April 15, 2008: We are at the London Book Fair, held at Earl’s Court, London from April 14-16 this year. It is spectacular, well organized and a treat to the eyes as you see rows and rows of books from so many categories.
Gourmand is in partnership with LBF this year, and there is a fabulous, well designed spacious set up for Gourmand at LBF. There is a small, efficient and buzzing kitchen set up to assist demonstrations by many popular culinary authors / chefs.
What you can see in the pic above is the demo space called LBF Gourmand Cookbook Corner. Don’t miss the huge mirror on the top where you can see everything arranged on the counter below. On the left is the door that leads to the kitchen. We both were also invited to make a presentation about ‘Cooking at Home with Pedatha’ and Indian cuisine.
WE RECORDED OUR SPEECH, EMAILED THE RECORDING FILE TO OUR OFFICE AND THEY TYPED IT; HERE ARE SOME EXTRACTS:
“Good afternoon. Lovely weather here in London! In India this is the hottest time of day…Mittha majiyaanam…one is already getting exhausted & lethargic with the heat. But of course, that depends on which region of India one is talking about & what time of the year. April? Definitely hot & humid in all coastal areas and hot & dry in the interiors, pleasant – almost cold – with a cool nip in the hills! Such is the vastness of India’s geographical boundaries that when we travel from one place to another, it is quite often that we have to pack our bags keeping weather conditions of the next state in mind! And vaster still is India’s rich cultural & culinary heritage.
Is there really something called an INDIAN cuisine? Is there ANY ONE dish that can at all represent the whole of India?
Of course, the Indian curry, Biriyani, Tandoori delicacies are world famous, but truly, they represent only a few regions of this unique country. To give you an example of its diversity, rice is the staple meal of the entire southern region, but as you move up North, in areas like Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, even till a decade ago, rice was an occasional treat in daily household cooking. These regions are known for their Rotis made from wheat and various other grains & millets. To date, the South Indians are astonished at the art of perfect Roti making…and the North Indians marvel at the fluffy Idlis & crisp Dosas of the south.
It is only the human mind that has the power to convert a basic need like food into an aesthetic experience…a creative expression…into a forum where ideas can be expressed & exchanged. And it is for precisely this exchange of ideas that we are gathered here today. To share with you that which we think makes Indian cuisine unique. We also have with us, Dr. Prakash Kalmadi, whose reputed Ayurvedic institute in India is the resource point of our next book on vegetarian recipes enriched with Ayurvedic wisdom.
Both of us with Dr. Kalmadi
At any forum that we address in our country, one of the foremost questions asked of us is – how is it that the two of you, from North India- one from Gujarat & one from Rajasthan, wrote a book on Andhra cuisine which is of South India? This question is justified, simply because it is a fact that every state in India has its own unique recipes, so very different from the others. So, although Indian curry is world famous, what is not simple knowledge is that there are different curries that taste very different from each other.
But the fact that we were both unfamiliar with Andhra cooking and that we were eager to learn, helped us in the making of this book. We could not take anything for granted. We had to break all pre knowledge…all presupposition. We had to write like beginners & for beginners in a certain sense. We could not take for granted that our readers would know how to temper spices the Pedatha way! We could not take for granted that readers would be okay about using 20 chillies in a recipe for 4 people :). It was new knowledge to us too! And we do believe that if readers have enjoyed & liked our book, it is in a big way due to the simplicity & thoroughness with which every instruction is written. And this happened more so because we were ourselves seekers & learners.
Today, we bring to you one important aspect of Indian cooking - TEMPERING.
Almost every Indian recipe, except Dessert, is tempered with crackling spices. Usually heating is associated with the word temper. But in the context of Indian cooking, the term ‘temper’ takes on a very different meaning. How is this tempering done? Primarily by heating a little oil or clarified butter and adding the relevant spices until they change colour or crackle. Here again although the basic concept of tempering is the same all over the country, each region…why, even every family for that matter has its own distinctive way of tempering, and each claims proudly & possessively that theirs is the best way to temper food!
God knows the number of near fights we both have had over whose tempering is correct or better . Tempering or Tadka or Taalinchu…depending on which language you are speaking gives Indian food its flavour.
An Indian kitchen is incomplete without two things – 1) the deafening sound of the pressure cooker and 2) the tempering box or masala box. The general ingredients that go into the various compartments of this box are: cumin, mustard, split black gram, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder. Asafoetida is often kept in a tiny bottle right here, but with its lid closed since it has a very strong aroma. Each of these ingredients has something to offer in terms of good health…especially for proper digestion.
For example, turmeric is used for its great healing as well as cosmetic properties. My grandma used to say that if a pregnant woman takes turmeric regularly, her child will have beautiful skin.
Black gram is added for its heating quality, while cumin seed for its cooling, digestive properties. Asafoetida and fenugreek are excellent digestives, especially after a heavy meal. Salt of course is called the king of tastes.
Now shall we demonstrate a few temperings for you, Pedatha style.
First, we will demonstrate a healthy & delicious salad made with yellow lentil & carrots. So what do we have ready?
On one side we have the wok & oil ready for tempering. And on the other side we have - 1 cup yellow split lentil, washed and soaked in water for 3-4 hrs, strained and ready to be tossed up.
½ cup grated carrots (peeled, washed & grated…actually, washed, peeled & grated. When you wash a vegetable, you take away some of the nutrients, so it is better to wash before peeling. )
1-2 tsp finely chopped green chillies
1-2 tsp finely chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
Salt to taste
Now all we have to do is mix these ingredients together, add a dash of fresh lemon juice to it and toss it up. This salad, known as Kosumbari is for all practical purposes, ready to eat. But, let’s just see how a little tempering can magically enhance its taste.
