Very well organized and very well attended I must say. There was dancing, craft booths, and of course food.
I’ve not had much Indian food but I liked the items I tried. While there were entree style foods I tried mostly snack type foods and loved them all. I’m a carnivore at heart but with the vegetarian items I had I could live happily. There were stuffed pastries of various sorts and portions of sweet foods too. One had coconut and was colored in lovely pastels. It looked cakelike but when I bit into it it was very moist, almost juicy.
I asked around the booths and nobody seemed to have thought of publishing a cookbook, although several seemed to think it was a good idea. So I’m asking Dopers who know Indian food, can you recommend a good Indian cookbook for me? I never met a cuisine I didn’t like. I’m looking for homestyle food, or recipes that wouldn’t be too hard for a novice.
I’m an experienced cook and baker, and don’t have trouble following instructions. And I have no problem with metric measures, in fact I prefer them, and to measure ingredients by weight.
Other local ethnic groups that have festivals, like the Germans, the Hispanics, the folks at the Orthodox church, have printed books. I hope the Indians will too, but until then I need help from my fellow Dopers.
It’s as much a reference book on Indian cooking as it is a cookbook. It has plenty of recipes, but not only will it tell you *how *to cook the dishes, it will tell you *why *you should be cooking them that way.
Julie Sahni’s Classic Indian Cooking is just what it says, and a pretty thick tome as well. It has a rather “old” cookbook feeling compared to many more recently-written works.
Just about anything by Madhur Jaffrey is fabulous. Maybe start with her Quick & Easy Indian Cooking if you’re feeling nervous. She doesn’t skimp on the number of spices to put in, but does simplify things for the novice cook.
For a combination of healthy classic Indian dishes (since they often contain a lot of ghee or other fats) and healthy more Americanized Indian-flavored foods, Bal Arneson’s Everyday Indian is really good.
If you have a slow cooker, there’s Anupy Singla’s Indian Slow Cooker. This one has a ton of vegetarian recipes (but not all), and you should probably gently brown the spices in a little oil or butter before putting them in the slow cooker, if the recipe leaves that step out.
Thank you both! I will definitely check out the Classic Indian Cooking book, it sounds splendid. So do the others actually,
I could use some tasty vegetarian dishes like the ones I had today. Each year, during Lent, I give up meat, and it gets kind of boring as I tend to make the same old things.
Ferret Herder, I do have some good spices but not the kind I tasted today, or the curry mixes. But there is an Asian foods store in town. Also, I take karate lessons and one of my fellow students, a sophomore in high school, is Indian. he can’t drive yet so his mother has to ferry him to class. She seems like a nice lady, if a bit shy, but I can ask her for purchasing recommendations.
I realize India is a big country and the food styles will vary, just as they do in this country. And of course here in the US different ethnic groups have blended their foods, like German/Mexican down in Texas.
I still regret not keeping a magazine article I saw years ago about kosher cooking in India. It seems people adjust their cuisines depending on what’s available to work with.
I recommend 1,001 Indian Recipes, by Neelam Batra. The book is an easily-digested (ha!) culinary DIY tour of India, with a guide to spices, cooking techniques, etc. explained clearly for a Western audience.
I don’t know any recipe books, but here’s a tip: You can buy curry paste in a jar (add plain yogurt and voila!), or even canned curry sauce that’s totally pre-made. It’s even on Amazon. It’s great for beginners! I bring it up because making a proper curry is an art. Getting the right blend of powders and spices is really difficult for beginners. If you want to become a masala master and mix your own curry, that’s a noble endeavor. However, the results may discourage you. If you just want to make great-tasting Indian food every time, curry paste/sauce is a lifesaver.
Coincidentally, last night I made some freaking delicious Indian food.
There are some new products on the shelf lately from “Kitchens of India.” No, I have no interests in the company: but wow! I made Butter Chicken and Vegetable Biryani and I’m not kidding, it was restaurant quality.
The spices come in a foil pouch and if you follow the simple directions you will have authentic Indian food. The pouches were on sale here at about $1.50 each.
I made some basmati rice to go with it and I have leftovers for a couple of days. Again, I have no interests in this company, but at the price and taste, I don’t think you can get any better. Wonderful stuff.
Not a cookbook recommendation, but a specific recipe:
Chicken Mahkni in the slow cooker. The spices are more specialized but I found them all at a nearby Indian grocery. I had to ask some questions but people were super helpful. It’s delicious, and once you have the ingredients assembled, easy peasy!
If you’re at the indian grocery store, you can also get frozen naan (a type of flatbread) which heats up in 2 minutes in the oven. I like it better than rice.
