Sindhi Cuisine

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Overview of Sindhi Cuisine History


Sindhi cuisine history is interesting, as this cuisine has come a long way. It has had several influences in its past, and continues to do so. Though its essential practices in cooking food are unique newer ideas always creep in. This is due to the fact that it has neighbors that have interesting cuisine as well. With Balouchistan and Punjab on its borders, it has their influence as well.

In addition to the current influences, it must be asserted that pre-partition played an immense role in making what Sindhi cuisine is today. From this, one can say that Indian foods have basically influenced Sindhi cuisine, as Sindh was once part of India. Therefore, there would be similarities between Sindhi cuisine and the cuisine in India at large. The spicy and aromatic features of Sindhi and Indian meals can be easily noticed. Also, just like the Indians generally take a keen interest in good food, in Sindhi cuisine, food is given a great deal of importance.

Indeed, to Sindhi people, food is important, and it is an immensely important part of their culture. At festival time, this becomes more evident, as you can get to see the variety of fantastically cooked dishes available. At home as well, various dishes are cooked that sends pleasant aromas through the entire neighborhood.

Combinations of dishes are also important in Sindhi cuisine. Over the years the best ones have lasted and are repeatedly presented together. Examples of these kinds of dishes include Sai bhaji Pulao along with which a number of side dishes come. Dishes such as fried potatoes or fried bhindi, dahi, etc. commonly accompany this dish.

The history of Sindhi cuisine is important in order to understand how it has evolved into what it is today. The variety that Sindhi cuisine has is a result of realizing what tastes best, and this includes the combinations that are common with the best dishes in Sindhi cuisine.

Cuisines of Sindhi
Sindhi cuisine has an abundance of foods. They have complete course meals, and some parts of the cuisine are plentiful. As an example, this refers to the fact that there are so many kinds of sweet dishes that could be used as desserts. However, it can also be asserted that there are a great deal of main course meals and snacks as well. Some of these are given below.

Dodo chutney is a Millet-flour kneaded food. It has spices mixed with it, and is cooked unleavened. Usually, it is cooked on a skillet and consumed best with garlic-based mint chutney.

Seyal Pallo is cooked in a base made of onions and tomatoes. It is consumed best with chapati. However, there are only few people who can cook this dish the way it should be cooked. Since the fish used in this dish is rich in oil, you need to be careful about how much oil you add when cooking it. Otherwise, the gravy becomes way too oily.

Seyal Dabroti Bread or chapati is cooked in a base mixture of garlic, coriander and tomatoes. It is a breakfast item. It can also be cooked in onions and tomato as well, which would be the more traditional way to cook it in Sindhi cuisine.

Lolo is wheat dough that has a little salt added in it. It has a small amount of sugar syrup added into the flour that has to be kneaded with butter or ghee. The mass is then cooked on a skillet slowly. Lolos when cooked would be around a quarter of an inch in thickness.

Meethi Aloo. To make this dish, you need to combine hot chili peppers, garlic, and fennel leaves (fresh or dry). With these ingredients, you can easily convert a simple potato into a curry to be consumed with puri, chapati, rice or bread.

In Sindhi cuisine, you will find several dishes that have unique recipes such as the ones above.

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Pakistani Food Glossary
Finding the ingredients for an Sindhi Recipe is not so easy when you do not know the names of the ingredients. Take time to make a list of ingredients and the name they may be found under at the Local Markets.


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Preparation Methods for Sindhi Cooking
In different cuisines, there are particular methods followed when preparing dishes. Sometimes, particular methods are followed for most of the dishes to e prepared. Alternatively, in some cuisines, there are various techniques of methods employed.

In preparing food in Sindhi cuisine, there are several things that you may need to do. Each dish may have a new way of being prepared, which means close attention has to be paid to the methods employed.

As an example, there is a particular dish in Sindhi cuisine known as Tandoori Game Hen. It is a dish that may be considerably manipulated by many chefs, but has been conceptualized from older recipes.

Tandoori Game Hen, according to its traditional status, is the well known as a classic tandoori chicken dish. This dish is prepared with game hen instead of chicken. It is thought that the stronger the taste of the game hen, the better it tastes. Some say that it tastes better than tandoori chicken. However, it can be asserted that each dish has its own merit.

