Anonymous wrote:I love a paneer that’s just the right temperature; firm outside soft chewy inside.

I don't like that some restaurants use red dyes on meat.

Is $9.99 for a square (can't remember how big exactly) about the standard for paneer at non-ethnic stores (MoM's for example)?

I have gone back to making my own paneer at home with full fat organic milk and the difference in taste and texture is amazing.

You can control for taste - using real lemon juice instead of vinegar when separating the milk solids.

Also, depending upon what you want to make - paneer bhurji, paneer curry, grilled paneer or bengali sweets - you can manipulate how much moisture you want to retain and how long you want to cook the paneer in the whey. The one size fits all paneer was just not working that great for me.

You can also reuse the whey for kneading dough or to make pulao, veggis, daals, kadhi etc.

Anonymous wrote:I love a paneer that’s just the right temperature; firm outside soft chewy inside.

I don't like that some restaurants use red dyes on meat.

Paneer is my particular weakness. This thread is making me hungry.

I love a paneer that’s just the right temperature; firm outside soft chewy inside.

I don't like that some restaurants use red dyes on meat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a home cook, what I dislike about Indian food is how time consuming it is to prepare. But I could eat a thali platter every day if it wasn't such a project.

Do Indians have a 'thali platter' every day in India? If they do, who cooks there (how do they have time and you don't)?

No one eats a restaurant thali every day. But a typical meal in our South Indian household would comprise of a sambar/dal, rasam, 2 vegetable dishes, a small chopped salad, rice, pickle and yogurt. We would help prep the ingredients the night before. My mom would cook everything for the 10 people in our household within 2 hours, including making a separate hot breakfast.

+ 1
Daily cooking for the family is the norm in an Indian household. Does not matter who makes the food. Food gets made fresh in majority of households. There were always a bunch of household cooking chores - kneading dough, soaking beans, chopping veggies, shelling peas, grinding batter, boiling milk, setting yogurt... it was part and parcel of daily life. Yes...took a huge chunk of time.

And all of this inspite of the fact that most people are not making papads, badis, pickles, sauces, jellies...at home like our mother's did.


An

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mouth can not handle even the tiniest bit of spice and I don't like soupy foods that are not actual soup. So I have basically eaten naan and chicken fingers when I've had to eat at an Indian restaurant. Haven't found anything else besides flavored lassi.

Indian chicken fingers ?

Chicken kebabs or tandoori chicken? Chicken pakodas?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it interesting that Indian food somehow can achieve great complexity in flavors and be very repetitive almost boring. I also have found that Indian food at an inexpensive Indian grocery store or mom/pop shop can be equal or superior to a nice or higher end sit down Indian restaurant.

That’s because the restaurants only make what sells here. Regional Indian food is mind-blowing! There’s this British guy on IG, Jake something, who makes regional dishes. Amazing stuff!

Agreed— he’s terrific. I’m South Indian, and he makes the dishes my mom made better than I could. Seriously.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a home cook, what I dislike about Indian food is how time consuming it is to prepare. But I could eat a thali platter every day if it wasn't such a project.

Do Indians have a 'thali platter' every day in India? If they do, who cooks there (how do they have time and you don't)?

Can't speak for others.

DH and my family always had cooks and maids. Enough dishes were made every day to have a "thali". Daal, rice, breads, non-veg dish, fried dishes, a few vegetarian dishes, yogurt, salad, dessert, pickle, chutney, papad etc almost every day. Then there were also full-fledged "continental" dishes and indo-chinese dishes. Dad had a good job and both parents had generational wealth.

I love Indian food.

Roti
Naan
Chicken Tika Marsala
Paneer
And more.....

Anonymous wrote:Rasika or Rasika West End.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a home cook, what I dislike about Indian food is how time consuming it is to prepare. But I could eat a thali platter every day if it wasn't such a project.

Do Indians have a 'thali platter' every day in India? If they do, who cooks there (how do they have time and you don't)?

No one eats a restaurant thali every day. But a typical meal in our South Indian household would comprise of a sambar/dal, rasam, 2 vegetable dishes, a small chopped salad, rice, pickle and yogurt. We would help prep the ingredients the night before. My mom would cook everything for the 10 people in our household within 2 hours, including making a separate hot breakfast.

Anonymous wrote:My mouth can not handle even the tiniest bit of spice and I don't like soupy foods that are not actual soup. So I have basically eaten naan and chicken fingers when I've had to eat at an Indian restaurant. Haven't found anything else besides flavored lassi.

Indian chicken fingers ?

Anonymous wrote:I love Indian food but the aftertaste keeps me from wanting it again (that sense like I need to burp but I don't for hours after).

Does it make you sleepy? What do they put in it ? Sleepy feeling come from eating types of foods too.

Anonymous wrote:As a home cook, what I dislike about Indian food is how time consuming it is to prepare. But I could eat a thali platter every day if it wasn't such a project.

Do Indians have a 'thali platter' every day in India? If they do, who cooks there (how do they have time and you don't)?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mouth can not handle even the tiniest bit of spice and I don't like soupy foods that are not actual soup. So I have basically eaten naan and chicken fingers when I've had to eat at an Indian restaurant. Haven't found anything else besides flavored lassi.

I wish I could feed you at my house. I can understand your frustration.

I make an amazing rabbit stewed in a thick white gravy with a lovely spinach-chickpeas parantha. It is complex and delicious and smooth like butter - and the bread is to die for. ( It has been some time since I have sourced rabbit meat - but I used to order from Amish sellers from Lancaster county).

Sounds good! What spices do you use in it?

I mainly used white colored ingredients - yogurt, cream, white onions paste, ginger-garlic paste, aromatic spices - I like cardamom, some cumin, white pepper, cashew nuts paste, some green chilli deseeded (or skip it), lemon juice. Cook on very slow heat and don't burn the spices or brown the onions. It is to be cooked in a slow simmer. The nut paste is used in the end to thicken the gravy and for the color. Use blanched almond slivers to decorate it. I prefer to skip putting cilantro on it. It is to be served at room temp.

This dish works well with Indian breads.
I have served it in the past with akki roti (rice flour roti), rumali roti, laccha parantha, plain naan with nigella seeds, but visually a spinach parantha with sattu filling has appealed to my family more. I would prefer a plain rumali roti with it.