The Cook-shelf

Interview with Author of Iconic Parsi cookbooks, Jamva Chaloji ,Katy Dalal and her son Kurush Dalal

2012-01-01T06:47:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, Iconnected with Kurush Dalal and later his wife Rhea. We hit it off from ourfirst conversation on the phone and today they have come to be very importantto the fabric of my life, foodie and otherwise. All that time ago, I had calledto ask if I may meet his mother to talk about Parsi food for my book. I neverdid get to meet her (she passed on in March 2010) and that is a regret right upthere with the one I have about not documenting my Dadi’s recipes. But what Idid manage was a very insightful email interview of Katy and Kurush that was neverpublished by the magazine that commissioned it. I just saw on Facebook that todaywould have been Katy Dalal’s birthday. So here is the interview, as a tributeto her and a thank you to Kurush and Rhea for being part of my life. You bothtruly bring joy to my heart and the lives of everyone you meet. May we meet and eat a wholelot more in 2012 and the years to come!

The name Katy Dalal iswell known amongst culinary circles. Famous for her stellar cookbooks on Parsicuisine (Jamva Chaloji 1 an 2), the fascinating book on Pulaos and Biryanis thedelicious Seafood Fiesta, Dr Katy Dalal is also distinguished in academic circles, havingwon many awards and completed a Ph.D on Archaeology from Pune University. Aspecialist on Achaemenion history, she has also taught Ancient Indian Culturein different Mumbai Colleges. Her rich legacy has been very ably shouldered byher son Kurush Dalal who is an archeologist by training and a caterer byprofession. As a caterer he specializes in (but does not limit himself to)Parsi Cuisine while juggling a teaching career at the Mumbai University and atthe Jhunjhunwala Colleges.

Katy Dalal on her Career and Kurush

Tellus a bit about your background.

Katy Dalal - I was bornand brought up in Bandra which was then a peaceful, green suburb of Mumbai. Iattended St. Joseph’s Convent over there and after passing my S.S.C. with afirst class, I joined the DNH National College, Bandra. I was extremelyinterested in History and I secured the highest total of marks in World Historyin the Intermediate Arts exams conducted by the University of Bombay for whichthe University conferred a prize and a Scholarship and my college awarded me agold medal. I was very happy because I felt this was my first step to Egypt inwhose ancient history, religion and culture I was extremely interested then. Ijoined the St. Xavier’s college for my B.A. degree and enrolled at the HerasInstitute of Ancient Indian Culture and History. There I met an extremelysympathetic vice-principal father John Correia Afonso who advised me that thefirst step would be to go meet Dr. H. D. Sankalia (the premiere Archaeologistin India) at the Deccan College, Pune. Dr. Sankalia advised me that it would bepreferable for me to first learn all that Indian Archaeology had to entailbefore I went to another country to study there. He also advised me to join hisM.A. classes, which I did. At that timeI was the only female student at Deccan college.

I did my M.A. from Deccan College with a First Class Firstand then wrote a Ph.D. Thesis titled “Prehistoric Pottery Industries along the(lost) Saraswati River of the Great Indian Desert”. I explored the Ghagharriverbed from Nohar almost upto the Indo-Pak border in Bikaner. I wasfantastically lucky as I managed to find pre-Harappan material at severalsites. In India pre-Harrapan material had only been found by Sir MortimerWheeler in 1946 below the ramparts at Harappa. My finds were exact copies ofhis. I had also found a strange ware excised internally and externally andanother type of ware which was later on told to be 3000 to 4000 B.C. old. Afterthis Egypt took a back-seat to India. I became totally involved in exploringthe pre-Harappan culture and the thesis took me ten years to complete.

Your career is so far away from cooking, when and howdid food and its exploration become important?

Katy Dalal - By the time I completed my thesis, I hadfallen in love with and married an extremely clever young Merchant MarineOfficer. I taught Ancient Indian Arts and Culture at various Mumbai Colleges -S.I.E.S., Wilson, St. Xavier's & K.C. I used to travel with my husband onMerchant Liners and all the Officers used to want me to cook special meals forthem which they thoroughly enjoyed. On one trip I suffered a retinal detachmentand that put paid to my teaching in college. As I was at home, people wouldrequest me to cook for their parties. One fine day I realised that instead oftwiddling my thumbs at home, I could make a business out of my cooking Ideveloped a large Tiffin business. I took catering contracts at the Free MasonsHall, the P.V.M. Gymkhana and the Ripon Club and thus began to learn more aboutcooking different dishes. I used to love decorating the food and always feltthat food looked and tasted better when arranged properly.

What made you decide to write your first cookbook?How did you go about working on your books? Did you travel, meetpeople? Spend hours in your own kitchen?

Katy Dalal - Ideas for a book had been hovering in my headsince before marriage. I was appalled when I heard young girls say that theycouldn't boil eggs or make rice. I decided that the young women of thecommunity were becoming too westernized in their food habits and so I wrote abook on Parsi cuisine titled "Jamva Chaloji". It contained everythinga woman should know when she first goes to her husband's house. It was athumping success and every copy was sold within the first six months! Thepublishers reprinted the book several times. This was followed by five othercookery books. Writing the book was very simple. I am descended from a longline of excellent cooks. The first being my great grandmother Soonamai, wholived in Gujarat, the second my paternal grandmother, Cooverbai followed by hertwo daughters Hilla and Khorshed and my mother Piroja. I had observed all thatthey were doing during my childhood and would jot down some recipes on piecesof paper. In fact I distinctly remember discussing an unusual sauce to be hadwith mutton cutlets once - we were discussing how to make a papaya sauce whichI had never eaten before. As the years passed I developed a great interestin writing (academically) and cooking (professionally). The logical culminationof this was my first cookbook, Jamva Chaloji. Among the many other reasonswere the loss of Parsi culinary traditions due to modernisation and thecreation of nuclear families, the lack of a simple, authentic Parsi cookbook,and the needs of young Parsi brides in India and abroad.

Would you share some of your most pleasurablemoments during writing your cookbooks?

Katy Dalal - Forming the recipes in my head and watching inpleasure as they turned out quite exactly as I remembered them to have tasted.

What about YOU, the cook? What are your favorite foods to cookwith?

Katy Dalal - Coloured peppers, Rawas (IndianSalmon), jumbo prawns, Pomfrets- which Parsis love, French herbs, and cream.

What's your favorite recipe to cook?

Katy Dalal - Golden Pepper Prawn Pulao which is my own creation.This is a pulao which has yellow peppers stuffed with prawns in them and lookslavish and tastes quite delicious. It is a great hit with my guests and myfamily likes it too. This is something I make at home. Of the dishes that Ihave served at weddings and large functions is a beautiful salad made withdeboned Rawas, butter, pineapple pieces, herbs, and other condiments. Thissalad is served reconstructed in the shape of the fish with its head and fins(boiled, of course) and covered in 'scales' made from sliced cucumbers. Thebase for the salad is a sumptuous Russian salad laid on a mirror and withcarved decorative vegetables, etc. It looks absolutely superb!!!

Do you have any favorite cooking gadgets or utensils?

Katy Dalal - My kitchen is choc a bloc withgadgets collected from all over the world, some I have bought, some my darlinghusband brought back for me from his travels and many more are gifts fromfamily and friends. However, the my two most indispensible gadgets are a littleelectric chopper which chops just one onion if I need it, and my moule legume. Of course my ‘masala pata’is something I cannot imagine my kitchen without.

What is the most memorable dish you have ever eaten?

Katy Dalal - The Camembert Dariole at the ZodiacGrill at the Taj hotel in Mumbai is something I will never forget the taste of.Another unforgettable meal was at the Grand Hotel in Kao Hsuing (Taiwan) whereI ate the best Chinese food ever.

Do you have an amusing kitchen incident to share with us? Oneunforgettable Kitchen blunder?

Katy Dalal - Many years ago my cook was makingMachchhi no sahs, a typical fish preparation of the Parsis. I, of course, wasnot there while she was cooking. Later as I was heating up the meal before weall gathered for it, I noticed that the sauce was frothing quite strangely andeven exuberantly! A little questioning revealed that the silly woman had useddetergent powder (Nirma) instead of the flour she was supposed to have done.She mistook the yellow detergent powder for besan!

What is your best cooking tip for a novice cook?

Katy Dalal - Always read a recipe twice. Collectall the ingredients in front of you in order of use. Use your own instinct toadjust the recipe to your family’s taste, And of course, use your own judgementtoo while adding salt, spices, cooking oils, etc.

Are you happy that Kurush hascarried on your legacy ?

Katy Dalal - I am enormously happy that he turned out to besuch a good cook who could, at a glance would tell us how many people could eatout of a certain portion of rice or mutton or whatever ingredient was at hand.This judgement has never failed him. Academically he is extremely sound. He isa good explorer, excavator and has also done a PhD on the Iron Age in India.

What is your favourite dish cooked by Kurush?

Katy Dalal -Pork Chops which we had very recently at his housefor lunch. He had also once done an entire leg of ham boiled in beer(with spices) and roasted with honey.

What is your best cooking tip for a novice cook?

Katy Dalal -Always read a recipe twice. Collect all theingredients in front of you in order of use. Use your own instinct to adjustthe recipe to your family's taste, And of course, use your own judgement toowhile adding salt, spices, cooking oils, etc.

Kurush Dalal on his legacy and Katy Dalal

Kurush, Tell us a bit more aboutyourself

Kurush Dalal - I am an archeologist by training and a catererby profession. I grew up in a house filled with books and the flavours ofmyriad foods both Indian and Western. I spent four years boarding in Panchgani,did my HSC in Science, my BA in AIC & History from Mumbai University, my MA(in Archaeology) and PhD from Deccan College, Pune University. In the course ofmy studies I saw the real India of the small towns and villages as I travelledits length and breadth on Archaeological trips. I lived and ate with people atall these places and truly imbibed the flavours of India not just the feast-daypreparations but the day to day sustenance of the people on whose backs Indiastands. On the way I met and married my wife and finally met my match in thekitchen.

Did you always plan to follow in your mothersfootsteps and choose a career in gastronomy?

Kurush Dalal - No, when I was little I wanted to be anastronaut and as I grew up and went to school and college I was fascinated by both Astrophysics and Nuclear physics, sadly I failed my HSC inPhysics (of all things) and changed streams to Ancient Indian History. I wasalways a part of Mum's catering business and had been helping with all aspectssince I was 11. When I first evinced an interest she made me a waiter's uniformand put me to work at the lowest rung of the ladder at the Freemason's Hall.Right through my college days (11^th and 12^th) I helpedwith purchase and spent almost 5 mornings every week in the fish, meatand vegetable markets, evenings were often spent on the job – catering atvarious venues.

So, which is you favourite cookbook by yourmother?

Kurush Dalal - The firstone - 'Jamva Chaloji'. Not only because the title was my suggestion butbecause it was a terrible need of the hour and has almost resurrected Parsigastronomy in Parsi homes both in India and abroad.

Would you share some of your most pleasurablemoments with your mother in the kitchen?

Kurush Dalal - Though I picked up a lot of my cooking skills inmy mother's kitchen I seldom cooked with her. Watching mum cook is often likewatching a very complicated stage performance. She is more often than not anintuitive cook and I still remember the time when she taught a bunch of theTaj's chefs Parsi cooking. They were flummoxed by 'a pinch' of this and 'ahandful' of that and would make her stop in mid-move and actually weigh thevarious spices as she scooped them out of the jars.

What about YOU, the cook? What are your favorite foods to cookwith?

Kurush Dalal - I’m a verymoody cook. At home I like to cook all those things that I rarely get to cookat work like pork, pork chops, hams, veal, and simple dals. At work my maininterests are sauces, dressings and starters since I feel these are oftenignored in India. I’m also a bit picky about my ingredients and like a kitchenfilled with complex, myriad and weird spices, condiments, vinegars, oils, etc.

What's your favorite recipe to cook?

Kurush Dalal - PorkChops marinated in a red wine vinegar with whole spices and demerara sugar,grilled in olive oil and served with herbed cheesy mashed potatoes.

What is your favourite dish cooked by your mom?

Kurush Dalal - It's got to be her Dhan Dal and Kolmi noPatiao with Parsi style Fried Fish and green coconut chutney.

Do you have any favorite cooking gadgets or utensils?

Kurush Dalal - My wooden spatulas, especially my handcarved bamboo spatula from Nagaland, and my knives and steel.

What is the most memorable dish you have evereaten?

Kurush Dalal - This is adifficult one. There are 4 dishesactually: my dad’s prawn and tomato omlette, my mum’s dhandal and kolmi no patio, my wife’sBengali maangshor jhol and the friedeggs my grandma (mum’s mum) used to make.

Do you have an amusing kitchen incident to sharewith us? One unforgettable Kitchen blunder?

Kurush Dalal -During our courtship days my wife (tobe) once made a favourite dish (baked potato and onions in cheesy white sauce)of her hostel days. Halfway through she realised we had run out of milk so shemerrily substituted it with diluted condensed milk …… little realizing itssugar content. The resultant dish was part main course and part dessert. It wasweird, strange and quite peculiar but we (a friend and I)quietly polished itoff. Nothing since has ever managed to top this.

Tell us some of the mostimportant cooking tips you learned from your mom?

Kurush Dalal -Two main things actually, patience with food andthe selection of only the finest ingredients, preferably personallygathered/prepared/bought.

Is there a cookbook in you as well? Can we lookforward to something along those lines from your kitchen/pen? Anything else youwant to share with us?

Kurush Dalal -Most definitely, more than one, more than writinga cookbook I feel a great need to collect recipes from specific geographicalzones and from specific religious groups and castes. There is a crying need toput this down on paper and to record these traditions before they completelydie out due to our modern food habits. So my first book(s) will probably beedited volumes or collections more than books filled with my own originalrecipes, that I think will come later. Inthe last 15 years or so there have been major upheavals in the eating patternsand the food availability scenario in urban India. Whilst its really nice tohave non-Indian foods available in our restaurants this is sadly at the cost ofmany a traditional style, the Irani Cafes, the Chilliya restaurants and theUdipis are disappearing and with them is disappearing an entire chapter in thefood history of our country.

Gratitude, gyaan and LINKS

Thank youSaee Koranne Khandekar of the blog Myjhola for allowing me to use the Pictures youtook of Kurush and Rhea.

For moreon Katy Dalal’s books.

For more onDalal enterprises and to order from them visit the Dalal Enterprises Facebook Page (be sure toorder from them, you will not regret it!) or Email Kurush at kurushdalal@gmail.comor call +919820136511

Review of Battle for Bittora by Anuja Chauhan matched with a recipe for Halwa

2010-10-03T01:12:00.000-07:00

For those of you who only know my food side, I LOVE to read in general, in fact I devour non food books as well. No matter how late I go to bed, I HAVE to read before I sleep. Occasionally The Cook - shelf talks about non food books as well. Zoya Factor was one such... And now it is Battle for Bittora by the smae author - Anuja Chauhan.

I resisted Zoya Factor (Anuja Chauhan's first book) for a long time because it had a cricket theme. But I finally gave in and bought it in a fey moment because the back cover snuck up on me. I loved it! So much so that I actually took to accosting innocent UNKNOWN people that even looked at the book in passing at bookstores, and made them buy it! So when I heard she was working on her next book, I was really looking forward to it.

I almost missed that the book was out! In fact if I hadn’t seen a listing in Times of India I would not have known it had been published! Anyways to cut a long story short, I did what I had to, to get my hands on the book, rushed home, forgot everything else I had to do (ALOT) and begun reading!

The story starts out engagingly with 25 year old Jinni (Sarojini to her eternal disgust) who lives and works in Mumbai as a Kitaanu animator (who dreams of animating superheroes). She is perfectly happy doing so and exchanging clever repartee with her gay and rather colourful colleague Rumi until the arrival of her grandmother, at her office in Mumbai in the middle of said repartee, at midnight, demanding in broken English that Jinni “campaign for her and her Pragati party in Bittora. Here is about when the reader realises that daal mein kush kala hai, this is not just an era gera story.

Jinni ditches haute couture for frumpy khadi and accompanies her granny home - at which point the reader needs to set aside questions like “Just like that?” and leave their brains at the proverbial door - arrives in Bittora. Only to literally run slap bang into the lean, taut chiselled, honey gold chest (and this is where female readers begun to be reeled in) of Zak aka Zain Altaf Khan (to our eternal lust) who is an ex-Royal of Bittora that has converted his family seat into a Heritage hotel in partnership with the Taj AND most importantly is Jinni’s childhood friend and love interrupted.

And here is where the twist happen. It turns out that Jinni is not to be a frumpy salwar suit clad campaigner for her grandmother but a cotton sari clad wannabe MP CANDIDATE for the Pragati party in Bittora. AND her rival in the election is none other than her friend from childhood Zain Altaf Khan who is a candidate of the opposing IJP, a pro-hindu party, that by fielding him, a Muslim candidate, is trying to signal a change of its party ideologies.

