Mom's Turiya Nu Shaak with thoughts on Motherhood from a daughter who became a mother

My Mother, Heena Munshaw and me

It really doesn’t matter how old one is, if one marries, becomes a mother oneself, TWICE, sets up one’s own business and (hopefully) goes on to conquer the world, one’s mother is always the source of infinite patience and calm. My husband still needles me because, no matter what decision I need to make I need to talk to my mother. And a bowl of her patented dal soup or Turiya nu Shaak has the power to fill up those holes caused by pain or fright that life brings. A sign that 'Mom is around and all is well with the world' .Or will be if she has anything to do with it!

I remember rolling my eyes whenever someone said “you will know what it is to be a parent when you have your own child”. Words that came back to ring in my years the first time I held my son in my arms. My mother stood by me, feeling every scream of pain, as my flesh tore and a piece of me separated from me. And until that precise moment – when that little bundle of weight nuzzled up to my breast , bringing the realization that I now have to be responsible for a whole new life – I didn’t REALLY know (you just don’t) what being a mother is. And as the realization hit, I turned to the one person who could make it all go away, my mother. And like always, she did.

On the way to or from South Mumbai, just before the turn off to Andheri from Bandra there is a sculpture of a mother and child on display with the words 'With the birth of a child a mother is born.' That is so true. I thought I had learnt the meaning of loving someone after I met and married Shekhar. I didn’t. Loving someone as any other relationship in our life, is vastly different from loving a child. From the moment of the child's conception, for the rest of our lives, being a parent is demanding, exhilarating, exhausting and humbling. Love for children, from the moment they are just a dot in the womb, makes us strong enough to fight the world for our child and yet vulnerable in the most infinite way because our child has a grip on your heart that will only tighten with each moment of its existence.

Being a mother means sleepless nights, stinky diapers, varied projectiles coming your way, giving up on wearing white, expensive jewelry, never going to the bathroom alone, never getting a moment alone (the day Aman started school I went and got myself a facial at the parlour next door!). Tremendous worry when your baby falls ill and constant worry even otherwise. Motherhood also brings the 'Not Me', the root of all mischief into your life.

Being a mother means accepting that he will never stop being your baby, even when he grows too big to fit in your lap and tall enough for you to rest your arm around his shoulder at social occasions. It also means living with the infinite awareness that you have to let him go and grow up and accept his life decisions, even if you disagree. It means watching him make his own mistakes no matter how much you want to protect him. It means tough love, losing your temper but living with it and being strong when he says 'I hate you.' Because he doesn’t know the meaning of what he is saying.

My kids, Aman and Natasha

Being a mother means you exhilarate in their wins and bite down on YOUR pain at their hurt because they need you to tell them it's okay. It means craving quiet but missing the noise when it is. Being a mother also means that you catch yourself saying the same things your mother said to you 'don’t talk with your mouth full, eat your veggies, put cream'; you know, the things you swore you'd never say and the return of studying subjects you thought were gone from your life forever. Being a mother means you no longer have a life.
 
But for all the sacrifice and pain Motherhood brings, it also brings back your childhood.  It means you can play with toys without people thinking you are weird, sing silly songs, watch cartoons (and  Shinchan yet again!!!), travel to imaginary worlds. It means hearing gems from the mouths of babes, endless hugs and kisses, beautiful smiles that brighten your worst moments, infinite love of the purest kind. You discover that between your arms is a safe haven and in you is an endless strength. It makes you ‘yummy super mummy’ (nope I kid you not, my daughter tells me that all the time!) and the most beautiful perfect woman in their eyes at least. It also means watching them sleep, even when they're big because and asking time fly a little slowly….

Most of all motherhood makes us appreciate out mothers so much more. Thank you Ma, for everything, especially the Turiya nu Shaak!

Mom's Turiya Nu Shaak - Ridge Gourd stew  Time: 20 minutes; Serves: 3 to 4

This is a simple home-style preparation my mother makes that I love. Traditionally served as a vegetable, it can also pass off as a chunky soup. Ridge Gourd is an indiginous Indian gourd vegetable that is very good to eat in this hot summer weather. For best results, cook just before serving and do not cover while cooking. I like to eat this with just steamed rice. 


