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Apologies for lack of a more interesting pun. Disclaimer: Please bear in mind that I’m speaking from my own experience, and won’t be able to cover the staggering variety of foods eaten in this region. In Andhra Pradesh /alone/ you’ve got the food eaten by the general populace in the farms, the Mughali royal food, and everything in between. In Tamil Nadu, you have the Tamil Brahmins, the Iyers, the Chetinand cuisine, and even influences from Sri Lanka. This will just be a tiny slice of what’s out there, and I encourage you to explore more, and reach further than the little glimpses that I can show you. Another thing to bear in mind is that my family hails from Chennai, in the Chrompet area. This means that our food is going to be influenced by that particular region. It will differ from the foods you’d get Mabalam, which would be different from what you’d find in Adayar. There are common themes that run throughout, but the food tastes completely different. I could usually find those long cucumbers when I’d walk with my mum to the market in Chrompet. They’d be on every street corner. However, once you’d got to Mambalam (there’s a lot of good shopping there), you’d find these dudes with roasted peanuts all over the place. In Adayar, I vaguely remember my mum being able to sort out the fluffiest pillow-like idlis at the train station. I said all that to remind you that even though I’m going to give an overview to the best of my ability, Indian food in general is extremely regional, down the last kilometre. What I know of it, and the methods of preparation will have someone else from a different background and different region rolling their eyes. However, that’s half the fun! In other words, don’t cling tightly to concepts of “authentic”. Each family interprets the basic technique in its own way. When said family moves to another location (i.e., England, Australia, USA, Canada), they take what they can find locally, and suit it to their techniques. Without further delay, I present to you... The Food of South India Generally speaking, nobody will argue with you if you consider South India to be Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The two states neighbour each other, and are pretty much as far south as you can go without falling into the water. Culturally, linguistically, and culinarily, the two states are like very close sisters. In fact, there are many people who are comfortable in both Tamil and Malayalam. As a Tamil speaker, I can more or less make out what a Malayali is saying, as long as they slow down a bit (Malayalam’s liquid syllables come flying off the tongue, as opposed to Tamil’s slightly slower pace). If you’re a jerk (like me), you’d call Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka as part of Central India, even though you’d get death glares from anyone from that region. Culinarily speaking, Andhra and Karnataka are closer to each other than they are to Tamil Nadu and Kerala. How can you tell that a food is from a region? By the stereotypes (which are frequently true) about those regions, of course! Andhra Pradesh: Andhra people are known to have a long-held love affair with chiles. Their food is screaming hot. You can generally tell when you’ve met an Telugu child when he’s happily chomping down on the same food that the Tamilians have made for the adults (often, in Tamil households, they’ll make one batch of food non-spicy for the kids, and one batch fiery hot for the adults). You make a batch of Indian pickle, and heave great handfuls of extra hot chili powder in there, and you’ve just made a Telugu speaker Very Happy Indeed. Kerala: Coconut. They use coconut oil on their skin and hair. They cook with freshly grated coconut in everything. Coconut milk goes into anything that contains liquid. There is so much coconut that you’ll literally have it in everything you eat. There is a reason that food from Kerala garners so much respect: it’s extremely delicious! Karnataka: They may as well be North Indians with their freaking love of sugar. They’ll add jaggery (unrefined evaporated sugar cane) to drat near everything. You know you’re dealing with a Kannadiga recipe when you see a savoury dish calling for jaggery. And then you roll your eyes, and leave it out, muttering about freaking Northerners and their need for sugar all over the place. Tamil Nadu: Rice. You’ll know a Tamilian when he still looks hungry after eating sandwiches, pasta, noodles, or anything that doesn’t involve rice in some way. I’m serious. We tend to eat rice three times a day. If there isn’t rice in the meal, we don’t feel like we’ve actually eaten. There are times when my mum would take us all to a friend’s house for dinner, and they’d serve us a wonderful vegetarian meal. It would be a salad or soup, some pasta, some veggies on the side, and even dessert! And then we’d go home, and promptly attack the rice pot, because nobody feels like s/he’s eaten a meal yet. Mind, we wouldn’t need very much. Just a little to feel full. What are the major categories of food? Rice Mixed Rice Soaked & Ground Rice Vegetables Stewed Vegetables Dry Roasted Vegetables Raw Vegetables Beans Daal Soondal Pickle Spicy Pickle Salty Pickle Not everything will strictly fall into these categories, but I’ll give a rough overview of them. Mind you, this will be a little Tamil-centric, and vegan (I’m not familiar with the meatfoods, and I’m not comfortable talking about dairy or eggs, so you’re welcome to talk about those things and educate each other on those things of course). Talk about what you know, right? Rice Unlike in the North, where wheat breads (puri, roti, naan, phulka, paratha, etc) are staples, in the South, we generally depend on rice. Whether it be the mound of plain rice that forms the major portion of your meal, or is one of the delicious spiced rices (kalantha saadam: literally “mixed rice”, or rice that’s been tossed with spices, nuts, ginger, and herbs), or even a fermented rice product (idli, dosa), pongal (rice & lentils cooked together with spices), or poha (pounded rice), you’re bound to find rice in a South Indian’s home. I’m just going to barely skim the surface of the dizzying varieties of rice that we use and eat on a regular basis. While basmati rice is prized for its fragrance and aroma, it’s not ideally suited for South Indian food, which tends to need a rice that will get mushy on you. Basmati rice tends to stay too fluffy and separate, and doesn’t give that creamy texture that a regular long or medium grained rice will give when you mash it up. There are few things that make me cry on the inside as much as watching someone eat rasam or sambhar with fluffy separate basmati rice. Unless you’re specifically making a kalantha saadam, or a pilaf (and if you’re making a pilaf, what are you doing here!? that’s Northerner food! [PS I’m just kidding. You get excellent pilafs in Hyderebad]), stick with any short, medium, or long grain rice you can find. Jasmine is a bad choice, as is any rice that tends towards the fluffy and separate. At home, I’ll reach for short grain brown rice. Sushi rice works great with South Indian food, as does Carolina long grain. If you are making a kalantha saadam, please by all means use basmati. The flavour and texture will be so delicious. Kalantha Saadam Mixed rice is any combination of spices and rice. It can be elaborate, and involve lots of steps, or be simple. The quickest and simplest is Lemon Rice. Lemon Rice This is the most basic, simple version. More elaborate versions involve adding roasted nuts, curry leaves, sesame oil (the Indian kind, of course; the Chinese kind is too strong in flavour), sesame seeds, etc. I wanted this version to be the simplest possible.
