Milagai
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Posts posted by Milagai
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That food has godlike qualities is demonstrated in that many cultures have had or, in some cases, still do have their specific gods of food. By various names, Inari, Tonachatechuhtli, Haumia-tikitiki, Ugajin, Daikokuten and Ru are all considered in one culture in another to fulfill that role.
Of course, the actual worship of food might be thought to be akin to gluttony and in every religion that I know of that is considered sinning against God or the gods as the case may be.
Me, I adore food. The day I start to worship it is the day I'll finally buy my Lambhorgini. Well….at least if my banker allows that much of an overdraft.
The Hindu equivalent: Annapoorna (the goddess of abundant food)
and actual food is quasi worshipped in some ceremonies at times
(e.g. pongal at the Pongal harvest festival).
What about the food-religion concepts of prasad, and of communion wafers/wine,
etc.
Milagai
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i've not made anything myself, because i can only get canned
or frozen where i live.....
but lots of indian regions have LR recipes:
kashmir, punjab, bengal, etc.
everything from pickle to relish to wet or dry sabzis to LR being
one ingredient in an elaborate dish....
Milagai
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The larger milder ones make great pakoras:
remove insides (if desired)
dip in a chickpea flour+water+salt+turmeric+cuminpowder batter
deep fry.
dip in green chutney (mint/cilantro)
great stuff for breakfast (seriously)
washed down with masala chai.
The smaller hotter ones make great pickle:
sliced thin, marinated with ginger slices, and
mustard seed+fenugreek seed+turmeric+salt+asafetida+turmeric
Milagai
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I'm lucky enough to be visiting my mom right now, and
this thread started a discussion with her.
She's a marvelous cook, came to it late, only learnt after marriage.
But I couldn't narrow down one single dish, everything she makes
is magical. All South Indian veg, North Indian too, all kinds, from
plain home cooking to more fancy restaurant styles.
And her home cooking is definitely worth going home for.
Not being able to narrow it down, I asked her what she made best,
and she turned up her nose immediately and said "everything".
True.
We talked about Paatti (her mother) and she too had been a great cook.
Mostly South Indian stuff though for her.
Milagai
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lotus root - yum!
sweet potatoes with ginger and scallion double yum!
any chance Pan or a reader would have recipes for these to share?
milagai
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I am vegetarian, and I definitely prefer "real" ingredients to fake ones.
I have never been able to bring myself to serve fake "meat" to guests:
it's too fake for the meaters and too real for the herbies.
What's the point. It's easier to serve eggplant or mushrooms
than to have to explain to everyone what those little cubes of "material"
are, even if they were once a soybean.
That said, when we were kids my mom fed us soy chunks often,
as they were being marketed in India as a cheap and healthy food
for vegetarians (and boy, they were even way cheaper than dal)
so we got a lot of it.
Amma is a splendiferous cook so eating the dishes was never a problem,
and the soy chunks occupy their own place in my mind, as neither meat
nor fake, i.e. they are their own entity (am I making any sense)
so I give them to my kids, who like them lots too.
Also my kids like fake "chicken" nuggets. Who knows what the "real"
ones are made of anyway? It's just a cheap and easy junk food for all....
Milagai
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.So in the case of North African--
Can this cuisine be "reduced" to a identifier?
Say: "North African food it's like-----only-----.
perhaps i'm the only one who thinks this way, but to me
Moroccan food has a strong resemblance to some North Indian
cooking styles, but a little tweaked.
Whenever I read a recipe for a "tagine" style dish I am struck
by the resemblance of the spice list to North Indian masala-fied
preparations.
There are some key differences of course, but just to my ignorant
eyes, nose, and mouth, there seem to be marked similarities.
But much less fire.
So, don't know if Chefzadi or others would agree but would you say
"sort of like Indian but ...
milder
or
more subtle
or.."
milagai
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Okay, Hey, this is getting off-topic, but did you see the article the other day about the Colored Rice that's being marketed in Taiwan to entice teenagers back to eating rice instead of hamburger buns?
very interesting! wonder if it's popular, and whether the tastes
differ by colour.
milagai
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INTRODUCTION
This mixture was supposed to be roasted until it started smoking, but after nearly ten minutes and no smoke, I increased the heat to "high." (I use an electric stove, so I think the heat doesn't conduct as well as a gas stove.) I added the cracked fenugreek seeds just as the smoke started, and immediately took the wok off the heat.
