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Peasant food is the best food, though.
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Jan 29, 2014 16:05
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silvergoose posted:Peasant food is the best food, though. Oh I'm in 100% agreement. It's just that when you try to order proper comfort/peasant food at a restaurant, it doesn't always hit the right note. My mum attended an event catered by a fairly decent South Indian resto down here. She said their pongal was borderline soup, because it was too watery. Also, it was bland. In India, you'll frequently get pongal that's drowning in ghee. I mean, I get it, because you're making it really worth the small fortune you're charging, but that's not really what pongal is supposed to taste like. For me, home made is best in this case.
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Jan 29, 2014 16:15
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dino. posted:Everything looks perfect. Yes, you can use split yellow peas. No, you don't have to soak them, but just throw them in the pressure cooker. For two people who are hungry, I'll make 1 cup of beans (from dry). For six people expecting to eat something other than just daal and rice, 3 cups should be plenty. Would half a teaspoon of fenugreek be more appropriate? Also I just thought of this but if I'm doing the kale on the side maybe I should add some lemon juice at the end? I don't have a pressure cooker, so I'll be doing it the old fashioned way. Also to clarify, you said 3 cups is plenty 'for people expecting to eat more than daal and rice', but My plan is daal, rice and the kale, nothing else. 3 cups is definitely enough yes? Thanks for the garlic tip. It's the greek in me - I just thought, well, I'm making food so naturally garlic and onion has to be in it. The Lord Bude fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Jan 29, 2014 |
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Jan 29, 2014 16:24
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dino. posted:Oh I'm in 100% agreement. It's just that when you try to order proper comfort/peasant food at a restaurant, it doesn't always hit the right note. My mum attended an event catered by a fairly decent South Indian resto down here. She said their pongal was borderline soup, because it was too watery. Also, it was bland. In India, you'll frequently get pongal that's drowning in ghee. I mean, I get it, because you're making it really worth the small fortune you're charging, but that's not really what pongal is supposed to taste like. For me, home made is best in this case. Makes sense. My wife tends to hate comfort food from even an authentic chinese restaurant, for this same reason. But damned if she can't make amazing homecooked stuff. Pongal, though. I'll have to make some sometime, then.
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Jan 29, 2014 16:26
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@Bude: Don't add lemon. The daal will have a sour component. You want for there to be a contrast in flavour, texture, and colour, so that things look nice and taste nice. What you CAN do, however, is have some sliced onions, sliced cucumber, and a generous squeeze or three of lemon as a raw accompaniment. 1/2 teaspoon of fenugreek is still a little high, but if you like fenugreek, then go for it. If it's 6 people, and there's going to be nothing else, go with 4 cups of dried beans. If you aren't pressure cooking it, I will strongly suggest soaking the split peas. They take for loving ever to cook down when they're cooked unsoaked. With South Indian food, less is more. The spices are there, and in good quantity (when you can afford it), but your typical dish won't have too terribly many spices in. The North is where it's a little more like "OK we've got all these spices, so let's use as many as we can." Whenever you have the impulse to add something else, step back and take a look at the rest of the food. Then, take something else out, and bump up the rest of the spices, and you'll be fine. For fenugreek seeds, when it's added at all to a daal, you'd count out the number of seeds, usually between 10 and 15. With Southern daal, the spices are generally mustard seed, turmeric, and asafoetida. If you're feelin' fancy, you can add cumin seed too (and I do). You'd be surprised at how delicious a daal can be with such a small variety of spices (but with a generous hand when measuring them out).
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Jan 29, 2014 17:00
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Edit2: Cooked the drat dal anyways. Still have questions about ghee. Edit: I also made some ghee about 3 months ago. It's been in the cabinet, do you think it's still good? Shnooks fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Jan 29, 2014 |
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Jan 29, 2014 17:52
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I finally found a nice Indian grocer, he even helped me around the store with a few things. Although he did try to tell me that black and brown mustard seeds were "the same" even though I'm pretty sure I wrote both down distinctly for a reason. It's also nice to have a spice that reminds me of my gym bag. Why does this bottle of asafetida say "Not for sale in India"? Has it been taxed differently or are we getting a different grade? Finally, how best to use this powder? Should I just add a pinch to lentil dishes?
