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Hello everyone, Am quite new to this forum. Has anyone tried making laccha paratha successfullly? I do not seem to get the layers and it's so disappointing. I dust the surface with oil and flour before cutting a radius, folding it like a cone, flattening it and then rolling out. In the dough I add oil too. I am originally from Kolkata, where we get the most amazing layered parathas. Any suggestions???? Thanks Nayantara

I used to be able to find fresh curry leaves at my local asian grocer but they stopped selling them for some reason. Was just wondering if the dried version is a good substitute for the fresh stuff? Thnx!

I've got some fresh banana stem ... and google turned up a few references to it in Indian food but no recipes. Can anyone offer some guidance? (Storage advice would be welcome as well.)

I absolutely love Sprouts.They are convenient to have around,cook in a jiffy and can be tossed into just about anything. My favourites are:Moong,Matki(Thats what it's called in Marathi,anyone know its aliases?),Garbanzos ,White peas and methi. Top uses are: Lightly steamed,turned into a chaat Steamed to make a sundal Cooked as an usal Cooked as a Dal Ground and made into a dosa With rice as a pulao Ground and steamed into dhoklas or idlis A wonderful methi sprout pickle from Usha Prabhakrans pickle book. Which beans do you sprout and what do you make with them?

I just got Suvir's new cookbook, and he suggests, for a lot of the recipes, to toast and grind spices before using them. Could I achieve the same results, however, if I pounded the spices in a mortar and pestle? I wouldn't get as find a grind, obviously, but would the results make much of a difference in the final result?

I could have added this in the existing thread of indian spices but wanted to highlight the extraordinary taste of this mixed pickle. Just 2 dollars for almost 2 lbs of outstanding mixed achaar is a real value for anyone, especially the bargain crazy Indians. I am talking about this Pachranga Achaar. Literally translated, Pachranga means five colors and I think they mean five main ingredients; mango, carrots, limes, lotus stems and green chillies and of course, delas and Indian gooseberries and all the achaari masalas. I dont know why but the best mixed achaars that I have had in my life have been consumed at the gurudwaras (Sikh temple), which I visited with some of my sikh friends. All sikh temples have a community lunch called Langar in which the food always tastes good and will always be accompanied by a mixed achaar. It is heavenly This particular brand reminds me of that same flavor. It is a sure bet to enhance any food that you may consume. Try it if you haven't and share if you have. Cheers,

So, here in suburban Bombay I am gobbling up fresh guavas at every chance. They are pretty abundant right now and their fragrance is irresistable...I can smell them halfway down the street! Besides just eating them doea any one have any ideas for cooking them...like a chatni perhaps? Edward

SO how do you make your koftas? DO you add a binder or not? What are some of the gravies you add them in.. do share

Watching a travel programme recently about South India I learned that rice rotis are a Mangalore specialty. Would anybody have a recipe? Thanks.

Ok, Gang, the mission: Chicken wings Indian style... Something hot, sweet, and spicy.... Give me your hints... Thanx

I love the sweet-sour flavour of alu bokhara. What do you like to make with alu bokhara?

I've been meaning to start cooking Indian food, following some of the recipes posted on eG. But I keep telling myself that I need to wait until I can get some good spices. On Wednesday, I'm finally hitting the market. What spices will both provide a good basis for my pantry and allow me to cook a few Indian dishes without supplementing? Thanks!

I've recently been trying different brands of Darjeeling tea, and noticed a big difference in taste. Can anyone recommend any particular brands (or web stores) to try? Thanks!

Great now at last one more chance to improve this recipe of mine.. Does any one know what to add to prepare the exquisite taste of chana or rather kabuli chana the one that goes with baturae, okay not that one either the one that is ever tasing goodness of home mmmm can't get one or more ingredients right in it. I remember the advertsment for the chana masala for MDH or some thing else where the new bride goes about cooking with earphones humming along while preparing to taste for her mil with out fuss, and turns out to her mil's liking. I'm sure there is more to it than dhania pwd and chilli powd, surely pomegranate seeds ground for the grainy texture... Sure I would be glad to add my own secret ingredients :))further here but the probelem is no exact knowledge .. does some one here know how to make the propriety chana . Please let me know Geetha

We’ve finally managed to source Kingfisher here in Brussels. This was a problem since most Indian storeowners are Muslim and so will not sell alcohol. Sigh! When in Bombay we loved Flying Horse. Does it still exist? What are the other beers available in India now?

Hey -- do folks buy Indian spices online... any favorites? Do tell.