Ingredients 
1 tbsp / 30 ml oil
½ tsp / 2 gms asafoetida
½ tsp / 2 gms mustard seeds 
1 to 2 / 2 gms green chillies, slit 
1 kg ridge gourd, peeles halved lengthwise and cut into inch long pieces 
1 tsp / 5 gms soda bicarbonate
1 cup /250 ml water
Salt to taste 

Method
Heat oil in a pan, add the asafoetida and mustard seeds. When the seeds splutter, add the green chillies and the ridge gourd. Add the Soda Bicarb and stir well. Add salt and water  and cook uncovered or cover with water on the lid (this spreads the heat and when the water is reduced, it means the food is cooked). Cook till the gourd is tender and has let forth its juices.

Comic Cuisine - an article on the foodie foibles of favourite Comic Characters....

Guess who's coming soon? Illustration by Chandra Shekhar Ghildiyal

Having been a comic illustrator and animator in my misspent youth, I know from experience that it is hard to depict food in comics, the graphic styles, minimal colours and small spaces allow very little freedom. So introducing food into a comic strip as a regular feature is a daunting task. But some comic artists have managed to make it succeed. To the extent that their characters are remembered for their food foibles. And that is an amazing feat. Take Calvin and Hobbes for instance – a comic that my son is on a regular diet of currently. Thanks to it, last night’s dinner of Pasta in Spinach sauce snakes in a swamp, and the beetroot salad… I don’t think I will even go there… I don’t think I could describe the gory details of THAT particular creature with the EXACT finesse of an 9 year old!

For the uninitiated  (if such people DO in fact exist) Calvin and Hobbes is a comic strip by Bill Watterson that follows the foibles of Calvin, an over imaginative six-year-old boy and Hobbes, his energetic, sardonic stuffed tiger. Mealtimes can get terribly gory with Calvin around. He has a hate - hate relationship with food! Not only does he detest the food that his mother cooks but in his presence, food usually takes on a life of its own! According to Calvin, “Food should be both nutrition AND entertainment” which is why his favourite cereal is “Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs” which he will continue to eat until it meets one basic requirement, to turn milk Purple! And making food entertaining is a goal he is in constant pursuit of. 

Ever eager to share his view about the meal he (or anyone else) is eating, Calvin loves to give riveting commentary on his food as well. Like the time he describes the school lunch of Beans 'n' Franks as "cigar butts in a gallstone sauce” infuriating Susie, his friend or the time he observes that “When birds burp, it must taste like bugs.” (Calvin’s fellow diners regularly go through a gamut of reactions from fury to total repulsion which is also the reason his parents rarely take him to restaurants.) On occasion, his meals are known to come alive warranting a full scale battle with them and a large mess to strain his mother's patience. But like all mothers Calvin’s mother is usually one – up on him, by pachaging her cooking the way her son needs it, serving up “monkey brains, toxic waste, spider pie or some other innovatively stomach-turning dish thet leads to Calvin eating with relish even as his dad is left without an appetite! 

But the immense impact of a comic character’s food fetishes on a child’s mind are noteworthy. In fact this was something the creators of “Popeye the sailor man” attempted to exploit when they were developing the comic for an animated series. What Calvin routinely rejects as green goop became a symbol of strength through the Popeye the sailor Man cartoon. A paragraph from the Popeye song goes

“I'm Popeye the sailor man!

I'm Popeye the sailor man!

I'm strong to the finich,

'Cause I eats me spinach.

I'm Popeye the sailor man.

Popeye made his first public appearance in January 1929, in Elzie Segar's then 10-year-old comic strip, "Thimble Theatre" that originally revolved around Olive Oyl's family. Although Popeye was introduced as a minor walk-on character, he rapidly "muskled" his way into the limelight bringing with him, J. Wellington Wimpy, the world's most hamburger-obsessed moocher. Interestingly, while Popeye's spinach obsession did debut in Thimble Theatre it became an indispensable plot device much later when the series was being developed for animation.  A move so successful that the spinach growers credited Popeye with a 33 percent increase in U.S. spinach consumption — and saving the spinach industry in the 1930s! So much so that the Spinach capital Crystal City, Texas, even erected a statue to honour E.C. Segar and Popeye for their influence on America's eating habits, making Popeye the first cartoon character to be immortalized in stone! 

