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My local Indian place has wings that that they call Mirchiwalla wings. The wings are obviously cooked in a Tandoor but I can't seem to figure out the spice mix on the outside. Anybody have a recipe or an idea of what spices to try (I have a clay oven)? P.S. I understand that this might actually just be a name given by the restaurant that doesn't relate to a specific traditional dish.

I was in India over the winter holiday studying in a proper school for 10 to 12 hours daily — it was bliss! Since I’ve come home I can really taste the difference the types of produce and the freshness of the meats make on a given dish. Not cooking Indian everyday, I want to continue learning by keeping up the dialog I had with my teachers and the other students, hopefully with people here. In this post I was hoping to talk about Salan’s as in Mirchi ka Salan (Green Chilies in Sauce) I have two recipes and I’d love discussion on how you make it. The first version we made contained equal portions of roasted peanuts, sesame, coconut with a healthy bunch of fresh coriander and mint, a couple of dry red chilies, about a tablespoon of ginger garlic paste, salt and turmeric. (This particular teacher emphasized tasting over measuring.) These were placed in a mixi and ground into a fine paste. Next, in a large kaldie we heated sesame oil then added, in order, about a teaspoon each of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, a sprig of fresh curry leaves, and finally the large split green chilies and cooked until the skins were seared. We then added the paste and about a cup of water and balanced it with a few tablespoons of tamarind juice and jaggery syrup then cooked it until the oil came out (about 25 minutes). It was really nice — and hot. The day we did the Hyderabad dishes was the only day I got sick in six weeks in India: way too spicy for my insides. (lol) The second recipe (made a different day) was prepared without coconut. In the mixi we added about 1/2 cup each of roasted peanuts and sesame seeds and added to that dry roasted coriander seeds, cinnamon bark, cumin, cloves and blended it into a fine paste thinned with a balance of tamarind juice and jaggery. In the kaldee we sauteed finely minced onions until very brown, added about a teaspoon of ginger garlic pasted then tomatoes and cooked until the oil came out and to that we added the paste and a cup of water and the seared chilies. Cooking was about 20 minutes. This particular teacher said that some regions add yogurt after the oil comes out. I would love to know how you all make your salans. In case anyone wants to know, this is where I studied. http://www.iactchefacademy.com/home.html

I love jilebi and I often crave the neon orange sickeningly sweet fried snack. I once tried to make my own, but it was too cold (I was living in Japan at the time) inside my house and the mixture wouldn't ferment. But I have a question which may seem stupid. I bought some jilebi the other day, and it's not very good. I don't think it was very fresh, so it's sort of soggy (not soggy, but it doesn't have that nice crisp exterior that fresh jilebi had). Can I rejuvenate it? Stick it in the toaster oven? Crisp it up in a non-stick pan? Or is my only choice to microwave it with some milk, mush it up, and eat it with a spoon?

Okay, My wife/kids and I lived in Bangalore for 2.5 years, and one of the dishes we fell in love with that I've yet to be able to reproduce was called chicken sholay kebab. I've googled like crazy and can't find anything like what we had. I know each region/restaurant puts their own spin on things, so we were (obviously) in Bangalore, the restaurant was a small chain called Nandhini's, which purported to be an Andhra-style house. The kebabs were red in color, seemed to me they were fried. The red was a ground paste of spices that was fried onto the chicken. They were plated with a handful of fresh curry leaves. The flavor was a mild spiciness, with all the richness of mixed spices, and a bit of a garlicky hit. Has anyone seen a dish like this - have any ideas on how to start? Thanks in advance!

I've been exploring the menu of a restaurant serving such dishes as Kappa Fish Curry, Beef Fry, Pork Fry and Fish Fry, Karimeen Fry, Duck Curry, Avial, Thoran, Palappam, Chammanthi, Chemmendi and of course Payasam. The menu just uses terms like Kerala spices or sauces or 'typical Kerala dish.' What is the correct terminology for this cuisine: Keralan, Keralese, Keralite or just cuisine of Kerala? Is the term Malayali appropriate here or is that a term denoting a wider or narrower range of dishes?

