Jenni

I love seeing traditional, old fashioned foods produced using old techniques with minimal or simple processing. That's all.

Yes...liquorice is not reccomended for those with high blood pressure.

^^ Chris, could you talk about how concentrated the vegetable stock is? Is that 600ml of pretty concentrated stock? I'd be interested to know if you try it again with the extra step of frying the vegetables first, and how you feel it compares strength and flavour wise. Incidentally, from the picture it appears reasonably carrot-y, which could account for a lot of the sweetness. Are there strict specifications on what vegetables to use, and in what proportions? Final question: Is there a legume based stock, as in dried beans or lentils? Sorry if this is too many questions!

I think this is very unfair of you. The way I interpreted Ruhlman's statement is that even though he knows a lot, even he cannot possibly fully verify everything you say in this book. Does that make sense? Basically he is saying you have covered so much ground that it is far beyond his knowledge - so that was a compliment of the book!

Mirchiwala wings eg. chilli chicken wings. Sounds like chef's own spicy (chilli-hot) chicken wings to me! Can you taste any spices other than chilli in particular?

Meh, as someone who eats a lot of street food in India, I really don't care. I probably should, but I don't. Pani puri guy wipes his hands quickly on a dirty rag, breaks a hole in the puri with his thumb, grabs some potato mix and shoves it in, dunks it in theeka pani (and that water ain't from a sealed bottle!) and hands it to me... I just think yum yum! Oh, and I'm never ill. But that isn't a reason for anyone else to do as I do, I just have a crazy stomach.

cteavin: Thanks, that's interesting. To throw another variation out there, I've seen khus khus (white poppy seeds) used in mirchi ka salan too. And kalonji in the tadka.

Well, not sure how I fit in with your observations, but I am 21 years old and here is my view: "Sorry, we don't make alterations to any of our dishes." - Not rude. "No, no alterations, this isn't your kitchen. If you don't like it, get out." - Rude. Though obviously things could get a lot ruder. I don't think it's unreasonable for me to want to avoid this kind of rudeness!

There are two problems with devoting yourself to a strict diet with the sole aim of living longer: 1. You could get hit by a bus tomorrow. 2. We all know someone in our family or a friend who is 93 years old, smokes like a chimney and eats nothing but bacon sandwiches. So, eat that way if you enjoy it. But if you're only doing it to live longer...maybe it's time to reconsider.

I've never heard of this award before, so I may be missing something, but I'm surprised Pushpesh Pant's 'India' doesn't get a mention. It's a phenomenally ambitious work that covers a lot of ground and has some real gems. There is an issue with a few typos, but still...it's a great book.

Stupid question, but are we talking the powder from the actual liquorice root, or the sweet that is also called liquorice even though it often has little or no liquorice in it? Liquorice tea is a popular use of the actualy root, but I have only ever started off with whole sticks so I'm not sure about using a powder. And also, I really hate liquorice tea and was making it as an emetic for an Ayurvedic proceedure...I bet that's really sold it to you right?! But joking apart, it is used in a lot of herbal teas and I don't mind it as a background component.

I have a large cupboard with three shelves for spices. Top shelf has all the half open and unopened bags for refills. Middle shelf has jars of spices ready to be dipped into and used. Bottom shelf has dried herbs and a few spices that I don't use much - these are mostly my Dad's and are for non-Indian cookery.

Where were the teachers themselves from?

I would just like to point out that I was not by any means saying this, I was just disagreeing with David Chang's "just food" quote. Having said that, I do feel that spending my money in a restaurant entitles me to a certain amount of respect, even if any requests I may have cannot be accomodated. The danger of some of these restaurants that have certain policies about what condiments are allowed, whether adjustments can be made, etc. is that they can sometimes come across as very rude and anti-customer. Fair enough if you won't let me add spinach to my pizza, because you don't make alterations, but please don't be rude to me about it.

Interesting. I have not looked in depth at the website, but what region's cuisine did you learn about? Remember that regional cuisines vary hugely. Or did you learn a sort of pan-Indian menu? ETA: Incidentally, how stupid, I forgot to answer your questions! I don't think I've ever eaten or made a mirchi ka salan with fresh mint or jaggery in it. I also usually put coriander seeds and cumin seeds in the paste, and use less sesame than peanut and coconut. Also..I'm trying to think now...pretty sure that onions usually find their way into my recipe.