In a small pot, add the oil, and let it heat over high heat. Swirl the fat around in the pot, until it gets nice and hot. Add the mustard seeds, and STEP BACK. They will pop. If they’re not popping, the oil is not hot enough. That’s fine. Just let them hang out until they pop. If they do not pop, the flavour will not happen, and you’ll have wasted your time. Do not trust anyone who tells you to add mustard seeds at the same time as any other spice. They’re Sandra Lee-ing you. Ignore them. When the mustard seeds have reached their peak of popping, and subsided a little, add the cumin seeds and urad daal. Swirl the pot around to distribute the seeds. Lift the pot off the heat so that you don’t burn your spices. The cumin seeds will pop. This is good. Add the asafoteida, turmeric, and ginger, one after the other. Don’t add them at the same time. Turn off the heat, and add the lemon juice and lemon zest. The mixture should come up to a quick boil, then subside. Add the mixture to your cooked rice. Toss to combine. Season with salt as needed. For the most fluffy and separate rice, dump out the rice onto a baking sheet, and gently spread it out in one layer. Allow the rice to cool to room temperature before tossing with the spice mixture. This will give you amazing results every time. If you don’t like rice, feel free to use this recipe with quinoa. I’ve done it frequently, and it is delicious. If you can’t find quinoa, use millet. That works great too. If you don’t like millet, this works excellent with couscous. It also tastes really great when tossed with angel hair pasta. My mother has made all these variations many times, and it gets eaten every time. Once you’ve mastered lemon rice, just sub out the turmeric and lemon juice with 1 cup of freshly grated (or frozen grated) coconut and you’ll have coconut rice. Sub out just the lemon juice with freshly diced tomatoes, and you’ve got tomato rice (extremely delicious). Tamarind rice is a little more complex. Even experienced cooks tend to buy the MTR Tamarind Rice (Puliyogare) mix from the store. It’s a right pain in the rear end to do. Fermented Rice I have covered dosa in detail on my blog: http://altveg.blogspot.com/2011/01/dosa.html Just make sure that you’re using some sort of short grain or medium grain rice. Long grain doesn’t come out the same. Vegetables, Stewed Vegetables are a huge part of an Indian person’s diet, and they’re very seasonal. You look forward to different things in different seasons, and go to the market and find huge varieties. I think that the fruit and vegtable lady who would come to my grandma’s house every morning would bring at least four varieties of keerai (essentially, spinach). If you went to the market instead, you’d find each vendor having five or six different varieties of those greens. We love gourds and squashes too. Daikon is a huge favourite. Essentially, however, you’re going to wind up eating either a Sambhar, or a Kootu. The Sambhar is more highly spiced, and tends towards the sour side. The Kootu tends to be milder in flavour, and will be almost sweet (subtle sweetness, not sugar sweetness) from the masses of coconut found in there. I’ll roughly cover both here. I’ll cover kootu first, and then Sambhar, because you can take leftover kootu and turn it into sambhar. If someone is curious about a more specific recipe for keerai kootu (stewed dark green leafy vegetables), please let me know, and I'll type one out. Kootu (basic) This is the most extremely basic version ever. I’m not including any other veg, because this is the bare minimum that you need to make something into a kootu. People add other veggies all the time. Popular additions are carrots, cabbage, chayote, any and all gourds, pumpkins, and squashes, split peas, green beans, mushrooms... The sky is the limit. In fact, there are kootu made with just dark leafy greens, like collard greens or spinach. In those cases, just omit the onions, potatoes, and mustard seeds. My mother’s version is even more simple than this. http://altveg.blogspot.com/2010/01/turnip-soup.html My sister-in-law likes to add cooked moong daal, and only half the coconut. I’ve seen people make it with ginger, and curry leaves, without the onion at all, with pearled onions, and with every vegetable known to man.
Sambhar
Mind you, there are versions with proper mixes of spices, and you are more than welcome to bring those up. This is basically a quick and dirty version that I’ll make at home, when I haven’t got a lot of time. My mum and sister-in-law both insist that for sambhar, it is one of the few times that making your own tamarind pulp is important, because the Tamcon (tamarind concentrate) tends to turn the whole thing an unseemly dark colour. However, when I’m in a rush, I’ll use the concentrate. Vegetables, Dry Cooked In the Tamil Nadu, a curry is any sort of dry cooked vegetables. This generally involves three or four spices, along with the vegetable, and as many red chiles as you can handle. I’m covering the most basic and simple vegetables to cook: cabbage. Why? Because it’s dead simple to make, and is one of those vegetables that if you cook correctly, in this manner, you’ll end up with something delicious. Feel free to substitute any other vegetable that you like for the cabbage. This is the Tamil Brahmin version. If you like it, use onions (about 3, sliced thinly) instead of the asafoetida. However, for speed, you can’t quite beat the Tam-bram version, because you’re literally only chopping one vegetable. Cabbage Curry
In a large frying pan or wok, heat the oil over high heat. Add the black mustard seeds, and allow them to pop. Add the cumin seed and urad daal. When the cumin seeds pop as well, add the asafoetida, and stir once. Add the sliced cabbage, and the turmeric. Vigorously stir the cabbage to combine it with the spices and the fat. When all the cabbage has turned a beautiful shade of yellow, let the cabbage sit for a minute or two. Stir again, and let it set for another minute. You’ll notice the cabbage begin to caramelise. Because this is a quick cooking vegetable, you can do all your cooking over highest heat. For potatoes and other root vegetables, you’ll want to drop the heat down to low after the turmeric is combined, and let the veg cook through. Then, once the vegetables are tender, turn up the heat to high again to let them develop a crust on the outside. The trick is to not crowd the pan. Add the salt at the last minute, and taste for seasoning. You may want to add some red chile powder (cayenne pepper works great here). If you do, please turn off the heat before adding the heat of the chiles. Why? Because the smoke bomb of pain and burning that will happen if you try to add ground red chiles to a hot pan will burn your insides. Really. That’s it. That’s the vast world of South Indian vegetables. Throw mustard seed, cumin seed, and turmeric at it until it tastes great. You can do like I do, and also add sesame seeds with the popping spices. You can also crush up some coriander seeds, and add them along with the cumin. By and large, however, this is the bulk of dry roasted vegetables. Beans Beans I have covered at length on the Wiki. BASIC Daal Tarka