I will be on a liquid diet for the foreseeable future, so I want to come up with creative ideas on what I can eat other than cream of name your vegetable soups. There can be no chunks, seeds, or other bits in the food. I will pass everything through a strainer just to be safe. It has to be thin enough to drink. Lassis were mentioned in another thread. I was wondering what Indian dishes I could have while on this diet. Thanks! Dan

I have made Chicken Dum Biryani at least three times. Twice on the stove and the third time in the oven. The problem I have every time is that after the allotted cooking time is done and I take a fork to check the bottom of the pan to make sure the chicken is done, there will be juices at the bottom of the pan instead of it being dry. Since there shouldn't be juices once its cooked, I end up cooking it for another thirty minutes or more which cooks away the juices but also dries the chicken. What am I doing wrong? I do marinate the chicken the night before in yoghurt. Would using less yoghurt and draining it from a muslin cloth of excess water do the trick? Any advice as to how to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated! thanks.

I recently read an article about food trends for 2011. One item was a spice blend called (something like) vendaudam??? It is an Indian spice mix that has, as one of it's components, onion. Apparently, it is the next spice that chefs will be using a lot of this year. (Or so the article said.) I actually found a place that sells it but then........I lost the article. To make matters worse, I can't remember where I got the article or the exact name of the spice. I have spent a lot of internet time trying to track this down but have not have any luck. All I could find was vendhayam and vengayam and both referred to onion and nothing else. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

@ infernoo Transferred the topic here from aloo-gobhi. Hope to add some dishes common in dhabas that others have tweaked and then I have. You may play around to get to your own taste preferences. Here is an idea from Marut Sikka, much modified. The scalding cream temper at the close remains his unique, sheer genius!! In Punjab, cream probably flows in people's veins! Real white butter freshly churned from buffalo milk yoghurt, accompanied by bottomless glasses of real buttermilk distinguishes the quality dhaba [a roadside establishment] from its competitors. Chicken with Shallots & onions [sort of Do-peeaza] Boneless Chicken breast or thigh cubed, marinated with a very little ginger/garlic paste + a little salt. You can smash the garlic with the salt on your cutting board & work it with your knife or end of cleaver handle [as Chinese chefs do] to a workable paste. Ginger can be grated and squeezed. No need to work the blender for this tiny amount. Save a bit of the ginger & garlic paste for cooking. Some people might want to add chicken hearts for a chewier texture. Chicken breast is the pits, in terms of texture & flavor. Before cubing, lay the breast out and pound with moderate force, breaking up some fiber. Then cube. You will find a cube that is less stringy. Most Americans dislike bones in their food, else a chopped poussin or squab, can be tried. Onion, diced fine; use your sense of proportion. You will brown these. They will shrink! Small shallots or the big ones halved or quartered, for quick cooking; little cipollini onions, ditto, or, if you only have red onions, cut big ones into quarters or eighths, separate the leaves, & cut to appropriate size. Very lightly roast Coriander & cumin & a whole red chile pepper that is not hot but flavorful: pound them moderately fine. In the West, use a coffee grinder! Remember, this is your basic karhai/balti spice! Reserve some turmeric powder, not much. Powder some Garam masala: green cardamom whole pods, a tiny bit of mace [strength differs according to source, & aril vs powder, use judgment, not to overpower], a tiny bit of clove 5-6?, cassia bark/cinnamon: 2 tsp total for 1kg chicken? The Plain tomato base Slightly sour yoghurt, smaller quantity than tomato [1: 8], beaten well Very fine julienne ginger root, optional Cilantro, chopped, optional & whole thai chillies, for aroma. Crushed moderately fine black pepper corns or pepper mill at ready. A lemon or lime to squeeze, brought to room temperature. Tempering mix: cream, chopped fresh mint (dry if no fresh availabbl) kasuri methi leaves rubbed in palm to crush Ghee Heat ghee, when shimmering add the reserved ginger&garlic paste,stirringuntil they sizzle. No prolonged cooking. Instantly add diced onions,stir and move around until they begin to brown. Here is a flaw in the recipe. Either use slow cooked browned onions drained of fat, would be my gut reaction, or brown only until the edges are colored in a significant amount of fat [which is what dhabas do]. They add taste with fat. Add ALL powdered spices including turmeric, stir to mix with the oil, then the tomato base, cook down a bit, then yoghurt, cook down a bit, season, then chicken and shallots, cook until almost done, taste, adding garam masala, a squeeze of citrus, a mere hint of black pepper, a tiny bit of cilantro, and quite a few whole green chillies to release their aroma. Remove to a serving dish. Scatter some julienne strings of fresh ginger on top. Do not cover the serving dish. The chicken is cooking away in hot clingy gravy, so remove it on the side of underdone, not stringy. In a small saucepan, add cream and bring to scalding, add other tempering ingredients, heat few seconds until aroma released, pour over chicken and serve hot. Adjust all spicing to suit your taste. You understand, of course, that in restaurants, the onions & tomato base are cooked in a flood of butter & ghee over a hot flame that is "invited" into the pan several times, much like the Chinese wok hei. That is the particular taste patrons crave, and the butter/cream swimming around never ever hurts a naan fresh from the tandoor. 66% of the world's cardiovascular cases will be confined to India in the next decade or two, according to official forecasts from diverse sources! P.S. Don't add all the garam masala. Start with 1/8 teaspoon. You can always ADD more. Likewise, a light hand with the spice powders. You want to taste the shallots & chicken here. In Bengal, we have, or used to enjoy, a preponderance of small tropical shallots over onions, so those were favored in Chicken Do-peeaza in the style of West Bengal, Calcutta.

