Читать книгу Miss Masala - Mallika Basu - Страница 6

Before You Start – Read This

Are you feeling somewhat inspired? Ready to take on the challenge of Indian home cooking? Have you dusted off the oversize aluminium stockpot, normally reserved for deadly punches, to make your own ghee? Invested in an industrial pestle and mortar? Convinced yourself that fermenting and sun-drying your own lime pickle is time truly well spent?

Shame.

This cookbook isn’t into that sort of thing. I want to cook traditional Indian food and have a life. So, in a step change from time-honoured Indian cooking tradition, I blatantly advocate the use of store-bought ingredients, dinky gadgets and shortcuts. If you are a tad busy or lazy, this book is just the thing for you.

The first chapter introduces the very basics and other useful information. Tips and tricks are littered throughout the rest of the book, amongst my stories and introductions to the recipes. To avoid boring you stiff by repeating myself in the recipe descriptions, I’ve collected a handful of cooking tips here. Please do read these before you begin.

SOURCING INGREDIENTS

Indian spices can be bought in supermarkets, at ethnic shops or online. You could even sweet-talk your local corner shop into stocking a wide selection. And once you’ve bought them, you can put them to use in many different dishes, from all sorts of cuisines. If you don’t have one or two of the spices specified in a dish, leave them out rather than use a substitute. Omitting a couple of the ingredients isn’t going to dramatically alter the flavour of a dish. Just make sure you have the main ingredients that feature in the title or subtitle of a recipe.

A FEW WORDS ON SOME COMMONLY USED INGREDIENTS AND EQUIPMENT:

LENTILS The different types called for in Indian cooking are many and various but not really interchangeable. For more on the different varieties, see the box.

CARDAMOMS Green cardamoms are most commonly used in the recipes in this book. Occasionally brown cardamoms (also known as black cardamoms) are called for. These can’t be used instead of green cardamoms, however, as they have a completely different, smoky taste.

PANEER This Indian cheese is used in a number of the recipes. It’s widely available in the hard cheese section of supermarkets. You could, at a pinch, substitute it with low-fat halloumi.

CURRY LEAVES Buy these herbs in an ethnic store or the ethnic section of your local supermarket. You can use them fresh or keep a bag in the freezer and cook straight from frozen. Never use the dried leaves; they’re just not the same.

GREEN FINGER CHILLIES These have a very particular flavour and can’t be substituted with any other type of green chilli. If you have a problem sourcing them, buy a jar of ready-minced green chillies to keep for emergencies.

CHILLI POWDER AND WHOLE CHILLIES While on the subject on chillies, I always use extra-hot chilli powder. The milder stuff doesn’t seem worth the effort, frankly. I don’t deseed chillies, either. Why, when the seeds are packed with serious punch? I’m not a great fan of super-spicy food, so my recipes are on the milder side, unless otherwise stated. If you can handle it, go crazy with chillies. For more on the different types of chillies used in Indian cooking, see the box. Note: bell peppers are deseeded.

YOGHURT This features extensively in Indian curries, often used to thicken curries or as a creamy, but lower fat alternative to cream. Low-fat yoghurt used straight out of the fridge will almost inevitably curdle when it touches hot oil. Use Greek yoghurt instead, which has a higher fat content, and leave it on the worktop to get it closer to room temperature before cooking. This will save your curry.

FAN-ASSISTED OVENS Most Indian food is cooked on the hob. Where I cook a dish in the oven, I’ve put the temperature in Centigrade/Fahrenheit and for gas. If you have a fan-assisted electric oven, please deduct approximately 20°C (70°F) from the temperature given in the recipe and cook for the same length of time. In any case, it’s always worth checking the food is cooked before you serve it.

MEASURING WITH MUGS Everyone has a mug or cup set aside to measure rice. I use a great big builder’s mug, which gives me 350g (12oz) rice – four generous portions. When I’m cooking rice or lentils, I state the amount of water needed in the form of a ratio of water to rice/lentils, e.g. ‘one-and-a-half times as much water as rice’ or ‘twice as much water as lentils’. By using the same mug/cup, you have an easy and accurate way of adding just the right volume of water. Always check the rice with a fork at the end of cooking. Depending on its quality, you may sometimes need to add an extra half a cup of hot water to get it cooked just right.

ESSENTIAL GADGETS Pestles and mortars are wonderful. But I’m not keen on bits of garlic, ginger and whole spices flying into my hair, face and clothes. A cheap mini electric coffee grinder works wonders to powder roasted spices. A hand blender can purée ingredients in seconds, without taking up much shelf space in the kitchen. See the box on how to make your own ginger and garlic pastes.

COOKING OILS You’ll see that I generally don’t specify a particular type of cooking oil. You can use any type of neutral flavour oil (sunflower, vegetable, groundnut, etc.), just not olive oil. For more on this, see the box.

PRECOOKING VEGETABLES Try not to parboil or shallow-fry vegetables before cooking them. It is too much extra effort and you lose their essential nutrients. Also, the longer veggies get with the spices, the better they will taste.

COOKING ON A HIGH HEAT I tend to cook over a high heat on the hob, so that the ingredients cook more quickly. But do reduce the heat slightly if a pot is boiling too vigorously or fried ingredients are browning too quickly and in danger of burning.

A WORD ON SALT I consume far too much salt. Which, I’ve been led to believe, will cause me untold grief in the form of hideous illnesses before I turn 40. I’ll spare you a similar fate by leaving salt addition in my recipes to your own discretion. The best thing to do is add a little at a time right at the end of a recipe until you get it to taste just the way you like it.

INDIAN COOKING TERMS To help with the strange Indian words that pepper these pages, just turn to the glossary at the back of this book.

AND LASTLY Please don’t worry if your chicken curry doesn’t match the exact shade of sienna orange in the fancy photograph. The hue of your home-cooked feast will depend on the brand of spices, type of ingredients and the lighting in your kitchen. As always, it’s the taste that counts.

Now for the rest. Happy cooking!