Spice Obsession

I am in love with Indian food right now.
The problem: No Indian restaurants within 100 miles. Though I'm told now there is a lady who sells some Indian food out of a freezer in the back of her grocery store if you know the right way to ask.
The solution: I'm cooking a lot of it.

Don't get me wrong. Joel still does most of the cooking around our house. (He made a most excellent sesame salmon the other night.) But when I have a day off to cook it usually involves masala. Aarthi gave me a quick lesson on cooking before we left Cleveland and that was very helpful in teaching me how to use the spices. Since then I bought myself a great book and I've tried about a dozen recipes from it. It's awesome.




Along the way there have been a few hiccups and advice to share for anyone interested in cooking some Rogan Josh for themselves:
-don't burn the mustard seeds in oil, you'll set a wooden spoon on fire.
-Some of the spices are not easily found. I had to buy my cardamon pods and Amchur on amazon.com (love amazon!)*
-cook and store. I've had luck cooking a lot of things in bulk and freezing it so that it can just be pulled out and added to a meal with a fresh dish later.
-It makes a mess. I cooked an indian meal last week for some friends and I used every pot in the kitchen at least twice. I'm not kidding, I did a lot of washing.

*The spices themselves amaze and interest me. I have a seed and pod shelf in my spice cabinet now. I use turmeric and cumin more than I use basil and thyme. I have green and black cardamon pods in neat little glass containers and I just harvested my first batch of saffron. I love the smell, the feel, the taste of all of these ingredients.

All in all I love Indian food and since I'm so far from a restaurant it's worth it to have to cook it for myself. SO if any of you have any favorite Indian recipes please send them my way.

Next stop Thai????