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Rocko Bonaparte
Mar 12, 2002

Every day is Friday!
Yeah I have the hull still on too. That explains why I never have seen a dosa with black flecks in it, despite most batters calling for it.

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Force de Fappe
Nov 7, 2008

Whole black urad daal are used for making stuff like daal makhani. Which is about as Northern as it gets and as such non-applicable to this thread.

dino.
Mar 28, 2010

Yip Yip, bitch.

Sjurygg posted:

Whole black urad daal are used for making stuff like daal makhani. Which is about as Northern as it gets and as such non-applicable to this thread.
If you've got a recipe for that poo poo, share it, because I'm not about to make a North Indian thread, because their stuff isn't food.

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




dino. posted:

If you've got a recipe for that poo poo, share it, because I'm not about to make a North Indian thread, because their stuff isn't food.

Harsh!

Slifter
Feb 8, 2011

dino. posted:

If you've got a recipe for that poo poo, share it, because I'm not about to make a North Indian thread, because their stuff isn't food.

Your overview of south India in the OP was cool, can you give us a broad idea of what food is like in the non-south parts of India?

Force de Fappe
Nov 7, 2008

dino. posted:

If you've got a recipe for that poo poo, share it, because I'm not about to make a North Indian thread, because their stuff isn't food.

Soaked black urad daal, some kinda soaked beans like kidney beans or black eyed peas. Boil with a few slices of ginger until soft. Masala, or maybe rather tadka, from a couple good pinches cumin, toasted in oil, followed by a pinch hing, pinch methi seeds, plus as much of those pointy thin green chilies you like and garlic, couple tomatoes. Take most of the liquid off the beans and daal and reserve it for adjusting the consistency, mash it together with the tadka/masala a little and adjust with liquid, then simmer a while longer to let the flavours blend. Generous splash cream, generous lump of butter, and take off the heat. Stir in some Kashmiri chili powder if you like, and salt. Finish with a good pinch garam masala. I like mine in small servings with lots of atta chappatis to make up for the heavy, fatty daal.

Now tell me that ain't food, bitch :colbert:

(Daal makhani isn't personally my favourite Punjabi dish, that'd hands down be saag paneer, but it's a good winter dish if I can convince my Chinese wife to eat it, she's daal-averse.)

Shnooks
Mar 24, 2007

I'M BEING BORN D:
If we're still paying attention about jackfruit, when you cut it up make sure you're wearing crappy clothes and put lots of vegetable oil on your knife. It has some type of sap that's like glue and it gets everywhere. I got a quarter of a jackfruit at an HMart after I had some at a Vietnamese monastery. I waited too long and it tasted gross, though :( You can apparently do cool things with the seeds, too.

Jackfruit look like giant, not-so-smelly durian to me.

dino.
Mar 28, 2010

Yip Yip, bitch.

Slifter posted:

Your overview of south India in the OP was cool, can you give us a broad idea of what food is like in the non-south parts of India?

If you're in Central~ish India, like Gujarat, Maharashtra, and the like, you're talking heaving reliance on sugar (especially Gujarat). They'll add a bit (or a lot) of sugar to every dish they make. In fact, there's parts of Karnataka (which I'd say is fairly Southern) where they'll use palm sugar in regular food too. In the far north, like Punjab, Jammu, Kashmir, you'll see influences from Pakistan; they'll fry in ghee, cook in ghee, and pretty much bathe in the stuff. In Bihar, West Bengal, and Orissa, they tend to be a little lighter handed on the spices, and heavier handed with the garlic and onion.

All of the non-southern foods, however, tend to be very heavy overall. Unless you're talking about a family that can't afford the fat, you'll generally have rather a generous addition of ghee to all the food. Even the /rice/ has ghee and spices on it. You also tend to use a fair few finishing masalas, like garam masala, so that the food gets a uniform amount of spice mixed throughout, rather than the mainly whole spices like are used in the south.

