We don’t have a thread on this topic, and there are good and bad recipes out there for every kind of food. A while back, I had tried some Indian dishes from a cookbook and got poor results. Now, I’ve found a good site for authentic dishes, and am just starting to try the recipes, inspired by the delicious food at an Indian friend’s home. It turns out that my previous failures were really just the result of bad recipes.
I’m a brand new student in this realm, but as I go, I would like to share the links with you one by one as I test them and get good results. I’ll add tips based on my own errors or experience, and hopefully others here who cook Indian food (and may have VASTLY more experience than me) can chime in.
Two tips in advance for others who might make the same foolish errors I did:
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Don’t use store-bought yogurt. It has to be completely unsweetened, and the ones marked ‘plain’ here may in fact be sweetened but with no other flavors added. Make your own or source unsweetened stuff.
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Consider halving the chillies or chilli powder in any particular recipe, so as not to nearly kill your better half (or third in my case). Some of these recipes are still fiery at half strength. You can always add more at the end after tasting the results.
Here are the recipes I’ve tried so far and liked very much, and notes:
Thool Zamboor, onion and tomato based Kashmiri egg curry Flavoured with a mix of dry spices.
Note: easy and delicious.
ALOO GOL MATOL, baby potatoes cooked with a spicy masala powder and finished with lemon juice.
Note: If it ends up too spicy or sour, you can fix that with some coconut cream.
DUM MURGH: Delicious chicken flavour with rich spice and cooked on its own steam
Note: don’t use sweet yogurt!
MALBARI MUTTON: A popular spicy mutton preparation from Kerala
Note: 800g of mutton is equivalent to about four trays of frozen hot-pot mutton, if you don’t have a convenient source of bone-in cubed mutton. This is a delicious dish, and it’s not worth the trouble to make a half batch, so get the full amount of mutton! This made a lovely snack just now, atop rice, with a green veggie on the side.
Naan bread, Madhur Jaffrey’s version
Note: I put a Lodge Double Play grill/griddle (cast iron) on the floor in my oven, and a shelf near the top element. I preheated to 250C for half an hour or more, to get as close to tandoor heat as I could. Be sure to wet both sides of the naan before putting it in the oven. I find it hard to move a thin, wet naan into a confined oven space without accidentally folding it on itself or getting burns, so I tried a new method with great success: after rolling out the naan, and misting each side with spray water (or patting with wet hands), put it on a sheet of oven paper, atop a wooden peel or the back of a cookie sheet, and use that to slide it into the oven like a pizza. Bake about 3 minutes on the cast iron (or a pizza stone), then use the peel or tongs to move it to the top shelf underneath the broiler to brown it.
I aged my dough in the fridge overnight to try to get more flavor out of it and to let the gluten relax so it would be easier to roll out thinly, and that worked fine.