Edward

It does depend on the recipe. Some call for dropping the whole pod into hot oil, others for simmering the the pod in liquid. Sometimes they are dry-toasted and then hulled and ground or hulled and then toasted. They can be hulled and ground without any toasting or ground as they are, hull and all. In some dishes I use the whole pod ground, especially chicken dishes with light sauces based on nuts and/or cream. When the whole pod is ground you get a nice balance between the intense lemony-camphor quality of the seeds and the herbal fragrance of the pods.

Or I got unlucky

I like my own home-cooked food. So I try and do things to avoid eating out too much. Here are some things I do to make life a little easier. Make dal in a large batch, but leave it plain. Do add salt though-this helps keep it fresh. Throughout the week you can take out just what you need, add more water as desired and season the way you want it that night. Monday could be brown onions and garam masala, Tuesday could be curry leaves, hing and mustard seeds. Wednesday...well you get the idea. When you make chapatis make extra and freeze those. They heat up in just minute on a hot tawa or directly on a gas flame. Make double the rice you need. It is great stir-fried with vegetables a day ot two later. Gobhi, gajar, hari matar...you name it. All you need is papar, pickles and a dish of yogurt. God bless the wonder of uppma!! Never forget the glories of the egg! Bread omlette, bread omlette, bread omlette! any maggi sauce like tom-chili makes this extra special. If you are a strict vegetarian and don't do eggs than paneer is your friend. Homemade keeps for a few days and store-bought much longer. Paneer ki bhurji happens very fast...even tofu made this way is good.

It also bleaches out the flavor!! From what I understand the green pods of lower quality with an uneven color are bleached to make them look better.

Dried curry leaves, although a shadow of the fresh, are significantly better when dried at home. I do this when I have too many to use. Spread them out in some sort of basket that has enough holes for air to circulate and leave them until they are dry-1 or 2 days. I also put them in the freezer. They are not so bad this way. I have a friend who pats his cilantro dry, chops it coarsely and then puts in a freezer bag in the freezer-it is just so-so. I keep my cilantro in a vase, with the roots in a little water, in the fridge. Cover tihs with the plastic bag you put the cilantro in when you purchased it. I usually use it up long before it has a chance to go bad. If I have too much I make cilantro chatni,which freezez beautifully.

What brand does your father use? This is one spice blend where commercial products never quite suit my taste. I do use Rajah brand. I like the fact that it comes in a air-sealed container with reusable lid. It has very mild flavor and is not too cumin-corianderish. I want to try as many brands as possible. My students may enjoy learning to make it in classes, but I know they probably won't at home. I like to be able to recommend good store-bought products. I don't like to use too much powdered garam masala anyway (prefer the subtlety of the whole spices), it gives me heartburn!! For instance, if I am cooking from a recipe and it says 2 teaspoons I will use about 1/2 a teaspoon, maybe less.

If my forum friends will indulge me a bit longer, the paragraphs above help me explore some of the issues raised in the thread about Indian cooking teachers, that deeply trouble me. I hope that the forum will concur that there is not the slightest malice or ill-will on my part when I confess to being a little upset [my problem entirely] when, say Edward, in all innocence and enthusiasm, declares himself to be a teacher of Bengali cuisine. I would be much more comfortable with his describing himself as a teacher of the cooking of modern Bangladesh or Sylhet

I have taken a liking to everest brand jal jeera masala. I stir it into Santa Cruz brand lemonade (usually available from health food stores) . It is very mildly sweet. Add a little crushed mint. Its good. Failing the lemonade I just use water and frsh lemon or lime juice. Has anyone tried MDH brand? What do you think? Edward

Hai Ram!!!!

Try Gernot Katzer's spice page. A google search should get you there. I tried to add a link, but it would not work right.

Great! Sorry If I am impatient

Edward: Yes, zuccini is very similar to some of the squashes found in India. I use it for preparing Aviyal and pachadi, two traditional south Indian dishes. I also make stuffed zuccini with corn and Indian spices, a variation Mexican stuffed zuccini. Ammini Speaking of aviyal...I have never been able to get this exactly the way I hope it to be....delicate, subtle..... Do you have a recipe or technique you would be willing share. Then, I could go out and get some zucchinni and other vegetables and try again. Edward

MDH is really quite good. The best I have to say that I swear by are Roopak's masalas, my whole family uses them quite a bit and they are just fantastic. Wow, what an engaging thread this has been to read. As far as I'm concerned pre-ground spices and packaged masalas are fine as long as they taste good(If they taste good they are more than fine). I use Everest jal jeera masala, Laxmi Brand Rajma Masala and chat masala amongst others very often. Pre-made masalas definitely don't make instant indian food. As Mongo basically said you still have to know how to cook to use them. Monica, you mentioned Roopak brand. The Indo-Pak store I shop at most often carries this brand. Its the ones in the see through plastic bottles, right? Well, anyway, I have been very curious about this brand. Now that I have your reccomendation I definitely want to try them. Which ones do you think are good to start with? Thanks Edward Did you see this yet Monica?

Wow! Welcome! One vegetable I think I see many Indian cooks in the states use is zucchinni. It is so similar to the squases found in India such as lauki, but is much faster cooking. I find it makes a great substitute, in spite of its different flavor. It is good in dry dishes and also in gravy dishes. How does everyone else cook this one?

