Search the Community

I have to admit, I thought sandalwood was used only for incense and as a face mask.. is it used in cooking -- Suvir, your expertise is needed here. Simon, Anil, India girl.. any ideas? Someone asked me to find out for them

Liz Johnson's current column in the Journal-News (Westchester) is devoted to Thali, and Indian restaurant in New Canaan, Ct. -- in a bank. http://www.thejournalnews.com/johnson/ Having been there twice recently, I'll add my vote and say that this place is Connecticut's answer to the best New York City has to offer: the only better Indian meal I've had in the United States was at Diwan, and there are some individual dishes at Diwan -- especially the tandoori duck in Cabernet reduction -- that are fully on par with the best Diwan has to offer (in fact this may be the best single Indian restaurant dish I've had).

Ok, I read somewhere about a dessert made entirely from milk and sugar: Boil or simmer milk with a bit of sugar dissolved to sweeten. As a skin forms, skim off the skin with a wooden spoon into a bowl, and let cool. Repeat this process until all of the milk has been collected. Carefully mix the collected skins, and serve immediately. It sounds like a lot of work for a milk-based pudding. Does anyone have a clue as to what this is, and has anyone ever had it? Does anyone have a recipe or method for making halvah? I seem to recall a carrot version from somewhere -- can't remember where. Best, Soba

I am looking for some help on an article I am working on. I would love to hear your tips/hints/secrets when you are planning an Indian dinner. What are some of the tips for other cuisines that can be used here? I would appreciate any help Thanks!!

Where are they? What made them as we know them? What are their strengths in your view? What recipes or dishes of theirs are your favorites? Who are the top players in the Indian food scene in the US?

From this Sunday through Mar 31 (Friday and Sat excluded), you can go get a three course indian meal and any of the places listed below for only $15. $1 dollar of each meal goes to UNICEF. You can bet your sweet ass that I am gonna check it out. Ben -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bukhara in Issaquah (425-392-8743) India Gate in Bellevue (425-747-1075) Raga Cuisine of India in Kirkland (425-827-3300) Sahib in Redmond (425-883-8989) Kanishka in Redmond (425-869-9182) Mayuri Indian Cuisine in Bellevue (425-641-4442) Shamiana Restaurant in Kirkland (425-827-4902) Banjara Cuisine of India (206-282-7752) Chutneys Bistro in Wallingford (206-634-1000) and Queen Anne (206-284-6799) Masala of India Cuisine (206-417-1118) Shamiana Restaurant (206-524-3664) Bombay Grill and Lounge (206-548-9999) India Bistro (206-783-5080) Sahib in Edmonds (425-775-2828)

I have tons of Indian stainless steel plates, cups and glasses that I love to use. But i guess I am not taking good care of them -- cleaning is hard and I still have water spots on them when they dry. Also I seem to be scratching them a lot... any ideas how to keep stainless steel looking good? If there is a thread that discusses this let me know, i will go explore.

What would you make with yogurt?? How do you use it in your cuisine? What recipes do you have that include it? Where did you get them? DO you make your own dahi? What tricks do you have for a good jamun (starter)?

Can somebody explain the difference (if any) between an Indian wok and a Chinese wok? What are woks used for in Indian cookery?

I can't make sense of this. Didn't someone say they would work tirelessly to ensure this very important forum was kept as vibrant as could be in Suvir's absence? It's really strange with him not around. I wanted to ask Suvir how he deals with passing on Indian cuisine recipes and methods to interested people when the only communicaton available is voice and speech. No paper to write out ingredients or amounts or methods. No PC and printer and definately no eGullet to hand. I tried my very best to do this today for a Chef asking how to make Bhuna. In between me being unsure of English names for a few ingredients, babbling into intricate detail causing lengthy digressions, the Chefs enthusiam for clarity, what always seems clear in my mind when executing became a complete, silly mess of information. It was funny/daft, but I felt sure they must have been a better way to get this information over. For example, when outlining even the simplest step like melting the ghee, I found myself bleathering off about, "Oh...and...remember to season the ghee. I should have mentioned this before. You need to season it with garlic and ginger. Oh, and mixed peppercorns. You should buy some of those, you know...red ones, white ones, black, green....blah blah blah..." This on top of the obvious questions to me like, "What is Haldi? (turmeric) what is Kasuri Methi (fenugreek) what are Zeera seeds (I still can't remember)." Seeing as how Suvir is away for a wee while on more important matters, I still felt it a question worth asking. I thought it best asked here as it sprang from a conversation about Indian cuisine, but I'd still imagine relates to most Chefs when trying to get ideas and information over to their colleagues, peers and students. How do you get clear, usable information about cooking over verbally?

