Tikha Kanna

Top: Making Yogurt
Bottom: Spice Gallery

Ever since I watched that episode of "This Old House" -- a show that features men doing home improvement projects-- I had the insatiable urge to physically create something.

It is my dad's unknown goodfortune that I eventually decided against repainting the exterior walls of our house, re-tiling the downstairs bathroom wall, and framing the interior windows sills.

Today, I discovered the perfect outlet for my desire to be productive. I skimmed through "1,000 Indian Recipes"-- a cookbook that I bought just yesterday, and planned out an entire meal to prepare for tonight. The hidden treasure of preparing Indian food is acquiring all the necessary (and often unheard of) spices. What food retailer in America carries Mango Powder? How about Chaat Masala? A little Tamarind Powder anyone? I DID find the citrus acid and chickpea flour. Indian dishes are so infused with a number strong spices, that I figured it would be acceptable to leave one or two hard-to-find ingredients out.

OMG, Indian dishes are so colorful and are created with such a rich blend of spices- no matter how much effort I put into making something "mild" it ends up "spicey anyway! I was once told by a Hindi professor that the strong spices were originally used to cover up stale or old tasting vegetables and fruit. My professor told me that it was often hard to find fresh produce in some regions of India- I wonder how valid this is?

The menu for tonight was:
Mint-Yogurt Vegetable Curry
Pakoras (Indian style french fries)
rice
cucumber salad
Yogurt- Homemade!

These main dishes went well with store-bought mango chutney. My hands will smell like onions, garlic, and spice forever!