The space race
It all began when I moved into this house and was given a shelf all to myself in the pantry. One endless winter night I gazed at my roomie’s Swiss Miss with lust in my heart. She was so Nordic, so pure, so full of chocolatey goodness. I knew it was only a matter of time before I cheated with her. So I went to the grocery store the next morning and brought home my own powdery Swiss miss.
A week went by. My acquisition was quietly noted in circles that matter. In the meantime I bought a couple of Indian TV dinners. They come in silver pouches which would look perfectly at home on the international space station. I cook plenty of fresh Indian food, mind you. I know this vacuum-packed crap can’t be good for you. But some corners of my palate are not fulfilled by my palette. Sometimes you’ve just gotta have mattar paneer.
So I came home yesterday and unloaded groceries. And what did I spy on my Jewish roomie’s pantry shelf?
Priya brand dal makhani. In a space-age pouch.
on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008, 3:15 pm in Food, Humor, Musings › 
Email this
› 
Facebook this
› 
Reddit this
› Link
› Reader links
I once had the brainy idea of taking the cholle version of the same on a backpacking trip.
for those who pack everything out, um… no.. some things I bury, this was NOT a good idea. it is powerfully pungent and the wrapper oozes oil even inside the garbage bag.
my verdict, even outside that camping trip, was that this stuff is a bit too heavy for my gut. i don know if it was priya, but their nutritional info was very misleading. It said like 20% fat per serving size - but there were like three serving sizes in that one package. Like heck I’d eat that for dinner.
I’ve tried some of the PC offerings and found them better.
I find it interesting that the swissmiss website could be read as alpineHo.
bad idea imHO
trader joe’s lentil rice biryani is my space food.
In general, Priya brand ready made stuff sucks. Their pickles (mango ginger, mango, ginger etc) are better.
Exactly. The fat and sodium content in these TV dinners is off the charts!
TJ’s has a few decent options with frozen Naan et al that are just a wee bit “healthier.”
I hate what they’ve done to my name! Brought it down into the mud! ;)
Vat? Your name is Dal Makhani! That’s… kind of kinky yaarr.
The sodium content alone is enough to make me run the other way…
Has anyone tried Ethnic Gourmet?
I’d rather just get takeout from an Indian restaurant, no? But I guess it’s hard to pass up a $2.99 dinner.
I had the same reaction the first time I bought MTR….what are these? MREs?
But their Kharabhath is kinda tasty.
Which brands are decent, flavor-wise? What about health?
The only packed dish i ever tried was the TJ’s Palak-paneer. It was SPICY alright, but you’d get tired of it by the end of your meal!
On an aside, if anyone wants to make quick aloo-matar at home, please microwave the aloo (whole aloo/do not peel, washed. 5 mins/ aloo), peel, cube and then add it to the tadka+matar. Gets you decent aloo-matar in 10-15 minutes. Add more vegetables or paneer to create more variety.
Which brands are decent, flavor-wise? What about health?
these are my suggestions..
priya paneer masala and all north indian dishes are bad..
priya south indian packs like mango daal, gongura daal, sambar, tomato daal are good..
Priya pickles are the best compared to all this..priya tomato, priya mango, priya mixed vegetable pickle are the best.
Gits ready made idli, ready made ravva idli are the best..
MTR kharabath is good..
best indian food than all these Amys frozen mattar paneer which comes with mattar paneer,chole and rice, amys rajma and aloo palak are great..They come with cooked frozen rice and has zero cholesterol, lot of protein and tastes almost as good as home made food..All my friends tried it after I suggesed Amys frozen indian mattar paneer and they loved it and are all addicted to it now.
I always have friends coming home for dinners suddenly without giving me time to cook sometimes, so I always keep a stock of all these, it helps and make life easy..
I agree with musical though..
cooking food at home takes 15-30 minutes even for north indian dishes if u microwave things like potatoes,tomatoes..u can use less oil and it is more healthy…
thanks for the tip about Amy’s, Prakruti. Except for the mattar bit. i loathe cooked mattars. it’s chalky and odorous.
now.. for the quasi-desis amongst us - you could alwways hit REI and try some of these. They’re not super tasty but they’re decent and at least they’re not dripping with oil and loaded with sodium. I’ve only tried the backpackers’ pantry versions though. BTW their thai offerings are pretty good.
Of course if you’re kanaydian, you could get the prvate label brand I’d linked to in #1 and get everything rfom samosas (they taste decent and are nnot deep fried) to naan pizzas.
Ok, so where do you get Amy’s? I sure haven’t seen ‘em at the ubiquitous Patel Bros. stores in the NY area.
Wait - nevermind. Just found out that they’re at Whole Foods.
When it comes to frozen or packaged desi food, I feel that I’m the unluckiest person on this earth. I’ve tried most of the brands - Swad, Nanak, Priya, MTR etc and haven’t found half-way decent desi food. They’re all so full of preservatives and all the sabzis taste the same.
musical - Why would you microwave the aloo for 10 mins, when you can cook it in a pressure cooker for 5 mins and get the same result ? Is there some catch ?
I usually prepare my aloo mutter in a pressure-cooker, i.e. first make the ‘tadka’ (jeera, masalas, tomatoes and matar) in a cooker (without putting the lid on), and then add the chopped aloo , put the lid and wait for one seeti (whistle) :)
Takes 15-18 mins in all (including chopping etc) and just one utensil (pressure cooker).
Kitchens of India products are pretty good, I have tried their Dal Bukhara and I like it. I am not sure if they are available at Desi Stores but Amazon seems to sell them. More here.
Prakruti did good job. I second everything she said. Frozen RTE has better taste than non-frozen ones. Priya RTE stuff gives an odd chemical taste, though they claim to use no artificial preservatives.
Brown_dbd:
when you are super-tired and you don’t want to wash the pressure cooker past 11:00 in the night, microwaving comes in handy :). Way faster if you cook for one person :). No catch there!
Also i don’t like making my food in pressure cooker other than daals and rajma, i prefer slow simmering, gives better taste :-D. Go, figure! Your style of cooking is so much like my Dad’s :).
Talking about forzen, i do recall having tried frozen rasmalai by Nanak, pretty good! The down side is that you have to have people who can finish the packet fast once opened.
I’ve got to be one of those quasi-desis that khoofia silently sneers at, because I loves me some Indian-food-in-a-pouch. MTR’s Shahi paneer has to be the nutritional equivalent of eating a stick of butter, but it’s the freakin’ best meal available for under $2.99.
thanks all glad u liked my choices..since I cannot live without indian food for even a day..staying last 12 years in US there are days when I get tired of cooking once every two months and try all kinds of indian food available..so have lots of experience experimenting with all kinds of indian food available..
Deep’s frozen patra is good, Deeps frozen khaman or dhokla is good, Deeps frozen kachoris are very good..all these are my fav. instant apetizers when I have a party at home if I dont have time to cook..deep’s frozen cutlets are also ok..
Also coscos frozen vegetable springrolls are excellent..u get 25 or 40 of them in one bag and they come with some kind of spicy sauce and they taste great..
you need fry both frozen vegetable spring rolls and kachoris..but last few times I wanted to avoid frying in oil so I baked them in oven and they taste good too ..less oil the better..
musical- try swad canned sweets..I like their rasagulla and rasamalai better than haldirams dabbas..u need to microwave them for a minute before eating but the taste is good..not too sweet but good..
Also if u guys ever want to make fresh idli or dosa coconut chutney I realise breaking fresh coconuts from either american or indian tastes and making chutney is not good..actually deeps frozen fresh grated coconut is so good even better than breaking fresh coconut u get in stores and chutneys taste like chutneys u get in good south indian restaurants in India. so try that if u ever want to make idli coconut chutney or even coconut rice..
I also got gits packets for making rasamalai kofta and all that and they also come out really good like ready made gulab jamun packets..just follow instructions..
The packaging technology for these Indian RTE is developed by Defense Food Laboratories, Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). It was essentially for an Indian version of army issue MRE used in places like Siachen where they can’t cook food conventionally.
Very cool, Samir. I vote for sending some up with samosa-lovin’ Sunita Williams.
by the way does anyone know a good recipe to make dal makhani at home..I know may be ultrabrown is not a sitewhere I should ask someone this stupid a question..I searched on internet..recipes are confusing at these sites..so different from each other…
http://www.khanakhazana.com/recipes/k_recipe.aspx?id=987
http://www.mealsmatter.org/recipes-meals/recipe/30077
http://www.punjabi-recipes.com/recipes/16.aspx
musical:
I know you didn’t mean this in a positive way, but I’ll take this as a compliment :)
My cooking style relies heavily on hit-and-trial methods, When I came to US (6 yrs ago), I was so incompetent at cooking that I could burn water! Slowly but surely, I have learnt some tricks, and my ’style’ has evolved.
brown_dbd:
it was totally in the positive sense! He’s (my Dad) an expert in quick one-pot meals!
Flavour-wise, for south Indian food MTR is pretty good. However, they don’t make good north Indian stuff; it’s positively yucky, actually. The Ashoka brand is quite nice for north Indian stuff. I don’t think there’s anything particularly healthy–most read-to-eat meals are soaked in oil. I suspect some of the frozen parathas have a lot of dalda (hydrogenated, transfat-laden stuff).
I saw Amy’s and Ethnic Kitchen packages at the grocery store today. 20% of daily fat and sodium were typical. One package had 50% of the daily fat allowance.
Not to worry. In space terms, the daily nutritional intake is 0g.