Publication |
New Delhi, Centre for Science and Environment, 2017.
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Description |
217p.Yellow spine
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Series |
First food
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Summary/Abstract |
Communities across India have found innovative ways to use seasonal produce that grows locally. They use leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds and roots to cook tasty and delectable recipes that are both nutritious and tasty. This volume brings together a collection of nearly fifty unusual, diverse and enthic recipes that use local Indian produce. The ingredients are seasonal and hence available for only a short time, but their taste lingers for long. You would surely wait for the next season to savour them again.
Food is very personal. We know that. What we often don’t realise is that food is also more than personal. Food is also about culture and, most importantly, about biodiversity. We often do not think how flora and fauna around us make up our culture. We do not think that food diversity, indeed cultural diversity, is linked to diversity in the biological world. As a result, we often do not value this biodiversity that grows in the wild, in the farm, in the forest and the lake and the ocean. Each region of India, indeed the world, is diverse in its food habits. It has its own recipes; it cooks with different ingredients; it eats differently. This is not an accident. Every region, for instance, has its own rice variety. Many of these come with medicinal properties. Most are specific to the ecosystem they grow in. If the region is drought-prone, the variety survives in tough conditions, like Kayame rice of Karnataka. The Orkaima, Pokkali and Kuttadan varieties found in low-lying districts of Kerala are salt-resistant, hence suitable to grow in seawater. In the highlands of the same state, another rice variety is grown: Navara (in Palakkad), which has medicinal properties and has received the Geographical Indication Certificate in 2007. This richness of variety resulted in culinary methods that were equally diverse and equally rich. Bengal has a tradition of cooking different rice in different seasons. This is our food culture.
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Contents |
Leaves
Flowers
Fruits and vegetables
Seeds
Preservation
Business
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Standard Number |
978818690696 Pb.
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