Home-Cooked Indian Food in Delhi, India!! MOM'S RAJMA + LOVELY Family Food in India!

Welcome to another episode of Chopstick Travel. I'm Luke Martin and today we are in India. In today's episode we are in the capital city of New Delhi and our buddy Gaurav has been helping us out with this entire series and New Delhi is his hometown. So today we are going to go to his house and have a proper home cooked Indian meal. This is going to be the first time I've ever had a home style Indian meal. I'm really excited. So we're just in our Air BnB now. We're going to head outside, grab a rickshaw and head over to Gaurav's house. Alright, we're off, let's go. Hello, good to see you, thank you for coming. Thank you very much, okay, awesome, what a welcoming. Alright we're going to take a peek in the kitchen, it already smells good. These are the basil leaves, yes, alright, and you just throw those right in the jar. So we're just going to start with some chai, but special chai. Fresh cow milk and basil too, that you grow upstairs right? Yeah, right. Really cool. Oh yeah, just the way I like it and you can taste that fresh basil too. We have this little jaggery cookie which you can kind of just dip inside. This is one of my favorite simple joys of India, chai, and then that cookie is really good too. We've also been served this, this is called rusk, it's made of semolina dough and it's like a crunchy cracker and the best thing to do is just dip it right into the chai, soften it up, and then have a bite. Wow, sounds crunchy. Nice and crispy, but the part that I dipped, so nice and soft. Finished off with our chai, just finished meeting everyone and getting introduced. So I think we're going to have a little snack before we actually prepare dinner, we're going to have some paratha. We'll be roasting some fennel leaves on the top with some coriander. This is kind of like a deluxe paratha, not your typical roadside paratha, so she's actually just roasting some fennel seeds, some coriander, and some karam seeds. Red chili, garam masala, garlic powder. I love the tray of spices. You can definitely find all kinds of spices in a typical Indian kitchen and she's just mixing all of the ingredients in with gobi, which is cauliflower, shredded cauliflower. So let's see if I can remember everything. There was garam masala, chilies, onions, red chili, coriander, fresh coriander, ginger, karam seeds. Did I miss anything else? Just salt, oh right. All kinds of ingredients. So she's using a wheat flour dough that she rolls into a ball and then stuffs full of that cauliflower with all the spices and kind of forms it almost like a Chinese baozi, but then flattens it out with a rolling pin, puts it right on the skillet and fries it up. So Sabrina's going to give it a try? Yep. So just got to roll it out with a nice light hand. Don't push too hard. What happened? Don't do it, don't do it. My paratha exploded. So the paratha is finished. We put some homemade white butter that they churn here in the house on top of it, melting away. Oh yeah, that smells and looks awesome. So we've been eating a lot of paratha here in India. It's one of the best simple things you can have to just fill your tummy. And we were waiting for dinner to cook, so we're going to have a little bit of this gobi paratha with all that white butter. I love the cauliflower. It's a little bit salty. There's some green chilies in there too, so there's some heat. And we can chase it with one of these little pickles here. Sour, a little bit spicy too. Oh man, that is good. Alright Luke, so we bought a very special gift for you. This is a kurta for you, and we have suit for Sabrina. So my mom is presenting you those. So some traditional Indian clothes. You're going to get dressed up? Yep, so I'm wearing a suit, Luke's wearing a kurta, so let's get dressed. See how we look. Alright. I'm going to get changed now, so just wait. Hello. Oh wow, looks good. Thank you. I like the color. And I've got my decoration. What do you think? Looks good. Thanks. Now it's perfect. Okay. Still tight? Still a little tight. Too much Punjabi food. That's good. Oh no, that's okay. Thank you. Alright. One more step. What is this? Okay, so this is when we welcome our guests home. So we always give something for them, for winters to just be taken care of the cold. Okay. So you can just... Oh yeah, this is nice. What do you call it? We call this Loi. Loi. Alright, we are all made up, looking good, and it's time to start cooking. So the first dish we're making is called Rajma, which is a bean dish. We're starting with some fried caramelized onions and garlic and oil. The second dish we are preparing right now is a chicken curry mixed with some curd, lots of ginger garlic paste, and a couple different types of chilies and salt. So we're going to let that chicken mixture marinate for about an hour before we start cooking it. So the Rajma is really an interesting preparation. We took some tomatoes and pureed them with all those caramelized onions, mixed in tons of spices and some green chilies. Going to simmer this away for a little bit, boil some beans, and then later we'll mix it in with the tomato mixture. As that Rajma mixture is simmering