For us, pumpkins are available in the supermarkets only during halloween. I don't do much with it, except add it to sambhar. My mother learnt to make a Khatta Meetha Kaddu (Sweet and Sour Pumpkin) from a friend - it's absolutely out of this world and the best I've tasted. She also uses it to make pakoras and a simple stir-fry. I must get all these recipes from her, but in the meantime, what do you guys make with it? Suman

So. A top-of-the-line wood-fired smoker, bought capriciously, used once, and forgotten about, has been idling on Jeff's deck for two or three summers now. Last weekend, we made it our mission to fire the thing up and smoke the best damn brisket in the world, armed not-very-promisingly with zero experience, more or less nothing in the way of resources, and only our unshakeable faith in the sanctity and nobility of the cause protecting us from apocalypse. Saturday, 9 October 8:30am Good morning. We woke up early on Saturday, yawned, and started planning the shopping list, sequence of events, and how much beer we'd need. We went to our (inexplicably) favorite diner in the world: The Tastee Diner in scenic Laurel, Maryland. The day was a little overcast and gloomy, the clouds swollen with a threat of cold drizzle. Nonetheless, we soldiered on with our plans. We formed a plan of attack over eggs, bacon, corned beef hash, potatoes and coffee. <A side note: the Tastee Diner is run-down and shabby, the sort of place where the waitress lights a Bronco 120, leaves it burning in the ashtray, and strolls over to take your order. The potatoes - no fancy "home fries" or "hashbrowns" business here; just "potatoes, with onions or without" - are excellent, boiled, roughed up, and crisp round the edges like a perfect frite.> Note Colonel Klink's excellent eGCI course on the table, along with lists of things to buy and maps of where we'd accumulate all our supplies. Please note the rubber band in the upper-right corner of the flag-trivia placemat, found lurking in the aforementioned (still) wonderful potatoes. Filled with youthful hubris (and keeping in mind the protection given to drunks and fools), we hadn't put much thought into where to obtain the brisket. I'd posted in the DC board for suggestions but hadn't called anyone yet, thinking that it would be an easy matter of strolling into a deli or butcher and just picking one up. Unfortunately, we'd forgotten that the kosher delis would be closed on Saturdays, and every other place we called seemed to think we were nuts when we asked for a whole, untrimmed brisket. We did find one place - Wagshal's on Massachusetts Avenue in DC - but they were insistent on charging $6.99 a pound for the beast, which seemed a little ridiculous. Deflated, we started altering plans for a trimmed flat, deciding to mop with beer and mustard. It still seemed doable, but not nearly on the all-out overkill scale we'd been envisioning. We pulled out of the diner's parking lot, a little wind taken out of our sails. Then, we saw this: The Laurel Meat Market. The giant fiberglass cow out front gave us hope. Our hearts thudding, we went to the meat counter, and happily took home an 11-pound baby with beautiful fat to the tune of $2.99 a pound. Oddly, the meat market (which in a perhaps synergistic relationship is a block from the equally incongruous Outback Leather, with a giant fiberglass cowboy out font) appears dingy out front, but hides beautifully colored, fresh-smelling beef, pork and fish inside for surprisingly low prices. The tilapia was particularly enticing, snowy-white and fleshy, for $4.15 a pound. We will return. 11 am Meat in hand, and feeling pretty good about the day, we went to get wood. A bit down Route 29 from Jeff's house, we found a farmstand that sells 'lopes and corn earlier in the summer and pumpkins and firewood at this time of year. After some conferring with the sweet lady who seemed to run things, we loaded an entire tree's worth of seasoned hickory into the back of Jeff's truck. She sold it to us for a dollar a stick. When given the opportunity to count what we'd loaded, she said, "I trust you", smiled, and waved us off. We went grocery shopping for peripheral foodstuffs, and went home. 3 pm Time to start cooking. I started some quick spicy pickles: by submerging some kirbys overnight in a boiled and cooled brine of wine vinegar, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, salt, pepper flakes, cilantro and dill. 7 pm Jeff got home from the gym, came out of the shower, and was seized by an irresistible urge to wrestle with the brisket. As you can see, it got the better of him: But not of me: After some earnest consultation with Col. Klink's course, the web and various anecdotal sources, we decided on a cumin-spiked version of Klink's rub for the meat. We were told, variously, "just salt and pepper", "every spice you can use", and "carefully blended flavors". Our dry rub consisted of salt, brown sugar, pepper, cumin, red pepper flakes, turmeric, dry garlic, oregano, thyme and parsley. The second photo pretty well describes the vision in our heads at that point - meat, endless fields of meat. Taking this as a bad sign, we cleaned up for the night and went to bed. Sunday, 10 October 8 am The day started like any other Sunday, though the spectre of the smoker looming outside the sliding glass door, and the tray of meat bowing the shelves in Jeff's fridge, lurked in the corners of our eyes and put courage in our hearts. It turned out to be a beautiful day, cool and sunny buried in the woods where we were. It took us a long time to get the fire right. Every fire we started seemed to consume the kindling, catch the logs, flare, burn brightly for a few minutes, and then peter out quickly. Blowing; playing with the damper; opening the lids for airflow; nothing helped. Desperate, we stuffed way too many logs in the firebox and lit the whole thing with a kilogram of C4. Actually, we just kept adding wood until we had a big, bright self-sustaining fire going - the highly technical barbecue jargon term for the scene above is "too damn hot." The temperature reading on the closed smoker lid was going nuts - the needle was straining above 475, the maximum reading. We decided the best course of action would be to open the smoker lid, open the damper entirely for maximum airflow, and let the fire burn down to a more manageable state. 12 pm Luckily, it was noon at this point. Aaaaaaahhhh. The beer we drank yesterday is a (formerly local; now it's brewed in Wisconsin) beer called National Bohemian, or Natty Bo for those in the know. It's the Baltimore beer of choice for broke UMBC and Johns Hopkins students, bums, and insufferably smug hipsters who drink PBR in NYC bars because it's, like, retro, man. Though it tastes more like sugar water than beer, we thought it was in keeping with the commando spirit of the weekend - not to mention that, at $5.10 a 12-pack, it opened up our beef budget considerably. We finally got a handle on the fire, and put the meat on. Jeff busied himself with splitting wood, While I smoked meat and cigarettes. 1 pm Around this time, we figured out the best way to manage the fire - we soaked split sticks in water, in a pot sitting above the firebox - a hot-water soaked stick, when placed in the fire, created a lot of smoke and caught quickly without flaring the temperature too much. The inferno we'd imagined was too hot for our purposes; a steady, smoldering 225 meant just about one small, soaked stick resting on a bed of embers. 4 pm It was a really beautiful day, and we were sitting outside, soaking up the last of the Indian summer sun, watching the fire and drinking. Though the chimney was belching out delicious-smelling smoke, we were sitting upwind and didn't notice. Jeff's roommates emerged from the house, drawn inexorably by the pervasive odor leaching into the vents. "Dude, what is that?" "Dude, it's eleven pounds of meat." "Oh." 5 pm This is what the meat looked like at 4 hours and 3 beers: 7 pm While Jeff was outside, diligently tending the fire and checking the brisket (a seriously good-looking, charred black piece of baby-bottom soft beef at this point), I busied myself with a scallion-y potato salad and other peripherals. 8:30pm Check out that smoke ring: We're eating the brisket - succulent, juicy, and deeply smoky, suddenly not just beef but transubstantiated into something miraculous and wholly different - along with delicious pickles, onions, potato salad, wonder bread and garlicky Texas toast while watching the Redskins-Ravens game. It's Sunday night; my clothes smell like smoke; we're curled on the couch with a fire in the fireplace and a distinct chill coming in through the open screen door. BJ Sams scores an out-of-nowhere touchdown for the Ravens; Joe Gibbs looks terrified and constipated. We're comfortably full and sleepy, happy with the success of our grand project, ready for bed.

