Fav. Indian Food Poll

[katyseagull]

I'm loving your posts Justin. The fact that you're an Indian food fanatic is cool as hell.


Couple more questions -

1. I've always complained about the lack of sweetness in the Indian entrees that I've tried. I guess I have a sweet tooth. Do Indian's use much sugar (white sugar) in their cooking at all, or is it mostly natural sugars found in fruits and spices like you mention here?

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Green Cardamon is a very fragrant slightly lemony spice used to flavor rice, kormas, desserts, and beverages. Eaten whole and uncooked it is bitter, but when cooked it is mellow and sweet.



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2. Is there any chocolate found in Indian cuisine?


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Since the India gets narrower in the south, people are closer to the ocean and hence rely more on seafood. Seafood is usually cooked in coconut milk.

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With respect to seafood, could you give us an example of a typical southern Indian fish dish? Something maybe we could try to make at home ourselves so not too difficult. How would it be prepared and what would it be served with?


thank you for your thoughtful replies.

[JJNJustin]

As much as I love Indian food, I dont care for their desserts too much, except for good rice pudding and kulfi, which is pistachio and cardamom flavored ice cream. They dont have chocolate, so none of their desserts employ this flavor. In general, their sweets employ alot of nuts, milk, and sugar. There is a whole tradition of making barfi, which is milk nut fudge. Gulab Jumin are deep fried milky-flourer donut holes in rose sugar syrup.

They typically do not add any sugar to their savoury dishes.

Here is a recipe for a Fish Molee, which is a popular Southern Indian fish dish cooked in coconut milk. You can used any seafood, such as crab, shrimp, or scallops, but it is most commonly cooked with white fish.

1-2 tbl peanut oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced or smashed
1-2 tsp minced fresh ginger root
2 green serrano chilies, minced (seeded if you dont like it too hot)
1 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 dried red chilies
4 cloves
6-8 curry leaves + more for garnish
1/2-1 cup dried unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup slivered almonds and cashews, or 1/4 cup of one
1 14oz can coconut milk
1/2 tsp tomato paste (opt)
1/2 tsp salt
few twists of freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or chili powder
1 tbls lemon juice
20 oz firm non-oily mild fish fillet such as tilapia or whitefish
about a cup of diced cilantro

Pat the fish fillets dry and season with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper and set aside.

Heat a small skillet and toast the nuts over medium heat until golden brown but not burned. Transfer to a dish to let cool. Toast the coconut similiarly. Toast the cumin and coriander over medium heat until a shade darker, about 3-5 minutes. Do not let burn. Transfer to a plate to allow to cool.

Heat the oil over medium high heat in a saute pan, kadai, or wok, and add the mustard seeds. Put a cover on the pan. When the mustard seeds start popping, reduce the heat slightly to keep the oil from burning but allowing the seeds to pop fully. When the seeds are mostly grey and the popping noise has reduced, add the red chilies, the onion, garlic, ginger, and green chilis and saute for 10 minutes over medium high heat until the onion is golden brown. Meanwhile, grind the toasted nuts in a spice grinder. Also, grind the coriander and cumin seeds. When the onion is golden brown and soft, sprinkle the ground coriander, cumin, and turmeric over the onions and lower the heat to medium. Allow the spices to become fragrant, about 2 minutes. Pour the can of coconut milk over the mixture, turn the heat up to medium high, add the tomato paste (optional, if you like a slight tomato taste), ground almonds, coconut (leave some for garnish), cloves, cilantro (leave some for garnish), and curry leaves (leave some for garnish), and allow to come to a slight boil. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the fish fillets to the sauce, and poach for 5-7 minutes, covered. Serve, garnished with remaining cilantro, curry leaves, and coconut.

Serve with white rice or naan.

-J