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Feb 2, 2014 23:40
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It's literally the same thing that's sold in India. There's no difference. The reason it's export only is because there'll be certain foreign labelling and other standards that are required that don't meet India's standards, and vice versa. Add asafoetida directly after the whole spices are done popping, and swirl around. So for example, you'd do your mustard seeds, urad daal, and asafoetida. Or, mustard, cumin, asafoetida. Or Mustard, cumin, coriander, etc etc etc. Then add aromatics, any other ground spices, and proceed as usual. If you ask for black or brown mustard seed in an Indian shop, you'll get the same thing. They don't carry the light brown stuff (generally called yellow mustard seed).
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Feb 3, 2014 01:46
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I made my yellow split pea daal and kale tonight, and it was awesome, everyone loved it, so thanks Dino. I have a question, however: I avoided adding any chilli whatsoever, I didn't even add pepper, because of my grandmother who will detect a single grain of pepper in a pot of food and complain that it is too spicy to eat. The rest of us like heat in our food though. Is there some sort of indian pickle/chutney/condiment of some sort that I can serve as an accompaniment next time I cook daal so that people can add some heat to their plate? Preferably something simple to make that I can make in bulk and store in the fridge or whatever for a decent amount of time so I don't have to keep making it every time.
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Feb 4, 2014 17:26
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvJx_Nn6fXc
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Feb 5, 2014 05:25
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Thanks Dino! I see this guy has posted a number of pickles. I like the look of the garlic pickle too. What would you suggest as a substitute to jaggery to best approximate its flavour? (jaggery is a kind of palm sugar right? My dad has some paranoid obsession that palm sugar is worse for you than other sugar and won't eat any products that contain it.) The Lord Bude fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Feb 5, 2014 |
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Feb 5, 2014 06:32
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Skip the goddamned sugar. >_< I hate hate HATE when people put sugar into pickle.
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Feb 5, 2014 20:45
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dino. posted:Skip the goddamned sugar. >_< I hate hate HATE when people put sugar into pickle. Well that makes things easier. When he talks about mustard powder, is he talking about ground mustard seeds, or something else? Also, what is Ginger-garlic paste? Is that just a combination of minced garlic and minced ginger?
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Feb 6, 2014 02:20
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Yup. Toasted mustard seeds ground to a powder. Use the brown if you can find it, or yellow if you can't. Ginger garlic paste is just ground up ginger and garlic. XD
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Feb 6, 2014 03:29
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dino. posted:Yup. Toasted mustard seeds ground to a powder. Use the brown if you can find it, or yellow if you can't. Ginger garlic paste is just ground up ginger and garlic. XD Equal amounts of garlic and ginger?
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Feb 6, 2014 03:31
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Depends on how you prefer it, but yes 1 to 1 works fine. Personally, I just skip the ginger garlic paste, and add fresh ginger and fresh garlic to my liking.
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Feb 6, 2014 04:30
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dino. posted:Depends on how you prefer it, but yes 1 to 1 works fine. Personally, I just skip the ginger garlic paste, and add fresh ginger and fresh garlic to my liking. Thanks. I'd add it fresh too, neither ginger or garlic grow in little bottles to my knowledge.
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Feb 6, 2014 05:09
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The Lord Bude posted:Thanks. I'd add it fresh too, neither ginger or garlic grow in little bottles to my knowledge. You can either mince it fresh and add it, or make paste and add that. I take ginger and garlic and make paste myself in the mortar, then use that. It's pretty laborious though, so I make a bunch at once and store it in the fridge.
