Jenni

Many South Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, etc.) do not use salt in plain rice. This is because it is eaten with dal, sabzi, chutney, pickle, etc. that all contain salt and other seasoning. Many thalis also have a little bit of salt put at the 12 o' clock position so diners can adjust as they like. Personally I sometimes use a tiny tiny sprinkle in plain rice, though not always. It does not make the rice taste fully seasoned, just rounds it out slightly.

You should try steam cooking basmati, as in cooking it in just the right amount of water. It results in exquisite rice. I generally wash the rice soak it for 15-20 minutes, drain for 10 and then cook it in just enough water. An important step is to leave it covered and undisturbed for 5-10 minutes after turning off the heat at the end of cooking. Perfect!

Use a pressure cooker. Instead of spending up to 4 hours simmering chickpeas, they can be done in 20 minutes. Save yourself some gas and some time!

See to me, this is the problem. Not the tipping. It's the ridiculous wage that US servers are being paid in the first place. It actually makes me quite angry, and I can't believe that servers are not covered by the same minimum wage as every other profession. Surely this needs to change.

Sniff them...see if there is a nice pineapple-y smell.

I'm often rather rude about rice cookers because I cook rice 2-3 times a day and never felt the need for one. But this just takes the biscuit! For this price I would expect the rice cooker to make perfect rice, wash the dishes, hoover the floor, pick the kids up from school and buy me thoughtful gifts on my birthday.

Can't say for sure what was local and what was imported but the ingredients were high quality and some pretty much had to be imported. I had two meals at Indigo and on both occassions I ate very high quality "baby" size mozzarella, artichoke hearts, high quality (and properly cooked) pasta, feta cheese, mushrooms-that-weren't-just-generic-button-mushrooms, ricotta, and so on. Some of this will definitely be imported but the pasta could be made in house (from imported flour) and there's no reason that India couldn't produce very good buffalo mozzarella if it wanted to. Indigo was probably the first "foreign cuisine" meal in India I had that was any good at all. Since then I have had various well cooked mediterranean meals in several different parts of India and it's possible I would be less wowed with a return trip to Indigo. I think Italian and mediterranean food is definitely becoming more popular for a "posh" meal out and decent quality ingredients are becoming more easily available. For instance I have increasingly eaten very good mozzarella in restaurants that was most definitely not the usual Brittania "Cheeza" or Amul "Pizza cheese". Olives, mozzarella, courgettes, mushrooms, artichokes, brocolli, etc. are all popping up on menus more often. In Kochi, I even saw taleggio cheese in one of the dishes on the menu of a small joint run by an Italian. That's the restaurant scene but shops are also catching up. In Bangalore I saw a very well stocked shop specialising in European goods and even the big shops in Allahabad have a range of imported pastas, olives, etc. in their "Foreign" sections. Some people get very upset about going out to eat foreign food in India but personally I don't mind too much because it's nice to have the occasional meal out that's a bit different. I do think you should make time for the best of the local stuff first, but after that why not enjoy something with a foreign twist? For a long time the default something-different meal out has been "Chinese", and by that I mean the very special version of Chinese that is done in India. Now I think people are getting excited about Italian and other mediterranean cuisines.

