Taste
Indian cuisine — secrets of success are in the spices

Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal

Vindaloo. Masala. Paneer.

Indian cuisine, prepared properly is healthy, with vegetarian dishes so savory you won't miss the meat.

And the flavors are varied; they range from mild and creamy to hot and spicy, so whatever your preferences, you could probably find an Indian dish to suit your palate.

When it comes to Indian cuisine, the stumbling blocks for most home cooks are the unfamiliar ingredients. Most people don't have cardamom pods lined up next to their rosemary in the spice rack. But many Indian spices are easily obtainable in grocery stores, and with a little know-how, almost anyone can whip up an Indian feast.

The basic equipment you need to cook Indian food is probably already in your kitchen: a cutting board, a good, sharp knife and a deep skillet. A mortar and pestle are also useful, because some recipes call for freshly ground spices.

Most Indian dishes are made on the stovetop, according to Ravi Shuklar, owner of KJ Mini-Market in Reno, Nev. For beginners, that means you can shut down the oven and focus on the saute pan. Once you gain some experience you can try your hand at tandoori-style (marinated and oven-baked) dishes.

Shuklar's market specializes in Indian spices, breads, and other ingredients.

"The basic spices are garam, masala, turmeric powder, cinnamon and chili powder," he says.

We've all heard of curry powder, but what is garam masala? The word "masala" simply means a mix of spices, and the exact ingredients will depend on which brands you buy. But you're sure to get cinnamon and cumin, possibly mixed with cardamom or fennel.

Shuklar says many Indian entrees are easy to prepare because they're one-pot meals. Simply chop all your ingredients and then add them to the heated skillet in the specified order. To American cooks, Indian recipes can seem daunting because they contain so many ingredients and require so many steps. But if you break the recipes down, the individual steps are really quite simple. Just be sure to have all your ingredients chopped up and ready to go before you start cooking.

Basic Indian entrees like curry and vindaloo might be relatively simple, but not so with Indian bread, Shuklar says. Breads like chapati and naan require more experience.

"The breads (are) very difficult. It takes a lot of practice. For the difficult dishes you really need someone to demonstrate how to cook them. There are some different techniques that are transferred from generation to generation."

Traditional ingredients vary from region to region; Indian food fans know that southern and northern cuisines are quite different.

Durpreet Singh manages Reno's Diamond India Restaurant, and says he can tell by a restaurant's aroma which region of India is represented.

"The north is curries and very rich food with butter," he says. "The big staple is bread like naan. In south India we use rice and lots of vegetable dishes. Maybe more spice, less creamy."

Sumitra Louis, also of Reno, was born in South India but raised in the northern capital of New Delhi. She says the main distinction among the various Indian cuisines is — appropriately — in the use of spices.

"The major difference is that in south Indian cooking we use more seeds," she says. "North Indians are more famous for the masalas; the ground spice mixtures. South Indian dishes are more vegetarian. And in the south they don't use garam masala, which is (the spice) that north India is famous for."

Louis says even the north-south distinction is too broad and encompass the full range of Indian cooking. The Asian subcontinent is comprised of many different ethnic and language groups, and thus, many different cuisines. If you visit the coast you're likely to eat coconut-based fish dishes; if you go to New Delhi, masala spices will be the order of the day.

But back home in your own kitchen, you might be wondering how to get started on your gastronomical, if not geographical, trek to India. You'll need some recipes, a variety of spices, a big skillet and a palate with a taste for adventure.

The rest is up to you.