I love alliums as much as the next food-obsessed nb person, but I want to share a story of a time a friend blew my mind and opened it to infinite possibilities:
One time I went to an Indian's friend's house for dinner, and we were all having a good time, enjoying a dal he had made with fresh spices he'd brought from back home, so you knew it was the good stuff, on top of him being a professional cook. A friend of mine, who is 2nd generation Indian-American kind of nudges me in the shoulder and whispers: "doesn't this dal taste wrong to you?", and i'm like "what do you mean, it's delicious!", she says "oh yeah it's very tasty, don't get me wrong. It just tastes wrong to me, and i've been eating dal all my life, even in India". We leave it at that that evening, and everyone goes home.
Later, I ask my friend to show me how he makes it, so I return to his to house to learn to make tasty dal, and I bring my friend along. We're all chatting in the kitchen, when suddenly she goes silent. We ask her what's wrong, and she says, with a tone halfway between surprise and offense: "you put onions in your dal!?". Dead silence from both of us, incredulous at what she just said, because i really couldn't imagine making food without onions or some kind of allium (i'm from the Global South, but not in a place where we have a lot of Indian people, so i had no idea what goes in Indian food). My friend explains that of course, everything always has onions and garlic, that's the way you make dal. Long story short, my friends keep this friendly argument about alliums in Indian food for what feels like forever, and the verdict is that my friend will make an onionless dal for us to taste and compare.
Couple weeks pass, we go to her house and she makes us her version of dal, and it's completely different, on account of having no onions or garlic (duh). But, in my opinion, it's easily one of the tastiest things i've ever had (and i've been lucky to have eaten really delicious food before, I'm friends with many professional cooks and everyone i know is working with food somehow); even my Indian friend, who was skeptical at making an Indian dish without alliums, is shocked at how tasty it is. We keep talking after dinner, trying to figure out why two dishes that are nominally the same thing and from the same region, are so radically different. Turns out my friend had only eaten her grandmother's dal recipe, which she made for her when she went to visit her in India, her parents made it too growing up, and later she learned to make it herself; she'd never had onion-y dal before. And the reason her dal doesn't have any alliums is because her grandmother is a devout Jain, and they don't eat alliums out of religious observance. After that, I asked my friend to teach me everything she knows about making tasty things without onions or garlic, and my flavor vocabulary was forever changed. I still put onions and garlic on literally everything, but every now and then I use her tricks and the food turns so good, you have no idea.
TL;DR: try Jain recipes. No onions or garlic, but they're so good!
36
GrouchyGrouse [he/him] - 2w
My cousin married a Jain and the older members of the family are pretty rigid with the food rules so the wedding had 3 tables for food. My miniature grandma from a podunk town in Forlorn Dakota got to sample some world cuisine that day. She was like “the desserts! No egg or butter! How do they do it?!”
Food is so awesome. Stories like that remind me why I spend literally all my time thinking about it.
8
Krem [he/him, they/them] - 2w
same thing with east asian vegan buddhist food. no alliums, still extremely rich flavors. sometimes garlic and onion can be a bit of a crutch, learning to cook without them can really develop your creativity
9
Lussy [he/him, des/pair] - 2w
Yeah, I don’t put onions in my dal. One of those forks in the road when you’re learning how to cook it. Like, you can, people do it, some dal might even call for it (honestly can’t think of one off the top of my head right now) but it’s just one of those dishes that isn’t really transformed into something magical with onions
9
Alcoholicorn @mander.xyz - 2w
Can you post a step by step next time you make the Jain dal? Or anything else, I don't know much about Indian techniques.
I'm sure looking up a recipe for Jain Fry Dal will take you 90% of the way there, and the remaining 10%, doesn't really translate to text, sorry about that. Also i'm not going to be here pretending to know all there is to know about a culture that's not mine. I don't even do that with my own culture lol.
