The Portuguese Connection!

Could you imagine Indian food without tomatoes, potatoes and most importantly, chillies? No? Well, you can thank the Portuguese for that.

The Portuguese established trade colonies in India during the early 16^th century. Portuguese India spread mostly along the west coast of the country and also influenced Eastern India, specifically Bengal. The most noticeable Portuguese influence is in the cuisine of Goa. Goa’s most famous dish, the vindaloo, is a derivative of the Portuguese Carne de Vinha d’Alhos. Carne de Vinha d’Alhos is a pork dish made with the meat marinated in garlic and wine. Vindaloo is a modification with palm vinegar instead of wine and the addition of red chillies and additional spices.

Vindaloo is just one of the many Portuguese influenced dishes. There’s the Goanese Bebinca, dodol and kulkuls, Mangalorean sorpotel, Bengali Bandel cheese and shukto, and many varieties of puffs, pastries and buns found across India.

The Portuguese left their mark in cooking, most notably with the use of cayenne pepper, potatoes, vinegar, beets, bell peppers, carrots, cashews, cassava, pineapple, passion fruit, corn, cocoa,guavas, lima beans, litchis, peanuts, papaya, pumpkin, sweet potato and custard apple, among others.  Nowadays these food items are a mainstay of Indian cuisine, considered a part of Indian culinary heritage with ther actual origins being long forgotten.  The Portuguese also introduced pork to Indian cuisine.

The confluence of the various culinary arts resulted in a cuisine rich in flavors and covering a wide range of preferences in terms of taste and ingredients. This year make it a point to try out the various globally influenced food items of India and go on a culinary discovery that will surprise you at every turn. Happy New Year!

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A Celebration That Brings The Country Together

It’s the end of the year and time for celebrations! Christmas is a festival that calls for much fanfare across India. It’s not just Christians, but people from all walks of life put up trees, decorate their homes and celebrate this day.

Christmas fare in India is more or less the same as it is in most other parts of the world. Roast meat - ham, chicken, duck, beef, and in recent times, even turkey – is the centerpiece of the Christmas table.  Plum cakes or Dundee cakes also make an appearance. Rum soaked fruitcakes are the highlight of Christmas and noted bakeries or hotels often host a fruit-soaking event a month ahead of Christmas. Conventional Christmas drinks such as eggnog and mulled wine are also gaining popularity.

Along with the traditional food, local dishes and desserts are also incorporated during Christmas feasts. Sweet coconut filled dumplings, cashew candies, rice puddings, rose cookies and several regional delicacies are churned out this time of the year. Indeed, preparing for Christmas is more of a social event than just making a family meal.  Household specialties are made and distributed among neighbors, family and friends. The preparations, which often start a week in advance, lead to long gossip sessions and a memorable chance to catch up with each other.

In a country which is a huge melting pot of diversity, Christmas has achieved the impossible. It brings people of every caste, creed and religion together, even if it is for just one day in the year!

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Enjoy The Crunchy Indian Papad

The papadum or papad, as it is more commonly known, is a crunchy appetizer to be found in most Indian eating establishments. This crisp thin cracker is a favorite with Indian food lovers and why not? Papad packs quite a punch within its crispy goodness.

Papads are made from lentil flour. While these days papad is mass produced using machinery, the traditional method of making papad is by hand. Water and spices are added to lentil flour to make dough. After resting the dough for some time, it is rolled into a long sausage like shape. Threads are used to chop off small sections of the dough roll and these sections are rolled out till they are paper thin and almost transparent.  These are then sundried and packaged. Variations on the papad include potato flour papad or tapioca pearl papad.

While all varieties of papad are delicious, the lentil flour papads are most common and widely regarded as having a few health benefits as well. The spices in the papad, such as cracked pepper and asafetida, help in digestion. Moreover, the protein content from the lentils also help in contributing to the health aspect. However, these benefits come with a condition. Deep-fried papads, while delicious, are not at all healthy. Go for the oven roasted papads and do not consume more than a couple of them in a day. Papad dough is high in salt, so too many papads will have adverse effects on your health.

For those who find plain papads a bit boring, try out the masala papad. Masala papads usually has a mix of chopped cucumbers, onions and tomatoes on top. Chopped chili may also be added at times. 

Be warned though, masala papad is not for the faint of heart. Keep some yogurt on hand if the heat gets too much to handle. 

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Explore The Creamy Deliciousness of Kheer

So, last week we covered the hottest chili India has to offer. To soothe your palate, this week we move on to something sweeter – kheer. Kheer is the Indian style rice pudding flavored delicately with cardamom and at times saffron.

Kheer is very easy to make and is often made for special occasions including birthdays, festivals, marriages and more. The simplest kheer is made by thickening milk, along with rice, till it reduces to half its quantity and then sweetening it with sugar or jaggery and flavoring with cardamom. But, there are several variations on this recipe which change depending upon the region.

Odisha in Eastern India prepares a type of kheer made with tapioca sago known as sagukhiri. In West Bengal kheer is prepared with glutinous rice and sometimes coconut milk for a creamier texture. Kheer in West Bengal is known as payesh and can be also be made with semolina or vermicelli. While sugar is the more common sweetener used in both states, jaggery is also used at times, resulting in a more flavorful kheer with a brownish tint.

In Assam in North Eastern India, kheer is called payoxh and it is liberally sprinkled with dried fruits. Additionally, cherries are added to give the kheer a light pink hue. In Bihar, rice kheer is made with full fat cream, assorted dried fruits and saffron.

But, perhaps the largest variety of kheer is available in Southern India. Known as payasam, the Southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala collectively serve up a mind boggling array of kheer. While milk and coconut milk continue to form the base of kheer in these states, the rice can be replaced by any number of ingredients including, but not restricted to vermicelli, sago pearls, wheat, wheat semolina, bottle gourd, and sesame seeds.

Regardless of where it is from and how it is made, kheer is a delicacy to be relished. Try out different varieties of kheer if possible and you shall not be disappointed.

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Dare To Try The Ghost Chili?

Spice is the indispensible factor when it comes to Indian food. Our love for using chili and chili powder in our meals is well documented and suffices to say that a dish without the addition of chili in any form is simply unheard of.

Among the various varieties of chili cultivated in India, Bhoot Jolokia, or Ghost Chili, is the most revered and feared. This tiny (2.5 to 2.5 inches) chili is pure firepower! Ghost Chili had the honor of being named the world’s hottest chili in 2007, though that title has been passed on since. Still, at more than 1 million Scoville heat units, Ghost Chili delivers a heat punch strong enough to burn through your throat.

Why Ghost ? Because the effects of biting into the chili are not immediate! The burning sensation starts a few seconds after one has bit into the chili and it can last for 30 minutes at least. The heat of this chili is so potent that the Indian government has weaponized it to make gas grenades which can incapacitate a fully grown man.  And, the locals spread it on fences to keep wild elephants out of inhabited land.

Bhoot (meaning Ghost) Jolokia (meaning Chili) is cultivated in the North Eastern part of India. It is traditionally added to curries and chutneys of that region. A tiny bit of the chili is enough to flavor a dish. But, the locals have developed a high tolerance towards this heat and there are recipes which use handfuls of whole chilies to cook meat, especially pork. In recent times Ghost Chili has been commercialized into hot sauces, chocolate flavors and also used as a flavoring agent in jellies and spreads.

This chili may not hold the top spot for hottest chili anymore, but it is definitely not your run-of-the-mill variety pepper. Handled expertly, it imparts a perfume like flavor to any dish and can taste amazing without burning you up.

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How Indian Is Your Indian Food? Find Out....

Indians don’t just love their food, but also love talking about it. Indeed, Indian food has very interesting origins and facts connected to it. Here are a few lesser known facts of Indian food.

Coffee, as popular as tea – especially in Southern India, was introduced by the British. They were the first people to bring coffee into the country and subsequently its popularity spread. And not just coffee, tomato, potato, sugar and chili too are foreign introductions to Indian cuisine. Chili in fact gained so much popularity in India that Indian food has become synonymous with the use of chilies. One of the hottest varities of chili, the ghost chili, was cultivated in India to cater to the heat loving taste buds of India.

The country’s love for spicy food is evident everywhere. No wonder then that India is the largest producer of spices in the world.

Rajma, or kidney beans, is a very popular dish of India. It is a spicy bean curry similar to the American chili. Rajma with rice is a staple in Northern India though it is enjoyed in all parts of the country as well. But, very few people know that rajma is not of Indian origin. It was brought into the country from Mexico and then found a huge fan following in India.

India has the lowest meat consumption per person index in the whole world. Not surprising, considering that 40 percent of the Indian population is vegetarian and many do not even eat onion and garlic.  The upside to this is that India also has the widest range of vegetarian dishes in the world. 

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Get Your Spice Hit With Pickles

Adding a dollop or two of pickle is an Indian habit which transcends regions and states.  It is part and parcel of the Indian diet and the simultaneous melding of sweet, sour and spicy tastes add new flavor dimensions to any food.

It is a rarely known fact that pickling is a method of preservation that can be traced back to India. It is believed to have originated 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. The hot Indian summers meant water scarcity and consequently food production went down during summers. This gave rise to the need to preserve excess food grown in winter.

The art of making pickles, or achaar as it is called in India, was traditionally passed down through families by word of mouth. These days commercial pickles are readily available, but they almost never match up to the taste of homemade pickles.

Indian pickles are made from any variety of vegetables such as gherkin, bitter gourd, carrots, cauliflower, ginger, garlic, onion, jack-fruit and much more. Mixed vegetable pickle is also very common and is one of the most popular varieties in India.  Apart from these, there are also several un-ripened fruits which are pickled, including mango, gooseberry, tamarind and lemon. Some regions also pickles leafy greens while other places pickle chicken, fish, prawns and mutton too.

 Unlike western pickle, Indian pickle is not just ingredients preserved in brine. Indian pickling requires the ingredients to be first sun-dried thoroughly. Often salt is added to hasten the process of sun-drying. The sun-dried ingredients are then rubbed with dry spices and chili and bottled. The bottled stuff is topped with a lot of oil and then sun-dried some more

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There are some pickle recipes which cook the spices and raw ingredients together instead of following the sun drying method. In fact, most commercial pickles are made by cooking. This saves a lot of time, but it compromises on the taste. Sadly, due to time constraints, more and more families rely on commercial pickles these days. But, if you do get a chance to try out homemade Indian pickles, do not miss it. It’s a spice explosion that will leave your taste buds tickling for days.

A word of caution though; pickles are high in oil and salt and should be avoided by people who are diabetic, high blood pressure, acidity and gastritis. 

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The Food Fiesta That Is Indian Weddings!

Everyone knows that Indian weddings are large, colorful and have lots of pizzazz. But, quite often the one thing that most people forget to mention is the food.

Food is an essential factor of the great Indian wedding. In fact, food is the essential factor at most Indian celebrations and it intensifies at weddings. Indian weddings often have as many as 15 courses starting with refreshing beverages and ending with desserts. Not just that, in many parts of India it is common to find several types of cuisines at a wedding. So, while you have your basic North Indian and South Indian fare, there are also live pasta counters, Chinese food station, Arabic delicacies and a choice of several Western desserts. Yes, Indian wedding food is lavish!

A surprising point of Indian wedding food is that a lot of it is vegetarian. In fact, in South India, Hindu weddings always have an all vegetarian spread and there can be as many as 100 dishes served at the wedding.

Northern and coastal Indian weddings will include meat, unless the families in question follow a vegetarian lifestyle. So, chicken, lamb and fish will always be there along with vegetarian curries and sides.

Cakes are traditionally not a part of Indian weddings unless it’s a Christian family. But, things are changing and several couples incorporate a cake cutting ceremony into their wedding these days. Not surprising considering that the mithai (sweets) is where the action’s at in Indian weddings. Any wedding worth its salt will have at least 3 varieties of sweets and the count can go up depending on the affluence and generosity of the host.

Calorie counting is not a strong point in any Indian wedding. Actually, it’s not a point at all. If you are invited to a wedding, it is expected that you will stuff yourself and go back home more rounded than when you came in. Anything less, would be an insult to the host! 

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