An Invitation to Indian Cooking - Madhur Jaffrey [0]
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright © 1973 by Madhur Jaffrey
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Previously published in a trade paperback edition by Vintage Books, 1975.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jaffrey, Madhur. An invitation to Indian cooking.
1. Cookery, India. I. Title
TX724.5I4J28 641.5’954 72-11023
eISBN: 978-0-307-95785-6
Cover photograph by Irwin Horowitz
Cover design by Carol Devine Carson
v3.1
To
Bauwa and Dadaji
with love
Acknowledgments
I would like to gratefully acknowledge the help given to me by the following—my grandmother, whose black lemon pickle opened my taste buds at an early age; my mother, who patiently gave me a two-year correspondence course in cooking; K and Motiboo, for unearthing old family recipes; Hussain, for inspiring me with his endless culinary experiments; V, for finding Indeera; Indeera, for her delicious chutney; Maya, for helping out in moments of panic; Zakiya and John, for willingly eating a lunch composed of five different soups; Ved, for showing such positive approval of a banana relish; Virginia, whose enthusiasm for the book in general and specific recipes in particular kept me buoyed up during the agonizing days of remeasuring and retesting; Zia, Chub (especially Chub), and Mitth, for showing a profound understanding of the chapter system and obligingly eating chicken one month, soups and appetizers the next month, vegetables the following, and so on; Sanford, for saying, “You can do it,” when I was convinced I couldn’t and each batch of a certain sweet dessert was coming out tasting sour; Ismail, for keeping me striving by calling me the second-best cook; Norma and Mrs. S. Matthai, for their expertise in seafood; the Blinkworths, for graciously parting with their recipe for mulligatawny soup before emigrating to Australia; and, most of all, Judith, for her gentle encouragement, unpressured advice, and her very reassuring presence.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Sample menus
Sample menus—vegetarian
A note on flavorings
Kitchen utensils and other equipment
SOUPS & APPETIZERS
MEAT
CHICKEN, OTHER BIRDS, & EGGS
FISH & SHELLFISH
SUMMER COOKING & BARBECUED FOODS
VEGETABLES
RICE
DALS
CHUTNEYS, PICKLES, & OTHER RELISHES
BREADS
DESSERTS with a note on tea
And, to end, would you care for a paan?
List of sources
Glossary
Index
Introduction
This book has been written as a gradual maneuver in self-defense. Let me explain.
You see, I have lived fairly quietly in New York for more than a decade, but in the last few years I have increasingly found myself approached at parties and P.T.A. meetings by a fresh breed of enthusiastic Americans who note my sari and ask, “You wouldn’t know of a restaurant where we could get some good Indian food, would you?” My answer is always an apologetic, “I am afraid there is no place in New York or anywhere in America where top-quality Indian food can be found—except, of course, in private Indian homes.” At this, their faces fall and I begin to feel a familiar upsurge of guilt and patriotic responsibility. I try to explain about the Indian restaurants. It isn’t as if there aren’t any. But these establishments invariably underestimate both the curiosity and the palate of contemporary Americans. Instead of specializing in food from a particular state or district, they serve a generalized Indian food from no specific area whatsoever; a restaurant may call itself “Kashmir” but will serve no Kashmiri food; at another calling itself “Punjab,” you will be unable to get those delicious Punjabi mainstays, corn bread and mustard greens. There are several reasons for this. One is timidity—the fear that diners’ unfamiliarity with regional specialties will make certain dishes unpopular. Another is the caliber of the cooks: most are