Prawn with Cream and Coconut sauce

Prawn with Cream and Coconut Sauce

Having cooked chicken and mutton a numerous times, it was time to cook something with my favorite prawns. After having got the request of cooking “Prawn in cream sauce” as well from some of my friends made it happen at the earliest but like always different from every other recipes. This is the first recipe of 2013 from the SAAS-Tastebuds kitchen and hoping to come up with more recipes compared to last year.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons sunflower oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 grated coconut
• ½ cup water
• 10-12 large uncooked prawns, peeled and De-veined
• Hot cooked noodles or rice

Directions

• In a small saucepan, heat sunflower oil.
• Add butter to the hot oil.
• Add the minced garlic now. Cook gently till it forms a nice mixture and u get a good smell of butter and garlic.
• Add the grated coconut and half cup water. Stir in the cream and salt, mix well and let it cook till it forms rich thick white gravy.
• Now add the peeled and De-veined prawns and mix with the gravy and leave it to cook for 5 more minutes.
• Sprinkle pepper and add the fresh parsley.
• Serve hot with rice or noodles.

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What’s so great about Bengali Cuisines?

Authentic Bengali Food

Bengali cuisine is a culinary style which originated in Bengal and which carries its flavor & aroma across the globe. This cuisine is diversified between the boundaries of West Bengal and its neighbor, Bangladesh. With the prominence of fish, vegetables and lentils being the preferred food items for every Bengali household, Bengali cuisine is known for its simple and luscious flavor. The huge varieties of mouth-watering desserts make this cuisine very popular across the globe.

Bengali food is an ancient cuisine arising from the historical and other links with the people of the different parts of the world. Bengal being ruled by Muslim governors for a long period, led to the development of its cuisine. The Bengali food culture gained more prominence due to the Mughal influence that started in Bangladesh. This Mughal influence brought in the richness in the Bengali food, and together with influences from many other cultures, Bengali cuisine got labeled as one of the most aromatic and most favored cuisines of the world.

The Bengali food culture gained more momentum with the women. The British governed Bengal had many tradition-bound cultural restrictions running across the families, which held back the female population at home. This was the time when most of the housewives started developing their cooking habits, experimenting  with different types of cuisines in their kitchen. As a result, various types of cuisines became popular among the several households of Bengal.

Roshogolla or Rasgulla

The most significant among them was the advent of the range of delicacies in the form of sweets. The usage of milk to a larger proportion in various forms gave rise to the various forms of deserts, the most popular being the “Rosogolla” or “Rasgulla” and “Misti-doi”.

The usage of the rich spices, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and many other herbs such as garlic, ginger, onion, chilies etc. gave a wider dimension to the Bengali cuisine. The types of Bengali cuisines which have become more popular over the last few decades, primarily have either the fish or mutton that are preferred by the majority of the people.

The nature and array of dishes found in Bengali cooking are unique even for India. Freshwater fish is one of the most distinct food, which is preferred by almost every household in Bengal. The countless rivers, ponds and other water bodies have made it easier to have a taste of varieties of fish such as Rui (rohu), Katla, Hilsa, Pabda, Koi, Chingri (prawn) & Tangra and many more. The usage of vegetables in most of the Bengali recipes, is also different from the other recipes of India. The usage of mustard and poppy seeds and radhuni (wild celery seeds), paanch phoron (combination of cumin seeds, black mustard seeds, fennel, fenugreek and black cumin seeds) with different types of vegetables and fish creates different textures and flavors compared to the recipes which belongs to the other veg- and non-veg recipes in India.

Shorshe Ilish

Fish Kalia, chingri maacher malaikari, pabda maacher jhol are the most loved fish-preparations relished among the Bengalis. “Ilish” (Hilsa) or “pabda” cooked with white or black mustard seeds is very popular among the Bengalis and is being loved by many in the other parts of the country as well. The softness of the fish, along with its rich aroma, makes this recipe unique compared to the other fish recipes.

