Growing up in Detroit in the '50s and '60s... in the whitest family you can imagine... I'm a little surprised to say that the comfort food I reach for most often is Indian. When most of us encounter Indian food for the first time, we assume it's all nothing but HOTHOTHOT. And yes, heat is one of the things I love about it... but the more you learn about it and taste it, the more you realize that it's the levels and layers of flavor that make it what it is...
Years ago, I read an article by an Indian chef suggesting that not all commercial curry powders are created equal, and that Indians have a very different blend for each specific dish. This blew my mind, and so, of course, off I went to the extraordinary neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens (NYC's Indian food central!), and bought tons of whole spices and returned home to start roasting and grinding. The results were startling, thrilling, and instantaneous... and I think we may have eaten Indian food non-stop for about two weeks as I worked (though it was hardly work) my way through recipe after recipe.
Julie Sahni's books are a GREAT place to start...
Over the next two weeks or so, I hope to post a number of very easy recipes to get you started. And these posts are also a shout-out to Anita Brewer Pulley, our dear friend from North Carolina who has overcome her trepidation and spice fears and embraced Indian food!
Here's a REALLY simple one to start:
RAITA
(There are as many raita recipes as there are people in Kerala. My go-to version is simple, clean, and refreshing.)
1) Shred one large, seeded and peeled cucumber. Salt it lightly and let it drain in a sieve.
2) Drain a one-quart container of plain, full-fat yogurt in a sieve lined with a coffee filter or a paper towel for about an hour.
3) Rinse the salt off the cucumber and squeeze it as dry as you can. Mix the yogurt, cucumber and, to start, about a tablespoon of ground roasted cumin seeds (details in my next post).
And you're ready to go... Other recipes include tomato, mint, cilantro, grated onion, et al., but I like this simple one because to me the point is to serve a cooling counterpoint to very highly flavored dishes.