Taste for seasoning, and adjust salt and pepper as necessary. To this basic recipe, you could keep going. Add sliced garlic if you have it. Then, when the garlic and onion are cooked through, add chopped ginger if you have it. Then, when the ginger is cooked through (takes about 45 seconds), add some chopped tomato (if using tinned, make sure it has NO calcium chloride in) if you have it. Then, when the tomato has cooked down into a gravy, add some chopped dark leafy greens if you have them. I like kale, but I've seen everything from okra to collard greens to radish greens to chopped daikon to cabbage to peas. The sky's the limit on this one. Then, once you've added the cooked beans, add some chopped basil, coriander, or mint, and stir it through. Soondal Another version of beans is the dry-roasted kind, or Soondal (in Tamil). To make a soondal, cook your beans until they’re done through. Drain off the water completely. Then, cook them just like you would a dry roasted vegetable (omit the turmeric). Then, at the end, add freshly grated coconut. Done. They’re extremely delicious with basmati rice. If you have them, peanuts with the skin still on that have been boiled makes an extremely delicious soondal. Seeing as how it's a legume, it'd count as daal. Right? RIGHT!? Often, my mum and I would decide what kind of bean to make, based on how the rice came out. We had a cheap rice cooker, which would produce a cooked pot of rice, even though each batch was different. Some days, the rice would be soft and slightly mushy. On those days, we’d make the daal tarka. On other days, it was like the fluffy separate rice fairy had blessed our house. On those days, we’d make soondal. Why? Because the wet daal is extremely delicious with mushy rice. You end up with this totally creamy texture that comes from beating up the rice before adding the daal. I’m not going to cover pickles quite yet, because they are so complex, and take so much time to explain. I’d sooner see if there’s any interest in South Indian cooking, and move forward from there. Bear in mind that I have barely nicked the iceberg. This isn’t even an introduction to the cuisine. Instead, it’s a basic starting point from where you can build your range. Couple of other notes. My mother’s wok is nearly nonstick. It’s been used for over 30 years. My own wok is also nearly nonstick. I own cast iron that’s the same level of slippery. In South India, you’ve got a similar situation. However, I’ve adapted these recipes to work in a typical American kitchen, where you may be using fairly sticky pans, so I’ve increased the oil content considerably. If you do use nonstick pans and pots, feel free to ratchet the fat down to about 1 tsp or so, and you’ll still be fine. It’s how we’d cook in South India, because oil is damned expensive. Also, bear in mind that this initial recipe set is very Tamil-Centric. I haven’t really included the delicious cuisines of Karnataka and Andhra because I’m not as familiar with them as I am the Tamil and Kerala foods. If anyone else is familiar with those cuisines, please chime in by all means. If you want to adapt any recipe to a more Keralite bent, just throw a bunch of freshly grated coconut at it at the end. I’m freaking serious. It will be very delicious, and you’ll wonder how you did without. You can generally find frozen fresh grated coconut at Indian and Thai markets. I’ve seen them at Filipino markets too, although I’m not sure how many of you have those around you. I’ve seen it at Mexican markets, but not so much the South American or Spanish markets. If you can’t find black mustard seed, feel free to use white. It won’t be exactly the same flavour, but it will be delicious. Cumin I’ve managed to find at pretty much any Middle Eastern, Latin-American, and Indian market. Please do not substitute powdered cumin. It will not taste right. The popped seeds are what give South Indian food their flavour and character. You see more ground spices in the North. Asafoetida and urad daal can only be found at Indian/Pakistani/West Indian grocery stores. I have not seen them elsewhere. If you’ve got questions, please feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to answer. I will likely bring up Pesarattu (one of the best tasting Andhra delicacies ever) and Bise Bela Bath (a Kannadiga favourite) at some point. I’ll also see if I can’t wheedle a Sambol recipe out of my mum (Sri Lankan coconut sauce to accompany food). I’ll definitely cover Gothsu at some point (tomato chutney, in essence). I haven’t really covered coconut chatni, Dosa Podi (roasted and ground pulses, combined with red chiles, salt, and asafoetida, mixed with sesame oil, and eaten with dosa or idli), or other accompaniment type foods, because I haven’t got time to cover them all.
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Nov 11, 2012 17:18
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Victory Yodel posted:Thank you for this post. My wife family is from Kerala so whenever we visit family there's a contest to see who can out do the other. Uppuma!!! It's one of my favourite dishes for breakfast. I can shoot a recipe your way if you like. I can likely even approximate a Keralite version if need be, which will taste even more creamy. @black: make the daal drat it! @ infinity: just crush the whole spice in a pestle and mortar. If you smell an amazing fragrance, feel free to use it. Else, get fresh. @atv: the soul of South Indian food is exactly what you mention: taking inspiration from a recipe, and adapting it to your own. I look forward to your adventures. @toast: let me know if you want something specific. You still have my email right?
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Nov 13, 2012 05:22
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Make puri. Yeah, it's not South Indian, but it's the exact thing you want with that. OR, make dosa, and stuff that in the middle. It would make an excellent masala dosa. @Squashy: I'm glad you enjoyed the read. It was a lot of information to cover. Essentially, you shouldn't think of India in terms of a single country. The linguistic and cultural barriers present from state to state make India more like a miniature Europe than a single country with any overarching unity in it. The cultures and foods are vastly different.
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Nov 14, 2012 03:59
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xcdude24 posted:I know that pretty much everything from Tamil Nadu is vegetarian, but I thought food from Kerala was more meat-centric? In Tamil Nadu, the muslims, and the Chetinand cuisines are both heavily meat-centric. If you're looking for that sort of thing, there's plenty of it. Kerala tends to be fish-filled, because they have such a huge coastline. Hyderebad has a lot more meat than the others. That being said, unless you're painfully wealthy (as are the Chettiars, from whence Chetinand cooking comes; they're merchants), you won't be eating meat but once in a week or so. Dairy, beans, and eggs are gently caress-off expensive as it is, but meat is extremely expensive, because there is no federal government subsidising the cost of meat. Dairy, yes. Rice, of course. Beans, for sure. Meat? You're on your own. Add that to the fact that Muslims won't touch pigs, and Hindus won't touch cows.