This seems to have done the trick. The colors seem to be just about right, although the mustard seeds (I think) are fairly dark, so maybe I made a mistake in increasing the heat after all. It was hard to tell from the aroma, since I used a lot of chilis (in fact, once it started smoking, I put my head directly over the wok and took a deep sniff -- BAD mistake! Whoa, what a rush -- my nostrils felt like the smoke stacks at Chernobyl.)
those pungent fumes, called "ghaat" in indian kitchens,
is a sign that things are going correctly
just a second or two after that the spices will start to burn.
like waaza said, you need the best hood available do deal
with those.
milagai
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6) Indian carrot pickle. My mother in law makes a traditional North Indian black carrot pickle every winter. This involves black carrots, about 8 cups of water, 1 teaspoon crushed mustard seeds, and 2 tablespoons salt. You put the lot in a big jar and leave it in the sun for about 4-5 days. This is during winter in Delhi, so temperatures are very roughly comparable with the temperatures in California. One is meant to drink the liquid and eat the carrot pieces.
I have NEVER dared eat any of this pickle - I've got bad food poisoning from my mother in law's food a couple of times and now always err on the side of caution. But, should it actually be okay?? Are the quantities of salt and mustard in this much water enough to make this stuff safe, or is it just sitting there and breeding up a whole bunch of bacteria?
I would keep staying out of this carrot pickle. I don't think it is enough salt and mastard to prevent bacteria growing. Unless carrots itself produce some preservative like cabbidge when you shred it and put salt in it
do other members of your MIL's household eat and thrive on the
carrot pickle?
If yes, then you should be fine.
Slicing veggies and marinating in water or oil and salt and spices in the sun
is the most common Indian pickle making technique.
Milagai
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what about "mutton dressed as lamb"?
i think its ancient britspeak for an older lady trying
to dress way too young and unsuitable and
unfortunately being very obvious about it...
milagai
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Milagai: sprouted methi jam??
Please do dig out the recipe!Anzu: here you go:
Methi sprouts pickled in tamarind sauce (sprouted fenugreek)
300g - fenugreek sprouts (obtained from 100g seeds)
1 tsp - mustard seeds: for seasoning
150g - cleaned tamarind (size of a medium orange), obtain thick extract using water
3 tsp - jaggery, grated
5 tbsp - chilli powder
1/4 tsp - asafoetida, roast in oil and powder
7 tbsp - salt
150ml - oil (1 cup approx.) gingelly or sunflower.
To sprout fenugreek:
Soak the fenugreek seeds in sufficient water overnight. Drain away the water the next day and tie the soaked seeds in a clean cloth. Hang the bundle in a warm place for a day or two, keeping it moist. Ensure that the sprouts are medium in size. Longer sprouting tends to make the pickle bitter. Stir-fry the fenugreek sprouts over low heat for exactly two minutes and set it aside. Longer frying makes the sprouts bitter.
In the same pan heat some more oil, add the mustard seeds and allow them to crackle. Stir in the tamarind extract, jaggery, salt and bring it to a boil. Allow it to thicken over a high flame. Lower the heat, stir in the chilli, turmeric, asafoetida powders, the remaining oil and continue cooking for about 45 minutes or until the mixture thickens. Add the fried sprouts and cook for 15 more minutes or until the mixture becomes jam-like and the oil separates.
The pickle is ready for use. It lasts from six months to a year.
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Ten years ago if you walked into a restaurant in the States and asked for a cup of chai, no one would have known what the hell you were talking about altogether. So now English has added a new word to its vernacular. Its meaning in English is less specific than its original meaning. That's because English is a different language than Hindi (assuming Hindi as the original language, I'm not sure about that so please correct me if I'm wrong.) It would be wrong in India. It is correct in the U.S. So we've created something new. Language lives. Long live language. Now say that ten times fast.
Edit: misplaced apostrophe. Wrong thread for that.
As for cultural appropriation, what is wrong with it? That is a big part of what we do around here. As a melting pot culture we find things we like, perhaps adapt them a bit to suit local tastes, and run with it. So maybe some words get changed, some ingredients shift, and the methods of preparation aren't authentic, who cares? The authentic stuff lives on where it originally came from, and we can enjoy our adopted and adapted version. If you want to order authentic masala chai I am sure there are a number of Indian restaurants in the US and even more in India and other points around the world where you can do so. Copying and playing with a concept doesn't diminish the original in any way, it adds to it by exposing more people to it. Calling it chai instead of just 'spiced tea' or 'Indian spiced tea' is a nod of respect to the original dish.
well, you can dress the pig up and put lipstick on it, but it's still
what it is
i highly doubt that most consumers of "chai" (i.e. masala chai)
are paying any respect, nodding or otherwise, to the original concept.
that may be what a few elevated egulleters do....
on the part of most people it's still the product of unawareness....
as most of the posts on this thread suggest re other words...
and re cultural appropriation and language
evolution, it would carry more weight if allowed to work
both ways - i.e. if indian or caribbean english evolutions (e.g)
were accorded the same respect as north american varieties.....
milagai
ps: i better stop now before i drift even more off food...
