South Asian

In southern India, dal is traditionally served thin like a soup, then ladled over rice. But in northern India, where dal is traditionally scooped up with roti or served on rice, it is usually made thicker, almost the consistency of a porridge. I’ve suggested 4 to 5 cups of water so that you can make it thin like the southern Indians or thicker like a northern “stew.” In addition, you can vary the heat intensity in the finished dish by the number of serrano chiles you add. Keep in mind that one serrano will add heat to the whole dish.

Most Americans would consider eating oatmeal for breakfast, but for the vast majority of Asians, rice is the breakfast food of choice. Here is a distinctively Indian variation on the Asian breakfast theme that can be cooked while you sleep and be ready for breakfast when you wake up.

These simple, traditional Indian flatbreads are wonderful served with any of the curried soup and stew recipes in these pages.

You can control the amount of heat in this meal with the types and amounts of chile peppers. I like the spectrum of flavors that results from mixing roasted with fresh chiles. To roast a chile pepper, you can treat it as you would a marshmallow when camping, using tongs or a long fork to rotate it over a low flame on a gas burner. However, a safer chile-roasting method is to place the chile on a baking sheet and slide it under the broiler for just a few minutes. When charred on all sides, place the chile in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. The steaming will loosen the skin, making it easy to remove. Peel, stem, and seed roasted peppers before using. See page 168 for a discussion on preparing tofu.

This Glorious One-Pot Meal is a take on a traditional Indian dish. Consider changing it up with chicken, sweet potatoes, and broccoli in place of chickpeas, white potato, and cauliflower. Turmeric has anti-inflammatory properties and may be helpful for people suffering from internal swelling of joints or nerves, as with fibromyalgia, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis.

This is a variation of a traditional Indian curried lamb dish called roghan josh. Typically this dish calls for mixing heavy whipping cream into the tomato sauce, but this version retains all the taste without the extra saturated fat. If you want, add two tablespoons of heavy whipping cream or milk to the tomato sauce and cook as directed. Turkey tenderloin or beef stew chunks make wonderful substitutions for the lamb in this recipe. The lentils can be omitted entirely, or you can use couscous instead (see the chart on page 8 for recommended couscous and liquid amounts). The lentils in this recipe will emerge al dente; for softer lentils, use canned and omit the half cup of water.

This is a recipe adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s first book, An Invitation to Indian Cooking, written when none of us knew the spices and hot peppers that she introduced us to. It’s a simple dish that makes your leftover rice come alive in surprising ways. You can eat it just as is for a light lunch or supper, or as an accompaniment to a Western meat course. I like it alone with some Cucumber Raita (page 163) alongside.

My friend Gori grew up in India. She led quite a jet-setting life as a stewardess for Air India when she was just out of school. Her parents wanted her to settle down and marry, so they placed ads in the matrimonial classifieds. For three years she went out on chaperoned blind dates. Then she met Suresh. It was love at first sight and their families heartily approved. Suresh had grown up in Greenwood, Mississippi, and he brought his new bride home to the Delta. Gori taught me how to make this dish. When we get together to cook I make her tell me their love story just about every time.

This out-of-the-ordinary stew is seriously good and its enticing aroma seductive. The sauce is smooth and complex: cinnamon, mustard, cumin, fenugreek, and cardamom all add up to an intriguing flavor that really lingers. The parsley-almond garnish adds brightness to the dish. Sweet, nutty, and crunchy, with layers of Indian spices, this killer recipe is a musttry. Serve it over basmati rice.

A fresh curry powder that is mildly hot and packs a flavorful punch compared to commercial blends, which may sit on store shelves for months past their prime. Stir into butter or mayonnaise and use to flavor rice, roasted potatoes, or fish.

I enjoy going out for Indian food and pairing a cool, calming lhassi with a heavily spiced meal. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to develop one for my dessert menu. This one—which I worked out with my friend and onetime sous-chef Jason Casey—is creamy smooth and softly perfumed with rose water and cinnamon.

