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Murgh Vindaloo -- Portuguese Style Chicken, or Vinegar Chicken. From Betty Crocker's Indian Home Cooking, Recipes by Raghavan Iyer, p. 104. Any comments or suggestions are most welcome! I was introduced to Indian cooking on Rushholme's (in)famous Curry Mile when going to college in Manchester. I'd never tasted any Indian food before, and refused to eat the first curry I was served -- I thought there was something wrong with it; that the food had gone bad... But since poor students in the area ate Indian all the time, I eventually learned to enjoy it -- first through mild, spinach based dishes, but by the time I graduated, I was a veritable vindaloo-overdosing, lager-lout, and making unpleasant jokes about keeping the bogrolls in the fridge. I've (unsuccessfully) kept trying to recreate the English Indian Vindaloo, since American Indian restaurants just don't do the same thing, but I've also cooked several dishes from this excellent book, that seems more authentic Indian, than the British curry house. And since I probably couldn't cope with a fiery English Vindaloo anymore -- and since I remember thinking, when I first tasted them, that I wished there was a way to enjoy the great flavor, but without the heat, I figured I'd give this one a go. This is a fairly detailed log of how it went, along with some notes about how I diverged from the recipe. The ingredients, prepped from right to left, by the order they are used: - 1 very large red onion (recipe called for 2 medium -- I assume they meant yellow, but this is all I had); - 6 cloves garlic, 1.5" ginger both coarsely chopped (they called for a little less, and also for this to be added along with the onions, but I find that ginger and garlic loses all their flavor if cooked along, so I hold off for a bit); - 3/4 cup tomato sauce, along with 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp ground coriander seeds, 1/4 tsp ground turmeric, 1.5 tsp cayenne pepper and 1/2 tsp ground cumin seeds (recipe called for 1/2 tsp cayenne, but since it isn't originally a spicy dish, I added more -- recipe also called for 1 tsp ground cumin, but since I use freshly ground cumin seeds, it turns out WAY more powerful than pre-ground cumin. I find it hard to believe that this book expects pre-ground cumin, but it just completely overpowers any dishes that I cook from it, if I use the full amount). This is all loaded up in the tomato sauce can just for convenience, so I can just dump the can afterwards, without dirtying up an extra meez thingie. - 2 chicken breasts, cut into pieces. - 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1/4 cup white wine vinegar (in the coconut milk can). - 1/4 cup yogurt. Start off with some oil at med-high heat and add 2 onions, coarsely chopped. Cook until onion gets golden brown, and add1 tbsp ginger and 5 cloves garlic -- also coarsely chopped. This goes against the recipe, which calls for all three ingredients to be added at the start -- I find the garlic and ginger flavor dissipates that way... Also, the recipe calls for a 5 min cooking time, which is less than half the time it takes for the onion to get golden brown. Nearly EVERY cooking book I've used completely underestimates the cooking time like this. Are these recipes all created in the Iron Chef kitchen, where they have monstrous wok burners that put out the equivalent of an F-16 on afterburner? 5 minutes on medium high = golden brown onions, my ass! After 5-6 minutes, I add the ginger and garlic, and let it cook for a few more minutes. Now, once the onions are "golden brown" (or I guess that they would have been, if they were yellow onions), I add 3/4 cup tomato sauce, 1 tbsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1/4 tsp turmeric, and 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper -- all ground, bring it to a simmer, and leave it partially covered for 5 minutes. A thin film of oil is supposed to form on the surface. This is the sauce. Pop it in the blender, and return to the pan. Add 1 lb. chopped chicken breasts, and let cook for 5 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup white vinegar and 1/2 cup coconut milk, and cook until chicken is done. (Oops, I wanted to take the picture just after I added this, but I forgot, and stirred it in before taking the picture. Doh). Finally, whisk 1/4 cup plain nonfat (or regular) yogurt until it is smooth, mix it in, and let it warm up. The yogurt and coconut milk helps smooth out the sharp, bitter taste of the vinegar. Serve with rice, and/or nan bread of your choice. I really liked the result of this recipe. It was slightly hot, but certainly nowhere NEAR the typical English Vindaloo. Most importantly, it had a truly wonderful taste, even though the vinegar taste came on a bit too strong. So next time around, I'll go easier on the vinegar -- and make sure to have some yellow onions on hand. Edit: Murgh, not Mungh -- but can't change the subject, though...

