Re: [gardeners] OT: Recipe for the season
Liz Albrook (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 24 Jul 1998 08:17:41 +0000
penny x stamm <gardeners@globalgarden.com> wrote:
> Catherine, our local Indian fancy restaurant serves the rice with
> crumbled bacon on top. And most of the places serve Tandoori
> chicken on a bed of fried mild onions. So I have combined the
> effect....
Fried onions are a common side dish in India -- or at least fried
shallots are common. As for bacon, your Indian restaurant might be
fancy but it is anything but authentic. There are religious
restrictions concerning the consumption of pork by a large percentage
of the Indian population. The only authentic Indian dish that I know
of that includes pork is Vendaloo, a dish developed in Goa by
Portugese Christians. Both Julie Sahni and Madhur Jaffery in various
cookbooks report that even among those Indians not bound to avoid
pork due to religious restrictions rarely consume pork because it is
considered a very poor meat, owing to the fact that a pig will eat
anything.
> Overall, I would never classify Indian cookery as vegetarian
> in general.
Indians do -- and not just Indian chefs or cookbook authors. This is
a quote from _Recipes From India_ by the Indian Women Association of
Pullman, WA.
"Many delicious fish, poultry and meat dishes are eaten throughout
India. These are what are often known in Western terms as "curries".
However, about fifty percent of Indians even today are vegetarians
for religious and economic reasons. Even those who classify
themselves as non-vegetarians will base most of their meals on
vegetarian cooking, deriving high quality protein from endless
combinations of grains with a wide variety of beans and pulses
(legumes). Due to this very reason, most of the recipes collected
and presented in this book are vegetarian."
Their huge menus are overwhelmingly varied
> beef, lamb, chicken or shrimp/fish, with a minor number of
> popular veggie dishes, very often spinach or eggplant
Sorry, but this is dead wrong. There is an overwhelming number of
vegetable dishes served in India. I've got more than 50 recipes just
for cooking okra. In addition to numerous recipes for individual
vegetables, there is an enormous variation in the types of vegetables
grown and eaten in India. The only part of the US with a long
tradition of that sort of variety in vegetable offerings is the
southeast (and, in recent times, southern California), and even it
falls short of matching Indian standards.
> In a rooftop restaurant overlooking the airport at St.Louis is
> a truly excellent Indian restaurant which serves a luncheon buffet.
> So many of the dishes one might never order are there for the
> sampling, and make converts of us! For some reason, Indian
> food does not appear to suffer from sitting on a hot table, perhaps
> because so many of their foods have prominent sauces. The
> choices are predominantly meat dishes.
Of course -- the customers are predominately American and it's likely
they are ignorant Americans. Rarely do Indian restaurants offer
authentic Indian cuisine. It is very, very difficult to persuade
Indians in the restaurant business to offer authentic dishes, even by
special request. They fear the reputation they will get -- too hot,
weird foods, strange tastes, "it isn't anything like the food at
the Tandoori King and we really like it", etc. It means they will go
out of business. In much the same way, authentic Chinese, Thai and
Korean foods are rarely found in American restaurants unless those
restaurants are located in areas that are predominately Chinese, Thai
or Korean. Sea cucumber is not frequently listed on American menus.
BTW, Catharine's name is spelled with 2 A's in it.
Liz