Suvir Saran

And it's much more difficult than it sounds! It is second nature to most of us Indians. It seems easy. But I think after maybe a night or two of dining with an Indian, it is something one can easily pick up. No brain science to it.

Words of a wise man!

Just finished: Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin (Finished day before yesterday. Had me in tears. One of the best novels I have ever read) Not sure when I will read another book that will make me churn as much in deep thought. Currently Reading: Founding Brothers- Joseph J. Eellis We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families - Philip Gourevitch Truth, love & a little Malice - Khushwant Singh Ol'Strom - Bass and Thompson Too Many Men - Lily Brett 9-11 - Noam Chomsky The Sikhs - Patwant Singh Let us eat cake - Sharon Boorstin Personal History - Katherine Graham Learning To Cook - Marion Cunningham The Fourth Estate - Shulamith Shahar I always have at least 10 books I read at the same time. It keeps my interest going and also keeps me informed about more than just one way of thinking. Some think I am a fool for keeping so many books open at the same time... But that is how I am. I read a lot and sleep little. Books are my companions for the most part of my life.

It is indeed a very good site. I have been visiting that site for some years now. This man know a lot about spices.

There should be minimal sauce when making the Bengali preparation for Dam Aloo. In the Lucknow preparation there is enough sauce for the potatoes to be surrounded in a pool of a thick sauce. Restaurants serve much too much sauce with Dam Aloo. That is not how they are served in homes.

Interesting that you bring this up. It takes me to situations where I have had friends visiting from India over for dinner with friends of mine that live here. It is always interesting for me to look at the faces of my Indian friends as t hey see my American friends eat breads. They have a look of horror. In India there is an understood etiquette about how to eat bread. It is not something we are trained in school, but it comes to us as naturally as eating with chopsticks would be for a Chinese. Breads are prepared for two purposes, one to further enrich a meal and menu and secondly to give the diner a vehicle to use in their enjoyment of food. Indians break the chapatis (flat bread) into small pieces (called tukra, gussa, gilori in hindi) that are often no more than an inch or an inch and a half in size. These are then shaped with the fingers of the right hand into cones that lift the sauce, meats, veggies and condiments either separately or together and are then savored in one bite. This makes the art of eating with ones hand both attractive and practical. What is most important to me is that it also keeps your bread intake at a minimum and so one can enjoy a meal that is not overwhelmed by breads and yet has the added complexity given by the addition of breads. Personally, I am not one to eat too much bread. I find myself too full after having eaten too much bread. It is for that reason that many non-Indians find themselves over stuffed after an Indian meal.

Where do you get these favorites? Do you ever make them at home? What makes a certain tandoori better than another? And the same for Tikka, please.

What recipes have you tried?

You could check this Calf liver thread for more ideas

Dahi Wali Kalejee (Yogurt flavored livers) 1 pound chicken livers Marinade: 2 tablespoons ghee 6 small cloves of garlic, ground into a paste with 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds 2 tablespoons finely minced cilantro leaves 1 jalapeno, minced finely 1 teaspoon freshly ground black peppercorn 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/4 teaspoon mace Heat oven to 350?F. Mix all the ingredients for the marinade in a baking dish. Add the livers into the marinade and set aside for 30 minutes. Place the dish in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the livers are cooked. Baste a couple of times during the duration.

Yes it is. Never done it for radishes, but, makes perfect sense! Will apply this idea Sunday, I think, if this sudden coming-over-with-near-certitude that I'll be serving radishes Sunday can be given credence. I make a sambhaar in which I do the radishes this way. Sambhaar is a spicy South Indian lentil preparation. More like a stew. It is the sauce that is served alongside Dosas in Indian restaurants. If you need a recipe, let me know and I can PM it to you.

mmm..ginger.... *yum* but can you consider it a spice? I'm figuring you mean fresh ginger, grated on order? It is usually considered a aromatic rhizome that is used as a spice. But many experts simply consider it a spice. Certainly as a powder it is a spice. Ginger is ethereal in how many possibilities it can be used for. Also it adds so much to each dish it touches and yet it distracts very little from what the dish is meant to be.

No apologies necessary!

I do the same.... with red potatoes and also baby red radish. It is more aesthetic than anything else.

Canola it is.

I am with you on this one Wilfrid... I have found cumin over used and so badly used that once my favorite spice, now I tend to shy away from it.

I haven't used as much cumin as you should. I'm making a pork roast tomorrow for dinner, how much would you suggest for a rub? Very Little! Whilst cumin is very popular around the globe... It is also the one spice that can ruin the subtlety of any aromatic dish when not dealt with correctly. Cumin makes a curry powder bad... Cumin can make it good. Cumin can make Indian food bad... Cumin can make it good. So the trick is to use very little. Most often it should be flashed with some heat.. that brings out the inert flavor which is very savory and very tasty. Raw cumin has been used in many cuisines mentioned above. And that is what can be very un-appealing to many a palate. Toasted cumin on the other hand is another world. No amount of toasted cumin (ground of course) can ever be enough in certain dishes.