Hi all, I am looking for a recipe to make panjiri. Any out there? I was advised to eat a little with lunch and dinner after delivery because of its restorative properties.

Pork Vindaloo In this Murgh Vindaloo thread, I learned a lot (particularly from Waaza) about the vindaloo. One of the things I learned is that it makes a lot more sense to do it with pork (which is how the dish was originally made). So here goes... The recipe: 1 lb pork cut into bite-sized pieces 1 tbsp ground coriander seeds 1 tsp fenugreek seeds ½ tsp cumin seeds 1 segment of star aniseed 5 garlic cloves 2" ginger 4 crushed/chopped dried red chilies ½ tsp ground turmeric Garam masala ¼ cup vinegar 1 tbsp oil 1. Roast coriander- fenugreek- cumin- and star aniseed seeds. I didn't roast them a lot. Also, I kinda screwed up with the star aniseed -- I just cut a segment off and roasted it, rather than removing the seed. I removed the seed later. 2. Grind them along with garlic, ginger and chilies. 3. Add turmeric, garam masala, vinegar and oil, grind some more. One thing I am worried about here, is that there are an awful lot of different spices mixed in here. I would prefer to be able to distinguish the different tastes, not so much because of the culinary experience, as much as I'd like to be able to tell if I've used too much or too little of a certain spice. Was going to use a blender to mix it together, but I opted to just stick with the mortar and pestle, rather than dirtying up another item. 4. Marinade with pork overnight. I used a vacuum marinade container, and marinated it about three hours, rather than overnight. The marinade isn't very liquid (but it was starting to smell really good at this point). After I removed the pork, you can see there is very little marinade left. 5. Finely chop 2 med yellow onions. I only had one onion, but it was a big one so I figured it'd be okay. However, the cooking process renders it down so much, I think I'll definitely use two the next time around. I'm pretty fond of chopping things with a normal chef's knife, but a proper mandolin makes short work of the "finely chopped" part of the recipe. I was originally planning on trying to dry the water from the onion, but part of the advice I got in the aforementioned thread said to just make sure to cook it as soon as I'd chopped it. And I made sure to not cut off too much from the end of the onions, since those bits contain a lot of good stuff that makes the onions sweet. 6. Cook onions over medium heat until golden, 15-20 minutes. Not quite golden after 13 minutes or so -- but I think the photo shows the color a little too pale. I turned the heat up to med-high towards the end, in anticipation of adding the meat. 7. Remove meat from marinade and cook it until browned. With Chinese stir-fry recipes, I'd normally brown the meat first, remove it from the wok, and put it back in after the onions were done -- I'm thinking this might be a good idea with this dish too. Because I think the one thing that marred this dish, was that the onions were slightly burned while the meat was browned. This process took about 15 minutes. 8. Reduce heat to low, add remaining marinade, cook until dry. There was just a tablespoon of marinade left, but I added it, and cooked it until dry. 9. Add ¼ cup water, cook until dry again This method of drying the dish out is apparently know as the bhuna stage -- or a bhuna cooking method, like stir-frying. 10. Add ¾ cup tomato sauce, simmer 10-15 min. Mix the tomato sauce in properly... Looking good -- the color is starting to look about right. Okay, that looks just about done. Just the right color. Serve over rice, and sprinkle with some parsley (I dunno how authentic that is, but the color looks good, hehe). Post-meal analysis: It was quite good, but there were two things I disliked. One, the meal left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth, which I believe is because I cooked the dish slightly too fast (a total of about 45 minutes), over slightly too high heat. Two, the meat wasn't very tender, which I think was caused by the shortened cooking time, or possibly because of a shortened marinade period (does vinegar tenderize meat the way citrus juices do?). I used a pork sirloin -- when braising cubed pork, I normally go for a cheaper cut. The good thing was that the nice vinegar flavor wasn't overpowering, as with the Murgh Vindaloo. But then again, I used a mild rice vinegar this time, rather than the red wine vinegar, that I think I used last time. Some conclusions -- Next time, I'll cook it slower, at lower temperatures. -- The Murgh Vindaloo dish (previously mentioned thread) tasted a bit more like the Vindaloos I tasted in Britain, but I think part of this may be that I overheated this pork dish. -- Cooked at this pace, the chicken would have been more tender, yet the vinegar wouldn't have been as overpowering (as in the last dish). -- When I first started eating curries in Rusholme, there were four "strengths": Mild, Medium, Madras and Vindaloo. I used to wish for a mild Vindaloo -- well, now I know there's such a thing. I'm not there just yet with the recipe, but I figure I can get there from here. Finally, a couple of questions: Ever heard about a dish called Phal? I came across it in Wokingham, and it was labeled as being stronger than a Vindaloo -- and it was. It was also very tasty, but so strong I could only eat about a third of it. This "Betty Crocker Indian Home Cooking: Recipes by Raghavan Iyer" book I've got has some good information on Vindaloo (about the Portuguese in Goa and vinegar), and it also mentions a dish called Sorpotel -- Pork in Cashews. It is also a pork and vinegar dish. Anyone familiar with this dish? Any comments, questions, and criticism welcome.

