Indian Cooking

angchris

i used to nip into my local shop (they sold up long time back) and the indian owners used to sell freshly made (by the wife) pakora in brown paper bags and they were the most delish things in the world :drool: shop bought ones are just pants and dont even come close in quality... anyone got a good recipe?

hamish222

I would love to make my own pakora as well I adore it.

M.E.

In my avatar you will see my Indian friend Frank and me.
We call ourselves "The Black and White Travel Company"..
wherever we go in India we are stared at as she lives in a southern town and white faces are fairly rare.
I enjoyed eating home made food and also the banana leaf food.
When I work it out I'll post up photos of my trips to stay with her.
As you can imagine the food is OS, nothing is wasted and everything is made from scratch.
When she stayed with me she did find the food very different. So when I have time I'll post up recipes and photos.

mrbadexample

ClaireLR wrote: »

Oooh Mrbadexample you live not to far from me!

Wheres your fave curry house then?

East End is the local restaurant of choice.

Angelraesunshine

oh yes would love to learn a few more recipes, learnt how to make a korma not from a jar in a healthy eating course a few months back i have that down to an art so need a few new Indian recipes please

lil_me

I really enjoy making Indian style food, for 'like the takeaway without the tummy ache' recipes I use a book called 'The Curry Secret' cheap recipe book and the food is lovely!

Pobby

OK, well lets start. As this is MSE I am going to write a bit about obtaining your spices. Never, never, ever be tempted to buy spices in those little rip off jars at the supermarket. If you have a good Asian shop buy there. Most of the spices I use are readily and cheaply available. Once the packets are open store in airtight containers as they will loose there flavor over time. In fact some of the spices can be obtained in plastic airtight containers that you can re use.For those who don`t have an Asian shop I suggest Morrisons super market. They have a decent selection of bags of spices.

The spices that I use most frequently are turmeric, coriander, cumin and chilli. There are lots more but will come on to them later.

A few notes on the above. If you have a coffee blender you can buy coriander and cumin seeds. I like to freshly grind mine. The aroma nearly blows you head off! You can use a mortar and pestle but I am far too lazy for that. Unless stated I use dried red chillis. Be warned, those little fellers pack a punch! You can reduce the heat by de seeding. Rule of thumb when say cooking for 3 or 4 is 2 whole seeds, warm, 4 fairly hot, 6 hot, 8 Arrrrggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

It`s important to note that when using spices they need to be cooked first. Some people toast theirs in a heavy bottomed pan. I like to fry mine. Again more on this later.

The final spice is in fact a combination of spices,garam masala, meaning``hot`` in Hindi. A basic combination is cinnamon, cloves, black pepper and black cardamom. Using eqaul quantities of each you can make your own or we buy it ready mixed and ground. It, depending on how it`s used can add to the aroma or flavour.

Finally good old English onions, garlic and ginger. Garlic cloves can be minced or crushed and and if I use ginger root I use a grater. You can also buy these ready minced in jars.

OK, to morrow I will be doing a basic home curry using the above plus tomatoes and meat. Hope you have a go at it.

bertiebots

Wipes drool from key board......
I cant wait as I just havent quite got my currys right yet,they never turn out how I expect them to taste although I have all the above mentioned ingredients.THANKS!!!

bonsibabe

Ooh I'm definitely in on this one! We love curry. I love korma but can't have it as it has almonds in it and my DD1 has a slight nut allergy so we tend not to have anything with nuts in around the house. I also love bombay potatoes but haven't the first idea how to make them! Our curry night is usually 50 euros (about £35) for me, DH, DD1 (6) and DD2 (3), so anything that will cut that bill will be most defnitely appreciated. My DD's both love garlic nans - the more garlicky the better!

sylphraven

can't wait for your next exciting instalment! & if you get a chance to put a recipe for traditional onion bhaji's I'd be very grateful :T