One of my goals - as I've mentioned - has been to learn to cook proper Indian food. One of my friends, Apurva, had graciously offered to bring me over to his house, where his mom would teach me how to cook a meal. Yesterday, I took him up on the offer and had so much fun doing so!
Apurva ended up having to work on Saturday, but he had assured me that his mom was happy to teach me. I arrived at 1 pm - with a thank you gift of flowers in hand (since my parents raised me right) - and was greeted at the door by Apurva's sister. Well, technically their cook answered the door, but Aanchal was right behind him.
I'm realizing quickly that I'm about to spend several paragraphs gushing about how wonderful Apurva's family is - and that doesn't exactly make interesting reading - so I will instead summarize. They are quite possibly the sweetest family I've ever met (sorry, Samets). They are kind, generous, and family-oriented people, and I am so glad that I've met them. They welcomed me into their home without any hesitation and made me feel entirely at ease. Heads up, family - I've invited them to come to the US, where I expect you all will return the favor.
After sitting and chatting for a few minutes with Apurva's mom and sister, the cooking lesson began. We ended up making a few different dishes, and I'm going to write (my closest approximation to) the recipes below. She seemed to do most of the cooking based on memory rather than a recipe, so I did my best to write it down accurately.
I've already mentioned that they have a cook. This is a guy who has been with their family for over 20 years, and Mrs. Sacheti was explaining to me that he knows exactly how she likes things to be made, so she doesn't actually have to cook every day. She seems to enjoy doing it, though, and so she will cook with him assisting her. I actually didn't have to do anything during the lesson - I had been expecting to chop onions or something as my contribution, but the cook did all of the prep work, and she just did the actual cooking, stirring, timing, etc. He also does all of the dishes - which is basically my dream come true. I'm considering poaching him off their family and bringing him to the states...who wants to go in on the plane ticket with me?
One of the dishes that we (she) made was dal makhani - which is essentially a black lentil dish - and the interesting thing about the preparation was that she cooked it in a pressure cooker pot. I don't think I'd ever seen one of these before, but it looks the same as your average saucepan on the bottom, but the top of it has a lever that you push down to create a full seal between the lid and the pan. There's some kind of mechanism similar to a tea kettle that will release steam from inside as it's cooking. Anyway, the point of this pan is to cook things quickly, since lentils would usually take a lot longer to cook. Mrs. Sacheti explained to me that it's possible to use a microwave to soften the lentils, but it doesn't taste as good, so she'll never do that.
Most of the rest of the cooking was not very complicated - the difference between the meal she cooked there and the ones that my mom makes at home has more to do with the ingredients than the process. Rather than cooking a bolognese sauce to go on top of pasta (as my mom does), Mrs. Sacheti will make a sauce that she will put paneer into and then serve with rice and naan. Same general concept, just different spices.
Speaking of the spices, there is a group of standard spices used in Indian cooking. These spices are typically kept in a small metal dish, each in their own separate metal container. There is a small spoon included with the set, which I would think is about the same size as a teaspoon. When someone is cooking, they will pull the entire group of spices onto the counter and pull from the various spices as needed. Mrs. Sacheti at times would just pick up the entire metal container of a spice and start pouring it into a dish - skipping the use of the spoon entirely. She told me that she doesn't typically cook with a lot of spice (at least by Indian standards), so I'm curious to see how much goes into a dish that would be considered spicy!
Mrs. Sacheti also made me a mango crumble dessert - wowzers was it delicious. It's similar to a peach crumble back home, but using these gingery Indian cookies as a base and fresh mangoes. I'm pretty sure if I were to make it back home it wouldn't be nearly as good, since the mangoes at home aren't as flavorful as they are here.
We sat down and ate this wonderful meal together, and then I went home. Before I left, though, Mrs. Sacheti disappeared into one of the back bedrooms and came out with a present for me - a necklace and a purse! Seriously, how sweet are these people? I wore the necklace last night when I met up with Apurva later...I hope he remembered to tell his mom that I liked it...