We've already had a thread on what defines "Indian" cuisine. Does spicing as a whole make Indian special? I grew up with a distinct love of spiced (not necessarily spicy) foods above and beyond most unspiced foods (hamburger and fries being the notable exception). While this manifested itself as a love of Chinese, Thai and Malaysian cuisines in my youth and early teen, by my midteens I had discovered Indian food and changed my food allegiances permanently. The deciding factor in my shift was the Indian use of spicing - both hot and savory. The flavor range Indian spicing provides is unmatched to the best of my knowledge. I think what I'm getting at is.. why do you like Indian cuisine? /ramble off

Are there are recipes you use when cooking meals for those that are healing, ailing or sick? Why do you choose these recipes? Where are they from? Any grandmas tales about food and nutrition in these times.

Even though it is about as Indian as Alec Guiness in Passage to India. I am making this for friends tonight and thought I would share the recipe. It is delicious and works really well Anyway INGREDIENTS For the chicken 4 chicken breasts cut into big chunks 1 large piece ginger 7 cloves fat garlic 4 green chillies 1 bunch corriander 1 large tub yoghurt 1 tsp turmeric 1 tsp ground corriander 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp ground red chilli powder 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground fennugreek Juice of one lime For the sauce 1 tin tomatoes 1 large onions chopped 3 tsp ginger garlic paste 1/2 tsp turmeric 1/2 tsp ground corriander 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp ground red chilli powder 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground fennugreek 1 small carton cream Method blend the ginger and garlic into a paste in a grinder with some salt and a little water. Put half over the chicken and keep some for the sauce. In a blender, mix the yoghurt, corriander leaves and chilles and lime juice and pour over the chicken. Add the lime juice and the dry spices and mix throughly. Cover the chicken with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least 5 hours ( better overnight ) When ready to cook, place the chicken on a foil layered baking tray and cook for 25 mins. For the sauce just sweat the onion and ginger/garlic paste in oil and add the dry spices. Cook for one minute to allow the spices to lose their rawness. Add the tomatoes and a tinful of water and allow to cook for about 20 mins making sure it does not go too dry. When reduced to quite a thick sauce add the carton of cream and cook through gently. Mix in the chicken chunks ( which should have been kept warm ) and warm through Before serving, add corriander leaves and squeeze lime over the top Very very simple and delicious Hope you like it S

I like Moti, and Raj Mahal but anybody want to recommend one to take an Indian person? My favorite Indian restaurant in Japan was Gaylord in Kobe - but that was pre-earthquake - anybody know what happened to the place?

So I'm not sure if it's appropriate to post this here or if I should post in the "elsewhere in Asia" section, since what I'm searching for is a Pakistani dish. I apologize in advance and would like to note for the record that I'm aware that India and Pakistan are two different countries. We're missing the cabbie restaurants we used to go to in Chicago and would like to start recreating some of the food we ate there here in Portland. I've been told that the style of food at those restaurants most closely resembled truck stop restaurants in Pakistan. I've had a lot of trouble finding a recipe for the "frontier" style gosht or chicken (I believe the frontier refers to the northwestern area). I remember that it had tomatoes, bell peppers, aka capsicum, and onions but I can't remember the seasoning, just that it tasted really, really good in the wee hours of the morning (yes, our inebriated state while eating it might be why I can't remember enough to recreate it). It did not have yogurt or bananas. Any help? regards, trillium

Meen Moilee is one of the tastiest sauces I have had ever. A cousin of mine married a "Kerala Queen" as he says.... and she makes the best I have eaten ever. What should a non-Southerner know about it? Recipes for it?

Are there recipes you have made up using Broccoli? How are the accepted by your Indian friends and family? What do you think of broccoli as an addition into the world of Indian cooking? Any broccoli stories??

Tomorrow is my grandfathers Barsee (death anniversary). In India, it is a ritual for us to go to his favorite store in Delhi and get these ladoos. Actually the best are made in Agra. But those come to us only after the anniversary. The ashram will send them in the mail. And I always was the happies kid on the planet when that large box arrived in the mail. Tomorrow, we will make these at home. I have made them twice before. They were better than what one finds in the Indian stores in NYC...but still no where as good as I remember from the halwais in Delhi or the ones that came from Agra. Do you have a recipe for making these?

I've been trying to make samosas from scratch, with pretty good results so far. Julie Sahni's recipe for samosa skins came highly recommended. It contains flour, shortening, yogurt, water and salt. My problem is that it doesn't come out blistered and super crispy. It's as smooth as a sheet of paper and only slightly crunchy. I tried kneading more, I tried kneading less. No difference. Any advice or better recipe?

