polly

I second the vote of confidence in Suvir. So much time, effort and Information from one person is rare. PS: I hope that doesn't sound too sycophantic, I have learnt alot from everyone here.

The two Jaffrey books that I really like are 'a taste of india' and ' world of the east vegetarian cooking'. 'A taste of india' has lovely stories and information about each of the regions of India, and the vegetarian book has a wide range of foods from around Asia and the Middle East. Some really beautiful, ultra simple preparations, and good clear info on more complicated dishes that you don't often see recipes for. If you love Asian food and vegetables, it is a great compendium.

this is from Madhur Jaffrey's' world of the east vegetarian cooking': 2 1/2 C chickpea flour 3-4 cloves garlic, mashed 1/2 tsp grated ginger 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp ground turmeric 1 tsp cayenne 1 medium onion 5 tbs veg oil 6 curry leaves 2 tsp salt 1 tbs lemon juice 1 tbs chopped coriander 1 green chilli, minced 1/4 C grated fresh coconut Put flour in a bowl and slowly add 4 1/2 C water, stirring to brake up lumps. Combine garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric and cayenne in a small bowl with 1/4 C water. Set aside. Finely slice the onions. Fry the curry leaves, add onions then spice mixture, cook couple of minutes. Add the flour/water mix, bring to the boil, stirring all the time. Lower the temperature and keep stirring vigorously until the mixture thickens and comes away from the sides of the pan, about 20 minutes. (bit like choux paste) Season with salt and lemon. Pour mixture into a cake tin and sprinkle the top with coriander, green chilli and coconut. Allow to set.

Yuk! I can kind of understand the flavours of chai and vodka together, but with cointreau as well? Do you think they use milky chai in the cocktail? Surely that would just curdle...

I use besan flour to make batters with, either a classic pakora batter or I add some besan to SR flour for a different texture and flavour. Occasionally I make something that I don't know the name of ( Madhur Jaffrey just calls it 'besan'). It's like a soft set 'cake' of besan flour cooked with water and flavours. I usually cut it into cubes when it's set and bake it in a hot oven ( or deep fry it) until it's crispy, to serve with spicy fried quail. I don't have a favourite brand b/c often I get it in unmarked bags from the local Indian shop or health food store where they have obviously repackaged it from bulk. I have read that you can use the flour to thicken yoghurt sauces but i've never tried this.

Wow, Suvir, you're outdoing yourself with the recipes. I'm going to make the five lentil dal first. That one is speaking to my cravings. thanks again

Try very soft cooked rice, potato pieces ( cooked), sauteed onion, shredded pumpkin, beets and mushroom. Spice it like a felafel or samosa, some could have sharp cheese through them, fetta or haloumi would be good. Use a bit of egg and breadcrumbs to make it stick. Good luck. There must be nice recipes out there for vegetarian kofte .

How about 'steaks' of tempeh and tofu? Just cut firm tofu and tempeh into desired size and marinate in literally anything, before grilling.

I believe it's b/c of what else is in the alcohol. Wine has tannins in it ( red wine has more than white) that make the hangover worse. So, red wine is meant to produce the worst hangover, beer is somewher in the middle, and clear spirits do the least harm (relatively speaking) b/c they are basicly pure alcohol. It's meant to help if you drink your spirits with fruit juice, i.e vodka and orange, b/c you're giving your body a little water and vitamin C to help combat the effects of the alcohol.

What I do is this: Put your nuts into a large bowl. Sprinkle them with water and toss around until all the nuts are damp. (if you use to much water the salt can slide off the nuts) Sprinkle the damp nuts with salt (if you are after a heavy coating, use fine salt) and whatever spices you like and spread them out on a baking tray. Roast in the oven. The water will evaporate, leaving the salt in place. You can do this to pre roasted nuts as well. In that case, put them in a very low oven to evaporate the water without burning the nuts.

I have found that if you use good quality dark chocolate you don't have to temper it if you are in a rush . It sets fine. The tip about drying is very important though.

FM, what sort of cucumber do you call english? Is it the fat one with lots of seeds and thin skin, or the small ones or maybe the long ones?

Monkfish sounds great. I've never cooked it with Indian flavours either, but with it's meaty texture it holds up to so many cooking styles. If you do try something, please tell us about it. I love monkfish, but it's a bit hard to come by at the moment in Australia.

HMM... Favourite dals. If we are talking about dry beans, I love all of them. If we are talking about the dish, I love all of them. especially dal with coconut milk (molaghashyam) sambar green lentil dal with lots of fried, pulverised onions in the base. red lentil dal with tomato, green chilli and curry leaves Last night I cooked something that you may not call a dal, but it was very yummy: Yellow split peas cooked till mushy but with some still holding shape, flavoured with asofetida, salt, sugar, butter and a few thyme leaves. Then I stirred in a whole lot of finely shredded savoy cabbage and let it steam together for a little bit. It was earthy/sweet and buttery without being heavy. I had it with lemon roasted chicken.

I realise that the various spellings of dal are probably phoenetic translations from Indian languages, but is there a 'most' correct version? Is it all 'much of a muchness' or is there a difference?

How do you make scallion frites? They sound good.

I recently had a beautiful melt in the mouth lamb dish at a friends house. The recipe is in Nigella Lawson's ( not 'how to cook' or the 'domestic godess' one, but the one in between) book. Shoulder of lamb, browned then covered with foil and baked on low heat for 14! hours. Meat is then shredded and made into a warm salad with mint leaves and pomegranite seeds. It's really easy and one of those dishes that tastes better than you would think from just reading the recipe. Not at all indian, but I thought I'd throw it in 'cause the meat really does come out 'melt in the mouth'.

from a jar? that's not an insult, but i'm just thinking that i often use jarred stuff, and can't imagine making it from scratch. if you do, please share! Yeah, I made the whole thing. I had a bit of time that day so I made tandoori chicken and then used that to make the curry. That said, I often use jars of stuff that I add nice things to, to spice them up a bit. The recipe I used was from Suvir, posted recently in the Indian thread. He's posted a lot of nice recipes recently, worth having a look at. Pol

Suvir, I did my growing up in Australia, where I still live, but I was very fortunate in having parents who were involved in many interesting projects and took us kids overseas a few times. My father is a photographer and every year, for about ten years, he went to Vijayanagra (sp?) in Karnataka state to document the ancient city that was being uncovered there. I got to go there twice, and I loved every minute of both trips. We ( all the people from around the world) who worked on the site stayed in a camp of bamboo huts and army surplus tents that were pitched around a small building that had the kitchen in it. Every day we ate glorious thalis and the cooks would make extra puris for breakfast when they found out how much my brother and I liked them. I could go on forever but all this is rather off topic. Suffice to say that the lovely people I met and the food and landscape and the amazingly different culture made a huge impact on me. When I returned to Australia I was homesick for India.

vivin, I'd be interested in hearing more from your father about the original incarnation of butter chicken. What I have always known as butter chicken turns out to be chicken tikka masala, but doing some research I have found other, simpler recipes that sound like what he made originally. One of them was just roast chicken with melted butter and black pepper over the top. Sounds almost too simple...

Last night i made chicken tikka masala (tandoori style chicken in a creamy tomato sauce with julienned ginger, among other things) Sliced mushroom, zucchini and brussel sprouts sauteed in a base of fresh grated coconut fried with onions and mustard seeds Simple raita sweet eggplant chutney Hot mango pickle Basmati rice Yum...

My very first memories of Indian food ( and thus, favouite dishes) are of Tandoori chicken with lots of lime juice on it and Butter chicken. I think I have eaten kilo's of Butter chicken in my life. Strangely, I've never made it at home, but I think I might tonight. When I was a teenager my dad worked on an archaelogical site in south India and I was lucky enough to be taken there a couple of times. These trips provided me with my next lot of favourite dishes. Freshly cooked Jalebi Puris Masala Dosa Rasam and sambar curds and jaggery and pretty much anything with lime pickle and yoghurt. It's the contrasting flavours and textures in Indian food that I find so addictive.

Yeah, I think you can trust it. They pretty much know what they're talking about. But, they do have favourite chefs and places, and they're pretty Sydney-centric, so what you're getting is the trendy, stylish persons view of dining. Won't get much mention of the cheaper interesting, funky places. That said, I always read it.

I think i'd go with Jon Tseng and call it steeping, b/c that's what it's called when you cok chicken that way. Although, steeping kind of implies a soaking up of flavours from the liquid as well. Interesting question...

Wow. That was beautiful. And I agree strongly with your ideas of home and cooking for friends and the love that can be expressed by creating such a beautiful environment. One of the things I remember most fondly from my youth is the fact that we had dinners for friends all the time. Sometimes they were simple, sometimes quite grand, but they were always open to all. Often a dinner for 10 would end up being 30 after everyone had brought their friends. Children, teenagers and adults all together. Lots of conversation, music and happiness. It's how I want to live all the time.