Mamta's Kitchen - A Family Cookbook
Help please
After recently going to low carb diet, due to me needing to lose weight or die, I am wondering what you could reccomend on this site?
I know the usual Tandoori meats, but I adore rich curries, could anyone maybe please help me with some ideas from this site....or is it always going to be chicken and salad for me lol.
I hope to post more frequent, and I think this site, well what do i say? it is the best this man has used.
Hello Nick
We will look forward to seeing you here, welcome!
You can make meat and chicken curries using Khada Masala Curry method. Then spoon off the fat that floats to the top at the end. For other curries, reduce the oil to minimum. Indian food is same. You cook your food with lower calories, just like you would do British food. Reduce fat & sugar content, serve smaller portions, boil and roast things instead of frying. Eat more fish and vegetables than meat. When cooking chicken, remove the ?skin? and when cooking red meat, remove and obvious fat. Indian usually do this anyway.
I am sure you will get some more good advice from others here.
A few months ago I was asked to make a low fat chicken curry for someone, and much to my surprise it was a hit. To be honest, if you are careful with the fats you are using there is no reason at all why you couldn't make many of the dishes on Mamta's site. Obviously there are exceptions with dishes that use cream and so forth. Which brings be back to what I had for tea tonight: Indian Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani). It was delicious, but because of how rich it was I could only eat it once a week at the most LOL. I also made tomato rice with fresh curry leaves, onion pakoras and Mamta's Karela bhaji (which IMO is the nicest karela recipe I have ever tasted, and I have tried quite a few).
While all of that was cooking away, I made a few more samosas with some left over samosa filling I had from the other day, but I have frozen those for a rainy day.
Stuffed Sid.
(which IMO is the nicest karela recipe I have ever tasted, and I have tried quite a few).
That's what you get when you are trying to do three things at once.
*(which is the nicest karela recipe I have ever tasted, and I have tried quite a few).
Still a stuffed Sid.
"but I have frozen those for a rainy day."
Your post reminded me of something;
Growing up in India, on a rainy/cloudy day during monsoon, we often used to sit and eat pakoras and samosas on the verandah on a hammock type of swing, very often accompanied with semolina halva and hot cardamom tea.
Swing like this one; http://www.flickr.com/photos/paragsm/3666764650/#/
I have tried to find this recipe with no success, help please. Thanks.
If you search "Bitter Gourd + Bhaji, and imagine they are the recipes.
Growing up in India, on a rainy/cloudy day during monsoon, we often used to sit and eat pakoras and samosas on the verandah on a hammock type of swing, very often accompanied with semolina halva and hot cardamom tea.
Sounds wonderful! People think I am crazy, but I love the rain.
Sid
If you have just come through a summer of intense heat of Uttar Pradesh (see map below), you welcome the rains. Dancing with joy with the arrival of the first fat drops of water, dancing in the rain, getting soaked to the bones playing cricket on make shift wickets, making paper boats to run in the gushing rain water in the streets, until they disappear in a drain, are all joyful memories of Indian Monsoons of my childhood. Some food memories go automatically with them.
Uttar Pradesh; http://www.travelindia-guide.com/uttar_pradesh_details.php
I spent all my college years, from 15 to about 24, in a city called Kanpur, about 100 miles from Agra, the city of Taj-Mahal. It was HOt in summer there!
Then you have the wettest place on Earth called Mawsynram, also in India. I watched an hour long documentary on it a few years ago. It looks like the sort of place I would love to visit.
Sid.
I think mosquitoes are a bit like tourists, in the sense that everyone hates them -- business owners excluded.
I remember a few years ago when I went to the Yucatan with a friend. I saw how nasty those damn flies can be. My friend got bitten beyond belief. There were these flies that went around biting people, and a few hours later there was a bright red lump the size of a golf ball that remained for a few days. When you squashed the flies they were full of blood, but I don't assume it was their own LOL. Then whenever he my friend went in the sea for a dip he kept getting bitten by these little things that looked very similar to woodlice. Luckily for me the flies only bit me about twice, and the aquatic woodlice didn't like the taste of me. I remember the two of us being in the sea and he was jumping about and had to get out because of them. On the plane coming home he looked like he'd contracted some rare tropical disease because of the bites. I don't think he's been back since.
Sid.
as it seems to be a question of life and death, let us get back to Nick's question.
I think we should look at why people are fat, not including metabolic disorders.
