Lately I’ve come across a number of recipes where desi “fusionification” occurs by just adding garam masala. Is this the culinary equivalent of a “princess costume” for Halloween?
For example, one of the regional finalists in the Build a Better Burger competition was Daljeet Singh from Coral Springs, FL. His entry was “Masala Burgers with Tangy Tamarind Sauce and Red Onion-Mint Relish” [Link]. You saw that one coming, didn’t you?
Unfortunately, he lost not because his burgers were too hot, but because his buns were too cold (who ever heard of a Punjabi with cold buns?).
The NYT coverage of the event makes it seem like Singh had some sort of unfair secret weapon, writing that the “overpoweringly spicy scent now wafting across the lawn from the Masala Burgers” [Link] did not distract the eventual winner. (?!?!)
Similarly, there are a number of versions of (ahem) Punjabi haggis out there, all of which involve garam masala. I love how this one group markets their version as healthier than either traditional haggis or traditional punjabi food:
By using an exotic blend of fresh tomatoes, green chilli and garam masala, the women of an Edinburgh community group believe their dish will appeal to Scots looking for a healthy alternative this Burns Night… They hit upon the idea of curried haggis while trying to come up with ways of making the traditionally high-fat Sikh diet healthier. [Link]Both the women who invented the Punjabi haggis believe they have lost more than two stone since switching to a healthier diet less than a year ago. [Link]
For those of you who aren’t familiar with haggis:
Haggis is a blood pudding, stuffed with minced sheep’s organs, onions, oatmeal and suet (beef fat), then sewn in a sheep’s stomach and boiled or baked. The blood from the meat soaks into the oatmeal, mixes with the beef fat and turns the inside a dark brown, richly grainy colour. [Link]
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p>Lamb offal is healthier than dal/roti/sabzi? Riiiiiight ….
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p>Amusingly, masala haggis didn’t emerge fully born from somebody’s brain. Instead, it was the product of evolution:
“We have tried haggis pakora and haggis curry at parties and so to make a haggis using traditional masala ingredients was the next step. People who like curry will like this…” [Link]
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p>There’s also a desi vegetarian haggis for those of you who are feeling left out.
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p>Why this simple fusionification? Isn’t there more to desi spices than garam masala? I’m Punjabi and it’s not even my basic masala (I follow family tradition and use dry cumin and coriander seeds, sauteed with ginger as the base for most sabzis I cook).
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p>Here’s one chef who at least tries to desify things in a few different ways:
“I love Indian omelette. You whisk up a couple of eggs, throw in some chilli powder, some fresh green chillies and turmeric, then top with garam masala. Indian cheese toast is great. You put some cheese on the toast along with fresh green chillies, tomatoes and red chilli and maybe some nice red onion.
“Everything I have is ‘Indianfied’,” he explains. “If you cook bolognaise, go for keema mattar instead, which is Indian curry style mince and peas, and serve with your pasta. And you can’t beat a chicken tikka pizza…” [Link]
Salmon Rushdie or pan-fried masala salmon anybody?
Has anyone here successfully got non-desi friends to stop using that abomination called “curry powder” in their cooking? Sigh. I’ll take anything, even a generic garam masala mix, over that. I also detest the trend of fusion-y Indian restaurants in the States that don’t even have the grace to announce that they essentially serve American food with Indian flourishes or spicing, and so you have firangs raving about that great Indian swordfish sandwich with peppers and lemon that their local Indian place serves (with a sprinkling of garam masala, no doubt). And don’t get me started on biryani in any of the DC desi places, especially that crappy one further up on CT Ave in Dupont.
As Indianized cheese toast goes, there’s nothing better than grated Amul cheddar grilled till it’s just a bit browned, with shakes of Tabasco on top.
of course… from canada … knew it ‘fore i clicked.
btw – my dals are stored in empty cans of mccann’s steel cut irish oatmeal – that’s how much i love that stuff .
The previous residents of a flat I used to live in left behind a can of “curry powder”. I never thought to use it for desi food, but it was good in Caribbean food (the recipes called for it).
Don’t be forgetting the Indian Chinese…mmmm Indian Chinese…or sambusas (sold in east africa) or matoke (plaintain) nu shak (sabzi for the non-Gujus) and indian-e-fied vegetarian chillie 😛
the best: my aunt makes healthy chevdo by mixing several cereals and then adding vaghar. My one friend was so horrified she exclaimed, “You people can’t even leave cereal untouched!”