Pathar mangsho or Goat Meat curry

Mutton is the preferred meat among the Bengalis and the Khashi (castrated goat) & Kochi (kid goat) panthar jhol are the most delicious of all meat preparations of Bengal. The other very popular preparation is “Rewaji Khashi” (a well-developed goat containing good amount of fat), which is being preferred with rice mostly. However “luchi mangsho” is one combination which is now preferred over rice or roti, and is very popular among the kids. Additionally, chicken is also very popular and is cooked in various ways. Chicken curry & chicken kasha, chicken chaap are some of the common chicken recipes which belong to the Bengali cuisine.

Luchi-torkari

Among the veg-cuisine, Shukto – a favorite Bengali appetizer – is a much-loved rice-starter among the Bengalis. It is prepared with different types of vegetables, including at least one bitter vegetable like “uchchhe” or bitter gourd. It’s cooked with a hint of sugar and milk to bring out the best flavor of the vegetables. “Shaak” refers to various types of leaves / herbs available in Bengal or India. Any recipe with these herbs, is also a much-loved food with rice. “Luchi” (unleavened bread) with “torkari” (veg-curry) especially “Aloor dum” (“Dum Aloo” or potato curry), being a popular combo among many households is also loved by all. However the most simple and popular recipe of every Bengali family is “Bhaat” (rice), “dal” (lentil soup), “daaler bora” (lentil fritters) & “maacher jhol” (cooked fish soaked in its soup).

The Sweets of Bengal

Bengali Sweets

When it comes to sweets, the list is endless. Bengal is famous for its plethora of desserts. Shondesh or Sandesh is made from sweetened and finely ground chhena (Indian cottage cheese). There are 2 major types of Shondesh – “kora pak” (hardened mixture of chhena) and “norom pak” (soft mixture of chhena). Misti doi (sweetened curd) is a must for every Bengali family after the main course and even tok-doi (bitter curd) is also loved by many. “Laddu” is a very familiar sweet in Bangladesh and West Bengal, especially during festivals.

Roshogolla is the most favorite sweet-meat among the Bengalis and these white, sweet, round-balls are world-famous. People from all over the world come to Bengal to have the authentic taste of this delicious sweet. Roshomalai, Pantua, Chamcham, Pithe, Jilepi, Payesh, Langcha etc. are the other well-known Bengali desserts.

Rasho-malai

Being a Bengali, I’m too a lover of all these above-mentioned foot items. Simple, yet very delicious, is what I can affirm about the Bengali cuisines. In short, the richness, simplicity, taste, flavor and the sweetness of the Bengali delicacies, together represent the the Bengali cuisine – which is one of the most-loved cuisines of the world.

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Ingredients of Indian Cooking # 4 – Turmeric

Turmeric whole and powder

The ingredients used in Indian cooking are exotic and turmeric is one such spice which not only adds the immensely appetizing yellow color to the Indian foods, but also acts as a disinfectant and stabilizer for the stomach.

Turmeric could be easily identified as the very “Indian” color. Known as Curcuma Longa, it’s a part of the ginger family. People of the Indian sub-continent are well-aware of turmeric, since it has been in use from ancient days in India, not only for its edibility and medicinal properties, but also for its use as a color for dyeing clothes. Cooking without turmeric is considered incomplete in many parts of  India, as without it one will surely miss the color and taste of the “Indian” food.

Popularly known as Indian saffron, Turmeric is found in the parts of South-Asia and grows well in temperature ranging between 20 – 30 degrees Celsius,  with a significant amount of rainfall. The usage of turmeric increased in the middle ages, since it started getting used as a substitute to the comparatively extremely expensive saffron. Even though it’s one of the major cooking ingredients in almost all the Asian recipes,  the Western countries too are increasingly adopting it in their cuisine, due to its medicinal value.

Fresh Turmeric Root

Turmeric consists of an active component Curcumin, which is a very powerful substance that’s responsible for its strong yellow color and the pungent flavor., as well as its medicinal benefits. Talking about its medicinal benefits, the turmeric root is the most important, as it’s very useful to shed that extra amount of fat and cholesterol from your body. Curcumin has antioxidant, antibacterial and stomach comforting effects. This is one of the major reasons why many Indian households consume turmeric with milk at least once a day. Various scientific studies have established that one can derive added advantages from turmeric; e.g. researchers found turmeric as a cancer prevention herb. Majority of the doctors now recommend  using this herb for preventing cancer and to act as a cover for those who might tend to have cancer.

