Indian Recipes - Introduction
Recently Indalita and Krystalyn have embraced a semi-vegetarian diet. For Indalita that means no meat from land animals, for Krystalyn it includes all sources of meat (land and water) and a limited amount of egg.
For a guy who prefers to grill over almost any other cooking technique, this has been a bit of a challenge to get used to. I eat meat when we go out, but usually stick to the Indalita’s pescatarian theme at home. It is a bit of adjustment, but the results have been fairly pleasing so far.
Indalita and I both love Indian cuisine, and it fits the dietary restrictions of both women, so I decided I wanted to try to learn to make some of the dishes at home that we often find in Indian-themed restaurants. We have a number of ethic grocery stores in our area, so it seemed like an adventure we all might enjoy.
The ingredient lists for many of the recipes appear to be quite formidable at first, as you will see in the recipes below. However, I have also discovered that the lists are generally “suggestions” and there must be as many variations of saag as there are for cornbread and chili con carne. Most essential elements can be found in good quality grocery stores (I do not include WalMart among these), and suitable substitutions are always possible. On the other hand, if you can get to an Indian or Middle Eastern specialty grocer you will be rewarded by finding with a wealth of new ingredients, exotic aromas and fascinating cooking paraphernalia for your consideration.
Back to the ingredient list. I find it best to lay out all of the ingredients before I begin in the traditional French cooking technique known as mise en place. I suspect if I were a good Indian grandmother, I would not have to be so careful, but in the beginning it has really helped.
There are several other nice things I have learned about Indian style cookery
1. The dishes I have tried hold well, making those last minute traffic snarls and emergency runs to the pharmacy less traumatic than if I were serving a meat dish
2. They also make great leftovers, reheating easily in the microwave, much to the envy of many of my coworkers
3. They can be prepared using very little added fat and they often are high fiber
4. The high flavor level makes me reach satiety much sooner, and I tend to overeat less often.