@Jury: There are few foods as transcendental as Chhole bhature, made by a punjabi dude on a street in Delhi (especially in the winter, when it's cold out).

Force de Fappe
Nov 7, 2008

I can never get the sour balance juuust right, I think it needs to be made in huge pots or the amchoor just doesn't work correctly.

dino.
Mar 28, 2010

Yip Yip, bitch.

Sjurygg posted:

I can never get the sour balance juuust right, I think it needs to be made in huge pots or the amchoor just doesn't work correctly.

Do you cook the chickpeas with tea and tamarind?

Force de Fappe
Nov 7, 2008

Naw. Just baking soda. Does the tea and tamarind tenderize them or is it more for the sake of flavour?

dino.
Mar 28, 2010

Yip Yip, bitch.

Sjurygg posted:

Naw. Just baking soda. Does the tea and tamarind tenderize them or is it more for the sake of flavour?
I've never heard of Punjabis using baking soda to chickpea. O_o The Punjabi lady upstairs from us in Delhi would make them with some tea and tamarind to give it that special flavour.

SymmetryrtemmyS
Jul 13, 2013

I got super tired of seeing your avatar throwing those fuckin' glasses around in the astrology thread so I fixed it to a .jpg

dino. posted:

Do you cook the chickpeas with tea and tamarind?

That's brilliant. I often toss in a curry leaf or a bay leaf, but I've never used tea or tamarind. Gonna do that.

Steve Yun
Aug 7, 2003
I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.
Soiled Meat


I got a jar of this homemade lime pickle business from a friend. What should I use it for

dino.
Mar 28, 2010

Yip Yip, bitch.

Steve Yun posted:



I got a jar of this homemade lime pickle business from a friend. What should I use it for

Next time you eat daal and rice, eat the pickle with it. Take a SMALL SMALL BITE of the pickle, and then a spoonful of rice and daal. Or, when you make lemon rice, finely chop up the pickle, and toss it through. Or, when you have perfectly fluffy, perfectly separate rice, toss it with some of the pickle liquid/oil. Or, go full on traditional, and eat it with yoghurt rice. :D

king of the bongo
Apr 26, 2008

If you're brown, GET DOWN!

Steve Yun posted:



I got a jar of this homemade lime pickle business from a friend. What should I use it for

Parathas if you want something simple and fast. Either go to the store and buy a packet of aloo parathas or be brave and make your own. I would highly recommend cracking and frying an egg on the pan first and then putting the paratha on top before the egg is done so they stick together and then flipping it so the egg is on top before serving. Tear off small pieces and eat with the pickle. This will taste good if the pickle is a hot, sour or even a sweet one as personally I don't like the sweeter pickles with rice too much.

Force de Fappe
Nov 7, 2008

If I've got leftover basmati rice, either plain or cumin'd, I'll fry it up for a lunch or a snack with whatever I can scrounge and put in it, and I'll top the plate with a good spoonful of some blistering hot pickle.

Bum the Sad
Aug 25, 2002
Hell Gem
Random Indian food question. I've never cooked it before and I got this Gordon Ramsay Great Escape Indian cook book. Lots of the recipes just say "cardamom pods" and then the recipes say "add cardamom, cloves, bay leaves etc.." Does that mean I just sauté the pods whole?

SymmetryrtemmyS
Jul 13, 2013

I got super tired of seeing your avatar throwing those fuckin' glasses around in the astrology thread so I fixed it to a .jpg
Generally you crack them open then use like that. Fish out the pods at the end, probably.

Slifter
Feb 8, 2011
I'm watching the Vah Chef channel and I keep seeing him add those same fresh green chili peppers, if I was to try to find them by name does anyone know what they would be called?

Comic
Feb 24, 2008

Mad Comic Stylings

SymmetryrtemmyS posted:

Generally you crack them open then use like that. Fish out the pods at the end, probably.

