5 Unique Indian Curries You Shouldn't Miss!

I've been thinking Indian food. And I have been thinking curries. Indian curries have been stereotyped as tomato and cream-based with lots of curry powder or garam masala. Honestly, if we ate like that everyday we'd be a nation with a lot of health problems.

India is a land of diversity even in it's food and curries. We make so many different types of curries with different bases and different spice mixes. Here's a compilation of my favourite curries which you may not have even heard of!

1. Laal Kaalwan (Maharashtrian Red Fish Curry)

The recipe can be found here.

Laal Kaalwan (Maharashtrian Red Fish Curry)

Laal kaalwan is the latest entrant on my list of favourite curries! It's a spicy, tangy curry with an underlying flavour of coconut and onions. It's best served with plain steamed rice and is a must-eat for seafood lovers who are tired of the same old chicken curries.

2. Pink Guava Curry

The recipe can be found here.

Pink Guava Curry

Yes, that's right! It's a curry made of pink guavas. Fruity with hints of spice, it's curry like you many have never had (or even heard of!) before! This curry is great for days when  you don't feel like having the same old vegetables. Pair it with some wheat paranthas (like these) and you're good to go!

3. Papad ki Dahiwali Sabzi

The recipe can be found here.

Papad ki Dahiwali Sabzi

Run out of vegetables in the fridge? Don't worry, this curry is here to save the day! This curry is a unique experience of roasted namkeen papads cooked in a lightly spiced rich yogurt gravy. Pair it with some phulkas or steamed rice and relish fresh!

Kerala Style Vegetable Stew

The recipe can be found here.

Kerala Style Vegetable Stew

A medley of vegetables slowly cooked in coconut milk with whole spices. The fragrance of the spices seeps into the curry giving it a gentle taste without being overpowering. This beautiful dish pairs best with steamed rice to make a great one-dish meal. Or you can eat it with some appams if you know how to make them or get your hands on some good ones.

5. Vendakka Moor Kolumbu (Okra in Yoghurt Gravy)

The recipe can be found here.

Vendakka Moor Kolumbu (Okra in Yoghurt Gravy)

Sauted okra is cooked in a creamy yoghurt gravy with a South Indian tempering of curry leaves, mustard seeds and onions. A rich yet light curry, this one is greatly satisfying for the taste buds and the stomach. It is best had with parathas or phulkas.

Quick Aloo Tikki Chaat Recipe

A few of hubby's friends had decided to meet up at our local Starbucks a few days back. I thought, "Why?!" I asked him to just invite them home! Since the wedding I've been looking out for chances to show off my cooking and inventing skills. I jumped at another chance to do so!

Quick Aloo Tikki Chaat Recipe

Since it was evening time just before dinner and we had not made dinner plans, I thought chaat would just be perfect for this time! I also had the chutneys ready. But I had only a half an hour head's up so I couldn't boil potatoes and make the regular tikkis. I needed something quick.

Quick Aloo Tikki Chaat Recipe

That's when I this idea came to me. Hubby and I had had this amazing chaat at a friend's wedding in Bangalore where the aloo tikki was a shallow fried patty of grated potato. Since I love tikkis made this way, I thought why not try it at home?! They're very easy to make, need only 3 ingredients that are always in our pantry, and don't take much time... pretty much a great combination of things for me!

The chaat was a quick cooking affair. The tikkis were made in about 20 minutes. I had made and stocked the chutneys from before like I always do. And I quickly chopped an onion for topping. It took less than half and hour and was more-so satisfying because because it got hubby's and his friends' thumbs-ups! It is a great recipe to put in my quick party starters brain file.

Quick Aloo Tikki Chaat Recipe

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

200 gms potatoes
2 tsps red chilly powder
Salt to taste
Oil for shallow frying

For Serving

2 cups yoghurt
1 tsp red chilly powder
6 tbsps date and tamarind chutney (recipe here)
4 tbsps green mint chutney (recipe here)
2 medium sized onions finely chopped
4 tbsps sev
2 tbsps corriander leaves

Method

Peel and grate the potatoes with a grater of medium thickness.

Squeeze the potatoes a couple of times with your hand to remove the starchy water in them. There is no salt added yet, the potatoes will give out water even before salt is added.

In a shallow frying pan, heat the oil.

Lower the flame. Take a handful lump of the grated potato and press onto the pan. It should be like this.

Quick Aloo Tikki Chaat Recipe

Press down with the help of a spatula. Make 5-6 such tikkis in one go.

Sprinkle salt and a pinch of red chilly powder on each tikki.

Quick Aloo Tikki Chaat Recipe

Let the tikkis cook on one side till golden brown. Keep pressing with a spatula every 30 seconds or so to make sure it binds together. It takes about 5 minutes on a medium high flame to cook it to golden brown.

Quick Aloo Tikki Chaat Recipe

Flip and cook the other side by pressing it again and again till it's golden brown.

When it's done on both sides, remove from the pan.

Quick Aloo Tikki (Aloo Tikki Chaat Recipe)

To serve, take a tikki. Top it with yoghurt, date and tamarind chutney, green mint chutney, onions, sev and corriander leaves.

