"indian cooking" news and stories

Cheesemaking is an exacting art -- a balance of the right milk, the right bacteria and the right temperature. There are a million ways it can go wrong, and, for most home cooks, it's best left to the pros. Not so with fresh, unaged cheeses like ricotta or the mild Indian paneer, which, in its simplest form, is a mixture of milk and lemon juice. It's easy to whip up for the classic silky spinach dish saag paneer, or, as the paneer-making blogger at the Dabble did for the photo above, fry it in a bit of butter until it caramelizes then sprinkle it with salt.

Trusted paneer maker and doyenne of the Indian kitchen Julie Sahni adds cider vinegar and yogurt to the standard ingredients in a recipe from her Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking, a volume well worth having on your bookshelf.

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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!

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

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?

Back when I roasted cauliflower with curry, I thought that Indian raita, a minty cucumber yogurt sauce, would have been a nice accompaniment.

Raita is made by wrapping 1 seeded, grated cucumber in cheesecloth and squeezing out all the moisture. In a bowl, whisk together 1c. whole milk yogurt, 1/2 tsp. cumin, a pinch of cayenne. Add the cucumber, as well as 2-3 Tbsp. finely grated carrots, and 1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro or mint.

Raita is very similar to Greek tzatziki which is yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, and a lot of minced garlic. I have to say that even though the raita sounds like it matches better with a roasted curried cauliflower, I'd rather have the garlicky tzatziki.