When I got that BIG bacon, I wanted to use the big chunks in a soup. My mind immediately raced to split pea -- the bacon replacing the ham. Done and done, I thought. But after searching for the bag of yellow split peas I knew I had never used, I gave up. They were gone, and I had no idea what happened to them.

But hope was not lost. In an Indian-themed shopping spree months ago, I had bought urad dal. A sort of black lentil, it is grown in southern Asia and a particularly protein-rich food that's said to be good for diabetics. It comes a few ways -- you can get it as-is, with the black skins on (what I have), or split urad dal, which has the skins removed.

So I took this urad dal, soaked it overnight, and turned to Lisa's Kitchen for an alternate soup recipe. (Since hers calls for split, I used my mortar to crush the urad a bit, which made it a mixture of split and black.) I cheated a bit since this is a vegetarian recipe, and I threw in a few extra vegetables to use them up, but followed the rest of the recipe as it was written. The result: a very rich, easy, and delicious soup. With a number of hot components added, this is a spicy soup, but one that I found was balanced my the other ingredients floating in the broth. And the urad dal -- it give the dish a wonderful earth flavor, which comes from those black skins.

But just one side warning: Just like cherry tomatoes explode in your mouth, these tomato chunks can, with a much hotter liquid. But other than that, bon appetit!

The first year I was in grad school, my roommate was an Indian doctor. He was in the last year of his residency and was looking for an inexpensive place to live. He wound up renting my second bedroom and in the year we shared the apartment, he tried to teach me how to cook Indian food. Sadly, most of the teachings he tried to impart unto me went un-retained and these days I typically turn to the Indian restaurant that is located just steps from my building when I have a curry craving.

However, I recently acquired a cookbook that I'm hoping will remind me of Madhu's cooking lessons and ween me off my weekly orders of Chicken Tikka Masala. 600 Curries is an 800 page volume that hopes to make a variety of Indian dishes more accessible to the average Western cook. I must admit that I sometimes end up feeling a little intimidated by cookbooks with this many recipes, as I feel like I don't know where to start. This one feelings surprisingly accessible, despite the volume of recipes it contains. I think it has to do in large part with the careful and detailed instructions that are broken down to be easy to follow.

When I first picked up this book, I was concerned that it would be filled unappealing, Americanized recipes. This is because I know that curry as we know it isn't indigenous to India. However, as I worked my way through the book, I realized that the author, Raghavan Iyer, is using the word curry as an all-encompassing term that can embrace a whole spectrum of Indian and Indian-influenced foods. So it actually contains a wealth of recipes that can really spice up your weekly meals. This is one I'd recommend to cooks who want a single ethnic cookbook that will have the ability to inspire new dishes for years to come.

Originally published in 1973, An Invitation to Indian Cooking was Madhur Jaffrey's very first cookbook. She moved to New York City from India in the early 1960's and started cooking when she started craving the flavors of her childhood. Later on, when people would ask her for Indian restaurant recommendations, she'd sadly tell them that there wasn't anything that appropriately authentic in the city and then, feeling bad and wanting to share the tastes of India with them, she'd invite them over for dinner. When throwing regular dinner parties became exhausting, she began to hand out her recipes. They spread across the city (and some all the way across the country) and eventually led to this book.

My copy of this book came to me in that load of cookbooks I acquired from my friend Fran's friend about a month ago. One of the delightful things I've discovered as I've gone through these books has been the unexpected notes and page markers that fall out when I start to leaf through. This edition is no exception, the recipe for Pork Chops Cooked With Cabbage is marked with a seed pack for wildflowers.

Back in April, I featured another one of Jaffrey's books, that time it was her volume devoted to Quick & Easy Indian Cooking. That book relies more heavily on pre-made spice mixes and short cut items that are available in the supermarket. This book has none of those short cuts and so while the dishes do take considerably longer to make, the rewards that come from toasting and grinding your own spices is quite high. Recently, Serious Eats spent a month cooking from this volume and, other than an unfortunate incident that involved a greasy, gristly goat stew, enjoyed the experience.

If you are a fan of Madhur Jaffery, your collection is not complete without this book.

If you've been a reader of Slashfood for a while, then you might know that I am a huge, HUGE, fan of Indian food. Sadly, aside from a a few decent attempts at vegetable samosa, I couldn't cook Indian food at home to save my life, let alone smack a ball of dough inside a oven to bake naan.

