Dish of the day.....

Bigzero

butterball, it depends on which curry has to be "carried"!

rotis dont go well with sambar . idli may be having an edge here as it can go with anything ! sambar is first of course, but try idli with a good non-veg dish ( butter chicken? ) you will understand. idlis can go even with just red chilli powder and ghee . i guess idlis have this enormous adaptability as far as curry carrying is concerned.

and if you are fed up with having idlies with all these curries, you can cut them up, and fry with some onions and curry leaves etc., and you have "fried idlies" or "idli-upma" ready!

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chappal

Mmmm-yumm. Extra idli batter next time -- breakfast with chutney, lunch with sambaar, and dinner to try this preparation. .... a day of idli heaven! Tee hee! DH might not be delighted about this...

seventies'hippy

Made some Chicken Tandoori today, though had to substitute the Tandoor Oven for a terracotta dish in an electric cooker.

But very tasty all the same,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

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Ikuru

kewl. I just wanne mark this thread.
Making lasie is nice though, all you need is lets say a bannana some thick yougourt and a blender. Wanne go exlusive? Trow in a mango too.

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sticky

if you peel and cut up the banana then freeze it first (not so its as hard as rock, but close) then blend it, it comes out think and cold, with a texture between a milk shake and a thick shake - even if you only add water. its great when its hot!

add yoghurt or milk. mmmmmmm

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Flashpackers: Backpackers doing it in style.

beach

Not exactly an Indian dish..but from the kitchens of ours friends in the neighbourhood

rangss

This was my experiment last night...came out well:

Cilantric Aubergine.

Aubergines (Brinjal), those long and thin ones.
A big bunch of Cilantro
Medium chunk of Ginger
4 green chillies.
A ball of tamarind smaller than a ping pong.
A tb spn of sunflower Oil,
South Indian seasoning stuff (Asafoetida, bengal gram, mustard seeds and cumin)
Salt as desired
A little Sugar to kill the fire!

The do:

Cut the aubergines into pieces... narrow, chip-like.
Chop Cilantro roughly.. Peel and cut ginger roughly into chunks. Remove the stem of the chillies and cut each into two.

Soak the tiny tamarind ping pong ball in water and allow it to turn to pulp (work on it if it does not).

Heat oil in a wok. Add the S-I Seasoning stuff and hear the mustard splutter. Add the aubergine and fry for a while till the aubergines are slightly browned. Reduce the flame to let the aubergines cook in their own sins.

Blend Chopped cilantro, ginger and chillies, until you have a wet, green paste with no trace of ginger or chilly or even cilantro leaves. This thing 's got a great aroma.

Add the wet paste to the chastened aubergines and mix. Add a spoon of oil. Now it is the cilantro's turn to be punished. Increase the flame slightly if you wish to punish the cilantro more/if you wish the curry to be drier.

When the cilantro looks dull and cooked, pour in the tamarind pulp. Let the whole concoction cook for a while before adding the salt and sprinkles of sugar to kill the fire...a bit.

Remove from flame, serve hot on a bed of rice, spoon it along with a sip hot fiery rasam and scream aloud until someone douses the fire with some delicious cool yoghurt.


Ranga

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rangss

Hindupur Bus station, Hindupur, border of Andhra and Karnataka. Midnight. X Buses from Bangalore to Hyderabad, Kurnool, Anantpur, Guntakal, Adoni, Puttaparthi and gawd knows where else, come in one by one. Passengers deliberately board buses without a meal, as Hindupur is ahead. A small kiosk is doing brisk business in the most professional manner. All passengers huddle around the kiosk shouting their orders. It serves hot and fresh off the oven idlis...soft, buttery and utterly delicious. no sambhar...just a dash of onion chutney and some spicy cocunut chutney on a plantain leaf laid over the plate. Plate after plate of idli (each plate: 4 idlis, large) are gobbled at the rate of Rs 5 per plate. nobody ask for sambar as I said, the idlis are soft, buttery, delicious and melt in your mouth taking you to heaven.

Passengers finish off the idlis and some of the even order for some upma. Upma is the most hated snack in Andhra. But Hindupur Bus Station upma is as good as the idli, though not as legendary...soft, buttery, mildly spicy, delicious and filling.

Hmmmm...it is time to make my trip to Hindupur.