Unknown fact: Usage of turmeric with cauliflower can prevent prostate cancer.

Turmeric is also used as an antiseptic for cuts and burns, healing of wounds and re-moisturizing skin. Usually a glass of warm milk with turmeric reduces pains of the muscles and bones immensely. It is also used for detoxifying liver and proves very helpful in preventing breast and prostate cancer. Turmeric also reduces the risk of leukemia and is believed to be a natural treatment for arthritis.

Fresh Turmeric Root is eaten raw or with jaggery in many parts of India, especially during winter, to keep oneself warm, keep one’s stomach free from ailments and increase appetite. In its grounded paste form, it’s used on face and arms to improve complexion of skin and keep it free from common skin ailments. As a result it’s a must-have ingredient for grooming the bride and the groom, and is also a symbolic custom of many Hindu weddings.

Turmeric is a tasty herb that enhances the flavor and aroma of your food by providing solace to your stomach. For all types of Indian recipes turmeric is used in its powdered form. For every Indian vegetarian, use of turmeric is a must, since the Curries – a major food for a majority of Indian natives – find the maximum usage of turmeric.  In terms of non-vegetarian food, the usage of this spice is not limited. With its pungent smell and strong flavor Turmeric kills the odor of the raw flesh like chicken, mutton and beef, giving the dish an enhanced taste and aromatic flavor.

In Eastern parts of India, the usage of turmeric has been prevalent for a long period, and the principles of its proper usage have been passed down through the ages by our ancestors. The usage is almost uniform across all dishes prepared with potatoes. For meat and fish preparations, turmeric is preferred as the basic ingredient and always used it to its best effect.

As one moves more towards the north of the country, one can witness the extensive usage of turmeric as the taste of North Indian cuisine is very rich, and turmeric adds that rich aroma to any type of cuisine. Turmeric is also used in pickles, soups, milk, ice creams, bakery & desserts.

Being a part of the ginger family, turmeric tastes  bitter; but its flavor and yellow color could add a whole new dimension to your recipes all the time, and proves medicinally beneficial too. You could keep eating whatever you want, but make sure it’s cooked with turmeric.

Therefore, the next time you’re prepared to cook something, add that little dash of color to your recipe with turmeric. The looks of your recipe and its nutritional values will never be the same again!

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How to prepare delicious Masoor Dal

You must have heard many a time, that “Good things come in small packages”. Also in matters of creativity, Leonardo da Vinci had once said: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication!” Cooking being too a form of creative art, the most delicious food-items are often the simplest ones!

Despite this fact, we tend to always ignore the simpler daily dishes from our home kitchen, against the most popular biryanis, fried-rice, chickens, muttons, chow mein, Tikkas, kebabs, etc.

Today I’ll talk about one of the simplest and the tastiest of all recipes from the Bengali kitchen – the Moshoor Dal – or Masoor Dal or the Red Lentil soup.

Masoor dal comes in 2 forms – Brown-skinned and Red/Orange (i.e. polished) – and is available in all the Indian grocery stores and supermarkets in your neighborhood, since it is cooked as a staple item for lunch and dinner in a majority of Indian households . It’s cooked in various ways and sometimes cooked together with other lentils too.

The masoor dal is preferred as boiled and in an optimally cooked form. Over boiling loses the taste of Masoor dal. You can cook this dal by using many different spices. But the simpler, Bengali way of cooking this dal is by adding black-cumin seeds and dry red-chili or by adding onions with dry red-chillies to the boiled dal.

Here’s how you can get the best taste out of a simple recipe of masoor dal – straight after my mother’s training on it.

Moshoor Daal (image:madhurrecipes.blogspot.com)

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup masoor dal
2. 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
3. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
4. 1 tsp salt
5. 1/3 cup cooking oil
6. 1/2 onion – finely chopped OR ¼ tsp black cumin-seeds or “kaalo-jeeray” in Bengali
7. 2-3 dry red-chillies for sautéing
8. 2 green chillies finely-chopped
9. 2 tomatoes; finely-chopped
10. 1 bunch coriander, finely-chopped

Preparation:

• Rinse masoor dal thoroughly in a large bowl containing water; rinse it well until you get to see clear water.
• Prepare the “chhonk” now. Chhonk is also called “phoron” in Bengali. This is done by heating the oil in medium-flame for 2 minutes, followed by sautéing the black cumin-seeds, garam masala powder and the dry red-chillies for one more minute in the heated oil.
• (If you’re using onions instead of the black-cumin seeds, then sauté for about 5 minutes.)
• Next fill a pot with sufficient water to boil and pour the washed masoor dal.
• Add the turmeric powder and salt (as per taste) to the boiled dal and stir very well.
• Next add the chopped green-chillies to the mixture and stir again
• Now add this boiled dal mixture to the chhonk, add the chopped tomatoes and stir it well, until the water evaporates.
• When the gravy thickens, add some more water and keep cooking until the color of water turns yellow and the tomato softens, giving a nice flavor to the dal, releasing an appetizing aroma.
• Once the dal softens and the gravy has become semi-thick, add the chopped coriander leaves. Do taste it and add more salt if it’s needed.

This is the simplest way of cooking masoor dal. Instead of black-cumin you can use the onions and cook exactly the same way – as I do always.

Masoor Dal tastes very delicious and appetizing if savored with steaming rice and a teaspoon of clarified butter (ghee) and fried potatoes. However this meal is unthinkable without crispy “daler bora” – or Lentil fritters. But I’ll talk about this in a later post. Watch this space!

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Ingredients of Indian Cooking #3 – Onions

One of the most important and common ingredients of Indian cuisine is Onion.

Most of the vegetarian and non-vegetarian Indian dishes are cooked with onions. They are used extensively to enhance taste of vegetables / meat / poultry, render bulk to the gravy, to make some of the most delicious soups and chutneys, as well as consumed even raw in Indian salads.

You’d rarely see Indian recipes that do not contain Onions. But what are the factors that make onions a healthy addition to Indian cuisine? This post is dedicated to exploring this aspect.

Botanical Roots

Onion is also known as bulb onion, garden onion and just onion. Botanically, Onion – Allium Cepa – belongs to a large varied family which includes more than 500 species. It’s available in various forms, such as – fresh, frozen, canned, pickled, chopped plus a few more, and used for both culinary and non-culinary purposes.

Onions are an exceptional resource of natural vitamins like B6 and C, chromium, biotin, and fibers. As such the health benefits of onions are vast. Ranging from normal cough & cold to diseases of heart, diabetes, bacterial infections, breathing problems, asthma, bronchitis, etc. onions have proved to be real effective even for poor appetite.

Thus not only for culinary purposes (as vegetable ingredient), Onions are also used for adding medicinal value to food, because of their rich content of sulfides, sulfoxides and other sulphur composites. Studies have proven that together with garlic, onions help to keep up blood levels, avert blood clot formation, lower levels of pressure & sugar in blood, and cure many other diseases.

Types and methods

Onions are found in varied colors, red, yellow, white, and green, each possessing their individual distinctive essence, from very strong to slightly sweet. They are eaten in various ways – raw, cooked, fried or roasted – each has its own different taste and effect on your health. Other than the common bulb onions, spring onions are also used in cooking purposes. Spring onions are green and add a different taste and color to your recipes.

In case of Red Onions, the smaller it’s cut, the more widespread is the variation of the sulfur substances. The more powerful the odor of Onion and its impact on your eyes, the more healthy it is, since it’s believed to contain more vitamins and minerals. So while cutting onions, if it makes you cry with the pungent odour, it will make you healthier.

There are many ways you can cut onions, depending on the dish you’re cooking. When cut in larger blocks, it stores the vitamin and mineral capacity to the maximum while cooking. On the other hand if you finely chop it and keep in room temperature for sometime before cooking, it makes the onion turn golden brown quickly and reduces your cooking time.

Spring onions on the other hand add a very mild taste to the food. It is used raw and preferred fried compared to the red onions. Noodles, sandwiches, soups and curries are cooked using spring onions.

