Indian Food (beer, ingredients, restaurant, diet)

[tvdxer]

Who hear likes Indian food?

It's my favorite cuisine. I have no Indian in me, but I still love it.

Some of my favorite curry dishes are chana masala, saag paneer (Duluth, MN India Palace style), and chicken tikka masala, though I like pretty much any one. I love Indian bread, like naan and aloo paratha. Burfi is indisputably the best sweet ever. I also like biryanis as long as they're not too oily.

[aween]

I adore Indian Food!!! Spinach,chicken tikka or tandori,raita,butter chicken (makhne)chicken masala, samosas and pakoras dipped in raita mixed with green spice condiment and tamarind sauce with a little bit of pickle(spicy the better)
garlic naan,guulob jamin,lentils and malagatwani soup!!Yum Yum and don't forget about the popadam crackers!!! Oh and I always have to get a salt lassie. I have a prob spelling most of these things wrong, but I can find my way around a wonderful Indian joint

[I LOVE PA!]

My brother's wife is Indian, her family has become part of our own, and after 20 years of family gatherings I sometimes wish they would be less willing to eat what we eat and bring something different for me to try!

[lilypad]

I do like it once in awhile, causes lots of heartburn, so spicy! There is a very popular Indian restaurant not far from me, and have been wanting to try it, looks very nice. I do use curry in alot of my cooking, love the taste!!

[richt1971]

Love it! But then in Britain there's more Indian restraurants/take outs than any other type of restraurant. It's a tradition in the UK particularly amongst college kids to have a Indian and beer night!

[megan77]

my name is megan,i live hear near d.c. i am white american and am married to
an indian guy.i have been cooking professional indian food for about 10 years now.i hate to brag,but my pakistani and indian girlfriends rush to my house when they know i am making indian food.i always get compliments like"your cooking is better then someone of indian or desi desent!and i hear all the time,"you are a better cook than my mom,don't tell her i told you that"
i like those compliments b/c when i cook,i make love to the food(not literally),i put my passion and soul into it,that is why when people eat my food thay can feel the love in it! if anybody wants some super awesome recipes,just hit me up!!

[jhlcomp]

megan77 come over to my house won't you? I lived in India and Pakistan and simply adore the cuisine. I wish I had more opportunities to enjoy the cuisine. I love it all.

[jco]

I've just started eating it since I've started my new restricted diet (cutting certain unhealthy items). I was shocked at how tasty it is! Some of the recipes are so clever, too. I would have never thought I'd use yougart and chicken together, but very good.

Since we're on the topic... can anyone tell me how to eat hummus?

[elfyum]

My absolute favorite!!! I LOOOOOVE curry!!!!!! And SAMOSA!!! The only thing that sucks is that they use ghee - I'm vegan!
Thanks though! I will be on vacation for 10 days & was thinking I should take the chance to cook - & some Indian food sounds
like just the thing!

(Psst - jco - hummus is middle eastern - maybe you should start a new thread! )

[BlueWillowPlate]

Here is a recipe from an Indian friend. You can play around with it a bit depending on what ingredients you do or do not have. My 17 year old loves it and we've made it countless times.
For the Chicken:

2 cornish rock hens...deskinned and chopped up into pieces with perfectly acceptable cleaver obtained from 99 cent shop (keep meat on bone)

1 cup yoghurt (I used FAGE fat free Greek Style and I'd recommend Greek style yoghurt if you can find it because it's so creamy it makes the curry ridiculously rich without a hint of milk cream)

1 Bottle Indira Garlic-Ginger-Chili paste (I've used Naturally Fresh Ginger Dressing w/a few chopped chilies)

Salt

Marinate the chicken overnight, or for at least a couple of hours in salt, yoghurt and as much of the chili-garlic-ginger paste as seems advisable to you (I used 1/2 a bottle). Make sure to mix and cover well. Refrigerate.

