(Part 2) Best products from r/IndianFood

I am a little late to this but I'll agree with what others have said that what your describing is papdi chat.

The great thing about papdi chat is that it's kind of a build your own snack. When hosting parties my mom often will have the various ingredients that go into it set out individually so people can build the chat according to their own preference. A few more thoughts:

• The onions you're talking about were raw, usually of the red variety or either finely chopped or minced.
  
  
• While you can use greek yogurt its more common to use plain yogurt since it tends to be less dense and hence easily spreadable and plain yogurt will be less creamy, even a touch sour compared to Greek yogurt.
  
  
• There were two other components that often get added to a chat that you were missing: chat masala (easy to get either at an Indian food market or you can order it [here] (http://www.amazon.com/Shan-Chaat-Masala-Seasoning-100g/dp/B000MSS6CO/ref=sr_1_6_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1462838233&sr=8-6&keywords=chat+masala)); and tamarind chutney (imly in Hindi), which has a sweet and somewhat piquant taste. The sweetness nicely balances out the other savory / spicy flavors. Edit to add: If you use the chat masala which is entirely optional and wouldn't necessarily be missed if you didn't just be sure to use it sparingly. Its pretty strong and a little bit will go a long way. Best to just dust a little on top when everything else is put together.
  
  
• Last point about the yogurt. If you really want to go all out you can make (or if you have an Indian food market near you get pre-made) dhai bhalle which is yogurt with deep fried lentil fritters. [Here's a good recipe] (http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/dahi-vada-recipe/). Bhalle are really nice in chat because they offer a bit more of a softer doughier mouth feel in contrast to the papari though the outside will have that great fried crunch.
  
  Ok. I think I've gone on for long enough about papadi chat. Time to get back to work. Hope this was helpful.

stock your cupboards with tin coconut milk. go to Bulk Barn and buy tumeric, cumin, coriander, garam masala, chili, fennel seeds, and pre-made tandoori masala. get some plain yogurt, tin chickpeas, onions, minced garlic, minced ginger, and don't forget to buy moong dal, chana dal and yellow lentils. the latter can all be bought at any grocery store that has a rudimentary 'ethnic' foods section. fresh chilis are helpful too. as is tomato paste.

the trick to good indian food at home is learning how balance these flavors and making sure to temper them or cook your spices before adding them to whatever youre making. you can do this by dicing your onions and sauteeing them with your spices and garlic until it resembles a sort of paste.

one of my favorite easy recipes is palak paneer, but you'll need to get to a good south asian/middle eastern grocery to buy paneer. you can sub out the paneer for tofu and get the same delicious effect. look it up! your daals and tandoori chicken, butter chicken and beef dishes, if you eat meat, are good entry points. at the same time, a good indian or middle eastern grocery will have a selection of take-home papad that you can pop in the microwave at home to round out your meal. or naan if youre not being health-conscious.

i say all of this because indian cuisine is the only one my partner and i agree on so we eat it often and make it at home. especially since moving to our little corner of the UK where the indian takeaway is sub-par and shockingly costly.

oh and 'curry' is a british creation, you'll find that authentic indian cooking is more complex than that, with an extremely broad range of flavor profiles, most of which are region-specific. i highly recommend the book Eating India by Chitrita Banerji https://www.amazon.com/Eating-India-Odyssey-Culture-Spices/dp/1596910186 as an exciting reference that follows an Indian expat's rediscovery of her country's cuisine, but it also provides a lot of background into the cultural significance of dishes, colonialism's impacts on cuisine and my favorite topic, Indian sweets 🤤

have fun!

If you want to absolutely floor your BF, then consider making kothu roti. It is a very popular street food dish in Sri Lanka, and has tons of variations. Kothu means "chopped" or "cut". It is originally a leftover dish. The idea is to take leftover flatbreads such as roti or plain paratha (you can buy them in an Indian store - fresh or frozen), fine dice the roti or paratha, stir fry it with Sri Lankan spices (such as curry leaves, garlic, turmeric powder, and coriander powder) and, add an egg and any leftovers such as yesterday's chicken or sausages, and stir fry it for a couple of minutes. If you see the video above, the street food kothu vendors will then continue to mix and chop the stir fry while making a clanging sound with their spoons/scoops.

Sri Lankan cuisine is very similar to Tamil and Kerala cuisine (part of South India and very close to Sri Lanka as well). In my previous reply, the video I shared was about North Indian cooking. When most people talk about "Indian food" or what they eat in an Indian restaurant, they usually refer to North Indian food, in fact, specifically Punjabi food.

Tamil and Kerala and Sri Lankan cuisines are quite different from your typical "Indian food" aka Punjabi food. The spices are different, the cooking techniques are different, the ingredients are quite significantly different. And the food is a lot more coastal cooking - lots more seafood and coastal/tropical flavors and ingredients like using fresh and dessicated coconut, coconut milk, etc. Tamarind is also extensively used as the acid or souring agent, and black peppers are mainly used for spice.

