Indian Cuisine. The Cuisine of India

India has much more to offer than hot curries and an unmeasurable amount of spices and scents. What is usually referred to as 'Indian Cuisine' is actually a mixture of all the different cuisines on the the Indian subcontinent. These different cuisines and cultures are heavily influenced by social-religious and regional-geographic factors.

Social-religious influences on the Indian cuisine

The majority of India's hinduistic population are vegetarians and only a few eat any meat at all. Beef is avoided by all Hindus because they consider the cow being holy. On the other side, the Indian muslims eat meat but refuse pork for religious reasons. At the lowest end of the Indian caste system live the so called 'Untouchables'. These outcasts have to eat anything they can find and can't afford any religious or moral concerns.

Meat in general does not play a major role in any of the different Indian cuisines. The main sources of protein are milk and dairy products and pulses. However, chicken is popular in all Indian cuisines and within all social-religious groups in India. That's one of the reasons why chicken were domesticated in this part of the world.

Regional-Graphic influences on the Indian cuisine

Indian cuisine can be broken down into four distinct regional styles:

• North Indian
• South Indian
• East Indian
• West Indian

These styles differ in their ways of cooking, seasoning and the use of meat and vegetables.

However, what all these regions have in common is there multitude of spices and aromas that are used for the preparation of the foods. There are also several similarities when it comes to eating habits and customs.

Curry, Massala and Chutneys

The term curry derives from kari, a Tamil word meaning sauce and referring to various kinds of dishes common in South India made with vegetables or meat and usually eaten with rice. The term is used more broadly, especially in the Western Hemisphere, to refer to almost any spiced, sauce-based dishes cooked in various south and southeast Asian styles. This imprecise umbrella term is largely an artifact of the British Raj. In India, the word curry actually refers to anything cooked and eaten with rice. Anything can be made into a curry if it is cooked and spices do not necessary have to be added to it. There is a common misconception that all curries are made from curry powder or that a certain meat or vegetable is curried; rather, one makes a curry out of these ingredients.

Garam masala is a blend of dry-roasted ground spices common in Indian cuisine. There are many variants, most commercial garam masalas usually contain dried red chillis, fresh green chillis, garlic, ginger, sesame, mustard seeds, turmeric, coriander, cloves, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves, cumin, nutmeg, and fennel. One traditional mix uses equal quantities of cinnamon, clove, and black cardamom.

In Indian cuisine, a chutney (British spelling), chatni (Hindi transliteration) or catni (archaic transliteration) is a sweet-and-spicy condiment, originally from eastern India.

In its homeland, a chutney is often made to be eaten fresh, using whatever suitable strongly flavoured ingredients are locally traditional or available at the time. It would not normally contain preserving agents, since it is intended to be consumed soon after preparation.

Chutney is more familiar in North America and Europe in a form that can be stored. To this end, vegetable oil, vinegar or lemon juice are used to enhance the keeping properties.

The paragraph "Curry, Massala and Chutneys" uses parts of the Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Chutney", "Curry", and "Garam Masala".