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Indian food
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boots
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Jan 30, 2006, 05:37 PM
 
So, I don't have an Indian restaurant anywhere near-by, so I'm gonna have to suck it up like I've done with all the other ethnic foods I love. I'm gonna have to learn to do it myself.

Anyone have any good recipes for Indian cuisine? Other ethnic fav's would be nice too.

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andi*pandi
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Jan 30, 2006, 05:41 PM
 
inconcievable. (starts counting number of indian restaurants on one street in town... loses track.)

I have lots of books at home I've never used. wait here til someone else arrives with knowledge.
     
boots  (op)
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Jan 30, 2006, 05:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by andi*pandi
inconcievable. (starts counting number of indian restaurants on one street in town... loses track.)

I have lots of books at home I've never used. wait here til someone else arrives with knowledge.
Seriously. As far as restaurants go, this is BFE. We just got a pretty decent Ethiopian place about 15 miles from here, but thats. about. it.

(Not counting Country Kitchen and the like.)

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Weyland-Yutani
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Jan 30, 2006, 06:06 PM
 
I love Indian food. I do not - unfortunately - know any recipies. I just go to the restaurants! In my experience the best cooks are the British and the Belgian Indian chefs. They do not see eye to eye in the cooking so we're talking two different Indian styles.

cheers

W-Y

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tie
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Jan 30, 2006, 07:32 PM
 
I have no knowledge of this cooking, but I'd like to try it. I think I'll order Ajanta: Regional Feasts of India unless there are any better suggestions?
     
JoshuaZ
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Jan 30, 2006, 07:33 PM
 
Have you tried getting a cook book? They`re quite common these days and rather inexpensive. Many have pictures.

You should look into it.

I love my tofu cook book.
     
Hawkeye_a
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Jan 30, 2006, 07:33 PM
 
I love Indian food.... and Chineses, and Italian, and Arabian, etc....

But anyways..... some dishes i recommend.....
1. Rice Pillaf (it's a nice way of making rice more flavourfull) it's pretty much a staple
2. Tandoori Chicken (Tandoor = some sort of barbecue. it's fairly simple to make, not too complicated as far as ingredients)
3. Butter Chicken. (uses Tandoori chicken as an ingredient, in a tamato type sauce. i just buy the sauce at the local super market)
4. Biriyani (one of the more complicated dishes)

Personally i prefer north indian/pakistani cuisine (all the ones mentioned above). South indian is all vegetarian

Happy cooking.

Cheers
     
Seb G
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Jan 30, 2006, 07:50 PM
 
Fry lots of chopped onion, garlic and ginger in abundant amounts of ghee (clarified butter, alternatively melt some butter in sunflower oil), add turmeric, ground coriander, cumin, and cayenne pepper, fry for a few seconds more, add tinned tomatoes and yoghurt to make up a nice sauce. Then throw in some cubed lamb (from leg or shoulder) and let it simmer for 2 hours. Serve with basmati rice.

Get a good indian cookery book and the basic assortment of spices, it's not overly difficult, just remember to always use plenty of fat.
     
slugslugslug
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Jan 30, 2006, 08:12 PM
 
Have you poked around recipesource, food.com, or epicurious? My girlfriend checks those for ideas pretty often, but I don't know if they have a rating system.

If you want to go whole-hog and make a project out of it, you could buy a cookbook. Madhur Jaffrey is a very famous Indian cookbook author. Also, you could check out cookbook reviews on Amazon. Good luck!
     
Fred_Cokebottle
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Jan 30, 2006, 08:55 PM
 
Here is a long term solution, import an east Indian woman who cooks really well
     
moonmonkey
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Jan 31, 2006, 05:11 AM
 
Making Chicken Korma, Chicken Balti + Paperback Raitha tonight.
     
aberdeenwriter
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Jan 31, 2006, 05:31 AM
 
I do SOOO enjoy Indian cuisine. The problem is all about setting up the 'factory' to prepare it. If you buy the ingredients to do it once you never use up all the stuff you bought.

So, you end up leaving the used ingredients in the cabinets taking up space.

If you decide to prepare it more often you may as well resign yourself to having it regularly because there are some things that are peculiar to Indian cuisine that I imagine wouldn't be used for any other types of cooking. So, the goal then becomes running out of everything at the same time somewhere down the road or committing to eat it once, then throwing everything away, or just collecting the rest of the ingredients until you use it again or FINALLY throw it out.

Sigh.

I miss Indian cuisine.

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f1000
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Jan 31, 2006, 05:36 AM
 
I love Indian food, especially when served as a buffet. A quick search of Epicurious yields several recipes for curries and tandoori.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/fi...s?search=curry
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/fi...earch=tandoori
     
andi*pandi
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Jan 31, 2006, 08:55 AM
 
Originally Posted by moonmonkey
Making Chicken Korma, Chicken Balti + Paperback Raitha tonight.
how was it? if it turned out well, post recipes.
     
boots  (op)
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Jan 31, 2006, 10:54 AM
 
Thanks all. I did some internet poking (the problem with this is that I am truly ignorant, so none of the names really mean anything...hence my ask for help).

I have tandoori chicken marinading right now. Will give it a try tonight. Next up: vindaloo (probably will take the heathen route and use beef, as lamb is not easy to come by here...once in a while we get lucky, but not regularly stocked.)

To those who have some knowledge: WFT is asafoetida. I mean, I looked it it, and know it is a resin given off by a particularly fowl fennel-type plant. But seriously, devils dung? No offense, but who smelled that and decided "I'm gonna eat it!"? What I found says that it cooks down to give an onion/garlic flavor (which is good b/c lower castes were forbidden to use onion and garlic). Could you replace it with some minced shallots and call it good? I plan on ordering some just for the sheer curiosity factor, but I don't plan on keeping a supply around.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised to find that our local co-op has bulk spices that are common to Indian cooking. I was particularly happy about the garam masala. $34/lb, but when you only use a few ounces, it isn't so bad.

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olePigeon
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Jan 31, 2006, 12:41 PM
 
Originally Posted by boots
Seriously. As far as restaurants go, this is BFE. We just got a pretty decent Ethiopian place about 15 miles from here, but thats. about. it.

(Not counting Country Kitchen and the like.)

Perfect! Buy Ethiopian food (sans the sour bread), add curry, you're done! You might wanna make some naan though.

I always recommend Ethiopian food for people who like Indian food, but don't like curry. It might just be me, but I think they taste very similar.
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Phil Sherry
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Jan 31, 2006, 02:32 PM
 
Best eaten in India, trust me. If you ever get the chance, go there.

I make great curries, but I never use recipes or write things down.
     
Eug Wanker
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Jan 31, 2006, 02:34 PM
 
I'm no Indian cooking expert but...

You might be able to get some pre-made Indian sauces in a jar. Some of them really are quite good (and hot too). All you have to do get the vegetables and meat, chop them up, add the premade sauce (and a bit of water), and cook.

P.S. Get good quality Indian rice, and the appropriate spices. Often times big box grocery store basmati is pretty bland. Maybe your bulk food store has some good grades of basmati. Actually some rice cookers do a pretty good job with basmati too.

What I do is make the basmati with ground and whole cloves, ground saffron, garlic cloves (sometimes sliced in half), salt, and a bit of butter. I also sometimes add a chopped onion (maybe partially fried first) and a few dried red chilis.


     
wdlove
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Jan 31, 2006, 02:37 PM
 
Sorry, I don't have any recipes. Only had Indian food in a restaurant. Wish you all the best in your quest.

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tooki
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Jan 31, 2006, 04:58 PM
 
For starters, why don't you just get some Patak's simmering sauces in a jar and try that? All you do is brown some bite size pieces of chicken in a pan, and then add the jar of sauce and a little water, then let it simmer for a while. (They say to use breast, but I think boneless thigh works better.)

It's not quite restaurant quality, but it's good eats.

tooki
     
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Jan 31, 2006, 05:07 PM
 
Yum. Tandoori chicken is good stuff. Hope it turns out well. I'd be interested to hear your experience in making it, as I wouldn't mind learning myself. I'd get major points at home for such a feat.
     
Monique
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Jan 31, 2006, 06:05 PM
 
Love the taste of it but can't stand the smell for more than 5 minutes.

Go to the bookstore and buy yourself a recipe book.

Look for recipes on the internet.
     
Hawkeye_a
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Jan 31, 2006, 08:38 PM
 
Originally Posted by boots
Next up: vindaloo (probably will take the heathen route and use beef, as lamb is not easy to come by here...once in a while we get lucky, but not regularly stocked.)
No. use pork. thats the traditional way.
     
thunderous_funker
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Jan 31, 2006, 10:35 PM
 
As for the jar sauce option, the stuff you find at Trader Joe's is pretty surprisingly good and it prevents the weird-one-time-ingredients-rotting-in-pantry scenario aberdeen noted.

They aren't as good as eating out or making fresh, but they do satisfy the craving quite well and are as simple as Mac N Cheese.
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boots  (op)
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Feb 1, 2006, 10:43 AM
 
Tandoori Chicken was a huge success. As a side dish I made saag aloo (potatoes and spinach). Also very good.

The stuff wasn't any more difficult than other stuff we make. Just not familiar with the spices. That'll take some time. It's also kinda hard at this point finding recipes simply because I have to read through all of them to find something that sounds interesting. It's a language barrier. Not a big problem, just time consuming.

If Heaven has a dress code, I'm walkin to Hell in my Tony Lamas.
     
boots  (op)
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Feb 1, 2006, 10:46 AM
 
dp

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Feb 1, 2006, 09:26 PM
 
Indian, Ethiopian, Japanese - my three faves.
Middle Eastern (Lebanese particularly) is also quite good.
     
ghporter
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Feb 1, 2006, 09:34 PM
 
The best Indian food I've ever had is very atypical. Not at all even spicy tasting, but richly flavored. Of course I can't remember what it was called...

I also vote for online recipe research. There are tons of recipe sites around with everything from "I'm more Vegan than anyone else" to "I've seen cows sicker than this get up and moo" styles of food. Poke around and take your pick.

I'm partial lately to Greek food. There's a Greek place near where my wife works that's run by an Egyptian gentleman (really!), and he does some remarkable things. Egyptian coffee is something that must be experienced.

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iLikebeer
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Feb 1, 2006, 10:01 PM
 
A resource that most don't use anymore, the library.
Check out some Indian Cookbooks before buying one so you know what recipes you might like to have in a cookbook. Also, they usually explain odd techniques and ingredients for substitution if you can't get one.

Once you get a base of knowledge about cooking Indian food, then the internet becomes a really great resource to add.
     
   
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