North Indian Cuisine – Rich creamy delights
There are nine states that make up the North Indian region: Jammu and Kashmir, Himchai Pradesh, Punjab, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
This region’s cuisine is influenced by its extreme climate of hot summers and cold winters, resulting in an abundance of fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables available to create spectacular vegetarian dishes.
The Northern region favours bread over rice, as this is the home of tandoori style cooking (delicious smoky flavoured breads made in a clay tandoor oven). The people of this region enjoy bread stuffed with meats and vegetables and use a lot of nuts in their everyday cooking.
Each region has its own preference for the oils, spices and base ingredients that influence their dishes. The Northern Indians are well known for using coriander, cumin, dry red chillies, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves and garam masala. They prefer to cook with vegetable oils and use ghee for special occasions. You will find dairy products are used in most dishes such as milk, cream, yoghurt and ghee. Their curries are typically thick, creamy and mildly spicy.
Most of our simmer sauces and pastes allow you to create authentic dishes from the North, such as Chicken Tikka or Butter Chicken. Try our Butter Chicken Hot Pot Pie as an indulgent dish from the North.
South Indian Cuisine – the Super Spicy State!
The South Indian region is made up of four states: Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Kerala. This region’s cuisine is influenced by its hot humid climate and abundant rainfall. It is this climate that provides the area with its love of fiery dishes that are largely vegetarian but also include a lot of seafood, due to its close proximity to the coast.
Each region has its own preference for the oils, spices and base ingredients that influence their dishes. The Southern Indians love rice and rice-based dishes. They prefer to cook and fry with coconut oil and their favourite spices are chillies, curry leaves, fenugreek seeds, mustard, pepper and peppercorns and tamarind.
One of our favourite dishes from the South is Spicy Chicken Coconut Rasam.
West Indian Cuisine – Diversity that delivers
Four states make up the West Indian region: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa. This region’s cuisine is influenced by its dry climate, where vegetables aren’t as plentiful so it’s common for them to be preserved as pickles and chutneys. The West boasts the most diverse style of Indian cuisine, ranging from spicy vegetarian and meat dishes to slightly sweet snacks through to hot and spicy coconut curries.
Each region has its own preference for the oils, spices and base ingredients that influence their dishes. The West Indians enjoy the diversity of corn, lentils and gram flour to chillies, buttermilk, coconut and sugar-based dishes. They prefer to cook with vegetable oils and their favourite spices and ingredients are chillies, sugar, coconut, vinegar and sesame seeds
To create an authentic dish from the West, use our Vindaloo Simmer Sauce and make a delicious pork dish.
East Indian Cuisine – Savour the simplicity
There are 10 states in the East Indian region: West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachai Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and Orrisa. This region’s cuisine is influenced by the fact that it experiences the highest rainfall in the world and therefore produces a huge amount of rice. Fish is very popular in the coastal areas, while further inland pork and beef are the meats of choice. This region favours simplicity in its dishes, with steaming and frying being the popular cooking methods.
Each region has its own preference for the oils, spices and base ingredients that influence their dishes. The East Indians are well known for simple dishes and their love for sweets. They prefer to cook with vegetable oils and mustard seed, and milk and dairy products help create their sweets.
For an authentic dish from the East, use our Tikka Masala Paste to create mouth-watering Tikka Masala Fish Parcels.