"Some weeks ago when [my wife]Meeru pointed out an article about how eating crickets, grasshoppers and other insects is are good for the diet and the environment, I liked the idea," writes Chef Vikram Vij in Getting a leg up - or six - on dinner . "My personal philosophy has been that if you can eat beef or chicken, then you should eat everything, as long as it is sustainable.
"We did some research ... and we came up with a dish to make. We decided to grind [the grasshoppers]into a flour so there was no visual effect, because in North America we eat with our eyes - if something does not look appealing, we tend not to eat it. If we can eat and enjoy the texture of foie gras and some other animal parts, eating crickets should be a walk in the park."
Chef Vij was online earlier to take your questions on everything from cooking with crickets to cooking with curry. Wondering about how to recreate your favourite Indian dish at home? Need advice on the right spice? Want help matching wine to Indian cuisine?
Your questions and Chef Vij's answers appear at the bottom of this page.
Vikram Vij was born in 1964 in India and grew up in Amritsar and Bombay. His most vivid childhood memories revolve around food and family, and he pursued this further by studying hotel management in Salzburg, Austria. After his studies, Chef Vij continued working at various find dining restaurants in Austria and, in 1989, moved to Canada to work at the Banff Springs Hotel.
Today, he and his wife, Meeru, run Vij's Restaurant in Vancouver, which he started in 1994. Vij's philosophy is to keep spices and cooking techniques Indian, while using meats, seafoods and produce that are locally available.
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Rasha Mourtada, Globe Life web editor: Thank you for joining us today, Chef Vij. I think that while many of us love Indian food, cooking it at home is a bit intimidating, especially for the novice cook. Do you have any advice for people who'd like to experiment with Indian cuisine at home but are a bit nervous?
Vikram Vij: Buying a good cooking Indian cookbook would be a great start and then slowly work with simple curries, it is quite intimidating if one is not used to it but really reading and learning is the best way to start. Also if you have any Indian friends, ask them to teach you and show you some basic ways of cooking with Indian spices.
gn, Ottawa: Thank you for taking my question. Ever since our son was diagnosed with a peanut allergy, we haven't had curry sauce in our house, although we miss it terribly. Can you recommend a mild commercial curry sauce that is made without peanuts or a simple home-made recipe?
Vikram Vij: I think you are thinking of Thai style curry sauces, Indian curry sauces do not have any peanuts in them. My daughter is also allergic to peanuts and she is okay with Indian curry sauces, There are lots of premade sauces available in the Indian food section, try to buy a good quality one only, really cheap ones taste really cheap and do not have the same depth of flavours..
Neon Cab, Canada writes: Chef, would a significant amount of ground insect protein affect the taste of prepared dishes (for good or bad) or would it add nutrition without affecting anything else? Also, how economical would it be to farm, source and prepare insects for consumption versus meat and would they even comply with our health standards?
Vikram Vij: I think the amount of insect protein is dependent on the chef himself. We did not use a lot and one cannot taste the difference. By over cooking it the protein becomes darker, so one has to be careful.
I believe that awareness on this subject is more important and nobody is saying that one should give up eating beef or pork, it only means that we do not need to consume so much of it. Crickets are from the arthropods family and they are like prawns, so I do not think it would be a huge issue, only time will tell.
Samson Gill, toronto: Good Afternoon, though it must be early for you still. Being of Punjabi-Indian decent, I have been lucky enough to travel quite a bit through India in the last several years .I even met a cousin who is a chef at the Park Hotel in Delhi, and dined at several Taj and Oberoi hotels (though often times, the street vendors offered the most tasty dishes). My question is when trying to translate Mughlai/Punjabi style masalas to seafood-esp. light fish, it always seems to over-whelm the delicate taste. The 'tourqa' masala base is always quite similar. In the south, they seemed to use a lot of black-pepper- this made a difference. How do you impart the rich mix of spices that defines Indian food to something so light/delicate?
Secondly, I have been trying different meats with tandoori masala. I have thought about a tandoori pork tenderloin on the bbq- does this work? (pork is a tough sell in my house).Thanks and I look fwd to dining at your restaurant in the near future-if I can get a table! samson-toronto
Vikram Vij: It is very difficult because Punjab is mostly a meat and vegetable eating area whereas the south and east have lots of fish. There are delicate spices in Bengal for example, Paanch Poran, and in the south coconut milk is used a lot to blend the flavor of spices nicely. It is really difficult to do Punjabi style spice with delicate fish. Fish Tikka is marinated in yoghurt and that is delicate but not really. Punjabi food is very robust compared to rest of India.
