Happy New Year!
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Notes -
I believe that Indian restaurants make food less spicy for non-Indian patrons and spicier (or at least regular spicy) for Indian patrons. This belief stems from a) Indian friends telling me that the white-washed Indian restaurants they've gone to aren't nearly as spicy as home, and b) me ordering the spiciest dishes (generally vindaloo) and not being phased by the spiciness.
I'd like to run some experiments to determine how true this is. I have practically zero experimental design experience and would like input/advice.
Here's my basic plan:
Order vindaloo takeout under a white name and pick up
Wait 30 min to prevent order batching
Order vindaloo takeout under an Indian name and pick up
Cool both in the refrigerator for two hours (this is to blind me to which dish is which by temperature)
Mark both to distinguish white vs. Indian (do this in a way that doesn't allow me to see)
Heat them both up evenly
Randomize so I don't know which dish I am eating
Sample one dish
Cleanse my palate (to start at spiciness zero)
Sample the other dish
Compare the two dishes' spiciness
I think recruiting a friend or two would help to add more data points and make the blinding easier/less prone to failure.
Open to any thoughts. And if you're in the Dallas area and interested in participating, let me know!
I lived in India for a year and became obsessed with the food, which is comparatively bland in the States. So, I learned to cook it myself. Indian food is all about the spice - heat as well as flavor. The key is good recipes and quality spices (which I eventually bought in bulk or at import stores because supermarket price/quality/quantity ratio's are expensive. Fresh Indian food is totally different form the restaurant stuff. My Lamb Rogan Josh is well liked by my fellow western friends (the key is large cubes of lamb imo).
My guess is that you're probably right; they might add more chili to heat up dishes for an Indian sounding names. I know they do this in Thai take out places. But it'll pale in comparison to making it at home (which will indeed smell for a few days).
I'd love if you did a post on this. My lamb curries are... kinda ok, I guess. Although they've gotten worse and samey since I started doing big batches. I can't seem to make them taste different from each other...
I'm lucky to have basically infinite lamb shoulder for experimentation with plenty of bones, but there's something about the spices I can't get right.
Edit. My post is showing an erroneous strikethrough and I don't know why.
Interesting. My has been a huge crowd pleaser for people who don't necessarily like indian food. I'd say they're being polite, but they request it at subsequent dinner parties. I buy lamb leg; on or off the bone. I spend a lot of time cutting it into 3cm cubes (they are smaller when cooked). I use a razor sharp knife to remove as much excess fat and tendons as possible (anything I think will get chewy, lamb is rich enough). I do batches of 2-3kg's (6-8 people with leftovers I want) and I use approx 10-15% more of the primary spices (coriander, and, moreso, cumin). I get fairly fresh and quality spices from an indian import shop near me. Not essential, but its like 1/4 the price of the good stuff at the supermarket (look for saturated colors and uniform consistency. Some coriander looks like they put the seeds and stems in a coffee grinder).
I swear I had an Alton Brown recipe the first few times I made it, but I can't find it on the internet anymore. Ive used this one more recently:
https://www.recipetineats.com/rogan-josh/ (per 750g)
Oil or butter instead of ghee is fine IME
Tsp of cinnamon instead of a stick is fine
Cardamom is essential for lamb rogan josh, but I add 1tbs ground instead of pods when needed.
I go half-dose on the paprika, but that's my preference (I find the cardamom gives it a deep, rich flavor, whereas paprika is more bitter).
I don't bother with the fennel powder.
Sometimes I forget the garam masala.
I 1.5x-2x the onions.
I add cayenne or fresh red chilis for heat (which will intensify while cooking, but I like heat).
The Alton Brown recipe called for leaving it overnight in the fridge and re-heating. The flavors do intensify. Plus also helps get one dish out of the way.
I almost always serve with a minty raita (crucial), store-bought nan, jeera rice, this lentil stew (not the quinoa part, just the lentil curry and I never bothered with the coconut flakes), and maybe an okra masala. Its a feast.
With quality spices, large cubes of lamb, and a watchful eye, the lamb has never failed to impress. It can stick towards the end. The saltiness won't be obvious until the very end for some weird reason. If needed, salt can be added late, or when served. I tend to get the saltiness just under my perfect amount of salt while its cooling. I just tate/stir/repeat until its just under salted for me. The stock has salt, so additional salt may not be needed. I cook in one or two large braising pans, on very low heat. Nonstick is perhaps preferable, but either way it will require monitoring, and gentle stirring. My goal is to have every cube be the best cube: large, and tender enough to chew without teeth. I think this dish would be unprofitable in a restaurant. You lose ~15% of the lamb in the trimming process, and use slightly more high quality spices. But its incredible.
Both light red and light white wine are fine. So is cold beer.
Pre-dinner cocktails? A Long Vodka:
1 oz. Simple syrup of fresh lemon juice and honey (might need to heat the juice and honey to get honey to dissolve). To taste. Should be fairly sweet. 1-2 lemons per cocktail. The pre-squeezed stuff in the plastic lemon sucks ass; stuff in a bottle is okay.
3oz vodka form the freezer
3 oz seltzer
Dashes of angostura bitter.
Stir and serve in a high-ball or larger.
If you do some or all whenever, let me know how it worked out!
I've done all of the above several times for my Indian night, and can now autopilot enough of it to do it day-of but it def takes time (hence doing just the lamb the night before can be a good idea).
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