Dining Out - Desi Style

Growing up, my father and grandmother (my mom's mom) cooked Indian meals at home. My mom was practically scared to enter the kitchen, other than to clean, during that time because they would always cook.

We did go out and eat sometimes, but after my father passed away - we ate out a lot more. Most Indian cuisine in restaurants are north and south Indian and not a lot of it is cuisine from where my family is from in Calcutta.

The other day I went with a friend to dinner at Dhaba, a restaurant off Lexington Ave in New York City. I was surprised to see that this restaurant had cuisine my family would be familiar with, stuff I grew up on and stuff they snacked on from street cars.

According to the Web site, the restaurant is a part of a chain, each restaurant with different names, located in Westport and Greenwich, Conn., Lee, Mass., Elmford and Brewster, NY and two other locations in New York City.

We ordered keema, a ground lamb dish, and navarathan korma, cauliflower, vegetables and paneer in korma, a sweet cream-based sauce. We also got a mango lassi, a mango milkshake, shared garlic naan and mehti pakoras, or fried fenugreek.

Keema is something I regularly grew up on - probably because it was easy to make and could be eaten with already prepared breads.

Here's a recipe for Keema. The ground meat can be chicken, beef, lamb or turkey. Also the one we had in the restaurant had chopped boiled egg in it as well. There are a lot of spices - but it tastes incredible at the end.

Lamb Keema
serves 6, Prep: 20 min., Cook: 30 min.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp of cooking oil
  
• 1.5 cups of finely chopped onions (preferably ground):  
• 2 tbsp of minced garlic
• 1 inch of finely minced ginger
  
• 2 serrano peppers, chopped
  
• 1.5 pound of ground lamb
• 1/4 tsp. of turmeric powder 
• 1 tsp of cumin powder
• 1 tsp of coriander powder
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half 
• 6 cloves
  
• 3 black cardamons, crushed
  
• 6 black peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
  
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 cup of tomato puree
• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of frozen peas
  
• 2 tbsp of cilantro, chopped
  
• 2 eggs, boiled then chopped, if desired.

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add onions and sauté onions till clear about 5 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and serrano pepper. Continue sauteing for about 90 seconds.
2. Add ground lamb. Over medium heat break up lamb and cook until browned.
   
3. Grind whole spices in coffee grinder. Add all spices to the lamb and saute.
   
4. Add tomato puree and mix through.
   Add water and bring it to a near boil. Turn the heat down to low. Cover and simmer covered for 15 minutes, then uncover and cook until most of the water is evaporated.
   
5. When meat is tender, stir in baby peas. Shut off heat. Do NOT cook peas for long time, they loose color and become mushy. If desired add in chopped boiled egg.
   Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro.
   

Serve with paratha, puri (puffed bread) or naan.


We also drank mango lassi. It is so easy to make. You can also use peaches, strawberries or pears

Mango Lassi
4 to 8 servings, Prep: 15 min., no cook time

Ingredients:

• A can of mango puree (for four people you need 8 oz. for eight people you need 16 oz.).
• 16 oz. of yogurt (8 oz. for 4 servings, 16 oz. for 8 servings)
• 1 bottle of rose water (found in Indian grocery stores).
  

Directions:

1. In a blender, add desirable amount of mango puree. 
2. Add equal amount of yogurt
3. Add four to six drops of rose water.
4. Blend and serve over ice.
   

Indian Restaurant Guide

Hesitant to try a new type of cuisine? Let me help you the best I can, by sharing a recent experience I had with my family at the Indian Cook House (in Elkton, Md.), combined with my many years of growing up in a home where Indian food is almost as common as peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches in a kindergarten classroom.

The Basics

From a distance, Indian food may seem crazy different from any other cuisine, but it actually has many qualities similar to foods found in any town.

Many people have the misconception that all Indian cuisine is spicy. But, like any cuisine, meats are combined with sauces to create specific flavors, and the spiciness of the food can be adjusted.

Although most Indians do not eat beef (the cow is considered sacred, because a Hindu god named Krishna was a cow herder), they do eat other types of meat including chicken and lamb. Seafood is also quite common, while other dishes are made with only a blend of vegetables, like cauliflower, potatoes, lentils and spinach. Paneer, a signature Indian cheese (somewhat like cottage cheese) is also commonly found in Indian dishes.

The sauces in which these meats are cooked usually combine spices and herbs like ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, coriander, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Depending on the type of sauce, some will have nuts, chilies or curry powder. (Note: the term curry does not always mean it contains curry powder or curry leaves. When the British ruled India, they mistook the word curry to mean sauce — and it stuck.)

Meats are also cooked on the grill in familiar dishes like kebabs and Tandoori chicken, marinated in spices and cooked in a Tandoor, or special clay oven.

Then as in many other cultures, like Spanish and Chinese, rice is a staple of the diet. Some rice meals are plain, while others, known as Biryanis, are tossed with veggies or meat (like Chinese fried rice).

Another Indian staple is bread, sometimes stuffed with onions and vegetables (known as Kulcha,) while others it is just topped with spices. The crispier textured Naan is soft on the inside and cooked in the Tandoor.

Indian cuisine is usually served “family style,” so when going to a restaurant, although there’s a menu and everything comes with rice, a family of four can usually order three dishes and some bread to share.

Although one dish could be ordered per person, it’s more fun to try a variety of food with different sauces and preparations.

For the first-timer

Start off the meal with an appetizer of some pakoras, fried vegetable poppers, or samosas, crispy turnovers filled with spiced potatoes and peas.

To start, most Indian restaurants will give you some complimentary papadum (let’s call it an Indian nacho chip), and some chutneys like coriander, onion and tamarind (an Indian date).

For the main course, order chicken makhni and saag paneer (spinach with cheese), along with some naan.

Try a special drink that will help cool your mouth if needed known as a lassi, a smoothie with yogurt and rosewater, that can be blended with fruit like mangos or banana.

Finally, for dessert, try something traditional like Gulab Jamun, a cheese pastry dipped in milk and honey.

The level of spice can be adjusted, so try mild first, and if you want more spice, ask for some achar, or spiced Indian pickles. If the food is too hot, pair it with a raita, a mix of yogurt, cucumber, and carrots (like the tzatziki sauce used in Greek foods).

Although some people like drinking soda with meals, when eating spicy foods, sodas just aggravate the tongue, so try a juice, lassi or stick with water.

If your food is extremely spicy, there is one more trick: eat some plain bread and the Capsaicin, the substance that makes peppers spicy, will be soaked up by the carbohydrates.

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Which sauce is right for you?
Indian cuisine is cooked in a variety of sauces, the spiciness of which can be adjusted to suit your tolerance.

Most of them have ginger, garlic, coriander, turmeric, onion, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg as a base, with other components added to define the flavor. Here are some common sauces, listed from mild to spiciest:

KORMA

A spiced sauce blended with cream and cashews. The base can also be coconut milk or yogurt.

MAKHNI

A spiced sauce with blended with tomatoes and cream. Often butter-based.

CURRY

Spiced curry sauce can have curry powder in it, and sometimes contains mustard and poppy seeds.

MASALA

A sauce with onions, tomatoes, bell peppers and spices including cinnamon, roasted cumin, caraway seeds, cloves, nutmeg, green cardamom seed or black cardamom pods. Commercial spice mixtures sometimes also include dried red chili peppers, dried garlic, ginger powder, sesame, mustard seeds, turmeric, coriander, bay leaves, star anise and fennel.

BHUNA

A thick spiced sauce, blended with oil.

VINDALOO

A thick and very spicy curry sauce.