I stumbled across a very old book called 'The Complete Book of Curries' today in a charity shop and I bought it for the princely sum of £0.19. The author is Harvey Day and I wondered if he or his writing is known to anyone here? The book - a compendium of five individual books dedicated to curries around the world - is an absolute delight. Not least because of his recipe offerings which strike an odd balance between authenticity and a very olde fashioned, almost quaint Englishness. So quaint in fact, that Day sees fit throughout the book to publish the addresses of those who helped him with the book. Presumably so people could write to them and offer their own thanks. The first of these five books was published by Kaye & Ward in 1958 in Britain. I'm not even certain about the authenticity of the recipes published. I'm as sure as can be that no one would have been able to challenge Day's assertions/recipes as I am completely unaware of other books on this subject from that time. Certainly none that I have come across. There are quite fantastic quotes in the book which he uses to highlight his thoughts on food. Although this first quote itself is not about curries, he used it to indicate his feelings about those who found curries too much of a culinary challenge to enjoy. It will also give you an indication of the tenor he adopts throughout the book. Perhaps it's the time elapsed since first publication that makes it such a glorious read, but some of it is also hilarious. For example; Each book has a small preface and in these Day offers up his thoughts on the wonder of curries and the benefit of the spices used. The preface to the second book returns again to his ideas about those unable to enjoy curries. I think Mr Finch and Mr Majumdar will enjoy this one in particular. Fantastically, he said; I'd love to post some of these recipes if I can, as I can't offer you a source where to find the book. It's long out of print and I could not find it available even through second hand sellers on the internet. If I can't - and I'm assuming someone will tell me if this is not permissible - I'd still love to ask many questions about the recipes and methods he writes of in the book. For example, Suvir, IndiaGirl or Monica, was mustard oil commonly used in Indian cooking to preserve and protect meats due to the hot climate?

mushoor (masoor) dal, the orange split lentil, is perhaps the definitive west bengali dal (though moog dal fans may object). here are two recipes for it. they're very similar and involve almost all the same ingredients--it is just the mode of preparation that is different. these are both light, subtle home-cooking recipes: you are unlikely to ever find dal made this way in a restaurant. ingredients: 1 cup dal (washed thoroughly and drained) 6 cups water 1 tspn haldi 1 1/2 tspsns salt 1 medium tomato--diced 1 small onion--sliced or diced 1 inch ginger--crushed and minced 3 cloves garlic--crushed and minced 1 thai green chilli--minced 4 cloves 1 inch piece cinnamon 1 tblspn cumin seeds (for preparation 2) 2 tblspns canola oil (for preparation 2) 4 tblspns cilantro leaves 1/2 lime preparation 1: dal made this way is the easiest and, in my opinion, the most satisfying bengali dal--a must have ingredient of a meal of bengali comfort food: put all the ingredients (except the prep 2 stuff and the lime and cilantro) into a large saucepan, cover and bring to a boil (till the dal threatens to spill over). uncover briefly, stir, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook for 20-25 minutes. resist all temptation to uncover and taste or inspect till the 20 minute mark. at that point, taste and check for salt. if you'd like the dal to be more mushy cook for another 5 minutes. if not, stir in the cilantro, remove from heat and serve immediately with steamed rice (or have it alongside the rest of the meal as a soup). if eating with rice, squeeze some lime juice over it. if you desire you can also add a tspn of ghee before you serve the dal. personally, i like the non-fat version. preparation 2: this resembles more closely the north indian dal preparation in which the dal is cooked and then a tadka added: put all the ingredients except 1/2 the onions, 1/2 the garlic, the cumin, cilantro, chilli, lime and oil to boil and cook as above to the 20-25 minute mark. when the dal is done to your liking, heat the oil and add the cumin seeds--saute till they darken and add the remaining onions, garlic and green chilli. saute till the onions begin to brown and pour the entire tadka onto the dal. mix well and serve as above. (you can vary the tadka to your taste: some save all of the onions, garlic and tomatoes for the tadka; some saute the onions till they're completely crisp--experiment and see what works for you.) enjoy!

mango kulfi rolled in toasted pistachios What about you,any favorites? (with recipes ofcourse)

