The Cuisine Virtues of a Versatile India


In India, the first lockdown was declared on 24th March 2020 for 21 days. its been 2 months now and we are still following it.

OMG, I still remember the jitters and the chaos we had on the night of 23rd March 2020, the night before the lockdown was about to start. 


We as a family were partially prepared for it, as we had expected something like this would come up considering the world scenario. We had some stocks of basic food, but we were not sure how long we could sustain it.

Suddenly all the members of the family started making list for the essentials and started planning how and when to buy, started panicking as well, thinking what if the stocks are unavailable in the market due to high demand.

As days passed, and we were instructed not to venture out and follow lockdown strictly, we realized its not very bad as we had thought about it in terms of availability of the resources to meet the basic needs of food.

We as Indians are blessed to have some stock up food.

Dals & Pulses

First on the list is dals and pulses in our pantry. 

On average, we have 7-8 (this is the minimum) variety of dals and pulses available. and the best part is we have recipes for individual dals and pulses. So even if we are short of fresh veggies at times, we won't feel the emergency to go out and buy some. we can definitely survive on these for at least a few days or can alternate with fresh veggies in a week. That's what we were practicing and are doing it now too. 

Dry Fish

All fishermen folks live in congested areas, thus the chances of them being positive with the virus are higher. This takes away our pleasure of having fresh fish. Nevermind, we have dried fish that we had kept it for long in our refrigerators thinking when to use it. Yaaay now is the time. From prawns to Bombay duck and even big fish, we have it in the dried version. It is such a relief for families who are used to eating fish at least twice a week.

Sidekicks are amazing :) and were part of our Indian culture for a very long time. These are our papads, pickles, and chutneys. OH! a meal is incomplete without these. But once in a while these are your actual meal components too. Just a simple khichdi (dal & rice) or dal rice and ghee or pulao or parathas become full of life on the plate just because of these sidekicks. 

Papads


If we have to talk about papads, we have community-based papads as we have in pickles. Sindhi papad, south Indian papadums, tapioca, and poha papads from Konkan. In the Quarantine period, my MIL followed a youtube video and made papads from scratch and we enjoyed it. by the way, they were made by using simple rice.



Pickles


Our pickles range from mangoes, lemons, chilies, turmeric & ginger to prawns, mutton, and dried Bombay ducks too.



Chutneys


Chutneys may not always be the freshly ground ones, Indians usually have a variety of dry chutneys. Curry leaves (kadipatta) chutney, Moringa (drumstick leaves) chutney, peanut chutney, dry coconut chutney and the list is endless. These are like supporting actors, can be had for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner too. 


Sherbets


Lastly, I would like to mention our coolers. Yes, we call them sherbets too. When there are plenty of lemons available in the market, our moms have the habit of buying them in bulk and keeping the lemon juice ready which can be had later in summers when lemons prices shoot up. So, lemon sherbet is another form of having this ready-made juice. 
Then we store rose sherbet, kokum sherbet, at times amla sherbet too. these coolers are of big help when the temperatures soar up.

I am sure there are many such components in our kitchen which felt like a virtue during these difficult times.

LOVE

Ananya Save

www.vedusfoods.com

instagram.com/thelittlehouse.india

Edited by VED SAVE


Comments

  1. Liked the way you wrote Ananya ..it took me down the memory lane at Chinchani, our native place where all my Kakis and mom used to make diff varieties of papads and pickles during may vacation.. Ah those were the days!!!!!!...Thanku for giving me the feel of my childhood πŸ‘and ask Didi to preserve some RICE PAPADS for me .I am sure gonna come post lockdown πŸ˜ƒ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for Reading! Haha..yes..will ask her to keep some :)

      Delete
  2. Indeed a great article and a must be for every healthy family

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well placed ananya. Good write up!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Ananya , your write-up made me remember my childhood days at Chinchani! We used to totally enjoy all those foods you mentioned....like Papads, pickles, Sudharas ie lemon juice! we used to actively take part in the process just to be a help to our Mom's (kakis were our moms too)
    I also remember 'Kairy Panha' made out of tender Mangoes....during summer vacations.....since we had many mango trees of different varieties!!!
    Those were the days that prepared us to play with whatever card life dealt us with.!!!
    Kruttika Thakur

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you so much for reading. I am glad it made you happy and took you down the fun memory lane of your childhood. Yes, i missed writing about kairi panha.. may be next time

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ananya,realy our childhood was blessed with all these things we use to enjoy at our native place Chinchani!
    Ours was Joint Family so was lots of fun during vacation
    Thanks Ananya very nicely written !!!!!!πŸ‘

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for reading! Yes, i have heard many stories about chinchani. Love that place..

      Delete
  7. Beautiful write up Ananya.. Mala ek sang ..where do you get your dry fish from? This year we are really dry.. Please let me know.. I want haldi n chutney too..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello ! Thank you for reading. since you are not signed up with blogger, your name is not disclosed. could you please mention your name. would love to share dry fish contact on whatsapp. and can help you with haldi & chutney too

      Delete
  8. Wow you had so much, love some of the rice papad. Well written

    ReplyDelete
  9. Just had a query, how come you have no hyperlink in the whole article?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi! could you enlighten on this plz. ?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts