Cooking Trial: Indian

Why is Indian food so hard to make?  I have a cookbook, and I seem to follow all of the instructions, but it just doesn’t ever taste like in a restaurant.  It’s like, I know from cooking Cajun food that it’s not just the ingredients, but the exact right amount of time and size you chop everything that makes a huge difference. 

After trying it on the Whole Foods buffet a while ago, I decided to try my hand at Cabbage Madras with Peas and Red Potatoes tonight.  I even tried to make my own garam masala since I thought I had some and realized too late that I didn’t….

I’m not sure which exact spice I was missing because I had turmeric, cloves, peppercorns, even yellow mustard seeds….  Maybe it was the frozen peas?  Something I’m not accustomed to cooking, but I wasn’t sure what other kind of peas to use.  I also blanched the potatoes before throwing them in with the cabbage, so the flavor didn’t quite absorb into the potatoes like I would have liked.

Anyway, here is a pic of it since I at least was appetized by the look of it if not overwhelmed by the flavor.