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Feb 6, 2014 05:22
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dino I made the daal tarka tonight featuring red lentils and some chopped kale and it was amazing. It's really neat how frying all the spices brings out such different flavors than I'm used to. Looking forward to experimenting more.
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Feb 11, 2014 03:02
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The Lord Bude posted:Thanks. I'd add it fresh too, neither ginger or garlic grow in little bottles to my knowledge. They probably could if you were patient and had plenty of cupboard space.
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Feb 11, 2014 06:39
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Hed posted:dino I made the daal tarka tonight featuring red lentils and some chopped kale and it was amazing. It's really neat how frying all the spices brings out such different flavors than I'm used to. Looking forward to experimenting more. Any kind of greens work great: collards, spinach, mustard, whatever. Awesome that you're open to trying new things now!
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Feb 11, 2014 17:30
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A few balls of frozen spinach is awesome in channa daal.
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Feb 12, 2014 15:50
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Sjurygg posted:A few balls of frozen spinach is awesome in channa daal. I would like to learn about channa daal. Do I make it the same way I made Dino's daal?
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Feb 12, 2014 16:01
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It needs soaking unlike masoor daal unless you use a pressure cooker. It's much more substantial and requires longer cooking and stirring to thicken up unlike masoor daal which just mashes itself. I like very much to add a chopped tomato to my tadka when I make channa daal, also I add much more garlic and fresh coriander at the end. If you are not vegan, a pat of butter right at the end is delicious, especially if you also like me add some spinach to it. It's got a heavenly, nutty taste and I treat myself to it whenever I have the time, otherwise I'll usually go for masoor daal which is also delicious but much simpler to prepare.
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Feb 12, 2014 16:10
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Sjurygg posted:It needs soaking unlike masoor daal unless you use a pressure cooker. It's much more substantial and requires longer cooking and stirring to thicken up unlike masoor daal which just mashes itself. I like very much to add a chopped tomato to my tadka when I make channa daal, also I add much more garlic and fresh coriander at the end. If you are not vegan, a pat of butter right at the end is delicious, especially if you also like me add some spinach to it. It's got a heavenly, nutty taste and I treat myself to it whenever I have the time, otherwise I'll usually go for masoor daal which is also delicious but much simpler to prepare. I might try it, I used yellow split peas for my daal last time, but I want to try something new.
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Feb 12, 2014 16:22
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It's an incredible food for athletes. Gives a lot of energy released over a long time, and easy to eat when you're really just sick of food because it's so tasty.
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Feb 12, 2014 22:09
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dino. posted:Skip the goddamned sugar. >_< I hate hate HATE when people put sugar into pickle. It's India. Of course there's going to be sugar. I'm in Hyderabad right now and myself and a few friends we've converted are trying to make Paleo versions of Indian dishes. Obviously no rotis or anything like that, but lower oil curries, lots of chicken/fish tikka, chicken tandoori, etc. I've been reading this thread for inspiration but I can't actually find most of these ingredients in the city lol. I don't want to order them from the Westin either.
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Feb 13, 2014 14:29
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Wait, you're having trouble finding basic spices in Hyderabad? Where are you looking? What ingredients are you having trouble finding? There's a healthy Tamil-speaking population there, which means that they /will/ have the South Indian spices, as well as plenty of Urdu speakers, meaning that all the North's spices are covered as well. Ugh, paleo. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, they're a lot less open-handed with the sugar. In Tamil Nadu especially, we kind of roll our eyes at the rest of the country heaving sugar into everything.
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Feb 13, 2014 14:55
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In hyderabad you can order most of the ingredients on bigbasket.com
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Feb 13, 2014 14:57
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Anarkii posted:In hyderabad you can order most of the ingredients on bigbasket.com The produce quality of bigbasket is hideous. dino. posted:Wait, you're having trouble finding basic spices in Hyderabad? Things like kale, for example. Obviously you can't throw a dead cat without hitting all the spices you need.
