INTRODUCTION AND CULINARY HISTORY
Punjab, the land of the five rivers-Beas, Satluj, Chenab, Ravi and Jhelum, is also called the land of milk and honey. Perhaps it would be appropriate to call it the land of plenty!! Punjabi cooking and eating is just like the Punjabis themselves. It is simple and forthright. Punjabis are a hardworking and fun loving community by nature with food and merriment, very much a part of their lives.
Punjabi cuisine is never complicated. Bhunao is one of the main techniques of Punjabi cuisine specially for non-vegetarian cooking. It brings to mind images of appetizing food. Being an agricultural state the staple food of Punjab is wheat and to accompany hot rotis and parathas are a variety of the most exotic vegetarian and non-vegetarian delights.
The earliest references to region’s food are found in the Vedas, which document the lives of the Aryans in the Punjab. Amazingly the elements mentioned over 6,000 years ago are still extant in this cuisine. This includes dairy-dughd (milk),ghrit (ghee) and dadhi (curd),shak (leafy green vegetables) and a variety of grain. Even today, the staple in the Punjab is grains and vegetables in their basic form.
Ayurvedic texts refer to Vatika - a dumpling of sundried, spice specked delicacy made with lentil paste called vadi .The art of making vadi reached its acme in Amritsar with the arrival of the merchants of Marwar, who were invited by Ram Das, the fourth Guru if the Sikhs, to stream line the trade in the sacred city. There is also reference to vataka or vadha made of soaked coarsely ground and fermented mash (husked urad) daal.
The unhusked mash is the mother of all lentils. Rajmah derives from the word raj mash or the regal mash. Other pulses mentioned are chanak (channa dal) and alisandaga (identified as kabuli or large channa) that is stated to have reached India with Alexander the Great’s troops who came to India via Afghanistan.
Punjab-this side of the border or that-is situated at the crossroads of the Silk Route. This allowed the Punjabis-Sikh, Hindu and Muslim-to imbibe diverse culinary influences. The proximity with Persia, Afghanistan and Central Asia gave them a taste for fresh and dried fruits and exotic nuts.
Punjabi cuisine has always been strongly influenced by Mughal invaders who brought with them the tradition of the great Tandoor and now Punjabi tandoori cooking is celebrated as one of the most popular cuisine throughout the world.
REGIONAL COOKERY IN PUNJAB
· Peshawar-The most North Western of districts in British India is a Pathan country and the fare is akin to the food eaten in Afghanistan. The market in Peshawar handled, besides large volumes of cambric, silks and indigo, spices that came from Hyderabad(Deccan),saffron from Kashmir, sugar, salt, tea and asafetida from Delhi. The exports were raisins and dry fruits.
· Rawalpindi-South of Hazara and east of Jhelum, separated from Kashmir with Attock to its west, the district of Rawalpindi is covered with groves of oak, olive and chestnut. The flora and fauna is the same as in the other parts of the lower Himalayas. This area has imbibed culinary influences from Kashmir, North West frontier and the plains and the plains irrigated by the Indus.
· Baluchistan- Bounded on South by Arabian sea and extending in the North to Afghanistan and NWFP, Baluchistan touches Persia in the west, and Sindh and Punjab in the East. Food in the region has been basic and robust. Breads are made with wheat and jowar (barley). Cheese of different kinds are an integral part of the diet, and, among the vegetables onion, garlic and fresh asafoetida stalks are used. Rice and fish are the staple diet along the coast. Among the birds chakor and grouse relished.
· Amritsar- Shaped like an oblong between the Ravi and Beas rivers, the districts northeast of Gurdaspur and south-west of Lahore. The forests of dhaak, mango and jamun abounded in the district until recent times urbanization decimated most of them. The chief crops are wheat, gram, barley, maize, rice, cotton, pulses and sugarcane. The region is famous for its buffaloes and its milk product. Fish is also used very commonly here.
EQUIPMENTS USED IN PUNJAB CUISINE
· Madhani: It is a wooden churner fixed to a brass pot. It is used for churning out butter fron cream.
· Chakla belan: Chakla is a small marble or wooden platform and belan is the rolling pin. These are usually made up of wood. They are used for rolling the dough to make various Indian breads such as chapattis and puris.
· Kadhai: it is a deep, concave utensil made up of brass, iron or aluminium and is used for deep fat frying and also general cooking.
· Kadoo kas (grater): This equipment has sharp grooves of different sizes meant for grating.