The wok used for tempering should not be too small because when the mustard splutters it’ll be all over the place & if not careful, could give you a few small burns as well! So anyway, allow the oil to warm up, but not start smoking. Let’s pour approximately 2 tsp oil in this wok. Keep the flame high.
Now the oil is just hot enough. First we put in a tbsp of split black gram…it is creamish in colour because it is husked. Otherwise it is black & therefore the name. I’m sure many of you must have relished the famous black dal or kali dal of North India. It’s the same gram. Pedatha taught us that the black gram should turn ‘rose red’ in the tempering. Since this gram does not splutter, we must stir to avoid them turning black on the under side. So we stir.
As the gram turns golden, we add in a tsp of mustard seeds. The important thing about mustard while tempering is that it splutters rather vigorously in the wok! There we go! And it also tends to burn easily if the flame is too high. So halfway through the spluttering, we reduce the flame. It’s almost like popcorn popping away. As the spluttering reduces, lets add in a red chilli. Pedatha said, don’t allow it to turn brown…let it become crisp & bright red.
So we shut off the flame, add a dash of asafoetida powder…ummm…not one day in an Indian household goes by without this aroma of tempering, except when a family is in mourning, at which time no food is cooked at all.
So now we pour this tempering into the salad…toss it up a bit…or if serving right away, you could also leave the crunchy tempering on top…somewhat like a garnish.
Next, we will demo a crunchy yummy onion pickle. Lets move the salad aside. Now what do we have here.
3 onions, (1 ½ cups) julienned, preferably white onions.
For tempering this, we need - oil, fenugreek, fennel, kalonji (nigella seeds), asafoetida, chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt to taste.
Heat 2 tsps oil, add ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds and stir so that they don’t burn. Now add ¼ tsp fennel seeds & ¼ tsp nigella seeds. Keep stirring, allow the aroma to rise. Lower the flame and add a pinch of asafoetida powder.
Next, in goes ½ tsp chilli powder & a pinch of turmeric. Switch off the flame and toss in the onions and salt.
If you would like to avoid the raw taste of onions, then let them cook for 2-3 minutes before switching off the flame.
Our third demo is a cooling summer drink - buttermilk. There is an ancient folklore which says, he who has no mother, for him, buttermilk is his mother. It nurtures us & cools our digestive system. What is buttermilk? It is nothing but churned & diluted curd! When unwell, we eat curd rice. When acidic, drink cool buttermilk. When done with a full meal, drink buttermilk to end the meal. In sunny hot summers, there is nothing more satisfying than a pot of cool buttermilk.
We now have a pitcher of cool, churned buttermilk which is already seasoned with salt, cumin powder and a dash of chilli. Again, it is absolutely ready to drink. But when tempered spices are added into this buttermilk, it is an even greater storehouse of taste & nutrition.
First, lets pour 2 tsp oil in the wok and allow it to warm up.
All right, now that it is hot enough, first we put in ¼ tsp mustard seeds & allow them to splutter. Next in go a tsp each of fenugreek and carom seeds. Now we lower the flame & keep stirring so that the fenugreek doesn’t burn. As it browns, we add just ¼ tsp cumin seeds & a pinch of asafoetida powder. Switch off the flame and pour this into the buttermilk. Serve chilled on a warm summer afternoon.
In this way, there are temperings & temperings that enrich Indian food. When cooking a feast or making sweets, more exotic spices are tempered into the food, like bay leaves, cinnamon, coves, cardamom, cashews etc. Such temperings go well in pullavs made with aromatic Basmati rice and in the making of Indian sweets. The medium used for these dishes is almost always ghee or clarified butter.
Every one who cooks in India has to learn the art of tempering…we burn some…but eventually we learn. It’s like all we North Indian girls learn to roll perfectly round Rotis…but not before we make shapes of all the countries in the world. But that art of recognizing the aroma of a perfect tempering we learnt from Pedatha. Oh! How patiently she taught us! Black gram - rose red… mustard crackling…red chilli not turning brown yet becoming crunchy…same with curry leaves.
She taught us a lot, and fed us too…with her own loving hands. Which brings us to another interesting aspect of Indian food, which is, the use of hands to eat it. According to us, half the flavour of food is lost if you eat Indian food with a fork & knife or spoon. You have to mix the food with your fingers. In fact, we have written something about this in our book, about fingers & palm moving in precise unison to make the famous ball of rice and pachchadi, known as Muddha.
It is interesting how we associate eating styles with food. Sometimes at home there is a leftover of the previous day’s meal which could have been a Thai red curry & rice or a sphagetti bolognaise. So if one of those is placed on the dining table along with the present Indian meal, then we automatically go for the fork & spoon or fork & knife as the case may be. Once we have eaten that & shift over to the Indian food, we set down the cutlery & eat with God’s Own Cutlery! It is truly strange.
This is what we are here for today, to share with you the rules of perfect tempering of spices, seeds & lentils that we learnt from Pedatha.
Our journey with food continues into our next book dealing with Ayurvedic recipes. According to Ayurveda, every spice, every ingredient of food has something called Rasa or taste. There are six Rasas, i.e. the six tastes of sweet, sour, pungent, astringent, bitter, hot. So every ingredient has all the six Rasas in different proportion, but whatever is predominant becomes its defining feature. Chillies for instance have predominance of spiciness, bittergourds of bitterness, but chillies as well as bittergourds have all the other 5 Rasas also. This ancient Indian science subscribes to this theory of Rasas rather than the categories such as proteins, carbs, fats etc.
Now, among these, sweetness is the heaviest to digest, hence should be eaten at beginning of a meal. A meal should end with astringent taste, which aids in digestion, for instance, buttermilk or fennel seeds or betel nuts. Pedatha was our Guru in Andhra cooking, we now call upon Dr. Kalmadi who is our Guru in Ayurvedic food.
