Month: September 2014

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Train journeys, Kolkata and the continued magic of mustard

 
Twenty five years ago and counting, on a train to Calcutta, as it was then. I had just joined my first job and was off to a training program. 
 
There were four of us women in a cubicle in the 2nd a/c compartment and the rest of the bogie was empty as a party of MLAs was supposed to board the train halfway down the line somewhere. Well, they didn’t and so the four of us traveled in solitary splendor (each with a loo to herself!) in a compartment meant for some 50-odd people all the way from Madras to Calcutta! By the time we reached Vizag, we were firm friends – all of us different ages and at different stages in life. By the time we drew into Howrah station, we had exchanged life stories (being only about 22, i didn’t have much of a life story yet!!), recipes and i’d got tips on childbirth (i wasn’t even planning on a baby just yet!) and handling moms-in-law and whatnot! 
 
As we drew into Cal, a vendor got on to the train with a headload of murmura and other stuff. The senior-most lady turned to me to ask if I’d have jhaal muri.I must have looked blank because she immediately broke into warm and voluble Bengali saying i couldn’t come to Cal and not sample this world-famous-in-Calcutta street food! I tried feebly to protest saying i had a training program to go to and Calcutta belly was not really on my agenda but she swept all my misgivings away with magnificent indifference and a flood of Bengali and instructed the muri-wallah to make his very best jhaal muri because this poor girl had had a deprived childhood and look at her – she is so skinny (I was all of 95 pounds!) because the poor thing has been brought up in the South where they have only ‘dhosas’ and idlis and sambar, bichare! Poor things!
 
The muri-wallah, not to be left out of all this Bengali hospitality, whipped and mixed up things with a flourish which would have done a Yehudi Menuhin proud and presented a newspaper screw full of something that seemed quite unremarkable as though he was presenting it to the queen. Keeping my Southern flag flying high, i accepted with a matching twirl of the wrist and dipped my fingers in. Scrunch, munch, mustard oil hit, lemony tickle, peanut-ty crackle and jeera hint later, i was hooked – for life! Have made this many times more than i care to remember after that… one of those anytime snacks of which no one can eat just one!
 
Here goes:
 
Murmura – 2 packets – about 5 or 6 cups
2 boiled potatoes sliced into small pieces
Sev or chanachur – 1 cupful
2 large onions – finely chopped
2 green chilies – finely chopped
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Chili powder – 1/2 tsp
Amchoor powder – 1/2 tsp
Chaat masala – 1/4 tsp
Juice of 1 large lemon
Roasted peanuts (optional) – 3 tbsp
Finely chopped raw mango (optional) – 2 tbsp
Mustard oil – 2 tbsp
 
Mix everything together except the lemon juice and mustard oil in a large pan with a flourish – imagine you’re conducting the London Philharmonic. Once they’re well mixed, add the mustard oil and mix again . Squeeze lemon juice over the top and give it a final swirl. Serve in screws of paper to save on washing up! Ta-dang!
 
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Lowly chowchows and the alchemy of mustard

 
What’s this weird thing that looks like something that Hanuman carried to Lanka across his shoulders to squash Ravana’s head with? Or maybe Fred Flintstone as a club to deal with enemies? It has a name as unappetising as it’s looks – chow-chow – meaning’eat, eat’? In Brazil, they call it a ‘chuchu’….hmmmm….wonder what they call…..can just about imagine a baby being held over the pot and being encouraged to produce a knobbly, light green vegetable??! chuchu….
 
Sometime soon after i got married, i had a tummy infection and got served chowchow boiled with turmeric and salt – some kind of vendetta against a new bride was my first thought was till i realised even in such a lowly avatar, this was one vegetable that could actually taste pretty decent. !!
 
Today, my shopping basket is incomplete without this most incredibly versatile of all vegetables – you can curry it, mustard it, soup it, bake it au gratin, and even use it as a substitute for part or all of the apples in apple pie! Don’t believe me? check out wiki aka Son of God on this (Google being God)! 
 
