I’ve been making a lot of Indian food lately.  I have always loved Indian cooking:  the generous use of spices, and the interplay of several spices together in one dish. I was a vegetarian in the 70’s, and many vegetarian cookbooks featured Indian food.  It seemed so exotic.  It was the most flavorful of the vegetarian cuisines my friends and I were exploring. 
           
All those spices in one recipe look daunting to people, but I’ve found it to be quite easy once you get the hang of it.  There are a couple of cookbook authors I adore and trust–their recipes are delicious and they work- Neelam Batra and Madhur Jaffrey.  Neelam primarily introduced me to the art of cooking Indian food, because I got to work with her in person.  She taught classes in Santa Monica when I lived there, and the classes were huge productions.  She demonstrated and lots of others helped.  Each class culminated in a feast of bountiful food, sometimes decorated with gold and silver leaf, and we students sampled everything. 
           
For years I referred to my copies of the recipes from her classes when I prepared Indian food, but since then she has published three Indian cookbooks.  I constantly use them for reference in my own kitchen and when I teach Indian cooking.  

When participating in a large Indian cooking class, there are many hands to do the work. It’s also fun to get together with friends and share the cooking.  However, when it’s just you preparing dinner, it is also possible to make simpler Indian foods.  The recipe for red lentils presented in my recipes this season is a quick dal that can also be served as a soup; that, with some steamed vegetables and rice, is a great simple meal.  And chutneys can be prepared ahead and frozen.  The milli-julli-kadhi, mixed vegetable stir-fry, is also simple, and can be varied with fresh vegetables in season. Raita, the refreshing salad made with vegetables and yogurt (often containing cucumber) takes just a few minutes to prepare. Since cucumber is more of a summer vegetable, I’ve included a recipe this season for a beet raita, which is a beautiful pink color. 

Another new passion of mine is to explore the world of gluten-free cooking.  Many people are interested in this now for health reasons.  A friend of ours made gluten-free banana cupcakes for a party, and they were quickly gobbled up; no one noticed that any gluten was missing.  They are tender and flavorful; I am including the recipe here for Rebecca’s cupcakes for you to try as well.  They could also serve as a complementary dessert for an Indian meal. Even if you are not gluten-sensitive, it is an interesting experiment to cook with other grains besides wheat, which is so pervasive in our culture.  Gluten-free baking recipes often include rice, tapioca, sorghum or garbonzo bean flours, or potato starch. Coincidentally garbanzo flour is used in Indian recipes, too; also in the cuisines of southern France, and Spain.  So what is rare to us may be common in other parts of the globe.

In cooking, as in everything, there is always a new world to explore.  New cuisines can add richness, depth, and even other cultures to our everyday experience.

Eat well this spring and enjoy your meals,

Cookbooks to try: 

Madhur Jaffrey: Quick and Easy Indian Cooking
Neelam Batra: 1,000 Indian Recipes; Chilis to Chutneys: American Home Cooking with the Flavors of India; and The Indian Vegetarian
Annalise G. Roberts: Gluten-Free Baking Classics

Also, check out the website:  glutenfreegirl.com

Spring
2009
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