Treating onions in different ways while cooking, implants a specific flavor and releases a specific aroma. For example, proper Sautéing of the onions is very important as it can add a different dimension to your favorite dish. Sautéing for 5-7 minutes is considered apt for cooking most Indian dishes. Light golden brown should be the only color after you are done with sautéing the onions. If the color turns dark brown it will leave you with a bitter taste and the recipe could get spoilt totally.

So the next time you feel like crying when cutting onions for your favorite dish, do remember that you’re crying in favor of health and taste!

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How to get your chickens right!

Out of all the meat / poultry-based food, preparation of Chicken is amazingly flexible and varied techniques could be employed while cooking. However, preparation of a chicken recipe starts right from the stage of buying the chicken, and goes through many levels, to keep its texture and enhance its taste.

Get your chickens right!

This post is dedicated to the  few simple steps of choosing, marinating, spicing and sautéing processes, to get the best out of your chicken recipes.

Choosing the chicken

First you need to check the different types and varieties of chicken options available in the market before preparing to cook. This step can place you in a better place ahead of the other chicken chefs. Chicken – especially the boneless skin free chicken-chest – tastes better and offers a better surface if marinated properly prior cooking. Further, the age and weight of the chicken is also important while choosing a better variety. Younger / tender chicken is soft and gets cooked faster, while a matured chicken needs slower preparation to make it softer. Therefore for the best results, it’s essential to know which variety of chicken you need to buy.

Marinating the chicken  

Marinating of any meat of fish is essentially intended to make sure that the spices and other condiments go deeper into the flesh while cooking. Different methods of marinating, using an acid, like vinegar, yoghurt, lemon juice, etc. brings out different but unique flavors of chicken. In addition to the acid used, you need to add some oil and basic ingredients like salt, turmeric, chili powder, pepper, and in some cases the paste of onion, garlic, coriander leaves, green chillies and / or any other exotic or aromatic ingredients in the marinade.

Marinating makes your job easier in the later stages of cooking. This process adds moisture to the meat and makes it softer, juicier and brings out / enhances the specific flavors as per your requirements. For best results, follow these guidelines:

1. Soak the chicken in salty water (3 tbsp.of salt to 4 cups of water) for an hour.
2. Reduce oil in the marinade for more flavors. Best marinade is the combination of half oil and half acid (vinegar, yoghurt, lime juice)
3. The marinating time shouldn’t exceed a specific period. Otherwise if marinated for too long, the acid can break the chicken flesh fiber, making it taste like finer minced meat.
4. Usage of yoghurt (dahi) is the best way to marinate any meat. Add the required salt, turmeric & chili powder to the mixture of yoghurt & raw chicken while marinating.

Stay healthy by limiting the usage of oil in your recipes. Limit the usage of oil to the minimum for cooking your chicken. The marinated chicken contains a healthy amount of yoghurt, which, together with the chicken’s own fat, is more than enough to cook the chicken.

Spicing the chicken

The combination of spices is the most crucial part of rendering flavor to a chicken recipe. The right amount of cardamom, cinnamon, clove, pepper and most importantly the salt used for marinating will infuse the perfect flavor and taste into the chicken. Anything more or less than the recommended dosage changes the taste of the completed recipe. Salt can be used as per taste even while cooking, but the amount of turmeric shouldn’t exceed your requirements – otherwise it can mess up the entire recipe. Too much red chilli powder or pepper might subdue the subtle flavor of the chicken, while the adverse combinations of 3Cs of spices – clove, cinnamon and cardamom – might make the chicken taste too aromatic, thus again subduing its real flavor.

Sautéing the chicken

Sautéing process was covered in another post before. However, sautéing the chicken needs special care, since unlike vegetables, it is preferably not cut down to smaller pieces. Sauté in oil or butter for 2-3 minutes, along the 3Cs of spices, before mixing any other ingredients. This technique will result in better flavor and richer aroma. Next add the other ingredients as necessitated by the recipe, to the chicken and continue to sauté for more 6-7 minutes over medium-high heat. Always use a non-sticky skillet while doing this, and sauté the chicken thoroughly from the bottom to get its intense flavor.