Relish it with great delight! 

Cooking 101: Tempering

Tempering is an essential part of Indian cooking. It is used in almost all vegetable, rice, meat and lentil dishes in India. Known as 'tadka', 'baghar', 'vaghar', 'fodni', 'chaukna' in various Indian languages, tempering can be used at the beginning of cooking the dish or also as a garnish.

Tempering
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Tempering begins by heating a small quantity of vegetable oil in a kadhai (if it is used at the beginning of making a dish) or a small tempering spoon/ vessel (if used as a garnish). Whole spices like mustard seeds and cumin seeds are then added and allowed to crackle, If needed other tempering ingredients like asafoetida powder, curry leaves, dried red chillies, garlic, ginger, etc are added last.


Tips for Tempering

Heat the Oil Enough

Make sure the oil is heated enough. Ideally the mustard and cumin seeds should start crackling about 30 seconds after they're put in. This takes some practice to get right, but don't worry after 5 or 6 tries, you'll get it!

Be Safe

When adding the mustard seeds and cumin seeds or whole spices, lower the flame so the hot oil doesn't splatter all over you. Also stand as far away as possible and move back immediately after you add in the spices.

Curry Leaves in Tempering

Curry leaves tend to make hot oil splatter even more than seeds. Well, that's simply because after you wash them, the water stays on them. When water is added to hot oil, it's a splatter explosion! Dry the curry leaves a little and it won't splatter as much. And yes, stay as far away as possible.

Recipes To Try out Tempering:

1. Tuvero no Bhaath
2. Dal Fry
3. Pink Guava Curry

Anna's Baked Beans and Toast Recipe

Baked beans and toast hold a lot of memories for me. They were my early morning sustenance for almost three years at Xavier's.

Baked Beans and Toast Recipe

Our undergraduate classes at Xavier's used to start at 8 am in the morning. Which meant I HAD to leave from home by 6.15 am sharp. There was no way I'd feel hungry that early in the morning... I'd have barely woken up! So the first thing I would do on reaching college is go to the canteen or mess and order myself a large breakfast!

Baked Beans and Toast Recipe

Anna's (our mess owner) baked beans and toast were the first time I'd ever had baked beans. We'd never gotten them home before because we did not know what they were. I had loved them and I started eating them regularly. I also thought that's how they came out of the can. Till one day I had them at a restaurant... the ones served straight out of the can were horrible! That's when I realised Anna did something magical with them. It seems I have finally made that recipe work!

Anna's Baked Beans and Toast Recipe

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 tbsps peanut/ sunflower/ olive oil
1 large onion finely chopped
2 cups baked beans
1 tsp red chilly powder
2 tsps mixed herbs (oregano, parsley, thyme, basil etc)  or pizza mix
1 tsp black pepper powder
Salt to taste

Bread slices and butter to serve.

Method

Heat oil in a pan. Saute the onions till they turn translucent.

Add in the baked beans, red chilly powder, and mixed herbs.

Season with pepper and salt to taste.

Cook for about 2 minutes on high flame.


Serve with buttered toast.

Cooking 101: Frying

For the Cooking 101 series, I thought I'd start with some basic cooking methods or techniques that are essential to Indian cooking. I will cover each technique's definition, the science behind it and the best practices, particularly for Indian food. So next time you read a technique I use, you will know how to best use it! 

Today's technique is frying.

Frying:

Frying is essentially cooking food in a fatty medium. There are many fats that can be used for frying like oils, animal fats etc. Indian cooking primarily uses vegetable oils such as peanut oil, sunflower oil, rice bran oil and olive oil. 

There are two kinds of frying that we use to make our food: deep frying and shallow frying, 

Deep Frying 

Deep Frying

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In deep frying, the item to be cooked is completely submerged in the oil or fat for cooking. So you need a large, deep vessel and lots of oil for deep frying. Samosas, pooris, wadas, pakoras/ bhajiyas all are our eternal favourite fried foods. 

Tips for Deep Frying: 

Testing the Heated Oil

You need to make sure the oil is hot enough. A traditional way to test this (while deep frying) is to put a bit of the batter or snack being fried into the oil. If it rises from the bottom to the top of the oil in less 2-3 seconds, it's hot enough! 

Putting the Items In

Put in the items to be fried from a distance using a long slotted spoon. This will prevent hot oil splattering on you which happens when water comes in contact with hot oil. The hot oil will try to throw the water out. Hence you need to be extra careful when frying stuff with water in the batter or wet stuff.

Frying in Batches:

When you have a large number of items to deep fry, they're best done in small batches. So if I have 10 wadas to fry, I will do in batches of 3 or 4 to the max. This allows them to cook evenly. It also uses lesser oil because less is needed to submerge lesser food items. Allow time between batches for the oil to heat again. 

Recipes for Trying Out Deep Frying: 

1. Wada pav

2. Fresh Toor Kachori

3. Palak Kanda Bhajiya

2. Shallow Frying 

Shallow frying

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Shallow frying is when the food is only partially in contact with the oil. It is usually done on a a flat surface like a tawa (flat iron griddle). It's considered the healthier version of cooking dishes by frying as it needs much less oil for cooking and the food absorbs lesser oil too. Patties, parathas and cutlets are best served by shallow frying till they become crispy. In our home we also shallow fry marinated fish coated in rice flour (recipe of marination here).

