Suvir Saran

Coconut and shrimp stir fry works well with Dosas.

I have been using 3 cups of rice and 1 of Urad Dal. Have had amazing results. I soak the lentils and rice together for at least 8 hours. Even 12 or more. Then I grind them into a sily smooth consistency, using as little water as possible. Soak overnight, at least 16 hours actually and then make the dosas. I use similar accompaniments as Indiagirl. Sambhaar and chutneys are my favorite.

Craig, many of the people that read these pieces and the people that often write them, are hardly the type that care much about what could, should or would be considered by billions to be food worthy of being considered food that gives sustenance to mind, body and soul. They are not writing stuff that will be remembered even a year or two hence, forget about decades or generations later. They write what will give the publication some hype and blood for a day or week at the most. I am glad we have you and our membership to highlight these utterances for being what they are.. and to put what they glorify and ridicule into a position or not that is really where they ought to be placed. Whilst reviews and food columns have a great role, one hardly should bother placing them in any great revered position in our lives. I read them, and move on. I do have friends that are food writers, and even in their writing, I find a way of finding what really is inspired from the depths of their soul, and what is mere lip service they have to perform for editors and their readership. There is not always great sincerity in what is shared. And it is hardly the fault of the writers, but largely the fault of a readership that is hungry for the sensational, meaningless and the very lowest of the low. But that is true for most of our lives today. We are lost in a world that is largely without much soul. Fads change, new ones come even faster than it would take for a true artist to create them and perfect them. In such a world, such trivia is written and given far too much credence than it deserves. But at eGullet, we have realized how to sift through this kind of stuff. What is even better, our membership, has far too much savvy to take such written gospel for more that what it really is worth. Thanks for your great post. I looked at that comment, and wondered what if anything I should say. I said something, deleted it and moved on. I decided not to waste my time on mediocrity. But you Sir, have a great way with words. And have said so much with such little effort. Thanks for putting that glib comment into perspective. It hardly has a place on eGullets wonderful threads. It is poignant to note no eGulleteer would have been ascribed as having said those words.

Thanks Wingding! Now that this is in the past, I can come out and tell you where my romance of pannnacotta actually began. I was with a well respected NYC food critic and dining at Esca, where a certain pastry chef that is known to these boards was creating simple but wonderful desserts. Our first time at Esca, we ordered several of the desserts. The critic was well aware of my famous and legendary sweet tooth. The pannacotta was served with maceratd fruit. It was sensational. The pannacotta was shaking more than it has since at any restaurant I have had it in.. and it was that very light and non-gelatinous (or rather, light in gelatin) texture that we all really loved. I have not forgotten that Pannacotta since that night. And I hope someday I can get the chef to share with me that great recipe. The only other pannacotta that I have had which was in the same league was the one prepared by Heather Carlucci. She would serve it with Armagnac marinated figs. Again, sensational and memorable and will be celebrated by my memory for a lifetime. Thanks for your post. And thanks for making the comparison with the Indian reduced milk desserts. I think a firni can come close in texture to pannacotta. But a good firni is just as hard to find as a good Pannacotta. Even in India, few make it as wonderfully as the one I must always eat when I travel to India at Karims. Firni is stabelized with rice flour (replacing gelatin) and most people add too much rice flour, and that changes the magic of the dish.

Not sure where to start... Thanks All! Keep them coming...and yes I shall have to slowly work my way through the many recipes.

