Indian Food Information

indian food

Chapatti is made from whole grain durum flour. We used a mixture of stone ground whole wheat and all purpose flours. We anglicized the recipe further by adding a touch of sugar.

In India, Chapatti is a complement to vegetables, stews, and other dishes. We buttered them. Katie, our teenage daughter, walked in during the session and promptly found some jam to smear on them. She graduated to hot buttered chapatti sprinkled with plenty of cinnamon and sugar and declared them scrumptious.

indian cuisine

Needless to say, there are more than a few styles of Indian cooking, each with their own unique influences and adaptations. Buddhism, Hinduism and Ayurveda have centered many of the Indian people around a predominantly vegetarian diet, yet the Persian influences emphasize meats, namely lamb and poultry.

The colliding Indian and Persian cultures created what is known now as Muglai cooking. The tandoor (hot charcoal oven) was introduced, and meats marinated in yogurt and laced with spices came forth. The original Indian flat breads, like chapatis and papadams, met their match with tandoori naans.

Most of the food that Westerners find in our favorite Indian restaurants have both the Indian and Persian traits as well as European accents, notably with the addition of cream in curried dishes. The cream mellows some of the pungent spices and adds a sweet richness to the food, making it more suited to the Western palate. Coconut milk is also used to impart a creamy texture and sweet taste.

For Indian food at home, I always use my own spices to make the curry seasonings, rather than prepackaged curry powders. All curries are different, and to get just the right flavor, adding a little cumin here and little turmeric there lets me create my own, unique dish. This, in fact, is the traditional way that Indian chefs prepare food; cooking is an oral tradition in India, and it is quite uncustomary to have hand-written recipes for any of the dishes.

To give a general idea of what spices (and how much) might be included in a basic Indian curry, see the Indian Curry Formula below, as well as the recipes that utilize this formula. Use this recipe as a guide, adding a touch more or less of certain ingredients to your taste. This recipe can also be used as a basis for the spices you should have on hand for easy Indian curries at home.

There are many different sorts of rice; among them, the parboiled one that I do not recommend, regardless of the brand. Some people may like it but for me this is something other than rice. The taste is awful and it seems to never be cooked. To have good rice, use Indian, Thai or Asian rice; or any other rice that is not parboiled. Italian rice is very good as well. According to the rice you buy, you will need to use a specific cooking method; for example, Asian rice is not good for making risotto, Italian rice is not good for serving with Chinese cooking.

  Boiled rice: The simplest way to cook rice.
  Note:This is a very simple way to cook rice but not the best because the rice, boiled in a large quantity of water, is “washed” and most of the taste is lost in the water. Look below to see my recommended methods for cooking rice. The methods to cook the rice are different according to the sort of rice you are using.
  1- Bring a big quantity of water to the boil. (8 to 10 times the volume of rice), together with 1 tbsp of salt for each 2 pints of water used. 
2- Add the rice and bring back to the boil, on a high heat, stirring frequently.
3- Reduce the heat to a low to medium heat, to keep boiling until the rice is cooked. Stir occasionally to make sure the rice is not sticking to the pot.
4-  When cooked, (about 15 minutes, maybe less according to the specific rice you are using), strain and serve immediately, plain or with butter or olive oil.
  5- If you are not serving the rice immediately, cool the rice in cold water, strain and store until you are ready to serve it.
  (The rice can be very easily reheated in a microwave oven. You can also use it to prepare fried rice)

  Pilaff: An alternative way to cook rice
(use Basmati rice for instance for this recipe)   This method is called riz Pilaff (or pilaw) in French cuisine.
  1-  Take an ovenproof dish, put on a medium heat with one tbsp of butter for 2 cups of rice.
2- Add some chopped onion and sweat* in butter.
  3- Add the rice;  stir it in to the butter with the onion, for one or two minutes, until the rice becomes translucent.
4- Add 11/2 the volume of water, together with some salt, pepper, and a whole garlic clove if you like, (this is optional).
  5- Bring to the boil, cover with aluminium foil, put in the oven at 200°C (400° F),  and cook for between 14 and 17 minutes, until done. It should be ready when all the water has been absorbed.
  *When sweating the onions you can add a choice of whole spices (not ground). Sweat together with the onions, then  add the rice and cook together. You will have to remove the spices when eating or before you serve the rice. This takes a little time, but the rice cooked in this way is really very delicious.

  Risotto: To use Italian risotto rice it is better to cook it the risotto way.