However, if you have it in you to prepare an Indian meal and want to include that delicious fluffy flatbread, head over to Ooh You Tasty Little Things for a quick recipe for naan. From the picture, they look a bit like pancakes, but I have no doubt in my mind that these babies were absolutely delicious, especially with fresh garlic mixed in!

How far would you travel to have your favorite meal? Or rather, how far would you have it sent? Rap star Kanye West, along with 7 other diners, will be enjoying a feast of Indian food this Wednesday from the restaurant British Raj's, located in Wales, though he will be dining in New York City. The bill for this meal is to exceed $3900.

Even with shipping costs, why is it so much? The actual cost of the food, eaten in the restaurant, would run at about $17.50 per person. However the restaurant's Executive Chef will be accompanying the meal to New York, ensuring quality control, customs clearance, and proper service. The $3900 price tag actually reflects the loss the restaurant will experience during the two evenings the chef will be away. His travel and accommodation costs are extra.

Apparently the dinner will include "onion bhajees, chapati breads, biryanis, pappadums, a specially prepared fish dish and vegetables on the side." Kanye isn't the first to receive this kind of service though. The music promotion company that arranged this dining experience previously ordered food to an after-show party for Snoop Dogg from the same Wales restaurant.

Wow. All I can say when I look at Meena's Chilli Paneer on her blog Hooked on Heat is "wow." Sometimes I wonder if in a previous lifetime I was an Indian princess (not just Indian, but a princess!) because the spices, flavors and ingredients of Indian cuisine give me shivers like no other. Aside from the fact that this dish is absolutely glisteningly gorgeous in the photo, I was totally taken by how long, er rather, short the preparation time is. Meena sears the Indian cottage cheese cubes (which, to me, have a texture similar to a crumbly tofu) in oil, then basically stir fries them with onions, garlic, and chili peppers. The dark color comes, oddly enough, from soy sauce.

I am not shy about my obsession with Indian food, and today is no exception. When I'm in a restaurant or ordering in, I almost always order palak paneer. I say "almost" because sometimes, it's called "saag paneer." Either way, the dish is a curry made of spinach and lightly sauteed cubes of paneer, a fresh Indian cheese. Hooked on Heat has made palak paneer at home and the photo makes me want to dive into my laptop screen with a giant piece of naan. As delicious as it looks, it seems that it's not overly complicated to make, though it does require a bit of time to make the cheese.

Other bloggers make palak/saag paneer:
Mahanandi
Food, in the Main
SaiLu's Food

The drink of choice for curry fans is beer. The mild flavors complement the complex spices and the cold bubbles are refreshing and palate-cleansing, especially if you happen to be eating a spicy dish. Why aren't wines paired with curries, though? One reason is that there is no cultural tradition of wine-drinking in India. The popular line is that they are too heavy-tasting with curries, and either the wine or the dish itself ends up being too acidic to make a pleasurable combination.

The truth of the matter is that some wines don't go with curries and the reason turns out to be tannins. High tannin wines taste harsh and bitter with chilies and some spices, so selecting light, low-tannin wines will help you to make a better match with a curry. Suggestions include gewürztraminer, zinfandel, merlot and rosé, opting for fruitier flavors to counteract any potential bitterness. Choose a sparkling wine if you crave the palate-cleansing sensation of carbonation.

I've been trying to force myself out of my chicken tikka masala rut at Indian restaurants. I tried and loved the spiciness of a lamb frankie, bindhi masala (okra), and even some creamy daal (lentils).

Sev puri are small, deep-fried wheat-based crackers or bread (puri) covered with sev, a chickpea based noodle that has also been deep-fried. Sev puri are considered a type of chaat, which refer to small savory snacks that are served from street carts all over India. Puri, which are the crackers, can be topped with a number of fillings to create different kinds of chaat. Bhel puri are filled with puffed rice, pani puri has potatoes, chickpeas, and a number of chutneys on top, and dahi puri is about the same, except with a yogurt sauce.

Normally, the words "food porn," conjure images of decadent desserts, soft, sultry, totally sexy sweets oozing with chocolate and frosting, dressed in nothing more than a dollop of whipped cream, and perhaps a few berries that have toppled off onto the plate in the haste to get to the...table.

