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Guest Post: The Indian Kitchen Part 1 - Gadgets & Gizmos

3/6/2015

Today's post is a guest post from Heena over at The Indus Tijori! Her blog is about South Asian women's lifestyle, including fashion, travel, and food. If you have not checked out her blog yet, you should. I especially love her fashion tips!

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Oh, Indian food, how I love thee. Soft and airy dhoklas sprinkled with fresh shredded coconut and whole green chilies; crispy dosas served with hot sambhar that warms your soul; cold spicy pani poori on those hot summer afternoons; jhaal moori with extra mustard oil that goes straight to your nose; creamy koftas with very garlicky naan fresh from the tandoor; the ultimate comfort dish of khichdi after a long journey; and just simple garam garam rotis with my favorite subzi -- what would life be without these dishes? It would be a dark and dreary world indeed.

As much as I love Indian food, it does come with a lot of baggage – meaning gadgetry, equipment, and ingredients needed to make a dish. My first kitchen was in a teeny tiny apartment in New York City. I quickly realized that I could only keep basic essentials. But what essentials did I need? This is where my absolutely fabulous Mummy came to the rescue. And this is where we will begin a three-part series of the essentials of the Indian kitchen.

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Channa Masala: Chickpeas in Tomato Gravy

2/22/2015

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My first attempt at making Indian food for my husband was six months after our wedding. The dish I chose was a simple one: channa masala. I felt I had chosen an easy recipe and one that my husband really enjoys--"should be easy enough," I thought. After an hour of slaving over the pot, the results were clear: my channa masala was not good. Of course my sweet Hubs ate it and told me it tasted great, but I knew the truth. Hubs loves channa masala, so I had to try again; and after some trial and error (and more guidance from my Mom), I now know the tricks to make this a fantastic dish!

There are three things that really make this recipe work.
First: use dried chickpeas which you have rehydrated in a pressure cooker or slow cooker, rather than canned chickpeas. If you don't know how, it is really easy and you can follow my step-by-step directions to do it.
Second: use MDH brand chana masala powder--they are a North Indian-based spice producer, and so their spice blends are not as spicy as many other brands which are based in South India. I once used a different brand, and it was so hot that Hubs and I could barely eat it.
Third: adding tamarind concentrate or chutney to the dish helps thicken the gravy and adds a hint of tanginess.
Now that I make sure to always use these three components in my channa masala, it turns out great!

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Chai-Spiced Dark Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

2/12/2015

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We are in the dead of winter where I live, though thankfully I don't live in poor Boston! Nonetheless, temperatures are expected to dip into the single digits in the next few days and the skies have been gloomy and gray. If for no other reason than to give me something to be excited about in the middle of dreary winter, I enjoy "celebrating" Valentine's Day. Truthfully, I never do much planning for it; since the very beginning, Hubs has been the one to surprise me with plans that always involve relaxation and a fun activity, like chocolate-making or spending time at a botanical garden. My usual way of reciprocating is by making Hubs his favorite food: cookies.

Yes, Hubs' favorite food is actually cookies. His go-to cookie is a chocolate chip cookie with pecans or walnuts, but he is not discriminating and will eat any cookie that comes his way. This year I wanted to change it up and thought about making shortbread cookies instead of some chocolate chip variation.

Shortbread cookies require very few ingredients--just flour, butter, and sugar. No eggs, no baking soda, etc. The dough ends up being more firm than that of other cookies, and the cookies end up crispier than most other types of cookies--which makes them ideal for dipping into chocolate. I also decided to use ghee instead of regular butter in these cookies because it has a slightly nutty flavor that I thought would pair well with the chai spices.

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From Food Stalls to Football: Bhelpuri Cakes

1/30/2015

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One of my husband's favorite Indian snacks is bhelpuri: a type of chaat, or savory snack, consisting of some combination of puffed rice, thin fried chickpea flour noodles, potatoes, onions, and chutneys. Bhelpuri is thought to have originated in either the Indian states of Gujarat or Maharastra--which makes it a big winner in this Gujarati-Maharastrian household! When I think of bhelpuri, I imagine it being served out of a newspaper cone from a food stall in India.

I've known about my husband's love of bhelpuri since before we were even dating; when we went to the local garba during Navratri, he would eagerly look forward to eating bhel after many, many rounds of raas. I quickly learned that bhelpuri is one of my husband's favorite foods to eat in my mother-in-law's kitchen. I knew I had to learn how to make this at home!

My mother-in-law already makes her bhelpuri very healthy by adding kala chana (black chickpeas) and sprouted mung beans. As my husband and I are still detoxing from the holidays, I took it a step further by removing the potatoes and papdi (fried pieces of dough), and adding fresh tomatoes. I also used unsalted rice cakes instead of loose puffed rice for two reasons: (1) they are easily available at my local grocery store, (2) I don't have a huge bag of loose puffed rice sitting in my cupboard afterward, and (3) they look so cute! Can you imagine serving a whole tray of these to guests?!

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How-To: Slow Cook Dried Legumes and Beans

1/23/2015

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This is a quick tutorial on how to rehydrate and cook beans and legumes in a slow cooker. Indian food often calls for beans and lentils as ingredients. With most types of lentils, you can only find them dry and you have no choice but to rehydrate and cook them. With beans, you can find them canned; but I have learned the hard way that canned beans do not hold a candle to dried beans. More importantly, using dried beans is both healthier and less expensive! Win-win situation if you ask me!

You can always pressure cook beans. But if you don't have a pressure cooker and/or just want to let the beans and legumes cook without paying much attention to them, the slow cooker is the way to go. I will note that slow cooking your beans and legumes requires a bit of advanced planning, but I normally make twice the amount I will need and freeze half. That way you don't have to plan in advance every single time!

For this post I used dried chickpeas, but the same process applies to all beans and legumes. **One thing I want to note is that if you are using kidney beans, make sure to put them in a pot of hot water and bring the water to a boil for two minutes before putting the kidney beans into your slow cooker. There is a toxin in kidney beans, and boiling the beans gets rid of it!**

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Guest Post: The Indian Kitchen Part 1 - Gadgets & Gizmos

Channa Masala: Chickpeas in Tomato Gravy

Chai-Spiced Dark Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

From Food Stalls to Football: Bhelpuri Cakes

How-To: Slow Cook Dried Legumes and Beans

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