Suvir Saran

Some information on Fenugreek

Stuffed Deep Fried Papad is an "ancient Indian" recipe. But I have never had it stuffed with prawn. How exciting! Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe. I will try it, and if it can be made with ease by most home chefs, I would love to borrow it from you (only if you agree) and give credit to you and see if I can add it to my cookbook. I was doing a few recipes with Stuffed papad, but this seems wonderful. There is nothing objectionable about it, in fact, when things are "deep fried" and made with Papad, you are certain to please and charm most any Indian. We love papad, we love stuffed foods and we love deep fried. At least a large number of us. Thanks for sharing this with us.

I share the recipe above to show you how easy it is to make something authentic and yet tasty and attractive. If you test the recipe I have posted above, you will find it does not compromise at all in flavor or looks, and yet is easy, light in oil, and without artificial coloring. It is one of many examples you can find in home cooking, where chefs would never use artificial additives of any kind in their cooking.

TANDOORI ROAST CORNISH GAME HENS Serves 4 For the best flavor, the hens should be marinated overnight, but in a pinch, marinate 4 hours. Line the roasting pan with aluminum foil for easy clean-up. 2 Cornish game hens 1 tablespoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon turmeric Juice of 1 lemon MARINADE 1 small onion 4 garlic cloves 2 inches peeled, fresh ginger 1 teaspoon ground, toasted cumin 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/2 teaspoon paprika Pinch ground cloves Pinch ground cinnamon Pinch garam masala 1/3 cup yogurt 3 tablespoons tomato paste 1 teaspoon canola oil 2 tablespoons canola oil Lemon wedges, for serving 1. Pull and cut the skin off the hens. Make several deep slashes in the breasts and thighs. 2. Mix the paprika, salt, turmeric and lemon juice together in a bowl. Rub the mixture over the hens and then massage the birds with the spices for about 1 minute to ensure that the spices are rubbed in nicely. Set aside, covered for half an hour. 3. Meanwhile, put all the marinade ingredients in a blender and process on low speed until smooth. 4. Toss the hens in the marinade until coated. Place in a zip loc bag and marinade in the refrigerator overnight or for up to 2 days. 5. Bring the hens to room temperature by placing outside the refrigerator for an hour before ready to cook. 6. Preheat the oven to 500?F. Add the 2 tablespoons oil to the bowl with the hens and stir with a rubber spatula to coat. Remove hens from marinade with whatever marinade sticks to them. Put them on a rack in a roasting pan and roast 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand 5 minutes. Cut in half and serve with lemon wedges.

I hope no one has problems with foods getting a color with the brilliant use of spices and herbs. That is but one role of spices and it is the mastering of these ingredients for such subtle uses, that can differentiate a good chef from a great chef. Many spices would not impart color unless treated for that property. Then in India we have even mastered the art of cooking with spices that would have color, but bleaching these spices in the sun till they become white, and then using them for sauces where one cannot afford using dark spices. A highly reduced tomato sauce is often used when a rich red color is needed. Kashmiri Mirch, a chile powder that is close to paprika, and has little heat, is used in dishes where you need red coloring. A perfect spice to use for Tandoori Chicken. Turmeric is a quick and easy way of getting a dish to be yellow. The other ways are to use tomtoes and yogurt together. Salmon color can be achieved by using a reduced tomato sauce with cream or milk. An orange color can be afforded by the use of lots of saffron. A yellow with the use of saffron and yogurt or cream. Green with the use of spinach, mint, cilantro, mustard or dill. In the chicken curry thread, I believe I shared my recipe for a basic Tandoori Chicken, in fact I used cornish hens, if anyone tries that recipe, you will find it brilliant in taste and color without any artificial ingredient whatsoever.

Vivin, Like you, that awful RED tandoori chicken puts me off. It is ghastly. And so many people, millions in the US and certainly around the western world think of Tandoori chicken as being that very color. Recently a very famous American Cookbook Writer, who has written books worshipped as Bibles, showed me their version of Tandoori Chicken that they had also published in one of their many cookbooks. It was a bright red cooked chicken. They garnished the place with rose petals. It was hideous to me. The recipe was correct; the coloring was what got me all sad. Your father’s restaurant has always been my benchmark for food at its very basic level. I hope I am not offending you or him or his genius by calling his restaurant and its fare basic. But at your father’s restaurant, they always served good food, in a decent setting and with decent service. They never were the highest end restaurant, but always counted as one of the few with consistently good food. It is that which has always stuck with me. And I miss his restaurants very often. I cannot help but see my mind compare the finer restaurants in NYC to the very basic one you father had in New Delhi. There is no comparison. The restaurants here that have even been rated with stars give far worse food. And above all, if a restaurant serves me red tandoori chicken, which most do in the US, I find it quite offensive, and I know immediately that someone in the management or even in the kitchen, cares little about their art. It saddens me.