Spices & for Curry:

2 small-medium onions (finely chopped)

2 fistfuls of coriander leaves (chopped and reserved for last step)

Cayenne (I used about 2 heapings of the spice box teaspoons as came with my stainless steel spice set my mom gave me)

Turmeric (3 heapings of spice box teaspoons)

Cumin & Coriander Powder (I have a cumin coriander mix my mom made me, I used 2.5 tablespoons of this mix...but otherwise adjust to the measurements in the Allrecipes recipe)

Garlic (3 cloves, grated)

Ginger (2 generous nodes, grated, adjust to personal preference)

1 to 2 tablespoons oil (vegetable or mustard)

1 14.5 oz can whole peeled tomatoes with juice

2 green peppers, chopped into chunks

Salt to taste

Method:

In large wok or pot, heat 2 tablepsoons oil at medium-high heat on stove, swirling to make sure it covers the entire bottom of pot

When you are sure it's hot, add the chopped onions, garlic & ginger. I dumped it in all at once, having put it all in the same bowl. Cook on medium heat until the onion is very soft-light brownish and translucent. If it's getting too dry, try lowering the heat a bit (on an electric I'll be doing this on a 5 or 6 setting) or add sprinklings of water. You can always add more oil, but keep in mind that it increases calories. Your curry WILL be just as tasty, and pretty damn healthy, if you just lightly sprinkle with water/or spray with Pam to keep the mixture moisturised. However, once you figure out the temperature settings, you'll be able to do it for a long time without any need for oil or water (it took me several years to learn how to fiddle with the heat settings for Indian curries)

Once onion (and with the garlic and ginger) is translucent golden, add the spices, all of them. The coriander/cumin powders, cayenne and turmeric. And a little bit of salt and sugar if you will. Make sure to mix and fold into the onion mix completely. At this point I usually open the can of tomatoes and start adding little tipples of the tomato juice to the spice mix when it's getting too dry and threatening to burn and stick to the bottom of the pan. You don't need too much, just little baby sip amounts (like a teaspoon at a time) so you can properly fry the spices without burning them. Fry for a couple of minutes

Add more juice off the tomato can so you get something of a slurry and plonk your marinated chicken with all the yoghurt clinging to it, into the onion spice mix, making sure to mix and cover chicken with all the spices and onion mash. Lower the heat a bit to 4/5 so that the chicken doesn't burn and cook from the heat (I prefer to cook it in the curry rather than getting cooked from the pan, that way it releases all its juices into the curry).

When chicken is completely coated, add the rest of the tomato juice and increase the heat to about 5 to 6. Allow for it to warm up gently for about 10 minutes, then dump in the tomatoes and green pepper chunks, smacking them up with the spoon to cut them up and mixing everything again. Increase heat to 7.

Fiddle with heat on and off-you DO need to bring it to a boil for at least a little while but make sure you allow periods where you bring the heat down to about 3 (low) and just let it gently bubble. When I first started cooking Indian food in college I had a really frustrating time figuring out how to get that curry juiciness without adding anything because my mom would give me painstaking instructions on how many spices and how many minutes, but completely forgot to tell me you need to fiddle with heat settings during cooking and not leave everything on 9/ultra high. I'd always add water to get more gravy towards the end but it would never be "thick" the way my mom's gravy ended up thick and creamy with no additional liquids whatsoever. Now I know it has everything to do with not letting things get too hot too fast so that all the veggies and meat can release their own water into the curry and mix with the yoghurt & tomatoes. Plus, it is genuinely easier to cook with the canned tomotoes than it is to use fresh ones.

When the meat is cooked through and you get a lovely, rich gravy (it will thin out as it cooks and the tomatoes disintegrate and the green peppers release liquid, but it starts out very very thick, especially if you used greek yoghurt), add solid fistfuls of chopped coriander into the curry and bring to brisk boil for 1 minute.

Serve fragrant and steaming hot over rice or with chapati/naan.