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From: nandhu@ut-ngp.UUCP (N. Nandhakumar)
Newsgroups: net.veg
Subject: Re: dairy-free recipes
Message-ID: <4169@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 19-Oct-86 00:17:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.4169
Posted: Sun Oct 19 00:17:54 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Oct-86 21:29:14 EDT
References: <1298@uw-june> <4122@ut-ngp.UUCP> <1947@well.UUCP>
Organization: UTexas Computation Center, Austin, Texas
Lines: 41
Keywords: cookbooks recommended
Summary: Vegetable Oil is a good substitute for Ghee in Indian cooking



In article <1947@well.UUCP> Maurice Weitman writes:
>
>I must obviously defer to nandhu's expertise here, but my experience
>with Indian cooking, both from restaurants (including my own) and cook
>books, is that lots of dairy is used.  One of the more ubiquitous  
>ingredients is clarified butter (ghee).  I really might be wrong here,
>but most of the restaurants I've eaten in seem to use this in almost
>all of their dishes.  Again, it's entirely possible that my experience
>is too narrow to be meaningful.  I mean, whom would YOU believe (about
>matters Indian): Maurice or Nandhakumar???  %-)
>
   I thank Maurice for pointing out the use of ghee (clarified butter).  I
had completely forgotten about it because I have not used it but once or 
twice in the last few years.  Ghee is an expensive commodity in India and
is used in cooking only on festive occassions, or when 'important'
guests are to be entertained. It is rarely used in daily cooking and if it
is, then only in very small quantities.  Certain regions in India are notorious
for using large quantities of ghee, the cuisine of Gujarat is one such
example.

   I have substituted vegetable oil for ghee and have found that a recipe does
not lose its characteristic individuality.  The recipes from South India seem
to use less oil/ghee than those from the north. A recipe to serve 4 would
typically require about 2 tablespoons of oil to fry the spices in before adding
the vegetables. Also, the food of south India is less heavily spiced.  
Unfortunately however, 99.99% of the Indian restaurants in the U.S. feature only
North Indian cuisine and finding South Indian food here is difficult, and I'm
not even talking about good south Indian food.

    A good book on south Indian recipes is one from Madras called "Cook and See"
by Meenakshi Ammal (English translations of this are now available), published
by Meenakshi Ammal Publications, Samaithu Par House, 188 Ramakrishna Mutt. Rd.,
Madras 600 028, India. The book contains 258 pages, includes an index and 
a useful glossary of terms peculiar to south Indian cuisine, e.g. all volumetric
measurements are in terms of 'allacks' - a traditional south Indian measure 
equivalent to about 2.5 cups! The book costs Rs. 10 in India - about $1 when 
converted to U.S. currency.  I have no idea how easy/difficult it is to get 
bookstores here to order this book. I recommend this book only for the very 
ambitious, who don't balk at taking a drink from a fire-hose.