Tasty Masty Foods

French Fries also known as Finger chips or potato fries, and Alu chips in kashmir. The name French fries originated from Belgium during world war-1, where official language of solidiers was French and Amricans solidiers stationed there dubbed the name. In India potatoes were introduced by the Portuguese which they called "Batata". Britishers introduced potatoes to West Bengal as a root crop, 'Alu'. Amazingly there are  over 5,000 varieties of potatoes all over the world and China is the largest producer as a country and Mc Donalds is the largest buyer worldwide as a company. Potatoes with its skin are a rich source of vitamin C, Potassium, fiber, B-vitamins, copper, manganese and lutein. The unique way to make French Fries using solar enery as one important step in the process, is something you might be hearing for the first time but believe me, it works wonders at maintaining the crispy texture and an added taste to it. French fries are a crazy delicious dish,W

Meat "mutton" known as "ghosht" in urdu language and "maaz or natti" in kashmiri language. I know we still have a good stock of qurbani (sacrificed eid meat) available and don't want to bore with routines dishes on the plate. Taste matters!!! We have been eating meat varieties cooked either in the shape of wazwan (a traditional pakage of approximately 36 different dishes in kashmir) or through other recipes of different regions. We eat meat either by means of cook, roast, boil or fry and why not taste the "ghosht ka achar today??" Pickling meat used to be more a routine practice in older days to preserve meat when we had no refregirators but today it is more of flavour and taste than preservation. Although the shelf life of pickled meat is short but it still catches your attention and activates the taste buds. It is a quick pickle and uses vinegar and lemon with special spices in. comparison to the traditional pickles which are p

Since the onset of the  Covid-19, there is a lot more confusion on whether to eat the sacrificed meat of Bakrid or not as some believe that meat can transmit the corona virus and some oppose the theory. The good news is that there is no evidence as on date that proves the virus spreads through meat consumption. But, yes, this time we might need to take extra care while handling the meat from slaughtering to cutting to distribution to consumption to storing for future use. So what do we do to maintain hygiene and store qurbani meat afresh for months together. Wash the sacrificing animal thoroughly, preferably the neck and claws, using soap or detergent. Sharpen the slaughtering blades and dip in vinegar or dettol liquid for sometime to disinfect. All People busy in offering the qurbani (sacrifice) of the animal, espacially the butcher need to wear masks to stop the spread of virus through unwanted coughing or sneezing. Usually every home offers a sacrifice of the animal and since ev

Black chickpeas commonly know as Kala chana  and Garbanzo beans in US. Kala chana is a dark brown coloured variety, cultivated mainly in indian sub continent and some other parts of the world too. kala chana has two varieties — desi and kabuli. While the desi variety comprises of darker smaller seeds with a rough outer covering, the ‘kabuli’ variety are big light-coloured beans with a smoother coat. It is an amazing legume, having role in many Indian dishes and is part of salads and recipes of some other countries as well In kashmir kala chana is boiled and cooked making it a lovable road side dry meals wrapped in a lavasa (local tandoori soft and thin roti) with a mouth watering chutney, commonly known as "Masala Tchot". Although Masala Tchot is prepared from other legumes also such as black turtle beans "wari mutth" and "Kabuli white chana". You can hardly resist at the first sight and fall in love with the taste after having a bite. Health benefi