Monisha Bharadwaj - Indian Cooking For Dummies

Some indulgent Indian recipes such as Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken; see Chapter 11) taste nice with a bit of cream, but it’s not the norm in an Indian kitchen and can often be substituted with coconut milk. I buy two kinds:

Single cream, light cream, or pouring cream: With a fat content of less than 20 percent, this cream is thin enough to pour easily. It’s good for adding to curries after they’ve finished cooking. Adding 3 to 4 tablespoons gives a silky finish and smooth taste and consistency. Cooking it on a high heat may cause it to split.

Double cream or heavy cream: The fat content is higher, even up to 50 percent, so this thick cream can be added to curries while they’re cooking or still very hot. The high fat content helps this cream to remain stable.

Paneer is Indian cottage cheese. Paneer doesn’t melt upon cooking and takes on the flavor of the spices its cooked in, so it’s great in curries or baked as an appetizer. You can choose from plenty of brands, so you may have to try a few to pick a favorite. Here are your options:

Blocks of paneer: Available in 7-ounce packs (enough to add to a mixed curry for three to four people) or larger packs (for curries where paneer is the star ingredient).

Cubed paneer: If you want to save even more time, cubed paneer is for you. It can stick together, though, so you’ll need to separate the cubes before adding them to the pan.

Tofu: If you prefer a vegan alternative, try firm tofu, which has a similar texture to paneer and a neutral taste.

You can make your own paneer at home, if you want. It’s easy and requires very little effort, but it is time-consuming. You need just two ingredients: whole milk and lemon juice. Boil the milk and split it by adding lemon. Strain to remove the whey, and then hang it up for a few hours to make a dense, mild-tasting, cuttable cheese. If you don’t want to wait, head to your local Indian grocery to buy the prepackaged stuff.

Although duck eggs are eaten in some parts of India, the most widely available ones are from chickens. I always go for large, free-range organic eggs, but in Indian curries, size doesn’t matter, so choose medium ones if you prefer. Color doesn’t matter either — you won’t be able to tell the difference between a white egg and a brown one after they’re cooked.

Pay attention to the expiration date. You can also check for freshness by immersing the egg into a bowl of cold water. If it sinks to the bottom of the bowl and lies on its side, it’s very fresh. If it sinks but stands on one end, it’s still fresh enough to eat. If the egg floats, it isn’t a good idea to eat it. When you crack open an egg, a firm, bright yolk indicates freshness, whereas a flabby pale one means the egg is stale.

Fat is essential to making curries taste good. The frying of onions adds an unmistakable sweetness, and hot oil is essential to draw out the aromatic oils in spices. You don’t need much oil — I get grossed out at the sight of restaurant curries floating in fat. But cooking at home means you can choose which fat to use and how much oil to put into the pan to elevate the flavor and not widen your waistline.

Ghee has been around in India for a few thousand years. It’s essentially butter that is clarified by heating it to evaporate any moisture and caramelize the milk solids that are then strained off. The clarifying process helps to increase the shelf life and keeps it fresher longer. In the Indian kitchen, ghee is used for shallow-and deep-frying and for drizzling on top of some dishes to make them taste all buttery and delicious.

Many people outside India believe that all good Indian cooking must begin with ghee, but this is a myth. Most Indian cooks use plant oils for everyday cooking and use small amounts of ghee for savory or sweet dishes. A biryani also tastes divine when cooked in ghee. Remember that although ghee is a great fat to cook with and tastes lovely, it has more calories than butter, so you need to be careful how much you eat. You don’t want your entire daily calorie intake to be used up by ghee!

Why not just use butter, you may be wondering. Ghee has a higher smoke point than butter, which means it won’t burn when you’re cooking those onions or spices over high heat.

When you look in the ghee aisle in your Indian store, you may see cans or cartons of two kinds of ghee:

Butter ghee: This is the kind I describe earlier. The best ones are made with butter from grass-fed cows. They have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for us. It’s also called “pure ghee” or “desi ghee.”

Vegetable ghee: This kind of ghee is made by hydrogenating vegetable oil and has a higher proportion of trans fats (which are bad for you). Vegetable ghee is much cheaper than butter ghee, which is why it’s the fat of choice for many Indian restaurants, which can claim that their food is “cooked in ghee.” The fine print written in invisible ink at the bottom of the menu says “vegetable ghee,” which really isn’t ghee at all. The word ghee has come to be loosely applied to any saturated fat, so it’s quite easy for people to be misled. Don’t buy vegetable ghee — go for butter ghee every time.

After you open ghee, store it in the fridge unless you plan to use it every day.

Various regions of India use different cooking oils based on what crops grow there. The West grows peanuts, whereas coconut trees abound in parts of the South. Local cuisines have come to be distinguished by the aroma of the cooking oil they use. In my kitchen, I have a few kinds of oil because I love cooking all kinds of regional Indian food.

You may not want to invest in several bottles of infrequently used oils, however, so I suggest stocking up on two or three that remain stable at high temperatures.

Many curries begin with the frying of spices, which need heat to split and release their aromatic oils. A stable oil, which is one that doesn’t easily react with oxygen to form free radicals, has a high smoke point. If an oil is heated beyond its smoke point, it decomposes and releases toxic fumes and can also get close to the point of catching fire.

Table 4-5lists some common types of oil you may want to buy.

TABLE 4-5Buying Cooking Oils