Edward

I love the salty and sweet 50/50 (is that the brand name?) crackers. They saved my life in Puri. On the train from Cuttack to Puri I hesitatingly accepted a gift of ice cream from some nice boys. I didn't want to be ungracious. The ice cream had that look of having been melted and refrozen many times. Well, I almost died!!! The only thing I could stomach for days were 50/50 biscuits. Now, I think of them as comfort food.

I find that pre-packaged ghee has a lighter flavor than homemade ghee. So, it makes perfect sense to use it in place of clarified butter, but ghee can often have a much stronger flavor. There may be times where the strong flavor of ghee might be overpowering in a French type dish. What do you think Monica?

Use ghee as a condiment? Like a spread? Dip? To me, ghee has one purpose that follows its form; to be able to handle the high temperatures that are necessary in the cooking of Indian food. Ghee is highly clarified butter (unsalted) with a very high smoke point. If its nutty its wrong, nutty is beurre noir or black butter, French not Indian. In traditional Indian cooking ghee is very often used as a condiment. It is almost compulsory alongside any type of kitcheree. In contrast to your opinion about ghee being wrong if it is nutty- I feel the exact opposite. The sugars really must be carmelized for it to be ghee, otherwise it is just clarified butter. In fact, Julie Sahni actually describes ghee as a clarified brown butter. On another note, I know many cooks who don't even bother to strain their ghee. They just let the solids stick to the bottom of the pan. The ghee is cloudier, but works exactly the same.

or gurer sandesh!!!

Chromedome, Try sweetening your cup of tea, Indian-style or not, with gur. It is really nice! I often just eat it as well. I like it with pickles, bread and tea at breakfast.

Most of the more extensive Indian cookbooks have plenty of Punjabi recipes. Neelam Batra's do contain quite a bit. If you took all the Punjabi recipes out of "1000 Indian Recipes" you would have enough for a whole cookbook!

Her last name sounds very Punjabi. I believe she is from Tamil Nadu. Her book Indian Regional Classics is dedicated to her father Dr. Venkataraman Raghunathan Iyer. Ammini Yes, she's a Tamil, but she was raised in Delhi and Kanpur. Her husband was a Punjabi...hence the name...

I love the taste and smell of hing. Even raw. James beard once compared it to truffles. I think the best and most basic way to use it if you are new to it is in dal. Just make a tadka of ghee, cumin seeds and whole dried red chilies adding a good pinch of hing just before you toss the masala on the dal. Ghee and hing are friends.

Flavored paneer is wonderful. You can add all sorts of things as mentioned above. I add the seasonings to the milk right from the start so that when the milk curdles the seasonings are trapped in the cheese. You can roll this seasoned paneer into little balls and dress with olive oil as you would with fresh mozzarella. You can also shape it into little "tikkis" and pan fry them. Yamuna Devi's 2nd and 3rd books have many recipes with flavored paneer. Flavorings are added to paneer for sweets, so why not savory?

Here is a link to an NPR show that contains an interview with Julie Sahni about tandoori cooking. She talks about the coloring used in the past. The show also features a talk with author Sudha Koul about Kashmir. The interview with Julie Sahni is during the last 10-12 minutes. It is a real audio file. http://www.wpr.org/book/020630a.htm

The tandoor is the oven and foods cooked in it are called tandoori, including breads, which have no spices. There is a spice blend called tandoori masala, but it is called that because it is used on foods to be cooked in a tandoor. At the same time, not all foods cooked in tandoor would get tandoori masala. The real secret is in the marinade, which usually contains yogurt.

Interesting topic..... would any of you ever consider adding fish sauce to any of the Indian noodle dishes just discussed? I wonder what would happen? When you think about it, some of the Burmese noodle dishes fall right smack between Thailand and India(I guess they all do geographically!) when it comes to flavor. Indian style spices, but with fish sauce or soy sauce. That goes for malaysian as well. Things like curry mee. Maybe with an Indian-style pad thai you could do a really subtle fusion by just adding a few curry leaves or some popped mustard seeds and see where that takes you.

