Cooking like a local in India

Hello Amit,

You are required to comment/give information on this thread itself. The initiator forms part of the Expat.Com Team and this topic is a general one posted on all destinations so that to help expats/to be.

If you have answers to the questions asked in post 1, feel free to post here.

All the best,
Bhavna

The easiest thing you can plan for cooking anywhere not just in India. Take some chicken, grab it inside the cooker. Put some pepper and some red chilly powder inside the cooker and after it is done take it out and eat it. I think that is the simple thing we can cook for our lunch. I beleive a majority of men do not take any interest in cooking because they dont like the kitchen as much as the women do. Now a question to the ladies! How would you ladies prepare a lunch by yourself if you are free at home?

One of my favorite foods is fresh paneer. It's extremely easy to make and so much better than the packaged kind. Contrary to popular opinion, you don't need to mess around with cheesecloth.
One liter of milk is enough to make 2–4 portions of paneer, depending on what you will be using it for.
For a liter of milk, you will need a large, heavy pot to boil the milk (stainless steel is best), a fine-mesh stainless steel strainer, and something acidic to react with the milk: e.g., 1/4 cup of plain curd (yogurt) or the juice of one or two lemons or limes (strained). Don't worry about exact quantities. Sometimes you might need a little more or less.
Bring the milk to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally, and watching it constantly so it doesn't boil over. As soon as it boils, turn the heat way down (or remove from heat if you are cooking on an electric stove), add the curd or lemon juice, then turn the heat up again. When it starts to boil, lower the heat, stir briefly, and let it simmer for 2–3 minutes until the curds form and the liquid (whey) becomes clear. Don't keep stirring because you don't want to break up the curds.
Remove from heat and gently pour into the strainer. Hold the strainer over a bowl or pot to catch the whey, which really adds a nice flavor to vegetables, soup, rice, etc.
If you want really hard paneer, let it drain for a long time, preferably with some sort of weight on it. However, fresh, soft, hot paneer is also delightful. 
For variety, try adding turmeric powder or other spices just after adding the acid.
It hardly takes 5–10 minutes to make, not counting draining time. It comes out a bit different according to the quality of the milk, the acid you are using, the temperature and the kind of pan. I recommend using whole, organic milk for best results.
Actually, there's an even easier way: if you leave fresh milk (not the packaged kind) out of the fridge overnight, it turns into a kind of paneer when you boil it, assuming it wasn't left in a really cold room. After you've boiled it, cover it and let it sit for a while before straining. It's a little different, but equally good.