Regional cookery of India
What people cook depends on what grows nearby, the weather and their traditions.
- North (e.g. Punjab, Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh): wheat breads (roti, naan, paratha), milk, ghee, paneer, the clay tandoor oven, rich gravies, dum (slow, sealed) cooking.
- South (e.g. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra): rice, fermented batters (idli, dosa), lentils (sambar, rasam), coconut, tamarind, curry leaves, mustard seed tempering.
- East (e.g. Bengal, Odisha, Assam): rice, river fish, mustard oil and mustard paste, panch phoron (five-spice mix), chhena sweets like rasgulla.
- West (e.g. Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Goa): millets (bajra, jowar), gram flour, peanuts, sweet-sour tastes, dry desert cooking with long-lasting foods, coconut and seafood on the coast.
- North-east: rice, bamboo shoot, fermented foods, little oil, steaming.
Key techniques across India: tadka (tempering spices in hot fat), bhuna (frying a masala until the oil separates), dum, tandoor, steaming and slow reduction.
Indian snacks
Snacks are eaten with tea or as street food. They are grouped by method:
- Deep-fried: samosa, pakora, kachori, vada, bhajji. Oil at about 170–180 °C. Cool oil makes them greasy; very hot oil burns the outside.
- Steamed: dhokla, idli, momo, patra. Low fat.
- Shallow-fried or griddled: tikki, cutlet, chilla, pav bhaji.
- Chaat: mixes with crunch (papdi, sev), soft (potato, chickpea), sweet (date-tamarind chutney), hot (green chutney) and cool (curd).
Hygiene matters: fresh oil, clean water for chutneys, and covered food.
Basic Indian gravies
A gravy is the sauce of a curry. Kitchens make a few base gravies and build many dishes from them.
- Onion-tomato (red/brown): onions fried golden, ginger-garlic, tomato, spices. Used for chole, kadhai, many curries.
- White (makhni-style mild / korma): boiled onion, cashew or melon seed paste, curd or cream. Used for korma, malai kofta.
- Yellow: onion, turmeric, curd or lentils; mild. Used for dal, kadhi, homestyle curries.
- Green: spinach or coriander-mint paste. Used for palak paneer, hariyali.
- Also: makhani (tomato-butter-cream) gravy for butter dishes.
Thickening comes from onion, nut pastes, yoghurt, lentils or reduction, not flour as in many Western sauces.
Indian sweets
Most Indian sweets (mithai) start from milk, grains or lentils, sugar and ghee.
- Khoya (mawa): milk boiled down until most water has gone. About 1 L milk gives roughly 200 g khoya. Used for peda, barfi, gulab jamun.
- Chhena: milk split with lemon juice or whey, then drained. Used for rasgulla, sandesh, rasmalai.
- Sugar syrup is cooked to stages (one-thread, two-thread) for soaking or setting sweets.
- Grain and lentil sweets: halwa (semolina, carrot, moong dal), ladoo (gram flour, semolina), kheer/payasam (rice in milk), jalebi (fermented batter fried, then soaked).
Milk sweets spoil fast, so keep them cold and use them within a few days.
Presenting Indian meals
A thali is a round plate with small bowls (katori). It gives a balanced meal: a cereal (rice or roti), a pulse (dal), one or two vegetables, curd or raita, salad, pickle or chutney, papad and a sweet. It tries to include all six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent (hot), bitter and astringent.
In the south, food is often served on a banana leaf in a fixed order. Good presentation means: hot food hot, cold food cold, colours that contrast, a garnish (coriander, cream swirl, fried onion), clean plate rims, and the right portion size.
Try it
At home, look at one meal and list which food groups and tastes it has. Then build a full thali in the 3D free play.
Key formulas and definitions
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Worked examples
1. A canteen needs 3 kg of khoya. Roughly how much milk should it boil?
1 L gives about 0.2 kg. 3 ÷ 0.2 = 15 L of milk.
2. Which base gravy would you use for palak paneer and for chicken korma?
Palak paneer uses the green (spinach) base. Korma uses the white (nut-curd) base.
3. Pakoras come out greasy and pale. What went wrong and how do you fix it?
The oil was too cool (below about 170 °C), so the batter soaked oil before sealing. Heat the oil until a drop of batter rises quickly, and fry in small batches so the temperature does not drop.
4. Plan a balanced South Indian meal on a banana leaf.
Rice (cereal), sambar (pulse + vegetables), rasam (sour, light), a dry vegetable poriyal, curd (dairy), pickle (salty-sour), papad (crunch) and payasam (sweet).
Common mistakes
- Adding powdered spices to very hot oil and burning them; add them on lower heat or with a splash of water.
- Not cooking the onion-tomato masala until oil separates, so the gravy tastes raw.
- Thinking all Indian food is spicy and the same everywhere; regions differ a lot.
- Leaving milk sweets at room temperature for long; they spoil quickly.