An Indian Feast Advent Calendar [13] Quiz

Answer: Bread

Naan is one of the most widely familiar of Indian breads. It is made from a leavened dough (usually with yeast), giving it a light fluffy texture. This is often enhanced by the use of white flour. It can be cooked in an oven or on a griddle (or in a skillet), but the traditional method is placing it on the wall of a tandoor, a vase-shaped clay oven with a wood or charcoal fire inside its base. After the ball of dough is flattened on the wall of the tandoor, gravity pulls it down to form the common teardrop shape. The bread cooks on both sides, with the one next to the oven wall becoming slightly more browned in the process, while the side exposed to the hot air tends to get a rather speckled appearance.

Naan can be eaten hot or cold, and is often served as an accompaniment to a dish which has a significant amount of sauce, which it can be used to sop up. When served with dryer dishes, it may be torn into smaller pieces on which a portion of food is placed to be conveyed to the mouth.

Answer: Bread

Paratha are thin flatbreads, which may be served plain or stuffed. They have a flaky texture produced by repeatedly rolling the dough, coating with ghee, folding into a layered structure, and repeating. There are several traditional methods for this process, involving different folding methods, which produce slightly different textures in the final bread. But they're all delicious!

Slightly more robust than a chapati or roti because of the layering, plain parathas are often served as a side dish. Stuffed parathas may be a meal in themselves - traditionally, they were seen as a breakfast staple. Fillings can be almost anything the cook desires, with the name then indicating the filling. Aloo paratha, for example, is filled with spiced mashed potato, gobi paratha with cauliflower, keema paratha with minced meat, and paneer paratha with fresh cheese.

Answer: Bread

The idli is described as a rice cake originating in southern India, but the batter from which they are made also includes fermented and de-husked black lentils. The earliest recorded version of an idli was based on the type of lentils known as back gram; the addition of rice, the fermentation of the mixture, and the method of cooking it by steaming developed over time. Once the batter has been prepared, it is placed in indentations in a tray that then fits on top of a pan with boiling water, then covered and steamed.

The basic idli has little flavour, and spices are often added to the mixture either before fermentation or during steaming. Alternatively, the finished idlis may be rolled in a spice mixture. When plain, they are usually served with a chutney for flavouring - their texture does not make them work very well as an accompaniment to a curry, but that is an option. Some regional variants include filling the idli with vegetables or dahl. The rava idli uses semolina instead of rice, a variation developed during World War II when rice was in short supply, and still popular with some.

Answer: Bread

Masala dosa is a crisp flatbread, originating in the state of Karnataka, which is prepared slightly differently in every town (each of which is the 'authentic' version). Dosa is a crepe-like bread made from rice and pulses; masala refers to a mixture of spices.

The dosa starts with a fermented batter made from poha, which is also called flattened rice. The rice is de-husked then parboiled before being dried, roasted and flattened. The poha is soaked (for a long time, such as overnight if you want it ready for breakfast) with legumes of choice, such as chickpeas or black gram; when the water has been absorbed the mixture is ground or blended to form a batter, and your choice of spices such as chili or fenugreek are added. This mixture is then spread thinly on a hot pan and cooked. If you want your dosa extra crispy, use a thinner batter to produce paper dosa. To serve, roll into a cylinder or fold into a decorative shape.

Answer: Vegetarian dish

Aloo is potato, gobi is cauliflower (remember the paratha variants), and aloo gobi is a tasty vegetarian dish from the Punjab. Actually, I should say that aloo gobi is any one of several dishes from the region, because you may find aloo gobi served as basically these two vegetables coated in spices and fried or steamed, or you may find it presented as a curry with spiced sauce made from tomatoes and onions. If the latter, the potato and cauliflower may be deep-fried before simmering in the sauce.

Producing a good aloo gobi can be tricky, as the two vegetables have different cooking times, even if they have been prepared to be in pieces of the same size. This can be addressed either by some pre-cooking or by adding them at different times. No matter which version you are making, you will want to include appropriate spices: cumin, coriander and chili are popular dried spices to use, while grated ginger and garlic are a standard starting point for making any Indian sauce.

Answer: Vegetarian dish

Chana masala, also called chole, is a chickpea curry that is traditionally served with bhatura (a fluffy deep-fried leavened sourdough bread) in a dish called chole bhature. Preparation of chana masala starts with soaking the chickpeas overnight - but if you're in a rush, using boiling water to soak them makes it quicker, and opening a can turns chole into a weeknight meal.

