torakris

Most of my Indian cooking comes from books (I had Indian food for the first time at age 25!) I have taken two classes though, one just last week. These are my observations from the other people who attended the class who had never really prepared it before. They need to to start off slow and simple, don't assume they know anything, most of them probably think everything is seasoned with curry powder! The first couple dishes should use as few spices as possible and explain, talk about the spices, where they come from how they are used, etc to make the people more familiar with them. New spices can be scary. DO NOT use spices that are difficult to attain, my last class the instructor used black cardamon, which I have never been able to locate in Japan, when I asked him about his source he says he brings it back with him when he returns to Indian, how are we to replicate the dish? He also used kasuri methi (which I started a thread about) and I agree it is a good spice to know, but should have come in a later class. The students don't want to go out and spend a fortune on stocking a spice cabinet that are not sure they will use too much of. Cook a complete meal for each lesson, a rice or bread, a main dish or two, a relish, chutney or salad, a dessert or drink. This is easier fort eh students to prepare at home they can just repeat the entire menu instead of searching for something to go with a single dish. Have them do as much hands on as possible, at my class we watched the instructor prepare the dishes then we all went to our stations (in groups of 3) and prepared them while the instructor walked around helping. Actually preparing rather then just watching can make a big difference in them trying it again at home. Try to make at least on or two of the dishes something they maybe familiar with, something commonly on Indian restaurant menus, familiarity always works well well you are new to cooking a different cuisine. 3 hours is usually a good amount of time, including making it, eatingit, and cleaning up (if necessary)

Thanks! What are some of the other dishes you prepare using Curry Powder? What brand do you use? What books do you use for Indian cooking? I prety much listed most of the dishes I use a curry powder for others would be a Japanese dish called dry curry (dorai kare) which is a sauceless curry that consists of ground meat and niced vegetables, I have also used it to season the veggies I stuff into a samosa I am currently using Penzey's mild curry powder and i really like the flavor of it. As to books, Almost everything I have is Madhur Jaffrey and the recipe I have gotten from you Suvir!

breakfast yet another day iced coffee and a dorayaki, this is sort of like a Japanese pancake and the one I ahve today is filled with a mixture of red bean and fresh cream with a couple of chestnuts thrown in.

Hate to follow all of these delicious meals Thursday: meatlof (Cook's Illustrated) spicy coleslaw (How to cook Everything) smoked salmon, arugula and red onion dressed with EVOO and lemon dessert: matcha ice cream I had a different menu planned but my MIL came over with 2Kgs of meat and a head of cabbage and requested "my" meatloaf and coleslaw, I got to keep half of it.

here is gyukaku Japan menu all in Japanese: http://www.gyukaku.ne.jp/ to look at the menu you need to click on the second of the 5 words at the top of the page it says menu no goshokai (ƒƒjƒ…‚Ì‚²Ð‰îjA there are 3 pages, to get to the next page you need to click on the cow holding the glass at the bottom right side. It is definitely worth a visti, I see they have on in L.A. too. I recommend the P. toro, wonderful stuff! I don't care for their salads here but they may be better in the US, the kimchi is quite good though.

skchai, great information!! Gyukaku is probably the biggest yakiniku chain in Japan, there are 4 of them within a 15 minute from my house!! I actually go quite often as the price is quite good for yakiniku. The Hawaiian menu is quite different, most of my favorite dishes are not even on it. So can it now be called Americanized Japanese Korean BBQ?

What are some of your favorite otsumami to eat when you are drinking sake or beer?

word for 5/23: おつまみ otsumami (oh-tsoo-mah-mee) these are the normally spicy and/or salty foods served with alcohol. In Japan an order of alcohol will usually be served with a small dish of something to enjoy with it. Popular dishes are edamame, (green soy beans), ikonoshiokara (squid in its own fermented guts), a kinpira of some sort (a stirfy seasoned with sesame oil, soy, and togarashi-chile pepper), or some other house speciality. Supermarkets usually have a large section of packaged otsumami for eating in the home including dried squid or fishes, mixes of nuts, seeds, cheese and salami sticks, cheese stuffed fish sausages, etc. Sometimes otsumami will be referred to as sake no sakana (sake's fish) or just sakana, though it may of may not be a fish product nowadays. the otsumami thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=19&t=21446

Teriyaki Sauce 2/3 c soy 2/3 c sake 2/3 c mirin 1 T of sugar Mix everything together. I make a huge batch and keep it in the refrigerator for quite a while so I don't add anything else, this way also I can doctor it up a bit depending on my feeling. Some ginger, some scallion, some garlic, some pineapple, or a little of everything. It is a great base sauce and great on its own. Keywords: Sauce, Japanese ( RG516 )

grilled beef tongue...........yummmm! sprinkled with salt and a squeeze of lemon........

there was some discussion of escolar here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...5963&hl=escolar

Eh? Whazzit? Yokohama kiyoken shumai: http://www.kiyoken.com/f_m02_sium.html probably the most famous meibutsu (famous local food) of Yokohama, they are everywhere and very good!