To begin with, the game hen is skinned, after which it is marinated. Now, marinating is one very important step in preparation of food in Sindhi cuisine. In the case of this dish, the game hen is marinated using a mixture of yogurt, lemon juice, mustard powder, paprika, ginger, garlic and garam masala. Garam masala is itself a mixture of cinnamon, toasted ground cardamom and cloves. This type of marinating is essential to bring on the flavor of the tandoori chicken even in the absence of the chicken because you will be using game hen. In addition to this, the other important point is that the game hen gets tenderized. The following step includes roasting the game hen in a tandoor/oven. This is done at a high temperature in order to obtain a dry exterior with a moist interior.

This type of dish in Sindhi cuisine gives you a good idea of the preparation involved in such a delicious dish.

Special Equipment for Sindhi Cooking
Cooking equipment in any cuisine is important because there are several things that you may need them for. Different cuisines tend to use different types of cooking apparatus. For example, cuisines that have a lot of boiled rice in the menus will largely make use of a large boiling vessel. In Sindhi cuisine as well, there is a wide variety of utensils used. This is because in this cuisine, they is a variety of foods cooked. Boiling, frying, toasting, etc. all require different kinds of apparatus. Since Sindhi food involves all thee processes, several utensils are used in preparing food.

Boiling vessels such as those used for rice and other foods are necessary. You need a separate vessel for boiling rice, as the taste of your rice will not be the same if you boil other foods in it, particularly oily foods. Therefore, for boiling meat and other ingredients, you need to have a separate large vessel.

Different kinds of drainers, strainers and large spoons are also required to cook Sindhi food. Also, large cooking vessels such as deghs are needed to cook in large amounts.

Among the other important cooking apparatus used are the karhai and the tawa. A tawa is used to fry food or make chapatti or parhatta. Karhais aree used for deep-frying food like purees and jalaibees. Naans may be cooked in an oven. An inverted karhai us used to cooking chapatti.

Apart from these apparatus used for cooking in Sindhi cuisine, you may also have a range of smaller utensils in order to soak, season or marinate foods. Also, there may be a different range of utensils in terms of size and materials they are made from. Some are best suited to different types of meats, lentils and ingredients used in Sindhi cuisine.

Sindhi Food Traditions and Festivals
Sindhi cuisine is delightful, and those who have had a taste of it will know that there is a great deal of flavor and spice in this cuisine. This does not mean that all food in Sindhi cuisine is spicy, as there are plenty of sweet dishes in it to. Traditionally, Sindhi cuisine is known for spice, taste and sweetness too.

At festivals, there is enough of everything available to eat and drink. You will come across Sindhi foods during such occasions that you can relish. Some of the dishes that are popular in Sindhi cuisine include: sai bhaji, dal pakwan, vegetable curries, and papad. However, this is not all, as there are many more dishes that could be listed here.

A grand and typical Sindhi breakfast would be dal pakwan. This is quite a heavy dish to digest, and in accordance with today’s views of healthy meals at breakfast, some people choose other dishes. However, dal pakwan,' used to be served to guests, as it is quite a grand meal for breakfast. It is a dense channa masala consumed with puris made of flour. What makes this part of the breakfast dish heavy is the fact that it deeply fried in oil.

Regarding other foods cooked besides the heavy traditional breakfast, `Sindhis tend to use a considerable amount of onions and tomatoes. These vegetables form the base of nearly all traditional Sindhi dishes. These types of dishes will be available on festive occasions everywhere. Alternative traditional dishes might include the Sindhi kadi. It might be considered as an alternative traditional dish because of the tamarind and besan that are used in a large quantity, as opposed to using tomatoes and onions as a base. Yes, this dish is made up of besan and tamarind. However, there are a lot of vegetables added to it: brinjal, pumpkin, beans, yam (suran), ladies finger and potatoes. This traditional dish that is available at festivals is usually served with plain rice and sweet boondi, and adds significantly to the festive and traditional dishes in Sindhi cuisine.

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The Sindhi Council of India started the Bangalore Ladies Chapter (BLC) early this year, with the aim of promote Sindhi culture, language and food. Towards that end, we held a Sindhi Food Fest and competition in which 40 Sindhi ladies participated. The event was judged by eminent chefs of Bangalore. We have now come out with a recipe book dedicated to Sindhi Cuisine of the Shikarpur sect. The book is called Flavours of Sind. The book contains the 40 participating recipies and also other recipes we are well known for. The book is packed with interesting trivia, anecdotes, recipe listing, ingredient translations and menu combinations unique to us. We have gathered all this by actually interviewing some Sindhi octogenarians who have survived the partition. Let me know if anyone wants to order a copy. The book is priced at INR 150.