Thursday, November 3, 2011

FOODIE SPECIAL....COMMUNITY FAVOURITE COMBINATIONS

If there's a food heaven, then these marriages were made there. ..combinations that are community favourites.

GOAN CHORIZ-PAO
Choriz, a spicy sausage, is as capable of evoking reverence as Goa's other great Portuguese legacy, its churches. It's sharper - and tastier - than its new world cousin, the chorizo, which is available in gourmet shops. Choriz is usually eaten with bread or cooked as a pulao. But the best way of having it is with fresh, crusty pao. It's also simple to make, if you don't mind getting your hands greasy with animal fat. All you have to do is to untie the string of the sausages (the messy bit) and boil the pieces with potatoes and onions.

BENGALI ALOO SHEDDHO-BHAATH
This mash up of boiled potatoes and rice is often the first solid food Bengalis consume. Kids are reared on the stuff. So it's no wonder that Bengalis are in general chubby with gently rounded figures. The two starches are mashed together while hot into a thick paste with salt and butter or ghee. There are variations of the dish. Boiled carrots, pumpkin and bitter gourd can also be added. But in our opinion, nothing beats the simplicity and taste of the basic version.

TAMILIAN IDLI-MILLAGAI PODI
Non-Tamilians like to call it 'gunpowder' for its texture. But the grainy, orange millagai podi is also fiery. This spicy podi (powder), that makes the Tamil tiffin box so coveted in offices across the rest of India, is the result of ground red chillies, whole black gram and curry leaves among other things. When mixed with sesame oil, millagai podi becomes the perfect traditional dip for the bland idli. Some like to sprinkle a layer of sugar on top of the mixture and the more radical Tamilians even prefer to offset the spicy mixture by adding curd instead of oil. Such experiments create an explosion of flavours inside the mouth, from spicy and salty to sweet.

VEN PONGAL-GOTSU
Nothing, not even coconut chutney, can compliment the famous Tamil rice porridge ven pongal the way gotsu does. When this tangy, spiced lentil-vegetable gravy meets the hot, ghee-dipped pongal, the result is a perfect Sunday morning breakfast experience at any Tamil home. Gotsu is usually made with tomatoes and eggplant (kathrikai gotsu), but some variations include drumsticks (murungakkai). In fact, gotsu is closest in nature to sambar. It's only the type and quantity of daal and the various vegetables used that set the two apart.

MANGALOREAN PAAN POLE-CHICKEN CURRY
The paan pole is a thin, white relative of the neer dosa. It's made of a rice and coconut batter and usually eaten with chutney or jaggery. It's also a great way to mop up the spicy, red Mangalorean chicken curry.

PAHARI SINGAL-ALOO KE GUTKE
Singal and aloo ke gutke are a Kumaoni staple. A singal is a pretzel-shaped sweet made of semolina, ghee, curd, sugar and cardamom powder. The batter is mixed and set aside for an hour before it is deep fried. Aloo ke gutke are pahadi-style potato wedges, cooked with cumin, turmeric, coriander, salt, chilli powder and whole red chillies. This sweet and salty combination is prepared for breakfast, as a snack, when there's a pooja or anything to celebrate. As always, the two are served with steaming chai.

GUJARATI DAAL-DHOKLI
Some people call this Gujju pasta. The dhokli (not to be confused with dhokla) are strips of roti that are immersed in daal. The daal is a thick tur that's flavoured with peanuts and curry leaves. Often Gujaratis toss leftover rotis into daal.

PARSI DHAN DAAR-KOLMI NO PATIO
This is Parsi comfort food. Dhan daar, also known as mori daar, is tur daal tempered with jeera, garlic and ghee. And kolmi no patio is a thick, tangy prawn gravy. Two of the key ingredients of patio are jaggery and cane vinegar - they give the dish a sweet and sour flavour that's typical of Parsi food in general. It goes beautifully well with the thick daal and plain rice.

KASHMIRI HAAKH-BATTA
This is a staple of Kashmiri households. Haakh, a kind of leafy green, is cooked into a watery soup with just salt and asafoetida, and seasoned with 'ver', a traditional Kashmiri spice. The subtle flavours of asafoetida and ver in haakh go deliciously well with piping hot rice and dahi.

SALTED CHAI
Kashmiri meals are laden with the greasy richness of meat, spices and empty calories from plates full of rice. That is why after a heavy meal a cup of salted pink tea or ksheer chai is a must. The beverage is made by boiling green tea leaves in water to which salt has been added. The mixture is boiled till the colour turns a dark, wine-red. Next, milk is added till the colour turns pink. The tea is topped with a generous layer of cream and sprinkle of ground almonds.

Anubha Sawhney Joshi, Pronoti Datta , Sharmila Ganesan Ram and Shobita Dharc TOICREST October 22, 2011

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