Punjab, a region partly sitting in Northern India, has a rich heritage, reflected in its cuisine.
Perhaps most well-known for tandoori style cooking, rich, buttery flavours are common throughout Punjabi dishes. The local cuisine is heavily influenced by agricultural and farming communities that settled in the region hundreds of years ago.
Punjabi Cuisine Still Uses Traditional Methods of Cooking
Modern ways of cooking include using an electric or gas stove, especially in homes and restaurants. You’ll find that Punjabi cuisine is often still cooked using traditional methods such as wood-fired and masonry ovens, or a tandoor, which is a cylindrical clay or metal oven.
Here at Rasoi Waterfront and Indian Kitchen, we cook lots of our most popular dishes in a tandoor, including our Chicken Tikka, Tandoori Salmon, Mixed Grill, Meat and our delicious Naans.
Distinct Flavours Are Associated with Punjabi Dishes
Thanks to the agricultural and farming influences in the area, much of Punjabi cuisine revolves around key staples that are and were, readily available in the region.
Ingredients commonly found in Punjabi food include dairy products such as ghee, butter and cream, grains and pulses such as lentils, and other ingredients like potatoes, vegetables and meat products.
Some of the most popular dishes you’ll find on a menu when you visit an Indian restaurant originate from Punjab such as Daal, Biryani and Butter Chicken, amongst many more.
Basmati Rice is Indigenous to Punjab
Not many people know that basmati rice is geographically exclusive to the Indian subcontinent, particularly in the Punjab regions of India with India accounting for over 70% of the world’s basmati rice production.
Used across the world, basmati rice has a distinctive fragrance and flavour. The word “basmati” derives from the languages Sanskrit and Hindi, meaning “fragrant”. As well as traditional Indian cooking, basmati rice is used as a flavouring agent in the US and Europe in all kinds of products such as bakery items.
Try our delicious Punjabi-inspired dishes when you dine with us. Book your table here.