Indian As Apple Pie

I was three when my obsession for onions began, or so the story goes. As a little girl my mother tells me I would pick off the crunchy, lemony onions from my family's plates around their table in Chandigarh, where I was born and where my grandparent's home is to this day. It seems I've passed this obsession onto my own two girls. They could brush their teeth and still come back for a slice of spicy, lemony onion. That's how much we love them in our Indian-American household.  It's also where I wanted to start my series of Indian...

As many of you know, I have spent the last 3 years working on making Indian food easier to find for all of you. One goal has been to get our products on mainstream grocery shelves. While the Indian food section in most stores is pretty diverse, I will argue that many (not all) products lack in one of two areas: health and taste.  Many taste like someone non-Indian approved them. And, many load up on oils, creams and do include food dyes. No, not all. But, many fall into this category.  With my products, we are creating a #HealthyIndian...

Not to worry if you've never heard of Kala Chana. Many non-Indian have not. For us Punjabis especially, though, black chickpeas hold a special place in our hearts. They are tiny, hearty, and give off a delicious aromatic broth that the more commonly found cousin, the white chickpea or garbanzo bean, just can't go up against. They are also slightly higher in protein and fiber than their white counterpart. For example, 1 cup of kala chana has about 15 grams of protein and 13 grams of dietary fiber.  Many folks just soak and boil them to add into snack foods and...

Mushrooms. Yum. Add spices, cream, and some heat to them, and you'll have a curry on your hands that will be a weekly staple. It's at once decadent and healthy, especially if you substitute cashew cream for the typical dairy version. If you want to use cashew cream, you want to ideally soak your cashews overnight. You can still make it successfully without soaking, but if you take that extra step you'll have a creamier product, so plan ahead. While you can use any mushroom, I love using the cremini (or crimini), sometimes referred to as a 'baby portobello' or 'baby...

When you google the term 'Chana Masala' you come up with various recipes for Indian curried chickpeas which sadly make no mention of the masala that is key to making your chickpea dish scream authentic.  Masala is an interesting term in my culture and language. For the most part, it can mean two different things. First and foremost, it refers to a dry mixture of spices, that when used with certain ingredients give your dish a taste of authenticity. It can also refer to a wet base of ingredients, which when added to key ingredients, spices and water, will make a delicious curry....

Halloween is around the corner. But, instead of getting spooked by the bags upon bags of candy that my kids and I will be surrounded by, I instead decide to empower myself. How? By pulling out my slow cooker and cooking...without really cooking.  Instead of fighting the inevitable, I just realize that the only way I can manage the amount of candy my kids (and I) suck up is by simply keeping us all full with the good stuff. So, come this Friday I'll throw something delicious into the slow cooker and insist that my girls and hubby eat a...

They're onto us! Publisher's Weekly, the trade magazine of the book world recently published their round up of cookbooks, and my new offering, 'Indian For Everyone' was included. (Heavy dose of jumping up and down and giggling uncontrollably involved.)  Better yet, my publisher released the numbers of my first two books - and boy have you all been buying books. I cannot thank you enough. The number is 100,000 and that's HUGE for me - still essentially the new kid on the block. Look for me in paragraph three below:  But, enough about me. You are here to learn how...

   The one thing I always say about Indian cuisine is that it’s one of the only that takes vegetables – like this cauliflower – and places them center stage without ever skipping a beat. Growing up, I rarely ate meat. At home, it was typically Vegetarian Indian at every meal. When we protested, my mother would either make spaghetti spiked with cumin seeds or my father would take us to the Burger King a little north on Route 202 in our town of King of Prussia, PA. It took me years to realize that I would eat the whopper...

The first time I had egg curry was at the Bombay Club restaurant in Washington, D.C. when I used to be a Capitol Hill staffer. We would go as groups on the weekend to splurge on their champagne/naan brunch. It was addictive. As was the royal environment. I have certain opinions about the British and their time in India, but the decor brought back positive aspects of the time – tennis whites, the club atmosphere, and a sense of spoiling yourself. Everything my grandfather epitomized as a lawyer in the city of Chandigarh (the capital of the state of Punjab...

Thank you to everyone who has purchased a copy of my first book, The Indian Slow Cooker. It's you who have helped it sell out consistently. And, it's partially because of you that we are now heading into our fifth printing in about four months in the midst of fantastic press. While I continue to recipe test and write, I am also shooting a cooking show with a team of former co-workers in the news business who believe as much as I do that there needs to be an Indian cooking show out there that's for the everyday person --- just like...