She then proceeded to complete my stash of tampered cereal and asks me for more all the time 😛
jerk
Chicken!
My husband is SO going to be that uncle in 30 years.
Yummy .. jerk chicken is my favorite.
KD: I may have mentioned in the past but here it is again. Abhi’s Mom makes the best Chevda – the kind you crave for “Ugandan” – west of the Continent Africa. May be if I remember next time we meet, to bring you a sample. By the way I am also sick and tired of hearing the word “Curry” from these “Dhoriyas”. Everytime I warm up the food in the workplace microwave I hear – Oh that curry smells good -. Yep, tonight’s dinner “leftover” is my tomorrow’s lunch. And I am not even “Bachelor” like Arbuckle baby!!
It’s funny that you just posted this regarding spice taste and smell… I just visited my parents recently and realized I hated going home b/c all my clothes end up smelling like spices. Even though of all the desi “adults” I know, my parents’ house probably smells the least “spicy”, it still irritates the hell out of me. Perhaps that’s just the westerner in me talking…
J has cold buns? I so didn’t need to know that …
vhy – the cold buns! youdontsay … ?!! 😉
ok… i am already so! that uncle… i’m prefer to think that i’m ahead of my time.
btw- that vegie haggis is more like vegetarian shepherd’s pie – tho’ i’ve made it with a soy substitute.
Sorry, ennis, I stopped reading after that line due to fits of uncontrollable laughter.
Thanks for making me crack up at work .. haha.
Has anyone here successfully got non-desi friends to stop using that abomination called “curry powder” in their cooking?
When I was in Grad School, I knew this guy who would often bring over ‘chicken curry’ for lunch. He basically cooked chicken with loads of curry powder and just absolutely loved eating that abomination. Once I tasted his chicken and I was absolutely blown away by how bad the thing tasted apart from stinking like there was no tomorrow. But he loved that shit so much that I just couldn’t bring myself to say something.
P.S.:4days 23hours 34mins 32secs to the Battle Royale!
great minds stoop to concur
OK, while we’re talking foody fusion, here’s a fun article I read recently on the origins of Indian Chinese…you’ll have to overlook the standard Bengali supercilious tone about Punjabis.
http://www.india-seminar.com/2006/566/566_sourish_bhattacharyya.htm
In South Africa the local brown newspaper (The Natal Post)holds a Curry Cup (its funny to SAfricans cos we have a Rugby Currie Cup as well mmm…GO SHARKS). ItÂ’s always amusing to see what the Aunties and Uncles can devise, still have not gotten over the shark kebaab curry or the Dhal-Gosh(yip,lamb and dhal)Curry. Included as a subcategory is a wors (spicy sausage) competion and every single year a boere(white Afrikaner farmer)wins!!!
CinamonRani, please tell me there is more to Durban cooking than just “Bunny Chow” …
Afraid so Ennis, we love our bunny chow and that’s the only original creation. But if you visit Blue Lagoon Beach (Indian Central!!!)in Durban, you can try the fried corn (and buy cheap DVDs from the Pakistanis). Its fried in butter, green chilli and onions ….heaven!!! Other than that its standard brown food.
Bunny chow was OK, but the Chicken Peri Peri was tastier. Nandos is one of my favorite chains anywhere …
I guess I had been hoping for more fusion.
Ennis, you said the magic word. NANDOES! Oh, I miss it everyday. You can actually buy the sauce online, I put it on my standard issue USA chicken burger and dream it taste the same. Peri peri rocks!
An American friend once told me that his wife hated Indian food because they “put that stinky curry into everything.” I insisted that she was an idiot because curry simply meant sauce and you could make a curry out of any number of spices. I only just realized that curry powder actually exists and that must have been what she was talking about.
SP (#17): Great article. I think it would have been kinda cool if more Chinese people had settled in Indian cities over the centuries. I have met Chinese people in Delhi who speak Hindi fluently. It was nice.
Chinese people in Delhi and Calcutta do speak Hindi fluently. But I was pretty floored when I went to a Chinese restaurant in the DC area and the (completely Chinese looking) waiter figured out I was Indian and starting speaking to me in Hindi. Turned out he had grown up in Calcutta.
