Bhukhhad

@TFTC Did I somehow say something wrong? I was left with the impression that I became idealistic. Please take my writing with a big pinch of salt mirchi and methi Bhukhhad

Liuzhou Hi there. I read your response but somehow I still have not managed to convey myself correctly. What I meant to say is that methi is a bitter seed and in indian pickles it had been added to the ' pickling spices' for that bitterness to offset the sour and salty. Thats primarily why it is used in mango pickle or here where I have used it for plums. But the 'pickling' part is the common denomenator along with the sourness. So I was surprised with the sentence saying it was good with fruit. In my mind I was thinking of other cultures where methi could be used with melons or strawberries or something else. Not having come across this myself, it was hard to imagine. This is why I asked 'methi with fruits'? Did I offend you somehow? It certainly was not my intent. I'm just having a discussion over methi. Please that there is interest. Bhukhhad

Methi with fruits? Sorry I did not quite understand. Methi is Fenugreek. Usually we add them as pickling spices and it is unusual to add them to fruit. I have put them here only to pickle the plums Bhukhhad

TFTC May I say something about your post? About the 'homemade' goods.... Have faith in the system dear friend, the system has been built on good principles and it will endure. That is my belief. And here is why I say this: I dont have any factual information about unlicensed vendors selling goods at ethnic stores. But dont deny that it could have been a possibility many years ago and may still be in a few stores. But by and large it will not be unlicensed or unfollowing of laws. The Indian community in the USA is not so new anymore, but the other immigrant communities like the Chinese and Italian among others are here since many many years. Healthcare laws and licensure laws apply to everyone. And there is security and vigilance around these laws. By now, all businesses abide by these rules, else the business itself will perish. Why do I say this? Because at some point I too had misgivings about buying products from ethnic stores and wondering if they were safe. But by and large established stores dont have produce that may be 'iffy', and healthcare regulations make certain that whoever prepares food items for sale is licensed and their facilities are checked. So I have not seen home cooked food vended in stores for a long time now. They are all branded, with addresses, expiry lables, and license numbers to their business. I agree Inwould not buy them otherwise. I do believe small businesses have begun to flourish and offer batches of batter, sprouts, peeled pomegranate seeds, packaged curry leaves etc and they have licenses for these and display healthcare permits. In my town too the Indian store has a daily vendor who comes in with packets of chapatti's, and trays of Samosa and Vada. But that vendor too has a license and his facility displays a valid health permit. Of course caution is always good sense. And I am probably preaching to the choir here so forgive me. I am just grateful to find a few people I can share my foodie ideas with. Many thanks Bhukhhad

Dosa here Dosa there Dosa everywhere! TFtC What an interesting discussion to be invited into. Thank you. I love dosa as well. And have plenty of my own to say on it. GRINDING: Traditionally, a stone mill that was turned by hand, was used to make the idli dosa batter. A Ragado like the video in one of the earlier posts was prized in every home and one day of the week was designated for this early morning grinding. It was time consuming, and laborious. But those very acts of sitting on the floor and grinding by hand brought all the necessary calorie burn that was needed to eat such carb laden glories! We had a meat grinder in our home, a hand cranked device that we used to partially grind the bulk of the rice and dal before employing a grinding stone. And our meat grinder had never seen meat, it was always a vegetarian grinder But the jump to an Osterizer Blender was a leap! And the oster machine was fine for making perfect dosa. Now we get Wet Grinders that mimic the stone grinder and make even smoother batter. The two brands I know are Ultra and Premier. Vitamix works as well. Very well. But there is another solution. And one that is being used in India as well: buy ready made batter! This is a godsent time saver. Check your indian store. Some of the brand names are Shasta, Ganesh, Kaveri. SIZE Just accept it: The restaurants have huge six burner sized flat griddles. And the paper dosa is made on that surface. Hence it is huge! At home we have a skillet. And we make Sada Dosa or plain dosa with or without fillings. SPREADING Dosa are made on a cast iron seasoned pan at home. The pan must be hot. Sprinkle some water onto the hot griddle and see each drop bubble up into a tiny ball. Thats the temperature you want. Put a ladleful of dosa batter on the surface and count to ten under your breath. Then with the back of the ladle cup gently swirl the batter from the center outwards. In a circular motion. The ladle must only skim the surface of the batter, never move the base of the batter. The dosa cooks with no oil needed. You may flip both sides. If you add a few drops of oil, it makes it easier on you. INGREDIENTS 1. Traditional: parboiled short grain rice (Ponni) and skinned Urad Dal ( Vigna mungo or Black gram) 4:1 2. Lighter Batter: 3:1 combination 3. Pesarratu: My version: Rice ( same) green mung beans with skin on 3:1 4. Adai: My version: three dals mung, urad, channa dal. Equal portions no rice. More later Bhukhhad

