Srishtiās enthusiasm would have anyone heading to the kitchen. Thereās a definite Bollywood vibe to her performance. :-D
Itās like the way I often cook for myself nowadays, and not just curries. āChuck it in, mix it up and let it do its thingā works for chilli, goulash, tajine, eintopf - in fact most stew-ish dishes whatever their nationality. Theyāre meant to be low-maintenance, thatās the whole point.
Much practice means Iāve got the knack of knowing what / how much spices / seasonings work with what meat, fish, chicken, veg, pulsesā¦
Put crushed caraway seeds in goulash, a chunk of plain chocolate or sprinkle of cocoa in chilli, a big pinch of cinnamon and a dash of lemon juice in chicken with tomatoesā¦ That kind of thing.
Then there was the time I made a āweāre-out-of-tamarind?ā fake-out for a green lentil & brown basmati khichri. The fake involved HP sauce, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and crossed fingers, and worked far better than expected - but then HP sauce has tamarind in it already and IMO thanks to the Raj thereās some much older Indian relish in its ancestry.
Donāt worry about forgetting salt: add it later - thatās what ātaste and adjust seasoningā means - and if you know the people at table salt their food before they try it anyway (as so many do) donāt bother. Not enough salt is easy to fix, too much salt is there for keeps.
Cultural diff means Iām okay with beef, also pork.
AFAIK pork mostly belongs in Keralan and Goan cuisine, especially pork vindaloo, though proper vindaloo is far more subtle than the Brit curry-house standard. I read somewhere years ago that the old Imperial Mughals were at ease with wild boar, treating it as clean āgameā not unclean āporkā, but donāt quote me. Lamb, mutton and goat also really go well with Indian spicing.
Lentils, chickpeas, beans etc. (dhal - itās a class of lentil dishes, but AFAIK also just means āpulsesā) didnāt get mentioned, but you can sub them for meat in anything, so long as you cook them properly.
If you do add cubed meat or paneer (pressed curd cheese), then depending on proportions of ingredients that lentil-rice khichri from earlier becomes a sort of dhansak, biryani or pilau. For this sort of cooking the names donāt matter, the tastes do, and the tastes are good.
Dried lentils and dried split peas will cook in a masala (spiced veg base) in about 1 - 1Ā½ hours without advance work; just add a bit more water for them to absorb. Chickpeas / kidney beans need soaked overnight to get them cooking-ready; do lots, drain, divide into recipe amounts, bag and freeze. If you use tinned; drain and rinse them to get rid of excess salt / sugar in the packing water.
The finished food freezes fine (ah, alliteration!) and if your takeaway delivers in those little plastic containers with snap-on lids, stop chucking them out because youāve got portion-size freezer boxes right there.
Use one for the main and another for the starch (rice, couscous, pasta, noodles, mashed spuds, pommes dauphinoise*, whatever): defrost and nuke one of each and you have a light meal for two or a solid meal for one.
(*NB, must do something about my Firefox spellchecker: āpommies diaphanousā isnāt a side dish I recognise, but conjures up some very odd mental imagesā¦)
But for now Iām going to watch that video again. :-D
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