Us and the Kiddos: India

It has been FOREVER since we did a country night. In typical, Type-A fashion, I had to start over after such a long hiatus. Truth is, it gave me an excuse to re-organize everything, and start fresh with new ideas and such.

Our first stop on the globe was India. We had never done India before, so that was great. I don't like Indian food, so that is not so great. Confession- I had actually never had Indian food before. I don't like the smell of it, so it has never been appetizing first of all. Second of all, I'm not fond of what I know as baking spices- cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, etc, in meat, or savory dishes. And it is used A LOT in Indian cooking.

BUT, that is the whole point of this little adventure- to try new things. So I went ahead with it, and found things, that I hope are truly authentic Indian dishes, that I could enjoy.

INDIA:

Facts About India:

via kickassfacts.com

Rajendra Singh, known as “waterman of India” revived 5 rivers and brought water back to 1000 villages in the semi-arid regions of Rajasthan in India using native water-preservation techniques.
In ancient India, Diabetes was called “madhumeha” or “honey urine” as the urine would attract ants. Indian physicians Sushruta and Charaka identified Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes as separate conditions for the first time in 400-500 B.C. –
In 2004, 200 women in India, armed with vegetable knives, stormed into a courtroom and hacked to death a serial rapist whose trial was underway. Then every woman claimed responsibility for the murder. Akku Yadav, who was murdered, headed a gang that shook down people for money, raped the women, and threw acid in their faces if they didn’t pay him. He had been brought to trial a few times for minor charges, and whenever this occurred the judge dismissed the case. This was the same judge he was going to see the day he was murdered.-
India contributes 70% of global spice production.
The Beatles trip to India ended badly because the Maharishi wanted the band to deposit up to 25% of their next album’s profits in his Swiss bank account as a tithe, to which Lennon replied, “Over my dead body.”
The Satiyaa community is a gypsy tribe in the Indian state of Rajasthan that celebrates death as one of the happiest events in their lives, while treating births as occasions of great grief.
The Golden Temple in Amritsar, India is the holiest site in Sikhism. It runs a free kitchen operated by volunteers that serves up to 100,000 hot meals a day regardless of race, religion and class
There Khasi tribe in the Eastern Indian state of Meghalaya have learned to train the roots of fig trees to create natural suspension bridges that can span over 100 feet and lasts 500-600 years.
Gin and Tonic were originally created by the British East India Company in India as a way to get their soldiers to have quinine to prevent and treat malaria. Quinine (in tonic) was too bitter. In order to get them to drink the tonic, sugar, lime, water and Gin was added to make the drink more palatable.
In the 1980s, India released 25,000 flesh-eating turtles into the Ganges River in an attempt to clean up corpse-pollution. The turtles were raised on dead fish so that they wouldn’t develop a taste for the living, as they ate mostly everything.
India Pale Ale(IPA) was invented not because they thought it tasted better or was of better quality than other Ales, it was just the only way they could make a beer that could survive the boat trip to India.
India is credited with being one of the first civilizations to inoculate their children in times of pestilence to boost immunity and stop the spread of disease (1,000 years ago). They made a small incision into the child’s arm, then rubbed it with Smallpox scabs and a thin cloth.
In 1954, the city of Bombay, India had such a bad rat problem that they began accepting dead rats in place of taxes. This led to the mass breeding and killing of rats to use them for tax payment.
When Jai Singh, Maharaja of a princely state of India, visited the Rolls-Royce showroom in London, he was affronted when the salesman implied that he couldn’t afford to purchase the car. He purchased ten, shipped them to India, and ordered to use them for collecting and transporting garbage.
When the English colonial government in Delhi, India put a bounty on cobras to eliminate them from the city, it resulted in a cobra population boom. The bounty was greater than the cost of breeding a cobra, and the citizens were breeding them to sell to the government.
In Mumb ai, you can have your fresh home-cooked lunch picked up and delivered to your office by Dabbawalas with less than one error per six million deliveries
The Roopkund lake in India located at 16,000 feet above sea level is filled with ancient skeletons, all killed by blows to the head
In 2009, when 18-year old Kashmiri girl named Rukhsana Kauser saw her parents being beaten as part of a forced marriage proposal by a militia commander, she killed one militant with an axe, gunned the commander down, then started a 4-hour long gun battle with the militia
If the whole population of New Zealand got into the Mumbai local trains, it is still just about half of the average daily ridership. Average daily ridership of Mumbai local is 7.585 million. Population of New Zealand is 4.47 million.
Tata Steel in India was the first company in the world to introduce an 8 hour work shift in 1912. Henry ford adopted it in 1914.
. The biggest human evacuation was done by the Indian government in 1990 when 170,000 Indians were airlifted out of Kuwait in 488 flights over 59 days during the Gulf War
India was so good at Hockey in the 1920s that British withdrew from Olympics Hockey to avoid possible embarrassment of defeat by its own Colony, India and came back in 1948, only after India’s Independence in 1947.
The street dogs in India are a distinct and ancient breed of dogs known as Indian Pariah Dogs. It is thought to be one of the few-remaining examples of mankind’s original domestic-dog.
. All packaged products sold in India have a “maximum retail price” printed on the package by the manufacturer and it is illegal for a store to charge more than that. India is one of the few countries with this system.
The Great Gama of India is the only undefeated wrestler in the world. His career spanned 50 years and Bruce Lee was a fan
Asola-Fatehpur Beri is a village in India that exclusively produces bouncers and bodyguards for New Delhi nightclubs
Freddie Mercury is of Indian descent. His parents were from Gujarat (India) and he grew up in Zanzibar and India till his mid-teens.
Natwarlal was a conman in India, who repeatedly sold the Taj Mahal, the Indian parliament and various other heritage sites. He was sentenced to 113 years, but managed to escape prison 9 times, last when he was 84 years old and wheelchair bound.
The word “thug” comes from a group of professional assassins called “thuggees”; a fanatical religious group in India that killed in the name of the Hindu Goddess Kali. Thuggees would find a group of travelers and gain their trust before strangling them at night with a handkerchief.

MENU:

Keema Aloo
Tamatar Salad
Basmati Rice
Madras Lentils
Naan
Baath
Masala Chai Tea
*homemade Garam Masala

First up, we have the chai. It was simple and delicious, smelled fantastic while being prepared, and blew anything that I have ever had at a coffee shop or bought pre-prepared before outta the watah.... :)

Ingredients are simple- cinnamon sticks, cloves, green cardamom, sugar, black tea and milk.

simple, black tea bags from the grocery store are what I used. Tetley brand.

whole green cardamom- I had to go to a Middle Eastern grocer to find, cinnamon stick, and whole cloves

coarsely grind the spices. I used a mortar and pestle

spices are added to the tea and then milk and sugar are added to taste. Click the link above for the whole recipe from the source.

Next up, we have the tamatar salad. I found this recipe in a book called, "Foods and Recipes of the World." There are four volumes, broken down alphabetically. These are old school books. I first ran into them at the Boise Public Library. They were trashing them and wouldn't let me check the out. I went to THRIFT BOOKS and found them pretty cheap. The recipes is as follows: