A Little Word Told Me

Over consumption of animal-based food products has been linked to heart diseases, stroke and other illnesses . Animal agriculture has also received increasingly bad press in the last few years, due to a growing understanding of the suffering inflicted on animals and its impact on the environment. Nowadays, you see a lot of companies jumping on the plant-based bandwagon due to increasing demand from consumers . However a lot of plant-based food items, including dairy alternatives do not make it to the consumer’s kitchen shelves. Why? It seems illogical, right? People nowadays, due to easy access to the internet and information, are more informed about risks associated with animal-based diets yet they seem reluctant to move towards a plant-based diet.  One of the key factors is flavour, or the lack of it. There’s no accounting for taste. But when it comes to plant-based dairy alternative products, a lot of consumers agree that most of the products available in the market are missing...

Some people think that fat is a black sheep in the family of foods, while for others it is the golden goose. It all depends on what and how much you know about them. What are Fats and Oils?   In scientific parlance, fats are referred to as triglycerides, a.k.a esters of three fatty acid units attached to a molecule of glycerol. Did too many scientific terms confuse you? Let’s look at this another way. There’s a human named Wand - made from long chains of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen molecules. Wand is an alcoholic, but a very picky one. Once Wand is near his choice of alcohol- the sweet tasting alcohol called glycerol- the strong affinity unites them and together they become fat. Why are fats and oils so essential to cooking? Excellent carriers of flavours If you are an Indian or cook Indian food, you may have heard of the terms ‘Tadka’ (also sometimes spelt as ‘Tarka’) and ‘Chhaunk’. It is a process where oil is heated in a pan and then, spices are added (ac...