Milagai

unless it's going to be several days and risk of rotting, i never refrigerate: tomatoes mangoes avocadoes never refrigerate peanut butter milagai

← actually it's a great combination. it approximates a south indian peanut / tamarind paste called "pulikaachal" that is usually mixed with rice, but makes fantastic sandwich spread. usually pulikaachal is made without garlic, but there might be a garlic version in some communties, and the general combination of peanut + tangy is very classic peninsular indian.... milagai

what kind, what brand? there are such a jillion many different kinds of pickle, so when someone just says "mango pickle" or "lime pickle" one has no idea what they mean. in mango pickle - the saltiest ones are the "south indian tender baby mango pickle" - vadumangai, where the juice is mainly brine, red chili, and a couple or other things. but there's also avakaya, sweet mango pickle, mango pickle with or without oil, mango pickle with or without garlic, shredded mango, chunk mango, different degree of ripeness, there are literally too many to list. so, to jason, dux, and others discussing mango or lime pickle - which kind? what name? what recipe, what region? the same brand (e.g. swad) will have several different kinds of mango pickle..... and tryska, what kind of garlic pickle? milagai

ducksredux: try Patak's sweet eggplant pickle. It has hot/sweet/sour flavors. Most non-desis like this one. Milagai

are you saying "dialect" when you mean "language"? One does not have to be an anthropologist to use these words accurately. India "officially" recognizes 18 different languages. However, surveys (e.g. Anthropological survey of India's People of India series in mid 1990's) suggest there are 75 different major languages in India, with several dialect forms within each language (some estimates total over 1600 different dialects; some suggest ~ 800). The Indian govt recognizes over 200 different mother tongues (language is a politicized issue, as everything else) because of the difficulty in recognizing where "language" leaves off and "dialect" begins.... Milagai

ehh... interesting. i find myself going the other way, for obvious reasons. i can wing anything indian, i wing pasta sauces, but would never dare to serve them to anyone expert in italian cuisine (the elevated spice levels alone would draw protest). chinese or thai i am (sad to say) completely at the cookbook / recipe level, or worse still, i buy pre-made thai curry paste or szechwan sauce and let fly.... i don't think i would ever have the confidence to do these at parties, except with a thousand apologies. it will taste good to other indians (again because of the spice levels and odd combinations) but nothing like real.... so, what do *you* all think it would take to gain that extra confidence? what would a cookbook or cooking class have to have? (maybe the cookbook authors on this board have some hints on this?) and jason, the mushroom-cashew recipe you speak of sounds lovely. could you please share the recipe or tell me what book it's from? and from a quick look at your blog, are you veggie? milagai

just like olives, no? my first several times eating olives i felt the same way. now i can eat a whole bowlful. don't throw the pickles away, gift them to a desi friend, or mail them to me 1. it is probably somewhat an acquired taste. 2. yes, you are not supposed to take a huge bite; but a tiny smidgen well-buried in a mouthful of rice+yogurt, or chapati+dal, etc. it's proverbial in india to giggle when people "eat achar like sabzi" i.e. eat pickle like it was a veggie dish, but they usually do this because they like it so much: i am guilty of eating punjabi mixed veg pickle (turnips, carrots, cauliflower in mustard seeds and a touch of sweet and hot and salt in the spice) just as if it was mixed veg subzi instead of mixed veg achaar. hth milagal

i'm one of the parents you refer to, in a two-job, double-stress, two young kids, family. i'm the quartermaster general, i.e. do most of the shopping and cooking. i am very aware of food choices and the need to get kids habituated early to healthy eating and to give them the psychological connection to good food so that's what they'll crave when older, once they've gotten past the adolescent rebellion (at least that's what i hope). i home-cook BASED ON convenience foods: e.g. i used canned beans and frozen veggies A LOT. what convenience foods are others buying or talking about? we love shopping the farmer's market in the summer, but on a strict budget, and for reasons of time, process minimally. and the convenience foods i am talking about (canned beans and frozen veggies) fit in with my budget, taste, time, AND health goals..... So, I don't see the issue as "being too busy to cook so I use convenience foods" but more as "i am too busy to do a lot of prep so i buy healthy convenience food and cook from that". my kids genuinely love and eat a wide range of veggies, whether it's poriyal made from frozen green beans, or frozen spinach in the saag-chole (using canned chickpeas) or the cherry tomato salad straight from the farmer's market or whatever is in the stir fry tonight...... we do our share of junk food BTW, frozen waffles or cereal for breakfast, chips, ice cream, etc...... i'm rambling, but i'm also curious..... milagai

Hi, Miligai! The pot is an enameled cast iron casserole, or braiser, I picked up on eBay a while ago, when Fifi hypnotised a bunch of us into buying Le Creuset in a very informative thread about the cookware. This particular braiser is from a brief period when LC was doing art deco style, and I've never seen another like it. (That makes me wonder if it's really LC, but what the heck - I like it, and it works.) When I first started making this style of potato, I did it in a covered sauce pan and it worked fine. However, I learned this winter that braisers really and truly do work better if they're made of a massive material such as cast iron, or clay - I presume because the braiser evens out heat fluctuations, but I don't know whether anyone's really figured it out yet. I highly recommend the eGullet Culinary Institute's course, The Truth About Braising: an eGCI seminar and lab. Several of us spent the week comparing techniques, cookware and results, and the ensuing discussion taught me a lot. The link I gave you is to the introduction, but from there you can go to the various lab sessions and question and answer sessions. The Q&A and discussion threads are still open, too, so you can take the course on your own, draw conclusions and continue the discussion. I used this braiser on the stovetop of my electric stove. It could be done in the oven, but for something quick like this I find the stovetop more efficient. I scrubbed a dozen or so of the new potatoes I bought last weekend, leaving them whole. They went into the pot with 3 tbsp butter and 1/3 c. water. It's important not to use too much water, because if you do you'll have steamed potatoes with soft peels. The result is different. Simmer on low for about 20 minutes, then add a couple of cups of sliced carrots. Simmer until everything's tender, then toss all with a few tbsp. of chopped dill. I've had these stalks of dill standing in a vase in the kitchen, just for this purpose. Why exactly the potatoes come out differently when braised, instead of steamed, I don't know. I do know that with only a small amount of water in that pot, it's pretty much evaporated by the time the potatoes are done. That leaves the potatoes with a buttery silky sauce in the bottom of the pot so that when you toss everything together it coats those tender-crunchy skins. When you bite into a potato it pops in your mouth like a grape and the buttery sauce mixes with the smooth young potato meat...oh, it's a treat! I'm not posting the recipe on RecipeGullet because it isn't mine to post, but this should give you enough to go on. Otherwise, I recommend picking up a copy of the New York Times Cookbook. ← thank you so much for all that info! milagai

please explain "the braiser" where you made those lovely looking potatoes? it looks like its on the stovetop. what is the pot made of? or are you using some other pot for this? and more details on braising technique and recipe please? milagai

South Indian "by the yard" coffee also definitely uses boiled (and boiling hot) milk. You pour the decoction, and the milk, into your tumbler, and then go back and forth between the tumbler and the "dubra" (don't know any English word for this) with the stream growing longer and longer each time, until you have a frothy well mixed drink; much sugared of course. milagai

having grown up in india and taking tiffin to school every scorching day, i recall a lot of rice: yogurt and rice lemon rice idlis sandwiches (jam or cheese or cucumber) stuffed parathas with pickle all these were freshly made each morning (oy, our poor mothers) and none spoilt in the window between 7 am and 1 pm...... my son starts preschool again today. the county has Talmudically complicated rules about packing and preservation. The food MUST be refrigerated. It CANNOT be reheated by the teachers (OK in summer but miserable in winter). Solution: we buy an insulated Thermos like container, pack it with very hot food. This is put in an insulated carrier. The whole contraption gets put in the fridge upon arrival in school and taken out as is and eaten at lunch time. The temp of the food is still warm, though not scorching.... Today's lunch (awful I know): Maggi noodles (masala flavor) gussied up with veggies and egg drop in the broth. Grapes for fruit. Milagai

