What is it about food? Can lift your mood, can refresh you, can do so much of change to you. I start discussing food, any dish, or even listening to it and my mouth starts watering. But yes, this particular habit of mouth-watering is infectious, and I got this as an infection from other food lovers around me.
One fact about loving food is that you have to respect food first. Being from a country like India, which is majorly an agricultural country, and where each grain of food produced is precious, I have learnt to value my food.
World around, people relish different type of food. A staple diet of one nation, is a special day diet for another nation. It all depends on the climate, and the vegetation of the place. India in itself is a very big nation and each region has its own staple diet.
Having a lovely hubby, who always lovingly eats whatever I cook, I can try to cook many new things, and what better variety than one can find in India itself. With somewhat knowledge I have, I try to taste, and cook if possible, cuisines from different states.
Starting from the north of India, Kashmir is a cold state. Its known for its variety of mutton dishes eg yakhni, rogan josh, which use a lot of dry spices to produce heat. Kashmir is also known for dry fruits, and rare spice like saffron for the same reason. Saffron produces heat, and hence is produced and used in place like Kashmir.
Punjab is a rich agricultural land, and hence is known for lovely fields, delicious leafy growths including sarson ka saag, chane ka saag (mustard and gram). Also grows here, good quality grains, including makka (maize), and wheat. People in punjab are very hard working, and include such leafy vegeatble and wheat or makka roti in their daily diets. They also consume a lot of milk products in their diet like fresh butter, ghee and curd. Makka roti and sarson ka saag is an extremely famous Punjabi dish and is relished in all parts of India and also abroad. Punjabi also eat a lot of Rajma, but that is basically a Kashmiri dish.
Rajasthan is a dry state. Its soil is good for cotton, ground nut etc which also applies to Gujarat. Rajasthani eat spicy food. A famous Rajasthani dish is Gatte ki subzi, made of gram flour. Another very famous rajasthani cuisine is Daal Bati churma. Not very sure of how this is made, but this is one extremely delicious and also heavy dish.
Delhi is a mix of all states, basically dominated by Punjab. It is also known for its chaats (spicy snacks), Chola Batura (spicy gram, and whole wheat flour kneaded and fermented, rolled out and deep fried).
Uttar Pradesh has a little mix of cuisines. While one part relishes Poori, halwa, (dishes made in pure ghee) another part relishes very awesome Mughlai dishes. There are both veg, and non-veg Mughlai dishes. Kabab (very smooth minced mutton, after frying and boiling with correct spices, made into flat balls and shallow fried) and Biryani (long grained rice, cooked to the right softness along with mutton or chicken) are the most famous non-veg Mughlai dishes. These dishes were carried from generation to generation, from the Mughal empires ruling in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh.
Gujarat has a list of extremely delicious snacks, a list of which was mentioned by Kareena Kapoor in the movie 3 Idiots.. i.e. Dhokla, Phaphra, Thepla, Khakra, Khandvi etc. All are terrific and very light snacks.Mostly they are made of gram flour, and again mostly after fermentating and then steaming. Little bit of sugar and lemon juice is used in these otherwise salty snacks. Khakhra are very thin crispy wheat snacks, often flavoured. These snacks are also extremely famous in India and abroad.
Going towards the east of India, Bihar also uses gram for its food, but here roasted gram is used. The roasted gram is powdered to something called 'Sattu'. And we again have a list of awesome cuisine using sattu. Most popular of them being Litti, which is made of wheat balls stuffed by Sattu seasoned with the right spices, and then roasted. The authentic way of roasting is using cow dung cakes. Few foodies would dip this in melted ghee. This is eaten with roasted brinjal and potatoes mashed and seasoned. Sattu is also stuffed for Paratha (breads) and can be used as a drink also. Sattu cools the body.
The eastern states of India like Bihar, Orissa, and Bengal have quite a few recipes to cool the body. Orissa and Bengal are very hot and humid places and have a lot of water bodies. Therefore both these states have a lot of fish recipes, both fresh water and sea.
