Chimayo Joe

I've been a fan of Indian food for something like 20 years, but I mainly cooked meat-based North Indian recipes when I cooked Indian food until recently. About 8 months ago I switched to vegetarianism, and Indian food has become a much bigger part of the way I eat. Lately my interest has shifted to South Indian cooking and Gujarati cooking.

One of my new cookbooks is Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts by Ammini Ramachandran. It's a Keralan cookbook. I started looking through it today and ran across this in the Cooking Methods section: "Seasoning or tempering (kaduku varakkal): Seasoning food with spices pan-fried in oil is a technique fundamental to many dishes. Most curries are seasoned with spices and herbs fried in a few spoons of oil. Heat the oil in a small skillet over medium heat, and add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start sputtering, add halved dry chili peppers and curry leaves and remove the skillet from the stove. Pour the contents into the cooked curry. For certain curries, asafetida and urad and chana dal or coconut flakes are also fried with the mustard seeds and chili peppers. In some curries, instead of the seasoned oil, fresh curry leaves and a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil are stirred in." I've skimmed through the recipes and would estimate that most of the book's recipes using the technique don't include dal, but very many do, usually urad dal or a combination of urad and chana dal. I consider the recipes that fry the spices first then add the other ingredients to the spices to be a variation of the technique. That seems pretty common when dal are used(possibly to give them time to soften up a bit?) I found it interesting that the author called the technique "kaduku varakkal" which seems to indicate how important mustard seeds are to tadka in Keralan cooking.

I looked through some Indian cookbooks and while urad and chana were by far the most commonly used dals for tadka (the term for fried spices regardless of when they're added during the cooking of the dish) , I did find a few instances of toor dal being used that way. Also, some of the sambar powder recipes in the cookbooks I examined used toor dal as an ingredient, and the sambar powder recipe in Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian has moong dal as an ingredient, so it appears it's not just urad and chana dal that are used as spices in South Indian cooking. edit: I bought World Vegetarian a few days ago and am still looking through it, but I ran across a recipe where Jaffrey offers the choice of urad dal, chana dal, or yellow split peas in the tadka.

Tempering is the frying or dry roasting of spices (and sometimes other ingredients) to be added at some point in the cooking of a dish. Tadka is the term used when they're added at the finish in Indian cooking. (I'm not sure if the term"tadka" only refers to them being added at the finish though, but that's often when it's done.) South Indian cooking often uses fried dal as a spice. And it's not dal that's already been cooked; it's just raw dal that gets fried.

I only see urad dal and chana dal used in tempering. Is it only those two and if so, why? Preference for the flavor of those specific dals? Maybe it's easier to judge how much the lighter colored dals have roasted? I've never tried using other dals and am wondering if other people have used them or possibly even other legumes (such as split peas.)

Right, I enjoyed the All Stars. I just don't like it when they put people who already have experience with TC in with the noobies.

I enjoyed watching Grayson, but I really don't like it when Top Chef lets contestants compete again. That just seems like a huge advantage over the other contestants. If they want to recycle people through the show, they should do a season made up entirely of people who have already competed.

Hi, Welcome to eGullet!

http://diversified-foods.com/products/Chefs-Creations Some of these are actually pretty good. They look a bit pricey at first glance, but they are double serving size. I've really enjoyed all the Cajun entrees--the Southwest entrees much less so though I haven't tried the Chorizo Chili Mac & Beans. I've been heating them in the microwave, and they require a little more effort than a typical frozen entree--rinsing under hot water to get them out of the plastic packaging, thawing, then heating.

It's wood-fired thin crust pizza. Here's the menu: http://amicassalida.com/menu I had the #6 (marinara, pepperoni, sausage, diced tomato, mozzarella, fresh oregano.) I usually go for something fairly basic like that on my first visit to a new place. I had pizza from Moonlight, the other main pizza place in Salida, a couple of years ago and don't remember being impressed by it. I'll be back to Amicas though, no doubt about it.

Sorry to say I don't recall what the sauces were like. My wife had a pulled pork sandwich, and I only had a bit of the meat. I was so surprised to run into brisket outside of central Texas that didn't need sauce that either the sauce has slipped my mind completely or I just didn't use it. I think they had two or three sauces available. Should have paid more attention. When I go there again(which will probably be quite awhile from now) I'm planning to try the ribs, and I'm sure I'll be using the sauces then.

Their menu is surprisingly extensive for a place that just does take-out, mainly drive-through take-out. They have combination plates with tacos(including fish tacos), enchiladas, burritos, chiles rellenos, fajitas, machaca, or chorizo with the usual refried beans(which are very good) and rice. The burrito section of the menu has more than a dozen choices. They have chimichangas, tortas, tostadas, and a reasonably varied breakfast menu, among other things. They're not stingy with the food either. One carnitas taco(I split it into two tacos using the two tortillas it's made with, because it's stuffed too full to manage otherwise) and a side order of refried beans fills me up. I have a long way to go before I've even made a dent in their menu.

Hi!!!! Good to see you've found a new home(as have I.)

I've only had sliced brisket and pulled pork from Steamboat Smokehouse, but I was surprised at how good it was. I went in expecting typical tourist town/tourist trap bbq, but it was far from that. The brisket was delicious, thick-sliced, and tender though unnaturally moist. Plenty of smoke on it which is how I like bbq. Pulled pork was good, too, but that's easy to get right.

Wonderful pizza, but be prepared to wait because Amicas is very busy. I'd never gotten one of those flashing devices that lets you know your table is ready in a restaurant in a town as small as Salida, but I can see how Amicas would need that. I eat pizza a lot, and Amicas ranks pretty high by my standards.

Just thought I'd mention this restaurant in GJ. It's part of a very small chain that has a handful of locations in California and one in Grand Junction for some reason. There is only a drive-through and a walk-up window. I don't know how they do it, but the service is very fast, and the food is better than the Mexican sit-down restaurants in town. The carnitas tacos are my favorite, but I've never had anything from Los Alazanes that was less than good. Oh, and they're open 24 hours a day which is almost unheard of in Grand Junction.

Wow! Impressive and mouthwatering. I'm a red chile freak. I could drink the stuff as a beverage.

I rarely buy this sort of thing because it usually turns out to be awful. I just tried them today, and while I won't say these are great, I thought they were pretty decent. Mildly flavored and inoffensive. It was an impulse purchase a few weeks ago, so I can't remember what I paid for them--probably overpriced as these restaurant branded products tend to be, but I'm tempted to try out more of the frozen PF Chang's items. I've never been to a PF Chang's restaurant. Geez, egg rolls. Guess I can't edit the thread title, right?

Canola oil

The name is a nod to my love of New Mexican red chile. I chose it when I first began posting on another food forum about 15 years ago. Just decided to stick with it here. Regionally, I'll most likely be frequenting the eGullet board that covers Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. I'm really looking forward to exploring the cooking boards here, as well. I enjoy cooking and trying cuisines that are new to me. I have a decent cookbook collection, pretty wide-ranging, but am always looking for different food experiences. Big fan of Indian food. Big fan of Persian food. My favorite things to cook are stew-y dishes, and those two cuisines feed(excuse the pun) into that.

I tend to be more of a reader than an active poster, but I'll try to chime in when I feel like I have something worthwhile to add to the conversation.