On a side note, South Indian and Sri Lankan cooking is ancient and predates the adoption of "New World" vegetables like chili peppers, tomatoes, potatoes etc. I mean, a lot of recipes have adopted these veggies over time, but a lot of them still use the more traditional spices and vegetables like black pepper and tamarind.

If you want to learn more about South Indian cooking, look at Vah Chef's videos on youtube. He also has a recipe for kothu. Also try making appam and stew. Here's a separate recipe for just appams because the batter is key, and so is the technique. It is like making crepes - a bit hard in the beginning but once you get the hang of it, becomes easier. Similarly, consider making egg curry with a tamarind based curry.

Other staples are sambar (a tamarind based lentil and veggie soup, usually had with rice), and rasam (again a tamarind and tomato based broth, eaten with rice).

If you want a really elevated gourmet but simple to make dish, consider making Chef Vineet Bhatia's pan-fried chicken made with rasam powder, served with idi-appam or string hoppers. This dish is well worth making and is also super elegant. It is literally a Michelin star dish as Vineet Bhatia is a Michelin star chef and I think this is what he serves in his restaurant.

Idiyappams are a South Indian rice noodle dish, and you will need a special press. It costs about $20 and is well worth buying it. You will also need a steamer to cook this. Or an idly steamer.

This is a bit too much effort to be honest. You could just make the chicken-rasam dish above and serve it with white rice (or any other bread). Of you can pair it with lemon rice or tamarind rice

Hope I haven't overloaded you with too much information! This barely scratches the surface of South Indian cooking. You can also google "south indian fish curry" or "south indian prawn curry" or "chettinad recipe". Chettinad is a part of Tamilnadu that is known for its meat and seafood dishes. It is also more on the spicy side, so be warned!

I like Veg Recipes of India for cooking how-tos but that's more Northern style.

BUT I've got good stuff for your other question:

For ideas, you can read Mark Bittman's guide to setting up a minimalist kitchen and The Kitchn's guide.

Since you're focusing on (I assume) stove top Indian style food for one person, I'd say you'd want a pressure cooker (because lentils), one small sauce pan and a larger skillet to start out. If you're cooking the style of food I think you are (dry toast spices, remove from pan, brown some meat, remove from pan, add back spices and veg to make a gravy, add back meat) your highest priority should be that skillet, you can do everything in that, and it can go into the oven if you want to bake some fish or even roast a bigger cut of meat.

You'll notice these pans aren't "non-stick" - if you use just a bit of oil/fat that's actually better than buying non-stick. The non-stick coating will eventually flake off and you also can't take it up to higher heat in the oven. If your meat is sticking to the pan, let it brown for longer :) I have only one small (8" I think) non-stick skillet that I use for scrambling eggs so that I don't have to use half a stick of butter on them.

All-Clad is a very good brand, Cuisineart is a good value. TJMaxx / Marshalls will sometimes get All-Clad stuff in at a good discount. You're looking for a heavy bottom on those pots and pans - that will help them heat evenly so you can toast your spices and not burn your gravies.

Lol typing the recipe out makes me want to make eat it right now.

For the coriander seeds, I think it's worth it, but it's a bit too much effort. But if you have the time to grind your spices fresh, then it's the same principle as coffee beans. Freshly ground seeds will give you more flavor and aroma. So do try it if you have the spare time. You can also toast the dry spices and grind them to a powder as well to give you that fresh aroma. This will release their oils and give you more bang for your buck from your spices. I use a store bought one since I am short on time most of the days. The brand I use is called MDH. It's a popular brand in India and lots of homes use it.

SNS MDH Garam Masala (Blend of Spices), 100g, 3.5oz https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B002XH1BXI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_iX4OCbCSR9VZZ


For the ginger/garlic paste, I use a mortar pestel. It's handy to have. Mincing works as well, but I like to extract the juices from the garlic and ginger and flatten them as much as possible so they easily blend into the hot oil. I find mincing them can lead to burning at times rather than getting properly infused into the oils. I have a Vitamix on the side in case I need to whip up the paste real quick, but honestly, I take out the time to use the mortar pestel to get the best flavours.

> spiceindiaonline.com/crispy-chicken-65/

I'm inclined to mostly agree with /u/Amnizu. I dont think I've ever seen deep frying in a pot like that, even if it is heavy bottomed, the outside is not heavy so it will not retain the temperature of the oil as well as cast iron would. A $20 Cast Iron pan is usually my go to for frying. Even safer and probably better would be something like this. A Quart of Oil is actually quite a bit in that kind of pot. When using the Cast Iron get an 1-1.5 inches of oil up to temp then slowly add in each piece of chicken. The recipe you are using has water in the ingredients which is ok, as long as you don't have excess sauce on the chicken when you put it in. Water and frying are not friends. You might even want to reduce the amount of water just a little. To be safe keep some Baking Soda near by to put out any potential grease fires. I'm no pro so take what I say with a grain of salt. I usually use a cast iron pan and it comes out great, makes the house smell though. Hope this helps.

A food processor will not make dosa batter, full stop. No matter how good it is, the blades are set up the wrong way to make batter. You can make vada or falafel in a food processor, but not dosa. Dosa requires a blender.

The best blender that money can buy is the vitamix. If you're a student, that will likely be too expensive for you.

This one is half the cost of a refurb vitamix:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01N02992Z?psc=1

If you need the food processor attachments, this machine has all the attachments to do food processor jobs and blender jobs:

https://www.amazon.ca/Ninja-BL780C-Kitchen-System-Silver/dp/B018A57MVG/ref=sr_1_8?s=kitchen-substore&ie=UTF8&qid=1482675971&sr=1-8&keywords=blender

If you want to spend less, get the Oster:

https://www.amazon.ca/Oster-8-Speed-Processor-Metallic-BCCG08-RFP-NP9/dp/B009NIN2UU/ref=sr_1_8?s=kitchen-substore&ie=UTF8&qid=1482676222&sr=1-8&keywords=blender

Excellent brand, and their customer support is top notch. Also, it's a glass jar.

There are hundreds of types of achar in India. If you don't mind the heat, try stuffed red chili achar, which is very popular in north India.

Here's a recipe in English. The key is that you absolutely need the mustard oil for that extra level of deliciousness, plain vegetable oil just won't do.

Unfortunately, if you live in the US, mustard oil is not available for food use. You can still buy it from places like Amazon, but it will be labeled "for external use only". It doesn't matter, it's food grade and can be safely used in the recipe.

Another of my favorite achars is bamboo shoot achar (or baans ka achar in India). This is made from green bamboo shoots, and is a regional specialty in India, found mostly in the Terai belt in the north. It is delicious.

Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to get the ingredients in the US. But you can find a couple of packaged brands in some Indian groceries, such as this one.

Try sourcing the same achar from different parts of the country, and you'll find very different tastes. For example, mango achar is popular all over India, but south Indian mango achar will taste very different from north Indian mango achar. The ingredients and ratios are all different. Try different kinds and see which you prefer.

The ability to improvise comes with time, observation and willingness to experiment. Onions can add different texture and flavor to a dish depending on preparation. From crunchy, sulfurous, raw onions to sweet, soft, caramelized onions the spectrum of possibilities is quite broad. Use them raw, gently sautéed in oil, caramelized, fried, dried, pickled; cut lengthwise, crosswise, diced; etc. and build up a mental library of the results. I love reading about food, food history, preparation and food science but nothing beats actually getting hands-on with food.

That said, there are some books about flavor combinations and it might help if the concern is wasting food due to impractical experimentation. I own and enjoy Niki Segnit's The Flavor Thesaurus. It's not a mathematical table of A+B=C, but it gives classic and inventive combinations of various flavors. I can't vouch for these, but maybe read through the reviews and see if they sound interesting to you: one and two. I follow the blog of the latter two authors and it's quite interesting even if it is sometimes beyond the scope of home cookery.

I use maesri red curry paste. It's definitely thai in origin but produces wonderful, flavorful coconut curry every time. They have a lot of other varieties too. I admit I don't know much about the differences in ingredients between thai and indian curries, though.

Edit: Ok I just read a bit and thai is pretty different as one might assume, so this is probably not useful info. But I'll leave the comment up in case you're interested in foraying into thai curry I guess!

Do you want something like the big steel containers to grind up rice, grains, etc like for dosa/idly mixes? I own a Preethi Mixer which I like.

Or just for spices? Another poster mentioned the Krups grinder. Pretty much what I use to grind my spices as well. So easy and efficient.

Took me a while to figure this out myself.

I am sure there are may techniques that works for others, but this is what works for me.

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1. Cast Iron > Nonstick pan. I have something like this from Lodge and I love it. Even heat across the surface, and maintains steady heat longer.
   
2. Temperature : between 400-450 F , I use a laser thermometer to confirm as I dont trust my judgement on the right temp :)
   
3. I don't put oil on the pan, you shouldn't have to. This leads to the bottom of the batter layer to slide when you are spreading the dosa batter, leaving the large empty regions you mention. Oil goes over the dosa when its about half done.
   
4. A wad of soaking wet paper towel. use that to wipe the griddle (use tongs) before laying down the batter. This wipes out oil that would have seeped through the previous dosa.
   
5. Flat bottom ladle. This works best for me, as you can just float the ladle in expanding circles over the batter layer to get an even spread.
   
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   Again , as I mentioned, this is what works for me. I am sure there are experts that have a simpler method that works for them. It took me a few rounds of trial and error to come up with a method that keeps the guess work out.

I use a Hamilton Beach CustomGrind (apparently discontinued in the US?, still available up here in Canada. Works like a charm, and has a 5-year warranty.