Assorted Cooking Methods

Roasting: This method is generally used to roast herbs, spices and nuts before grinding them into a powder or paste to be used during cooking or for seasoning after cooking. For e.g cumin seeds (jeera) roasted is often used in Raita or butter milk. Today we have also resorted to roasting papad instead of deep frying.

Saute: Basic sautéing is done when vegetables half cooked have to be cooked further with just a dash of oil(especially olive oil). Boiled vegetables sautéed in olive oil was a pinch of salt and pepper powder, along with an accompaniment of mint/coriander chutney can substitute for a nice light lunch for those who watch and count their calories..

Shallow Fry: This is a popular cooking method in our most of the traditional Indian cooking as well. Food is normally cooked on medium flame on a flat frying pan with adequate oil. In North India, Aloo ki Tikki is one perfect example of stir frying.

Deep Fry: Come festivals and our cooking is incomplete without deep frying. Cooking is done only with oil on high flame. All assortments of pakoras are dished out by deep drying. Especially in monsoons and winters consumption of deep fried food is comparatively on the higher side.

Steaming: It is a method of cooking using steam wherein first the water is brought to boil, which evaporates into steam that carries heat to the food that has to be cooked. Once again a cooking method preferred by health conscious people, because in this method no oil is needed. This method also retains the nutrition level of the food because lesser nutrients are destroyed in the water, which we normally throw away after normal boiling. In south India idlis are cooked using this method in a steamer which has a lid that is placed on the top of the container during cooking and this allows the steam to cook the idlis.

Blanching : To make the food a little tender to use, blanching is the method, where slight cooking is done before using it further. This method comes very handy in case of tomatoes when the skin has to be peeled off , in case of preparation of tomato soup. Leave the tomatoes in boiling water for 5 mins and the skin peels off easily. Blanching can be also done in case of Palak when you wish to retain the green colour without over cooking while making Palak Soup.

Makar Sankrant. . . Till ke Laddu

Staying in Jaipur for over a decade and a half now, Makar Sankrant is one festival that I have witnessed here in North people celebrate it with so much of enthusiasm by people of all age groups, which is worth the watch. First thing that comes to our mind is but of course Kites. Celebration of this festival is worth witnessing throughout the entire month here. Come January and one can see the sky painted with colourful kites. The extreme weather conditions gives all the more reasons for each one of us to spend more and more time basking the sun while most of them indulge in kite flying...

Kite flying festival is not only celebrated as an entertainment part but it has a psychological reason attached to it. While the kite romances in the air, one has to constantly keep their eyes up on flying kites, which raises their confidence level. This is also said to be a natural remedy to overcome nervousness and depression. And also motivates people of think high. The confidence level of a kite flier also sky rockets as kite moves up in the sky. It also enhances concentration of the kite flier.

Makar Sankrant here means nothing but kite flying accompanied by savoring variety of mouth melting dishes the women of the house dish out. One sweet that is very popularly in Rajasthan like in Maharashtra, is Til ke Laddoo. Here, though the ingredients and cooking method looks simpler, yet the taste largely depends on the skill. So why don’t you too give it a try?

Ingredients:
Sesame seeds-Til (unpolished) 1 cupJaggery/Gud 1 cup
Water ½ cupRaw Peanuts or Cashew or almond 1/2 cup) optional

Pure desi Ghee 4 table spoon Cardamoms 8-10

Method:
Roast the sesame seeds in a pan on medium fire till it turns light golden brown and leave it aside. Roast the peanuts/cashew/almonds separately. Once the nuts are cooled pound them into pieces so that in case of ground nuts or almonds the skin would peel off.

Boil the water and jaggery in a separate pan and bring it to boil till it arrives to a thick consistency. You can check the consistency by dropping a drop of the syrup in a bowl of cold water. If the drop of syrup forms into a lump then it is time to pour the roasted sesame seeds, nuts, and cardamom powder. Mix it well.

Use a little ghee to coat your hands take a piece of the warm mixture and form small balls/ladoos, 2 inches in diameter. Store in a air tight container. It will stay for a long time.

Let's Get Tangy with Tomatoes

Background: This red fruit/veggie contains Vitamin C which increases as it ripens. It also consist some amount of Vitamin B and A which is a good source of calcium and iron. Absolutely low calorie content hence is normally recommended for those who wish to shed those extra kilos because it does not add calories but at the same time fulfills the mineral and vitamin requirement of the body.

India is the fourth largest country of tomato cultivator across the globe.

When we think of fresh plum, juicy, tomatoes, first thing that comes to our mind is Tomato Soup.. Nothing can taste better than a bowl of thick hot steaming soup.
Sharing with you a few recipes here. . .

TOMATO SOUP:
Ingredients:4 large tomatoes
1 medium size Onion
1 teaspoon butter
2 teaspoon fresh cream
Salt and Pepper to taste
Mint leaves and fried bread cubes for garnishing

Method: Cut the tomatoes and onion and blend it into a thick paste in a mixer. Sieve the paste through a strainer to separate the seeds and skin of the tomato. Add three cups of water (600ml) and boil it on medium flame for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper powder to taste. Pour the soup in a serving bowl. Add a cube of butter, half a spoon fresh cream. Garnish with bread cubes and mint leaves and the soup is ready to serve.