So what is your favorite spice?

Wilfrid, Like you I pre-fry my fries. I too find the parboiled ones just a little tedious to work around. They seem to break easily and need more attention that pre-fried ones.

I must agree with you. I find that a very soothing experience. I seldom if ever leave the skins on. This is one recipe where I like it. In India we had potatoes growing in the vegetable patch. Chemical free and so my mother would ask Panditji to make as many recipes with the peel on as possible. They were always on top of adding more roughage and nutrients to food. Though I think the nutrients would be killed by the time the taters and crunchy and crisp.

Sookhi Bhunwa Kaleji 2 lbs. Liver, cleaned and cut into 1 inch cubes 2 large red onions, sliced 6 medium sized garlic cloves, ground into paste using 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds 2 inch piece ginger, very finely minced 1 scant tablespoon Indian poppy seeds, ground finely 1 teaspoon coriander seed powder 1 teaspoon garam masala 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder 2 large very ripe beefsteak tomatoes, finely chopped 2 cups yogurt, nicely whisked 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste 1/2 cup ghee or canola In a karahi (Indian wok) pour the ghee and fry the onions till golden brown, stirring often. This should take no more than 20 minutes. Add the salt to the onions, as this will make them brown faster. When brown, remove onions with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. When cool, blend the onions into a paste. In the wok, you will have some ghee left, to that add the ginger, garlic, poppy seed powder, coriander powder, garam masala and cayenne. Sautee for 2 minutes or until the raw flavor of the garlic is gone. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook till the lose their form and become like a paste. Add the liver and the ground onions at this time. Cook on a very low flame for 10 minutes. Add the yogurt a tablespoon at a time to ensure it does not curdle. The sauce will first get a little runnier and then as you cook it will again get thick. Cook until all excess moisture has evaporated and you have a thick sauce coating the livers. The sauce will be quite dry.

Do you think I am doing just that by cooking the potatoes at a very high flam for the first 3-5 minutes. This cooks the outside very quickly. As I do the first 3-5 minutes of cooking, I have the flame on full and I cover the pan with a lid. I shake the skillet a few times, while still covered... and then open to check if the taters are cooked on the outside. Then I turn the heat to low and cook till perfectly crisp and golden. It seems to have worked for years. I did that knowing about how it is important to cook th outside starch while making French Fries. They just happen to be my all time favorite food and I may not be the best French Fry chef but do make them better than most any Frite Shop in NYC. My friend Ed Schoenfeld and I are always having French Fry bake offs... I think we both make ours very well... we do that only so we can have an evening of just fries. Literally all we serve to friends are fries that night.. and tons of them. And just so perfect that no one craves anything else at all. Could you think that cooking the taters as I described above could do the same thing without having to parboil? I do both ways... it is just simpler to not have to. And as I said in the last post, no one I know.. professional chefs or even hungry and seasoned foodies, will ever be able to tell the difference.

Would you like a recipe? It is easy to prepare. It really is.

I had some foodie friends over for dinner last night. I wanted to be naughty and was reflecting on this thread. I made two skillets of fried taters, corn bread, frittata and sautéed peas for dinner. The reason I made two skillets of the potatoes was to see if any of the "consummate and talented and well traveled foodies" would be able to tell me which skillet was made with parboiled potatoes and which with raw. None could. I had timed the cooking such that both skillets had the same browning of the skin. Same ingredients and same amount of potatoes and salt. For I knew which skillet I had used for the raw potato method, I was able to find a difference. Very slight though. I found the raw ones crispier and less starchy. More to my taste. But it really was a very slight difference. Maybe I would have never known it if I was not aware of what I had done. My knowledge may have colored my understanding. Personally I find using raw and cooking at high heat first and then at very low heat till the taters are done a more convenient way of cooking this recipe. I am happy not having the extra step of boiling first. Grandma Hayes used large potatoes and cut them in halves. These halves were still very big... and so I can well imagine that cooking taters like she cut them would be a problem without having them parboiled. But cooking them as I do, halves of regular red potatoes seems to be a non-issue.

Wifrid I did what you do to make my rosemary roast potatoes. I also use Le Creuset skillets. The weight works perfectly and I actually enjoy using them. I oftn also make the baby red with their skins on. Have you tried that? Is that too peasant of me to not remove skins all the time? But in India we do either par boiled or raw depending on recipe and region. I was not sure what the tradition is here. It seems like for making the traditional fried taters like the ones made for me by Grandma Hayes one definitely needs to boil them.