Common Indian Cooking Styles

Welcome to the food paradise! India is a land of varied tastes and flavours with the flavours that vary with different cultures and regions. Many might not know this but the country has some 35% of the people that are strictly vegetarians and there are roughly 30% that are regular meat eaters, states the top North Indian restaurant in Delhi.

It might be interesting to note that the tastes and preferences vary highly with the changing geographies along with the climatic conditions. With such an immersive variety that the Indian food offers, it in fact is imperative to have a look at the common cooking styles that Indians have:

-Roasting Dry Spices

Spices such as garam masala, ground cumin, coriander seeds and other curry spices are roasted dry in a frying pan. This is one of the common practices when preparing north Indian cuisine in Delhi or any household. Once the frying pan or the iron girdle is preheated on a medium flame, the spices are added and are continuously stirred until the spices turn a few shades darker.

-Adding Seasoning to the Dals (cereals)

Commonly known as tarka, some oil (ghee) is added to a pan followed by masalas like mustard seeds, cumin, chopped onion and garlic, chillies and heeng (asafoetida). Then these are cooked and stirred for some one minute until the mustard seeds start popping.

-Grinding Masalas

It is one of the ways we store our spices. We use a coffee grinder or a specific spice grinder to powder spices like garam masala, turmeric and red chillies amongst others, explains a top North Indian restaurant Dhaba By Claridges. 

-Cooking in Tandoors

Exclusive and unique to Indian cooking is tandoori cooking style. Now that meat, seafood and chicken is cooked in Tandoors, tandoor cooking has become a significant style of cooking.