Thanks to my days in Denver and the posts on this thread, I was able to get encouragement from my Sister to get a Dosa making lesson from her. The batter she makes is excellent. Really, I have hardly eaten any Dosas that are so tasty. She was preparing the Dosas using a ladle. Hers brought back memories of lunches and dinners I had enjoyed in the homes of Southern Indian friends. The Dosas were not the same as the ones served at restaurants, but delicious and addictive. My mother offered to show us how to make thin, big and crispy ones. My brother wanted the restaurant style ones. I was game to get the lesson. Hers came out amazingly better than any one could find in a restaurant. They were not greasy at all, and yet crisp and thin. She used a glass pudding bowl to pour the batter and spread it on the griddle. I am now becoming an expert in this style, and my Dosas are gaining huge popularity in the family and also with friends that have had them. I have realized how easy Dosas really are to make, my initial fear of them is gone. All you need is a puddling bowl and a good non stick griddle. If it is large, you will be able to prepare large Dosas. We bought ours at a Target in Denver. It cost around $25. My mom will take one back with her to India, and I shall take one back with me to NYC. Dosas are delicious and now I know they are also easy to make at home, and you can have them be either the more homey kind, or have them be just as crisp and thin and large as restaurant style ones, it is all your call. Thanks all for the posts on these threads, I am now not afraid of making Dosas. IN fact, I now want to make them for every meal.

Prasad, you have explained it beautifully.

Is this a legend I should have known? Do most home cooks in Italy add much too much salt into the pasta water to make it as salty as the sea? Or is it just a euphemism?? I am told it brings out the flavor of the pasta, is that true? I love doing this with potatoes... in fact, I do it to my potatoes when making potato chips at home. At one point, Fat Guy had wanted to have me do a piece about this... In India, we always add a lot of salt into potatoes we are frying for chips or other snacks, it adds salt into the potatoes, so very little if any needs to be added later. Please help me with my brine-ey dilemna.

A friend made me some chocolate chip cookies this morning. They are tasty, but skinny and not as chewy as I am used to. He used the Toll House recipe, I am sure there are other recipes that could give me the result I seek. Any one out there with recipes you think might be fun for me to try? Thanks!

Ghee is Indian clarified butter. Is it fattenning? Sure... In India, many cook all their foods in ghee.... I have used only ghee for cooking food in Denver for the last many months. Ghee imparts food with a great flavor..

Is that true??? I heard a friend say this... I was not sure how true this is.. I have heard the same, and actually tasted the results of this in regards to sea food... but for pasta???

Craig, I apologize for bringing Indian food into the discussion. It was my way of trying to share the need for acceptance of the very essential part that no two cuisines or cultures need to follow the standards accepted by one. The beauty of our world is to have each of our different cultures have a rich heritage so uniquely special. I love Italian food, I love French pastry, I love Chinese cuisine, I love Thai and I love Ethiopian cuisine.. and so many others. I hardly ever feel the need to belittle one by comparing and contrasting in a manner which is unnecessary and not useful. They each are different and in their difference I find a desire to keep living and searching and enjoying the great beauty that life affords its world citizens. That was my intent, and not any desire to sell Indian food or culture.

