GreenSociety

Hey everyone! This doesn't have much to do with Indian cooking, but just cooking in general. I recently discovered a new blog called GreenSociety. It doesn't have a whole lot of posts yet, but I would stay tuned for more, because it looks pretty interesting!!! (link: http://stay-greensocietyenviron.blogspot.com/ )

Please remember to be green!!! If everyone does their part, it can make a big change with the environment. Obviously, you should buy local and organic ingredients, and try to cut down on your tap water use, but here are some other tips you can utilize in the kitchen...

1) Use Tupperware. All that plastic baggie and foil junk goes straight to the landfill. Tupperware is good for more than just one use and can save you money, too!
2) Cover your pots. As you're waiting for that water to boil, why not stick on a lid? It will make the water boil faster, meaning less time spent with the stove on!
3) Cut back on the stew! Slow cooked meals such as stews and braises use a lot of energy as they simmer on the stove for hours. Try meals that don't take as much energy, like lassi or a quick sandwich!
4) Get a pressure cooker. An investment like this one won't be regretted! Pressure cookers can decrease energy use by up to 70%, because they speed up cooking processes, thus using less energy!


Hope this was helpful! Look forward to a restaurant review soon! :)

Korma Recipes

As I've said, there are several different versions of this dish. These recipes should cover a good range. Beware, though: many ingredients are needed to complete these meals...a trip to the grocery store should be considered.

Chicken Korma: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/chicken-korma/Detail.aspx
Navratan (Vegetable) Korma: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/navratan-korma/Detail.aspx
Shahi Korma: http://www.whats4eats.com/meats/shahi-korma-recipe
Veggie and Tofu Korma (sounds very interesting!): http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/winter-vegetable-tofu-korma-recipe.html

Enjoy!

Korma

Today's Food of the Day, korma, originated from Southeast or Central Asia. It is a type of curry that can be made with yogurt, cream, coconut milk, and nut/seed pastes. Its precise cooking methods differentiate it from other curry recipes. There can be both meat and vegetarian versions of this delicious dish, and many other more detailed and unique styles. Be sure to check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korma for more awesome info about korma!

I'm BAAACK!!

Okay, so, maybe I came back a couple days ago, but whatever. I was resting. Being on an island with mean hippies, hard beds, savage ants, constipating food, and a shortage of hot water is really tiring. Have a heart, people.

Upcoming posts: Regions of Indian Cuisine, Early Indian Foods, and Indian Cuisine Timeline.
I'm really looking forward to working on these topics!!!

Indian Dining Etiquette

This post will cover the bases of Indian dining rituals and unspoken laws. I thought learning about all of it was very interesting!
1. Indians typically don't use cutlery for eating; they use their hands instead.
2. You must always use your right hand to recieve, eat, or pick up food.
3. It is considered rude and unhygenic to offer food or cutlery that has come into contact with yours or someone else's saliva or mouth.
4. You must have good posture when eating, and if you are sitting on the floor, you must have your legs crossed.
5. Always eat food as it is served: asking for salt or pepper is considered disrespectful.
6. Lastly, you must not play with your food or distort it in any way; you must also eat at a steady medium pace: eating too slow implies that you do not like the cooking, and eating too fast is rude.

I hope this provided some similarities and some differences between two cultures!

Tandoori Chicken Recipes

Here are some recipes that seem relatively straight-forward...beware, though: the chicken does take awhile to marinate/refrigerate. It is best to prepare the chicken at least 10 hours in advance of when you plan to eat. The recipe times do vary.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/indian-tandoori-chicken/Detail.aspx
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/grilled-tandoori-chicken-recipe/index.html
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/tandoori_chicken/

Enjoy!

Tandoori Chicken!

Tandoori chicken is a very well-loved, very common dish served in India as chaat, and most Indian restaurants worldwide. It basically consists of roasted chicken, yogurt, and spices. The chicken, marinated in curd and seasoned with tandoori masala, gets it brilliant red hue from several different hot spices, a few of which include cayenne pepper, turmeric, red chili powder. The chicken is then traditionally cooked at high temperatures in a tandoor, (clay oven), thus, the name, tandoori chicken. However, the spicy meal can also be prepared on an ordinary barbecue grill.

The picture above is a very dramatic and colorful clip of the chicken being served as street food in Mumbai.

Spices...