But the strongest argument for eating this is that Colombians believe till today that because they eat so much chow chow or chayote as they call it, the skin on their mummies (err… the preserved ones inside cases a la King Tut – yeah, yeah, i know, wrong continent but honest-to-god they have mummies in S.America too!) is still super smooth. Who knows, what works for one variety of mummy……might work for others too!
 
So here’s a recipe – for chowchow called ‘Bangalore vankaya’ in Andhra but the Bangaloreans were so surprised to have a vegetable named after them that they don’t use this name – they modestly call it a ‘seeme badnekaya’ – paying reverse tribute back – it literally means the brinjal of the plateau!
 
Chow chow – 2 medium sized tender ones. Peel, core and chop into small cubes.
Mustard seeds – ground in a stone – 1 tsp
Green chili – 1
Red chili – 1
Grated fresh coconut – 2 tbsp
Cumin (jeera) seeds – 1/4 tsp
Urad dal – 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves – 2 sprigs
Salt
Oil – sesame or any refined oil – 1 tsp
Whiz together in a mixer for just a couple of seconds – the mustard paste, chilies, and coconut till till the chilies just break up.
 
Heat the oil in a pan, add the urad dal, cumin and curry leaves and stir for a minute. Add the chopped vegetables, one tbsp of water, cover and cook till tender. Add the salt and stir about again. Add the ground coconut mixture and mix well. Switch off. Voila – one more low-fat, nutritious but yum recipe from my urban kitchen! Serve as a side with rice and a sambar or a rasam or a dal. What’s unique about this is the mustardy ‘kick’ that it delivers. Oh, and watch heads turn as a ‘well-preserved’ you walk by!! 😉
 
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Green leaves, green chilies and 3 grandmothers

 
The story of thotakora pulusu
 
“Mummy, it’s just not fair to put green karepak (curry leaves) in thotakoora pulusu (greens sambar!). Such a low-down trick” – I can still hear my brother Anand’s voice grumbling as he picked out the pesky green leaves from the ‘pulusu’! Not fair that they hide in there for an unsuspecting eater to bite into them and promptly spit them out in disgust – ditto for green chilies in the same sambar!
 
But it takes the combination of three green things to create the most heavenly sambar on earth – thotakoora pulusu. 3 things that used to grow in all our backyards so that when budgets were overdrawn, even piggy banks emptied, there was still a yummy dish to look forward to – those women were truly alchemists!
 
Warning: The recipe that i am going to give you now is patented by 3 sisters – my grandmother Nemali Chandramathi and her two sisters Susilakkayya and Paapayakkaya – you think they came up with one ingredient each in a Masterchef challenge? Maybe but masterchefs all, each one of them!
 
P.S: I just made a big pot and there was nothing left to clear up even – try it out and tell me if it’s awesome or not!
 
Here goes:
 
Thotakoora (green amaranth, molakeerai in Tamil)) – 1 large bunch – should make about 4 cups – wash and chop
Cooked toor dal – 1.5 cups
Tamarind paste – 1.5 heaped tsp
Jaggery – 2 tsp
Sambar powder – my recipe is below – 3 heaped tsp
Turmeric – 1 large pinch 
Salt
To garnish : Gingelly oil 1 tbsp
Asafoetida – 1large pinch
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Urad dal – 1/2 tsp
Jeera (cumin seeds) – 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves (you can spit ’em out later if you want but you do need them for garnishing!)
Green chilies – 2 or 3 – slit
 
Use an ‘eeya pathram’ if you have one. “eeyam” is an alloy of tin and other metals and improves the taste of anything with tamarind in it – like rasam and sambar. In Telugu, it’s called a Shweta (white) chembu but i never heard this term while growing up and i’m pretty sure it’s not known to many people… otherwise any heavy bottomed vessel will do (I know some people like that too but this pulusu is truly low cal)!
 
Drop in the chopped greens with a glass of water and a pinch of turmeric. Cover and cook for 3-4 minutes till the greens have shrunk a bit but are not cooked through. Add the tamarind paste, jaggery, sambar powder and salt. Cover and cook again for 3-4 minutes.
Add the cooked dal and green chilies and let simmer for another couple of minutes. Switch off.
 
