Indian food at home

[wildernesse]

Dear monkeys:

I'm thinking about adding a cookbook to my little library. Do you have any suggestions about good Indian cookbooks? I don't really need anything too complex--just a nice place to start.

Thanks!

[RevDahlia]

Oooh, you need some Madhur Jaffrey (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/002-7369278-9102468) in your life. All her cookbooks are terrific and friendly. Recipes from the Indian Spice Trail is my favorite, but you really can't go wrong with any of her books.

Most Indian cooking is pretty simple once you've tracked all the ingredients down. (Of course tandoori anything is the big exception.) A lot of the techniques -- like frying the spices before you do anything else -- can be adapted for other cuisines. Yum. Indian. (Now I have a vindaloo jones going.)

[wildernesse]

Thanks! From my amazon playing around, I thought she sounded like a good bet. Maybe this week, I'll end up at a bookstore.

[livius drusus]

I could ask my mom for her Pakistani recipes. I pretty much hate that stuff, but I could eat about a hundred of those fiery little kebabs she makes.

[viscousmemories]

I was just looking for Chicken Tikka Masala recipes yesterday. We have an Indian chain restaurant nearby called Masala which has really good food. My favorites being the Chicken Tikka Masala and Spinach Masala w/ Paneer. I know paneer is really hard to make, but the masala doesn't look too hard depending on the recipe. There are some recipes out there that look pretty fierce.

[JoeP]

Yes, Madhur Jaffrey's the one.

[MooseIBe]

I tried making Indian food from scratch a few years ago and it didn't work terribly well... bought a shed-full of spices and whatever else but the result was a rather watery and not especially pleasant mess. Ever since then I've cheated and bought jars of sauce. Lamb korma with pillau rice .. gorgeous, and if you start with raw lamb you can sort of pretend you've cooked it yourself :winedunk: (dear God I love these smilies! This one has nothing to do with curry but it's cool anyway...)

[Gurdur]

The one thing you really cannot make satisfactorily at home is good meat samosas, unless you are an expert cook.
Everything else is either a breeze (like poppadums), or manageable (like curries), even for a culinary dunce like me), but samosas are bloody difficult.

Regards,
Gurdur Who Likes To Live Off Indian Food, The Hotter The Merrier.

[wildernesse]

Hmm, interesting comments all. I haven't been by a bookstore/library yet, but it's on my to-do list. Thanks for giving me new ideas for food to try.

For my nutritional anthro class, my group made paneer for our project about milk. I don't remember it being difficult, but that's probably because I was playing with the giant dog instead of actually helping.

[MooseIBe]

How do you make popodoms at home? I tend to buy them ready formed and then just deep fry them - ah, the satisfying potential of all that fat :D. I dunno how you make them from scratch though.