Like many curries, the sauce is prepared by frying onion, garlic and ginger until soft, adding dried spices (cumin, coriander, and turmeric for its yellow colour and slightly peppery taste) and frying long enough to release their flavours, then adding diced (or tinned if you want an instant dish) tomatoes and the chickpeas, which simmer for a while, until the tomatoes have broken down and the chickpeas are soft. A squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkling of garam masala spice mix complete the dish.

Of course, this is just a generic recipe. Every cook will have their own preferred spices to include - including their own preferred preparation of garam masala, but that's another story entirely. If you want an introduction to Indian cooking with flavourful spices but no chili heat, this is wonderful. If you want to increase the heat, it is quite acceptable to add chopped red or green chilies while it simmers.

Answer: Vegetarian dish

Dal (also seen as dahl, dhal, daal) is a generic term for lentils or other pulses, and makhani is the Hindi word for buttery. No prized for guessing that this dish is made from legumes cooked with butter. This is actually a dish whose creator is documented - Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi created it in the Moti Mahal restaurant in the 1950s, as a vegetarian alternative to their successful butter chicken. This means that there is actually a 'right' way to prepare the dish, although cooks introduce their own twists - and the exact spice combination is a trade secret which others can approximate or vary.

Black lentils (urad dal) and red kidney beans (rajma) are soaked overnight (are you getting tired of hearing this step?) and boiled until soft. While that is happening, a mixture of onion, ginger garlic, bay leaf and cardamom is fried until soft then tomato puree is added along with chili powder and garam masala and the mixture is cooked until the oil separates. The lentil mixture is then simmered in the masala to absorb the flavours and to allow the pulses to break down into a creamy texture. Fenugreek leaves and butter are added near the end.

Answer: Vegetarian dish

Paneer is a type of fresh cheese, and shahi means 'fit for royalty', so you can expect this to be a pretty extravagant dish. It is one of the relatively rare examples of a Mughlai main dish which is vegetarian. Mughlai cuisine has its roots in the time when India was under Mughal rule (1426-1857), and features rich food with lots of dried fruits, nuts and aromatic spices.

Paneer can be made by curdling milk with lemon juice, draining the liquid, and pressing the curds into a solid block. It is not aged, and should be used quickly. If you think that sounds fiddly, it is possible to buy premade paneer, ready to cut into cubes or slices.

The earliest versions of shahi paneer use a creamy sauce which includes onions (of course), almonds and cashews in a ground paste which thickens the sauce as it cooks. Later, after tomatoes had arrived in the subcontinent, it became common to include them in the sauce, but the original has a slightly creamier impression on the palate. As well as all the usual spices (ginger, garlic, cumin, garam masala, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves), saffron is usually added. Yoghurt turns the blended mixture into a gravy in which the paneer is cooked.

Answer: Meat or fish

While the name only tells you that the chicken has been (or at least should have been) cooked in the traditional urn-shaped oven called a tandoor, the name is understood to refer to chicken that has been marinated in a particular type of spice mixture before cooking. The chicken can be prepared whole (which is unusual) or in parts or as boneless pieces. In any case, the first step is removing the skin so that the marinade of spices in yoghurt can be rubbed thoroughly all over the chicken. The spice mix typically includes garam masala, garlic, ginger, onion, cayenne pepper (lots of it, for the colour) and turmeric. The paste is a bright red, and produces a colourful outer layer on the cooked chicken.

After the marinade has been given a couple of hours to work its way into the chicken, the meat is placed in a tandoor. The wood or charcoal burning in its base provides a smoky flavour to the dish that will be lost if you use a standard oven, but a wood or charcoal barbecue works wonderfully.

Answer: Meat or fish

Murgh means chicken, makhan is butter, and this dish (developed in a Delhi restaurant during the 1950s by the same people who created dal makhani) is more commonly called butter chicken in the English-speaking world. The original dish, according to the credited creator, was made by cooking leftover tandoori chicken in a buttery tomato sauce. The tandoori chicken, of course, had been marinated in a spice mixture before being cooked in the traditional oven known as a tandoor.

If you don't have any leftovers hanging around, your preparation starts by marinating chicken pieces (bone in adds to the flavour, boneless is easier to eat) for several hours in a mixture of yoghurt, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, garam masala and chili, then pan-fry the chicken in ghee or butter. The cooked chicken is stirred into a tomato and cream sauce (traditionally a mild one, with spices such as cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, black pepper, fenugreek and garam masala, no chili) which may be thickened with ground cashews, and served.

