts - all the error messages I kept getting made me think this one hadn't been posted at all. Is it only me experiencing problems with this forum? At times it is very slow, doesn't return search results or gives error messages when I try to post. Suman

Thanks for all your help! Can't wait to part with some money! Suman

Thanks for all your help! Suman

Thanks for all your help! Suman

It's prepared grain mustard that's used like a condiment here. Can I use it to make any Indian dish? Suman

It's not just the sweet food, it's also the fried stuff (farsan) that makes the Gujarati diet so unhealthy. The state has the dubious distinction of being the biggest consumer of cooking oil in all of India and consequently, has the highest rate of heart disease in the country. No wonder that my husband's cousin who is a cardiologist is much in demand. Suman

I adore Gujarathi food too - I love its simplicity, the textures, everything about it that the article describes so well. But I have to agree with Bhelpuri on the sweetness issue. I have eaten some fabulous Gujarati food with no hint of sugar in it. But most of the times, I find everything sweetened too much to my taste. In one of the homes, all the vegetable dishes were sweeter than the kheer I normally make ! It made me wonder if the kids could ever learn to love savoury food. Suman

That's very interesting jw46. What's the batter made of? I wonder if the two have the same origin? Suman

Hi, I'm visiting SF (staying in Nob Hill) for a few days in May. My search on this forum has failed countless times, so pardon me if this has already been discussed. I'd like to know which the best stores to pick up discount /secondhand cookbooks in SF are, particularly in the Nob Hill area. Thanks, Suman

I love achappams! I bought the mould a couple of years back - haven't had much success with making the cookies though. I tried a couple of times, then gave up. Must try Das Sreedharan's recipe this time. Has anyone tried it? Is it good? Sorry the handle is missing, but you get the idea... Suman

Hello Episure, I enjoyed 'Indian Food News' section and am hoping for many more to come. I have a recipe for fresh turmeric pickle somewhere. I'll post it if I can find it. I know my Amma once bought fresh haldi - she planted it, so she could use the leaves to steam various Konkani delicacies like Muddo (an elongated snack with a coconut and jaggery filling) and Undi(Balls of rice flavoured with methi seeds and a barely-there aroma of turmeric leaves). Whether she cooked anything with the fresh haldi, I can't remember. Fresh haldi has an interesting taste, doesn't it? Monisha Bharadwaj has a few recipes for it in her book, 'The Indian Pantry'. Suman

Thanks a lot! Yes I did use a deep vessel (flashbacking to when I saw biryani being made this way - but of course that has the curry at the bottom layer. The pulao was made in a large flat aluminium pan). I knew I could count on you guys to help me troubleshoot! Is aluminium best for this kind of cooking? Suman

Hi, This is how I made (read: tried to make) pulao today: Soaked 2 cups basmati rice for 20 mins, drained it well. Fried onions etc. , added the rice, added 3.5 cups of hot water. Brought the water back to the boil, then put the covered vessel on top a hot tava (placed on very low heat). Left it there for 35 minutes. Came back expecting great pulao (I had seen someone produce great results with this method recently), instead found overcooked rice at the bottom and raw rice at the top. I had to throw the whole lot out. Made the same thing (again!) by my normal method - took 15 minutes and was verrrryy nice, but I still would like to know the tawa method. Any advice, suggestions? Should I have cooked the rice longer on the hob and then transferred it to the tawa? Thanks, Suman

Til-papad. Its my favourite type of chikki sweet and even better than the version made with white sesame seeds is the one made with black sesame. It looks sensational - wafer thin, jet black sheets and has a wonderful, complex taste and is also supposed to be very healthy for you. Also, please note for those on the non-dairy thread, absolutely no dairy in it, just sesame seeds, caramel and some chopped pistachios maybe. Its a wonderfully elegant sweet and something I think should definitely be used in different contexts - as a base for other desserts maybe, or broken into fragments on top of ice cream or something like this. Its the Indian equivalent of a tuile! Vikram Thanks Vikram! At least now I know what to ask for when I go back home. I presume it's not easy to make at home? Suman

Hello Ammini, Thank you once again for helping me finally end my search for the booralu recipe. I'm much obliged. Suman

Ammini, You're so kind to give me the recipes. I visited your website today and found it ( and your work) impressive. I feel like making the Jangiri NOW. My grandma was from Kerala and would make this roasted coconut curry that was truly delicious. I've had the good fortune of eating food from Kerala all my life because no matter where I went, I'd always have one good friend from Kerala. It's only now in Dublin that I don't know any Malayalees. Suman

i don't know about chapli kababs but shammi kababs, haleem and nihari are not pakistani dishes per se--they're subcontinental muslim dishes, and you get very good variations wherever there are large concentrations of muslims. does anyone know how pakistani variants of these dishes differ from the different indian and bangladeshi ones?

Peppertrail, I'd really appreciate it if you could elaborate on the jangiri. You see, sometime ago, I ate this sweet from Andhra called Boori. It was delicious. It was like a dumpling - sweet chana dal balls coated with urad dal batter and deep-fried until crunchy and golden brown. I'd love to have a recipe for that. Can't find it anywhere. Would jangiri be similar? Boori was the first urad dal sweet I ever ate and now I'm addicted. Suman

This time in Ahmedabad I ate the most wonderful kind of sesame brittle - it was wafer-thin and scrumptious! Can't remember what it was called though. Should have brought back some. We do get revdis here...nice, but gajjak remains my absolute favourite. Suman

While we are on this topic, does anyone know of any good Pakistani cookbooks in English? My Pakistani friends speak of one particular author, but her books are available only in Urdu apparently. I love their shammi kababs, chapli kababs, haleem and nihari. Suman

Hi Vikram, The kottes for some reason taste so much better than normal idlis. As a child I used to love watching my aunts, grandma and mom in this joint collaboration of weaving the jackfruit leaves into a cup. Still do, actually. A new broom (kanta jhadoo) was kept only for this purpose. They would 'staple' the leaves together into a leak-proof pouch with bits of the broom. My mother takes jackfruit leaves back to Dubai with her each time she visits India. AW! Now I'm missing my Kotte and I can't eat them for at least another year! Suman

Hello Bhasinji, Where have you been all this while? Suman

Soft or slightly chewy? Smooth or granular? Sour or mild?