In direct antithesis to the spinach glugging sailor was his sidekick J. Wellington Wimpy. Perhaps the greatest of all Segar characters. Wimpy first appeared as a referee in one of Popeye's prize fights but stayed to become, possibly the most pitiable person in the entire strip! All his own fault, of course! Routinely betraying his friends in exchange for promises of food or safety, earning him a sputtered "Yer a disgrace, Wimpy!" from Popeye… Wimpy is not really a bad person of, just weak and while he has repeatedly betrayed his friends, he also vehemently refuses to commit murder regardless of threat or reward! Wimpy is freeloading personified and lines said by him like "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today", "Come over to my house for a duck dinner. You bring the duck!" and "Let's you and him fight!" all eventually became household phrases. Wimpy is also quite the ladies' man, with a silver tongue that can sweet-talk any woman (especially if he finds out she has access to hamburgers)! And Wimpy was on the scene when Popeye first encountered Swee'pea (his son) and promptly took on the task of babysitting, using it as an excuse for cleaning out Popeye's refrigerator!

A love for Hamburgers and a silver tongue with women when required are both characteristics that Wimpy shares with another food loving comic character. Forsythe Pendleton Jones AKA "Jughead" of Archie comics fame. In 1941 when Pep Comics issue 22 came out, nobody anticipated that the superheroes on the cover would be sidelined by a filler story in the back about a teenaged, Archie Andrews and his life. Jughead Archie’s best friend is the eccentric one of Archie's social circle. Regularly pursued by Big Ethel, Jughead usually avoids girls—unless a free meal is involved.

Eating is Jughead's number one hobby. Not only can he eat but he can eat anything, even cafeteria cook Miss Beazly’s awful cooking! His eating habits make Jughead a regular at Pop Tate's Chocklit Shoppe and a respected food critic. He has record breaking digestion, in one episode he is pitted against the chubby undefeated champion from an adjacent town's high school in an eating contest and wins but won't stay to celebrate. He wants to stock up on munchies for an evening of watching TV! He usually sports a pot belly immediately after his marathon meals but remains skinny as a twig, an explanation for which comes in one episode where Mr. Weatherbee, the principal tries to cut down on his diet with disastrous results… Jughead's brain stops functioning! The theory is that while Jughead eats a lot, it all goes to his brain and that's why he remains thin. (Jugheads IQ is well above average).

If Jughead gave burgers an identity, another comic character actually invented a sandwich that went on to become an identity in its own right! The Dagwood sandwich was named after Dagwood Brumstead, husband of Blondie from the famous strip by the same name. Dagwood was introduced into the popular comic strip In February 1933 when his wealthy family disowned him for marrying beneath himself. Ever since then he works at J.C. Dithers & co. to support his family. His favourite things in life include: food, Blondie, his kids, naps on the sofa, long, uninterrupted baths and his legendary culinary creation the famous Dagwood sandwich. A obsession and a weakness that has been diagnosed as an eating disorder, this is a constant source of irritation to his wife!

The Dagwood Sandwich is a towering sandwich stuffed with an infinite variety of contents that stun the imagination, and frighten the stomach of all but the original maker! And Dagwood is constantly dreaming up new combinations, permutations and ways to hold the sandwich together. In fact the term Dagwood sandwich has become so well-known that it’s even made it into Webster's New World Dictionary.  

Our next gourmand in the comic world is of the feline kind whose philosophy of life is an inspiration to the glutton! Born in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant on a winter's night in 1978, weighed in at a healthy five pounds, six ounces - and he was a kitten then -  Garfield has shown a passion for Italian food ever since. The restaurant owner, unable to afford feeding another mouth sold Garfield to a pet store from where he was bought by Jon Arbuckle. Fat, orange, distinctively marked with black stripes and full of ATTITUDE, Garfield hates Mondays (unless it's also his birthday), loves to eat “I eat too much because I'm depressed, and I'm depressed because I eat too much. It's a vicious circle... that took years to perfect!” And sleep (both in vast quantities) as he laments “All I do is eat and sleep. Eat and sleep. Eat and sleep. There must be more to a cat's life than that. But I hope not! He also likes to watch TV and play jokes on Jon and Odie.

