Love Thai! I actually said early in the meal that it was giving Thai a serious run for the money, and concluded that Indian was even better. However, it’s been a bit since I had Thai as well, so I think I need to do a comparison soon…and it so happens that I have a groupon for Thai that’s waiting to be used.
pancakes3 writes:
> lunch buffets are definitely the way to go to satiate your indian mass-eating
> needs. much better than chinese buffets.
Tyler Cowen, in his book An Economist Gets Lunch, in which he explains a number of rules of how to find restaurants that serve surprisingly good, cheap food, recommends Indian buffets over Chinese buffets. He says that Indian food is designed to simmer for a while before eating. Chinese food, on the other hand, is designed to be cooked quickly and eaten quickly.
He also makes one interesting further suggestion. He suggests that you try Pakistani restaurants in addition to Indian ones. There’s a certain amount of overlap in their menus. He thinks that the food in Pakistani restaurants will be better and more authentic relative to the cost than that in Indian ones. (Note that this is applicable to restaurants in the U.S. and not necessarily in other places.) He says that this is because Indian restaurants have been hip places to go in many places in the U.S. for a while now (despite the unfamiliarity of some posters here to the food), while the name “Pakistani” turns off many Americans. He says that because of this Pakistani restaurants don’t feel that they have to make their food accessible to customers not already familiar with the food and don’t have a large customer base of Americans who try many cuisines who are familiar with it.
The proportion of water-to-rice shouldn’t matter, as you’re basically cooking it pasta style. (Which, for those who claim to not be able to master regular steamed rice, is a completely foolproof way of making rice.) As long as it’s basmati rice, it’s properly rinsed and soaked, and not overcooked, I don’t know what the secret could be.
The particular rice can make a difference. Grocery store rice can be very old and very dried out. It will take up water more slowly. The grain size can vary for the same type of rice. When making sushi rice I’ll see variance between brands and bag sizes. But batches from the same bag usually come out the same. Don’t know if it has the sae effect for biryani, but it’s a possibility.
What do you dislike about your dal?
Which pulses do you use? What spices do you use to finish it off, and how do you prepare those? How watery do you like it? All of those options are going to change the final taste.
I’ve liked Madhur Jaffrey’s dal recipes from “An Invitation to Indian Cooking,” particularly her Masoor Dal recipe. I find her cooking a lot in this book to be a lot less spicy and fiery than other Indian recipes, FWIW.
I don’t want to clip the entire recipe (not sure if that runs afoul of the SDMB copyright policy) but it’s basically: wash and pick over 2 cups of dal, add to pot with 6 cups of water and boil. Add turmeric and chopped coriander (cilantro) and boil awhile. Add your veggies when the dal gets soft, along with salt, tamarind, and sugar to taste. In another skillet fry up some spices. When fragrant, and just before serving the dal, pour the spice mixture over the top of the dal. Serve.
You do have to skim quite a bit of scum off of the boiling dal and you do need to use a large enough pot, but this recipe makes quite tasty dal, IMHO.
I thought turmeric was the essential spice for tandoor meat cooking, in order to help get the color on the meat? (I use turmeric as I can’t handle v. spicy food. If you can, then I guess various powdered red chili peppers would be what you’d use.)
Soak and rinse the rice before cooking it. This removes the starch that is making it sticky. If you forget, or don’t have time to do so beforehand, rinse it using hot water after it is cooked. But doing so before you cook it is better.
My wife loves Indian food, because she had friends back East who could cook and knew what they were doing. I hate Indian food, because the only exposure I have had to it is not-very-good places around SoCal. I’m willing to be convinced that food from the sub-continent is fit for human consumption, but so far I haven’t found any evidence of it. 
It’s possible you might just not like the spicing of Indian food, in which cumin and coriander typically predominate. Even marginal Indian food I’ve found to be quite tasty. I find half-assed Indian (which, in itself, covers a wide range of cuisines) to be much better than half-assed versions of any other ethnic cuisine, to be honest.
It may just be the spice combinations. I love most of the spices in other cuisines, however. The amount of cumin I put in chili is criminal, for example. I’m willing to be proven wrong, if somebody can tell me the best Indian restaurant in Southern California.
