When we think about fire and food, we think about the cooking flame, chilies, and we think about words related to heat – simmering, sizzling, searing, sautéing, scorching.
Smoking? That’s not necessarily held in the same regard. Typically, it means something is burning or charred, inedible food. Smoke often means we need to start from scratch.
However, smoking is one of our earliest cooking techniques. And so, we got our lively intern Aastha Gupta to round up a nice variety of smoked foods available in the Indian market. Some of them might surprise you.
Five desi products to smoke out your palate:
1. Meghalaya Smoky Tea by NE Origins
This smoky tea by NE Origins sounds like the perfect pahadi chai, what with the humblebrag of having 100 percent pinewood smoked black tea in it. Are smoky tea and tandoori chai similar? You’ll only know if you try.
With a unique earthy smell and a camp-like aroma, and flavour notes of pine and burnt sugar, this smoky tea’s description sounds more of a gourmet dessert to us.
2. Smoked Honey by Begum Victoria Cheese
The sweet, charred-smoky flavour of Begum Victoria Cheese’s smoked honey doesn’t only make a perfect pair with salty cheese. We’d use this dark, semi-thick, smoky golden syrup on French toast, or a stack of pancakes to elevate a lazy Sunday breakfast. Or even stir some into a lemonade to keep cool this summer, and flip over to a hot toddy when the weather turns.
3. Smoked Bandel Cheese by The Whole Hog Deli
The deli is the proud flagbearer of a 400-year-old indigenous cheese culture, made using pure cow’s milk, TWH Deli’s smoked bandel is lovely grated into sandwiches, on salads, on risotto, or even as a pasta or a soup topping.
The folks behind the brand are ‘the only family in India to make this unique culinary heritage ingredient/product/food’.
enthuTip: Soaking the pieces in water for about 12 hours before consuming them gets rid of the excess salt and makes the bandel softer. Clearly a cheese that’s evolved from more low-tech times, this cheese lasts for 30 days without refrigeration and for a year with refrigeration.
Bundle with their deli meats here.
4. Smoked Provolone by Kase Cheese
The best provolone is grated into a sandwich melt, and its fancier, smoky version plays the part of a melt-stuffer even better than the OG. Kase smoked provolone is made in blocks of 10kgs, and is aged for about three to four months. Having it plain and sliced with crackers is a good way to appreciate this cheese’s smoky undertones.
5. Smoky BBQ Roasted Makhana by Snack That
There’s plenty of peri-peri, pav bhaji, and pudina makhana, so we are keen on the novelty of the smoked version of this super popular snack. We are saving this smoky and slightly sweet nashta for the wetter season next month – to go with garam garam chai or that hot toddy with the Begum Vic. honey.
