Indian Cooking

I've frequented Indian restaurants for years now.  One of my best friends is Indian/Irish.  Whenever I pop in at my neighbors' house, I hope to sample more of his mother's homemade samosas.  But I haven't explored cooking Indian food at home until recently.  It has seemed so intimidating.  Thanks to the new Cooking Channel (my new fave thing), I've been watching some Indian cooking shows and I just picked up the cookbook by Bal Arneson, who hosts Spice Goddess.

First thing's first.  A quick spice tutorial is needed.

Garam Masala - This is a frequent ingredient in Indian dishes.  I bought a jar of it for my ever-growing spice rack only to discover that is actually a mixture of spices (masala literally means spice mix); the composition of which differs by region and personal taste.  Some of the spices included in the mixture could be black and white peppercorns, coriander, cumin, star anise, nutmeg, cardamom.  The list goes on and on.

Cha(a)t Masala - This is another spice mixture, one that has a sweet and sour taste.  This masala can be made up of mango powder, pomegranate powder, cumin, and chili powder, and again, several other spices.

Star anise and whole cardamom pods, and seeds (coriander, cumin, fenugreek) are other handy spices to have when trying out some Indian recipes.  Many times these whole spices are toasted and then ground to add to a recipe.

Last week, I visited two of the three Indian groceries here in town and stocked up on some Indian pantry items:  chat masala; fenugreek seeds; and dried chiles.

Tonight's dinner will be Arneson's no butter Butter Chicken.