The spoonful of Indian mango lime pickle I've just eaten is the sourest, saltiest and hottest pickle I've ever had in my mouth, and suddenly my stomach feels as if it is glowing. I'm a fan of most things sour, salty and hot, so my mouth started watering when I spotted the jar of pickle. Now it's my eyes that are watering, but there also is euphoria in my midsection.

	Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Manisha Bhamre's spice box, filled with fresh and pungent spices is central to her craft. She is an accomplished Indian cook and cooking teacher living in Green Tree Click photo for larger image. More on Indian food Secrets of Indian home cooking found in Green Tree kitchen A glossary of Indian cooking Festival celebrates Indian arts and crafts Recipe: Roti

The pickle was a little indulgence on this week's shopping trip to Kohli's Indian Imports on South Craig Street in Oakland, where owner Sanjeev Kohli stocks everything needed to cook an authentic, homemade Indian dinner -- as well as a dizzying array of Indian movies on video, piled floor to ceiling along several walls, and all the little convenience-store tidbits that draw Americans and Indians alike. Increasingly, though, Pittsburgh residents are passing by Mr. Kohli's candy, colas and cigarettes and heading instead for his cardamom, coconuts and curry leaves.

Mr. Kohli said he thinks the increasing number of Indian restaurants in Pittsburgh has given more people a chance to try the cuisine, and more local residents are cooking Indian food as a result.

"I think a lot of people want to try it and they like it," he said. "Then they bring more people and they try it, and they bring more people."

While the store sells lots of ready-made meals -- in particular, samosas, of which Mr. Kohli now sells about 150 a day to area office workers and college students -- his small store carries everything from numerous varieties of lentils, beans and rice to bay leaves, coriander, cinnamon and other spices, with most costing a fraction of the price found in mainstream grocery stores.

To many Americans, Indian food amounts to meat or vegetables sprinkled heavily with curry powder. But while it's possible to buy curry powder in stores such as Mr. Kohli's, curry powder is a British tradition, not an Indian one.

When British colonists brought their love of curries -- a word that in India means pretty much any meat or vegetable dish in a gravy-like sauce that is meant to be eaten with rice or roti, a flat unleavened bread -- home with them, they also created a demand for easily made spicy dishes. As a result, they created a demand for curry powder exported from India, according to Camellia Panjabi, author of the recently re-released book, "50 Great Curries of India."

While wealthy medieval kitchens in Britain had been using spices such as cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, coriander, cumin and cardamom -- all spices commonly found in Indian cuisine -- since the 12th century, the first commercial curry powder appeared in 1780, after Britain had established trading stations in Surat, Calcutta, Madras and Bombay in the early and mid-1700s.

The chile connection

Ironically, while India gave the West curry powder in the 18th century, the hot chiles that today are an essential part of Indian cuisine had been introduced in India by European traders two centuries before. Christopher Columbus was seeking India's spices and in particular, its peppercorns, when he ventured across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a short route to the East Indies and instead discovered the Americas.

When Columbus reached what is now the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti in 1492, he discovered the native Arawak people cultivating a fiery spice he thought was a new type of black pepper. What came to be known as red pepper was actually a type of hot chile, which he took back to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. There, it quickly became popular and within a few decades, Portuguese traders had introduced hot chiles to India and other locations along global trade routes.

Grinding the spices

In India, and in Indian households in America and around the world, most Indian housewives -- and for the most part, it is still the woman of the house who does the cooking -- or their hired help still mix and grind the household's spices, both to ensure that the spices are fresh and pungent, and that the mix hasn't been adulterated with the cheap fillers sometimes found in commercially ground spice mixes.

Traditionally, spices were ground in a stone mortar and pestle. Now, however, many people use a coffee grinder reserved for spices, or a blender with blades very close to the base of the bowl.

Adding individual spices also allows the cook to control the sequence in which the spices are put into the frying pan or pot. That sequence, along with how long spices are fried and allowed to release their flavor, can dramatically change the way a dish tastes; for this reason, it's important to add spices in the proper order and to fry them for the amount of time prescribed by the recipe, according to Ms. Panjabi. Frying spices in oil for several minutes allows them to add a strong flavor note to the dish, she writes, while frying them only briefly or adding them to a boiling mixture lets them add only an undertone to the brassier flavors.

Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Chicken Tikka Masala made by Manisha Bhamre. Click photo for larger image.

While most Westerners equate Indian food with spice, the cuisine is much more complex than that simple calculation. Guided by Indian treatises on health that originated about 1000 B.C., Indian cuisine strives for balance both in individual dishes and in meals as a whole, according to Ms. Panjabi. That body of knowledge on health, called Ayurveda, holds that the six tastes -- sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent -- have specific effects on the body, and should be adjusted and balanced according to the body's needs.

Sweet tastes, which include rice and fruits as well as foods that taste sugary, are good for feeding the body and harmonizing the mind, according to Ayurveda. They are heavy on digestion, however, and should be balanced with sour tastes such as lime and tamarind that stimulate digestion. Salty and pungent tastes also improve digestion and open up the body's energy channels, according to this philosophy, while bitter tastes such as fenugreek seeds and lemon rind purify the blood, and astringent foods such as green vegetables and teas help heal ulcers and wounds, according to Ayurveda.

A typical Indian meal, she writes, tries to balance all these influences, and often includes a spicy-sour dish, a yogurt-based dish, a few spoonfuls of hot and bitter pickle, and rice or a sweet dessert.

Like Indian meals, the cuisine of India as a whole is complex, encompassing far more interesting dishes and subtle flavors than the chicken tandoori and naan bread of northern India's Punjabi cooking, which is the type of food most often found in Indian restaurants and the type of Indian dishes with which most Westerners are familiar.

As with European and American cooking, Indian cuisine varies widely with its geography: Seafood, coconut milk, rice and fiery, pungent garam masala spices are common along the steamy southern coasts while lamb, butter, wheat flour rotis and milder, sweeter spices are found in the more arid and mountainous wheat-growing regions to the country's north.

	Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Mutter Paneer, made by Manisha Bhamre, contains green peas and paneer, an Indian cheese similar to pressed ricotta. Click photo for larger image.

Likewise, the country is a melting pot of ethnic and religious influences, from Muslims who immigrated or converted after Arab invasions began in the eighth century, to descendents of Mongol invaders from the 13th and early 14th centuries, to Hindus who migrated to India from Pakistan after British colonial rule ended and India and Pakistan were partitioned in 1947.

If you're an adventuresome, curious cook, that rich melting pot might just tempt you to season your own cooking with some of the dazzling flavors of India's regional cuisines. We hope you try the recipes included here from Camellia Panjabi's "50 Great Curries of India," as well as the delicious dishes created for us by Manisha Bhamre, an accomplished Indian cook and cooking teacher living in Green Tree. Ms. Bhamre demonstrates in the accompanying story how to prepare and serve the kinds of dishes you usually can only sample in Indian homes -- and now, can try in your own home.

Malabar Shrimp Curry (Konju Curry)

Kerala

Kerala is located on the country's southern coast and shows that influence in its pungent spices and its tropical flavors of coconut milk and ginger.

• 1 cup fresh grated coconut or 1 can (14 ounces) coconut milk
  
• 1 tablespoon tamarind pulp
  
• 1 1/2 cups water plus 2 tablespoons water, divided
  
• 3 tablespoons oil
  
• 1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
  
• 16 curry leaves
  
• 1 cup onions, sliced
  
• 1 heaped teaspoon grated ginger
  
• 3 cloves garlic
  
• 4 green chiles, cut in half lengthwise
  
• 1 whole dried red chile, broken into pieces
  
• 1 teaspoon red chile powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
  
• 2 tablespoons water
  
• 2 chopped tomatoes
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 11 ounces uncooked peeled shrimp
  
• 2 tablespoons oil or butter
  
• 2 shallots, peeled and sliced
  

If using grated coconut, soak in ¹/₂ cup of warm water in a bowl and set aside. After half an hour, squeeze out coconut milk. Soak tamarind in a ¹/₂ cup water for about an hour. Then squeeze the tamarind juice into water. Strain out tamerind pulp and set aside water.

