Garlic Bread is so versatile! It’s the best side dish to so many dishes: spaghetti bolognese, salads (especially Caesar), steak, many kinds of soup (put a slice in a bowl and pour tomato soup over – delicious!) and even with this recent entry on this site: One Pot Garlic Parmesan Pasta. Because too much garlic is almost enough. For this reason, it’s not a bad idea to have a couple of versions up your sleeve… so you don’t get tired of eating the same version of garlic bread all the time. Here’s what to do: Get some good bread. Bread. Slice off as many pieces as you’re going to eat. Sliced br ..read more

This recipe is called “best-ever” and I always wonder about that claim. Who decides? What are their names? What’s the criteria for declaring this garlic bread the best-ever? Was there a poll? A taste test? Many unanswered questions. I’m asking these questions because I think I may have improved on the recipe a bit and I don’t know who to check in with and what description is better than best. Most awesome? Ultimate? Maybe greatest… at least until someone improves on this. How come I think this recipe is better? I mashed the garlic into a paste in my mortar and pestle. I think that this allowed ..read more

Another recipe I’ve been on the hunt for forever is one that will let me in on the secret to making restaurant-style honey garlic spareribs. Just like the ones I consume in great quantities anytime I see them in a Chinese food restaurant. Could this the recipe that ends my search? It certainly has the right title. And the twist – that there is no honey in the recipe – may be why all the recipes that I’ve tried before to reproduce this delicious flavour combination have fallen short. Let’s check it out: Get the ribs into the instant pot. Pork ribs. Slice through the slabs so there are individ ..read more

More garlic? Yes, please. This recipe introduced me to a new idea for something to make and have around: garlic chips! I think they will be great on top of a pizza, or in a salad, or in a pasta sauce. But for now, they are the star of this fried rice and that’s just fine. Here’s the step-by-step. Start with garlic. Garlic. Slice it. Try to make all the slices the same width. Sliced. Get the garlic into the heated oil. Into the oil. Keep watching and stirring. After 5 minutes. Put the chips on kitchen paper to drain. Draining. Add the ginger to the garlicky oil. Ginger. After 2 minu ..read more

After last week’s garlic extravaganza, I stayed on the garlic train and have been making my way through a bunch of recipes that highlight the glory of the bulb. There is no better time to indulge my fondness for this ingredient. While everyone is wearing a mask (you are wearing a mask, aren’t you?) the incredible pungency of garlic will be muted. Though it’s entirely possible, given the amount of garlic I’ve eaten lately that its smell is escaping through my pores. Thank goodness also for reduced interaction. This is another one-pot pasta recipe – so easy, so tasty – I’ve already made it twice ..read more

It is official!! A whatfoodimade Hall of Fame cookbook! Made in India: Recipes from an Indian Family Kitchen is the first-ever whatfoodimade Hall of Fame cookbook entry. Award-winning? Yes. Here, if in no other place. Why? So many recipes appealed when I read them and were therefore tried. Only one was a little less than delicious. There are straight-forward instructions, with good stories to go along with the recipes. A section on Indian ingredients to help with shopping for unfamiliar items. Plus another entry on how to remove turmeric stains, which I certainly should have read. I now have ..read more

There are so many regional cuisines in India! Wikipedia lists 38 and one of those has a subsection1. More reading, specifically on Gujarati cuisine, clued me into there being three regions within Gujarat and each of those regions has their own style. More from Wikipedia on Gujarati cuisine: the dishes are mostly vegetarian, and many Gujarati dishes are simultaneously sweet, salty and spicy. That last bit describes this potato curry well. I would not ever think to add sugar to a potato dish, but it shows up in this delicious recipe. Here goes. First thing to do: heat oil in a large pan and toas ..read more

A less savoury recipe from – yes you guessed it – Made in India. Will I cook every recipe from this book? No. There’s a whole chapter on fish that I’m not touching. This is a delicious refreshing summery taste in a glass. Perfect for enjoying during this especially hot summer! The key ingredient: mangoes. Many mangoes. Sliced around the pit. Sliced mango. Two cubed mangos. Cubed mango. Add the yogurt. Add the yogurt (a whatfoodimade action shot!). Ground cardamon. Someday soon, I will remember to buy a jar of cardamon so I don’t have to pry seeds from their pods and grind them in the m ..read more

When I posted the recipe for Chicken in Pickling Spices, I said, “once you’ve committed to eating all the recipes that appeal to you from a book about Indian food, you’re going to have [the spices] in your cupboards already.” Cardamom, coriander, mustard seeds, chili powder, cumin, turmeric and garam masala (a mixture of spices, some of which are already listed), are all popular in Indian cooking and would make a good starting inventory. There is a shelf life to spices—a year or two, depending on the particular spice—and they should be replaced when necessary so the balance of spices is retain ..read more

Butter chicken, chicken tikka masala, chicken vindaloo and chicken korma — all chicken dishes served to and loved by me at Indian restaurants. Chicken in Pickling Spices was new to me. But because it’s from Made in India I had no reservations about trying the recipe to figure out what I’d been missing. Yes, there are a lot of ingredients – mostly spices – but once you’ve committed to eating all the recipes that appeal to you from a book about Indian food, you’re going to have them in your cupboards already. Here goes! Start by bashing the ginger, garlic and green chilli in a mortar and pestle ..read more