#Svnseas: Nothing Less Than I Expected

It's always nice when you set out to do something and it is just what you expected it to be. That's how I've felt these past two plus weeks while cooking Indian food for my family. Besides our family favorites I've had the opportunity to cook some things that you don't find in all the Indian restaurants here in the U.S.

One of the great things about Indian cooking is that truly, it's good for you. The strong use of spices negates the use of too much fat and cream. There are only a few drawbacks. The first is that the food tastes so good you find yourself wanting seconds, not because you're still hungry mind you, but because you want those flavors in your mouth just one more time. I've been hoping that the promise of having it almost every night for a month would take away that urge, but so far I'm still finding myself going back to the pot for one more small spoonful. After all, it's just one more small spoonful, right? A perfect example of this was this past weekend when I made a carrot dish from Suvir Saran's cookbook.

Suvir Saran's stir fried carrots with cumin and lime

I've really come to love Suvir Saran's cookbook, Indian Home Cooking. There has yet to be a dish that I've cooked from there that I wouldn't cook again. If you'd like to take a stab at Indian cooking, I highly recommend his book. But back to the carrot dish. My mom, who is vegetarian, came down the other weekend. Whenever she comes for a visit I try not to repeat meals too often. I've found that most non-vegetarians think that vegetarians can only eat things like salad or pasta dishes. I do not fall into that line of thinking, so since I was cooking Indian food I pulled out Suvir's book and picked a couple of dishes that looked promising. I decided to cook a dish called tahiree, which is a rice pilaf with peas, potatoes, and whole garam masala, and another dish called gaajar kee sabzi, which is stir-fried carrots with cumin and lime. First off, these dishes went perfectly together. The rice pilaf was really good, but the carrots were outstanding. The recipe called for 1 1/2 lbs. of carrots and the dish was demolished. I think I had thirds. I've never seen a family go hog wild over carrots before. I will absolutely make that dish again.

Suvir Saran's rice pilaf with peas, potatoes, and whole garam masala

So up above I mentioned that there were a few drawbacks to cooing Indian food. The inability to conjure up any self control and stop eating it has already been covered. The second issue I've been having is with the whole spices. In almost every recipe I've cooked it has called for things like whole cardamom pods, whole coriander seeds, whole cloves, whole peppercorns. You get the picture, right? Lots of strong, bold spices left whole in the dish during the cooking process. While all of those spices do wonders for the flavor of the food, it's a whole other story when you sit down to a plate of it and have to spend the better part of your meal picking through your serving playing the "Where's Waldo?" game of find the spices. Let me tell you that biting down on a whole clove is not a very pleasant experience. It's akin to chewing on an incense stick and sort of ruins your taste buds for the rest of the meal. Also, if you're trying to get your toddlers to try some new food and the first thing they bite into has a peppercorn tucked into it I wouldn't blame them for not wanting to take another bite. So what's a mom to do??

I had an idea. I took the whole spices that would be too small to locate and remove once the dish was done cooking and tied them up in a piece of cheesecloth. The bigger things like cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, and chili peppers I let float around. If I can't spot a 2 inch cinnamon stick I have bigger problems than whole spices in my food. Then before serving I simply remove the bigger spices along with the cheesecloth containing the smaller whole spices, and viola, a tasty dish that we can enjoy without the fear of biting into the unknown. A little use of some French technique in my Indian cooking.

The last issue we've had here is how spicy the food is. Indians seem to really enjoy their food hot, hot, hot. I personally enjoy a spicy meal, but again, the cooking for little kids issue rears its head again. This really isn't a problem though, I just dial back the spices. If a dish calls for six dried hot red chili peppers, a green hot pepper, and some cayenne, I know I've got to cut almost all of that out if I expect my kids to eat their dinner that night. I'm doing this international cooking thing to not only teach myself about better cuisine, but also to get my kids to be open-minded when it comes to food and trying new things. To accomplish that I have to keep in mind their tolerance level for spicy foods.

It's been a great month so far though. I've been cooking six new meals a week, and there has hardly been a thing I wouldn't make again. I'm getting really excited to take my girls up to my mom's in NY next weekend to spend a day in the city, which will end with meeting up with my best friend Puja to cook an Indian meal in her apartment. I try to take lots of pictures to share.