Oh wow. An “Indian” who has never lived in India but cant skip the Hindu bashing that seems to be necessary to endear her to the New York Times readership. I also noted the “upper caste elitist vegetarian” dig on her keema recipe. being vegetarian is usually considered a good thing unless of course you’re Hindu. Maybe if Ms Rao was a little more secure in her recipes she wouldn’t need to bring politics into the mix?
Dear author,
Most likely that your grandmother like her countless other contemporaneous, would have perfect understanding not only of traditional cooking familiar equally with “ Ayurvedic Clock” and how a few small tweaks to your habits can have great health benefits.
Interestingly today’s world hardly a day passes without some mention about body clocks, circadian rhythm, and when is the perfect time to do just about anything, from eating to test taking.
Many in India have probably run across some of these conversations about Circadian rhythm without realizing that Ayurveda had most of it figured out thousands of years ago.
The thing is most modern human in West or East are under the spell of Cartesian rationalism and have forgotten ancient wisdom or tend not to trust it until we see scientific research validating it.
“The Ayurvedic Clock is essentially what modern science now calls our biological clock, or body clock, and is linked to how our genes and hormones operate. Ayurveda prescribes optimal times for eating, sleeping and working (along with many other activities) by illustrating the link between our body’s energy and the energy of the doshas (elements) that are primary during one of six blocks of time per 24-hour cycle… When we go against the natural daily cycles of energy, we disrupt our health”. (https://medium.com/@brooke_91161/what-is-the-ayurvedic-clock-94f5f35a87b6)
11
@NG Krishnan
Respectfully, the fact that ancient Ayurvedic medicine made claims about a body clock does not in any way mean the ancients had “most of” Circadian biology figured out. And, modern science does not in fact support the idea of time-restricted “doshas” occurring in 4 hour blocks.
I am of Indian descent myself and see this kind of “ancient Indian wisdom bests modern (western) science” trope deployed so frequently that I cannot help but wonder whether it reflects some deep seated cultural insecurity. Ancient societies (Indian or otherwise) each made their contributions to human development; we need not grant them supernatural insight to acknowledge this.
35
@RC I generally agree that we need not grant the ancients supernatural powers to respect their contributions. But they knew a lot about human body and natural herbs without the benefit of modern equipment. They were definitely following a process that’s close to what we call science now - documenting observations and making predictions.
Have you ever read any Ayurvedic texts? There are astonishing details that come close to describing Circadian clock. These texts are 1000s of years old!
2
I’m sorry, I fail to see how your comment is at all related to this article?
And you seem to be misinformed about what scientific evidence is — it isn’t some anti-culture propaganda you’re making it out to be — it is a means to test if a claim holds water. Claims that do are accepted into the realm of science irrespective of their origin, you seem to be simply disappointed that claims you believe in are simply not holding water to rigorous, controlled experiments. And before you argue it’s because “western scientists” are keen to disprove the so called “ancient Indian knowledge”, please bear in mind that an entire ministry of AYUSH in India has failed, miserably, at proving most, if not any, of these claims, and is just a government sponsored, pseudoscience spewing agency, wasting taxpayers rupees.
1
A Bad list. Not even half a representative. Hopefully no one will take Rao's 10 a serious must try. If those photos were of dishes that Rao cooked - we forgive and accept your handicap. Just don't preach.
10
@Boni G Well that's just no right. This is what she likes and thinks to be her top 10 dishes. DOes not have to be yours. That's the beauty of Indian food. CHoose what you want and still be representative of some cuisine in the vast nation.
11
miss the Moss cake with preaches and cream
@BoniG
What 10 dishes would you choose, Boni?
To represent a country of 36 different states/territories divided by language and culture - and 1.4 billion people.
2
The political viewpoint or "tadka" (tempering) writer is trying to put across is in poor taste and looks totally out of context. Mr Modi has been constitutionally elected leader of the biggest democracy in the world and his political stance is reflective of and totally in sync with the opinion of people of his country. Criticising the government unnecessarily just by believing one sided false propoganda created by print media will not do any good. People of all religion live in harmony in India only the ones trying to disrupt the peace of the country need to be afraid of the present government. There is so much hue and cry because the minority appeasement policies propogated by political parties that has plagued this nation for so long are being brought to their justful end.
Regarding this article only half of the dishes in this list are actually worth a place and visual representation is poor.
14
@Manjari
I'm afraid you misunderstand democracy.
A democratic mandate does not give carte blanche. Indeed a good democracy will encourage critique and scrutiny. Trump was "constitutionally" elected and vast swathes of USA society express their disagreement with his government and policies.
I'm afraid with phrases like "Criticising the government unnecessarily" and "one sided false propoganda created by print media" is a measure of your disposition and inability to objectively consider opinions that do not accord with yours.
By the way, democracy is democracy - a bigger one does not necessarily make it a better one! Sorry.
135
@Manjari
“Minority appeasement policies” - sounds like fundamentalist jargon to me.
Tejal could have kept her head down in the face of such inhumanity in her ancestral land, yet she is brave enough to write a few words. Would that more Indians had the courage.
India's economy is doing very very poorly under Modi and it will tank if these pogroms against minorities continue. That is for sure! International investment and commerce will melt away.
Be careful what you wish for.
16
@Manjari Its a fact that Modi is constitutionally elected. It is also a fact that he won with 37 percent of the votes, and 63 percent voted against him. So it is incorrect to say his stance is 'totally in sync with the opinion of people of his country'. In fact, if anything, its the other way around : Indians have always lived together. Authoritarians and demagogues like Modi (and Trump) who pit people against each other, go against the fundamental truth of the universe : all human beings are equal (irrespective of Hindu or Muslim or other parameters). Equal.
17
A wonderful list.
Thank you for being so inclusive, in going for a wider lens and providing context. Happy to see south Indian dishes which are rarely showcased in Indian recipe lists.
56
Do the meat-based recipes include instructions on how to stab the cow or lamb in the neck, drain her of blood, skin her corpse, and butcher up the carcass into the cuts required for the dish?
12
No I think you can buy meat at a grocery store without doing any of that yourself these days. Happy shopping!
20
@Richard Are you referring to kosher slaughter?
1
@Richard No. The same way it doesn't ask you to grow your own potatoes or dry your own spices. This is why we have cars and grocery stores.
8
While I agree that the uniformity of Indianness is a myth, and out of these recipies, I may not choose half of them or like them,
I also think the author did not need to inject the unnecessary criticism of the Modi government. She can write a political piece if she felt compelled to criticize the government. She and her grandparents left India and are enjoying the West while not realizing what is happening in India. I strongly urge the people of Indian origin out of India to respect the wishes of Indians and stay out of politics. If they are not citizen of India they have no business to meddle.
41
@Preeti It's impossible to overlook the actions of the Modi "government", even in an article about food, so fundamentally threatening as they are to the very idea of India. Ms. Rao is talking about a great and unified cuisine in India, with many inspirations from many sources, one under threat now.
185
@Preeti
The politics of India is relevant to the politics of the world. Indians (living in India) can, should and do criticize the politics of America. Enthusiastically and with great vehemence, at times I would add. Turnabout is fair play.
127
@Preeti the political is critical and important. and indians abroad and people everywhere have the right and duty to comment on political and social realities. objective and informed information on the regime in india is widely available. for the time being at any rate.
45
I'm sure you are a good food critic and everyone here enjoys your food recipes. However, please refrain from Indian politics which you have no clue about, going by what you said. The peaceful have killed an Intelligence officer chopped like chicken and threw into an open drainage, raped a hindu girl and burnt her and threw her into the same open drainage. Burnt a train, rape and killing of young hindu women who do not accept their faith or their love is the new norm. I truly wish for bleeding hearts like you to be left with them and when they come for you and you cry for help we then want to see what you would say in your articles. We ask for no one's pity or support we will fight to protect ourselves, our women and children. We wish you Good luck! but please refrain for writing something you have no clue or idea about. I will gladly take you to the families who have lost children and spouses and then lets see if you even have a heart.
16
The authors culinary repertoire is as limited as her knowledge of India....
"India is currently struggling with a powerful wave of Hindu nationalism that threatens its Muslim population with deadly violence. The news is hard to ignore, even in a food story: Hindu supremacists, who push a narrow definition of Indianness, also push a narrow definition of India’s food culture.
When my editors asked me to choose 10 essential Indian recipes, I wasn’t sure if the task was possible. But I came to see it as a way of celebrating the breadth of Indian home cooking."
Without the above spicy ingredient which is "extra hot", this article about 10 Indian recipes (which doesn't cover recipes from other parts of INDIA) would not have tasted this "bitter". Thanks
Tejal Rao is wrong when she wrote, "Though elite, upper-caste Hindus tend to be vegetarian, most Indians eat meat, and many millions of Muslim Indians eat beef." First, she doesn't account for the large Christian Indian population in Kerala, Goa, Mangalore, Andra Pradesh and Telangana. In Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, many of the Hindu's of all castes eat meat. In fact, Chettinad food in Tamil Nadu and Coorgi food of Karnataka is known to be meat-heavy. Tejal fails to realize that many Brahmin Hindus in South India, UP and Punjab eat meat. Eating meat isn't about caste for all Indians, and it's absolutely ignorant of her to imply that.
3
I see many readers applauding NYT and the author for their 'courageous' writing and asserting that food indeed is political. Great! Can we then expect the NYT to extend that argument to write ups about Western food too?
