How to make literally every Indian dish ever (sort of)
Grab a pan. Medium sized for a good amount of food, I’d say.
put some oil in the pan. you can use olive oil, vegetable oil, coconut oil, whatever tickled your fancy. Put in enough to create a thin layer at the bottom of your pan. melt in some butter or ghee for a butterier taste.
turn on the stove to medium heat, and wait for like two mins for the oil to heat up.
put in like two pinches of mustard seeds and cumin seeds. wait until they start sputtering. add in cloves and cardomom and stick cinnamon if you want that stuff.
chop up some onion (anywhere from a 1/4 to a 1/2) and a couple green chilies (use one for minimal spice, four for a lot of spice. zero if you want no spice but that’s not Indian food anymore)
throw in some finely chopped ginger and garlic. like, really finely chopped. just a pinch of each will do.
now is the time to add - meat (chicken, fish, pork, whatever) and/or veggies (pick whatever you want it really doesn’t matter- some popular choices are mushrooms, eggplant, potatoes). You could also add paneer or tofu for a tastier vegetarian choice.
when your choice of #7 is like halfway cooked, add in- red chili powder (be careful, this stuff can get really spicy), turmeric (for the color mostly, but also a bit of flavor), and cumin powder. Go ahead and add in whatever other powder spices you might have (garam masala, ummm idk but don’t put in like cinnamon or pumpkin spice or some shit like that)
make sure you stir this shit up really well.
cook it until #7 is done, and you can’t really smell the raw spices anymore.
it’s done! enjoy with rice, roti, pita bread, naan, quinoa, even regular bread!
Wanna make whatever ^^^ is into more of a wet curry? add in some water (or soup broth, like chicken or vegetable broth), and for more body in your curry you can add tomato paste or even store-bought tomato soup works! For a creamier consistency, add any sort of milk or cream. Cook this all through and make sure you adjust your spice and salt level to suit the extra liquid. Simmer until you get to the consistency you want, which should be a sort of watery consistency. Make sure all of this happens after step 8.
For a citrussy kick, add in a couple spritzes of store-bought lemon juice, or the juice of, say, half a lemon.
I hope this helps anyone who’s wanted to try cooking Indian food but was too intimidated by it! If you have all the ingredients, it’s really not that hard! A lot of it is improvisation and experimenting, there really are no exact measurements or timings- it’s all based on your preferences!
