Griffith TeresaProducts: rice, pulses, ghee, paneer cheese, lots of vegetables, curry seasoning
Popular dishes: sabji, dal bean puree soup, roti cakes, samosi cakes, chutney sauces
Peculiarities of Indian cuisine
The cuisine of southern and central regions of India is predominantly vegetarian. The main part of their diet consists of rice, various kinds of vegetable stews (sabji), soups made of peas, lentils and other pulses (dal), flatbreads, honey, dairy products and fruits. Meat is cooked in the northern states, either lamb or poultry. Beef is not eaten in most of the country: in Hinduism the cow is a sacred animal.
The most popular folk Indian dish is dal. Cold and hot, spicy and sweet, with tomatoes and garlic, lemon juice, coconut milk – there are many varieties. It is no coincidence that in India there is a saying that you can cook dal every day for a year and never repeat the recipe.
Sabji in Hindi means “vegetables”. Traditional Indian vegetable dishes are prepared from cabbage (cauliflower, white cabbage, broccoli), potatoes, okra, zucchini, eggplant, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs. The peculiarity of cooking is the large amount of spices.
For example, India is considered the motherland of curry spice, a spice mixture based on turmeric root, which includes cayenne, white, black, and allspice, coriander, fennel, ginger, cardamom, cloves, fenugreek, cumin, and mustard. Curries for poultry, meat, fish, vegetables contain different composition and ratio of spices. A liquid vegetable or meat dish seasoned with this mixture is also called curry in India.
Dairy products such as clarified butter ghee, white cheese paneer (reminiscent of Adige cheese), curd (dairy product, reminiscent of yogurt) go well with vegetables. Vegetarians should definitely try palak paneer (spinach stewed with paneer cheese) and malai kofta, meatballs made of potatoes and paneer in a creamy sauce. And meat-eaters will surely love the tandoori chicken – chicken marinated in yogurt with spicy spices and baked in a tandoori oven.