He taught Americans to cook Indian food
MINNEAPOLIS >> When Raghavan Iyer was a young graduate with a chemistry degree trying to decide what to do with his life, he went to the U. S. Consulate in his native Mumbai, India, and flipped through college catalogs.
It was one of those moments in life when one decision changes everything. He picked a small but wellregarded hospitality management program in southwestern Minnesota. “It was the cheapest one I could find,” he said.
Iyer arrived in Marshall, Minn., in 1982, unprepared for a hard culinary truth: There was almost nothing there for a vegetarian raised on South Indian cooking to eat. To make matters worse, Iyer couldn’t cook. He found a can of something called curry powder at a local grocery store and made potato curry. It was so bad he wept.
But Iyer, a man with six languages at his command and the astrological stubbornness of a Taurus, would not be defeated. He had his mother and older sister send recipes from India. He picked up a few cooking tips from new friends and put his chemistry degree to work.
“Everything became an experiment,” he said. “Blooming the spices was the big lesson.”
Iyer, 61, has by some estimations taught more Americans how to cook Indian food than anyone else. His formula is simple: Pare down techniques, use ingredients people can buy at the supermarket and deliver it all with the kindness of a kindergarten teacher.
He has written seven books — including “Betty Crocker Indian Home Cooking” — and taught countless workshops. He has instructed thousands of professional cooks how to incorporate the sophisticated balance of Indian herbs and spices into menus at universities, museums and companies like Google. He has advised restaurants and created a line of frozen Indian meals for Target.
“In many ways, he should get more recognition,” said cookbook author Nik Sharma, 42, another former scientist who moved from India to America in his early 20s. He still reaches for Iyer’s most successful book, “660 Curries: The Gateway to the World of Indian Cooking,” an 800page compendium published in 2008.
Next Tuesday, Iyer will publish “On the Curry Trail: Chasing the Flavor That Seduced the World in 50 Recipes.” The book explores curry powder, an ingredient that has introduced many non- Indians to the cuisine but remains controversial among some members of the diaspora.
Iyer says it will be his last. Colorectal cancer has invaded his brain and lungs. He’s been fighting it
for five years, which is years longer than people with that type of cancer usually survive. He has endured thousands of hours of radiation and chemotherapy, endless scans and four surgeries with multiple complications.
“I’m a tenacious little bitch,” he said one February morning over lattes in the one- bedroom condominium in downtown Minneapolis that he shares with his partner, Terry Erickson, a retired elementary schoolteacher he met on his first day in the United States. The two have raised a son, Robert, who is 23 and lives nearby.
“I’m not worried about dying,” Iyer said. “Seriously, when you’re dead, you don’t know what the hell is happening, so this book is not an homage to my death. This is really celebrating life, family, friends and food.”
That he eats a vegetarian diet, practices yoga and was an avid swimmer have helped him make it this long, he said. So did idli, the spongy, beloved South Indian breakfast staple made by fermenting and steaming rice.
After his first surgery, he lost 30 pounds — a lot for a man who had never topped 155. Before he went into the hospital, he made dozens of idli and froze them so Erickson could easily warm them up when Iyer returned home to recuperate.
“Idli nourished me from the inside out,” Iyer said.
His experience gave him the idea for the Revival Project, which he hopes to get up and running before he dies. He is building a searchable database of comfort food recipes, organized by cuisine and medical condition, that hospital and other health care workers could use.
“I still don’t understand why the great wisdom of the world’s home cooks and healers has not yet found its way into hospitals and dietary training,” he said. If it weren’t for idli and sambar, yogurt and bowls of
brothy rasam, Iyer might have not regained enough strength to finish “On the Curry Trail.”
Iyer landed the book contract before he was diagnosed. He worked on the manuscript between surgeries and treatment, using a 600- page research report on spice routes and other historical and cultural lore compiled for him by Margaret Bresnahan, an archivist at Minnesota Public Radio. When Iyer began his career, there were only 20 Indian restaurants in New York City, and Madhur Jaffrey had yet to become the most famous Indian cook in the West. To navigate that landscape, he walked directly into the heart of the mainstream American kitchen.
His first book, published in 2001, was the Betty Crocker cookbook. He got the contract because he ran into an editor he knew who worked at the General Mills headquarters in Minneapolis.
“I said, ‘ Is Betty ready for Indian?’” he recalled.
Over the years, Iyer has taken criticism for not hewing close enough to certain Indian preparations. “I tell people that just because it’s not your mother’s cooking, it doesn’t mean it isn’t classic,” he said.
His point isn’t to preach the gospel of Indian cuisine. “I don’t want you to tell me I changed the way you think about Indian food,” he said. “I want you to tell me I changed the way you cook.”
Consider his evolution on the subject of curry. Iyer has spent much of his career explaining that curry is not a flavor, but any dish that is saucy. In Western countries, many people define curry as the taste that comes from a can of curry powder — the invention of British colonialists who wanted an easy way to take the flavors of India home with them.
“No self- respecting Indian kitchen,” he said, “would have curry powder.”
But it occurred to him that the powder would be an intriguing subject for a book. “We were pummeled by colonials for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years,” he said. “So I wanted to look at the diaspora of curry powders through the eyes of the colonials who invented it and the Indians who they sent around the world.”
The book follows curry powder’s journey to countries like Denmark and Australia and offers recipes for flaky curry puffs from China and chickpeas with saffron from Morocco, whose complex spice mixes
are close siblings of curry powder and garam masala. He even includes a British curry- house vindaloo.
Iyer’s work builds, in part, on the cookbooks of Jaffrey and Julie Sahni, the Indian cooking heavyweights who began their culinary careers in the 1970s and whom he refers to as “the grandes dames of Indian cooking.”
