Indian Food Recipes
Indian food is known for its richness and is amongst the most tastiest and varied cuisines in the world. The fact that you can find Indian food in just about any of the restaurants around the world show that its flavor and aroma can hardly be compared with any other kind of food.
Indian cuisines are easily separated into as many as four different categories and each of these are categorized based on the four geographical regions of India and each of the four different categories has its own distinctive characteristics. The four Indian cuisines are South, North, West and East Indian cuisines. In this article we will take a brief gander on each of these cuisines.
We will begin this brief explanation with the North Indian cuisines. North India is known to have extreme climates and has abundant supply of vegetables and fruits. The food and culture in North India has been partially influenced by Central Asia. Nuts and dried food are used a lot and there is always a generous sprinkling of cream, yoghurt and ghee in the sweet North Indian dishes. This part of India is blessed with vegetables and as a result there are lots of vegetarian dishes in this region. Rice is not consumed in this region as much as it is in other parts of India. Bread, naans, rothis, parathas and kulchas are more prevalent. The spices that are most commonly used here include red chillies, coriander, turmeric and even garam masala. Some of the popular North Indian cuisines are Punjabi Chole, Tandoori Chicken, Lassi Patial and Dal Makhani.
South India is the region which has a hot and even humid weather and with lots of the regions being coastal, there’s an abundance of rainfall during monsoons. This coupled with a fertile soil helps in producing abundant fruits and vegetables. Rice is the staple food in this region with bread and rothis being supplementary. Two of the very common soups that can be found in just about any meal mixed in rice in the Southern part of India include Sambhar and Rasam. Highly hot and spicy are the foods in some of the Southern regions of India such as Andhra Pradesh. Chillies, curry leaves, mustard and tamarind are the preferred spices. Some examples of the common south Indian snacks include dosa, vada, idli and payasam. Dosa is the Indian version of a thin pancake and is made from rice and black lentils. It is rich in carbohydrates and proteins and is generally eaten for breakfast. The thicker version of the Indian pancake is Idli and it’s made out of a batter of rice as well as black lentils that are fermented. Idli as well as dosa are prepared with soups such as chutney and even sambhar.
The East Indian Cuisines are somewhat influenced by the Chinese and Mongolians. The Eastern part of India is renowned for their sumptuous dishes as well as the number of dessert recipes here is very enormous. The basic food in this region is rice and the people here clearly like the steaming and even frying of their food. Milk as well as yoghurt are utilized lavishly and the spices used are very much like those used in South India. Sandesh, Momos and Thukpa are popular vegetarian dishes in this region.
West India has a dry and hot weather and the variety of vegetables is limited, but that does not limit the varieties of cuisines, which are plenty. Rajasthani dishes are spicy while Gujurat is renowned for its delicious sweet dishes. Staple food in this region depends on the cuisines and both rice and bread/rothis are consumed equally well.
This is merely a simple article of Indian Food and we have barely grazed the surface. For additional information on Indian food and in particular the south Indian recipes please visit South Indian Recipes. The web page contains South Indian Food recipes and videos.
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