Kautz Cooks Curry Part 0: Discovering Indian Food
I used to think Indian food was just “okay”. What a moron!
In the early 2010’s, my buddy, Wagner, introduced me to an Indian restaurant called Red Pepper. With that one meal, I was hooked. The chicken tikka masala and lamb korma hit all the right notes and things finally clicked.
Don’t worry, I’ve been eating enough Indian food to make up for lost time. Next I just had to get comfortable cooking it. Easy peasy.
Circa 2016, I found a chicken tikka masala recipe that looked good and decided to try making it. That’s a good place to start, right? I bought an arsenal of spices, followed the directions meticulously, and was happy with the finished product.
At that point, everyone started calling me Auntie Robby and my go-to Indian restaurant was my own kitchen.
Well, that’s how it played out in my dreams. In reality, I rarely made the chicken tikka masala. It was too much work and wasn’t healthy enough where I wanted to work it into my normal rotation of meals.
Next, I figured I’d buy a powdered spice blend from one of the Indian spice shops on Lexington Ave. I could leverage cooking techniques I already knew and improvise an Indian-inspired flavor profile.
And it worked! I could make Indian-inspired food on any given weeknight!
Notice I said “Indian-inspired“. It still didn’t taste like authentic Indian food.
I ended up ordering take-out when I needed my Indian fix, and threw out half of the more unusual spices I when I moved.
Indian Cooking: 1, Robby: 0
Lesson: I’m too white. Learning an unfamiliar culture’s cuisine is intimidating.