Indian Food 101

[Juniper]

Here is another place, this one right up the road from me. Bri, it's near Dayton Mall.
http://www.kohinoorpalace.com/Menu.aspx

Ooh, this one is in Mason, and has a lunch buffet.
http://www.rajaindiarestaurant.com/

[Undertoad]

LAF I enjoy it when somebody says a thing is "foul" Perry. I agree though. It's weird how this different culture has come up with things for dessert that we in the western world find appalling. Yay, it's dessert! *taste* holy shit, that's foul!

[Juniper]

Pistachio ice cream seems pretty safe. I don't know what rose water is, though. I don't know why you'd want to put *water* on ice cream, so I'm assuming it's sort of a syrup like rose hip jelly?

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Juniper

If we go in the evening or on a weekend, I'd like to bring my daughter too. My son and hubby won't eat that stuff, but daughter is more adventurous. And if it has potatoes in it, she's happy.

One of the things my parents did to me that I'm still bitter about is to ruin me on Indian food for years. They would occasionally go on campaigns to force new foods upon us, and at some point they took us to an Indian restaurant. Since I had no idea what to order, they ordered for me. To this day I don't know what they got me, but it was disgusting. All vegetables, in an incredibly spicy and somehow slightly bitter sauce.

So I thought I hated Indian food. I didn't find out how wrong I was until college, when I got invited on a date and was too chicken to tell the guy I hated Indian food. Of course I loved everything on my random sampler plate that I ordered, which was of course made up of basic, crowd-pleasing dishes. I don't know what in the hell my mom and stepdad were thinking--I honestly suspect they were expecting me to say I hated it no matter what, so they got me something weird to punish me.

None of which applies to you, Juniper, because I'm sure you're not into subconsciously torturing your daughter. I just thought I'd share.

[Juniper]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

None of which applies to you, Juniper, because I'm sure you're not into subconsciously torturing your daughter. I just thought I'd share.

Oh, no no no. If I were into torturing my kids, I'd bring my son along. He is very picky. I do like him to try new foods, but it's a very slow process and I won't force him to do more than taste things.

My daughter is pretty adventurous. I took her to this one restaurant a while back - Cena, I think it was called - and it was really weird. Buffet style sides, and then these people came around to tables with meat and carved you a little bit - different kinds in rotation. We enjoyed it but I'm not sure we'll go back. Still, she took it like a real trouper.

I also need to take her to the German restaurant in Newport. She's taking German this year (and also had classes half of last year) and is really fascinated with the culture.

I love to open their horizons. But you have to tailor the experiences to the kid's interests. For my daughter, food is the path to her heart. My son is more interested in art and music. Fortunately, I love it all.

[DanaC]

I love Indian desserts. I love the festival and celebration sweets and I love the after dinner desserts. Ras malai is wonderful, gulab jamons are a taste of childhood and my Grandfather used to make the best kulfi I have ever tasted.

Rose water was something Gran used a lot in cooking. She used to make all sorts of Indian sweets. It's also a feature of some English dishes.

[Trilby]

Juni - that place by the mall looks like they've got an extensive menu....

[Pie]

I don't know about you all.

That isn't Indian food.

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by Pie

I don't know about you all.

That isn't Indian food.

I know. It makes me sad, but I've never had authentic Indian food. None of my Indian friends in school were interested in cooking and I've never been to India.

I want to live in India. I just don't see how I can make that happen in the foreseeable future... An old boss of mine joined an Ashram in the 60s and lived in India for years (she married an Indian, too). She loved it there, except for all of the weight she gained.

[Aliantha]

Rose Water is the main flavour ingredient in 'turkish delight' aside from sugar. It's used in triffle sometimes instead of sherry if you're catering for a younger audience.

I have it in my pantry and use it to flavour chantilly cream sometimes if I'm serving something like sponge cake with strawberries as an example.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Juniper, you may have hit a Brazilian BBQ type restaurant -- I've seen that kind of presentation done.

It is really easy to miss the boat on a curry dish if you're really not sure what you're doing with it. Main thing is don't be timid, spoon it in there! There's a red curry powder recipe without turmeric (add it in if desired) in the Recipe Thread, p.6, post 86. A secret to making curry people say "wow" over is to grind it up that afternoon, from the seeds the stuff is mostly made of. Right down to the fenugreek, if you can. The perfume of fresh-bashed coriander and cardamom goes all through the house. Curry powder should be used in some quantity, or you don't get the proper effect. Toss the powder in the pan just before you add whatever it is you are currying, as the heat of course releases some flavor from the mixture and puts it right into the dish. It's about the same amount of time as it takes to bless some minced garlic -- about 30 seconds, then get the rest of the stuff in that pan and stir.

[Trilby]

these restaurants aren't Indian????

[Sundae]

There are many different types of Indian food, in the same way there are many different types of Chinese food.

In Britain, Northern Indian cuisine cooked by Bangladeshi's predominates. It has been tweaked for a Western market, but the origins and ingredients are still Indian.

My co-workers would cook dishes very similar to these (butter chicken for example) every Eid/ Diwali. And although the recipes my friend would bring in nearly every day (she worried I wasn't eating properly) were not on this menu, they were along the same lines in terms of ingredients. She used to make fried chicken especially for me - a milder version than the one her and her husband were eating, giving the lie to the "leftovers" idea - and it would be hot enough to make my nose run.

I've eaten in restaurants where mine is the only white face, and the food is not dissimilar. The curries I ate in Sri Lanka were different for sure, and when the vegetarian Southern Indian restaurant opened around the corner from work I found the dishes has a similar style.

What would you consider Indian, Pie?
I'd love to have some recipes from a part of India I'm unfamiliar with.

[Pie]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

What would you consider Indian, Pie?

Sure, there's a zillion different definitions for what's 'Indian' food, just like... say, Italian, or Chinese. There are as many variations as there are grandmothers. However, most of what I see here is 'restaurant food', stuff no one would make or eat at home. Lots of grease and indigestion.

I'm south Indian (by genetics, at least!) so I'd consider 'real' Indian food to be iddlies, dosas, sambar, rasam, paruppu, dry veggie curries, yogurt or buttermilk. Lots of plain basmati rice. Uthappams, upma, fresh fruit. No sweets unless it's a festival day. (Sweets were a brit invention dontchaknow, but would include laddu, milk kova, coconut laddu.) Gonkura pickle, lemon pickle, my grandmother's hot mango pickle. Aviyal. Sweet or mooru kolambu. Thayir sadam. Khichdi. Murukkus. Coconut, coriander, onion or gonkura pachadi. Ghee in moderation.

Veggies might include potals, eggplants, green beans, potatoes, capsicum, okra, tomatoes, bittergourd, sweet potato, onions, squash of different sorts, bananaflower, jackfruit... Mostly stir-fried with chilies, ginger, mustard seed, dried chilies, curry leaves and a few dried lentils and a pinch asafoetida. Note: curry leaves have nothing to do with curry powder.


Here, read this article.

[DanaC]

The food my gran cooked was very similar to the stuff you talk about Sundae. Though that was a combination of Indian and anglo-Indian.