I generally don't crack them open, I find they are fairly permeable by liquid, which is uaually present in some form when I'm using them. When throwing in cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, I throw them in whole with no prep. Growing up my family would just leave them in, we knew to look out for them while eating. I'd always have the good luck to get the majority in my first serving too, so when cooking for others I try my best to fish them out.

dino.
Mar 28, 2010

Yip Yip, bitch.

Slifter posted:

I'm watching the Vah Chef channel and I keep seeing him add those same fresh green chili peppers, if I was to try to find them by name does anyone know what they would be called?

Thai bird chilies, bird's eye chiles, or Indian chilies, depending on where you look.

Shnooks
Mar 24, 2007

I'M BEING BORN D:
Edit: Nevermind, found some markets local to me that will probably sell them!

Shnooks fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Jan 11, 2015

Squashy Nipples
Aug 18, 2007

Shnooks posted:

Edit: Nevermind, found some markets local to me that will probably sell them!

We've got several fantastic Indian Markets on the South Shore (including this gem: http://www.yelp.com/biz/apna-bazar-norwood ), so there must be SOME in Boston. I just don't know where they are.

Also, MarketBasket tends to have a surprisingly good selection of things like curry leaves, fresh tumeric, etc etc.

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




Waltham. They're in Waltham.

Shnooks
Mar 24, 2007

I'M BEING BORN D:

Squashy Nipples posted:

We've got several fantastic Indian Markets on the South Shore (including this gem: http://www.yelp.com/biz/apna-bazar-norwood ), so there must be SOME in Boston. I just don't know where they are.

Also, MarketBasket tends to have a surprisingly good selection of things like curry leaves, fresh tumeric, etc etc.

I live in Malden and there's two there. One of them had fresh curry leaves (I think), and it was reasonably priced. That being said, I really don't like the taste and smell of curry leaves. It's really acrid to me and it ruined the flavor of everything I made.

Thoht
Aug 3, 2006

I felt about them the same way at first but they've definitely grown on me. I like them best when popped in fat with the other tempering spices and used as part of an overall blend of flavors. They add this depth of flavor/spicy quality that can really amp up a mildly flavored/bland base ingredient.

dino.
Mar 28, 2010

Yip Yip, bitch.

Thoht posted:

I felt about them the same way at first but they've definitely grown on me. I like them best when popped in fat with the other tempering spices and used as part of an overall blend of flavors. They add this depth of flavor/spicy quality that can really amp up a mildly flavored/bland base ingredient.

Bingo. You don't use them like other herbs. They have to be fried in hot fat. You can also improve the flavour by chopping them up finely before throwing them in the hot fat.

Shnooks
Mar 24, 2007

I'M BEING BORN D:
I was tempering them with all the other spices and I still felt like it overwhelmed everything, and I reduced the amount of leaves used. But I also think the recipe I used kind of sucked. And I also ran out of ghee a while ago, so I used vegetable oil and ghee is definitely the better way to go. Got some butter so I'm going to make some this weekend.

mizbachevenim
Jul 13, 2002

If you fake the funk, your nose will grow

mizbachevenim posted:



Side note: got my Usha Pickle digest in the mail.



fuk yeah

pikkles

OMG Usha is alive and her rasam book is nearing completion. She asked me if I had any ideas about publishing it. She's in Chennai.

Dino, did you publish your book through amazon? How did that poo poo turn out?

dino.
Mar 28, 2010

Yip Yip, bitch.
Had it done through a publisher publisher. They sell it on Amazon for sure but the publisher handles all the marketing and boring bits that I didn't want to deal with. If it's vegan, either AK press or Lantern Books will publish it.

Le0
Mar 18, 2009

Rotten investigator!
I'd like to find a good recipe for butter chicken, does anyone have one? There are so many variants on the internet...

