Dish of the day.....

maree

So possibly like tamarind or possibly like mangosteen... can get both here so will give it a go. Or might be able to get some dried cocum in India next month.

butterball

I managed to buy them ( Cocum leaves ) in Goa - a packet of sticky dark peel things.. Goan fish dishes often use them.. Different to tamarind - but not a million miles away.

Keep for ages... I can get them here in London now ..

maree

There's plenty of Indian's living here so I could probably find someif I looked hard enough.

Butterball... are you sure you're not really Jamie Oliver or maybe that Indian chef... Madhur Jaffrey(sp?)?

butterball

It's the job I never had !

I'm looking for a career change... and this has always been an option.... but the hours !

maree

Yeah... i really like cooking for myself and for friends (even though it's actually cheaper here most of the time to buy food in instead). but if i had to do it for a job i think it would turn in to a chore and i'd be bored but i wouldn't be able to waste time on this website when i'm at work (like i'm doing right now) because i'd burn the rice or something

volga_volga

Gujarati Tridoshic Dal

Preparation time: 40 min plus 2 hrs soak for split mung
1 hr 15 min plus 2 hrs for whole mung
- Vata, - Pitta, - Kapha

serves 6-8

1 ¾ cups split mung dal or whole mung beans
6 ½ cups water
1 tablespoon sunflower oil or ghee
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon tumeric
1/8 teaspoon hing
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 ½ teaspoon barley malt or brown rice syrup
1 ½ teaspoons lime or lemon juice
1 teaspoon coriander powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon curry powder, mild
¼ green pepper, chopped (optional, omit for Pitta)
1 clove garlic, minced (optional, omit for Pitta)

Soak mung for 2 hrs, then drain. In large heavy sauce pan heat oil or ghee and add mustard seeds. When they pop, add turmeric, hing, mung, water, and remaining ingredients. Mix well. Cover and cook for ½ hr if split mung, 1 hr if whole mung, or until mung is quite soft.

Good with chappatis, buttermilk curry (maree, did you want that recipe also?), rice and vegetables.

maree

That's the one, V_V. Thanks for that. I've never had the buttermilk curry and haven't seen buttermilk here so don't worry about that one.

Now I can get my dosha in order...

volga_volga

(1) is the curry powder an authentique indian thing or it was "invented" outside India? the only time i heard "curry" in india was to refer to a sauce (curry meaning sauce-like substance).

and here in ayurvedic Gujarati dal i see "curry powder"

(2) brasmati brown rice? i saw it in a corner shop today and bought one to try. but i am not sure if it exists in India...

Tomi

Volga, curry powder is a mixture of spices, where usually cumin and turmeric predominate in color and flavor. Your recipe already includes coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, mustard seeds, etc. so you already have a "curry powder" of sorts without the curry powder. I never use pre-made curry powder. Nor do my cook friends nor do good Indian cookbooks, so I assume it's an invented Western thing. I instead grind and mix the whole (a lot fresher) spices, sometimes roasted sometimes not, depending on the dish I'm making. Some curries have cloves, others not.

My Indian friends here will use expressions like "add the lamb to the curry", meaning the sauce that's already pre-mixed, with oil, onions, etc., just like you say.

Using curry powder is like using "barbecue spices" or "pickling spice", a fairly vague combination, not even as standardized as "khmeli suneli" or "quatre épices" or "five spice powder" or "ras el hanout," which are used by natives of those cultures.

I saw brown basmati for sale in India too, but it was never served to me. I saw it in Bangalore, though, so that doesn't count.

ashish0608

'Curry Powder' must have been invented outside India only, as most households in India would buy spices and would have their own method of curry preparation. the word 'Curry' is heard of in India in dishes called 'chicken-curry', 'egg-curry' or 'fish-curry' etc.

Wonder what 'curry powder' in ayurvedic Gujarati dal would be.....and very funny the use of word 'ayurvedic' has become..they would just add this word in front of anything shampoo/soap/medicine etc. ..and now Dal only to make it more apealing.

volga_volga

thanks Tomi and hashish, i thought so.

hashish, i think the book was written for the US market although the only place i could find it was India (but then again, i am far away from the US). nevertheless, i like recipes in that book (which seems to be hard to find even for amazon.com)

tomi, how do you decide whether you will roast the seeds before using them in the recipe? i like everything roasted, i think it enhances the taste...

beach

There is a brown (partly polished) rice very common in Kerala. I’ve not seen this in any other states. It’s a bit thick and big compared to the regular ones.

Tomi

Volga, the recipe should tell you whether you should roast a spice or not.

In my experience, regular cumin is often roasted (dry roast the whole seeds before you grind them), whereas black cumin (shah jeera) is not, but usage may vary. I have cookbooks from Kashmir, Andhra, Coorg, Kerala, etc. as well as mughal, and a similar recipe varies from one to the other.

Another flavor enhancer is to throw a pinch of extra spices (and/or garlic, onion, asafoetida, etc.) into a bit of hot oil or ghee at the last minute (a technique which is sometimes called "tarka"), then pouring this over the dish just before serving. It's great with dahl. Some spices pop in oil, like black mustard, so avert your feline eyes...

volga_volga

Tomi, i LOVE popped mustand seeds!!! in fact, after India I started putting them in almost every meal including fried eggs

i think the seeds/spices fried in oil as a topping are called "tampering" - at least in Delhi.

beach, the basmati brown rice is still long and THIN (as basmati) but unpolished, ie "brown". i was surprised because it was my first time i saw basmati+brown rice.

__________________
Tibetan Orphanage School in China
My other favourite place is Pakistan Travel Forum

edwardseco

Does anyone have a recipe for Kolhapuri Chicken? It takes some resolve on the part of the diner and some effort to persuade the owner that a westerner can eat it and survive..