Adam, Thanks for bringing these to our attention. I have never used one. Always been very curious. I too would like to know from the gang here if they have any experience with them.

Wow! That happens to you as well? It happens all the time. I have friends bring friends of theirs that "LOVE Curry" and so, after they eat the meal, I can see from their faces that they are somewhat disappointed. I usually make a point of asking them why they look so. Invariably they tell me how the food they have eaten that night is so different from the Curries they know. Their ignorance makes them associate restaurant cooking as being the more authentic and better version. I simply do not waste my time trying to argue. I smile inside me and learn more about what I should never do. But I do feel change is happening. As more Americans and Brits and more people around the world are exposed to the more subtle, refined and light cooking from the homes, they will have a far greater respect and understanding of a cuisine that is as old as time and yet as contemporary as today (borrowing from Simon Majumdar, I could not have expressed it better). The magic of Indian home cooking for me is its ability to excite all of ones senses. And without ever compromising even one.

Onion Bhaji (especially the Bengali version called Piyazi) is one of my favorite snack dishes. One rarely finds a restaurant that makes it correctly. Those cricket ball sized bhajis are wrong. No idea where they came up with these. Sheer laziness I guess. Kormas for the most part are meant to be pale white. When saffron is added they take a very pale yellow color. Golden Yellow Korma? I have never seen them in traditional and fine cooking. Biryaani with egg is prepared in certain Moslem homes. But the eggs are layered into the rice and not served as a garnish. And cucumbers would be added to a salad of onions, tomatoes, mint and cucumber. This salad would be served on the side. Where did these silly ideas come from? They are wrong. I am puzzled by garnishes which have no relationship to a dish and add nothing to it.

Many Indian restaurants in NYC are using scallions for the most part to make mint or cilantro chutney. Scallions are much cheaper. The use of scallions makes for a lower food cost. But since scallions will not give the intense green color to the chutney, they now add green coloring. You can do an easy test for this by putting a drop of the chutney into yogurt, you will see that very quickly the dye will make the yogurt go green. With natural chutneys, one would have to mix before that change takes place. The same is being done with Tamarind Chutney, for some reason, the restaurant chefs and owners have decided that a brown sauce is not as appealing as a cherry tinted brown sauce So, in the tamarind chutney, they are adding red coloring. Again, when you put it yogurt, it will make it pink. Some chefs are adding coloring to sauces.

Never had it. Thanks for sharing its recipe.

The food coloring addition comes from where? I wish I knew. It is not Indian and not traditional. I think most cookbook writers and chefs have started adding these to their recipes without any thought. I am quite certain in their own homes they never add these colors or dyes. But they have begun to accept the addition without any questioning. I think it is habitual for a food writer to simply accept what has been done in the past many books and use some basic "accepted" guidelines. When I began testing certain recipes that I knew had artificial colors in their restaurant versions, I opened up a few books that I respect. Unfortunately, these books had added the coloring. I chose to break the norm in my cookbook. And I hope it will set a precedent for going back to the old days.

Tandoori Fish 3 to 3.5 pounds whole Pomfret, or any fish steak of your choice 1/2 cup yogurt, hung to drain whey 3 tablespoons heavy cream 1 tablespoon ginger paste 1 tablespoon garlic paste 1 tablespoon besan (chickpea flour) 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper powder 1/2 teaspoon cayenne 2 teaspoons cumin powder 1 teaspoon tumeric 2 tablespoons lemon juice salt to taste Oil or melted butter to brush with 1. Preheat oven to 350?F. 2. Clean fish and make deep cuts on both sides. 3. Mix hung yogurt with all ingredients other than the oil. Mix well to ensure no lumps remain in the marinade. 4. Cover the fish in this marinade making sure it has a nice layer all ocer. Set aside for at least 2 hours. 4-6 hours is preferable. 5. Cook in tandoor for close to 5 minutes or in the oven for 10 minutes. 6. Remove from oven, hang skewers in a platter, so as to let themoisture drip. Let the fish cool and rest for 15minutes. Baste the cool fish with the oil or butter and cook for another 5 minutes. 7. Serve hot with yogurt-mint chutney.

