|
Cooking Web |
Home
Cooking Recipes Cooking Advice Cooking Tips Cooking Club Cooking School Indian Cooking Quick Cooking 
|
Beginners Guide to Regional Indian CookingBy Monica Bhide and Chef Sudhir Seth When someone asks me if I know how to cook Indian food, all I can do is smile. Sure I can cook some of it, but can anyone truly cook food that represents a country of more than 1 billion people, with over a dozen languages, 800 recognized dialects, and several religions, India is as diverse as it gets! The Aryans who occupied the North and the Dravidian¡¯s who occupied the South were the first influencers in India. India¡¯s cuisine has also been influenced greatly by the multitude of invaders throughout the country¡¯s history; the Mughals, British, Turks, and Portuguese all left their mark. By adding their own cooking styles and ingredients, they provided a rich diversity, resulting in a unique cuisine. In the words of the legendary Madhur Jaffrey ¡°Nothing was ever discarded. It was made Indian. India is also a country with a 3000 year old religious heritage. Home to Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Jainism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and the Bahai religions (to name a few) ¨C all dictating what can and cannot be eaten. The Jains don¡¯t eat garlic, the Muslims don¡¯t eat pork, and the Hindus don¡¯t eat beef. Other faiths have limitations on any vegetable grown under ground. Then there are days when people fast and on those days¡¯ special meals need to be prepared according to the guidelines for that particular faith. There are specific norms for food that are followed for major life events like pregnancy, birth, baby¡¯s first foods and death. From the lap of the Himalayas in the North to the coast of southern Indian, from the Ghats of Western India to the eastern Bay of Bengal, from the deserts of Rajasthan, to the backwaters of Kerala, from the luscious fields of Punjab to the mountains of Kashmir -- the geography, climates and the landscape are as diverse as they get.
What holds this diverse cuisine together is the aromatic and flavorful spices. The art of Indian cooking is in blending these spices so they are in perfect harmony in each dish. About Indian CuisineBase ingredients in north Indian cooking are fresh ginger, garlic and onion. Most entr¨¦e's use all three ingredients. Indian cooking varies from region to region. People from eastern and northern India eat rice, roti, naan, paratha, puri - various types of breads, all made from wheat flour, while the staple diet for people from other parts of the country is rice. A large population eat vegetarian food due to religious reasons and beef is not very popular, though it is available. Goat meat is more popular than lamb and is often referred to as mutton. Chicken is cooked without the skin, but with the bones in the meat. Chicken is known as "Murgh" in Hindi. The curry in an Indian entr¨¦e's is the gravy. For example, in murgh curry (chicken curry), the curry is actually the gravy of the entr¨¦e and not a spice. Curry powder is not a spice. It is a mixture of a few spices like ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, allspice, cinnamon, black and white peppers, red chili peppers etc. Indian cooking is typically flavor spicy, and can be made chili spicy, depending on personal preferences. More research about Indian cooking, visit E Gullet.
|
|
|
Home | Cooking Recipes | Cooking Advice | Cooking Tips | Cooking Club | Cooking School | Indian Cooking | Quick Cooking Copyright © 2005 Cooking Web. All Rights Reserved. |
The different Indian states are so unique in their geography, culture, language and tradition that they are almost like individual nations. In addition to all the factors mentioned so far, another important factor that has influenced the cuisine is the focus on the medicinal values of the ingredients. The Vedas or ancient Indian texts explain how to combine food, exercise and meditation to obtain the right balance in ones physical, spiritual and mental forms. Religion has not only integrally affected what is cooked but how it is prepared as well. The Muslim tradition of preparing ¡°halal meat¡± or the Hindu tradition of not tasting a meal as it is being cooked (since the first offering of the meal has to be for the Gods and for a cook to taste it while it is cooking is considered ¡°unclean¡±) has certainly had its impact on how foods are prepared. The Hindu cook relies on the sight, texture, smell and color of the spice mixes to know exactly when they are ready as opposed to taste. 