Depends on the whatnot, dunnit?
Cookin again
I can see someone being willing to [illegal] in exchange for cooking lessons, especially curry. I have a very basic recipe my wife got from an Indian friend while she was in grad school; I wouldn't claim that our current approach to it is particularly authentic, but we like it fine.
I'd be kinda pleased/honored if someone wanted to exchange something for my cooking, or my teaching them cooking. It's genuinely kinda cool.
Authentic is overrated sometimes. I have a cookbook with a great authentic recipe for Tandoori chicken. Sadly you need a full sized clay tandoor oven to make it. The book helpfully suggests that if you don't have a tandoor you should visit your local potter. Needless to say what I have is workarounds. 
Authentic is overrated sometimes. I have a cookbook with a great authentic recipe for Tandoori chicken. Sadly you need a full sized clay tandoor oven to make it. The book helpfully suggests that if you don't have a tandoor you should visit your local potter. Needless to say what I have is workarounds.
Yeah. My feeling is that authentic is nice, if you can manage it, but inauthentic isn't necessarily an insult. My own cooking is ... heavily hybridized.
I definitely would be inclined to go with a workaround, rather than buying a tandoor. At least for how I cook and otherwise live.
Yeah, I live in the Canadian Arctic, so the availability of some spices and whatnot is really limited. I wanted to try out some Ethiopian dishes but just couldn't source some of the key ingredients. Same goes for any non-standard produce - I'll never find it.
I've had good success using a charcoal grill for most tandoor tasks. lt makes awesome Naan bread.
I've had good success using a charcoal grill for most tandoor tasks. lt makes awesome Naan bread.
My wife is going to insist we try naan on the charcoal grill, if I suggest it.
I'm sure you've looked into this--you're far enough north of the Great Snow Wall it might not work--but have you tried something like Penzey's or Spice House? This might not (or it might, I guess) be the best time to start ...
It's great. I'd recommend it. The grill was also my solution to making jerk chicken that tasted 'right'. A smoker would be better there, but they aren't worth trying to use up here most months.
I probably will end up going that direction. Shipping to where I live is friggin' ridiculous though, so I'm very picky-choosy about ordering stuff I can't get shipped for free (thank you Amazon). I mostly try to stock up when I'm south on vacation.
Yeah. As I said, I figured you'd at least looked into it. The two I mentioned both offer excellent stuff, with slightly different selections--if you want to try small jars of stuff, Penzey's offers 1/4 cup jars; Spice House doesn't have anything smaller than 1/2 cup (though they just started offering something they call a "flatpack" which is a bag of some sort--I haven't bought any yet, so I can't say precisely).