But food porn isn't just desserts; it's anything that makes my eyes widen and mouth salivate when I look at it, like a couple of pieces of thick, fluffy, puffy, soft and chewy, charred-in-all-the-right-places naan stuffed with sweet onions. I've had garlic naan many times before. Onion naan was my first time. I might, just might, not ever go back to garlic naan again.

This trio of tiny little cakes are aloo-ki-tikki, pancakes made from mashed potatoes that have been fried, sauced with a tamarind chutney, and garnished with chopped onions. The potato pancakes were lightly spiced and soft inside, dark, but only slightly crisp on the outside. I didn't love the tamarind chutney all over each pancake, as I would have liked to have it on the side so I could add the amount I wanted. I would have preferred a chutney that was more spicy than sweet.

They were good, but not good enough to steal my stomach away from samosas.

Observant pedestrians in the environs of 74th Street and 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens, soon notice a common pattern. Abstract red splotches pepper the pavement. They tell the tale of paan chewing and the copious scarlet saliva it generates. The thousand-year-old tradition is alive and well in this bustling neighborhood of sari shops, Bengali kebab houses, greengrocers, paratha factories, and what seems like a blocklong store specializing in ornate Indian bridal jewelry.

Aphrodisiac, blood purifier, breath-freshener, digestive, stimulant ? yes the triangular betel-leaf wrapped bundle that is paan has it all, including the ability to stain your teeth red after years of habitual usage. Paan boasts a rich ceremonial history. Early Sanskrit texts mention its consumption as one of the enjoyments of royal life, which also include incenses, women, clothes, music, bed and food.

I have to admit that I am very predictable in an Indian restaurant or on the phone making a delivery order. I very rarely, if ever go outside my personal ordering repertoire of samosas as a starter, chicken tikka masala, maybe chicken korma if I'm feeling particularly crazy, saag paneer, gobi aloo, and of course, garlic naan.

However, in recent months, I have been forcing myself to try new things because the Indian table doesn't revolve around chicken tikka masala. I have now become quite enamored of dal, any number of varieties of lentils. Moong dal are lentils cooked with garlic and ginger, mild in heat, but still extremely flavorful. I'm quite sure I could make a meal of naan dipped in dal.

What are your top three Indian dishes?

I have no idea why I'm reading Men's Health. Regardless, the magazine has an article that encourages men to cook these seven dishes from around the world at home, to keep them lighter than the restaurant versions that are always loaded with too much pasta, rice and potatoes. Men's Health says that the "secret isn't tiny, Frenchman-like portions; it's a redistribution of nutrients." Hey, if it makes you look like Mr. Cooking Guy in the photo, I'm all for it! 

The recipes are for:

1. Curried Shrimp Kebabs with Basmati Rice (Indian)
2. Sausage and Pepper Pasta (Italian)
3. Steak and Bean Burrito (Mexican)
4. Pork Fried Rice (Chinese)
5. Teriyaki Salmon Bowl with Broccoli (Japanese)
6. Cajun Chicken Fingers with Sweet Potato Fries
7. Broiled Lamb Chop over Cucumber Tomato Salad (Greek)

The recipes are for one portion though. I'd double it, and make dinner for yourself and your date!

With a new little niece around, I am becoming more and more aware of what little babies and toddlers eat. Cheerios and goldfish crackers always seem to the be the snack of choice, and dinner-time foods are always finger-foods like chicken nuggets and peas. However, kiddies around the world don't eat the same way. Heck, growing up in a Korean household, I'm quite sure I was wrapping up little balls of rice in nori and spilling soy sauce all over myself. If you've ever wondered what a two-year-old in South Africa is eating, check out this list:

• Japanese toddlers may not be eating sushi, but they do lunch on egg-flavored rice with broiled fish or seafood and miso soup with tofu. It's no wonder that Japan has the longest average lifespan, with the types of foods that are introduced into the diets as such a young age.
• In South Africa, kiddies eat toast thats been spread with a touch of Marmite, a concentrated yeast spread that is a by-product of the beer brewing process.
• If it's Marmite in South Africa, it's Vegemite in Australia, spread on Ryvita crackers
• Danish and Swedish kids eat meatballs and lots of other meat and potatoes. Sweden has the world's highest consumption of ketchup, which kids put on to disguise anything that looks healthy.
• In India, children eat khidchi, a spicy rice and lentils porridge.
• They even list kids in Korea! Korean kids eat lots of kimchi, which is probably how they build up such a tasty tolerance for spicy foods. They also eat gim-bahp and bibimbahp.