About ten or so years ago (yeesh, I’m feeling old), I worked for an ISP and they had hired a guy to do network security. It bugs me that I forget his name. Anyway, he was from Singapore and he was only here for a year as a student so when it was time for him to go home, we all went out for dinner to say goodbye. He loved Indian food so we went to Buffet Maharaja for supper.
I had never in my life eaten Indian food, but I figured with a buffet I’d be okay because I could try different things. I ended up liking pretty much nothing, other than the butter chicken. I don’t know why. In the end I ate about my weight in butter chicken, ate something I can’t recall for dessert, and decided I didn’t care for Indian food.
Lately, for some strange reason, I’ve been craving Indian food. Maybe it’s the Internet – I know a lot of people online who eat it and they post pictures of it and describe it and it sounds so appealing. And it looks even better. Then George got curious about some Naan being sold at the grocery store so he picked it up and I love any kind of flatbread so that went over well. After the Naan, the cravings only got worse.
The other day I picked up some fliers downstairs and one was for a brand rather than a store – it was the President’s Choice booklet, and they make a very wide variety of food for several local grocery stores. I flipped through and landed on a page of Indian products. One of which was a package of pre-cooked butter chicken. I started salivating even though I couldn’t actually remember what it tasted like. I added it to the grocery list.
Today, when we got the groceries, I knew exactly what supper would be tonight. I popped the chicken in the oven to heat it through and prepared some rice and vegetables. It would have been even better with basmati or jasmine rice (I pretty much love any rice) but we only had plain rice so that had to do.
It was DELICIOUS. It was all I could do to not lick the baking dish when supper was over. As it is, I was mildly disappointed that there was none left for lunch tomorrow but frankly there was no way I could save any. It was that good. Even if I was ridiculously full afterwards. I felt bad because George wasn’t feeling well today so he had requested some pea soup. He had just put a spoonful in his mouth when I set down my steaming plate of food that smelled so good and the look on his face was priceless. He ended up eating a small plate of it too after all. Breanna liked it well enough but the big shock was that I convinced Hayley to try a few bites (she had soup too because she isn’t into spicy food) and although it made her tongue tingle and she went through a lot of juice, she enjoyed it too.
It still smells like butter chicken in here. It’s making me hungry.
Now I’m on a mission. I know nothing about Indian food beyond the fact that some of it is spicy and some of it requires curry. Uh, that’s about it. So I’m searching around for very basic, simple intro type Indian meals that I can make relatively easily with some of the pre-made sauces and mixes at the store. All of a sudden I think I’m an Indian food fan, who would have guessed?
Do you have any particular meals to suggest? Mild to medium spicy is the best for our family – George loves super spicy food and I do too but too spicy gives me indigestion and heartburn so I have to be careful (actually, supper tonight gave me a hint of heart burn but SO WORTH IT), Hayley won’t eat it if it’s too hot, and Breanna is pretty brave but has her limits too. Fire away!
This is the basic curry recipe I tend to use. The amount of cayenne they use made a sauce I thought was too spicy, so I’d start with less and add more depending on how hot you like it.
Chicken makhani is seriously addictive. I had it only once in Hamilton (lots of good Indian restaurants including a vegetarian one). Ended up eating the whole container…fortunately everyone else was vegetarian there. Figured it’s best not to have it more than once a year…though I know what to eat next week for our trip to Ontario. 🙂
I find that Indian food is *a lot* cheaper to make than taking out. We make many vegetable and lentil/chickpea curries. Very filling and inexpensive.
Heidi’s recipes looks very good. Personally I would omit the cayenne at the beginning for the kids. I tend to cheat and use a mild Madras curry powder.
Have fun!
Heidi, thanks for that! It sounds tasty but also very easy which is good. I don’t think I should be diving into the most complicated recipes first thing, so that seems like a good start.
Liz, I love lentils and chickpeas (one of my favorite meals is an Egyptian lentil dish that I make regularly throughout the winter) so I’ll have to check some of those out. I think I’ll have to make a stop in the ethnic food aisle of our grocery store to see what I can find. We’re completely out of tumeric, coriander, and cumin which seem to be in a lot of Indian dishes (I used all of mine up with the lentil meal!) so I’ll have to get some of that to start, as well as some of the things I have never even heard of! 🙂
Hiedi’s curry sounds perfect – here in the states you can find some really delicious premade sauces – my favorite is Tikka Masala, in the refrigerated section of the deli – just add chicken chunks and it’s delish. My all time favorite is chicken khorma, though, and I’ve yet to find a good recipe, but it’s worth trying if you can find it premade.
Here in the states you can buy Indian simmer sauces. Our favorites are Tikka Masala and Korma (sorry, don’t know the brand names off the top of my head). We get them in the grocery store in the international foods aisle (next to the asian), Trader Joe’s, or World Market. Don’t know if you have those stores up north or not. I also like biryani, a rice dish that can be made with chicken, shrimp, or lamb. I don’t know how hard it is to make, though, since I just get it in the restaurant.
Whilst living in the US a couple of years ago my born-in-Sri-Lanka husband and I enjoyed spice pastes from Patak’s and Sharwoods. Certainly from the Patak’s website they seem to have quite a few distributors in Quebec. I bet there are also a zillion internet mailorder businesses catering the Indian expats! As far as what to make- both Pataks and Sharwoods make Tandoori paste for marinading chicken, shrimp, lamb, fish etc. You dilute it with yoghurt (or chilli!) to taste, so can make it quite mild and tasty for the younger palates. They also make butter chicken, tikka masala, korma pastes/simmer sauces. And chutneys if you’re into cold meat and chutney.
As far as biryani, it’s certainly kid friendly (at least kids I know!) and pretty easy- here’s a recipe from one of the Australian supermarkets. http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/7043/lamb+biryani Don’t let the long ingredients list put you off- for most Indian recipes you can get away with adding or removing a few spices (and use oil or butter instead of ghee) and throwing in some curry powder if you think you’ve removed too much flavour! May not be authentically Indian, but then most of the dishes that are served in Western Indian-themed restaurants are adapted to suit the local palate!