sizzling the spices in oil is tarka. it's either done at the end and dumped over the dish (typically for dals) or done at the beginning and other ingredients added in and cooked (typical for sabzis). but the spices infuse the oil when done this way and the oil in turn permeates the dish. the trick is to sizzle the spices without burning, then add other ingredients and lower the heat, so that other stuff cooks but nothing burns. milagai

i've also heard that boiling or scalding or whatever breaks down lactose to some extent so that makes it easier for lactose intolerant people ... also i've heard it does something to the proteins? making it easier to digest? i'd love to know whether these are facts or ficts. milagai

serious question: once incorporated into a finished dish, can you really discern these differences? milagai

Hi Suzysushi: very sorry to hear about your daughter, but it's heartening that others on the site have posted encouraging stories of their experiences managing this condition. In case you don't already know, chana dal, a popular Indian legume, is supposed to have an extremely low glycemic index and is excellent as part of a diet intended to manage diabetes, and if your family likes Indian food, here is a link with a lot of information and recipes: http://www.mendosa.com/chanadal.html Milagai

I make veg stock all the time in a pc, and freeze excess. Don't want to fuss making any other way. Get results that I like, I have nothing to compare it with though.... Milagai

are you sure your kid won't like cut up veggies? or is there a common myth that kids won't like broccoli? why is it considered so odd to give kids vegs? my dd took broccoli, asparagus spears, cherry tomatoes, carrot stix, just about any kind of veg to school. either raw or steamed (with light seasonings) as appropriate. ds is now doing the same. they don't share any genetic material so either we got lucky on genetic prefences or it's upbringing my whole family takes packed lunches because preschool demands it, and my ps-aged older kid much prefers home cooking to cafeteria fare. so typical lunches: vegetable + tofu fried rice, cherry tomatoes, yogurt cup lemon rice, cucumber slices, yogurt cup. rolled up chapatis (with cream cheese and some kind of veggie spread inside), some kind of sliced or steamed veggie, occasionally a cookie (though preschool REALLY discourages cookies), so often it's applesauce. idlis, chutney, grapes, yogurt, spinach filled theplas with similar sides as above, veggie couscous + similar smaller shapes of pasta with vegs in sauce, + etc. etc. so i guess our pattern is: some main item, some kind of fruit or veggie cut up, and yogurt or applesauce or similar. often chips or murukku or something similarly crunchy, especially for the older one whose appetite is larger. water, (milk is provided at preschool) we adults take larger versions of the same thing. works for everyone, no extra or different cooking or packing which i would strongly resist since i'm the one landed with the job. milagai

Here is one explanation of the name. ← Wasn't the word "dick" pretty innocuous until the end of the 20th c? Kind of like "gay" used to mean something else entirely? I remember old kids books where Dick was a routine short form for the name "Richard" and I just finished re-reading old Nero Wolf mystery where "private dick" is used in almost every chapter..... So, it's not that "what were they thinking when they named it" but "how did this word come to so drastically change its meaning" which is another conversation entirely.... Milagai

yes: wet dishes are gravy based. dry dishes have no gravy. these are straightfwd descriptors, no ayurvedic terms. samosas = snack dosais = can be breakfast, tiffin, i.e. full meals in themselves. youo'll need a wok AND a skillet. and a flat tawa for chapatis. but if you are really really forced to choose then go with wok and tawa. milagai

here is a link for a poll among veg*ans on the topic: http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=34282 predictably, opinions run across the board, and not everyone thinks the same on this. this may be hard for "meaters" to grasp (i too am "just kidding") milagai