 

But what is most riveting about Garfield is not so much his food fetishes rather than his philosophy to food. “My philosophy” he says on one occaission “It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you stuff your face." Like all gourmands he has refined tastes, he l-o-v-e-s lasagne, “When the lasagne content in my blood gets low, I get mean”, hates raisins and spinach and has an ongoing mission that involves the trapping and (presumably) eating of birds. He however, does NOT eat mice, choosing to befriend them instead! Why? Well “Show me a good mouser, and I'll show you a cat with bad breath.” he says.   When on a diet, Garfield often has hallucinations that take the shape of food that walks and provokes him to eat it! “You know what is a "diet" is, don't you? It's "die" with a "t," that's what it is!” and to conclude here’s a bit of advice “Eat every meal as though it were your last.”

And the comic character that most lives up to that last piece of advice is Obelix the Gaul, best friend of Asterix, created in 1959 as the hero of a series of French comic books by René Goscinny (stories) and Albert Uderzo (illustrations). Asterix and Obelix live around 50 BC in a fictional village in northwest Armorica (a region of ancient Gaul mostly identical to modern Brittany). This village is celebrated amongst the Gauls as the only part of that country that has stood up to the conquering Romans. The secret lies in the magic potion that the resident druid cooks up for the inhabitants of the village. It gives them superhuman strength.

Obelix has a tremendous appetite, and his favourite dish is roast wild boar, of which he can go through numerous portions, leaving just bones on the plate. But aside from that obvious food fetish, the subtler nuances of the food depicted in this series are worth noting. Scattered amidst the recurring plots in the Asterix books in which the two gauls are foiling  attempts by the Romans to prevent the druid from making the potion, or trying to get the secret recipe for their own use are hidden commentaries and stereotypes on countries through food. 

 

And perhaps the best foodie comic ever created (and my favourite) is Asterix and the Banquet. The Romans try to contain the threat from the Gaulish village by building a stockade around it, Asterix and Obelix bet that not only will they break out and claim their right to travel freely all over Gaul, but they will collect local delicacies and bring them back to prove their point. Ham from Lutetia, fizzy wine from Durocortorum (Champagne from Rhiems),  fish stew from Massila (Marseille ) in the south...

The hidden culinary allusions are not confined to just this comic however, in Asterix in Britain the British are shown as polite and phlegmatic, drinking warm beer or hot water (tea comes to England thanks to Asterix) who boil all their food and serve it with mint sauce. Another comic depicts Spain as a cheap vacation spot for people from the North (who demand to eat the same food they are used to at home) and the French don’t get away either, French regions are also spoofed with people from Normandy smothering their food in cream and in Asterix in Corsica, the make cheese that smells so bad that it actually becomes an explosive! 

A food preference in a fiction character can act as a bond for the character throughout a series and truly round it off don't you think? What is your favourie Food comic? Do share it!.

Rushina's Recipes - Parsi Dhansak for James of the Spicery and YOU!

 

If you read my last post on A Perfect Bite my spice tour for James (if you haven't GO READ IT and come back), you might have noticed I made James buy Dhansak Masala and Kolahs Vinegar at Motilals with a promise to send him the recipe. And then I realized that it is the perfect dish to cook up on these horrid cold cold days we are having so I thought I would put it up here for you and James.  

Although Dhansak is a very homestyle meal, it was my first ever taste of Parsi food and has stayed a favourite comfort food ever since. When I was a boarder (at Mayo girls in Ajmer) I looked forward to outing Sundays when my local guardian Gul Marfatia would come take us out for the day. The collective illusion we students liked to live in at the time was that we were imprisoned in MCP (Mayo College Prison)! Deprived of freedom, tuck, meeting boys… you get my drift I am sure…

So you can imagine what a highlight it was to visit Gul Aunty on our monthly outing Sundays. The patterns of these visits typically began with us spilling into her house and settling down in various sections of it as Kishan, their house keeper and long time retainer came around with a tall glass of chilled Lemon Barley water (a local brand that we still ask for from people visiting Ajmer) to tide us through the hungry minutes until lunch was laid.