Making your own paneer is also pretty darn easy and great to add to premade sauces and such for a fresh flavor.
Thanks for that paneer recipe. One of the snacks I had at the IndiaFest was called cham cham, a sweet that is made with paneer, according to your recipe. And the cham cham recipe just used a big heavy pot with a cover, not a pressure cooker like the other recipes I’ve seen.
I haven’t seen a whole lot of overlap between the Asian and Indian/Pakistani groceries around here, but that may not be true in your area. There are Japanese and Chinese foods that do “curries”, especially with some Chinese/Indian “fusion” restaurants, but the Japanese ones definitely aren’t quite the same.
If you want to shop online, check Amazon and places like The Spice House (Chicago/Milwaukee small chain) and Savory Spice Shop (Small nation-wide chain). There’s Penzey’s but I’ve found them to be no fresher than the other two shops I mentioned, and often more expensive.
For Indian-specific shops, I’ve never ordered from but have heard good things about IShopIndian (says they’ve been in business since 1972 and online since 2000).
I’m not familiar with Topeka’s ethnic food stores, but don’t forget the Merc in Lawrence. I’ve done a little Indian cooking from scratch, and have found what I need there.
Here’s a list of their bulk herbs/spices. They’re also really good at ordering things they don’t have on hand.
Oh, and it looks like they’re serving Indian in the deli on Tuesday this week.
ETA: I also wouldn’t be surprised were you to find some or all of the recommended cookbooks on their shelves.
If you don’t make it on Tuesday, or if you feel like Indian the next time you’re here, don’t forget the two restaurants in town.
India Palace is on 10th st between Mass and New Hampshire. It’s food is between “good” and “really good” if not quite “exceptional.” With the exception of their naan, Which. Is. To. Die. For. Oh, and an all you can eat weekday lunch buffet for ~$11.
Curry in a Hurry is a little hole in the wall at 11th and Mass, just across from the courthouse. It’s a la carte, so you buy the entree for $3.60, the naan or pakora for $1.89, the rice for $2.10, and so on. Not a huge selection (three chicken and three veg entrees usually) and there is no seating, but more flavorful (if less spicy) then India Palace. For an added bonus, it’s run by a husband and wife who know and remember their customers (the second time I went in he remembered both what I had purchased and that I had my daughter with me the first time). I get the distinct impression that either of the couple would be very happy to talk to you about Indian cooking, and to give advice/tips.
BAKER, I meant to chime in on this ages ago, but had to locate the book:
“How To Make Good Curries” by Helen Lawson, Hamlyn (Publisher), London: 1970
I haven’t checked to see if it is still in print, but it was reprinted in 1979 (!). A wonderful British friend gave me this for a present many years ago (1980, in fact) and it gives measurements in Imperial, Metric, and American
The author does a good job of explaining the various ingredients, spices, herbs, cooking methods, etc.
I’ve enjoyed using it OFTEN. It’s quite stained!
And I’m STILL trying to master cooking basmati rice … :eek:
And thank you again after all this time for the Shot Glass you sent me several years ago.
Honestly, I haven’t the faintest clue. I first discovered curry when I was living in the Midlands and Scotland for a few months. “Curry” is just such a catch-all term describing many, many different types of stews that, even with the same name, vary quite a lot within the same city. I’ve had plenty of curries on both sides of the pond, and I wouldn’t be able to say one is better than the other. It seemed to me that UK curries were more likely to be creamy or coconut-y (at least the places I’ve visited, suggesting a more South Indian influence to it), while the ones I’ve had around here, especially in Chicago (large Gujarati and Punjabi population), were less so. But, like I said, it’s all over the map. You can find South Indian style here, too. So this is just a guess as to the perceived differences.
I think one of the differences is that “curry” in the US is not so much a catchall term, it refers to yellow curry unless some adjectives are put in front of it (ie, Thai Green Curry). If an American says “I don’t like curry” they don’t mean “I don’t like indian food that comes in sauce” they mean “I don’t care for yellow curry.”
For whatever cultural reason (I have no idea) Americans call indian dishes by the particular names we’ve come to associate with them, and the category in general is just “Indian food.” Many Americans would look at you in confusion if you called chicken tikka masala a “curry” since it contains no yellow curry.
So I can see a British person ordering “curry” feeling equally baffled and disapointed that Americans seemingly only have one kind of curry, and not a very good kind.
Obviously, never having owned India as a colony, we don’t have as many Indian immigrants compared to the UK, so the availability of good quality Indian food varies a lot place by place. So the basic quality of Indian food you’re going to find depends where you are as well.
Bulk spice stores, mail order, or the bulk spice section of a Whole Foods should help.