Very often we hear people order a takeaway meal thinking it’s fast and easy. And for some reason, it’s the perfect way to end up with no chips and usually no curry. All we want is the food within shouting distance, often with basic ingredients that are easy to cook. If you can do that, many a meal will be ready in no time at all.
For every delicious meal idea, there is a recipe hidden or built around it. You may have come across a lovely curry dish that uses a range of vegetables – sometimes cooked and sometimes dried. It uses spices and slows cooked meats to create an inimitable dining experience. For example, a lovely stuffed chicken paratha that is baked in a delicious Moorish curry sauce. Usually a meal of paratha will end with home made naan which is just as lovely and flavourful as restaurant naan.
This is naan cooked in oil, which is really healthy. naan often refers to the ‘baked product’, but in this article it is defined as the layer of crispiness on top of a meal. This is where the oven does its job, cooking the food and giving it its character.
This is also the meal consumed in many Indian homes, that has become popularly known as ‘roti canai’. It is usually a cold meal for breakfast and is eaten with paratha. Since it is mainly vegetarian it makes for a healthy lunch.
The key to making naan absolutely free from eggs is to use incredibly fresh ingredients. Unfortunately, most Indian ingredients are usually pre-cut into small pieces, and come in the smaller, medium and large sizes. For example, a whole chicken would be huge! However, you can buy a roti which is the same size as a chicken breast, and work out how many spices you would need to add to make this onto a plate.
Indian cooks often claim that making and cooking roti is much easier than it looks and often worry about the time it might take from start to finish. The truth is that it’s often a case of the right combination of ingredients creating the right balance of flavours. Although you might have seen many takes on this Indian classic, the truth is that it is not hard to make your own roti, and it could be done in a matter of minutes.
Whether you want to eat roti made by yourself, or you want to join a group and make roti at home, you’ll want to have the basics in your kitchen. Indian food is as diverse as its people and culture. You’ll need to have the right spices to get the job done right.