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I don't think there is anything difficult about using either, but neither sounds as exotic as 'chai' and exotic (to a degree) sells.
Also, there are lots of way you can spice tea. I am sure that in India there are a multitude of variations on chai masala, but when most people hear 'chai' they think of clove, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, etc, the spices common to chai masala blends. So, in this case saying 'chai' gives the potential customer a much better idea of what they are ordering than just 'spiced tea' which could be anything.
In India too, there is a specific set of variations on masala chai,
not "anything goes".
And when "most people" who have any respect for word usage,
or Indian food, of Chinese or Japanese languages etc etc say "chai"
they think of plain old "tea". That's what the word means, after all.
So, saying masala chai or spiced tea (if masala chai has too many syllables
as touregsand suggested) should evoke a specific preparation,
not "just anything".
Why on earth would a potential customer think "just anything"?
And if you mean "North American customers" by "most people"
it seems that people in North America (judging by the threads here)
go out of their way to mangle perfectly straightforward words
rather than get them right......
Milagai
(sorry to keep harping on this point, I shold probably stop,
but some of these arguments I just don't get.
People seem to want to stick to a wrong or lazy usage instead
of making a small adjustment;
which evokes thoughts of "cultural appropriation",
"downright disrespect" and other highly useless notions
in my head that I need to stay away from)
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By now if your average US consumer asks for chai, they expect masala chai. If they want plain tea, they as for tea. Again, just the way it has been adopted into the language, no real reason to change it...
what's so difficult about saying "tea" and "spiced tea".
that's what chai and masala chai translate to....
if it is sooo hard to remember / pronounce / etc.
milagai
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Ahah!
Eden, you must surely be using the green vegetable part of it while I have been talking about the seeds.
There are also many Indian recipes where the leaves of fenugreek, both fresh and dried, are used. Any Google search with methi as a key word should bring up a lot of hits.
For the Rajasthani recipe, a note first. Rajasthani food is VERY hot. When my neighbour cooked this for me, the entire dish was red from the powdered chilli. I have reduced it here, although you can of course increase it again if you like hot food.
As you can see, it's not being cooked in quite the same manner as a standard dal preparation, but it's certainly not being used as a spice either!Half cup (unsoaked) fenugreek seeds
1 and a half tablespoons oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 to 5 cloves garlic
Half teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
Half teaspoon turmeric
1 and a half teaspoons coriander powder
Bring water to a boil, add the fenugreek seeds. Boil 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and set aside 10-15 minutes to soften. Drain.
Heat the oil, add the onions and cook till beginning to turn golden. Meanwhile, mash the garlic to a paste with 2 or 3 tablespoons of water, and add all powdered spices to the mashed garlic.
Once the onions have started to turn golden, add the garlic and spice mix. Keep cooking, stirring frequently, until all the liquid has dried up. The garlic and spices will fry together with the onion.
This second frying stage usually takes about 8-10 minutes. Add a SMALL amount of water to the dish any time it looks as if it will burn, although essentially you want to fry and not boil.
Add the boiled, drained fenugreek, fry together with the onion mixture for 1-2 minutes then add a few tablespoons of water. The exact amount is a matter of taste, but the dish should be quite dry.
If boiling the fenugreek and frying the onion simultaneously, the dish takes about 35 minutes start to finish.
This will serve 4, if served with other dishes.
Re the word sabzi in Persian. Yes, it's derived from sabz, meaning green, and is used to refer to herbs. If used in the plural, though, it's used to refer to vegetables in general (at least this is my understanding). Sabzi has also been taken into Hindi as a loan word from Persian, and is used generically to mean vegetable - including those which are not green.
And while on the subject of words and their meanings, I believe hilba and halba, both referred to above, are variant pronunciations of the Arabic for fenugreek.
And the English name is derived from Latin, and means 'Greek hay.'