Rupen, Gujurati-style....I dont remeber that. I just cut them lengthwise into 4 slices. Once in half and then those halves in half so that you have equal size pieces (like bague25) . Then I just cook them in oil or ghee with the typical powdered masalas....turmeric, chili powder and coriander. You can add cumin also, seeds or ground. The thing is to make sure you cook them enough. After their initial tossing in the hot oil and after you add the masalas cook them on a med-low heat covered, stirring now and then, until very tender and browning, up to 15 minutes. Any excess moisture can be stir-fried off at the end. I usually salt these at the end too... Try it this way and bague25's way (which I want to do as well) and see how it goes. I LOVE karela, but dont cook it often because hardly anyone else around me does. So, I usually end up buying a small one, slicing it thin and then rubbing it with turmeric, salt and chili powder and frying it in small amount of good mustard oil until brown and crisp......remember only eat karela at lunch

Might I suggest a Kitchenaid Mixer...NOT a food processor for kneading your dough.... Ours is a faithful mechanical companion in our kitchen...The dough hook that is included with the mixer will happily knead your dough till it releases from the bowl, no matter what it's texture... We have many of the additional attachments that use the power take off at the front of the machine...The motor is powerful, and can make light work of any task. Yes it will be expensive, but it will last you the rest of your life... jw46, Have you used your Kitchen Aid mixer for making chapati dough? I have never tried this. I usually do it by hand or use the food processor, which takes less than 1 minute. The reason I ask is because when I make dough for chapati or paratha I am usually using no more than 2 cups of flour at a time. Also, with western- style doughs you keep adding flour to get the right consistency, but with Indian doughs you are usually adding water to get the texture you want. I would worry that it would have trouble mixing in the additional water. Edward

MDH is really quite good. The best I have to say that I swear by are Roopak's masalas, my whole family uses them quite a bit and they are just fantastic. Wow, what an engaging thread this has been to read. As far as I'm concerned pre-ground spices and packaged masalas are fine as long as they taste good(If they taste good they are more than fine). I use Everest jal jeera masala, Laxmi Brand Rajma Masala and chat masala amongst others very often. Pre-made masalas definitely don't make instant indian food. As Mongo basically said you still have to know how to cook to use them. Monica, you mentioned Roopak brand. The Indo-Pak store I shop at most often carries this brand. Its the ones in the see through plastic bottles, right? Well, anyway, I have been very curious about this brand. Now that I have your reccomendation I definitely want to try them. Which ones do you think are good to start with? Maybe we could have a thread on the India forum for pre-packaged masala reccomendations and experimentations....no? Thanks Edward

I am sure you could find one somewhere in Artesia, California.

Thanks V. Gautam. This one has a faintly yellowish hue and is still a bit moist. The main thing that intrigues me about it is its very unusual fermented aroma. It smells unlike anything I have ever smelled.

Here is the brand of sugar and a photo of it outside of its container.

Edward, the tawa in the pic is great for doing just that, you let it brown and then move it to the edge to develop the crust slowly. The tikkiwallahs in the North have 50 - 60 tikkis at a time on the tawas. Although mostly I advocate the use of deep frying, tikkis warrant this method. Oh, I see. Those tikkis in the picture do look ridiculously delicious. I'm going to have to get Monica to tell me exactly where in Delhi that tikkiwallah is so that when I go in October I can eat about 50-60!

Mongo, No offense taken at all. Most of my classes do focus on basic North Indian home style dishes and Moghul cuisine. Its true that is what people want and that is what draws them in. The regional flavors usually come in with the side dishes. Dals, vegetables etc. The reason I say Indian regional cooking is so that people know they are not just getting chicken tikka masala and naan. For instance I will teach Badaami Murgh Korma, which is a well known classic dish, and have the side dishes be a sour dal with green mango, cauliflower with kalonji or green beans with panch phoran and mustard paste. That way people get something familiar and something new. I tell the students a little bit about the background of the dishes, but try to stick to my own personal experiences with the dishes. Even though I have had some experience in the past working in restaurant kitchens and some of that cooking Indian-style dishes I am really a home cook and my desire is to teach other home cooks. I by no means think of myself as "master" of Indian cuisine. There is so much more for me to learn, but I have a strong desire to share what I do have. I also explain to them, that though I have been to India, and will continue to go there as much as I can, that my core experience with Indian food is here in the states. As you know, the cooking is different here because many of the ingredients and situations are different. So as far as Indian cooking in America goes I have definitely been immersed. I try to teach the students the core techniques so that they can improvise with the spices and ingredients that they have. I feel that dishes don't have to be classic to be "authentic". Know what I mean? It's true that Julie Sahni's name does help, but I would not rely on that alone. Her main course is not very long, but it is very intensive. It is only 1 week, but it focuses heavily on techniques and developing a sixth sense when it comes to spices. I had already been cooking for over 10 years by the time I took her course so it was, in many ways, more of a confirmation of things I had already done. It was great to be able to see the subtle differences in things when they are done by someone who is truly a master of their craft. It opened my eyes to many little things that I had missed or was not in tune with. Until later edward

I like experimenting with my cuisinart ice cream maker making kulfi inspired things. You don get the same texture as kulfi, but its so easy. Mango is good, kesar-pista, kaju-kishmish. These are good. I have had this idea in my mind for few years to make a Ben and Jerry's mish-mash sort of thing with chunks of sandesh, pistacios or other nuts and keora essence. Perhaps I could call it "Bangla Blast" I suppose chunks of some sort of burfi might be good also. You probably couldn't serve this too ice cold though. You wouldn't want the sandesh or burfi to be hard as rocks......

Thanks a lot. There are so few of us in the states, Indian or not, that are teaching Indian cooking. I think its great that those who are teaching as well as home cooks who love the stuff encourage and support one another. Indian food is still on the rise in the US. Who knows what the future will bring?

I hardly ever make aloo tikkis. Every 1 1/2 years or so....I wonder why? I would like to eat them much more than that. I like mine gingery and cooked very slowly on a griddle just brushed with oil/ghee. They develop a very thin and delicate crust this way and have a more potatoey flavor than the shallow fried kind, but i'll take any kind. Just so long as they are tasty.