Vegetables and food

European Union had brought out a book on the relationship its members have with India and it covered history too.

It was amazing to read the variety of vegetables Portugese, who are inverterate sailors , had brought to India. Potato is an essential part of daily food in North India. This was brought to India by Portugese. Again place of origin of potato is not Europe but the home land of Machu Pichu- Peru. Peru has about 2000 varieties of potato some of which are poisonous. Another essential vegetable Indian cuisine has absorbed is onion which again was brought in by Portugese. Some other vegetables which sailed into India are cauliflower, cabbage, pineapple, chillies, tomato and coffee bean.

On the topic of India, the food habits differ across the country. The range of cooking oils used is amazing -coconut oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil, rape seed oil, mustard oil... some of the recent additions are cotton seed oil, rice brawn oil, palm oil.... Cottage cheese is popular in North India while the diary products used for cooking are only curd and ghee ( clarified butter ). Tamarind is used in cooking in South while lemon is used in North for the same effect.

After having spent at various parts across India, I have been lucky to taste and savour a variety of food. Some of the cooking oils used are pungent though.

Comments

  1. prasadgcJuly 4, 2009 at 5:04 AM

    I don't know if this is the latest fad...

    Apparently, current thinking is to use grapeseed oil for cooking and olive oil for sprinkling fresh on food. Olive oil does not stand up to heat very well so it should not be used as a cooking oil.

    gcp

    ReplyDelete

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