Favorite Indian Dishes

Mango Lassi:

Purchase a good mango, and try to ripen it as best as you can. Cut off stem end and with cut slice rub the cut surface until froth appears. This is very toxic to eyes & skin, so be very careful to scrape it off and wash thoroughly. The stem end remaining in the fruit may also ooze some more of this gummy irritant. Caution.

Peel the fruit. Cut into cubes. Place in blender.

Buy a 28 oz can of ALPHONSO or KESAR mango pulp [about $3/can]. Use about a fourth or a third, or to taste per blender jar. Freeze rest in freezer bags.

Place pulp on fresh mango. Add some very good quality cold milk, enough to let blender blades spin and pulverize fruit + canned pulp. Add a little more. Whirl. Add high quality plain yoghurt, like Stonyfield, Brown Cow or better. Blend with ice to your taste. Adjust with more mango pulp for sweetness or mango flavor.

One glass in a restaurant costs >$3-4 plus tips!!

32 oz Brown Cow ==> $3.50
28 oz Mango Pulp ==> $3.00
1 mango,lg           ==>  $1.25
Milk @ 1Gal=$3-4 ==>  $2.00
Ice @10lb = $2    ===>$0.25

Say, $10 for at least 8-10 glasses

A number of years ago, I had a business lunch at a very upscale Indian Restaurant in NYC. I had a curry dish and became very ill with food poisoning. To this day I get very ill with just the smell of curry. I can't even go into an Indian Restaurant.

What has this comment to do with any of the discussions going on above? Hmm?  Except as a vehicle of prejudice? Can you learn that Indian food is NOT curry? That is what I have been trying to explain! Is there something called EUROPEAN food? The Indian subcontinent is geographically as large as WESTERN EUROPE minus Russia, and infinitely more varied in terms of culture & cuisine.

There are at least 3000 endogamous groups with perhaps half as many distinct CUISINES. Just as Chinese cuisine is NOT represented by the corner take-away, "Indian" cooking likewise is not represented at all well by restaurant cooking, high or low, here or anywhere else, including India. Do you judge American cuisines by Burger King? So what point exactly do you wish to make by your announcement? Another gentleman already has said similar with respect to his spouse.

I love Roadfood because it helps me to learn about things I do NOT KNOW, to eliminate BARRIERS between regions & PEOPLES, NOT REINFORCE THEM!!

I urge you to open your mind to possibilities of taste & goodness in humans that you may not have considered possible!

Let me suggest a recipe and take you on a learning adventure. The cooking of the Dakshinatya Vaidikas, my own community from West Bengal, use no hot flavors or heavy spices. Sweet is the predominant taste, except in dishes where fresh, stone-ground black mustard seed is employed. Fresh mustard oil too is used, but that is a pungency quite unlike any curry.

Scrub Idaho russets, & with skin on, cut into uniform small cubes. Heat GHEE [ or clarified butter as an alternative] but not to smoking, in a non-stick pan or wok. Drop in 1  measuring teaspoon of NIGELLA seed. Wait a few seconds while they release their aroma. Add potatoes, stir to coat and toss until lightly colored. Sprinkle with VERY VERY little water, flicking it with your fingers, and a tiny bit of salt. Cover tightly, reduce heat to low-medium. Gauge time according to your stove. Potatoes should be just tender when cover removed. Add a bit of sugar to taste, to give a hint of sweetness. Stir carefully to not break but dry out any moisture. DONE. Eat with fresh chapatis, hot whole wheat tortillas or hot whole wheat pita bread.

This is a most authentic dish. Let me emphasize, that i MY NATIVE CUISINE, the particular one I mentioned, from Bengal, whatever you think of or smell as "CURRY" simply does not exist! People from my part of the world are just as surprised as you when they encounter NYC "Indian". it makes us very upset to hear foolish & supercilious dismissals, just as English food suffers from a bad rap. It is a very refined cuisine of many parts & regions, needing skilled practitioners that many outsiders cannot meet. Likewise, the case with BOTH INDIA & AMERICA.

I came here first when I was 10. Ate sandwiches etc. from delis & was VERY VERY ILLAS A RESULT. I HAVE WORKED IN MANY RESTAURANTS as chef, THAI, CHINESE, CAUCASIAN, and am PERFECTLY AWARE of the standards of hygiene & food handling that prevail at most places, including supermarket meat slicers. [If you really knew & understood what you were talking about, I doubt you would be eating out all that much, ANYWHERE!!!!]

That did not make me condemn American food, but did make me WANT  to explore every bit of this wonderful country of ours & make EACH CULTURE MY VERY OWN.

Your comment would have been okay had it not been for the prejudice comment.

Don't read into the description of his reaction to Food from the South Asia area. Skipping the possible predjudice built in, the fact remains some like it and some don't.
Leave it at that.

One very interesting development in the larger cities of the US, e.g. NYC, Seattle, with  large Indian professional classes is the proliferation of lunch delivery services who send over "home style" meals to offices: i.e. food bearing no resemblance to restaurant cooking.
 
Home style cooking is often exceedingly modest in scope:
For example, a favorite lunch from Maharashtra is saadaa varan: simple boiled toor dal, split pigeon pea, Cajanus cajan, served with salt, ghee and fresh lime. Hot rice. Period.
 
For Tamil Brahmins, yoghurt rice means exactly that: slightly soft-cooked rice mashed a tiny bit with whole milk, and then mixed with yoghurt, some ginger and a hint of crushed roasted fenugreek seed,  eaten with something crunchy, like potato chips [here] or traditional crisps and a sour pickle. 
 
In Rajasthan, a favorite  lunch  is fresh, real buttermilk with freshly-ground pearl millet tortillas and a sour pickle.
 
This is how tens of millions of Indians actually eat. Few consume tandoori chicken and the weird sorts of food that is gradually becoming popular thanks to restaurants and food stalls, even  back in India. When I was young, people would rarely venture to eat food prepared on the street, and for excellent, sensible reasons: cleanliness & safety. Today, those cautions have been cast to the winds.

me too like indian food

@ammad,
If your State had just one more X, I should like to consider very seriously moving there