Please pad your articles about those juicy steaks with a sentence or two about the incredible cruelty of the meat industry in the U.S. How about a line or two about the centuries of slavery and exploitation of plantation workers by American corporations in your next chocolate banana muffins recipe? You can even extend this theme to Fashion (cotton, that classic American enterprise!). The NYT will have months of fun commissioning these 'radical' recipes.
11
I am about to leave India early (as in "virus-related" early) where I lived for over 3 months. The palette of spices and smells, the unique mix of flavors developing as you eat will be one of the strongest memories I take home.
I learnt to make Chai Masala - I'll try some recipes from this article (though I'm sure I cannot live up to what I tasted here). Greetings from Bangalore.
4
I love Indian food. It's intensely aromatic and delicious. That said, I would never cook it at home. I had an Indian couple who lived across the street in a very nice house that they maintained beautifully. When they moved out of state, they tried, unsuccessfully, for over three years to sell the house. After repeatedly lowering the price and re-listing the house, they were desperate. Just out of curiosity, I went to an open house to see why the house wouldn't sell. The moment I walked in the front door, the reason was was obvious. The smell was over-powering. The realtor, an Indian man, was at a loss for why the house wouldn't sell. While I was there, two young couples walking in, and immediately walked out. I told the realtor what the problem was, and he was incredulous. I suggested that he tell the sellers to take the house off the market, have it professionally deodorized, and re-list it for the original asking price three years prior. To my surprise, the owners did exactly as I suggested. After being deodorized and the price was increased by about $100,000, the house sold in less than two weeks in a bidding war for $107,000 more than the asking price. My advice is to enjoy Indian food in an Indian restaurant, but forget about cooking it at home. The smell will make your house unsaleable. It permeates everything and can only be removed by professionals.
3
@Stu
Maybe your anecdote is true, but pervasive food smells are not unique to Indian culture or any one culture.
Bacon and meat loaf may be very appetizing aromas to average US cooks, and those smells pervade the house too. These are very off-putting to those not used to them.
Same for fish dishes and fish sauce.
All houses for sale should be thoroughly cleaned and deodorized, especially if they have tobacco smokers, pets, etc.
21
I think this article is primarily meant for non-Indian readers, who very likely don’t cook Indian everyday. Cooking Indian food once in a while shouldn’t do any lasting damage to your home’s value. This is unnecessarily scaring people from trying new things in their kitchen.
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@Stu I can respect your decision to not make Indian food at home and can even understand why based on your one anecdote. To make that a blanket suggestion for all people who want to make Indian food at home is ignorant and insulting. First of all, many of the dishes listed in this article cannot be found in indian restaurants. These are the dishes that native Indians and those in the diaspora grew up eating at home and hold special value in that case. Second, many Indian folks are not unaware of the potential smell and have ways of coping with that if they can. Beyond using over-range hoods, some also choose to roast the especially pungent spices, etc. outside on small stoves. Third, like the author stated, Indian cuisine is so much more diverse than most people realize. To write off an entire aromatic realm of cooking because of one issue is absurd.
Again, you're welcome to not make foods you deem pungent at home (although then you'd be missing out on many cuisines of the world), but please don't write a blanket prescription based on just your life.
11
Enjoyed reading 10 Essential Indian receipes, except the following, simply because, it is simply not true where I live in Kerala. "India is currently struggling with a powerful wave of Hindu nationalism that threatens its Muslim population with deadly violence. The news is hard to ignore, even in a food story: Hindu supremacists, who push a narrow definition of Indianness, also push a narrow definition of India’s food culture".
I live in Kerala where 49 percent of the population are non-Hindus. About 20 percent Muslims. Next to Christians, as a community, they are very dominant in trade, small and medium size business,fishing and running schools and colleges.
This morning my Muslim friend brought me a fresh catch of small fish for Rs 750.00 and he is not facing a deadly violence from any of the Hindus living there. When my old friend, Majeed, drove in his new Maruti Suzuki car to my house to bring six bottles of fresh honey from his bee farm for my daughter to take to her Brooklyn home a month ago, he was not facing deadly violence. When I arranged Shehna, the twice divorced, feisty Muslim girl, who refuses to wear a hijab and runs around in a scooter, to cook and clean for a tourist couple from Germany who rented a house in my neighborhood, she was not facing any deadly violence. My request to NY times reporters and columnists, please don't generalize about situation in India because of some incidents in some parts of India that you have read about.
14
@K P Indrasimhan
I am genuinely pleased and heartened by your account of communal harmony Kerala.
However, the same cannot be said about India as a whole and the situation appears to be deteriorating due to Hindu supremacists and government's dog whistles.
Let's hope that regions like Kerala will demonstrate the win-win path a better India, perhaps even a Great India.
5
@Mansukh its funny how people who have never lived and do not live in India are falling over themselves to adhere to the stance taken by the press and foreign affairs departments in the countries they live in.
1
I love this introduction and what I imagine is a sincere desire to amplify the radical diversity of our country.
It is also hard to see titles like ‘aloo’ and ‘dal’ being used universally without recognition that it is not the language of all of our people. Language tells stories and holds power like food.
4
Like an earlier commenter, I cooked through a Madhur Jaffrey book some years ago, which greatly helped de-mystify Indian cooking for me. It was “Indian Cookery”, based on her wildly successful BBC cooking series from the 1980s. I found the recipes and ingredients accessible and some of her dishes remain favourites to this day (big shout out to “Black-eyed Beans/Peas with Mushrooms). India is such a varied country, with a cuisine to match, that listing 10 essential recipes borders on hubris. But it’s clear the list is subjective, so it’s a fun read. Going to try the lamb biryani for my next dinner party.
3
Excellent piece. Food IS political as are many aspects of lived culture. A significant percentage of Indians are mistreated for their food habits, some forced on them by the very hierarchies that ostracize them and reduce their choices, others that are at the core of what the land and its flora/fauna offer. I am tired of Indian disapora folks who win diversity points for being brown in white-majority cultures but fail to say anything about how the violence and bigotry within Indian and its diaspora impacts oppressed communities in various ways, including their food consumption and lived practices. Well done, Tejal and NYT! The fact that some people are whining proves to me that they know exactly how crucial this issue is.
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@ Jaya Queens
"A significant percentage of Indians are mistreated for their food habits" -- Good Heavens, how narrow-minded and intolerant can zealots become. I wonder if the ancient Hebrew and Arab tribes decapitated or stoned those who did not observe the ritualistic kasher and halal food, respectively.
This is wonderful and courageous writing. You knew from the start people would complain -- disagreement over what is "essential", "authentic", or appropriately cited. But Ms. Rao and NYT ran this anyway with a clear explanation, for those not too indignant to hear it, that the uniformity of Indian cuisine is a myth, and that this is one (very intelligent and knowledgeable) person's attempt to provide a platform from which to approach an understanding of a vast food culture.
As for the politics -- this is the NYT, not Food Network. Anyone discrediting the political context Ms. Rao provides either has no understanding of food culture, which is and has always been deeply political, and/or has a bias which only serves to underscore her point -- that our politics determine what we deem essential, worthy, and "Indian".
Thank you and bravo to the Times for writing with an awareness and depth that is often lacking in articles like these.
22
As a NY Times reader of several decades I took the NY Times owner Adolph S. Ochs’ famous slogan in 1897 "All the News That's Fit to Print" as a guiding principle. Yet of late, I have doubts how seriously does the current NY Times management/editorial board adheres to this guiding principle. The distinct bias in NY Times to go out of its way to write anti-India “news” has become so obvious that even in a simple cooking article it cannot refrain from gratuitously writing about the alleged anti-Muslim bias at national level. The reason I bring this point up is not to dispute the recent communal riots, because communal riots is nothing new in India, it has been happening for centuries and must be reported when it happens. The alleged anti-Muslim crime this time is that the Indian law will only allow persecuted and diminishing Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs to migrate to India from countries such as Pakistan; and is somehow against the Muslims citizens of India. The riots happened as did other incidents, but its mention has no place in an otherwise interesting Indian cooking article. It is akin to liberally garnishing an article on US Southern cooking with information about lynching of blacks or inserting paragraphs about the holocaust in a German cookbook. Everything has its place, and time comes when something is not a news but editors own biases. An otherwise delectable article has left a bad taste.
31
@PK2NYT Criticizing Narendra Modi is not Anti-India. Cultural appropriation by a minority of vegetarian Hindus is undeniably going on in India. Food has become an instrument of politics in India. At a meet to celebrate the culture of Indus valley civilization, the government directed to only serve vegetarian food, though evidence indicates that the people of Indus valley ( as did the Indo-Aryans) ate plenty of meat. The ancient brahmins ate beef as indicated by multiple sources ( sage Yajnavalkya, living in the period 10th to 8th century B.C., mentions his liking for beef in a Vedic text). Kiratarjuniyam ( a work by Kalidasa in the 4th century A,D.) has hunting of wild boar for food by Arjuna at the center of its plot. Brahmins and Vaishyas took to vegetarianism in early medieval /late ancient period, of history in order to counter the culture or continue ( in case of Vaishyas) the influence if Buddhism and Jainism. Even amongst upper caste Hindus meat eating is common ( Kshatriyas and Kayasthas are usually meat eaters). However vegetarianism is being used by some in the ruling dispensation to define Hindu identity as distinct from Muslims or Christians, which is ridiculous. And once again, Narendra Modi's government having obtained close to 40% votes does not represent a majority of Indians. 60% is more than 40%. Criticizing the government or differing with them cannot be braded as anti-India. India is bigger than Modi or the definitions Hindutva is trying to foist.
