Secret to success is in the spices

Indian for Everyone brings restaurant mainstays home

Spices, and the way you use them, are key to Indian cooking. But don’t let the myriad blends discourage you from making your favourite foods at home.

Restaurant mainstays such as Tandoori Chicken, Aloo Gobi and Dal Makhani are within your reach as a home cook. Whether you love eating at Indian restaurants and want to make these meals yourself, or are looking for measurements and instructions to complement family recipes, author Anupy Singla shares the knowledge and recipes necessary for success.

Singla moved to the U.S. from the Punjab region of India when she was three. In her third book, Indian for Everyone (Agate Publishing, 2014), she wanted to make Indian cuisine accessible to home cooks, regardless of their level of comfort or familiarity with Indian cooking.

“I really tried to think of it like somebody in the West going to an Indian restaurant and then coming home and saying ‘I have all of these favourites but what do I do with them? How do I make them?’” she says.

“In my cooking classes, I always say that for successful Indian cooking, you should be less concerned about the slicing and dicing and instead stay focused on the spicing,” Singla writes in Indian for Everyone. She explains that unlike other cuisines, such as French, where there’s an emphasis on technique and culinary knife cuts (like julienne), understanding the use of spices, components of your meal, and how to put it all together are paramount.

When working with Indian spices and spice blends, Singla says there are two common mistakes that people new to cooking the cuisine make; either using too much or not enough.

“Sometimes folks will take the masalas, the blends, like a garam masala, a tandoori masala and pile it on. You want to be careful because they are blends that are there to enhance the flavouring of your food,” she explains.

I really tried to think of it like somebody in the West going to an Indian restaurant ... and saying ... ‘How do I make them?’

Aloo Tikki (spicy potato patties) from Indian for Everyone by Anupy Singla, who says the focus in Indian cuisine is less on technique and more on understanding the spices.

 PHOTOS: BRAVE NEW PICTURES AND GREGG LOWE In her third book, Indian for Everyone, Anupy Singla, left, wanted to make restaurant favourites accessible to home cooks, regardless of their level of comfort or familiarity with Indian cooking.