Alur Borta is simple enough and I love it. Boil potatoes then peel them. Mash them with chopped green chilies, cilantro, salt and good mustard oil. Sometimes i also mix in some ghee along with the mustard oil. Other times I leave out the green chilies and add a mixture of dry roated and ground red chilies and cumin.

I love soan papdi! I have never attempted to make it either, but I have heard it is a little tricky. I find it similar to Mysore pak. You can get good soan papdi in Mathura/Vrindavan region. I only ate sweets during the whole time I was in that area. Milk cake.... lassi.....peda..... Maybe I will try and make some too, when you find a recipe.

Monica, You can add me to the list. I may have 1 or two more. Will let you know, but confirm 1. Edward

It sounds like you had a good time. You are well on your way to become a die-hard Indian Food lover. Thats a good thing! Don't give up on Paani Puri just yet. Maybe you could try it at another place or, better yet, try making it yourself.

I don't use a slow cooker, but I enjoy cooking foods that cook slowly. One of my favorite pleasures is standing in front of the stove stirring milk as it simmers to become rabri or kheer. Meanwhile, I usually have some nice classical(Hindustani) music on in the background. It makes a nice afternoon.

Deep fried in ghee and then folded into warm creme fraiche with roasted cumin-chili powder, salt, and chopped cilantro!

Enjoyed reading the article, Monica. For me, kitcheree definitely tops the list. I like a very moist kitcheree made from moong dal and either basmati or jasmine rice with cauliflower and green peas. The seasonings are usually just cumin seeds, dried chilies, turmeric, and a healthy pinch of hing. All this, of course, is fried in lots of ghee.

How about Tofu ki Bhurji?

I have tasted "vegetable dal soup" in many Indian restaurants and I have decided that vegetable usually means "vegetarian" because there was not a vegetable to be found. It was always just plain masoor dal(red lentils) made very thin and strained. Sometimes it would have a light lemony flavor. The only spices I could detect were coriander and turmeric. Does this sound like your soup?

Julie Sahni taught me how to make a great fresh "pickle" relish using semi-ripe mango and amba halad. It is nothing more than cubes of half-ripe mango with thin slices of amba halad. the ratio is about 1 part mango to 1/4 part amba halad. This is seasoned with salt a little lemon juice and a tadka of mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida. You can also finely julienne the curry leaves and add them to the relish instead of frying them in the tadka. Quick and easy!

I am always a little bit confused about therm "ghanto" and also the term "chochori". I have heard these terms used in slightly different ways by many Bengali cooks. I understand "ghanto" to mean "jumbled". Some cooks have told me that "chorchori" must have a charred crust (as in baati chorchori)to qualify as one. Others have said the opposite. I know these terms are dependent not just on the level and type of spicing, but on the cut of the vegetables to be cooked. I would love it if you would elaborate on this. Thanks Edward

My favorite shak is prepared the Bengali way. I first learned to prepare it in the home of friend who had learned it from his mother. I have since tasted and made many different versions. It is made with spinach and potatoes. The potatoes are first fried in a little mustard oil until light brown. Then they are removed from the pan and either panch phoran and a dried red chili are fried in the oil or kalonji with fresh green chilies is fried. Then a pinch of turmeric and a little sugar is stirred in before adding the spinach, potatoes, a little water and some salt. It is then cooked until the potatoes are tender and the water evaporates. Sometimes this also gets little fried bits of moong bori (sun-dried lentil nuggets). I love it. I suppose this is called "palong shaaker ghanto", no?

I like to make keema a one-dish meal by adding toasted sev to it. I often use the pre-toasted "Bambino" brand. It should not be too much sev, just enough so that it is about half meat and half noodles. All this needs is some raita or kachumber. I like it.! Edward