Mission: Simplify everyday Indian dishes for beginners

My Story:

I grew up with many great cooks around me, my grandmother who was famous for her achar’s (pickles), my dad who folds perfectly equilateral triangle samosa, and my mom who makes the best ladoo’s ever. I helped my mom in the kitchen on the weekends and while she prepped for dinner parties.  The focus for us was always education first, so learning how to cook was not really a priority.  I grew up watching my mom cooking, being her sous-chef doing all the cutting and chopping for her. However, I had never really cooked anything from start to finish by myself. Even my chai needed help!  Coming from a lineage of great cooks, it was expected that I knew how to cook when I got married.

To make further complicate matters, I married into a professional chef’s family!  My Panjabi father-in-law is a professional Indian chef and has had numerous Indian restaurants. His well-trained pallet expected much more from me. Growing up with a chef as a father, my husband also has very acute taste buds and is a true food connoisseur. My husband cooked American food and loved to experiment with new dishes on the weekends.  My mother-in-law, also a great cook, makes great homemade breads like Focaccia and Challah.   I realized I was not set up for success and becoming a better cook was a necessity to survive in this family! 

Growing up, I ate for the sake of eating, I never really tasted my food.  It was now that I started to actually taste my food and learn to differentiate and discern flavors.  It was hard as there were no recipes or exact measurements, a little of this and a dash of that with a pinch of those was the way they cooked. They tasted along the way and adjusted accordingly.  I put my fear aside and started to slowly experiment.  

Fast forward to now….while I am no professional chef, I am proud to say that today I have conquered my goal of being a good cook.   I am glad that my children are not picky eaters,  grew up eating traditional Indian food.  Our family is now a foodie family who loves to try new foods from around the world and try to make it our own at home. My older daughter loves Korean food and eats Kimchi for breakfast, while my younger daughter devours Sushi and Shabu Shabu.  My dearest husband eats everything and enjoys grilling while I love hearty rich curries. And we all have a sweet tooth!

Why?

So why did I start this blog? Simple – to save you from repeating my story! Cooking is not hard once you get the basics.  I want to share my tricks, tips and shortcuts to help you learn the very basics of Indian cooking. I want to equip you with the confidence to impress your family and friends. My goal is to have you start with these recipes and become proficient with flavors enough to adjust and make it to your liking.

The flavors of the Indian subcontinent are becoming more common amongst non-Indians as well. As many folks become vegetarians, Indian food provides many flavorful options to choose from. Most parts of world have Indian grocery stores and even western grocery stores have international isles with many common ingredients available.  Online, Amazon and many other ecommerce vendors make the ingredients easy to find.  Whether you’re Indian or not, Indian food is now very possible to make at home.

I started this blog in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic.  Being at home gives me more time to build this site and add content. Since restaurants are closed many folks are learning and attempting to cook at home. So, I thought this would be the perfect time to start sharing my knowledge. If I can help even 1 person, I will feel accomplished.

Visit often as new recipes are added weekly. Enjoy!

 Note: I am based in USA so the ingredients used are ones found in stores in USA. Also we eat very mildly spicy (for being Indians) which can easily be adjusted to however spicy you can handle.

 

Clarifications for terms frequently used incorrectly:

Curry is term that can be used in 3 different contexts to mean different things:

1.  Curry can be used as a generic term for a veg or non-veg with a liquid or dry gravy dish eaten with rice or naan.  Ex: Chicken curry.

2.  Curry powder found in stores which is a name for a mix of multiple spices. There is no 1 spice called curry. The ingredients in the curry powder can vary from brand to brand and family to family.

3.  There is a curry leaf plant which is heavily used as a tempering for curries (for #1 above).

 

Masala is:

1.      A generic term referring to a mix of dry spices

2.      A generic term when referencing the gravy  base of a curry in a cooked dish.

 

Spicy can mean 2 very different things, and is frequently misused.

1.      Spicy can refer to something tasting hot as in chili hot.

2.      Spicy can also refer to tastes that have a lot of spices but is not the same as the above spiciness. For example, an apple pie can be spicy. If you use cinnamon and nutmeg you may be able to taste the flavors of those spices. That does not make it hot spicy. So, the term spicy can be used with sweet dishes as well.  My cooking uses many spices, but its very mild in spiciness.

 

Tadka (or tarka) is a tempering.  It is common to finish curries by pouring on top some hot oil with spices at the very end, this is called tempering.

Lentils is a term referencing a category, there are many kinds of lentils. Similar to the word beans.

Daal (or dal) is the Indian word for lentils (raw or cooked). Remember you can have many kinds of dals depending on which specific lentil you use. They come as whole with skin on or split in half with or without skin.  A lentil which is split in half is called a dal. For example whole moong vs moong dal (split in half).

A special recognition for our site Photographer: Zahabia Ahmedi