Hence these are a few basics which you must get right before cooking any chicken recipe of your choice. Follow these steps to prepare a healthier, juicier, softer and flavor-filled chicken recipe at home, and your friends will ask for much more than ever!.

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5 Ways to Retain Taste Flavor and Aroma

Cooking is considered by many chefs and gourmets as a creative art! Retaining the perfect aroma in recipes, while enhancing flavor and taste, differentiates a finer chef from the rest. It may sound easy, but a majority of the aspiring chefs take a long time to understand this, while many others fail to make sustained efforts to capture this finer nuance of cooking.

Thankfully, the traditional cooking methods practiced by our mothers and grannies, are good enough to start on this journey of mastering this fine art of great cooking. For example, I learned from my mother that one of the most important aspects of keeping the flavor (as well as essential nutrients), is to master the art of covered cooking.

The 5 great ways to retain flavor, aroma and taste in cooking are: Slow Cooking, Covered Cooking, Sautéing, Deep frying and Half-Boiling.

Low Flame cooking

Covered Cooking

Slow cooking – Cooking vegetables and meat in low flame retains their maximum benefits and better taste. It’s true that it takes more time to cook the food, but it always enriches the aroma, taste and flavor of the recipe. It allows you to use the ingredients in measured quantities, in time, which produces the best results by augmenting the richer taste in your cooked food. When you cook on a low flame, the food doesn’t get burnt and doesn’t necessitate nurturing much.

Covered Cooking – Covered cooking retains moisture in your primary ingredients, which in turn retains the original taste and flavor. While cooking, when you cover the pan, it also uses lesser oil and retains softness, so that the items are juiciest to relish. This method also adds a better dimension to your cooking.

The best part of slow and covered cooking is that when the food is getting cooked you can engage yourself in some other work and let your food cook gently without tending.

Sauteing

Sautéing is another cooking method, in which very less amount of oil is used to cook – although at relatively high temperatures. This method allows the food to cook very quickly in the sauté pan. Sautéing yields best result when clarified butter is used instead of regular cooking oil. The clarified butter is usually kept at room temperatures for about 30 minutes before the process of sautéing. This type of sautéing allows the food to retain flavor and aroma, while adding a unique taste of clarified butter.

Sautéing can also be done with little or no oil, which is very healthy especially when you need to keep your calorie counts to minimum. When doing “no-oil sautéing” the best practice is to use low-medium stock, broth or even soya-sauce on a flatter frying pan. The vegetables also need to be sliced in smaller sizes and kept in room temperature for sometime before cooking; this practice allows the chopped vegetables turn golden brown quickly too.

Sautéing requires a larger space to cook, so always make sure of using a large pan for sautéing. When the pan gets hot allow the butter solid to take its liquid form in the pan before starting the sautéing process.

Deep Frying

Deep frying is a faster cooking method where you submerge the food in hot oil. You won’t require water to cook your food when you are using this cooking practice. If executed properly in an optimum flame, deep-frying doesn’t make your food extremely fatty, since the moisture in the food deters the oil. It’s however important to know how fast you should keep the food in oil before you take it out. Let your hands do the talking with this method, especially while cooking your favorite crispies at home.

Half-Boiling

Deep frying gives a different and richer aroma, flavor and taste to the items cooked. Many of the Indian cuisine have their signature rich taste and aroma, thanks to waterless and deep-frying.

Half-Boiling is another faster way of cooking, which retains the original flavor and taste of vegetables. This process of cooking also retains the nutritional value to the maximum! To get the best nutritional value and flavor out of half-boiled cooking, the vegetables need to be cut in bigger slices – or better still, “knifeless slicing” or hand-broken into pieces, as practiced traditionally. Larger sizes also retain the vitamin content.

So these are the 5 distinct ways to get retain flavor aroma and taste in cooking at home. With the ever-increasing rise in various diseases especially diabetes and high cholesterol the food doesn’t need to be tasteless at all!

Watch this space for more such ideas in the future.

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Why Indian Cooking is my Hobby

 

My culinary adventures as a hobby started off as an experiment in my home kitchen. After gathering working knowledge from the lessons I took from my mother, one fine Sunday morning, I popped into the kitchen. I wanted to try my newly acquired skill and cook something for Sunday lunch – which was a sort of a challenge!