Tips for Shallow Frying:

Testing Heated Oil

The oil should be decently hot for shallow frying. There should be a loud sizzling noise when you put the shallow frying item on it to cook. If there isn't, give it some more time to heat. 

Crispy Crusts

Shallow fried items mean crispy crusts. To get the best crispy crusts, heat oil well, lower the flame to medium high and cook one side till done. When you flip over, add some more oil and put the flame on high to heat oil well. You'll get a beautiful golden-brown crust! 

Recipes for Trying Out Shallow Frying:

1. Patties for Ragda Patties

2. Thalipeeth

3. Paranthe wali Gali ke Paranthe 

Misal Pav Recipe

Misal pav has recently beat many dishes around the world to be named as the world's tastiest vegetarian snack! I was not surprised when I read this. Who'd be? If you've had misal pav, you'll know what I am talking of!

Misal Pav Recipe

Misal pav comes from Maharashtra in India. The snack usually comprises of sprouted moth beans cooked in a thin gravy of onion, garlic, coconut and a special spice mix. This gravy is topped with a farsan mix that has gathiya, theekha gathiya, shev, chana dal etc, sev, chopped onions and tomatoes. A squeeze of lime is the final touch needed to mix it all up. And you have it with soft laadi pavs dipped in the gravy.

Misal Pav Recipe

There are however some regional differences in how misal is made and served. In some places like Nashik, misal is made of a combination of pulses and not just moth beans. Some places serve misal pav with khajur imli or teekhi chutney. And of course, the main difference, the spice mix varies from place to place. However, it's easy to find misal masala around the country in stores. If not, chana masala or chhole masala can be used, but try for the misal masala! 

Misal Pav recipe

Misal Recipe 

Preparation Time: 20 minutes (not including sprouting time for moth beans)
Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

For the vaatan (ground paste for gravy)

2 tbsps peanut/ sunflower/ olive oil
3 medium sized onions roughly diced
3 tbsps dried coconut shavings
10 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup water


For the misal 

3 tbsps peanut/ sunflower/ olive oil
2 tps asafoetida powder
2 star anises
3 dried bay leaves
Vaatan as made above
2 tbsps misal masala
2 cups sprouted moth beans
3 cups water
Salt to taste

For Serving

Laadi pav
Lemon wedges
150 grms mixed farsaan
150 grms sev
1 cup finely chopped onions
1 cup finely chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup finely chopped corriander leaves

Method

Put the moth beans to pressure cook first. Cook for about 3 whistles and they'll be done.

In a kadhai heat 2 tbsps oil. Add in the roughly diced onions and saute on a medium high flame. Keep stirring. The onions will start turning brownish in about 5-7 minuutes.

Add in the dried coconut shavings immediately to the browning onions. Keep stirring. In about 3-4 minutes, they'll start turning brown.

When the coconut turns brown, add in the garlic and saute for another 2-3 minutes on medium high flame.

Grind the mixture with 1/2 cup water till it forms a smooth paste. This is our vaatan.

To make the misal, heat oil in a kadhai. Add the asafoetida, star anises and bay leaves. Fry for about 30 seconds.

Add in the prepared vaatan and the misal masala. Saute on a medium high flame till the  mixture starts releasing oil (about 10-12 minutes). This shows that the mixture is cooked and the spices have bloomed.

Add in the pressure cooked moth beans, salt and water. The consistency should be of a thin gravy. Bring to a boil and then lower the flame and cook for about 5 minutes.

To serve, fill a bowl with about 4-5 serving spoonfuls of misal. Add in 2 tbsps of mixed farsan, 1 tbsp of onion, 1 tbsp of tomatoes, 1 tbsps of sev and 1/2 tsps of corriander leaves. Serve with two pavs and wedge of lime to be squeezed on top as per preference.

Cooking 101: The Basics of Cooking Series

Why the basics of cooking series?

While writing recipes, I have understood that there is no way around using technical terms or certain basic assumptions. Though I try to give explanations and keep it simple, I have always had something at the back of my mind that needs to be done. I finally had that 'aha! moment' today. I need to write about the basics of cooking. 

How will a person who has never cooked before get around to feeling more comfortable with it? Simple, by knowing the beauty of each technique and spice that goes into the process and what outcomes it brings. For that I need to write down all this implicit knowledge that we have of cooking. 

I have picked up a lot of knowledge about cooking from my grandma, mom, aai, aaji, bhabhi, professional chefs' articles and recipes. Most of this has been passed down orally or during show and tell. And I WRITE recipes. That's the gap that needs to be filled.

I need to write down why do I feel comfortable when I read a recipe. Why do I know what I know about the steps in a recipe when I read it? These things can't be explained in every recipe. But having explanations of it can make new readers of recipes and budding cooks feel more competent to attempt them. 

So here's writing down the goals of this series that I am attempting. This is to the knowledge of cooking that we know and have not easily expressed in recipes! This goes out to all the first-time cooks to whom I say welcome to magic!