In a small ‘popu’ pan (little saucepan), heat the oil, add the ingredients for garnishing, starting with the mustard and letting it splutter before adding the other stuff. Pour over sambar. 
 
Eat with rice and a wee bit of ghee – preferable. 
 
Sambar podi – roast separately and powder together 
coriander seeds – 1 cup
chana dal 1/4 cup
urad dal – 1/4 cup
fenugreek (methi) seeds – 1 tbsp and 
asafoetida – 1 pinkie nail sized lump
curry leaves – 2 sprigs
While powdering, add 1/4 cup of chili powder and powder the whole thing fine.
 
Remember the veggie korma we made yesterday? And against my advice re. the calories, you converted it into pakoda kurma? Well, this is a perfect dish to assuage those pangs of conscience – one tbsp oil altogether! This is actually perfect student fare – one dish meal with greens and dal and very low – all rolled into one.
 
P.S: there’s a story behind the picture too – made the pulusu today, photographed it and when time to load pic came around, realised that i hadn’t put the storage device back in the camera after yesterday -and pulusu already consumed like i mentioned! Therefore here’s a picture of the raw stuff!! – the green leaves only – thanks to the brilliant idea of s-i-l and daughter!!
 
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Hyderabadi kurma / qorma: Of wordgames and growing up in Hyderabad

 

The queen of Hyderabadi khana – Ameenakkayya!

I haven’t mentioned her earlier but Ameena Nemali was my inspiration to learn to cook! Anything she touched turned to culinary gold – even the humblest ‘mamidikai pappu’ (raw mango dal) which is the month-end, budgets-are-over staple in every Telugu household, tasted divine when she made it.

I have spent many, many lazy weekends, reading and playing wordgames with cousins and generally gassing away till the lunch or dinner call came. Everyone else would chatter as they filed in but to me – a foodie in the budding even then – the table needed to be approached with a feeling of sanctity; anything less was a desecration to the lady’s art!

Her repertoire seemed limitless – Andhra cooking to super-thin dosas with chutney and please-can-I-have-more sambar, Kayasth cuisine to bakes and finally what she was most famous for – at least in my eyes (!!) – Hyderabadi khana! The memory of her pakoda kurma with fried rice still makes my eyes water – imagine what the actual stuff did to the salivary glands of a ten-year old! I shall always regret not writing down more of her recipes…

Tried for years to reproduce her kurma – with no great success till finally, i think i made the breakthrough quite recently!

Have substituted the pakodas with vegetables for a low-fat version but for those of you who can’t touch your toes anyway, what does an extra pakoda or two matter 😉

Hyderabadi kurma

2 cups of assorted vegetables cut into large chunks – potatoes, cauliflower, carrot, beans, peas and even the humble knolkhol!

2 large tomatoes

2 large onions (i know American onions are enormous – these are Indian onions! Should be slightly larger than a large egg.

4-5 cloves garlic

Ginger – 1/2 ” piece

2 green chilies

Chili powder – 1 tsp

1 tsp poppy seeds (khus khus)

2 tbsp cashew nuts

Dry coconut (copra) – 2 tbsp – if you don’t have this, try roasting fresh coconut for a few minutes on a very low heat.

2 black cardamoms – badi ilaichi – these will give you that ‘smoky’ flavour

4 cloves

1 ” piece cinnamon

2 green cardamoms

1 cup thick curd – whipped

Oil – 1 tbsp

Ghee – 1 tbsp

Grind to a fine paste the onions, garlic, ginger and green chilies. This is paste 1.

Heat the poppy seeds on a low flame for about 3-4 minutes – there’ll be a slightly ‘nutty’ smell hanging around NOT emanating from you. Switch off and let cool. Grind together with a little water the poppy seeds, cashew nuts, copra and black cardamom with a little water. This is paste 2.

Heat the oil and ghee in a large frypan and drop in the cloves, cinnamon and green cardamoms – ouch – don’t stand so close! They splutter!

Add paste 1 and keep stirring till onions no longer smell raw. If the paste keeps sticking to the pan, add a few drops of water and keep stirring – this is the only part of the recipe which needs a bit of patience – even an Indian student in Amreeka can make it! Add the chili powder and fry a bit. Add about 1/2 cup yogurt one tbsp at a time and fry till it is incorporated into the gravy.

