Celebrating Passion for Food
I am an eternal optimist, a person who would look for silver linings in every problem at hand. I stick to this philosophy for most events in my life, however I must admit, there are some events which I rue as a lost opportunity. I regret to have missed the gastronomic experience of trying out the Nawabi (royalty) recipe of Shahi Tukda during my trip to Lucknow last year. This feeling is more so justified when you know that the recipe originated from that city.
…
Suran (aka Elephant’s foot yam in Queen’s language) originated in India and thereafter travelled eastwards and westwards as far as America. In its prime form and best of its health this tuber crop would weigh as much as 10 kg. This crop is widely cultivated in Hindi belt of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and eastern state of Orissa, Maharashtra and Gujarat in west. It is also known as Jimikand in Hindi belt of India.
…
Cuisine is a testament to our evolution. It has gone through a continuous churning process wherein a new dish becomes part of a culture, an alteration has been made to some traditional recipes and some old recipes fade away from our memories. This fundamental point also applies to cuisines in India. If you must have observed, I have referred to “cuisines in India” and not “Indian cuisine”. Cuisine in India is a perfect example of the basic fabric that describes our country “unity in diversity”.
…
I was born in Mumbai and grew up in the city. I ended up romanticizing the city for anything and everything that it had to offer me. My parents however would often miss their rural roots. They would narrate me and my sister several funny anecdotes of the village where they were born, they grew up, where they shared laughs and grief with their cousins and uncles and aunts, and which they left with heavy heart for the city of Mumbai in search of better opportunities. I still remember, though not as clearly, but my memory still is fresh in parts, my first trip through the dusty bylanes on an open jeep leading to my ancestral home in a small village in Uttar Pradesh.
…
Folks, this weekend we continue with our gastronomic excursion of Uttar Pradesh food. We are in particular, making some recipes that we have grown up eating, and it is very difficult to find some restaurants serving these preparations. So we decided to delve into our recipe diary, made some frantic calls to our aunts asking them about their secret recipes and came up with this delicious recipe preparation. I feel it is very important for us to document such recipes from Indian regional cuisines which are very poorly documented till now, and only exists in the memory lanes of our mom, granny and aunts.
…
This week we decided to head back to North Indian cuisine and explore something from kitchen of Uttar Pradesh. The motivation behind this exploration is my MIL. She has come to stay with us this month. So we decided to leverage this opportunity and prepare some authentic recipes from Rasois (kitchen) of UP and since Paranthas and pooris are my favorite part, I thought it would be more apt for us to try some stuffed paranthas.
…
Indian Cuisine is often described to be as vast as the European cuisine. Indian food has changed and enhanced over the period of centuries. It retains the food traditions of earliest Indians and has gracefully accepted the food habits and food items that were brought in the country by various means. Foreign invasions, trade relations and colonialism influenced our cuisine and played an important role in introducing various food products to the country. One such preparation that has evolved over the period of centuries ever since it was Indianised in the kitchen of Akbar is Korma.
…
India has been predominantly a vegetarian country. As per UN FAO statistics India has lowest rate of meat consumption in world. I have often come across people who are very surprised and wonder how vegetarians fulfill protein requirement of their body. There are actually quite a lot of options for vegetarians (lacto-vegetarians have much more considering dairy products are also a rich source of protein). Beans, lentils, leafy greens, tofu are some examples of protein sources in vegetarian world.
…
Holi,a Spring festival,is enjoyed all over India on the occasion of “बसंतोत्सव शुभारंभ”!!होलिका दहन, celebrated on previous night,signifies the victory of good over evil.
Holi is also a festival of colors, and we make it a point to make this day as colorful as it can get. Different colors, gulal, abeer can be seen everywhere, and streets get colorful with children flaunting their pichkaris, throwing colored water filled balloons. If you are allergic to color, stay back at home and don’t step out because if you do, you won’t be spared and you can’t feel offended.
…
We Indians love Aloo and Gobi. Aloo,a vegetable with a neutral taste that allows itself to absorb the spices and provides the desired flavor. Gobi is equally popular.We make use of Gobi in variety of preparations. Gobi in veggies with Aloo, Matar, Capsicums makes for interesting veg preparation. Gobi also finds its place in Indian Paratha in form of Gobi-Paratha and not to forget Gobi in Pulao.
…