Spices play an important part in almost all Indian dishes. Most dishes contain at least a mild blend of spices, while other dishes use each spice to its full potential, flaunting extreme heat in the process. And that's the true beauty of the way spices are used in Indian dishes...they're versatile. Versatile ingredients are wonderful to keep in the kitchen, because they don't just have to be used for one specific dish. They can be added to all kinds of foods. So, really, that's the beauty of all Indian food. Everything seems to tie together to make one big, richly cultural cuisine.

Let's begin with the seed group: fennel seeds, celery seeds, anise, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, pepper, coriander, and ajowan seeds. Fenugreek and mustard seeds both must be cooked or fried to bring out their full aromatic potential. Ajowan is usually used whole, and celery seeds, like mustard seeds, have a slightly bitter taste. Fennel and anise have similar tastes, fennel being a bit more earthy and anise having a tad more zing. Pepper, of course, is spicy, but in a blunt way, meaning its undertones are not easy to recognize. And coriander, on the other hand, is a bit more meek- it really does well to accent other spices, rather than stealing the show.

Now, for some powdery spices (of course, they've been ground to this consistency), cinnamon, ground ginger, asafoetida, nutmeg, and turmeric. Cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger both have that slightly sour, slightly spiced taste that you really shouldn't have too much of. (At one time.) They are also nice when used in sweet dishes. Asafoetida, true to its name, is quite fetid, so it must be sealed tightly to ward off the smell. When cooked, however, it develops a garlic-onion taste that is quite nice. And don't forget turmeric: turmeric has a bold taste, one that is pungent, slightly bitter and musky.

Lastly, all you miscellaneous spices out there: cassia, star anise, cardamom, saffron, mace, cumin, and cloves. Saffron and mace can be used in both savory and sweet dishes. Saffron is one of the world's more expensive spices, since it comes (in a very limited supply) from a Kashmiri flower. Cassia is sometimes mistaken as cinnamon, and, like cinnamon, it can be ground and used in both savory and sweet dishes. Both cumin and cloves should be used sparingly because their flavors are extremely pungent in excess. Finally, cardamom. Cardamom has a sweet aroma and is commonly used for a breath-freshener or something to sooth a restless stomach.

Hope this helped! All info was retrieved from this link: http://hubpages.com/hub/indianspices
And, of course, there are tons more spices used in Indian cooking, but this post just covered the basics! Comment if you'd like to see any other spices described, or if you'd like to see others in a greater length.

Bhelpuri Recipes

Here are some good links that I found...

http://indianfood.about.com/od/vegetariansnacks/r/bhelpuri.htm
http://www.indianfoodforever.com/snacks/bhel-puri.html
http://norecipes.com/blog/2009/06/22/bhel-puri-recipe/

Happy cooking!

Bhelpuri!

Today's Food of the Day, bhelpuri, is a puffed rice snack served with various vegetables and a tangy tamarind sauce. Bhelpuri is best when eaten immediately after served. If it is left too long, the sauces will ruin the effect of the puffed rice. The ingredients most commonly used in bhelpuri are: puffed rice, sev, tomatoes, onions, and chilis. Northern recipes sometimes add boiled and chopped potatoes.

WAAAAAIT A MINUTE...

I just realized something: I've never talked about ghee. What is ghee? Ghee has been mentioned a lot in the Indian recipes and links, but I haven't ever explained it. 

Ghee is a class of clarified butter that came from South Asia and is typically used in dishes in that region. It is normally made from cow's milk. It's actually a mildly complicated process that might be hard for me to explain here, so check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghee

Also look up recipes. There are a bunch!!!

QUICK FACT!

Indian cooking contains no animal fat or oils at all. Instead, many vegetable oils such as sunflower oil, groundnut oil, coconut oil, and mustard oil are used. 

Above: sesame oil

Saag Recipe

This site shows how to make the saag, then briefly explains the different variations of saag. This dish definitely takes much more work to make at home than do the other Foods of the Day...but, of course, it has a lot more to it than naan or chai.

Hope this recipe helps!

http://www.whats4eats.com/vegetables/saag-recipe

Saag

Today's Food of the Day is saag. Saag is a spinach-based/mustard-leaf based dish normally eaten with breads like naan or roti, in Pakistan and India. It is also popularly eaten as saag paneer: little cubes of paneer cheese soaked in the thick saag sauce. Yum! Also popular in India is saag aloo, potatoes dipped in the spinach curry. The picture above shows just plain saag sauce with nothing else added.

Ewwww.

Sorry I haven't posted over the weekend: I've had a debilitating fever/congestion/pain/nausea. I don't even know what it is... Anyway, the posts will resume soon!!!