Vacation Travel India

http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/arti06 ARTI won an Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy in 2006. To find out more visit the link above and check out the Ashden Awards Blog http://ashdenawards.blogspot.com

The Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI) in Pune has developed a biogas plant which uses food waste rather than manure as feedstock and supplies biogas for cooking. The plant is sufficiently compact to be used by urban households, and over 700 are currently in use.

Pune is a relatively affluent city in south India, and many people use liquid petroleum gas (LPG) or kerosene for cooking. Waste food is often discarded at the side of the road, as in many cities, attracting stray dogs, flies and rats and creating a public health hazard. The ARTI compact biogas plant is made from two standard high-density polyethylene (HDPE) water tanks: the larger tank acts as the digester and the smaller one is inverted and placed into it to serve as a gas-holder. The plant safely digests kitchen waste, food waste or waste flour from mills, thus reducing the problem of waste disposal. A 1,000 litre plant produces sufficient biogas to at least halve the use of LPG or kerosene for cooking in a household, as well as a small amount of liquid effluent which can be used as fertiliser. ARTI has developed the technology, field tested it, and managed the supply of about 700 biogas plants in Maharashtra. Around 100 plants are now being installed every month.

The first-prize Ashden Award to ARTI recognises the enormous potential for using this compact biogas digester in towns and cities, both to supply cooking gas and to ist in the disposal of organic waste.

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An integral part of your north India tour must be the food, especially the sweets. Often too sweet for the non-Indian palate, the huge array of Indian confections and desserts is largely milk-based. Bengal is particularly well-known for its confections. These include the rasagulla, sandesh, rasamalai and the steaming hot gulab-jamuns. Typical of the north are the barfis (milk cakes), some of pure milk, others of coconut or various types of nuts. Crisp gold-znjelabis, dripping with syrup, made even in the tiniest bazaars all over the country, are breakfast and tea-time favorites.

Kheer, the Indian equivalent of rice pudding; sllahi tukra, a variation on bread pudding; phirni, made of powdered rice and served in earthenware bowls; and kulfi, a rich nutty ice cream, are common northern desserts. Sweets from the South include Mysore pak and the creamy payasam, while the Gujaratis are partial to srikhand made of drained, sweetened and spiced dahi. Halvas are created from ingredients as diverse as carrots, semolina, dais, eggs, or even wholemeal flour.

Finally, there is the satisfying ritual of the after-dinner pan, which is lauded for its digestive and medicinal, if addictive, properties. It is a fragrant combination of betel leaf, areca nut, catechu, cardamom, cloves and other fragrant ingredients.

Meals in the South revolve around rice, eaten with dal-based soups, thin and spicy rasams and the thicker sambars, often flavoured with tamarind. To these are added “sarnbar powder”, made up of spices such as coriander, methi (fenugreek) seeds, cumin and the pungent asafoetida. Often they are finished by “tempering”, chillies and whole spices heated in oil until the important black mustard seeds “pop”; the whole lot is then poured on the top of the dish. Dry vegetable dishes (and in certain places, notably Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, spicy meat and fish preparations) are also served with the rice, to which is added copious quantities of curd (yoghurt) and fiery pickles.

If you go on a north India tour, you must try Kadi, which is made from dahi and gram with spices. Gur or jaggery (unrefined sugar) adds a hint of sweetness to piquant sauces. Am rasa, the pureed pulp of mangoes eaten with puris, is a special treat on summer days.

Although Bengali food is never actually sweetened, it is customary to serve a sweet along with the other food as a foil to the hot chillies, or for a change in flavor. In keeping with religious mandates, Gujarati (especially Jain) and Bengali vegetarian food is often cooked without the garlic, ginger, onions, and the “heating” or stimulating spices.

Possibly the “purest” form of North Indian vegetarian food is the Banarsi. Lightly spiced, many specialities are based on panir (soft cheese). A good source of protein, it is cooked in innumerable ways, with spinach (palak panir), in a gravy with peas (matter panir) or lotus seeds (panir phulmakhana).

Then there are the deep-fried or stuffed breads, made of combinations of refined and wholemeal flour; the golden puffs called puris, the parathas, baturas and so on. Most widely eaten is the simple chapatti, baked on a griddle.

Meat and fish delicacies

Muslim influence is most evident in the cooking of meats. The major contribution was the tandoor, the conical earthen oven from which, emerged a delectable array of kababs and rotis This was the origin of the famous tandoori cooking, brought from the Northwest Frontier but available all over the country - the tandoori chicken, seekh, boti and barra kababs, and tan doori fish. Among the rods are the elongated naan, the tandoori rod, or its richer equivalent the tandoori paratha. All are delicious breads.