Then add paste 2 and two cups of water and stir about. Now add the vegetables. If using cauliflower, let everything else half cook before you add – otherwise the caulis will overcook and generally taste yucky! Add salt, cover and cook til vegetables are almost done.

Chunk the tomatoes – i usually cut each tomato into just 4 pieces and drop in. Cover and cook for 3-4 minutes more. Switch off and add the rest of the  whipped yogurt. Voila!

 

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Tofu rice: America – here I come! Armed with recipes, no less!

Tofu Rice
I think I’ve “arrived”!  Am now getting requests – 5 so far – to ensure that this species gets fed and doesn’t get tooooo… homesick!
So, America-bound students, we’ll start with a  recipe so it doesn’t get too boring and then do a NRI student cooking in America # 101.
Thought back to my own early days of learning how to cook- I must have been about 7 years old. We were “between-cooks” at the moment and my Mom was squeezing in some time for sambar-rice in between intensely grueling bouts of work at the hospital – those days everyone seemed to be multiplying soooo fast – an ob-gyn’s life was spent in trying to catch a breath between the breech in bed 7 and the C-section in bed 9, taking time to peek at the gory innards of bed 8!!! All this proliferation of our species must have been boy, they sure did miss TVs and video games 😉
To come back to our story, mom was stuck at the hospital and my dad was away on “tour”. I was 7, Arvind a year older and Anand 2 years over him – obviously without the faintest idea of cooking! 7 pm, rumbles in three tummies reaching a crescendo of cacophony…along comes saviour – in the form of 14-year old Anil next door – who grandly announces that he knows how to make rice!! Remember the setting is not AD but the dark ages before the advent of gas stoves and pressure cookers! Being too short in general to reach over the stovetop, the stove ( a kerosene-guzzling short, squat little monster) was brought down to the floor. Rice was washed and placed in a round brass ‘gundu’, water measured with almost ritualistic attention and poured over the rice, finger stuck in- nobody told us the measure was up to an adult hand’s forefinger so we must have fallen short! Then, with bated breath (I don’t think I’ve watched even a James Bond movie with so much suspense), we sat around and watched the rice cook! To cut a long story short, we had rice and curd and bananas and Anil went home covered in glory! Cooking lessons with mom started the next day 😉
From there to an easy – meal in a bowl tofu rice – truly anyone can make it!
Basmati rice – 1 cup – washed and soaked in 2 cups water for about 15 minutes. Cook the rice so that the grains stay separate – by occasionally fluffing up with a fork. Let cool. abt 7-8 minutes.
1 cup of tofu (cotton tofu if possible) – cut into large pieces – tip: tofu does have much taste on it’s own but what it does contribute is a lovely chewy texture. Keeping the pieces large – about a cm square, ensures they retain the texture. Rinse cubes and if cold (not you, the tofu), soak in warm salt water for 10 mins. If you’re cold, you obviously don’t live in Chennai!
½ cup peas
½ cup mixed carrots, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, capsicum – whatever is available
1 tsp schezwan paste
1 or 2 flakes garlic – chopped
½ tsp ginger – juliennes (thin strips)
¼ cup chopped spring onions
Chopped coriander  and/ or mint to garnish
Salt – 1/3 tsp and sugar a large pinch.
½ green chilli – chopped
Sesame seeds – roasted – 1 tsp – optional topping
Method: Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok, add green chillies and chopped spring onions. Add garlic and ginger and stir fry on high for a few seconds. Add the veg and peas. Continue to stir fry on high, sprinkling water as it begins to stick. Add the Schezwan paste, salt, sugar and tofu. Mix till everything is coated with the sauce. Add 2 tbsp water, spread the cooked rice on top, cover and cook on sim for about 3-4 mins. Switch off, mix everything, add mint/ coriander, sesame seeds and serve. If you’re a normal appetite type of person, this should last you for two hungry lunches. If you’re hungrier, add a couple of eggs and scramble. Or mushrooms.