After a very nervous beginning, I went on with it and started getting the rich aroma of fresh spices and the spicy flavor, which stayed on my hands. At this point I became more and more confident that my first recipe was well on its way to the dining table! It was therefore a mini success achieved from an innate desire to re-create my mother’s magic for a Sunday lunch!

What’s so great about Indian cooking?

Indian food is all about its herbs, spices and their rich aroma, which are very hard to find in western food in general. Indian food is very easy to cook and this is one vital reason that makes Indian cooking attractive and hassle-free for any newbie!

Indian cuisine differs across the country’s myriad cultures flourishing across its regions and locations. It also varies seasonally, depending on which fruits or vegetables are available at the time. Therefore, not only the spices but the various seasonal fruits and vegetables do add that extra flavor to, and liking for Indian food. The ingredients and the seasonal variances are thus the exotic life-force of Indian food.

My attraction towards Indian cooking was also founded on its inborn simplicity. You can literally play with the spices and ingredients and cook a different Indian dish every time; or even by treating each spice a little differently, you can create a completely different taste of the same recipe, which stays on the tip of your tongue! Further, I also came to understand that while some of the ingredients are common for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian preparations, some others are unique to each type of preparation.

Therefore, the lessons from my mother, the experimentation with the ingredients and an understanding of the role of each of the ingredients and spices, made me discover my zeal and aroused my urge to dive deeper in taking Indian cooking as a hobby.

This blog is all about these personal experiences of a simple individual who wanted to live his hobby of cooking. I can gladly add that if you have an enthusiasm to create and enjoy new food regularly, then cooking as a creative art is something which will always bring a broad smile on the faces – of yours as well as your loved ones!

How Indians make better gourmets

Indian Gourmets (image:www.flickr.com/photos/caitlinator)

Globalization perhaps benefited Indians most than any other community in the world! As a result, we see that the Indians are well established across the globe, as experts in various fields.

Likewise, when we talk about culinary delicacies, Indian chefs do come out with flying colors; they are always considered superior in some respects and also make better gourmets. The secret of this trend lies in our culinary grooming, which starts from the home kitchen, where we get to learn the basics of cooking from our mothers or grannies.

Distinctiveness & creativity

Based on the skill set, experimentation, creativity, knowledge, taste and the ability to cook different every time, makes one experienced. This unique mix is perhaps available more with the Indians, and being unique and being creative are the hallmarks of Indian cooking.

Indian food is characterized by the widespread use of various Indian spices, herbs, vegetables and fruits. The various spices are the life-blood of every Indian food, which add immense positivity, and are hence very beneficial for our health. Even the types of oil, curry leaves, fresh herbs, etc. used in Indian cuisine have more health-related benefits compared to the rest of the cuisines of the world.

Local vegetables and fruits also add a better dimension to Indian food, and are even favorites among the kids. Home cooked Indian food is always aromatic, soothing, healthy and balanced for the digestive system.

(image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gloryfoods)

Further, the experimentation with ingredients and spices, is an important aspect of Indian cooking. These experimentations re-produce your unique dish, but gives a different flavor each time. A traditional North-Indian dish can be cooked in East-India in its own unique way, retaining the original taste but giving a different flavor. To some extent you can even give it a better taste and color, while preserving the same flavor through your culinary skills.

Arousing all the senses

Indian food and its flavors are deep and astounding. Contrary to many Western views, the pungent aroma and the magic of real Indian spices do not expose the fiery heat in your system. Rather it’s a gradual way to awaken all your 6 senses.

Right from your childhood you start developing certain tastes on your taste buds. With the unique sound and aroma generated during home-cooking, your aural and olfactory senses are aroused. When almost ready, the unique color of each finished recipe soothes your eyes, improving its palatability. Finally, when you enjoy your food using your naked hands, the five senses completely work together to arouse the sixth sense – a sense of wholesomeness and complete satisfaction!

No wonder that Indians are make better gourmets! They acquire refined tastes since childhood, and are able to explore all senses from the Indian cuisine… each time, every time!

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