One of the things that got us cooking in earnest was a desire to learn how to cook really good Indian food. We're still a long ways off (homestyle Indian food is a lifelong pursuit) but we've learned a lot about flavors, ingredients, and elements to help create Indian spice and savor in our meals.
As we work to become better at cooking without recipes, let's explore Indian food a little...
Like other Asian cuisines, Indian cooking has a wide range of styles and regional specialties and variations in flavor. Here are a few of the basics...
Ingredients and Herbs
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Onions
• Tamarind paste
• Chilies
• Mint
• Cilantro
• Coconut: Fresh and dried grated, as well as coconut milk
• Tomatoes
• Limes
• Spinach
• Nuts, especially cashews
• Milk, especially preserved as khoya
• Sugar or jaggery
For a wonderful tour of the spices used in a household Indian kitchen, as well as some good storage tips and ideas, check out this kitchen tour: Devesh and Tara's Spice Pantry.
Spices
• Black peppercorns
• Cloves
• Cinnamon
• Coriander
• Green and black cardamom
• White and black cumin
• Fenugreek
• Mustard seeds
• Turmeric
• Asofoetida
• Nutmeg
• Garam masala - a blend of the spices above. Make your own with this recipe.
Meal Basics
• Basmati rice
• Paneer (homemade cheese pressed into a firm tofu-like consistency)
• Homemade or storebought hot and sour pickles
• Ghee - clarified butter
• Lentils
• Beans such as chickpeas
• Potatoes
Recipes and tips based on these flavors
• Weekend Cooking: How to Make Curry
• Recipe: Butternut Squash & Coconut Curry
• Recipe: Lemon Rasam
• Recipe: Saffron Rice with Peas and Cashews
• The Hungry Reader: Rogan Josh in Interpreter of Maladies
• Recipe: D.I.Y. Mango Lassi
• Recipe: Indian-Roasted Cauliflower
• Quick Tip: How Do I Clarify Butter?
Your turn! What's left off? What are your favorite Indian recipes and dishes?
(Images: Sabra Krock and Faith Hopler)
Copyright © 2007 Apartment Therapy
Ooo Indian food! We've dabbled a bit since we too are huge fans of the cuisine. Paneer is fun to make - I forget which recipe we used but it boils down to curdling a gallon of milk with lemon juice, seasoning with ground cumin, then a series of cheesecloth pressings. It makes a small cake about the size of a standard brie. Difficult not to nibble on, too!
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I've recently started cooking Indian food. There's a cookbook called: 5 Spices, 50 Dishes: Simple Indian Recipes Using Five Common Spices
The 5-spices: coriander, cumin, mustard, cayenne, turmeric
I also like Indian Home Cooking by Suvir Saran and there are a lot of good recipes out on the web, too.
Sinec I eat a largely veg diet, I've been focusing on the dals(lentil) dishes and potato-cauliflower-spinach dishes. I feel like I'm having trouble getting the big spicy rich flavors that I've had at Indian restaurants. Last weekend, though, I roughly crushed some spices with mortar/pestle prior to cooking...and it seemed to help.
So more experiments to come...
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Star anise in the picture but not in the spices list?
Cardamom?
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curry leaves. if you won't use them up fresh, they freeze pretty well just in a plastic bag. dried red pepper. also yogurt, to make raita or to weaken a dish that turned out too spicy. gram flour for bajias. okra is a great vegetable for indian food; i especially like to stir fry (un-cut) it with spices, fresh ginger, and very little oil, and finish with a bit of brown sugar and lemon juice.
the best indian cookbook i have is actually the no-name "Indian" one from borders. not sure if they're still making it, but it's great, once you avoid the obviously terrible english ideas (like anything involving potato chip sticks).
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