As if it's not hard enough!

Tell Alan he made me snicker at that remark. ;-)

The Queen of Hearts, she ate some tarts.......... who knew?

Sharon, Thanks for the URL's. I love Indian food. I have a friend from India who invited me for lunch and dinner frequently because she said I was the only American she every meet who really loved lentils. she's moved away so no more of those great meals. I love Indian food. She taught me to drink sweetened Buttermilk done the way they do it in India. It's so yummy and goes so well with the spicier meals. Juno

You are very welcome!! It's an addictive style of food preparation isn't it? ;) If you would like a really good cookbook, look for 1,000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra. Fabulous book. She tells you in the front what the different spice blends are and how to make them at home. She also gives really good descriptions of how the food would be served in India, and what goes well with each dish. She also tells you some good substitutions for things that are easier to find in American grocery stores. Love that book!! I found it at Barnes & Noble. It was around $35, but for that HUGE of a cookbook, I thought it was reasonable. Too, we've yet to find a recipe in there that we didn't like. ;)

'Course we do like to eat around here. LOL

Sharon

Or you can wrap it around a chunk of cheese and fry it until you have molten cheese wrapped in crispy cheese. I've never done it, but if you Google "chupaqueso", you should find directions.

Joy Beeson

That's what they call lassie, isn't it? I always thought it was yoghurt, very similar to the Turkish drink ayran (which is thinned yoghurt with salt to taste, very nice with hot dishes and in Summer).

I've tried Indian food but I must have tried the wrong dishes at the wrong places because I never really liked it. Still, whenver there's a chance I have another go, partly because it looks so good in cookbooks, partly because it's such an old cooking tradition with a philosophic background, and partly because I'm fond of exotic tastes but have grown somewhat tired of Chinese food. The book sounds just right for me, after all food is an essential expression of the cultural background it comes from (my opinion) and just a recipe with no further explanation is not the best start into a new cuisine. Can you tell me if weights and measurements are metric or other in this book? (Seen it at Amazon and am strongly tempted to buy.) Thanks,

U.

Yes, it is called lassie. In India they use very thick buttermilk, in the U S we have to use a commercial thinned down version. That's unless you churn your own butter and get the real thing.I saw a lot of different version listed on Google. IN English you have to search it as Lassi.

I think it is because you haven't had it done well. My friend would only go to a couple of restaurants to eat Indian food. She said most of them were not worth what it cost to put it on the plate.

The book sounds just right for me, after all food is an

Juno

Yeah, restaurant food can be iffy sometimes. And there are so many different ways of cooking that are all traditional Indian recipes. Just depends on which region of the country the recipe comes from. So it's worth experimenting a little. ;) The cookbook isn't in metric. But several of the online recipes are. I have converted some of the metric recipes I've found to cups and teaspoons, etc. They came out just fine. So if you have a chart to covert imperical (sp??) measurements to metric, you will do just fine.

Sharon

That's a lovely looking cookbook. I found it on Amazon for considerably less than $35 (the list price.)

My Indian cookbook is an ancient one, published in 1954 in India, written by Savitri Chowdhary, simply titled Indian Cooking. A friend who was living in India in the 1960s sent me the copy, and I've used it ever since. It's simple, the recipes are not complex at all -- a good thing for me. Measurements are a bit odd - teacupfuls and such, and I had to expand my vocabulary to include sultanas and aubergines.

Have you noticed that with food from all around the world, the closer to the equator, the hotter the spices?

Good!! Like I said I didn't mind paying $35, but a discount is ALWAYS a good thing!!! ;)

I will have to look for that one. We have a really nifty used bookstore close by. I will see if they have a copy of that. DH said he would gladly buy me all the Indian cookbooks I could find so long as I cooked stuff out of them. heh heh It's a toss up which I have more of, cookbooks or sewing books. ;)

Sharon

I don't recall eating any Indian food, but the sweetened buttermilk sounds good; I do like buttermilk. I grew up in the city, but often visited several aunts & uncles who had farms w/cattle. Fresh-churned buttermilk was my favorite drink anytime. Emily

Just add a little sugar to your taste, some vanilla if you want. Buttermilk shakes are also very yummy. Add some fruit and ice, give it a whirl in your blender. It has a tartness that I find very refreshing. Juno

Thanks, Juno! As soon as I come down from the clouds(excitement from visiting the latest addition to the family), I have to grocery-shop. Emily

Your very welcome. Those of us who love buttermilk are sometimes considered a different breed.Mu family thinks I have a severe problem because I do love it. Juno