To understand cuisines that we are not familiar with or have a lesser understanding of or exposure to or simply little interest in, we must understand first how one should approach this subject. Cuisines need to be translated to your own level before you can even begin to understand them, taste them or critique them. This should be no surprise to anyone that really cares to understand things foreign, unfamiliar and different from what he or she is close to and familiar with. Cuisines are an intimate part of culture and cultures are often as old as time and embedded with history. This makes cuisine just as difficult to master as one would the history of a particular country or people. The cuisine of cultures such as Italy or India or China get to be even more involved for they are deeply entrenched in cultures that are diverse and very rich in history. In the case of India and China, you would have to understand thousands and thousands years of art and culture before you can make any call about why any thing coming from those cultures can be dismissed by you. Cuisines that exist in these cultures do so in cultures that think about everything, and certainly about food – in ways that are utterly and entirely different from how Americans think of things. When students come to me to learn Indian cooking, they come expecting to be able to understand the mechanics of cooking Indian food by getting recipes and watching me cook for 4 or 8 or 12 lessons. They quickly understand that a cuisine such as Indian, and I have found the same to be true about Italian (from watching friends that are Italian cook in their kitchens) cannot be put into the same context as the structure and limitations and rules they have learned to accept after having studied and entertained cuisines that are mostly reliant on French technique. They have trained themselves to understand cuisine and cooking by understanding the process of making stews, roasts and braises. They learn quickly that limitations and structure like that, while part of these other cuisines, is hardly the beginning and end of them. Techniques such as those are not the only organizational strength and the principal behind the food. But, even beyond this realization, my students have found it a challenge to discern what makes for the integrity of these newly discovered recipes. What defines them? Why are certain spices and herbs left whole while others are crushed or ground? Why a mix of spices? Can spices just be varied at the whim of the cook or are combinations driven by tradition or some technique or rule? The unraveling of these new cuisines and recipes cannot come by simply eating at homes or restaurants. It is a process that to be understood in any sincerity has to be gained by the experience of watching and questioning cooks at their stoves. The questions posed are a way of bridging the American way of thinking into the world of this foreign cooking. It is even more important to try and consider the cooking process you are studying both in terms of the ways in which it is different from French (American) cooking and in which ways it is similar. You will need to pursue the chefs relentlessly about all of their cooking choices – why a particular spice, why the amount of oil, why the particular choice of fat, why a particular cut of meat, what they are tasting for? The answers you will get, will give you a new context in which you can begin your long journey into the world of that new cuisine. You will then learn about that new palate, the new consciousness, the cultural and historical traditions, the intertwining of that country or peoples cooking, medicine and religious practices and the daily life of that culture. The more comfortable you become with that cuisine, the more its sheer difference to your own cuisine of choice and affinity will excite you. You cannot teach yourself to accept, demystify and go through the process of acculturation unless you go through that whole process. It is a guided process, a long process but the only way anyone really wanting to understand a cuisine and compare it, contrast it to another, or criticize it can do so with any credibility. The process can also teach one really wanting to cook the foreign cuisine a way to approach that cuisine without being alienated by its foreignness. You will learn how to approach this new cuisine by appreciating the difference between the American and foreign cultures. You can learn to bring an American (French) eye to this new cuisine but not to Americanize (Frenchify) it. You will learn if you choose to, the art of experimenting for yourself with this new cuisine and to slowly make it one you can call your own as well. Differences in perspective, techniques and styles of cooking are a means to learn. Many of my students (trained French chefs) come with a desire to “set” Indian cooking into the context of French technique because that is how they were taught to cook French food. An Indian chef, or Italian or Chinese, may want to “set” the food as little as possible, or even differently from what their training is. I know that my own cooking is “set” very differently from the technical world of French cooking. I “entertain” my food and ingredients. I like to be alive in my senses while I cook, and I honor the ingredients and food. Although, this may be oversimplifying the entire process, I can try to showcase the difference between my students and I: my students grind themselves in their preconceived rules of cooking – that is, in the part of the cooking experience that stays constant. Into the fabric of those limitations and rules, they weave flexibility, variation and inspiration. I grind myself into the mutability of every moment. I do not commit to an action until my hand is actually doing it: I measure spices by eye in the palm of my hand and add just what feels right in the moment of seasoning, sometimes deciding right then to add nothing at all. So, I weave the cooking technique into a medium of experimentation and inspiration. Then my students and I find so many things we share in common across the different cuisines where we each got our first culinary training. It takes only some inspiration from deep inside us to entertain, embrace and accept, that which may seem for the moment to be exotic, very different and somewhat of a challenge. Once we have gotten over that fear, left our biases behind, we can really explore different cuisines and understand that while cuisines may be different, may have complexity of varied levels and in different ways, they still serve the same purpose. Of bringing to those that enjoy them, a sense of pleasure that few other traditions in the world can provide. In closing, I hope we can each respect the traditions, value and greatness of all cuisines. There is little gained by comparing apples and oranges. Personal choice will make us choose one over the other, but that still does not replete any credibility of being essential from the one we do not choose.

Ben, maybe we should talk of that too.. though for my purpose with what I need for now, savory is the limitation. But you know how much I love pastry.. and I would love to see us talk about that too.

True for any cuisine. Hardly just a French reality.