Bluntly, people get fat because their calorific intake outstrips their body's requirements. Very simply, we either eat too much, or we eat the wrong things, and probably both. BUT, I would not recommended a low carb diet at all. We need nutrient from all three food groups, carbs, fats and proteins. What we should have is a well balanced diet, so that all three groups are in the right proportion, and for a healthy male have 2500 kcals per day, for a health women, 2000 kcals per day, these are generally accepted values. That presumes a medium level of activity, (the other reason people get fat! not enough exercise).
To lose weight, it recommended to drop about 500 calories a day, which equates to 3500 calories a week, or one pound in weight, although some people will lose more. But I think it is essential to reduce all the food groups by the same amount, not just carbs or fats, we still need both.
It is possible to make meals with the ideal balance, I've done it with Rogan Josh and rice, believe it or not, knwon to be fatty and hi carb. If you do the sums (every gramme of fat has 9 cals, carbs 4 g and protein 4 g) you will get a better idea of how to change the diet to accomplish this. There are tables available with the calorific content of food and individual ingredients.
As a final note, Nick, take it slowly, and remember, 90% of an effective diet is attitude! You have the best reason to diet, good luck with it.
Sorry Nick, we had sort of side tracked on your thread.
I agree with everything Lapis has said, couldn't have put it better myself. Eat everything, but cut down the amounts of things that you already know are not good for you/have high calorie count. Some really rich foods can be omitted, for a while at least, like rich restaurant style desserts and fry-ups. Don't forget that soft drinks also have a lot of extra calories, so either cut them out or have ones with sugar free. Same goes with tea and coffee; 2 tsp sugar for example adds up to a lot, if you have a few cups through the day.
Good luck
sorry, that should be, for each gramme of:
protein 4 kcal
carbs 4kcal
fats 9 kcal.
Thanks for the feedback guys it is much appreciated, I will be trying some things in the next few days from this site. In return I will post some pictures and explain my efforts.
Thankyou
And you need to exercise combined with a good diet the weight will fall off, I recommend exercise which makes you sweat and brings the heart weight up. Spin classes are truly evil but they work!
I thought this would be an apt thread to post this in. This evening I made a mixed vegetable bhaji. I blanched some chopped carrots, potatoes and cauliflower. Once the veggies were blanched I placed them into a bowl full of cold water and threw in some frozen peas and a few sliced healthy-looking cauliflower leaves. Adding the frozen peas at that stage helps them to defrost and also cools down the water slightly (to halt the cooking process).
In a non-stick frying pan I added 1 tablespoon of oil (half olive oil and half rapeseed for the omega mix) and added 1 tablespoon of mustard seeds and waited for them to pop, then I added half a teaspoon of kalonji seeds and 8-10 fresh curry leaves. Once the curry leaves had done their dance in the pan I added two sliced onions and some ginger and garlic paste (I was in two minds whether or not to add garlic). Once the onions were translucent I added two teaspoons of coriander powder, two teaspoons of white cumin powder, one teaspoon of sweet paprika powder and one teaspoon of haldi powder. I mixed the spices well and cooked them on a medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for about three minutes. Once the oil began to separate from the spices I added two sliced fresh green chillies and salt to taste and cooked it for a minute more, then I added the blanched veggies (minus the water, of course).
I mixed it all really well and cooked it on a medium-low heat for about ten minutes. Finally, I added in a dessert spoon of tamarind puree, lashings of chopped fresh coriander/cilantro, sliced green bell pepper and about a cup of sliced fresh onion. I mixed it well and took the pan off of the heat to prevent the peppers and onions from becoming too cooked. I sprinkled the dish with freshly ground coarse black pepper. It was delicious and really healthy.
On a different note (is this post going on a bit? Probably) I made another batch of vegetable samosas. Mamta's recipe calls for dry roasted cumin seeds, coarsely ground, but I'd ran out of cumin seeds so I pan toasted some coriander seeds instead. I ground them very coarsely in the P&M and added them to the mixture...the result was amazing!! Just goes to show that experimenting does have its benefits.
Speaking (or should that be typing) of experimenting. Once I'd cooked the samosas I decided to deep fry some onions for making a brown onion sauce. Disaster struck and as soon as the onions hit the oil, the oil just came straight up and over the pan and I had the mother of all flamb?. Yeah, I set the kitchen on fire, still, the fire brigade really enjoyed the samosas (I'm just kidding).
Lesson number one when deep frying anything: Make sure you ALWAYS have a damp tea towel to hand in the event of a disaster. You don't want to be running to the tap to soak and ring out a tea towel when your ceiling is about to catch fire.
