Tag Archives: greens

A Guide To The Regional Foods of India

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photo by Jason Taylor

photo by Jason Taylor

I still recall vividly driving the winding roads away from the Himalayan village of McLeod Ganj, headquarters of the Dalai Lama and catching a glimpse of a familiar spring vegetable being sold along the roadside. Wanting to make sure I wasn’t suffering from altitude sickness, I asked my wife for reassurance that I had just seen a bunch of fiddleheads. Soon I was chatting with the vendor trying to explain in broken Hindi that we had the same seasonal delicacy in Canada.

This brief experience, seeing the familiar in a foreign context, provided both comfort and intrigue. It forced me to shift my thinking of what “local”, “seasonal”, and “regional” are. As I travelled around India I soon found myself searching for more local and regional Indian dishes. Whether I was in Amritsar to check out one of the oldest dhabas or visit the kitchen of the Golden Temple that feeds up to 100,000 people a day or cooking some of the tastiest food I have eaten in India at Philipkutty’s Farm I was, and continue to be, amazed by the vast variety of local ingredients and regional dishes that are found in India.

Four years ago, while touring tea plantations in Darjeeling I noticed a small comment in the food section of a newspaper that an Australian, Charmaine O’Brien, was researching a book on regional Indian food. I kept my eye out for it in the bookstores and online but did not come across it until my most recent visit to India, which coincidentally overlapped with the launch of her efforts titled The Penguin Food Guide to India.

I have read through the book once, and wrote a review posted on Zester Daily, and know that I will be diving in there a lot for years to come as there is such great information provided. At the end of the review is a delicious recipe for a regional Konkan dish called tambdi bhaji, or greens sautéed with fresh coconut introduced to me a few years while I was travelling with photographer Jason Taylor, who shot the above photo. It is a very versatile dish as it can easily be adapted for all sorts of greens, like beet, amaranth, spinach, swiss chard and even kale.

A Dal for Fall: Squash Red Lentil Coconut Dal

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Squash and Red Lentil DalThe subdued shades of green, so dominant throughout the summer months, in our gardens and at farmer’s markets, are quickly being replaced with fantastic bursts of golden yellow and brilliant orange. Acorn, butternut, crooked neck, hubbard, and kabocha are some of the different squash varieties, which can easily be substituted for each other in your favourite squash recipes.  This creamy textured squash and red lentil dal will guarantee to provide warmth as the autumn chill arrives. Toss in a generous handful of chopped spinach or bitter greens near the end of cooking to add more vegetables to the dish. It is worth searching out fragrant fresh curry leaves, whose aroma will nicely blanket your kitchen, and whose flavour, I promise, you will quickly find addictive!  Serve with rice as a light meal or all on its own as a satisfying soup.

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Squash Red Lentil Coconut Dal
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 2 ½ cups squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes
  • ¾ cup split red lentils (masoor dal)
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • 1 tsp coriander powder
  • ½ tsp turmeric powder
  • ¼ tsp cayenne or chile powder
  • 4 cups of water
  • 1 cup of canned coconut milk
  • 1 to 1 ½ tsp salt
  • Tempering
  • 2 shallots or 1 small onion, finely sliced
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • ½ tsp mustard seeds
  • 1 branch (8-10 leaves) fresh curry leaves
  • 2 dried red chiles
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 tbsp coriander, roughly chopped
Instructions
Put squash, red lentils, spice powders and water into a medium sized pot. Bring to a boil and skim off scum. Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. Add salt and check to see that both squash and lentils are cooked. If not, cook for another 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in one cup of canned coconut milk.

Prepare the tempering:
Heat vegetable oil over medium high heat in a small frying pan. Add mustard seeds. When they begin to pop add sliced shallots, curry leaves and dried red chiles. Cook for 5 minutes or until the shallots are light brown and translucent. Add the chopped garlic and cook for a minute. Spoon all of the tempering mixture into the dal. Adjust seasoning, if needed.

Garnish with chopped coriander and serve.

NOTE: This was originally posted on my blog on September 26, 2011