Basics Of Indian Cooking Series - The Introduction

Indian cooking is exciting and intimidating to most. Exciting because its such a lovely medley of flavours that is mostly unique to our Subcontinent. Intimidating because there is a widespread misconception that it’s too difficult to cook, too spicy, too hot, too oily, etc. I say misconception because all of the above need not necessarily true. Though I have immense passion for cooking and experimenting on those lines, my knowledge is anything but extensive. Mainly because of the huge regional differences in cuisines in India but mostly because of inexperience. Any cuisine for that matter needs practise and more practise till you can master it and get it right.
But does that mean till then you end up with half baked or half cooked dishes? Not necessarily. There are really simple Indian dishes that anyone can try and make taste good with minimum effort.

Here are some quick facts about Indian Cooking.

- Indian cuisine can be broadly divided into North Indian and South Indian cooking, each distinct in flavour, spices uses, cooking style and main ingredients.

- It’s always aimed at being healthy and well-balanced. Traditionally, all ingredients were used fresh and this increased the health quotient.

- Indian cooking uses ingredients like ginger, garlic, turmeric, green chillies, etc which are said to have medicinal properties. These are crushed and added to the dishes so that the essence and flavour is imbibed into the dish in the right amount.

- Most of the cooking methods in India are such that they retain the nutrients of the fruit or vegetable. This is mostly still practised but lack of time might have made some minor changes to this today.

- The vessels used for cooking also make an impact on the final cooking. Traditionally, food was prepared in heavy bottomed iron woks (known as kadai in Hindi). In this vessel, not too much oil or water was required to bring out the flavours of the spices. Food mostly cooked in its own juices under continuous stirring.

In the coming weeks, we will see more of basic Indian cooking techniques, recipes, utensils, FAQs, etc. If you have any feedback or would like to write a guest post, do leave a comment and I will be happy to get back to you.