Orissa has a list of very light food recipes including Santula (made of boiled vegetables), Pokhal (made of cooked rice soaked in water). A very famous Oriya dessert is Chena Poda (made of burnt cheese). Even this seems very light, but is a dessert after all.
West Bengal is one state where people are truly in love with food. Politics and food, form a very important part of daily routine for this state. Bengal boasts of a long list of delicacy. As mentioned above fish forms the soul of a regular bengali diet. Other than that, a very tasty ingredient used in bengali diet is Posto (poppy seeds). Consumed in large amount, a person can fall asleep, or even get intoxicated. It is also very addictive and many in Bengal cannot have meals without posto. Many dishes also use a lot of vegetables, raw banana being a major one. More than this, people in Bengal cannot stay without sweets. Chena made of sour milk, is the major ingredient, and no where in India one can find such delicious chena. Bengal cuisine mention is incomplete without Mishti Doi (sweet curd) and also Sondesh. Thick rich creamy Mishti Doi curd is the best dessert to have. Bengal has a production of dates, and many desserts in Bengal use dates which gives them a very different taste.
Farther North Eastern states like Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura have totally different cuisines. Assam and Tripura share a lot of Bengal cuisines. These states of India are called the seven sisters.
Arunachal Pradesh has a lot of non-vegetarian cuisines. The people there also enjoy some Chinese dishes.
Rice, meat and fish form a major part of normal diet in Manipur. Bamboo shoots are also an ingredient for some dishes.
Pork is a delicacy in Meghalaya. Brew made of rice is very popular here.
People in Mizoram also are meat eaters and they cook it without much spice and oil.
Most famous all over India, is a cuisine from Sikkim, called Momo. (steamed dumpling of vegetable or chicken). Thupka is another very famous dish.
Maharashtra has its own list of Indian fast food cuisine, the most famous being Vada Pav (Potato mashed with spices, dipped in gram flour paste and deep fried along with a special type of bread). No where in India you can get a similarly excellent Vada Pav. The Pav (bread) is also a part of another recipe, Pav Bhaaji (mix veg with lot of spice and butter). Another list of cuisines uses something called Saboodana. Maharashtra has couple of dry sweets used during a particular season, e.g. Puran Poli,a particular parantha stuffed with sweet chana daal.
Going further south of India, few important ingredients are used commonly across all states i.e. curry leaves and coconut. Idli (steamed rice and daal batter) and Dosa (Rice and daal batter thin pancakes) are commonly eaten across all states in south of India.
Karnataka has a list of cuisines having rice like Bisibele rice (daal rice vegetable and spices), Puliogare rice (tamarind rice), tomato rice, lemon rice etc. As mentioned above all these recipe use curry leaves, and most of them use coconut.
Andhra Pradesh is a state with hot flavors. The recipes have a lot of green/ red chilli added to mostly all recipe. A very favorite recipe of Andhra is Pappu. This is a typical dal, which also has green leafy vegetable added along with other spices. I have mostly seen non-Andhraites relishing it. Add loads of ghee, and forget about calories. Thats how one can enjoy it most. The capital city, Hyderabad, has its own very famous mutton dishes. Hyderabadi biyani, which is different from Lucknow Mughal Biryani, is very popular.
Kerala dishes are what I love the most. Although mostly they are cooked in coconut oil, and a person not from Kerala cannot have it daily. The snacks from Kerala are extremely awesome. eg Puttu, a cylindrical cake made of coconut and rice. It is eaten with black gram curry. Another delicacy is Ediappam, which I refer to as noodle idli. It is again made of rice, but it is all in form of noodles, and eaten with light vegetable stew. Coconut milk adds a terrific flavor to this stew. Next is Kerala parantha. This is a beautiful white parantha (Indian bread) made of whole wheat atta. It is a very frilly parantha and can also be relished with spicy mutton or chicken. Sea foods are also very common in Kerala dishes.
And so on, there are many more lovely Indian dishes, in many states, to hog on. There is a enormously large variety of cuisines you can find in this country. Rarely it happens that so many techniques are known in one nation itself. Creative cuisines of India itself, is one of the best thing I find to pamper my mood. :)
