Two questions about Indian Food

studentphil

I am going to cook some Indian Food for my girlfriend as she likes it but I have no real idea about it.

1 you get that awfully dull and tasteless white rice- What can you do it to make it taste better ?

2 This curry paste stuff that is listed in all the cook books- Can you make it yourself or use something else instead?

Many thanks

tawnyowls

1 Which rice? I usually go for Basmati rice, which has a slight flavour. You can use flavoured rice, such as jasmine rice, but remember the sauces used in many Indian foods are very highly flavoured, so adding more flavours into the rice might not be a good idea.

1 You can buy it in jars. It is possible to make it yourself (recipe here: http://www.chezpaul.org.uk/fuengsin/cookery/pastes.htm). It's more usual to have this in Thai rather than Indian cooking - most of my recipes just use the dry spices, usually ground coriander, cumin, and turmeric, with cloves, cardamoms and cinnamon in some recipes.

There are a load of curry recipes on this board somewhere - no doubt someone will dig up the threads for you.

studentphil

tawnyowls wrote:

1 Which rice? I usually go for Basmati rice, which has a slight flavour. You can use flavoured rice, such as jasmine rice, but remember the sauces used in many Indian foods are very highly flavoured, so adding more flavours into the rice might not be a good idea.

1 You can buy it in jars. It is possible to make it yourself (recipe here: http://www.chezpaul.org.uk/fuengsin/cookery/pastes.htm). It's more usual to have this in Thai rather than Indian cooking - most of my recipes just use the dry spices, usually ground coriander, cumin, and turmeric, with cloves, cardamoms and cinnamon in some recipes.

There are a load of curry recipes on this board somewhere - no doubt someone will dig up the threads for you.

Basmati is what I mean.

I have found a few recipes for indian food in cook books and online, but the main problem is if I buy a big tub of curry paste then it will be wasted as I never cook Indian food myself for me.

CarolnMalky

Basmati rice is superb..we use it instead of long grain all the time.

There is a fellow mse'r think the user id is curryqueen, and she has superb recipes for curries...worth having a look at them.
Carol

tawnyowls

studentphil wrote:

Basmati is what I mean.

I have found a few recipes for indian food in cook books and online, but the main problem is if I buy a big tub of curry paste then it will be wasted as I never cook Indian food myself for me.

You don't need to waste it - just freeze spoonfuls of it in an icecube tray and then store in a box in the freezer. I do that with jars of chilli, ginger, lemon grass and pesto, and with cartons of passata, and also leftover wine and coconut milk, so I have a freezer full of instant ingredients.

tr3mor

Fry some finely chopped onions, mushrooms and peppers in the rice pan first, add the rice, and use a weak vegetable stock instead of plain water.

That should make it a little less dull.

piper5

alternatively you can add coconut milk to the white rice.. or use wholemeal rice as it is healthier and i prefer it!!

studentphil

Could I get away with using Curry powder instead of a paste?

Nelski

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=456767&postcount=38

Link to the best ever curry recipe I have used from our much loved and sadly missing Curryqueen

Yes you can use curry powder ""Phil""

tr3mor

studentphil wrote:

Could I get away with using Curry powder instead of a paste?

Yeah, it's the same stuff, Curry paste is just powder and oil.

Glad

where are you cooking this meal phil?

is gf coming round to yours to meet the parents