Here is the basic way to do it.
1- Sweat chopped onions in some butter.
  2- Add the rice, (“arborio”, “vialone”, “carnaroli”…; (about 3 ounces per person).
3- Stir until the rice becomes translucent.
4- Add dry white wine to the level of the rice. Cook until almost all the wine is evaporated.
  5- According to the recipe you are preparing, (if your risotto will be made plain, with sea food, meat, vegetables etc.) add fish stock, vegetable or chicken broth; (for 12 oz of rice add about 1 pint of the stock, you will add more later).
6- Bring to the boil on a medium heat, stirring frequently. Add salt and pepper.
  7- Keep cooking the rice, adding more liquid when necessary. (The quantity of liquid necessary to use in risotto is difficult to say as different rice brands will absorb more or less liquid.) 
8- Immediately after the rice has absorbed the previous amount of liquid, add more liquid, and repeatedly add a little each time, allowing the rice to absorb little by little the liquid. 9- Repeat the process until the rice is cooked, stirring frequently.
  10- When done, the risotto should be cooked but a little “al dente”. It should be creamy as well. 
11- To finish add grated parmesan and serve immediately.
12- To give more taste, add chopped garlic, cream during the cooking process.
  Almost anything can be added in risotto, depending on personal choice; vegetables cut in cubes, sea food, chicken, meat cut in small pieces, cooked before or not, depending if it can be cooked in the risotto itself.

  The basic Asian way of cooking rice:

To prepare the rice this way, you can use a rice cooker; this is a wonderful device. It will cook alone and keep the rice warm for hours.

If you do not have a rice cooker:
1- Put one volume of rice (Thai, Basmati etc.) in a pot.
  2- Add 11/2 the volume of water, and stir. 
3- Put on a medium to high heat. 
4- Bring to the boil. Cover with a lid and boil on a low to medium heat until cooked.(about 15 minutes)
  5- Serve immediately. 
(Make sure the water does not evaporate too much during the cooking. Do not stir the rice during the cooking).

    Brown rice

Brown rice can be cooked in the same way as: “Boiled Rice: The simplest way to cook any rice”; except that the rice will need to be cooked for about 1 hour to be ready.
Drain and store like plain rice in the recipe above.

Jean-Louis Vosgien www.photos-and-recipes.com

About the Author

Jean-Louis Vosgien is a culinary consulting chef. He was the first chef in France to introduce in the 1980′s fusion food, which at the time was unknown,  and was considered an expert in that field by press people. He created two cookery schools, one in Saint-Tropez and the second in Lorgues, near Saint-Tropez He created a cake, famous in France, “Le Canelou de Provence”, sold today in the three major supermarket chains in France.

Many people are mystified by traditional Indian cooking and cuisines and a little somewhat confused with the varieties of curries and spices used . Some may even think the traditional Indian cooking is mostly about vegetarian dishes and curries.

India has one of the finest and richest culinary histories. Contrary to popular belief, Indian cuisines are not complex or too confusing to cook. It can also be as elaborate as you want it to be. If you understand the diversity of the country, which is divided into four regions, north, south, east and west, you will appreciate the varieties of dishes, exotic spices, cooking methods,etc.

Interestingly there are two kinds of meat that you will not find in many Indian recipes, one is beef and the other is pork, this is due to religious factors, as cows are sacred to the Hindus and pork is prohibited in the Muslim diet.

Indian cuisines are however generally characterized by exact combination of spices and flavours and the cooking method generally is to saute and simmer the dishes or curries over low heat. Tandoori cooking has popularised the oven-clay oven method which has produced tandoori chicken or naan bread.

Regardless of region, spices are key ingredients in Indian cooking. The Indians are also mindful of the healing properties of spices in their cooking. These are derived from plants’s roots, buds, seeds, fruits and dried bark which produce the exotic aroma. It is released when the spices are heated up. All these spices are all readily available in supermarkets.

Spices can be grouped into five basic categories : sweet, pungent, tangy, hot, and amalgamating. The way these are used and the amounts used in cooking are governed by these characteristics. Examples of the different types of spices are:

Amalgamating : Coriander seed, fennel seed Sweet : Cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, vanilla Pungent : Cloves, star anise, cardamom Tangy : Ginger, tamarind, sumach, kokam Hot : pepper, chilli, mustard, horseradish

Most of the herbs such as thyme, sage, marjoram, oregano, bay leaves, mint and rosemary are considered as savoury. The herbs do have varying degrees of flavour intensity,however not as dramatic as with spices. Northern Indian cooking is influenced by the weather which can range from extreme heat to freezing cold. The dishes are traditionally rich and heavy with cream and ghee, using breads, meats and tend to be less spicy. Yoghurt is widely used instead of coconut milk which is widely used in the south. They also tend to be drier as soupy sauces do not mix well as dippings for breads. Naan and chapati breads come from the north.

In the south where the weather is mostly hot, rice is widely grown and this makes the diet of south Indians rice-based that goes well with soupy curries. Spices are used heavily and the southern cusines tend to be spicier than the north. The roti-prata or dosai are typical southern breads.

Indian desserts are basically different forms of rice puddings, milk puddings, vegetables and fruits dipped in sweet syrup. Indian sweets or fudges are usually decorated or garnished with raisins, almonds, pistachios. Mostly made by boiling down milk to remove the moisture and then adding butter, flavour and sugar. The Indian sweets usually have high sugar content so use sugar in moderation when trying out Indian dessert recipes.

About the Author

Noraini Maskuri loves cooking and has professional training in bakery. She owns the MyCookery.com website