Modern techniques have eased the laborious task of cooking, says Iknoor Kaur after attending a session on the changing face of Indian kitchen
Ask your grandmother about how it was to cook a lavish meal in her times and she would tell you how she ground masalas on a stone for hours and stood almost the entire day to get the perfect flavours. Those times are now passé and thanks to the technology that we have options to come up with a dish in a few minutes. We also have ready-to-cook recipes available in the market.
The revolution in Indian kitchens was discussed at a recent talk ‘Changing Face of Indian Kitchen’ by Dabur India. Food scientists and experts threw light on the pan Indian culinary and changing cooking techniques.
“We provide India an opportunity to cut down cooking time. We give products like lemoneez, tomato puree, garlic and ginger paste, coconut milk, which take up a lot of effort and time to make while cooking. This helps the cook save time and prepare the meal faster,” said T Bhaskar Reddy, Head of Foods R&D, Dabur India.
Unlike times where grinders and mixers were not heard of, today one can easily make blends and spices without much effort or time. Today there are ovens instead of bhattis and packaged ingredients instead of desi materials. So much so the chakla belan is now replaced by electric roti makers. The use of new techniques in the kitchen has cut cooking time by over five hours, according to experts.
Panelists propagated that their initiative in changing the way Indian kitchens function enhanced with the introduction of their homemade products. “A lot of people think that using packaged products is not healthy but we prepare our products in such a way that the quality and the nutrition stays,” said Reddy. He cleared a lot of myths regarding packed products too.
He said that the three things people usually think about packaged ingredients are that they are not tasty, they don’t give good colour, aroma and texture to the food and that they are not fresh. He also clarified all of these points by explaining the manufacturing process of the ingredients.
To prove the authenticity of packaged ingredients, they held a live kitchen with Chef Pankaj Sharma from The lodhi.
Pankaj cooked one main dish and one dessert namely, chicken razzmatazz and watermelon fiesta. Both the dishes were made in less than 20 minutes.