Raïta...The Indian Fire Extinguisher!

A Cucumber And Fresh Mint Raita. Courtesy of 
 Wikipedia on Googl

Has it ever occurred  to you that the reason why people from India or Pakistan are good in mathematics and computer science is because of the food they have been eating generation after generation? Which means if we keep on eating Indian / Pakistani food morning, lunch and dinner for the rest of our lives our children may come out to be mathematics geniuses!!!.. Anyway I wouldn't mind eating it everyday. Coming back to our subject of fire extinguishing, the Raïta, is a flavored yogurt...


Yogurt is very good for the health especially for the walls of the human organ called "stomach". If you have 200 gr bowl of yogurt for dinner you will sleep like a baby! And does not mean that you have grown old or that's all your doctor allows you to eat. It means you are a healthy person looking after his health.
So people from India and Pakistan have introduced yogurt in their diet because it is healthy and because their food is generally spicy, and hot so the yogurt comes to "extinguish" the fires inside the digestive system. Much like the Greeks have the "Tzatziki" (my post of May 3rd 2011) which they eat with nearly everything.
My Home Made Tzatziki

There are many types of Raïta.
-  The simple raïta made of yogurt and fresh mint leaves like the one we had yesterday with out Chicken Tikka Kebab.
-  The cucumber raïta made of yogurt and little cubes of cucumber and fresh coriander (cilantro) or fresh mint.
-  The mixed spices raïta basically made from yogurt with slightly toasted cumin seeds, and / or any other slightly toasted crushed dry coriander seeds, green or black cardamom seeds anything your mind can imagine. 
-  There are other "Spicy Hot" raïta which I am not going to mention because we will be defeating our purpose here.
Raïta can be eaten with:
-  Curries.
-  Byrianis.
-  Tikkas.
-  Tandoori made food.
-  Vegetable and fish dishes.
-  As a dip.
-  In short: Everything.
A Raita will come to freshen your palate while and after Indian / Pakistani Food.
Thank you for your kind attention,
Cheers,
Stelio

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bamia Mafroukeh--Ladies fingers with beef or lamg -Taste of Sudan.

S udan is the largest country in Africa. Lately there was a quarrel between the North and South (Juba). The reason: Oil. Chevron and other Petroleum companies found lots of Oil reserves in the South and so the fight started. I personally visited the village of Bentu, in the South during one of my visits to Chevron Oil Company in the South. As all countries, the Sudan also has its local foods. A very popular one is Molokhia which grows only in summer. Bamia, in Arabic, lady's fingers or internationally known as Okra can be readily found all year round. Bamia Mafroukeh is a delicious food eaten with the Sudanese bread called Kisra. The term Mafroukeh is act of breaking down the bamia when it well cooked to turn it into a thick, soup. There is special wooden utensil the Sudanese use. Ingredients: - 1 kg bamia Lady's fingers or Okra. - 1 kg beef or lamb bone free. - 1/2 kg fresh tomatoes cut in quarters. - 1 big onion roughly cut. - 6 cloves of garlic finely cut. - ...
Read more

First Post (after a long time) January14th 2020 Pommes Dauphinoise

Image
A  most delicious common side dish for the Christmas Holidays, where fresh cream may be consumed without too much worry, is baked dish of sliced cream potatoes or culinarily the French would call  Pommes Dauphinoise. Please bear with me as it has been over 3 years I haven't blogged or used this program. Ingredient: - 1.4 kg of potatoes. - 500 ml full cream 35% - 500 ml full fat milk. - 2 cloves of garlic very finely cut. - some butter, salt and pepper to taste. Procedure: - Buy the potatoes as clean as possible. Peel and slice without washing into half inch slices. -  Mix sliced potatoes into a pan which can withstand the fire of the hob,all the milk and all the cream. Mix well. - Add the garlic. - Season with salt. pepper and nutmeg to taste. - Boil the potato mix till the potatoes are nearly soft. - At this point scatter a few pieces of butter around the pan and immediately transfer the pan into the oven till a nice color is obtained. 40 to 60 minut...
Read more

Mistake recovery

My dear readers I have to announce my first mess up in this wonderful blog of mine. The dish I so elaborately wrote about regarding oven scalloped potatoes is called. Gratin Dauphinois and not Pommes Dauphines. Thanks
Read more