The best Indian food is cooked (and eaten) at home. Real Indian food is fresh, simple, and packed with flavor. In Made In India , Meera Sodha introduces you to the food she grew up eating every day. Unlike the fare you get at your local Indian takeout joint, her food is vibrant and surprisingly quick and easy to make. Meera serves up a feast of over 130 delicious recipes collected from three generations of her family. On the menu is everything from hot chapatis to street food (chili paneer; beet and feta samosas), fragrant curries (spinach and salmon, or perfect cinnamon lamb curry) to colorful side dishes (pomegranate and mint raita; kachumbar salad), and mouthwatering desserts (mango, lime, and passion fruit jello; pistachio and saffron kulfi). Made In India will change the way you cook, eat, and think about Indian food forever. "The recipes are unpretentious and were immediately promoted by my family of critics into must-makes for the monthly dinner rotation, new staples for a season of chill and damp." ―Sam Sifton, The New York Times “This book is full of real charm, personality, love, and garlic. Bring on the 100 clove curry! Not to mention fire-smoked eggplant, chicken livers in cumin butter masala, and beet and feta samosas. There's so much to be inspired by.” ―Yotam Ottolenghi “I want to cook everything in this book.” ―Nigella Lawson "This cookbook is the story of Sodha, her family and their journey over three generations from India to Africa to England. 'An Indian kitchen can be anywhere in the world,' the London-based home cook and 'occasional' chef writes in her introduction. Sodha shows you how to do it with enticing recipes, colorful photographs, travel memories and a healthy dose of humor." ―Bill Daley, Chicago Tribune When not traveling around India, collecting recipes, Meera Sodha chefs, writes, and lives in London. Made In India is her first cookbook. Made in India Recipes from an Indian Kitchen By Meera Sodha, David Loftus Flatiron Books Copyright © 2015 Meera Sodha All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-250-07101-9 Contents Title Page, Copyright Notice, Dedication, Introduction, A word on Indian cooking, How to use this book, Kitchen equipment, Helpful weights and measures, Eat like an Indian, think like an Indian, 01 Starters and snacks, 02 Vegetables, 03 Meat, 04 Fish, 05 Eggs, 06 Legumes and grains, 07 Sides, 08 Breads, 09 Chutneys and pickles, 10 Desserts, 11 Drinks, 12 Housekeeping: Make your own and Leftovers, Menu ideas, Wine and Indian food, How to eat with your hands, Help, Indian ingredients, Recommended suppliers, Index, Thank you, About the Author, Alternative Contents, Copyright, CHAPTER 1 STARTERS AND SNACKS Indians are always nibbling; in fact, India has one of the biggest street-food and snacking cultures in the world. With a lot of passion for food and very little regulation about who can sell food and where, streets thrum and resonate across the country with the calls of a thousand food hawkers selling their snacks. Whether it's from bikes turned into kitchens, from bins turned into ovens or from baskets perched on heads, food is sold everywhere. In the far north in Amritsar you'll find lines of turbaned Sikhs waiting for the legendary Amritsari fish, a spiced deep-fried kingfish, and in the winter the mustard-seed curry "sarson ka saag," topped with freshly made butter and mopped up with cornbread. Travel down to Delhi and you'll see spiced potato tikki (see here ), dressed with tamarind chutney, and delicious blackened kebabs served with "roomali roti" – chapatis as thin as hankies and as big as car wheels. In Mumbai, they love pav bhaji (see here ), a rich mash of vegetables eaten with bread, chicken tikka (see here ), and chaat (see here ). Head east to Kolkata for a "kati roll" – an egg-fried wrap of meat or vegetables; west to Gujarat for some fluffy ondwa (see here ) or addictive pea kachori (see here ); and south for dosas, thin crispy pancakes made from rice and lentils. What might have started out as an idea on the street can now be found in the homes of many Indians, recreating the famous dishes they first tried on a hot, dusty street corner and adding them to the snacks already served in their homes. My favorites are the ubiquitous samosas (see here ); the chili paneer (see here ), which I first encountered near my grandparents' home in Leicester; and the corn on the cob (see here), which our family has eaten in the same way in Uganda, in India, and in Lincolnshire, where it grows as tall as me. There is so much variety, the only tough decision you'll face is what to eat first. PEA KACHORI Pastry-encased cinnamon-spiced peas These delicious balls of pea-green joy are an old Gujarati delicacy. They are often served at family functions because they're very easy to wolf down when no one is looking. Baked in the oven, they are best served on a bed of sharp lime-pickled onions (see he