Saregama
March 24, 2026, 3:52am
1
A place to share cooking explorations of Indian food, across all the many regions of India.
Indian home cooking can be quite different from restaurant food, and most of it isn’t “curry”.
We have a few past threads on some regions, cookbooks, and dishes:
We’re going to India for the quarter! Very excited to cook one of my favorite cuisines with you and explore the subtleties of MAHARASHTRIAN flavors and techniques. I hope some of our resident experts will share their recipes and experiences, too!
We’re going spicy this summer, with SOUTH INDIAN as our latest Cuisine of the Quarter! According to @Saregama , one of our resident experts and the original nominator of this cuisine, this category includes dishes from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Wikipedia mentions a couple of others: South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh , Karnataka , Kerala , Tamil Nadu and Telangana as we…
Welcome to the reporting thread for THALI and Maunika Gowardhan’s online recipes .
[image]
If you are the first to report on a recipe, post your report as a reply to this topic. The first poster of a recipe typically types the recipe title in all caps and indicates the page number (if using the physical book). If you are reporting on a recipe from the author’s site , please include the link. If someone has already reported on a recipe, post your report as a reply to their post.
Pictures are alw…
Welcome to the COOKING FROM GUNPOWDER by Harneet Baweja, Devina Seth, and Nirmal Save thread!
Please use this thread to report what you make (or have enjoyed making) from their recipes.
Let’s try and follow the recipe format on other reporting threads to make this useful as a future resource:
Please use ALL CAPS for the recipe name, note the name of the book or other source of the recipe, and add a recipe link if you can find one.
If someone else reported on the recipe before you, please REP…
A thoughtful article about how the vast portfolio of Indian food is discussed, 78 years after independence and with 1.4 billion native eaters.
.
.
[The author] unpacks the imperialist history and racialised convenience of the term ‘curry,’ examining its role in erasing the diversity of Indian cuisine.
The West’s creation of the ‘curry’ has done more than just produce a narrow and ignorant view of Indian cuisine. It has also restricted the vocabulary of Indian food.
What began as a long hi…
2 Likes
I’m especially interested in Mumbai Sandwiches, Bombay Clubs, Vada Pav, and Indian Toasties lately. I plan to make more at home.
Some replies that contain Indian sandwich recipes:
BOMBAY CHILLI CHEESE TOASTIE - on-line
https://maunikagowardhan.co.uk/cook-in-a-curry/bombay-chilli-cheese-toastie/
It is a bleak and rainy evening and this is the perfect sandwich to combat it. You will need some leftover, cooked potato, along with Jarlsburg cheese (although any Swiss type will be fine), green pepper (I imagine she means bell pepper, but I always use a jalapeno or serrano), red onion (I used shallot), chaat masala, and green chutney (she provides a recipe within the recipe).…
…
Welcome to the reporting thread for THALI and Maunika Gowardhan’s online recipes .
[image]
If you are the first to report on a recipe, post your report as a reply to this topic. The first poster of a recipe typically types the recipe title in all caps and indicates the page number (if using the physical book). If you are reporting on a recipe from the author’s site , please include the link. If someone has already reported on a recipe, post your report as a reply to their post.
Pictures are alw…
Saregama
March 24, 2026, 4:11am
3
Today’s dinner: Mutton (goat) Jhalfrezie, Masoor Dal with vegetables, Vatana (green peas), and Jeera Pulao (leftover from a restaurant meal).
.
Mutton Jhalfrezie: leftover meat re-cooked with sauteed onions and garlic, some leftover gravy, and spices. (Originated in Bengal as a repurposing of leftovers with aromatics and spices, and one of my Dad’s favorite things to make from leftiver kid / baby goat roast, but I forgot the potatoes in his version.)
.
Vatana / green peas: One of my favorite preps, but haven’t eaten this in ages. Simply cooked with tempering, cumin, coriander, and chilli powders, ginger, and finished with garam masala. (Gujarat / Maharashtra)
.
Masoor Dal (red lentils) cooked with vegetables: cauliflower stem and zucchini, plus ginger, garlic, and onion. Simple tempering of cumin seeds and garlic. I forgot the green chilli. (Many regions cook vegetable stubs with dal, though mine is inspired by a friend’s Bihari dal.)
.
1 Like
Saregama
March 24, 2026, 4:24am
4
Home snacks from two regions using one batter:
Idlis with coconut chutney.
.
Handvo – a savory cake made from a mixed lentil and rice batter, spiced and tempered, with optional vegetables. I grated in zucchini and carrot today.
Mixed lentil, grain, and seed batter a few ways.
This started as batter for a savory cake called Handvo.
Then I remembered that I had successfully played with low carb idli and dosa batter a few years ago, so I thought I’d see how this fared in that format as well.
Steamed cakes / Idlis: just the batter with salt.
Handvo / savory baked (or pan-cooked) cake: grated carrot and zucchini, cumin, coriander, and chilli powders, and a tempering of mustard, cumin, and sesame seeds.
Batter was made…
1 Like
