Health & Fitness
Indian Cuisine: An Introduction
Learn about Indian food with a local, limited edition cookbook: A Dozen Ways to Celebrate. Available for pre-order via Kickstarter, for a limited time. Here is a preview!
The word 'India' elicits a colorful collage of visuals: the Taj Mahal, ornate palaces and Bollywood beauties, of richly decorated and handcrafted fabrics and crafts, lush coastal regions with coconut palms and fishing boats, the home of Ayurveda and Yoga, a land of plentiful platters with decadent eats, of spices. Its rich cuisine reflects an amalgamation of regional preferences, sub-cultural choices, local and family traditions, seasonal events and the promise and excuse for celebration.
With centuries of foreign influences, local migration, globalization and recently reverse migration, the Indian kitchen continues to metamorphose and diversify. It is not the fidelity of the Indian cuisine to its original recipe that makes any dish Indian; but its appreciation of all influences around it that makes it unique.
Even today, most Indian cooks rely on starting with fresh fruits and vegetables to create a meal. The cooking culture is artisan in nature, meaning that most cooks rely on hand-crafted methods to prepare several pieces of their everyday meal basics. Most Indian recipes easily lend themselves for dietary adaptations. The cuisine is inherently balanced; can be rather simple to assemble and it makes for a welcome addition to any dinner table.
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No Indian, by birth, lineage or by association, needs an excuse to cook or eat something decadent. Celebratory meals in India vary from region to region and are obviously different in every religion. Such meals can include up to 16 different preparations and sometimes even more and include: beverages, appetizers, salads, preserves & pickles, main meals (course) and desserts.
- Beverages: Breakfast and snacks are often paired with a serving of tea or coffee. Water, yogurt based drinks and cumin-based simple, non-carbonated drinks aid digestion and are served with the main meals. Carbonated beverages are not encouraged in Ayurvedic diets. Alcohol is viewed favorably, but strictly in moderation.
- Appetizers: Common at special events, they help create variety on a platter. Regardless of how they are prepared, these are just as adaptable to be included as afternoon / teatime snacks as they are on party platters.
- Salads: In a typical Indian meal, a western ‘salad’ of leafy greens is less common. Here, the salad takes the form of a salsa styled ‘Kachumbar’, a yogurt-based raita, a selection of fresh cut raw vegetables or freshly ‘pickled’ or preserved vegetables.
- Preserves: Designed to allow one to savor fruits or vegetables from a previous season, preserves can be in the form of chutneys of pulpy vegetables like tomato, stove-top preparations of pulpy fruits like dates or apricots, candied preparations of mango, rose petals, Indian gooseberry etc, spicy preparations of mango, lemons, jalapeños etc., and sometimes shrimp and more. Freshly ‘pickled’ vegetables are often seen on dinner plates and can include crunchy vegetables like radish, carrots, jalapenos, and cauliflower.
- Main Meal: The Indian cuisine is not one that can be associated easily with the pizzeria style or crock-pot style of cooking, where one solitary dish that potentially combines starch, protein and fiber comes to the table as a main meal. Meals will include breads (pan fried, flame roasted, baked or fried), one or two types of vegetable preparations, a lentil preparation, a meat / fish preparation if appropriate, and rice. At its very core, this constitutes an ‘Indian’ meal.
- Desserts: These are most often reserved for special events. Many of them are prepared with milk-products. Sometimes, the cook will make up a batch of halwa for the week to sweeten the palette over the next few days. Desserts are often followed by mouth-fresheners like sweetened or unsweetened fennel seeds, toasted coriander seed innards (dhanna), or a stuffed beetle (paan) leaf.
Food is an integral part of the Indian culture. It remains the most accessible link to different cultures, generations from the past and to those yet to come. It is a journey of flavors, of untold stories, of traditions old and new, of hand-crafted creations so ethereal, they may last only through one feast. What a magical experience!
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NOTE: Curry Cravings™ is thrilled to be able to share 100 recipes from some of its most decadent gatherings in a new, limited edition cookbook:
This book will be available for pre-order, for a limited time through Kickstarter. However, you won’t see it on bookshelves anytime soon. Order your copy today with loads of perks as rewards! Your window to pre-order this book closes April 12, 2013!
About 'A Dozen Ways to Celebrate'
‘A Dozen Ways to Celebrate’ is a unique compilation of 100 decadent recipes that come together as twelve extra-ordinary Indian-themed feasts that you can recreate in your own kitchen. This cookbook:
- Showcases authentic Indian eats and treats in dynamic and inspired ways with new pairings to create ‘made-from-scratch’ delicacies using simple store-bought ingredients.
- Explores the Ayurvedic principles of eating ‘well.’
- Makes Indian feasts ‘achievable.’
- Inspires both the novice and the seasoned cooks through personal stories, tips, tricks, time-savers and diet-friendly ideas.
- Celebrates Indian food as a balanced collection of complimentary flavors and tastes.
‘A Dozen Ways to Celebrate’ intends to be a cookbook that breaks away from the repetitive and standardized content otherwise found in typical Indian cook-books for the western audience. It revisits the exquisite and authentic recipes, flavors and techniques of Indian cuisine lost in the gauche and predictable landscape of ‘typical’ Indian fare. Each of these celebrations is a tested collection of dishes of a four course Indian meal that I have featured at a Curry Cravings dinner. With recipes that create wonderful new standards and the suggested adaptations to help readers customize each feast to specific dietary or personal requirements, and a wealth of ideas for making everything, and making it simpler, this book is truly for everyone.