When We heard about India whats comes in our mind is Indian spicy food. Indian traditional food has been widely appreciated for its fabulous and fantastic herbs and spices. Indian cuisine is known for its wide special assortment of dishes. The cooking style of Indian food varies from region to region. Its decided into South Indian & North Indian food. India is also quite famous for its royal style cuisine available in palaces and heritage hotels. The food in India includes wheat, rice and pulses with chana being the most important one. In modern time Indian pallete has undergone change.
History :
Indian cuisine reflects and 8,000-year history of various groups and culture interacting with the subcontinent, leading to diversity of flavours and regional cuisines. Found in modern day India.
Ingredients:
Staple foods of Indian cuisine includes:
Rice, Whole wheat flour ( atta), and a variety of lentils(Masoor), Such as toor, urad, and moong. Some pulses, such as channa or chole(chickpeas), Rajma( kidney beans) and lobiya ( black eyed peas) are very common, especially in the northern regions, channa and moong are also processed into flour ( besan).
Oil used for cooking Indian cuisine:
Many Indian dishes are cooked in vegetable oil, but peanut oil is popular in northern and western Indian, mustard oil in eastern India, and coconut oil along the western coast, especially in Kerala. In recent decennary, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed and soybean oils have become very popular across India. Hydrogenated vegetable oil also known as Vanaspati ghee, is also another popular cooking medium. Butter-based ghee or deshi ghee ( clarified butter) is used frequently, used from the centuries.
Meats used Indian cuisine :
Many types of meat are used in nonveg Indian cuisine ,but chicken and mutton tend to be the most commonly consumed meats. Fish and beef consumption are prevalent some parts of India,
Spices used in Indian cuisine:
The most important and frequently used spices and flavourings in Indian cuisine are whole or powdered chilli pepper, black mustard seeds, cardamom, cumin turmeric, asafoetida, ginger, coriander, garlic. One of the very popular spice mix is garam masala, a powder form of typically includes five or more dried spices. Some leaves is also commonly used for flavouring includes bay leaves (tej pata), coriander leaves, fenugreek leaves, and mint leaves. The curry leaves and roots is used for flavouring is typical of Gujrati and South Indian cuisine.
Regional cuisines
Bengali Food:
Bengali cuisine is appreciated for its fabulous use of panchphoron, a term used to refer to the five essential spices, namely mustard, fenugreek seed, cumin seed, aniseed, and black cumin seed. The specialty of Bengali food lies in the perfect blend of sweet and spicy flavors.
Gujarati Food:
The traditional Gujarati food is primarily vegetarian and has a high nutritional value. The typical Gujarati thali consists of varied kinds of lip smacking dishes. Gujarati cuisine has so much to offer and each dish has an absolutely different cooking style.
Mughlai Cuisine:
Kashmiri Food:
Kashmiri food that we have today in the restaurants has evolved over the years. Highly influenced by the traditional food of the Kashmiri pundits, it has now taken some of the features of the cooking style adopted in Central Asia, Persia and Afghanistan.
Mughlai cuisine is one of the most popular cuisines, whose origin can be traced back to the times of Mughal Empire. Mughlai cuisine consists of the dishes that were prepared in the kitchens of the royal Mughal Emperors. Indian cuisine is predominantly influenced by the cooking style practiced during the Mughal era.
Punjabi Food:
The cuisine of Punjab has an enormous variety of mouth-watering vegetarian as well as non vegetarian dishes. The spice content ranges from minimal to pleasant to high. Punjabi food is usually relished by people of all communities. In Punjab, home cooking differs from the restaurant cooking style.
Rajasthani Food:
The cuisine of Rajasthan is primarily vegetarian and offers a fabulous variety of mouthwatering dishes. The spice content is quite high in comparison to other Indian cuisines, but the food is absolutely scrumptious. Rajasthanis use ghee for cooking most of the dishes. Rajasthani food is well known for its spicy curries and delicious sweets.
South Indian Cuisine:
The cuisine of South India is known for its light, low calorie appetizing dishes. The traditional food of South India is mainly rice based. The cuisine is famous for its wonderful mixing of rice and lentils to prepare yummy lip smacking dosas, vadas, idlis and uttapams.
