For example, he’ll take a dish from Maharashtra, tell you it’s from there, and then for the “Indian” name, use the Hindu word for prawn with the Marathi word for what it’s paired with.
Think if you were reading a “European” cookbook in English, and they made up a “European” name for a dish that was half German and half Spanish for a Spanish dish, or vice versa.
But if you don’t know any of the languages, you’d look at it as a vaguely foreign name and think it must therefore be “authentic”.
He’s better with some regions (eg Goa and Bengal) but even there imposes words and occasionally names for no reason (eg “chingri” means prawn, no one calls it “chingri maachh” ie prawn fish in a dish name, even though it may be technically correct).
Incredibly incongruous and actually hurts my brain when I read it. And why I keep having to put away the books when I’m trying to find recipes to try out.
Really takes away for me from the content of his recipes, which I’ve found to be good in what few I’ve tried.
I know it’s a failure of editing, and not reflective of him as a recipe creator, but he was probably the only one involved who would have known the actual names, and saved the publisher by not having someone else take a look.
It really irks me most for dishes from where he (and I) grew up — ie Bombay / Maharashtra Worse than nails on a chalkboard
I made cauliflower with peas, but with an expanded spice profile like the second recipe, and without the rice flour sauce (never encountered before by me) of the first recipe.
I also added some finely sliced onions at the beginning and sauteed them well, and a bit of ground ginger and garlic instead of sliced ginger (which I don’t like biting into).
Crumbled in some curry leaves from the freezer at the beginning, and a bit of fresh cilantro at the end.
Cauliflower is among my favorite vegetables, and these easy preps are as delicious as anything you’d spend a lot more time on!
Lime is technically corrected, though as Indians call their key lime-like limes lemons, I know this as Lemon Rice
A simple and delicious prep that goes with pretty much anything – whether just plain yogurt, or a piece of roasted salmon.
His cooking method is a bit different than what I usually employ – he tempers the spices, then adds the rice and cooks it with them, and finally adds raw turmeric powder, curry leaves, and fresh green chillies at the end along with the lime juice.
I have always cooked the rice first as you would for fried rice, then tempered the spices, curry leaves, and all the chillies, mixed in the rice and tossed to combine everything, and then the lemon juice goes in last off the heat.
I prefer the version where the turmeric and curry leaves go in the oil, as raw turmeric is not a flavor I enjoy (medicinal), nor are raw curry leaves, and that also enables this to be a quick revamp for any leftover rice.
Some dal in the tempering is necessary as it adds a nice crunch – chana is traditional, but I often use yellow moong or white (split) urad if I’m out.
(Aside: Your bowl-molded mound of rice makes me think of the kids’ meal at a Chinese restaurant I used to go to with my mother all those decades ago, where a similarly colored and shaped mound of fried rice was the center of the plate.
DAL FRY – 660 CURRIES pg 432
(bizarrely called Slow-Cooked Onion with Pigeon Peas)
Dal Fry is one of two dals you’ll find on every (North) Indian restaurant menu (the other is Kali Dal / Maaki Dal / Dal Makhni). It originates in the roadside dhabas of North India, is absolutely delicious, and goes with pretty much anything. Dal fry and rice or bread would probably make most people happy without anything more
Peeled / split pigeon peas (tuvar / arhar dal) are cooked separately (I used the pressure cooker, he calls for stovetop cooking, which can take forever with pigeon peas especially if they are older).
When they are almost done, the flavor base is made – tempering, lots of onions fried well, and later tomato and cilantro.
All that is added to the dal (which you may need to puree first if it didn’t disintegrate), which is simmered for a bit to meld, and you’re done.
There is an ungodly amount of ghee in restaurant Dal Fry (which is why it is extra delicious), but I cheat at home and add a dollop of ghee at the end (instead of bathing the onions in it ).
Hah! One of my favorite restaurants as a kid, a very low-key local seafood place, served plain rice with every order, and would bring the personal-sized serving bowl and invert it onto your plate with a ceremonial thud.
Every once in a while I remember it fondly and try to see if I can keep the mound intact – doesn’t always work in my case, though they had 100% success rate
Here is my thali with the 3 items above, and some gratuitous salmon (that I had steamed simply with salt & pepper for fish cakes and was pretty unnecessary to the meal).
Plain rice would have been a better pairing for both the dal fry and the cauliflower, which is what I’ll eat the leftovers with.
We had the leftovers of the chicken with red chilies and coconut last night. I doctored it up by making a paste of garlic and ginger, then adding some ground cumin (I love the whole seeds but sometimes LLD doesn’t), and some peas and baby spinach. It was definitely better. But there was still this weird, almost starchy, taste to it. And in the end, I think it was the vinegar. I have made and loved vindaloo that has vinegar, so I am not sure why it was such a turn off this time (maybe because there was so much less to cover it up??). Anyway, it was a decent enough dinner last night, but as the recipe is written I would say avoid it. Thanks to all of you for your suggestions on how to make it better - it definitely helped.
Worse than nails on a chalkboard 
