The Café Spice Cookbook: 84 Quick and Easy Indian Recipes for Everyday Meals
Read The Café Spice Cookbook: 84 Quick and Easy Indian Recipes for Everyday Meals Online
Authors: Hari Nayak
Tags: #Cookbooks; Food & Wine, #Cooking by Ingredient, #Herbs; Spices & Condiments, #Quick & Easy, #Regional & International, #Asian, #Indian
CONTENTS
An Introduction to Indian Ingredients
CHAPTER 2
CHUTNEYS AND ACCOMPANIMENTS
Chickpea, Mango, and Watercress Salad
Chickpea Curry with Sweet Potato
South Indian Lentils and Vegetables
CHAPTER 5
VEGETABLES AND CHEESE
Pan-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Coconut
Kerala-Style Mixed Vegetable Curry
Spicy Long Beans and Potato Stir-Fry
Stir-Fried Spinach and Red Chard
Scallops with Coconut and Ginger Curry
Tandoori Spiced Roasted Chicken
CHAPTER 8
BREADS, RICE AND GRAINS
Wild Mushroom and Spinach Rice
Semolina and Whole Wheat Dosai with Spiced Potatoes
Milk Dumplings in Saffron Syrup
THE CAFÉ SPICE STORY
Far from the land of its birth and the influences that shaped it, Indian food is now a five billion dollar industry in the West and growing rapidly. Westerners’ exposure to Indian cuisine has come a long way since the early days of inexpensive curry houses. Since then, more professional Indians have settled overseas, and non-Indians have had the opportunity to travel to India and discover the authentic and diverse flavors of local foods.
Restaurants have become more upscale, and it is common now to find places specializing in regional cooking from, for example, Kerala or Chennai or Bombay. At the same time, Indian chefs with formal culinary training are developing their own styles of preparation using locally-available products and European-inspired methods. The new generation of Indian chef might even consciously avoid commonly known dishes such as Chicken Tikka Masala, Korma, Vindaloo, and Madras Curry, despite the fact that a huge number of diners still seek out those traditional restaurant dishes. I actually tried Tikka Masala and Madras Curry for the first time when I came to New York from India and had my first meal on “Curry Hill” on Lexington Ave. between 27th and 28th St.—and it was an experience, to say the least! I had never eaten anything like that in India, and yet these are the most popular and best-known Indian dishes in America.
As a student at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York, I dreamed of changing the way Americans view Indian cuisine. Most Americans are intimidated, some are curious, and some are addicted to curry. But almost all non-Indians I meet are eager to explore further and learn more about our cuisine. Indian cuisine retains its exotic image today, and yet many people only know what they get in restaurants. I was eager to take up the challenge and be an ambassador who could make this cuisine more accessible to the average person. By simplifying a few processes and adding new creative twists to the classic recipes, I began publishing books with easy recipes that allow a home cook with a normal Western kitchen to recreate classic Indian dishes with all the flavor but none of the fear or fuss.