“Behind The Scenes” Recipes for Faster Cooking

Homemade Ghee

Posted by Colleen on Jul 23, 2012 in "Behind The Scenes" Recipes for Faster Cooking, A Homemade Pantry, All Posts, Colleen's Kitchen | 7 comments

Whether you want to save money, or you don’t have access to store bought ghee, making your own ghee at home is cheap and easy. I’ve always bought my ghee from the Indian store, being perfectly content getting it ready made. I never would have considered making my own…until I noticed the price of ghee slowly but surely increasing. The twenty ounce bottle of ghee I add to my basket every couple months started out around seven dollars and now costs me thirteen. I didn’t think much of it beyond wishing the price would stay put. Then on a trip to India, I saw so many people in the neighborhood making their own ghee at home.  To them, store bought ghee was completely unnecessary, a waste of both time and money.

Ginger and Garlic Paste

Posted by Colleen on Aug 3, 2011 in "Behind The Scenes" Recipes for Faster Cooking, A Homemade Pantry, All Posts, Beginner Recipes, Colleen's Kitchen, How To's & Tutorials, Learn the Indian Basics, Recipe Index | 3 comments

Ginger and garlic paste is used in almost every main dish.  When I was first learning to cook Indian food, I got my ginger and garlic paste from Safeway.  Then I started to get it from the Indian store because it’s cheaper.  Now, I make it at home.  It’s the cheapest version and it is by far the most flavorful, which is what really counts.

To a beginner cook or a cook new to Indian food, making your own ginger and garlic paste at home may seem like too much effort when it can easily be bought at the grocery store.  The difference however is substantial.  Using fresh ginger and garlic will improve the flavor of your dish immensely and isn’t that what cooking is all about?

Indian Tomato Tadka

Posted by Colleen on Jul 18, 2011 in "Behind The Scenes" Recipes for Faster Cooking, A Homemade Pantry, All Posts, Colleen's Kitchen, Learn the Indian Basics, Recipe Index | 0 comments

This tomato sauce is a type of flavor base used in Indian cooking called tadka (this one happens to be tomato tadka).  Tadka is the flavor foundation of any dish.  It’s a basic technique or process where oil is heated in a pan, whole spices are fried to bring out their flavor, onions are fried till they turn brown, ginger and garlic paste might be added, then ground spices are added and if you are making a dish which uses a tomato base as well, the tomatoes are added.  If you have browsed through the recipes on this site, you’ll have noticed the first five steps to almost every recipe is the same.