Answer: Meat or fish

The Malabar coast is the southwestern coast of India, and this style of curry is very popular there. It is most commonly a fish (matthi) curry, but can also be made with chicken (murgh) or prawns. The choice of fish depends on the season and the day's catch. If you need guidance, sardines and mackerel are both suggested as a good fish for the dish.

The fish (or other protein) is stewed in the Kerala-style sauce. That name indicates that it contains coconut, curry leaves and tamarind, and is laden with vegetables such as okra or onions (in slices, not just chopped and fried for flavour).

Answer: Meat or fish

Rogan josh is a Kashmiri dish, one of the signature dishes of that region. The etymology of its name is very unclear - depending on your choice of original language, it may originate in words meaning stewed in butter, or it may mean red meat (the latter more convincingly if you spell if ghost instead of josh). Whatever the origin, this dish is made by braising lamb or mutton (or goat) in a sauce whose red colour comes either from the copious use of Kashmiri red chilis (they're milder than most) or from the use of rotan jot, the dried flowers and roots of the alkanet plant. Some cooks also add saffron, and in Punjabi versions tomatoes are a frequent inclusion.

If you have been reading the descriptions of previous dishes this is going to sound very similar - without specifying the exact spices used, and their amounts, it is hard to convey the subtle differences in flavour that can be produced when you start by frying onion, ginger and garlic until golden, stirring in the dry spices and cooking until their aroma changes, then adding your liquid ingredients (in this case, usually yoghurt) and simmering. Trust me, there's a lot of variety possible.

Answer: Sweet treat

I have an unpleasant reaction to the way that word looks, and find it hard to associate with a delicious sweet treat whose name comes from the Persian and Urdu word for snow, barf. It is a fudge-like substance, made from condensed milk (called khoa) and sugar. It may be presented as pieces cut from a flat layer in a tray, or formed into spheres or other shapes. The basic mixture is white, but colouring is easily added, and for festive events your barfi may be presented in multi-coloured layers.

Barfi is a feature of most celebrations, and can be fancified in many ways. As well as colouring, these include adding nuts or fruits, decorating the outer surface with shredded coconut or silver leaf, providing a fruit flavour such as orange or rosewater - in fact, the options are almost endless. Did I mention chocolate barfi?

Answer: Sweet treat

While kulfi is often called Indian ice cream, that is not quite correct, but it tells you the kind of thing to expect. Kulfi is prepared by slowly cooking milk (sweetened with sugar, or flavoured as desired) while stirring, so that the milk condenses, while the sugar in the mixture caramelizes and the milk proteins are browned. When the desired consistency is reached, the mixture is placed into moulds and frozen. Since it is not churned, it forms a dense solid than churned frozen products such as ice cream.

Kulfi flavours range from the traditional rosewater, mango, saffron, cardamom or pistachio (or a combination of these) to more modern and creative flavours such as chocolate, peanut butter or avocado.

Answer: Sweet treat

Gulab jamun, whose name means rose berry, is another sweet based on khoa. The milk solids are mixed with flour then formed into balls which are deep-fried in ghee before being soaked in a sugar syrupo flavoured with rose water (hence the name) and cardamom. Saffron and kewra (screwpine oil) are optional additions to the syrup. The dish is usually served warm.

While gulab jamun is delicious on its own it is often served with kulfi, a traditional Indian frozen treat whose cool creaminess provides a nice contrast to the hot dough balls. Sweets bring people together across cultures - you may find gulab jamun at a Muslim Eid-al-Fitr feast celebrating the end of Ramadan, or a Hindu feast celebrating Diwali.

Answer: Sweet treat

This dessert originated in the Bengal region, where it is known as roshmalai, which roughly means sap of clotted cream. It has been described as resembling cheesecake without a crust. The first step is preparing the acid-set cheese chhena, which is also the first step of making paneer - but this time stop with the soft mass, before pressing. The milk solids are formed into balls and cooked in water to which rosewater essence has been added. The timing of this is crucial, as over boiling will produce a hard lump which cannot absorb flavour in the next stage.

When the cheese balls are solid but still soft, they are placed in malai (clotted cream) flavoured with saffron, cardamom, rose water and pistachio, then chilled. While it is usual to leave it for a few hours to allow the flavours to blend, it is not a dish that keeps, and is ideally consumed on the day of preparation.