A Guide to Making Your Own Indo American Fusion Food With Your kids

January 13, 2021

We love fusion food at our home – be it Masala Burgers or Mexican Bhel, Samosa Cones or Thandai Cake! They are great quick fixes, party food, lunch box items, and conversation starters. It truly reflects our hyphenated identities as South Asian-American or Indian-American. How we eat every day in America has definitely gone through a transformation from how we ate back in India. This is true as much for Indians-living-outside as it is for Indians-living-in-India. So does all our cooking reflect this change? Of course not! Some of the foods have to be had exactly the way our moms made it! We can spend hours learning recipes that were previously written off as something only the last generation had the patience for! Or drive long hours to a location that promises an unadulterated taste of home!

But when we do engage in fusion cooking at home, why not pause and be mindful of this heightened awareness of both cultures that can actually help us discover a lot about ourselves? What parts of Indian and American food resonates with who in the family? What is absolutely essential and what can be replaced? Which foods trigger memories?

A dedicated family fusion meal cooking day will help in exploring such details – use this helpful guide we’ve put together for inspiration and get the conversation flowing! let us know your creations!

Before we get to the guide, let’s take a quick look at how we define American and Indian food as it’s hard to define both and it can get tricky!

What is typical American Food?

Isn’t it really the amalgamation of numerous culinary traditions? Even so, a myriad of foods comes to mind when you think of American food – Burgers, hotdogs, cornbread, fries, some Americanized food such as pizza, pasta, tacos and some noodles! So define what is ‘American food’ for you in that context.

What is typical Indian Food?

Again, this is hard to define as this food is vastly different from region to region in India and has a distinct taste. Most food in the US falls into the Punjabi or Gujarati categories. So pick your region – Punjabi, Gujarati, Telugu, Bengali, Tamil, Malyalam and so on to define what constitutes ‘Indian food’ for you.

Once we are clear on what American and Indian means to you in your specific context, follow these steps:

STEP 1: Pick your Main Dish

Decide on the dish you want to cook – either from the ‘American food’ category or the Indian food category.

American: burgers, pizza, pie, hotdogs, tacos, waffles, pancakes, bagels, mac n cheese, chili, trail mix, chocolate chip cookies, quesadillas, sandwiches, cakes, Smores.

Or

Indian: Roti, rice, naan, idli, dosa, dhokla, samosa, paratha, chaat, chutney, barfi, kheer, gulab jamun and so on.

STEP 2: Pick your flavors (Herbs and Spices)

This is a super important step as it decides the flavor of the dish.

If you picked an Indian dish, pick American flavors such as thyme, rosemary, sage, Black pepper, nutmeg, vanilla, soy sauce, sriracha, allspice, pumpkin spice, peanut butter and so on.

If you picked an American dish, pick Indian flavors such as cilantro, mint, bay leaf, dried fenugreek leaves, cumin, coriander, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, tamarind, jaggery and so on.

STEP 3: Pick Produce (Local or Exotic)

Pick local produce such as celery, zucchini, corn, kale, berries, potatoes, cranberries, if you picked Indian flavors and main dish.

Pick exotic produce (in Asian markets) to reinvent American dishes. okra, squash, or gourd.

STEP 4: Pick a Cooking Technique

Pick a typical American style like baking potatoes and use Indian spices and flavors. Pick an Indian cooking style such as tempering to add spiced oil at the end of cooking a dish.

STEP 5: Pick a Serving idea

Sometimes it’s just about the presentation of food that changes everything! Rotis served as rolls! Pani Puris served as shots! Samosas served as Pinwheels!