Keep waiting, or wake up to a world that thinks very differently than you. You can deny that worls its own right to exist, but that hardly changes facts. You have used the same failed arguments in relation to other cuisines (and yes they are cuisines of equal brilliance, importance, strength, weaknesses and diversity as your much revered French) and do so only to incite meaningless banter. You have great stuff to say and unfortunately, posts such as these make me wonder where that Steve is lost... and why. Come on Steve, do you not understand you are but one person in a world of billions. Your obsessions hardly matter to anyone besides yourself. Maybe your significant other and your family and close friends would be kind enough to humor you and make you believe you are all important and correct (I know mine do, even as I see through their shallow support many times). But it hardly will sway what opinions the rest of the world has for the same stuff. Your not finding anything special in Italian, Indian, Chinese or any other cuisine does not make them any less special than what they are. You can try hard and say all you want, you are not convincing anyone in such crass and poorly founded pronouncements. Every cuisine has its own technique and its own subtleties. Some of us are affected and moved by those of one and not another. That is just what are reality is. Some are affected in different ways (not any better or worse) by the very many different cuisines they encounter and discover and allow themselves to enjoy and embrace. Some will never be able to enjoy more than a very limited spectrum of things, others only live for embracing new discoveries and new passions. There is no reason for anyone to judge anyone else or the things they choose to embrace and love and enjoy. It is sad when in our love for one thing, we choose to bash those we have not yet found a love for. Maybe that day will never come between you and Italian or Indian food Steve, but still, why be so harsh? All the arguments you make are meaningless for others have come back to share their deepest love, respect and admiration for the very things you find so common and meaningless in these other cuisines. Learn from that Steve that life is not about always finding agreement about your individual beliefs. Your not finding too many agreeing partners in your blanket dismissal of Italian food does not make you any less important and vibrant Steve. You will still live, eat your favorite foods, travel to your favorite cities and the world will not be any less fortunate. But when you start throwing loose cannons about cuisines not having technique for they are not the same as the tedious French ones you are familiar with, it negates all that you have achieved in sharing all the really brilliant stuff stored in your brain. Let us all, those that are capable of enjoying Italian foods (pasta and all the rest of it) enjoy it and celebrate it. You have no one stopping you from posting here, but why not spend the same time and effort expounding on the brilliance of the food you really choose to indulge in. It would be better use of your time, would not show you in any negative light, and would not show you as a person that is so uncertain about themselves, that they are having to mock others as they enjoy for their own pleasure cuisines that you have not admittedly understood or discovered for the same magic. No Italian chef or new flavors need to be shown to you Steve. You need to only see what you are doing here. If you can see that, you will see the brilliance of Italian cuisine just in the same was as you see French. Otherwise, you will be waiting and you would have missed every opportunity sent your way... and you would be tired and disgruntled by the time you wake up.. and perhaps, it would be too late.

The best Panna Cotta I have ever eaten was made by chef Heather Carlucci. Hers did have gelatin, but very little. It was amazing. I know I have her recipe somewhere... now I need to find out where she is preparing her pastries these days... she is a Goddess of pastry.. Thanks all for these wonderful posts...