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Nov 14, 2012 19:08
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@Bunnielab: Likely it was Onion Gothsu. It's basically an onion based curry, involving all kind of spices, and tamarind, and all different daals and such. It's extremely delicious. As for Mughlai food, you're talking all the heavily ghee'd and cream'd dishes. Biriyanis, phulka, all the tandoor type meats, any of the heavily rich qurmas and the like. Basically, it's heavily influenced by the Muslims, which means that it'll have a fair bit more meat, and a lot of dairy products, nuts, etc. It's interesting stuff, but nothing I'd ever have the stomach for. Stuff is hella rich. For Vengaya Gothsu (Onion Gotsu), you'll do like 5 TB canola or vegetable oil of your choice 1 tsp mustard seed 2 1/2 lbs red onions, sliced thin (lengthwise) 1/2 lb shallots, sliced thing (if you have it; else, bump up the onions) 1 cup of tamarind pulp (with the soaking liquid added to bring it up to a cup; start with a lemon sized ball of tamarind, soak it in hot water, strain out the pulp, and measure out a cup) 3 stems of curry leaves (if you have them) 5 - 9 red or green chiles, sliced into rounds (if you don't want it lethally spicy, leave 'em out) In a deep pot, heat the oil. Add the mustard seeds, and let them pop. Add the curry leaves (tear them in half as you throw them in). Add the onions, and red chiles. Let them cook down until they're completely soft. You can keep cooking until it's darkened a bit, but you'll be fine if you stop at the soft stage. Add the tamarind pulp, and stir vigorously. Season with salt to taste. Serve alongside idli, vadai, dosa, adai, or whatever else you like. dino. fucked around with this message at 02:39 on Nov 15, 2012 |
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Nov 15, 2012 02:34
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xcdude24 posted:So is ghee not usually used in south India? I live in a city with a large punjabi community, and it seems like their cooking agent of choice. More common in the South is Til oil (an Indian version of Sesame oil with a light taste) for cooking. Ghee is way too expensive in the South to use as liberally as they use in the North. Also, Southern cooking tends to be very light in comparison to that of the North. We use less overall fat, and more water. When you're in a hot climate, it's best not to eat too many heavy meals that will bog you down. Instead, you tend to eat more frequent, light meals. Even with our liberal use of coconut, you'll never get that layer of oil that forms on the top like you would with a Northern dish. It's what makes Indian Southern food what it is: you taste the fresh ingredients more than you do the fat. Mind you, both have their charms. I'll never eat a Chhole dish made with a Southern recipe. The Punjabis know how to make Chhole. They use copious amounts of fat. Same goes for Raajma. Don't ask a Southerner to make Raajma. It will end in tears. For them, a whole four TB of fat, rather than the usual two is a Very Big Deal. And then the Punjabi guy laughs his rear end off, and throws in another 1/2 cup. Chana daal can be used in any recipe that calls for daal. Soak it overnight in cold water, and then boil it in the pressure cooker or in a regular pot. In the pressure cooker, you'll need 12 minutes (soaked) - 20 minutes (unsoaked). In a pot, you'll need about 40 minutes (soaked) - 1 hour (unsoaked). Then, make a daal tarka, and go to town! Chana Daal is also IDEAL for Paruppu Usili. http://goonswithspoons.com/Paruppu_Usili Recipe is on the Wiki. 
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Nov 15, 2012 18:34
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ColdPie posted:Oh my god this thread is amazing. Indian food is my favorite cuisine to cook. I can't wait to try out some of these recipes. Luckily I've already got most of the spices, so just need to pick up the fresh veggies. Thanks very much, I'm excited to see what comes out of this thread. Yeah, it's just a little vegan book whose second edition came out recently. Just search for dino vegan or something on Amazon, and it'll come up.
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Nov 16, 2012 03:11
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Hi Schmeichy! Glad to see you jumping aboard with both feet first! In the South, we don't really use garam masala. That's really a Northern thing. Personally, I don't care for badi elachi (the black cardamom). It has a weird flavour, and gives garam masala that same weird flavour. I prefer the green cardamom. Unfortunately, the potency of green cardamom dies much more quickly than that of the black. If you can trust yourself to only make about 1/4 cup of garam masala at a time, use it up, and then grind a fresh batch again, I'd say use the green with my blessings. Whole urad daal requires longer soaking. It'll mess with the colour. While you're there, just use brown rice for the dosa, and the colour won't matter so much. For whole urad daal, a really tasty recipe is to make Soondal. Soak 2 cups of it overnight in cold water, then drain. Cook in a pressure cooker for 14 minutes. Drain well. Then, toss with the same spices as a sabzi (1 tsp mustard seed, 1 tsp cumin seed, curry leaves [OPTIONAL], asafoetida [OPTIONAL], and lots of grated coconut). Holy balls, it's so delicious.
