liv4fud

being a converted meat eater, there are a bunch of reasons I can see why I wouldn't go to a vegetarian restaurant (necessarily) most vegetarian restaurants try to *simulate* meat and in result produce chewy-cardboardlike mess. being brought up a vegetarian, I know there are tons and tons of dishes that one doesn't need to go immitate meat. and just like steak doesn't taste like chicken, immitation whatever doesn't taste anywhere near to the real thing. other thing about non-veg cooks trying to create veggie entrees. I understand taking this shot would bring down on me the wrath of the meat cooks. but try using more than salt and pepper. asian(oriental), southeast asian (indian sub continent), middle eastern... spices help a ton in elevating the tastes of those bland veggies and regarding pontormo's claim of no need to have veggie only restaurants, its more to do with mental / aesthetical values. just like on the space station - despite it being more pure than the drinking water in a bottle - water recovered from human waste is not used for drinking. only drinking water from separate tanks is used. now, I have eaten at restaurants that claim to be veggie and make all sorts of faux _____ . personally, I hate those and refuse to go again to those. but then there are ones - like a ton of them on Devon avenue in Chicago which are traditionally catering to a very small section of the society's taste. over the years, a lot more communities have begun enjoying the food there. these veg. foods are usually lacto-veggie (yes dairy) and in some rare cases lacto-ovo-veggie. either case, they cater to the dishes that are veggie to begin with and they are delicious edited to add: hey milagai: as per one of my buddies here they don't eat beans or get scared when you tell them about your bean consumption is because they associate eating of beans with flatulence! go figure!

there are a couple of more sharpeners which are not as old school as stones available, they are one hand held type. I forgot the other company but home depot in chicagoland carries norton-abrasives one that is similar to that. some of the chefs that I have talked with use the stones say about once a couple of months, steel every day and the sharpener once a week.

did any one of you check out the egci tutorial on sharpening knives ??

ideal would be to burn a couple of layers of pallete at HeavenOn7 and then soothe them @ Sarah's

this might sound a bit odd, but where do you get green tomatoes i.e. in supermarkets? or speciality markets? the only time I was able to get my hands on 2 or 3 was from a box of unripened (orange) tomatoes other than that I haven't been able to find in chains like jewel/dominicks or local chains like pete's loved fried green tomatoes and can't afford restaurant ones every time I have a craving

traditionally, you would find a chutney made from dates & tamarind along with a spicier option usually with cilantro as a base. i believe ketchup started catching up especially in the cities as a condiment. this was to replace the dates/tamarind chutney with its sweet and tangy flavor and very little prep (open bottle & pour) it started replacing the sweet/sour chutney don't know if I am stretching the definition of condiment but ketchup is also used as a flavoring agent for noodles, certain curries with onion / tomato pastes. I believe it brings in a nice flavor of tanginess and works like addition of acid (lemon / lime) but with different traces

though I have lived on south east asian cuisine all my life, your experience is not unique. many of us still have a similar state the culprit is actually your own system that is not trained to handle such high concentrations of oils & spices in food. pakistani / north indian food has one of the highest mixtures of oils/fats (ghee and or plant oils) along with an assortment of spices. one thing that might help, eat often, eat less amounts and always *cool* your system down with some kind of diluted yogurt (with water - lassi but thinner) or milk. btw, just as an experiment, on me, excess of capsecium has a similar effect as eating currries - especially the ones eaten at restaurants. don't know if any of that helps

i m staging at a caterer's place and they have a very very talented head chef he had suggested the cooking first and blending later part so does rupenrao in his recipes (he does visit this forum - so hope he puts his $0.02 in) however, at the caterer's place, they always blend the gravy raw and then cook it. and they do it across the board for all the dishes like that

hope I am not too late in replying before your next gravy the thing that turns the onions bitter is the presence of the root which supposedly has a lot of onion flavor accompanies with mighty bitterness and the 'making-the-cook-cry' property. quarter the onion and cut off the center portion (like deseeding a quartered apple) but only on the root end. it would visibly (taste-wise) reduce the bitterness (most of the times eliminating it). also yellow - which are usually cheaper in midwest - have a greater tendency of bitterness than the red. another usual suspect is garlic grown old i.e. has greenish tinge in the center. but I am guessing you are heavily concentrating on the onion for this one

tryska, there are multiple ways to do that. the best is something like a kaitenzushi you basically prepay or order a set (say 10). the person the would break the top of the puri, fill the filling (recipes vary) and then add sweet chutney(optional) and then dip it in a big vat of the spiced water by far the best method to have there are some where they would actually give you the ingredients on a platter and you basically make it yourself there are some that would make the 5=10 you order and then put it in a plate for you and then ladel in the spiced water. please note depending on where you eat the color and taste of the water can vary a lot. this is because right from bengal to maharashtra and gujrat - they have adopted various recipes with dry and wet ingredients in pani puri / poochkas

that drunken customer who comes to personally thank the chef ... what was that! chef-groupies!!!

