Singla - Indian for Everyone: the Home Cooks Guide to Traditional Favorites

Copyright 2014 Anupy Singla

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission from the publisher.

All photographs Brave New Pictures and Gregg Lowe

Photo art direction by Mary Valentin

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Singla, Anupy.

Indian for everyone : the home cooks guide to traditional favorites / Anupy Singla.

pages cm

Includes index.

Summary: Over 100 Indian cuisine recipes along with many adaptations for vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free diets--Provided by publisher-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-1-57284-745-3 (ebook)

1. Cooking, Indic. 2. Vegetarian cooking. 3. Gluten-free diet--Recipes I. Title.

TX724.5.I4S5348 2014

641.5954--dc23

2014017605

Surrey Books is an imprint of Agate Publishing. Agate books are available in bulk at discount prices. For more information, go to agatepublishing.com.

This book is for my wonderful familyespecially my husband, Sandeep, who always helps me think bigger and better even when I cant see it. I love to cook. He loves to eat. We make a great team! Its also in memory of my Sneh bua, who helped me create some of my most cherished food memoriesyour contagious laugh is sorely missed.

Contents

Y ou picked up this cookbook, and Im so glad that you did! I know that youre probably wondering if its the right Indian cookbook for you. Rest assuredit is. I wrote it with you and your family in mind. The title says it allthis is an Indian cookbook for everyone.

Its for Indian-food lovers who live for the diversity of this amazing cuisine. Although many of the recipes are native to the region I am fromPunjabI have included some from other states and areas as well.

Its for skeptics who claim they hate the taste of curry. Fantastic! Read onyoull learn that Indians typically dont use curry powder as a spice.

Its for cooks who are new to Indian cooking and eating. Youll find step-by-step instructions and photographs on spices, legumes, and your favorite Indian recipes.

Its for seasoned Indian cooks to serve as a reference point for their favorite Indian dishes. In this book, youll find the instructions and cooking times our mothers and grandmothers followed in a forthright and easy-to-understand style.

Its for the meat eaters (like my husband) who cant resist tandoori chicken, minced lamb, and fish.

Its for vegans and vegetarians (my mother, my mother-in-law, and I fall into this group) who want real, road-tested meatless alternatives to traditional Indian meat recipes. This book celebrates our plant-based choices and preferences, rather than making them just a sidebar.

Its for healthy eaters who want to know whether you can bake a samosa instead of frying it, whether you can substitute quinoa for rice when grinding dosa batter, and whether there are gluten-free Indian bread options. The short answer is yes to all of the above.

Its for the Indian-food lovers who occasionally like to indulge, who crave a touch of cream in their dal makhani when they make it at home.

Its for folks with allergies and/or dietary preferences. If you maintain a gluten-free (GF) diet, know that virtually all of these recipes will work for you (save the wheat-based recipes in the bread section, of course, but that section has many GF options as well).

Its for the little girls (like me) who left India at a very young age but want to preserve their food heritage for sons and daughters who are growing up in America. Despite our hectic and sometimes overwhelming schedules, we busy moms share the crazy notion that every child deserves good, wholesome food.

And, most of all, its for those who love Indian restaurantsthe folks who experience a delicious meal out and want to replicate it at home. Opening this book is akin to opening a menu at your favorite Indian eatery. Along with the recipes to your beloved dishes, youll find tips on how to make them healthier and even how to veganize them.

What I think youll also find intriguing about this bookand indicative of the times we live inis that youll likely recognize the Hindi names for many of the recipes and ingredients. To me, this means that Indian food has really hit the mainstream in the United States. Today, few people (even in the Midwest, where I reside) need an explanation of what Tandoori Chicken, Dal Makhani, Aloo Gobi, or Chicken Tikka Masala (see recipes on ) are. But they do need an explanation of how to make themand thats what Indian for Everyone provides.

Indian food becoming ubiquitous in the United States is a trend I dont take lightly. As someone who came to this country at the age of three and was largely raised in King of Prussia, which at the time was a fairly culturally limited town located just outside Philadelphia, I am excited that Indian food is quickly becoming so widely accepted. When my parents and I moved into our neighborhood back in the 1970s, I used to get a lot of harsh comments about the funny smell of curry. And those were just some of our neighbors.

But times are changing. Our world is becoming more global and more willing to celebrate differences rather than letting them divide us. Thats a trend that Ill never take for granted, having grown up navigating the challenges of otherness. Even King of Prussia has come a long way since then.

If any of the previous descriptions apply to you, this book is for you. Thank you for joining me on my delicious and fulfilling journey to demystify all of the Indian recipes I grew up eating and now make successfully at home, from a decidedly IndianAmerican point of view.

This book is not an anthology of every single Indian recipe ever concoctedinstead, its a reference full of your favorites. As with my two previous books, The Indian Slow Cooker and Vegan Indian Cooking, my goal is to never overwhelm or intimidate you, but to get your creative juices flowing and to get your confidence up.

The recipes within this book include both conventional and metric measurements for ingredients. We even took extra care to measure every spice blend ourselves for better accuracy. Please note that the recipes were tested with conventional measurements; if you note differences in the metric yields as you put my recipes to use in your own kitchen, keep me posted at my website, indianasapplepie.com.