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By Madhusree Chatterjee
The sun bakes the plains and temperatures shoot to a scorching 40 degrees Celsius and more - the famed Indian summer is at its peak. Just the opportunity for India's culinary creativity to work its magic with yoghurt, mint, lentils, sprouts, mangoes and what have you being used in myriad ways to stay cool. Across India's vast plains where air-conditioning is a luxury and even refrigerators are a prized possession, Indian households resort to age-old recipes to stay cool. In diverse India, the recipes are modified with each region too.
So, if in the north, yoghurt is whisked with sugar or salt and roasted cumin seeds to make 'lassi' or 'chaach', the same drink is tempered lightly with mustard seeds and curry leaves to make 'mor' in the south.
As Indians battle the heat with lighter and cooler cuisine low on spices and laden with water and nutrients, culinary experts also prescribe a return to the dietary roots.
Food writer, author and documentary filmmaker Pushpesh Pant has the perfect breakfast for the heat worn.
"Just hop over to the halwai (the sweetmeat seller) next door and gorge on lightly-steamed dhoklas and a glass of lassi for breakfast."
Dhokla, a fast food from the western state of Gujarat, is made of ground chickpeas soaked overnight, mixed with gram powder and then steamed lightly with mustard seeds, red chillies and ginger. The yellow chickpea cakes are garnished with coriander and served with green chillies.
"Dhoklas are very popular during summer because they are light on the stomach, cooling and tasty," says the owner of a large Delhi-based sweetmeat chain, Agarwal Sweets. The shop, one of the many dotting the city, is doing brisk business in dhoklas and lassi.
It has hitched up a large circular earthenware jar wrapped with a damp red rag round its middle to store the creamy yoghurt drink. It is churned in the morning and kept in the earthen jar because baked clay, a natural cooler, keeps it cool. A glass costs a mere Rs.20 (less than 50 cents).
There are other drinks conjured up in the kitchens of yore to tackle the heat. Aam panna, for instance, made of unripe mangoes, boiled and distilled with a generous sprinkling of mint leaves and light spices, is said to be the perfect antidote for the hot winds blowing across a searing afternoon. And, of course, the variety of sherbets made from the essence of aromatic herbs like khus and rose that quench your thirst like no aerated drink can.
Then there are savouries like chaat, a mix of vegetables, munchies, tamarind and curd, poha (flattened rice) that is lightly sautéed with vegetables with a squeeze of lemon, and the south staple thair sadam, curd rice with cucumber, tomatoes and sometimes ginger to add some zing.
While writing "Foodpath", a book about the cuisine along the historic Grand Trunk Road that traverses the length of north India, Pant discovered that the lassis of Varanasi and Amritsar were good in shielding the body from the intense heat along the stretch. "And so are the jal jeera (cumin sherbet) and thandai (a coolant made from the extract of fennel seeds, herbs and a light organic intoxicant called bhang) served in the dhabas (food shacks) along the Grand Trunk Road," he recalls.
In the bustling city of Lucknow, the home of the great Muslim rulers, called nawabs, and the seat of the ancient Awadhi cuisine, residents still cool off with a variety of chutneys made of green mangoes, mint, coriander and spiced yoghurt that accompany the main course of cold shihorewali daal (fermented lentils) served in earthen pots and khamini roti made of fermented dough that is allowed to sour overnight. It is an old Muslim summer meal.
"I recently tasted excellent coconut kheer (curdled and sugared coconut milk) at a streetside eatery in Gajraula, which is a simple yet tasty traditional summer dessert," Pant says.
Summers in India have one common thread despite the varying temperatures and humidity in the different geographical terrains. It saps, draining vital salts and energy from the body.
The process, according to master chef Sitangsu Chakravarty, is called a burnout in which the body loses vital vitamins in the course of hard work. Thousands of Indians succumb to heat strokes every summer across the country. "It's important that people know what exactly to eat," says Chakravarty.
"Indian food habits have grown with the climatic conditions. The Bengalis along the Indo-Gangetic plains and on the coast of the Bay of Bengal are rice eaters for rice makes up for the loss of water and carbohydrates from the body. These regions are very humid. Moreover, Bengal is also the rice bowl of the country," says Chakravarty, who has recently authored a book on grease-free Indian cuisine.
Even our country's agricultural produce, says Chakravarty, is related to climate. The northern plains grow wheat because the summers are dry despite the extremes in temperatures, unlike the coasts and the deltas.
While summers are humid in the coastal states of West Bengal, Orissa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, they are scorching in the plateaus of central India.
But changes in weather and global warming are gradually blurring climatic borders, says Chakravarty. And cuisines are intermingling. People living in the dry northern plains are eating rice these days and those in the coastal regions are eating grain-bread.
He recommends seasonal summer vegetables like gourd, ladies fingers, aubergines and bitter gourd which should be cooked with zero or minimum oil and without the traditional onion, garlic and ginger pastes. "Why not try out dahi ka shorba and khilli moong ka salad - a simple curd preparation with spices and sprouts?" he offers.
Gastronome, food consultant and author Marut Sikka recommends food that is lighter in colour for summer. "A lightly coloured food is more appetising than a thick dark curried mutton to an Indian in summer."
The pool beckons and so does the air-conditioned room. But for millions of Indians, it is the kitchen they head towards to chill out.
