Cooking Cheaper Indian food & My Dal recipe (the real thing too!)

VfM4meplse

Great thread, OP. Your husband has married someone with great tastebuds.

Just to add that Memorygirl posted that AP foods have 10kg bags of chappati flour for £1.95 - when I looked earlier, the price had dropped to £1.49.

If you're really stuck for food, and have some green herbs and chillies in the freezer, you can mix these into chappati dough and the finished result tastes great - even better if you dab a drop or two of veg oil on as you bake them. Fenugreek, coriander and spinach are good choices. So a paupers diet yes, but also healthy and incredibly tasty.

[Deleted User]

OK, apologies for the delay - lost of things going on in real life!

If you are lucky enough to go shopping in an Asian supermarket or shop for spices (much much cheaper) then this might help:


ENGLISH name = HINDI name = common usage

Asafoetida = Hing = essential ingredient in making 'Tarka' garnish for dals
Bay Leaves (actually Cinnamon Leaves) = Tej Patta = as part of a garam masala (ground or whole)
Black peppercorns = Kali (kalo/kala -'black') mirch = as part of a garam masala (ground or whole)
Cinnamon (actually Cassia bark) = Dalchini = as above
Cloves = Lauang = as above
Coriander (seeds not leaves) = Dhaniya = as above
Cumin seeds = Jeera = a bhargar spice, in a tarka or as part of a masala
Curry leaves (buy fresh & freeze them on the twig in a box) = Karipatta = fried in the oil before other vegetables, essential south Indian
Dry mango powder = Amchur = use as a sour flavouring
Dry red chilli (whole, flaked or ground) = Lal mirch
Fennel seeds = Saunf (Soonf) = a bhargar spice, in a tarka or as part of a masala
Fenugreek seeds = Methi = a bhargar spice, in a tarka or as part of a masala
Dried Fenugreek leaf = Kasoori/Qasuri Methi = savoury-bitter herb, good with vegetables & chicken
Green cardamom = Elaichi = as part of a garam masala (ground or whole)
Mustard seeds = Rai = a bhargar spice, in a tarka, adds texture
Nigella/onion seed = Kalaonji = a bhargar spice, in a tarka, adds texture. Essential on Naan breads
Black salt = Kala nimak = 'black' sulphur/eggy salt - chaat masala ingredient
Tamarind = Imli = essential souring ingredient in south Indian sambar dishes
Turmeric = Haldi = yellow colouring & earthy falvour. Universal - also has health benefits

In my experience (mine only - I must stress this!) it is the 'sweeter' spices such as coriander, cinnamon, cloves, ginger & cardamom that go better with meats like lamb, mutton, goat.

The warmer & more bitter spices - fenugreek, cumin go better with chicken, poultry.

Spice mixes such as Panch Puran (whole seed mix of 5 spices) go very well with vegetables, dal and light water-based fish curries

Curry leaves also go well with fish curries as well as in south Indian vegetarian dishes.

"garam masala" literally means "hot/warm mixture" and can be used as a good ground spice base mix but also means a hand-picked mix of whole spices cooked in the bhargar at the start of cooking a curry.

Bhargar - cooking whole spices in hot oil until they are toasted and aromatic - onions, garlic etc are added after this.

Bhuna - means cooking ground spices - either dry in amongst the other ingredients or by making a paste of them first.

[Deleted User]

My garam masala mix (I make this by the jar load every few weeks) you will need a coffee grinder or similar to grind the spices afterwards.

2 parts coriander seeds
2 parts cumin seeds

1 part each of:
black peppercorns
cloves
fenugreek seeds
cassia/cinnamon sticks

0.75 part each of:
bay leaves
cardamom pods

plus a few (less than 5%) of fennel or aniseeds, dried red chillies.

Mix the spices in a heavy based flat frying pan, and toast over a med-high heat stirring all the time until the spices 'crack' and start to smell lovely. Remove from the heat and cool entirely. Grind in small batches and store in an airtight jar in a dark place.

spike7451

Ooooohhhhhh.....Many thanks!!! Going to the Indian deli next week...