Plum Chutney The last of the fresh plums from my friend's yard. Turned into a flinger licking chutney. Ingredients: 1 lb plums or about 15 small plums 2 tspn salt 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/3 tspn hing 1 tspn mustard seeds 1 tspn whole methi seeds 2-4 tspn sugar 3 tspn red chili powder (mirchi) 1/4 cup oil De seed and chop plums into bite sized pieces. Discard the seed. In a pan heat the oil and sputter the methi and mustard. Just as they begin to sputter turn off the heat. Add hing and immediately add the plums. Add salt, haldi and red chili powder. Stir. Now turn the heat back on and cook the plums on a moderate flame till soft. The intent is to lose most of the moisture. But be careful not to overcook because the fresh plummy taste will disappear with over cooking. Cool. Store in a glass bottle in the refrigerator. Serve with chapatti, rice or spread on bread as a savory sandwich paste. I tried it as a chutney on slices of roasted chicken breast and it transformed the meal. Maybe I will try it on some dosa next! Yum yum Bhukhhad

@sartoric, this is a lovely sprouter. Does it have three layers and a lid? Then its even better than a cheesecloth.

I did thanks. I am waiting to see whatever is made. It will be fun to read. In the meanwhile I am enjoying other posts on this forum.

@Sartoric, am I expected to cook what I write here as an example menu?

Could one pick just a few ingredients from the list? Tell me if this is ok to try: 1. Nargisi Kofta with the pork fennel saussage filling inside. 2. Cauliflower and peas sabji 3. Roti or Naan 4. Rice optional or small salad Bhukhhad

Do you have to make ALL these items or just a couple of them? Sounds delicious!

Dear TftC Its an awesome article! You found it! I perfectly describes the brit bacon. And if it has juniper berries in the brine.....well they got that one right from the start! Bhukhhad

@Thanks for the crepes Now this is going to be a LOT of fun. Woman from India trying to explain to person from EGullet Forums about British Bacon Rashers.....We must find laughter in everything! That is a MUST So here goes: British Bacon Rasher is a bigger cut of meat, from the back to the abdomen. Also the curing has no SWEET it is only savory. Plus it is not smoke cured, but salt cured. Those who are raised on american bacon find it too salty. But then the scrambled eggs and tomatoes will not have salt so the entire dish will be salty enough. Anyway, it it deliciously salty. :). And having grown up vegetarian, I don't have a clue why I adore it so much. But I do. Go Figure. After extensive tasting and cognitive recall of long term memory comparisons, I have stopped trying to have american bacon any more. Sorry you pig lovers, I am saying something you won't like. But you have no clue about the taste of British Bacon Rashers. I will have to ask that person who said curing ones own was easy, but I don't even want to try. Its my little piece of joy. I am not changing it. Maybe once in five years is when I get a proper tuck of a good bacon egg and tomato breakfast. But thats good enough for me. And I am delighted that they sent me the link to order online. I am going to do it. hehehehe! What foodies we are...! Bhukhhad!

@Huiray I live in the USA, not in Asia.

Huiray, I like the way you said this: "(The aged, packaged-far-in-the-past stuff in sealed plastic packages in the "Organic" sections in standard Western supermarkets are too dreadful for words in most cases)".. Thanks for putting the link to your recipe. I will enjoy that. Please, if anyone has posted their recipes for soups like the broth and background tastes for Ramen, or the broth for Pho, or the broth for Bibimbap I am totally interested. I love that stuff. And am wanting to experiment with my food gadgets to make vegetable 'noodles' for those broths. And add the usual 'fixings' just more of the vegetables. That would fit my meal plan and so I will welcome those 'soup' recipes. Winter will be upon us before I have tried a few and then it will be heartwarming to serve those meals. Bhukhhad

@Thanks for the Crepes You echo the words of some other friends I know. It is very hard to switch completely to a meatless day leave alone diet. And for us not so strict vegetarians, it is all to easy to see how a dense protein like meat from a larger animal as in pork lamb beef makes you feel full for much much longer than that from a small fish or chicken. And how all those proteins keep you full far longer than vegetarian food does. Especially if you try to reduce carbs from Grains. For many years I feared the increase of cholesterol in my family and stopped eating and cooking all meat at home. But we were all stable on our numbers so it turned out that I had not been feeding everyone a high meat diet anyway. Those of us who did the exercise were able to get much healthier. So that was not the issue for our particular family. For other families I believe sticking to the basic format of your meal may help to have more vegetables and slowly increase to lesser portions of meat. But I cant see a flip change as fast as the nutritionists seem to recommend. But again thats a opinion. certainly incorporating more variety of and of cooked vegetables seems to be as necessary in a western diet as reducing roti naan and rice is in the asian diet.

