Indian Cookery

Indian cuisine is popular all over the world for its variety, mouthwatering tastes and aroma. It is as diverse as the country itself with its numerous styles of cuisine and its typical regional variations.
In almost every country in the world you can find Indian restaurants and hotels representing every kind of Indian cuisine. Some of the most famous among them are the Mughalai, Chettinadu, Hyderabadi Cuisine etc.
Indian Cooking is known for its use of spices, herbs and flavorings. The common ingredients in Indian Cuisine are rice or bread (rotis), a variety of dals (lentils), regional vegetables, pickles, ghee, chutneys, a meat or fish dish. Spices are an essential element to Indian cuisine. The cooking medium is generally oil. The type of oil used differs in different regions. Sweets are usually milk based. Many popular sweets such as Gulab jamun, Ladoo are common throughout India, while many others like Rasbari, peda, burfi, halwa, Malpuwa, Rasgula etc are local favorites. Food is often eaten with fingers, rice or breads are accompanied by vegetables and curries.
The tastes and variety of the multiple cuisines from Kashmir in the north to Kanya Kumari in the south, is absolutely mind blowing. Indian cuisine can be divided into two, Northern and Southern Indian cuisine.

South Indian Cuisine
Cuisines from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu are all part of South Indian Cuisine. Mostly vegetarian, Rice is the basis of every meal in a South Indian Cuisine and the cooking medium could be either gingelly, coconut or sunflower oil. Coconut is one of the main ingredient in all South Indian food and spices are abundant in south Indian cooking. Spices commonly used are mustard, Asafetida, pepper, curry leaves, peppercorns etc. Other fragrant spices added are cardamom, clove, cinnamon and star aniseed. Areas with access to waterways rely more heavily on seafood. Saturated with ghee, rice is served with Sambhar, Rasam, lentils, vegetables etc. South Indians are great lovers of filter coffee especially the Madras coffee is popular in South Indian restaurants throughout the world.
Made of fermented rice and dal batter, the dosa, vada and the idli as well as puttu made of rice flour are inexpensive south Indian snacks which are popular all over the country. The popular south Indian dishes are Appam and Stews, sea food dishes (Kerala), Mysore Pak, basundhi, jangiri, the semolina-based upma, Milk or wheat based Payasams/ kheers, Hyderbadi Biryani and the Goan vindaloo curry etc.

North Indian Cuisine
North Indian Cooking is often called Mughal Style Cooking which is similar to the food of the Middle East and Central Asia. With its rich uses of sauces, butter-based curries, dried fruits and nuts, ginger-flavoured roast meats and mind-blowing sweets, it is one of the world’s popular cuisines. A typical North Indian meal consist of chappatis, roti, parantha, pooris and tandoori baked breads like nan etc. made of wheat. Rice is also popular and is made into biryanis and pulaos. Kashmiri pulao is one of the famous north Indian food. The cooking medium is generally oil, cream, butter or ghee. Sunflower and canola are mostly used vegetable oils used in north Indian cooking. Garam masala is a spice mixture used mainly in northern Indian cuisine.
Mutter Paneer (a curry made with cottage cheese and peas), Bengal's Rasagulla, sandesh, Rasamalai, gulab jamuns, Biryani, Pulaos, Daal Makhani, Dahi Gosht, Butter Chicken, Kheer, Chicken Tikka, Kebabs, Fish Amritsari, Samosas (snack with a pastry case with different kinds of fillings), Chaat (hot-sweet-sour snack made with potato, chick peas and tangy chutneys), 'makki ki roti' and 'sarson ka sag', Motichoor laddoo are some of the delicious north Indian foods.

Meen Kuzhambu (chettinad fish curry) chapala pulusu

For the past one month, I couldn’t find much time to take snaps of the items which I wanted to blog.My idea was to write next about the famous chettinad chicken but due to the fear of catching bird flue people at home are scared of even hearing its name.So till the chickens get well let me blog about the chettinad special fish items .
Meen kuzhambu prepared in chettinad will seem to be very simple and easy to prepare but the real taste will depend on the care with which it is made.But by experience one can make mouthwatering meen kuzhambu which will make your partner sing’ Nethuvecha Meenkuzhambu ennai ezhukkuthayya’(Yesterday’s fish curry is driving me to the kitchen).This kuzhambu kept outside is said to be very tasty the next day. But I have not taken that risk.If refrigerated,the taste will be fine for 2 to 3 days

Ingredients

Fish (known to be good for gravy)-1/2 kg

Small onion-20

Garlic-15 pods

Chilly powder -1 spoon or kuzhambu milagai thool-2 spoons

Coriander powder-2 tablespoons

Tomato-1

Curry leaf- little

Tamarind-gooseberry size(double the quantity you use for sambar)

First marinate the fish withChilly powder-1 teaspoon

Turmeric powder-1/2 teaspoon

Lemon juice-1 teaspoon

Salt-1 teaspoon

Keep the fish marinated for 1 to 2 hours.

Procedure
Soak the tamarind and required salt in 3 to 4 cups of water. Keep a flat bottom kadai in the stove. Pour 2 to 3 spoons of oil(gingelly oil if available will be the best).Season withFennel seeds-1 teaspoonFenugreek seeds-1/2 teaspoonCurry leaf-littleAddthe minced onion, garlic and tomato and sauté well for 3 minutes. Now add the tamarind water. Add the chilly powder and coriander powder also and wait till the mixture boils. Once it starts boiling keep the stove in sim and allow the curry to cook in low fire for 10 to 12 minutes till the gravy has reduced to half. Now slowly add the fish one by one in such a way that all the pieces stay aloof. Once the fish is added, you will find the gravy becoming watery. Increase the flame a little and cook for 5 more minutes. Always make sure that you use the gravy only 2 or 3 hours after cooking.(this time is for the fish to get the taste of the gravy) .It is always better not to transfer the contents to another vessel since the fishes are likely to break while transferring.