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

[Deleted User]

PipneyJane wrote: »

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:

It's going to be stickier at the end but nutritionally & taste-wise it's going to be fine. It takes 4-5 washings rather than 2-3 & maybe a bit more water in the initial boiling stage - but let's put it this way - if anywhere round here sold broken Basmati I'd be buying it!!

I steer clear of 'regular' white long grain rice as it's pretty intensive on the old GI, and basmati is a fair bit lower.

[Deleted User]

meanmarie wrote: »

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

Nope

South Asian homemade fish curry

I don't usually buy fish for curry but as I sometimes get to go sea fishing this is a good recipe for mullet/bream/pollack/pouting if you catch it or get given it or buy it cheap

home style, typical of Bengal - in Bangladeshi owned "Indian" restaurants this is the kinda thing they have for lunch

Bengali fish curry (for around 4 people or 2-3 greedy ones)

• 1-1.5 pounds whole cleaned & descaled sea fish, cut into steaks (add head & tail for flavour too)
• 2 tbsp mustard oil or plain veg oil
• 3+ sliced thin green chillies depending on your preference
  
• 1 tsp brown mustard seed
• 1 tsp fenugreek seed
• 1 tsp cumin seed
• 6-8 fresh curry leaves
  
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1+ tsp red chilli powder
• 4-5 black peppercorns, crushed up
  
• 2 medium onions, finely sliced
• 6 medium garlic cloves finely chopped
• 1" cube fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes, finely chopped or 1/3 can chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 wedge of lime or lemon
• salt - to taste, about 1/2 tsp.
• hot water

Heat the oil & chuck in the whole spices, pepper, curry leaves & green chillies, oil should be really hot so it all splutters & crackles.

About 30 secs later add the onion, garlic & ginger & cook for about 5 mins, lowering the heat a bit.

Add the ground spices & salt & cook while stirring constantly to avoid burning. After 1 min add the chopped tomatoes and a couple mins later add enough hot water - about a pint/500ml - & the lime/lemon wedge. Keep stirring it all and simmer for around 5 minutes.

Add the fish & cook for 10-15 minutes further, lid off, to let the 'sauce' evaporate a bit. Eat with steamed basmati rice

Best eaten Indian style with fingers, as you need to 'fish' the bones out , but it tastes better that way! Don't expect this to be like restaurant 'curry' the sauce is quite thin, but very tasty & as hot as you dare make it.

It's good with added mustard greens, fresh fenugreek greens or with a bit of spinach added at the same time as the tomatoes.

[Deleted User]

A couple more tips:

• whole red or green chillies can be frozen as is (I use a sandwich box) and when you need one, just chop it up frozen and bung it in your recipe - as long as it's being cooked there's no difference in taste quality. Useful for 'yellow sticker' cheap bags of chillies or if you bulk-buy at a cheap Asian shop.
  
• Cheap/bulk-bought ginger & garlic can be made into paste (I use half boiled water & half light plain veg oil as the liquid) in a blender & this will keep in a box in the fridge for a least a fortnight or frozen. For example rosspa had 4 x head garlic for 50p & 100g of ginger for 15p - this makes a pretty decent amount!
  
• Peeling ginger - I only do this if the skin is very manky/muddy. I peel any funny bits but otherwise leave the skin on as usually ginger is pureed or grated in our house. If the recipe calls for slices/sticks of ginger (eg Chinese /Thai food then I peel it)

Seakay

hi joolzred - love reading all your recipes and thank you for sharing them. I love spices but cannot eat chilli. Do you have any authentic recipes which do not contain chilli or am I better off just missing it out of the recipes you have already given us?

MrsE_2

When I have yogurt rathia in a curry house it quite thin, more of a dip. When I make it at home (from Greek yogurt) its quite thick. I would prefer it thinner, more like the restaurant, any tips?

Justamum

MrsE wrote: »

When I have yogurt rathia in a curry house it quite thin, more of a dip. When I make it at home (from Greek yogurt) its quite thick. I would prefer it thinner, more like the restaurant, any tips?

Use a normal plain yogurt?

[Deleted User]

Seakay wrote: »

hi joolzred - love reading all your recipes and thank you for sharing them. I love spices but cannot eat chilli. Do you have any authentic recipes which do not contain chilli or am I better off just missing it out of the recipes you have already given us?

Just leave it out - and maybe add a little more ginger & perhaps black pepper (the hot/warm flavours)

Before the 16th century Indians never ate chillies - they were imported by Portuguese people from south American colonies

[Deleted User]

MrsE wrote: »

When I have yogurt rathia in a curry house it quite thin, more of a dip. When I make it at home (from Greek yogurt) its quite thick. I would prefer it thinner, more like the restaurant, any tips?

It's usually been mixed with mint sauce and it would be made from very low fat plain yogurt (the cheapest kind to buy in 5L buckets from the supplier) hence the runnier consistency.

I use bog standard 'Value' basic plain yogurt at home - and this is the kind you'd get in India as well, or maybe homemade from full-fat or semi milk but still quite liquid.

Greek yogurt is strained to remove extra liquid - Greek yogurt is suitable for Indian desserts needing 'strained yogurt' however!

[Deleted User]

South Indian "pahadi raita" a nice authentic alternative to the usual

• 1/2-1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tbsps. Mustard Oil
• ½ Cucumber very finely chopped (or grated coarsely)
• 1 teaspoon brown/black mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard powder
• 500g plain yogurt, stirred
• 1/2-1 thin green chilli, very finely chopped
• Salt to taste (advise less rather than more to start with - maybe 1/4 tsp)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric ('haldi') dissolved in a tiny bit of hot water

Toast the mustard seeds in a dry pan until they pop & let cool.

Combine all the other ingredients & mix very well. Chill for at least an hour, then return to room temperature for 30mins

Scatter the toasted seeds over the top of the raita and serve.

VfM4meplse

MrsE wrote: »

I would prefer it thinner, more like the restaurant, any tips?

Thin it down with some milk. Or make your own...both the Indian way.

Or as suggested previously buy the cheapest you can get. (The lazy Indian way).