Someone stop me! A veritable goldmine of worthless trivia...
your post is super fascinating!
another snippet: i believe people in the west use fenugreek
(not sure in what form, or how prepared) to promote milk flow
in nursing moms.....
do indian or persian moms use it this way too?
anzu: what is the rajasthani dal recipe you mention called?
"methi dal" or some more specific name?
i'll definitely make it this weekend...
i also have somewhere a recipe for sprouted methi jam which
is totally yum, and if you like the chutney you described you'll
love that.....
i'll dig it out one of these days and post it.
milagai
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Ok, so I have Fenugreek in my spice rack & I have absolutely no idea what to use this in. Can anybody give me some ideas? Thanks!
tons of indian recipes use fenugreek.
if you go to the indian board right now there is
a discussion of vindaloo, which uses fenugreek.
fenugreek seeds and fresh leaves are not
interchangeable. the latter are used like spinach,
i.e. a green leafy veg.
the former is a spice that is pleasantly aromatic when
handled right, and nasty bitter when handled wrong.
milagai
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Yes, they could. I'm convinced this town has the worst restaurants (with one or two bright, shining exceptions) in the country.
now there's an idea for a new thread: a competition for the
town with the worst restaurants
what is your town, do you mind sharing?
and another thing, i am sure this has been posted before in many places,
but probably bears repetition.
what IS with the whole "chai tea" misunderstanding?
chai merely means tea, in hindi and most indian languages,
as also in chinese (cha), japanese, etc etc.
so phrases like "XXX with chai spices" makes no sense at all:
what, do they sprinkle tea leaves in it?
people are mixing up the idea of "chai" which is merely
regular tea, with "masala chai" which is the (now getting more popular)
spiced tea as perfected in the roadside tea stalls of india:
hot tea, with milk, sugar, and spices e.g. ginger, cardamom, black pepper,
maybe cinnamon, etc.
saying "chai tea" is like saying "tea tea".
if you ask for "chai" in an indian restaurant, you'll
get just regular tea, unless the waiter is aware of the confusion
and may clarify: do you want "masala chai";
and if you say yes, then you will get the spiced tea....
why is that so hard for all the corporate types to remember when
they are doing their manufacturing, packaging, etc....
grrrr
milagai
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In North Asia it seems pretty common to be served live-seafood. I know it looks a bit cruel to outsiders, but locals always pronouce the many virtues of these REALLY FRESH delights.
The live fish and prawns in Japan were sort of interesting, but what I remember the most was eating LIVE OCTOPUS in Sosan South-Korea.
I tried it twice. The first time they were quite small and easy to swallow, but after consuming the first two or three specimens, I realized from the sensation in my stomach that these critters were actually trying to climb back up my throat to escape. It was sort of scary really. For a time I was really worried that they might decide to take a side trip into my lungs.
Latter my Korean friends taught me two rather important rules for taking this cuisine. First, you have to chew them until they are really dead. Second; after swallowing you need to follow with a cup or two of liquor (Sochu) in order to make sure they stop moving in your stomach.
I reckon it’s the closest a man may ever come to feeling pregnant.
uurk!
just reading your description made me gag!
the things we humans eat!
milagai
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not sure if these have been covered:
the popularity of cumin in indian and mexican cuisine,
wide use of cilantro
i have a technical question which may add more to
the list of similarities:
is queso fresco similar to paneer?
is panela similar to khoa?
thanks
milagai
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Old British slang (Napoleonic wars) was to call the French and Spanish garlic-eaters.
Old French slang was to call the British rosbifs (roast beefs).
when did the custom of calling french "frogs" and
british "limeys" begin?
was it not from the frog eating habits of french cuisine,
and the british had discovered that foods with vitamin c (=lemons / limes)
prevented scurvy?
milagai
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it is ON my beaten track, but classic south indian breakfast:
uppuma with sugar OR sprinkle of lime juice OR
sliced bananas, OR yogurt (depending on sub region)
idlis + chutney
poottu + kadale (steamed cylinder or cream of rice + chickpea stew)
uthappam + chutney
dosai + chutney
etc.
all served with a tumbler full of steaming hot, frothy,
coffee by the yard (with milk and sugar please, none of your
black stuff)
milagai
Canned Food Confessions
in Ready to Eat
Posted
lots of beans etc.
but one thing worth getting in a can is coconut milk.
having it handy makes cooking south indian, thai, etc food
so much easier and so many dishes would never get
attempted if one had to make coconut milk from scratch every time...
milagai