With his more Americanized, accessible approach to ingredients and his affable style, he built a bridge for a younger generation expanding what it means to cook Indian food in America.
Pan- Fried Tofu With Red Curry Paste
Raghavan Iyer said Thailand is the only country outside of India that worships curries with as much devotion. In the way Indian cooks use a blend of herbs and spices, Thai cooks use an array of curry pastes to create regional curries. He created three for his 2023 book “On the Curry Trail: Chasing the Flavor That Seduced the World” ( Workman Publishing). His red curry paste is a version of the most common curry. When frying the tofu, add a little more oil if the pan seems dry and be aware that when the chile paste is added to the pan, the capsaicin can produce a head- clearing whiff of heat. — Recipe from Raghavan Iyer, adapted by Kim Severson
Yield: 4 servings. Total time: 25 minutes.
INGREDIENTS
1 pound extra- firm tofu 2 tablespoons canola oil 2 tablespoons store- bought or homemade red curry paste ( recipe follows) 4 small baby green eggplants ( each roughly the size of a golf ball), stemmed and quartered ( see Tips)
1 medium red or white potato, peeled and cut into 1- inch cubes
1 small red bell pepper, stemmed, halved, seeded and cut into 1- inch cubes 1/ 2 cup sliced bamboo shoots ( drained if using canned)
1 ( 14- ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk 2 tablespoons fish sauce or soy sauce
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Thai or sweet basil ( see Tips) 3 cups cooked jasmine rice ( from about 1 cup uncooked rice)
DIRECTIONS
1. To press the tofu, drain it and place it on a cutting board or plate between paper towels. Press down firmly with your hand to get rid of the excess moisture. Pat the tofu dry, then cut it into 1- inch cubes.
2. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or large saucepan over medium heat. Once the oil appears to shimmer, add the tofu cubes and stir- fry them until they turn light brown along the sides. Transfer them onto a plate.
3. To the same oil, carefully add the curry paste. Stir- fry the potent melange as the chiles elevate their heat and send you into a throat- clearing moment, 1 to 2 minutes. Yes, adequate venting or opening a window is advised.
4. Add the eggplant, potato, bell pepper and bamboo shoots to the curry paste. Shake the coconut milk well, pour it over the vegetables and scrape the bottom of the pot, deglazing it.
5. Add the tofu and fish sauce and bring the curry to a boil. Cover the pan, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes and eggplant are fork- tender, 10 to 12 minutes. During the last few minutes of cooking, remove the lid and continue to simmer, uncovered, to allow the sauce to thicken a bit.
6. Serve sprinkled with the basil alongside a bowl of jasmine rice.
Tips: Baby green eggplants can be found in Southeast Asian supermarkets or farmers markets. If you cannot find them, you can use about 6 ounces of any variety, cut into bite- size pieces. Thai basil, which is peppery with an aniselike flavor, adds an extra layer of refinement to this curry, but sweet basil can be used instead.
Red Curry Paste
Raghavan Iyer created this version of Thai red curry paste for his 2023 book, “On the Curry Trail: Chasing the Flavor That Seduced the World” ( Workman Publishing). Curry pastes make up the soul of Thailand’s regional curries. In his recipe for Pan- Fried Tofu With Red Curry Paste, Iyer uses coconut milk to mellow the heat. The red curry is part of a trilogy in his cookbook, which includes green curry paste ( with cilantro leaves and fresh green Thai chiles) and yellow curry paste ( which relies on fresh ginger and turmeric and yellow aji amarillo chiles). Red, green and yellow curry pastes are nice to have on hand to give complexity and depth to meat, vegetable and grain dishes. — Recipe from Raghavan Iyer; adapted by Kim Severson.
Yield: 1/ 2 cup. Total time: 10 minutes.
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds 3 small shallots ( each the size of a walnut), coarsely chopped
8 to 10 fresh red Thai chiles, stems removed ( see Tips) 1 stalk lemon grass ( use the lower 3 inches at the base), coarsely chopped
3 pieces fresh galangal ( each the size of a quarter) ( see Tips)
2 medium fresh makrut lime leaves, middle ribs stripped and discarded ( see Tips) 1 tablespoon shrimp paste or brown soybean paste ( see Tips)
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat a small skillet over medium- high heat. Once the pan is at the right temperature ( usually takes 2 to 3 minutes), sprinkle in the coriander and cumin. Shake the skillet or use a spoon to stir the seeds around frequently
until they are an even, reddish- brown color with a scintillating aroma, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer the seeds to a small bowl or plate to cool. Once cool to the touch, transfer them to a spice grinder ( or clean coffee grinder) and pulverize them until they
have the texture of finely ground black pepper.
2. Pile the shallots, chiles, lemon grass, galangal and lime leaves into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse the ingredients to a coarse paste. Transfer the mixture to a mortar and pound it into a smoother paste with a pestle, using a spatula to contain it in the mortar’s cavernous center for a more concentrated beating. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, continue to grind the paste to a finer texture in the food processor.
3. Transfer this to a small bowl and stir in the shrimp paste and the ground spices. For all this mellow work, you will be gifted a reddish- brown paste redolent of chiles and fruity aromas. Store it in a lidded glass jar in the refrigerator for up to a week or freeze it for up to three months.
Tips: If you can’t find fresh Thai chiles, reconstitute dried red chiles ( like chiles de arbol or bird’s- eye chiles) under boiling hot water for 30 minutes.
Fresh galangal, makrut lime leaves and shrimp paste can be found in Southeast Asian markets, as can brown soybean paste ( such as doenjang), which is made with salted and fermented soybeans.