Tandoori Prawns 12 Jumbo Shrimps 1/2 cup lemon juice 3 tablespoons ginger paste 3 tablespoons garlic paste salt to taste 3 tablespoons chickpea flour 1 teaspoon carom seeds 1 teaspoon white pepper powder 1 teaspoon garam masala 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 2 cups yogurt 3 tablespoons melted butter 1 teaspoon chaat masala 1 lemon 1. Preheat oven to 350?F. 2. Mix the ginger, garlic, lemon juice, salt, chickpea flour, carom seeds, white pepper powder, garam masala, turmeric and yogurt nicely. Add the yogurt a 1/4 cup at a time to ensure you have no lumps in the marinade. 3. Marinade the jumbo shrimp in this for at least 2 hours. 4. Grill in the tandoor, or in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cook for 15 minutes. Toss the half-cooked shrimp in melted butter. 5. Place back into the tandoor or oven and cook for another 5 minutes, or until done. 6. Arrange on a platter and sprinkle the shrimp with lemon juice and chaat masala.

What is a syllabub?

Simon, after reading your great post, nothing has been left unsaid. You sum this issue perfectly. But the UK is not alone, restaurants in NYC do the same. Actually most any I have gone to now do this. Saddest part is that some of our most respected food authorities from India, thought nothing before adding food coloring to their recipes.

I found my copy, last year, at Kitchen Arts and Letters.

Tarkas/tadkas/baghaar/chaunk - These are the "jaan (life)" of daals, as we would say in India. Cannot agree with you more Simon about ghee transforming simple daals (lentils). Some of the common ingredients that go into tarkas (tempered ghee) over daals are the following: Whole dried chiles fresh greenc chiles cumin seeds asafetida curry leaves onions garlic turmeric cayenne panch phoron grated coconut

Yes I love using ghee when making parathas, even pooris. What is wonderful about using ghee when making pooris (puffy bread) is that they will keep softer when they are cold. If you fry them in oil, they will get brittle as they cool. Vegetable Ghee - I have never seen this, but it is my guess that this is noting but Dalda (Crisco like Indian fat). It is good for certain things, but nothing special. In fact everything that you need Dalda for, you can do with ghee and better. Dalda has been a cheaper substitute for ghee. Ghee is not cheap in India. And so many cannot afford to use it for everything. Thus the use of this alternative.

Ghee is the purest form of fat made from butter. It is mentioned prominently in the ancient Hindu scriptures. These texts have been dates back to at least 5000BC. Ghee is clarified butter made from the milk of cows and buffaloes in India. Ghee made from cows milk is called Bariya ghee (great ghee) or even Usli Ghee (real ghee) In days past when refrigeration was not available, ghee was the way milk and butter were kept from spoiling. Some Indians, break the norm and prefer using buffalo milk for it keeps the ghee from turning less and the end product is also lighter in color and less smelly.

Thats interesting. I knew that if you cooked with it the flavour of the oil mellowed, but I didn't know it was meant the be 'pre-cooked'. I actually like the raw taste on some foods. Polly, there are many Indians that love it strong. Especially in the Eastern part of India. But in the US, bottles of Mustard oil must say that it is considered harmful for human consumption. Is that not curious? My father always got a sore throat after eating in homes where the food was prepared with mustard oil. And then there were those in the larger family and friend circle who felt he was missing something very special by not enjoying Mustard oil with more dishes.

Toby, I would usually not use Mustard oil for this dish for it is very hot but the spicing is quite subtle. The heat if from the chilies, but the small amounts of other spices that are used would get quite overwhelmed by the oil. Also, mustard oil will add further pungency to an already quite pungent dish.

Wingding, You have really discovered an India few Indians would know. How lucky you are. You must have really planned your trip with great care. It is great reading about your Indian trip around the forum. You always share amazing tid-bits of information. Thanks!

Mustard oil is used mostly in Northern India for making pickles and in some homes for deep frying snacks. In homes in the Punjab or even Uttar Pradesh in Northern India where they use Mustard Oil, it is common practice to bring the oil to smoking point first, just the oil, and then cool it before being used. This helps tone down the otherwise pungent smell and taste. In Eastern India (Parts of Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Bihard and especially Bengal), Mustard Oil is the favorite medium of cooking. In fact in each of these areas, there are dishes in which it is essential to use Mustard oil, for it imparts the characteristic flavoring associated with the oil.

The Book of Jewish Food (Knopf) by Claudia Roden is an excellent book. It has the kind of information that is essential if one wants to transcend the barriers of time, place and social makeup.