Hi all, I just build tandoor at home using 55 gal. drum, castable refractory, fire bricks & clay pot. I am new to this forum so I do not know how to post the pictures. you can contact me at schokshi@ford.com or you can post your inquiries here. I will be more than happy to share lessons learned during this project.

A few years ago, my roommate's mom brought a large container of homemade murukku when she came to visit. I'd never had murukku before, but was instantly hooked: her version was crunchy, light and nicely spiced. I'd sneak into the kitchen at night just to dip into that container. I've tried since then to locate a similar version in local Indian snack shops, but they've all been hard without any spices. My roommate promised me her mom's recipe, but, alas, I never got hold of it. Since then, I've printed out many recipes off the internet, but I have no idea which will make a similar version. I'm thinking that perhaps it had butter in it, since it was light, not heavy. It also must have had red pepper in it, since it was spicy. Can anyone help with locating a delicious, spiced murukku recipe? I picked up a mix that just contains various flours/ground beans in it, so I could possibly add butter, water and various spices and try that. Hilary

I'm sure this has been discussed, but following on Monica's excellent food blog I'm curious as to your overall preference: North Indian or South Indian? I am most definitely South, as I feel there's more variety, better presentation of the vegetable's natural taste and texture, and although I'm a carnivore I don't really find Indian meat dishes all that they're cracked up to be (save Vindaloo, Dhansak and the odd tandoori craving). South India totally redefined how I look at lentils, okra and coconut. And if the heat of it (I thought Andhra Pradesh would give me a heart attack) doesn't kill you it most certainly makes you stronger.

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?

