India is well-known for delicious food, and the kitchen is considered to be a sacred place in any Indian home. And now India has something else to be proud of: the world’s largest solar kitchen. The system has been installed as a collaboration between the Academy for a Better World and Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, with technology from Solare-Brücke, Germany. With 84 receivers and cooking at 650 degrees, the system can produce up to 38,500 meals a day when the sun is at its peak.

 

This is not only amazing but a great stride towards alternative energy. Today LPG is the primary source of kitchen fuel and if a culture of solar kitchen started in India, it will help reduce so much burning of fossil fuel.

Next, a solar car?

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Do you really know what you just ate was a Kurma (or Korma), or Rogan Josh or Dopiaza? What is Chicken tikka masala? and Uh! what the heck is a Balti? 

Indian restaurants across the globe has done a mavellous job at befuddling indian food lovers. It is no wonder that britishers were confused as hell on the names of various preparations of main dishes and just called everything a “curry”.

India has a rich culinary heritage. Prior to it being defamed as a “curry”, every style of dish in India had a unique name. I thought, if you are a food lover, you might want to get your facts straight.

Balti

Balti in Hindi means a bucket. No one indian would associate that with a cuisine unless he has visited one of the UK’s Balti restaurants. Claimed to be a style of cooking that developed in Birmingham twenty or thirty years ago, there are a number of theories on the origin of the term including its origin from Baltistan. As confusing as its origin, the taste of the Balti food cannot be claimed to be consistent.

Karahi 

Karahi Chicken anyone? Karahi is strictly not a style of cooking but refers to the serving dish, which is made of cast iron on a wooden base and pre-heated, so that the curry sizzles in the serving dish when it is brought to the table. How is that dish made is completely upto the cook preparing it. So, you can fool your guests by serving any “curry” in a hot karahi and call it Karahi whatever.

Bhuna, Bhoona

Any dish that does not contain much of gravy is a Bhuna. The dryness can range from fairly dry and deep fried to a very thick gravy. Bhuna dishes are always fried with onions and select spices.

Dhansak

Dhansak origins are from persia and is a very special dish prepared during festivities. The base must always be of a combination of lentils (Dals) with spices. The dish served in restaurants range from hot and sweet to sour and tangy. A slightly uncommon dish.

Do-piaza

Chances are you must have had “chicken do-piaza“, haven’t you? A universal dish which literally means “two onions”. Primarily a do-piaza is a Bhuna dish with lot more onions and lot more gravy.

Jalfrezi (Jaalfraizee)

Jalfrezi is a hot dish given additional heat by being cooked with fresh green chillis. It usually also contains visible onion, tomato and capsicum. It is the addition of the green chillis and probably addition of extra chilli powder that sets this dish apart from other typical curries on the menu. It is generally served as hot as a Madras or Vindaloo depending on the chef’s interpretation or mood.

Korma (Kurma, Qurma)

Korma is a mild curry prepared with butter and thickened with single cream and coconut milk to give a mild creamy sauce. Spicing would be more subtle, and there would be more use of aromatic spices such as cardomom, clove and cinnamon rather than the more robust spices such as chilli, cumin, black pepper etc

Today the Korma can pretty much be anything as long as its a milk curry. For example, all pictures on this page are claimed to be Korma.

Madras Curry

Madras Curry must have originated first by a south indian cook who accidentally spilled a whole bag of chilies in the curry. Madras is a city in southern India and is a fiery hot place. So, this style of cooking has nothing to do with either Madras or any spice from here. In an Indian restaurant, Madras simply means a hot dish.

Rogan Josh

Before commercialization of this dish in UK by indian restaurants, Rogan Josh simply meant “Kashmiri lamb stew”. It still exists as a traditional dish in Kashmir but that is where the resemblance stops. Now in Indian restaurant the term is used to describe a dish cooked with tomatoes and onions and probably capsicum for good measure.

Tikka Masala

People claim “Tikka Massala” as Britain’s No. 1 favourite indian dish. Ironically, until recently, nobody in India had even heard of that name.
The clever tactics of restaurants worked beautifully in this case. The origin of Tikka Massala is presumably from a restaurant that made too much of Chicken tikkas (skewered tandoor cooked chicken) and didn’t know what to do with them. So, they invented a curry by combining the left-over Tikka meat with some left over generic curry sauce. The result was splendid as all londoners flocked on to that restaurant.

Vindaloo

Vindaloo owes its origins to Portugese colonial India, where it was traditionally a Potato, Pork and Vinegar curry from the island of Goa. Whether the Vin stands for Vinegar or Wine, the term now is really indicative of the strength or heat of the curry. It usually has diced potatoes in the sauce along with the chosen meat.

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A popular belief about acne and pimples is that foods such as chocolate, fast foods, deep fried and spicy stuff. However, none of the studies have linked these. The principal cause of teenage acne is the hormonal upheavals that occur during adolescence, which can lead to overactivity of oil glands in the dermal layer of the skin. However, a recent study suggests that dairy products, particularly skim milk, may play a role in acne outbreaks.

The study, reported in the February 2005 Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, published a report that women who drank more than three servings of any type of milk per day were 22 percent more likely to report having had severe acne than those who drank only one (or less) servings per week. Those who consumed two or more glasses of skim milk daily were 44 percent more likely to say that they had been diagnosed with severe acne as teenagers.

These findings are not likely to be the last word on the subject. More studies will be needed to confirm the association between some dairy products, particularly skim milk, and acne. It is advisable to keep children off cow’s milk and other dairy products at an early age, if the family history includes allergies, asthma, bronchitis, sinus conditions, or autoimmunity. The milk protein casein can irritate the immune system and thicken mucus secretions. We’ll see if acne is another condition that responds favorably to eliminating cow’s milk and milk products.

If you have access to calcium-fortified soy milk, almond milk, or rice milk, go for it. At least try to substitute a major portion of your milk intake with these alternatives. Regarding soy milk, I would recommend buying organic products and looking for brands that don’t have carageenan, a thickening agent which may not be safe.