Anu Chenji

“So what is in this bowl, pops?” I ask my 18-month old daughter as she “cooks” with water, salt and spoons while I busy myself making dinner for her.

She looks at the bowl I’m holding out – long strands – she’s eaten them once earlier and loved them the first time. I’d accidentally put in a wee bit too much spice for a little child but she loved the dish so much that through “oohs” and “aahs” indicating her tongue was on fire, she slurped her way through the whole dish, adding a bit of yogurt and then some sugar and then some jam and so on – basically creating her own ‘Noodles a la Archana’!

She reaches out for the dish as I ask again, “what’s this called, baby?” Stares at it for a while and then starts eating. Am sure what was running through her mind was, “What IS this amma of mine going on about? This THING, by any other name, would be just as  yummy”!

I prompt her again, “Noo….noo…nooo…?”

Inspiration strikes! She looks up at me with a noodle strand hanging out of the corner of her mouth – “NOOLAKAI”! Most things she’s eaten so far in her young life have been some  “kai” (vegetable) or the other – ergo, this has to be some sort of “kai”! I double up with laughter but as far as Archana is concerned , the matter is settled – to her entire satisfaction – and she proceeds to the serious matter of putting away the noodles. 

We have never, in our home, eaten ‘noodles’ after that – it has always been ‘noolakais’!

Here’s a very simple dish of noolakais – a family favourite:

 NOODLES WITH TOFU:

FOR TOFU STEAKS

• 200 gm tofu – cut into cubes – marinade for half an hour with 
• 1.5 tsp honey
• 1/2 tsp mustard
• 1 tsp soya sauce
• 1 tsp Schezwan sauce
• 2 tsp vinegar
• Salt – a little – the sauces are salty so go easy on this

Grill or pan fry the tofu steaks for 2 -3 minutes on each side and set aside.

FOR NOODLES

• 200 gm noodles – soba or egg – cook till al dente, drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
• Shallots – 1 cup – chopped
• Snow peas or green beans  – 1 cup
• Capsicum – sliced – 1 cup
• Garlic – 4-5 flakes
• Ginger – 1/2 inch piece – minced
• Green chili -1 – minced
• Soya sauce – 1 tsp
• Lemon juice – 2 tsp
• Schezwan sauce – 1 tsp
• Cracked pepper – 1/2 tsp
• Sugar – 1/2 tsp
• Coconut milk – 1/2 cup
• Sesame oil – 1 tbsp
• Salt

Heat the oil in a wok or large saucepan. Add the chili, shallots and garlic along with the sugar and stir fry on high heat for a minute. Add the beans and capsicum and continue to fry for 3-4 minutes adding ginger. Add all the other ingredients and continue to stir for a couple of minutes longer. Add the noodles and let them heat up. Serve immediately with tofu steaks on top.

Watch the noolakais and the tofu-kais disappear!

 (pic courtesy internet)

“Ow, ow,ow… OOOOWWW… ”, squeals a little Pomeranian before taking off down the beach, its owner in hot pursuit… I pick up Kanch who is only about a year old and is just getting her “beach legs” – toddle on the beach sand without losing her balance and falling down and scuttle behind him. Archana runs behind me, not wanting to be left alone…

About a couple of hundred yards later, the owner catches the terrified dog, I come up puffing and panting with running with a baby in my arms, gasping out my apologies to the owner… Arch bringing up the rear…

About ten minutes earlier, the Pomeranian, like most of its breed, had been yapping its head off at some imagined enemy. Archana was trying to cover her ears as the high-pitched barking was getting to all of us. Kanch, interestedly watching this scene with her fingers firmly in her mouth, decided she’d had enough of this nasty little intruder and walking up behind the unwary dog, caught hold of its fiercely wagging tail (with the other hand still in her mouth!) and gave it an almighty yank! That was the start of the great beach chase and subsequent apologies to the owner on my part! Owner and Peke mollified, we all traipsed back together – with the most peacefully beatific expression on the face of the puller-of-the-dog’s-tail, as though to say, “Who, me?!”