A rookie starts as you just did.. showing a desire to explore and a willingness to embrace what is new, will be different and not always at par with what those from that country have taken for granted. Craig, welcome to the Indian forum. I am a fan of what you and the gang enriching the Italian forum are doing there. Thanks! Did you check out the thread on Indian cooking for dummies? It has many threads linked to it that would help you if you have time or inclination. India is a vast country... Billion people (actually many more already) and growing. hundreds of dialects no less than a dozen languages as rich in grammar and literature as Hindi, French, Italian or English. It is home to people that represent many religions, sub-religions and ways of life and belief systems. It is home to poverty that will move even the hardest of souls, home to riches that will charm and fascinate the richest person you have known or want to know. It is home to every natural disaster that is known to humanity, it has all kinds of climates and a varied topography. Mountains covered with snow all year long, mountains covered with snow part of the year, mountains that are as high as the highest men will ever climb, mountains that are situated over deserts and mountains that are barren and badland like, all dot the geography of India. The Ganges is but one of many scores of rivers that irrigate the land, give India hundreds of varieties of tropical fresh water fish. Each state of India will give one discovering something new to fall in love with. A new language, dozens of new dialects, even more local deities and superstitions, foods that mirror the uniqueness of that states people, their religions and social makeup. Each state has its own rich heritage that is Indian today, but was once independently vital and necessary. One may be able to dismiss some of the riches India has.... but not for long. With a growing and comfortably affluent middle class (estimated already to be millions more than the population of the US), Indians are now being noticed by all countries, US included. Indian culture, like that of Italy, Greece, Egypt, China and some other older and ancient culture, has never been greedy for attention. It comes with just being Indian. How could it ever be forgotten?? It could be abused, it could be hidden, it could be cheated, it could be ignored, but it still is what it is. The rich and well traveled Indian middle class is changing India greatly. Are the hundreds of rich and affluent Indians worshipping French food? NO. Will they anytime soon? NO. Do they have any desire? NO. Are they curious? Yes. Will they care to adopt that cultures ways? No. So, you have in India, hundreds of millions that live rich lives and comfortable lives that are as important and vital to this world as those of the rich middle and upper classes of the US and other countries. This is a group that the now global multinationals are chasing after and realizing quickly as being that segment of global population that is essential today, but critical tomorrow. In India, foreign investors are not coming to teach and change, they are coming to learn and adapt. I mention this for it will share with you reasons as to why Indian food will never have to worry about being ridiculed by anyone that has a closed mind. You can enjoy it if you choose to, or just be a citizen of the world that is unable to enjoy what more than a billion people enjoy daily. No big deal. But it is this that has kept India ticking in its own course. It is also this that can be identified as being the reason for many of India's maladies. India is not above mistakes, horrors, social injustices et al... It is like the US and all other democracies of the world, laden with skeletons in its closet. Indian food is very diverse. No restaurant in the US or in India or any part of the world has done great justice to sharing in one place the many different regional wonders of Indian cuisine. We have restaurants that give you Northern or Southern Indian food.. but really, there is hardly any regional brilliance even in these. They share a very limited genre of Indian food... India has much greater worries and much larger challenges.... Indian food changes daily and Indian restaurants in India are of much higher caliber. In time, I am sure you will be able to find Indian restaurants where you can find many regional dishes... But with a country and richly diverse as India, it would be a very difficult and tedious chore to showcase all the many regions... It would have to be called the UN of India Restaurant. Also, would a restaurant like that really work? I am happy discovering small places around the country that are marvelous and have rich regional flair. I know friends I send to India, come back with great stories to share with me of their experiences across India. Even in the smallest and poorest of regions, they find great little holes in the walls where they eat meals that celebrate the best of life and a sense of place. What city do you live in Craig? What Indian restaurants have you gone to, if any? What dishes have you tried thus far? And Craig, I am sure our members that frequent the Indian forum will share with you plenty that will soon, make you an expert. Ask all you want, nothing will ever be too much.

Thanks for this great post and all this information Bux. I shall follow the link and hopefully I have found what I needed.

Bill, before we are further distracted by your wonderful post from earlier today, could you, when you find time, share more about those lavender desserts? They sounded very nice.

Bill, is gelatin not always used? And thanks to both Craig and you for sharing these recipes.

I agree as well. In fact people who love food and cook with that love for their ingredients, hardly need to be trained to understand balance, for most, it comes as naturally as it is for a child to learn how to walk. This balance and harmony exist in kitchens around the world. And Italy has a long tradition of balance and harmony, it can be found in its textiles, its art and music, why would it then be foreign in its kitchens?

Very well said.

Bill what you are posting is plenty fine. All else you choose to post will be an on going bonus. Thanks very much. I am enjoying your posts. And thanks for the truffle secret. That comment about more truffles being consumed than produced is marvellous. It is exactly the kind of hyperbole that drives so many kitchens and consumers. It is so very sad, and yet so very true. Thanks for pointing it out so beautifully. And thanks also for the lead about the not so well known, but locally more well respected perhaps and better known alternative. Little secrets like these make posts magical. I thank you for what you have already done... and cannnot wait for more.

Thanks Ben.. I want to learn from everyone that has a secret or a recipe... And if it can be from someon that has local Italian lore and legend to share, even better... How are you Ben? When do we see more photographs of your cooking???