Anyway, now I am a master of Indian cuisine. My services will be available starting July 22nd in Chicago. Mrs. Sacheti promised me that she's only a phone call away if I run into issues, and that she'd be more than happy to fly out to Chicago to give me more lessons :)
Apurva ended up having to work on Saturday, but he had assured me that his mom was happy to teach me. I arrived at 1 pm - with a thank you gift of flowers in hand (since my parents raised me right) - and was greeted at the door by Apurva's sister. Well, technically their cook answered the door, but Aanchal was right behind him.
I'm realizing quickly that I'm about to spend several paragraphs gushing about how wonderful Apurva's family is - and that doesn't exactly make interesting reading - so I will instead summarize. They are quite possibly the sweetest family I've ever met (sorry, Samets). They are kind, generous, and family-oriented people, and I am so glad that I've met them. They welcomed me into their home without any hesitation and made me feel entirely at ease. Heads up, family - I've invited them to come to the US, where I expect you all will return the favor.
After sitting and chatting for a few minutes with Apurva's mom and sister, the cooking lesson began. We ended up making a few different dishes, and I'm going to write (my closest approximation to) the recipes below. She seemed to do most of the cooking based on memory rather than a recipe, so I did my best to write it down accurately.
I've already mentioned that they have a cook. This is a guy who has been with their family for over 20 years, and Mrs. Sacheti was explaining to me that he knows exactly how she likes things to be made, so she doesn't actually have to cook every day. She seems to enjoy doing it, though, and so she will cook with him assisting her. I actually didn't have to do anything during the lesson - I had been expecting to chop onions or something as my contribution, but the cook did all of the prep work, and she just did the actual cooking, stirring, timing, etc. He also does all of the dishes - which is basically my dream come true. I'm considering poaching him off their family and bringing him to the states...who wants to go in on the plane ticket with me?
One of the dishes that we (she) made was dal makhani - which is essentially a black lentil dish - and the interesting thing about the preparation was that she cooked it in a pressure cooker pot. I don't think I'd ever seen one of these before, but it looks the same as your average saucepan on the bottom, but the top of it has a lever that you push down to create a full seal between the lid and the pan. There's some kind of mechanism similar to a tea kettle that will release steam from inside as it's cooking. Anyway, the point of this pan is to cook things quickly, since lentils would usually take a lot longer to cook. Mrs. Sacheti explained to me that it's possible to use a microwave to soften the lentils, but it doesn't taste as good, so she'll never do that.
Most of the rest of the cooking was not very complicated - the difference between the meal she cooked there and the ones that my mom makes at home has more to do with the ingredients than the process. Rather than cooking a bolognese sauce to go on top of pasta (as my mom does), Mrs. Sacheti will make a sauce that she will put paneer into and then serve with rice and naan. Same general concept, just different spices.
Speaking of the spices, there is a group of standard spices used in Indian cooking. These spices are typically kept in a small metal dish, each in their own separate metal container. There is a small spoon included with the set, which I would think is about the same size as a teaspoon. When someone is cooking, they will pull the entire group of spices onto the counter and pull from the various spices as needed. Mrs. Sacheti at times would just pick up the entire metal container of a spice and start pouring it into a dish - skipping the use of the spoon entirely. She told me that she doesn't typically cook with a lot of spice (at least by Indian standards), so I'm curious to see how much goes into a dish that would be considered spicy!
An Indian spice rack. Clockwise from left: salt, coriander, chili powder, cumin, garam masala, mustard seeds, and tumeric in the middle. I might be wrong about some of these, but I think I'm close enough. Mrs. Sacheti made things easy by saying "ok now I'm adding two spoons of the red powder" so that I didn't have to keep track of all the spice names...
One of the great things about Indian cooking is the level of creative license you're given to make up your own stuff. Since there aren't set recipes, you can feel free to add more of one spice or the other or change up the ingredients entirely. Mrs. Sacheti explained to me that the gravy that we made for the butter paneer can be used in any number of other dishes. You can add boiled potatoes and peas to it, or cauliflower, or all of those vegetables together for a mixed veggie dish. Of course, if you're not veg, you have even more options as well. The sky is the limit, really. She told me that as long as you know how to make a good gravy base, you are able to make lots of different Indian dishes.