The Parsis are a community of Indians decended of Persian Zoroastrians that immigrated to the Indian subcontinent over millennia ago, fleeing persecution by the Turks. A rather charming legend attached to their arrival has it that when they arrived on the shores of Sanjan in Gujarat the sent an emissary to the local ruler for permission to settle there. He replied by sending them a brimming glass of milk to illustrate that there was no space for them and diplomatically turn them away. The Parsis replied by stirring in sugar and returning the glass indicating that they would assimilate into the culture of the country very smoothly. Just like the sugar dissolved in the milk without the glass overflowing. The Rana was convinced and the community made India its home. And not only did they assimilate into the country, they enriched it like sugar enriches milk, contributing to the culture and development of India in a multitude of notable ways, over the ages, not the least of which was with their food.

Food is intrinsic to Parsi culture and a richly layered cuisine has evolved over the years. Into the intrinsic richness of traditional Persian cuisine that they brought with them, rich with dry fruit, nuts, rose water, a proclivity toward pilafs and dishes that combined meat and vegetables were stirred the seafood, vegetables and coconut and spices that were the mainstays of the local Gujarati and Maharashtrian cuisines in their new home country.

But the Sunday lunch at Gul Aunty’s was always Dhansak, which is the name of the main dish as well as the whole meal built around it. Dhansak is not a festive dish. It is actually served when a family is coming out of mourning. But it is also often served as a special Sunday meal mandatorily washed down with a chilled beer or two and followed by a long snooze. Centred around a stew of meat cooked with lentils, vegetables and Dhansak masala and simmered until the lentils and vegetables have disintegrated and the meat is falling off the bone, Dhansak is traditionally served with caremelised brown rice, kachumber and kebabs or fried meatballs (wether you do all of that is up to you). The meatballs are usually made of Mince meat, but I could not get that the day I made it.

Dhansak Recipe Time: 1 hour 20 mins, Serves 6

This recipe is a combination of the recipe my friend Kalyan of the blog Finely chopped shared (It is Mammas his wife’s grandmothers recipe), the recipe Kishan shared over a busy phone line for Dhansak made in Gul Aunty’s house and a few adjustments to the whole made by me to match my memory of how it tasted. The cachumber of finely chopped onion, tomato and coriander distinctively flavoured with Kolah’s vinegar, the sugarcane vinegar that is characteristic to Parsi cuisine which helps cut through the meatiness of the dal.

For the Dhansak

500 g mutton/chicken

125 g Tur daal

2-4 small brinjals quartered

1 c pumpkin chunks

1 onion diced

1 large potato, cubed

1 tsp methi seeds

3-4 tsp Motilals Dhansak masala

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp chilli powder

1.5 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

Salt

1.5 tsp ghee

2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves

Method:

Wash and soak the toor daal for half an hour in two cups of water in a large preasure pan, then add the cleaned mutton, vegetable and all the spices to it. Place on a flame and heat. When it comes to a boil cover cooker with the cover and shut. Cook on a high flame until the cooker has whistled thrice. Then lower flame and cook for half an hour after that. Resist the temptation to open the cooker until it cools and the preassure is released. The dal and vegetables should have disintegrated completely or at least be cooked to a mush and the meat should be falling off the bone. Add a bit of water to loosen the daal if required and churn with a wire whisk so only the mutton pieces remain whole. Add coriander leaves and allow the mixture to simmer for five minutes stirring gently so no lumps are formed. Add the butter or ghee in, take off flame and leave dhansak covered for five minutes so that all the flavours infuse in.

For the Caramelised rice or Vagharela chawal

2 ½ c rice

2 onions, sliced

2 " cinnamon stick

8 cloves

6 cardamoms

salt to taste

2 tbsp ghee

Wash and soak rice for 20 mins, drain and keep in a strainer for another 20 mins. Heat ghee add spices and then onions and fry till onions are well browned. Add the washed rice and salt and saute for 3-4 mins. Add boiling water to cover rice (by an inch). Bring to boil and then lower heat and simmer with the pan half covered till holes appear in the surface. When water has more or less dried out, cover completely and lower flame so steam can build up in the pot. Put off flame after 5-6 mins and allow the rice to steam cook till done.

For the Kachumber

The kachumber consists of onions tomatoes, cucumbers, corriander and green chillies chopped fine, mixed together mixed together. Salt and lemon juice are added and the whole is set aside to marinate in its own juices.

For the Prawn Kebabs (Kolmi Na-Kevab)

300g Prawns, shelled and deveined

1 tsp Cumin seeds

2-3 Green Chilies, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

1 head garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp coriander leaves

Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp.

Worcestershire sauce 1 tbsp.

Egg 1 no.

Oil For deep frying

Salt and pepper As per required

Wash and season prawns with salt and rset aside for atleast 30 minutes. Then wash again and pound or whizz coarsely in a blender. Add them and the rest of the ingredients except the eggs to mortar or blender and pound or pulse again until well blended but coarse. Knead in the egg and make into small balls. Deep deep fry for 6-10 minutes, until golden brown. Serve hot.

 

 

Chew on this - travelling throught the Rice bowls of the world...

Having grown up in India, rice has been the center of my culinary experience for as long as I can remember. But as I discovered world cuisine, I also came to marvel at the universality and diversity symbolized by this grain!

Universal as it is, rice is simultaneously intensely personal as well. Every rice based cuisine in the world has its own indigenous rice, its own traditional manner of cooking it, celebrating it and eating it. From the better known Italian risotti, Thai Jasmine and Japanese Sushi rice, to rarer Senegalese Ceebu Jën (red rice) and Bhutanese Black rice, each is cooked and eaten differently. Join me as I travel the rice bowls of the world.

The next time you dig into a plate of Berry Polov at Britania you will be happy to recall that rice is an integral part of Iranian culture, rice dishes or Polows play an important role in marriage ceremonies and parties (Zereshk Polow), funerals (Kishmish Polow) and New Year celebrations (Sabzi Polow, with fried fish). Iran is home to the fragrant, aromatic Sadri rice that is unique to that part of the world and in high demand among Iranians, who give great importance to the quality of their cooked rice.

But the rice dish that has made the biggest mark on India's menus comes from China. Fried rice. Legend has it Fried rice originated in China some 4000 years ago as a means to use up leftover rice. Finely diced vegetables and meat were stirfried with cooked rice and served for breakfast. It is still a means of using up leftovers that is made all over the world but who would have thought that the same Fried rice would one day be a dish in its own right, here in India? Fried rice is to be found in every South East Asian cuisine but the most famous version of it is the Indonesian Nasi Goreng.

While rice based cuisines have a lot of dishes in common there are a many distinct indigenous rice preparations awaiting sampling as well. Indonesian cuisine is home to another particularly noteworthy meal as well, The Rijsttafel or "rice table". A legacy of the Dutch plantation owners - who liked to sample selectively from Indonesian cuisine - a practice that evolved into a traditional meal in which a rice dish and numerous side dishes are laid out to pick from at will. The Dutch carried it back to the Netherlands with them and it is today enjoyed in both Indonesia, and the Netherlands.

Rice is also used as an ingredient in many forms. Perhaps as widespread as steamed rice is the home-style rice gruel, best known as the Chinese Conjee. This dish in which rice is cooked down to a porridge is found under various guises in many world cuisines. Most Asian countries also use rice flour to make a staggering variety of dishes; noodles, translucent skins for dumplings and steaming hot stuffed buns.

Perhaps the most famous Japanese offerings to world menus from are Sushi and Sake. Considered one of the healthiest dishes in the world, Sushi are rice cakes flavored with rice vinegar, combined with a variety of ingredients - raw fish and fresh or pickled vegetables and are served with Japanese Wasabi. Sake is Japanese rice wine, an acquired taste.

Outside Asia, Africa, was the other place where rice was domesticated. A number of rice dishes hail from this part of the world Senegalese Cebbu Jen - or rice-fish - is the most popular. Many rice dishes have also been perfected by the Egyptians. The Ruzz mu'ammar bi-I-tuyur, or baked rice with milk and pigeon, is regularly served in restaurants in major cities such as Alexandria.