I think the author is wrong about ginger and garlic and onions and deep frying being Punjabi distortions, though, they are present in most versions of Chinese food I’ve eaten (in the US, Europe, Middle East – admittedly haven’t been to China).
Yo Dad, I’m going to hold you to that. You are both coming to the December meetup right?
:~:~:~:~:~)
NANDOS!!!!!! I make anyone coming through the UK get me bottles and bottles of that stuff…mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
That and I just discovered that they sell ceres juices at my local supermarket…
I think these filled up 1/4 of our suitcase on our last trip =)
notice how trim the dude in the pic is.
just my theory – (wo)men who know how to cook are less likely to be overveight.
The only ones I met were Tibetans. Are there many Han Chinese? Or other Chinese (the Tibetans are refugees and most definitely do not think of themselves as Chinese)
Yup got this jock at work to finally stop using the horrible Maharani curry masala I think it was called. Now I have to hook him up with stuff from Patel Brothers all the time and the dude uses 1/3 of the bottle each time he makes chicken.
Personally I’m big on Indianizing western stuff. Why not? I think it comes naturally to us. I make the Martha Stewart white wine butter turkey every year and I sprinkle red chilli pepper on top after I’m done basting. People love it. I also desify my burgers, throw in a little bit of kheema masala and chapli kabab masala along with eggs and some chana masala to hold it all together and burgers are the bomb.
I agree with Ennis, I have lived in New Delhi most of my life and I havenÂ’t come across any Chinese, I have met and gone to school with Tibetans but it will be interesting to know if there are any Han Chinese in Delhi
True Ennis, most Punjabi families use garam masala only as a sort of garnishing for select sabzis/daals. and each sabzi has a specific set of masalas that go with it. eg. Cabbage demands ginger and mustard seeds. cauliflower and yellow daals (moong, masoor) demands cumin. kadhi/karhi demands cumin, coriander and fenugreek seeds, Maah di daal or Maah Chholiyan di daal needs black cumin (Syah zeera) and so on…..but as SP said i would go for Garam Masala over “curry (what) powder”…….
though talking about “Curry” there is the Japanese Curry-and almost all my Japanese friends have mentioned about it to me and some even gotten me a home-made vegetarian “curry/kari” to sample. they end up asking “how similar is this to Indian curry”…..
hai Rabba, hun main ki karaan :).
JOAT – I can totally see a firang guy using a third of a bottle of Patel Bros. masalas at a time. With the guys who like “spicy” food in the US, it’s such a macho contest – like the “ass in space” hot sauces.
Desified burgers are good, I must admit. Middle Eastern places also do a really good kofta-spiced burger, with grated onion and chopped parsley mixed in – so good. The Astor in Adams Morgan does those…
Of the two Chinese (not Tibetan) families I met in Delhi, one owned D. Minsen’s shoe store in Connaught Place (echoing SP’s article about Chinese entering the leather industry in India), and the other family owned a chinese restaurant somewhere in South Delhi (Lajpat Nagar?)
Tibetans of course are more commonplace, and many do speak Hindi too (those who were born in India which is now probably a majority of their community).
One of my Mama Ji’s (Mom’s brother’s) best friend is a Chinese guy who owns a Chinese restaurant in Ludhiana, Punjab. He was raised in Ludhiana, his daughter was born and raised there, and he speaks pendu Punjabi and Hindi. Gotta love Peter Uncle. 🙂
http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/jan/23speca.htm
‘Indian Chinese’
JoAT,
Patel Brothers…..i miss NYC. Artesia is too far away for me to go to Patel Brothers and there is no 7 train here in West LA:). I liked the Sabzi Mandi too because it used to have fresh desi produce which one would never find in Food Emporium or Gristede’s.
me too, JoAT. i love my paneer burgers ;).
Of the two Chinese (not Tibetan) families I met in Delhi, one owned D. Minsen’s shoe store in Connaught Place (echoing SP’s article about Chinese entering the leather industry in India), and the other family owned a chinese restaurant somewhere in South Delhi (Lajpat Nagar?)
During Mao’s Great March, and even before, some Chinese fled China and settled in India. Most of them have now immigrated to USA, Australia, and mostly Canada. However, if you go to a big cosmopolitan town in India, you can still find Chinese as denstists, in addition to shoe makers (as you and SP pointed out).