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'm just beginning to venture beyond my preferences for American and French cuisine and exploring the cuisine of India. As a novice cook in terms of the variables and subtleties involved with Indian cooking, I thought I would start with just one ingredient-Lamb. I've been reading through At Home with Madhur Jaffrey as a reference to my introduction to Indian cookery. I started with Jaffrey's recipe for "Punjabi Lamb Kebabs." While staying fairly true to the recipe, I substituted rack of lamb for the boneless lamb meat called for in the recipe. I couldn't find, (nor did I take the time to make), the mustard oil called for in the recipe so I used a combination of Chinese Chili Oil, Sesame Seed Oil and Olive oil. And due to the cold, wet weather in the Northwest today, I wasn't able to barbecue on the outdoor grill like I wanted, so I used the recipe suggestion of broiling the meat. The rack of lamb was marinated overnight in a mixture of yogurt, the three oils, salt, garlic, ginger, garam masala and I added some curry powder and an incredibly fragrant Ras el hanout mix I bought yesterday. To accompany the lamb I made some pickled red onions and served them on a bed of sliced cucumber. And a simple steamed basmati rice seasoned with saffron, tumeric and cumin. I welcome your suggestions and discussion on how you like to prepare Indian-style lamb.

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

@ 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'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?

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 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?

I'd like to know if a masala dabba translates out of Indian spices . . . I have two kitchens, and in one I have an old ironing board closet (about two inches deep, one foot wide, and tall as a regular closet) that I've converted into a spice rack. This stays dark, and inside I have a large set of spice jars, clear glass, that I keep spices in. For the second kitchen, I had a small spice rack on the counter with glass jars. I found that the exposure to light weakened the spices and I wanted to try a masala dabba, since I can bring it to the stove and change what I have in the box as the seasons change. I put a combination of Indian and non-Indian spices in there, for the most part -- mustard powder, chili powder, turmeric, cumin, basil, oregano, thyme. I realize this is a risk, and because the spices aren't individually covered, may weaken and blend. I am assuming the blending is a good thing for Indian cooking with it's spice mixtures, but maybe a bad thing for the thyme . . . I've just started it, and overall the aroma is intoxicating, but I haven't tried cooking with the individual spices yet to find out if my spaghetti sauce is going to taste like mustard. Can anyone who is using a masala dabba advise? Thank you!

Every now and again I come across a recipe that is awesome. It started with a discovery in my local South Indian take away near work. This is a true South Indian place, not your usual run of the mill Indian restaurant which we get around here. In the bain marie was a red, slightly oily, dry spiced chicken dish scattered with onions and green coriander. A dish with no name. I asked what it was, and they replied it was "spicy chicken". I bought some and I was hooked. It was obviously a favorite of patrons as there was never a day when this dish was not in the bain marie and it sold out quickly. Here is my take on that recipe, which I believe is called Double Chilli Chicken. Apologies in advance, but I dont work to quantities when cooking. Hopefully you can make your own judgement but just ask if you want more clarification. The ingredients you will need are: - oil or ghee (mustard oil if my wife is giving me grief over health, ghee for best flavor) - Chicken mini drumsticks (about 1kg) - About 3 brown onions, cut in half and then sliced (red onions would be better, but I only had one for garnish) - Salt - About 20 curry leaves - Sliced ginger - Sliced garlic - 10 to 15 whole dried chillies (I remove most of the seeds) - Ground dried chilli powder (medium hot) - Ground coriander - Ground black pepper - Jaggery or Palm Sugar - Lime juice - Chopped fresh coriander for garnish - Chopped red onion for garnish I start with a heavy base fry-pan that has a fitted lid and add the ghee. Choose a dried whole chilli of your liking and remove most of the seeds, as they can burn and become bitter. Saute your dried chillies in the ghee for a few minutes You will notice they start to darken quickly Don't let them burn, but take them a bit darker than shown in the photo above and then remove into a spare bowl to cool with a slotted spoon. You can leave the ghee and seeds. Quickly add the onions to stop the remaining seeds from burning. Add salt to help the onions cook. I should have also added the curry leaves to the oil first, but I forgot so I added them later. As the onions soften on the heat, finely julienne some fresh ginger and slice some garlic. Exact quantities dont matter so adjust to your preference. Add the garlic, ginger and chillies to the pan once the onions soften and take on some colour After a few minutes of cooking out the garlic and ginger, add the ground coriander and chilli powder. Again, exact quantities don't really matter but I used about 1 Tablespoon of each. What matters more is the quality of the ground powders. The coriander is ground in my coffee grinder just before use, and I make my own chilli powder from dried Spanish Padron chillies I grow each summer. If you can, always make your own ground spices. For the ground chilli powder, remove the seeds before grinding as you will get a redder product. A quick word on chillies : There are hundreds of varieties, but I choose the Spanish Padron due to the balance between heat and flavour. I want an intense chilli flavour without searing blow your head off heat, and this chilli has that right balance. Stir the powders into the onions and cook for a few minutes. Add the chicken and arrange such that the chicken has good contact with the bottom of the pan. We need this to get the meat to release its own moisture, which is what makes the sauce and prevent the dish from burning Cover with a lid and lower the heat. After 5 minutes you should notice some liquid from the chicken. This increases to a maximum around 15 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes but don't remove the lid until 15 minutes have elapsed. While the chicken is cooking, prepare some jaggery or palm sugar and squeeze the juice out of one lime. After 15 minutes of cooking with the lid on, remove the lid, add the jaggery and lime juice, and now increase the heat. What we are going to do is evaporate the remaining liquid and turn it into an awesome sauce that sticks to the chicken. For another 10 minutes, you will need to pay careful attention to ensure the dish does not stick and burn. You need high heat to help caramelize the sauce and constant movement. Taste for seasoning. Add extra salt, lime juice and heaps of black pepper. Prepare some slived red onions for garnish. And some roughly chopped green coriander. This stuff grows like a weed in my garden as I let the kids loose with the seeds and they scatter them far and wide! Serve the chicken on a bed of steamed basmati rice And garnish with onion and coriander. Serve and enjoy with a glass of cold beer. Awesome stuff! Cheers Luke