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@MS Mr. Modi has won re-election with backing of astonishing 550 million people. No world leader ever - living or dead - has backing of so many people. Mr. Modi won his re-election with larger majority.
In a civilized democracy differences are settled at courts and elections. Media has a role to be impartial - whether it’s India or US.
The “news” in Times are not just criticizing Mr. Modi. They’re biased in basic journalistic reporting. There is no harm being done to Indian Muslims on a large scale, which is what you’d walk away with if you read all of NYT’s reporting since last year. I spent 2 months traveling across India. Even in Delhi, except for few areas with protests, life is pretty normal.
13
@MS
Thank you for this erudite deconstruction of these BJP fables.
India is much, much more than Modi and will surely revert to its ancient truths and wisdom and tolerance.
And not only that, the Indian economy under this government is on the ropes - and this criminality is going to drive foreign investment and collaboration away. Be careful what you wish for PK2NYT et al
9
I am so disappointed that 99.9% of my many dozens of cookbooks, including quite a few on Indian cuisine, fail to bash the host country’s religions, politics and daily life.
After all, isn’t that what cookbooks are for?
18
@Mon Ray
Cleaver and witty but, alas, flawed.
Here is another version
(As Mahatma Gandhi is about to set of on his march)
Me: Bapuji, I am disappointed that 99.9% of my dozens of shopping trips, some even for salt, fail to be classified as "freedom march".
Mahatma: Satyagraha struggles occurs in every arena and on every stage whenever there is injustice
This is why, in a knub, Gandhiji is an anathema to Modi and his followers.
(Also, He said turn the other cheek, not close the other eye)
4
@Mon Ray
Perhaps, because 99.9% of host countires don't bash a minoriy amongst thier own citizens?
The subhead speaks to "dishes that show the cuisine's many facets and techniques."
These facets and techniques, sadly, do not make them "essential." Perhaps it is the time of the day, perhaps it the meandering culinary representation of the dishes, perhaps it is COVID-19, perhaps it is the unnecessary political throwaway lines in the article, but i'm having a very violent antibody reaction to the choices made.
Lamb? This is just not "essential" -- chicken or goat maybe, but you won't routinely find lamb in either household or restaurant.
Keema seemingly overloaded with cilantro? I don't have a problem with cilantro, but the "essential" keema is keema-mutter -- keema with peas.
As many have pointed out the rotis and dosas look objectionable at least, and abominable at worst.
What the heck is matar kachori?
I'm sure these dishes are all fine but to call them "essential" is a terrible idea, and a fool's errand.
3
This article should be titled Gujarathi Recipes, Not INDIAN!
For, there's nothing called an Indian recipe. There are literally thousands of them. Examples: Punjab/Tandoor, Moghul, and Hyderabad/Dum.
(I once ate at an "Indian" restaurant in Durban, South Africa, a country with a sizeable Indian diaspora similar to Tejal's. Their curries tasted very different to me.)
In the South of India, you'd find only two dishes mentioned by Tejal: Dosa and Egg Curry. (The latter is not a daily offering.)
Go to the South and enjoy its many FISH dishes (curried, fried, poached, roasted...), fresh vegetable sides, tapioca, and, of course, daily offering of idli, dosa, and masala dosa with sambar and coconut chutney (both hot and cold).
Boiled rice, not Roti, is the main staple in the South.
India benefits immensely from its myriad styles of cooking, influenced by invaders, religion, caste, and even economics!
Tejal's contributions, with her diaspora roots, only enhance India's rich flavors of cuisine.
Bottom line:
There's nothing called an "Indian Curry/Recipe."
6
Nothing “essential” about any of these dishes. Each Indian state has its own essentials. Please do not generalize your essentials on all Indians.
7
Essential North Indian cuisine
1
@Ravi What? Most of these dishes are not even North Indian.
@Ravi dosa isn’t North Indian although now most restaurants serve dosa idli and indo Chinese, all over the country! Restaurants declare “multi cuisine” food as byline!!
Because of that complex and mind boggling phenomenon called the caste system wherein vegetarianism is associated with Hindu Brahmins, considered to be at the top of the caste hierarchy. Hence elite” and “upper caste”. Also why we have a category of food called non-vegetarian here in India. You’ll see restaurants labelled vegetarian and non- vegetarian.
Are other Indians inferior on account of their food choices? Certainly not!
But that hasn’t historically stopped communities associated with vegetarianism from feeling just a tad bit superior.
So the article technically isn’t incorrect.
Is it politically correct to be saying all this? Ha no!
But an article on food in India that does not mention that aspect would certainly not be wrong, just not wholly representative
2
No mention of bengali food? The food of the people - the one state fighting against Modi? The one state where pluralism means something and the Chief Minister is trying to bring Hindus, Muslims and Christians together. The California (politically) of India? And the one people, regardless of religion, who WORSHIP food ?
Come on. A little more research next time please.
4
Hmm, 10 Indian recipes, not one from the eastern part of the country (where >250 million people live, and have heir amazingly rich and intricate food culture). Quite a myopic view of looking at Indian food.
3
Ravishing! I love Indian food but am too lazy to cook it. Glad to eat it.
Ah, there we go. When in doubt (or a global pandemic), talk food! I would eat all of these dishes. Many I have.
I worked with many Indians in Silicon Valley. I told my friend Manish that I was a little baffled in one southern Indian restaurant, because it seemed everyone was eating with their hands (me, white person, they brought utensils).
He told me, "In India, it does not matter how you eat your food, as long as it gets in your mouth."
Good advice, and still cracks me up.
5
Just FYI that many Indian grocery stores now sell pre-made dosa and idli batter.
That’s really sub standard dosas.
2
Erm, as a born and raised Mumbaiite married to a Hyderabad-born Telugu who was raised in south India and the US, trust me no one outside the Telugu speaking populace has heard of koora, Pappu, bendakayya and pulusu. Pulusu and koora are words I heard for the first time on my wedding day.
I love Andhra food, but, see, pesarattu for example is not the same as dosa, which everybody knows.
I think Tejal Rao has done a pretty neat job, considering what a challenge it would have been .. I mean 10 items only!
Good job Tejal! Ur list is quite representative. You master the dal, dosa and egg curry and you are pretty much sorted. Ask all those kids prepping to study and live in the US. Pretty sure dal is the first thing they’d learn to cook. Then the day you are able to prepare the dosa and idli batter from scratch, you feel ready to run the house.
Just a thought — Wouldn’t the samosa instead of Kachori be more representative? Or is samosa not Indian ( need to google now)
1
@dsi “trust me no one outside the Telugu speaking populace has heard of koora, Pappu, bendakayya and pulusu”. Perhaps koora is an exception (but even that is just an umbrella for dishes common to other states also), but you can find all of these dishes in the other South Indian states (and maybe beyond), just by their non-Telugu names. In Tamil Nadu, they would be called paruppu, vendakkai, and kozhumbu (so I guess one can say nobody outside of Tamilians would know these, although Malayalis may disagree). Obviously, Andhra does have its own dishes, but the ones listed above are not necessarily those. Although, I do love a typical Andhra meal of pesarattu with peanut chutney :)
To all those who have commented on the author's references to the current political climate in India in a piece on recipes for dining pleasure: All authors of Indian origin who aspire to get published in our MSM for a variety of reward types have to reckon with editors who have professional obligations to advance narratives about how the "nationalists" and parochialists around the world are threatening the human civilization and its march to utopia. The perception of this "threat" is so severe an insistence on the inclusion of "sky is falling" theme in EVERY public discourse is warranted, nay, critically necessary. Please understand.
6
The Hinduphobia has reached hysterical proportion!
India’s history of tolerance goes back to the 9th century with Zoroastrians taking refuge in India. They were fleeing Muslim invaders from Saudi Arabia.
Look at the ground truth in the region. While religious minorities are fleeing Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, no Indian minorities are leaving the country. That should inform as to where minorities feel safe.
15
Thank you for pointing this important fact out.
I just wish the author had kept politics out of it. People are going to comment about nothing else now.
7
Delicious article (esp just before lunch). However, food from the eastern part of India seems not to have made it. Would love to invite you home for some "Maacher Jhol", Tejal :)
Nice to see mention of current indian religious and racial intolerance. Was surprised though that there are no Kashmiri recipes listed. Despite having the most amazing food the Kashmiris today are the pariahs of the pariahs among the hindu nationalists. Alu dum kashmiri should have made the list.
1
Before using turmeric, consider getting it tested for lead: "Stanford researchers find lead in turmeric | Some spice processors in Bangladesh use an industrial lead chromate pigment to imbue turmeric with a bright yellow color prized for curries and other traditional dishes, elevating blood lead levels..."
https://news.stanford.edu/2019/09/24/lead-found-turmeric/
6
Wow...you get awards for criticizing...never knew that.
Not taking away from Tejal at all, good article. Thanks to her the age old question has been answered (for today at least), i.e. what to make for dinner tonight? I now have purpose....thank you.
1
Where is Palak Paneer ? It's such a comfort-food dish.
2
I’d appreciate it if you didn’t put things in the main paid subscriber area that require a second separate subscription to actually see the recipes. It’s just frustrating. If I’m misunderstanding how this works please anyone enlighten me so I can start some toor dal.
12
1 cup toor dal (split yellow pigeon peas)
2 Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup raw whole peanuts
For the Tempering:
¼ cup/55 grams ghee
1 sprig fresh curry leaves
3 small cinnamon sticks
3 red dried chiles, such as chile de árbol
3 cloves
¼ teaspoon black mustard seeds
Pinch of asafoetida
Preparation
Prepare the dal: Soak the pigeon peas in a large bowl of warm water for about 1 hour. (They will have swelled a little.) Thoroughly rinse the soaked pigeon peas with fresh water, then tip the drained pigeon peas into a pot.
Add tomatoes, turmeric, salt and 5 cups water, and bring to a boil over high. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until very tender, 25 to 30 minutes.
Use an immersion blender to purée some of the dal, leaving some intact and getting some very smooth, or whisk vigorously to break up some of the soft dal. Stir in the peanuts and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the dal is very tender, about 30 minutes. Taste and adjust with salt. If the dal has become too thick for your liking, stir in a splash of water.
Prepare the tempering: In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm the ghee. When hot, carefully add all of the tempering ingredients (the mustard seeds will sputter!) and swirl the pan until you can smell all the toasted spices, about 30 seconds. Pour everything over the hot dal.
2
Hey NYT...instead of having us click/Unclick on ten different recipes 'offered us', only to find that a number (or all?) required us to have a separate (paid) NYT Cooking subscription, maybe next time, for all such articles with recipes, the link clearly say 'You need an NYT Cooking subscription in order to access this recipe'. Why make us go through the entire charade?
I remember up until a few years ago, all NYT Cooking recipes were available to anyone with a basic NYTimes.com subscription. Then, someone at NYT saw a way to make more money, and suddenly a number of recipes I'd previously accumulated in my own NYT recipe box were no longer available to me. Not cool.
18
Fantastic article about India cuisine served with a healthy dose of Hinduphobia. Is it necessary for all New York Times articles to tow the political line? The increasing attack on Hindus in NYT articles is very disturbing.
12
@S Gadasally
These are NOT attacks on Hindus. It is Indian Hindus who are speaking up in defense of our nation, our heritage and our tolerant history and philosophy.
This is an absolutely appropriate statement against bigotry, hatred and violence towards other communities either by Trump-loving Americans or Modi-loving Indians.
4
These absolutely are attacks against Hindus. They mention “Hindutva” as a fascist movement. They don’t even define what it is. There is absolutely no harm being done to Indians of Muslim faith. There is no large scale mistreatment of minorities by Hindus in India as the Times reporting would have you believe it, including the silliness of injecting misinformation in an article related to food.
There is no community as large as Hindus that are more tolerant throughout the entire known history of humanity.
There isn’t a single article on how Hindus suffered through multiple foreign invasions. They’re etched in collective memories of Hindus but apparently has no value to Times.
8
@S Gadasally
I am so sorry that criticizing a mass murderer who has made history, art, and cuisine part of his cultural war makes you uncomfortable. Perhaps you should be more uncomfortable about the Pogroms PM Modi has been regularly orchestrating as a minority living comfortably in the US don't you think.
2
"But you won’t find my family’s recipes for undhiyu, dhokla or samosas." Perhaps one day you will share them with us?
a) The rotis, dosas and matar kachori look terrible. As in, I would leave the table if these were offered to me.
b) How did keema make the cut over a simple chicken curry ?
c) How did Kosambari make the cut at all ???!!!
d) STOP with the excessive cilantro in EVERYTHING !
e) You want truly amazing Indian food ? Look no further than Madhur Jaffrey !
6
@SueK Tonight I made Madhur Jaffrey''s recipe "My Everyday Moong Dal," from her book At Home with Madhur Jaffrey. It was accompanied by tindora fried with curry leaves. Excellent but my chapatis were disappointing.
1
Chapatis need quite a bit of practice. All the stages- kneading the whole wheat flour (atta) rolling out the chapatis and cooking them - are equally important. Watch YouTube videos by Indian cooks.
Elect Bernie and he'll free these recipes.
3
Click bait. The Times snookers us in with its fine images and evocative text, and then like a carnie barker, says you have to pay to get inside the tent. A real turn-off for this long-time fan of the paper. But-- all the pop culture coverage that any reader of People could ask for.
4
@Roger My mistake. This new Macbook lead me and my fingers astray. A worthwhile article with a couple of recipes I will add to our household's favorites from Kerala and Ladakh.
It is unfortunate that politics is injected into article about Indian cuisine.Hindu Muslim conflict is ages old. Both have been aggressors and victims. Recent riots had followers of both religions killed
5
@Azad
Maybe Tejal Rao is an actual human being, an unafraid woman to be precise. Not a Recipe Robot.
5
Where is the Butter Chicken?
1
So much criticism from what was meant to be a introductory article to the wider range of Indian cuisine. Sometimes it’s better not to say anything if you don’t have anything nice to say.
2
Let’s just mix politics in every subject, shall we?
4
@Rohit Lal
Not politics - humanity! Unless you think murdering Muslims by hitting him with iron rods is merely ‘politics’.
5
A beautiful article about food, that's why I clicked on it.
How funny a lot of Americans are. Almost all of the first "Readers Picks" comment are about retaining the diversity of India, while in the U.S. they are screaming for a milky white euro christian identity on every corner. Before having an opinion on the situation in India, look inward, America, look inward.
6
The author writes "India is currently struggling with a powerful wave of Hindu nationalism that threatens its Muslim population with deadly violence. The news is hard to ignore, even in a food story: Hindu supremacists, who push a narrow definition of Indianness, also push a narrow definition of India’s food culture."
However one may view the current Indian government does the above belong in a piece about recipes?
8
I could not get the recipes on this article. I got off and back on twice. It sends me to a "Subscribe" for a newsletter that I don't want and will not get out of it.
Very disappointed in this hard sell.
NY Times would not have allowed this article without a carefully injected politics to it. It is classic playing to the masters.
5
Why are the recipes for these items on the subscription only NYT Cooking website?
Wait. What? You excluded chicken curry?!
1
I love you New York Times and I proudly pay for a subscription, but please stop forcing me to pay $60 just to read the recipes in articles. Really...
3
Except for toor dal and may be potato masala, “essential” is not the adjective I’d use for the rest.
That the Times would allow incorrect and biased political commentary to be injected into an article related to food shows the unhealthy levels of polarization in our civil discourse.
Please visit India and spend some time speaking with Indians living their lives before making such biased commentary!
4
How low has NY Times stooped! Even an article on Indian cooking has not left out digs at Hindus and the Modi government!
8
@Indian Diner
Appropriate and deserved criticism of Modi and his mindless conscienceless followers who have tried to pervert Hinduism as proTrump evangelicals have perverted Christianity.
India will lose all credibility and international investors will flee an economy that is already on its knees - be careful what you wish for.
4
I am Indian. Most recipes are south Indian fare which I am not a fan off. I think the regional cuisines of Bengal, Gujrat, Punjab are better.
4
I am not sure if these recipes are breakfast or lunch or dinner? Dosa is traditionally eaten as snacks and so is kachori and samosa and batata vada from a Mumbai which are all eaten as snack. This is not at all Indian because approx 800 million people in India are vegetarian (mike and cheese included) I have also not heard about fish fry from Manglore?
Something is not right with this info.
Mandar who was born and lived in Mumbai for 30 years before immigrating to America!
2
Mandar, a fellow Mumbaikar here. I just wanted to say that in many south indian households, including mine, Dosa is eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So it's definitely not a breakfast only item.
2
@Mandar Kulkarni
I am a Mangalore (coastal) Konkan. We eat fish and seafood every day - fried, curried and pickled.
2
@Mandar Kulkarni I guess all of us Mangaloreans who eat fish don’t exist for you. Just because you’re from Mumbai doesn’t mean you know anything much does it - loads of people eat dosas for lunch and dinner and breakfast too - snacks - not so much. Where do you get your numbers from - 800 million?
1
Truth be told - no one cares for or knows about either Lucknow or Bengal food here in the US - the two regions of India that produces - not just food - but culinary art - combining ingredients and creating recipes that are innovative and bold - and sometimes too unusual to even attempt.
Interestingly, those who can master either - for eg., Bengali cuisine and successfully implement them stand to gain a lot.
The best restaurant in Asia - Gaggan - rated top despite fervent opposition from powerhouses is owned by someone from Calcutta.
Chola - for the longest time rated No. 1 Indian restaurant in NYC in Zagat is also owned by someone from Calcutta (Shiva).
That an article on 10 Essential Indian Recipes in the US would have neither Lucknowi or Bengali recipes is perhaps not so unexpected. It would have been essential if only people knew about them.
7
Nice write up. Though the picture of the egg curry disappointed me. One has to fry the boiled egg a bit reddish after smearing it in little salt and turmeric before adding into the curry. It makes the taste, heavenly!
3
Nice list. I know you had to be very selective but Sambhar was a big miss.
I've lived in Kolkota, N Delhi and of course grew up in Chennai.
My wife grew up in Mumbai so we cover the gamut of Indian cuisine - South, North, East, and West.
The variety of Indian food from Gujarat to Assam, Kerala to Kashmir is tremendous. Tough job to pick 10 but great selections.
5
Great list, but why is Karnataka mentioned so many times?! Would have been nice to include one Punjabi and one Bengali dish to reflect those populations as well, especially considering their considerable impact on Indian culture. More than half the dishes are South Indian, which doesn’t reflect much variety.
