Indian Gems

Two days ago, I told you about my friend Messaouida and I mentionned her indian spices infused basmati rice. While I was at her home, she showed me her indian "pantry", dals, colourful seeds and powders, special mixes... Just few days ago, she had replenished her stocks of frangrant staples in Montreal's little India, in Parc Extension district.

I never really cooked anything authentically indian, though I meant to do so after each and every visit to an indian restaurant. I'm very fond of the spiciness and fragrance of this rich, diverse cuisine. I think the reason why it is so is the recipes I came accross until I discovered the food-blogs-world did not often convinced me of their authenticity, and when they did, I had trouble deciphering the ingredient list and I gave up. Bengal-gram dal, tuwar dal, tamarind pulp, asafeatida, ajwain, kalonji, saunf... Recipes with such exotic names featured right from the start and the often lengthy ingredient lists created a (false) sense deep inside my very soft brain cells that indian cuisine is complicated, out-of-reach and very mysterious.

Black Cardamom

Very recently I discovered a whole network of indian food bloggers. The starting point was a visit to Is My Blog Burning where was posted "From My Rasoi - A Call To All Indian Food Lovers" organised by Hooked On Heat You know how it works do you? I clicked on the link to Hooked On Heat, was seduced by what I saw, clicked on links to other indian blogs, and again on others... The personnality of the articles, the pictures of the recipes, the comments of readers and the answers given to them... All this warm and cozy, detail oriented, story ladden indian ambiance erased little by little my shy attitude towards indian cooking.

All of a sudden, I was seeing myself actually cooking dals and curries, mixing masalas and flattening chapattis... And I don't know if the recipes are actually quite straightforward (most are also rather quick to realize if the "mise en place" is made with care) or if they sound to be so because indian food bloggers are really doing a great job at explaining them. One thing is sure, they are certainly not shy of detailing different methods to make one recipe or excellent tips on how to achieve an authentic and satisfying result.

Black Salt

I had to work a little bit though, before I could satisfy my sudden craving of cooking indian. I had to educate myself on the vocabulary. I spent some time googling the strange words which dot lots of interesting recipes. Only to discover not so many of these strange names actually denominate really unknown ingredients.

Last week I made My Dhaba's Chicken Tikka Masala and Atabela's Sarson Ka Saag with Makki Ki Roti. They were delicious meals and such a treat for my family to enjoy. I was so pleased with the results, I decided to begin "building" myself a decent indian cuisine pantry, because now I know I can do indian cuisine!

Asafeatida (next time I'll buy it whole to see how it looks like)

I went this afternoon to Ville Lasalle, almost at the feet of Mercier Bridge and looked for a mysterious indian grocery store my son's nanny told me about. I went up and down the very commercial Dollard Street, looking carefully at the thousands of business signs for something reminiscent of India. I was determined to find the store and I found it, thanks to its big, bright orange sign reading "Aliments Ramdas Food Ltee." Now Ramdas doesn't really sound like a quebecer name... Then I noticed the stacks of dal sacks piled high behind the large windows, and I knew that was it...

Ajwain Seeds

I bought for 40$ worth of spices (mostly) and dals. I would certainly have spent more if it was not for my 5 years old son who wasn't (understandably) particularly thrilled to be there with me. His patience went to an end when I opened a little jar of asafeatida (to see if it really smells as bad as some people say) and insisted to smell it too. Well, he was warned, after much funny grins, he pressed me to return home "I don't want to be late to pick up my brothers at school mom !" Yeah right !

Arabic Gum (I looked for it so hard in the past! It's used in moroccan cuisine too)

Now I'm almost all set for great indian cooking. Just a trip back to Ramdas store and I'll be able to try most of those intriguing, delicious sounding recipes from indian blogs I carefully saved and labelled on my browser's "favorites" section.

Last but not least, please look at these photos below. On the left the spices I bought today at Ramdas Ltee (except for the green cardamom which was given to me by my dear Messaouida, along with the black cardamom shown above). On the right, spices I bought last September at an international health food store and for much more $$$ at Atwater Market. From top to bottom, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and green cardamom pods. Let me tell you, the scent of the spices on the left side of the pictures is much, much more seduicing too...