As I mentioned the other day the first destination for TTCB is India. I can smell the curry and exotic spices already. I have never cooked Indian before and I have only eaten Indian a handful of times, so I am in no way an Indian expert or guru. However I do have a fondness for naan bread I can seriously just eat the stuff all day, pulling off piece by piece and popping the warm bready goodness into my mouth.
My favorite would be garlic naan, I was recently sitting in a shopping center food court (usually not drool worthy food). I was enjoying my chicken and pasta salad, when someone sat down next to me and this amazing smell wafted over to my table and I began to drool. The woman had obviously been to the Indian food outlet and they had made fresh naan it smelt hevenly....so much so that I had to go buy some fresh garlic naan to eat in the car.
Because of my limited expertise with Indian food, I reached out across the Internet and contacted a friend from South India to point me in the right direction. Don't you just love how cyber space brings us closer to our fellow man regardless of distance and the oceans between us.
After talking for a few hours and a lot of patience shown on his part, dealing with my ignorance of the cuisine culture of India and not to mention the language barrier when it came to some of the ingredients. We finally narrowed it down to a few dishes, that he claims to be "simple" for me to try my hand at first. Please remember those are his words not mine, so that when you hear of me screaming in frustration and stamping my feet when it doesn't work out.....we shall blame him.
Okay, so I wont really blame my Indian friend but it sounded like a good back up plan. I am a little nervous about some of the new ingredients I will be playing with but excited at the same time. I also came to an interesting revelation about pressure cookers.
Pressure cookers? your now asking yourself what revelation could I possibly come to about this humble cooking appliance. Well I confess I thought of the pressure cooker as an appliance my grandmother would use, hardly something found in a modern kitchen. I know I don't have one and never thought of buying one but as I began to browse for recipes I actually found a lot of modern Indian recipes using them. I also opened up the latest junk mail flyer in my mail box the other day and there as if like some sign from the cooking gods was a brand new cook book advertising recipes for the pressure cooker.
I guess cooking is like fashion and everything old becomes new again in some way shape or form. I do not have a pressure cooker as yet but this weekend I am still going to try my hand at Indian cuisine.
* Rasam and Rice
* Potato Lady's Finger Curry - Aloo Bhindi Curry
* Sabudana Payasa/Kheer: Sweet Pearly Delight
Once I have completed the dishes, I will post up the recipes with my review of the outcome for each including photos. Please note none of the recipes are my own so I will be giving credit where credit is due to the owner and source of each recipe on TTCB.
Happy Travels
Saphire xxx
2 comments:
Well I hope things turn out well for you Saphire, and I will be eagerly waiting to hear how it went :)
Thank you Kat and thanks so much for all your help, I will be posting up my result from the Payasa later today. *big hugs*
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