Cardamom
Elaterid cardamomum
A teaspoon of crushed seeds adds a
superb flavor to pastry mixes, ice cream, custards, and fruity
sweet dishes (remove before serving). Also great in tea,
coffee, and mulled wine.
Medicinal Uses: Cooling to the body, for bad breath, bronchitis,
asthma, incontinency, as an
aphrodisiac,
and in digestive disorders, like indigestion, gas, cramps,
helps make other herbs palatable.
Tips For Cooking and Storing: Store in airtight containers,
inferior cardamom has a stronger taste. Buy whole pods
and crush with a rolling pin before cooking.
Combines well with: Relishes, tomato soups, stews, curries (especially if roasted), and often used in toothpastes and mouthwashes.
Medicinal Uses: Useful for digestive complaints, such as gas, bloating, colic, nausea, and indigestion. Also for coughs
and respiratory ailments. Increases
mother’s milk
Tips For Cooking and Storing: Aniseed has a strong licorice flavor. It
is better to buy the whole seeds that retain flavor longer. Store
in airtight containers.
In place of pepper with rice, stuffed vegetables, relishes, cordials, liqueurs, roasts and mixed with yogurt. Medicinal Uses: Similar to caraway and anise, relieves flatulence and bloating, and stimulates digestion, relaxes the gut, useful for insomnia, colds and fevers. Also stimulates milk flow. Tips For Cooking and Storing: To enhance the flavor, roast whole cumin seeds and then grind them with a mortar and pestle. The pleasant aroma will fill your kitchen.
Flavor chutneys, curries,
breads, sprout and added to salads, ground seeds have a slight
maple flavor.
Medicinal Uses: Stimulates milk flow in mothers, soothes sore
throats and bronchitis and clears mucus.
Tips For Cooking and Storing: Soaked and eaten like beans in Africa. The seeds contain vitamins, iron, and minerals, and yield a yellow dye.
Ginger
Zingiber officinale
Combines well with sweet dishes such as ice cream, ginger cookies and cakes, and desserts. Also hot curries, stir fries, ginger tea and beer, and Asian cooking.
Medicinal Uses: Warming effect that is Stimulating to circulation, induces perspiration, and gastric secretions. Useful in many conditions. For more information, read Ginger by Paul Schulick.
Tips For Cooking and Storing: Soak in brandy or sherry to lengthen shelf life and add liquid to cooking. Try crystallized ginger a tasty medicinal treat!.
Blends easily with other flavors, cook with the flavored oil or add just before serving Medicinal Uses: A strong circulatory stimulant when applied topically, add to bath for colds &influenzas, use topical paste sparingly for muscular pains and bronchitis. Tips For Cooking and Storing: Store in tight jars, and only grind lightly for recipes. Fry seeds in a hot oil to make a flavored oil..
Combines well with peppered steak, Caeser salad, soups, casseroles, and most non-sweet dishes. Also, vinaigrettes, and soft cheeses, try adding to straw- berries with a sparkling balsamic vinaigrette. Medicinal Uses: Stimulant to digestive and circulatory systems. It is antiseptic and antibacterial, warms the body, and reduces gas, bloating, tooth- ache, stomachache, and lack of appetite. Tips For Cooking and Storing: Best ground in a pepper mill, since it quickly loses its flavor. White pepper is hotter than black, and not so aromatic. The only spice listed that can be used to flavor food before, after and during cooking.
Color rice dishes, sauces, and soups. Important ingredient in Spanish paella. Also in cream cheese, fish sauce, scrambled eggs, risotto, and added to mayonnaise. Medicinal Uses: In Chinese herbal medicine it is still used to treat painful obstructions of the chest,to stimulate menstruation, and relieve abdominal pain. Tips For Cooking and Storing: It is the world’s most expensive spice. The threads are the purest saffron. They should be crushed when needed and infused in hot liquid before using. dye.
