# I need a recipe for Indian Food, please. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 5, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694 "2010-09-05T16:33:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Siddhartha\_Vicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Siddhartha\_Vicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siddhartha_Vicious)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/1 "2010-09-05T16:33:23Z")
I just recently discovered that Indian food is amazing. I grew up in a small town out west, and had certain fixed ideas about food. Frankly, Mexican was as exotic as we ever got. But about a month ago, my wife made me take her to an Indian restaurant, and I absolutely loved it. The next weekend, I made butter chicken, and actually cooked up naan on the grill, and it was fantastic. My problem is, I don’t really know Indian food. I want to make some more (read: my wife is making me make some more) tonight, but I don’t know what to make. Any ideas or links for recipes? And is garam marsala necessary, or will the curry powder I bought do instead? Couldn’t find garam marsala at the nearest grocery store, and the only one that I think might have it is 20 miles away. Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/2 "2010-09-05T16:51:20Z")
mmmmmm curry mmmmmmmmm ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/3 "2010-09-05T17:01:00Z")
AFAIK, curry powder isn’t actually a spice mix used in India, while garam masala (which is totally delicious) is. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/4 "2010-09-05T17:06:28Z")
If you want to make Indian food tonight and don’t want to drive 20 miles, then use store bought curry powder. But please do yourself a favor and buy the necessary spices to make your own in the future. It will be worth it. Note that there is really no ‘recipe’ for curry powder. It’s sort of like chili, in that every cook will have their own blend. But I’ve found [Alton Brown’s curry powder](http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=289849) to be a good place to start. I don’t have a recipe to give you, but I do have a cookbook recommendation: [Classic Indian Cooking](http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Indian-Cooking-Julie-Sahni/dp/0688037216/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283706134&sr=8-1-spell) by Julie Sahni. It’s sort of half recipe book, half textbook. Not only does it tell you \*\*what \*\*to cook, and \*\*how \*\*to cook it, it will help you understand \*\*why \*\*you’re doing what you’re doing. ---
**Author:** ![Vision\_of\_Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Vision\_of\_Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vision_of_Love)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/5 "2010-09-05T18:30:22Z")
Ah, Indian food! If I had to choose to have food from only one country for the rest of my life… It would be either Indian or Italian. Lately I’ve been leaning more towards the former. What amazes me about Indian food is how well they make savoury vegetarian dishes. Honestly, I could eat at an Indian buffet, eat only vegetarian and not miss meat. My favourite Indian dish is actually not even the popular butter chicken, but palak paneer, which is finely shredded/pureed spinach with paneer cubes. Paneer is Indian cottage cheese. Do yourself a favour and try any dish with paneer in it: palak paneer, mutter paneer, saag paneer, etc. I am salivating just thinking about it right now. By the way… I’m surprised that you’d just discovered Indian food with a username like yours! ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/6 "2010-09-05T18:49:34Z")
Making paneer at home is [very easy](http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/paneer-home-made/Detail.aspx). I don’t add the sugar, and squeeze out extra liquid by putting a plate with something heavy (like several soup cans) on top of it. Texture wise paneer is a lot like firm tofu or feta cheese, rather than what we in the US think of as “cottage cheese.” ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/7 "2010-09-05T19:09:21Z")
[Youtube user Titli Nihaan](http://www.youtube.com/user/TitliNihaan) has lots and lots of Indian and Moroccan recipes (plus some British and other stuff). Most of them are easy to make, and she’s funny too. WRT spices: get as much as you can in whole form (not ground). Pretty much all spices keep their taste much better whole. For Indian food (especially curries), you want to have at least cumin and coriander seeds, turmeric, cinnamon and chili powder, and fresh ginger if at all possible. That should get you through most dishes wrt “exotic” seasonings. You can probably get most of that in a regular supermarket, even if just in powder form. Garam marsala is useful stuff but you can get a long way by grinding some of the aforementioned spices and maybe a clove. ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/8 "2010-09-05T19:11:53Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I don’t have a recipe to give you, but I do have a cookbook recommendation: [Classic Indian Cooking](http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Indian-Cooking-Julie-Sahni/dp/0688037216/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283706134&sr=8-1-spell) by Julie Sahni. It’s sort of half recipe book, half textbook. Not only does it tell you \*\*what \*\*to cook, and \*\*how \*\*to cook it, it will help you understand \*\*why \*\*you’re doing what you’re doing. +1 for this cookbook. My wife uses it for Indian recipes and they are AMAZING. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/9 "2010-09-05T21:25:16Z")
better make that +2, seeing as how I just ordered a copy. Thanks for the recommendation, **SP**! ---
**Author:** ![Siddhartha\_Vicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Siddhartha\_Vicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siddhartha_Vicious)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/10 "2010-09-05T22:22:07Z")
Just ordered it myself. Thanks for the advice, all. And I’ve never tried Indian food because I assumed I’d hate it. Why? I have absolutely no good reason for that. ---
**Author:** ![cuberdon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/45deac/32.png) [@cuberdon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuberdon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/11 "2010-09-06T01:16:40Z")
This site has lots of user recipes: [http://food.sify.com/](http://food.sify.com/) Warning, the search function has quite a bit of room for improvement. [Epicurious.com](http://Epicurious.com) also has some Indian recipes. Click on the international link, then Indian. And do get some garam masala if you can. It is available online from both Penzey’s and Spicely. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2010, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/12 "2010-09-06T09:59:10Z")
As a Brit, I’ve spent a lifetime eating Indian food and LOVE it. I’m also a pretty good cook but do struggle to recreate dishes at home - they never quite hit the mark what I can get eating out. I’ve identified that one of the reasons for this is that I don’t cook with ghee, which is hugely fattening but pretty much essential to authentic indian cookery. If you can’t get hold of it, you could make it - it’s clarified butter, which you can make at home. As for garam masala, it’s simply a blend of spices and, again, you can make your own with the right spices in your store cupboard. [Here](http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/garammasala_90213)is a recipe from the Queen of Curry Madhur Jaffray. I find that if you stock your spice rack with the following, you’ll be set to make pretty much any type of indian food: Chilli powder Mustard seeds Cardomon seeds Cumin seeds Coriander seeds Ginger Saffron Turmeric Fenugreek Cloves Cinnamon Nutmeg Peppercorns Star Anise This may sound like a lot, but once you’ve got them, you’ll be set up for any occasion. For rice, always always use Basmati - it’s the king of rice, and is the standard for indian food. The flavour really is different from any other variety. Easy Cook just doesn’t cut it. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2010, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/13 "2010-09-06T10:23:21Z")
[Chana masala](http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishentreerecipes/r/ChanaMasala.htm). Simple, fast, healthy, delicious. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2010, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/14 "2010-09-06T10:26:47Z")
Don’t forget the asafoetida! ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2010, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/15 "2010-09-06T12:15:39Z")
[Chicken Tikka Masala](http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Tikka-Masala/Detail.aspx). Look at the reviews also - they usually come up with good modifications. For example, I follow the suggestions to use garam masala (if you can find it - I make my own, although there are local Indian grocery stores where I can buy it). ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2010, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/16 "2010-09-06T12:19:01Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > [Chicken Tikka Masala](http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Tikka-Masala/Detail.aspx). Look at the reviews also - they usually come up with good modifications. Although, to be fair, this is about as British as fish and chips. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2010, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/17 "2010-09-06T12:31:28Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > > [@amarone](#): > > > > [Chicken Tikka Masala](http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Tikka-Masala/Detail.aspx). Look at the reviews also - they usually come up with good modifications. > > Although, to be fair, this is about as British as fish and chips. Quite likely, but it is also the type of food served in Indian restaurants in the US, so is likely the type of thing that the OP has recently experienced and decided he likes. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2010, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/18 "2010-09-06T12:32:44Z")
Patak’s curry paste. Way better than any powdered curry spice. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/19 "2010-09-07T13:56:02Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > [Chicken Tikka Masala](http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Tikka-Masala/Detail.aspx). Look at the reviews also - they usually come up with good modifications. For example, I follow the suggestions to use garam masala (if you can find it - I make my own, although there are local Indian grocery stores where I can buy it). I had some chicken breasts I couldn’t decide what to do with last night, so after reading this thread I decided to make the Tikka Masala. Oh, my god! So good. Thanks for posting that. ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694/20 "2010-09-07T16:53:30Z")
We’ve had good luck with all of the Indian recipes from [Allrecipes.com](http://Allrecipes.com) that we’ve tried. Luckily for us, we have a Patel Brothers location about 10 minutes from us, so we can get large quantities of good spices dirt cheap. I think I spent $3 on 300g of turmeric last time I was there. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-recipe-for-indian-food-please/552694.md?page=2)