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Nov 17, 2012 15:06
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Kootu Manni is the Tamil word for the wife of my older brother. Because of the closeness of Hindu Brahmin families (especially ones in the South), you're meant to view your elder brother almost like another parent. Consequently, your elder brother's wife is to be like a second mother to you. She always holds a special place in your life, because she takes care of you as if you were part of her own family. My own Sowmya Manni is one such lady. Whenever Steve and I go down to DC to visit my brother and his family, she sees to it that we're not only comfortable, but also having a really good time. She constantly checks in with either me or Steve to make sure that we're OK with anything she's asking us to do. If she has to step out for a bit and leave the kids under our watch, she'll clear it with one of us first, then make sure to threaten dire consequences if the kids don't listen to their uncles. Mind you, this is never an issue, because my nephew and niece love us both dearly, and would be horrified if they upset us for any reason. She'll stock the fridge with almond milk, because she knows that Steve and I like it. She makes sure to knock up a batch of idli, because she knows that I won't make it at home for Steve, while still keeping a batch of dosa batter for me (since I dislike idli). All in all, my Sowmya Manni is a pretty stand-up lady, and I'm pleased to have known her all these years. On to the recipe. This is an amalgam of my mother's version and my Manni's version. My mother does the thing where she adds fenugreek seeds, because it's healthy, and good for the stomach. She's not a huge fan of its bitter taste, but does like how it thickens soups admirably. My Manni likes to throw in daal, because she's not a huge fan of using lots of coconut (like my mother is). See, my father hates daal in his kootu. So my mother, knowing this, made the compromise and added a lot more coconut instead. My manni doesn't care for the fat, nor does she like fenugreek, so she enriches the stew with daal. In her recipe, she cooks the daal separately, because she's using tuvar daal, which takes a long time to cook. In this one, I used moong daal, so I could throw everything together in one feel swoop. Anyways. Onwards to the recipe. 1 chayote, diced 2 medium potatoes, diced 1 red onion, diced 1/4 cup slivered ginger 1 tsp fenugreek seeds (use up to 1 tsp; if you don't like them or don't have them, omit) 1 tsp red chile flakes 1/2 tsp turmeric 1 tsp~ish Kosher salt 1/2 tsp ground black pepper 1 handful curry leaves 3/4 cup moong daal 1/2 cup grated coconut Water, to cover the veg TARKA 1 tsp canola oil 1/2 tsp mustard seed 1/2 tsp cumin seed 1/4 cabbage, diced     First, chop the veggies. Then, in the bottom of a pressure cooker, add the fenugreek seeds. Atop that, add the coconut. Then, layer on the vegetables over that. Add turmeric and red pepper flakes. Add black pepper. On the VERY TOP, add moong daal and curry leaves. Oh. And add salt at some point in the works. This is important. If you add the moong daal to the bottom, you risk having it stick to the bottom. Follow the order, and you'll be fine. TARKA    Start, as always, with fat, and black mustard seeds. When the pop, add cumin seeds. When they pop, add cabbage. The reason I'm cooking the cabbage now is because I'm doing the kootu differently from how most people would. Most people use a regular pot. I wanted kootu quickly. I used the pressure cooker. If I added the cabbage to the pressure cooker, it'd get horribly overcooked. I wanted the cabbage to retain some of its firmness.   Pressure cook for 9 minutes (this is why I used the cooker; on the stove in a regular pot, it'd take a good 45 minutes or so). Add the cabbage tarka to the stew. Stir to combine. Eat over brown rice.
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Nov 17, 2012 15:30
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@Dad: Keerai Kootu it is! My mum used to make this for the family when they were living next door to a cattle farm. The farmers used to give her their leftover cattle fodder (i.e., spinach, and other greens) for extremely cheap, if not outright free. They didn't have much money at all at the time, so she'd end up having to make it more often than not. Fast forward to many years later, and we're living in USA. Greens are gently caress off expensive, so my mum would make the dish very rarely. My sister and I hadn't lived through keerai kootu every day times, so for us, it was a special treat. My two older brothers, however, would quietly fix themselves a sandwich on the nights that my mum would knock this up. Neither I nor my sister complained. More for us! Keerai Kootu 3 lbs collard greens, kale, or spinach (or some combination thereof), chopped in the food processor 1 onion, diced 3 inch piece of ginger, grated 1 TB oil 1/2 tsp mustard seed 1/2 tsp cumin seed 1 cup grated coconut In a large pot, add the oil, and heat on high. Add the mustard seeds when the oil is hot. They will pop. Allow the mustard seeds to pop, and then add the cumin seeds. Add the onion. Cook the onions until they're just softened (don't brown them). Add the chopped greens. Keep cooking on high heat, until the greens start to release their liquid. Add the ginger and coconut. Keep cooking until the greens are tender. Serve over brown rice. Optionally, you can stir in some leftover baked potato, chopped green or red chiles, or curry leaves if you have them. This is one of those dishes that's easy enough to adapt, based on whatever greens you have. I'm sure you've noticed that there's very little oil, and very little spice in the dish. The reason is because when my mother made it, she didn't have enough money to buy more spices than that tiny amount. If you do enjoy the spices, feel free to double them. For babby, we generally feed them things like pongal. Just leave out the pepper and ginger. It's the sort of dish one makes for one's family, because everyone from toothless babby to toothless granny can easily eat it. It's also eminently digestible. That keerai kootu recipe is another thing that we'll frequently feed the young 'uns. It's good to introduce them to spiced foods early on. South Indian food tends to be very easy on the stomach, and safe for young ones, as long as you omit the chiles. Tamil Brahmin food in particular tends to be good for young ones, because it doesn't use any onion or garlic. My mother says that for young children, she tends to err on the side of soft foods, because their teeth are still not up to the task of chewing harder foods too easily. It's why the pongal is such a staple. It's soft. It's got good for you spices. It digests really easy. I've heard someone call it the Indian version of mac and cheese. @Sch: How did it turn out? When I make dosa, I tend to make coconut chatni. This is my version, which is a spin-off of my mother's version. She used peanuts when she couldn't afford/find Daliya. 1 whole coconut, removed from the shell (save the water too), cut into pieces 1 small onion, peeled and quartered 3 sprigs curry leaves 5 - 8 whole green Thai Bird chiles, stems removed 4 TB daliya (use roasted peanuts if you can't find daliya) Water Salt, to taste In a blender, add the onion, curry leaves, chiles, and coconut (in that order). Add the coconut water. Blend on low until the coconut is chopped up. Have about a cup or two of water at the ready. Increase the speed, and add more water, so that the coconut continues to get finely chopped. Add the daliya, and keep blending. You should end up with a puree of the coconut. It will be delicious.
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Nov 18, 2012 15:05
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Rurutia posted:That sounds amazing dino. Do you think it'd make a good substitute for coconut milk in coconut milk sticky rice? I'm mostly concerned about if it'd match the richness and viscosity. I'm not familiar with the recipe. I'd imagine if you squeezed out the milk from it (throw the whole chatni into a strainer or cheesecloth, and squeeze out the liquid). It'd be a hella spicy, delicious coconut milk. @Squashy: With the new publisher, turn around times are much faster. They're coming in from Amazon with standard shipping. If you've got Prime, it'll get to you in two days. :checks site: And now they're down to 11 copies. WTF.
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Nov 18, 2012 19:19
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Babylon the Bright posted:Can we get some chaat recipes, particularly sweets like ladus and halva? I used to live in Berkeley, which had a huge south Indian population. I miss good Indian sweets so much, also Dhokla, and bhel puri. Those are all North Indian.
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Nov 19, 2012 04:36
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DerpAlert posted:By the way, is yellow-colored mustard seed an acceptable substitute for black mustard? Yellow mustard is much easier to find around here and still seems to impart a rich flavor when popped. Essentially, your generic South Indian vegetable dish (from most of South India) is mustard seed, cumin seed, turmeric, asafoetida, curry leaves. The generic for Kerala is all of the above, plus grated coconut. XD It's really easy.