Rice is not as prevalent in wheat eating Europe but there are a few regions where rice is celebrated. The Lombardy and Piedmont regions comprise Italy's rice bowl and while the Italians do not eat too much rice, Italy is famous for its aromatic, slow cooked risottos. The other hub for rice in Europe is the French Camargue region where rice cultivation began in the 18th Century. Taking advantage of the rich French cuisine, farmers in Camargue have turned to producing high quality rice for special dishes and the Roulé de Feuilles de riz au thon, or "rolled rice with tuna fish", is an example of Camargue's specialty cuisine.

One thing is for sure, wherever you go in the world; you can find comfort in a bowl of rice and as the Chinese philosopher Confucious said "In the eating of coarse rice and the drinking of water, the using of one's elbow for a pillow, joy is to be found."

Dear Theyie - on our mothers cooking...

Dear Theyie,
We all have a favorite dish our mothers and our grandmothers made for us as children, but today I am not writing about how my mother and grandmother make the best food in the world, it is more about the realization that our mothers and grandmothers are not always going to be around to make our favorite dishes for us. I learnt this the hard way when I was living in Chandigarh. I was pregnant with my first child and overwhelmed with a craving for a dish that was made for us in my mother’s home.
My strongest influence – as with most cooks – is my mother. She is my inspiration in life. Her passion and enthusiasm is expressed in the way she lives, in her work, in her love for her children and in the food she cooks for her family. I live in the same city as my mother and wisit every second week or so when she is in town. And every time I go home, my mother cooks up a storm of all my favourites. Last Sunday we went over after ages, she’d been travelling. My schedule in the interim had been extremely busy so it was a welcome break.
But a bowl of Khatta mug a lentil preparation was the perfect antidote, the sign of mom being around and all being well with the world. And with perfect timing since someone on my FB page had asked for the recipes. These three dishes from the vegetarian cuisine of Gujarat are an ideal Sunday meal, just add chapatis and steamed rice to complete.

KHATTA MOONG (Cooking Time : 20 min, Preparation Time : 20 min, Serves 4)
Whole Moong beans cooked in beaten yogurt and spices.
1 c whole green moong, cooked (reserve cooking water
1 c sour yogurt
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1 tsp mustard seeds
3 to 4 curry leaves
1/4 tsp asafoetida (hing)
1/2 tsp green chilli-ginger paste
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Heat oil in vessel, add mustard seeds and let them splutter, add hing and curry leaves. Once leaves crackle (almost immediately ) add the green chilli - ginger paste and saute a little, do not allow it to burn or stick. Add the red chilli powder and the sour curds beaten with 1 cup water from cooking moong. Add turmeric and the cooked moong. Add salt to taste. Bring to boil and then simmer and adjust consistency if required. Gently mash some mung to give body to the curry. And let it simmer. Garnish with chopped corriander leaves and serve hot with hot steamed rice and Batata nu shack.

BATETA NU SHAAK Cooking Time : 8 min, Preparation Time : 10 min, Serves 4
Potatoes cooked with tomato and Gujarati spices.
11/2 c potatoes, boiled peeled and cubed
1/2 tsp mustard seeds (rai)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
a pinch asafoetida (hing)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 small green chilli, finely chopped
6 mm. (1/4") piece ginger, grated
1/2 tomato, finely chopped
1 tbsp corriander-cumin seed (dhania-jeera) powder
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp oil
For the garnish
2 tablespoons chopped coriander

Place pan on a flame and heat oil. When hot add asafoetida, mustard seeds and cumin seeds and allow to splutter. Add turmeric and chilli powder, green chilli and ginger. Add the tomato and allow to cook untill the tomatoes are soft. Add the potatoes, coriander-cumin seed powder, sugar and salt, mix well and cook for a few more minutes. Garnish with the chopped coriander and serve hot.

Vagharela Gajar
4 cups grated carrots
1 tbsp oil
A pinch of hing
2 green chillis, slit
1 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tsp lemon juice
½ tsp salt

Heat oil in a saucepan and when it is almost smoking add, mustard seeds, curry leaves and green chillies. Let it all fry for about 15 seconds and add grated carrots and let carrots just about warm up. Take of flame and sprinkle hing, salt, lemon juice and fresh coriander. Toss well transfer to salad bowl and set aside until ready to eat.