Source: Indians in Thailand
Copyright: 2008, Thaindian News
Contact: Madhusree Chatterjee
Website: To beat the Indian summer, head to the kitchen - Thaindian News
The sun bakes the plains and temperatures shoot to a scorching 40 degrees Celsius and more - the famed Indian summer is at its peak. Just the opportunity for India's culinary creativity to work its magic with yoghurt, mint, lentils, sprouts, mangoes and what have you being used in myriad ways to stay cool. Across India's vast plains where air-conditioning is a luxury and even refrigerators are a prized possession, Indian households resort to age-old recipes to stay cool. In diverse India, the recipes are modified with each region too.
So, if in the north, yoghurt is whisked with sugar or salt and roasted cumin seeds to make 'lassi' or 'chaach', the same drink is tempered lightly with mustard seeds and curry leaves to make 'mor' in the south.
As Indians battle the heat with lighter and cooler cuisine low on spices and laden with water and nutrients, culinary experts also prescribe a return to the dietary roots.
Food writer, author and documentary filmmaker Pushpesh Pant has the perfect breakfast for the heat worn.
"Just hop over to the halwai (the sweetmeat seller) next door and gorge on lightly-steamed dhoklas and a glass of lassi for breakfast."
Dhokla, a fast food from the western state of Gujarat, is made of ground chickpeas soaked overnight, mixed with gram powder and then steamed lightly with mustard seeds, red chillies and ginger. The yellow chickpea cakes are garnished with coriander and served with green chillies.
"Dhoklas are very popular during summer because they are light on the stomach, cooling and tasty," says the owner of a large Delhi-based sweetmeat chain, Agarwal Sweets. The shop, one of the many dotting the city, is doing brisk business in dhoklas and lassi.
It has hitched up a large circular earthenware jar wrapped with a damp red rag round its middle to store the creamy yoghurt drink. It is churned in the morning and kept in the earthen jar because baked clay, a natural cooler, keeps it cool. A glass costs a mere Rs.20 (less than 50 cents).
There are other drinks conjured up in the kitchens of yore to tackle the heat. Aam panna, for instance, made of unripe mangoes, boiled and distilled with a generous sprinkling of mint leaves and light spices, is said to be the perfect antidote for the hot winds blowing across a searing afternoon. And, of course, the variety of sherbets made from the essence of aromatic herbs like khus and rose that quench your thirst like no aerated drink can.
Then there are savouries like chaat, a mix of vegetables, munchies, tamarind and curd, poha (flattened rice) that is lightly sautéed with vegetables with a squeeze of lemon, and the south staple thair sadam, curd rice with cucumber, tomatoes and sometimes ginger to add some zing.
While writing "Foodpath", a book about the cuisine along the historic Grand Trunk Road that traverses the length of north India, Pant discovered that the lassis of Varanasi and Amritsar were good in shielding the body from the intense heat along the stretch. "And so are the jal jeera (cumin sherbet) and thandai (a coolant made from the extract of fennel seeds, herbs and a light organic intoxicant called bhang) served in the dhabas (food shacks) along the Grand Trunk Road," he recalls.
In the bustling city of Lucknow, the home of the great Muslim rulers, called nawabs, and the seat of the ancient Awadhi cuisine, residents still cool off with a variety of chutneys made of green mangoes, mint, coriander and spiced yoghurt that accompany the main course of cold shihorewali daal (fermented lentils) served in earthen pots and khamini roti made of fermented dough that is allowed to sour overnight. It is an old Muslim summer meal.
"I recently tasted excellent coconut kheer (curdled and sugared coconut milk) at a streetside eatery in Gajraula, which is a simple yet tasty traditional summer dessert," Pant says.
Summers in India have one common thread despite the varying temperatures and humidity in the different geographical terrains. It saps, draining vital salts and energy from the body.
The process, according to master chef Sitangsu Chakravarty, is called a burnout in which the body loses vital vitamins in the course of hard work. Thousands of Indians succumb to heat strokes every summer across the country. "It's important that people know what exactly to eat," says Chakravarty.
"Indian food habits have grown with the climatic conditions. The Bengalis along the Indo-Gangetic plains and on the coast of the Bay of Bengal are rice eaters for rice makes up for the loss of water and carbohydrates from the body. These regions are very humid. Moreover, Bengal is also the rice bowl of the country," says Chakravarty, who has recently authored a book on grease-free Indian cuisine.
Even our country's agricultural produce, says Chakravarty, is related to climate. The northern plains grow wheat because the summers are dry despite the extremes in temperatures, unlike the coasts and the deltas.
While summers are humid in the coastal states of West Bengal, Orissa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, they are scorching in the plateaus of central India.
But changes in weather and global warming are gradually blurring climatic borders, says Chakravarty. And cuisines are intermingling. People living in the dry northern plains are eating rice these days and those in the coastal regions are eating grain-bread.
He recommends seasonal summer vegetables like gourd, ladies fingers, aubergines and bitter gourd which should be cooked with zero or minimum oil and without the traditional onion, garlic and ginger pastes. "Why not try out dahi ka shorba and khilli moong ka salad - a simple curd preparation with spices and sprouts?" he offers.
Gastronome, food consultant and author Marut Sikka recommends food that is lighter in colour for summer. "A lightly coloured food is more appetising than a thick dark curried mutton to an Indian in summer."
The pool beckons and so does the air-conditioned room. But for millions of Indians, it is the kitchen they head towards to chill out.
Source: Indians in Thailand
Copyright: 2008, Thaindian News
Contact: Madhusree Chatterjee
Website: To beat the Indian summer, head to the kitchen - Thaindian News
