Best authentic Indian recipes
Sarat, a fleeting season between Monsoon and Autumn, is the most favorite season of Bengalis (India has 6 distinct seasons), not only because it is marked by the three most important religious festivals of the Bengali calendar, but because the primary icons of these festivals are three Goddesses, namely Durga, Kali, and Lakshmi. The sun starts to…
Have you ever seen Death in Paradise? It is a British-French crime drama television series set on the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe. If you haven’t seen it yet, you haven’t missed much. Nothing happens other than a numerous hackneyed stereotypes. Just for fun I will give you a quick rundown of the broad events. In…
How to make achari egg curry? Imagine that one morning you wake up in New York to find that it has snowed all night. The stairway looks like a death trap, but you brave it anyway to find that your car is buried in snow. Or maybe you wake up in Kolkata or Mumbai on a…
A few days ago I stumbled upon a recipe of “Brazilian lemonade”. Two things about the recipe made me very happy. First, “Brazilian”; second, “lemonade”. Two things about the recipe also made me very curious. The list of ingredients included whole limes (rind and everything included!), sugar, water, and condensed milk! First, all recipes that use lime…
To say I have a sweet tooth would be an understatement. In reality all my teeth are sweet. I plan my meals around desserts. I have never ordered appetizers in restaurants because I always save room and money for desserts. But I take no responsibility for this affliction. A 1907 issue of The Journal of Tropical…
I have been getting a lot of requests for onion-less sauces lately. Apparently, people really hate to cook with onions. I get it. Adding onions to a recipe (especially Indian) has two major draw backs. Firstly, onion based sauces demand constant attention, because stepping away from the stove for even 5 minutes could mean the death of a sauce….
On Friday June 26th, the Supreme Court of United States ruled same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, a landmark decision that sweeps away state bans on gay unions in 13 states. Yesterday, marriage equality became a law of the American land, and with that the world became a little better place to live. To learn…
Saffron Phirni with mango and blueberries (rice pudding) recipe Prep time: 5 mins Cooking time: 45-55 mins Serves: 8-10 Level: average difficulty Ingredients: 1 liter milk 1 can evaporated milk 1 can condensed milk 1 cup sugar (or to taste) 4-5 cardamoms 3/4 cup rice flour or powdered rice…
How to make the best bhapa Ilish? Probashe (overseas) when it rains and floods like monsoons in Kolkata, complete with the smell of damp kadam phool (possibly imaginary) and numerous potholes that developed on the roads overnight, and you discover kola pata (banana leaves!!!) in your local grocery for the first time ever in the history of not-living-in-India, and you…
What is “chilli chicken”? The Indian Chili chicken or Chilli chicken is an Indo-Chinese dish––crispy batter fried nuggets of chicken cooked in soy sauce flavored with garlic and ginger and a whole lot of fresh Thai green chilies. It can be either dry chilli chicken to be had as an appetizer or hors d’oeuvres, or…