Here are some pointers off the top of my head, though:
Onions and garlic add (among other things) a sulphuric taste, so you want a bit of sulphur coming from the other ingredients if you're not using them . So, for instance, if you're going to cook lentils or chickpeas, you can set aside some of them after they're cooked and let them brown with fat, so they develope a more sulphur-y flavor. Same with fresh chilies. Don't do all of them, or the dish will be bitter, but set aside some of them and let them fry for longer than you would normally. That will add layers of flavor to your dish. A very non-indian hack I've found to add some of that flavor is using a tiny bit of miso or other fermented stuff that's rich in aroma and umami when blooming the spices.
Embrace acid, especially if it's fresh. Squeeze some lime right before serving, it will change everything. Alliums give sweetness and brightness on top of their aroma, so try to substitute that.
Learn when and how to use hing (asafoetida). I'm not great at it, but the best Indian cooks I know swear by it.
12
quarrk [he/him] - 2w
This was a wonderful story, thanks for sharing. I will have to try some Jain recipes. Goes to show how innovation comes from the humblest and most restricted situations.
6
GladimirLenin [comrade/them, he/him] - 2w
Cumin or Sumac. Legendary spices
15
LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins [none/use name] - 2w
sumac is an advanced spice not for beginners
6
Lussy [he/him, des/pair] - 2w
Too true but also, sorry for saying this (there’s alternatives anyways) but butter.
Butter will turn you, a random food maker into at least a 2 star chef
14
decaptcha [none/use name] - 2w
Fat and salt both
13
Lussy [he/him, des/pair] - 2w
Oh yeah, salt is another big one
8
WashedAnus [he/him] - 2w
Restaurant food tastes better than (most peoples') home cooked food because a chef doesn't care about your health: they're adding a ton of fat, salt, and sugar to everything
8
decaptcha [none/use name] - 2w
Splurging on quality is nice every now and then, too. Homemade pie crust is sublime, and using really good butter is next level shit. I'm trying to cut as much animal products from my life as possible and wanna look into vegan baking butters.
5
ComradeSharkfucker - 2w
For me its cinnamon. God i fucking love cinnamon
8
GrouchyGrouse [he/him] - 2w
I pulled over to buy horchata the other day. Because I’m a fucking fiend for cinnamon.
7
LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins [none/use name] - 2w
You'd like loubieh bi zeit, lebanese braised green beans seasoned with cinnamon and garlic
5
ComradeSharkfucker - 2w
Yeah that sounds fire
2
ggtdbz @lemmy.dbzer0.com - 2w
Anytime I have a friend flying in from the US I ask them to buy me some freeze dried shallots. I have all the fresh alliums I could want in my part of the world but this stuff is like a secret exotic drug that you can put on anything for a good time.
7
came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them] - 2w
i appreciate showing two clusters of garlic. a soft neck and a hardneck, looks like.
my cheat sheet for seeming cultured in the kitchen:
Champoloo in memes
Don't forget your spices
I love alliums as much as the next food-obsessed nb person, but I want to share a story of a time a friend blew my mind and opened it to infinite possibilities:
One time I went to an Indian's friend's house for dinner, and we were all having a good time, enjoying a dal he had made with fresh spices he'd brought from back home, so you knew it was the good stuff, on top of him being a professional cook. A friend of mine, who is 2nd generation Indian-American kind of nudges me in the shoulder and whispers: "doesn't this dal taste wrong to you?", and i'm like "what do you mean, it's delicious!", she says "oh yeah it's very tasty, don't get me wrong. It just tastes wrong to me, and i've been eating dal all my life, even in India". We leave it at that that evening, and everyone goes home.
Later, I ask my friend to show me how he makes it, so I return to his to house to learn to make tasty dal, and I bring my friend along. We're all chatting in the kitchen, when suddenly she goes silent. We ask her what's wrong, and she says, with a tone halfway between surprise and offense: "you put onions in your dal!?". Dead silence from both of us, incredulous at what she just said, because i really couldn't imagine making food without onions or some kind of allium (i'm from the Global South, but not in a place where we have a lot of Indian people, so i had no idea what goes in Indian food). My friend explains that of course, everything always has onions and garlic, that's the way you make dal. Long story short, my friends keep this friendly argument about alliums in Indian food for what feels like forever, and the verdict is that my friend will make an onionless dal for us to taste and compare.
