Comments on Indian Food Rocks: Enough!

Can you believe it wasn't until I was 21-22 that I...

2009-09-04T04:28:41.498-06:00

Can you believe it wasn't until I was 21-22 that I had my first meal at an Indian restaurant? I didn't recognize any dishes on the menu matching what I knew from cookbooks and, when the food arrived, I was sorely disappointed. Except for the pakoras. I've never had a vindaloo at a restaurant, but I make it at home now and then. Did you know that it doesn't spoil if you let it sit our on the counter-top for a week? :-D
I'll let you know if the eggplant dish works out, but I must say I love the ear-ring photo- the black nail-polish is a great final touch- nice concept/design!

Linda, you are a trip! To ask for sambar as take-o...

2009-09-02T12:50:21.844-06:00

Linda, you are a trip! To ask for sambar as take-out! Rant away!

Ramki, thanks for that link!

Mints!, haven't done more research on the history of nan but given its roots, it is not surprising that yeast is used in the current form. I haven't made nan at home as yet - too lazy!

Varsha, try my talasani and see if it appeals to you!

Soma, it's more a balanced taste rather than an overpowering sweet flavor. Of course, you are free to add more if you like it sweet. I am so glad you tried it and liked it!

Divya, my model thanks you!

Purple Foodie, true that!

Vijitha, glad to see you here!

Rita, I am so happy to hear that kids aren't being singled out for bringing ethnic foods for lunch! I amhoping things improve for my daughter in middle school - yes! she's already a middle schooler! - as there is more diversity in this school.

Springer Kneeblood, I doubt that vindaloo was anything but a spicy version of a lamb curry. The recipe I have is a home-cooked version made in the interiors of Goa. However, when I shared the recipe on a food forum, many felt that there was a 'raw taste' of onions as the onions are not cooked down before the marinade is added.

tastyeatsathome, eggplant loves oil! Which is why salting it prior to cooking helps. You can reduce the oil further in this recipe and add more water so that the eggplant cooks.

GaramMasala, welcome back! I can tell you that home-cooked for my extended family includes a good dollop of ghee, veggies swimming in oil, red meat curries despite high cholesterol levels. It's home cooked and unhealthy because those are the choices they have made. It doesn't have to be that way. But that is not what this post is about: it's about the great variety of regional Indian food which the world is largely ignorant about and which is easy to cook. I am reminded of a Kutchi restaurant in north Chicago called Jhopdi that served a great family meal, complete with chaas! Meals there were always amazing.

eatanddust, you will find urad dal, chana dal and other dals being added to the tadka the further south you venture in regional Indian cuisine. It adds a certain nuttiness - for lack of a better word - to the tadka. The dal is fried and becomes crunchy in the hot oil. When the tadka is added to an already cooked dish, the dal does add a crunch until it absorbs juices from the dish. My daughter calls them crunchies and seeks them out, especially in raitas. Otherwise, it adds to the texure of the dish. I wish I had a more definitive answer as I have wondered about it myself.

Arun, nothing like simple talasani! The jaggery you speak of is almost like a cottage industry. Commercially prepared jaggery has a lot of additives and unfortunately, that is the jaggery sold in the stores. I haven't seen Kolhapuri gur in any of our local stores. :-(

Garden snake? Yikes! The kitchen is so much safer...

2009-09-02T11:12:46.393-06:00

Garden snake? Yikes!
The kitchen is so much safer and ... filling :-)
Love Taḻāsaṉ! My favorite.

and love those earrings!
heh! making jaggery does not involve addition of any chemicals. see this old post
http://arunshanbhag.com/2005/10/24/sugarcane-fields-making-jaggery/
at most they add a bit of salt to precipitate the melted jaggery!

Any indian grocery store carries the Kolhapuri variety of jaggery - as organic as you can get!

Bestest!

Manisha, we are having this eggplant for dinner to...

2009-08-31T20:10:43.360-06:00

Manisha, we are having this eggplant for dinner today! super easy & super tasty. Thanks.

Soma (www.ecurry.com)

As someone who has moved to India from Scotland, I...

2009-08-29T20:28:40.638-06:00

As someone who has moved to India from Scotland, I'm seeing first hand the vast variety of Indian cuisine. I'm an all out food obsessive - I spend most of my time writing or thinking about Indian food these days but it often seems the more I find out, the less I know!
One thing that's been bothering me is I often see Indian recipes, like your aubergine dish, which call for small amounts of urad dal. What is the purpose of the dal here? The cooking time of the dish isn't long enough to cook the dal is it? Does the dal stay crunchy?

