In India, rice is always served with something wet and flowing because it is considered too dry on its own. The exception is a rich biryani, but even that is offered with a raita and salads. The wetness deemed necessary could come from a curry with a sauce, a dal, or...
A “karhi” is just heated and flavored yogurt. Since yogurt curdles when it is boiled, it has to be stabilized with starch. That starch in India is usually chickpea flour (though it could be rice flour), which adds its own nutrients to the dish. All Indians eat karhis,...
Everything said in the introduction to the preceding recipe applies here as well, so please read that before you begin. If you want this dish to be hot and pungent, sprinkle the chaat masala over the top just before serving and stir it in. SERVES 4–6 • 1 tablespoon...
For this recipe, I used only two cans of organic low-salt chickpeas because that is what I was able to find. I prefer to use organic chickpeas because I can use all the liquid in the can. If your chickpeas are not organic, throw away the liquid in the can and use...
This is a Gujarati dish usually made with the very long, pale green Indian squash known as “doodhi” or “ghiya.” Many Indian grocers sell it, but I find that chayote or sayote, the South American pear-shaped vegetable (also known as “cho cho,” “chow chow,” and...
This dish, from no specific region of India but with a lovely mixture of northern and southern seasonings, could also be made with moong dal or toovar dal. I often make it for dinner for my husband and me, accompanying it with rice, a dish of green beans or...
It is a simple and very nutritious dish from Nepal, where it is made with bamboo shoots that grow in the southern Himalayan forests. (I use canned, thinly sliced bamboo shoots instead.) While it is sometimes described as a soup, it is really a main dish, eaten with...
Shashikala Potnis, the wife of the owner and head chef of the Highway Gomatak restaurant, together with her main assistant and daughter-in-law Sanjali, were extremely kind and generous when I visited. They patiently taught me many of the exquisite Hindu Goan-style...
A simple, everyday dish from the north that goes well with both rice and flatbreads. SERVES 4 • 1 cup dried black-eyed peas, washed and soaked overnight • ¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste • 1 well-packed cup fresh cilantro tops, chopped • 2–4 fresh hot green chilies,...
There are probably as many recipes for this in Kerala as there are families. Locally called “eshtew”—a charming mispronunciation of the English word—it is generally eaten with appam (rice pancakes), idi appam (rice noodles), or plain rice. There are many ingredients...