A lot of Indian vegetarian foods are very cheap to make, though the end product is extremely delicious and satisfying! Probably one of the cheapest dishes is any kind of dal, not to mention the fact that it can easily be stretched out (just add more water!). Last bag of moong dal I bought was £4.99 for 2kg. I usually cook one cup of dal for 4 people, that's around 200g I think, so that works out at £0.49 for the main bulk of the dish! Just add vegetables (if desired) and seasonings. Spices are more expensive per gram, but obviously you use smaller amounts. As long as you don't go too heavy on the cardamom and saffron in your dishes, your monthly spice bill will not be too high. And as I said, the dal can be stretched out for 6 people by making it soupier and adding more vegetables. One of the key points for making dishes on the cheap is to know where to buy the ingredients. For instance, if you buy tamarind in Tescos, you can end up paying £1.50 for a single block of dried tamarind. But if you buy it in a local Indian store, usually you can buy 3 or 4 for £1!

But restuarant food isn't just food. If I wanted just food I would eat at home. If I'm eating out and paying for that eating-out-experience, I want more than just food! Personally I couldn't do the bacon-picking out bit, but I know what you mean. Here are some organised thoughts on the subject: It's the responsibility of the customer to do a little groundwork before entering a restaurant to ensure that they are happy to eat the restaurant's kind of food. This could be as simple as reading the menu outside the restaurant before going in, or perhaps doing something more in advance by checking the website. It's your money - spend it eating out somewhere where you like the food! Where it is not possible to avoid going to a restaurant that does not have appropriate menu items, because perhaps it is a work event organised by someone else or something of that kind, it is the customer's responsibility to contact the restaurant in advance and see if they can be accomodated. Where it is not possible, perhaps it would be best not to go or just to pop in for a drink at the end of the meal. It's the restaurant's right to refuse to make subsitutions/alterations that they feel are unreasonable. However, they should know that accomodating reasonable requests will certainly be seen in a very positive light by customers. And on the whole, small, reasonable requests often don't take much effort to do.

Katie Meadow, thank you for your post. I think you've pretty much covered how I feel about the subject. Would just like to add that, as a few others have mentioned, I feel that sharks-fin soup is probably more about ostentatious show of wealth than necessarily being a fundamental tradition.

^^^ Sadly I won't be much help here as I do not use a rice cooker. However, I can tell you that the normal way of cooking these rices is boiling them in water like pasta, not steam cooking them like basmati.

The brand of rice I buy is Kumarans. They do a number of South Indian rices, including boiled and raw red rices. I cannot remember whether the rosematta rice I saw yesterday was Kumarans, but it might have been. Otherwise it could have been Bristol Sweetmart (the place I shop at) own brand as they do package up a lot of rice and dal themselves.

Hi Percyn, thank you for your kind comment. The recipe for the poha is actually the latest post on my blog. If you would rather, I can post here though. It's a pretty standard kanda (onion) poha, though the addition of a few fennel seeds may be unusual to some - it seems to add a certain something

There are a number of South Indian rices which are a pinkish colour and have some streaks of red on the outside. These are semi polished. Some are parboiled, and some are raw. Parboiled rice is boiled in the husk before processing. It is more nutritious, as parboiling drives the goodness from the bran into the core of the rice and makes parboiled rice more similar nutrition wise to brown rice. These rices very tasty and nutritious, and actually this kind of rice is my daily rice. For a while I found rosematta rice, which is a beautiful semi-polished rice from Kerala, difficult to find, and I heard that it was not being exported. But when I went shopping yesterday there was plenty so I guess it is being exported again.

Hmm, I don't know about this. Firstly it depends on the restaurant. If you're going to a fine dining establishment where the chef has spent hours designing a specific tasting course menu then I think the customer should be aware that subistitutions/alterations may well be impossible (unless perhaps you have arranged in advance with the restaurant). For smaller places that are cooking to order from a large menu, then I don't think it's always unreasonable for a customer to make a request, depending on what it is. If a customer comes in with a whole list of things they want changed about a dish, then it's up to the chef if they want to do that or not. But if someone orders a dish and then asks politely "is it possible to leave the bell peppers out of that?", and if it wouldn't actually be difficult to do so, then I would consider it rather churlish of the chef to refuse to. Of course, this is if the bell peppers were a small part of the dish, not a huge fundamental ingredient.

Chris, may I just say that I am always impressed with your lovely photos and the way that you make the effort to cook through a book AND share your thoughts online.

Poha, spinach and mint chutney and a cup of tea. What more could you want?!