Biscuits - Indian Cookies
Biscuits - Indian Cookies:
"A biscuit is a small baked bread or cake. The exact meaning varies markedly in different parts of the world, sometimes leading to confusion. The origin of the word 'biscuit' is from Latin via Middle French and means 'twice cooked'.
In British English, Australian English and New Zealand English, a biscuit is a hard baked product like a small cake which in North America may be called a 'cookie' or 'cracker'; it should be noted, however, that it has become increasingly more common within the UK and Australia for 'cookie' to be used to differentiate between the softer, more chewy 'cookie' and the harder, more brittle 'biscuit'.
In American English, a 'biscuit' is a small form of bread made with baking powder or baking soda as a leavening agent rather than yeast. (Biscuits, soda breads, and corn bread, among others, are sometimes referred to collectively as 'quick breads' to indicate that they do not need time to rise before baking.)
Biscuits are extremely similar to scones; in fact, many recipes are identical. In the United States, there is a growing tendancy to refer to sweet variations as 'scone' and to the savoury as a 'biscuit' , though there are exceptions for both (such as the cheese scone). A sweet biscuit served with a topping of fruit and juice is called shortcake. In Canada, both sweet and savoury are referred to as 'biscuits', 'baking powder biscuits' or 'tea biscuits'."
Author : IshmeetAgencies.com
Indian Spices
Indian Spices:
"Spices are seasonings for food that come from the bark, buds, fruit or flower parts, roots, seeds or stems of various aromatic plants and trees.
Harder - According to the American Spice Trade Association (ASTA), spices are 'any dried plant product used primarily for seasoning purposes.' This definition covers a wide range of plant and plant parts: tropical aromatics, leafy herbs, spice seeds, roots, dehydrated vegetables, and spice blends.
At one time only tropical aromatics like pepper, cinnamon, and cloves were considered a spice. The leaves and seeds of temperate-zone plants like basil and oregano were known as herbs. Today this classification has shifted somewhat, even though still used in some circles. The term spice now generally includes a whole range of elements: spices, herbs, blends and dehydrated vegetables.
Legally the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still considers dehydrated vegetables as separate and distinct from spices; they require such seasonings to be labeled differently than spices. Spices used for coloring like paprika and saffron are also labeled separately or as a 'spice coloring.' The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) follows similar rules as the FDA. Spice colorings and mustard must be labeled separate from spices, onion and garlic are listed as flavors, and all other dehydrated vegetables are labeled separately by name. "
Author : IshmeetAgencies.com
Cookies - Indian Cookies
Cookies - Indian Cookies:
"Cookies can be baked until crisp or just long enough that they remain soft, depending on the type of cookie. Some cookies are not cooked at all. Cookies are made in a wide variety of styles, using an array of ingredients including sugars, spices, chocolate, butter, peanut butter, nuts or dried fruits.
A general theory of cookies may be formulated this way. Despite their descent from cakes and other sweetened breads, the cookie in almost all its forms has abandoned water as a medium for cohesion. Water in cakes serves to make the base (in the case of cakes called 'batter') as thin as possible, which allows the bubbles – responsible for a cake's fluffiness – to form better. In the cookie the agent of cohesion has become some variation of the theme of oil. Oils, be they in the form of butter, egg yolks, vegetable oils or lard are much more viscous than water and evaporate freely at a much higher temperature than water. Thus a cake made with butter or eggs instead of water is far denser after removal from the oven.
Oils in baked cakes do not behave as water in the finished product. Rather than evaporating and thickening the mixture, they remain, saturating the bubbles of escaped gasses from what little water there might have been in the eggs, if added, and the carbon dioxide released by heating the baking powder. This saturation produces the most texturally attractive feature of the cookie, and indeed all fried foods: crispness saturated with a moisture (namely oil) that does not sink into it"
Author : IshmeetAgencies.com
Whole Wheat Flour
Whole Wheat Flour:
"Whole wheat flour is a powdery substance derived by grinding or mashing the whole wheat berry. It is used in baking but typically mixed with other 'white' flours to add nutrition, texture, fiber, and body to the finished product. Usually, whole wheat flour is not the main ingredients of baked goods due to its quality to add texture and a certain 'heaviness' to baked goods which prevents them from rising as well as white flours. This adds to the cost per volume of the baked item as it requires more flour to obtain the same volume due to the fewer and smaller air pockets trapped in the raised goods.
The word 'whole' refers to the fact that all of the berry is used and nothing is lost in the process of making the flour, rather than referring to the complete berry in its natural grown state. Because the flour contains the remains of all of the berry it has a textured, brownish appearance.
'Brown' bread made from whole wheat flour is more nutritious than 'white' bread made from white, refined, flour even though nutrients are added back to the white flour. This is because whole wheat bread is less refined and retains more of the naturally occurring vitamins and minerals. This is important to nutrition because while we have identified many of the vitamins and minerals occurring naturally in foods, there remain doubts that we have identified them all. Much less confidence attends our understanding of minimum daily requirements of these vitamins and minerals and any such published numbers can only be used as guidelines."
Author : IshmeetAgencies.com
Wheat Flour, Whole Wheat Flour
Wheat Flour, Whole Wheat Flour:
"The vast majority of today's flour consumption is wheat flour.
Wheat varieties are typically known as 'White' or Brown if they have high gluten content, and soft or weak flour if gluten content is low.
Hard flour, or 'bread' flour, is high in gluten and so forms a certain toughness which holds its shape well once baked. Soft flour is comparatively low in gluten and so results in a finer texture. Soft flour is usually divided into cake flour, which is the lowest in gluten, and pastry flour, which has slightly more gluten than cake flour.
All-purpose flour is a blended wheat flour with an intermediate gluten level which is marketed as an acceptable compromise for most household baking needs."
Author : IshmeetAgencies.com
Basmati Rice - Indian Basmati Rice
Basmati Rice - Indian Basmati Rice:
"Basmati is a variety of long grain rice, famous for its fragrance and delicate flavour. Its name means 'Queen of Fragrance' in Hindi the Indian language.
Basmati rice has been cultivated in India and Pakistan for hundreds of years, and some varieties are now grown in the United States. The Himalayan foothills are said to produce the best basmati and Dehra Dun is the most prized of these varieties. Patma is a basmati rice grown in West Bengal. The best types of basmati rice are aged for several years before they are milled and sold.
The grains of basmati rice are much longer than they are wide, and they grow even longer as they cook. They stay firm and separate, not sticky, after cooking. Basmati rice is available both as a white rice and a brown rice. Both of these cook in about 20 minutes. Due to the high amount of starch clinging to the rice grains, many cooks wash this rice before cooking it. Soaking it for half an hour to two hours before cooking makes the grains less likely to break in cooking."
Author : IshmeetAgencies.com
Turmeric Powder, Indian Spices
Turmeric Powder, Indian Spices:
"Turmeric (Curcuma longa, also known as tumeric) is a spice commonly used in curries and other South Asian cooking. Its active ingredient is curcumin. It is a significant ingredient in most commercial curry powders. Turmeric is also used to give a yellow color to some prepared mustards, canned chicken broth, and other foods (often as a much cheaper replacement for saffron). It makes a poor fabric dye as it is not very lightfast.
Turmeric is a member of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae.
In traditional medicine, turmeric is thought to have many healthful properties. It is taken in some Asian countries as a dietary supplement, which allegedly helps with stomach problems and other ailments. It is popular served as a tea in Okinawa, Japan. It is currently being investigated for possible benefits in Alzheimer's disease, cancer and liver disorders.
Sangli, a town in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra, is the largest and most important trading centre for turmeric in Asia or perhaps in the entire world.
Turmeric is used in product systems that are packaged to protect them from sunlight. The oleoresin is used for oil-containing products. The curcumin/polysorbate solution or curcumin powder dissolved in alcohol is used for water containing products. Over-colouring, such as in pickles, relishes and mustard, is sometimes used to compensate for fading.
Turmeric has found application in canned beverages, baked products, dairy products, ice cream, yoghurts, yellow cakes, biscuits, popcorn-colour, sweets, cake icings, cereals, sauces, gelatines, direct compression tablets, etc. In combination with Annatto (E160b) it has been used to colour cheeses, dry mixes, salad dressings, winter butter and margarine."
Author : IshmeetAgencies.com
Red Chilli, Indian Spices
Red Chilli, Indian Spices:
"Chile peppers are popular in food. They are rich in vitamin C and are believed to have many beneficial effects on health. The pain caused by capsaicin stimulates the brain to produce endorphins, natural opioids which act as analgesics and produce a sense of well-being. Psychologist Paul Rozin suggests that eating chiles is an example of a 'constrained risk' like riding a roller coaster, in which extreme sensations like pain and fear can be enjoyed because we know they are not actually harmful.
The fruit is eaten cooked or raw for its fiery hot flavor which is concentrated along the top of the pod. The stem end of the pod has glands which produce the capsaicin, which then flows down through the pod. Removing the seeds(citation needed) and inner membranes is thus effective at reducing the heat of a pod.
Well-known dishes with a strong chile flavor are Mexican salsas, Tex-Mex chili con carne, and Indian vindaloos and other curries. Chile powder is a spice made of the dried ground chiles, usually of the Mexican chile ancho variety, but with small amounts of cayenne added for heat, while chili powder is composed of dried ground chile peppers, cumin, garlic and oregano. Bottled hot sauces such as Tabasco sauce are made from chiles such as the cayenne (not, oddly, from tabasco peppers), which may also be fermented.
Indonesian, Indian, Szechuan and Thai cuisines are particularly associated with the chile pepper, although the plant was unknown in Asia until Europeans introduced it there.
Sambal is dipping sauce made from chile peppers with any other ingredients such as garlic, onion, shallots, salt, vinegar and sugar. It is very popular in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore."
Author : IshmeetAgencies.com
Garam Masala, Indian Spices
Garam Masala, Indian Spices:
"Garam masala (Hindi name) is a blend of dry-roasted ground spices common in Pakistani/Indian cuisine, whose literal meaning is 'hot spices'.
There are many variants: most traditional mixes use just cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg (and/or mace), black pepper and green cardamom seed or black cardamom pods. Many commercial mixtures may include more of other less expensive spices and may contain dried red chili peppers, dried garlic, ginger powder, sesame, mustard seeds, turmeric, coriander, cloves, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves, cumin, nutmeg, and fennel.
While commercial garam masala preparations can be bought ready ground, it does not keep well, and soon loses its aroma. It is much better to buy the whole spices, which keep fresh much longer, and to grind them when needed using a pestle or electric coffee grinder.
Garam masala can be used during cooking, but unlike many spices, it is often added at the end of cooking, so that the full aroma is not lost. Garam masala is not 'hot' in the sense that chilis are, but is fairly pungent."
Author : IshmeetAgencies.com