8
@Sim Please. Just look at any Indian restaurant in the states. It's overflowing with bad representations of north Indian dishes while south Indian cuisine often gets overlooked. There are plenty of lob sided lists with your butter chickens and navrathan kormas that fail to educate the rest of the world about india's diverse cuisines.
Hear you on the Bengali part though.
4
Tejal I loved your recommendations. I have been sampling and learning about Indian food through Krishna lunches. My favorite Indian food is vegetarian even though I am a carnivore.
2
Did spot an authenthic Chicken/lamb Dhansak dish there, served with kababs and cachumber ( minced onion/coriander/cilantro/lemon).
1
I've enjoyed quite a few Indian recipes over the years, both in my home and others', as well as in restaurants. If I had to choose an all-time favorite it would be Goan Fish Curry.
4
Bookmarking this wonderful Indian cooking primer. My brother-in-law is Indian with parents who emigrated from the Kerala region before he was born. I’ve truly enjoyed their homemade feasts when visiting them in Seattle, made in much the same way as described here: assembly-line kitchen setup in the days before the big feast.
I have also dabbled in slightly Indian-ish vegetarian cooking and medicine over my decades of exploring natural health and global herbal medicine traditions. Studying yoga at various centers has also exposed me to wonderful Indian food as well.
I especially appreciate the added mentions of the difficulties still facing Hindus and Muslims living together in India, difficulties that seem chained to a cycle that goes back before Partition. Food is the universal constant of humanity and I pray one day soon Hindus and Muslims, as well as Christians, Jews, and Buddhists, get over their differences and join together to break bread in peace. As Steve Jobs once said, spirituality is a house with many doors; all open the way inside.
13
Thank you for including South Indian recipes! What a thoughtful and well-written piece.
9
There are many regional differences in Indian cooking. Northern Indian dishes typified by those from Punjab often feature meat and dairy and a somewhat different spice profile than dishes from the south of India. Bengali food often features sweet/sour notes and fish. Vegetarian cooking is an art unto itself. And then there is the whole delicious pantheon of Indian street food. All in all a wonderfully delicious array of food across the country.
4
The Indian cuisines are my favorite! There's such a richness of flavors and colors, an assimilation of the many cultures in India and the adapted culinary contributions of people from distant lands that passed through. The popular dish vindaloo, from Goa, finds its origins in the Portuguese dish Carne de vinha d'alhos. There are Jewish traditions and many, many others. The Indian cuisines are my best argument in support of cultural appropriation!
Some of my favorites: aloo gobhi (potatoes and cauliflower), muthia (Gujarati spiced dumplings), Goanese meat curry, Hydrabadi lime soup. I could go on an on.
Ms. Rao's list just made my day! I'm planning dinner as I write!
7
i enjoyed the recipes but of course its only a slice of our cuisine. I was disappointed to not see any Goan food which i think is one of the oldest East West fusion cuisines and for Indian foodies. goa is a very beloved place.
2
Ms Rao, this is a wonderful and informative article. My experiences with Indian cuisine have been limited, but always delicious! I take issue with the comments criticizing your selection of dishes, their preparation and presentation, and your observations about politics and food. Obviously, those commentators are all disclosing more about their own politics and intolerance of differences. Now......where in the US can I find authentic Indian cuisine?
6
@Lost In A Red State
Try the Hindu temples in your area.
my experience tells me they often have the best South Indian cuisine.
5
@Lost In A Red State Loudoun County in Northern Virginia. We have a big community of Indians working in IT in DC.
now I'm craving my favorite Chicken 65 - sometimes its an appetizer but I double it up and make it a meal.
Nice diverse list of foods; however the statement that it is mostly upper castes are vegetarian is a common fallacy. Historically, there are thousands of subdivisions of work-groups (jaatis). Many artisans, merchants, or worker familial groups are vegetarian part or all of the time. Much of this has to do with the area of India being discussed
I have volunteered in the rural areas of Karnataka where there were farm-working communities who were vegetarian. On the other hand, Bengali brahmins and Konkani brahmins have never been vegetarian.
There is a trend towards vegetarianism in the upper castes but this is by no means universal. In fact, the more consistent trend is that in urban areas there is more meat consumption per individual than in rural areas. Lastly, I think it's ironic that as most of the world seems to have recognized the benefit of a plant-based diet, based on what I see advertised/ reported, India seems to have moved more towards meat consumption. For a country where groundwater supplies are dangerously low, I worry about this trend in terms of food sustainability for the population.
17
@Ravina yes the Gaud Saraswat Brahmins of Goa are not vegetarian and eat fish every day as chicken quite often too.
1
Please post some videos for these recipes (a la Melissa Clark)! For those of us who love Indian food, but have no practical experience making it, a video would be of great help.
5
@Vanessa Cheshire
Yes, but please never abandon the written word as well. Some of us prefer reading a recipe that can be printed out over watching a video that requires touching a screen to review certain sections of it while cooking.
Same goes for news stories as well. Takes me 2-3 times as long to imbibe a story via video versus simply reading it through. I almost always skip a story that’s all video without an accompanying written manuscript.
7
@Vanessa Cheshire all these recipes are on you tube eg. Manjula's kitchen is an excllent site for rotis and other breads
as well as veggies
https://www.cookwithmanali.com/egg-curry/
https://hebbarskitchen.com/matar-kachori-recipe-peas-kachori-recipe/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgu5mHU_VmU
While this list does not do justice to the diversity and richness of Indian food, the article is about food. Not politics. There was no real need for the author to insert political opinions of what's happening in India with half-knowledge.
11
Is this supposed to be only directed to South Asian cooks?
1
It’s par for the course.
Just as in the US, any article on any topic takes a moment to bash Trump.
I am sorry, but while all of the dishes look delicious, those are the most pitiful dosas I have seen of late. I have doubts they were prepared by a South Indian. Having been raised on dosas and idlis by a master cook (my mom, of course), those would just not suffice. Still, thank you for sharing the wide and varied foods of a complicated and beautiful cuisine.
11
@Anitha agreed. The dosas dont look very good.
@Anitha those look like set dosas - your mom probably made the crispier thinner kind. Not all dosas are the same.
Enjoyed the article and recipes and also readers' responses. Perhaps the greatest influence on Indian cuisine, and many other world cuisines, came after the introduction of native American foods like the potato, hot peppers, tomato and corn some 400 years ago. What were the classic recipes before then?
2
@AMAC
Peppercorns, cumin, coriander,turmeric, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, eggplant, mango etc etc all first cultivated in south Asia.
2
Interesting how the list does not include any food from Bengal!! And anyone who knows anything about Indian food would know that when one talks of fish, which is our staple food ( we eat fish and rice, 365 days a year and this includes lunch and dinner) 😊
5
@FedGod Almost weekly I make Madhur Jaffrey's recipe for salmon in a Bengali mustard sauce. The rub is salt, turmeric, and cayenne; the sauce includes mustard powder, cayenne, and turmeric, along with mustard, cumin and fennel seeds and a bird's eye chili. Not sure how authentically Bengali it is but it tastes great.
I just left india for good after spending 5 consecutive winter's and then some - mostly in Mumbai.
She has picked some of my favorite recipes.
”...The uniformity of that place is a myth, because the uniformity of Indianness is a myth...”
I don't think it was ever a myth - if you go by foods. I tell folks that if you closed your eyes and went from North to South or west to rest - just sampling foods - you would think you are traveling thru different countries.
This, Undhiya - is a specialty of a restaurant in Mumbai which I used to frequent.
While all these recipes are good and delicious - I wish Ms. Rao had also advised readers on how to serve them - and what goes with them to savor them more.
For example, Undhiya is served heavily with ”ghee” - Indian purified butter. Or for that matter - kheema and a couple of other dishes are best served with ”raita” which is yogurt with cucumber or tomatoes.
Or for that matter, many Indians will chew or bite off fried green chillies while eating many of these dishes - not to mention pickles of many varieties.
For me, Indian food is as much as these varied dishes as what else is out on the platter.
Finally, I join others in disapproval of politics in this otherwise excellent selection.
3
I wish every Indian commenting negatively here on Tejal’s choice of 10 Indian recipes, would include a list of their own - that the rest of us could comment wisely on.
Perhaps the nonIndian critics could provide a list of the “10 essential American recipes” for similar sport.
12
This is a great list. I can vouch for that as a vegetarian, Kenyan-Indian Aussie. To all those commentators bashing the list. Please re-read the title. It’s Tejal Rao’s essential list. Not anyone else’s.
16
Ms. Rao, are you saying your grandmotehr wore flipflops (or any type of footwrar) in the kitchen? No, no, no. No chappals or slippers or sandals or shoes inside the house in India.
8
@Jana Perhaps not in your experience, but certainly in mine.
1
@Jana not really Jana. We in Goa dont have a problem with shoes or slippers in the kitchen
@Jana She clarifies. It is in Kenya, not in India.
I am glad to see the variety of recipes and dishes listed by the author. Shows the amazing diversity in Indian cuisine and the author’s good luck and taste growing up.
The political commentary within the article seems forced and does not add value to the article - just works up people’s biases as I see in the comments here...I read the article twice, skipping the political notes the second time and the article seemed to be on point and flow better.