In India, kolam is the decorative practice of stenciling rice-flour patterns on the ground. In Newtown, Kolam is a restaurant, one that evokes that art form in a combination of geometric designs that color its dark velour wall coverings and valances.
Kolam, which opened in 2003 and is one of seven Indian restaurants operated by the Coromandel group, also makes an art of combining nuts, complex spices and yogurt- and ghee-based sauces, often with sumptuous results. Its menu provides an excellent introduction to the regional diversity of India's food, touching down in places that span the subcontinent from the Goa coast north to Kashmir, with plenty of Punjabi, Bengali, Keralan and Gujarati options in between.
One of the more notable items that we tried over several visits was kozhi Chettinad, an entree associated with the state of Tamil Nadu, in southern India. An abundance of black pepper contributed agreeable fieriness to this chicken dish, with its lip-tingling heat mitigated by a velvety-smooth texture, and undertones of tamarind, ginger and vanilla. Nilgiri kozhi, which also featured moist chunks of chicken breast, was milder but just as delightful, with a moderate presence of chili peppers and a creamy consistency, colored green from a generous harvest of cilantro and curry leaves.
Appetizers include a puduvai seafood dish. Wendy Carlson for The New York Times
Of the lamb entrees, we found mamsam koora, a dish with origins in the city of Hyderabad, in southeastern India, to be a wonderful choice. It is a luscious curry heavily accented with sesame seeds, bell peppers, cardamom and just a hint of cashews. The lamb, as full-flavored as mutton, was surprisingly tender and reasonably lean.
More tender still, and a tad less gamy, were the Chameli chops, a quartet of cuts with rib bone attached. Flash-fired in a tandoori oven and delivered on a sizzling skillet with a heaping farrago of succotash-like vegetables, the chops offered subtle influences of yogurt, mace, lemon and nutmeg. Juxtaposed with this fine example of Kashmirian seasoning was an accompanying masala sauce, based on tomatoes, that was orange in color and as sweet as honey.
Though the sauce was extraneous with the lamb, it might have come in handy with Samundari toofan, which had also been prepared in the tandoori oven. Although moist and flaky, this entree's seven sizable slabs of salmon were spiced with a barely discernible mixture of ginger, white pepper and saffron. Vindaloo, normally one of the hotter items offered in Indian restaurants, was similarly lackluster in the shrimp version, largely because its sweet, tangy red sauce was neither very spicy nor reflective of much complexity.
The chicken dishes include nilgiri kozhi. Wendy Carlson for The New York Times
Among the vegetarian choices, Kolam dal, a lentil dish, suffered from a runniness that verged on being insipid, despite a harmonious blend of cumin, garlic and ginger. Far more successful was the paneer kadai jugalbandi, consisting of a mildly flavorful house-made cheese, cut into rectangles and first seared on a skillet, then combined, in a tamarind-infused sauce, with a potpourri of peppers, onions and mushrooms.
Tamarind graces a number of appetizers, too, most notably katta-meeta bainsan, in which thinly sliced discs of eggplant, dipped in a delicate tempura-like batter and deep fried to a wonderfully crisp degree, were painted with a dark, sweet-sour sauce. The tamarind influence in puduvai seafood was mitigated by garlic and zesty pepper, those ingredients contributing a degree of nuance to a beautiful medley of squid and bite-size bits of shrimp. And Chennai rasam, a south Indian soup, was as thin as consommé and both tangy-sour and lemony-tart, with a mildly peppery aftertaste.
Mysore dosa, another starter, is commonly served at breakfast in India. With a crispy, paper-thin crepe protruding from both ends of the platter, Kolam's version looked sensational. Unfortunately, the scant filling of tired potatoes and wizened peas, paired with a bland sambar, undercut that first impression. Also disappointing was the Himalayas-inspired Gobi lasuni, its deep-fried cauliflower florets lost amid too much breading.
