Saag Paneer (spinach & fresh cheese cubes in a yogurt creamy curry) is also one of my favorites!
I don’t really like much of the fried Indian food that others have mentioned. Tikka masala (tomato cream curry, usually with chicken) is always good, as is butter chicken which is nearly the same thing. Also goat curries and rogan josh (slow roasted lamb/goat creamy yogurt curry) of any sort are really some of the best meaty dishes in Indian cuisine, if you want heavy red meat curries.
I also love vegetable kormas (cinnamon / anise / cardamom - sweet spiced yogurt & vegetable creamy curry), chana masala (which is garbanzo bean / chickpea curry), bhangan bharta (eggplant stirfry curry).
But, honestly, the pinnacle of Indian food is a biryani - a pot full of rice layered with meat or veggies, intense whole spices, yogurt, saffron, nuts, and ghee. It’s often much like a Moroccan tagine, but with Indian rather than North African / Mediterranean spices. Simply to die for, especially if they use the Indian peppercorn that makes your tongue numb.
Maybe this is related but I love (love) Szechuan peppercorns. They taste great and are also a mild topical anesthetic. The thinking is that if you numb your gullet and tongue you can eat lethally spicy things and enjoy them. MaPo tofu can be one such lethal dish.
karahi chicken
butter chicken
raita (spiced yogurt)
buttered or garlic naan
chaat (really good big side dish)
chicken briyani (spiced rice dish)
gulab jaman (sweet dough balls in sugar syrup… YUM)
samosa (classic side dish, savoury potato in a crispy shell
okay… I’m getting hungry. I will go now.
@TopShelfTrees1 WHATTT?! I’m going to dm you the place of this killer Indian Buffet.
If I was taking someone to their first Indian restaurant experience, I’d get them very stoned, then find a buffet where they can sample a variety of dishes.
Kick things off with papadam, veggie samosas, and an assortment of chutneys for dipping.
Hit the popular main dishes: tandoori chicken, korma, vindaloo, tikka masala, malai kofta, biryani, and dal makhni.
It will be spicy, so grab some naan bread and a cup of raita (yogurt based dip) to soothe the burn - and go ahead and order a mango lassi (sweet yogurt based beverage).
Finish the meal with some kheer, a delicious rice pudding, then find somewhere comfortable to nap.
The more u guys talk the more I’m absolutely dying to try some. Hell, I wanna try it all. I was totally going to get Indian food for dinner but looked nearest places are twenty and thirty minutes away. Y’all keep talking I may have to take a road trip tomorrow
No brother. It’s called dosa/dosai as @HeadyBearAdventures pointed out. It’s from the south of India. It’s made by grinding a special kind of rice and urad dhal separately and then mixing them together and allowing them to ferment overnight. This fermentation should bring about the right kind of sourness.
Now that the batter is ready, if you steam it, you get idly…otherwise called steamed rice dumplings in the west.
If you heat a tawa or dosa stone (preferably made out of iron) and pour the batter over it, add a good amount of sesame (white) oil and ground spice powder and a filling of your choice (maybe potato masala), you get what we call dosai.
Served best with sambar (lentil curry south-indian style) and tomato/coconut chutney.
Op, looks like @DannyTerpintine and Pigeonman beat me to it! I use cubed chicken breast in mine though.
You gotta try some murgh makhani, or as us gringos call it, butter chicken. So yum. I actually started making it at home. It’s a fairly easy dish to make. My picky wife even enjoyed it, and that’s saying something, hehe! Get some basmati rice and some naan, you got a great meal.
Gotta say, I’m a sucker for a good lamb curry also.
I always go for Spinach Paratha and Hyderabadi Chicken 65.
The dosas are some real good options too.
Indio-Chinese options at my local spot has a great spicy cauliflower dish.
now we’re taking!
You are gonna love it!