3
Ms Rao’s list is more diverse than most, yet it barely scratches the surface. There is no “essential” list of indian cooking. Ms Rao’s origins represent 2 states and the popular dishes originating from there.
It’s safe to say, of the 25 plus states in India, each could have their own top 10 lists that would have very little overlap with their neighbor. For example the popular “Dal Tadka” that one finds in most indian restaurants is virtually unknown in South India. And don’t even get me started on the wannabe Indian Chicken Tikka Masala!!
2
I just left india for good after spending 5 consecutive winter's and then some - mostly in Mumbai.
She has picked some of my favorite recipes.
”...The uniformity of that place is a myth, because the uniformity of Indianness is a myth...”
I don't think it was ever a myth - if you go by foods. I tell folks that if you closed your eyes and went from North to South or west to rest - just sampling foods - you would think you are traveling thru different countries.
This, Undhiya - is a specialty of a restaurant in Mumbai which I used to frequent.
While all these recipes are good and delicious - I wish Ms. Rao had also advised readers on how to serve them - and what goes with them to savor them more.
For example, Undhiya is served heavily with ”ghee” - Indian purified butter. Or for that matter - kheema and a couple of other dishes are best served with ”raita” which is yogurt with cucumber or tomatoes.
Or for that matter, many Indians will chew or bite off fried green chillies while eating many of these dishes - not to mention pickles of many varieties.
For me, Indian food is as much as these varied dishes as what else is out on the platter.
Finally, I join others in disapproval of politics in this otherwise excellent selection.
1
For the readers that criticize this specific list of essential Indian recipes: these are Tejal's essential recipes ---- not yours.
Post your own somewhere and write your own story. Include your take on Indian politics. Or don't. Your choice.
20
These are amazing recipes. Can we, for once, stop politicising everything?
3
@Dharini So it is okay when the ruling political party is deciding what food the people of the country can/can’t eat? It is important to separate religion from state and unfortunately, India is falling short on that.
15
@Dharini No.
1
India is a diverse country with many languages, cultures and cuisines. It is in many ways more diverse than Europe. Many a person from the North of the country finds the culture and language of the south foreign and vice-versa and thus to make a sweeping generalization such as a list of 10 Essential Indian recipes is likely to be wrong. It might have been better to title it as a list of 10 Indian recipes. Other generalizations such as “Though elite, upper-caste Hindus tend to be vegetarian” are also wrong. Virtually everybody in Bengal eats at least fish if not meat. And Yadavs and Gujjars - neither of them considered traditionally elite - may be both vegetarian/non-vegetarian ( sometimes within the same family). There is an interview with Akhilesh Yadav ( the former chief minister of UP) where he says he is vegetarian but his children are not. While I may share some of her political thoughts on what is happening in India, I think she might have been better off not including it in this article.
13
Would someone be so kind as to recommend a good Indian cookbook or two? My wife is a trained chef, and we'd be excited to try making some of this delicious food. Many thanks.
@Voter Frog Try Maya Kaimal's any book. She's a southern cuisine (Kerala) specialist, but other dishes can be found in her books as well.
Here's one - one of her first, and a masterpiece.
https://smile.amazon.com/Savoring-Spice-Coast-India-Flavors/dp/0060192577/ref=sr_1_28?crid=18IZ3UWX3DIB6&keywords=maya+kaimal&qid=1583941399&sprefix=maya+kai%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-28
2
@Voter Frog If you can get hold of it, Madhur Jaffrey's 'A Taste of India' is wonderful. It's also a travelogue and has recipes from home cooks across India that she has tested. I would highly recommend it. Mine is dog-earred and yellow stained from cooking from it.
6
@Voter Frog Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking is also an excellent cookbook, particularly for an experienced chef.
2
I was so excited to see Mattar ki Kachodi on this list! It is my first thing to eat when I land home in Delhi (Dabeli is my firstt thing to eat if I land home in Bombay) and it is not something that everyone outside the region is familiar with, though most Indians are familiar with Kachori in general. I love that the world can read about it here - it is the best of kachoris as you say. I always bring a few back when I return to the US.
4
After this endorsement, I have to try! Her fish fish is also awesome. With neer or other dosas.
2
Delighted with Tejal's choice of 10 recipes. must have been an impossible task - how do you select 10 from that vastness. It is a lovely selection for a beginner & interested cook. I'm especially delighted to see Karnataka mentioned more than once. About dosas - In an History of Indian food book, I have read that dosas were first mentioned in 14th Century Kannada texts (or inscriptions). Finally, so glad for the reference to attempts to erase some of India's history in its cuisine. Thank you for the very best selection. Now off to share with my American daughter, nieces, relatives!
6
45 years ago my Philosophy professor asked for a volunteer to help Bhanu, a fellow student, understand our weekly readings. She was well-educated in India and her husband had come to teach at a local University. Seeing that no one else had raised a hand I did, although I didn't know how I'd find the extra time and energy . . . well- lucky, lucky me!
Each week I'd go to her house and enter into a world of simmering and frying aromas and tastes completely unknown to me. After laughing, cooking and eating together, we'd settle into the weekly readings . . . once she even dressed me in her saris . . .
That Professor told us that our enjoyment of those great thinkers was really only the crumbs at their banquet. Thanks to Bhanu, I got a banquet, too. What a wonderful semester . . .
13
I don't know who Tejal Rao is. But these are not essential Indian recipes in the books of millions and millions of Indians who are vegetarians or who are from different regions of India.
9
@munnir A very large population, in the millions, of course, are non-vegetarians as well.
India cannot be defined by any one group. I think Tejal made it clear in the beginning.
27
It is a good sampler from some parts of the subcontinent. It is offensive to lump the entire union’s cuisine as one. It is not the author’s fault. Is everyone okay with grouping french, italian, spanish, and other cuisines as the European cuisine?
9
Sorry, South Indians offer the best vegetarian dishes. These are mediocre dishes. A new cookbook by Srividhya Gopalakrishnan "The Essential South Indian Cookbook" is an excellent place to start.
10
@JMK Love this book!! Thanks for mentioning.
Thank you for the list. I am happy it includes basic roti, daal and aloo sabzi. Indian food as the world knows it is essentially restuarant food, mass produced and not what families eat on a daily basis.
10
Thank you for a wonderful article. These recipes remind me of my childhood, with the tasty, simple, generally healthy dinners that my mom would cook. Now I'm the cook, and this is a great list to have in the repertoire.
2
Thank you picking this topic. The task you set yourself is an impossible one. Bit akin to what makes a good parent where each of us will have a personal and unique take based on our own experiences.
The genius is that it give each individual a chance to lick our chopsticks and recall happy times and special people.
To me, it brings to mind food my maternal grandmother used to cook after ride on a bullock cart to the small farm in a hamlet near Porbandar. It was a simple but healthy fare -such as aubergines with millet rotlas with some pickles. My grandmother would slow cook the aubergines in a clay pot that was shallow buried under the soil.
For several years I had mung dal and roti every lunchtime while at school - lovingly cooked by my mother.
Even now in my 60's a Gujarati potato and peas saak cooked by my sister(s)-in-law is all time and any time favourite.
I doubt if any of these would feature in your lists but I bet your dishes will evoke memories and stir up same emotions as mine do to me!
5
Tejal, I loved everything you had to say in your essay and I am a Konkan. What is happening in India today is horrific especially for those of us who grew up with the gentle, tolerant, respectful culture which we believed was immutably Indian and would never change.
By the way, Konkani and Gujarati, people and language have a great deal in common in their origins and ancestry. Both languages derive from the Prakrit branch of Sanskrit, and DNA studies show a strong link in ancestry - interesting for two cultures now at a great distance from each other.
15
It'd have been better Ms. Rao hadn't included the "Indian"word in the title.
Moreover, this is a very non-representative list, definitely doesn't represent India as a whole. Then again 10 dishes can never represent "India" in any list of 10 items, it's impossible.
7
Thank you Ms. Rao, for sampling the greatest, most diverse cuisine on Earth, - Italian, Thai, Mexican, Ethiopian - I could do fine on a deserted island for rest of my life with any one of those, but India's many flavors still dominate my pallet.
2
Murgh makhani and palak paneer would be on my list. I would also pick puris ahead of rotis.
5
Thanks for your interesting article and recipes!
3
I love Indian food but these recipes are way too complicated for today’s cook. So many other reicpes that are delicious and easier.
3
@Julie Gold If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.
4
@Julie Gold Actually they are not. THe main point of Indian cuisine is it's completely personal. Your masalas do your work for you. You can add, subtract edit the recipe to your liking. The power of Indian flavors that they are stacked upon each other. I would encourage you to make simple daal and curry with meat of your chooosing by just following basic steps from Indian cook book or website. They also provide you with prep time and cooking time.
Why didn't a dessert make the list?!
6
@Ella
Indians do not as a rule eat sweets or dessert unless it is a wedding or festival. Children were given sweet treats but not on a daily basis. Pieces of fruit after a meal - segments of orange or a small banana was what we had growing up, - after lunch usually, supper was a lighter meal.
9
For a nation where food changes (by changes I don't mean a modest change) every 60 odd miles - its almost impossible to make any sort of a list that wont have a huge swathe of Indians up in arms. The author has done a good job considering she is actually not someone that has lived in India herself.
That said, there is nothing called Indian cusine or Indian food - there is food everywhere in India and its vastly different in every way conceiveable the only thing one can say is that the spice rack in any Indian household will be an interesting place to start your research from.