@sartoric, No I would like the topic and method to stay the same. It is good to see several versions of the same ingredients. Plus pictures of actual home cooked meals. All those things are appealing as they are.

I understand what you are saying. Well the same for the seeds of the cilantro plant are coriander that is true. However I was referring to a comment by one of the readers on that post, who said Coriander was not mentioned in the Joy of Cooking list. To that my comment was that Garam Masala does not have Coriander, that is the main ingredient in Dhaniy jeera powder being the Dhaniya in that duo.

I like this topic! Whats next? Please keep posting. I am trying to pick up the nerve to cook non-indian. Especially fish chicken. But there is one uncanny unexplained love that I have to admit I have, and cannot find the essential ingredient for. It is British Bacon Rashers. My love since childhood that no one other than fellow marmite lovers can understand. For the life of me I cant find a decent rasher in thw united states of a! Even though some places carry british bangers. Even Heinz baked beans in cans andSchwepps Lemon Barley Squash:)) can anyone tell me where to find British Bacon Rashers in northern california? Bhukhhad

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad I have found a love for Butternut Squash that I never knew of in my childhood. In India we had pumpkins (Kaddoo, Bhoplya, Lal Kolu or Bhuru Kolu) but never Butternut Squash. Not Acorn Squash either. And we had not even heard of spaghetti in my 'salad years' let alone Spaghetti Squash. So all these were new. Mind you we had heard of Squash.... Orange squash, lemon squash, lemon barley.... You get the point. But most of my family cared little for the sweet pumpkin recipes from traditional cuisine. Once a year we had some of these dishes at a festival and aince I love all vegetables, I did have whatever was cooked. But if I was asked to order my meal, I dont see myself ordering Kadoo or Bhoplya! All that changed over the course of time once I came to live in the USA. But even more recently, when I discovered the cookbooks by this wonderful chef called Yotam Ottolenghi! I discovered a butternut squash recipe there which was roasted in the oven! I usually only bake in the oven. But because of this one increadibky tasty recipe of roasted butternut squash topped with tahini and yogurt and lemon segments and finely diced jalapeno I fell completely in love with roasted squash. So much so that I now grow butternut squash from seed in a planter! And harvest it and eat it. I also roast lots of vegetables not just eggplant. And have discovered a new joy. So here is my picture of Roasted butternut squash sabji with Kasoori Methi Ingredients: 1 medium sized butternut squash peeled, cored, diced into even pieces. 1/3 cup peanut or sesame oil (not toasted sesame oil). 2 tbspn Kasoori Methi (dry fenugreek leaves) or less per taste 2 teaspoons Dhaniya Jeera Powder 1 teaspoon medium heat red chili powder salt to taste serrano peppers to taste turmeric powder 1/4 teaspoon 2 tablespoons brown sugar (optional) slices of lemon and lemon juice to taste Method: In a 350F oven add the diced squash pieces and all the other ingredients. Mix thoroughly and roast for about 30 to 40 minutes. Squash can even be eaten raw so the idea here is to merely soften not cook till mushy. Additionally the roasting process brings out caramelized flavors from the squash that are fascinating. Alternately, the addition of sliced red onions from the beginning will bring even better taste. I had made this for someone who did not eat onions. Fantastic no stovetop time dish! Serve alone as a salad-sabji! Or with chapatti. I actually made a peas pulav/pilaf with this and had it with yogurt. I know grain right? I am not very disciplined about controlling what I eat once I start.... There is such good food around!! Anyway, enjoy this Salad Sabji Bhukhhad

TicTac I believe you get some 'sprout makers' in some market. I just dont know much about them. That could be an option. Another is to not sprout but keep the mung beans just soaked for two hours in water. You could buy just our regular store bought sprouts and add a cupful at the end of cooking and fold them in with the mung beans. Mung beans soaked overnight can cook in the microwave or stovetop. Experiment because I dont have exact answers. I take sprouted mung, 2 cups, add 3/4 cup water and microwave for ten mins. Most of the time, they get cooked. Otherwise my stovetop recipe is also an option. Thanks Bhukhhad

Yes this is correct! You add the garam masala as a 'finishing spice' rather than at the time of sauteing. This preserves their taste in the dish as the end note

Thanks folks for liking this recipe

Dear 'Thanks for the Crepes', How nice to read your response! Well here is my take on your question: I believe the 'Joy of cooking ' recipe is fine and can be tweeked further by individual taste. For example with the addition of all the fresh spices mentioned ginger garlic onion green chilies curry leaves, some adjust ment to their amounts and the addition of red chili powder, or asafoetida would add to the taste. Or as cumin, mustard and nigella or kalonji have been added, an addition of fenugreek seeds and fennel seeds would make the blend a 'panch foran' or five spice blend from east India. But the main thing that stands out for me in the 'twice fried' aspect. Starting with oil and tempering with oil again. This is unnecessary. If you begin with presoaked chana dal that you cook separately in water either using a pressure cooker, stove or microwave, you can add the tadka with all the ingredients and simmer the dal for five minutes! Only one set of oil will allow All the spices to get fried one after another. Finally the garam masala blend. I will have to try it I cant tell just with these quantities. But the comment about adding coriander is incorrect. Garam masala is only warming spices like cloves, cinnamon, large cardamom plus small green cardamom, star anise, mace, black peppercorn, and other things. While Dhaniya Jeera powder has cardamom and cumin roasted and powdered!! But overall, the recipe would be tasty! It needs Lemon Juice though! And fresh cilantro to garnish. I am very sorry if Joy of Cooking is your much loved book. There is no need to tweek the recipe if you and your family like it this way! Enjoy!

Kitchen King Masala Hello everyone, This is an old thread, but I dont see any big responses so I feel like jumping in! Bigwigs on this forum, you are all indeed very kind that you allow newbies to opine on topics touched by people who know lots on these issues.... Be that as it may, here I go with no reference materials researched, just my opinion and traditional information: There was a time when 'masala' meant a very particular spice blend that was unique to Each Individual Dish and specific to Each Individual Family Kitchen! There would be ways to cook that were passed down from Grandmother to Daughter and Daughter-in-law so that this blend remained a secret. At that time, only the whole dry spices and the raw perishable produce like ginger and chilies were used. You would store the dry who ingredients and buy the fresh perishable ones for every dish!! Then with the progress of urbanization, pre-made spice mixes became prevalent. These were not available in my childhood, or if they were, most Mom's would frown that they were stale... and so I had not seen them. Anyway the combinations available at that time would be Dhania Jeera powder, Sambhar Masala, Rasam Masala, Pudi Chutney among very few. Around mid 1980's I started noticing varieties of masalas coming into the market in the Indian stores based in the USA, or UK. These were Lonche or Pickle masala, Pathak's bottled pastes for Vindaloo, Korma, Jalfraizi; and Chhole Masala among others. At the same time some powdered ingredients like Amchoor powder, Kasoori Methi, Lukhnavi Saunf, Ahmed Pickles, Pachranga Tinned Punjabi pickles, Panchphoran etc started to be seen. It was awesome to find them in stores and have your tastebuds tickled back into childhood memories. This trend caught on like fire. By mid 1990's we had multiple brands making multiple products with the Same Names! So Shaan made Chhole Masala, MTR made Chhole Masala, Everest Made Chhole Masala. If you were as much of a nut as I am, you would of course buy all three to see if they were different. And YES they were!!! Essentially, each masala still worked best for the geographic region it was originally catered for. So MTR's Chhole Masala had a larger amount of coriander powder than the others. Everest had a larger amount of Amchoor than the rest. Shaan used to have far more anardana than the others and I preferred it for my chhole. Again, I would really have liked to document these correctly and reference what I am saying with facts. But at this point I have no way of going back and giving factual references or pictures. So these are the memories off of my palatte. Now to answer the Kitchen King Masala question. I do believe that a few of the larger masala giants like Everest made a really smart move in the late 1990's. They introduced a 'Master Blend' of sorts that had most of what spice mixtures needed and could be used interchangeably. Thus was born the Kitchen King. I like and prefer the Everest brand of Kitchen King Masala. What it has for me is one or two little touches that I would add to my own set of spices. That touch of a couple of special ingredients makes my dish have the 'aha' experience that I am looking for. Everest has in it, besides coriander, cumin, turmeric, red chili powder, some garam masala spices, is some Black Salt and Amchoor. That briney tasting salt which has a tangy taste. I love the added sourness of amchoor powder. So this is my go-to masala for most tawa fry sabji, or a quick stirfry or a quick chhole even. However if I want to make particular gujarati or maharashtrian dishes I would not use this spice. It is more of a north indian master mix, so I could use it on a tadka daal, or quick pulav biryani, or rajma, even a simple aloo mutter. Since the famous egulleteers only wrote on this topic back in 2004, I am sure they must have passed along tons of information through their own food writings by now. But I am so happy to have added my understanding to the grand scheme of things here! I would like to take up this topic to research and rewrite with references. That would be a lot of fun and great to learn about. Do write back. It makes me feel so good that someone took the time to read and respond, whenever I get a reply. Sincerely Bhukhhad (Always hungry :))