In books on Indian cuisine and forums, where chillies are used, it is more usual not to mention which type of chilli is recommended. Is this because it really doesn't matter? or the originator hasn't given it much thought? So, do you use specific varieties, and if so which ones? or do you use just whatever you can get hold of. I am particularly interested in uses in the Indian sub-continent rather than the US, but would welcome input from all over. I understand that the nams of the varieties is going to be a problem depending on where you are, but I'll have to sort that one out. Thanks cheers Waaza

Ghee is the purest form of fat made from butter. It is mentioned prominently in the ancient Hindu scriptures. These texts have been dates back to at least 5000BC. Ghee is clarified butter made from the milk of cows and buffaloes in India. Ghee made from cows milk is called Bariya ghee (great ghee) or even Usli Ghee (real ghee) In days past when refrigeration was not available, ghee was the way milk and butter were kept from spoiling. Some Indians, break the norm and prefer using buffalo milk for it keeps the ghee from turning less and the end product is also lighter in color and less smelly.

I have come back after eating Alfonsos in Bombay.... Wow... they were perfect... and now I feel like I will be without mangoes for another year... till I am back in India. I never waste my time anymore looking for mangoes. Have tried many times. The mangoes are not even close to all those I grew up eating. What do I do... I have given up. Shall I be trying any? Where does one get them? How are they?

I bought a flat of Mangos at a Vietnamese market today, intending to do some ice cream, sorbet and any other kind of frozen dessert possible in my freezer-bowl type ice cream machine. So I am looking for recipes for those, of course. But what else can I do with mangos? What are your favorites?

As a slight diversion from these smelly issues, even if Indian food can leave overpowering smells, perhaps it could be forgiven because the country has also produced another overpowering aroma that no one could object to. I went to Crawford Market in my lunch break and the sheds on the side were full of guys unpacking the crates of Alphonso mangoes that had come fresh from the Konkan. The smell inside, at noon on a hot Bombay summer's day was almost intoxicating - a huge hot sweet aroma of mangoes and the hay they were packed in. I was trying to resist buying alphonsoes on grounds of general poverty, but one whiff and I'd bought six! Vikram