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 :))

Fangavela Mag (Sprouted Mung Beans) Sprout green mung beans by soaking, straining and placing them in a muslin cloth inside a lidded box. I keep this in my oven overnight (oven not turned on) and usually find tiny sprouts in the morning. In a pressure pan, I do a little seasoning tadka of oil, ajwain seeds, methi seeds, hing, haldi, and salt. Add the sprouted mung. Stir and add water but to cover only half the height of the mung layer. Cook very briefly for one whistle. Open the cooker lid when cool, add crushed ginger and green chilies, a little black pepper or red chili powder. Serve with shredded coconut, minced cilantro leaves and a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Very filling as breakfast or a main dish in lunch. Its a great meal for my Sabji Days. I would probably have chaas or churned thin plain buttermilk in a glass, along with this. Anyone want to join me? Bhukhhad

Some days are Sabji Days for me and they work just like Salad Days would. A healthy meal that is essentially just a sabji! I would love to post my own recipes or recipes from cookbooks that I read from the library and make for myself. And I would love to see more from others here. Join me?

I love the 'play with your food' idea that you put frtu with the tossed papaya salad. Very nice

Thats what I did do! Will clearly set that aside without dressing. Yes its pretty popular everywhere, although I am not in Asia

My first attempt at Asian Papaya Salad It all began with a peeler. I found a nifty little gadget that peels papaya into thin long noodles! So of course I had to have it. Armed with my new kitchen tool, I bought a green papaya. Peeled and shredded I discovered a 'buy one get one free gift': as you shred from outside inwards, you can stop when you are at a cylinder surrounding the papaya seeds!! No need to scoop or mess with the seeds! For one medium papaya 2 cloves garlic 1 tomato 2 serrano chilies salt lemon juice splenda roasted peanuts without skins I coursely ground or pounded all the rest of the ingredients and added them to the shredded green papaya. I mixed and cooled the salad in the fridge. Here is my question: how do I make the papaya more crisp? It stayed somewhat limp. But delicious. Here is my picture.

Fellow EG'ans Its time to show me your salad. Whatever you are making today or a typical day. I am looking for salads in real life, and learning how to take and post photos along with eating healthy. Please give a name to each salad and a photo and recipe. Stories would be wonderful of course! Thats why I am here. Thanks all. Bhukhhad (which means someone who is Always Hungry:))