Discussion Board

Yes, that stuff makes ya sick if you can't do gluten!

I don't know how come Indian food never quite tastes the same when made at home...although, groundhoggie used to go visit with her friends from Pakistan (who made lots of Indian foods at home), watched closely whenever they would cook...and saw that they used the same ingredients we were using and their food just tasted more Indian than ours.

I think one reason is the spices are cooked in oils, which might bring them out more (so I just use MORE of the spices and cook them longer to compensate), and one trick we learned was that in some of the sauces, adding some black tea gives it more of an authentic taste...somehow...as nutty as that sounds. I've always thought people from India have some big secret to their cooking they don't want the rest of the world to know about

Did you read the latest McDougall newsletter? I just got it this morning...the recipes look great...I noticed how they told about the woman making fresh tortillas from masa harina everyday...another big secret in the world of cooking...I've tried so hard to make tortillas from scratch...they just aren't quite right, ya know?

I've thought about getting a tortilla press too...maybe I should start my search for tortilla presses...I hope they aren't expensive!

Groundhog, another thing about Indian cooking, is that a consciencious Indian cook will grind her spices fresh everyday.
My mil, for instance, does this. Also, she makes home-made chapatee or rotee (from rice flour or garbanzo bean floor) pretty much everyday as they don't like brown rice and my fil is diabetic, so whole grains only for him. So, she makes whole grain chapatee or rotee everyday (those are tortillas)
--Li

I bought a tortilla press today...now I just have to learn how to use the thing.

I do want to make not only masa flour tortillas, but also the ones you mentioned...the Indian flatbreads. I've got lots of experimenting to do! Libellule, do you know how she makes the flatbreads? I've made one with rice flour...just using rice, water, and a littel salt, just flattened it with my hands and heated it on the griddle.

After reading this thread, I checked the asafoetida (hing) in my cupboard, and sure enough, the first ingredient was wheat flour. I promptly threw it away. Thanks DianeR!

I'm just amazed everybody can even spell it !!!

That's why ya have to be careful eating in Indian restaurants when yer tryin' to be gluten free...also, I've read that in curry powder it's very possible there could be wheat...

...so...as much as I love curry powder, I haven't had any for a while becuase I'm just keeping my eye out for some that indicates it is definitely wheat free...right now I just make my curries with spices from spice seeds I grind myself. I would like to find curry leaves that are ground and used as a base for curry powders, but haven't had much luck being able to find any of those.

Gotta watch for any spice MIXTURES!!!! Frequent sources of wheat!!!!

I was surprised too that hing contained wheat flour. I had to throw mine out too. I'm going to keep looking for a brand that doesn't have it.

I cook much Indian. My husband is Punjabi. I had to learn! I made everything from chapatis to Ghee to deserts (burfi). Indian food is my second favorite food of all time. My first is Italian, which is what I'm half of. The other half is Celtic, Irish, English and Scotch. Where my Celiac gene comes from Good Ol' Luck O' the Irish huh?

Don't you just love going to an Indian grocery store?!!! I LOVE the smells in there of the spices....heavenly!!!

I LOVE Indian foods...yes, the smells are just wonderful...warm-smelling spices and mixtures.

Do you have any favorite gf vegan Indian recipes you're just dyin' to share with us????????

I love Indian food too! I miss being able to eat out for Indian food. Talk about oily, especially in restaurants! But I feel better eating healthier, so I just keep trying to McDougallize favorite Indian recipes. They're not bad! I love the condiments too, like raita, mint chutney, lemon pickles, and after-dinner fennel seed mixtures. I need to make some of those things for myself.

Mayflowers, is Celiac disease really common in Celtic, Irish, English and Scotch? That's my ethnic background too, plus Danish and Czech.

I haven't had time to look at this in detail, but it looks like a promising source for gluten-free Indian spices. Let me know whether you think it looks safe...

http://www.natco-online.com/acatalog/spicesection.html

That website looks good. I'll have to try the spices. Thanks.
I don't really have any recipes. I used mostly recipes out of cookbooks. My most used cookbook was Lord Krishna's Cusine, The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking. It teaches how to make ghee, chapatis, paneer. It's got to be the best cookbook on Indian Cooking. Madhur Jaffrey is also pretty good. Indian wives are reluctant to give their recipes but when they tasted dishes I made from Lord Krishna's Cuisine, they were impressed.

I'm not Mayflowers, but I'll hazard an answer. Traditionally, it has been said that celiac is most common in those of celtic ancestry. I've seen statistics somewhere showing Ireland has more than Scotland which has more than England. But you have to realize that stats are a function of how often screening gets done and what the criteria are for diagnosis. 97% of celiac in the US is undiagnosed, so they say (this is premised upon screening done on a group of blood doners, if memory serves -- they developed a prevalence rate then compared it to how many in the US are actually diagnosed).

One site I found says:

"Data on the prevalence of celiac disease is spotty. It is estimated that, in Canada, 1 in 250 people have celiac disease. In Italy, about 1 in 184 people; in Holland, 1 in 131; in Ireland, about 1 in 122; and in Denmark, 1 in 200 people have celiac disease. Recent studies have shown that it may be more common in Africa, South America and Asia, than previously believed.

Until recently, celiac disease was thought to be uncommon in United States. However, studies have shown that celiac disease is very common. Recent findings estimate about 2 million people in the United States have celiac disease, or about 1 in 133 people."
http://www.mollybglutenfree.com/celiac_disease.htm

You may be interested in this article's theory as to the prevalence of celiac:
http://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_pr ... 7165765.b8

Well, I better get my copy off the top shelf and get cooking! I've always been put off before because of the high fat content. Have you found a way to lower things or do you just use the ghee, etc. it says?

Maybe you've found recipes in there that aren't high fat?

I have a cookbook with lower fat Indian recipes, but they never quite taste like what I get in restaurants.