As always, the simplest and the most straightforward solutions appealed to Kanch – barking dog annoying her Akka? – let’s stop it by the most expedient means ! Consequences? We’ll take care of them – oh well, someone will!

In food, too, while she does enjoy the occasional many-hours-in-the-creation dish, K’s preference runs in the direction of simple – like this herbed, peppered rice – simplicity itself to make!

MEDITERRANEAN HERBED BUTTERED RICE

• Cooked Basmati rice – 3 cups – the grains must be separate  
• Onions – sliced fine – ½ cup
• Mixed capsicums – yellow, red and green –in case of doubts, please look at the top left hand corner of this page (!) – cut into strips of about an inch long – 2 cups
• Boiled peas – 1/2 cup
• Herbes de Provence/dill/ basil or mixed herbs – 1.5 tsp
• Butter – 1 .5 tbsp
• Tomato purée – 2 tbsp
• Salt
• Pepper – 1.2 tsp
• Minced green chili – 1
• Minced garlic – 1 or 2 flakes

Place a pan on the heat and add butter, onions and chili together. Sauté till onions are transparent but still crunchy. Add the capsicums and continue to stir on high heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the herbs, tomato purée, herbs, pepper and salt and boiled peas. Stir for a couple of minutes more and add the rice. Mix in gently with a fork keeping the rice grains intact. Decorate with tomato slices. Switch off and cover for a few minutes before serving. The tomatoes will have begun to soften a bit but a juicy and delicious.

Best accompanied by Hair of the Dog!

“Do you like cholam?”(corn)

“What’s that?”

“Vekkam illai!”

“What’s THAT?”

Having a conversation with Vasavi, a seven year old friend of Archana’s as we are driving home after school for tea and asking her whether she’d like corn (cholam) for tea. Growing up in Madras of Tamil-speaking parents, I’d assumed kids would have a working knowledge of the language – not to be – including mine! My response “Vekkam illai” – was to tell the kids that they ought to be ashamed of themselves for not speaking their mother tongue / local lingo whatever! 

Children of couples with different languages – like me – end up like the proverbial dhobi ka gadha – na ghar ka na ghat ka – speaking only English as their common language – the changing face of India today!

Thus began a campaign to teach them languages. Our car pool usually had four or five kids on the way to and from school so it was easy to make a game of it. I’d throw a word – either in English or Tamil or Hindi and the kids had to respond with synonyms or as close as they could get to it in the other two languages! Telugu was added to make it more fun occasionally. Instant carrots and no sticks for wrong guesses except the risk of being called a “kazhidai” (donkey)!  Vocabulary improved hugely over the next few months, including (inadvertantly) some choice ones I’d use to yell at other drivers on the road! Hey, these are Indian roads and we all know what the traffic is like! Expletives were obviously picked up much more easily and never forgotten as they came back to haunt me years later when I yelled at one of the kids – “Where on earth DID you learn language like that????! I’d ask only to be told “From you! Remember that day on that road when that chap cut across in front of you… etc. etc… ” Now if only they had as good a memory for a Physics problem, we’d have a nation of Newtons!

So here’s the cholam we had for tea that first day!

CORN CURRY WITH TOAST

½ kg boiled American sweet corn – or – 4 corncobs – boil and dehusk

5 large tomatoes – blanch, peel and chop

1 large onion – sliced

6 cashewnuts + 1” piece ginger +2 flakes garlic + 2 pods cardamom – grind all together into a fine paste.

1 green chili – finely chopped

1 tsp red chilli pwd

½ tsp jeera pwd

½ tsp sugar

Salt to taste

1 tsp ketchup

1tbsp oil + 1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp cream or 2 tbsp hot milk

1 tsp kasooti methi

1 tbsp chopped coriander

Heat oil in a saucepan. Fry onions till brown. Remove and purée onions and tomatoes together.

Add butter to saucepan, heat and add jeera and chopped green chilli. Then add sugar and the tomato  purée, chilli pwd and ketchup.  Add cashew paste  and bring to boil. Add corn kernels and salt. Cover and cook till the raw tomato smell is gone. Add kasooti methi and mix. Switch off. Add cream or milk and swirl it in. Garnish with coriander and serve with hot buttered toast.