In America, we think of pickles as a kind of a relish, or side dish – a cured vegetable that adds a sour or tart note to the meal. We pickle a variety of different vegetables but, for whatever the differences, pickles all have a recognizably “pickled” taste. Indian pickles use many of the same ingredients – salt, vinegar, coriander, mustard seeds, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves and ginger – but they present some of the most diverse and exotic tastes and textures imaginable. They are fiery hot, sour, pungent, fragrant, sweet- and- sour, and tart. They are crisp, silky and chewy. Flavors may be fresh, the taste of each spice distinct, or married and intensified by months or even years of aging as the textures of the ingredients melt and soften. While Indians eat some pickles (such as the Mixed Vegetable Pickle, below) in relatively large quantities, the pickles are often too intensely flavored to be eaten that way; they’re used in tiny amounts as a spice or condiment to enliven a dish. Indians also use pickles in a way that Americans never do, that is, medicinally, to cure an ailment. Indians love to taste food; they live to taste food. Indians want many layers and many contrasting tastes. No one food can satisfy that hunger except a variety of pickles. I have jars and jars of multi-colored pickles sitting on the kitchen table. One is a tiny onion pickle, picked young and fresh and pickled in rice vinegar, that is common to almost all north Indian homes. Several are pickled chilies: one is made of whole green chilies and is dangerously hot while another, made from habaneros stuffed with spices, is more savory than hot, and a third is made from chopped green chilies soured with lemon. There is a crunchy sweet- and- hot cauliflower, turnip and carrot pickle, a ginger-lime pickle and a gooseberry pickle. These pickles are made from recipes that have been handed down by the women of my family for two to three hundred years. Some of these jars have been maturing for just a few days, others for much longer than that. A jar of lemon pickles made by his family chef at home in India, a jar that has been maturing for 60 years. In India, food is understood to be intimately related to health and medicine. The Ayurveda, the ancient Hindu text that defines the relationship of food, spices, exercise and meditation for the health of the human body, gives recipes for various medicinal foods and elixirs, of which pickles play an important role. I use lemon pickle as it is traditionally used in my native country: to cure queasiness and tummy aches. In my New York household I use pickles the way that wealthier households do in India, as a condiment guaranteed to give plain foods taste. In fact, in India it’s considered rude to ask for pickles if they are not on the table; it suggests that the food isn’t savory enough. Indian homes make several signature pickles, recipes that have been passed down through generations of women. Pickles made the season before are served daily. Aged, well-loved pickles are brought out when someone is sick or when the household is hosting a special meal. With the exception of some pickles that are made with winter produce such as cauliflower, radishes, turnips and carrots, pickles are made in Indian homes in the heat of the summer. Fruits and vegetables are bought from local vendors who sell door to door. Women spend several weeks preparing pickles. The fruits are laid out on terraces on sheets of muslin for several days in the summer sun to dry, or “ripen” and concentrate their flavors. The produce is brought inside every night to protect against dew and laid out again in the morning. The pickles are put up in very large ceramic jars, each about 20 inches tall and 8 inches wide. Once jarred, the pickles are ripened again for several more days in the sun. If you ask an Indian where the best pickles are made, they will name three centers: the Marwari and Baniya trading communities in northern India, the state of Gujerat in western India, and the state of Andhra Bradesh, in southern India. The Marwari and Baniya communities are completely vegetarian and they subsist on pickles and bread. The people of these communities make pickles everyday and their meals include several different types. Pickles that are spiced with fenugreek and fennel and pickled in mustard oil, are likely to be from northern India, as are pickled cauliflower, carrots, turnips and radishes, the so called “winter vegetables” that are grown on the northern plains. Pickles represent a ritual world of food and community in India. Pickling is an ancient art and a part of Hindu spiritual practice: according to the laws of Hindu religion, pickling, or “cooking” foods with sun and air is one of the three acceptable ways to make raw foods palatable. The rituals of pickle making define a certain period of the summer in India when entire households are given over to the task of their making. Traditionally, in small towns, the women join together, spending days outside in the shade of tamarind trees cutting, preparing, and drying the fruits and vegetables. The kids play above in the dense greenery of the trees, eating the green fruit of the tamarind and tossing the seeds onto the ground below. (Stomach aches and tiny tamarind seedlings are evidence of their gluttony.) Play, food, music and storytelling combine to give the season a celebratory mood. Even in urban centers in India today, the time of pickling still invites ritual community and celebration. Women call each other on the phone to organize the making of the pickles or to ask for the gift of a jar of a favorite kind. Life slows a bit, personal connections are made, and thousands of years of ritual is repeated. --Suvir Saran and Stephanie Lyness

How do you use this flour? Do you have favorite recipes that use it? Where do you buy your flour? Do you have a favorite brand for besan??

