#7: India

🙏Namaste everybody! We landed in the most populous country in the world today; Lots of mouths to feed which means lots of delicious food at once. India is a land of many traditions and beliefs that are linked to its way of eating, which is quite curious, and here we will see some interesting facts about the gastronomy of the Asian country.

🍛As a first point, quite clear and not strange to many, is that Hindi dishes are full of spices, this is basic in these dishes since as the vast majority of them are grown in the country, its inhabitants practically use them every day and thanks to their great production they have been exported to many countries for many years. There is one spice in particular that is made up of many at once, I explain it to you in a simple way. According to Alfaro, (2023), "The word masala simply means "spices," and garam means "hot." However, garam masala doesn't necessarily constitute a particularly spicy blend." (para 2) It is basically composed of cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, bay leaves, coriander powder, cumin and nutmeg; Everything can vary depending on the person who does it, but one thing is for sure and that is that it should not contain turmeric. It is mostly used in the typical curries that have many variations because remember that masala means spice and these can vary depending on what you want to achieve such as more spicy, more neutral or more aromatic.

🌿Something very curious and even admired by many is that in India it is very naturalized to be a vegetarian, I am not saying that everyone is, but there are many dishes that do not contain animal meat.  I don't know if you know this but in India cows for example are sacred in their beliefs because eating them is very frowned upon, so if a dish contains some meat, it could be lamb that is very typical, chicken or fish. As for the pig, the Indian religion considers it a dirty and impure animal, so its consumption is prohibited. For the rest of the world, India can become an example to follow for its eating practices and many dishes are considered very healthy. 

🔥The other side of the coin or the bad side of the situation is that not everyone can like Indian food to the stomach, it is known that spices can become very spicy and strong on the palate so a person who is not used to it or who simply has very little tolerance to spiciness,   I wouldn't enjoy the food so rigorously, in both respects I share the regret of not daring to try many dishes.

As I mentioned, the gastronomy of India scares me a bit since I do not tolerate a lot of spice, but fortunately I have tried only one dish, and it was enough to rate India with 7 out of 10 golden spoons.

🍳Recipe: Murgh Makhan🍗 or Butter Chicken (for 3-4 portions)

✈This is the recipe that I dared to make in a day of experimentation, and it was wonderful, I felt like I traveled to a market in India, so here I show it to you. 🎇

Sauce for marinating the chicken:

• 2 large chicken breasts
• 1 teaspoon of Garam Masala (If you can't find it, you can gather all the spices I mentioned above, grind them in a food processor or bag, crush them with a heavy object, put them in a container for the oven and at 180 degrees Celsius leave them there for 10-15 minutes, so they don't burn!)
• 1 teaspoon of minced garlic 
• 1/2 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger
• 1-1/4 cups of natural yogurt
• 1 teaspoon of chili powder
• 3 tablespoons of lemon juice
• Salt to taste

Sauce of Murgh Makhan

• 2 tsp minced garlic (about 4 cloves of garlic)
• 1/2 tsp. Grated fresh ginger.
• 5 tbsp. unsalted butter (3 first and 2 after blending the sauce)
• 1/3 large white onion, diced.
• 500 grams of tomatoes (about 4-5 medium tomatoes), cut into pieces. 
• 1/2 cup cashew, cashew, or cashew seeds
• 1 and 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar 
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder (the dish is not spicy, but if you want it to be a little spicy, add 1 or 1.5 ts.) 
• 1 tablespoon Garam Masala
• 1 tsp. fenugreek powder (fenugreek, in Hindi called "kasoori methi") 
• 1 tsp. coriander seed powder
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water* plus more if the sauce is consumed heavily.
• 1 tablespoon cumin powder 
• Salt to taste
• 4 tablespoons half cream or whipping cream.

1. The first step is relatively simple, in a large bowl put the skinless chicken breasts, add all the ingredients that are going to marinate it and let it rest for at least 2 hours covered with plastic wrap.
2. Spent time in a deep skillet or small pot, sauté and cook the chicken very well. When it's cooked, cut it into small pieces.
3. Leave the chicken aside and in the same pan or pot melt butter, while this happens add the onion so that it cooks and is translucent, when this happens add the tomatoes and cashew seeds, let everything cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes until everything is soft. After 5 minutes, add the rest of the remaining ingredients except the half cream or whipped cream, and let the water consume for 15 minutes.
4. In a blender we are going to put all the ingredients that we have just cooked, if a lot of liquid was consumed put a little more water so that they can be blended until homogeneous.
5. In the same pan or pot where we cooked everything, put more butter and the blended sauce, mix and add the half cream or whipped cream. In the same pan or pot where we cooked everything, put more butter and the liquefied sauce, mix and add the half cream or whipped cream. Add the chopped chicken and mix until all the chicken is covered in the sauce and that's it! Accompany this delicacy with white rice. 🍛

💖Thanks for reading. See you in the next country, Bye. 👋

References

Danilo Alfaro. (2023). What is Garam Masala?

What Is Garam Masala? (thespruceeats.com)