For the first 150-60 pages things move along engagingly, around page 80 or so the reader lets out her first chuckle when Our Pappu makes an appearance and by about page 125, when Jinni is served Bhainscafe, coffee made with “straight-from-the-tit-bhains-ka-doodh” because homogenised milk has not made it to Bittora, the reader realises that there are good books, great books, even memorable books. But there are few books that make you laugh do hard that the bed shakes and your sleeping husband sits up and gives you a blearily disgusted look!

And so Jinni dons her armour of cotton saris and frumpy blouses and prepares to uphold the illustrious Pande dynasty of Pavit Pradesh battling prickly heat, accusations of nymphomania and corruption even as Zain distracts her with glimpses of lean, taut, chiselled, honey gold flesh from chest his array of kurtas and cool tshirts and his oh so rock-solid, knight-in-shinig-armour personality that Jinni keeps disregarding. And so ensues a battle royale that plays backdrop to a steamy love story that plays itself out over facebook and chance meetings on rural backroads.

Peppered with hinglish and hindi words like kitaanu animator, Saakshaat fart, with Ammaji’s philosophies delivered in typical Pavit Pradesh accent and no marks for guessing the place that Pavit Pradesh refers to or which parties are being spoofed as Pragati and IJP. B4B - as the book is being affectionately referred to already - is a laughathon through and through that this reader did not stop reading till the end (which came at about 4 am in the morning, by which time her husband had turned away, covered his head with a blanket and resigned himself to fate).

Thank you Anuja Chauhan, you set the mark high with Zoya Factor, and more than met it with Battle for Bittora! And now to get back to the pile of work I have been shirking!

Halwa (Time: 30-45 mins, Serves 2-4)

While their origins are lost in time Halwas, are sticky sweets that would be classified as puddings in the West and are made from one predominant ingredient like a flour, lentil, fruit or vegetable that is cooked with Ghee (clarified butter) and Sugar. Halwa cooked further could also be set, cut into shapes and served. Come the winter and all over the North of India one is tempted by the aroma of Gajjar ka Halwa, (Carrot Halwa) lingering as it does on the cold winter air. Heavy monsoon rains will often have my North Indian husband asking for Atte Ka Halwa (Halwa made from unbleached flour) a treat his mother used to cook up for him and his siblings when the rain cooped them indoors but that is a home-style preparation, rarely served to guests. The Halwa that is served to guests and cooked for Poojas as offerings to the Gods all over India is the Suji/Sooji or Semolina Halwa. Halwa Puri is a popular offering throughout the book so I thought it would be a great accompaniment to the book when you read it.

Suji/Sooji ka Halwa

1 c Sooji (semolina)
1 c Sugar
2.5 c water
2 tsp ghee
Lots of Raisins (you can add other dry fruit, I like my Halwa with just raisins)
2-3 Cardamom, coarsely powdered

Add the sugar to the water mix well a d bring to a boil. Reserve. In a Kadai or wok add the ghee and sooji and cook, stirring constantly for 15-20 minutes till the sooji darkens to a light brown. Add Cardamom powder and mix well. Add still warm water-sugar solution slowly, stirring with a spoon. Allow to cook stirring constantly until all the water has been absorbed (about 5-10 minutes). Garnish with chopped nuts and serve hot.

Launch of book The Food Trail of Punjab by Yashbir Sharma (a food travelogue).

2010-09-29T22:10:00.001-07:00

The Cookshelf from A Perfect Bite was proud to host the launch of Yashbir Sharma’s new book The Food trails of Punjab on the 27th of September over a fabulous dinner of Punjabi food generously catered by the Legacy of Punjab restaurant. We were also honored to have some of the foodiest of foodies of Mumbai join us for the happy occasion.

I started Cookshelf because, thanks to my friend foodwriter Vikram Doctor I have acquired an addiction to books on food and I wanted to create a repository of information of foodwriting and food books from around the world but most specifically from Indian. It is a work in progress, that I am adding to slowly. An objective of this blog is also to help good food books get attention. Having tried, rather unsuccessfully to sell my book on Uttaranchali cuisine to publishers for the last five years, I know how frustrating it is to have a good book and not find a publisher. And there are many brave foodwriters out there who believe in their books enough to put their money behind their passion and self publish books. One such man is Yashbir Sharma.

Yashbir Sharma

I first heard about Yashbir uncle and his first book The Dhabas of Amritsar through one of Vikram’s columns on restaurant cookbooks in ET, but never actually found a copy to look at. And then as serendipity would have it, I happened to meet his nephew, Manish. After that it was just a matter of me nagging Manish until he introduced me! When I finally met Yashbir Sharma, at his home in Delhi a few months ago I was disappointed to hear that he did not have any copies of his book left BUT was quickly heartened to hear that he was soon to release a new book! I even got to see the dummy version of the book that he was self publishing; The Food Trail of Punjab.

The Book - The food trail of Punjab

I decided right there that I would do whatever I could to help spread the word on the book. And when Yashbir Uuncle called last week to say he was bringing me some of the first copies of the book, I was thrilled. I worked against time, (even emailing from my phone of the deck of a houseboat on Kerela’s backwaters) to pull together the launch. Before I go on about the evening and the book, I would like to thank Varun Dhingra of the Legacy of Punjab restaurant, without which this evening could not have been as delicious. To launch a food book you need good food at the event and my big concern was what to serve for dinner. I am a good cook but for a book on Punjab I needed good Punjabi food, an area in which my repertoire is small. But luck favoured me again and as I was discussing things with my friend Pooja of Le 15 Patisserie, she told me that her brother Varun ran a Punjabi restaurant that had Amritsari cooks in the kitchen and would be happy to help with this. And so the table was set for The food Trail of Punjab to take off.

Varun Dhingra of the Legacy of Punjab restaurant

Amritsari Tikkis from Legacy of Punjab

As we dug into Amritsari Tikkis slathered in lashings of chutneys and Mooli salad, Yashbir Uncle told us about this book that was two years and several trips to Punjab in the making.

"It all started when I was in Amritsar, I had an upset stomach and decided to have some Trotters soup in Amritsar. Before you know it I was fine. The water of Amritsar is very good for the digestion. It allows one to eat the local food without getting sick." he said and the thought struck him to document the food of Punjab. And so he embarked on a happy trip through the state, pen and camera at the ready.

“I have travelled the length and breadth of Punjab and found its people amazingly simple in their eating habits. Yet, they don’t compromise on their food. It is nutritious and delicious, with no frills attached to it. The recipes are simple, the Masallas do not number more than 7-8”

The fertile state of Punjab in North India has always been considered the “bread basket” of the country. Famous for its vast rolling plains, endless fields of wheat, corn, millet and rice and the food! For the hardworking people of Punjab, every meal is little celebration and wherever you eat in this part of India, be it at restaurant, a roadside dhabba (as local street-side food vending stalls are referred to) or in a Punjabi home, quantity is definitely a measure of quality partly because Punjabis like to eat well but also because they love to lay a laden table.

And it is this legacy that the Food trail of Punjab brings us through recipes and the unforgettable stories behind them, culled from the owners of iconic eateries across Punjab. Featured in it’s pages are such hearty iconic delights as Kara Prasad, Dal Makhani, Amritsar Da Mutton, Gajjar da Murraba Meen Punjabi-Chinni Ishtyle Chicken and winding its way between these recipes, in the best tradition of the food travelogue are stories, vignettes of history, stories of iconic establishments and the people that run them. Full of candid photographs, charming commentary impassioned memories of the people and food of Punjab. The Food Trail of Punjab is a delicious romp of a book guaranteed to get you craving for a Punjabi meal.

It is a book that any food lover - but especially those who are afficionados of indian food and Indian culinary history - should aspire to own, because it celebrates an era of food - the kind that loved simple flavours, oodles of ghee and lots of deep frying - that is an iconic part of Indian cuisine and needs to preserved.

Fabulous stuffed Kulchas!

Tandoori Rotis

Shanky and Lotsoffood!

Shanky

Feast of Food and friends


The French connection? Food writer Mangal Dalal and Pooja Dhingra of Le 15

Chole

Mini Rasmalai

The book and the food!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GYAN

The Food Trail of Punjab is widely available at bookstores all over India. For more information you can get in touch with Mr. Sharma at mryashbirsharma(at)gmail(dot)com.

‘Legacy of Punjab’ Asli Punjab Da Tashan as a grade 1 restaurant on the Mumbai – Nashik / Shirdi highway, 3km from Shangrila Waterpark. A spacious restaurant, that recreates the ambiance of a Punjabi farm house, Legacy of Punjab, uses solar energy fas its primary power source and growis most of ithe produce it uses on the 10,000 sq feet farm attached to the restaurant where vegetables like cauliflower, okra, brinjals, sugar cane, corn, papayas, radish flourish. For further enquiries please call +91 93231 07555 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +91 93231 07555 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or email legacyofpunjab@gmail.com, or look for them Facebook under Legacy of Punjab.

Book review - Modern Spice

2010-09-09T02:21:00.000-07:00

I have known Monica Bhide, almost as long as I have been a food writer. In fact she was kind enough to guide me on many early queries on aspects of food writing. I was always curious to get a look at her cookbooks (she has two previous cookbooks to her name; The Spice is Right and The Everything Indian Cookbook) but I never got my hands on one because they did not make it to India. So I was determined to change that when I heard that about her latest offering 'Modern Spice' and had asked someone in the US to pick up one. But it turned out I did not need to however, because Random House released an Indian edition and were kind enough to send me a copy. A lot of cookbooks wash up on my doorstep, but very few pass the test that gets them through to this blog. Modern Spice did.

Indian cooking is a classic example of fusion going right. And anyone that scoffs about that or about fusion is too full of themselves and needs to get a good dose of Chopsuey Dosa in Mumbai! That is a story for another post however. The point I am trying to make is that Indian cuisine is a classic example of fusion. The roots of Indian cuisine were put down millennia ago when the geographical borders of the sub continent of India were drawn. Indigenous ingredients were harvested by ancient civilizations of India and the resultant cuisine formed the base of Indian Cuisine as we know it. However, the sub continent of India spans many climates zones and is home to a variety of flora and fauna. So as civilizations spread out over the subcontinent with time, they took with them the food ways they practiced but adapted them to suit locally available ingredients.

And today the world is a much smaller place. Indians have moved all over the world taking their cuisine with them and adapting it to what is locally available. In a modern day evolution, Monica has adapted the culinary knowledge she inherited, to the foods she has found in America. The difference is that where expat accounts of food cooked abroad once read as an account of traditional curries and Indian food cooked painstakingly from scratch by mothers and grandmothers to recreate the flavours of home and carried melancholy undertones, Monica’s book reflects a more refreshing positive evolution, a reflection of the lives of Indians living abroad today, easy, fun, intensely flavourful and inclusive! This is food to welcome, become a PART of a world that is coming closer, evolving together not exclude, by saying – you would not understand Indian spices.....

In the forward, Monica says “Just because we have always done something in one way, it does not make it the only way to do it” and that to this cook who like to experiment with ingredients and push them to their limits is what appeals. Monica Bhide’s book Modern spice gives the world a small taste of what you can do with a little Indian spice and exotica such as Brussels Sprouts and Broccoli we have only just begun to experiment with in dishes other than salads and Chinese food!

I look at a cookbook for inspiration and Modern Spice offered lots of new ideas I especially loved the drinks section that sexed up homely classics such as ROOH AFZA (of all things) into a sultry Rum and roses and spiked a plain old Pineapple juice with chillies to make Hot Passion. But that said my biggest grouse is that there are no pictures. A lot of pain has been taken to lay out pages and add breaks in text with innovative touches of colour and graphics but it would have been nice to actually see what some of the more unusual recipes looked like when I was trying to decide what to make!

All eaten and tasted however, I think this is a great book to invest in, as a gift for non Indians wanting to try their hand at Indian influenced cooking; it keeps a western audience in mind, using ingredients found in most western supermarkets. But (and this is even while I am aware that some of the ingredients used are not available in India) it is also a great book for the modern Indian cook who likes a little adventure. The recipes are designed with the modern sensibilities of health in mind: lighter than most traditional Indian recipes and easy to cook in spite of frantic schedules we have these days.

Shrimp in Green Mango Butter Sauce
Serves: 4
Prep/Cook Time: 20 mintues
Green mangoes cooked in a sweet butter sauce add a delightfully different tart, tangy, and sweet touch to this shrimp curry. Serve this with steamed basmati rice.
3½ tablespoons unsalted butter
½ teaspoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
10 fresh curry leaves
2 large or 4 to 6 small shallots, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon table salt to start
½ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
¼ cup chicken stock
1½ pounds or about 650 grams jumbo
shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup diced, peeled green (unripe) mango
1 teaspoon sugar
½ cup water
Half a fresh lemon
1. Heat two and a half tablespoons of the butter and the oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan until the foam subsides. Add the mustard seeds and curry leaves and sauté just until the mustard seeds pop.
2. Add the shallots and garlic and sauté for two to three minutes until aromatic and golden.
3. Add the turmeric, salt, pepper, broth, and shrimp and simmer for a few minutes until the shrimp is almost cooked through. Remove from the heat.
4. In a medium pan, melt the remaining one tablespoon of butter on medium heat. Add the mango and sugar and sauté for a minute. Add the water and bring to a boil. Cook for five to seven minutes until the mango starts to soften.
5. Transfer the mango mixture to the saucepan containing the shrimp. Mix well, then reheat gently. Serve hot with a squeeze of lemon juice.

------
GYAAN and legend
Priced at Rs. 499, Modern Spice is published by Random House India. Monica Bhide is a cookery writer and blogger whose articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economic Times, Femina, Bon Appetit and eGullet. In addition to her writing, Monica owns and operates her own cooking school which has been featured in Bon Appetit.

A Perfect Bite...: VIRTUAL BIRTHDAY POTLUCK WEEK. - What will you cook for me on my birthday?

2010-09-08T21:20:00.000-07:00

A Perfect Bite...: VIRTUAL BIRTHDAY POTLUCK WEEK. - What will you cook for me on my birthday?

Author Interview - Bulbul Mankani, Bollywood Cookbook .

2010-08-25T01:07:00.000-07:00

Bulbul Mankani is a gem of a person I have the good fortune to count amongst foodie friends. Born in Delhi, Bulbul grew up in many countries and cities and recently moved north to look after her mom. Just prior to that she was teaching at a film school- whistling woods international. Trained in food at IHM, New Delhi Bulbul only really cooked for the first time at college and then everyday for three years after. Over the years she has worked in the hotel industry and in media (television and advertising), having directed a 39 part TV series on food called Shahi Dawat, a show on the royal cuisine of India..... A while ago I interviewed her on her cookbook for an article. Thought I would share it here!

RMG: Why the Bolly wood Cookbook? What inspired you? Why did you choose the subject you did to write about?

BM: Funnily, there was no inspiration, my publishers wanted a book that combined Bollywood and food - as both are favourites in Europe presently - and they asked me to come up with a book... So I would say the subject chose me! And my training in food and film helped

RMG: How did you become interested in cooking? When and how did food and its exploration become important?

BM: I come from a foodie family- in good, bad, rich, poor times there was a lot of great food cooked and eaten.... One side of my family are Sardars from Rawalpindi and they enjoy this full blooded meaty cuisine.... the other side is Sindhi with their highly disciplined eating... I used to watch some cooking as a kid but the first time I really cooked was at college and boy did we cook- almost 8 hrs everyday!!

RMG: How did you set about working on this book? Did you travel, meet the celebrities whose favourites you featured, actually cook with them in their own kitchens?

BM: The toughest part was to get the celebrities to participate! Once they agreed I would interview them, the ones I knew from before actually cooked and showed me their skills but the others shared their food stories and told me about their favourite dishes. I then took the recipe from their mom's/ uncles/ aunts/ khansamas (cooks), tested them and wrote the chapter on each of them.

RMG: Would you share some of your most pleasurable moments during your
research, interactions with celebrities, tastings?

BM: Most of the actors were great to meet and talk to. I think one of the fun things was meeting them in their make up vans on film sets and talking about food for hours.... it was really such a heady mix. I love food and films and they came together in a great way... I travelled to Amravati to meet Nandita Das and I remember the lush orange trees for miles and she was such an easy natural person.... I think each one of them was a pleasure. Most were very passionate about food despite the need for fit bodies. Not all cooked themselves but they all knew their food. I discovered Manisha Koirala is a great cook and hostess. I tasted her Italian cooking and it is good. Shabana Azmi is articulate and funny - a great raconteur... as is Rahul Bose.... both do not cook at all but know their dals!

RMG: What's your favorite recipe from your book?

BM: If I have to choose just one it has to be Junglee Mutton, the recipe shared by Rishi and Neetu Kapoor - it was unusual and truly represents food born by necessity.

RMG: What's next on the menu? What can we, look forward to next from
your kitchen/pen? I know it is a little soon, but do give us a hint...

BM: I had written a film script set in the food world and am turning that into a novel. Plus working on two cook books- one on Ayurvedic cuisine and another is a food travelogue....

RMG: What do you have to say about the lack of food representation in Indian Movies?

BM: True, our cinema misses out on this aspect completely- except for the odd dinner table sequence- even a film like Bawarchi did not create enough food moments.

RMG: Favourite foodie movie? Why?

BM: Like water for chocolate- its sensual and had that premise that food carries our emotions

RMG: What were some of the things you were uncompromising about as regards to your book, that you think should be given more attention in other cookbooks? (Language, recipe testing etc)

BM: Recipe testing and description - a lot of books assume you know the ingredients or spice mixes and one needs to appreciate that books travel all over the world I keep the lowest common denominator in mind... so i explain how to make all the subset ingredients/chutneys...

RMG: I found you through your blog (a great tool since I was looking for you) but in general do you think a blog/website is important to promotion? And have you done anything special with any bloggers to promote your book?

BM: Like you an accidental food blogger found me and promoted the book plus ran a contest.... I love blogging but am lazy about it.... I think it’s a great way to promote the book.... so I think it should get linked to sale through a internet purchase....

RMG: Anything you would have done differently?

BM: I would have attended the food photography sessions, we were on a tight time schedule so I could not be there...and the photos are sometimes not accurate...

ORGANIC FOOD IN INDIA - An interview with Dr. Anjali Pathak, naturopath and organic consultant

2010-01-25T21:38:00.000-08:00

Dr Anjali Pathak

Will organic ingredients make a noticeable difference in gourmet and home cooking?
A world of difference! Organic food tastes better, looks better, feels better and nourishes better than chemically grown food. You may not be a gourmet cook but if you cook with organic ingredients you will get rave reviews and lavish praise from all who taste the feast.

We all love our baingan bhurta, so why this fuss over Bt brinjal?
Because Bt brinjal may kill or maim us and our children in silent and unexpected ways. We still do not know enough about the long term effects of genetically modified food upon the human body. We may be able to produce more food in terms of quantity but whether this food is going to be healthy food remains unanswered to date.

Agreed that organic food is healthy but why aren’t more shops selling it?
Good question. Firstly, most of the organic food being grown in India is being exported abroad. Secondly, the supply chain from the farmer to the shopkeeper is erratic and fluctuating as far as organic food is concerned. Thirdly, the high cost of space rental in big cities means that organic stores often cannot break even. And fourthly, consumer consciousness and hence consumer demand for organic food is low. In fact an ASSOCHAM study revealed that only 3.3% of the population in our metropolitan cities opt for organic food.

Where can I find fresh organic produce, cereals and pulses in Mumbai?
The Yusuf Meherally Centre in Babulnath carries fresh produce. Dosti Land Developers who have farms in Dahanu also carry fresh produce and do home deliveries. For dry staples there are a number of supermarkets and hypermarkets including chains like Spinach, Akbarally’s, Godrej Nature’s Basket, Food Bazaar, Spencer’s and Fabindia. Navdanya, Conscious Food and Nishtha Organics are stand alone stores. Firdaus Bakhshay is a manufacturer and bulk supplier of 25 varieties of natural cheese, fruit yogurt, processed meats and omega 3 eggs.

And what about organic restaurants, can you suggest a few names?
There is a paucity of good organic restaurants in our metros but hopefully more will open soon. Navdanya restaurant at Dilli Haat serves delicious meals prepared with organic ingredients.
Sunil Jalihal, an IT fellow turned entrepreneur has opened up a branded organic salad and juice bar with outlets in Bangalore and Pune called deli,in. Unfortunately deli.in is only operating on IT campuses. Sunil is optimistic about opening more deli.in outlets in say Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai if business investors come forth to invest in the chain
Seva Café in Ahmedabad sources its raw materials from an organic farm near town and the food it serves is simple, delicious and down-to-earth (www.sevacafe.org).

You are saying that commonplace food items like sugar and tea are full of chemicals. So what is a healthy substitute for my daily cups of chai?Have herbal tea and better still prepare it at home. This is not chai, rather it is a “kadha” or herbal decoction or infusion and it tastes delicious. My personal favourite is tulsi-ginger, lemongrass, geranium, mint and rosehips (I collect them from wild rose bushes). Add honey or jaggery or palm jaggery as a sweetener and a dash of lemon if you must. Organic green tea is also great and yes, it is being produced and sold in India. Look for the MAKAIBARI brand of green tea in the stores. This is being grown in Darjeeling and is 100% organic. For those who are short on time, several varieties of herbal tea, both Indian and imported are available on the shelves of supermarkets in the big cities.

In which areas of India can a traveler expect to get well prepared organically grown food?
In the tribal, remote areas of India food is still being grown organically today. The northeast has organic food by and large but their preparations are simple, almost bland for the taste buds of urban people. Still the food is wholesome and grows on you if you eat it for a couple of weeks. The same hold true for Bastar in Chattisgarh or Wayanad in Kerala, Leh in Ladakh, Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh, Kutch in Gujarat… The list is a long one!

Several eco-resorts all over India are growing and serving their own organic vegetables and fruits, like the Hermitage near Belgaum; Soans Farms, Moodabidri, Karnataka, Rainforest Retreat in Coorg; Tranquil Plantation Hideaway, Sultan Bathery, Wayanad; Philipkutty’s farm, Kottayam, Kerala; The Bamboo Resort in Sikkim; Karmi Farm, Darjeeling; Yangsum Farm, Rinchenpong, Sikkim; the Ahilya Fort hotel in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh; Wildernest at Swapnagandha, Chorla Ghat, and Savoi Plantation in Goa; Himalayan Village, Sonapani, Kumaon; Ambiya Himalayan Paradise, Kodiya, Garhwal; Shahpura Bagh in Shahpura, and Apani Dhani in Nawalgarh, Rajasthan and many, many more.

Tell us about your book ANNAM BRAHMA: Organic Food in India, in a nutshell.
ANNAM BRAHMA: Organic Food in India (Pilgrims Publishing, Varanasi, 2009) is a compilation of articles by organic farmers, organic shop owners, ayurvedic vaidyas and naturopaths. All recount their personal journeys which led them to either grow, sell or prescribe organic food and the changes it has brought about in the lives of their customers and patients as well as in their own lives. It also has a 50 page all India organic directory to assist readers in finding a good place to source their organic food supply. Swamini Mayatitananda who healed herself of cancer by living on a carefully planned diet of organic food has written an enlightening preface to the book Organic Food: Honouring Mother Earth. Organic food is available all over India and probably in a location close to you at rates which are pretty reasonable. So get out your shopping bags and make a beeline for organic food. Life is amazing and fun with organic food!

GYAN and Links:
ANNAM BRAHMA: Organic Food in India, ed. Anjali Pathak ( Rs. 650, Pilgrims Publishing, Varanasi) is available at Strand Book Stall (ph:22661917, 22661994), Oxford Book Store (ph:66364477) and Chetna Book Centre (ph:22851243 ) in Mumbai; and at Bahri Sons (ph:24694610), Oxford Book Store (ph: 23766083), Om Bookshop (ph:41664200), Bookmark (ph:24693216) and Midland (ph:24653880) in Delhi.

Cookbooks for mE

2009-07-08T05:31:00.001-07:00

Cookbooks roundup for mE magazine

When one is bonkers about something, it tends to permeate every aspect of one's life. But when two loves combine, well it is a recipe for chaos! I have always been book lover. Then gastronomy writing happened to me and food took over my life. My husband may well disagree but it has to be said, that my bookshelf bore the brunt (literally) of my new interest!

With a new one arriving almost every day for review, my husband stopped commenting, or even looking heaven wards about 200 cookbooks back. In fact when I carried in a bagful of new cookbooks on Saturday, he made me so proud by not batting an eyelid! (Although I suspect that might have more to do with the array of dishes and cuisines he's been coming home to every night!)

The first book I snagged on my latest shopping spree was One Perfect Ingredient by celebrity-chef, Marcus Wareing. The beauty of it is that it offers simple but unusual ideas to get creative with easily accessible ingredients. Got cabbage? Do a Savoy Cabbage with Nut Butter, spiced red cabbage with apple or with hicken. Fishwalla delivered prawns? Try the Prawn Laksa, Panceta prawns or Prawn Bisque, defrost that chicken and roast I with forty cloves of garlic, toss it with bacon and pesto or make a Thai green curry. One Perfect Ingredient is a neat book that delivers on its promise, 50 ingredients X 3 recipes each that cover each section of the kitchen; vegetables, fish and shellfish, meat and poultry, dairy and eggs, fruit and the store cupboard. It has been written for a UK audience so access to some ingredients (negligible) might be difficult and a few recipes might be too complicated for Indian kitchens but that said it is a practical book that you will actually use AND come to love. I have added several recipes from it to my home menus already, most celebrated of which has been the Lemon and Olive oil cake. Not only did the recipe inspire me to bake after YEARS but it turned out the PERFECT cake in with no wrist exercise required!

Books by chefs seem to be all the rage currently, Exploring Taste and Flavour by Tom Kime is another one I am glad I bought. It is not as simple to use as One Perfect Ingredient but Kime uses the principles of the Eastern taste theory and shows why combining the 4 main 'taste' elements of hot, sour, salt and sweet guarantees truly delicious food, every time. Ever one for exploring interesting combinations of food, Exploring Taste and Flavour offers a lot of scope for exploring fusion cuisine.

And then while I am reveling in these two current favourites - "Exploring taste and flavour" and One Perfect Ingredient another book arrives for review. Italian Khanna by Ritu Dalmia. I find it extremely EXCITING. Because for the first in my five years as a food writer, here is an Indian cookbook that is at par with the other two. I have lamented often at the dismal standard of cookbooks that come out of India, but Italian promises to be fun. It promises to show the Indian food lover how to cook authentic Italian food using ingredients from the Indian kitchen. It shows one that it is possible to cook a cuisine from halfway across the world with intelligently used substitutes.

I am sure puritans will scoff but I believe that the evolution of all cuisine is in fusion and adapting to local produce. Which is why I love cookbooks Italian Khana and American Masala by Suvir saran, they explore the melding of varied culinary influences but celebrate the beauty that is to be found in local and seasonal produce. I had been waiting for American Masala because I liked Saran's approach to cooking in his first book Indian Home Cooking (which makes the ideal gift for newbies to Indian cuisine incidentally). I was eager to see what American Masalla would serve up. I was not disappointed Classic western recipes were served with a intellgent masalafied twists and Indian recipes were tweaked to perfection. His Kararee Bhindi is a favourite with my husband's beer buddies and the Chicken Chickpea Harrira has become a comforting spicy meal to make ahead and eat with pav on weekdays. I am so glad my darling husband did the forbidden and picked up this book for me on a recent trip to the USA.

He also got me another book I have been dying to get my hands on. Namely Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson, a book that has been hugely coveted by me for a while now because I admire the author but her book never made it to Indian shores. I love experimenting with unusual ingredients, but I love discovering unusual local ingredients more and Super Natural Cooking offers a lot of inspiration. Written as a guide for cooks so they can cook with more natural (less processed) ingredients and recipes, like most cookbooks written in the West, it tends to be a little of the beaten track for Indians, but indirectly, this book has served to awaken me to the rich repertoire of whole-foods, whole grains and their flours, minimally processed fats, sweeteners, and phytonutrient-packed fruits and vegetables we have access to locally in India. Ingredients we should be fighting tooth and nail to save NOW rather than trying to revive them 10 years down the line.

And you will find the best recipes for these indigenous ingredients, in a special genre of homegrown cookbooks. The kind of cookbook self published by enterprising ladies or representative bodies of the various communities of India. Communities defined by religion, geographical location, history and a variety of other things but with a distinct cuisine of their own. Each of these books are full of recipes following the "a little this and a little that" advice grandmothers would be known for but they are invaluable to cooks of every stripe from the community they belong to and are often the uncelebrated but mandatory in the wedding trousseaus for girls getting married.

By that definition, On the Threshold of Kitchen, by the Danthis sisters has to be my most treasured possession. In no small part for the "Rasoda ni rani banje" (may you be the queen of your kitchen) inscribed in it by my mother. But also because, growing up in a modern Mumbai home I very rarely stepped into the kitchen, so this book that came as my "dowry" became my fallback when I needed to cook traditional Gujarati recipes in my North Indian marital home. I also love Dadima no Varso a beautifully put together cookbook of Palanpuri Jain cuisine by Nita Mehta, Rajul Gandhi, Dr. Satyavati S Jhaveri and the Rachana group of women because of its amazing attention to detail and comprehensive coverage of Palanpuri jain cuisine. In this genre, I also group a pile of local language and unusual cookbooks, I wont get into details but the I have to mention here "My Lady's Everyday Cookery Guide" by PD Dias. I just had to buy it after I read the following "late cook to Their Majesties King George 5 and Queen Mary and two former viceroys Lords Minto and Hardinge." I also love a Marathi book that promises 150 recipes for Baigan, a gujarati book of Faral or fasting recipes and a hindi recipe book of the unknown cuisine of Kumaon.

But Indian Cookbooks have come a long way since these community cookbooks. With India becoming the flavor of the moment abroad, Indian cookbooks are all the rage. Unfortunately this means that one could end up with some really bad cookbooks but the silver lining to this culinary cloud is that some excellent region-specific cookbooks have been published and giving the extensive but often lacking Penguin culinary range a run for their money. South Indian cuisine has had particular attention with classics like Dakshin and Southern Spice (both by Chandra Padmanabhan), making space for Pedatha on Andhra cuisine on Indian bookshelves. Some excellent books on regional cuisines of India that have been published abroad. Indian publishers have missed the boat on these but it seems that Indian distributors don't seem to want to correct the error either to the great loss of Indian cookbook lovers. There is the little known Purba – Feasts from the East by Laxmi Parida – a nifty little book that long ago addressed the lack of information on Oriya cuisine but never made it to Indian shores for some reason. It was joined by the stellar Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts by Ammini Ramachandran that I cannot praise enough which is into it's second print run and continues to curry favour in foodie circles all over the world but is unknown in India. And then there is the graceful My Bombay Kitchen by Niloufer Ichaporia King that silently set sail last year and returned to port triumphant, having won the most prestigious award any cookbook can win, the James Beard award. We have many parsi cookbooks in India, but none tell the story of Parsi cuisine quite as beautifully or as inspiringly as this book.

And since it is on my mind, I must say The Kitchen Revolution is another book that has been inspiring me greatly. The three authors, Rosie Sykes, Polly Russell and Zoe Heron have fine tuned a fantastic system that takes a 'back to the basics' approach to the kitchen. Travelling through the year one week at a time it offering 7 dinners each week that allow you to economize on time, money and ingredients and minimize wastage through thoughtful shopping and a little preparation. If you lived by the book (no pun intended) your week would start with a "Big Meal from Scratch" - a wholesome meal for the entire family that is designed to leave enough leftovers to make 2 dishes called "Something for Nothing" (recipes provided) later in the week. It also includes one Seasonal Supper recipe - a quick, simple supper made from seasonal ingredients, a Larder Feast - using ingredients from the store cupboard for later in the week when the fridge is bare and 2 for 1 - a meal that freezes well so that you can freeze half for another day. The recipes are foolproof, allow for division and multiplication and allow one to make the most of one's cooker, fridge, freezer and store-cupboard.

The Kitchen revolution has been written for a UK audience but it includes recipes from all over the world. It is easy to see that if one did live by it, it would certainly save money and time. That said it doesn't matter if you don't live by it. Skip weeks, use only what you can or treat it like a normal cookery book and you still save money, eat healthy and widen your repertoire of dishes. I have been using the 2 for 1 and Larder Feast recipes to great advantage at home. All in all, I think the idea behind The Kitchen Revolution is brilliant. In fact I will go so far as to say it is the sort of book I would love to write in the Indian context. (Any publishers listening?) In the meanwhile I will continue to be inspired by it.

Gulp Fiction

2009-07-08T01:33:00.000-07:00

I read every scrap of food writing I can lay my hands on, spend a small fortune every month on books and periodicals on cooking and food books and food blogs are part of my daily diet. And then there is that genre of books that will probably be the biggest drain on my wallet ever … edible fiction or Food Fiction!
If you’d asked me what food fiction meant to me a few weeks ago I would have named the food descriptions in Enid Blytons books I read as a child. For the longest time, I was utterly fascinated by large wobbly jellies, iced tea, balcmange, scones, treacle pudding, ices, sausage rolls and liquorice. Children always came home to "hot, buttered scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam". It all sounded so exotic, so delicious. And so different from the Bournvita and ganthiya I got at snack time! Ironically, years later my dad actually brought back liquorice from his travels. I hated it! However, I did like most of the other dishes I grew up reading about.
Or maybe I would have listed Charlie and the chocolate factory. Essential reading in school this had to be the most delicious bit of schoolwork ever! This children's book by Norwegian-British author Roald Dahl tells the story of the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside a chocolate factory. The description of the Chocolate Room with that Chocolate River, that mixes and churns chocolate by waterfall making as Willy Wonka proclaim that "There is no other factory in the world that mixes its chocolate by waterfall!" Pipes hang down from the ceiling and suck up the chocolate, sending it onto other rooms of the factory, such as the Fudge Room. But it isn’t just the thought of all tha molten chocolate that gets me goint, the fact that everything in that room is edible from the very pavements, bushes and grass to trees made of taffy that yield jelly apples, bushes that sprout lollipops, mushrooms that spurt whipped cream and pumpkins filled with sugar cubes, jelly bean stalks, sends me on a candy craving every time!
High school brought the menu of a midnight feast at St. Clare's or Malory Towers into my world. One description was all it took to convince me I wanted to go to boarding school! "Golly! Pork-pie and chocolate cake, sardines and Nestlé's milk, chocolate and peppermint creams, tinned pineapple and ginger-beer!" said Janet. I think "Talk about a feast! I bet this beats the upper third’s feast hollow! Come on—let's begin. I'll cut the cake." (From Enid Blyton, The Twins at St Clare's.). I did go to boarding school at Mayo girls. The school did not allow students to keep ‘tuck’ or food but we had many an adventurous midnight feast, with food smuggled in from local stores on days out; chocolates, burgers and bun omelets, cans of beans and condensed milk, Maggi which we ate uncooked was a favourite as I recall and Wai Wai which came from Nepal substantiated with pickles and chapattis smuggled out of the mess. But the best feast were when someone had a visit from parents and in came home made treats like laddus, mathri – achar and even home made food. We ate so ravenously on those days, that mothers would have felt liberated watching us! Reading descriptions of the back to school feasts at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter really reminds me of those times.
Or perhaps I would say it was Like Water for Chocolate, the first book I read that was fashioned around food and I was captivated. As soon as I was done with it, I went looking for more! But my next find would have been a strong contender too. Chocolat! The chocolate theme seems to be a favourite with writers, I suspect because it is hard to resist as much as the treat itself. But if Charlie and the Chocolate factory gave me Candy cravings, Chocolat made me crave chocolate like never before. And not the industrial chocolate bar – I now have to have real handmade chocolate all the time! Written by Joanne Harris this is the story of chocolatier Vivianne Rocher who moves to the tiny French town of Lansquenet to open a chocolate boutique. But the hidebound local priest does not approve of Vivianne, and soon, a power struggle shapes up between the two of them. All of a sudden, strange things begin to happen. The townspeople begin to eschew the self-righteous gossip of small-town life, and they find the courage to break the rigid codes of provincial behavior. In short, they start enjoying life-all because of the sensual power of chocolate. When I want to indulge myself, I will make myself a cup of thick hot chocolate spiked with a little chilli and settle down to read it all over again.
Reading about food makes one hungry of course, but it needn’t always be a books centered around food that get you inspired. Two recent chick lit reads had me cooking up a storm in the kitchen. It all began with Anuja Chauhan’s The Zoya Factor. The protagonist Zoya Solanki is a client service rep with an advertising agency. Things start happening when she’s made to leave an ad film shoot, featuring SRK, to go to Dhaka to shoot stills of the Indian cricket team and the junior members of the team discover that they simply cannot loose a game after eating breakfast with her! Her birth at the exact time and date that India won the world cup in 1983 has a lot to do with this. The unbelieving team captain Nikhil Khoda adds chemistry to the story but even as I was laughing and crying my way through the book I also found myself inspired by the food described in it. I cooked up my version the ‘balls curry’ Zoya’s maid specialises in and spicy rajma pasta and pizzas with the works like Zoya’s aunt does! And as I dug into the results of my culinary experiments I couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to sink into a story that only talked about food.
It was almost like the kitchen Gods were listening because a package turned up the next day bearing my review copy of The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. In this remarkable debut novel, Bauermeister creates a captivating world in which food becomes much more than simple epicurean indulgence. The story revolves around the protagonist, a respected chef and restaurateur called Lillian who has spent much of her 30-something years in the kitchen, looking for meaning and satisfaction in cooking. She believes that cooking and food have great healing properties and endeavors to pass that know-how to others through her cooking classes. The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class but it is soon obvious that each one is looking for more than just recipes and Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of their lives. One by one the students are transformed as they are brought together by the power of food and companionship, as their lives intertwine. I was lost in the sensual, lush narrative, captivated by the tender hopeful stories, and the magical realism that reminded me of the first food book I ever read all those years ago. In fact ever since I put it down, I have been hoping that pens stories of Lillian’s next class!
Eating is such a human enterprise – from heart to stomach - that it has been grist for many literary meals, feeding the imagination of poets and writers across the ages, offering them an infallible connect to their reader. After reading The School of Essential Ingredients, I find I want to explore his genre more.
Other books on my food fiction reading list
Atwood, Margaret - Edible WomanDe Blasi, Marlena - A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected RomanceFlagg, Fanny - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop CafeHinton, Lynne - The Friendship CakeLanchester, John - The Debt to PleasureMayes, Frances - Under the Tuscan SunMehran, Marsha - Pomegranate SoupTemple, Lou Jane - The Spice Box

This article on food in fiction appeared in the April 2009 issue of Me magazine.

The Kitchen Thinker: picnic food A charming article by Bee Wilson in the Telegraph UK on the food in Enid Blyton's Famous Five series.

Author Interview - Raghavan Iyer of 660 Curries, The Turmeric Trail and co author of Betty Crocker's Indian Home Cooking

2008-08-07T04:02:00.000-07:00

I caught up with Raghavan Iyer while he was on his multi city US, Canadan, and UK book tour for an exclusive interview in which Iyer shares his journey to a book that "has been four years in the making and at 832 pages I feel I've delivered a horse!" Read on to find out more...

RMG: Why did you choose the subject you did to write about?

RI: I always wanted to do a definitive book on Indian curries – it was never done with such depth and scope – finally I got around to it.

RMG: Why "660 curries? Why not more? (not that we are complaining…)

RI: The initial proposal was 1001 – but that was too big for a book – the publisher wanted it under 1000 pages – so we settled for between 600 to 800 – the book has 700 recipes – 660 of them curries).

NOTE: the remaining 40 recipes are accompaniments to eat with curries – called Curry Cohorts. Very clever – we thought…

RMG: Forgive me if I sound clueless but are that many curries really possible? What by your definition is a curry? What was the criteria by which recipes went into your book?

RI: Yes there are that many curries and when you read the intro, you will see how that is possible (the elements of a curry) – there is a nice definition printed on the inside front jacket of the book – also on page 3. It goes "CURRY n: any dish that consist of either meat, fish , poultry, legumes, vegetables, or fruits simmered in or covered with a sauce, gravy or other liquid that is redolent with any number of freshly ground and very fragrant spices and/or herbs." Recipes in the book were in keeping with this definition of curries – that was my sole criterion.

Iyer's idea of a Curry from the introduction of the book "

In England and the rest of the world, "curry" is the catchall word for anything Indian that is mottled with hot spices, with or without a sauce, and "curry powder" is the blend that delivers it. In keeping with my culture, I define a curry as any dish that consists of either meat, fish, poultry, legumes, vegetables, or fruits, simmered in or covered with a sauce, gravy, or other liquid that is redolent with spices and/or herbs. In my India, curry is never added – it just is!

To make it easier to comprehend the constitution of curries, I stripped it down into the seven Asian taste elements of sour, salty, sweet, hot, umami, bitter, and astringent and added an aromatic component to comprise a flavor profile (chef mumbo jumbo). To put it into perspective, all the ingredients we use (spices, legumes, meats, vegetables, dairy, herbs) to compose a curry falls neatly into one of those categories – but that neatness loses its clarity when you apply cooking techniques to them, changing their up-front quality to one that jumps taste boundaries. In other words, curries and their flavors are dynamic. Here is a simple chart that empowers you to create your own curry."

RMG: How did you become interested in cooking? And when and how did food and its exploration become important?

RI: It was more out of a necessity to survive – I came here {to the USA} not knowing how to cook – youngest male child from a large family – so had to cook at age 21 in the US in my dorm for my meals – it all evolved over the years – now it is a passion. And then after I got done with working at an Indian restaurant in the US, I decided to embark on a teaching career, teaching Indian cooking way back in 1991 – as a teacher I also learned by experimenting, reading, practicing. That's when I started exploring more.

RMG: The scope of a book such as his is so huge, how did you set about working on this book? Did you travel, meet people? Spend hours in your own kitchen? What were some of your most pleasurable moments during research, interactions with cooks, food tastings, learning to cook?

RI: Yes to the questions – in the intro I talk about the methods I used and also the research I did while writing the book – I spent 6 weeks in India and then interviewed a lot of people there and here in the US – not only from all corners of India and everywhere in-between, but also Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The best part for me was the opportunity to meet such a myriad of talented cooks, their families, and friends, and taste fantastic flavors. Their hospitality always bowled me over and I could never have done this book without their input and openness to share.

RMG: What was most enjoyable about the process of writing your cookbooks?

RI: I love the process of gathering recipes, creating them, testing them, and writing them in a manner that would appeal to many cooks from all backgrounds – having been a cooking teacher for 18 years, I like to empower my students in the amazing world of curries, and the kitchen being my laboratory helps me get there.

RMG: What's your favorite recipe from your book?

RI: With so many it's hard to chose one but I love the simplest of the simple dals and a vegetable curry and plain rice to accompany that – a toor dal with turmeric, salt, and clarified butter is amazingly satiating and a rajasthani style baingan nu bharto is a perfect match for that with pungent red chiles, garlic, and rock salt.

RMG: What were some of the things you were uncompromising about as regards to your book, that you think should be given more attention in other cookbooks? (Language, recipe testing etc)

All you mention – I have to write the book for the audience I wish to address – I cannot address all types of cooks – I have to zone in on a few and that's my target market – living in the US, where most of my audience is and they cook from my books and teachings, I have to present matter that is approachable, accessible, easy, and yet maintains the integrity of the dish – if I need to limit the number of spices in a complex blend, and I want the cook to make it, I try to keep the blend's integrity by cutting down on some of the ingredients – having a 40-spice blend is not something the average American will wish to make – even though that might be how it's done in India.

RMG: Anything you would have done differently?

RI: I wish I had more pages about the history, it was in the original manuscript but space was an issue – we did not want the book to be over 850 pages – you want people to cook from it after all.

RMG: Lastly, is there anything else you can tell us about yourself, your career, or the profession that would be interesting or helpful to others aspiring to write a cookbook?

RI: believe in yourself and do quality work – if you like what you do, it gets conveyed to the reader and cook through your pages – but be true to yourself.

RMG: What were some of the things you were uncompromising about with your book, that you think should be given more attention in other cookbooks? (Language, recipe testing etc)
RI: all of the above you mentioned – I have to write the book for the audience I wish to address – I cannot address all types of cooks – I have to zone in on a few and that’s my target market – living in the US, where most of m audience is and they cook from my books and teachings, I have to present matter that is approachable, accessible, easy, and yet maintains the integrity of the dish – if I need to limit the number of spices in a complex blend, and I want the cook to make it, I try to keep the blend’s integrity by cutting down on some of the ingredients – having a 40-spice blend is not something the average American will wish to make – even though that might be how it’s done in India.
RMG: Do you feel that the Internet has opened doors for authors who never dreamed they'd ever see a publishing contract and how has it influenced you in regards to your own publishing journey?
RI: In this day and age of blogs, the internet has given everyone a voice to represent their opinions – it is for the reader to judge each blog’s integrity and quality of work – I think it’s a great medium for many to share their writing skills and get themselves published in a global arena
RMG: Do you think a blog/website is important to promotion? Have you done anything special with any bloggers to promote your book?
RI: I think it is vital to have a website to present your skills and talents to the world – blogs are of course a great way to do that also – I have a 660curries.com blog that is solely in existence to discuss the fantastic world of Indian Pakistani, Nepalese, Sri Lankan, and Contemporary curries – Bloggers are passionate people with diverse opinions and I find them a great resource for having a dialogue and sharing of opinions – again, the integrity of a blogger or their opinions are very personal and it is up to the individual to decide who they believe in.
RMG: Lastly, is there anything else you can tell us about yourself, your career, or the profession that would be interesting or helpful to others aspiring to write a cookbook?
RI: Believe in yourself and do quality work – if you like what you do, it gets conveyed to the reader and cook through your pages – but be true to yourself.

660 Curries is available at stores all over India for more on the author go to http://www.raghavaniyer.com, the 660 curries blog http://www.660curries.com/ and here is a rather interesting note from Suzanne Rafer—"the lucky editor of Raghavan Iyer's cookbook" http://www.660curries.com/?p=32

To market, to market...

2008-07-25T02:33:00.000-07:00

Moras Bhajjji seller

The Moras Bhajji

Kantola seller

The Kantolas

Most cookbooks have a buying guide, but for My Mumbai cookbook, even that section has to be a little different. I am going to be writing on some of the markets I have grown up shopping in.

And Vikram's excellent column on Bhajji galli ~

"Mumbai has many good vegetable markets, but Bhaji Gali near Grant Road station is one of the best. Probably because many vegetarian Maharashtrians and Gujaratis live nearby, the veggies always seem extra good and fresh. Another sign that it’s a good market is how sellers specialise."

And it's treasures within including Moras bhajji ~

"A few sellers away I spotted a bag of leaves half hidden under other veggies. They looked odd, long and fleshy ovals that I almost thought were discarded bean pods, but they had the thick stems of a succulent. The vegetable seller called them moras-bhaji and he told me it grew near the sea, coming to them from the beaches at Vasai. "

... finally had me calling him to fix a day to go marketing together. It is something we have been meaning to do but not getting around too. Ignoring pangs of guilt I left the DH with my able housekeeper, Shobha to look after the kids and drove into town. I was really looking forward to this trip since I had been pretty much confines to my colony the last couple of weeks thanks to kids work and the monsoons. The rain gods were also indulgent and held themselves back for me.

We met at the Grant rd. station side. The plan was to walk through to the other side and then drive on to our next destination. Almost immediately we got down to shopping since one of the vendors I especially wanted to visit was right at the corner on which we met. The water chestnut seller.

Water chestnuts come into season at this time of the year, and I had been wanting to get my hands on some for a while now but they are not available near where I live in Powai.

I discovered Water Chestnuts in their fresh form at Mayo girls where we would sometimes get them for tea. Prior to that I had only eaten the cooked salted ones.

Fresh water chestnuts are extremely different from their cooked counterparts and I must say I like them better; tender, crunchy, sweet, juicy and faintly herby, they are great to eat raw and absolutely delicious in curries. A fact I discovered entirely by chance a few years ago when. Anticipating a day of many acquisitions I conservatively bought just half a kg and ended up wishing I'd exercised the judgment to buy more because the were over before I could savor them.

Tucking them into my shopping bag, I moved on with Vikram. We saw a whole lot of other vegetables, identifying them and telling each other how we used them, until we came to the Moras vegetable guy. In fact we almost missed the basket full of Moras he was selling, because it was buried under a bunch of green bananas as you can see in the picture. A little later we happened upon a vendor selling Kantolas. These are prickly little things that my husband confirmed are the Meethe Karele of Uttarakhandi cuisine. All too soon we'd finished with this short stretch of a vegetable wonderland and emerged at the other end.

My Dadi, swore by two markets, Bhulleshwar and Bhajji galli, but Bhuleshwar was further away. Bhajji galli (which literally translates to vegetable lane) was very close and extremely accessible.

Bhajji Gali is a small lane that stretches on a perpendicular from Grant road station. Which makes it a popular stop for commuters to shop for vegetables on their way home. We visited in the lax hours, so vendors were patient with us but try come peak hours and a cacophony of hundreds of voices will greet you selling everything from tomatoes to greens. The fact that it is right in the middle of the vegetarian gujarati populated area makes it a treasure trove for indigenous seasonal vegetables.

It was a great trip so unlike the sanitary supermarket shopping I have access to in Powai. It reminded me what a great experience marketing is and I have every intention of doing more of it!

What is My Mumbai cookbook about?

2008-07-24T00:32:00.000-07:00

Even before I signed the contract for My Mumbai Cookbook, I was making big plans. It would be a runaway best seller and become so famous that I would get a book deal out of it and then a TV show et. etc.

My classic case of counting chickens screeched to a resounding halt when I got down to actually writing it. I spen ages agonising over the dedication page, I didn't want to miss anyone! (It it were an Oscar speech I'd have been hrown of the stage). then I decided to write the introduction. After the third day of staring at one paragraph, I decided to come back to it later and moved to the firt chapter. I wrote and rewrote and rewrote. Suddenly nothing sounded right.

So when I had written things out for the sixth time, I took a break and shifted focus to recipe testing. I will say his though, Thank god for the delete key or I'd have made a serious dent in the environment by chucking wads of paper into the bin! And as I tossed up a quick garlic pasta that is to go into the book, something my husband always says when I make it came to mind, “Quickly prepared dishes sometimes turn out better than the most elaborately prepared recipes."

Maybe I was just trying too hard!

I decided to go back to scratch and reading the notes I sent the pblisher with my book structure helped clear my brain. The May 2009 deadline does not look so scary now....

There is a similarity between writing and cooking. Both are activities that come easily to some, who seem to have thrive at them, but are harder for others who have to keep at it. And even the best writers and finest cooks have probably had that moment when all the elements are present in a piece of writing or a dish and yet it lacks that one element that will take it from just plain good to superlative.

But int both cases, there comes a point when one should just let things happen by themselves.... Let the chemistry happen as they say.....

A few excerpts from my notes to my Publisher

As a food writer the aspect of food and foodways and their ability to travel have aways fascinated me and nowhere is a better example of this than the home kitchens of Mumbai.

Food has a way of crossing the divides of community other barriers and over the years this has resulted in a variety of cuisines, their aormas, flavours and tastes all combining into one huge melting pot that is Mumbai.

My Mumbai Cookbook is a memoir with recipes, Shobha Narayan's Monsoon diary meets one of Claudia Rodens books. A culinary diary, let us say of home cooking in Mumbai. It will offer a sampling of various cuisines through recipes as opposed to just the one regional variety.

The primary objective of My Mumbai Cookbook is to bring to the fore a facet of food in Mumbai that seldom gets it's due. The versatility of the home kitchens of Mumbai. Home cooking in Mumbai has permeated the barriers of walls both the physical as well as those invisible ones of religion and community to be assimilated into one large vibrant tapestry. Although Mumbai has a very dynamic dining scene, home cooking in Mumbai tends to only make it to the recipe pages of columns like 'Ghar ka khana'.

A secondary but no less important objective is to document and preserve, a sampling of home cooking from various communities. As life in Mumbai gets tougher by the moment, there is a direct impact on the way we eat at home. Home cooking is getting more homogenous. Traditional recipes are being circuvented for quick cooking, heat and eat foods. My Mumbai cookbook, aims to perserve some of the easier recipes, offering interested a chance to experiment wih dishes from other kichens, no matter how limited their kichen may be.

Cooking is a given with any family and although there are families where men occasionally cook, the onus of the majority of food preparation is still on the woman of the house regardless of whether she has a career or other responsibilities to juggle or not.

The onus of exchange of culinary lore can be largely attributed to women and in a subtle way, My Mumbai Cookbook hopes to highlight this relationship. I am in awe of the amazing strength of women. They are the cornerstone of evolution of home cooking everywhere. By dint of their gender, women and cooking are inextricably linked. In a quest for variety, they also exchange culinary knowledge and recipes and food ways are passed on. Food and emotion come together in women, in a charecteristic unique to their gender. For women feeding a family goes beyond throwing something together, they will refuse to settle for anything short of the best, spend time planning and preparing meals.

And the Mumbai woman is the perfect example of this charecterisic. Whether she is sorting out the freshest tomatoes at Bhuleshwar, fighting for the freshest fish at Koliwada, or digging out the whitest mushrooms from the bottom of the pile at a supermarket in South Mumbai, she has her family’s best interests at heart and nothing short of the finest she can afford will do - even if it means shopping at Grant road vegetable market and cutting and cleaning the vegetables on the train journey home!

Cooked and booked!

2008-07-20T06:55:00.000-07:00

Now that I have signed on the dotted lines, I can put my characteristic Virgo caution to rest and do a virtual jig!

I am excited to share the news that my book, "My Mumbai cookbook" has been taken on for publication by Tranquebar press.

Tranquebar Press is a literary imprint that, along with Westland Books and Landmark Bookstores are currently owned by the Tatas. Tranquebar Press was launched last year with literary critic Nilanjana S. Roy as chief editor. They are also the publishers behind Saeed Mirza's Ammi: A Letter to a Democratic Mother and Jeet Thayil's These Errors are Correct.

2008-07-18T02:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Aunty Savia came to stay with me, loaded with spice pastes, pickles, goan sausages, vinegar and Mangad - mango jam made of local mangoes that are high in pectin.

Aunty Savia, is a college friend of my mother's. Thanks to her, my mother became an amazing baker and our our childhood memories are enriched with a variety of baked goodies and Easter Marzipan. Aunty Savia had a pickle factory, and care packages from her always included delicious aromatic masallas, pickles, home made bebinca. She also introduced us to goan food albeit vegetarian since she cooked it at our house but later, when i moved into my own home, visits from her meant feasts of prawn curry, coconut curry and all sorts of delectable treats.

Aunty Savia is as Goan as they get, a homebody and one of the loveliest people I know, in the typically Goan way, food is an important part of her identity. The thhre days we spent together were full of learning on my part and nostalgia on hers -about learning to cook, feeding her kids when they were babies and feeding them now as adults, and nostalgia of the times she stayed with my mother in the Munshaw home. We cooked vindalho, xacuti, and a few other classic dishes for My Mumbai Cookbook but the highlight of her stay for me was this dish of stuffed squid she made.

I have only ever seen squid in rings so this stuffed version was a novelty for me. We found squid when we went to look for seafood to cook for our session and bought a few pieces. She chopped up the tentacles with a few prawns and sauteed them with onions, coconut and a little Vindalho paste. She then stuffed this mixture into the squids and cooked the whole in some more of the onion spice paste. It cooked to a spicy almost pickled dish that was great with rice.

And equally invauable was the other knowledge she imparted, advice on baby food, ideas for dishes my kid would like, dealing with bab tummy upsets and a whole lot of things besides.

Author Interview - Ammini Ramachandran, Grains, Greens and grated coconuts - Recipes and Remembrances of a Vegetarian Legacy.

2008-06-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

Ammini Ramachandran took a rather meandering route to the world of food writing. After clocking in over two decades in a career in finance, She now spends time researching, cooking and writing about the cuisine and culture of her home state of Kerala in India. In March 2007, she published Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts: Recipes and Remembrances of a Vegetarian Legacy. An excellent book that went on to receive endorsements from several well known food writers around the world and be celebrated by the New York times.

RMG: Tell us a bit about your background.

AR: I was born and raised in Kerala and moved to the United States in 1971. A chemistry graduate from Kerala University, I studied finance in the United States and received an MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. I worked as a financial analyst in international banking until 2001. I took a rather meandering route to the world of food writing. Writing was always my hobby. After Sep 11, 2001, I took early retirement and decided to pursue writing. After spending over two decades in a career in finance, today I spend my time researching, cooking and writing about the cuisine and culture of my home state Kerala.

RMG: How did you become interested in cooking?

AR: I got into cooking out of sheer necessity. When I came to the US in the 1970's, there were no Indian grocery stores in Rhode Island where we lived. The closest store was in New York City, some two hundred miles away. Vegetarian food was not popular in America at that time. Being a strict vegetarian, I had to learn to cook in a hurry if I wanted to eat Indian dishes. My mother's letters that came every week in the mail always contained a couple of recipes. I learned to cook by referring to these recipes. During my many trips home, I learned more recipes from her and my extended family.

RMG: When and how did food and its exploration become important?

AR: Today with most of the younger generation in my family living in the United States, I wanted them to remember the food prepared at their ancestral home, its history, and culture and started writing a family journal. After reading the initial drafts, the feedback I received from them, as well as their American friends, was most encouraging - They all wanted to read more about our history, and stories about our food. This encouraged me to explore more about of food, history and culture.

RMG: Why "Grains Greens and Grated coconuts?"

AR: A straightforward cookbook with only recipes was not my intention in writing this book. And so I did not want to give it a title that ended in "cookbook". When writing a book that brings the threads of history, geography, religion, tradition, and personal history together to present the food of my region in Kerala, a just recipes only book was not the way to go. Grains (rice and dals), greens (vegetables) and grated coconuts are the crucial ingredients in this cuisine and I felt that it would be an appropriate title.

RMG: You have obviously given every aspect of the book meticulous attention. What were the criteria by which recipes went into your book?

AR: It was a very simple criteria- recipes for all the food that was cooked in my extended family, dishes that are traditional to the Hindu homes of central Kerala. This book by no means a complete collection of all Kerala vegetarian recipes. Several northern and southern Kerala recipes as well as specific vegetarian recipes of the Christian and Muslim communities of Kerala are not in this book.

RMG: What made you decide to write a cookbook?

AR: As I said above I started a family journal documenting the culture and cuisine of Kerala. After Sep 11, 2001, I decided to take early retirement from a career as financial analyst and decided to concentrate on writing about Kerala's food and culture. Slowly my family journal evolved into a web site - peppertrail.com and then to this book.

RMG: Did you look to other cookbooks for inspiration?

AR: Most certainly I looked to several cookbooks for guidance. Ever since the late 1990's there is a growing interest in the United States in cookbooks that present ethnic cuisines against a backdrop of culinary history and culture. These titles also bring cuisines of the world into the modern kitchen in the form of balanced, unusual, and tasty recipes that are within the reach of any cook.

Among these the truly exceptional and inspiring to me were - Frida's Fiestas: Recipes and Reminiscences of Life with Frida Kahlo, by Guadalupe Rivera and Marie-Pierre Colle, Splendid Table, by Lynne Rosetto Kasper, Gefilte Variations, by Jayne Cohen, and Italian Festival Foods, by Anne Bianchi, and The Food and Life of Oaxaca, by Zarela Martinez. My ambition was to write a book in a similar format about the practically unknown vegetarian cuisine of Kerala.

RMG: How did you set about working on this book? Did you travel, meet people? Spend hours in your own kitchen?

AR: How does a financial analyst go about writing a cookbook? Of course I started with an excel spread sheet listing the various recipe categories – every day dishes, festival dishes, seasonal dishes, recipes that are special to my family. Then came sub categories – curries, dry vegetable dishes, pickles, chutneys- the list goes on. A second spread sheet detailed who to contact for particular recipes.

I already had a collection of recipes from mother. I taught myself to cook by referring to the recipes that my mother sent me every week in her letters. During my many visits home I also studied this traditional cuisine from native cooks who have lived and cooked in our region their entire lives. I have spent many fascinating hours listening and writing down their verbal culinary histories that go back hundreds of years. I also spent many hours researching about ancient Indian Ocean trade and its impact on Kerala's cuisine and culture.

Writing a book on Kerala cuisine, while living thousands of miles away from there, also posed a problem. It was especially difficult to reach older relatives via phone to ask any questions. So I enlisted the help of a research team - My sisters Girija Narayanan and Rathi Ramachandran and my cousin Usha Varma, my very patient research team, spent many hours collecting and writing old recipes and the oral history of our cultural traditions. I could not have finished this book without their help. This is as much their book as it is mine.

Then came the recipe testing phase. While following my mother's recipes I had inadvertently followed her method of measuring ingredients by pinches and handfuls. Purchasing sets of measuring cups and spoons and redoing her recipes with measured quantities of ingredients was the next step- which needless to say took many months. Initially often I would forget to measure an ingredient midway through cooking, and had to start all over again. That was the most frustrating part of this phase. When it was impossible to find certain seasonal ingredients in the United States, again came my sisters and cousin to the rescue. They tested the recipes and reported back.

Meanwhile I attended conferences and symposiums for food writers and took continuing education courses on food writing from the food studies department at New York University. I joined several professional organizations for food writers - International Association of Culinary Professionals, Slow Food USA, and Culinary Historians of New York. Through these organizations I learned about the "science" of recipe writing (how each recipe has to be organized beginning with the first ingredient you use in a recipe) and the value of head notes to recipes.

RMG: Would you share some of your most pleasurable moments during research, interactions with cooks, food tastings, learning to cook?

AR: It was very amazing for me to see how the home cooks I spoke to responded with enthusiasm when I showed genuine interest in their recipes and cooking methods.

There is young woman Lakshmi in my home town who cooks every day meals to a few elderly people in the neighborhood for a small fee. She also takes orders for snack foods and spice mixtures. All of the cooking is done in her own kitchen and she and her husband deliver the food. Her food is simple and delicious. My mother always asked her husband's aunt used to come and make the snack murukku in our home. Making this snack by hand is a dying art today. One day I went watch Lakshmi make murukku by hand. And we chatted as she sat on the floor twisting the dough into multi-layered circles of curly spirals on the cotton cloth spread on the floor. She asked me about how I cooked Indian food in America and what vegetables and fruits were available in the USA. I mentioned that good jackfruit is hard to come by and the best we could do is to use canned jackfruit from Thailand.

I am a huge fan of her sambar powder and I had placed an order for it to bring it back to the USA. The day before I was leaving she came with a package. I did not get a chance to open it immediately. Later that evening when I was packing my bags I opened the brown paper bag, I was surprised to see a small stainless steel container inside. I opened with curiosity and it was full of homemade jackfruit jam, glistening with a coating of ghee. How thoughtful of her!

RMG: What was most enjoyable about the process of writing your cookbook?

AR: Researching, writing, editing and publishing - it was a long haul. The enjoyable about the process was the satisfaction that I am finally getting around to documenting the food and culture of my community. But the most enjoyable part came after it was published. I connected with so many wonderful people through this book. After an excerpt and a recipe were posted on Anothersubcontinent.com, the members started a thread devoted to 'Cooking with Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts'. Many of them posted photos of recipes they prepared, with Kavitha Ravi from Malaysia taking the lead to make sure that every single recipe was cooked, photographed and posted. The thread has evolved into an online full-color pictorial companion to the book's recipes.

When the book won the Cordon D'Or award for best self published cookbook, I traveled to St. Petersburg for the award ceremony. And there was arunr (whom I had never met before), a member of anothersubcontinent forum, at the airport to welcome me. Although the award ceremony was held as a fund raising event for Abilities Foundation, arunr got special permission from the organizers to take my photograph as I received the Award. And before I got back home he had already shared the pictures on the forum thread.

It is so touching when people I have never met in my life write to me after they have read the book. One young woman wrote how grandmother cried with joy when she prepared ela ada, a typical sweet prepared for Onam festival. From a young Kerala woman from Dubai to a retired professor from Canada, I have met so many wonderful people because of the book.

RMG: What's your favorite recipe from your book?

AR : It is hard to pick one recipe as my favorite. Ellukari, the sweet, sour and mildly spiced curry with a fragrance of toasted sesame seeds and coconuts and chethumaangakari- the spicy hot green mango pickle are definitely two of them.

RMG: What were some of the things you were uncompromising about as regards to your book; that you think should be given more attention in other cookbooks? (Language, recipe testing etc)

AR: I believe that in her New York Times article Anne Mendelson really summed up about the things I was uncompromising as regards to my book. She wrote: "Instead of trying to cover all menu bases that an editor might insist on, Ms. Ramachandran is free to concentrate on unorthodox categories, including amazingly diverse "curries" (sauced vegetable combinations), pickles and preserves, breakfast specialties, rice dishes associated with sacred observances and temple or rite-of-passage offerings. Other books have ably explored India's far southern territory, but Ms. Ramachandran reveals amazing range and depth in Kerala's Hindu vegetarian traditions. And American home cooks should find her introductions to ingredients, techniques and equipment accessible".

Regarding other cookbooks, each book is a personal journey of the author. Publishing houses have the final say and they often dictate how the content should be presented. It is up to each author to decide how and when they should compromise to these demands.

RMG: How do you determine your book's success, so far?

AR: The success of the book so far has been in receiving good reviews. Sales are alright, nothing fantastic. This is mainly because most sales are only through the internet. Only a few specialty cookbook stores in the Unites States and Canada are carrying the book. This is because iUniverse do not accept returns and offer smaller discounts to booksellers. I hope this will change with the Star edition. Star editions offer industry standard discounts to booksellers and books are returnable.

RMG: Anything you would have done differently?

AR: Of course I would have loved if a publishing house had picked up the book. Then again, I would not have had the freedom to include all of those historical facts and personal anecdotes.

RMG: What next? What can we, as your fans, look forward to next from your kitchen/pen?

AR: I continue my research on Indian Ocean spice trade and the food history of south India. It was a pleasant surprise for me to learn about the tremendous interest people in the United States have in learning about Indian Ocean spice trade. At every presentation I make, I get more questions about this topic. I also continue to write about this topic. I have contributed to two forthcoming publications - Encyclopedia on Entertaining through Time and Cultures to be published by Greenwood Press and Storied Dishes: a book with fifty women food writers donating recipes and the story/memory behind the recipes.

RMG: Lastly, is there anything else you can tell us about yourself, your career, or the profession that would be interesting or helpful to others aspiring to write a cookbook?

AR: I have only a simple advice for aspiring food writers. Never give up your hope. Road blocks are many in the world of publishing- but if you have your heart in it, you will find ways to work around them.

Book is currently available through amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and iuniverse.com. It would be wonderful if major book store chains in India would carry it when the Star title becomes available through international distributors at industry standard terms.

Pictures of our lunch in Vasai

2008-06-05T04:23:00.000-07:00

Lunch -which I was supposed to help cook... well I did manage to stir the curry before I put it on the table - consisted of pomfret done two ways; in a curry of coconut juice flavoured with the ubisquitious bottle masalla and local cane vinegar, and also two rather large specimens stuffed with coconut chutney and pan fried in banana leaves (a dish I found very reminiscent of Parsi Patra ni machchi, couldn't help wondering if there is a common root to that dish) all eaten with rice. (I have pictures of this bit but bear with me, because they are on my phone and my phone and my computer are not on talking terms currently! )

The seasoning in the food was less than what we eat at home, but that was a good thing because it allowed us to taste the delicate flavours of the fish and the curry it was cooked in. Bessy fried the rest of the chutney she'd stuffed the fish with, in a tempering of Mustard and Curry leaves. Lunch was delicious. Generously seasoned with hunger, the tangy slightly spicy fish curry came together beautifully with the chutney that tasted of fresh coconut. We ate a lot, quickly and with our hands, the next bite being ready to enter our mouths before we'd finished with the last and were still picking morsels of plates and spoons long after our stomachs were full.

Making East Indian Bottle Masalla for My Mumbai Cookbook

2008-06-01T23:17:00.000-07:00

The East Idian chapter of My Mumbai Cookbook will actually come up much later in my writing schedule but the legendary Bottle masala is only made this time of the year (January to April). It also has a 'secret recipe' so when I found a friend whose mom was ready to share the making of it, I grabbed the chance. I surmounted all odds to get there the stipulated weekend, planning things down to the 'p', prepacking on Friday, borrowing moms car (ours was in the shop). And I am so glad I did because the monsoons arrived in all their glory the very next week!

We'd planned to leave by 10 but I only woke at 8:45 when Bessy, the friend I was supposed to visit called to ask if we had left! A mad rush ensued as I pushed husband and son to get dressed and got baby and myself ready as well.

The Ghildiyal family, with assorted baggage, baby gadgets and actually left home in record time. (Well 11.00 was not bad since we had planned for 10.00 all things considered.) I am coming to a conclusion after Natasha was born that babies come with a Murphy's law chip embedded in them. That is why they will choose to poop the exact minute you step out of the house? Trow up the exact minute you finish buttoning them into their new dress OR and this is a classic.. Poop the moment you've changed them into a fresh diaper.

We arrived at our friends (the Machados) Vasai home in time for lunch and all of a sudden the mad rush seemed to slow down as beer cans were popped open and the men got comfortable in front of the cricket match on TV, while keeping an eye on the kids (my 2 and Bessy's 2) while us women got busy in the kitchen.

Lunch -which I was supposed to help cook... well I did manage to stir the curry before I put it on the table - consisted of pomfret done two ways; in a curry of coconut juice flavoured with the ubisquitious bottle masalla and local cane vinegar, and also two rather large specimens stuffed with coconut chutney and pan fried in banana leaves (a dish I found very reminiscent of Parsi Patra ni machchi, couldn't help wondering if there is a common root to that dish) all eaten with rice. (I have pictures of this bit but bear with me, because they are on my phone and my phone and my computer are not on talking terms currently! )

The seasoning in the food was less than what we eat at home, but that was a good thing because it allowed us to taste the delicate flavours of the fish and the curry it was cooked in. Bessy fried the rest of the chutney she'd stuffed the fish with, in a tempering of Mustard and Curry leaves. Lunch was delicious. Generously seasoned with hunger, the tangy slightly spicy fish curry came together beautifully with the chutney that tasted of fresh coconut. We ate a lot, quickly and with our hands, the next bite being ready to enter our mouths before we'd finished with the last and were still picking morsels of plates and spoons long after our stomachs were full.

After that sumptuous lunch, a nap was on the cards, we were in Vasai after all, where afternoon naps after a big meal of fish curry and rice are de riguer.

At 5 going on 6 (are you surprised?) that evening, Riki, Bessy's husband dropped us off to Bessys moms house while my husband valiantly babysat the kids. Thank god for him, because without his support, the next few hours of idyllic culinary exploration could not have been possible.

It was in the next few hours that Bessy's mom, Mrs Margaret Nunes was going to teach me how to make Bottle Massala, Sorpottel and Vindhaloo.

But before I get into the details let me tell you about East Indian Bottle Masalla. This magical spice mix is a bit like the legendary Ras el hanout, it seems to have every spice in the world in it, only as opposed to being made by merchants it is made by women at home and each home has a separate recipe. It is then used round the year to distinctively flavour East Indian cuisine. It goes into everything!

The making of this Bottle masalla is an annual event amongst the East Indian community. The annual supply is made and put down just prior to the monsoon when hot sunny days are guaranteed and used round the year.

Bottle Masala travels far and wide, with members of the community carrying it with them so they can replicate flavours of home in far off lands.

Like all Indian spice mixes, the spices for this masala are also dried in the hot sun, then each is individually roasted over a slow fire and either in a mortar and pestle or processed like the one I made in Vasai. Once we had roasted everything, it was all mixed up and taken to the local flour mill where it was ground in a special mill reserved for grinding masallas.

The resulting powder was left to cool down completely and then tightly-packed in air-tight, dry bottles (now plastic but beer bottles were once the container of choice which is how the masalla came to be called bottle masalla). The bottle is then properly sealed and will last a long time if kept away from sunlight and moisture.

My Mumbai Cookbook – the story so far and the blog

2008-05-27T03:38:00.000-07:00

I once cut a million teeny - weeny happy faces to put in a letter to a friend who was ill so that he would open the envelope and have them fall all over and perhaps bring him some happiness.

I have never been able to do anything on a small scale…

As an art student at school, I always chose the largest canvases to fill, later in animation school the story idea I animated involved several backgrounds that required the making of a million miniature hats, as an operations executive with my mothers company I would design elaborate itineraries embellished with clip art of beds and dishes of food to illustrate bedtimes and mealtimes, still later as a candle maker I was the recipient of my sisters curses because all my candle designs were labour intensive requiring me to spend hours creating miniature scenes that would then be filled with transparent gel wax to become stories frozen in time.

But whatever I chose to do, I worked at it until it was the best I could do.

Where others would avoid activities that require that much labour, I gravitate to them.

Ever since I began writing on food, I have written a lot of articles I loved working on, become pretty good at food styling and improved immensely as a cook but I hadn't done anything big.

But, to be fair, I wasn't really looking.

And then, almost in a thrice, the idea for "My Mumbai Cookbook" came to me. It clicked in the way that things that are meant to be click and has been clicking ever since.

'My Mumbai Cookbook' to put it simply is a diary of culinary experiences written by a food lover who measures her life in the meals she has eaten. Not in meals eaten at restaurants but the meals we come home to. Meals made in by women who love us. And My Mumbai Cookbook is not just about the food it is also about the places we get the food and the people that make that food, women (mostly) who run the home kitchens of Mumbai.

Today as I begin to write this book I am aware of the huge canvas I have to fill and I am looking forward to the every step of the journey of discovery.

Which is why I decided to blog about my experience of writing the book.

I know a million interesting experiences await; a whole lot of little side trips I know I will end up taking that probably won't make it into the book and it seems appropriate since blogging is where my journey as a food writer began…

(Needless to say My Mumbai Cookbook - the Blog about writing the book will have none of the content that will go into the book (not for now anyway).

My Mumbai cookbook is part memoir, part food guide and wholly a cookbook. It will offer a smörgåsbord of cuisines in the same book so the foodie or food traveler can get a sampling of Mumbai because Mumbai is not just about one cuisine, but is a melting pot of many. After all food has a way of crossing the divide of community and religion and over the years this has resulted in a variety of cuisines, aromas, flavours and tastes all combining into one huge melting pot that is Mumbai.

Foodwriting as a career in India for Me Magazine

2008-02-07T05:26:00.000-08:00

Whenever I introduce myself as a food writer I am usually asked “What’s a food writer?”

I recall the first time the question came my way, I simply blurted out the obvious, “A food writer is someone who writes about food” and went on to elaborate on the kinds of articles I wrote and the magazines I had been published in. But the episode comes back to me. After all, how would you answer that question right now?

Good question!

Even Wikipedia does not seem to have an answer.

BUT according to Wikiedia “Food is any substance consumed by living organisms, including liquid drinks. Food is the main source of energy and of nutrition for animals, and is usually of animal or plant origin.” And Writing is defined as “a process which may refer to two activities: the inscribing characters on a medium, with the intention of forming words and other lingual constructs that represent language and record information, or the creation of information to be conveyed through written language.”

So FOOD WRITING could be defined as “the inscribing characters on a medium, with the intention of forming words and other lingual constructs that represent language and record information, or the creation of information on the subject of any substance consumed by living organisms, including liquid drinks to be conveyed through written language.”

Umm… I think I will stick with FOOD WRITING is writing on food. I can hear you going “DUH” at me but try having to explain what you do at least once a day (at the very least) to a PR rep for a restaurant, a publication or just about anyone else and you will sympathize…

This is because food writing is still to a large extent an undefined sector in the publishing industry in India.

On the global scale Food writing has come into its own. Categorized under the larger umbrella of writing in general it has it’s niche and covers everything from articles for print and web to books related to food. It encompasses subjects ranging from food (and drink) production to consumption. That said there are branches within food writing - some food writers choose to stick to certain areas like restaurant criticism – in which case they would be restaurant critics, or wine in which case they would be wine writers or wine critics.

Conversely food writing is an undefined, unrecognized sector in the publishing industry in India. There are less than a handful of food writers about, no formal training courses and even today few publications recognize food writers as specialist writers. In fact Food writing in the true sense of the word is unexplored and books on food are at a very rudimentary stage of evolution. Food writing has a long way to go toward achieving the cult status it enjoys in the West. There are very few food writers in the true sense and no formal training courses. So each step of my journey has been one of learning as I went along.

So does one need to have a specific background or training in order to be a successful food writer?

It will come as a surprise but most food writers and food critics ended up in this field after working in other areas of writing or in another career altogether… Jeffrey Steingarten, the food writer for Vogue, was a lawyer in his past career, Ruth Reichl, Editor in Chief of Gourmet magazine, worked in and later owned a restaurant and closer to home restaurant critic Rashmi Uday Singh author of the Times good food guides was Deputy Director General, Shipping with the, Indian Administrative Service, before she gave it all up to be a food writer.

I take comfort from all these stories because food writing happened entirely by chance for me. I discovered food writing while on a sabbatical from my job. As the mother of a toddler I was pretty much confined to my home and the internet was my lifeline to the world. I spent hours surfing the net and reading about all sorts of things and experimenting with blogging. It was at this time when I was looking for information (on pickles I think) that I discovered egullet.org home to like minded people who reveled in food. I spent weeks dithering around, lurking through its forums, scribbling a line or two here and there until I finally worked up the courage to put up an essay on Uttarakhandi Cuisine. The cuisine in question being unknown, my post got a lot of attention and my inherent talent for research and writing must have come through because I got a lot of praise. The post was the first step to a book that is awaiting publishing but more immediately it brought me a job offer with a local gastronomy magazine and made me realize that perhaps there was a career for me in food writing.

The first realization a food writer must have is that food writing is not just recipe features or restaurant reviews. It goes beyond that. Food writing like all other writing aims to stimulate the senses of the reader either evoking experiences, past or present or more practically motivating the reader out of the armchair and into the kitchen or nearest restaurant.

Not willing to give up being a hands-on mother, I chose to freelance. My first article (not surprisingly) on Utterakhandi cuisine was published in April 2005 in Savvy Cookbook. By June that year I had 3 articles published including an essay on Kutchi food, a recipe feature and a restaurant review, each in a different publication. In retrospect free lancing was the best decision I could have taken because it allowed me to work on a variety of subjects and styles and amass a body of work that I would not have been able to if I had been with just one publication.

Three years down the line today I have more than 400 articles and share viable relationships with at least 12 publications.

When you are starting out it is a good idea to try everything but be wise and use that phase to identify your strengths as well. For instance I prefer to circumvent restaurant reviews and other generic articles. These are easy to write but my approach to them is of a “have to get this article out” sort of attitude as opposed to my usual feeling of eagerness that subjects I gravitate towards inspire. I have found that articles that motivate me are ones that deal with subjects closest to my heart; the food on the plates of real Indians, culinary history, the migration and evolution of cuisine, sustainable agriculture, the intersection of food and culture, food as a carrier in the evolution of a culture (preferably researched at the knees of someone’s mom or grand mom) and my India is a rich country for that.

That said however do focus on your niche once you have identified it. Food writing is relatively unknown in India - I am still slotted under freelance writers at most publications. As a result I am often asked if I could do a story on this or that “just this once”. I did a couple of these in my initial days but stopped when I realised I spent twice the amount of time researching unknown subjects. If you have decided to be a food writer, FOCUS on food writing. Sticking to your niche might lead to lean pickings at the outset but it will pay off in the long run. Once your by-line comes to be associated to one kind of topic and your prowess with the subject comes to the fore more “meaty” assignments will come your way.

I made Rs.1000 for my first assignment. I then spent the ensuing year accepting whatever came my way, regardless of remuneration. One year down the line however, I began to let go of low paying assignments because I found that these were the hardest ones to do. I also began to develop relationships with quality publications. You might need quantity in terms of bylines at the outset of your career but once you are established it is the publication you associate your name with those that count and believe me, the good ones rarely have qualms about paying fairly!

Most of us shy away from appearing avaricious. We are uncomfortable asking for more money. At times like this try to remind yourself that you are having that dialogue about money because the person at the other end feels you are worth pursuing. (let me share a secret here, I don’t stress about appearing greedy ever since I realized that it helps separate the wheat from the chaff!) Once you have work coming in, losing a quickie job that pays too little isn’t a bad thing, it just frees up time for you to write the kind of stuff you want to – paid or not!

Food writing has ups and downs, the best thing is being forced to try new things. Last week, working on an article, I had a great time discovering the amazing variety of green leafy vegetables we use in Indian cuisine (I found 7 in Mumbai alone). I made three new dishes with them; an Irani mixed greens offering called Gormeh subzi, a forgotten Gujarati recipe called Dakho and a concoction all my own combining greens and dals. It was heavenly, but I would never know without trying it all. Food writing is a field that requires constant educating and re-educating. I study nearly every day to keep up with trends and food facts. I inhale every bit of food writing I can get my hands on, have about 500 books on food, encyclopedias and histories of foods and food names. The worst time I have had as a food writer is recently while I was pregnant! With a more adventurous palate I had more exotic cravings as well!

It takes hard work, dedication, perseverance, research, knowledge, an open mind, the ability to multi task and above all passion and creativity to grow as a food-writer but It's an excellent job for someone with a passion for food, writing and learning.

A FEW TIPS

It is important to write properly - When you send in an article, make sure it’s letter perfect. I thought I was a skilled writer until Naresh Fernandes editor of Timeout pulled me up for not spell-checking! He also recommended investing in a copy of Strunk and White which has held me in good stead when i am unsure of something.

Don’t wait for deadline - You can be an excellent writer but not meeting deadlines makes you unreliable. Also your editors are juggling lots of things so if you can send your work in early , do so, I have always found appreciation coming my way when I filed a story before time.

Ensure your information is complete - Do not leave anything to be desired. At the same time strike a balance with information, over loading your reader and making your editor work overtime will not get you more work!

Know your subject - I once accepted an asignment on Japanese cuisine, a cuisine I had never sampled. The publiation never used it. It had no passion. Write on subjects you know, i have found I can write well even on yams if I have experiencesd them. Besides if you are called to discuss your story idea you must be able to. Nobody is going to trust you with an assignment unless they are confident in your abilities.

Understanding your reader - If you’re writing recipe features for a woman’s magazine that is targeted at homemakers – an audience that juggles a budget ands cooks upto 3 meals a day - an article on innovative ways with Daal or quick microwave recipes rather than something like Truffles will be the order of the day, Truffles are better suited to the glossy, lifestyle magazine where your subjects must be in step with culinary trends around the world. You have to be in tune with your reader. That’ll help you identify appropriate ideas for your audience.

Be patient - Okay, you’ve spent hours, sometimes even days, developing story ideas, and if you are like me chances are you’re going to want a response RIGHT NOW. BUT hold on, remember that editor receives tons of similar mail. Every editor I’ve ever worked with has responded in due course. If you don’t hear back in 2-3 weeks then by all means e-mail or phone but keep it short. (Until I got confident enough to wing it on my own, I actually wrote out exactly what I would say over the phone). No extra chitchat, to the point. Remember you’re not trying to make a new friend; you’re trying to get work.

Develop a distinctive voice. This is perhaps the hardest to achieve. Voice is the unmistakable sound, rhythm, and point-of-view that connects with the writer so you know whose written it when you read it. Read writing by M.F.K. Fischer, Nigel Slater and closer home Chitrita Banergee, Vir Sanghvi, Vikram Doctor are people with a voice. When you’re reading them you can hear the authors' voices in your head. And more importantly, you can never confuse or interchange them. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t inherently interesting enough or big enough personalities to pull it off, as these masters do, most of us have to work at finding and developing our voice. But when you succeed, editors will use you again and again. Readers who have read me from my earliest articles might agree that I finally seem to have found my voice. I was inspired by the Laurie Colvin whose books I discovered recently.

Create your own website or blog. The fact is your own space on the web works. And with push button publishing you can do it with a blog, they are free. I include a link to my blog when I introduce myself to a new editor. Even if the assignment does not come my way, they do register me and my knowledge. Until you collect enough published work, the site will also make a good platform for your capabilities.

BOX ON FOOD WRITING CLASS

And then you can also thing of taking classes to augment your talents. Last year I took an online food writing class with Pamela White, publisher of the only periodical that focuses on food writing. In six online lessons, students learn to pitch columns, write articles, query magazines successfully, review restaurants, and write food essays and memoirs. Bonus chapters include tips on styling and photographing food, essential information on copyrights, selling rights and trademarks, and insider advice editors want writers to know. Each lesson includes assignments that guide the writer to successfully understand the lesson. Pam has now turned her original food writing class into a self-study course. "Make Money as a Food Writer in Six Lessons" Information on her course and book is available at http://www.food-writing.com/

Looking forward to American Masala

2007-10-24T23:12:00.000-07:00

I see that Suvir's new book is out and I am looking forward to getting my hands on a copy.

His first book Indian Home Cooking: A Fresh Introduction to Indian Food holds its own on my bookshelf, but to be honest I bought it more out of curiosity than to actually cook from it. I had interacted with Suvir on various food forums and also tried his recipe for Tomato Chutney with excellent resuts so I wanted to see what the book was like. The book did not have too much in terms of new unusual recipes, some of the more unusual ones like the Shrimp Rasam and Lamb Biryani with Orange and Whole Garam Masala are now regulars on my recipe list. Indian Home Cooking has also become my favourite book to give novices to Indian cuisine as gifts. It very succintly lays down the basics of Indian food philosophy and the recipes are laid out for a western reader using recies that could be found in most western supermarkets.

But his latest offering, American Masalla promises to be a culinary adventure. I have observed how innovative Indian cooks are with local ingredients from my wanderings on Another Subcontinent and Egullet so I am sure that this book will offer some interesting ideas. I can't help looking forward to it much much more, unfortunately with the baby 10 days away, I will likely have to wait a while before i can get a copy! But with the hiatus I will be on then, I will have more time to try out recipes so untill then I shall console myself by trying this recipe for Chicken Harira from the book that Suvir has on his blog.

At the moment it is not available in India but can be ordered from Amazon.

Rushina

Book on the cuisine of the Planpuri Jain Community Dadimano varso - (Grandmother's legacy)

2007-09-24T21:47:00.000-07:00

Everybody knows Gujarati Cuisine is distinctively vegetarian. With about 65% of the state's population shunning meat it has to be, but it's culinary versatality is legendary. A versatality underlined in the number of regional cuisines found within the state itself. One such regionally distinct cuisine is that of the Palanpuri Jains.

Jainism teaches that every human is responsible for his/her actions. It believes that all living beings have an eternal soul or jīva and insists that Jains live, think and act respectfully, honoring the spirit of all life. Jains view God as the unchanging traits of the pure soul of each living being and nonviolence extends to every aspect of their lives including their culinary practices.

Jains go beyond just shunning any kind of meat, their stance on nonviolence proscribes even food obtained with unnecessary cruelty. Observant Jains do not eat, drink, or travel after sunset (which is called Chauvihar) and always rise before sunrise. They do not eat root vegetables like potatoes, carrot, radish, ginger, sweet potato, white yam, because to obtain them is an unnecessary of the life of the entire plant. Garlic and onions are shunned as they are bulbs that germinate into plants.

Other foods like Brinjal, cheese, cream, honey, raw milk and yoghurt, stale food (because eating such food involves the killing of various kinds of microscopic creatures and germs) are veiwed as generative of life and so eating them amounts to violence, fruit salad, ice‑cream, fruit‑yoghurt combinations and all antibiotic medicines are prohibited. Infact even green and raw vegetables are prohibited on certain days and many Jains choose to be vegan due to the violence of modern dairy farms.

While the jain community all subscribe to similar food proscriptions there are regional differences amongst them as well. With the area of Palanpur being closer to Rajasthan, the proximity manifests itself in their cooking with increased use of ghee.

Illustration from front cover

Dadima no Varso which translates to "Grandmother's legacy", is a veritable tome of a book published by the Palanpuri Samaj Kendra. It was the brainchild of Nita S. Mehta, Rajul A Gandhi and Dr. Satyavati S. Jhaveri but it is the hard work of the 35 ladies that make up the Rachna group of women. When it came to chosing a name for the book, Dadima no varso seemed a logical choice, because the recipes were all collected from grandmothers.

What began as a cookbook to document speciality recipes soon grew into a guide to younger generations, encompassing every aspect of the communities culinary traditions as research revealed recipes and aspects of the cuisine unknown to the authors. "This is our contribution to society" says one of the ladies, "others contribute money, we have contributed our time.

And time consuming it was, with all the recipes being collected in the words of the grandmothers and measured in handfuls and pinches and then tested for exact measurements by the ladies of the group. Then with the book printed simultaneously in two languages - Gujarati and English versions of each recipe alongside each other - it also required close scrutiny by people with a grasp of both languages and culinary skills as well.

That this is a labour of love shines through with every page you turn. There are recipes for everything from celebratory dishes for festivals to fasting dishes for the Jain paryushan period and even mouth fresheners for the end of meals.

Illustration from back cover

There are color representations of every dish in the photographs in each section but in addition to this beautiful illustrations and line drawings by Ramchandrabhai Chauhan, an award winning artist augment the pages of this book, offering an insight into the traditioanal foodways and life of the Palampuri Jains.

Illustration from section header

Copies of the book are available from the Palampur Samaj Kendra,
151 Shanti, August Kranti Marg, Mumbai 36.
Phone 23632288

Review - Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts - Recipes and Remembrances of a Vegetarian Legacy

2007-07-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

Book review for 4th Dimension Woman.

Fragrant with the aromas of pepper and curry leaves and delicious for it, Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts - Recipes and Remembrances of a Vegetarian Legacy, by Ammini Ramachandran is more than a cookbook. Through it Ramachandran a food writer of Kerela origin based in America, has shattered several stereotypes; that community cookbooks are self published black on white with recipe after recipe and no space wasted on frivolous things like anecdotes. That South Indian food ends at idli, dosa, vada, sambhar. And most importantly that Kerela cuisine is seafood based and non vegetarian.

Without being heavy handed with spices or making the cuisine exotic beyond recognition the author takes us on an exploration of the traditional Hindu vegetarian cuisine of the royal family and the Nayar community of Kochi in central Kerala. Each recipe is laid out against a backdrop of its position on the banana leaf, in the seasonal diet and in traditional rituals as well. Unlike some memoirs in which recipes seem to be an afterthought, each recipe in this book is easy to do, systematically laid out and broad - mindedly allowing for shortcuts that work today. Timely instructions allow even newbies to anticipate the next step and the added sharing of occasional anecdotes and friendly advice almost gives the illusion that Ramachandran is standing by you, guiding you through the recipe and sharing her first experiences with it. For cookbook aficionados like me - who enjoy stories with their food - there is ample fodder for the mind as well. A brief but erudite chapter on the history of the spice trade in Kerala, the cultural background, culinary customs, festivals and traditions of the traditional Kerela kitchen and home, all coloured by the authors own growing years in one of the few surviving matrilineal societies of the world. “Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts” captures the pride of a woman in her heritage, gently reminding us that progress may be all around us but it is possible to hold on to tradition.

Try a recipe from the book, Scroll down this post for a recipe from the book.

For more on the book and the author visit www.peppertrail.com

The book is available from Ingram Book Group, Baker & Taylor, iUniverse, Inc., Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and booksamillion.com.

Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (March 4, 2007)

Mindless Eating - Why we eat more than we think.

2007-07-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

Mindless Eating - Why we eat more than we think.

Browsing through Crosswords bookstore at Kemps Corner one day I mindlessly picked up, well, “Mindless Eating”. It was the question “Wondering why you ate too much popcorn or Chinese food?” in one of the comments on the back cover that caught my eye. Since the one thing I cannot resist is Chinese food - I probably eat Chinese once a week and the totally “paisa vasool” but absolutely unhealthy personal buffet at the Mah Jong restaurant in Khar has been on the menu a lot off late - I wanted to see what would convince me to eat less of it!

Closer examination revealed that the author Brian Wansink Ph.D is a food psychologist who specializes in investigating the mental and emotional factors that cause us to eat. A food anything will usually catch my attention but a food psychologist was a new one and I bought the book despite the steep price.

According to the Mindless eating , each time I give in to this craving for Chinese food, I consume unnecessary calories. Just to check I got some expert input. According to nutritionist Naini Setalvad, “an ideal restaurant meal should total upto 500 – 800 calories, but in the case of Indian Chinese, which comprises of deep fried, corn flour gravy smothered dishes like Manchrian, Chilli chicken, and fried wontons, your calorie intake can shoot up to a whopping 2-3000 calories at a single meal. Factor in the buffet format, and you can cross all limits!” Taking into account the tendency most of us have to eat until our stomachs protest, this is worrying.

The problem lies in tendency most of us have to eat until our stomachs protest since, as mindless eating points out, our stomachs can’t count how much we eat and therefore don’t know when to stop. It goes on to say that an average person of normal weight underestimates their food intake by 20% and an obese person by 30 – 40%. Citing various case studies Mindless Eating illustrates the solution – while the stomach cannot count, the eyes can.

According to Mindless eating, if one was presented with the entire volume of food they consumed after several servings at a buffet, one would not be able to eat it all. It suggests you see your food before and while you eat it. Have you ever noticed how leaving restaurants that serve plated food, you are usually pleasantly full as opposed to bursting? Come to think of it, I rarely manage to actually clear the plate on these occasions! Plating meals result in you consuming 14% less then when you have everything handy for refills.

That said however plating food is tough to do in the Indian meal format but here is a workable solution. Serve recommended amounts of Dal, rice and rotis into your plate and leave serving bowls of them in the kitchen, out of sight. However keep vegetables and salads in front of you at the table. This results in the healthier options being more accessible making it more likely for you to reach for them to fill the gap between the stages of “I could eat some more” and “I am full”.

This is only one of the lessons I learnt from Mindless Eating, the book has many more. The essential lesson the book teaches however, is that the mindless food choices we make can add 200 - 300 calories to our diet daily amounting to 12-15 kgs annually! However, just like ones mind is conditioned to make the choices that result in weight gain, it can be reconditioned to lose weight, simply by being more mindful of one’s eating habits.

The message is a valuable one. It is also eruditely delivered in snappy packaging. The chapters are full of interesting, case studies based on scientific research but presented in an eminently readable avatar and each chapter concludes with solutions to the issues it studies.

What I appreciated most about Mindless Eating however was that it focused on the micro-environment – my surroundings as opposed to a macro-food environment of the world that other books have covered. After all it is my immediate environment that directly influences my food choices on a daily basis; tells me how seemingly unimportant choices such as the size of the plate I eat from, my dining company, and even the ambiance I eat in influences how much food I will serve and eat. It also underlined to me that as the primary food provider I am the Nutritional Gatekeeper in my home and 72% of what my family eats inside and outside the home is because of choices I make.

To think I almost put it back because I thought it was a diet book! I hadn’t read the first and last sentence of the book then - “The best diet is the one you don’t know you’re on!”

Here is a link to the authors blog and website.

2007-07-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

Indian cuisine – so vast is this subject that it is easy to get lost in the maze of sometimes half baked and occasionally totally wrong information available. Here is a guide to some books on various aspects of Indian food.

No matter where in the world we live, the food we eat today is a result of our ancestors experimenting with all sorts of strange ingredients and cooking methods prior to settling on the best form of the ingredient to use and the best method to use it in. Indian Cuisine has classified, categorised and attributed every ingredient available to it with specific properties and functions and every cooking method and culinary traditions a long time ago. It would then be logical that anyone wanting to learn about Indian Cuisine would want to be introduced to its history first. There are only a few sources in English for this aspect of Indian Cuisine. An older out of print book called the Cooking of India by the Time-Life Foods of the World series written by Santha Rama Rau is a classic and still fairly impressive. One can still find stray copies on the Internet.

The most comprehensive and only easily available book on Indian food is the Historical Dictionary of Indian Food by K.T.Achaya, a concise version of his earlier book Indian Food: A Historical Companion. A content rich book that I find myself returning to repeatedly when looking for information on the origins of ingredients, food ways and historical trivia on Indian food; like the fact that it correctly attributes maize, coffee beans, tomatoes and potatoes as having come from the new world, which have caused extensive debates amongst friends who refuse to accept these things as fact, especially the great shocker = that chilies only came to India with the Portuguese!

Happy news is the latest entrant to this genre of books, Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors is a densely written history of Indian cuisine exploring selec byways of Indian cuisine, occaissionally losing focus (but happily so) of the fact that the evolution of Indian cuisine was feuled by a series of invaders—the Mughals of Central Asia, followed by the Portuguese and eventually the British—who fused their own culinary traditions with those of the Subcontinent, producing entirely new dishes such as, Curry! Collingham traces creation and eventual disintegration of curry from a spicy pan-Indian dish with many regional variations into a noxious all-purpose turmeric-heavy powder manufactured in England to pacify civil servants longing who pined for the lost pleasures of the Anglo-Indian table they left behind in India.

Before one would have even finished reading the historical background of Indian cuisine one would be inspired to cook it and The Indian Kitchen by Monisha Bharadwaj is the perfect book for this stage of one’s growing curiosity about Indian food. One of my dearest possessions this timeless book discusses Indian ingredients, grouping them into categories; spices, pulses, herbs, grains, vegetables, fruit and then covering each individual item in 1 -2 page spreads illustrated with photos and information on origins, sources, preservation, culinary and medicinal uses and a couple of easy recipes for each. I consider this book the perfect gift because it is helpful for the novice as well as the knowledgeable so that one might identify everything from the commonplace to the elusive.

Less encyclopedia like and full of personal anecdotes the next book really is an “Invitation to Indian Cooking”. This classic by Madhur Jaffrey is full of recipes from the north Indian-Delhi culinary style and when your palate is curious enough to get more adventurous try Jaffrey's “A Taste of India", it only covers the most obvious regions and select recipes from even those but what it covers is packaged and delivered well and certainly offers the perfect primer the intricacies of regional cuisines of India. As rich with anecdotes is Indian Home Cooking by Suvir Saran the acclaimed chef and cooking teacher and driving force behind the Devi restaurant in New York. This book lays a rich cornucopia of information alongside recipes for fuss free, home-style Indian dishes for everyday cooking written for a western audience, using ingredients found in most supermarkets.

Once your appetite for the intricacies of Indian cuisine are truly whetted and you are looking to get deeper in the regional cuisines of India there is a large selection of books available from Penguin. Their regional series are erudite books that cover the history and culture of each community before getting down to educating the reader on the cuisine of the community and although the recipes can sometimes be off the mark, they certainly are delicious reads. Starting in the north with The Kashmiri cookbook by Sudhir Dhar, the collection winds through Delhi with the very informative Flavours of Delhi by Charmaine O'Brien and makes it’s way East to the “seven sister” states of Sikkim, Arunalchal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and throwing light on the relatively unknown cuisine of this part of India with the Essential North-East Cookbook by Hoihnu Hauzel. The Calcutta Cookbook, Meenakshie Das Gupta, Bunny Gupta, Jaya Chaliha is an overview of the history of cuisine in Calcutta including chapters on the different influences on the cuisine as well. (Das Gupta is the author of Bangla Ranna which is the legendary classic that preceded this one. Heading south The Essential Andhra Cookbook, educates on the fiery cuisine of the Andhra region as well as the royal cuisine of the Mughals. The Essential Goa Cookbook, throws light on the rich heritage of Goan cuisine with its Dutch and Portugese influences. The Essential Kodava Cookbook by C B Muthamma and P Gangamma Bopanna is another jewel of a book not so much in the narrative but rather in the fact that it illuminates another hidden but rich cuisine of India that of the Coorg community, a race said to have descended from the Greek Warriors of Alexander’s army.

Besides the many regional variations, there have been many influences on Indian cuisine, the culinary influences of the British are covered in Taste of the Raj by Pat Chapman founder of the Curry Club in the UK. Content rich and a real account of culinary and family history is Curries & Bugles by Jennifer Brennan while The Raj at Table by David Burton is a more professional take on Raj history and food. Parsis are a community originating from Persia who settled on the West coast of India and evolved both a culture and a cuisine that was a blend of their heritage and their new homeland. Parsi food and Customs by Bhicoo J. Manekshaw which is part of the part of the Penguin Indian cuisine series, covers, the history, traditions, customs and cuisine of the Parsis. Also part of the same series is Anglo-Indian Food and Customs by Patricia Brown which very efficiently covers the history, traditions, customs and cuisine of the Anglo Indian Community of India.

The above list just skims the surface of books on various aspects of Indian cuisine. Underneath lies a wast sea of Information that has yet to be fully explored. The next layer of books I intend to delve into are community cookbooks. Cookbooks self published by enterprising ladies or representative bodies of the various communities of India. Communities that are defined by religion, geograhical location, history and a variety of other things but one commonality - they each have a cuisine of their own.

