Ever since I bought Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking in 2011, I’ve been babbling to whomever would listen (usually no one) about how similar Indian and Mexican cuisines are. Both use large amounts of tomatoes, cilantros, onions, chiles, garlic, and cumin. And yet, the flavors could not be more divergent. It makes sense, really: the countries are 9,100 miles apart. There’s no good reason for them to have any similarities.
A perfect example of how the same ingredients, with just a few tweaks, can yield such massively different flavors is Mexican pico de gallo and Indian cachumber (or kachumber). The former is considered a salsa, the latter a relish. Each have seven ingredients total, but by simply swapping out three simple items, we can go from Mexico to India and vice versa. (Listen, maybe if you were stoned, you’d find this as cool as I do).
After the jump, check out pics of me making both condiments (one from a Jaffrey recipe and one from a Rick Bayless recipe)…
