About Indian Food

This Week’s Film: Provoked

Cuisine: Indian

As one of the world?s largest countries, India has many distinctive regional cuisines, and the culinary style of each region is strongly influenced by its indigenous vegetation and wildlife. In the Himalayan region to the north, meats and grains are the primary ingredients and are often prepared using oil. Southern Indian cuisine is spicy, and is often steamed and served with rice. Along the coastlines, seafood is abundant, and is therefore a common ingredient in everyday meals. The northern plains regions, including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, are known for flatbreads such as roti, parantha, puri, and naan. And provinces such as Kashmir, Mughlai Bengal and Assam, which border continental Asia, are strongly influenced by Chinese and East Asian cuisine

The jungles of India provide an abundance of tropical fruits such as mangoes, guava, papaya, bananas, and coconuts, which are used to make chutneys to serve as condiments for the main dish. The most common spices used in Indian food are corriander, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, mustard seed, cardamom, cloves, aniseed, asafoetida, tamarind, chili, ginger, and garlic.

Religion also plays a role in Indian cuisine. While the Muslim diet includes beef and lamb, the Hindu and Buddhist people maintain a strictly vegetarian diet that includes grains and legumes, as well as milk and milk products, such as yogurt, cheese, curds and ghee.

Historically, Indian food has been influenced by traders, invaders and immigrants from all over the world, including the Greeks, led by Alexander the Great in 326 B.C., Moghul invaders in the 16th century, Portuguese and Dutch traders, and the British, during the colonial era of the 18th and 19th centuries, all of which left their culinary mark on the cuisine.

Beverages

Indian cuisine includes a wide variety of both spirited and non-alcoholic beverages. Chai is a hot beverage made with black tea, milk, and sugar, spiced with cinnamon, cloves, ginger and cardamom. Lassi is a cold milk beverage, similar to buttermilk, and is sometimes mixed with the pulp of fresh mangoes. Shikanjami is fresh limeade, Kanji is a cold beverage made with fermented carrots, and Thandai is a milk beverage seasoned with various seeds and nuts.

India also produces beer, wine and whiskey. Beer was first introduced to India during the British colonial era, when a hearty variety called India Pale Ale was brought over from England in ships. Breweries were soon established all over India, with Lion being its oldest commercial brand. Lion is still produced today, along with many other brands, including Kingfisher, Cobra, Guru, Indian Tiger, Kalyani, Khajuraho, and Taj Mahal. A traditional rice beer is also produced in the northeastern regions.

Wine has been an integral part of Indian culture and cuisine for thousands of years, however, varietal wines such as those of France, Italy, Germany and California, have not been produced in India until recently. Most wine produced in India is made from imported varietals such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, blended with domestic grapes. The most common labels include Costa & Company, Grover Vineyards, Indage Group, Shaw Wallace, Sula Vineyards, and Vinbros & Co. and Omar Khayam, a sparkling wine.

My Indian recipe will be posted at the end of the week along with my Provoked film review.