I wish Indian chefs overseas celebrate the differences and not call their cuisine as Indian instead call it for what it is like Punjabi, Maharashtrian, Gomantak, Assamese, Bangla, North Kanara, South Kanara, Tamil Iyengar, Iyer, Chettiar, Mudaliar, Bihari, Lucknowi, Hyderabadi, Andhra etc etc etc.
Just remember that India has over 25 official languages and over 100 dialects and as many dialects those many types of food - any writer who wants to talk about Indian in a culinary context needs to be aware of these things before venturing to write anything food related about India.
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@Sudarshan AGree 100%. I say the same thing to my international friends. There is no standard Indian food. What most people in US call Indian food is Punjabi restaurant food. When I make Marathi food and feed my friends they are surprised with the vast difference in the food styles.
We need to encourage the diversity of our cuisine to be mainstream.
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@RS More than Punjabi, it is Mughlai food.
As an Indian American who never learned to cook but loves to eat Indian cooking I Iove your choice of dishes and can’t wait to try the recipes!
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To all those Modi-supporting Indians who have criticized here the writer’s inclusion of politics in this piece. There’s no way to separate food from politics in the Indian subcontinent. To pretend otherwise is ignoring the big elephant in the room. Just recently there was a news story about a Hindu nationalist BJP leader who had sniffed out “illegal immigrants” based on what they were eating. These were construction workers at his house, they were eating meals of poha/flattened rice - based on that he assumed they were illegal immigrants from the Bengal region, Bangladesh, and he fired them. Then he went on a public tirade about illegal immigrants hiding among the populace.
There’s a commenter here who has written basically a Hindu nationalist ad for Ayurveda and its superiority. Not political?
So food isn’t political? Food isn’t used to classify and categorize subgroups of Indians? Food isn’t used to identify and hound certain ethnicities and religious minorities? Let’s accept the truth that food is extremely intertwined with identity, and in India it’s certainly used as a political tool.
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@ABly
I agree a hundred percent.
The current political climate is encouraging intolerant behavior.
In Mumbai, a cosmopolitan city, those who have money and power, refuse rental or ownership of apartments to people who are non-vegetarian.
Jains, a religious community, will not allow meat-eaters in their building. Jains do not eat onions or garlic, also, basically anything that grows under the ground. I wonder if the blanket ban will soon extend even to vegetarians who use these items in their cooking.
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Illegal immigrants. Christo nationalism. Where in the world are we? Do you know what happens to Hindus and Buddhists in Pakistan and other Muslim countries?
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@Meenal Mamdani
India is a country of diverse separate communities.i see nothing wrong in Jains wanting to live with vegetarian neighbors in apartments similiar to Muslims wanting to have neighbors who do not eat pork
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As the author rightly alludes to, it's really not possible to come up with an "essential Indian cuisine".
Where's "Bendakaya pulusu" in this list? (Okra with onion and tamarind and herbs). Very popular in Andhra and Telangana.
Where's "pappu chaaru" ? (probably can translate to toor dal soupish type dish with tomatoes, whole small onions, pieces of drumstick, and sometimes sliced eggplant).
Where is Egg burji?
Where is pesarapappu koora? (the amazing simple dish grandmas in many parts of India make with moong dal, some onion and tadka)
Sambar?
Garelu?
Mutton fry ? (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, AP, Telangana - have their varieties)
Poori with Andhra style potato sabji?
Palakoora pappu (Spinach with dal)
Gongura mutton?
Beans fry with methi?
Raw banana fry with hot rice?
Snake gourd with roti or phulka?
There are dozens and dozens more just from the part of the country that I grew up in. And these are every day, amazing dishes with delicious variations from family to family.
In fact, most of the dishes that Ms. Rao listed are not cooked regularly in large parts of the country.
So, for those uninitiated to Indian food, I guess you have to take this article as an introduction to some Indian dishes, but they are certainly not "Essential".
I find the political commentary in the article very unnecessary, and also a bit sensational.
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@Abhilash
All the recipes you mention are from one tiny part of India.
Tejal is absolutely right to comment on what is going on India and how painful it is to so many of us Indians, while others would rather these pogroms went under the radar.
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@Abhilash
Of course you would. Find the political commentary unnecessary that is.
Not surprising. Anytime something even remotely calling out Hindu nationalists as embodied by the ever smiling hate monger that is Modi, a standard contingent of Modi super fans show up on these boards, castigating any one who calls out the hate.
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@Abhilash
You should write down recipes for all the dishes you mentioned, make them in a test kitchen, hire a food stylist, a prop stylist and a photographer, build a website and post everything there.
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It's hard to encapsulate the vastness of the different cuisies that span India. I was skeptical when I read the title but this is great snapshot! Bravo! Also for those that are used to restaurant style thin crunchy Dosas, the one pictured here is it how it looks like in most homes.
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almost all indian dishes made in the home are both caste or community based, and region based. north, west, south, and east indian food are as diff as sicilian, tuscan, and piedmontese, not to mention sardinian, puglian, and genoan. outside of restaurants outside of india there is no such thing as "indian food" per se, so varied are the use of ingredients and spices. what they all have in common by the standards of American food, if American food existed, (what's really quintessentially american is anglo-germanic, heavy on white bread, potato, flesh, and mayonaisse) is the use of spices, and in particular what is shared is coriander, cumin, red and green chile, and tamarind. beyond that all bets are off. another big divide is rice south wheat north.
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Exactly! India is a very large country, with a great range of geographical conditions- oceans, mountains, desert, plains, plateaus...local communities use local produce and the many different communities also have their religion-based and caste- based food habits. But I am glad to see Tejal Rao’s recipes include food that is common in homes but may be unfamiliar to those who don’t eat Indian food outside restaurants. Thanks, NYT.
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@Sara Soltes
Mostly agree.
There are a few commonalities:
The 'tarka / chhonk / vaghar / (insert other name here)' technique of popping spices in a little oil to infuse the whole dish, is found in all parts of the subcontinent. I don't know any other region of the world where this is a cornerstone technique.
The use of yogurt in a myriad ways is also widespread, ranging from by itself, to an ingredient in sweet or savory dishes, to yogurt-based dishes.
The thaali concept of building and balancing a food plate to include necessary items and flavours (the name is different in different regions, and there may be a leaf rather than an actual plate).
Maybe others will come up with more commonalities.
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I don't know if West Bengal and Orissa are defined as North, but they are BIG rice eaters. I found the North Eastern states cuisine also rice based. Finally I stayed at a Kashmiri home for a month, and all meals were roti and rice. In our home in Karnataka, we had rotis for breakfast and dinner. lunch was rice.
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Food is political.
Of course Ms. Rao should teach us readers about political context as part of her brilliant list of 10.
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This is an interesting collection of recipes, but from the photos alone you can tell that there are problems with several recipes. For example, the rotis do not look right at all, the dosas look horrendous, the keema is ridiculously greasy, the kosambri recipe is missing a basic ingredient (mung daal). The outer shell of the kachori is way too thick and there is hardly any filling inside. The shell is supposed to be a lot thinner than what has been shown. The ones sold in Rajasthan are stuffed with different daals and spices. The pea stuffed version is from Gujarat.
India's population exceeds a billion, but I am quite sure that there are millions of variations for all of our recipes. I am not sure that this collection does our food justice.
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The author does mention that their primary influences come from their own family’s kitchen in Kenya, part of the South Indian diaspora there. Could this account for the differences you’ve detected?
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That’s true. But given the general ignorance about Indian food, it’s at least a beginning.
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@Veena
Just. Wow. Critical much?
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Thank you for this article. It was nice to see the recipes I grew up on, mentioned in the NYT. I also appreciate the nod to the situation going on in India. It’s important to call attention to the issue, as I feel most Americans are oblivious to what’s happening to the Muslim population of India.
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Why garnish/spoil all dishes with cilantro ? I know many people who doesn’t like that. And I avoid every single dishes with cilantro since it is allergic to me.
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@Shijith I too have an aversion to cilantro -- a sharp negative reaction to even a small taste, not an allergy but far more than just a dislike. I understand this is genetic. Fortunately the cilantro on the dishes in the photos is whole stems + leaves, easy to remove completely so that the fantastic-looking food can be enjoyed. Chopped cilantro is the worst, impossible to get every last fragment out, it makes a dish inedible to me.
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Cilantro lover here! I'm obsessed with putting cilantro on rasam, daal, chaat etc. Didn't know there were folks at the other end of the spectrum :)
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My mother was East Indian, Chinese, and Venezuelan, raised in Trinidad. She hated cilantro, which all her children love. She said that her mother used to put it in little bags which she and her sister had to wear around their necks to ward off disease. She hated the smell, which she said was like feet! But if the aversion to cilantro is genetic, it skipped all of her offspring. :-)
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I watched the Instagram video for the roti recipe here. It's really not a good representation of the cooking. The roti seems too stiff and overfloured. Because of the way it was rolled out and cooked. This roti needs ghee and therefore extra fat because of how bad it is. If anyone wants to cook rotis, seriously go look for some other recipe. Even if you are an amateur at Indian cooking, you don't need cook this. There are much better recipes catering to different expert levels.
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Planning to make the biryani this weekend but looks like I’ll need 3 pots at least - that’s a lot of washing up!
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@NH So is a lot of French and Italian cooking. What's your point?
Bravo, the way you added Modi reference was exceptional. I jumped right out of my chair.