When it comes to dessert, it's best to skip such Western offerings as the dense, pasty cheesecake dubbed mango madness, and stick to the subcontinent. Rasmalai, a Bengali specialty, and paal payasam, of Tamil origin, share a reliance on sweetened condensed milk. In the rasmalai, it was flavored with pistachio and served as a medium for a pair of feathery-light cheese balls; the cardamom-infused paal payasam, a rice pudding, was studded with sultanas and cashews. Best of all may be gajar ka halwa, involving jaggery-sweet carrots reduced with milk, ghee and raisins.
My wife and I love eating here at Kolams Indian Restaurant. We usually come on Sundays but also come on Mondays. The food is always fresh and delicious. The staff are always so friendly and attentive to their customers. Such a wonderful experience for anyone looking to enjoy some authentic Indian food. I highly recommend it.
James Crowley
5 Stars (5/5)
We went to Kolam for the first time today. Food was delicious and very tasty!!!!! The service was very extra ordinary and friendly. I will definitely suggest my friends and family to go have dinner at Kolam.
Prachi
Shelton
I love to eat at Kolam. Your food is wonderfully flavorful and your service is outstanding! Best Indian Food in Fairfield County!
Bob
Trumbull
Katherine
Newtown
I have eaten at Kolam many times and have never been disappointed!!
I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who wants a truly authentic Indian dining experience.
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Danny R. reviewed your business on Yelp
5 Stars (5/5)
Lunch buffet was excellent, was not expecting it to be as good as it was. The tandoori chicken is addictive, really enjoyed its flavor. Its a nice casual place to get some good Indian food. The flavors can be as mild or exotic as you like so its good for people who arent used to Indian food. I've never had bad customer service here either, even when I had a complaint about the food (was nothing major). Its a good place to go to when you are wanting something different.
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Michael Morales reviewed your business on Google Plus
4 Stars (4/5)
The food was supurb!!!! We had the buffet, awesome!!! The staff was beyond friendly.
The whole experience was by far, the best experience I have had at a restaurant in ages.
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February 3rd, 2013
Noel DesChamps
Brookfiels, CT
The food is always fresh and excellent.
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Had brunch at my fav: Kolam recently, it was truly a treat! The flavors and friendly service was superb!
S brown
Danbury
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I have several Indian friends who are excellent cooks and extreme "foodies"; they constantly hint:"so...when are you treating us to Kolam again?" That says it all.
Kolam has sealed some very important friendships for me!
Mary Ann Ryan
Newtown, Ct
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For years now, simply the best Indian food in Fairfield County.
Paul
Trumbull
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I absolutely love the food at Kolam. I have been there with my daughter and close friends. Everyone is so nice and the food is delicious. I especially like the lunch buffet because I like to try different foods and the waiters make sure I always have plenty of water!!!! It is the kind of food that wakes your taste buds up in a positive way!!!!!I cannot wait to go back!!!
Elena Kasseris
Bethel
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ABSOLUTELY MAGICAL!
I am the web site designer for KOLAM RESTAURANT, and have been for almst 10 years. After moving here to Connecticut from New York City, I went looking for a good Indian restaurant, something comparable to NY. I looked at them all within a 30 mile radius of my home here in Bethel. After a vist to KOLAM, with its tender spicing, the taste of everyting fresh and fantastic food, I knew instantly this was the restaurant that could be loved. Senthial, the owner, is an outstanding restaurant creator, making the dinner experience a beautiful all around vist with the waiters as well as the food.
I am writing this because I just had dinner there again, and as Indian food, and any food, this is an exquisite restaurant that will bring a glorious sentation of life to you.
Robert Sauber
Bethge, CT.
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Kolam is our favorite Indian restaurant! The food is delicious, and the ambiance is perfect. We suggest the Tandoori Chicken Tikka and the Kandahari Naan. The portions are quite large, and the service is excellent. Enjoy!
Meg and Kelly
Wolcott, Ct
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The food was outstandingly authentic and delicious! The host, Amit, was extremely personable and kind. We enjoyed every moment and we especially liked the visit to the kitchen where we saw the Tandoor, Naan maker. Thank you again and we WILL be back.
Jim, Vikki, Mike, John, Mike D.
Danbury, Ct
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I have been to great Indian restaurants all over New England and New York, but the one I miss the most when I am away is Kolam. I find some of my favorite dishes like Malai Kofta, Lamb Rogan Josh, and Gulab Jamun, along with an amazing assortment of new ones to try.
Shaina
Thomaston, Ct
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My favorite restaurant! Love the mango lassi, the lunch buffet, and the desserts! Highly recommended!
Matthew
Sandy Hook
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Kolam is a small, cozy family style restaurant with a very pleasant atmosphere. I have experienced Indian food from both sides of the table; dining and cooking. I can appreciate the layering of the spices and preparation involved having cooked Indian dishes. Of all Indian restaurants I've dined at, Kolam is a gem. Friendly staff, attentive service, and great food; familiar and new.
Dave
Trumbull,CT
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I never even knew this restaurant was there but have been driving past it forever. I was introduced to the food not too long ago and was very impressed. When I sat down for the first time I was even more impressed. The tables are set so crisp and clean, the service is on point. Waters are refilled instantly and the servers are very attentive. I would give them an A any day. Even when it is busy the servers all work together to keep a calm environment for the customers. Kolam really is a home away from home where you can be very comfortable. I would go back anytime. Trust me, once you have the food once, you'll become addicted. This restaurant is very professional and well put together. Job well done everyone!
Erica
Newtown, CT
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I have tried many Indian restaurants in the area, and I keep coming back to Kolam. Their food is exquisite- beautifully plated and delicious. They have many unique dishes and it's always a pleasure to be there. The staff is very friendly, and the decor is above any other in the area. My favorite part of Kolam? Their sauces. So many Indian restaurants water-down their curry these days, at Kolam you always get a fresh, rich flavorful curry, with SUBSTANCE! I think I'll go get some now !
Kristin
Ridgefield, CT
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I have seen menu it was very much impresive.
Siva
Cnennai, NY
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I ate there last night with two friends and it was a great experience. We got lost coming from Watertown but it was worth it. The food and atmosphere were delectable and am looking forward to the leftovers that are in my refrigerator.
Sybil
Watertown, CT
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It was pleasure being to Kolam. After tasting food there, i was really impressed and did think for a second and wanted them to cater for my party for about 60 people. The food was so delicious, awesome with fresh great taste. All in the party liked the food so much that they wanted to have everything twice. All of them wanted to know where this Kolam was,So we really enjoyed the whole party and are very satisfied with the service.I also wanted to thank Senthil and JD for their pleasant and pleasing nature of dealing things and amazed with the punctuality of the delivery.
Thank you very much for the help.We look forward to come over there soon.
Regards
Ravi
Danbury, CT
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We have eaten at Kolam many, many times with very large groups each time. Each person in the group travels worldwide for business and loves Indian food. Having had it around the globe, including India, we find Kolam is one of the finest Indian meals we have had anywhere and certainly the best we have found in Connecticut, with service that is complimented by your fine waitstaff.
We will continue to return many times.
Thank you.
Michael
Southbury, CT
........................................
we love your restaurant!!!!
Kim
Southbury, CT
.......................................
I have eaten a lot of Indian cuisine across the North East. The ambiance, service and food by far is the best!!
A definite stop if you are in CT.
Go... It's worth the trip.
Michael
Brookfield, CT
..........................................
Love the music on your website - who is the artist and where can I buy the CD?
Oh, and your food rocks too!
Jim
Monroe, CT
........................................
I have driven by your restaurant many times and decided to try it
for the first time today. I had a chicken lunch box. I have to
say it was excellent and I will definitely come back. The staff
was very friendly and the atmosphere looked just beautiful.
Thank you.
Rowena - Ansonia
..........................................
