Simple recipes please

Pembrokeshiregal

We are moving to Gurgaon in January. We both love Indian food, but are never very succesful when we try and cook it ourselves in the UK. So the thought of cooking in India is a little daunting - assuming we even manage to buy the right things.

It would be really helpful if any of you could share any tried and tested, very simple recipes (with idiot-proof instructions) just to start us off. Hints on what to buy as food staples would also be really useful.

Thanks very much in mouth-watering anticipation.

shanthi

Hai! If you type "Simple Indian Recipes" into your search engine, you'll come up with thousands!!! (I just did that and it came up with 32,447!!) There are also a lot of Indian websites that offer free e-books jam-packed with recipes - It's a very broad subject. You'll find vegetarian, non-veg and sweets, everything! You'll also find a lot of recipes here on IM - just take a browse through the forums and you'll find a lot that have been posted by IM'ers

guerik

The simplest Indian recipes I know involve a jar or sachet for the flavour - I don't have enough room in my pantry for all the ingredients required for one recipe
They still taste pretty good though!

PRIYA

Pembrokeshiregal - you don't say whether you're veg or non-veg which would give us a bit more to go on

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ddevadatta

Indian cooking seems daunting but it need not be. I was forced to learn to cook during graduate school and I learned it. Perhaps there is only one person in my life who I have concluded would never ever learn to cook and that was my Hungarian roomate those days. He surely was a gonner. Other than that people do learn to cook when there is a necessity.

Anyways what is first of all needed is a passion and desire to cook Indian. Cooking is as much an art as a science. Recipes are very helpful but if you don't make love to the cooking process all the recipes in the world will do you no good. (As for recipes I agree with the previous poster and you can get them anywhere on teh web).

I would also at the appropriate time befriend an Indian family or two and express your desire to learn authentic Indian cooking. This will be considered an honor and over time the best way to learn Indian cooking is to "catch" it by observing and trying out with a pro rather than trying and retrying recipes by yourself.

Indian cooking is about timing and so many other stuff than just the ingredienets. Of course once you learn the propositions in various recipes you can move on to the more subtle aspects of the process.

Good luck but above all have the passion and the determination not to get defeated when it comes to Indian cooking.

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jyotirmoy

Is Indian cooking such a daunting or difficult job? Quite a few non Indian members of this forum are regularly cooking & devouring Indian food.

Yes "if you don't make love to the cooking process all the recipes in the world will do you no good." Absolutely right.

The internet recipes are a class by itself.

iwanttogoback

pembrokeshiregal

find a copy of any of madhur jaffrey's cookbooks, buy the ingredients and get into that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans!
seriously, my best cooking comes initially be being guided by a good cook - madhur for indian, nigella for nigella...
a lot of what i cook is fairly boring and blah but when i get out the indian stuff it is really worth the effort, and lots of fun into the bargain.
enjoy.
ps: check out the recipe of the day thread here, heaps of really good stuff, all of it tested by IMers.

raos

I wouldn't recommend Madhur Jaffrey; her recipes are often exotic and complicated (beautiful cookbooks though!). It's bad enough in the U.S., but I imagine you'll even be running all over India for the ingredients.

I would recommend some of the scores of Nita Mehta books. You'll find her books at any reputable bookstore in Delhi. They are usually small, inexpensive books with discrete titles; like "Paneer" or "Muglai Cooking". Her books on Indian Chinese are also really good.

IMO, the hardest thing about cooking Indian is not the spices, but the technique.

Alan D

I also use Madhur Jaffrey's books among others - I find the recipes clearly written and easy to follow. My local Pakistani food shop has never let me down on the ingredients needed ,so I would imagine you will have no problems finding them in the Delhi area.

There are lots of internet sites - I've found a few good recipes on the Death by Curry website.

I think if I lived in Delhi though, I would cook less often and spend time tracking down good eating places

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navinkurian2002

I agree with Alan D i would go out looking for good eating places where the food is good and prices are really low .Usually I cook noodles maybe cook steamed rice and order the yummy spicy curry from out

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iwanttogoback

one of the fun things about indian cooking is having to visit the Daily Supermarket for the more exotic ingredients. so far, it has stocked everything that i can't get from my local supermarket. and i love the name, so much more interesting than coles or woolworths.

but eating out, now that's a much better idea.

jyotirmoy

I wont go out too frequently to eat out in Delhi. Although I am a Delhite still not immune to delhi belly. Most of the eating joints except the very upmarket & 5 star places score quite low in hygine. Unfortunately much of the lipsmacking stuff are available at these places.
I am somewhat doubtful about the hygine & nutritional values of the so called lavish buffet spreads at the 5 star hotels. I get a feeling that some leftovers are lurking some where heavily disguised.
Here are some nice places to eat in Delhi.


1. Karims hotel near Jama Masjid for excellent non-vegetarian Mughlai food. Start with Mutton Barha, move on to Seekh Kababs with Rumali roti, Mutton Quorma with Bakarkhani Roti, Mutton Ishtew with Tandoori roti, finish with Sheermal as the dessert.

2.Chor Bizzare near Delhi gate for excellent Kashmiri cuisine. The salad bar is the Rolls Royce vintage car. Start with a beer with batter fried Lotus stems, more beer with Tabak Maj, Gustaba with rice, Rista with yellow pulao. For dessert walk towards Dariya Gunge & near the movie theatre you will find good Kulfi Faluda.

3.Take a bus from C.P which goes towards Mehrauli. Get down at the I.N.A market & cross the road & you will find Delhi Hat. The food court has stalls from all the states so you can gorge on all the goodies.

4.Continue on the same bus & get down at the Green Park stoppage. Get in to the Indian Oil Corporation compound. Here you will find a very homely restaurant serving Kerala cuisine. Try the Karee Meen a typical back-water fish from Kerala spiced & crisp fried. Have Mutton/Chicken stew with Appams. For dessert cross the road & go to Green Park Extn. Market. Head to Ever Green Sweet House & try the delicious sweets & great Lassi.

5.The Nathu’s sweet house in Bengali market near Mandi house serves very good snacks, sweets & vegetarian food. Try the Kulcha Chole, Raj Katchori & Ras Malai.

6.For the best vegetarian meal head for the ISKCON temple near East of Kailash, have a thali here.
7.Visit Swagath in Defence Colony for seafood cooked in south Indian style. The Crabs are great & also try Chettinad cuisine here.

Pembrokeshiregal

Thanks everyone - I particularly like the advice to eat out - much better idea than spending all our time cooking.

However, we do want to learn to cook authentic dishes without resorting to the ready-made sauces all the time; we'll definitely try some of the recipes on other posts before we go.

We will buy a recipe book but I think we might wait until we get there though; I'm worried that if we buy one in the UK we won't be able to find all the ingredients, or else they'll be called something different.

KSivani

In all the time I lived in India I never once got seriously ill from food poisoning, except in Delhi. I was there twice, and both times I got a truly bad case of Delhi Belly; the second time I was unable to leave my bed for three days, except to rush on hands and knees to the bathroom.

Having said that, we arrive in Delhi in late November for a week. We'd appreciate any supplements to your excellent list; we would mostly be interested in vegetarian places, or places with a worthwhile veg. selection.

Thanks,

Sivani

guerik

Does anyone have a fairly simple recipe for black daal? The ones I'm finding online have too many ingredients - I don't mind lots of spices but can't be buying 5 different types of lentils, there's not much room in my pantry!