· Channani (sieve): It is used to sieve or sift flour and commodities of similar nature. The channani can have removable inserts that have varied sizes of holes for coarse or fine sieving.
· Masala dani: It literally translates to ‘spice box’. It contains the commonly used dry spices, both whole and powdered.
· Pauni: A perforated spoon used for frying food commodities.
· Karchi (ladle): It is actually a big round spoon for stirring dal or mixing food or even serving it.
· Tawa: This flat base equipment is usually made of cast iron is used for making Indian breads such as roti and parathas. They are available in various sizes, depending upon the uses.
· Patiala: It is generally made up of brass and comes with a lid. It is used when something has to be sauted, boiled or simmered. It is also used for making gravies and cooking in bulk. These are also available in various sizes.
· Tandoor: It is a clay oven chamber, which is lit with live charcoal. It is used for baking various Indian breads, kebabs (boti, white meat, fish, prawn etc)and other items.
· Bhatti: It is used for grilling kebabs. It is an open fire grill, where coal is the only medium of fire.
· Khoncha: It is a flat metal spoon used for stir frying or sautéing the ingredients.
· Chimta: These are meant for holding the hot objects e.g. the roti on the open fire or the griddle, turning items in hot oil while deep fat frying.
· Hamam dista (mortar and pestle): It is a pair of tools used to crush, grind, and mix solid substances or masalas. It is usually made of iron but can also be made of marble stone, wood, bamboo, iron, steel, brass and basalt.
· Dori danda: It is a stoneware pot with a log of wood, used for pounding chutneys aor dry spices. The pestle could be either of wood or stone.
Miscellaneous equipments include: Chajj is a kind of winnowing instrument. Ukhli is a mortar used. Charkha is a spinning wheel. Dauri and kundi are kinds of stone mortars. Gothna and danda are wooden pestles. Chaati is a large earthern vessel. Takri is a scale. Loh is a large pan used for cooking breads.
CUISINE CHARACTERISTICS
· Most Punjabi menus are made according to the season. The universal favourite is chole-bathure which is a round-the-year item and is available at every wayside dhaba anywhere in Northern India.
· Wholewheat in different forms is the staple of this area. Rice is rarely cooked plain or steamed and is always made with a flavoring of cumin or fried onions, which is the served with rajma (kidney beans) or kadhi (curd curry). In winter, rice is cooked with jaggery - gurwala chawal or with green peas – matarwale chawal or as a delicacy called Rao ki kheer, which is rice cooked on a slow fire for hours together with sugar cane juice. Even bajra is predominantly used in some parts of the state.
· Use of dollops of ghee and/or refined oil is commonly used as a cooking media.
· The pride of the Punjabi winter cuisine is sarson-ka-saag (mustard leaves) served with blobs of white butter accompanied by makke-di-roti and lassi (churned yogurt).
· All lentils, especially black gram and yellow gram, are a part of Punjabi cuisine. Rajma or Chana are alo very popularly used.
· The main masala in a Punjabi dish consists of onion, garlic, ginger and a lot of tomatoes fried in pure ghee.
· Some typical ingredients used in the cuisine includes black carrot (kanji), mango powder (Aamchoor powder), dreid fenugreek leaves (Kasoori methi) and Pomegranate seeds (Anardana)
· Punjabi cuisine is characterized by a profusion of dairy products in the form of malai (cream), paneer (cottage cheese),curd, buttermilk and butter.
· Though chicken is a favorite with non-vegetarians, fish is also considered a delicacy, especially in the Amritsar region.
· One thing that makes Punjabi cuisine so special is the tandoor. In rural Punjab, the community tandoor, dug in the ground, is a meeting place, just like the village well, for the women folk, who bring the kneaded atta (dough) and sometimes marinated meats to have them cooked.
· Tall glasses of lassi, made of yogurt, tempered with either salt or sugar, are a popular cooling drink of Punjabi origin but it is quite popular all over the country.
· Then there is also paneer - a must in the vegetarian Punjabi menu. Several delectable items are made out of this rather bland derivative of milk. Creations like the Kadai Paneer and Makhani Paneer are basically Punjabi but are well loved all over the country.
· Phirni, a sweet dish made of milk, rice flour and sugar and chilled in earthenware bowls is a typical Punjabi dessert. Punjabi sweet dishes like gulab jamuns and burfi have a strong percentage of khoya again made from milk.
· Punjab's other grand contribution is the dhaba - the roadside eatery that has become a prominent feature on the national and state highways.
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