Reddit mentions of Eating India: An Odyssey into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices

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!