I loved reading your rant... many among us have be...

2009-08-26T12:41:07.357-06:00

I loved reading your rant... many among us have been frustrated that restaurant malai koftas taste the same as the paneer makhanwalas.

Who is to blame here though -- the restaurants?? They are just here to stay in business -- it won't kill them however to add a homely meal to their menu. How about seeing jeera aloo, jeera rice, daal palak on a menu once in a while :-)

The most unpretentious homely Indian restaurant meal I have had (outside of NJ)is at a restaurant called Kabab and Tandoor hourse in Waltham, MA (if you ever travel to MA, you should consider eating there). They have the most amazing tadka dal and veg biriyani.

Ofcourse -- their mirchi ka salan and bagare baingan taste the same, but I give them points for trying.

So for the sake of discussion I would argue a few points

Most Indian restaurants are actually Punjabi or Mughlai (royal as you mentioned) restaurants who serve Punjabi meals. Punjabi home cooks (traditional ones - from our parents generation) do use a lot of butter in their food and rightly so -- their ancestors lived in bitter winters and did lots of physical labor type farming work. And they do make Saag and makhani at home.
Making that really good flavorful gravy (flavor without cream) is tedious and time consuming. Chop this, saute till a pulp, grind to a paste then cook again with spices, simmer till pulp separates from fat. This is time consuming -- some people I know make batches of these (like pasta sauces among italians) and use for an extended period of time. That kind of Indian food (which the restaurants try to serve) is difficult (takes up effort, patience) to make. I did not grow up in a Punjabi household, so I can not tell you what everyday Punjabi meals are but from experiences at Punjabi homes - parathas are laden with yummy butter; most tomato onion sauces are swimming in oil. So -- this is home cooked meal for some people.

Ofcourse the premise of your rant is that the food served at Indian restaurant does NOT even begin to represent food from all over India. Punjabi food and Punjabi music has come to represent India all over the world. They put us on the map, now it is up to the rest of the Indians to reinforce among our peers that that is just the cream of Indian culture :-) You have the rest of your dessert course to explore.

FYI -- just to provide full disclosure so that you can get back to me if you disagree with my comment you can find me @nomaidrix on twitter or spiceisright.blogspot.com

I love the way this dish looks. I'm funny about eg...

2009-08-24T09:44:06.110-06:00

I love the way this dish looks. I'm funny about eggplant, it's a unique vegetable and many times it's prepared with much oil, which I dislike. This sounds like it would be so tasty, I would gobble up the entire bowl!

I was telling someone over dinner (at an Indian re...

2009-08-23T17:27:54.704-06:00

I was telling someone over dinner (at an Indian restaurant, where I had lamb vindaloo...was it real?) the other night about your blog. This post is PERFECT! I'm forwarding a link right now.

Thank you for continuing my education about cookin...

2009-08-23T12:02:42.045-06:00

Thank you for continuing my education about cooking and eating Indian food.

Quite a while ago you posted about the reaction of other children at school to your daughter's lunch which was Indian food. I commented about it and how sad that was to me.

Now I am working in Denver Public Schools and have one student who is Pakistani. Most of my children bring cold lunch. I remembered your daughter's experience and wanted to be sensitive to that possibility for this student.I asked her if she ever brings Indian food for lunch. "Yes." "What do the other children say when you have Indian food in your lunch?" "They say that I am lucky and may they taste my lunch."
I am relieved that there is some sensitivity about cultural differences and that at a young age there are children who are being raised in a cosmopolitan way. We are all different and we need to respect and honor the differences. (black, white, brown, yellow, red, and shades of all of them)

Hi ya This is my first time here. U have a lovely ...

2009-08-23T00:11:41.043-06:00

Hi ya
This is my first time here. U have a lovely blog and really loved reading this post.

Yummy curry!

I love this post! So many times I read attempts th...

2009-08-22T15:08:55.254-06:00

I love this post! So many times I read attempts that people have made to cook something "Indian". It's funny how anything with a hint of garam masala or a touch of turmeric gets tagged Indian. SO annoying!

Pretty earings! Liked reading your post!

2009-08-21T19:39:32.848-06:00

Pretty earings! Liked reading your post!

Manisha, this is my first time leaving comment at ...

2009-08-20T12:35:38.907-06:00

Manisha, this is my first time leaving comment at "indian food rocks" yes it does! enjoyed reading this;-)

the inexperienced relate to the trash we get in the restaurants, complicated, heavy & inedible.

Love eggplants & this is simple stir fry.. I have never added sugar/jaggery to the baingan, does it taste a teensy sweet?or is it just like a balance of taste?

cute earrings!!, but the snake does not sound like a happy thing to happen.
Soma(www.ecurry.com)

That was a nice rant Manisha..:) Its my first time...

2009-08-17T19:31:42.527-06:00

That was a nice rant Manisha..:) Its my first time here..I love brinjal,but my hubby is just opposite..so I just make it once in a while or drop it in Sambar..that sweet tinge to it is new to me..Do comeover to my space sometimes..:)

of course Manisha tandoori roti was around for age...

2009-08-15T15:44:25.867-06:00

of course Manisha tandoori roti was around for ages. What she meant by naan not being around is, the that uses yeast and maida. She prepares these awesome tandoori rotis just using yogurt and whole wheat flour.

Hi Manisha, Totally agree that Indian food can be...

2009-08-15T07:33:50.184-06:00

Hi Manisha,
Totally agree that Indian food can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. No wonder, as this mature cuisine has taken a few thousand years to evolve. Not many cuisines can boast of such a rich set of techniques.

Eggplant is my favorite too ! Here's a One page cookbook celebrating Eggplant curries : http://ramkicooks.blogspot.com/2009/05/1001-eggplant-dry-curries-south-indian.html

Hi Manisha, long time no see! Hope you're having a...

2009-08-14T22:29:47.245-06:00

Hi Manisha, long time no see! Hope you're having a great summer with far fewer snakes :)

Oh, how I loved reading this rant! I am not even Indian, yet I love the cuisine so much that I have been annoyed with a cookbook -- Laxmi's Vegetarian Kitchen. Her recipes aren't so bad, but why dumb them down? Why not call a spade a spade -- or in this case, call "classic Madras lentil stew" by its real name -- sambhar! Or "Hot Yogurt Soup", kadhi! ;)

Sorry, but your post seemed a perfect place to voice my indignation.

Sometimes when I do order out Indian, I ask for sambhar. It's fun to see the waiter nearly fall over from that shock ;)

I suppose it's all marketing and whatever they think will sell, but for me -- give me the real thing any day.

Brinjals -- I am growing ichiban variety for the 3rd year straight. They are easy to grow in a container, prolific, and almost as tasty as the earrings in your post ;)

And for simple, try making Shn's Kanji and boil up some of those garden-fresh brinjals in the water. Purely delicious. Perhaps Indian perhaps not, but certainly easy and no butter/cream need apply ;)

Nirmala, that's a great idea! However, when I add ...

2009-08-14T12:24:40.795-06:00

Nirmala, that's a great idea! However, when I add chilli powder with salt right in the beginning, there is a subtle difference in taste. The eggplant seems to 'absorb' the chilli powder as it firms up while losing moisture (because of the salt).

Aparna, I'm glad you agree and I hope you will join the Mad Celebrations over at Anita's.

Sra, been a while since I ranted so I figured might as well!

TKW, I thought of you and almost wrote: "Dana, you are missing in this one!"

Consistency in quality and taste is one thing to look for. Taj on S. Boulder Rd is the most consistent, despite the heavy use of cream. Masala in Denver has authentic idli-dosa-sambar. Just don't touch their North Indian fare, please!

Shyam, isn't that a cute picture? She is such a good model! Except when I take too long, like this time, then her smile becomes very expensive. I refused to pay so no smile for me.

I knew eggplant would turn off a lot of folks but really, it is a vegetable we should all learn to love. OK! How about like? No? Just eat, then?

Shilpa, some taste buds are just not as discerning. Finally Medha is learning to discern between bad makhani and good makhani. I love Jigs Kalra's Butter Chicken. But as Anita said, daily Indian fare is not his specialty. ;-)

Mints!, it's unfortunate that Indian restaurants in the US get away with such terrible stuff on their menus. And even more unfortunate that this personifies Indian food for the general populace.

Baking bread in coal-fired pits goes back to old civilisations like Harappa and Mohenjodaro. Amir Khusrau is supposed to have recorded the first notes about naan in 1300AD. I don't have my Indian food history book (Achaya) handy right now but I'll look it up to see if it can be verified.

