Food questions

[icepixie]

Apparently my local Kroger has turned into Import Central, particularly for European countries. This is AWESOME. McVitie's biscuits! Blackcurrant jam! Malteasers! About twenty different varieties of black and flavored black tea! Interesting herbal teas from Caribbean countries! German mustard and Swiss chocolate! Thai noodles! Indian curries!

This last one brings up a question. The only Indian food I've ever had that I can remember is korma--once at fair, and last week out of a jar.* I've liked what I've had so far, but don't really know where to go from there. Does anyone have any favorites to suggest? (I know making from scratch would probably make anything taste better, but let's be honest--I'm not even all that great with stuff where I know what the end product is supposed to taste like. I'm gonna go with the jars and cans at least until I figure out what I like.) There were lots of jars with interesting names full of interesting-looking sauces and chutneys, as well as things like naan bread mix and cannisters of poppadums (sp?). I like food with a lot of flavor--if it's bland, I will undoubtedly douse it with salt, pepper, garlic, and/or sugar. What should I try?

(I got a jar of tikka masala sauce today that I plan on trying later this month. The description sounded good, and I remember hearing the name when I was in the UK...)


* I know, I know--I lived in England for nine months and completely missed out on Indian food. I don't know how that happened. It wasn't intentional.

Comments

[tarzanic.livejournal.com]

(Am on page nine of my paper and am currently revising. Hoping to pull another half page to page out of it, but am not terribly worried at this point, since the max is ten pages.)

Ooooooooh, yum, imports! :D Naan and poppadums are very tasty. Btw, poppadums used to be on Farscape all the time, so it makes me giggle a bit to see them at the grocery store.

RasaMalaysia.com is my current fun go-to site for recipes. It has an Indian section: http://rasamalaysia.com/recipes/indian-recipes/ You can also just check out the entire recipe index http://rasamalaysia.com/rasa-malaysia-recipe-index/ which lists everything by main ingredient. The author gives some good suggestions for curry pastes and such.

I don't have favorite recipes at the moment, but I also really like chicken saag and samosas (http://www.samosa-recipe.com/).

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Have you had store-bought pappadums, though? Are they the same? (I bought some at Whole Foods that were sold in the chip aisle and packaged in that way, and was mightily disappointed, which is why I ask.) Seems to me she needs to go to a good restaurant to scope things out before trying the processed/preserved stuff she can get at a supermarket.

And mmmmmmmsamosas...quite possibly the world's most perfect food!

[tarzanic.livejournal.com]

The only store-bought ones I've had were in Australia and I didn't buy them, so I'm not really sure. Since store-bought naan doesn't stack up too well sometimes, yeah, I get what you mean. A restaurant would be the best bet -- prices shouldn't be too bad if you have leftovers and make two meals out of it -- but I've had some luck with packaged sauces. English imported might be a good idea.

Samosas are so delicious! If you're willing to cheat on the dough, they can be made pretty easily at home too.

[icepixie]

Btw, poppadums used to be on Farscape all the time, so it makes me giggle a bit to see them at the grocery store.

They were? As food cubes or something?

I have heard samosas are wonderful, but the recipe looks like more work than I'm willing to put in.