Meals in India

According to cuisines, we divide india into five regions:

North Indian Meals

Many Indian restaurants around the globe till late 90"s are influenced by North Indian Cuisine. Indian restaurant cuisine has been influenced by Indian chefs who have migrated from North of India Specially Punjabi style restaurants. They created a fusion of the two great cuisines-the local and the Home bought Indian Cuisine by adopting cream sauces in their Indian recipes.

North Indian cuisine is distinguished by the proportionally high use of dairy products; milk, paneer, ghee (clarified butter), and yoghurt (yogurt, yoghourt) are all common ingredients. Gravies are typically dairy-based. Other common ingredients include chilies, saffron, and nuts. The Mughal influence has resulted in meat-eating habits among many North Indians. Also, a variety of flours are used to make different types of breads like chapatis. rotis, phulkas, puris and naan.

Snacks

Aloo TikkiKhasta Kachori

Pani Puri Bread Pakora

Most lovable snack of North India: SAMOSA

The samosa is a popular North Indian snack, and now commonly found in other parts of India, Central Asia, North America, Britain and the Middle East. A common variety is filled with boiled, fried, or mashed potato.

Recipe of SAMOSAIngredients required for outer covering of

samosa:• All purpose flour/ Maida - 1 cup• Carom seeds / Ajwain  /omam - 1/4 tsp (optional)• Oil – 1 tbsp• Salt – approx ½ tsp

In a bowl mix together all purpose flour, salt and oil nicely with your finger tips. The flour should be well mixed with the oil. This is done to get crispy samosas. Then add carom seeds, water little at a time and make a stiff dough. Cover it with a damp cloth (to prevent it from drying) and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. In the meantime we will prepare the stuffing.

Lunch

Great Meals

DinnerFor the dinner we have same food as that of lunch but yes less spicy, rice’s quantity is very less and food is also very light. Because we Indians always follow a tradition in eating-“Breakfast like a king, Lunch like a common man, and Dinner like a beggar.”

DessertIn North Indian we have unlimited desserts. Its number is so large that we can not remember all the names. Few desserts are given below-

Gujia Rasmalai

Gulab Jamun Jalebi Kheer

Lal peda Suji ka halwa

Malpua

Son papdi

Gajar ka Halwa Laddoo

Flavored Drink : Lassi

Rose Lassi Mango Lassi

Cucumber LassiKesaria Lassi Cardamom Lassi

MEALS OF WESTERN INDIAWestern India consists of Gujarat ,

Maharashtra and Goa.

STAPLE FOOD OF WESTERN INDIA

Rice and wheat are the two primary crops of this region. Variety of seafood (white, non-oily fish called pomfret, a small, transparent fish called bombil are dried sold and wafers; varieties of shellfish like crabs, prawns, lobsters, shrimps, clams and mussels) are also common due to the presence of the Arabian sea. Banana and palms (coconut, dates) are also available.

Common food is coconut and rice cooked with fish and various preparations of seafood.

BOMBIL POMFRET

BREAKFASTo A Guajarati household may serve dhoklas, khakhras

or theplas, of which the most popular is methi thepla.

o In Maharashtra typical breakfast (Nashta) consists of ‘kande Pohe',‘upma, ‘ukkad', ‘thalipeeth','Spiced Puree'. Sometimes chapati bhaji' or ‘chapati roll with tea' becomes breakfast.

BREAKFAST

THEPLA DHOKLA UPMA

KHAKHRA POHE

LUNCH• Gujarat’s cuisine is known for its slight sweet touch (at least a pinch

of sugar is added to most dishes!) and is traditionally entirely vegetarian.

• Thaali (a large plate) is the Gujarati style of eating and a meal can consist of as many as 10 different vegetable dishes, rice, chapati (Indian bread) and sweets!

• In Maharashtra, coastal areas are famous for Malvani cuisine (fresh coconut-based hot and sour curries with fish and seafood) while the interiors have the more frugal, Vidharba cuisine which uses a lot of dry coconut. Goan food is rich, piquant and strongly flavoured by coconut, red chillies and vinegar.

• The Goanese cuisine is mostly seafood-based; the staple foods are rice and fish. Kingfish (Vison or Visvan) is the most common delicacy. Others include pomfret, shark, tuna, and mackarel. Among the shellfish are crabs, prawns, tiger prawns, lobster, squid.

LUNCH

GUJARATI THALI

VIDHARVA CUISINE

SEAFOOD, THE SPECIALITY OF GOA

SNACKS The Gujaratis have a wide range of snacks known as farsan.

Various dishes such as Handva, Chaat, Khandvi, etc. come under the farsan.

Vada pav, pav bhaji, bhel puri, etc. are some of the snacks of Maharashtra which are popular all over the country.

Beef croquets, fish cutlets, forminhos, etc. are the few common snacks of Goa.

SNACKS

HANDVA KHANDVI

CHAAT BHEL PURI

SNACKS

PAV BHAJI VADA PAV BEEFCROQUETS

FISH CUTLETS FORMINHOS

DINNER

There is no such variation in lunch and dinner, though dinner is much lighter and less spicy.

A DECENT DINNER THAALI

DESSERTS

Puran poli Shrikhand

Modak

RECIPE FOR MODAK• Ingredients: 4 cups rice flour, 6 cups water, 6 tsp. oil, 4 cups grated

coconut, 2 cups sugar or powdered jaggery, a little milk

• Method: 1. Boil water and add oil into it for the outer covering. Take off heat. 2. Now add the rice flour, little by little to avoid lumps and cover the mixture and let it cool. 3. When cool, knead it well into dough with a smooth finish in such a way that it should sparkle. 4. Now take the coconut and Jaggery / sugar in a heavy-bottomed pan for the stuffing. 5. Add milk. Keep on low flame with stirring. Stir and take off heat. 6. The mixture should be fairly dry and turn a shade darker. Now make balls with the (covering) dough. 7. Flatten them on the palm or on a surface into a circle. Place the stuffing in it and cover it completely with the dough. 8. Fold the edges tapering to the centre. Now steam-cook the modaks in a cooker for 15 minutes until done.

EAST INDIAN CUISINE

More about East Indian cuisine:

Mainly, when we say East Indian cuisine, we mean the food of West Bengal (the part we are from) but this is a misconception. Although Bengali food dominates but still various other East Indian states have succeeded to maintain their own food habits.

Meals in the smaller East Indian states:• Bihari cuisine is wholesome and simple. It is mainly

influenced by its neighbors. The main dishes include: Litti Chokha, Meat Salaan, Dalpuri, Balusahi.

• Traditional Jharkhand cuisine is not available properly in restaurants as they have not been commercialized yet. Traditional meals include: Thekua, Baiganee Chop, Dhuska, Pittha. Hadia is a nice, refreshing drink.

• Manipuri cuisine typically features spicy food that use chilli pepper more. Main and popular dishes are: Ngari (fermented dry fish), Kangsoi. Umarok – ghost chilli, is very popular among the people of Manipur.

• Meghalayan cuisine is different and unique from the other North-East Indian states. Spiced meat, ‘Jadoh’, pickled bamboo shoots, ‘minil songa’, ‘sakkin gata’, momo dumplings are common. Rice beer is fermented and used in religious celebrations.

• In Mizoram, rice is the staple food and non-vegetarian dishes are there in every meal. ‘Bai’ and ‘sawchair’ are two popular dishes. Meals are served on mainly banana leaves.

• The cuisine of Nagaland reflects that of the Naga people. It is known for exotic pork meats cooked with simple and flavourful ingredients, like the extremely hot bhut jolokia pepper, fermented bamboo shoots and soya beans. The Naga use oil sparingly, preferring to ferment, dry, and smoke their meats and fish.

An Assamese Thali, Odisha’s main dish – Chingdi Jhol (prawn curry), Naga dish and a Thukpa

(mainly from Tripura)

In West Bengal, • For breakfast:

people mainly have Rotis with various vegetable curry. They also at times have parathas. The most famous breakfast in Bengal is – Luchi and Aloo Dum.

For lunch and dinner,Bengali cuisine is the

only cuisine that has various courses including starters, main dishes, side dishes and desserts.Lunch and dinners are quite similar where main food is rice accompanied by various curries of vegetables such as ‘shaak’, ‘shukto’, ‘chochchori’, ‘posto’. Then comes the non-veg dish consisting of various preparations of either fish or egg or chicken. Mutton is not eaten by Muslims whereas beef is not eaten by Hindus.

Desserts!Bengali cuisine is

famous through out the world for its mouth-watering desserts! The most famous among them are : ‘Rosogolla’ (upper picture), ‘Mishti Doi’ (lower left). Apart from them, there are also a variety of sweets (either dry or with jaggery juice stuffed inside them).

Famous house-made desserts:

• A few Bengali desserts are easy to make in home too! ‘Payesh’ (upper picture) and ‘Pithe puli’ (lower picture) are among the many. Both of them are easy to make. ‘Payesh’ is specially eaten by people in their birthdays. ‘Pithe puli’ is eaten in those days when winter ends.

Recipe of Payesh!IngredientsServes: 12 1 cup basmati rice , 10 almonds sliced , 1 tbspn raisins,

2 tspn melted ghee, 3 green cardamoms, 2 litres milk, 1 cup jaggery grated jaggery, 1 tbspn sugar

DirectionsPrep:10min  ›  Cook:1hr  ›  Extra time:1hr drying  › 

Ready in:2hr10min  • Clean and wash the rice. Remove and let it dry for an

hour. Blanch the almonds and slice. Wash the raisins. • Heat a tablespoon of ghee. Add the rice. Stir it for a

little bit till it becomes opaque. take off the heat. • Boil milk. Lower the heat up and continue to boil

stirring constantly for fifteen to twenty minutes. • Mix in the rice and continue to stir fry till the rice is

soft. Continue to stir fry till the milk has reduced to half. • Mix in jaggery and mix. Mix in sugar. Mix in the

cardamoms, almond slices and raisins (if using) and stir well. Serve hot or cold.

SOUTH INDIAN CUISINE:

Breakfast• South Indian breakfast,

although differs from state to state are essentially quite the same. Popular breakfasts are: ‘Idli’(lower picture), ‘Dosa’(upper picture), ‘Onion Utthapam’, ‘Dahi Vada’, ‘Pesarattu Green Gram dosa’, ‘Semiya Upma’, ‘Appam’, ‘Ven Pongal’.

Full Meals: Lunch and Dinner• Even South Indian

cuisines do not have that much difference in Lunch and Dinner except for the fact that Dinners a little less spicy.A simple South Indian menu consists of : Rice, Poondu Kulambu, Brinjal gravy, Pulao, Sambar, Thayir Semiya, Mixed vegetable raita. Non-veg items are not that popular but fish is eaten widely. Meals are traditionally eaten on banana leaves and are ended by mainly curd (often mixed with rice) as a dessert.

Recipe for Idli!• Ingredients:• 2 cups Rice

1 cup Urad Daal (white lentil)1 1/2 tblsp SaltA pinch of Baking SodaOil for greasing

• How to make idli:• Pick, wash and soak the daal overnight or for 8 hours. • Pick, wash and drain the rice. Grind it coarsely in a blender. • Grind the daal into a smooth and forthy paste. • Now mix the grinded rice and daal together into a batter. • Mix salt and set aside in a warm place for 8-9 hours or

overnight for fermenting. • Idlis are ready to be cooked when the batter is well

fermented. • Grease the idle holder or pan well and fill each of thm with

3/4th full of batter. • Steam cook idlis on medium flame for about 10 minutes or

until done. • Use a butter knife to remove the idlis. • Serve them with sambhar or chutney.

About Central IndiaThe food of Central India

is mainly influenced by the Western and Northern cuisine. To be mentioned specifically, Central India has various desserts which makes the meals so enjoyable! The most famous ones are: Gajar ka Halwa (carrot mashed) (1st picture) and Cashew Barfi (2nd picture)! Also, Biriyani (3rd picture) is a very famous dish through out India which came into this country with the Mughal rule.

Gajar Ka Halwa – recipe!• Ingredients:

200gm condensed milk1kg carrots, peeled and grated25g cashew nuts25g raisins500g milk2tbsp ghee4-5 flakes of kesar

Method:- In a small bowl add a tbsp of milk and kesar flake and put aside. Now in a large deep pan mix the milk and carrots together and on a low flame slowly bring to a boil. Once the milk is boiling add the milk in the small bowl with the kesar flakes. Let it boil till the milk dries up.

- Once the milk is dried up add the condensed milk and stir occasionally till it also dries up.

- Then add the ghee and cook for another 10 minutes. Garnish with raisins and cashew nuts and serve hot.

Mixed Indian cuisines:All the meals from

different regions that you saw in this presentation till now, are all authentic and traditionally Indian. But a few mixed Indian cuisines or fusion cuisines are:

• Indo-Chinese cuisine (picture)

• Malaysian- Indian cuisine

• Indian-Singaporean cuisine

• Anglo-Indian cuisine

India, is a truly versatile country in all aspects, including food. What you saw now in this presentation is just a mere idea of the food habits. But this is just the tip of the iceberg! There is so much more to be found out about Indian cuisines, so we hope you have no difficulty in finding out more about them. Just keep in mind these basic outlines!

This presentation was made by:

1. Sukanya bhattacharya2. Nainika srivastava3. Adrija kundu

Thank you so much for seeing it! Hope you liked it.