who watches baseball these days!! just kidding!! more interested in football, but the previews have gotten me thinking

regarding the dhania/jeera mix, I was informed by the elders in our families that just like the garam masala, chai masala, that was supposed to be the flavor of the individual home. you hit the mark with the roasting comment as in our family they would roast the two and combine a much greater portion of coriander and a lesser portion of jeera with a teeny weeny bit of fennel also roasted. some homes mixed all 3 in equal proportions while others would omit fennel completely the spice mix was an idea I picked up during the staging gig - it was one of the 'when in a pinch' type of recipes. the chef suggested use the spice mix once by yourself, make the entire dish. find out what you would like to change. and modify accordingly with fresh spcies / blends. time's always in a pinch during the week so I was thinking of trying it out on 2 days of the week. but no way I am going on shamdra lee's way...

coconut stuff jason is the coconut chutney yes used as a dip with a lot of south indian entrees (dosa, vada, idli...) the soup can also be used as a *dunk* for the vada/idli/dosa or had as a soup. btw, nice pics... I am tempted to have some food now and its midnight CST!

got a packet of kabab chini and star anise along with a package of chicken biryani will have to find time during the week to try it out the kabab chini does smell a lot like cloves and star anise a lot like fennel. we use a lot of coriander seed and jeera seed mixture (dhania-jeera powder). was always bothered by the earthiness. plan to use star anise to lift the fragrance up a bit.

anvi, thanx for the recipe direction, I believe what you made is called til-barfi in our home. I love that too, can't wait to give a shot anzu, love rabri - actually don't do that myself as I am very very fond of rabri and pretty much end up consuming it all based on the pretext of tasting but whenever that I have been forced to let it go till the end for the laddoos to be made, I still haven't seen that crumbly dry texture of that store bought kind. and offcourse my concern was with the ricotta being curdled which I thought was not the case with khoya

anvi, til laddoos with khoya - will need a recipe for that love till laddoos but have only had the ones with jaggery interesting suggestion on the khoya substitute will like to try it just curious rupenrao / anvi / anzu about the actualy process of making the actualy khoya? coz ricotta is definitely curdled while condensed milk is not

wazaa / milagai - are you suggesting that the single all-spice is able to substitute the whole mixture of garam masala?? WOW! there is a lot for me to learn...

mostly brought up on vegetarian Indian food, I would like to know the wonderful uses of the two spices. I did find out from internet searches that kabab chini is all spice but have not much clue how to use them in Indian cooking p.s. I am a converted non-veggie so feel free to encompass meats in your suggestions

since the thread is still active, I know a lot of people back in India use recycled hack saw blades as knives. serrations are removed and the blade is sharpened they are usually about 4 " long and the handle is bamboo tied with a metal wire. one of the most efficient cutting tools that I have seen are those flimsy blade knives - needless to say one of the hardest knives to learn with. guarranteed cuts. but the people who have used them swear by them. funny a set of tramontina that was gifted to them by me is a nice show piece. only pairing and utitlity knives are used (seldom). slicer / chef's knife is used to cut open a melon once in a blue moon....

build your own cutting board. teak wood, your local store, cut it to desired size and put in non slid buffers on the other side. enjoy

what would you do to keep your fried-chicken crispy if you are serving it later?? use the same technique for samosas and they would stay crispy recipe wise there are many ways of making the dough, the ones up should be fine. technique wise, the cutting of fat v/s mixing, try this, melt the fat,and add it to the flour and then follow what wendy said. careful not to burn yourself! instead of creating pockets (as in cutting) the mixed fat would allow the crust to absorb less water and hence stay crispy longer.

add equal parts lady luck and good common sense to make the best of the opportunities that are presented to you. stir in ability to articulate and put on a scale something abstract as taste and flavor. and you get a decent food critique. now expert.... the more people who hate him for what he does, the status of expert is attained ;-)

torakris, one imp fact, the spices need to be *cooked* to get the flavor out. usually adding in the end might give a hard to describe but unpleasant sort of flavor. a bit powdery texture too... the tarka part is to add some flavor and some fragrance. usually, dried whole chillies - the one you would get an indian market - either round berry like or long, are added. along with whole mustard seeds, whole cumin. cook this in oil till you actually see the skin peeling off from the flesh of the chilly - at this time, you can take the oil off the flame (it would be boiling probably), add the amount of seasoning that you think is missing (the same recipe that you already put in) along with a couple of curry-leaves. caution - too much splatter warning. though its long written, its very very quick procedure (unless you are cooking in a huge amount) and be very careful of the splatter, experienced cooks have had accidents. you can use this for any dishes. now for lentils, you can add some urad split to the hot oil also. this along with other spices. make sure it doesn't burn but you can go all the way till brown. gives a really nice rustic taste to the dish.

yo jasontrue, one of the thing about Indian food and cooking is that the food is very very forgiving. unlike baking, indian food is mainly all based on eye-balling, a pinch here and heavy pinch there.... for example the recipe you made is 'dumb ki khumb' basically mushrooms cooked in tomato based gravy. if you get 5 recipes, you will get 5 different ways to handle the mushrooms. also the cooking steps would be different. india has over 104 dialects (some anthropologist can correct me here). a lot of food is what is available locally but that changes as you move even a 100 miles away. chicken curry is famous in north-west, central and south, etc. all of them will taste like a different dish. so improvising is a very very important part of Indian cooking. do it because you are economically / physically / geographically strapped. or do it because its some thing that you are doing while experimentation. don't know if I am helping or speeding up the swirl of thoughts that you are having.