Resources for Indian cooking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My tween, who has no Indian heritage, is really into cooking and particularly likes Indian food. He is very curious about how Indian foods are put together into meals. For example, he wants to know which foods come from which region, and which foods might typically be served together at which meal. He wants to recreate what typical families eat, as well as food for fancy occasions, and would love to see complete menus.

He has no problems finding recipes, it's this kind of information that's harder for him. Any suggestions for books or shows or websites or something?

As your son has already identified the foods in India are very regional and what you find in many restaurants (punjab region) are typically not what you find in every Indian’s home. The best way is for him to talk to his south Asian peers and see if he can get a sneak peak into their family’s menus or kitchen. I will say as a first generation Indian, there was nothing my mother loved more than introducing my non Indian friends to our home cooking.

In case that isn’t an option, my parents are from Gujarat and my mom often relied on Tarla Dalal cookbooks when trying to figure out new recipes. You can check the library or internet for those recipes to get a peek into a Gujarati kitchen (usually vegetarian )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My tween, who has no Indian heritage, is really into cooking and particularly likes Indian food. He is very curious about how Indian foods are put together into meals. For example, he wants to know which foods come from which region, and which foods might typically be served together at which meal. He wants to recreate what typical families eat, as well as food for fancy occasions, and would love to see complete menus.

He has no problems finding recipes, it's this kind of information that's harder for him. Any suggestions for books or shows or websites or something?

As your son has already identified the foods in India are very regional and what you find in many restaurants (punjab region) are typically not what you find in every Indian’s home. The best way is for him to talk to his south Asian peers and see if he can get a sneak peak into their family’s menus or kitchen. I will say as a first generation Indian, there was nothing my mother loved more than introducing my non Indian friends to our home cooking.

In case that isn’t an option, my parents are from Gujarat and my mom often relied on Tarla Dalal cookbooks when trying to figure out new recipes. You can check the library or internet for those recipes to get a peek into a Gujarati kitchen (usually vegetarian )

In his experience 11 year old boys don’t really want their friends coming over to play with their moms in the kitchen. I have thought about taking him to Indian grocery store to put up a sign offering to pay someone’s grandma for cooking lessons.

I will check out the cookbook!