Indian Food Sites
From crispy dosas to succulent tandoori chicken, Indian cusine ranks among the best in the world. Here are some sites which present both traditional and innovative recipes to pamper your tastebuds
Sanjeev Kapoor
Sanjeev Kapoor of Khana Khazana fame is generally considered the most affable of foody hosts on television as he deftly explains his recipes, getting thousands of people to try them out with success. With his Indian Food Guide now on the Web, you can access his recipes anytime you wish and don't have to sit with pen and pad before your idiot box. Besides, if you think a particular recipe is worth sharing with a friend, there is a provision at the site to just e-mail it across. Other utilities thrown in are a pronounciation guide, a glossary of ingredients, a compendium of utensils used for cooking various dishes, and some handy tips and tricks for both cooking and looking after your health. The menu of the week features a single item, like paneer, and the various styles used for cooking it. Kapoor gives particular importance to festivals, like for Valentine's Day, his site was replete with hearts and tarts. And if you want to go beyond the Internet, you can shop online for Sanjeev Kapoor's books and CDs.
Daawat
Foodie writers often zap you with terms like basting, saute, griddle and the like. Then, if you thought puree is what they serve you in Udipi restaurants along with bhaji, you definitely need help, which is at hand in the reference section of Daawat.com. Besides cookery terms, the section also has a glossary, a guide to measurements and weights, a calorie chart and a healthy-weight chart. Then there are tips here, a selection of them being constantly displayed on a ticker-like screen. The recipes themselves run into several pages and pretty much take in the entire gamut of Indian dishes right from the North-Indian dishes like aloo paratha and roomali rotis, to South-Indian 'tiffins' like banana dosa and Kancheevaram idlis. Vegetarian and non-vegetarian curries, pickles, biryanis or sweets are all well represented here. The site is particularly focussed on Indians staying in America offering them, as it does, the facility to purchase the ingredients of any dish right on the Net through a link to its shopping section, Namaste.com.
Jiggs Kalra
Unlike Sanjeev Kapoor, the gourmet cook Jiggs Kalra doesn't have an exclusive site but is reasonably represented on the Allindia.com pages. It's actually a plain and simple recipe site with no frills. When we accessed it there were about 25 recipes including tarhkeywala dahi, bulleye dosai, bharwaan torai, Osmani korma and tootak. A new recipe is posted every week.
Khana Khazana
Now you know why Sanjeev Kapoor couldn't get this name: Khana Khazana was already taken by another food site. It claims to offer the "most authentic recipes for most of the popular dishes of North- or South-Indian cuisine." The recipes featured at the site have been either developed by the folks there or contributed by readers. Unlike the Bawarchi.com site, the latter are tested by the site experts before being posted online. Also listed are the traditional methods used for cooking Indian food. A forum here allows you to exchange ideas, provide tips and get creative with your culinary skills. Your submissions and comments are reviewed for originality and usefulness and then become part of the site. There is a nice search engine which allows you to find recipes by just entering the relevant ingredients, or the category of dish -- entrees, desserts, rice dishes, fusion cooking etc. Also helpful is a section for finding the relevant Hindi or English name for an ingredient. For those in America, who are not inclined to try the recipes, there is a handy guide to Indian restaurants in New York.
Bawarchi
Arguably the biggest Indian cooking site was developed by IndiaWorld which has now passed on to SatyamOnline. The resident cook, Saroj Kering, shares her recipes whose main ingredients are "variety, creativity, and vegetarianism." Oh yes, there is a section for non-veggies too and you are welcome to augment it with your choice delicacies. In fact, the USP of the site is the number of recipes sent in by readers from all over the world. Other sections include Amul's recipes, Dhara's recipes, and handy tips for the kitchen. Then there is this glossary of English and Indian equivalents of all food items.
Manuel Fernandes
HOME
Updated 9/May/2000