Pez - reaserch roundup

A story on Pez written by me was published in the Saturday (29 June) edition of Times of India, Goa.

In it I comment on how I found my perfect bowl of pez masquerading as porridge on the distant island of Singapore a few years ago!

Researching this article was fun. I already knew that Pez/ Kanji/ Rice porridge is a part of many cuisines around India as well as the world, but to verify that I sent out a mail to friends asking for a little help.

"I am working on an article on rice gruel/porridge, that is available in a variety of cuisines Indian as well at international. Called Pez/pej/ Kanji/Porrige it is a dish in which rice is cooked in lots of water and can be served with a variety of condiments. Does this sound like something you have come across in your cuisine? Would love any and all info. Recipes would be awesome!"

Friends were more than generous with their replies and my 750 word limit ould not encompass them all but here is a roundup.

Apolina Fos "We in Bassein have a rice porridge called 'kaneri'. It is had every morning as a mid-morning drink around 10am. Those working in the fields have their quota delivered. Rice is coarsely ground (even coarser than semolina). The rice is of course ground in the flour mill. Water is boiled, salted and the rice meal added to the boiling water. A little sugar is added and a little milk is stirred in after the kaneri has cooked. Kaneri like a thin soup and is served in a plate, on its own or with pickles..."

Deccanheffalump of the awesome Pune based blog "The Cooks Cottage" too time out to tell me about the medicinal pez her guru tuned her into, "When I was in Amritsar I was given a recipe by my music master (hindustani zlassical) and a local astrologer for a rice gruel recipe for dysentery/diarhhoea. In a teaspoon of ghee ( yes ghee!) fry some jeera. Add soaked rice and fry for a bit. Now add plenty of water i.e. for a tablespoon of rice about 2 cups of water. Let it cook till thick and soft. Serve. You can also add 1/2 tsp anar dana to this while cooking. I suppose this might be a punjabi recipe? The thing is it works! I gave it everyday to a guest who had viral gastro enteritis and who could keep nothing down. Well this stuck. Tastes good too."

My friend Clarajoy Alookaran of Mediascope, wrote in to share the recipe for the version, generally made for the infirm, in Kerela.

"Wash rice and dry it under the fan/sun. Dry roast the rice on low flame stirring all the while until the rice changes its colour or until you get a fragrance of the roasted rice. Allow to cool. Grind to a coarse powder in the mixer. Take 2 to 3 heaped table spoons of the rice powder, add a lot of water and keep it on low flame, stirring occasionally to a pouring consistency until the rice is soft, add salt and grated coconut mix well. Serve hot with a teaspoon of pure ghee & roasted papad."

Ammini Ramchandran, author of the stellar book "Grains greens and grated coconuts "I published an article on the topic in 2002 in the magazine Flavor & Fortune.
I have it on web site also. Here is a link to the article Hope it will be
of some help.

My food writer friend Marryam wrote " In goa, pez was the farmer's meal between breakfast and lunch, eaten with either water pickle (preserved raw mango in brine) or a piece of fried/dried fish. In Kashmir, a similar thing is called dodh vegra and is a kind of kindergarten pap eaten when someone is ill. It has none of the additions that you have asked about in the Muslim tradition: it is the opposite end of the spectrum from a gourmet dish, so by definition, is eaten when you are too ill to put down meat, spices etc.

Susan Ji young Park wrote to say that the The Book Of Rai forum has a thread on this subject.

I also caught up with a few people on Gmail chat and here is a summary of that exercise:

Mitali Kar checked with her mom and reverted that there is lei or leyee which is what in which rice and water are over boiled and created into a mishmash. This is popular in villages and the the dish is rich because the water gets absorbed by the rice. It can be had during lunch or dinner as it is highly nutritious. For additional flavour one you can add carrots, cauliflowers, beans, potatoes, turmeric and salt.



While I was working on the story, I had rice porridge every way possible. Not because I was trying recipes, but because I was assailed with cravings for the stuff every time I sat down to write! And it's usually the case, when I am engrossed in writing on a subject, I just have to eat what I am writing about which can get complicated at times. The picture above is of a concoction that turned out particularly well. It had a beaten egg added like with Chinese soups, sliced sausages and I ate it with some of the green pepper pickle I had made last year.