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Nov 19, 2012 22:42
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DerpAlert posted:I'll have to pick up some turmeric, asafoetida and curry leaves next week then. I live in the Pacific Northwest in the USA so that kind of stuff is extremely difficult to find in the big chain supermarkets around here. Just get all the spices from the Indian store. They'll be much cheaper than the grocery stores. If you swing by a hardware store, they'll sometimes carry those 4 oz mason jars. Excellent for storing your bulk spices!
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Nov 21, 2012 15:55
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2 cups sooji or farina 2 tablespoons oil 1 teaspoon mustard seeds 1 teaspoon cumin seeds 1/8 teaspoon asafetida (optional) 1 handful curry leaves (optional) 1 large onion, diced 1/4 teaspoon turmeric Salt 1/4 cup diced carrots 1/4 cup corn 1/4 cup peas 1 1/2 cups water plus 1 cup water Chile, minced to taste (1 should suffice) 1/2 cup freshly grated coconut (optional) Time: 30 minutes Serves 6 Pour the sooji into a skillet and roast over a gentle flame. You want the stove at medium-low to medium so that you don't burn the sooji. The reason for roasting is that it enhances the dimensions of flavor. It's also the only way I know how to make the stuff, because that's how my mother taught me, and I'm not comfortable with trying to use unroasted sooji. Make sure you constantly stir the sooji to avoid burning, and drop down the flame if you notice any smoke coming up from the pan. This should take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. When the sooji smells lightly nutty and looks a tan color, remove it from the heat and pour it into a bowl to cool. Rinse out your pan and place it over high heat. When the water evaporates, pour in the oil and wait for it to heat. Add the mustard seeds. In about 30 seconds, they should be exploding. Add the cumin seeds. They should be popping before long. Add the asafetida and wait 5 seconds for it to sizzle. Add the curry leaves and step back, because they will explode! Immediately add the onions and chile. Generously sprinkle in salt to taste and the turmeric powder. Stir the onions around the pan to combine with the oil and the turmeric. When all the pieces are yellow, you've combined enough. Let the onions get softened but not browned. When the onions are soft, add the carrots and corn. Stir to combine all the ingredients. When the carrots are soft, add the peas. Stir everything to evenly coat all the vegetables with the oil and spices. Add the grated coconut, and stir until the coconut is lightly toasted. Pour in the 1 1/2 cups water. It should come up to a full boil very quickly. Start stirring everything together, and make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to release any particles stuck onto the bottom of the pan. While constantly stirring the ingredients in the liquid in the pan, pour the roasted sooji into the pan in a steady stream. If you can't stir and pour simultaneously, ask for help. Everything should start coming together very quickly. If it looks too dry, add a little bit more water, until it's at the consistency of very thick porridge. Keep stirring until the excess water evaporates and you're left with a dry final product.
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Nov 23, 2012 02:17
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colonel_korn posted:I'm having trouble finding amchoor in town... is tamarind an acceptable substitute? I mean obviously one is a powder and one is a pulp, but flavour-wise are they fairly comparable?
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Nov 23, 2012 18:42
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Curry leaves are also called "curry paththa". (Literally, curry leaves.) Fenugreek (the fresh stuff, as a herb) is most delicious when added to roti. It's also extremely tasty when added to any kind of dry cooked vegetable. Also goes great in any kind of daal. The dried fenugreek leaves have a stronger smell. It tends to permeate your clothes etc. @Ash: I think that's more from lack of deodorant than anything else. The smell is especially pronounced in folk who come to the USA, and have access to large quantities of meat. Back home, you don't have that same luxury, so you tend not to eat it as much. Most of your diet is vegetables and rice. Meat in Indian cooking tends to be cooked with a lot of garlic and onion, and fairly heavy spices, unlike the veg which tend to be lighter. Why? Because it's so expensive that you want a little bit to go a long way. Take that affinity for strong garlic and onion, then multiply it by the massive quantities you have access to, then pair that with lack of deoderant. It makes for a pretty strong smell. A few shakes of Qasoori Methi isn't really going to give anyone an offensive odour. You'll notice that the strictest Tamil Brahmins don't tend to have that issue. We not only avoid meat, we also avoid garlic and onion. It's why asafoetida is so common in South Indian cooking; they're making up for the lack of garlic and onion. On top of that, because of the religious ceremonies a brahmin has to perform every day, we need to take a bath at least twice a day.  Anything served to the gods during a ceremony may not be cooked with garlic or onion. When you have as many holy days as Hindus do, the Brahmins rarely eat the stuff because most of our food comes from begging, or from the meals that are offered directly to the gods. In other words, there's a bunch of different factors that go into it. I promise you that you'll be fine eating fenugreek leaves.
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Nov 25, 2012 01:29
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icehewk posted:Made your North Indian daal tarka tonight. Subbed in chicken breast for the beans, marinated briefly in soy sauce and cornstarch to preserve the texture while cooking in the liquid. Thanks once again for one of the best meals of my life. Hahahahaahahaahahaa. Wait, you're serious.
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Nov 25, 2012 13:27
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Senor Tron posted:I don't really find it hard to be vegetarian, but don't think I could ever manage without onion and garlic!
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Nov 25, 2012 16:27
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EVG posted:You don't cook it with the curry leaves and spices? Seems like it wouldn't get a lot of flavour... No no, you just do the steaming part naked. Then, you combine it with the tarka.
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Nov 27, 2012 03:52
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Turkeybone posted:Oh hello this thread. I was one half of a south Indian food stall this year, and let me tell you how many loving dosa I had to make before I got the technique and consistency right. It would be awesome if you could explain your dosa technique so that I could add it to the OP. Also if you want to talk about some of the sides you served, and how to make them. Maybe it would encourage folk to try it out.
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Nov 27, 2012 13:23
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If your dosa batter isn't rising, you just have to grind 2 TB of cooked rice along with the bater, and it'll rise. My mum tried it and said that her dosa batter puffed like crazy hell, even though she was using brown rice instead of white.
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Nov 27, 2012 17:45
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Plus_Infinity posted:I made the lemon rice yesterday and it was good! However every time I try to pop mustard seeds, they burn right after they pop. I've tried keeping the oil a little lower but it seems like maybe I need to pull them right off the heat immediately and not put them back on. Am I doing something wrong? Do I have the wrong kind of mustard seeds maybe? As soon as the mustard seeds pop, lift the pot off the heat, and swirl it around. That'll prevent the burning.
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Dec 12, 2012 16:26
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UltimoDragonQuest posted:I have a pound of kala chana. Do you recommend anything specific or should I just use them in whatever recipe catches my eye? Kala Chana begs to be made into soondal. Mustard seed, cumin seed, asafetida, grated coconut. loving ace.
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Dec 15, 2012 17:46
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DontAskKant posted:Any suggestions on popping mustard and cumin seeds and NOT having it go everywhere? I already learned to not do it shirtless, or with my beer nearby, or when you do it the first time with a lady friend over. I have ran myself out of my closet kitchen so many times. Chilies, mustard, cumin, garlic makes for dangerous fumes when they burn. Do you just use a splatter screen or suck it up and clean later? Lift the pan and tilt it so that the fat pools and submerges the seeds completely. I personally just clean later.
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Dec 17, 2012 01:16
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mobby_6kl posted:^^^ It is the latter. Basically, you want a fuckoff hueg amount of beans.
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Dec 26, 2012 21:44
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That is a decidedly South Indian thing. You're looking for Onion Gotsu (or Gojju). 1/4 cup peanut oil 1 tsp mustard seed 4 green chiles, sliced lenthwise 6 large Spanish onions, sliced lengthwise 1 TB tamarind concentrate, dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water Pinch of salt In a large shallow skillet, add the oil. Add the mustard seeds, and let them pop. Add the green chiles and onions, and stir to combine into the oil and spices. Cook on high heat for about three minutes. Add the tamarind + water, and the salt. Let it come to a boil. Drop down the heat to medium low, and continue to cook until the onions soften, and get browned. You don't want them to get browned and dessicated, but rather browned and juicy. This is why you drop down the heat to medium. Continue cooking over that low heat until the onions are cooked through, and the water is evaporated off. Serve!
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Jan 11, 2013 17:55
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toplitzin posted:I'm winging some collard greens and thought i'd see if you had any thoughts. Skip the curry powder, and use turmeric. It'll clash with the wonderful whole spices you've got going there. Go REALLY easy on the fenugreek. Fucker can get bitter, and fast. So like for a pound of greens, go with like 12 - 15 fenugreek seeds. That's really all you need. Otherwise, you're going great.
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Jan 14, 2013 22:53
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toplitzin posted:Back again, the greens were tasty. I used the curry powder, since i couldn't find any turmeric in my pantry. Score! Glad they worked out. http://altveg.blogspot.com/2013/01/mexican-chayote-latkes.html I've got you covered. Feel free to sub out potatoes for the chayote.
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Jan 16, 2013 02:48
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Aviyal is pretty straightforward. Take a coconut, and get it out of the shell. Then, grind it with a couple of spoons of cumin, salt, some green chiles, curry leaves, and water. If you like your gravy a little thicker, throw in a handful of either daliya or peanuts. If you're not doing the strictly brahmin thing, throw in an onion as well. That's your spice paste. In other words, if you have leftover coconut chatni, just use that with a bit of jeera thrown in, and you're set. In fact, I'll specifically make aviyal the day after making huge batches of dosa and coconut chatni, to use up the rest of it (because that stuff will turn on you and fast). Then, in a large pot, boil whatever vegetables you like. I use chayote, daikon, potato, and some cabbage. You may have your own that you like. Just use like 2 of each thing. Then, when it's all cooked through, add the paste to the vegetables. If you like, you can also add yoghurt, but I usually skip that bit (for obvious reasons) and use some lemon juice instead. Pretty much, it's your typical "clean out the fridge" stew. At home, I always cook the vegetables with fenugreek seeds, because I like the taste. If you want you could also throw in a bit of popped mustard seed and curry leaves, but it's not necessary. If you want it a bit more spicy, be generous with a bit of black pepper. My mum's version usually has drumsticks (because she has a tree in her back yard), plantains (she loves the stuff), bitter melon (ew), and those enormous yams that you find in the afro-caribbean stores. My sister-in-law does chayote, frozen mixed vegetables, and potato. I've seen versions with lots of different dark leafy greens too. They're very tasty. My mum's friend liked to throw in some toasted cashews along with the popped mustard seeds. Either way, aviyal is like the easiest thing to throw together, even without a pressure cooker.
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Jan 18, 2013 00:55
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pseudomonkey posted:Dino. is vegan. Well, yes. Also, my mum never bothered. At home, she'd make about 4 litres or yoghurt every night, and it'd get finished as straight yoghurt. xD We never had any leftover to throw at aviyal.
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Jan 21, 2013 18:28
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UltimoDragonQuest posted:I made Keerai Kootu. It's really good but needs a bit of acid. A small tomato or a shot of lemon juice maybe. Mustard greens or kale might work better than spinach. Generally you eat the stuff as part of a larger meal, with things that already have acid in. Definitely throw in some lemon if you are having it alone.
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Jan 22, 2013 03:43
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On the other side of that, throw the coconut into your fridge for 2 days. The fat will set up hard, as coconut fat tends to do. Then, hit it with a hammer all over. Try to do it so that the shell shatters, but the meat stays in as large a piece as you can manage. Whatever is left, use a chisel or butter knife to fiddle out with. Generally after two to three days in the fridge, I can get the inside of the coconut out in one piece.
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Jan 23, 2013 01:41
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Honestly I wouldn't worry about being authentic on a recipe that calls for all ground spices, pineapple, and sour cream. Just use the curry powder.
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Feb 3, 2013 23:19
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mindphlux posted:a gws wiki you say... I'm not trying to be snobby! It just looks like a Walmart-ified version of what a curry should be. Boneless skinless chicken breast? Check. All ground spices? Check. No whole spices of any kind? And how! Bell peppers instead of chopped green chiles? Check! Using lentils instead of daal? You bet. Check. Essentially making a casserole, but doing it on the stove? You'd better believe it! Check. Cooking fresh cilantro instead of adding it at the end? Check! TINNED pineapple? Check. It's like someone from the Midwest read an Indian cookery book, then made a casserole out of it. I'm sure it tastes fine to the people who like that sort of thing. I just don't know why someone using a recipe like that would be arsed about "authentic", when there's nothing in that even vaguely authentic. Yes, he's a bit Rachel Ray ish at times, but Sanjeev Kapoor explains how to make a proper Dhansak: http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/DHANSAK-DAL.aspx I want you to note the stunning lack of "dhansak masala" and the liberal use of whole spices. What the hell's the point of making an Indian food if you're going to bullshit on the spices? That's the entire freaking point of the thing. Also notice the different kinds of chopped chiles he's calling for. That pre-ground spices with water abortion should be whole spices ground with lots of ginger and garlic. But if someone's going to insist on a weird Mrs Gunderson curry, just use the lovely stuff you find at her grocery store, and call it a night. It's going to be bland as gently caress anyway.