Dear Senthil,
Thank you for introducing our family to the subtleties, the
richness, and the seemingly infinite varieties of Indian cuisine: a cuisine,
we have discovered, that is at least the equal of any in the world. Thank
you also for being such a caring employer and kind friend to our teen-aged
sons, Max and Adam. You and your staff transformed their jobs into true
multi-cultural experiences that no school curriculum can rival. We look
upon Kolam as a second home.
Marty
.............................................
Just wanted to tell you how impressed
I was with your food and service. What a delight! The food
was a great break from the usual restaurant fare available everywhere.
The service was excellent and Senthil in particular was a more
than gracious host. I brought home our left overs and my
wife had just returned from her appointment in time to sample them
still warm, she loved it. We will happily return and spread
the word of your jewel on Rte. 25.
Allen - Redding Ct.
................................................
LinkedIn Recommendations :
Zach Matheson has endorsed your work as Owner
at Kolam Restaurant.
Dear Senthil,
I've written this recommendation of your work
to share with other LinkedIn users. Details of the Recommendation: "Senthil
and his staff were/are fantastic. Senthil being in charge of all facets
of his restaurant spared no expense to take care of us. I was always
impressed with Senthil's operation. My clients were impressed by Senthil's
operation. I had many great business appointments at Senthil's store
and it was due to Senthil that I had the confidence to bring my closest business
associates as guests to his restaurant. I recommend Senthil highly." Service
Category: Great food, Great Service Year first hired: 2005 (hired
more than once) Top Qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert
I have eaten at many Indian Restaurants in the Tri State area, and have traveled extensively throughtout India and Kolam is one of the most authentic Indian foods I've experienced. I try to eat there several times per month and when traveling overseas, I look forward to returning to the states to eat at Kolam. The service is outstanding, caring and personal.
Jim
Trumbull
.........................................
My husband and I have eaten at many Indian restaurants in NY/CT and Kolam serves fabulous, delicious and fresh food. The servers are welcoming, knowledgeable and it feels like you are eating in an Indian home. The weekday buffet is varied, and we love the different poriyals. We have recommended Kolam to many friends and family who weren't sure they liked Indian food and some are now regulars. Don't miss this place!
Donna
Trumbull
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Kolam is the best Indian food this side of Mumbai! The service is great; the waiters are friendly and knowledgeable and always accommodating. The lunch buffet is an outstanding combination of tastes, textures and aromas--an all around culinary delight.
Lisa
Newtown
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You can't find better Indian food anywhere else! The staff is great too =)
Kaltrina
Newtown, CT
...........................................
We have eaten at Kolam many, many times with very large groups each time. Each person in the group travels worldwide for business and loves Indian food. Having had it around the globe, including India, we find Kolam is one of the finest Indian meals we have had anywhere and certainly the best we have found in Connecticut, with service that is complimented by your fine waitstaff.
We will continue to return many times.
Thank you.
Michael
Southbury, CT
........................................
we love your restaurant!!!!
Kim
Southbury, CT
.......................................
I have eaten a lot of Indian cuisine across the North East. The ambiance, service and food by far is the best!!
A definite stop if you are in CT.
Go... It's worth the trip.
Michael
Brookfield, CT
..........................................
Love the music on your website - who is the artist and where can I buy the CD?
Oh, and your food rocks too!
Jim
Monroe, CT
........................................
I have driven by your restaurant many times and decided to try it
for the first time today. I had a chicken lunch box. I have to
say it was excellent and I will definitely come back. The staff
was very friendly and the atmosphere looked just beautiful.
Thank you.
Rowena - Ansonia
In India, kolam is the decorative practice of stenciling rice-flour patterns on the ground. In Newtown, Kolam is a restaurant, one that evokes that art form in a combination of geometric designs that color its dark velour wall coverings and valances.
Kolam, which opened in 2003 and is one of seven Indian restaurants operated by the Coromandel group, also makes an art of combining nuts, complex spices and yogurt- and ghee-based sauces, often with sumptuous results. Its menu provides an excellent introduction to the regional diversity of India's food, touching down in places that span the subcontinent from the Goa coast north to Kashmir, with plenty of Punjabi, Bengali, Keralan and Gujarati options in between.