I think Calcutta has a full fledged China town.
Amitabh,
My bad, I completely forgot about D’Minsens. Check this out about D’Minsens and people of Chinese origin in Shimla.
Tangra is where the Chinatown in Calcutta is.
I put finely chopped scallions, the onions and the green leaves in mine, they give a more Indian taste than Parsley which tends to give a more Italian / Mediterranean taste.
Patel Bros zindabad though. Since they’ve branched out elsewhere I find zero reason to go to Jaikisan Heights anymore. I go to Bellrose now where parking isn’t a problem. It’s much less chaotic than going to JH.
BTW you can order almost the entire line of Patel Bros masalas jars etc online.
Oh all the chinese guys that run the Indian Chinese places in NY speak Hindi. They are all from India so it’s only natural for them to.
Unfortunatley, no. My non-desi mother-in-law is always making what she called “that curried chicken.” And she insists on serving it with Uncle Ben’s instant rice because “it’s the best” she won’t let me even bring my zippered sack of basmati in the house. She also won’t come with me to buy spices but remains convinced that it’s best to spend a billion dollar on spices at Ralph’s. ug.
yup, i know someone too… it took me totally by surprise. i saw a friend of mine was talking in hinglish and there was a chinese dude in the vicinity but no one else. for the life of me i couldn’t figure out to whom she was speaking in hinglish…. then the guy spoke in hindi, really good hindi… it was the first time i became aware of chinese communities in india…. they are obviously very small in comparison to the brown, but they do exist.
i got to know a few afghanis at university as well, who went to india for school/ college and are fluent in hindi and very aware of indian culture.
Curry. Is. Not. Indian. Gasp.
Yeah, and they never get it right. Curry powder isn’t the same as garam masala, but people think it is. Amreekan garam masalas have way too much cumin, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves, which take away from the warmth of the flavor, and renders it useful for only a few dishes, if any. (Minus the cumin and coriander, you could probably make a great pumpkin pie out of that stuff.) And once you use pre-made garam masala, you can never tailor the flavor to your own tastes because it’s hard to gauge how much more of a single spice to put in the dish or how to offset an overpowering spice in the garam masala.
As for the actual curry powder, if you go to the desi stores, you can get curry powder that will work for a specific dish – but only THAT dish. And you can make pretty decent dishes with pre-made curry powders if you buy a separate one for each kind of dish (but how practical is that?). You can’t just put the same curry powder in anything and everything, like people end up doing. Gross.
If the poor fools would bother to learn or experiment with making their own spice concoctions (which is hella fun!) they’d realize they only need two or three spices to do the trick for most dishes. It’s just a matter of finding out which ones, and how much. And keep in mind regional flavors for guidance (heavy ginger in Punjabi food, sugar and coriander in Gujurati food, heavy chili and garlic in Bihari and Bengali food, asafoetida in Rajasthani food, tamarind in Southie food, etc).
Ennis – I need you to track down Mr. Daljeet’s contact info – I think my husband wants to stalk him.
SP – great pointer in post #17. But I have to admit, I don’t feel that Punjabi’s (or Panjabi food) is being dissed. The snottiness is probably a side-effect of years of overcooked machh-jhol, watery moshur and malodorous chingri.
Post #36. Now they are Mutiny-famous!! I grew up with the Liangs. Let me tell you, the mum can cook up some phenomenal shrimp dumplings. Long hours at their home made sure I knew how to play Mah-Jong, eat with chopsticks and actually enjoy shrimp-papads.
One gratifying trend in the US is that people’s tolerance for spices is improving. Here in Texas, its actually cool to be able to put away hot salsas and curries. Sadly, Dallas hasn’t evolved much beyond the standard format, northie dominated buffet. Even “south-indian” restaurants can’t resist the mass-appeal staples like tandoori and nan.
Yup Shruti. each and every dish demands specific flavors. thats why i make my own masala mixes from whole masalas at home rather than buying so many different masala powders. and BTW, hing (asfoetida) is used even in Southern Indian, Maharashtrian and Kashmiri cuisines.
JoAT, Jai Kisan Heights (love that name) was my only resort as that was closest and i didn’t much like the Curry Hill stores. but good that you have something closer to ur place.
More about the uncle in question: