Sandeep Malik & Sanjeev Kumar, “Refreshing Raitas (Yogurt Condiments)”, 2015.

• The onomatopoeia of “MOO” is obviously for the cow.
  Raita is a dairy (yogurt) condiment in Indian cuisine.
• Padma पद्मा लक्ष्मी Lakshmi & Judith Sutton, “The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs: An Essential Guide to the Flavors of the World”, 2016 which was topic of an earlier blog post.
  Here I present: Sandeep Malik & Sanjeev Kumar, “Refreshing Raitas (Yogurt Condiments)”, 2015 which contains 96 recipes for raitas.
• Raitas are yogurt-based dipping sauces that contain vegetables or fruits and spices.  They are used to chill out blisteringly hot, spicy dishes and highlight flavors.  Cucumber and mint with cumin is the most common raita (shown ABOVE).

• What are the common ingredients of Indian cuisine?  To be specific there are 6 flavors and these are:
• Sweet
• Sour
• Bitter
• Salty
• Astringent
• Pungent

Astringent is also called “false-cool”.  Pungent is also called “false-heat”. While the first four tastes listed above (sweet, sour, bitter & salty) are common to all cookery. The astringent-pungent paired in Indian cookery is unique to Indian cuisine.  It is based on Menthol-Capsaisin neutralizing the spicy dishes.

Cucumber and mint (menthol) raita as a condiment neutralizes black peppercorns (Capsaisin).

Here I presented: Sandeep Malik & Sanjeev Kumar, “Refreshing Raitas (Yogurt Condiments)”, 2015 which contains 96 recipes for raitas.
As shown BELOW raita come in various colors, when ingredients are added to the white, yogurt-base.  While a raita can be used to highlight flavors; Indian cuisine uses raita to balance astringent-pungent dishes. The onomatopoeia of “MOO” is obviously for the cow; and, raita using yogurt is quintessentially Indian style.