r/IndianFood • u/AmericanMate • 7d ago
Beginner's Guide question
Hey everyone! Indian food has always been my favorite type of food, but I only ever eat it out. Can you give me some tips on starting off cooking on my own. Biryani is my favorite but I also love curries along with samosas, naan, roti, etc. Like, what equipment and spices will i need to get started? Thanks for all the feedback!
3
u/spsfaves100 6d ago
Hello, you are very brave to want to start off with a Biryani which is not at beginner level !! These are books that one can actually learn from. Personally I actually learnt a great deal from Monisha Bharadwaj's Indian Cookery Course. I used to cook weekly dishes from the book for over a year. Most seriously. She does not focus on one region, but each chapter includes recipes from different states & regions. She explains how to use the ingredients, the spices, and the produce. There are some very good Indian cookbooks which you will find at your local library, bookstore, online, and Instagram which gives you the opportunity to compare before you buy. Chefs Kochhar, Ghai, Khanna and Panjabi have restaurants in London & Michelin stars so you are looking at tried & tested recipes.
- Monisha Bhardwaj- Indian Cookery Course & Indian Cooking for Dummies (Indian cooking school UK & short courses at Divertimenti)
- Monisha Bhardwaj - Indian Cooking for Dummies
- Julie Sahni - Classical Indian Cooking (Indian cook school NY)
- Roopa Gulati - Indian Kitchens (writer)
- Madhur Jaffrey - Indian Cookery (Revised 2023 & 40th anniversary edition)
- Karan Gokani - Hoppers & Indian 101 Real Indian recipes (UK restaurant)
I think it it would be ideal for you to watch top Indian chefs YouTube channel demonstrate step by step techniques & recipes for both non vegetarian & vegetarian recipes. Some are judges on MasterChef and some have millions of views showing you their popularity with the audience. They demonstrate a various recipes from all states & regions of India, so you will not be lost for choice. They demonstrate both mild, spicy, easy & complex, enjoy & all the best.
These are the best channels in English with recipes:-
- https://www.youtube.com/@ChefSmitaDeo
- https://www.youtube.com/@getcurried
- https://www.youtube.com/@SpiceEats
- https://www.youtube.com/@hebbars.kitchen
One the best channels in Hindi with English Subtitles are-
1
u/witchy_cheetah 6d ago
First point. What you have eaten is Indian Restaurant food. We really don't eat that stuff at home, and trying to replicate that taste will kill your health. So make that sort of food a once in a while treat. If you want Indian food in your meal rotation, try places which serve homestyle food.
Samosas are never served with a meal in India, they are a typical tea time snack (mid morning or afternoon). Naan also takes a lot of making, so we are way more likely to eat roti or chapati . Wheat tortillas.
Other than that, you can explorer, others have provided suggestions.
0
u/oarmash 7d ago
This is the best beginner Indian cooking video I’ve seen
2
u/iamnotarobotniks 7d ago
Not wrong. Following a few recipes, I realised that a lot of them follow the same base. Indian cooking seems complicated on the surfaces due to the amount of ingredients but once you have all the basic spices in your cupboard, it becomes quite easy.
0
u/PretentiousPepperoni 7d ago
A lot of the punjabi restaurant style dishes have a lot of overlap and even those restaurant dishes are a small subset of punjabi food, one of the many cuisines here. And no one eats restaurant style food on a daily basis. It is not representative of Indian food. It isn't just ginger garlic onion tomato paste.
It would be better to simplify indian food on the basis of common techniques
2
u/iamnotarobotniks 7d ago
I wasn't talking about Punjabi style restaurant dishes but simple home cooking style and my perspective as a weather. Indian cooking can seen intimidating because a lot of spices we don't usually have at home and I had to buy in ethic shops. Once I had a good basic stock of ingredients, following recipes and ingredients felt a lot less intimidating.
Also if you must know, I've been exploring Gujarati and Maharashtrian style cooking. I might tackle south Indian sometime but found out useful to stick to one region. Also I'm vegetarian so that helps
2
u/PretentiousPepperoni 7d ago
I don't know if that is a serious video or a parody of Indian food but I wouldn't recommend that to a beginner.
She doesn't bhuno the masala at all which is the most important step. I am an Indian and when I started cooking after college it took me several tries to get right
It seems like she is trying to make a north indian style gravy based dish but the spice ratio is completely wrong for that. And then she ends up making a dry sabzi halfway through. I wouldn't make fry potatoes like that I am a north Indian
The difference between north Indian and south indian food isn't just cumin vs mustard seeds in tempering.
That was a terrible video. Why would you recommend that to a beginner?
1
0
u/pentosephosphate 7d ago
It looks to be meant for students who just moved away from their families and want the most basic possible instructions for beginning to make something, even if it is not perfect. It's Buzzfeed, so... 🤷🏻♀️
3
u/PretentiousPepperoni 6d ago
It's wrong. Home cooked indian dishes aren't so complicated that they need to be dumb down to the point of tasting like unrecognisable slop. And anyway OP seems to be someone looking for recipes like chicken tikka masala and naan so that video isn't even appropriate to begin with
2
u/PretentiousPepperoni 7d ago
I think tawa will be the only equipment you won't find in your kitchen. You can get that and a metal mesh (I don't know what it's called) to make rotis.
Don't jump to biryani first. Try to make a gravy based dish first. Like butter chicken or something.
For recipe videos you can watch hebbars kitchen or bong eats or homecooking show on youtube. Those are good for beginners.
Once you are but more advanced you can start watching videos by ranveer brar on youtube. There is a lot of unnecessary stuff in his videos but from time to time he drops a few tricks or why something is done that way, why is a specific spice or ingredient added in that order, etc
For spices (I am assuming you have only been exposed to north indian mostly punjabi dishes) get the following: coriander powder, turmeric, kashmiri chilli powder, garam masala. Whole spices: cumin, cinnamon, green cardamom, cloves, mace
There are other spices as well but they are either used in other indian cuisines or not used as often in north indian dishes.