Indian cuisine is known for its large variety of dishes. The traditional food of India has been widely cherished for its fabulous use of herbs and spices. Herein, each state has its own way of cooking and presenting style, they are largely divided into South Indian & North India cuisines. In the past few years, globalization has hit India powerfully, a lot of people travelling for business, studies or maybe even leisure trips have brought international cuisine to our country. This part of to and fro has bought so much modernization to our eating habits. This has resulted in Indianisation of various international cuisines. Let's take a tour around our country and know each state staple food.
So, here we begin with are Indian Staple Food Tour. A typical Gujarati in me, has made it very obvious for me to start with my own birth start Gujarat.
Gujarat is a place of food and foodie’s, here their day starts food and ends with food. Normally, people have 4 meal course schedule, here in Gujarat it’s 6-8 meal course schedule. And, trust me all of them will be delicious and mouthwatering. Gujarati cuisine varies widely in flavor and heat, depending on a family's tastes as well as the region of Gujarat to which they belong. North Gujarat, Kathiawad, Kachchh, Central Gujarat and South Gujarat are the five major regions of Gujarat that contribute their unique touch to Gujarati cuisine. Many Gujarati dishes are peculiarly having sweet, salty, and spicy taste all at the same time.
Despite having an extensive coastline providing wholesome seafood, Gujarat is primarily a vegetarian state due to the influence of Jain vegetarianism. Many communities, however, do include seafood, chicken and mutton in their diet.
Our forefathers are from Gujarat and we follow pure Jain vegetarianism. Our family also, unlike other Gujarati family is very foodie. My 1.3 years old daughter is also one of those typical gujjus. Though, I have always been a little less foodie in normal situations, I could never over eat, eat after any meals or eat between meals, but this lockdown has hit me too. We sometimes prepare 4 different dishes for a family of 4.
Our daily schedule looks like below:
Lunch – a full course meal
Breads – rotli (every day), jowar/ bajra rotla, bhakri, thepla, paratha, puri or pudla (occasionally)
Vegetables or commonly known as “shaq” – almost all the veggies available, as we are jains we religiously avoid any underground vegetables. One or two vegetables is compulsory every day.
Lentils or commonly known as “daal” – we alternately cook different variants of daal like toor daal/ mithi daal, green moong daal, yellow moond daal, masoor daal or black urad daal and many more for my little one to have it all. We sometimes also cook Kadhi instead of daal with few particular veggies. Like, if there is Undhiyu we need kadhi.
Rice or commonly known as “bhaath” – we have normal plain white rice every day for lunch, and occasionally for dinner we have other variations like vegetable pulao, daal khichdi, besibeli daal bhaath (my mom’s special), or any international cuisine like Mexican Rice or Thai Curry & Rice, etc.
Snacks or commonly known as “farsaan” – 5 Dal Dhokhla (my mother-in-law’s special), khaman, khatta dhokla, khandvi, bhajiya of different varieties, kachha kela bhakar wadi, khotambari wadi, patra, samosa, kachori etc.
Sweet-dish or commonly known as “mithai” - mohanthal, jalebi, doodh pak, dudhi halwa, rasgulla, aamras (seasonal), shrikhand, fruit salad, etc. (not a big fan)
Siders – theekhi chutney, papad, raita, athanu, chundo, mormbo, salad and/ or chaas
Unlike traditional gujarati’s, we have modernized our evenings, and hence we have different cuisines at night for dinner. Our dinners usually look like below:
South Indian – Dosa, Idli & Uttapam, usually accompanied with Coconut Chutney and Tomato Chutney (my dadi’s special, she has stayed in south for 45 years) and Sambhar.
Italian – Pizza, Pasta, Lasagna, Risotto
Mexican (favorite) – Mexican Rice, Nachos & Tacos, Burrito Bowl, Enchiladas, Quesadillas
Chinese – Manchurian, Fried Rice, Paneer Chilli, Spring Roll, Vegetable Momos, Noodles
Lebanese (favorite) - Falafel with pita, vegetables and hummus
Other cuisine – Faada Khichdi exactly made like sabudana khichdi (we jains do not eat sabudana), this is my mother in law’s special dish, dahi wada, chole bhature, Punjabi, and many more. Phew we cook so much every day.
Now, one would be wondering, 6-8 meals ma, aa toh bej aj vaarnu thayu, baaki nu kya?
So, typically our day looks like below, and trust me this is my own house schedule, both mayka and sasural:
Our morning nashta’s usually include snacks from that famous dialogue of 3 idiots “Tum Gujarati log itne cute hote ho ... par tum log ka khana itna khatarnak kyun hota hai ... dhokla, fafda, handva, thepla ... aaise lagta hai jaise koi missiles hai, Aaj Bush ne Iraq pe do dhokle gira diye.” Other breakfast items would include Poha, Upma, Khaman, Locho and sometimes Khakhra & Moong too.
Other meals are purely on mood, jaise aaj mood light khane ka tha toh bhel or sev puri, somedays if really and want to make our taste buds happy, I make cheese corn balls, daal pakwaan, masala paav, mini cheese pizza, tacos (the taco chips are always available at home) and if angry then only a glass of bournvitta with a little coffee (only for me)
My mother in law is home-made lover, she will make everything possible at home. If it would be for her, she would also plant veggies at home. But trust me she is the one i am blessed to have, she is one of the best cook I have met after my mom (which a lot of people would know) and also the quickest. There have been times when my husband would land midnight and demand dosa, by the time he is home he has it on his plate with chutney and sambhar, don’t be shocked, it’s true. The airport is about 15 kms away from my house. She cooks almost all the possible masala’s, snacks and batters at home. We also bake are breads like paav and pizza base at home.
We are open to any recipe request of items mentioned or other than those stated above or can follow https://pinchofsalt2flavor.blogspot.com/
This is my Gujarat, and I am proud to be a Jain Gujarati.
We will come back with Maharashtra soon, till then #stayhome #staysafe #gharkakhaana #sabsesafe
Cheers!!
superb
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ReplyDeleteVery precise 👍
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