Cooking Indian
I'd never cooked Indian before, since Cincinnati boasted a ton of wonderful Indian restaurants (it seems much more than Boston or California). But while I've seen one or two Indian restaurants here in Eindhoven, they look to be rather upscale like most restaurants, meaning at least $20 for a meal.
So, with the extensive selection of spices at the Asian grocery store, and a few recipe recommendations from a friend back in the US, I decided to attempt to cook Indian cuisine/
First, check out the amount of spices you get from the Asian market. And the glass jars don't even contain everything that's in the plastic bag they come in! Even their "small" bottles of spices (the round bottle of mustard seeds) are bigger than the spice boxes from the mainstream supermarkets (e.g. the ginger powder in front - interestingly, that brand Silvo is part of McCormick).
I first tried a saag paneer with tofu instead of paneer. It was very good, but didn't really taste particularly Indian (maybe it was because of the tofu). Then I tried this recipe for Baigan Kha Bhartha (eggplant with tomatoes and onion; click here for recipe). As I was making it, it seemed really off with the turmeric, the paprika, and other spices. But after the flavors mixed together, then it tasted really fragrant! This went well with rice, but also as a spread on crackers.
Finally, I tried this recipe for Aloo Gobi (potatoes and cauliflower; click here for recipe). Once again, it smelled not right in the beginning. I think I'm just getting used to cooking with pure turmeric for the first time. This one is definitely a keeper. It tasted good hot as well as straight out of the fridge. I ended up craving bites of this for several days after I made it.