I just found a can of cardamom flavored evaporated milk at my local Indian grocer. Will report after I use it

Dominos ' mutton gonghura pizza' looked interesting on the ' Pizza in Indian life ' thread, so I googled for mutton gongura and come up with some recipes. They all call for gonghura leaves which I know nothing about. Can the pundits enlighten me please? What are these, what kind of a taste or texture do they add to a dish and where can one find them ? Thanks all

Ah yes.. I found a packet of Thalippu Vadagam in my local grocery store in Vienna, Va. Made in New Jersey no less! Okay so anyone want to share a recipe? For those who dont know.. I do know a small bit -- Thalippu vadagam are small balls of spices made of curry leaves, fenugreek, turmeric etc and are used in South India to prepare specific dishes.. anyone care to share recipes? tell me more... The lady at the Indian store told me sales of this produce were not good cos people not only did not know how to cook them, most took a bite out of the raw vadas and were NOT pleased

Hello hello.. sorry I have been mia for a bit.. its been crazy busy with the new cooking school and writing assignments.. so tell me a bit about almonds in your kitchen - halwa? phirni? others....

hi all: i want to make those crispy sweetish dark colored fried onion paper thin slices that garnish pulaos etc. please tell me how? also any variety of onion better for this purpose and any variety to avoid? (in US markets)? tia milagai

After many experiments with unsuccessful ingredients and different varieties of socalled Rasamali Im asking someone to please tingle back to life wth may be a hint or two if you have one in your chest.. please I need to do it once atleast in my life time. I'd rather not foray one of the chefs of those best restaurants as it would be mean to them anyone else is welcome to pipe in thanks for all your efforts it will be appreciated in this family years from now too truly Yes it will be remembered I trust if my geans get passed on and even if it my husbands he loves food(food lovers are different breeed that it a entirely different thread I guess)

The supermarket that I frequently shop at just keeps getting better and better. Adjacent to the newly added Japanese corner, the Indian section is bursting with many products that are new to me. Such as these beverages: I'll be stopping by later after work today, and I'm leaning towards the Badam and Kala Khatta. Please tell me more about these and other brands. Do you like them? What other Indian thirst quenchers are popular?