Typical structure to an Indian meal: Take a plate. In the 6 o'clock position is either rice or some roti of whatever kind. THESE ARE NOT EATEN TOGETHER in Indian custom. It took me forever to get accustomed to my non-Indian friends wrapping rice into their rotis The rice / roti takes up about the largest space for a single item. From 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock are different sabzis and dals/meats/ raitas, relishes, etc. The goal is to have a complete meal with protein (dal and/or meat) sabzis (veggies) and also balance wet and dry dishes. Your Bhuna BG would count as a sabzi (=veg side dish). Is it dry? So at the very least you need one dal or nonveg thing to complete the meal, and decide if you are having rice or roti. If you want both, just have them one after another. You can have multiple sabzis and dals of course. Try and have a small salad type thing (a few teaspoons of finely chopped fresh vegs, e.g. cucumber and tomato, appropriately spiced). You can have papad (aka pappadum, aplam etc.) for fun also pickles. most indian communities consider some version of dahi (yogurt) either plain or raita-fied etc. essential to end the meal; to cool you off, aid digestion etc. Sweet at the end. and if you are really doing the full monty, then end with paan, mukhwas (mouth freshener - there are a myriad varieties) etc. I am sure others can chip in re naan recipe (though Madhur Jaffrey's is pretty good the one time I tried it - it's just too much labour for me). Tarka is the one most basic Indian technique and without it you'll really be at a loss. So it's good to master that one. Nothing much to it - sizzle the spices in hot oil without burning them, and dump over the dish you are making and mix well. The spice-infused oil permeates and seasons the dish. HTH Milagai

Were you adult, or did you start very young? Did you get it right away, or was there trial and error (funny stories please?) Mine: I was raised "good for nothing" in typical middle class Indian style, as kids we were told mainly to study and housework was seen as time-waste. This was often a point of argument between Amma and Appa, as Appa would order us out of the kitchen and tell us to study or play sports, saying "fumes will make you cough, the knives and stoves are dangerous" etc. Amma would grumble "how come it's OK for me to stew in the kitchen, but for the three daughters it's off limits?" etc. So I never learnt to cook until young adult, and I left home for college, and suddenly discovered the joys of home cooking and I used to telephone home for uppuma recipes, and Amma used to screech: You are paying long distance charges for upma recipe? Rs 300 to learn to make uppuma? Are you crazy? etc. But I finally got the hang of it.... My mother's story was even more drastic; as her father was a senior govt official and they had (rough estimate) 2 servants for every domestic function. So she was in for a rude awakening after marriage. She used to try and make from cookbooks and produce awful messes, and my dad would patiently eat them while keeping the cookbook propped open so he could at least feast his eyes and imagination on the glorious pictures. Her first dinner party, she owed many other families in Appa's regiment, and by that time she could manage almost everything except the non-veg. So a khansama was arranged from the military mess. THe party was at 7 pm and he did not show up until 3, and came dead drunk, carrying a live chicken upside down, hanging by the feet. He parked it on the verandah and instructed my horrified mother to feed it a few drops of vinegar from time to time to tenderize it. Then he disappeared and Amma was stuck with this crazy situation. Much panic later he showed up at 6: 30, even more drunk, and Amma disappeared. A few squawks and feathers flying later, the chicken was perfectly cooked and on the table in time for the party.... edited to add: Amma is now an absolutely fantastic cook, though she still claims to dislike it and hates all housework (I mean, who really likes to clean?) In stark contrast, my Montessori educated kids learn "life skills" in pre-school (ages 3 to 6) and can already slice veggies, grate and peel things, and my now 8yo has taken to cooking very handily and can make chapatis and all kinds of other things that still challenge me... My father still insists on shooing them out of the kitchen and I have to go in and rescue them. Everyone is still horrified when both kids love to sweep and swab (jhadoo poncha) and I hear muttering behind my back (paying so much for expensive education to do this kind of thing??) So: how was it with others? Milagai

another suggestion: take a desi friend along! saves all the list-making / checking / deciphering / forgetting. cuts right to the chase. milagai

what anzu said also: dry red chillies and there is a book called "indian grocery store demystified" that should have a good list.... milagai