There are many varieties of jaggery and gur, and some are made from palm sap. Some varieties of palm jaggery are very highly prized and highly delicious too. However, I will note that whenever I have bought Thai palm sugar I have not been impressed by the taste. It seems a lot sweeter and has a less complex flavour. I suppose YMMMV. Ladoo are round ball shaped sweets. Til ladoo is very easy. Toasted sesame seeds are combined with jaggery syrup and rolled into balls. Done! Made into a flat block the sweet is called chikki. I also like versions made with peanuts. Litti chokha can be made in an oven, I have done that. It's not the same by any means but if it's all you got then you can make something quite good. Most important bit of litti is to get the filling right. Sattu is not the same as gram flour, it is made from roasted grams. Actually traditionally there are also some other roasted grains in it. Outside of India (pre-ground sattu is more available there) you should buy the unground roasted gram (unsalted) and grind it yourself. Millet is probably most commonly consumed in India in its flour form as roti. However, let me just add that the three most popular millets are not the same as the commonly available yellow coloured millet that you get in health food shops in the UK. Bajra, jowar and ragi are the millets used in India. You can buy the flour in Indian shops but it is often old and not good. These flours need to be used very quickly after being ground otherwise they do not taste as good and are also difficult to work with. My local place in the UK sold all three grains in their whole form so I was able to grind my own flour. Very tasty. Btw Panaderia Canadiense, I made your fabulous soup. A few differences I must admit to: *I may have scaled poorly. I used more stock than you called for which I suspect means I maybe used too much potato. Which maybe means I used too little cheese. Possibly. I'm actually a little confused about the small amount of stock for the amount of potato. I think this is my own misunderstanding of things. *I added a chilli. Sorry! *No avocado for garnish, and instead of popcorn I used a little puffed rice as the "side dish". Puffed rice in India is a little different from the cereal and is used widely in various savouries, snacks and sweets so it's easy to buy. Overall I thought it was delicious and will be trying a version with some greens added to it soon.

I am making this ASAP, plus sending on the recipe to my Mum! I'm going to sub in veggie stock. Sorry. I'm also going to have to leave out achiote. Will this make a huge huge difference and are there any subs you can think of? Thinking about making this tomorrow...sounds great! ETA: OK, you clarified the recipe so I delted some of my questions!

Btw, sancocho sounds very similar to a Trinidadian dish called sancoche. Not surprising I guess, the two countries are not that far from each other and I suspect similar things are made all over that area.

This is not something you can just say without providing a recipe Seriously, I know my Mum would love this, please share!

No worries, I completely flubbed the direction of the monsoon in my reply so I messed up too. Well India is obviously a huge country so I'll just talk about Allahabad and touch on some other Northern areas too. Down South especially climate is very different. Also, every region has its seasonal specialities. I am just trying to learn about the local ones! I hope that others will chime in too. On thing that majorly affects what gets eaten in winter is the climate. After the intense heat of summer, the downpour and humidity of monsoon and the hot and humid after-monsoon period, winter is a blessed relief! For many people here, it is the best time of year. It's a great time for picnics and enjoying the outdoors. Temperature wise it goes from around 10 °C up to 25 °C. These are just rough figures. It does dip cooler occasionally and I think the coolest temperature ever reached was somewhere just below 0 °C but this is not common. I think January is probably the coolest month. These cooler temperatures mean an abundance of vegetables are available. Some vegetables especially associated with winter are as mentioned before, cauliflower, carrots, mooli, beetroot, potato, all kinds of greens, cabbages, etc. Allahabad is famous for its guavas in winter. I may be imagining it but I swear the young green chickpeas in their pods are a wintery food, in Jan and Feb? Another factor is that people feel like eating more. In the heat people lose their appetite a bit and prefer a lighter diet, but winter is cooler. It doesn't get really really cold in Allahabad but it feels cold and houses don't have central heating so people snuggle up in lots of layers, with blankets and use room heaters and fires Food can be rich with ghee and malai, people indulge in sweets and let their appetite run wild! Many people eat heavier and richer foods. Foods like gram flour that are a little tricky to digest are used in many dishes, and people often eat more fatty foods and sweets. Not everyone of course, but there is a feeling of indulgence and enjoyment. There are also specific foods believed to be warming and good for the body in winter. Bajra and jowar are both varieties of millet that are popular during winter. Makki, corn, is also used. People make rotis from the flour or cook the grains themselves. Sesame seeds are also popular, and so is gur (jaggery). These are both warming and good for the body. A nice combination of the two is til ladoo, which are balls of sesame seeds and jaggery. They are a delicious and simple sweet perfect for the season. Somehow I associate litti chokha with winter. Litti are balls of dough stuffed with a spiced mixture of roasted channa dal flour and baked in a cow dung fire. Chokha is a sort of spiced "mash" of potatoes and/or aubergines and/or tomatoes that have all been roased in the ashes of a fire. It's a famous combination from Bihar but seems to be found all over the North these days. In Allahabad it is available all year round from stalls near the bus stand and also near high court. But I think it feels especially wintery to me because it's a great dish to make in the evening when you feel like lighting a nice fire and making an evening of it! Last winter I was lucky enough to spend some time in Amritsar, in the Punjab, and that is an excellent place to be in winter! A very famous winter dish is sarsaon da saag served with makki di roti. This is a "mash" of mustard greens (spiced up nicely) served with roti made from corn. Served with a lovely dollop of home made butter! I also like a bit of jaggery on the side. Lots of butter comes out to play during winter, it's chilly so you need the extra energy right?! I have found memories of getting wrapped up and venturing outside in the evening to get jalebis and a big glass of hot milk...the jalebis were rich with the sent of ghee and perfect for a chilly winter night! It's too early to be thinking too much about these foods yet, but I am looking forward to enjoying them. Oh, and I'll ask my Mum what things she is looking forward to enjoying in England over winter too.