*jyoti*

Hello all! Hope someone peeks in here, as it seems rather dormant... But, I wanted to ask, does anyone know how to make parathas?!? I found an internet recipe, and my friend from India helped make them, but he's never cooked them before and was just guessing. "Yep, they look kinda like Mom's..."

We used 4 cups wheat flour, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 cup margarine, and water. How thick should the dough be? Mine was rather stiff, a little stiffer than bread dough. I had problems with the stuffing (mashed potatoes and cheese w/ chives) coming out when I pressed it back and they fell apart a lot, which I think is b/c of the potatoes. Any better directions for actually putting them together? We only used a tiny bit of oil.

And, for my own contribution:

Aloo Ghobi

oil
mustard seeds
cumin seeds (optional)
turmeric
red chili powder
subzi masala or any veggie/aloo masala (optional)
1/2-1 onion (by taste)
1 can diced tomatoes (drained or not, depends on taste) or 1-1 1/2 cup fresh
1 cup green peppers and/or green chilies (shimla mirtch or huri mirtch*)
1 cauliflower head (ghobi) chopped into rather small pieces
about 3 medium or 2 large potatoes (aloo) chopped (approx 1 cm cubes)
fresh cilantro, washed.
tortillas

Heat the oil in a pan. When hot, add about 1 T mustard seeds to taste (I really like mustard seeds, so I add more) and a pinch of cumin seeds. Let simmer for 2-3 minutes 'til spices begin to color the oil. Add onions and peppers and fry 'til onions are translucent. Then, add the tomatoes. If you use fresh tomatoes, they'll have to be cooked a while 'til they are soft like stewed tomatoes. I usually don't drain them as you'll need to add water anyway. You can also chop the cilantro stems and throw them in now, too, for more flavor, if you want. Save the leaves for later.

When the tomatoes are hot and stewed, add about 1/2 T of turmeric and 1/2 T of chili, to taste. I usually add more chili, but my Indian food is usually a bit spicy even for my Indian friends! Turmeric will, apparently, bring out the spice of the chili, so don't use too much of that either if you don't want hot/tika spicy. You can add the masala now or at the end of cooking. I usually add it at the very end.

Then, add about 1 to 1 1/2 cups water and the aloo and the ghobi. Stir well so that the curry is evenly distributed. Then cover and let simmer. Cooking time will depend on the stove. Cook until both the aloo and the ghobi are soft enough to spear with a fork, but not so soft they'll fall apart. Keep adding water so that the sauce is thick, not watery, but so that there is some sauce to it.

When done, tear up the cilantro or cut into pieces. It doesn't need chopped very finely at all--pieces about the size of one leaf each. Stir in to taste. Probably 1/2 cup loose, 1/4 cup packed, if you're measuring, but that's just a guess.

We use a frying pan to heat tortillas slightly. The US version of Indian bread, but it's what my friends from India use as it's cheaper than the real stuff. Just use a tiny bit of oil and heat 'til just barely brown.

Mmm! This is one of my favorite Indian dishes so far, except Raita with parathas, which is heaven!

--jyoti


*I don't know proper Hindi transliteration. I'm learning using IPA (by sound), so am guessing at how it transliterates.

tadka

hey jyoti--

i'm far from expert! much better at eating paranthas than making them. but a couple of things come to mind...

first, take the time to source yourself some atta (whole wheat bread flour) if you haven't already. any indian grocery will carry this. it's different from the whole wheat on our supermarket shelves, softer, from durum.

second, though i'm sure margarine is used all the time in india, i prefer using ghee. it's really easy to make. (i just *slow* simmer the butter until the solids are very light brown, then strain.) the flavor is much richer than margarine and will yield tastier breads.

if the dough seems stiffer than western yeasted bread doughs--and i think it should be at first, though others may have more insights--i would let the dough rest under a damp cloth or plastic wrap for around 30 minutes. the dough gets tense when you knead and wants to relax. by the time you roll it out, the dough should be fairly pliable.

i'm not much of a bread stuffer. so i can't help you there, but i would say to start just practicing with the unstuffed variety, then work up from there. there's at least three different ways of rolling paranthas that i can think of offhand, and this will give you the chance to play with the dough and get a feel for it before you move onto advanced varieties.

last thought that comes to mind regarding the spuds--for a filling, i'd boil them whole in their skins, then peel and mash them. this will keep the filling dryer as opposed to peeling them first which may waterlog the pots.

have fun!

tadka

pan_nv

un-salted butter