In a shallow pan with a handle, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add 10 curry leaves, and after a few seconds (to let their flavor into the oil), add the sliced onions and saute, stirring for 5 to 7 minutes. Add ginger, garlic and green chiles. After 2 minutes, add the dried red chile and red chile powder, turmeric, coriander and cumin powders. Add 2 tablespoons water and let spice powders cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring so they do not stick to pan.

Add chopped tomatoes, ¹/₂ cup of water and the tamarind water. Turn heat down and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Then add coconut milk and salt and stir. If you want a super-smooth curry, strain it into a pan. Taste for seasoning. Add shrimps and cook over gentle heat until done. Shrimps cook quickly; this should only take 2 to 3 minutes.

To add a finishing touch to the curry just before serving, put 2 tablespoons of oil in a metal ladle or small saucepan and hold over heat. When hot, add the sliced shallots, wait for 30 seconds, then add remaining 6 curry leaves and after 10 seconds, pour over shrimp. Cover with lid and let this aromatic infused oil seep into the curry for a few minutes. Serve with white rice.

Serves 2, and recipe can be doubled.

Camellia Panjabi,
"50 Great Curries of India"

Chickpea Curry (Chanas or Chole)

Sindhi style

The Sindhis are Hindus who emigrated from Pakistan after the 1947 Partition, mostly settling in Bombay, now Mumbai. Chickpeas are popular in India's northern regions, and in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This dish can be served with roti, rice or bread as a main dish, or on the side instead of dal, a lentil dish that is often part of Indian meals.

• 1/3 cup dried chickpeas
  
• 3 large onions
  
• 1/2 ounce fresh ginger
  
• 1/2 ounce garlic
  
• 2 small tomatoes, skinned and seeded
  
• 2 black cardamoms
  
• 8 cloves
  
• 2 cinnamon or bay leaves
  
• 15 peppercorns
  
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  
• Salt
  
• Pinch asafoetida (antiflatulent with pungent aroma)
  
• 1/3 cup oil
  
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder
  
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  
• 3/4 teaspoon dried mango powder (amchoor)
  
  

If using dried chickpeas, soak overnight in 5 cups of water. Chop 2 of the onions and reserve. In a food processor, puree another onion with the ginger and garlic. Puree the tomatoes separately.

Place chickpeas and soaking water in a large saucepan or Dutch oven with half the chopped onion, the black cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon or bay leaves, peppercorns, cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon salt, and the asafoetida. Bring to a boil. Cook for at least 50 minutes at a low, rolling boil, until chickpeas are tender but still have their shape. Drain and reserve cooking liquid.

In a separate cooking pot, heat the oil. Add rest of the chopped onion and saute for 25 minutes, or until deep brown. Add the pureed onion, ginger and garlic mixture and saute for 10 minutes.

Add turmeric, garam masala and coriander powders, pepper and mango powder and stir thoroughly. After 1 minute, add pureed tomato and saute for a few minutes.

Add cooked chickpeas and stir gently. Add water in which the chickpeas were cooked (you can strain away the spices since their flavor is already extracted) and cook until tender. Add salt to taste at the end of cooking.

Serves 6 as a main course, or 8 as a side dish.

"50 Great Curries of India"

Garam Masala

This is a workhorse of the Indian kitchen. Batches will keep in resealable bags in the freezer for six months or longer, so save yourself some time and double this recipe if you think you will be cooking Indian food on a somewhat regular basis.

• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  
• 3/4 teaspoon fennel powder
  
• 1 black cardamom
  
• 1 cinnamon or bay leaf
  

Combine all spices but cardamom and cinnamon or bay leaf. Grind cardamom and cinnamon or bay leaf in a coffee or spice grinder, then add to mixture. Store garam masala in a tightly sealed bottle in the refrigerator. It is best used within 3 months, but will keep as long as 6 months if spices used were fresh.

"50 Great Curries of India"