Punjabi Cuisine: a journey to the Heaven's Food.

ISLAMABAD -- Punjabi Cuisine refers to a vast variety of delectable and exotic vegetarian and non-vegetarian best decorated and popular dishes from the region of Punjab prepared with varied traditional culinary styles and tandoori methods.

Punjab with its rich cultivating lands has traditionally been an agrarian society since the time of the ancient Harappa Civilization. The land is ideal for growing wheat and is called the 'Granary of Punjab' or Punjabi bread-basket'.

The two major crops cultivated in Punjab are rice and wheat, which remain the principal crops grown during the Kharif season and the Rabi season respectively. Likewise, the indigenous Punjab Basmati rice has been the pride of the region being grown since time immemorial. 'Sialkot', is famous for producing the most aromatic rice in South Asia.

The practice of multi-cropping is quite common in Punjab which also grows sugarcane, bajra (pearl millet), jowar (great millet), barley, potatoes, vegetables and fruits among others.

Cattle primarily used for agriculture and dairy farming in the region form the major source of dairy products from ghee, butter, clarified butter, curd, cottage cheese to a wide variety of sweet dishes. Thus the staple foods grown locally including the dairy products become an integral part of the local diet.

Traditionally, ghee, butter, clarified butter; cottage cheese and sunflower oil are used to cook various Punjabi dishes. However, now-a-days, ghee, cream and butter are liberally used in restaurants to prepare the dishes while the more health conscious households have mostly switched to sunflower oil or other refined oils.

Kasoori methi or dried fenugreek leaves, onion, garlic and ginger are used extensively to prepare various Punjabi delicacies. Food additives such as vinegar, bulking agents the starch, coloring agents as zarda and condiments like cumin, coriander, dried methi leaves and black pepper are used to enhance the taste and flavor of various dishes. Fermented foods, pickles are also used to prepare many cuisines.

Talking to reporter, Abdur Rehman of Chicken Handi restaurant in Faisalabad while sharing his cooking experiences said that eliminating pickle 'Achar' from the Punjabi cuisine means fading out the taste buds from the mouth of Punjabis as it was an essential part of Punjabi meals. Therefore, Achari Ghost is one of the famous dishes made of chicken or meat and pickles.

The traditional stoves and ovens in Punjab are called Chulla and...