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Feb 5, 2013 16:06
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Chernobyl Princess posted:I've never cooked Indian food before at all, and so I have a super dumb question: when a recipe calls for just a tablespoon or so of daal, is that supposed to be already cooked or dry? In cases like these, when you use about a tb or so of like urad daal, daliya, or Tuvar daal, you just add them to the hot fat along with the other whole spices. You aren't using it as a daal but as a spice. You want it to be crunchy and almost behave like a nut. Do not cook it. Add it as is.
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Feb 15, 2013 12:54
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You're likely thinking of a more northern curry situation, Klavo. If you want, I can put together a North Indian thread. Not sure if anyone else'd be interested. By the by, ditching the slow cooker is likely the best thing you'll ever do.
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Feb 21, 2013 11:21
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Here I am, innocently telling you all about mustard seeds, and popping spices, and now I'm supposed to North Indian thread. The major difference between Northern and Southern cooking (aside from the copious amounts of fat used in the North, and the liberal use of water in the South) is that in the North, you use spice blends (that you roast and grind in small batches at home, once a week or so) very frequently, whereas in the South, you tend to rely on just the whole popped spices. The difference in flavour is such that when you're eating Southern food, each bite will taste different. The rice will necessarily be bland (no salt, no fat, no stock, no nothing; just plain white rice), the pickles will be hella salty and spicy, the stewed veg will be creamy and have few if any spices, the dry cooked veg will have whole spices (and coconut if you're awesome, or from Kerala or Sri Lanka), and the raw veg will have nothing on but a bit of lime juice. Everything is meant to taste different. In the North, you're talking about a totally different technique. There, every single thing is meant to taste seasoned, spiced, and delicious /all by itself/. I was around 10 years old, and my mum had taken us to Delhi on a visit to India. We were in the house of a very wealthy man, who'd laid out this enormous banquet for us (my mum, my little sister, and me), and his huge family. I took one bite of the jeera chawal (cumin rice), and was so enamoured of its amazing taste that I couldn't stop eating it. My mum quietly nudged me and said, "Dino, there are a million other things to eat", and I said, "but the rice is so delicious that I just want to eat that." No, seriously. It was that tasty. Fluffy basmati rice, with a bit of oil, some toasted cumin seeds, and juuuuust the right amount of salt. It was like I'd discovered a new planet. My sister and mum were happily chomping away on the curried lotus root, the gingery daikon, the saffron scented curries, the crispy okra (it's a North Indian specialty). And I was there with my plate of rice, making delighted noises of rapture. My mum gave me a solid talking to when we got home. But that would never happen in a South Indian house. Each component of a meal in a South Indian meal is meant to complement everything else. In the North, each component should taste excellent all by itself, so that when you bring together, the flavours harmonise. It's why they rely on masalas (spice blends) so much. Even though you've got beautiful pods of cardamom, clove, fennel, nutmeg, cinnamon, and saffron darting through the whole dish, there is still a chance that you'll get a bite without any whole spices in. The masala makes it so that each bite has a consistently delicious spice to work with it. Neither one is better than the other. You've got North Indians who lust after dosa with coconut chatni. You've gout Southerners whose idea of heaven is a bowl of raajma. And then there's the goddamned Gujaratis who dump sugar on them. Let's never mention them again.
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Feb 24, 2013 14:10
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Sex Hobbit posted:Do you have a recipe for this, or do I just eyeball it and throw it all in a pan? I'm moving soon and have a buttload of rice to eat before then. In the largest skillet you own (preferably nonstick), drop a few tsp of canola or peanut oil. Heat on high, and add cumin (preferably a strain called "kala jeera" [black cumin], not to be confused with kalijira rice) seeds. Let them toast and pop until the room smells fragrant. You'll want roughly 1/2 tsp. Add 1 cup of basmati rice. GENTLY stir (or better yet, toss the skillet around to move the rice in that arcing motion that you use to toss ingredients around) with a spatula until the rice smells nutty, and turns completely opaque white. Add in 1 1/4 cups of water, which will immediately come to the boil. Salt generously. Slam on the lid, and drop down the heat to medium low. On my stove, it's 2 on a scale of 10. Let it cook away for about 10 - 12 minutes, depending on how nicely cooked it's all looking. If you don't have a glass lid, just let it go for 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it sit for about 6 more minutes. While the rice sits in its final step, boil another 3/4 cup of water (just in case). Open the lid. DO NOT STIR. See if the rice is cooked to your liking. If it needs a bit more time, add the extra water, turn on the heat to high, and let it all boil for a minute. Turn off the heat, slam on the lid, and let it set for another 10 minutes. Check again. It should be done to perfection now. Do not try to increase the quantity of the recipe, because you'll need to adjust the water, the fat, and the cooking times (they don't scale up). However, as it is rather quick, just make it fresh. The taste is far superior to having it sat there waiting for you.
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Mar 6, 2013 05:14
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Oh god, please don't use garam masala in South Indian cooking. It would taste horrible, and everything would be off. Instead, do everything else exactly like you said, and substitute a bit of turmeric powder (when you add the veg to the hot fat). So like, cook the black eyed peas separately. That is good. Then, in a pot, heat oil, add mustard seed and cumin seed (add the second after the first is done popping). Then add any sort of aromatics you have lying around (onion, garlic, peppers, chiles, carrots, etc). Toss it in the oil and spices, add some turmeric powder, and keep stirring. Then in goes your diced sweet potato, your diced daikon, and just enough water to cover the veg. Let the whole mess come to the boil, then drop down the heat to a simmer. When the vegetables are tender (about 20 minutes, give or take), add the coconut milk, let the whole thing boil, and turn off the heat. Add the black eyed peas, and some black pepper. You'll be in good shape.
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Apr 14, 2013 13:51
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