When these books have been explored, there is a deeper layer to delve into. Beyond the books that have been printed in english, there is a sea of self published local language cookbooks that exist all over India. Books that have never been explored because of the language barrier that exists due to so many regional languages that exist all over the country. I never thought about this untill my Pune based friend Uma Iyer brought my attention to the amazing wealth of information she has discovered in local Maharashtrian books. She discovered these 20-30 rupee books available in local bookstores and has been exploring them for the last few weeks with great results.

Rushina

Interview with Usha Prabhakaran author of Usha's Pickle digest

2006-09-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

Interview with Usha Prabhakaran author of Usha's Pickle digest

Usha Prabhakaran is the self published author of "Ushas Pickle digest", "The perfect Pickle book" as it says on the cover. A thick volume of 365 pages, the book contains exactly 1000 recipes, is meticulously researched, perfectly cross-referenced and according to my friend Vikram Doctor food columnist with ETworth it for the multilingual ingredient glossary alone. (In fact it was Vikram who showed me the book almost a year an a half ago. He had found it at Landmark bookstores in Chennai.)

Always fascinated with the idea of pickles and its associated traditions - I was intrigued to hear of this extremely well put together book. Unfortunately by the time I went looking for it not a single book store in India had a copy left. I kept looking for the author, Usha Prabhakaran and her book off an on with the help of friends until we finally managed to get a number for her.

Untill the moment I called her I knew her as the author of an excellent book that had been self published (and anyone who has tried to sell a book to an Indian publisher will recognize that as a feat in itself) but after I spoke to her my respect and admiration became awe and inspiration. Not only did I find out that Usha had survived a fatal disease but she the disease had struck the day her book was published.

Here is an interview I have conducted of her via the internet and on the phone.

When did you decide to write a book on pickles and what made you decide to write a book about pickles?

Whoever had the opportunity of eating my pickles liked them very much and I found myself meticulously writing down the recipes for them. That is when the seed for a pickle book was planted in my mind. After all the pickle is a great subject to write about because it is compatible with almost any dish, can be easily adopted to suit available ingredients, countries and palates and following canons of pickling allows for them to be prepared without much difficulty. Also store bought pickles have preservatives added to them which can be avoided if the pickles are prepared at home which is an added advantage and of course home made pickles are always tastier, being made with first quality ingredients.

How did you go about your research, which were some of the people you spoke to?

Whenever and wherever I taste something new, I instantly approach the person that made it without any hesitation whatsoever and tell them how tasty their recipe was and ask if I could jot down the preparation method. My book is a tribute to the many housewives in general and to the Komitti Chettar community in particular, who generously and painstakingly shared their recipes with me, happy in the knowledge that the information they parted with will be documented and be part of a valuable pickle recipe book.

Did you learn anything unusual from any older person you spoke with during your research?

I found all the old persons as a rule very disciplined and fastidious. Pickling required that there should be no moisture of any sort in the containers, the vegetables should be dry, adequate salt should be added, the pickle should be steeped in oil etc. Experienced hands were extremely particular with vegetable, spice and oil selection, they used pickle jars that had been washed and dried in the sun and were particular about using home ground spices (chili, turmeric, asafetida, fenugreek etc. as much as possible doing the grinding themselves in many cases, no matter how tedious, or tiring, because they believed much of the end result depended on these things.

Is there anyone you spoke to in your research of recipes whom you will never forget?

Apart from my mom-in-law, I had a neighbor - a very close friend of my mother's – who taught me all I needed to know about Andhra pickling but I can safely say that I did not spare any person who I felt would add some value to my book.

What made you decide to self-publish?

Publishing a book means finding a publisher worth the name and finding one such is not that easy to come by, if the effort happens to be your first one. So I decided to go it alone – it gives you such a sense of pride and achievement, believe me. I have not for one moment regretted it, although the book would have sold faster with glossy pictures et al. and been a more economic deal with greater visibility, if published by an established publisher.

Did you have problems publishing your book? What hurdles did you face?

As already mentioned, the publishers I went to – the ones who you think you would like to be associated with - placed restrictions: time wise/other publisher-wise/money-wise etc. These were not things I could accept. Deep in my heart I knew, a good thing would speak for itself.

Why do you think pickling has been popular in India?

India is blessed with cheap and plentiful availability of a staggering variety of vegetables, fruits, spices and oils. It is no wonder then that pickling has always been popular in India. India being a hot country, hot spicy foods such as pickles which perk up any meal and whose diversity is well recognized are key features of Indian cuisine. This is especially true of South India. Pickles go well with rice, idli, dosa, chappathi (and all other Indian breads), puri, parathas etc. Naturally every community and every family has a tradition of pickling.

How did you become interested in pickles?

My mother-in-law hails from the Komitti Chettiar family, originally from Andhra Pradesh, with a long and highly regarded tradition of pickle making. After every visit to her place, I would return home with bottles of tasty, mouth-watering delicacies. I wanted to document these pickle recipes so that they would not be lost to posterity.

What have you found are some of the major differences between pickles from different parts of India?

Although mango is the preferred base vegetable for pickling, the fundamental variation is that in the north the pickles are made with chilly powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, vinegar or lime juice, sugar and mustard oil, while in the south, the same pickle is prepared with chilly powder, turmeric powder, asafoetida, tamarind extract or lime juice, jaggery and gingelly oil. In the north, east and west, the preference is for sweet and sour pickles. In the south, the sweet portion is hardly visible. Besides these pickles being made at home, no artificial preservatives are used.

In your research have you found any health risks related to pickled foods?

Pickled foods do not cause health risks. If a person is already suffering from ailments, she/he can be selective in the choice of pickles. In general because of the spices used in them, pickles stimulate the appetite, aid digestion, cool the system, cure cough and cold etc. You will be amazed at the highly spiced Andhra avakkai ( A.P) being consumed in enormous quantity, with little or no side effects. This could be attributed to the large consumption of ghee.

On the positive side, you have propagated that pickles can be effective in treating various ailments, Can you elaborate on that?

The spice and seasoning used in pickling have clearly defined attributes that help the body in specific functions. Spices are anti-oxidants, so they act as free-radical scavengers. Pickles contain essential oils that help to kill bacteria in the intestinal tract.

Ginger, asafoetida and turmeric are all considered digestives. They are pickled with beans or split peas to fight off their hard–to-digest stubbornness. Mint does the same thing. It also kills germs. Asafoetida is considered a nerve tonic; Cumin and green cardamom are cooling, clove and cinnamon are warming, ginger is good for the cold, raw garlic is good for circulatory ailments or jangled nerves, red chilies in small doses have antiseptic properties, black pepper promotes appetite and acts as a tonic for new mothers.

When reading your book you soon realize how many variations of food can get pickled. Was there any food that you were surprised to find in a pickle recipe?

Sure, I will give you an example. I generally look for great variety in food that can be pickled. I was truly amazed when I learnt that hibiscus flower is a good base material for pickle making.

Do you think it is important to preserve traditional recipes and food lore? If yes, why?

Indeed, there can be no doubt that traditional pickle recipes and food lore should be preserved. Pickling is an art and as in the case of all art forms, pickling is time consuming, but if left unrecorded, the recipes and the food lore that go with them will be lost to posterity. Traditional methods can often be laborious and time consuming, but the final product is tasty.

What are some of your favorite recipes out of your book?

Some of the favorite recipes from my book are small red onion in tamarind sauce (27), sweet and sour orange peel (30), plantain flower – hot (32), stuffed kalakkai chain – oil less (70), curd gooseberry – green chilly- watery (490).

What was the first pickle you made?

Mango-ginger was the pickle I experimented with first and most of my friends still love it. It is easy to make, the peeled slices of mango-ginger are combined with chopped garlic, a few strands of green pepper and tossed in salt and lemon juice. The pickle required frequent turning to prevent spoilage and lasts for up to 10 days at room temperature and about a month in the refrigerator.

Which is your favorite pickle to make now?

Gooseberry pickle in whipped curd is a pickle I like to prepare. All you have to do is whip up some curd (yogurt) with turmeric powder, salt and a generous amount of water and whip well again, steam the gooseberries and remove their segments, reserve but discarding the seeds. Heat oil and season with mustard seed, green chilly, curry leaves and stir into the whipped curd mix. Add in the gooseberry segments and mix well. The pickle can be used after a few hours and stores well up to a month in the refrigerator.

What is your favorite pickle to eat, do you like sweet pickles, spicy ones or sour ones?

I love spicy pickles with a dash of sweetness and sourness. I don't much fancy sweet pickles and I love the Methi sprouts pickle because it's health-giving properties. Methi seeds are soaked in the water for about 8 hours then drained and wrapped up in a damp cloth. The cloth is to be constantly moistened, to ensure that the sprouts appear. When the sprouts reach the desired length i.e. 1cm. approximately, the sprouts are pickled with tamarind extract, chilly powder, turmeric powder, asafoetida powder, jaggery and salt boiled in oil. The sprouts are to be sautéed for a very short time, because otherwise the pickle will become bitter.

Which was the most unusual pickle you come across in your research?

On a visit to the home of one of my husband's relatives I was told that I could create a great pickle out of curry leaf seeds. I tried it out and found it out to be out of this world. Not only was it delicious, it is also rich in vitamin A & D, and good for hair growth.

I know you are working on your second book on Rasams. Could you tell me more about Rasams?

Rasams are usually watery sometimes thicker, concoctions made from different vegetables, fruits, grains or combinations of these, with the addition of cooked dals and seasoned with ghee or oil. The seasoning normally contains a few spices like mustard seeds, curry leaves, asafoetida, cumin seeds etc. There are rasams prepared from grains, plain and sprouted, leafy greens, herbs, vegetables and fruits.

When will the book be published?

Usha's Rasam Digest is likely to be published in 2 months' time.

What are some of the interesting recipes you have covered in it?

You would be surprised to find rasam being prepared from waste vegetable materials like peas pods of fresh green peas along with ginger, green chilly and onion, addition of powdered pepper and cumin and seasoned with cumin seeds and crushed garlic seasoned in ghee.

Unripe tomato rasam is a favorite with me. When we utter the word rasam it conjures up images of a ripe tomato in tamarind sauce but this is not the case here. Here the rasam with tender green tomato is pressure-cooked with toor dal, turmeric powder and gingelly oil. Later, the rasam mix is boiled with rasam powder, salt and seasoned with mustard and asafoetida powder fried in ghee.

What advice do you have for people who wish to write a book and self publish?

Writing keeps the mind active and writing or working on a subject one likes does not tire a person too much. Self – publish one must because, although it costs a little more, one can be proud of it at the same time.

The Hour of the Goddess, Memories of Women, Food and Ritual in Bengal

2006-03-24T22:01:00.000-08:00

Chitrita Banergee, Publisher - Penguin Price Rs. 195

In The Hour of the Goddess: Memories of Women, Food and Ritual in Bengal, Chitrita Banerji is eloquent and erudite as she demonstrates the place of food in Bengali culture in prose that is as light as a luchi "set afloat (in oil) like a paper-boat". The food memoir, by the writer from Calcutta now based in the US is a delight whether she is describing the famed Bengali penchant for fish, the quintessential Bengali five spice mix - Panchphoron, bitter flavours, the versatility of Bengali widows with their food despite the strict food proscriptions forced on them and the discovery and subsequent journey the Bengali Sandesh to iconic status. Unlike some memoirs that include recipes which are incomplete or half baked, the recipes at the end of each chapter in this book were authentic, and easy to follow. The addition of occaisional annecdotes and friendly advice almost gives the illusion that Banerji is standing by you guiding you through the recipe. The hour of the goddess bares the longing of a woman for idyllic bygone days, gently reminding us that change may be all around us but it is possible to stop for a moment and indulge in a spot of nostalgia with a traditional family recipe. All read and cooked, The hour of the Goddess is aromatic with Panch phoron and delicious!

Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal

Cookbooks - Excuses to cooking up to a collection!

2006-03-20T03:00:00.000-08:00

Excuses to cooking up to a collection!

It sneaks into your life stealthily; the addiction to cookbooks; it has no prevention and there is no cure! With no warning and all very innocently, the bug bites you. You are gifted your first cookbook with an “it’s amazing; you will never need another…” And you don’t, not really, not as long as you are cooking “quick meals for newly married couples” that is...

The bug lies in you dormant until one evening, right in the middle of weeping your way through a deliciously spicy Hot and Sour Soup at your favorite restaurant it awakens and you wonder… “Could I make this at home…?” The virus multiplies all the way home as you calculate the cost of a lifetimes worth of Hot and Sour soups and the savings you will accrue with one measly recipe book… (Uh huh, count your chickens why don’t you…).

A quick stop at the bookstore the next day proves futile. 20 books on Chinese food and none of them have your recipe. Martin Yan’s book (watched his show on Star Plus eons ago) “Quick and easy” has a recipe for a “Pineapple Hot and Sour soup” which is not what you are looking for but the other recipes look interesting so you just pick it up, promising to pass it on to mom later…

Since the Chinese shelves prove futile, logic leads you to the Soups section… A quick reiki results in “Splendid Soups” by James Peterson, it’s been getting rave reviews off late. Speedy perusal reveals a recipe but it isn’t “Yours”. That established, you still leaf through the book, the pictures are so beautiful and there is so much interesting information on Soup, you absolutely love soups so why not… Into the basket it goes!

You’re in line at the checkout counter and there’s a strategically placed pile of the new Penguin release, Rude food by Vir Sanghvi staring up at you, begging to be picked up! Your turn to pay and time is short. You add it to the basket. After all it seems like the perfect book for your daily commute, seeing as it’s a compilation of his articles on food and the chapters will end before you get to your destination.

You just can’t wait to try out something from your new books so you gloat through the yummy soup book and decide to make the Thai Chicken and Coconut soup, the “Gai Tom Ka” is an unqualified success. It even saves you a lecture in the merits of saving money from the husband! Hmm might be worth it to pick up a book on Thai cuisine…

Than night you realize that someone up there is in your corner! Halfway through Rude Food (full of interesting trivia, like Caviar being stale unless eaten at source, Vanilla essences in India being synthetic and enlightening info on the Fat content of Ice cream) you find out that Chinese food in India is not Chinese at all but a cuisine in it’s own right! Another trip to the bookstore in which you make a beeline for the Indian shelves, pick up Sanjeev Kapoor’s “best of Chinese cooking” taking two seconds to verify your recipe is in there and off you go … err not quite… Wait a minute! Thai food by David Thompson on sale? You just HAVE to pick it up!

The success of the Thai experiment leads to you picking up books like Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless and Hot Sour Salty Sweet - Jeffrey Alford (which is totally awesome by the way). One Saturday afternoon, as the aroma from your Spanish Paella suffuses your kitchen, you realize that you’ve been around the world in your kitchen but really ought to know more about Indian food. Home comes The Indian Kitchen - which promises to be “A book of essential ingredients with over 200 easy and authentic recipes” - by Monisha Bharadwaj and Microwave Cooking for the Indian Palate by Bapsi Nariman (you know since you have a microwave and all…)

A Fresh Turmeric Pickle recipe, from the Indian Kitchen reminds you of your childhood in your Gujarati Maternal home, you realize that you hardly know anything about the food you ate growing up! You call your mom asking where you can get a book on the subject and before you can say “Undhiyu”, On the threshold of Kitchen, a compendium of recipes by the Danthi sisters – in – law is in your hands, appropriately inscribed with the blessings “rasodani rani banje” (may you be the queen of your kitchen and please everyone) on the fly leaf!

After the Turmeric pickle receives rave reviews from your FATHER IN LAW (big achievement if your mother in law is a Pickle making legend) you decide you want to add to your pickle repertoire (yeah right, of ONE pickle). It strikes you to surf the net (that took it’s time happening!) and you happen on this amazing website on food. No pickle books to be found but you hook up with some serious food lovers!

Later, the pages on Asafetida in The Indian Kitchen have you thinking that it would be interesting to find out more about the history of Indian food. After “Googling” (suddenly we’re very trigger happy with the internet) we head to the bookstore name in hand and trip over one cookbook crazy friend from said website above. Two hours and much browsing later, you breeze out of the store with a lighter wallet but much heavier bag!

It’s been a productive afternoon! You’ve found a book on Pickles – Achaar Aur Parathe by Tarla Dalal to tide you over (until you get your hands on Usha's Pickle Digest that comes so highly recommended by the Cookbook collector friend) and also found the other book you were looking for - The Historical Dictionary of Indian Food by K.T.Achaya. That’s not all, (after being recommended by cookbook collecting friend) Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible - an investigation into how the Indian diasporas adapted their recipes to new lands - and 50 Great Curries of India by Camellia Panjabi – an exploration of the curry, dissecting steps and investigating ingredients along the way – have also come aboard.

Et Voila! You realize that you have effectively gone from owner of single dog-eared food-smeared cookbook to Cookbook collector! Your bookshelf groans with shiny, glossy, new cookbooks… There will be no turning back from here. Cheers to that! Which reminds me, I wonder if there is a book on Beer…?