The fastidious Mughals transformed local recipes, developing what has become known as Mughlai cuisine, with its luscious sauces of dahi, cream and crushed nuts. An amazing variety is on offer, including: the rich kormas and nargisi koftas (meatballs shaped around a hard-boiled egg) of Lucknow; the pasandas or mutton steaks cooked in an almond sauce; the biriyani, a layered rice and meat concoctior. famous in Hyderabad; and a variety of kababs that literally melt in the mouth.

Laden with nuts, dried fruits and saffron. Kashmiri Muslim food is a gourmet’s joy and bears much in common with Persian food. Haleem, mutton pounded with wheat; gaustaba, incredibly light meatballs; and rogan josh are well-known Kashmiri specialities.

Fish too, is prepared in many ways: the mustard-flavoured macher jhol and malai or cream prawns of Bengal, the chilli-hot curries of Andhra, the coconut and curry-leaf flavored specialties of the south and the memorable fish and shellfish curries of Goa. Hilsa, a Bengali specialty, has spiky bones that support melt-ingly delicate flesh and requires careful chewing. Dried fish, misleadingly known as Bombay Duck, is cooked with vegetables or dais and adds interest to the simpler fare of Maharashtra.

The Parsis also contributed interesting dishes. Dhansak, meat cooked with five different dais and an unusual blend of spices, and patrani machi, lightly spiced fish steamed in banana leaves, are just two examples.

Chutneys and pickles, sweet, sour, hot, or all three, stimulate the appetite and add relish to a meal. Many ingredients can be used: mint, coriander, mango, ginger, lime and vegetables with extravagant spices or just salt.

Papads (or papadams), roasted or fried savoury crisps, add crunch. They are made from a previously prepared dough of dal, rice, or vegetable flour.

One of the most important “part” of the India tour packages is the food. Characteristic of the many and diverse styles of Indian cookery is the use of spices, used not only for flavor but also as appetite nulators and digestives. Care is taken to ensure that the spices enhance rather than dominate the basic flavor. Traditionally, the ingredients in each meal were governed by the time of the year and classifications of heating or cooling foods, age, and even personality. Once there were also injunctions on the six rasas or flavors to be included in every meal: sweet, salty, bitter, astringent, sour and pungent. Each was believed to have its particular physical benefit and was prescribed in specific ratio to the others.

Essential ingredients

Other than spices, the important ingredients in Indian cuisine include milk and milk products, particularly ghee and dahi (curd). To the orthodox, a meal is “pure” only if cooked in ghee; an emphasis that derives not just from its distinctive fullness and unique flavour but from its acclaimed preservative qualities.

Dahi is part of almost any Indian menu. Served to mitigate the chilli “hotness” of some dishes, it is often mixed with vegetables or fruit and is lightly spiced to create the raitas of the North and the pachadis of the South. An important ingredient in several recipes, dahi is also churned and salted or sweetened to taste and served in summer as lassi, a cooling drink.

Dais (split lentils) are common to most parts of the country. Regional preferences and availability have resulted in a bewildering variety, from the thick tamarind-flavored sambars of the South and the sweetish dais of Gujarat to the delicious makhani dal of North India.

Vegetarian variety

The style of vegetable cooking is determined by the cereal or main dish with which they are served. Deep-fried vegetable crisps are perfect accessories to the sambhar and rice of Tamil Nadu. The thick avial stew of Kerala cooked in coconut oil, or the kaottu in a coconut and gram sauce, are perfect for rice-based meals. Sarson ka sag, mustard greens, eaten with maki ki roti (maize bread), is a particular favorite in the Punjab, while the delicately flavored chorchori of Bengal complements Bengal’s rice and fish.

India presents a vast range of vegetarian cooking. The roasted and steamed food of the south is lighter than northern cooking. Rice is the basis of every meal. It is served with sambar, rasam (a thin peppery soup), vegetables, both dry and in a sauce, andpachadi. Coconut is used in cooked foods as well as chutneys. Made of fermented rice and dal batter, the dosa, vada and idli are South Indian snacks popular all over the country.

The semolina-based upma, cooked with curry leaves and garnished with nuts and copra, is another favorite. Other in-between bites found everywhere are the samosa, a three-cornered deep-fried pastry parcel with potatoes, and pakoras or bhajiyas - vegetables coated in a gram batter and deep-fried. In Gujarat, another region famous for its vegetarian food, gram flour, a source of protein, is used in bread-making and as a component of various dishes.

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