Sid (with no eyebrows).
I meant one teaspoon of mustard seeds, not one tablespoon.
Sid (still with no eyebrows).
Hope you didn't singe your brows sid, not really!
Make sure you ALWAYS have a damp tea towel to hand in the event of a disaster.
I have a fire blanket hanging in my kitchen and a small extinguisher next to the kitchen door, thankfully never needed yet. If you have space, it is a good idea to have something simple, just in case.
Your bhaji sounds lovely sid, only I never blanch vegetables beforehand, not a practice I ever saw in India. It removes some of the flavour and vitamins into the water, I think.
"I have a fire blanket hanging in my kitchen and a small extinguisher next to the kitchen door"
Readers should also make others aware of these appliances and give training in their usage. (Otherwise in an emergency they may not even be aware of the appliances' presence - hey Kavey!!)
Good point John. I think I did mention it on the course, not sure if I said anything about how to! Blanket you just pull out and cover the fire. Extinguisher is a little more involved, but very easy. I have never used either, in spite of having them hanging there for over 30 years!
LOL no my eyebrows are still there. I don't always blanch the vegetables, Mamta. I do it occasionally to speed up the cooking process. There is much more flavour to them when you don't blanch them, agreed.
Sid
Honestly, I either never noticed it or had long since forgotten! ;)
in the course of my professional work, I have had to attend many fire fighting courses (let me say the message from the pro's is to get out of the building as soon as) and that has included using many types of fire extinguishers. Let me say, if you have never tried it, there is a lot more to it than one might think. Usually the extinguisher actually makes things worse, as the fuel is usually splattered around the container and onto the floor.
First thing to do is turn off the source of heat and flame.
If using an extinguisher, don't direct it straight at the pan, bounce the stream off a wall or other solid object, this takes the force out of the stream.
Never try pick up the burning pan, never.
Once the fire is out, watch it until it is relatively cool.
At one fire fighting demo I attended, the fire officer was using an old foam type (now obsolete!), when he pulled the appropriate knob, the contents fell out of the bottom, onto his boots. Laughs an apologies all around. But he grabbed another, and the same thing happened, not so funny. That's why they are obsolete, no doubt.
I was going to say that maybe Mamta should have her fire blanket and extinguisher checked if they are as old as she thinks they are. I think such things are supposed to be checked once a year. I once did a fire safety course but it was so long ago now that I don't remember it.
It took me over an hour to clean the cooker after yesterday's unpleasantness, such a mess. Luckily I still had more oil so I could continue with the job at hand.
Sid.
I check my fire blanket regularly. Extinguisher is checked from time to time, but not every year. Knowing me, I don't think I will wait to use it, I will just get out quick smart!
We once had a fire in our flat when we lived in London. It was a hospital flat, decorated before the days of health and safety. There was a window adjacent to the cooker and a net curtain on it right next to the cooker! It caught fire one day and went up in seconds, quite frightening actually. But it burnt itself out and fire stopped there. I turned the gas off, called fire brigade and went out fast. No kids were born then. The fire brigade came within 2 minutes I think, very impressive. Checked around the flat and called the hospital concerned to sort the fire safety things out! I still remember the look on the face of a passer by!
I have to say that if we ever had a fire now, my first instinct would be to turn gas off, cover the fire with the blanket if I could and get out fast.
You can never be too careful when it comes to fire IMO.
A number of years ago my younger brother (now deceased) was going to cook a stir fry in our newly acquired wok. I was out the back doing something and he'd left the wok on the heat for too long and the oil caught fire. His instinct was to pick it up, run around the kitchen with it a few times and then he threw it out of the back door right where I was stood. It would have looked really impressive if you were stood looking in through the window. When I worked as a chef and I was cooking something in a wok I used to get the best flamb?. The flames used to hit the ceiling sometimes. I had to turn the extractor fans off when I was cooking with the wok, just in case they caught fire. Those were the days.
I think you should rename this thread to: Help help I am a pyromaniac.
Sid
A previous neighbour of mine had a chimney fire. He immediately dialed 999 and correctly put a damp cloth sack over the fireplace entrance, removing the supply of oxygen and the fire soon went out.
He then panicked - the fire brigade were rushing to him with no fire to put out!
His answer? He RELIT the fire with the aid of paraffin to "make their journey worthwhile." The firemen immediately smelt the paraffin - not sure what they made of his antics!
Winton