Sanghi, glad to find another brinjal-lover! Unfortunately, I can't participate in your FIL-Milk event - we're all lactose intolerant here and recovering from the last batch of delicious gulkand kulfi I made.

Nupur, so far, so good! I see a wire or a cord and I jump. You keep doing what you do cos you make a big difference!

A_and_N, brown butter? Clarify that it was ghee! Oh, you slay me!

Poornima, don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

Your kids have very mature taste buds! I think it has to do with introducing them to different tastes right from childhood. Taste it, it's OK if you don't like it but you have to taste it. At least that's my motto. Third time lucky is what I have found with Medha.

Ashwini, so glad you delurked! Talasani is so easy: chop chop, phodni, add veggies, cook and you're done! Looking forward to your purple flower!

Madteaparty, thank you for weighing in. I hope your nickname does not deter anyone from taking you seriously; it does have the word 'mad' in it and I did not put it there! I kinda like Anita much better. Please switch back to it?

As for thrice sieved sauces: fiber is for the poor. They need it to fill their stomachs and clean it out as well. Madhur Jaffrey demystifies Indian food. Julie Sahni also does a good job. I haven't seen any Anjum Anand shows - I don't get BBC and I hate the 300+ channels we get on DirecTV and yet there's nothing to watch.

I knew you'd notice the nail polish! That was a happy accident!

forkbootsandapalettethank you! How was your day?

awesome post...superb recipe....

2009-08-14T06:54:11.101-06:00

awesome post...superb recipe....

Ignorance and naivete. It is naive to think that w...

2009-08-13T21:19:55.122-06:00

Ignorance and naivete. It is naive to think that women (default cooks in most of the world) and men (should they believe in themselves enough to cook) in India have nothing better to do than people elsewhere, and like to stew in the kitchen, when they could be working, or watching mind-numbing tv serials! Jiggs Kalra may cook like that, but he serves 5-star food! (why do they like to turn Indian gravies into thrice-seived smooth sauces, anyway?)

BBC's Madhur Jaffery's Flavours of India, and even the stunning Anjum Anand in the new BBC series, have demonstrated how easy everyday Indian cooking really is! Only people who think boiling pasta is a culinary feat will say that Indian cooking is hard and time consuming. They, and people who believe them, are the losers.

You are right about baking. Many baking recipes have to be followed exactly, including which step follows which, dry-into-wet or not; much easier to mess up. Didn't we demonstrate how easy it was to fry even poori, even on your first attempt!!

What fab earings; and nailpolish to match! :D

Hi Manisha, I have been a silent visitor to your ...

2009-08-13T10:38:40.938-06:00

Hi Manisha,

I have been a silent visitor to your blog since last 3 months. I love your sense of expression and your fascination with food and the trivia's associated with it.

Talasani is my favrouet too. Its been ages since I made Talasaani. I will be participating in Flower Fest. Sounds unique and creative.

Your kid's picture tickled my funny bone. Very cute!

Cheerz
Ashwini.

Your rant made my day!I agree wholeheartedly to al...

2009-08-12T18:47:22.746-06:00

Your rant made my day!I agree wholeheartedly to all you said.My Australian friends think I am some mega- capable-domestic goddess when they see me whip up simple Indian dishes.And they cannot believe when I say my kids eat brinjal and love it too and stare wonder-eyed when I tell them there are umpteen ways to cook it too!Well lucky us!
Am trying yours today and serving it with dhal and rotis.Now what can be so hard about that huh?

I love the rant :D On twitter and here. I so agr...

2009-08-12T07:22:53.642-06:00

I love the rant :D On twitter and here.

I so agree with everything. Aparna was saying on twitter that the new craze for baked goods is brown butter icing :) And she did clarify it was ghee!

What goes round, comes round eh? :)

Oh dear :( blown tires and snake sightings do not ...

2009-08-12T05:58:42.606-06:00

Oh dear :( blown tires and snake sightings do not sound like a lot of fun. By the law of averages, I think you're about to have a terrific week from today! :)

I simply share my home-cooked Indian food with everyone I can, and that's enough to convince them to try making some at home. I'm converting one person at a time ;) so this might take a while.

Mmm i love brinjal too.. earings looks cute..! Do ...

2009-08-11T20:12:46.270-06:00

Mmm i love brinjal too.. earings looks cute..! Do visit my blog..Try participating in my FIL-Milk event!