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Feb 14, 2014 08:57
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FizFashizzle posted:The produce quality of bigbasket is hideous. OHHHH. OK. If you can't find kale, use one of the millions of variety of greens that you get. Sarson (mustard greens) works great. Gongura, which is an Andhra specialty is also excellent. Thotakura (amaranth leaves) is also really good. For god's sake, you have Menthi Kura (methi leaves) all over the place. Use them too! It's drat near impossible to find fresh outside of India. Chuka kura (red sorrel) is great if you can find it. For vegetables, get thee to a store, and buy dondakaya (tindora). Sorakaya, potlakaya, and kakarkaya are all local favourites as well. Vankaya (eggplant) comes in like five or ten varieties, depending on what part of the city you're in. If you can get to Basheerbhag, or thereabouts, they'll sell the Telugu vegetables as well as the Tamil ones. Also please don't throw dead cats. >_<
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Feb 14, 2014 15:02
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dino. posted:...For god's sake, you have Menthi Kura (methi leaves) all over the place. Use them too! It's drat near impossible to find fresh outside of India... Thank you for confirming something I've long suspected; I can finally give up my quest to find it in darkest Dublin  .
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Feb 14, 2014 18:28
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Pookah posted:Thank you for confirming something I've long suspected; I can finally give up my quest to find it in darkest Dublin Why not sprout them yourself?
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Feb 14, 2014 21:30
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Thoht posted:Why not sprout them yourself? Because I am dumb and that did not occur to me; I will plant some this spring.
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Feb 14, 2014 23:05
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dino. posted:Also please don't throw dead cats. >_< We just adopted an Indian cat, so that's like the complete opposite! Thanks for the suggestions.
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Feb 15, 2014 08:04
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FizFashizzle posted:We just adopted an Indian cat, so that's like the complete opposite! Also. Get thee to gokul chat. They do the best paani puri ever.
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Feb 15, 2014 14:57
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Had some indian for the first time in a while that wasn't on a boat and it was great! I want to try recreating it at home and the recipe I'll be trying is chicken madras. Anyone got a recipe that would work good? Also, I'm going to go to central market tomorrow to do some spice shopping (they sell in bulk), and I'm wondering if this is a decent list: Garam masala Turmeric Cardamom pods Cloves Coriander Hot chili powder mustard seeds curry leaves red or green chilis (What do they mean by this? I'm in Houston and we have a large selection of peppers, but not sure what these will be though.) Anything to add?
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Mar 1, 2014 04:57
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nwin posted:Had some indian for the first time in a while that wasn't on a boat and it was great! I want to try recreating it at home and the recipe I'll be trying is chicken madras. Anyone got a recipe that would work good? Cumin seeds are a must, and heavily used. It would not be a bad idea to pick up some carom seeds (ajwain) either...I find myself using them pretty often, though not all the time. If they have it, get Kashmiri mirch - it's not very spicy, but it adds a lot of color. Red chilis are usually dried, and I use Thai bird's eye chilis for these. Anything small, red, and dry will do. Green chilis are fresh, and I use Serranos. As far as the chili powder, I like to grind up whatever dried pepper I want to taste right before using it. Otherwise, you can keep a jar of cayenne around, it'll work.
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Mar 1, 2014 06:39
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nwin posted:Had some indian for the first time in a while that wasn't on a boat and it was great! I want to try recreating it at home and the recipe I'll be trying is chicken madras. Anyone got a recipe that would work good? Well, struck out a bit today. Only was able to find the coriander and cumin seeds. It turns out I already have some cloves and cayenne, but garam masala and turmeric were a big no-go. Looking at penzeys for the rest...is this a huge rip off? I'm not sure where else to go and if the savings would be worth the trip/hassle... code:
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Mar 2, 2014 03:25
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Find ye an Indian grocery. Sadly, I have no other advice, because we get literally all our spices in gigantic bags there.
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Mar 2, 2014 04:31
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