If you enjoy strong flavors and spices, you will like traditional Indian food. Food in India makes wonderful use of herbs and spices throughout a large assortment of delicious dishes. There is a wide variety cooking styles within Indian Cuisine from both the South and the North of India which vary from region to region. The staples within each of the cooking styles include rice, wheat and pulses with chana. The last is the most widely used. We aim to bring you many Indian food facts ranging from healthy Indian food to Indian food for kids.
As a prominent Indian food store in London Somayas Kitchen have for years known how to cook Indian food and what makes the best ingredients for the best dishes. There are more types of food from India than is possible to mention on this page, but throughout our website we will bring you the best Indian party food, low calorie food, Indian fast food and low fat and gluten free Indian food. So keep coming back!
A sampling of the favorite of India’s regional cuisines includes:
Bengali and Indian Food
This cuisine is loved for its use of mustard, cumin seed, fenugreek seed, black cumin seed, and aniseed all of which combined are the five essential spices called panchphoron. Bengali food is an exotic blend of spicy and sweet flavors. The staple of this diet is rice and fish, with fish at every meal. Most cooking is done with mustard oil. Bengali food is also famous for is mithais which are the sweets. One of the favorite mithai is Chum Chum.
Chum Chum
Ingredients
500 gms Cottage Cheese
2 C sugar
4 t Maida
1 t saffron
200 gms condensed milk
Directions
1. Mix the cottage cheese and maida well and make soft dough
2. Make oval balls from dough and set aside
3. Prepare a sugar syrup of thin consistency
4. Mix oval dough balls in sugar syrup
5. Cook for a few minutes
6. Place the cooked balls in a plate
7. Put saffron in condensed milk
8. Sprinkle it on Chum Chum balls
9. Serve after dinner
Gujarati
Traditional Gujarati food is mainly vegetarian and is very nutritious. Some of the dishes are stir-fried and others are boiled. Gujaratis use a combination of spices and flavors which makes the flavors very bold. These dishes include curry, rice and roti and many are sweet with a lot of sugar or jaggery. There is also a lot of chhaas, salad, homemade pickles, vegetables, and dal. The dishes also use salt, lemon and tomato. One of the favorite Gujarati snacks is Dhokla.
Dhokla
Ingredients
3 C rice
1 C Urad Dal
1 C Sour Curd
2 T Green Chili-Ginger Paste
1 t Sodium Bicarbonate
1 t Asafoetida
1 T Black Pepper Powder
1 C Coconut (Grated)
1 C coriander Leaves (chopped)
3 T Oil
Salt to taste
Directions
1. Soak the Dal and rice separately for 4 to 6 hours in plenty of water. Grind them together
2. Add curd and hot water to the dal-rice mixture to get a thick batter-like consistency
3 . Allow this mixture to ferment for at least 6 to 7 hours
4. Add asafoetida, sodium bicarbonate, salt chili-ginger paste, and salt to the dhokla batter and mix well
5. Wipe oil on a tray, then pour dhokla batter into tray until halfway full. Sprinkle black pepper powder over top
6. Place tray in steam for about ten minutes and then cut into square/diamond shaped pieces
7. For tempering (tadka), heat 1t oil in a pan and add mustard seeds to it
8. When the seeds start sputtering, pour the tempering on the dhokla pieces
9. Garnish the dhokla with grated coconut and coriander leaves
10. Khatta Dhokla is ready to eat. Serve with green chutney
Kashmiri
Kashmiri food takes it influences from central Asia, Persia and Afghanistan. This cuisine makes extensive use of tumeric and yogurt. These foods do not use as much garlic and onion as other Indian cuisines, but is still as rich and exotic in flavor as any. Kashmiri pandits are primarily meat eaters, so many Kashmiri dishes are non-vegetarian. To enhance their meat dishes, they add asafoetida (Hing) as well as dry ginger and Saunf (aniseed). Many times the dish is pungent with ginger. Kashmiri dishes also use a lot of saffron. They also use pulaos and sweets. They make regular use of dry sweets, especially in the preparation of their curries. One of the favorite Kashmiri dishes is Kashmiri Chicken.
Kashmiri Chicken
Ingredients
1 kg Chicken Breast (skinless)
2T Almonds (sliced)
2T Corn oil
1 C Yogurt
1 C Onion (ground)
5 Cloves Garlic (minced)
6 Green Cardamom
1 t Red Chili Powder
1 C Cashew Nuts (ground)
2 Tomatoes (diced)
1 in fresh ginger (minced)
Directions
1. Heat the oil; add the ground onion and stir until it changes color
2. Mix garlic and ginger and continue to fry until light brown
3. Mix the cardamom and chicken and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes on medium high flame
4. Mix yogurt, tomatoes, red chili powder. Keep cooking and stir it constantly for 20 to 30 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked
5. Add ground cashew and cook for another three minutes. Garnish with almond slivers and serve
Mughlai
This is one of the most popular cuisines. Its origin can be traced back to the times of the Mughai Empire. This food is quite spicy and has a very nice aroma. This type of cuisine is found primarily in the northern part of India and has a strong Muslim cooking influence. There is strong use of flavored sauces and butter based curries. The food ranges from soup to hot spicy shorba to ginger based roasted meats. One of the favorite Muglai meals is Chicken Tikka.
Chicken Tikka
Ingredients
450 gms Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 T tomato paste
2 T Lemon juice
2 T Ground coriander
2 T Curry powder
1 t Paprika
2 C Plain Yogurt
4 Garlic cloves (finely chopped)
1 inch Fresh ginger
2 t Ground cumin
3 T Butter
Directions
1. Mix all ingredients except chicken together in a bowl
2. Refrigerate it overnight
3. Add chicken (cut in cubes) and marinate it in the above-mentioned bowl
4. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
6. Bring chicken to room temperature and skewer on bamboo skewers (soaked in water for 30 minutes)
7. Place on baking tray and bake in oven for 20 to 35 minutes
8. 3 T of butter can be drizzled over the skewers for the last 5 minutes of cooking
The many cuisines of India are as varied as the colours and personalities of this beautiful country. Each is rich with flavor and bold with spices and taste. You cannot go wrong trying a dish from any of these regional favorites.
I hope this has informed you a little more on Indian culture food. Somayas Kitchen aims to be a leader among Indian food blogs and provide the absolute best in traditional food types and shops. Indian food isn’t all about curry and there are many other varieties available. As an Indian supplier we literally see all types of cooking with Indian ingredients, both vegetarian and meat based. We are always available to provide information about Indian food and have a store in London that caters to local clientele. Our website also has a shop will also be bringing typical Indian food ingredients and recipes, and always the most authentic and popular.