In the early 1980s Varadarajan, a Minister at the Indian High Commission in London, organized a remarkable series of intimate recitals by some of India’s greatest classical musicians. These were held at the October Gallery, where my sound studio occupied the basement, and so I was asked to amplify, balance and record the concerts. I had listened casually and with pleasure to Indian classical music, but knew nothing of its intricacies. There were no scores; no books could tell me what I had to hear. And so I placed microphones where I was told and made adjustments as instructed by the musicians who left the ensemble one by one and listened to the balance among the others. Gradually over several concerts I began to feel the music as an entity. I was able to anticipate and adjust as one musician, then another emerged from the texture for an extended improvisation (which a jazz musician would call a riff) and then submerged again into the totality. A smattering of applause would often see him out, and I began to appreciate just what had given the audience pleasure. My proudest moment came when the great Ravi Shankar ended a pre-concert sound check after a couple of minutes with the comment, “It is good. Don’t change anything.” This is very much the way that children growing up in a community learn to understand the strange noises that float about their ears, gradually realizing that many of these sounds convey information. There is no instruction, only repetition, in which certain sounds accompany particular objects, events or emotions. These sounds become “words” and begin to relate to each other; gradually a “generative grammar” gives them a collective meaning. Children who grow up in a kitchen are apt to learn about food in much the same way. Step by step they may observe what takes place as what comes out of the basket turns into what goes into their mouths – in other words, they learn cause and effect. What they learn and the way they learn it will be conditioned by the cuisine that surrounds them, including the dishes, the tools, the pots and pans, the ingredients. These in turn will influence how the food is handled: whether it is chopped, cut or torn apart, whether ingredients are mixed by hand, by spoon, by fork or by machinery. What are the stages? Is there intermediary cooking or does everything go straight into the pot at once? Is there an effort to save time or are processes allowed to set their own inherent schedules? For occidental and oriental cuisines there are very different answers to all these questions. For instance, to watch an Indian cook pulverize and sear the seeds and spices before adding the other ingredients one by one to the pan is to enter another culinary world. Even the manner of eating may be foreign to us. As M.F.K. Fisher observes in her introduction to Shizuo Tsuji’s Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art: “Our physical habits are different [from the Japanese], so that we chew and swallow and sip and raise food to our mouths differently, with different tools.” In the West, our post-Beeton recipe-oriented approach to cookery assumes that any dish, no matter how foreign to our experience, can be created by measuring out the specified ingredients and following a sequence of instructions. But as John Thorne reminds us in his Simple Cooking, “[C]reativity is a one-way street: very few cooks are willing or even able to afterward evoke the ferment, the confusion, the groping before the moment that shaped the dish. What we get instead is a rationale that works backward from the finished dish, a rationale that makes everything seem as if it had all been clear and obvious from the start.” If this is the case with dishes from our own gastronomic tradition, how much more are we deceived when a brief recipe pretends to include the relevant input of an entire foreign culture? In an era which attaches a monetary value to every aspect of our existence, the creative impulse behind the food we eat must be established as someone’s intellectual property and quantified in relation to the competition. Thus the celebrity chef at the top of his profession must approach every new cuisine, not as part of a culture to be respected, but as a treasure to be confiscated. Sophisticated diners will come to his restaurant equipped with score cards on which they will rate his success in displaying his trophies so as to massage, seduce, astound or ravish their eager palates. So how, finally, can we properly understand a foreign cuisine? Few of us have the opportunity of absorbing it directly from its masters, even those living in our own country. Even fewer may learn it as Fuchsia Dunlop absorbed Sichuan cuisine, by learning Chinese and going to live in the province for a couple of years. Our most probable source will be books written by those who know – or pretend to know – the cuisines we want to discover. But as Thorne wryly observes, most cookery book writers cite few sources, speaking as though they had invented their subject from scratch. And so one is forced to consult a selection of the most plausible authorities and observe carefully the various ways in which they argue among themselves. Trying them out in the kitchen, one learns gradually what methods and materials are best suited to one’s own tastes and resources. In coming to terms with the foreign and the unfamiliar, we must above all approach it with humility. We can’t instantly transplant ourselves into an alien culture but neither should we attempt to force it into the straightjacket of our own culinary tradition. As Diana Kennedy constantly reminds us, we should never try to adapt one cuisine to another, but instead adjust the two of them to each other. This, after all, is what is happening throughout the world as the traditional barriers of time and place are broken down by migration and communication. Just remember – the ever-expanding and interlocking panorama of global cuisines is not solely the prerogative of the rich. The lowly Spam is now a native of Hawaii. ©2002 John Whiting