Smell The Taste Of Gujarat
Written by Donata
What do Indians cook and eat?
As India people are real foodies. Every community has it's own unique cuisines and their own style of preparing it. Every family has it's own secrete recipe for preparing a dish. But now as we travel a lot we get every dish everywhere, but the problem is we don't get the exact typical taste of that dish. So as I love travelling and have eaten some yummy in my tummy meals I would like too share some of my personal experience about those dishes and how it is prepared. I’ll start my journey through Gujarat as it’s my birth place and I love the gujju cuisine.
Hum Gujarat ma tamaru savagata karum chum!! (I am welcoming you to Gujarat)
"Chaar bottle vodka Mama lave Dhokla Dhokla mane bhave nai Vodka mama lave nai...."
The path to heaven is "Surat ka jaman aur Banaras ka maran" a popular Gujarati saying that translates to "dinning in Surat and dying in Varansi". Gujarat"s diverse cuisine is one of the attractions of visiting the state. Exploring Gujarat's cuisine is maybe the best way to get to know a state and its extraordinary culture. Gujarati’s have a master degree in vegetarian cooking, and their cuisine is delicious and mouth watering. One of the best ways to learn about Gujarati cuisine is to try a traditional Gujarati Thali. Seasonal specialities include Ammras (mango juice), which is popular in the summer, and Undiyu which includes roast vegetables and Muthias (veg kebabs) which is popular in January. Also, Saurashtra's garlic spice mixture, which is a pound of garlic, red chilies, and salt that gives a kick start to many Gujarati dishes. Several Gujarati dishes are sweet, salty and spicy all at the same time.
Farsan (The Gujarati Snacks)
Farsan's are really delightful and it's not only prepared during special occasions but also in the normal days. They have it along with their chai in the evening also. There are so many farsan's that are prepared like the steamed ones, fried ones, tava cooked ones, spicy and sweet and also just the normal simple ones. The list is just endless. Muthias are one of my favourite Gujarati Farsan. They are prepared by combining different flours and vegetables. Even they can be cooked in different methods according to your choice like we have baked, deep frying and steaming. But I love the baked ones only. If someone feels that it is dry then we can make it into gravy and relish it as "Bhaat na raasawala muthia". Next famous one is the Dhokla's. They are made grinding and fermenting the urad dal and rice. It's just the same as the idili flour we make. I love eating them with green chutney or sometimes with the garlic chutney. We can sprinkle some pepper powder also upon it, it will enhance the flavour. Khaman it just looks similar to Dhokla but it taste different. The besan flour is combined with the assortment of ingredients is cooked into fluffy spongy Khaman Dhoklas which are given a tadaka of mustard seed and sesame seeds to get an aromatic. These Khaman's can also be crumbled up and made it into Amari Khaman/Khamani garnished with sev, garlic mixed with pomegranate seeds and some corriander leaves. It's just lip snacking and I love it!!
Dal, Shak and Kathol
Dal, shak and Kathol are essential components of a typical Gujarati meal, promising a plethora of flavours, aromas, and one of a kind dinning experience. The main course colour and the balance of the texture is greatly enhanced by the pickle, salad and some spiced buttermilk.
Gujarati Thali
A Gujarati thali usually consists of one or two farsans (steamed or fried snacks), a green vegetable, tuber, or gourd shaak (shaaks are main courses with vegetables and spices mixed together into a curry or a spicy dry dish), a kathol (braised pulses like beans, chickpeas, or dry peas), and one or more yoghurt dishes such as dahi, kadhi, and raita or sweet shrikhand, rice or khichdi, toor dal as a daal, and sweets such as halwas, basundi, or shrikhand Sweet, sour, and spicy chutneys, pickles, ghee, and a salad of chopped vegetables served raw or steamed in spices are among the accompaniments. On the same platter, you might have coarse, grainy, granular, smooth, uniform, dry and wet dishes, the sweetness, bitterness, sourness, and heat of each main course will differ between dishes, and the thali.
Thick and coarse bajra rotla, thin unleavened wheat rotlis, thick and crisp whole wheat flour rotis or bakhris, parathas, savory griddle bread called the thepla, and deep-fried puris are among the breads served with a thali. These breads come in a variety of flavors, such as methi thepla or masala puri.
Millets (Khichdi and Breads)
The Gujarati kitchen is as versatile and imaginative as it gets for this daily meals. From different types of khichdi which is very easy to make to range of different flours and stuffing that goes inside in making those varieties of parathas and chapati.
Mishthaan
As we all know that our country has rich culture and cuisine. Different state and culture make different types of sweet dishes. Gujarati's are known for their food and deserts. We literally can't wait patiently till the end of the food to have the yummy deserts they prepare. So nowadays there are some deserts which we can have along with the food itself. Mishthaan. Ras puri (Mango Juice with puri) I can bet you guys that it's one of the best and yummiest dishes I have had during summers. Chill Ras with some jeera powder in it with hot puri. Omgggg my mouth is watering Shrikhand Puri It's another famous dish of Gujarati's. The Shrikhand is made up of thick yogurt. We get it in many flavors. My favorite is dry fruit and mango Shrikhand. Fada ni Lapsi (broken wheat dessert) It's a healthy and yummiest dessert you can have anytime. People with health conscious need not to worry at all, as wheat broken helps in weight loss and low in carbs.
Gujju's are real food lovers. They have so many dishes which are made up of dry fruits and full off ghee. These people actually live in Ghee. I had a wonderful experience tasting their food and knowing their culture. If you do visit Gujarat some time in your life try tasting all their typical food like mentioned and don't just find some big restaurants and go in to taste the food. You will find many small dhabas and shops where it's cheap as well as tasty, you will keep licking your fingers!! Hope you'll plan your next trip soon to Gujarat.
Given below are the recipes of some of the dishes mentioned above. Hope you find it useful and do try at you place and let me know in the comment section about it.