The proportion of water:rice is always roughly the same (3:1), but the size of the pot matters somewhat. A smaller pot will return more of the starch to the water, and thus make the rice stickier. A larger pot will allow the starch to stick to the lid and the sides of the pot, resulting in a fluffier rice.
Ideally, for 1 or 2 cups of rice (uncooked) you want to use a medium size pot and cook it with the lid not covering the top completely. Use an extra 1/4-1/3 cup of water per cup of rice, and this will let the starchy steam escape, while still leaving enough water for the rice to absorb.
Another thing that lots of people don’t know: do not stir rice while boiling, except for Arborio rice (and that only needs to be stirred a couple of times during it’s 20-25 minute cook time). Stirring breaks the outer shell of the rice grain, which means the rice becomes just am uncontained blob of starch.
Well, that may be it. I just use a ton of water for biryani-style rice. I don’t measure it, but, yeah, it’s at least 3:1, more like 10:1 Like I said, I boil it like I do pasta. Big pot o’ water, dump rice in, take it out after about 5-7 minutes or so. Drain. I don’t cover the rice pot for this kind of rice at all.
IIRC, you come to Vegas a couple times a year, aye? Next time you’re here, head over to Komol Kitchen in the Commerce Center on East Sahara. Everything I’ve ever had there is terrific, but their Korma curry is among the best I’ve ever had. Also Gandhi (on East Flamingo) is very good. Both are just a short 5 minute cab ride from the strip.
Most rice takes 20-25 minutes to cook (unless you like your rice crunchy style). You shouldn’t have to drain any water out of the rice; after 20 minutes or so, simply remove the pot from the heat source and allow it to stand uncovered. This will let any excess water evaporate as the rice cools down. Once the rice is cool enough that water is not evaporating, it can be covered until it’s ready to be used (eaten or combined with the rest of the food).
One of the things about my move back to Ohio that I’m very glad about, is that I again have access to Indian restaurants. For some odd reason, there were none in Bozeman.
Indian food is awesome. I spent a month travelling around northern India a few years back and while I’m a dedicated carnivore at home, going vegitarian while there was amazingly easy due to how good the food was. I went veg. for the trip mainly due to food handling concerns with meat. Many of the place we went had daily power outages for a few hours so refigeration could be considered spotty at best.
I had one of the best pizzas ever in Pushkar. The Indian version of the Spring Roll was amazing as well, one was enough for a meal and was kind of a cross between a traditional spring roll and a samosa.
That’s not how biryani is typically made though. That’s the point. You parcook the rice in a pasta style first. Then you finish it off in the sauce. The typical covered steaming method is, in my experience, a scant 2:1. I don’t know how 3:1 works for you. If I do the typical put rice and water in pot, bring to boil, cover, simmer for 20 minutes, my ratios are more like 1.8:1 for most rice. Fresher rices may need less water. Older rices get right up to 2:1. I’ve never had any rice that takes 3:1.
I’m at work right now, but I’ll look at my biryani recipe when I get home.
It occurred to me as I read your post that my ratios are prolly different than yours because I live in the desert.
If it works for you, it works. I’m not going to argue with that. The standard ratio for rice is 2:1, though.
I will say this, and I mentioned it upthread. There’s a number of people for whom plain old white rice is just impossible. I’m not sure why. My usual way for making rice is the scant 2:1, bring to boil, cover, drop the heat down to the lowest simmer, wait 20 minutes, turn heat off, and wait five minutes. Fluff, and you have perfect steamed rice. For some people, this appears not to work for whatever reason. My “Idiots Guide to Making Rice” is this: boil a shitload of water. Dump rice in. Keep boiling. Stir if you feel like it. After about 15 minutes, it is done. Just drain in a colander, and you will have perfectly cooked rice. This is what I mean by the “pasta method.”
SomeBodyUK might have better suggestions, but my favorite lunch buffet is The India Restuarant in Artesia. Get their mango lassi to go with the meal. It’s the nectar of the gods. If you still have room in your stomach after lunch, go south about half a mile to Saffron Spot for a scoop of Indian style ice cream.
This thread is making me hungry. I wish there was a decent Indian place in Portland.
Actually, the only thing better than Indian food is Indochin, Indian Chinese fusion.