Durians are indeed stinkier! I too love jackfruit more, but some of that maybe because I have eaten more of it. One jackfruit seed dish stays in my mind more than any - the seeds went along with drumsticks (the vegetable, not chicken!) in a delicious gravy made from freshly grated coconut, chillies, some other spices I can't remember and turmeric. This was eaten in Kerala. Wish I had a full recipe. I know I have something written down somewhere but I don't have access to it atm.

Are you looking for winter dishes or monsoon dishes? Because monsoon is over where I am, though I believe other parts of India may still be having a few rains (there are sort of two monsoons going in different directions). The first monsoon starts some time in June and starts to fade away in September, travelling from the South West and going up the country. There's a secondary monsoon that goes from the North East back down the country from October but it should all be finished sometime in November I think. I think the South gets more of this, in Allahabad certainly we have had no rain since sometime in September. Guess I didn't think of this time of the year as monsoon! But I'm happy to share that favourite monsoon foods include pakora and chai - actually any nicely fried snack with tea is very welcome! Right now where I am we are all looking forwards to winter dishes! There are beautiful young mooli with lovely tops on them in the market, cauliflowers are reducing in price on an almost daily basis, loads of greens are becoming available and I've seen some carrots and beetroots starting to pop up here and there. Looking forward to winter's bounty! Edited to fix crazy talk about directions!

A karahi (also spelt kadahi, karhai, kadhai karhi, etc.) is a type of cooking pot. I suppose simply speaking we could compare it to a wok. I cook a lot of vegetable dishes in mine (I have two of different sizes), and they are excellent for deep frying, sauteeing, shallow frying, etc. Personally I would assume that the use of karahi in the name just signifies the pot it was cooked in/method of cooking, which is a reasonably common way of naming a dish aka handi paneer (handi being a pot), tandoori roti, etc. Don't know if it actually is a specific combination of ingredients, but hopefully others may know about this.

I've always thought durian are very similar to jackfruit, and jackfruit seeds are great. Sort of chestnut like.

I kind of think of liquidise and blend as interchangeable, so I guess this went over my head! Now if it had said "puree the soup" I might have sniggered because of some reason I think of puree as the word to be used for less liquid-y things than soup. This may just be my own craziness.

Sesame oil is a common cooking oil in South India. It is not toasted, and 3 tablespoons (which is what I'm guessing 40g approximates to) would not necessarily be a lot of oil in some dishes. I've also seen sesame oil in health food shops, again untoasted. By the way, all the sesame oil I have ever bought has been unrefined and has had a golden colour and pleasant (but not toasted) sesame smell. It is very different from the toasted oil. I have also seen fairly colourless sesame oil for sale, presumably it was more refined.

