Indian Restaurant food in US

As an Indian living in the US, I am always in search of good Indian restaurants. But somehow the restaurant food always falls short - short in taste, short in flavor, heavy on your stomach, heavy in fat and smothered with masala. One of my pet peeves is overcooking. When food is overcooked, it loses its flavor and its texture. All thats left is mush.

And I feel that restaurant food is not a good representation of true Indian cuisine. Thats why I started this blog... to write about the true Indian cuisine, the multitude of flavors, the multitude of textures, the vast range of spices, and the wonderful tastes and smells.

Our lunch menu today was Roti, Jeera Rice, Dal and Baingan Bharta. I am a big fan of reusing left-overs in other recipes. So I reused left-over brown rice and stir fried it with Jeera to make some yummy Jeera rice.

Then I used one of those large eggplants for the Baingan Bharta. Here's a tip: you can broil it in the oven to cook it quickly and then chargrill it on a hot iron pan for that smoky flavor but take care not to broil it too long so it doesnt get overcooked. Once it was broiled, I cooled and peeled it. Then I simply stir fried some sliced onions, a couple of pods of garlic and a bit of chopped ginger. Added some chopped tomatoes and dropped in the broiled eggplant. Flavored with turmeric, red chilli powder, salt and garam masala.

Yummmm - nothing like serving hot, spicy Baingan bharta with warm rotis on a cold winter morning.