Monisha Bharadwaj - Indian Cooking For Dummies

Just have a look in this aisle in your local Indian shop, and you’ll be blown away by the variety of pickles on offer. Indian pickles are nothing like Western ones, which are mostly vegetables preserved in brine, vinegar, and a few herbs and spices. Achaars are always intensely flavored, come in a variety of consistencies and heat levels, and are always eaten in small quantities. A good Indian pantry always has a few of these. After you open the jar, refrigerate them and they’ll last up to a year.

Here are two varieties to look for:

Sweet pickles: The most popular one in the West is mango chutney (an Indian chutney is usually fresh or dried, so this preserve is called a pickle!). You’ll also find sweet lime, eggplant, or even shrimp pickle. Some may be hot as well.

Hot pickles: You’ll see many of these with varying degrees of heat. It’s hard to tell from the packaging exactly how hot they are, so you’ll just have to try a few. The obvious one if you’re a heat lover is chile pickle. Other varieties include green mangoes, lime, garlic, and mixed vegetables.

Your Indian shop will have these in a range of flavors, like plain, garlic, and green chile. Dry-roast these on an open flame or in a microwave, or fry them in oil if you prefer. In some places in India, popadams are made at home by kneading a dough with lentil flour and rolling them out into thin discs. These are typically dried in the summer sun to be stored for use during the rest of the year. Many people, especially those with time, space, or motivation constraints, buy them commercially.

Raisins and sultanas are sometimes added to rice dishes and desserts. Dried apricots and dates can add a sweet garnish to salads and some curries, too.

You’ll need black tea to make Indian chai and instant coffee granules for Indian flavored coffee. If you’re a coffee aficionado, forget I just said that and use your bespoke brand of coffee beans.

Some ingredients are just easier in cans. Either they taste better or save you time and effort. They’re versatile, too, and you may already have some of these in your pantry.

Tomatoes make an appearance in so many Indian recipes that it’s a good idea to always have some on hand. A can of Italian chopped tomatoes goes a long way toward creating an instant base for a delicious curry. Look for the following:

Canned tomatoes: Blend these to a puree to make a curry base sauce or tip the can into the pot if you want texture. If you’re replacing fresh tomatoes (especially if they’re pale and tasteless) with canned, bear in mind that there’s more liquid in canned tomatoes, so you’ll need to add less water to the curry or cook it for longer to get some of it to evaporate off.

Tomato paste: Tomato paste, which is available in cans or tubes, helps to thicken curries and give them a beautiful color, too. Refrigerate opened tubes and decant spare paste from cans into tubs that can go into the freezer for up to two months.

Passata: Pureed, strained uncooked tomatoes are easy to use — you can just pour them into your curry sauce without needing to blend them. Passata can thin down your curry sauce so adjust the amount of water or other liquid you add.

Many kitchens in southern and western India begin with the cracking open of a coconut to be used in the day’s cooking, either shredded or made into milk. You don’t need to do that, though, because coconut milk is so readily available in cans and cartons.

Read the ingredients and choose a brand that has at least 50 percent coconut extract, better if it’s higher. The rest will be water and stabilizers.

Partly used cans of milk can be decanted into tubs and frozen for later use.

I prefer to buy the full-fat version rather than the reduced-fat or “light” ones, which I find don’t give the consistency and richness needed for an Indian curry.

If you just need a small amount of coconut milk, don’t bother opening a tin. I just use coconut powder or creamed coconut, both of which are available in Indian grocery shops. Mix 3 tablespoons coconut powder or creamed coconut (or more, depending on how thick you want the milk to be) with 1 cup warm water; whisk until smooth.

I’d like to give whoever canned the first beans, a big prize. They’ve shortened prep time and taken the guesswork out of cooking beans correctly. I know some cooks prefer soaking dried beans and cooking them for hours, but I’m not one of them. Some say that the dried beans taste better, and maybe they do. I soak beans and chickpeas when I have the will, but more often, I take a quick trip to my pantry to pull out a can.

Black beans, red kidney beans, garbanzo beans, black-eyed beans, and white beans all can go into curries and are handy when you want one in minutes. All you’ll need is a few spices and a can of tomatoes to create the base, and you’ll find that you’ve got comfort in a bowl. Make sure to wash them first in a sieve under running water to get rid of excess salt and canning liquid.

You may have heard that not cooking red beans for long enough may not destroy a toxin they contain. The good news is, canned red beans are safe to use straightaway.

Very little beats the taste and aroma of a ripe Indian mango. They’re seasonal, though, so some companies have captured their sweetness and fragrance in cans. Look for Alphonso or Kesar varieties to make into smoothies, ice cream, or desserts, or just to eat on their own. Try drizzling some on your breakfast cereal, too.

You can easily freeze mango puree, either in a tub or in ice cube trays for more convenient portioning.

Choosing the right yogurt, cream, and paneer can be the difference between a successful curry and a flop. With such a range of fat contents to choose from, this section looks at what you need for Indian recipes.

If you make your own yogurt at home (which is easy to do in an Instant Pot), you can skip this section. If you have yogurt on your shopping list when you go to the supermarket, however, here are your options:

Whole-milk yogurt: Great for making lassi or for adding to curries, whole-milk yogurt has 6 to 8 grams of fat per cup.

Low-fat yogurt: With 2 to 5 grams of fat per cup, low-fat yogurt is great if you’re looking to reduce the fat in your diet. Use it for cold dishes like dips and raitas, though — high temperatures could make low-fat yogurt split.

Greek yogurt: Greek yogurt has had the whey strained off, so it’s thicker and better for cooking because it’s less likely to split. I like using Greek yogurt in raitas, too, because it makes them creamy and delicious!

If you’re vegan, you can use coconut yogurt (for cooking with) or soy yogurt (in uncooked preparations like raitas).