Not necessarily if it is untoasted sesame oil. What did the recipe specify? Also, what's wrong with liquidising? There are plenty of blended soups, some very very nice ones. Fair enough if the recipe is crap but I don't understand this particular criticism.

percyn, I'm not the person you specifically asked but I enjoyed a "fine dining" experience at Indigo (not Indigo deli) a few years ago. The food is European (heavily aimed at Italian when I went) with a little desi twist here and there. It will set you back a lot in local terms but it's not expensive compared to European or American dining.

I think the advert is lazy and full of stereotypes (the dad likes to barbecue, cooks lots of meat, etc.) and I didn't like it. I think it was offensive to mums and dads as the dads are sort of made out as lazy and unhelpful and the mums sit around in the kitchen gossiping about their husbands and fantasising about drinking wine. However, I didn't interpret it as saying dads are bad cooks. In fact one of the women even says her husband was a professional chef and knows how to cook, he just doesn't seem to want to at home. And I think that's what the advert is trying to talk about - how dads may be less inclined to cook an ordinary week night meal. It's a generalisation and is definitely not always true, but it is something I have seen in many households. The dad will be an excellent cook and he'll love to spend time cooking at the weekend or at other times when it suits him. But whipping up a dinner on a weekday evening? Nah, can't be bothered, not interesting enough, just got home from work and am really tired (even when mum works too!). Even my Dad was a little like that. And in my friends house, the only dish her hubby will cook is biryani, and that's only because he says no-one else does it right! He's an excellent cook, he just doesn't like doing it unless he really feels like it. I think a lot of it comes down to ideas about gender roles in the house. Dad may be an awesome cook, but it's mum's jobs to get meals on the table every evening. By the way, this is not a stereotype that I agree with or that I am happy with. But it's definitely an idea that exists. Adverts that are insulting to men? Check out just about every cleaning advert these days! They insult women by implying that women do or should do all the cleaning, and any men featured are bumbling fools who make mess everywhere and have no idea how to do anything properly! Anway, to summarise: Stupid, sexist adverts suck. But, in this case I think the generalisation made was that men don't like to take part in ordinary weeknight cooking as much, not that they can't cook.

ajitg, could you talk a little about the differences between Awadhi and Mughlai cuisine? I think I am right in saying that Awadhi cuisine has a Mughlai influence but also has differences. To me it seems spicier, as in more fragrant not chilli-hotter, and perhaps less rich from cream?

I think you've done the right thing from the start - roasting instead of steaming or boiling. I find that any kind of water-based cooking is death to squash that is already insipid. Roasting helps to concentrate the flavours that are present.

You mention mustard, are there any other Canadian food items (from restaurants or shops, either dishes or ingredients) that you miss now you are in the US? For instance, to look at your username, do you miss poutine? On the other hand, what foods that are not found in Canada are you happy to be able to get again?

Not that I know of. I think this varies depending on who you ask, and I don't have children so cannot advise fully! Generally the idea seems to be to start blander, with some people avoiding any spices at all and other just using specific non-pungent spices in small amounts. I wouldn't reccomend anything that is distinctly pungent that may upset the baby and give a burning sensation. I know that there are a number of taboo foods for mother and baby according to some traditions in India, varying by region. Some of these are utter nonsense but probably harmless and others can be harmful because they encourage people to avoid foods that are nutritious. So I guess your best step is to check with someone who is actually medically trained. Traditional knowledge can be very useful and healthy but some traditions can be harmful and are more based on superstition. I bring this up because Indian traditional medicine definitely has a lot to say about heating and cooling foods. When used with proper understanding of the whole Ayurvedic (Indian medicine) system these are useful classifications and can be used to make healthy choices. But it must be remembered that Ayurvedic medicine says that everyone has a particular constitution and that advice must be tailored specifically to each person. However, often things are misunderstood by people and this leads to blanket statements about how "women should not eat heating foods" and so on.