Indian Cooking For Dummies. Monisha Bharadwaj
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4-4.
Everything else
Eat in an Indian home, and you’ll most likely find that a selection of store-bought foods like achaar (pickles) and chaats (called popadams in the West) are also brought to the table. These add another layer of flavor and texture to the meal and help to personalize heat levels for each person.
TABLE 4-4 Buying Lentils, Beans, and Legumes
| Pulse | Description |
|---|---|
| Black gram | Available as whole black beans, split in half with the skin on, and split without the skin. You can’t swap them in most recipes, so pay attention to what’s called for. The sticky texture of the split ones is important in pancake batters (dosa), and the whole beans make a black dal creamy. Also called urad or urid. |
| Brown, red, or orange lentils | Available whole as brown lentils or split and skinned as red or orange ones. The split ones cook faster. Also called masoor. |
| Gram lentils | The largest of the yellow lentils, these take the longest to cook and can be soaked beforehand to hasten cooking time. Also called chana dal or Bengal gram. |
| Mung | Available as whole green beans called (mung beans), split in half with the skin on, and split without the skin (which are called mung lentils). Each has a different texture. The whole beans can be sprouted. Also called moong. |
| Pigeon peas | Yellow in color, they’re slightly larger than mung lentils. They take much longer to cook, so they can be soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes or so prior to cooking. Also called tur, toor, or arhar. |
Pickles
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.
Popadams
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.
Dried fruits
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.
Chai
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.
Yes, We Can! Stocking Up on Canned Goods
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
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.
Coconut milk and coconut powder
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.
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.
Beans
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