Known as a festive, regal dish in India and Pakistan, biryani is packed with flavor. Don’t be scared off by the long list of ingredients. The dish really is quick and easy to prepare.

Rajma, red beans slowly simmered in a rich blend of spices, is a favorite in India and other parts of Asia. Don’t be daunted by the long ingredients list—your slow cooker does the work for you. Just remember to soak the beans the night before you plan to prepare the rajma.

Traditional rice pudding contains cream, eggs, and sugar. You’ll find none of that here. You will find healthful whole-grain brown rice, raisins, creamy Greek yogurt, and lovely flavor from real vanilla bean and cinnamon. Eat any leftovers for breakfast.

Few dishes are as tasty and flavorful as a good curry. Unfortunately, the amount of ghee (clarified butter) and full-fat yogurt used in a typical curry makes for a lot of XXL T-shirts. Here, lean, tender beef, intense seasoning, lots of fresh vegetables, and 5%-fat yogurt make for a skinny jeans day instead.

These pickled limes use Vadouvan spice blend, sometimes labeled French curry, a combination of Indian spices often including curry leaves, fenugreek, mustard seeds, coriander, shallots, and garlic. The exact blend depends on who makes it. It is aromatic and gives a haunting depth of flavor to the finished pickles. They are wonderful with fish, pork, and roasted vegetables and add a subtle tang to sauces, rice pilafs, or creamy grits. Lime pickles can be finely chopped into a condiment, used whole in braises, or thinly sliced and gently fried. Once you taste them, a world of possibilities opens up before you.

The Parsi community of India is of Persian descent. When the Parsis fled Iran in the tenth century, they settled on India’s west coast, where they managed to preserve not only their religious traditions—they are Zoroastrians—but many of their culinary traditions as well. This delicately sweet-and-sour dish of chicken cooked with dried apricots is part of that tradition. I have a Parsi friend who puts in a healthy glug of Madeira toward the end of the cooking. Parsis picked up many customs not only from their Gujarati neighbors but also from their neighbors and masters in nineteenth-century Bombay, the British. This dish is generally served with a mountain of very fine, crisp potato straws—you can just buy a large packet of them—but may also be served with rice.

In India and Pakistan a very fine pasta, known as seviyan, is used for this quick pudding. Most grocers in the West sell it laid out in long, slim boxes, but in cities like Lahore you can find it in open markets—all exposed, in the shape of little nests of thin pasta piled up into a mountain. The pasta is broken up and lightly browned before it is cooked into a pudding. I find that angel-hair pasta, which often comes in the shape of nests, makes a very good substitute for seviyan, and that is what I have started to use. This pudding may be eaten hot, warm, or at room temperature. In Pakistan, it is known as sheer korma and in India as seviyan ki kheer. On a cold wintry day in North India or Pakistan there is nothing nicer than a warm version of this pudding. The nuts and raisins are optional. You may leave them out altogether and then, if you like, just sprinkle some chopped almonds or pistachios over the top.

This sweet cream, which tastes a bit like crème fraîche, only with a more flowing, creamy texture, is a simple Gujarati dessert, so cooling during Gujarat’s hot summer days. In May and June, when mangoes are in season, thick mango puree is folded in. A teaspoon of saffron threads, roasted and soaked in milk, may be added at the same time as the sugar (see method on page 289) or dried fruit (golden raisins, soaked in boiling water for an hour and squeezed), nuts (chopped pistachios or almonds), fresh fruit (chopped mangoes, bananas, berries), and fruit purees.

This rice pudding is known as kheer in North India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and eaten under different names throughout South Asia. It consists, in its basic version, of nothing more than milk, cardamom for flavor and aroma, rice, and sugar. In villages and towns, rice harvests are generally celebrated with a kheer. In some communities, new husbands and wives feed each other a spoonful of kheer during the final part of the wedding ritual. It may be served lukewarm, at room temperature, or cold. Because it is associated with celebration, expensive ingredients are often added, such as saffron, nuts, and dried fruit. Here is the basic version, the one I love the most; you may scatter a tablespoon of chopped pistachios over the top before serving.