Do you have a recipy for a good filling for Samosa's?..I have the wrappers in the freezer but need a good filling recipy..

Thanks.

[Deleted User]

Chicken & Yogurt Curry Recipe - serves 6

This a good basic recipe for a light poultry curry. Try and get chicken legs or a whole chicken with the bone in, but trimmed of all skin and fat. This curry will not be like a rich/oily/creamy restaurant or 'jar of sauce' curry but will be very tasty & perfect for soaking up lots of plain basmati rice or cheap chappatis

• 1.5 kg whole chicken or chicken legs, de-skinned, bone-in - chopped up into bits. A drumstick can be halved across the bone, and other joins similarly - roughly 2" pieces
  
• 1tbsp ghee or light vegetable oil
• 3 medium onions finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed/chopped, or 6tsp garlic paste
• 4 tsp grated fresh ginger, or ginger paste
• 1-4 chopped green chillies (mild->hot)
• 1 green pepper, deseeded & chopped into 1" pieces
• 3 fresh tomatoes, finely chopped (or 1/2 can tinned chopped tomatoes)
• 250g plain value yogurt
• small handful of chopped coriander stalks -optional (save leaves for later)
• salt
• hot water

Spices:

• 2 tsp turmeric ("Haldi")
• 2 tsp ground Garam Masala
• 1/2 tsp ground/flaked red chilli (or more if you like it hot)
• 2 tsp dried methi (fenugreek leaf)

Whole spices:

• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 3 bay leaves - or if you can get them - "Tej Pattia" - dried Indian cinnamon leaves
• 2 cloves
• 2 green cardamom pods ("Elaichi")

heat the ghee or oil in a large heavy saucepan or wok with a lid. When the oil is hot, add all the whole spices & stir until they are slightly coloured and begin to give off a lovely spicy scent (This called the "Barghar" or frying the whole spices)

Add your onions, chillies and stir & fry until they get a good golden-brown colour. Add your ginger & garlic & green pepper.

Add all the ground spices and stir quickly to cook the spices without burning for about 1 minute (This is called "Bhuna" cooking a ground spice paste)

Add the tomatoes and coriander stalks and reduce the heat slightly. When the tomatoes are soft and reduced, add the meat and salt to taste and stir to coat the meat. Add the yogurt.

Add hot water to only just cover the meat and bring to a boil, then reduce to a very low simmer. Cook, with the lid on, on a very low heat or put into the oven at 150c for about 40 minutes. If you like a thicker sauce then leave the lid off for the last 10 minutes.

Serve with fresh plain Basmati Rice (see recipe) and Watch out for the whole spices in the curry and discard as you eat!

[Deleted User]

Off the top of my head - Samosa filling (vegetable)

• 2 finely chopped green chillies
• 1 finely chopped red onion
• 3 finely chopped cloves garlic
  
• 1lb mashed potato - cold
• couple handfuls defrosted peas
• 1 tsp tomato puree
  
• 1 tb sp veg oil/mustard oil
  
• salt
  
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp garam masala

Heat the oil, splutter & pop the cumin & mustard seeds, add the onion, chilli, garlic & fry for a couple of minutes - not too soft as the filling will be cooked again in the samosa

Add the ground spices and cook for 30 secs more

Remove from the heat, add the tomato puree, potato & peas, add salt to taste

Hope this works - this is my usual 'recipe' but I've never written it down before!

spike7451

Thank you for that..

PipneyJane

Joolsred, I've been meaning to ask - what is your opinion of "broken" Basmati rice? We bought some last year and found it far more sticky than regular rice. (I suspect the extra surfaces from the breaks gave off more starch.) However, it was cheap - half the price of regular basmati - and did the job when our budget was very tight. (My husband was unemployed at the time.)

The employees at the Chinese supermarket looked horrified when we hauled the bag onto the conveyor belt at the checkout. "But it's broken rice!", they protested, with the implication that we shouldn't be buying that because we didn't look poor enough. :rotfl:

meanmarie

Stop! Stop! Please!

Have you no pity on an old woman who is too tired to cook at this time of night, but is drooling just reading these recipes!

You will gather that I like Indian food....

Marie

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

What an excellent thread