I just found your website today, and am very interested to begin researching recipes. I live in Northern California, near the capital of Sacramento.  I've been interested in Indian cooking for about 30 years and have about a dozen Indian cookbooks.

I always try Indian Restaurants when I travel, and then go back home to try to recreate different dishes I've had. It has always surprised me however, that even though I have more than a dozen Indian cookbooks from well known and lesser known authors, the list of ingredients rarely seems to match what I just ate in a particular restaurant.

I'm very excited to read your posts, and hopefully learn the methods, techniques and ingredients I've been missing all these years.

One of my big discoveries this last year was the secret ingredient in making Spinach Saag. I've had it in various forms (Saag Paneer, Potato, Chicken or Lamb Saag, etc.) in restaurants, and it is very exotic in most places. None of my recipes in a dozen cookbooks ever mentioned the special ingredient though. By chance I happened to talk to a young Indian woman who was a branch manager at my bank, and she told me what I was missing after a short discussion....  I went out the next day and bought the extra item I had never added, and PRESTO, it was just as she promised, that glorious complex, slightly sweet and complex smooth restaurant Indian Spinach taste.

The ingredient I was missing for years was to my complete surprise.... Chinese Mustard Greens! No mention of it in any of my cookbooks, and I have quite a collection of them. I've almost perfected the recipe now, and came up with a much simpler and faster method of cooking using the Cuisinart to puree it instead of the blender done in batches. It also cuts the cooking time in half. I'll post the recipe soon, if anyone is interested.

I've always said if I won the Lottery, one of the first things I'd do is learn how to really duplicate Indian restaurant cooking at home. So, maybe I'm on the right path now!