Couple weeks pass, we go to her house and she makes us her version of dal, and it's completely different, on account of having no onions or garlic (duh). But, in my opinion, it's easily one of the tastiest things i've ever had (and i've been lucky to have eaten really delicious food before, I'm friends with many professional cooks and everyone i know is working with food somehow); even my Indian friend, who was skeptical at making an Indian dish without alliums, is shocked at how tasty it is. We keep talking after dinner, trying to figure out why two dishes that are nominally the same thing and from the same region, are so radically different. Turns out my friend had only eaten her grandmother's dal recipe, which she made for her when she went to visit her in India, her parents made it too growing up, and later she learned to make it herself; she'd never had onion-y dal before. And the reason her dal doesn't have any alliums is because her grandmother is a devout Jain, and they don't eat alliums out of religious observance. After that, I asked my friend to teach me everything she knows about making tasty things without onions or garlic, and my flavor vocabulary was forever changed. I still put onions and garlic on literally everything, but every now and then I use her tricks and the food turns so good, you have no idea.
TL;DR: try Jain recipes. No onions or garlic, but they're so good!
My cousin married a Jain and the older members of the family are pretty rigid with the food rules so the wedding had 3 tables for food. My miniature grandma from a podunk town in Forlorn Dakota got to sample some world cuisine that day. She was like “the desserts! No egg or butter! How do they do it?!”
Food is so awesome. Stories like that remind me why I spend literally all my time thinking about it.
same thing with east asian vegan buddhist food. no alliums, still extremely rich flavors. sometimes garlic and onion can be a bit of a crutch, learning to cook without them can really develop your creativity
Yeah, I don’t put onions in my dal. One of those forks in the road when you’re learning how to cook it. Like, you can, people do it, some dal might even call for it (honestly can’t think of one off the top of my head right now) but it’s just one of those dishes that isn’t really transformed into something magical with onions
Can you post a step by step next time you make the Jain dal? Or anything else, I don't know much about Indian techniques.
I'm sure looking up a recipe for Jain Fry Dal will take you 90% of the way there, and the remaining 10%, doesn't really translate to text, sorry about that. Also i'm not going to be here pretending to know all there is to know about a culture that's not mine. I don't even do that with my own culture lol.
Here are some pointers off the top of my head, though:
This was a wonderful story, thanks for sharing. I will have to try some Jain recipes. Goes to show how innovation comes from the humblest and most restricted situations.
Cumin or Sumac. Legendary spices
sumac is an advanced spice not for beginners
Too true but also, sorry for saying this (there’s alternatives anyways) but butter.
Butter will turn you, a random food maker into at least a 2 star chef
Fat and salt both
Oh yeah, salt is another big one
Restaurant food tastes better than (most peoples') home cooked food because a chef doesn't care about your health: they're adding a ton of fat, salt, and sugar to everything
Splurging on quality is nice every now and then, too. Homemade pie crust is sublime, and using really good butter is next level shit. I'm trying to cut as much animal products from my life as possible and wanna look into vegan baking butters.
For me its cinnamon. God i fucking love cinnamon
I pulled over to buy horchata the other day. Because I’m a fucking fiend for cinnamon.
You'd like loubieh bi zeit, lebanese braised green beans seasoned with cinnamon and garlic
Yeah that sounds fire
Anytime I have a friend flying in from the US I ask them to buy me some freeze dried shallots. I have all the fresh alliums I could want in my part of the world but this stuff is like a secret exotic drug that you can put on anything for a good time.
i appreciate showing two clusters of garlic. a soft neck and a hardneck, looks like.
my cheat sheet for seeming cultured in the kitchen:
sofrito (spanish)
mirepoix (french)
holy trinity (cajun/creole)
someone I know is allergic to alliums