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@Vick
I agree! Intolerance, bigotry, hatred, violence towards other human beings simply because they belong to another religion but are as much sons and daughters of the same earth - should make us all jump right out of our chairs
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The title of the article is misleading. I can understand roti being under essential category as it's most common part of northern India's diet. Half of India would not have tasted many dishes mentioned in the article. How can they be called essential ?
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@SS
That objection could be thrown at most Indian dish. What is essential ? Rice ? Millets (Ragi/Jowar) ? Fish ? Yogurt ?
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@SS
“half of India would not have tasted”. Completely untrue. Roti and rice, both, are cooked in all parts of India and almost every restaurant. Chinese food and restaurants are also easy to find through the length and breadth of India.I don’t suppose you have lived in India because you underestimate our curiosity and open-mindedness when it comes to other cultures - so long as you are not influenced by Modi and his apparatus.
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That’s the point of the article... there is no single spread that would cover the full range... perhaps this should be considered an essential sampler?
An interesting collection. How is there no chicken curry recipe included ? Seems a glaring omission.
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This is a joke, right?
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Time to get some frozen grated coconut!
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My mouth is watering skimming the article and looking at the pictures. If anyone knows any A++ Indian food in Barcelona please reply. I haven't found anything yet.
A thali from Saravanaa Bhavan in New York would be my last meal. I went to the same restaurant in New Delhi once and while Indian is my favorite food, I didn't enjoy Indian in India. To this day it's the only food that I would rather eat out of its country of origin which is mind boggling, but Delhi belly is undefeated.
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@Hollis
So Indian food or Indian Art or Indian jewelry or fabrics - but no India or Indians! I have heard this so many times before and marvel at the covert racism.
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Why does the author refer to Hindus that are vegetarian "elite" and "upper caste" (read under the Keema recipe)? Are other Indians inferior in some way due to their food choices?
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@AG Quite the opposite. The author is disapprovingly describing vegetarianism as an elite choice of the 'upper caste.' The problem with this throwaway sentence is that Western readers might now understand that caste and class don't map easily onto each other. Case in point: my family is 'upper caste' and vegetarian, but my parents and their families were extremely poor. Much like subcontinental food, caste complex. It's not an adamantine class identity and much more complex (in very problematic and not-so-problematic ways) than many people realize.
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@AG "The elite, upper-caste Hindus tend to be vegetarian." It is just what it says.
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@AG As I understand it, there used to be a caste system in India. Its effects linger today. The highest caste (Brahmans) were vegetarian.
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Unnecessary references to Indian politics in an otherwise interesting article.
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@Observer The India government has dragged food into politics. Politics then, will necessarily feature in food articles.
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@Observer - I agree on the article, but I do disagree on the part about Indian politics. It is appropriate as it got your attention. The article is made even more interesting! You can run, but you cannot hid.
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@Observer Maybe you should go read The Kitchn or Buzzfeed. This is an international paper and if you hadn't read the other "10 dishes" in this series then maybe go back and re-observe that those articles also discussed the socio-political context in which the author and the dishes were conceived.
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Without tasting -- not to say, savoring -- Ms. Rao's list of dishes of the second most populous country in the world, I could only read the article, smacking the lips.
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Thanks so much for such wonderful recipes and for showcasing the vibrant and varied food culture of India. As a child of Indian immigrants, I love food from all over India. Especially since my mom learned to cook in graduate housing in the US where women from all over India shared recipes! While my family is Muslim and from Orissa, we enjoy food from all parts of India (though would love to see more East Indian dishes of Bengal or Orissa showcased as well). As for egg curry, it is a staple and variations from every state in India make for a great dinner!
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Thanks for this piece, especially for saying that there is no one way to define Indian cooking. Indian cooking is an ocean, with a thousand regional cuisines, powered by local, seasonal produce, and hundreds of years of history, culture, colonization, invasions and the resulting mixing of foods. My own food culture comes from the Western ghats area of southern India.
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I'm not Indian but I like to cook Indian dishes from the different regions. I am fortunate to live near several Indian groceries and can pick up items that are not available in supermarkets, One problem is the many spices and herbs needed for the various dishes. One can buy premixed combinations i.e. Garam masala. I prefer to keep on hand the individual spices and make the combinations fresh for each dish or in small quantities so I am not using a year old spice mixture, this is more time consuming but worthwhile. A real time saver is the instant pot and there are number of Indian instant pot cookbooks.
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@ez In the 1990s, I undertook to teach myself to cook Indian with Madhur Jaffrey's books. It's true the fire department came to my apartment when burning rice set off the fire alarms--but only once. Eventually, I got that right. And a simpler version of carrot salad with mustard seeds. And keema! Madhur learned to cook it when she was sent to school in England. She had never cooked at home and the story was enjoyable. But, best of all, she decided to share her learning.
I eventually learned to make my own garam masala and I've wondered if it would be recognizable to an Indian! It does smell great. I even once bought asafetida. Not for the faint of heart.
The whole experience was fun and opened the minds of many of my friends who said, "But I don't like curry."
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@Nptexas Madhur Jaffrey recently came out with an Indian cookbook for the instant pot. I have not bought it yet because my wife makes me give away a book if I by a new one. One book for the instant pot that I like is by Urvashi Pitre.
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@ez
Wow. Thanks for the information. I wasn't even sure she was still around. I don't have an instant pot, but I know someone who does--and she loves Indian food.
Interesting and unusual choice of dishes. I grew up in India and while picking ten iconic Indian dishes is really an impossible task, at least half of these would not have made my list. Maybe more of a reflection of the larger diaspora’s evolution away from the homeland?
Google ‘Dosa’ if you want to see beautiful, mouth-watering dosai. These look sub-par.
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I really missed good Indian food when I lived in the US. It is one thing I absolutely savor now that I'm back in India. Fresh, spicy and diverse. Yes there are many Indian restaurants in the US, but its really not the same. Even Chinese and Thai cuisine tastes better here (much more tangy).
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good Indian food can be a wonder of blended spice flavours
we used to walk to lunch at a local place - until it turned not so good more often than good - but these pictures make me hungry again !
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There was really no need to inject religion/politics into what is otherwise an interesting article.
And for those who like to combine new recipes with new techniques, visit Google for recipes and cookbooks that use InstantPot for Indian dishes. Actually, old-style (non-electronic) pressure cookers are prevalent throughout India, so it is not heresy to suggest that InstantPot and Indian food are a great match.
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@Mon Ray I disagree - given the very recent riots and religious unrest in India, it would have been an omission if Ms. Rao had not mentioned how Hindu nationalists are pushing for more vegetarian dishes when describing meat and non-vegetarian dishes. Her articles is about current Indian cuisine and she deals with the matter in a very thoughtful manner and places it in context.
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@Mon Ray
Of course if apt to "inject religion/politics".
1. Because injustice should be called out at every opportunity.
2. Food and culture are intertwined and culture has strong ties to religion.
India's food is enriched by its Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Jain, Christian and other constituents. Persecution of a Muslims under Modi and BJP is dark stain on the country. Great shame.
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@Mon Ray Wow, way to ignore how culture, economic constraints, politics and religion all shape food and vice-versa.
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I appreciate having access to all these recipes and it seems recipes can change from household to household. Most Indian restaurants in my area use commercial pastes, hence their food all tastes the same. Being able to read these family treasures urges me to try some for myself.
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@jeffrey
So you splurged on the $1.52 a week extra from the subscription price to view the recipes. With a few decades of cooking under my belt and legions of cook books at my fingertips, I still can't bring myself to pay the extra charge. This article almost had me. Nice try NYT. But I do thank you for giving me a list to do my own research. Happy cooking Jeffrey!
Did you have to bring a political commentary with your wonderful recipes? In India many Hindus are non-vegetarians and many are vegetarians. I have grown up in India and have never seen this as a divisive issue. In any case, thanks for sharing your good recipes from your family.
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@KBJSK Many =/= all.
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@KBJSK well, good luck to those non-vegetarian Hindus in India if they are to go around asking for ground beef to make keema (states like Kerala are exceptions, but then they are not ruled by BJP). People get lynched in the name of religion for eating beef, and when the ruling party favors such viewpoints, I don’t see anything wrong when a good writer talks about it.
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@CAgirl one can make keema with chicken or lamb; beef not needed, so that part of your comment is ridiculous. I agree though that beef vigilantism is wrong, but you are incorrect in your implication that this is BJP authorized or encouraged, though the lumpens who did so were self-emboldened by the BJP coming to power in 2014. The government has taken strong action in most cases after a few [probably in single digits] of such horrific lynchings, and they seem to have completely stopped over the last 3 years or so. Be informed and objective, and not intellectually dishonest or intellectually bankrupt.
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Great selections, Ms. Rao. Just as Indian cuisine is, India is defined by its multiplicity. Hopefully, people will come to realize it and shun hindu fundamentalism.
Thank you for the superb article.
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@KVL If you don't mind can you define Hindu "fundamentalism"? What exactly that is happening or not happening in India is Hindu "fundamentalism"? What are Hindu "fundamentals" that are in display in India today?
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"the uniformity of Indianness is a myth." Very true! Thank you for your inclusive representation. These dishes are all great and wonderful. I also like the photography that help communicate such wonderful dishes. It would be great to see an accompanying piece in regard to the photography. I appreciate the work of those who made such a photo production possible (Christopher Testani, Simon Andrews & Paige Hicks). Thank you!
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