I like to spread it on thin slices of baguette.

OK I am not an Indian chef, but before I started cooking Indian food , I like most Americans, thought it was all based on curry powder. Imagine my surprise when I bought a couple of Indian cookbooks and found not a single recipe using curry powder. I still have it in the house and I do use it, but not in Indian cooking, usually Indian-inspired dishes that a based on the curry powder flavor. Noodle dishes, a quick chicken wing marinade of curry powder, yogurt, lemon juice and salt and pepper (the Japanese really like this flavor), and quick "curry" I got off of epicurious with curry powder, coconut milk, chickpeas, potatoes and spinach. Great thread Suvir! You may open a lot of eyes!

breakfast again, today a bowl of muesli and an iced coffee I am also a nutella freak, Once I was making these chocolate ganache filled pastry type cookies and I realized too late that I had no cream in the house, so I filled them with nutella, then I rolled them in crushed hazelnuts instead of almonds, wonderful!

Weds dinner: mapo-dofu shu-mai (the "famous" Yokohama shumai, a gift from my husband's co-worker) tomato slices Japanese rice dessert: leftover cookies from the day before

Here are some really yummy flavors: http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/food.html just under the square watermelons

word for 5/22: 海草　かいそう kaisou (kah-ee-soe) seaweed or sea vegetables The characters for this word 海 which is pronounced umi means ocean, and　草 which is pronounced kusa means grass or small plants. this covers everything from nori to wakame to hijiki to arame and many others. 海草サラダ　(kaisou sarada) Kaisou or seaweed salad is a very popular in restaurants as well as homes, packets are sold in the supermarkets containing a variety of sea plants that just need to be reconstituted in water and a dressing (usually included) added. the kaisou thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=19&t=18733&

I don't really care for the mayo based sushi, but then I really don't like mayo to begin with. I have only had the spicy tuna roll once (at a Korean run sushi place in the US) and I quite enjoyed it. I know most sushi/sashimi by their Japanese names, so I am not sure of all of the English fish names you mentioned, but I eat sardines (iwashi) when it is in season and is is very good, it is almost always served with a dollop of ginger to cut the fishy-ness. I don't believe I have seen cod (tara) sushi before. My husband and I went to a kaiten sushi restaurant this weekend (in the new Roppongi Hills complex) and though all of the sushi was great my favorites were the ama-ebi (the biggest ones I had ever eaten), hotate (scallops, unbelievably sweet, but in a good way), kani-miso (crab brains) and the foie gras (seared, placed on the rice , then topped with a slice of cherry tomato and a topping of caviar).

Add 2 more for me! I really have to stop this!

Tuesday dinner: swordfish rubbed with cumin, coriander, salt and pepper cooked on the griddle pan and served with onion-tomato-mint relish Indian cheese (paneer--homemade! ) and tomato curry corn sauteed with ginger and cumin seeds leftover 3 bean salad Japanese rice dessert: cookies (a gift- not homemade) I sort of messed up the curry, at the end you are supposed to add 300cc of milk (a little over a cup) and I didn't want to pull out the measuring cup, so I figured I can judge about 300cc. For some reason I had it in my mind that 300cc was about 2/3 of 1,000ml (a quart) container of milk, so i was just pouring it in and by the time I had poured in half the container, I knew that it was too much. It ended up being too soupy and the flavor was diluted.

Cash flow. Extra calories. It makes me vomit not just wine, any sort of alcohol I can't even touch alcohol laced desserts

It is my humble opinion, but i think that the koreans have perfected the art of cooking (or not cooking!) beef. They have of course given us yuke, but what are some of your favorite Korean beef dishes? For those unfamiliar with yuke: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...t=18921&hl=yuke

word for 5/21: シーフード　（しーふーど） shifudo (shee-ee-foo-oo-doe) seafood This of course is from the English, there doesn't really seem to be a Japanese word to cover the group of non-fish water dwelling creatures. The word seafood (shifudo) is is common usage today. They can be broken into groups such as: 貝　かい　kai --shellfish かに kani ---crab えび ebi---- shrimp いか ika--- squid

The Japanese do do some good things with beef! Gyu-tataki--seared close to raw beef, sliced or cubed usually topped with some kind of ponzu and maybe some grated daikon and slivered onions sukiyaki--a wonderful dish of sweet and salty beef and vegetables shabu shabu barely cooked beef dipped in a variety of dressing, oh yeah and there are usually vegtables too. then there is kobe steak that tastes good no matter how it is cooked (as long as it is done right!) I have also had gyu-tataki sushi before that was quite good.