away, we're going to start with the dal, the lentil curry. This kitchen has one serious spice rack. More spices on the top shelf. Yes, we have a lot of spices. Headed to Indian kitchens. She just put mustard seed oil into the cooker, and instead of heating up the oil, she's actually burning it, and that will get rid of all of the pungent smell and taste of the oil. That is pungent. Kind of burns your eyes a little bit. To that burnt mustard seed oil, we added some cumin, some garlic, and then some more tomato puree. So we added some green chilies, of course, and then the dal, the lentils, which I've been soaking for about four hours, stirring those around, getting them all covered in that beautiful sauce, that sauce packed with all those spices. So we added the lid to that pressure cooker. We're going to wait to hear the whistle once, and then we'll know that the dal is ready. So there's been a lot going on in this kitchen, and we've been learning so much about cooking here in India. Gaurav, his wife, and his mother are telling us about everything that they're using, all the ingredients, and how they're using them. And one thing that I'm going to take away is that I really need more spices to take around with me. Now we are adding the beans for the rajma into that mixture. How often will you eat rajma? Oh, I think twice a week. Twice a week? You go through all of this preparation? Yes, like I told you that it is one of the most famous dishes here in North India. 95% of the people here love it the most. I'm super excited to try this dish in particular, the rajma. I've never had it before, and Gaurav says it's so common. But I don't think, it's not normally found in restaurants, is it? No, it is found in restaurants, but the way my mom is preparing it, and the way we make it in our household is quite different from the one you get in the restaurant. So we transferred those beans mixture into the pressure cooker, added a couple more ingredients, and now we're going to wait for the whistle, and then the rajma will be done as well. There are so many things going on in this kitchen right now, but I'm trying to keep track and keep you guys updated. One thing that we're making is a green chutney, so actually freshly grating some gooseberry, then we'll mix some mint, some tamarind, some all kinds of different things, green chilies, and that will be a chutney or a dipping sauce for some of the dishes. So that green chili chutney, all those ingredients, is finished. Can I try a little? That is strong, really sour, really spicy, and salty. Oh man, that's packed with flavors. I love the mint. I want to see your reaction. Should I eat it with a spoon? Whoa, wow. Tons of different flavors in there, it's like tingling my tongue. So that chicken that's been marinating, we just threw it in with some mustard seed oil, going to kind of fry it up, cook it a little bit before we mix it with the curry. All right, I'm going to try the sprout salad made fresh. So this is a clay pot that we're going to be putting the chicken curry in, and you can see they put our names on it. Love it. Beautiful. The chicken is almost 70% ready now. We'll be transferring it to the northern pot, and we'll be keeping this on the tawa for another 10-15 minutes, and your chicken will be ready. So as you can see, it is for Luke and Sabrina. It's a customized pot, and it is done by my wife. We'll be putting it on top of the tawa, and we can't give it a direct heat, so we'll just put it on a low flame. And on top of this, it goes. This needs to stay here for at least 10-15 minutes. All of the dishes are finished except for one. We are on the rooftop now doing a little bit of a barbecue. We've got some boneless chicken, marinated chicken, grilling it on charcoal. That's going to be the last thing. We've been at it for probably four hours now, and we're going to sit down and eat. All right, we are sitting down. Well, I'm sitting down alone. It's actually only about 6 p.m., but here in India, people tend to eat late. So we're going to do a little taste test, and then later tonight, the family's going to get together, and we're all going to sit down and have a proper meal. A lot of these dishes are not totally common at restaurants, and they're all going to be cooked a little bit different because this is the home-style recipe made by Gaurav, his wife, and his mother, and everything just looks so incredible, and it smells even better. So I'm going to assemble my plate here and introduce everything to you. First off, of course, is some basmati rice. This was cooked with some cardamom inside. This is the rajma. You can see those big, fat beans that were pressure-cooked with that beautiful masala tomato paste. And I'll put a little bit of that right beside my rice here. So this is the famous dal. You can see all those lentils in there, once again, cooked with a ton of spices. And that is thick. This is the bean sprout salad. Lots of onions, lots of tomatoes, some lemon in there. Put a little bit of that. Don't want to overdo it. There's a lot of dishes. This is the beautiful chicken tikka, that barbecued chicken on charcoal. Put some of that on my plate, just one little piece, and then some of the onions that go along with it. All right, we've got a salad here too with some carrots, lump cabbage, some tomatoes, chilies, and onions. Try to grab a little bit of everything. Some mint. Grab an onion. I think I'm looking forward to trying this the most. This is the chicken curry. Look at that. That is beautiful. Cooked in the earthenware pot. A couple chunks of those. Oh yeah. This is that amazing green chutney that we tried earlier. This stuff is powerful. I'm going to put a little bit of that right in the middle here. And I'm going to grab one of these chapatis too. There's some of that homemade white butter on top. Rub a little bit of that on and throw that on my rice. Oh man. I've assembled my plate. This is a special moment. I am super excited to have my first ever Indian home-cooked meal. And I think I've got to start with the rajma, these beans. Because beans are just one of my all-time favorite ingredients in the world. Have it with a little bit of basmati rice. Those beans are super soft. You can taste the natural sweetness of the beans. But then there's so much masala. There's so many different spices in there. You can taste the ginger. You can taste the cardamom. And then that rice kind of soaks up all of that curry too. I'm going to try the homemade dal next with a little bit of the chapati. And some of this green chutney. That green chutney is so powerful. So sour from the tamarind. There's spice coming from that green chili. And then those lentils are just about the same texture as those beans in the rajma. But they're smaller and packed full of all of those ingredients once again that went into there. So much flavor packed in such a simple dish. It's incredible. Let's have a taste of this sprout salad. Yeah, that is like super refreshing. Those sprouts are crisp still. The onions in there too. And then lots of lemon so it's got some sourness. Just keeping on going around the plate. Let's try some of this BBQ chicken tikka with some of these onions. Wow. So smoky. Instantly can taste that charcoal smokiness. Really tender chicken. Crisp onions. Try this little salad here. Some tomatoes and this lump cabbage. Such a good mix of soft and crisp. Spicy and refreshing. That salad goes perfectly with that chicken tikka that I just tried. Alright, I gotta try this chicken curry next. Cooked in the earthenware pot. So many spices. This looks incredible. Wow. That is not like any of the other chicken curries that I've tried. It's not oily. It doesn't feel oily at all. All of the curry has kind of soaked into the chicken and is stuck to the outside. It's got a little bit of a sweetness too. And you can taste those tomatoes coming through. That chicken is so soft too. Oh man. You got that chicken recipe down. So I'm having a special type of halwa only available in this season. This is a carrot halwa made with milk solids, sugar, raisins, cashews, almonds, and then those beautiful red carrots. Look at how vibrant red those are. And lots of sugar too. So this is like our little dessert. Oh that's awesome. The carrots are super soft. But then there's crunchy little almonds and cashews in there. It is quite sweet. And then you can taste those milk solids. It's definitely like barfi or other sweets you have here in India. Definitely quite sweet. But really nice to have after the meal. We are all just enjoying the meal now. How is everything? Amazing. So good. The flavors are incredible. There's so many spices packed in there. I love it. So at an Indian family meal, you're going to mix and match tons of different foods, tons of different flavors, and it could not go together more perfectly. I'm really thankful for this meal. So big thank you to Gaurav, his family, for making this meal to us and being so hospitable. Finished up with that meal. What an experience. World-class hospitality and just incredibly delicious food. If you ever get the chance, you have to try to have a proper Indian home-cooked meal. One of my favorite things about Indian food is that after you're done, sometimes there's things caught in your teeth and then you'll just bite down on it and it's like a burst of flavor because there's a new spice that was lurking in there. Fennel or cardamom or fennel greek. All kinds of different things and they just taste incredible. I do want to point out that that halwa that we tried, the carrot halwa, was cooked for two days by Gaurav's mother just for us to try. It's a really rare dish and it was delicious. Finished up with our meal. Big thank you to Gaurav and his family for preparing this meal. It was delicious and make sure to check out his YouTube channel down in the description box. Man, everything was so good. That chicken curry that you made was just out of this world. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. It was such a pleasure to have you here with us and enjoy the meal that we've cooked for you. And it was really a pleasure to have you guys. Yeah, it was a pleasure being here, man. Thank you so much. Make sure to subscribe and hit the bell icon so you're notified when we post our next video. We have more coming from India, so make sure to stay tuned. We'll see you in the next episode. Bye-bye.