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Karmayogi

Indian Cuisine

You can eat a different Indian dish everyday, but still not repeat it for an entire year! Indian food is as diverse as its culture, its religions, geography, climatic conditions and traditions. All of these combine to influence the preparation of Indian food. Essentially spicy, the cuisine is, however, not always hot. It is the different combination of a handful of spices that produce the most delectable dishes in the world.

In India, preparation of food is an art, perfected over time and passed through generation by just word of mouth. Food is also an important part of Indian festivals and traditions; no festival or celebration is complete without a feast. Special preparations are a must during festivals.

Range of Cuisine

The food of India offers a staggering range of dishes to the gourmet with an adventurous palate. The character of cuisine in India is essentially regional; reasons for this must be found in the sheer size of the country which forced every area to develop a style of cooking of its own. As a result, not only dishes, but flavors, colours, methods of cooking, down to even the style of cutting the vegetables prior to be cooked changes as often as the landscape does.

What has helped along this diversity is the amazing number of religions and the sects and sub-sects within them; each of them often have strict dietary codes. For example, Hindu Brahmins may not eat onions, ginger and garlic which meant that a special cuisine came up around that bias and so on.

The most striking contrast in eating habits shows up between the meat-and-bread eating northern regions and the pulse-and-rice southern regions. For example Dal (lentils), the all-time favorite across India, differs in cooking style from region to region. The dal makhni of the north is made with liberal amounts of butter and cream, while in Gujarat, the western part, it is a sweetish preparation. In the south, it is cooked along with countless vegetables.

Various forms of milk products like, curd, cream and paneer (cottage cheese) is used in cooking in the north. In contrast, the south Indians use this sparingly. Instead, they use coconut in almost every dish. Here, it would be apt to mention that even the cooking medium differs as, the north Indians use mustard or vegetable oil, while the south Indians use groundnut or sesame oil. Keralites use coconut oil for almost all the dishes.

Northern India
The 'Roti' or 'Chappatis' or 'Parathas' (unleavened bread fried on a griddle) accompanied with a wide assortment of "curries", which include spicy vegetables and lentils is the typical north Indian food. Punjabi food is a lively mixture of varied spices, with a tempting aroma. Punjabi 'tandoori' cooking is popular throughout the world. Huge earthen ovens are half buried in the ground and heated with a coal fire lit below it. Marinated meat, chicken, fish, paneer, rotis and naans of many types are cooked in this novel oven. Another popular combination is the 'makki ki roti' and 'sarson ka sag'.

The food from North India also traces its descent from Persian ancestors and then more definitely from the 16th century Mughals. The Mughals brought with them Persian and Afghan cooks who started North Indians on the rich and fragrant Persian rice dishes, such as pilafs and biryanis (meat-based pilafs). Garnished with pounded silver (vark), these dishes along with spicy kormas (braised meat in creamy sauces), koftas (grilled spicy meatballs) and kababs used to grace the tables of emperors.

Western India
The original cuisine of western India is principally vegetarian. This is largely due to the enterprising, but strictly vegetarian, Marwari community from Rajasthan, who have now spread all over the country. The Marwari cuisine is a good example of how the best was made of locally available stuff. It is spicy and extremely rich with almost everything being doused in ounces of ghee (clarified butter) and is famous for its mouth-watering aroma. Essentially, the cuisine is simple with dishes like alloo bhajis (spicy potatos), karhi (chickpea dumplings in yoghurt sauce), dal batti (lentil dumplings oozing with ghee dunked in dal) which are polished off with rice and pooris (puffed whole wheat fried breads).

An interesting aside here is the Goan cuisine, which effectively mixes local Konkan and Portuguese flavors. The Goan cuisine with its tongue-curling hot vindaloo curries and distinctive sweet and sour dishes is very popular all over the western ghat region. The Indian salmon and Bombay Duck is popular – which is neither from Bombay nor a duck, but a small sun-dried fish cut and sold in strips.

Maharashtrian food offers a variety of crunchy crisp snacks like the 'vada pav', 'misal' and 'pav bhaji'.

Eastern India
Eastern India is close to the sea and gets plenty of rain. Hence rice and fish are staple all over here. The hilsa (a variety of fish) and macherjhol (fish curry) is legendary all over India. Curry is not the only thing with which fish is eaten; it is smoked, grilled, fried, made into pakoras (patties), stuffed into green coconuts and now into burgers too.

The other good thing of the eastern cuisine (Bengali) is their delicate sweets. The difference here is that the sweets of the north India are based on khoya (milk which thickened slowly until it forms a sweet dough), which is quite heavy. However, those of east India are based on milk, curd and chena (light cottage cheese) and hence are much more lighter on the palate. 'Rasogullas', gulab jamuns', 'malai sandwich', 'chena murkhi', 'anarkali' and 'rajbogh' are just a few of the endless delicacies served. The 'mishti dhoi', yogurt sweetened with jaggery, is made in every home.

Southern India
Rice is served everywhere and always in south India and flour-based breads are rare, if at all. Rice is used to polish off the very spicy curries of the south, which are liquidier than those of the north. These curries are often pulse-based and if this sounds restricting, you'll be surprised at what a few spices here and there can do to completely change the taste of things. The south Indians put chillis, mustard, coconut oil and various other spicy seeds to very effective use to conjure up mouth watering dishes like dosas (rice pancakes stuffed with potatoes and vegetables), idlis (rice dumplings served with sambar), and so on.

HERBS AND SPICES

A lot of care and thought goes into the preparation of every Indian dish. A study into their recipes reveals a lot of surprises. Every single ingredient of the dish is there with a purpose and compliments each other. In fact, the succession of dishes also keeps in mind the flavour and 'nature' of the spices, whether hot or cool.

Spices and herbs used in Indian cooking are either fresh or dried – in which case the flavour changes for each form. However, that is not all: the dried spices and herbs are used in various ways. They can be used whole or grounded (more often than not still pounded at home!) and they may be roasted, fried, deep-fried, half-done, well-done … all according to the taste that the cook wants to give to the eventual dish.

Some of the commonly used ingredients in Indian food are: Chilli (hot fiery red or green); Coconut; Garlic; Ginger; Basil, coriander (cilantro), mint and parsley; Fenugreek (methi); Saunf; Garam Masala; Mustard Seeds; Tamarind (Imli); Saffron (Kesar) and Rose water (gulkand).

Fast Facts:
- Indian food is the most varied compared to anywhere else in the world.