Basics Of Indian Cooking Series - The Introduction
Indian cooking is exciting and intimidating to most. Exciting because its such a lovely medley of flavours that is mostly unique to our Subcontinent. Intimidating because there is a widespread misconception that it’s too difficult to cook, too spicy, too hot, too oily, etc. I say misconception because all of the above need not necessarily true. Though I have immense passion for cooking and experimenting on those lines, my knowledge is anything but extensive. Mainly because of the huge regional differences in cuisines in India but mostly because of inexperience. Any cuisine for that matter needs practise and more practise till you can master it and get it right.
But does that mean till then you end up with half baked or half cooked dishes? Not necessarily. There are really simple Indian dishes that anyone can try and make taste good with minimum effort.
Here are some quick facts about Indian Cooking.
- Indian cuisine can be broadly divided into North Indian and South Indian cooking, each distinct in flavour, spices uses, cooking style and main ingredients.
- It’s always aimed at being healthy and well-balanced. Traditionally, all ingredients were used fresh and this increased the health quotient.
- Indian cooking uses ingredients like ginger, garlic, turmeric, green chillies, etc which are said to have medicinal properties. These are crushed and added to the dishes so that the essence and flavour is imbibed into the dish in the right amount.
- Most of the cooking methods in India are such that they retain the nutrients of the fruit or vegetable. This is mostly still practised but lack of time might have made some minor changes to this today.
- The vessels used for cooking also make an impact on the final cooking. Traditionally, food was prepared in heavy bottomed iron woks (known as kadai in Hindi). In this vessel, not too much oil or water was required to bring out the flavours of the spices. Food mostly cooked in its own juices under continuous stirring.
In the coming weeks, we will see more of basic Indian cooking techniques, recipes, utensils, FAQs, etc. If you have any feedback or would like to write a guest post, do leave a comment and I will be happy to get back to you.
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hi Naga. This is so cool. Indian cooking does not have any specific method or quantities to measure, isn't it? All about improvisation and 'throwing' in a few powders; atleast, that's the way I look at it. Or is that a misconception that I have? :-) Anyway, while North India might not 'temper' all dishes with mustard and curry leaves or use coconut aplenty, South India just can't imagine having Gobi/ Aloo Parathas for breakfast through the week! Looking forward to your series. Best Wishes:-)
ReplyDeleteits indeed a great idea to consolidate the cuisine. I am sure will benefit loads of people who are looking for ideas and inspirations. maybe you can feature histories behind familiar foods, or the different versions there are according to the region, it can get more interactive that way and you can benefit from the vast ocean of knowledge that already exist by the way of your readers and other bloggers. Like you said utensils - u know cooking in an iron wok has xy health benefits, my mum was talking about a healer she has met who said that cooking at least one dish in an iron wok on a saturday is s'posed to be spiritually healing. Likewise earthern vessels, manchatti and kalchatti all have some significance. sorry for this rather long commentary.
ReplyDeletenice one will be waiting for ur post,..
ReplyDeletegood one nags.....it sure will b helpful....waiting for ur posts
ReplyDeletePosting everyday?? bad habit ;)...and as usual you commented while I was editing my new post..hope you noticed the awards passed on to you :)..Enjoy..hoping to see afew "varalakshmi vratham" dishes from you, soon ;)..all the best for your first ceremony too...
ReplyDeletePrayers Blessings and Wishes..
sounds lovely Nags! people think Indian food is all about curries and cream and heavy stuff...but there' so much more to it than what the perception is! glad you brought this up!:)
ReplyDeletethats a nice one nags..
ReplyDeleteNice to read nags....good one
ReplyDeleteHey Nags -
ReplyDeleteThanks for ur compliments on my blog :)
Since you have started with Indian cooking why don't we all get-together and organize an event by making a collection of traditional Indian Recipes :
We could classify them as per region and as per what they are - Breakfast/One-dish meals?appetizers/Side-dishes/Desserts.
Let me know how this sounds.
We could work out the details.
Rgds,
Sam !
hey nags, this is such a co incidence. i just wrote a similar post just yesterday, talking about indian food. this is exciting. i too am doing a sereis on indian cooking. maybe we can do somthing together.
ReplyDeleteWill wait for your future posts...
ReplyDeleteGood series... Looking forward to ur posts on this series..
ReplyDeleteNags, hi, have been trying to comment on your kala channa - your blog had not been downloading well for the past couple of days. I was surprised that it looked so thick and I'm going to try it one of these days.
ReplyDeleteA very good post, Nags. Indian Cooking really is misinterpreted a lot. Its generally thought to be very oily or very spicy. But it has a lot more to it than just that. We have so much variety in terms of the spices, herbs, vegetables, lentils, flatbreads, rice & so on.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the next one in this series :)
Excellent. And how trues. You know that's why I started my blog almost 2 yrs ago. To dispel some of those myths about real Indian cooking.
ReplyDeleteHappy Independence Day to u dear.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post Nags and I love to learn through blogs such as yours about Indian cooking :)
ReplyDeleteRosie x
Great series N... There are indeed way too many myths about Indian cooking... BTW don't worry about grill it event, I know how busy you are... Enjoy the wedding! :)
ReplyDeleteThere is a suprise for you in my blog. Click here to know what the suprise is, http://kitchenflavours.blogspot.com/2008/07/fruit-chaat.html
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to more in this series.
ReplyDeleteA very good post, Nags. Indian Cooking really is misinterpreted a lot. Its generally thought to be very oily or very spicy. But it has a lot more to it than just that. We have so much variety in terms of the spices, herbs, vegetables, lentils, flatbreads, rice & so on.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the next one in this series :)