One of the more notable items that we tried over several visits was kozhi Chettinad, an entree associated with the state of Tamil Nadu, in southern India. An abundance of black pepper contributed agreeable fieriness to this chicken dish, with its lip-tingling heat mitigated by a velvety-smooth texture, and undertones of tamarind, ginger and vanilla. Nilgiri kozhi, which also featured moist chunks of chicken breast, was milder but just as delightful, with a moderate presence of chili peppers and a creamy consistency, colored green from a generous harvest of cilantro and curry leaves.
Appetizers include a puduvai seafood dish. Wendy Carlson for The New York Times
Of the lamb entrees, we found mamsam koora, a dish with origins in the city of Hyderabad, in southeastern India, to be a wonderful choice. It is a luscious curry heavily accented with sesame seeds, bell peppers, cardamom and just a hint of cashews. The lamb, as full-flavored as mutton, was surprisingly tender and reasonably lean.
More tender still, and a tad less gamy, were the Chameli chops, a quartet of cuts with rib bone attached. Flash-fired in a tandoori oven and delivered on a sizzling skillet with a heaping farrago of succotash-like vegetables, the chops offered subtle influences of yogurt, mace, lemon and nutmeg. Juxtaposed with this fine example of Kashmirian seasoning was an accompanying masala sauce, based on tomatoes, that was orange in color and as sweet as honey.
Though the sauce was extraneous with the lamb, it might have come in handy with Samundari toofan, which had also been prepared in the tandoori oven. Although moist and flaky, this entree's seven sizable slabs of salmon were spiced with a barely discernible mixture of ginger, white pepper and saffron. Vindaloo, normally one of the hotter items offered in Indian restaurants, was similarly lackluster in the shrimp version, largely because its sweet, tangy red sauce was neither very spicy nor reflective of much complexity.
The chicken dishes include nilgiri kozhi. Wendy Carlson for The New York Times
Among the vegetarian choices, Kolam dal, a lentil dish, suffered from a runniness that verged on being insipid, despite a harmonious blend of cumin, garlic and ginger. Far more successful was the paneer kadai jugalbandi, consisting of a mildly flavorful house-made cheese, cut into rectangles and first seared on a skillet, then combined, in a tamarind-infused sauce, with a potpourri of peppers, onions and mushrooms.
Tamarind graces a number of appetizers, too, most notably katta-meeta bainsan, in which thinly sliced discs of eggplant, dipped in a delicate tempura-like batter and deep fried to a wonderfully crisp degree, were painted with a dark, sweet-sour sauce. The tamarind influence in puduvai seafood was mitigated by garlic and zesty pepper, those ingredients contributing a degree of nuance to a beautiful medley of squid and bite-size bits of shrimp. And Chennai rasam, a south Indian soup, was as thin as consommé and both tangy-sour and lemony-tart, with a mildly peppery aftertaste.
Mysore dosa, another starter, is commonly served at breakfast in India. With a crispy, paper-thin crepe protruding from both ends of the platter, Kolam's version looked sensational. Unfortunately, the scant filling of tired potatoes and wizened peas, paired with a bland sambar, undercut that first impression. Also disappointing was the Himalayas-inspired Gobi lasuni, its deep-fried cauliflower florets lost amid too much breading.
When it comes to dessert, it's best to skip such Western offerings as the dense, pasty cheesecake dubbed mango madness, and stick to the subcontinent. Rasmalai, a Bengali specialty, and paal payasam, of Tamil origin, share a reliance on sweetened condensed milk. In the rasmalai, it was flavored with pistachio and served as a medium for a pair of feathery-light cheese balls; the cardamom-infused paal payasam, a rice pudding, was studded with sultanas and cashews. Best of all may be gajar ka halwa, involving jaggery-sweet carrots reduced with milk, ghee and raisins.
