Hi, I'm known as Basilica, I am English but have lived on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus for the past 12 years. We do have a couple of Indian restaurants here but I have yet to find one that comes up to the standard I have experienced in the UK.

I have a 79 year old neighbour/friend who loves 'proper' curry and I plan to make her a 3 course Indian meal from scratch for her 80th birthday in October. I have so far decided to try a Bombay Aloo and a Chicken Madras using the recipes on here, however, I cannot get 'curry leaves' in Cyprus, and I know that Mamta uses them a lot in her recipes. Does anyone have any suggestions as what I could use instead and if I don't use them, will it make a big difference to the taste? I want to get the meal as accurate as possible.i

I have looked for a Dahl Makni recipe but cannot find one on here, I do have PUY lentils which I assume is used for this dish. Any ideas?

I will now go and look through all the threads on this website for some inspiration.

Look forward to chatting.

Indians do not serve food in courses, this is a Russian thing (originally).

Puy lentils, no.

Try to look for dal makhani.

Suresh

Indians may not have traditionally served food in courses but I know many many many thousands who do now!!! Including many restaurants in India and here in UK, which like to offer diners starters, mains/ sides and desserts.

Food trends and ways of serving / eating change... even whilst many aspects stay the same.

Italians didn't originally eat tomatoes (since they are not native to Europe and were introduced by Portuguese, perhaps?) but who could imagine Italian cuisine now without them?

Basilica

Can you get frozen curry leaves, I have heard people using those... if not, I would imagine you can leave them out or sub, mum can surely advise, especially as recipes are guidelines, can be tweaked to personal taste and availability of ingredients, mum tweaks her own recipes for same reasons all the time...

Have you seen the recipes from one of our moderators? AskCy, his name is Steve Lister, he shares a number of Cypriot recipes here on the site.

Kavey

How wonderful! I am sure your neighbour will love it!

I was away all afternoon and evening in Croydon, attending a wedding, so saw your post only now. I have 2 recipes for Dal Makhani, Dal Makhnai 1 and Dal Makhnai 2. Dal Makani and Brown Lentls (like Puy) Lentils are completely different, both in taste and in texture, Dal Makhani usually has kidney beans added to whole black gram or Urad. Brown lentil cooks much faster than the Dal Makhani. I personally love brown lentils more.

Curry leaves; actually, I don?t use curry leaves that often, they are mostly used in Gujarati and southern Indian cuisine and I am from the north. You can make very good potato bhaji without the curry leaves. Try Potato Bhaji 1 . Potatoes (Alu/Aloo/aalu) are often cooked mixed with other seasonal vegetables in India. For example, fresh green beans of any type, peas, carrots, spinach or whatever else is in season. If you tell me what is his favourite vegetable or what is in season there at the moment, I can help you better.

Mamta

I can't think of anything that would act as a substitute for curry leaves. There are lost of Brits in Greek Cyprus: why not get someone to buy you some curry leaves back home, and then freeze them?

Phil

"I can't think of anything that would act as a substitute for curry leaves."

That is very true. However, a lot of Indian cuisine is made without curry leaves. So I will suggest that you make something that doesn't require curry leaves.

Yassou Basilica :-)

Unfortunately no I don't live in Cyprus :-(

I believe you can get curry leaves in Cyprus if you are near Paphos or can get there. Several people suggest there is an Asian shop (possibly called Ruposhi Bangla) on the Tombs of the kings road, near Bens Bar and opposite the Roman Hotel.

Hope this is some help

Steve

here are a few recipes as there isn't a way to search for them directly

Stifado

Koupes

:-)

Steve

Thanks Steve, I know where you mean, I've already been advised about this spice shop along the Tomb of the Kings, I will seek it out next week. I've got a long list of asian spices I want to try and get. Kala Nikta

Hello Basilica

Yes, we did enjoy the wedding, thanks.

Yes, asafoetida or hing powder are the same.

Our friends these days tend to prefer fresh fruits, either mixed fruit salad or things like mangoes or melons or pineapples. Typically, a Kulfi or chilled rice pudding (Indian version) or a vermicelli pudding will be good on a warm day.

Steve, I have just added the key word 'Cypriot' to both recipes you mention, so they should come up if someone searches for Cypriot. Do we have any other Cypriot recipes from you here?

"Kala Nikta"

You don't mean Kala Namak, do you Basilica?

a few more Cypriot ones...(and some Greek)

Stuffed peppers

Spanakopitta

pitta bread

stuffed peppers - veggie

...

Halloumi kebab sandwich

Greek Salad

Keftedes

Chicken Gyros

:-)

Steve

Thanks Steve

I have now added key words 'Greek' and 'Cypriot' to all these recipes.

thanks Mamta :-)

Steve

Ma, were you jesting about kala nikta, by the way?

(It means Good Night)

LOL! DOH etc.! I was not jesting though, just asking if she meant Kala Namak and spelt wrong by mistake. Many non Indians do use the stuff you know!

And when I said it, it was night-time, I'm a couple of hours ahead of UK. We were talking about Cyprus so I decided to go 'Greek' when I said goodnight! What does kala manak mean?

Steve - where do you get your Cypriot/Greek recipes from, or do you make them up?

Kala Namak = Black Salt (namak is salt, kala is black).

It's a Himalayan rock salt, though I think is now also produced from salt mines elsewhere...

The minerals in it give it a little dark grey colour but also a strong sulfurous taste, probably an acquired taste, but a little can really add something to a chaat masala...

Mum, yes of course non-Indians use it, but would have been bit of a HUGE coincidene for the mispelling of kala namak to accidentally give the Good Night greeting in the relevant language! Hence why I thought you might not have heard kala nikta before! :-D

Kala Namak is black, rock salt, sometimes used in spicy, Chaat dishes and in making the spice mix called Chaat Masala

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_Namak

My recipes are how I recreate dishes I've had on various trips etc... Sometimes it means the dish is made in a different way because I do a lot on top of the stove so I can see how its going and adjust flavours and such, sometimes I have to add things to compensate for lack of BBQ smoke or lack of flavour in tomatoes etc.... Some of the dishes are an "average" or amalgamation of the recipe as its always slightly different in different places/restaurants/chefs etc...

Steve

Hi, thank you both for the explanation re Kala Namak. You two do make me laugh with your banter! I use rock salt all the time, but I will have a look for the black (or pink) salt when I visit the spice shop next week. One other thing, I want to try all sorts of different dishes and think I will need to buy quite a few new spices which I don't already have. Mamta, is there a list of indian spices and what they are used for on this website? I tried to search but I didn't find a page with a list. :-)

Here you go, it is under Advice-ingredients list;

http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/tip_display.php?tip_id=2

I was just coming back to say ignore last post, I have just found it under 'advice'!

:-)

It's the same in real life!!!