I bought these at an Indian Grocery store. They were not named or described, except with the brand or maker - Jay Andeshwar. They are salty - like they are made with black salt - Kala Namak as they are sulphury too. They also may have sour plums (or any other sour fruit like tamarind) and a few spices. Each pellet is about 1/2- 3/4 inch long and about 1/4 inch in diameter. Most of us thought they were horrible. I sort of liked them in a strange way. I want to know what they are (what are they called?), what's in them, and why would people eat them (are they medicinal for instance)? Thanks!

What do you put in yours? I have tried a method where you're supposed to deep fry your potatoes and cauliflower separately before tossing them in an onion and spice mix; and another that calls for spices and onions simmered in ghee and then tossed over raw cauliflower and potato with a bit of tomato and some water to cook down. Both were internet generica recipes; neither impressed me much. I want the ne plus ultra aloo gobi recipe; one with melting cauliflower, creamy spicy potato; piquant spices with chili and ginger and crunchy coriander stems to set it off. No peas. I know how I want it to taste, but no idea how to get it there. Help?

One of my dearest friends, Jith, is the only son of a South Indian family, and his wife, Laurel, is seven months pregnant. This is a big deal. So, a few weeks ago, we got invited to the the Valaikappu blessing ceremony, a multiday affair celebrating the kiddo to take place in the western suburbs of Chicago. (Sadly, this Heartland gathering overlapped directly with this year's eGullet Heartland gathering.) When normal people are invited to these sorts of events, their thoughts turn to family bonds, traditional rituals, love, all that. My thoughts turn to the food. Not just my thoughts, mind you. Laurel's always been appreciative of my cooking, but Jith is one of my favorite guests. He eats with his entire head: not just tongue, nose, eyes but also ears and, I swear, the skin of his face itself. The first meal I remember making for him was gumbo, in Laurel's family house sprawled across the beach in Jacksonville FL. When I placed the 12" bowls in front of most people, they joked about how the serving was too large. Jith, meanwhile, was basking in the steam; it looked like he was getting a facial. While they struggled to eat most of their bowls, Jith ate two and grabbed Laurel's to finish it off. I think he snuck downstairs in the night to have more, but I can't be sure. Soon after my wife and I determined we'd be able to go, I wrote to ask Jith what the food situation would be. Turns out that the big Valaikappu shindig Saturday would be catered -- more on that later -- but Jith's mom Ami would be making food all day Friday for an "intimate family affair" for 30 or 40 people, maybe more. Now, I may be wrong, but I get the sense that Jith got his foodie genes from his momma's side of the family, so the idea of getting there a bit early to lend a hand seemed like just the thing. Learn a little, eat a little: what could be better? So, when we rsvp'ed for the event, I let Ami know I'd be happy to be her sous chef Friday. I got second thoughts about whether I'd be in over my head when she responded by saying, "Chris, don't worry. I will put you to work in my kitchen! I love to cook and I accept only expert help. I am kidding!" Kidding. Ha ha. Gulp. Yes, that's what terror looks like when wrapped in a Grilla Gear apron.