I hope to welcome you to Vij's. The only thing I cannot do is get you a table ahead of anybody because of the democratic rule. As far as the food and service is concerned, you will not be disappointed. Pork tenderloin should be rubbed and marinated for a few hours and then lightly grilled or pan seared. It should be served rare so one cannot over cook, otherwise the meat gets tough. Pork tenderloin is a very delicious meat.
Kajal Singh, alexandria United States writes: Hello Chef, Short of having a tandoori oven, what is the next best way to cook naan? I tried cooking them under a hot broiler: they got burned. I tried baking them: they became as hard as frisbees!! :-)) any help is appreciated. Thanks.
Vikram Vij: Hi Kajal, A very thick iron skillet is another way to cook the naan, they will not have the same flavor as Tandoori Naan because of the coal flavour but you can put some spices into the dough itself like fenugreek leaves or Aijwain seeds.
Laurence Fiddick, Townsville Australia: Traveling in Rajasthan I really liked the cashew curries that one could often find there. I'm not too sure if the sauce was tomato or onion based (or something else). Afterwards I've looked but never been able to find a recipe for cashew curry. For whole cashews, not cashews ground and used as a thickener. Got one?
Vikram Vij: Usually onion, tomatoes and ginger are the starting points of most Rajisthani curries. I really do not have a recipe for whole cashew cooked curries, though in the our cookbook we have some recipes with whole cashews but they are spiced separately and then added to the dish.
Mostly the Maharaja style curries had nuts in them and raisins.
BeeRich III, Toronto: Hey what a great opportunity. Thanks for doing this! I have two questions. OK, three. I've been a huge curry fan for over a decade, and always chase the local best Indian restaurant when in any part of the world, the most interesting being outside Harare, Zimbabwe. I cook at least one curry a week, and I'm fairly adventurous, especially with spices. I use Nationals and Shans, as I find they are the best I can do, not having any masala experience. How can I get past this restriction, in order that I can make authentic masalas? Second question. Can you suggest an authentic Dhansak recipe? It's mostly Persian so it's difficult to find at a restaurant as well as online. Third, I find that restaurant dishes are different than what I can produce. Can you name the top 3 tips for reproducing incredible curries? For instance, I'm not sure if slow or fast cooking (i.e. slow cooker vs. Karahi) is optimal. Thanks a bunch! I should stop in to see your place soon and discuss!
Vikram Vij: Nationals and Shans are good brands of spices, if you really want to do it yourself( very labour intensive), please buy a good Indian cookbook and there will be for sure some recipes for Garam Masala or other kinds of ground spices in them.
There is book by Niloufer Ichaporia called "My Bombay Kitchen" that is good read and a good cookbook.
One of the most important things while doing any cooking is the passion behind it, if it is done with heart then it should turn out great. You are correct in saying that slow cooked Indian food will mostly taste better that fast cooked, so a heavy duty pot is a good idea, keep the spices fresh and buy good produce.
R Corbett, Vancouver Canada writes: I love to use cilantro in all my Indian recipes. I want to try and make up some basic gobi (cauliflour), mattar (peas) dishes that I can make on the fly like my mother in law does in India. And if I'm lucky it will taste half as good. Can you recommend the basic spice combination that would get fried in with cilantro to taste just like home cooked Indian veggies? I love cooking and experimenting with Indian spices that I didn't experience much where I grew up in Newfoundland. Can you recommend any method to reduce the leftover fenugreek smell I am left with after I cook with it? It smells great on the day I cook, but after a few days I'm wishing I could be rid of it.
Vikram Vij: Personally I think our biggest asset are those mothers who can make such simple dishes taste so good, I would not even dare to start trying to compete with their touch. I still love my mother and my mother-in-law's cooking, so simple but still so flavourful.
Left over fenugreek smell is not going anywhere, you can only open the doors, if one could photograph the smell of Indian food it would look really pretty but you cannot get rid of the smell, my car is the best example of it.
TW, Toronto: The last time we were in India, we tried a lot of really interesting and different desserts. Can you recommend something fairly simple that we could try to make at home?
Vikram Vij: Rice pudding is the best but a very simple Indian dessert, most of the Indian dessert tend to be quite sweet, if food gets spicier going towards the east of the world, the desserts get sweeter as well.
Melissa, Canada: I love Indian food but my boyfriend is a bit timid about it. He's a bit of a meat and potatoes man. But I want him to try it because I know once he does, he'll love it. What dishes would you recommend I start him off on?
Vikram Vij: The only dish that comes to my mind is Butter Chicken, it is creamy and tender if done well and one can have it with rice or naan.
Rasha Mourtada, Globe Life web editor: Thank you, Chef Vij, for coming online today, and especially for taking extra time to answer additional questions. To our readers, look out for future chef discussions.