One part of the cooking that I didn't actually learn much about was the making of bread. Mrs. Sacheti told me that it is a very tedious task, so it seems like she lets the cook handle that whole process. She said that I can come stay with her for a week sometime and during that time, she can get up the motivation to teach me how to cook chapati (Indian bread), but it would take a couple days :) The cook also whipped up some papadum (yum yum papadum), and some raita (yoghurt and cucumber sauce) as well as rice. In addition, Mrs. Sacheti had made chana masala earlier that morning to send with Apurva for his lunch, and since I had told her that chana masala is one of my favorite dishes, we ended up eating that for lunch too. Aside from all that (which is admittedly an impressive list of food), I did observe her making the other dishes that we ate, and here are the recipes:
Butter Paneer:
- Saute 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds in 2 tablespoons of oil for 10-15 seconds
- Add 2 small diced onions, 2 tomatoes, 1 green chili (cut in half), 1 chunk of fresh ginger (about the size of the tip of your thumb), 1 full clove of garlic, and two tablespoons of cashews.
- Next add spices (all of the tsp here are heaping tsp): 2 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp tumeric, 1 tsp coriander, 1/2 tsp garum masala, 1 clove, 1 small piece of cinnamon bark
- Saute until cooked
- Remove from heat, add 1/4 cup (approx) of full fat yogurt
- Set aside to cool for 15 minutes or so
- Once cooled, put into food processor and grind to desired consistency (goal is smooth, gravy-like consistency)
- Wipe out pan and then put in 2-3 tablespoons butter (unsalted - or if you have ghee then use that)
- Add one tsp chili powder for coloring
- Then add the contents of the food processor
- Add water to thin the gravy - maybe 1/3 cup
- Simmer on low heat until ready to serve
- Cut up chunks of paneer into bite-sized pieces
- Add the paneer into the gravy at the last minute before serving. Handle the paneer gently or else it will break (e.g. don't stir once it's in the gravy)
- Place 1 - 1.5 cups of black lentils (dry) and 1 - 1.5 cups kidney beans (soaked for at least 5 hours) in a saucepan in water.
- Remove 1/2 cup of the water in the pan and replace with milk
- Add 1 bay leaf
- Pressure boil for 15-20 minutes until legumes are soft
- Separately, saute cumin seeds in 2 tablespoons of oil for 10-20 seconds
- Add into the oil the following ingredients (all finely chopped): 1 small onion, 1 green chili pepper, 1 clove garlic, some ginger, some salt
- Add in clarified butter (ghee) or unsalted butter
- Add in 1 finely chopped tomato once the other ingredients have softened
- Add in 1 bay leaf, a few small pieces of cinnamon bark, 1 heaping teaspoon of chili powder, 1 heaping tsp of coriander
- Saute and stir regularly until consistency is almost paste-like
- Add the dal/kidney beans into the saute pan and simmer on low heat until ready to serve
- Chop up ~300 grams of okra (she cut it into long strips, but you can cut however you want, I expect)
- Similarly chop up 1 small onion
- Heat up oil in saute pan - about 2 tablespoons
- Add 1 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp tumeric, 2 tsp coriander and the okra and onion
- Saute until softened
Mrs. Sacheti also made me a mango crumble dessert - wowzers was it delicious. It's similar to a peach crumble back home, but using these gingery Indian cookies as a base and fresh mangoes. I'm pretty sure if I were to make it back home it wouldn't be nearly as good, since the mangoes at home aren't as flavorful as they are here.
We sat down and ate this wonderful meal together, and then I went home. Before I left, though, Mrs. Sacheti disappeared into one of the back bedrooms and came out with a present for me - a necklace and a purse! Seriously, how sweet are these people? I wore the necklace last night when I met up with Apurva later...I hope he remembered to tell his mom that I liked it...
Anyway, now I am a master of Indian cuisine. My services will be available starting July 22nd in Chicago. Mrs. Sacheti promised me that she's only a phone call away if I run into issues, and that she'd be more than happy to fly out to Chicago to give me more lessons :)
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