Another installment in my continuing exploration of Indian foods - I bought some frozen porotta from my Indian grocer. The directions say microwave on high @ 2 minutes on the first side, 1 minute on the second (after defrosting). This makes a hard, crunchy, flaky bread. Is this what it's supposed to be like? I only really know about naan, which is soft. Is this texture correct, or do I need to not nuke it quite so much? (Edited to correct punctuation)

Welcome to the India: Cooking and Baking forum! This forum has a number of great resources for members, whether you're a novice or an expert. One of those resources is our online culinary academy, the eGullet Culinary Institute. Please take some time to look through the topics presented here and feel free to attend the course that interests you. Beginners Guide to Regional Indian Cooking Course and Q&A A Sampling of North Indian Breads Course and Q&A A Sampling of South Indian Breads Course and Q&A

I now have some kingfish from my Indian grocer. He recommended a masala mix that he carries. He explained how to cook it all, but I wonder if anyone else has any ideas.

A native of India has opened a small greengrocers close to my house. He is about to start carrying fish. He had a small sign up today, and darned if I can remember what they were except king fish, sardines, and anchovies. I gather he's actually importing them from India. What kinds of fish are commonly eaten in India?

I looked back over several years in this sub-Forum and found little about desserts. I am looking for a recipe for a wonderful dessert noodle pudding. The noodles are the size of angel hair and I recall sugar and milk being the other two main ingredients. We had a house fire in 1995 and I lost all my notes, this pudding being in it. Thanks.

I am in London for a day. I would like to have authentic Indian without being ripped-off please can i get your suggestions.

So I've been living here in unincorporated Auburn (half way between Auburn and Fed-Way) and have not found a decent Indian restaurant yet! (Not that I've been trying very hard lately since my finicky toddler dislikes Indian food.) I really miss Taste of India up in the U-District. Anyone have any good suggestions for this area of WA? TIA!

I just went to an Indian party and eat the best lamb patties ever with a great mint sauce , I am dying to make them myself any good recipes??? the patties were spicy and the sauce had yogurt I think ...Thanks

On a whim I bought some goraka because I have a weakness for buying things I don't know how to use. So what is the best way to use it? I understand it is a souring ingredient and particularly useful with fish but other then basic recipes, I haven't been able to find much other info. Can it be used as a substitute for tamarind?

This is a really unique cuisine that I don't think many people know about, from the community that I come from. There is only 1 recipe book, used amongst members of my community ('South African Indian Delights'), and most recipes are taught in families. You haven't eaten it if you haven't been to someone's home. I've often wondered about starting a blog with some of the recipes, because the food really is exceptional. Does anyone here have any experience with it? Our food takes its inspiration from Indian food, but is very different - it has a lot of Portuguese, African, Dutch and even Middle Eastern influence. For example, our samosas are much smaller and lighter, usually bite-sized, and made of a very light pastry. They usually contain minced beef or chicken that is far plainer but more fragrant - using lots of coriander. We have an amazing thing called popta which are little balls of fried dough, again with minced beef (and egg) inside, but the way they're made kind of creates a pocket so that the filling doesn't touch the dough - there's a little gap of air around them. Our curries aren't as rich as Indian curries, our food is usually drier and more rice-based, and the spices much more delicate. The puri is like golden pillows, to die for, and actually all our breads are really amazing. Our naan is not a flatbread but a bread roll, kind of like challah, but with a different slightly different flavour. I'm sorry for being so eager about this, but it really is an undiscovered cuisine. I want people t know about it - it's so good - and I wish I had gone home for 6 months to learn to cook from my grandmother before she died (she was the best). I should perhaps do that with my other relatives, and then share what I learn with you all

I want to try a recipe which requires mustard oil. I went to a couple of Indian/Bangladeshi supermarkets in Brick Lane, London. They had 5l cans of 'Blended Edible' mustard oil, which I would never use all of. All the smaller bottles had 'External use only' printed on them. The shop assistant I asked said there was no difference and that they were labelled differently for import tax purposes. Is this true? Can I use the 'External Only' version for cooking?

Looking for a suggestion for good Indian near the strand, pre theatre next week. All suggestions appreciated. I was thinking red fort, but think it will be too far a walk.

Browing the adjacent store at Shalimar Restaurant in Salisbury, Md., I found a jar of Kashmiri tea with instructions on the side (I didn't have enough post-dinner cash to buy it). It said to boil the tea leaves with three glasses of water down to one, then adding more water and reboiling until it was the right shade of pink. Then there were further steps with milk, cardamom, pistachios, etc. My question is, how or why does it turn pink? The leaves looked green like other green tea.