Indian cooking
While in Houston, I discovered that I like the taste of homecooked Indian food, so I said I would learn how to cook it in California. My mom donated one Indian cook book she got from a friend at work, I bought another one, and at the same time got a book on curries which was on sale (and yes, I do know that not all curries are Indian). Recently I also found another excellent resource, in the form of a blog on indian cooking. That should be enough to get me started.
Today, I made my first trip to the ‘local’ Indian grocery. I say ‘local’ for two reasons. First because it is only 3.46 miles away, but I had to walk… that was an informative three hour roundtrip: now I know I walk on average about 2 mph. And second, because it is actually in San Gabriel, not Pasadena. Since I couldn’t settle on a particular recipe to get ingredients for, and I realized how far I’d have to tow my purchases, I got what exotic ingredients I remembered are used in a range of recipes: ghee, asafatida, garam masala, paneer, citric acid, fresh mint, and ginger (ok, so the last three aren’t exotic). I was disappointed that there weren’t any fresh breads available– this wasn’t surprising, given that the entire grocery is (efficiently) packed into a single storefront in a strip mall– but I got frozen stuff naan and parathas.While there, I also drank a glass of lychee juice out of curiousity: a friend had once taken me to a Vietnamese restaurant in Houston, and I remembered declining a lychee flavored ice-cream– this seemed a less risky way to try the fruit out for the first time. The taste was somewhere between lemonade and soursop. Is lychee common in India?
Now I’m trying to decide what recipe(s) I should attempt first. The more modern book, although it claims to be practical, is annoying in that it assumes you have fresh peppercorns and fresh cardamon pods and a spice grinder, etc. in the interesting recipes. The directions in the older book are amusingly vague, e.g. ‘cook’ instead of ‘fry’ or ’sautee’ or even ‘bake’.
I’m tempted to look for one of those simple 5 ingredient recipes in my slow cooker book, add garam masala, asafetida, and paneer indiscriminately and call the result Indian food.
As an interesting aside, I discovered that Jains and Hindu Brahmans use asafetida in place of garlic and onion because those are forbidden to them. Why is that?
Possibly relevant posts:
- A daring dietary proposition (9/8/2008)
- Bajan Food Part I: Sweets (11/3/2008)
- Goat cheese, arugula, and chorizo (9/14/2008)
From an Indian who does not cook:
Great to know that you are trying out Indian cooking.
1. Lychees are a common summer fruit in India. Bottled lychee juice costs about twice as much (per unit volume) as coca-cola.
2. The taboo on onions and garlic is as irrational as any other food taboo: it is claimed that these foods excite the passions, dull the mind and are therefore unsuitable for those trying to lead a virtuous life.
3. From watching others cook, I think that the direction to ‘cook’ might mean: “keep vessel on flame and stir occassionally”.
4. Recipe recommendation: biryani
Comment by AnonEcon — 9/14/2006 @ 2:14 am
The recipe sounds delicious, and the website let me scale it way down! Isn’t this more of a pilaf– I thought biryanis are layered and baked?
Comment by Alex — 9/14/2006 @ 11:21 am
You are right about the layering: I somehow did not notice that this recipe was mixing up the chicken and the rice. In traditional biryani you put down alternate layers of parboiled rice and meat cooked with spices and cook in a closed vessel over an open flame. Though microwaving works well too.
Comment by AnonEcon — 9/14/2006 @ 9:57 pm
Not sure if this would help…but you can buy Indian groceries online as well. This will save you a trip to your grocery store, and their prices are very comparable. Its at http://www.spicyusa.com. They carry fresh breads like chappatis as well. Anyways, hope this helps!
Comment by Anon — 9/14/2006 @ 11:44 pm
Thanks for the link to the grocer; that’ll save me some looking. Any idea how long it takes to get an order?
Comment by Alex — 9/16/2006 @ 12:32 pm
From what I know, onions and garlic are forbidden because they are root vegetables, they are considered to be alive, in that they will sprout and grow if left alone. This is why people who are forbidden meat by religion are also forbidden onion and garlic.
On another note: lychees. I would not say it is a very common fruit. We would eat in during the summer in Bombay (it was still quite expensive and not the easiest fruit to find). I have never seen lychees in the small town where I grew up. What a delicious fruit…one of my very favorites!
Comment by Nupur — 10/1/2006 @ 1:40 pm
Hi!
From an Indian who loves to cook - go easy on the garam masala in the beginning, it’ll take a bit of getting used to.
The garam masla is not like chili powder - it won’t set your tongue aflame at the onset, but the combination of peppercorns, cloves,cardamon,cinnanmon is hot and you’ll feel the heat at the back of your throat and in your tummy.
Typically 1/8th to 1/4th of a tsp of garam masala (in combination with red chili powder or green chilies) should suffice for a dish to serve 2.
You can try Paneer Masala :
1 cup cubed paneer
1 chopped onion
1 chopped tomato
1/8 tsp garam masala
2in piece of ginger,slivered or 1 in piece peeled and minced
2 cloves of garlic,minced
1/8 tsp red chili/cayenne pepper powder
salt to taste
1 1/2 tbsp ghee
Heat 1/2 tbsp ghee in a skillet. Add the paneer cubes and saute them gently(to prevent them from breaking) till they turn golden-brown.
Remove from skillet and set aside.
There could be some splattering,due to the moisture in the paneer,so keep a lid handy.
In the same skillet,heat the remaining ghee,add a pinch of asafoetida,chopped onion and garlic and saute unitl the onion is golden-brown.
Then add the ginger,garam masala and the red chili powder.
Saute until spices are roasted and fragrant.
Add the tomatoes and stir until all ingredients come together.
Add a 1/4 cup of water and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
Season with salt. Stir in the paneer cubes gently.
Cover and simmer for 2 mins.
Garnish with chopped cilantro (optional)
Enjoy the paneer masala with naan/rotis.
You can add more tomatoes and onions to make a gravy that can be served with rice.
Remember to increase the rest of the spices in proportion.
You can substitute paneer with mushrooms,mixed veggies or chicken/turkey.
You can pick up little black mustard seeds on your next visit.
Adding some of these to the oil/ghee at the very beginning gives a lovely smoky flavor.
Comment by Aditi — 10/2/2006 @ 10:01 am
Wow, thanks for the recipe Aditi. I’m going to give it a try with rice.
Comment by Alex — 10/2/2006 @ 10:48 am
About Jains not eating onion,garlic - one of their religous doctrines states that it is a sin to injure/kill any living being hence they do not eat meat/seafood, and avoid eating root vegetables like onions,garlic,beetroots etc.
Comment by Aditi — 10/2/2006 @ 12:49 pm
How did you get on? I’ve just started a blog on the basics of Indian cooking to get people like to start up. I’d be really interested to hear about your experience of Indian cooking.
Comment by Mallika — 10/26/2006 @ 4:19 am
Hey,
I know I am responding to an old post, so I am not sure you will see this, but I just moved to Pasadena from upstate new york, and since I really like cooking indian (and thai) food, and the grocery stores here seem to have very sad excused for international aisles… Where have you been buying your indian ingredients? You mentioned that there is a place in San Gabriel, could you tell me what it is called (google seems to be failing me, everywhere it finds is pretty far away)?
Comment by John — 8/11/2007 @ 4:51 pm