EVG
Dec 17, 2005

If I Saw It, Here's How It Happened.
I have tried probably a half-dozen different recipes and even the ones touted to be "WOW SO MUCH LIKE RESTAURANT" still fell flat. I've made a couple passable chicken curries this way, but never been able to replicate Butter Chicken, restaurant style. I've come to terms with the idea that this might just be one of those things you need to get at an Indian joint.

Rocko Bonaparte
Mar 12, 2002

Every day is Friday!
I got a lot closer when I started throwing in a lot more chiles. I don't mean for the heat; they add their own distinct fruitiness. If you thoroughly scrape out the insides, they lose a lot of their heat. You'd want gloves because it will instead go all over your hands.

For some sake of scale: for something like a meal serving 4, I've used something like 12 jalapeanos before.

CARL MARK FORCE IV
Sep 2, 2007

I took a walk. And threw up in an English garden.
I've found that the #1 thing that 99% of people get wrong when they try to make restaurant curry is not adding enough fat. For dishes like butter chicken or korma, you wanna straight-up add enough ghee or oil that you think "is that way, way too much ghee/oil?" before you add it to the pan.

Thoht
Aug 3, 2006

CARL MARK FORCE IV posted:

I've found that the #1 thing that 99% of people get wrong when they try to make restaurant curry is not adding enough fat. For dishes like butter chicken or korma, you wanna straight-up add enough ghee or oil that you think "is that way, way too much ghee/oil?" before you add it to the pan.

This, for sure. And sugar if it's something with sweetness.

Psychobabble
Jan 17, 2006
And onions. Just keep adding more onions.

Tendales
Mar 9, 2012
Of all the youtube chef recipes I've tried, I've had the best success with this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvecU_Y_CQ0

TheQuietWilds
Sep 8, 2009
Hey Dino (and other helpful people in this thread). I'm a somewhat novice cook with very little experience in cooking anything other than average white-people food, usually based around a large hunk of meat. I recently have a new romantic interest who is a vegetarian and likes really spicy food. Like, this girl carries around her own hot sauce in her purse, orders things spicy and then dumps it on. I'd like to be able to cook things for her she would enjoy, but these are two categories that I unfortunately lack pretty much any experience in, so I bought your book (as well as a couple others that came with goon recommendations), and I was wondering if you might be able to suggest a few recipes (either from the book or just off the top of your head) that I might be able to make that fit the bill. If it helps any, she eats a ton of thai food. It would also be somewhat good if you knew any dishes that could be prepared in a way that I could split between really spicy and not-as-spicy, as I'm a total wuss compared to her (at least as far as heat level goes).

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paraquat
Nov 25, 2006

Burp

TheQuietWilds posted:

Hey Dino (and other helpful people in this thread). I'm a somewhat novice cook with very little experience in cooking anything other than average white-people food, usually based around a large hunk of meat. I recently have a new romantic interest who is a vegetarian and likes really spicy food. Like, this girl carries around her own hot sauce in her purse, orders things spicy and then dumps it on. I'd like to be able to cook things for her she would enjoy, but these are two categories that I unfortunately lack pretty much any experience in, so I bought your book (as well as a couple others that came with goon recommendations), and I was wondering if you might be able to suggest a few recipes (either from the book or just off the top of your head) that I might be able to make that fit the bill. If it helps any, she eats a ton of thai food. It would also be somewhat good if you knew any dishes that could be prepared in a way that I could split between really spicy and not-as-spicy, as I'm a total wuss compared to her (at least as far as heat level goes).

Summer rolls (dino calls them winter rolls in his book) are made with rice wrappers that are softened in water. any additional cooking/frying is not needed. You can fill the rolls with whatever you like (extra red chili peppers in hers, I guess) and you can make two dipping sauces, one normal, one extra spicy.
Google around a bit for additional ideas on summer rolls.

Also, I really like Dino's truffel hummus, great for dipping veggies in for example, or to put on a sandwich or a chickpea pancake with grilled veggies on top.

Oh, and you might want to gift her a jar of Lao Gan Ma crispy chilli :-D

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