Here are some add-ons while cooking to enhance the taste or add that extra flavor to the soup.

• Try adding some fresh green peas or variation of any other veggie of your choice.
• Try adding maggie and spring onion to give that chinese touch.
• Add two large table spoon of cooked arhar dal and half a tea spoon pepper powder to serve the soup in rasam style.

TOMATO JAM:
Ingredients:6 large tomatoes
2 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
250 gms sugar
2 red chillies
Pinch of salt to taste

Method: Chop the tomatoes finely. Heat oil in a pan add mustard seeds and red chillies, and add the chopped tomatoes and sauté for 2-3 minutes on medium flame. Add sugar and salt cook the tomatoes until the water evaporates and the sugar syrup becomes slightly thick in consistency. Cool it and store in a jar. This can be used as a jam on bread slice or can be served as sweet tomato chutney with paranthas.

Tip: A face pack of tomato paste mixed with a teaspoon of lemon juice will give you a soft and glowing skin.

G for Goodness of 2Gs Ginger n Garlic

Even if you are a vegetarian can you imagine cooking Chinese food without Ginger and Garlic?? It is difficult to trace the origin of garlic, though it belongs to the family of onions. Some experts believe it originated in Russia's Siberian desert and then spread throughout Asia, the Mediterranean and finally Europe. But whatever its birthplace, the Chinese were using garlic by 3,000 BC. As for ginger, experts say it is probably native to south east Asia and I believe the Chinese must have been using garlic and ginger since ancient times.

Ginger and garlic are the two basic key ingredients that rules most of the Indian kitchen. Ginger and Garlic enhances the flavour of the dishes that we cook. But normally when we think of garlic, we relate it to bad breath. Agreed that bad breath is a drawback of garlic, but its health benefits far outweighs its drawbacks.

The positive effect of garlic is on the blood pressure which reduces the blood fats, and also brings down the cholesterol levels. It is also believed that Garlic even helps to prevent cancer! One German study had shown that garlic reduced cholesterol levels by 20 percent in all the test subjects. These reasons put together are more than enough for you to start eating more garlic?

Ginger on the other also provides excellent benefits for your health. This herb has been widely grown and used for thousands of years in China. It not only adds flavour to the cooking but has large medicinal values!

The greatest ever benefit of ginger is its capacity to fight our digestion problems. Besides being used in cooking dishes, its more prominently used in our morning cuppa that we start with, yes our good old desi chai..adrakwali.!!! Something that helps you fight the spine chilling winter, is a mug of hot steaming, ginger tea. Moreover Ginger also helps open blockages in arteries, and also instrumental in lowering the cholesterol levels.

Tip: Garlic should always be stored in a dry place.

Introduction to Traditional Indian Cooking

Background: In our country the good old traditional cooking place was treated with utmost purity, something close to temple, let’s say. In olden days there has been restriction as to who can enter kitchen and what kind of attire they should adorn and so on. The biggest taboo was even the woman of the house was not allowed to enter the kitchen during her menstruation days since she was considered impure then. The traditional kitchen, the Chulha or Angithi or stove – the old cooking mediums were worshipped on a few occasions connecting them to a festival.

The traditional Indian cooking is qualified by adding variety of herbs and spices to our home grown vegetables and pulses keeping in mind the widely practiced vegetarianism across many parts of the society in our country. Each section has their unique cooking technique with a wide collection of cuisines which varies from one province to other.

History:Going by the history we find that our land has experienced widespread migration from one region to other in search of livelihood primarily through ages and our cuisine is largely benefited from this diversified cross culture food influences. Different weather conditions in the regions varying from subterranean stifling humid to high altitudes has fairly helped us widen the range of ingredients in our cooking. As I have mentioned above the medium used for cooking and fire are worshipped with faith attached to it, similarly food has also been a indicator of social and religious identity with varying prohibition and choices. Say, for instance Jain community would not eat roots or any vegetable that is grown below the ground level like ginger, garlic, onions beetroot, zaminkand or suran (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, a botanical name) and potatoes. Since ancient times, vegetarianism has strongly influenced over Indian foods with section of our Hindu, Jain and Buddhist communities. The data does say that people who follow a strict vegetarian diet make up 20–42% of the population in India, while less than 30% are regular meat-eaters. Though there has been a cross cultural change in the food habits too, the present modern urban population has become more health and physique conscious and are turning vegetarian.

Though the urban population has resorted to various modern cooking methods, gadgets and all sorts of ready to use paste and even cooked food which is just at a microwave distance, yet even today, I strongly believe the goodness, the richness and the aroma still lies in our basic traditional cooking that we have inherited from our mothers and if we strive to retain it, we can hand it over to our generations ahead too..