Edward

I think I read somewhere, I can't remember where, that Bangaladeshis use it in a ground form with a certain fish and refer to the ground paste as chandani because it supposedly smells and looks like chandan paste. Who knows?

It appears as though there are a few Bengali cooks on here. I recently got a fresh batch of radhuni seeds and am looking for new ideas for their use. Besides their use in panch phoron and maybe in a dish like lau shokto what do you do with them? Any vegetable you think they go especially well with. What about ground radhuni?

The week spent studying with Julie was one of the best experiences of my life. She is a dynamo of a person. It's always good to see and taste how someone else does things. And when it's with an expert like her there is this sort of subtle fine tuning of things. Especially with spices. Plus, it brought her cookbooks even more to life for me.

Hello Monica and everyone else, Thanks for the warm welcome. Well... I am 33 years old and South Asian cooking has been a near all-consuming passion for me since the age of 20. I have learned from housewives, books, travel to India, trial and error and generally poking my nose in things. I have also studied with the amazing Julie Sahni in NY. For the last 3 years I have taught classes at a cooking school in Baltimore called A Cook's Table. I teach mostly North Indian and Bengali-style dishes, but I'm not limited to just that. I'm actually trying to get started on expanding the places I teach at. I'm working out a plan to teach people in their homes. Monica, have you done any teaching in private homes? Thanks Edward

I have also heard some cooks refer to methi seeds as "maple-bitter". Incidently, the seeds are used in the production of artificial maple syrup to capture that "maple" flavor. By the way... My name is Edward and I am new to this forum. I live in Northern Virginia and teach Indian cooking in the Baltimore/D.C. area. I have known of egullet for a while but did not join until this weekend. Now I see what I have been missing out on! From what I can see you guys are a great group. I am really looking forward to participating.