# Cooking Indian food at home **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 3, 2009, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798 "2009-04-03T02:04:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/21 "2009-04-03T15:13:24Z")
> [@lee](#): > > I recall Pratchett’s translation of Vindaloo is “Spicy, hot gristle for the macho foreigner” but all the same, I love it. Vindaloo is most certainly eaten by Indians (at least the ones I know), but it’s a highly regional dish primarily eaten in Goa (the ultimate derivation of vindaloo comes from the name of a Portuguese dish). The nice thing about vindaloo isn’t so much the heat – you could make it less spicy if you’d like – it’s that sweet-and-sour combination. I didn’t have it around, but you could also put tamarind paste in the vindaloo masala. If you have coconut vinegar, use that in your paste instead of regular vinegar. The “macho white people” dish is tindaloo, which, as far as I understand, was created in Britain for those for whom vindaloo wasn’t spicy enough. There’s another dish called phall, which is also hotter than vindaloo, and is often touted as India’s hottest curry. Wikipedia claims it also originates in Southern India, but I don’t know whether it’s really a South Indian dish, or perhaps just an obscure dish that gained popularity among heat lovers in Britain, or, like tindaloo, just a British-Indian invention. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/22 "2009-04-03T15:16:16Z")
I am absolutely convinced that Indian restaurants use some special secret ingredient that they’re refusing to share with the rest of us. My wife and I are decent cooks, and we’ve tried I don’t know how many dozens of recipes, and they all of them turn out good, but just…not…quite…there somehow. Not like at the restaurants. More accurately, not like our one and only favorite restaurant that’s now 3,000 miles away. We have two local places - one’s barely adequate, and the other is horrific. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/23 "2009-04-03T15:16:19Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > People may like to big-note and say that they can do it better but I can assure you that most Indian restaurants in England have kitchens full of commercial size cans of Patak’s curry pastes. It’s the same here. Most Indian places will use some brand of prepared curry paste as the base of their sauces. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/24 "2009-04-03T15:27:52Z")
That potatoes comment is cute. Indian flatbread is not baked, it’s stovetop only. You really need a tawa, or a griddle, but I have a flat nonstick pan I use. You make the flour…oh boy. Hmm. Well, I usually use two cups of flour. I add two spoonfuls of cumin powder and two tablespoons of oil but I don’t really know how much water I use. I fill up a cup and keep adding it and kneading it till it’s the right texture. The right texture is, it should be a firm ball of dough, sticking to itself but not to anything else. More solid than pizza dough. Best thing to do is refridgerate the dough for at least half an hour. Then you can go one of two ways. Either make rotis, which are healthier: You roll the dough into little balls and then roll them out in a circular shape with a rolling pin. You cook them on the griddle with just a dab of oil and when you see one side browning, flip them. Eventually they should puff up nicely and then brown lightly on both sides. OR you can make prontis, which are less healthy but oh-so-yummy. They are stuffed, so first you have to make the stuffing. My favorite stuffings are: 1. just a mix of spices, as you like it. 2. Potatoes, boiled, mashed, and heavily seasoned to taste. 3. Mooli, or what is known in English as daikkon, shredded, with as much water as possible squeezed out of it (you may need to ask your husband to do this, it is hard to grip that tightly!) and heavily seasoned to taste. 4. And my guilty pleasure, sugar. People also use cabbage or cauliflower. I hate cauliflower. Ok. So you roll the dough out into little balls. Then, you flatten the balls. So you have about a couple of inches square piece of dough. In this you put a tiny bit of oil or ghee, enough to coat the dough. Then you put in your filling, whatever it might be. You fold the dough over until it all sealed. You can use a tiny bit of oil to seal it shut. Then roll it out until you have a sort of square piece of stuffed bread. Then you fry this lightly in oil or ghee. This should not puff up, obviously. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo delish. Rotis go with a regular meal. Prontis go with yogurt to counteract the spice, or some butter, or some achar - pickled mango or lime. Yum! ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/25 "2009-04-03T15:31:57Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > I am absolutely convinced that Indian restaurants use some special secret ingredient that they’re refusing to share with the rest of us. My wife and I are decent cooks, and we’ve tried I don’t know how many dozens of recipes, and they all of them turn out good, but just…not…quite…there somehow. Not like at the restaurants. More accurately, not like our one and only favorite restaurant that’s now 3,000 miles away. We have two local places - one’s barely adequate, and the other is horrific. > > Sigh. Sorry about the double-post, but I’ll tell you why the restaurants taste better. Because they don’t bother with any health-conscious choices. They use heavy cream instead of light, lots of yogurt, lots of oil, ghee instead of oil wherever they can, and just go whole-hog. Whereas in our kitchens we’re like…ok a little less oil, and maybe we’ll go easy on the cream…etc. don’t ask, I don’t even particularly like chopping up onions. For some reason they really affect me, with severely runny eyes and nose, until I can’t see, and it stings/hurts for up to an hour afterwards. I hate onions but the food isn’t the same without. Sigh. I can make do all right with the powder though. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/26 "2009-04-03T15:37:48Z")
I’m with Anaamika on this one. Restaurants and pre-made sauces use a lot more butter and cream that you really need. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/27 "2009-04-03T15:39:30Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > don’t ask, I don’t even particularly like chopping up onions. For some reason they really affect me, with severely runny eyes and nose, until I can’t see, and it stings/hurts for up to an hour afterwards. I hate onions but the food isn’t the same without. Sigh. I can make do all right with the powder though. If it’s prep you hate in Australia, at least, you can buy bags of [frozen diced onions](http://ezyshop.com.au/documents/photosmall/09310081402640.jpg) at any supermarket. Surely they are available elsewhere. When you take them out of the bag, because they are frozen - no eye problems. Just grab a handle and toss in the pan. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/28 "2009-04-03T15:41:37Z")
I’ve seen diced onions in the produce section here. Not frozen, but very convenient. I also suffer from chopping onions. You know, if you chill onions in the refrigerator before chopping them, that takes away most of the pain. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/29 "2009-04-03T15:42:39Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > I’m with Anaamika on this one. Restaurants and pre-made sauces use a lot more butter and cream that you really need. I was reading the back of a mutton biryani spice mix box the other day, and the recipe given asked for 1 1/2 CUPS of oil for 750g of mutton. :eek: Oil is important to properly distribute the flavors of the spices (as many are oil-soluble and not water-soluble), but a cup and a half was pushing it for my arteries. (And, no, the oil didn’t get dumped or drained along the way in the recipe.) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/30 "2009-04-03T15:43:40Z")
Yeah, you only need a tablespoon or so to do their magic on the onions. ---
**Author:** ![mutantmoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@mutantmoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mutantmoose)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/31 "2009-04-03T15:58:28Z")
> [@](#): > > I am absolutely convinced that Indian restaurants use some special secret ingredient that they’re refusing to share with the rest of us. My wife and I are decent cooks, and we’ve tried I don’t know how many dozens of recipes, and they all of them turn out good, but just…not…quite…there somehow. Not like at the restaurants. > [@](#): > > but I’ll tell you why the restaurants taste better. Because they don’t bother with any health-conscious choices. They use heavy cream instead of light, lots of yogurt, lots of oil, ghee instead of oil wherever they can, and just go whole-hog. There’s a couple of other factors involved as well. The secret of a good curry is the gravy and to make the gravy some do actually use secret recipes. But generally, in a restaurant, they take a huge pot and fill it with all kinds of vegetables - onions, carrots, green peppers and others. Then they boil it for ages, then they blend it all down using a huge blender. Then boil it, then blend it again and so on. Until you’re left with a big pot of vegetable mush. People don’t tend to do this at home - they just add chopped vegetables to the pan as they’re frying. Another factor is the restaurants marinade the chicken (or whatever) overnight in … well in a marinade (can’t remember what they put in that exactly). So by the time they come to actually make the curry they are already using weapons grade gravy and pre-marinaded chicken that has soaked up flavour overnight. They aren’t just knocking it all together there and then from scratch like people at home do. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/32 "2009-04-03T15:58:33Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > I’m with Anaamika on this one. Restaurants and pre-made sauces use a lot more butter and cream that you really need. Woohoo! I always feel vindicated when you agree with me. Probably from years of being told I’m not a “real” Indian because I’m an NRI. :rolleyes: As for the onions, I hadn’t thought of looking for pre-diced ones. Not a bad thought. I do keep them in the fridge already but they still bother me pretty bad. (I am pretty sure it’s just me because it doesn’t bother my SO as much but you know…I always wonder who the hell was that thought these would be a good thing to eat. I mean, when you bite them raw, AGH!) My dad used to make this chicken to die for when I was a kid. He only made it when mom worked the night shift and it would be swimming in oil. But it was oh so gooooooood. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/33 "2009-04-03T16:06:17Z")
Well, I must disagree that not using the oil and cream and ghee and salt as much are better for your health. I find that if I cook without skimping on these, I will eat less and feel more satisfied. I know my great-grandmothers did not think about such things and three of four of them lived until 89. I would be very surprised to find my favorite Indian restaurant were using jarred sauces because their dishes always seem to have their own distinct flavor and it is quite different than the other Indian restaurants I have been to. ---
**Author:** ![MN\_Maenad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e95f7d/32.png) [@MN\_Maenad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MN_Maenad)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/34 "2009-04-03T16:41:04Z")
> [@lee](#): > > I would be very surprised to find my favorite Indian restaurant were using jarred sauces because their dishes always seem to have their own distinct flavor and it is quite different than the other Indian restaurants I have been to. I wonder how much of that is like [wok hei](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok#Wok_hei) with Chinese food. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/35 "2009-04-03T16:58:39Z")
> [@lee](#): > > I know my great-grandmothers did not think about such things and three of four of them lived until 89. Well, to be fair, they probably lived a more physical lifestyle where the extra calories were likely to be needed and burnt. That said, I agree with your main point. Use all the fat and cream you want, just eat a little less (although I prefer the non-creamy Indian dishes or ones with yogurt.) ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/36 "2009-04-03T17:03:07Z")
I agree with part of lee’s point, too - and I think that is also helped with the spicy food. I find I eat less when it’s really spicy. But I still do see that exact behavior in myself - cooking it healthier, that is - and others. ---
**Author:** ![Ceejaytee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ceejaytee/32/2956_2.png) [@Ceejaytee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ceejaytee)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/37 "2009-04-03T18:51:21Z")
I have both Madhur Jaffrey’s book and Julie Sahni’s. Both are excellent. I once tried to make a dish from Sahni’s book, cutting down on the enormous amount of oil it took, but it wasn’t very good. The same dish, made again exactly as specified, was all kinds of awesome. If I’m going to make Indian food, I now know not to skimp on the ingredients. Hmm. Indian food this weekend? Time to break out the books. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/38 "2009-04-03T18:52:30Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > \ > Oh and for people who don’t like onion but want to stick to recipes - slow cook a batch of sliced onions until soft and puree the results. You can freeze it and add it as required and it is much milder. How do you slow cook them? ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/39 "2009-04-03T19:17:46Z")
> [@lee](#): > > Please, post how to make Indian flatbread; I like to bake. _Namaste!_ Manjula [at your service](http://www.youtube.com/user/Manjulaskitchen). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798/40 "2009-04-03T20:47:59Z")
> [@lee](#): > > How do you slow cook them? Fry them over low heat. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooking-indian-food-at-home/491798.md?page=3)